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drt

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by drt

  1. 1 hour ago, Cap33 said:

    I get that you can't identify every branch that could possibly affect a power line. And I get the cost prohibitive ideas to bury power lines. 

    But I'm exhausted by the predictability of it all and the waiting for someone to take charge. 

    Mostly with you, with the caveat that the best time to plant a tree is yesterday. The next best time is today. 
     

    I’m tired of us paying to repair critical infrastructure that shouldn’t need repair. It’s wasteful, dangerous, and shortsighted. 
     

    Do it right, bury the fucking lines like the rest of the goddamn 1st world. 

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  2. I have a 4 door F150 that has stuff in the back a few days a week for work, and tows a trailer once a month or so.
     

    Got it when we had our first kid, prior to this job.  I’d had a S-10 from high school through college with a Lexus for a bit prior to kids. 

    I almost got rid of the truck prior to this job. As a family vehicle there are definitely better options, but I’m not keeping two vehicles and couldn’t go switch out prior to snagging the kids most days anyways. 
     

    Why there aren’t more hybrid powertrains does confuse me. More low end torque and better fuel efficiency seems like a no brainer. 

    I paid 32k for my truck. No idea what I’ll do when this one wears out. Prices are nuts. 

  3. I don’t know that adding a bit of concrete for the footers and some wire buried under solar panels in conduit renders it fallow in the future either. They’re both in straight lines at regular intervals. Pretty easy to rip that out. 
     

    The case study I saw was remarkably similar to what bolverk posted, only I think it was strawberries and might have been Europe.  Same thing, had to be able to drive the tractor between panel rows, the evaporation cooled the panels increasing electric production, and the intermittent shade increased yields on the produce. Seems like a no brainer. 
     

    The other interesting solar project I’ve seen is floating solar to slow evaporation and capitalize on that unused real estate. 

  4. Thankfully we know exactly what no intervention whatsoever leads to.  JFC. 
     

    A little of something is better than nothing. 

    10 minutes ago, 927 E. 41st said:

    A tragedy that we all wish could go away. Ahh if it were just a perfect world. The amount of intervention in your life to reduce things such as this to zero, well, be careful what you wish for.

     

  5. 14 minutes ago, Gengs1 said:

    Confused Excuse Me GIF by GIPHY News
    aren’t their pilots already getting shot at and shot down? What difference will it make if they shoot their bombers down, fair game.

    if you take down their SU plane is ok, you take down their bombers and it’s a problem. What am I missing here?

    Difference now is the bombers firing cruise missiles are doing so from Russian air space because they did get shot down over Ukraine in the beginning of the war. 

    He's saying that in order to shoot those down, Ukraine needs anti-air missiles that can reach into Russia from Ukraine (as the Ukrainians aren't penetrating Russian air space any time soon), and which so far we've been reticent to give weapons with that kind of reach.

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  6. Can you imagine how many of those CWIS you’d have to use to ring around a city? I get that Europe is more densely populated in cities than the US, but it would take a shit ton of those to provide complete coverage. Russia keeps lobbing them all over the place and isn’t going after just infrastructure, so you’re trying to make a dome over population centers as well. 

  7. On 12/13/2022 at 8:07 PM, Texzilla58 said:


    I might believe in legal prostitution but it won’t solve the issues of the street or human trafficking. There are more folks enslaved in this country now than in 1860. Why is that? Same reason that drug trafficking continues, and weapons trafficking. International banks have made money for centuries laundering the funds of rum, slaves, opium, weapons, fentanyl, the list is endless. Nothing has changed in that regard and keeping shit illegal allows those in the trade and their enablers to continue to profit.


    My Google Fu says there were 4 million slaves in the 1860 census, and in 2016 there were around 400,000 people living in modern slavery in the US.  I have a hard time believing your statement without seeing some sources. 

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  8. 2 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    As we’re discussing Patriots, it’s worth remembering that both the Obama and Trump admins AGONIZED over giving Ukraine a fee dozen Javelins. This was a bid to mollify the Russians and as we see, it didn’t work. 
     

    It’s an open question if a more comprehensive and aggressive strategy of arming Ukraine would have deterred the war or resulted in a decisive victory in the early stages. We saw what just those Javelins did. This debate is at least as relevant as the “NATO baited Russia into this,” but you won’t get as serious a debate over whether a more aggressive posture could have led to peace. Time to reframe. 

    Speaking of reframing that’s where I am. Like the bully that keeps picking at a smaller kid I’m just about tired of the Russian’s shit. I don’t want to kickoff WWIII but it’s beyond time to give Ukraine the ability to retaliate against those missile attacks coming from within Russia. 

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  9. 1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

    Travis County wait times show 7 polling locations with greater than 51 minute wait right now and 9 more with 21-50 min waits.  Not sure why everyone waited til today, but rock on I guess.

    My plan was to vote Tuesday or Wednesday at an off time. Tested positive for COVID on Monday.  Guess I’m slumming it on Election Day. 
     

    any Rec’s for deserted polling locations down south/central? Sunset valley city hall has been ok in the past. 

  10. If you have stormwater management in place already, then your structural engineer should be able to look at your soils report and tell you if you need french or perimeter drains based on your foundation plan.  They're a conservative bunch, but have a group conversation with your builder, SE, and LA about future development and how your roof and future impervious cover is going to direct water long term.  I'm guessing by your comment there may be future development uphill of you.  

    At least you have plenty of grade to direct water!

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  11. Burrito the gravel, not the pvc, but yeah that’s the minimums I would do. If you’re to the point of having an issue I’d say go bigger.
     

    Site conditions obviously play a huge part in where you put this stuff.  I lean towards managing the water as far from the structure as possible. Usually there are utilities on at least one side of the house, side yards aren’t very big, getting appropriate grade can be a challenge…it’s not rocket science but getting it right does take some work. 
     

    Honestly I try to not ever need a French drain by grading, guttering, and landscaping.  They are needed in some situations but the majority of problems can be solved for with those. 

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  12. We've done them early, once they're covered as long as you don't have delivery trucks or dumpsters driving over them they're fine.  That's assuming you put them at appropriate depth, backfill appropriately, manage runoff during construction, etc.

    As far as cost 10k didn't really seem that out of wack to me depending on the specs.  2-3 days of guys plus equipment, plus a shitton of gravel adds up.  The PVC and landscaping fabric are cheap, but that's about it.  In my head I'm assuming you have a normalish quarter acre lot, which means doing 3 sides of the house, one at at least 50', call the 2 long sides 75' towards the street, for a total run of 200'.  Even if your cross section is just 2 sq ft for gravel (which is a bit small, do it right and do it once) that's 44 yards of gravel.  It's not a small undertaking, but sadly basics like giving water somewhere to go that isn't your house is often ignored.

    If you like the house, buy it.  In the grand scheme of things 10k is worth a lot less than a good place for your kids, short commute...etc.

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  13. On 10/21/2022 at 3:23 PM, Bevo said:

    Why were the french drains so expensive? That seems way overpriced.

    Labor is expensive.

     

    Solve for bulk water first.  Gutters, grading, etc.  Then french drains and the like.

    Finally, the option of closed cell foam on the underside of the foundation and subfloor, and/or making the crawlspace "conditioned" are both common and work well.

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