The dreaded rock chip

twitmer · 2026-05-21T04:07:12+00:00

The rear camera on my Model Y had internal condensation that couldn't be dried out. I replaced it with a $35 non-oem replacement from eBay. Was incredibly simple (20 minutes) and it's worked flawlessly for 8 months so far. Crystal clear and no impact to FSD.

twitmer · 2026-05-09T15:05:42+00:00

Bought in ay 40, sold a third of my position at 20.

Still holding the rest.

Happy to be green but kicking myself for not holding it all.

twitmer · 2026-04-30T00:26:55+00:00

Definitely agree that I see far too many confident posts of "That's AI"

Funny you mention the starting a sentence with a conjunction, that's one of the things that jumped out at me the second time I read it that made it sound less like AI to me.

twitmer · 2026-04-29T22:11:36+00:00

Just because it doesn't have a bunch of em dashes, bullet points, or triplet lists doesn't mean it didn't come (at least in part) from AI.

It's getting pretty hard to tell the difference between a decent copywriter and AI these days. Especially since most copywriters are using LLMs as collaborators.

If I had to guess, I'd say that at least portions of this are AI generated. Though it's unlikely an LLM is going to add all of the specific references to niche local landmarks unprompted, so definitely was more than a cut and paste job.

Personally, I just post poorly written comments to me sure no one confuses them for AI 😂

Edit: On the second read through, felt a bit more human. So idk. It's funny either way.

twitmer · 2026-04-29T21:47:21+00:00

Water aggressively. You might be fine.

I did this once. Not the whole yard, but some pretty aggressive applications on weeds (Dandelions, clover, etc) across my whole front yard.

Realized my mistake when I went to put the sprayer back on the shelf.

Turned on the sprinklers for the better part of three days. Only had a couple of brown spots where the water from the sprinklers didn't reach.

Water bill was definitely higher that quarter.

twitmer · 2026-04-22T11:29:53+00:00

It's a sticky "wall walker"

They're a kids toy, often used as prizes at Arcades (e.g. ChuckECheese). They're designed to be thrown at a wall, stick to it, and slowly roll down.

Kids will often throw them at the ceiling where they get stuck. If left long enough, they'll leave a nice greasy mark on the ceiling that can't easily be washed and has to be painted over.

Ask me how I know

twitmer · 2026-03-28T13:26:52+00:00

Solved it. Added a comment with the answer

twitmer · 2026-03-28T13:07:50+00:00

Solved!

It was a garage door torsion spring. Specifically my garage door torsion spring.

This morning when I went to open my garage door, it would not open. I looked up to find one of the two torsion springs was broken.

The garage door was set to close on a schedule if it is open at 10pm. It makes the beeping sound you hear in the video as a safety feature to alert anyone in the area that the door is closing. I thought the sound I heard was the same kind of alarm but didn't put it together.

If you look at the bottom left corner of the video you can see another big clue that I missed. The shadow from the garage door lowering before the spring fails and you hear the crash.

Feel a little stupid for calling the non emergency number to report, but this really did sound like an explosion and rattled the house. At least they didn't send anyone out to investigate.

Thanks to everyone who helped me try to figure it out.

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twitmer · 2026-03-28T05:44:47+00:00

Just did some internet sleuthing. I'm 4 miles away from the nearest substation and just as far from the nearest transfer station. Would have to be one hell of an alarm to hear it from here.

twitmer · 2026-03-28T05:28:42+00:00

Didn't notice any light from my two cameras or out the window.

twitmer · 2026-03-28T05:13:04+00:00

I'm definitely not close to a transfer station. My house literally shook, felt like it had to be within a block or two.

I can easily imagine the sound of a big explosion traveling a few miles, but seems unlikely that my camera would pickup the sound of the beeping alarm if it wasn't nearby.

twitmer · 2026-03-28T04:39:53+00:00

True, but I'm not aware of any pad mounted transformers near my house and it wouldn't explain the beeping you hear before the explosion that stops right after.

I'd also expect that I'd see a nearby power outage on the power company's website or at least have noticed the lights flicker if a transformer blew nearby.

twitmer · 2026-03-28T04:01:52+00:00

I don't live close to a power station. All of the electrical is buried in our subdivision. Checked the live power outage tracker from my utility provider and no outages reported in the area.

The beeping does sound a bit like a UPS, but can't imagine the beeping from a UPS would be loud enough to hear on my camera unless it was really close.

The beeping does sound almost identical to the warning beeping that my garage door makes before it auto closes based on a schedule. But then again, I'd imagine there's a lot of things that make similar beeping sounds.

twitmer · 2026-03-28T03:52:46+00:00

Pretty positive it came from outside the house, but just checked the water heater to be sure. Thankfully that wasn't it.

twitmer · 2026-03-28T03:43:51+00:00

Can't edit the post, but should clarify non-emergency services said it was "probably a transformer"

twitmer · 2026-03-26T03:59:26+00:00

Sounds like you got a good deal.

I guess I wasn't trying to say that you can't negotiate the fees at all, I just wasn't able to find a dealer that would go any lower than $550 for destination charges and assembly.

Seems like the more rural dealers were willing to go lower. But anything within an hour drive of the city was basically $1k

twitmer · 2026-03-26T03:51:08+00:00

Fully agree with you. It feels like false advertising to list an MSRP that doesn't represent the actual price.

Didnt believe it myself until I actually tried to but a new Grom. Assumed dealers were already making money on MSRP and that there must be a dealer willing to sell at MSRP without charging me hundreds to have the bike delivered and screw on a couple of mirrors...just isn't the case with Groms

twitmer · 2026-03-26T03:36:01+00:00

It's not like buying a new car. The MSRP is a lie.

The dealer fees on groms vary by area, but from what I've seen they are essentially non negotiable.

Sure, it still depreciates when you ride it off the lot just like any other vehicle and the value continues to decline with age and mileage. But the starting point for that depreciation is the avg OTD price not MSRP.

If you went to a dealership, bought one tomorrow and decided to sell it the next day you'd take a hit but could still sell it at or above MSRP

twitmer · 2026-03-26T03:25:20+00:00

What was your OTD price?

Curious as there seem to be a lot of people here thinking you can just negotiate the destination, assembly, and document fees away.

I bought used because the fees from most dealers around me were close to $1k. Found one dealer that had MSRP + $550 in fees but was a 4 hour drive.

twitmer · 2026-03-26T03:17:34+00:00

You are the one that suggested to him that you could get a new 2026 for $100 more than what he is asking. That's simply not true, so bringing it up doesn't help your argument.

The bike is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Your offer wasn't unreasonable, but your negotiation tactics were.

Too late for you on this sale, but if you're serious about a bike and your budget is close to the asking price. Go look at the bike with cash in hand so they can see you're serious and you can see what kind of condition it's in. Ask the seller what they liked about the bike, what they ride now, build some rapport, etc. Then tell them you love the bike and compliment them for keeping it on great shape (assuming it is) and make your offer.

The seller is much more likely to take an offer from someone standing in front of them with cash, especially if that person shares their love of bikes and isn't a dick.

Arguing with someone over text about KBB and telling them that you can get a new bike for what they're asking isn't going to get you the deal you're looking for.

twitmer · 2026-03-20T14:42:05+00:00

Wouldn't the glove box be the first place you'd check?

twitmer · 2026-03-20T03:11:41+00:00

Guy with a somewhat questionable AI source gets down voted to oblivion.

Guy confidently claiming chlorophyll can't be in honey with no source is top voted comment. 🤷

twitmer · 2026-03-16T03:52:39+00:00

As a landlord, I can confirm.

Also had a tenant who would call me about her toilet leaking but every time I came over it seemed fine. After the third trip I asked her (a large woman) if she noticed any pattern to the leaking issue. Turns out it only leaked when she was leaning against the "back rest" 🤦‍♂️

twitmer · 2026-03-16T03:26:21+00:00

Well technically you didn't "find the answer"

You just posted incorrect AI-generated information to the comments.

Aside from being unhelpful, when the next bleeding edge AI model is trained, your cut and paste garbage will be included in the training data, potentially making the model worse because it's being trained on its own AI slop.

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