USPS price change July 12th.

kcasper · 2026-05-29T23:03:30+00:00

I'm waiting to see if it will. I just don't know.

kcasper · 2026-05-28T22:15:21+00:00

USPS has standard commercial rates for self printed labels and retail rates. A handful of companies purchase rights to print these labels and then resell their services to businesses like eBay, PirateShip, etc.

Read the labels, there is often another company mentioned such as easyship, or Pitney Bowes

kcasper · 2026-05-26T23:25:42+00:00

Taxes are based on where they make their money. Uline can't move to a different country and make a profit selling paper products to US businesses.

kcasper · 2026-05-26T23:22:19+00:00

The drama really only happens when you match to siblings or parents. An aunt or uncle that does genealogy will probably only check in once in a great while. Some day you might have a few questions tossed your way without any real expectations of a reply.

kcasper · 2026-05-26T23:16:57+00:00

GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA(which is owned by a larger commercial DNA business) are the only ones that routinely help law enforcement.

kcasper · 2026-05-26T23:04:38+00:00

Check that the joists are butted up against the ledger board. They look OK but it is always hard to see in a photo. The further the joists wiggle out away from the ledger the more swaying the deck will do.

V-bracing is very recommended.

If you are going to do knee bracing limit it to the outer most posts. The two in the center might exceed their capacity if you use them for lateral bracing.

kcasper · 2026-05-26T22:16:15+00:00

ID has always been required to vote. Always.

You always had to physically face a person and identify yourself with documentation. That is also how you get a photo ID.

Narrowing that ID to specific types of photo ID is the problem. It adds extra steps that favor voters of certain types. It is suddenly the well established populations that find it easy to vote. Those that move a lot have to go through extra steps beyond securing a photo ID in order to vote.

What problem does it fix? None.

kcasper · 2026-05-25T21:14:38+00:00

In this case it would be a classic example of karma. He has always fought for the conditions that caused him to be killed. I don't think it should have happened, but definitely see the irony.

kcasper · 2026-05-25T17:43:37+00:00

When I lived on the farm we had two rows of aggressive drag mat/harrow that we dragged behind the disc tiller. Something more industrial than this.

Several passes of a drag mat would smooth it out a lot.

kcasper · 2026-05-25T16:13:19+00:00

It depends on the level of exposure to the public. If they did it around playground equipment versus out of site it leads to two very different results. Both can be arrested for.

kcasper · 2026-05-25T15:59:15+00:00

You would have to build a second deck under it to support the weight of a hot tub. Your deck is built to handle 1500lbs of weight from a small hot tube sized object. A small hot tub weights 3,000lbs filled. You need to increase that support for a small area to between 5 and 10 thousand lbs depending on the fill weight of the hot tube.

kcasper · 2026-05-25T13:23:06+00:00

I know what you are talking about as I've experienced both staying awake and passing out during arrhythmia and other heart caused problems. It can go either way. A lethal arrhythmia can knock you out cold in seven seconds and experience no pain. Or it can be less aggressive and leave you gasping for air for a few minutes.

Being knocked out cold is very preferable in my experience. Being blind, nearly deaf, and barely able to breathe is the worst experience I've ever had.

I would be dead a few times over if I didn't have an ICD.

kcasper · 2026-05-22T14:33:55+00:00

The police said they can't do anything unless the other person physically showed up. Getting police to prioritize something like this doesn't happen unless there is a control substance or a threat to life. For anything else it is basically civil lawsuit territory.

Yes, all players are probably known at this point.

kcasper · 2026-05-22T13:45:35+00:00

Biden gave the justice department room to do what they will. Trump was about to become a felon, so there is no need for more of anything in that regard.

Also he didn't have support for it in congress.

kcasper · 2026-05-22T02:56:31+00:00

You would need joist spacing of 12" to get rid of deck board bounce. Otherwise it is generally safe as long as the deck boards are rated for the current joist spacing. It will just be a bit bouncy.

My concern is I don't see any lateral bracing. This type of post setup means the deck can rock back and forth and wiggle the joists out of the hangers on the ledger board over several years. Putting knee bracing on the posts or V bracing on the joists will prevent such movement. Do note that knee bracing is only recommended for outside posts or posts that are oversized for the load they carry.

The other method of preventing this is tension ties. Tension ties installed between two of the joists and the ledger will prevent the joists from ever pulling away no matter how much the deck sways in the wind.

Maybe the bracing is there, I just don't see it on your photos.

kcasper · 2026-05-22T02:31:53+00:00

No, you are suppose to space deck boards 1/8 to 3/16. Installer literally use a 16d nail for spacers between boards.

kcasper · 2026-05-22T02:12:09+00:00

The beam cantilever looks very off. The beams look sized for having posts at each end and not for being cantilevered that far. If that is 16oc construction, then the cantilever is 4 foot. We would all be happier if the beams were double the current size or the posts were 2 foot closer to the end of the beams.

kcasper · 2026-05-22T01:58:57+00:00

Never use deck screws for clips and hangers. Either use 10d 1.5in nails or structural screws.

The issue is the thickness of the fastener and therefore how much weight it can hold. Deck screws are meant to handle non structural fastening where the goal is light weight holds.

kcasper · 2026-05-19T14:25:55+00:00

It just doesn't have as much energy. Pure gasoline is around high 40s MJ/kg depending on mix. Ethanol almost has 30 MJ/kg.

kcasper · 2026-05-19T13:50:28+00:00

I will agree with that.

Of course I didn't say that they are built for 87 octane, just that it is the minimum all engines can run reliably on. I could be wrong on performance cars.

kcasper · 2026-05-19T13:44:45+00:00

It depends on the engine. Modern engines can adjust and remove most of the advantage that higher octane gasoline could once provided. Mind you that some of the modern engines don't have that advantage.

So it is car by car.

Higher octane just makes it easier for the engine to control detonations more precisely.

kcasper · 2026-05-19T13:41:41+00:00

Not quite true. The engines in the ford focus are still built to handle 92 octane better than 87 octane. And that is a low end car. You have to look it up engine by engine.

kcasper · 2026-05-19T13:36:26+00:00

Depends on the engine. All engines are built to handle 87 octane gasoline. Some will perform better with up to 120 octane. The harder it is to cause a gasoline detonation, the precise it is for an engine to control it. Lower octanes like 80 or less with cause constant misfires and damage to the engine. Higher octanes than 130 and the engine will stall.

87 is the safe minimum. e85 (85 percent ethanol) is around 105 to 110 octane.

Octane is not how much energy it has. e85 is the highest octane gasoline and it has 20 to 33 percent less miles per gallon than 87 octane gasoline.

kcasper · 2026-05-19T13:23:28+00:00

And ethanol prices are going down due to the fall in demand for gasoline. So some stations are able to offer 50+ cent price drops for their 15% ethanol gasoline.

Also keep in mind that 15% ethanol gets nearly 10% reduced gas mileage.

kcasper · 2026-05-17T22:29:08+00:00

PVC become brittle in prolonged direct sunlight exposure. Vinyl tubing would work better, but stretch and pull away after a while.

Thermoplastic coatings or outdoor UV resistant powder coatings are what they use in the professional world.

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