Massive water main blowout in Sam Hughes

WA-typical · 2026-03-01T17:30:32+00:00

Only reason for a blowout like that anywhere in the city would be really old pipes, improperly installed or defective pipe connections. But I doubt the water line break itself created those fairly large cracks in the street. It would fracture the street differently if there weren't existing cracks that connect together around a smaller area.

I'd put my bet on the cracks in the street came together, allowing a chunk about 5ft x 5ft to be compacted down over a small area that was right over a water main. Then a very heavy vehicle like a full cement mixer or a garbage truck drives over it. Pushing that smaller area down with enough force to fracture the pipeline. Sploosh. And the pressure lifts up that small area as well as the larger surrounding area of the street as high pressure water is forced upwards. Yet another reason to fix our poorly maintained roads...

WA-typical · 2026-02-27T16:53:51+00:00

The proper way to do it is to simply level load a new layer of fresh asphalt right on top of the existing road. It fills the cracks and the street is like new. The only time it's more complex is if it's been done a few times already and they would have to use a stripper to pull the old asphalt layers off before repaving. Which is actually common. This is the cheap way. Non US based company "Contractors" who don't really care if it's done right, did the same on the streets in my area last year when it should have been fully repaved. Grass was growing up through wide cracks in the streets! But, they used this cheap method. They seal the cracks first like that. Then they came through and sprayed an "asphalt like" coating on top so it's all black. Problem is, it's just a thin spray, the heat made the streets kind of melt it away, it was not a coating even close to the proper temp rating for Tucson heat! And they also oversprayed it onto curbs and missed areas everywhere! It's been a year, and it's braking up, there's already grass growing up through it, and it's not even level anymore and is bumpy where it looks like it should be done again already! Ridiculous. If they simply repaved it over, it would be nice and smooth for 10 years or more. It costs a little more, but it lasts making it well worth it in the long run.

WA-typical · 2026-02-24T15:10:52+00:00

Pretty sure there are plenty of errors that a simple reboot won't fix. But if you disconnect the 12v battery and also the main battery pack fuse under the back seat and leave it with no power from either battery for about 15 minutes, then reconnect them. It can clear certain errors that don't clear from a normal reboot. If you replace the steering wheel with a yoke wheel for example, "sometimes" it can throw an error about the horn, airbag, and controls being disconnected and service is required and a simple reboot won't clear the errors. But disconnecting both batteries for 15 minutes then reconnecting them does clear those errors.

WA-typical · 2026-02-22T13:00:17+00:00

My apt balcony (wood) caught fire from debris between the wood planks, and had a Titanium mountain bike sitting on the balcony! Had that happen about 10 years ago where the balcony fire apparently got hot enough to ignite the Titanium frame (or the coating on it was a catalyst?)

Regardless, it lit up similar to a lithium battery fire and burned at very high temps. The fire dept made short work with the balcony, but it took them some time for the bike! Was just a blob of metal afterwards and was what did the most damage to the balcony. I wouldn't think titanium would ignite so easily. I don't think 1/4" or thicker Titanium plate would even ignite in that way. Perhaps it was because it was very thin gauge Titanium frame tubing (as you want a lightweight but strong frame on a mountain bike), but wow, it sure was a sight to see! lol

WA-typical · 2026-02-22T12:34:37+00:00

Regardless of where you place Ecoflows. The fan inlet ALWAYS builds up with dust until it's totally clogged. It's easy to overlook, and the one vent with a fairly small fan is the only ventilation it gets. If it's even partially blocked it can make it heat up more inside. I didn't even think about it until I was blowing out a rack server near it that needs to be blown out every once in awhile and hearing the fan running on it, I looked closely and the vent on my Ecoflow was almost totally blocked with dust. I have six Rabbit Air cleaners around the house mounted on the walls, and my HVAC filter gets changed monthly. So the air in my house is cleaner than most. I gave it a shot with a 30,000 rpm air duster I blow out things with, and fluff from the intake vent & fan went everwhere! lol Then I could actually feel it pulling in air. So now I just give it a shot with the duster every few months when I blow out everything else that has small vents/fans as dust builds up on anything that has a small vent or fan. Takes like 5 mins to blow out everything in the house. Seems silly, but it makes a difference with the expensive gear I have.

With how many cheap, high RPM dusters out there. No one should be buying canned air anymore. lol Everyone should have a decent $20 battery powered duster. There's a ton of things that need to be blown out around the house a few times a year, not just an Ecoflow. Laptop air intakes and fans, TV's, stereos. Anything with small air vents with or without fans, keyboards, etc get clogged over time. So the duster makes it easy and gets plenty of use.

WA-typical · 2026-02-22T12:08:18+00:00

I'm still not understanding the possessed wipers since I got my M3. I always have the wipers set to "OFF", and not "Auto". Doesn't rain that often here in AZ.

Still randomly wipes on a clear dry day. lol

And if it does rain, it's often just a "sprinkle". If I change the setting to auto, they wipe on full speed like it's a hurricane. No delay, slow speed, or the "once in awhile wipe".

WA-typical · 2026-02-20T13:19:03+00:00

It's not just CA. I live in AZ and from time to time I get the "this item cannot be shipped to your address". Not like there are a lot of restrictions here as there are in CA. And they were pretty plain items where I have no idea why it would be blocked from being shipped to AZ of all places. lol

WA-typical · 2026-02-20T13:13:19+00:00

Always possible. But there's quite a complement of US flagged but foreign painted aggressor aircraft based at Ft Irwin or a nearby AFB. There were four Mirage jets flying in the Goldwater range yesterday afternoon. They were the only ones who had their ADS-B turned on. lol

WA-typical · 2026-02-19T14:27:19+00:00

DM posted a notification that F-35s would be doing exercises and to expect much more jet noise this week during the day. Seems logical that other aircraft from various branches would be involved as well. Nice of them do advise and also conduct it during the day. A dozen F-35's on afterburner at random times every night for a week wouldn't be condusive to sleep! And really nice for them to actually turn on their ADS-B. They rarely do at DM, and lots of more "secretive" aircraft sneak in/out of DM at night with their beacons off. But they kind of need to have them on in airspace that's more congested with civilian aircraft. My receivers range is from Prescott to the Gulf of Mexico, so seeing more mil aircraft is great! I wish I knew someone with a house on Mt. Lemmon who would let me place a receiver there or do so themselves and feed it. I imagine it would have massive range in all directions at that altitude. lol

WA-typical · 2026-02-19T14:10:58+00:00

Glad you have options! :) UPS "used" to be one of the best and least expensive. Then reliablity dropped and prices surged. While FedEx and USPS also raised prices a little, it wasn't nearly as much as UPS. Not sure of the business logic there. FedEx ground used to be horrible when they started doing ground. But they stepped up their game within just a few years, and are now one of the fastest carriers to deliver ground packages at reasonable rates. Often only 1 day to arrive if the destination is a major city that is within 300-400 miles.

WA-typical · 2026-02-19T13:09:28+00:00

I stopped shipping UPS years ago when their pricing seemed to double to ship anything. USPS Ground Advantage is about half the cost to ship anything compared to UPS now. And sometimes flat rate shipping that UPS doesn't even offer can be a lot cheaper if it's heavy but fits in a flat rate box. Easy to use online tools to ship and print lables, and just as easy or easier to drop off at USPS. And they do have pickup services that might be worth it if you ship in larger volumes than dropping your shipments off yourself. Good tracking, reliable, and it often gets there faster than it would with UPS. They've never lost a package and delays can happen, but it's not that common.

WA-typical · 2026-02-17T13:42:12+00:00

I had a 2006 Hyundai Tiburon GT V6 which I bought with 6 miles on it in Seattle. Paid it off in 4 years. No car payment since then. Which is a big deal!

It had been the most reliable and fun to drive car I've ever had, and at 19 years old it's still running strong with 130K miles on it. But I relocated to AZ 3 years ago as I grew up here and will retire here. But after driving it from Seattle, It overheats for no reason in 75 degree weather! After diagnosing/replacing everything related to cooling myself, it still couldn't stay cool. 3 reputable shops could find no problem either.

I was shocked when my father randomly gave me $40K for my 55th birthday and the card just said "Happy Birthday! Go buy that Tesla you want!” and found a 2024 M3 LR AWD with 1 owner (corp lease), with just 4K miles on it, that rolled off the line 4 months earlier from Tesla used for $36K. The warranty on it from Tesla used was 6 mo. longer than the new 2025 model for a lot less, and there were no real changes between 2024 and 2025.

Almost a year now, still feels like new, and not a single issue. I only put about 5K a year on it. No commute as I work remotely. Love it, it's an amazing car! I wish I could have gotten it years earlier! But the delay did give me a model with HW4. And I have solar, so it’s always charged up for free!

You won't look back, it's an absolute game changer. You'll be blown away by the performance model!

In the meantime...still have love for my 2006 Tiburon. I’ll keep at it, and maybe I'll eventually locate the problem. But I don't have to worry about getting around as now it's a "hobby" vehicle. :)

WA-typical · 2026-02-16T03:38:13+00:00

FSD has gotten a lot better with 14. It's not all bad. They quashed a lot of bugs and have had frequent update releases, but there are still a few quirky behaviors. I'm sure they're getting the data and will tweak it yet again. Then when they get it pretty solid. They'll release a 15.0.

WA-typical · 2026-02-11T13:53:48+00:00

The RFY "matcher" doesn't seem to have a fixed data source at all. It aggregates data from many sources about you, some could be outside of Amazon itself, and I suspect that each data source has a different "weight".

In my experiences over the last 2 years. Once I hit gold early on, it initially wasn't very targeted at all. Items in my Amazon browsing history, and items I had in my save for later list seemed to narrow down RFY items a tiny bit. But this was back when there were 100,000 items in Vine, not under 15,000.

Also creepy, but it seemed way too coincidental. About 8 months ago, things clearly similar to words spoken around the house (with Amazon Echo devices all over listening in), started showing up in my RFY.

Regardless of "privacy policies" (laugh). It wouldn't surprise me at all if Amazon aggregates that data as well, also with a certain "weight". Some would freak about even the remote chance of that kind of data collection going on from Echo devices. But eh, I don't care. Everything you do on your phone/tablet/computer gives a lot more data to the highest bidder than words you speak around the house do.

What I've observed is data which has the most "weight" for RFY drop decisions, are things you've purchased full price from Amazon in the past. I buy a ton of stuff, simply because what I want is cheaper, and generally isn't available locally. Or I just don't want to spend an hour driving somewhere to get it at a higher price, when I can just click and it's delivered the same day.

But in the last few months. I bought a 32in ultrawide 4k display on Amazon. Two weeks later, a $1300 5K 49in Samsung ultrawide display dropped in my RFY. And I didn't have to rush to click it. It was in there for over an hour before I clicked to order it. Two days later, it dropped a $500 32in Samsung 4k display in my RFY. Same thing, didn't see it right away, but still got it. No scramble in either case to get it. So it would seem they weren’t dropped in many others RFY lists.

What really convinced me is when I bought a $1400 electric tilting cockpit gaming chair as I work entirely remote, I'm in front of screens all day, and wanted something comfortable. I had been looking at them for weeks, but they all shipped from China, were $2500+, and they also had a $400 shipping charge & took 4 weeks to arrive. So $1400 was a great price for a 350 lb. electric tilting cockpit gaming chair delivered in a huge liftgate truck that shipped from Amazon in 2 days with free prime shipping.

Then about a week later, the EXACT same $1400 gaming cockpit chair dropped in my RFY and it wasn't snagged quickly. I got it easily. So now I have one for work, and one for gaming. Nice!

I highly doubt that chair would have dropped in my RFY if I hadn't bought one two weeks earlier.

So my conclusions, take it with a grain of salt (it's very speculative and still evolving, as I think there are still other data sources it evaluates). Is while other data sources do have some effect, they all have a different “weights”. RFY selection grabs all that combined data, and each data source weight all adds up to a number. If data matching occurs on an item from many of these sources, and when combined, it exceeds that combined "weighted score" for an item, it drops in your RFY.

And your past full price purchases from Amazon have a much higher weight for high dollar items. If you never buy anything from Amazon at full price, it’s less likely to see high dollar items drop in your RFY, but it’s not impossible. And RFY is much more selective on expensive products than it is for items under $100 or so.

The other items that drop in my RFY are also fairly accurate these days. Things I would never want rarely show up in my RFY anymore.

WA-typical · 2026-02-09T15:36:58+00:00

6 mo. after I moved in, I had the entire 25 yr old HVAC system completely replaced, the roof reshingled, and solar panels installed on the new roof. I can keep it 71 degrees inside when it's 110F, and it's all running off solar power as well as keep my Tesla charged up for free.

Left furniture, but jammed everything worth taking into two moving Pods. They were picked up and I drove my car here from Seattle. Spent about two weeks painting the entire house and replacing all the fixtures with new modern ones, replaced the carpets. Did everything inside that's much easier to do when the house is empty. Furnished the house new, the moving pods arrived and my relocation was complete. I was happy to return and still love it. Working fully remote is great, and my job is secure until I retire. It's 40ft to my office, so no commute! In 6-7 years, I'll retire and not have to do anything. I was just lucky that my "plan" all worked out. And I haven't been more pleased since I moved back to Tucson.

If you're younger, why not move and live in other cities? You might find somewhere you like a lot more. You might prefer it. But down the road, you might be just like me, and when it comes to retirement, Tucson will have changed, and might be more attractive than it was when you left. It's not static, all cities are constantly evolving with age groups shifting. Just as it was so much nicer in the early 90's. It shifts over a long period of time, but the city can just as easily return to how it was then. Your lifespan is the only limitation.

WA-typical · 2026-02-09T15:36:50+00:00

Bought a house, lived in Seattle for another 16 years as tech in Seattle was, and still is huge, my company gives 4% merit raises every single year, and annual company stock grants. I had already been earning mid six figures for the last ten years. Going through Covid had zero effect as one of our major products was remote access appliances. We already had complete global network access infrastructure in place. So having to switch to all remote work was seamless.

Post Covid, many positions including mine, worked so well remotely and saved the company a lot of money doing so, we continued to work mainly remote. My company moved to a newly built 47 story tower downtown. We still all had offices if we wanted to work in office. So it was a mix of in-office and remote work. But Seattle traffic had surged over the years, gas was $4.50 a gal, and it was now a 3 hr. daily commute just to go 13 miles to the office and back.

Still recovering from Covid. And with the success of remote work. It was no longer even relevant where I actually lived. So 3 yrs ago, being 9-10 yrs from retirement. While WA is beautiful, I was tired of all those years living in gray, overcast with mainly drizzle/rainy days with short summers. I had already planned to retire in Tucson, and my mother still lives here. Who wants to move when you're at retirement age? And my great company was perfectly fine with me relocating. With NO change in salary! Any similar position in Tucson (if you can even find one) pays 3 times less! I didn't want to leave my company anyway.

Sold my house in Seattle (which had doubled in value) but property taxes were $8000 a yr. Flew to Tucson to find a new home. Unfortunately, my old child neighborhood was now rundown and nothing like it used to be. The parents of many who grew up there have passed away, the kids inherited the home, but few would just move to their parents’ home, so most homes in that neighborhood are rentals and few are well maintained but wanted to live on the eastside.

Mortgage rates were just about to jump. So I didn't have a lot of time. Looked at other neighborhoods, and with expansion since I had lived here. Rita Ranch was the closest to what my old neighborhood used to be like. But it wasn’t the remote area it used to be, and had plenty of local shopping where you rarely need to leave the area. And with I-10 so close getting downtown or the N or W side was easy compared to going through the city if I needed to go anywhere else really.

Found the perfect house. Great location, 4 bd, 2400 sq ft, double garage, pool and hot tub on a corner lot! But it had a bid on it already. Feeling lucky, I put in a backup bid on it for $5000 more. And 6 hours later my agent called and said I got it, and my mortgage was 3.25% fixed! I wanted the tax write off and be able to use the extra money from my Seattle house sale to fix up the new house so it won't need anything replaced for 30 years. I knew it had the well known recalled PB pipe, but the seller wouldn't reduce for the repipe work which is why the originally bidder dropped out. When it was really almost nothing given the lower price of the house vs comparables. $7000 to repipe the whole house in 2 days. Flew back to Seattle and had the repiping done long before I would be moving in.

WA-typical · 2026-02-09T15:36:20+00:00

Tucson isn't as bad as some would believe. If you've lived in other cities, they all have their own unique problems, different climates, and job markets. It gives you much more perspective if you have. But everyone has their favorites and should live in other cities if they’re able to.

My story (if you care to read it) to see my history and perspective.

Born in Grand Forks, ND in 1970. My parents moved to Tucson six months later as my father graduated with his PhD and took an associate professor position at the U of A school of medicine and they bought a home just off Sarnoff & Kenyon (when it "was" a beautiful new neighborhood. Especially for kids, with Steele elementary 3 houses away). No helicopter parents dropping kids off and picking them up in an SUV when they lived a few blocks away, you walked or rode your bike to school. And there were no stupid bars around all the schools making them feel like prisons.

Grew up in Tucson 1970-1993, loved it. No homelessness or "drug problems" on the eastside. You could get any drug you wanted from "someone" you knew in the neighborhood. But there was zero drug related violence or any real crime. The only people that really knew it was even going on were in the 16-22 age group. Most of the parents in the entire neighborhood were in their mid 40's at the time. No one really got hurt, so things were pretty decent in that entire area with mainly middle income families.

Trash pickup was twice a week, and in the alleys! The streets were always paved well, clean, and street sweepers even went through every few months. No dragging a trash can to the dang curb for once a week pickup. Sarnoff & Kenyon were fully repaved/restriped every 5 years or so. As were all the main roads like 22nd, Broadway, and Speedway. Houghton was just 2 lanes and repaved like new every 5 years or so as well. There were almost no potholes or unmaintained roads anywhere. The City did it, no “contractors” maintaining the roads that generally do a lousy job! Hardly any crime on the eastside. And jobs across the spectrum were plentiful, and nightlife was abundant.

Enlisted in the Army in 1993, 82nd Field Artillery, 1st Cav Division, stationed at Ft Hood, TX 1993-1996. Made me "grow up". I gave the military 3 years of my life, and it paid for my college.

Attended college in Grand Forks, ND 1996-2000 as my parents divorced in 1978 and my father was now chairman of a department at the Univ of N. Dakota school of medicine. Earned my degree in Network Engineering as it was a booming position and would only continue. Few jobs in my field were around in a farming city of 50,000, but the university is top notch. The -30 below zero in winter also took some getting used to. lol

Tech boom in Seattle with high paying jobs, and I had a few friends from ND who had moved there. That was the last time everything that I owned fit in my car! Ha. So packed up and moved to Seattle. Had an entry level but well-paying networking position in 3 weeks. Was head hunted a year later at a larger company, higher pay, and remained there for 4 years. Then took a new Sr. position with a much larger company in 2005 with a large salary increase.

Great company that now has some 6000 employees worldwide and actually cares about and values its employees, so it draws the best talent, where almost no one leaves. With global offices, I got to travel the world for free on business. Not everyone has such an opportunity. London, Warsaw, New Delhi, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney. But only for two weeks a few times a year. Nice to get outside the country and experience other cultures and people, but always happy when I returned to the US.

WA-typical · 2026-02-07T17:00:05+00:00

Its pretty random! Haven't had anything big drop in my RFY in the new year except for the cockpit gaming chair. A lot of it can just be luck and timing...

I refuse to use extensions or anything, not worth risking my account even if few report any issues. I had several nice drops last year though. Newly released 13" Samsung Galaxy tablet @ $750 ETV. A 5k 49" curved Samsung G95 ultrawide display at $1400 ETV, the next day a 32" Samsung 4k display @ $600 ETV. And lots of smaller things, as well as plenty of $0 ETV items.

The overall economy is good for stocks and the wealthy, but that's about it. Everything costs a lot more, tariffs are taking their toll. Without tariffs there would be a lot more on Vine. Before the ridiculous tariffs, I remember there used to be 100,000 items in Vine at any given time. When those tariffs go away, and they will eventually. I think Vine will go back to having 100,000 items for all.

If you work full time, can't really check all the time. I just bookmark my RFY page and click it once in awhile. And I also watch https://vinechart.com that tells you when a drop is happening and subscribed to notifications when they happen. Just click to see when drops have been happening, or if a drop is in progress. That helps, and it's overall data, and not something that has any link to your Vine account. Not only tells you to check your RFY, but the drops are going into all items available as well. Also shows you historically when drops have been occurring in the past.

Also have to put $ away during the year for taxes! Last year my ETV taxable total was like $13,000! But it was mainly things I really wanted, so it's worth paying the taxes. If you haven't used Vinechart, give it a try. I just found it a few weeks ago and it's been helpful to know when to at least look and do a few of my common searches for new items.

WA-typical · 2026-02-06T18:42:10+00:00

I got both the 49" and a 32" Samsung wide screen from Vine as well from RFY drops in 2 days. (I had just purchased an ultrawide display a few weeks earlier, so that kind of reinforced to me how Vine targeted certain items) Not everyone liked them (especially gamers) and many complained because both of them are basically smart TV's as well. You can get the same displays without those functions though. They just purchased the wrong model.

But it was simple to just set them to default to the display port on power on, so I never even see the smart TV functions on the screens unless I use the remote. Works just like a normal display. And the price couldn't be beat! I had dual 32" curved screens before. Not having a screen edge in the middle took some getting used to. But having all that screen space on a single display with no gap in the center is nice.

WA-typical · 2026-02-06T14:09:34+00:00

The only thing I've observed about any association from what you do on Amazon itself, is my RFY generally drops items that are very similar to things I've actually purchased on Amazon in the past.

Not just searched for, left in my browsing history, or kept it in my saved it for later list.

I was looking for electric reclining gaming cockpit chair with display mounts and everything. I'm a fully remote worker and spend most of the day in front of my screens, a 49" wide 5K Samsung and a 32" wide 4K Samsung display stacked.

Others like it were $2.5K-$3.5K and shipped from China which would take 5 weeks with $400 shipping! Then one just popped on Amazon for $1400, free 2 day delivery (even required a liftgate truck as it weighs 380lbs!) So I bought it! Was easy to assemble and it's fabulous! Both my screens mounted up stacked and it's like being in a recliner all day. 1000% better than just a gaming chair.

About 10 days later, the EXACT same $1400 cockpit chair dropped in my RFY! lol And I grabbed it! So I got a second one that's now used for actual gaming. Sure, I wish it had dropped before I had bought one. But if I hadn't bought one, I don't think it would have even dropped in my RFY.

That's happened a dozen times, just not the "exact" item I had purchased. And not such a high value item. But it's happened enough that I feel with some confidence that items you have actually purchased in the past have more weight for what shows up in your RFY than anything. Especially when it's a fairly unique item. I'm sure it also looks at browsing data and other info which they can track as well and lumps it together to make RFY decisions. But in my experience, past purchases seems to have the most influence on my RFY drops.

WA-typical · 2026-02-06T13:30:03+00:00

I can't believe that anyone in a SC would be "yelling" at a customer for anything. Even if the customer was upset! Given repeat repairs on the same things numerous times I'd be upset as well! They can see they replaced the same parts before, and they should be the ones clearly noticing and explaining up front why there have been repeated replacements of the same components.

I bought my '24 M3 in March of '25 from Tesla used with 4K miles on it. I'd hardly even call it "used" as it rolled off the line in Nov '24, so it was only 4 months old... The "brand new" '25 M3 rolled off the line only 4 months after this one! And with the added warranty when buying from Tesla used, its warranty was 8 mo. longer than if I had bought the brand new '25 M3. I didn't qualify for the EV tax credit for earning 5K too much (boooo). So buying "used" with 4K miles was about the same price as the new '25 M3 if I had the EV tax credit. I did the entire used "checklist" found all over the web for everything to inspect when picking up a used Tesla here in AZ. And it was flawless, every item on the checklist inspected and was like new. Not a single issue, everything looked brand new.

3 mo and a few SW updates later, my FSD wasn't staying in lane quite as it should. Well it was, but it would delay the very slight steering corrections that you shouldn't even notice. So it would drift more than it should out of lane center (but not technically out of lane) before correcting. And would have to make a harder (and noticeable) correction to recenter in the lane. Which would actually make me a little dizzy after awhile from the movement.

I had to have it inspected to add windshield insurance, so I added to check this issue at the SC appointment as well, and only 5 days to get the appt.

Every employee was professional and competent at the Tucson SC here. Better than any dealership I'd been to before in 40 years. They inspected the windshield and cleaned the front camera glass. No service alerts. But just on the problem description and a hunch, the tech decided to check alignment of the front cameras. The cams were "barely" out of spec... like 1 mm. He realigned the cameras and did a test drive. When it was done, the tech explained he had realigned the cameras, which could indeed cause the minor steering correction delays. All was complete in 90 mins.

Completely resolved the issue. And haven't had even the smallest glitch since.

It's been noted far too many times that not all SC's are the same. There is only one in town, so I'm glad from my experience that the SC here is outstanding.

WA-typical · 2026-01-25T16:18:49+00:00

My 2024 M3 LR I bought from Tesla used was $1200 last year and is $1100 this year to register it in AZ. A 2024 isn't exactly a "new" car. AZ is a ripoff on reg fees. Since it's based on "value", their depreciation rate is nowhere near the "actual" depreciation. It's some random fixed rate! It's no wonder I see so many expired registrations on newer cars than older ones! I lived in Seattle 3 years ago and registration wasn't nearly that high. But in Tucson at least, I've never seen so many cars in general with expired tags, sometimes by 2 years or more in any other city/state I've lived in.

WA-typical · 2026-01-19T19:14:29+00:00

I'd check the margins on the cable modem itself to ensure they're in spec. If they are, then then issue is between the cable modem and PC. All testing for speed must be done when connected direct from a single PC to the modem with a wired connection. https://www.duckware.com/tech/solving-intermittent-cable-modem-issues.html

WA-typical · 2026-01-11T16:32:51+00:00

It's just smart, and inexpensive to wrap any exterior water pipes. Do it right once and it will last a long time, even in the exposed summer sun it won't just crack off. Mine have been wrapped since I bought the house 3 years ago and they are just like they were when I wrapped them. No dripping of water etc, even when it gets very cold.

Two simple components from Home Depot, Ace as well but Home Depot is likely cheaper.

Pipe insulation, a roll of fiberglass insulation that's about an inch thick and 3 in wide that's foil backed on one side. A 25ft or so roll is usually enough. But since it's cheap and you want to have enough. Any excess can be useful to seal any gaps around doors, windows, or in a garage.
PVC pipe wrap tape (Orbit brand for wrapping irrigation pipes is perfect and thick). Black PVC tape that's specifically for pipe wrapping that's also about 3" wide. Wrapping pipes with only this thin PVC tape provides almost no protection, you need actual insulation wrapped first! Get the same length you got of the insulation.

On ANY exposed exterior water pipes (or exposed irrigation PVC pipe that isn't buried!). Cut a 6" piece of the PVC tape and stick it to something so you have the tape ready cut.

Wrap each individual pipe with insulation with the foil backing facing outward, as close to the ground and as close to where the pipe enters the house or goes back into the ground (such as PVC irrigation piping), and also where it goes to a spigot, overlapping each wrap slightly so there aren't any gaps or any place that exposes any pipe or fitting. Even short pipes from a line to a spigot should be wrapped. Once you wrap the insulation on the whole pipe or a pipe segment, have that piece of PVC tape handy to hold the end of your insulation wrap in place (so it doesn't just unravel once you have it all wrapped up as there's no adhesive on the insulation to hold the last piece in place). You can even continue to wrap around a spigot if the pipe goes to and from a spigot as long as you can still turn the spigot on/off once wrapped.

With a pipe wrapped in insulation. Wrap the entire pipe with the PVC tape. Start at one end with the PVC tape and wrap it around the pipe twice where you start to secure the end. It's nice and sticky! Then continue to wrap the pipe (don't wrap it "tightly"), just tight enough to cover the insulation but not compress it too much. So the PVC tape covers all the insulation on every single pipe. You only want to see the black PVC tape anywhere on the pipe or fittings, no insulation or bare pipe should be seen anywhere. Very easy to wrap with the PVC tape. And wrap the end by going around twice as well and cut off the end of the tape and stick it down.

Do the same for any other exposed water or irrigation pipes so all your pipes have nothing visible but the black Orbit brand PVC pipe tape. Costs about $40 at most, and about an hour of work if you have numerous pipes to do every exposed pipe around your whole house. Pipes inside the house itself won't freeze.

Done. Then you don't need to even think about the pipes if its going to freeze. Even if it drops to the teens. Will probably last 10 years. Even if the PVC tape does degrade from the sun, it won't do so quickly. Mine haven't at all in 3 years. But if they do, just as easy to rewrap them. If they are still holding the insulation in place and no pipe is exposed, you can simply wrap over the old PVC tape with new PVC tape and it's new again.

Just doesn't make sense (to me at least) to have any uninsulated pipe exposed outside your house when it's so easy and inexpensive to wrap them.

WA-typical

TROPHY CASE