Wombat_EE Q2'26 patchnotes: -balcony solar appreciation corrected(disappointment over failure of OR HB4080 increased by 80%) -furry update installed (feline edition) -PNW snowpack below spec, fix expected Q4 '26 -bad fire season expected, needs patch -social media addiction reduced by 99%

Fuck.

Looks like I chose an incredible time to almost entirely quit social media. I'll see y'all when this all blows over. Maybe.

I got a gas bill that actually had billed usage! Wow! My range (only gas thing that gets used in summer) using a whopping 1 therm of gas in 3 months.

Camel by Camel is such an odd song but it's admittedly kind of a banger.

There's not a single non-racist explanation for thinking like this.

Good way to look at it.

I haven't been able to open my windows overnight for weeks because of wildfires exacerbated by climate change. So much fun.

Amazing stuff going on in (checks) the department responsible for energy and nuclear weapons

This is incredible.

"Support our troops!" "Wait, no, not like that!"

I'll be in NYC in October and I intentionally booked old Acela to get there from Philly because soon I won't have a chance to experience them. Also it'll be my first time ever on HSR so that'll be neat.

I'm a bit of an expert in protection engineering, so I guess I should be fired and the garbage man should start developing recloser settings. I'm sure that'll end with no additional deaths or forest fires. And in the meantime I'll start driving the garbage truck.

It's fine though, Washington voted for Harris so let it burn. That's probably some of their logic, anyways.

This is just nuts. Imagine talking about this like it's an accomplishment. Meanwhile rent in the LA area continues to be absurdly high.

I just got a text from the power company saying the power is out at my house, but uh, my power is still on? Idk, I'm not complaining.

Inflation is fun. I just got quoted $1400 for a gutter install. Similar size house, same company, but back in 2020, a coworker paid $600. And it's only gonna get worse thanks to tariffs. Woo.

This isn't tariffs on your temu garbage, this is directly making things the vast majority of Americans use on a regular basis more expensive. But I guess in the end we're all winning or something, right?

What the fuck

I live in rural Oregon and ngl shoutout to the Willamette Valley for keeping our roads paved and stuff. Those guys are chil. Now I realize I'm an exception and most people around here *loathe* Portland with a passion, but what else would you expect from rural Republicans?

Oh so this is what they're doing instead of delivering my package on time.

I'm seeing Popeyes discourse and I've been offline enough recently to have absolutely no clue what's going on. Could someone fill me in?

Perhaps my biggest electrical pet peeve is when people refer to US electricity as "one ten." It's 120v. ±5%, but still 120v base. If you're getting 110v out of your plugs, your utility is doing something wrong. And yes I know one ten is fewer syllables than one twenty, but it's also just wrong.

Seatbelts, sure, why not, eat steering wheel, that's a you problem. But I'll be damned if I have to put up with your cigarette smoke indoors.

I got a mis-addressed email about a leaking gutter and through that one photo and a look at the weather radar map I was able to nail down the location to a specific townhouse in Chicago. The internet feels a bit too powerful sometimes...

Fast food now costs on par with entry level sit down, so the decision has become pretty obvious...

My newest opinion from driving on I-80 in Nevada and Utah is that 80 mph is the correct speed limit for Interstates.

My uncle in Utah uses a mishmash mix of incandescent, CFL, and LED bulbs in his house, often with clashing color temps, and my ADHD ass can't imagine caring that little about lighting. I've got matching LED bulbs throughout my house because I'd go nuts otherwise.

Housing discourse is making the rounds again so here's my 2¢... I am a single family homeowner. It would definitely suck if my house lost a bunch of value and I was forced to sell. But I also recognize it shouldn't have taken a 6 figure salary for me to afford a modest house in a small town.

Oh cool, they're gonna feed the economy into a woodchipper. At least I might be able to refi my mortgage somewhere in the process.

What a moron.

LLMs will never take power company jobs because they know we can turn off their power.

Fantastic, looks like I'll be on the Nvidia 30 series for another generation or two. Thank you Mr. President.

I hate Illinois Nazis.

My posts will be less verbose for the next 4-6 weeks until I regain the use of my left arm. One handed typing on PC suuuucks.

Fwiw we've already done nuclear power on the moon. Multiple Apollo mission things were powered by RTGs.

I was having a ton of fun mountain biking today, right up to the point when I broke my arm.

Wow. That's really fucking stupid.

I keep bouncing between "this is hilarious" and "this is really depressing"

Well I've been putting it off for a while but the weeds have now reached head height in some parts of my yard so I think it may be time to do some weeding. Or just do what everyone else does and spray some horrible chemicals all over my property.

Water is wet and tariffs cost consumers money. More at 11.

Here's something I learned today: while window ACs have had efficiency standards for decades, there are *zero* efficiency standards for portable ACs in the US. Which seems like a bit of a problem, especially with how common they are in the PNW. So many people here are cooling their houses at 6 SEER.

Oh sick the literal federal government is now 1488 posting

My AC condenser has developed another new (bad) sound, this time a sort of oscillating vibration. It's 31 years old so definitely EOL but I don't have the funds for replacement with a heat pump and financing would likely cost more than whatever benefit I'd get from the remainder of 25C tax credit

Roof update: the new roof is on and it's a lighter gray than I was expecting from the catalogue. Pretty close to the old roof in shade, just without the brown. And with the new shades in the skylights, overall energy efficiency should be improved, though we'll have to keep track of usage to be sure.

Big floppy hat failed me yesterday after a day outside and now I am rather sunburned. So that's fun.

Being inside my house while the roofers are working up top is giving me flashbacks to my old downstairs apartment. They're making a prodigious amount of noise.

Local grid operators being like "the hell you are"

I'm one of the more pro nuclear guys you'll meet, but even I think this is a bit too much. The politicization of various forms of clean power is really a giant net negative for humanity.

Fuck off, I love carrot cake