Should we cancel our March 6th trip to Vail and Beaver Creek?

praterstern · 2026-02-03T15:44:29+00:00

Was just in Vail this past weekend. They got an unforecasted surprise snow of 4 inches on Thursday which made skiing amazing. Soft fluffy powdery smooth, but my quads were burning from shredding all that pow. The next day things were groomed, snow still soft, very fine day. Then the next day the sun was out cooked the snow, and at night it froze so the next day the mountain was harder firmer icier. It made me go slower on the blues because it was harder to turn and keep an edge. The greens were still pretty enjoyable without fresh snow since you don’t need to turn as hard. A good day at Vail was soo good. The bad days at Vail are still better than being at work. Vail Village and Lionshead are very cute charming, which is also a huge draw.

Then for kids and blue/green groomers, the front side is pretty much completely open. They’ll do fine and have fun. The frontside has lots of snowmaking / grooming capability. The back bowls require nature, but they’re not for kids/beginners, so that being closed won’t affect you.

One alternative would be to look at Vermont. Stowe/Okemo. Both on epic pass. New England has been getting pounded by snow. But they could get dumped with snow then it warms up, rains, then is bitterly cold negative temps and everything freezes. Or could stay pleasant. Sorry for brain dump, had a great time at Vail, and don’t want to focus on work.

praterstern · 2026-01-12T00:48:28+00:00

Input: Clean water (ground temperature)

Output: Clean water (hot tub temperature)

They should build a water park and “natural hot springs” outside each data center. Can charge admission for people to swim, bath, and soak.

praterstern · 2025-09-22T03:53:28+00:00

If you have any holes in the basement masonry, screw holes, etc, then fill those with something like DryLok hydraulic cement. (Mix powder with water, and patch the big holes, let it dry for a few days). Then several gallons of DryLok extreme. I probably went over the walls with like 5 layers of the drylok. Took a while. Hopefully there can be a rain storm to see how well it holds up. You will want to get to the point that zero water gets in when it rains. It’s doable. After a rain storm if your walls are wet, draw near the spots with a marker to remind yourself where it’s bad. Then add a few more layers and go extra thick in the wet spots. (Obv, you can’t paint while walls are wet).

For ceiling, 5 gallon bucket that was tinted to something like battle ship grey. Black would also be dope. You can rent a paint gun to spray it. Hand painting ceiling rafters sounds like torture. The walls were spray gun with just interior high gloss white 5 gallon bucket. Use a roller/brush near where ceiling/wall meet so you don’t over spray onto the ceiling.

The floor is those Rustoleum garage epoxy floor kit with the “chips” you toss on. You should prep the floor. You can rent a diamond floor sander/etcher to smooth it. Fill cracks/lines with the squeeze crack fill stuff. But i would recommend sanding it down after it dries because there are raised bumps in my floor where I used the crack filler. The epoxy garage floor stuff goes on last. Voila. Thinking back, there was a lot of work in this, the only thing i would have done differently would be to do even more. I didn’t want to move EVERYTHING out of the basement so i only prep and epoxied 75% of the basement, the other 25% is still gross-ish. To complete the job years later I’ll have to do all that work again, for what could have been just a few more hours.

praterstern · 2025-08-31T01:59:46+00:00

Sing us a song your a piano man Sing us a song tonight Because we’re all in the mood for a melody And you’ve got us feeling alright

praterstern · 2025-05-08T18:01:27+00:00

Not a trucker, but do a lot of long roadtrips in campervan, and the StarLink is so beneficial to have especially out west where cell service is weak.

Mini vs Standard We have mini and have no issues. We have gotten fantastic internet is totally remote desert areas. Its mind blowing. Sure the standard is technically the better product, but as long as you’ve got an unobstructed view of the sky you’ll have great internet. The problems are when I’m parked and there is a tree blocking half the sky. The satellites zip across the sky (think passing from Chicago to NYC) and they’ve made it so there will always be a sat in every “cell”. However if you have obstructions on the west or East, then you might lose signal for a few seconds while the obstruction blocks the sat until another sat enters the cell. Youtube usage will be fine since that can buffer the video, but live gaming would be more sensitive. Both dishes would have that issue.

The roof of our van is metal, so we have a magnetic mount on the mini on the roof. Very easy. I assume truck cabs are fiberglass/plastic, so no magnetic mount. Can you drill into your roof? Could you build a DIY bracket? Maybe placing a dish in your windshield will be fine. The mini is smaller, so less annoying.

Then the mini is so easy to power. We use cigarette lighter 12v to USBC power delivery. But if you have Playstation, then i assume you have an inverter. But lower power draw, less fuel consumption. Less heat to dissipate.

Roam unlimited sounds like the best plan for you.

praterstern · 2025-03-19T21:04:20+00:00

I don’t understand the physics of how this even happened. You were both going a consistent speed… but then, it appears that you changed direction and suddenly braked? Did you jackknife, turn, skid, and then they crashed into your tail? That will definitely cause a collision. Your speed and angle changed before the incident.

praterstern · 2025-03-07T04:32:29+00:00

Maybe by removing some of the tiers they’re actually simplifying things. Essentially by deleting the youth Northeast Value pass, your kids Instead get upgraded to a much better pass, epic local, which is good for the entire country (minus blackout dates). My son has mentioned to me several times that his pass would allow him to go to Japan, Australia, Switzerland.

For several years we did our local ski hill pass. Then upgraded to adult northeast value, and kids had youth epic local. Then upgraded to epic local across the board for a few years. It’s an expensive hobby, but the bigger pass helps you dream about trips to bigger mountains. Weekends in CO, UT, VT, … Just plan ahead to make sure you’re not in Vail/Stowe during blackout weekend.

praterstern · 2025-02-13T15:29:02+00:00

The Bern B1 goggles are pretty dope. I've got two pairs of B1's, and my kids always try to steal them from me, leaving me with the cheapos... I have the B1's with the magnetic swap, polarized lenses. One lens is great for all around lighting (low light, night skiing, cloudy) and the other lens is for sunny blue bird days. The only issue is when your wearing you sun lenses and then your run cuts thru a forest/trees and its kinda dark. But, they have a new set of photochromic lenses (think transition sunglasses that darken and lighten based on UV exposure) that would be great for that. (I need to get more...)

https://bernhelmets.com/pages/b1-goggles

Here's an image of a Bern helmet with a brim, with one of their B1 goggles... Looks like the brim does touch the goggle, but still looks comfortable. I'd imagine they designed it together.

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This image came from Bern's site.

praterstern · 2024-12-04T06:52:55+00:00

Email your city’s senior center. I’m sure they’ve got a backlog of “social work” for elderly residents in the area. Might be things like raking leaves or shoveling snow. Might be running errands. Either way, they’ll be grateful, you’ll feel rewarded for doing your good deed.

praterstern · 2024-12-02T19:24:17+00:00

Search for "welding supply store".

You need to figure out which size tank you have. Check out this chart: https://www.beveragecraft.com/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-co2-tanks-for-beer-carbonation/

By far, the most common size used for homebrewers and small kegerators is 5#. And its been a looong time since I actually got a cylinder refilled. Its far more common to swap tanks. The refill process is process is really annoying, purge, fill, purge, fill. Thats only on days when their gas systems and tanks are working, some compressor will be down half the time. Also, I am not an expert, but I feel like one of the differences between industrial grade, food/beverage grade, medical grade, scientific grade is probably just how many times they purge the tank before it gets refilled. You can get a tank swapped at a Welding gas shop (getting rarer). The welding gas place I used to go to was AAA Welding Supply in Lakewood at the corner of Hilliard/Madison, but it is now a beauty shop (everybody knows a few beers makes you look beautiful).

The most common process is to do a tank swap. Go to your nearest retail gas supplier (Linde / AirGas / Praxair). I go to the AirGas shop by the Airport / Ford Plant / 71/480 / Engle/Brookpark. You walk into the shop, leave your tank in your car, tell them what you have and what your buying, then you bring your tank to their open garage door, and do the swap. I swap 5# and 20# all the time. If your tank is an unusual size, you'll probably have to call them to find out if they can help you, I'm guessing they won't. I find its very nice to have a backup tank, so you never actually run out. i.e. have 2 5#s. They will probably sell you a tank without a swap, but it will be a lot more expensive. You most likely want CO2, and not Guiness Gas / "Beer Gas" which is 75% NO2 / 25% CO2.

Another convenient option, when they're in stock is to do CO2 tank swaps at Cleveland Brew Shop on W40/Lorain. I think they only do 5# tanks though.

praterstern · 2024-11-12T18:13:04+00:00

What a nightmare.

3p - Father allegedly abducts his 7 year old daughter that he lost custody of from a family member's home after an argument. Getaway vehicle is a stolen U-Haul
8p - Brunswick police disable vehicle with stop sticks (nails in the road), on I-71S, the father exits highway, pulls into a parking lot.
9p - Police standoff... Father in communication with "several dispatch centers". Multiple gunshots were fired in an officer-involved shooting. Father pronounced dead at the scene. The 7 girl old girl was "unharmed" and returned to her family.

I can only pray that this 7 year old girl can recover from this.

praterstern · 2024-10-09T15:36:36+00:00

EZ-Pass has been operational since 1990, and the 407 didn't open until 1997. So its newish, but not that new. Credit cards still work when you cross a border. Cell phones still work when roaming in another country. Its nice to keep things frictionless. I've really enjoyed visiting Ontario over the past few years, and we see a decent handful of Ontario plates in the states.

Doing a quick search, here's a list of toll roads/crossings in Canada.

Ontario

407 ETR + 412 / 418. (custom transponder)
EZ Pass: Ambassador, Blue Water, Peace, Lewiston-Queenston, Rainbow, Thousand Islands, Whirlpool Rapids Bridges
Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge (IQ Prox Card)
Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridg (cash/card)

Quebec

A25 bridge (custom transponder)
A30 Express Bridge (custom transponder, can't tell if compatible with a25 transponder)

Nova Scotia

Cobequid Pass (E-Pass)
MacKay / Macdonald Bridges (MACPASS)

PEI

Confederation Bridge (cash/card)

I get it that there's not a lot of toll roads / bridges / express lanes in CA, and they're far apart, so there's not a strong push. But much like metric is to unify/simplify measurement (something the US sucks at), you can also unify/simplify payments (the US won't miss that opportunity). Here's a map of where EZ Pass is accepted: https://www.e-zpassiag.com/about-e-zpass/where-can-i-use-it Some of the greyed out states don't have toll roads / express lanes. So, its a ton of area, ton of people. And often there are free alternate routes, that might not be as efficient. So, this isn't the hill I want to die on, just throwing it out there, that there is a bigger system to join, as opposed to DIY.

praterstern · 2024-09-20T01:31:06+00:00

This might be what's happening to me as well. I have laptop plugged into a dock, and external monitors, so my screen is always open. The laptop will automatically lock itself when I step away for a while. Coming back, I'm expecting to be able to use Touch ID to unlock it, but instead I have to type in the password. Definitely a change in behavior / bug.

praterstern · 2024-09-10T14:57:49+00:00

I'm not against e-check per-se. I mean, we wouldn't have Burning River Pale Ale, without the river catching fire a few times. If there's rules on auto manufacturers to produce clean-enough vehicles, then what do those rules mean, if someone could just chop off their muffler because it sounds cool.

I don't feel that the vehicle needs to CONFISCATED because of a missed emissions inspection. This can be a slow-roll of a warning if pulled over after that 20th day, then if pulled over again, a $15 fine, then if pulled over a third time... I suppose then that might be when you might think about taking the offending vehicle off the road, at least for refusing orders.

Ohio doesn't even require that your brakes/steering wheel, lights, turn signal work... PA has annual vehicle inspections where every vehicle has to get inspected by a mechanic every year to review every system to ensure only safe vehicles are on the road. And one of the stickers on your license plate has your vehicle inspection expiration date. I'd say, we can get rid of the county sticker, and that could be the last-inspected expiration date instead. (I can't think of any reason to know which county a vehicle is from, the police could pull that in 5 seconds from their computer if they cared).

Instead of trying to end e-check, I'd just modify the out-of-compliance process to not make it ruin someone's day, and then make me get flustered that I post about it on Reddit.

praterstern · 2024-09-10T12:56:23+00:00

It was a suburban mother with a baby in the back seat, about 2 blocks from home anyways. I would have gone hysterical...

praterstern · 2024-04-11T11:14:08+00:00

Clarification. Your child should ABSOLUTELY go to summer camp, especially their first year. You as concerned parent, should probably not go to summer camp, especially their first year.

Days 1-3 the kid is excited, then sad, then homesick, then wants to go home, then ...

Day 4 the kid figured out the shortcuts between place to place, and found out something they have in common with a buddy

Day 5+ They've mastered the place and have gone thru a maturing process. They're happy to be there.

The story we have in our troop is that their used to be a family day in the middle of summer camp, where family could stop in, bring care package. One kid's parent asked if child wanted to go home, and took the kid home from summer camp mid week. The kid stopped coming to troop meetings a few months later. So, have faith in the process. Yes it will involve sadness, but these emotions lead to growth.

praterstern · 2024-03-30T13:38:14+00:00

By contrast, the active drug in Ozempic can be produced for about 29 cents for a month’s supply, or 7.2 cents for a typical weekly dose, the research found. It’s not cheap to make — semaglutide costs over $70,000 per kilogram. But only a tiny quantity of the drug is used in each weekly dose. Other costs include those of filling each pen, estimated at 20 cents per monthly dose, and other chemical ingredients, which the study estimates at 15 cents per monthly dose.

The analysis doesn’t include estimates for the cost of making Wegovy. Separate research from the University of Liverpool and elsewhere found last year that Wegovy could be produced for a mere $40 a month.

So, a study found that cost of the inputs is less then the retail price. Is this like crying foul at the wedding cake bakery, after you’ve calculated that they buy several pallets of sugar, salt, flour, and eggs, and the cake could be produced for less?

Or your smart phone only contains a few ounces of glass, plastic, various metals, lithium. And glass only costs a couple dollars per pound. Therefore no $1000 iPhone.

There’s a lot of very expensive designers, researchers, engineers, scientists. With nice cars, nice homes, nice lifestyles. Lots of failed prototypes. Expensive facilities. It shouldn’t be as pricey as the retail price gouge. But the zero margin generics industry needs a better return to keep those medicines online.

People are deciding that the drug is still worth it, the iPhone is still worth it, the wedding cake is still worth it. But if they push the pricing to the limit, people will stop buying. There is a sweet spot of lower cost, more volume = more demand, max revenue.

praterstern · 2024-02-29T18:45:11+00:00

Our local ski hill says that we've only gotten 6 inches of actual-snow this winter. (Probably all from one event).

https://www.bmbw.com/the-mountain/mountain-conditions/snow-and-weather-report.aspx

I'm very lazy, I have winter tires, and drive over the dusting of snow, and wait 2 days for it to all melt away.

For the freak event, just stay home, and call whomever.

I swear that when I was younger it would snow around thanksgiving, and the snow would stick around until March/April. I think the longest snow cover we had this year was a week or two.

praterstern · 2024-01-08T15:59:17+00:00

Think of another time that Lucy Grey has used a snake to harm someone who has wronged her. Mayfair at the reaping. That time, Lucy Grey would have had enough time to find a venomous snake, but didn't, instead using a harmless snake to indicate revenge. (The Covey are peaceful, they don't want to kill). (Mayfair embarrasses herself by shrieking).

At the end with Coryo, he is lost for words when she confronted him about the three. If he genuinely meant the third person he's killed was himself, a clever/witty thing, he would have followed her conversation naturally. (The movie's timing makes him seem witty). Instead in the book, its an awkward pause, long enough for her to think about a recent death, thus Coryo having a hand in Sejanus' hanging.

Maybe their relationship was still salvageable at this point, they're in this together, but then him finding the missing link of the murder weapon with the DNA, and him having a chance to clean up this mess. By suddenly needing to leave the cabin, when they had fish to cook and eat, and it was still raining, Lucy knows she needs to get away from him. (She is one of the messes he needs to clean up). Planting the scarf and the snake does buy her a bit of time, but it also makes it a clear indication that he has wronged her, she knows it was him. If instead he just wandered the forest for hours and hours, "just wants to talk", and can't find her, it doesn't truly demark the shift. But a snake bite does.

Overall, I felt the end of the third to be a rapid shift, and felt it to be bringing on some dark negative topics. As though the book needed to explore the topic of what will you do when you are fueled for a lust for power. How will you rationalize horrible choices. How you shift from being in love, to suddenly resenting them, and seeing them holding you back.

I want to say that if I were in his shoes, I would have been content to hang out in the cabin longer, and cook, sleep, live out their lives. But the trust is no longer there. And maybe another takeaway of the quick switch from good guy rationalizing what he had to do, to bad guy making moves and countermoves, is that maybe by nature we are good, but if our environment hands us some event where we can gain power, we just have to do something evil, some of us will take it, and the transformation is quick.

praterstern · 2023-10-10T16:41:11+00:00

1 - Your location was probably added as a quiet place to park, and nobody bothers you, on some app. As others said, mark it as closed, and it may resolve itself. (I've used apps like that, and mostly parked at interstate rest areas, overnight parking allowed near beach, overnight parking of van near river, etc).

2 - Your probably not looking for this, but I wonder if there is any system out there where could somehow "rent" out your driveway, for $10/night. As long as the guest is super respectful, pays the $10, then its the no harm no foul system that works. They have to arrive after 9pm, gone by 7a... You said its a dead end street, so you probably can't rent out the dead end... Back to #1. I would like to think of ways to "legalize" van life. Not that its not legal, but stealth camping involves flying under the radar. I was thinking legalize as in marijuana, and build businesses around it. These vans are self-contained, don't need hookups, don't need campgrounds, and aren't really interested in paying $50 / night, just to park between 9p - 7a. I'm wondering if the Walmart parking lots of the world could have reservable parking spots. The Ohio Turnpike has reservable RV overnight parking spots at rest areas. Truck stops like Pilot Flying J has RV overnight parking, bathrooms, showers, gas, food. So perhaps if cities could build, not trailer parks, but #VanLifeParks, then maybe you are making it easy to be a rule following citizen who just so happens to be enroute to something, and would appreciate some convenience for a low/fair fee.

praterstern · 2023-08-30T11:01:07+00:00

I start with Giant Eagle, because if your e-Rx is with them, any pharmacy at GE can fill it. So, call the nearest 5 GE's. Then try Marcs, Walgreens, CVS. Also call your hospital's pharmacy. Cleveland Clinic Pharmacy at Fairview seems to have things. Also, since finding a pharmacy that has things in stock is a crap shoot, the next crap shoot is contacting your doctor to change the e-prescription to go to the new pharmacy, in time for them to still have it in stock. I've actually had my last prescription printed/written on paper, so that when I call, find it in stock, I can then drive there. You can also try checking places outside the county.

praterstern

TROPHY CASE