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They also have a little blue pill that you can take if you have a floppy hose.

I'd say go for a California Air. Super quiet. It took me a couple days to notice I left it on in the garage.

Chamberlain MyQ. This mounts to your ceiling next to your garage door opener, works with most recent models. You download an app and you can then use your phone to open and close the garage. Great if you ride from your house regularly. Or if you are an old guy like me and get 2 miles away and say "did I close the garage door?" Here is what it can do: https://www.amazon.com/Chamberlain-MYQ-G0201-MyQ-Garage-Controls-Smartphone/dp/B00EAD65UW Works fine, we just got a new opener that has this built in so we no longer need the add-on device. Ping me if you want it.

I used the Osprey Seral 4 hydration hip pack for the first time last night. so far, it's great! my only complaint is that the hose attaches to the pack when not in use by a magnet, and the magnet is difficult to attach while riding (not a design flaw, just expected) not that strong. so if you try to drink while riding a rocky trail, you have to get really good at finding that magnet again, or just let it dangle and bounce of your thighs. (insert junior high schooler joke here.) I will try this solution: retractable badge holder lanyard. I have one of these to clip at my waist and wrap the little strap around the hose. when I am done drinking, I can just let go and it will snap back in pace without any fuss. I've used this same method (borrowed it from some bikepacking article, here's an example) when using a hydration bladder in a frame bag to good effect. Not exactly ground-breaking stuff here, but I thought this solution might help some of you who what drink hoses just flopping around and want them to stop.

I did one about 8 years ago. Bought the hardware kit for a few hundred dollars, which included the plans and cut sheet. I spent a few hours making all the cuts and then assembled everything in a few more hours. We did stain grade plywood, then the wife decided she wanted to paint it. I ended up then doing bookshelves on the sides (another full weekend). It was in a small room and really helped. Basically the kid crib and play room, but when guests came it was the guest room.

even if you don't use a lot, that "vintage" ironing board is a badass bit of retro kitch to have in the house. we've explored putting a Murphy bed in one room. that's another project that my wife tells me is "easy" because someone in YouTube did it in an afternoon, but it will take me three months and cost thousands of dollars, then fall on me while I'm not paying attention to it during work.

Can't tell you the last time I did but my wife & daughter use it. Board came with the house so it stayed. Guess it beats dragging one out of the closet.

Just finished up at Brushy. Nothing crazy. 1/4 Notch, Picnic, Bob Ross, Rim, and Snail #5. It was absolutely beautiful out. Should have brought a cooler full of beer for post ride libations.

The heat was temporarily turned off. Had a great 3-hour ride at Pedernales Falls today and when we finished about noon, it was just 72 degrees!

Progress on the remodel. Wainscoting and paint Previous 70s mode

9am call tomorrow so I’ll have to pass this week.

Anybody up for reviving the Fri AM ride tomorrow? I'd like to get out around 8-8:30 if possible. @WLemke @skinned elbows @Cafeend @Chief @Morris Of course anybody who wants to join is welcome - we usually meet on the BCRT where it branches off to the 183A trailhead.

See what you did, I warned you

I really wish I could say that never happens to me.

Yeah, I used one on my gravel bike previously and it worked well to attach the hose to my handlebar. I'll use the same method on my hip pack next time.

This is the one thing California got right as it sets property tax values at purchase price and can go up only 2% per year (or less based on inflation) - Local Real Property Is Assessed at Acquisition Value and Adjusted Upward Each Year. The process that county assessors use to determine the value of real property was established by Proposition 13. Under this system, when real property is purchased, the county assessor assigns it an assessed value that is equal to its purchase price, or “acquisition value.” Each year thereafter, the property’s assessed value increases by 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. This process continues until the property is sold, at which point the county assessor again assigns it an assessed value equal to its most recent purchase price. In other words, a property’s assessed value resets to market value (what a willing buyer would pay for it) when it is sold. (As shown in Figure 2, voters have approved various constitutional amendments that exclude certain property transfers from triggering this reassessment.) and this happened under Jerry Brown in the 70's.

I moved from WA State ~4 years ago. Can confirm. No Income tax, same base state sales tax (8.5ish%). However, depending on where you live in both places... County/City sales tax was over 10% pushing 12% in the bougie areas. Property tax was nearly half but home values (used to be ~2X so it was nearly on par for Texas. Comparing utilities with Austin proper friends I am happy to be in the suburbs paying far less for Water, Garbage and Electricity. That being said, when we moved, gas, groceries were noticeable cheaper. I used to joke that I could pump gas into my car while looking at the BP Cherry Point Refinery and was paying nearly the highest gas price in the state/country. Austin is well below nat'l average for gas. Seattle area is always well above.

Just saw this now. I need some roadie suffering, but not at the expense of the R&I. [emoji41] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like some kid is getting downgraded to an $80 Specialized.

That was something we thought about for our guest room. In the end we got a fancy futon that doesn't have to be moved from the wall to deploy instead.

This was one of the first lessons I learned about mountain biking.

Had this done about 20 years ago. https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/why-remove-popcorn-ceiling-when-you-can-cover-it-with-drywall/

We lost the "guest bedroom," aka place where I stage all my riding gear, for a month while we attempted to remove the popcorn ceiling, resurface and repaint it. finally finished last night. it looks marginally better. we spent a lot of money on tools and material and made a huge mess. the result was clearly done by amateurs. I probably inhaled a lot of stuff I should not have (the risk of asbestos is very low, thankfully). the experience has taught me this: if you don't like the look of your ceiling, either suck it up and abandon your house for two weeks while professionals do it to the tune of $10K+, or don't look up.

LOL, as ex-military I hate them.

It's all a scam. Ignore the current crazy up cycle. But in any normal year the CAD equation is a circular one built on a handful of data points that they attempt to make fit the larger dataset. But it end ups a circular argument because they tell me my house is based on the value of the neighbor, and they tell my neighbor that his house is based on the value of his neighbor (me). Self fulfilling valuation. I basically gave up on fighting CAD. the guy next door with a bigger house, a little newer, 3 car garage (vs 2), and not on the corner (not much sf diff), was valued 15% lower than me. all of that in the improvement (all our lots are the same dirt value). Makes zero sense. And when I pointed it out they ignored it and told me I was in line with other neighbors. My tax scheme is to lock a house into its valuation when transacted. Maybe set a 2% inflation COL adjustment to it, but otherwise no revaluation without remodel or transaction. The city/ISD will have to find revenue someplace else, but it makes the whole buying a house something more available to people when they can more reasonably anticipate tax obligations.

When I bought my house in Richardson in 1998, it had wallpaper kind of like that, but to top it off the master bedroom had a top border section of different wallpaper: black background with red roses. Obviously older people lived there and that's to be expected. The funny thing was neighbor introductions and a lady admitting to being the decorator and giving me her card. I'm sure I made a face even if I tried not to.

Yeah man, slc was the same way when I lived there from 05-12. On a Sunday I could probably change a flat tire in the middle of the highway on the city loop. There were just no cars on the road. During workweeks I could go 20 miles from my house to my work in 19 minutes. Not any more. Boise was cool as hell to visit though. Watched a gravel stage rally in the mountains above there.

I strongly contemplated a move out there about 5 yrs ago. Revisited it recently since I'm currently unemployed. Boise is (also) no longer a secret. -CJB

With the exception of california, the taxes are not what you think. Speaking specifically to property taxes, the "affordability" of texas is a bit of an illusion. Stay out of the metros and you'll be fine. I'll take vast amounts of beautiful public land and mild weather any day. IMHO, Boise is one of the best kept secrets out there.

Lol! I can barely afford Austin now. West is much more expensive not to mention much higher taxes! All my bike and hockey money would go to just housing and taxes! I have thought about getting a second house somewhere like Montana or Idaho for summer and spending half the year there and half the year here in Austin.

Go west my friends

I don't love the heat, but I used to love the cold. Then something clicked in me on a Christmas visiting my parents in Grand Rapids, MI. 4ft of lake effect snow in 24 hours and my dad's snowblower was broken. It isn't as much the cold that I hate as much as the constant snow clearing. A "quick" trip to the grocery store is anything but quick when you have to clear the driveway, the snow banks from the plows, brush the snow off (F people that drive without clearing the snow off their cars), go into the store, come back out to snow + ice on the windshield. When it gets really cold like in Chicago and Canada, the square tires and needing engine block heaters plus fuel additives. No thanks!

If I had to choose between Manitoba and Texas I'd choose Texas. -30 can F right off. I'm still going to complain about the heat here for at least 6 months of the year. 40 years and I haven't acclimated yet. Someday I'm either going to own a pool or I'm going to rage quit Texas and move. Most likely on a day in September when its 100+.

Grew up in SE Houston, San Antonio and the Mojave Desert. Then traveled for work all over the western US with time in Florida and DC area. Very familliar with all forms of heat. Humidity can go F itself. Forever. Winter in the rockies is nothing like winter in the midwest flatlandia hellscape. That can go F itself too. I can say it was much easier for me to get dehydrated in the desert than here. Used to ride in NM with single digit humidity and zero sweat. All you knew was your giant hydration pack was out of water. Here, you sweat as soon as you walk outside. It'd be really tough to make do with a small fanny pack in the desert.

Good to ride with the OG group. Sorry I missed some of you earlier in the "I" portion, but the weather is so nice I had to do another lap. Come July I would have kicked myself if I didn't maximize riding in this perfect weather!

That's some dad-level engineering there.

Weird coincidence, but I was listening to an NPR story on the way back from the R&I about how Greece is reopening but they’re not allowing singing in bars yet. They interviewed young people about it and in the end, the interviewer was expecting some Zorba the Great music is what they craved—instead a young woman was singing a Paychedelic Furs song when asked what she misses.

14yo broke this brand new expensive futon set. I can’t seem to get the company to even respond to me regarding a replacement, so I took it apart, glued and clamped then made a reinforcement piece out of scrap oak.