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sasquatch69

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Posts posted by sasquatch69

  1. Question for the mortgage folks here:  We're currently just over a year into a 20yr fixed (refi) on our D/FW-area house at 3.65%.  LTV ratio is 75%.  We've been in the house eight years, and have good credit.

    I'm currently seeing online rates as low as 2.5% on 20yr right now; I wouldn't mind losing a year of progress if it means a decent monthly savings.  So, my questions:

    - Is it worth it to do anything right now given our position?

    - How realistic would it be to add 20k to the loan for home improvements?  Is that even a thing? 

    I'm no expert on all this, so any advice would be appreciated.

  2. 2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    The other thing about Big Cedar is that apparently it has changed a lot.  The land manager (church?) apparently took some of the trail "off the table" some years back, which included some of the crazier loops.  And that seems to have caused the maintainers/builders not to have kept up some of the other sections.

    Then there's more recent utility work. 

    So it's a little hard to figure out from various trail reviews what is what down there.

    I've been reading through threads on the Big Cedar and DORBA FB groups, and apparently the church is super-supportive and is fine with widespread trail use, but adjacent landowners and ONCOR have been really difficult.  And there are rumors that the section of trail north of Camp Wisdom (the Highway Rim loop) is on land that has now been sold. 

  3. 6 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    So I guess that means that Ranger, which is what, like 12 miles or so, has some kind of fire road or utility easement that lets you go back to the trailhead?

    I've noted the two green loops are off Ranger and the maps maybe show some kind of fire road so you could shortcut some of the loop, but have never been sure.  Otherwise, it wouldn't make much sense to have green loops that you have to complete a blue loop to get to and from. 

    Apologies in advance for my shitty graphic, but hopefully this helps.

    - After a few hours exploring the property, I've found a good approach for newbies like me is to start by getting on the purple fire road RIGHT at the entrance to the parking lot off Isom Drive (red arrow below), which takes you to the first green trail, Dragonfly (yellow circle).  That bypasses the path to Dragonfly from the actual trailhead, which is a major drop right at the beginning.

    - Dragonfly spits out on the fire road, and from there turn right and go up to I Can, the next green trail (orange circle)

    - When you get done with that, go back south on the purple fire road to pick up Ranger (blue) just north of Dragonfly and head east - it takes you around the edge of the housing development up into the eastern part of the property (just don't take the fork for Copperhead Ridge). Some fun downhills and beautiful scenery along Ranger there, but be sure to take the green bypass (purple arrow) back to take Ranger southbound back into the heart of the property.  Otherwise, Ranger keeps going northwest and spits you out on the easement where the trails have been erased (red X).  

    (Map source: https://www.trailforks.com/region/big-cedar-wilderness-trails/)

      

    big-cedar.png

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  4. On 12/2/2020 at 6:56 AM, TwiceHorn said:

    Welcome to the thread.  We ride a lot of the same stuff.  

    I have always been intimidated by Big Cedar, I think mainly because the central loop (Ranger?) is long, and blue and there doesn't seem to be any way to shortcut it.    I can handle most DFW blues just fine, but there's enough variance in it that Big Cedar makes me wary.

    Plus, it has always been the "most technical" and challenging trail in DFW.

    Spent a couple hours at Big Cedar yesterday, and did the northern part of Ranger Loop for the first time. It may be the hardest but most enjoyable trail I've ever ridden in Texas (on admittedly limited experience, since I don't do the really challenging stuff) - some absolutely beautiful stretches and speedy downhills, but brutal climbs as well. I had to get off the bike and walk it several times. 

    The biggest issue out there right now is that Oncor just came in and clearcut the whole utility easement that several trails run through, so when you get to the part of Ranger that crosses the easement you lose track of where the trail is and end up in a rutted mess of dozer tracks. I ended up having to jump a fence and ride along Camp Wisdom and Eagle Ford back to the church trailhead entrance, which sucked. If you're going to do the loop, make sure you take the "Ranger Bypass" a bit after you pass the fork for the Man Bites Dog loop - otherwise you'll end up lost on the easement.

    Overall, I still got ~8mi of mostly enjoyable riding in on a beautiful afternoon. 

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  5. 2 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

    One thing I'll say, as I have a Mountain Goat Whiskeytown Racer from the same era...quality replacement components are getting harder and harder to find. If you trash a derailleur or something, you're going to be scavenging ebay and vintage mountain bike forums looking for replacements.  

    Yeah, I've thought about that.  Our little neighborhood shop has some older stuff laying around (or knows where to find it) and they've assured me I'm good for a while.  I do worry about how long the shocks will hold out.  The front fork is probably fairly easy to replace, but the rear suspension is unique and wasn't all that common even back then.

     

    As for the brakes, if I ever have a catastrophic failure I'll probably try going from cantilever to V-brakes, but I don't think disc would work on this bike.

  6. Just found this thread.  Life changes brought about by the pandemic (mainly, WFH and a lot more free time) brought me back to mountain biking here in D/FW after years of very little activity.  In the past few months, I've spent a lot of time riding at Rowlett Preserve (close to home), and decent rides at Katie Jackson, Boulder Park, Northshore and a couple state parks east of town.  Last weekend I discovered Big Cedar and loved it, although I'm very much a green/blue trail kind of guy (I like more distance riding with turns and a few *little* hills/jumps now and then, but the really challenging stuff is right out for me and my early-40s dad bod).

    I'm still riding the dual-suspension GT RTS-3 I got in college - got it worked on earlier this year (full tuneup, new front derailleur, etc.) which really made a difference.   Given the advancements in bike tech since the mid-90s, though, am I really missing out by not having a newer bike?  Or will this continue to be sufficient for my needs?  I do enjoy riding it.

    bigcedar.jpg

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  7. 13 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    I begin to feel despondent when I start thinking about the millions of folks who honestly feel the way a lot of TexAgs posters do (e.g. the constant drumbeat that all people with liberal views are liars, they cannot be trusted, they hate our country and must be stopped, etc.)

    How do we change that course and restore *any* kind of unity as a nation when we have so many people who feel such hatred towards a majority of fellow citizens - and a whole media ecosystem that makes money off stoking that hatred, and just wants to keep expanding it?

     

  8. Crazy story. I just recently finished off a six-pack of their Hatch Me If You Can kolsch, so this one hits close to home.

    Quote

    Over the course of a nine-month investigation, according to an arrest warrant affidavit, detectives found evidence that they said indicates (brewery owner Keith) Ashley incapacitated Seegan before murdering him in an attempt to gain control of his finances.

    According to police, Ashley was Seegan's friend and financial advisor who would periodically visit the Seegan home.

    Police said that during the investigation, detectives also identified several other victims of a "Ponzi"-type scheme orchestrated by Ashley.

    The federal indictment alleges that from December 2013 through May 2020, Ashley devised a scheme to defraud victim investors and obtain money and property under false pretenses, representations and promises.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/owner-of-nine-band-brewing-in-allen-indicted-on-charges-relating-to-murder-wire-fraud/2483730/%3famp

  9. This is quite a read: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1327253991936454663.html

    Quote

    ... a preliminary analysis of the first several thousand accounts on Parler shows that it is the usual Russia aligned operatives that we in this space have tracked for years. This is a large scale op aligned with Russian interests. This is not some kind of free-speech tech dudebros just tryna let people do their thing. This is a calculated political and economic attack on US interests and we should treat it accordingly. The fact that it sucks makes that easier. But it may get better. 

     

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  10. 18 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

    As much as it sucks to admit, Trump could very likely get a big ownership stake in OANN bringing no cash to the table, just by giving them the Trump TV brand and becoming the face of the company. Make him the brand, give him the prime time slot or whatever, bring all of his trailer park rabble over, and keep him out of the actual management of the company.

    This may be pretty close to reality.  Hicks Equity Partners (owned by former Rangers/Stars owner and UT grad Tom Hicks) is exploring a majority stake; his son Tommy Hicks is RNC chair and close with DTJ.  

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-real-reason-fox-news-needs-trump-to-win/2020/11/03/909b6400-1de2-11eb-ad53-4c1fda49907d_story.html

     

     

     

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  11. After years on Surly/Shag/Hornfans, I never knew there was a scouting thread until I happened to run across it tonight. Excellent.

    My journey to scouting was unconventional, as I was never involved as a kid.  My eldest got roped in by friends in 1st grade, so we joined our school's pack.  He took to it like a duck to water, and we had a solid den leader with a pretty large/active pack, so we got involved pretty quickly.  Fast forward two years and the outgoing committee chair pleaded and begged for me to take over - I finally said yes after 3-4 nos.  The incoming cubmaster ghosted us right before the new school year, so I ended up doing both jobs for 18 months until we finally found a new cubmaster (thank heavens).  In the meantime, our youngest had gotten involved too and ended up in a den that grew to 16 boys.

    I still sort of kept BSA/scouting culture at arm's length (simply because I only knew the Cub Scouts side of things) until our oldest crossed over and joined a troop.  He's in a great medium-sized troop (about 35 boys with a co-chartered girls troop of 12 girls) with strong scout and adult leadership.  In the three years we've been involved, I ended up doing IOLS and other trainings, taught a couple merit badges and have chaperoned too many campouts to count - and loved every minute.  It's really gotten me into camping in a big way, too - much to my wife's chagrin since her interest in camping has really waned since our pre-kid days.

    Bpth our boys are in the troop now and I've just accepted the committee chair position beginning next school year, so I'll be kinda shadowing our current CC (the same guy I succeeded as CC in the pack) this coming spring.  Our oldest just did his OA ordeal this past weekend and we've both signed up for Philmont this coming summer, so I guess we're really in it for the long haul now.

    Glad this thread is here - I look forward to reading more!

     

       

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  12. We had a Facebook group like that pop up in our district at the beginning of the year. They pushed all their folks to submit comments to the school board to be read at their meeting when reopening plans were discussed; most of them were along the lines of "if you don't reopen immediately I'm pulling my kids out and so are my friends in our neighborhood, and you can't afford to lose us."

    They weren't approving requests, so a friend who was in the group already let me in. It was pretty toxic.  I looked around but never posted anything, and then an admin kicked me out a few hours later - I guess I didn't live in the right part of the district (or was friends with the right people) to be a part of their club.  

  13. It was blatantly obvious this was coming.  They're going to railroad this through, despite all the hopes/prayers/dreams otherwise.

    And honestly, if the whole situation were reversed - a conservative judge dying, but with Dems having the majority in the Senate as well as the presidency (but with pres running behind in polls against a strong R challenger) - they'd probably do the exact same thing.  

    "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato

     

  14. EDIT: Now I see this was already posted above.  I'll leave this here since the NBC story linked in this post goes into a little more detail.

    TL;DR - Looks like they want to identify Democratic Party-led cities and withhold federal funding as punishment.  Also seems like a pretext to mess with voting in said cities on Nov. 3.

    Quote

    The Department of Justice on Monday released a list of cities it has deemed "anarchist jurisdictions" under President Donald Trump's instructions earlier this month to review federal funding to state and local governments where violence or vandalism has taken place during protests.

    That memo directed Attorney General William Barr, in consultation with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, to identify jurisdictions "that have permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities (anarchist jurisdictions)."

    On Monday, the Justice Department labeled New York City, Portland and Seattle such areas, though the department said it was still working to identify other jurisdictions that meet criteria outlined in Trump's memo.

     

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-dept-deems-new-york-city-portland-seattle-anarchist-jurisdictions-n1240600

     

     

  15. Abbott reopening restaurants/retail/offices to 75% capacity except in RGV.  Oh, and nursing homes too.

    https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/17/greg-abbott-texas-coronavirus/

    Quote

    The standard that Abbott unveiled applies to the 19 out of 22 hospital regions in the state where coronavirus patients make up less than 15% of all hospitalizations. In those 19 regions, businesses that have been open at 50% capacity will be permitted to expand to 75% capacity — a group of places that includes retail stores, restaurants and office buildings. Hospitals in those regions will also be allowed to offer normal elective procedures again, and nursing homes can reopen for visitations under certain standards.

    The three hospital regions excluded from the new reopening stage are in the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo and Victoria. Abbott said those regions’ hospitalizations are still “in the danger zone.”

    At the same time, Abbott said the state was not yet ready to reopen bars, saying they are “nationally recognized as COVID-spreading locations.” He stressed, though, that the state is looking for ways to let bars reopen safely.

     

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  16. Meanwhile, over at TexAgs.

    Nothing that the Atlantic writes could persuade me. If they had him on tape burning George Washington in effigy and executing kittens for sport I would only ensure that I registered to vote for him sooner than I otherwise would have.

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