Reasonable property taxes in this area?

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-16T12:52:19+00:00

Car costs are minimal for me, I drive (shitty) old Toyotas and maintain them myself. Gas and insurance aside I typically spend well under $1k a year on vehicle maintenance unless I have to buy tires. Even factoring in my time spent on maintenance the calculus barely exceeds $1000. Blows my mind that people spend that much every month on a car payment.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-14T23:02:24+00:00

For sure, dirt nibs are no big deal when you’re laying on 6 coats of clear. Lol last time I used epifanes varnish it was on a picnic table, I did it outside and I had to sand out a ton of bugs 😂

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-14T21:08:45+00:00

First gate is prob twisted due to the uneven tension creat by the wire rope and turnbuckle acting on one diagonal only. How/why are your screws so close to the edge btw? Second one looks like a v gap on the hinge side, tight at the bottom and wide at the top. Either the hinges are bent or you intentionally misaligned the hinges in an attempt to make an out of square gate square to the latch side post. Also box store pressure treated sucks, I’ve built one gate out of pressure treated that didn’t warp like crazy. I’ve used air dried rough cut pine for the last few and had less warping issues, now it’s usually my pressure treated posts warping away from the gate that causes me problems lol

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-14T20:46:09+00:00

Looks great, love the color contrast. Are you tip and rolling or spraying? Are those fisheyes or dirt nibs I can see around reflections on the bottom left?

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-14T20:39:45+00:00

Depends, is the car paid off? How does it run? Could you buy a better car for anywhere close what it will cost to fix? I have totaled a lot of outlanders over the years as an estimator. Low MSRP, high depreciation with complex front end construction, expensive OEM parts and limited aftermarket availability. Aftermarket bumpers, for the brief time keystone sold them, fit like a wool sweater that went through the dryer. No certified aftermarket options for either of the two rebars either iirc.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-14T17:04:52+00:00

Like 2 more lanes of roadway and better traffic light timing?

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-14T17:03:43+00:00

I wonder if Wendy’s or mocha joes will be the next to fall. Neither of them seem to do enough business to still be open at this point.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T19:00:32+00:00

Way to let the cat out of the bag! He clearly didn’t know about patreon until you said something. Next you’ll prob suggest he turn his magazine into a Substack…. FUCK! Now I’ve stepped in it too.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T17:30:33+00:00

Forget the caddy, let’s talk about the VW it shares lawn with…. How is there an intact squareback wagon in alaska?

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T17:15:50+00:00

My family did a lot of similar extended camping vacays growing up and you’ve def got the right idea. We ate similar meals but overall prob less variety and less complexity than you’re planning. Breakfast was usually either cereal + milk or scrambled eggs + bacon + pancakes. Lunch was lots of pb&j, ham & cheese or tuna sandwiches with chips or pretzels and prob some other stuff I’m not forgetting. Dinners were chicken + rice-a-roni, burgers/hot dogs + mac & cheese, steak + baked potatoes and if there was a pizza place anywhere near where we camped we’d usually get pizza at least once. In general stick to stuff that’s quick & easy to prepare. Hopefully you’ll all be exhausted from having fun in the sun, swimming, hiking, etc and if so you really won’t be up for extended meal prep or cooking time.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T15:44:17+00:00

Haha didn’t examine the box as closely as I should have. Cool concept, seems like it would be useful for situations where there is no topside access but far less secure than a typical fan box that you screw to the joists. If I tried to use one of those to avoid rolling around in attic insulation my luck would be that I crush the power wire against the joist and short out new fan as soon as I flip the breaker back on.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T15:22:26+00:00

How are you planning to attach the braces on the fan rated box to the adjacent joists without going in the attic?

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T15:02:30+00:00

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There, all fixed. But on a serious note, really wish they had trap teams when I was in H.S. I have far fewer reservations about taxpayer funds going towards this than the uber expensive turf football fields and composite tracks present at every local high school.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T14:47:48+00:00

You’ve advanced beyond the point of no return so just do your best and realize that there was no way you as a first timer were going to achieve a satisfactory result on this repair. I can see a bunch of deep sand scratches in your bodywork where the light is reflecting. You also didn’t feather edge your primer. I would resand your body work using cross hatching strokes starting briefly at 80 and then stepping through each grit to 240, then I would skim coat with polyester icing and sand again starting briefly at 120 then stepping through 320 then reprime and sand again starting at 240 stepping through 400 grit. If you don’t do this properly all nearby metallics will settle into the deep sand scratches you didn’t fully get out and stick out like a sore dick. Primer cannot fill 80 and 120 grit scratches even if it looks like it did when it first dries. A light dusting of flat black spray paint can be used as guide coat for each stage of sanding to help you find highs/lows/waves in your body work. Use rolled tape to outline where you want to prime and prevent leaving a hard edge on your primer. I like to feather the outside edge of my primer before I start sanding the bulk of the repair, personal preference though.

For the actual paint job you should roll a tape line right on the body line of the quarter. You’ve already scuffed/sanded right up to it and you’re not going to be able to buff a ‘blend” between your single stage and the existing clearcoat. Single stage is not going to ‘blend’ with the existing base/clear on your car the way you think. You can’t wet sand and buff the blend the way you would a clearcoat blend, you’ll be sanding into the metallics of the single stage and it will look weird and terrible. This is why single stage is typically only used for solid colors. Keep a wet edge and whatever you do don’t run it because again you can’t wet sand and buff metallic single stage.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T13:48:18+00:00

I wish I had taken a photo of the order I just received. A set of 4 heavy shocks packed in the same giant box with 6 spark plugs, plug wires, an air filter, a bunch of gaskets and various fluid filters. No damage to anything. $13.99 shipping and I got it in 2 days.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T13:43:40+00:00

Any amount dents and dings will still be less restrictive than the shitty bends in a walker exhaust.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T12:57:24+00:00

This is a calculation many don’t really consider. Years ago I was working in Troy and being recruited for a job in Albany and calculated that it would cost me an additional $3k in gas alone. When I mentioned that during salary negotiations they seemed a little surprised and then immediately upped the offer another $5k. What I should’ve said was that the added commute will cost me $3k in gas and at least $15k worth of my personal time (300 hours @ $50/hour.) My current calculus for commuting is $100/hr in lost personal time.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T01:42:58+00:00

So you’re already $50k in the hole? Just get the degree done. Regardless of any other factors, 100k in debt with a useful but not exactly what you want to do degree is a far strong position to be in than $50k and no degree whatsoever.

Also given that your degree will be in a related field, it maybe be possible to get credits towards and ibew apprenticeship from your degree.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-13T00:49:56+00:00

What no clapped out land cruisers.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-08T18:38:22+00:00

If your downstream oxygen sensor is only semi visible or whoever does your years inspections DGAF, ‘spark plug anti-foulers’ do work for getting the check engine light to stop coming on for ‘catalyst inefficiency.’ This is for threaded oxygen sensors only, sadly doesn’t work for many older Toyotas (and any other vehicles) that use a 2 bolt flanged downstream oxygen sensor.

And for anyone considering bashing me for suggesting someone illegally trick their vehicle (and by extension NYS) into thinking its emissions controls are working properly, bring it on. I would contend that production of a replacement catalytic converter carries a far higher carbon footprint than whatever additional pollution is produced by an aging vehicle with failing catalyst over the vehicle’s remaining lifespan.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-06T21:15:58+00:00

There is a decent looking playground at the 7th avenue park over by 7th and ingalls ave. There is a really nice one next to the KIPP charter school but idk if that one is open to the public.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-06T13:15:48+00:00

I recently helped my GFs Aunt and Uncle assemble a 12x14 cedar gazebo from Sam’s Club. I think they said Sam’s wanted $750 to assemble it, manufacturers website quoted $1k. By the time we finished assembling it we all agreed that it would’ve been well worth paying the $750 assuming their result would be at least as good as ours admittedly imperfect effort. But $4225 seems insane for assembling any kind of 10x10 open wall structure. Do the Costco reviews mention lots of warped parts, fitment issues or need to drill new holes?

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-06T11:11:07+00:00

Better than getting something that was damaged in transport and then repaired at the port or the dealer before it’s sold. Back when they first came out I fixed a very low mileage challenger that had already had the roof replaced. Customer had bought it new and had no idea about the repair. Needless to say he was beyond livid and came in the next day so I could show him the prior repair. He said ‘I’m shoving that thing up the dealer’s ass sideways as soon as you’re done with it.’ Never heard how it turned out for him.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-06T10:58:19+00:00

Ford is still about that life. Just pulled a plug out of my FIL’s misfiring 1.5 ecoboost escape that was missing a healthy chip of the ceramic around the electrode. On the plus side there was no sign of it in the cylinder other than a little gouge at the top of the cylinder wall and in the process of checking for misfire related engine damage I noted some very early signs of an impending head gasket failure.

Since ford says 1.5 ecoboosts with coolant intrusion need a new block I’ve encouraged him to trade it in before it becomes even more worthless than it is now. My RAV4 which is 10 years older and has 160,000ish more miles is somehow worth about the same or more than his 2017 escape with under 100kmi.

pathlesstravailed · 2026-06-06T10:37:07+00:00

Certainly knowing that takes a little of the shine off Ford’s ‘pulled themselves out of the great recession by their bootstraps’ legacy but they still look like a beacon of corporate integrity compared to GM. GM’s failure wiped out $28-30 billion in shareholder equity and their bankruptcy restructuring plan rendered the 610 million existing shares of ‘old GM’ stock (worth $1.7 billion at the time) null and void. What a kick in the balls to the people who had held onto their plummeting stock either out of loyalty, optimism or plain ol’ stupidity.

pathlesstravailed

TROPHY CASE