VPI

Found a decent sawmill/woodworking shop not too far from the house. Prices seem decent, selection is good and they stock Mirka products which I have been thinking about trying. https://bullvalleyhardwood.com

I am thinking they are hurting, as it was clockwork all last year, order, have it the next morning as they are only 4 hours away. They have even skipped the throw away candy bags a few times in the last few orders.

Not sure if anyone else is still shopping for stuff these days, but I have to say Sweetwater service has dropped off significantly the last couple of months. Stuff never gets shipped the day of purchase like it used to and now they will randomly ignore the shipping you chose, and the delivery date stated, and just mail it USPS for arrival days to weeks after they quoted your delivery date. Has happened with each of my last 8-10 orders. FedEx was bad, but fucking USPS for expensive shit is the worst. About to drop them altogether.

Service is done on the truck. Replicated all the problems and confirmed Chrysler knows about them and has no idea how to fix them so just “turn those features off”. Car wash is also broken so they are not even washing it before giving me this piece of shit back. Top notch auto brand for sure.

I think I am safe with the dynamics as they are all workhorses and should survive. My next big lift is figuring out live band karaoke. I have the band setup and I can obviously throw YouTube up for lyrics, but not sure how to sync band and YouTube close enough that we do not have page turn issues. The band is all kids, talented kids, but kids with a fantastic drummer so I think I can get by having the drummer count us in and doing the push play thing, I just figured there would be some kind of service to make this easier. Also need to buy individual monitors as some of the larger bands require them but investing in another 3-5k worth of monitors seems stupid to me. Trying to find something good enough to get by with.

It is super light, but wide so I would guess better than most kayaks.

This looks like fun. Picking up Kasia’s new Hobie Lynx.

I have a stupid question. Going to do live sound this weekend on the Soundcraft. It only has systemwide Phantom Power. If I want to use phantom power for mics and DI while using dynamic mics, can the typical SM7bs, EV120s manage phantom power without exploding? I know I cannot connect standard ribbon mics but I am seeing mixed messages on whether dynamics care about getting 48v.

Happy Birthday Dickhead.

You should be aware, I think most things are shit. 🙂 Because they are of course. I think people think the flashy screen makes a nice interior for the Ram, but said screen shuts itself off regularly and then freezes up. Then the Heads Up display is designed for the typical big truck driver 5’4” with self esteem issues. Sitting with the seat in its lowest position I can only see the bottom of the speed so I need to dig through the billions of poorly laid out menus to see if it can be adjusted. The ridiculous fake wood inlay in the most useful part of the steering wheel is also a stupid as fuck design as you will have zero grip if you actually need to try to aggressively maneuver the truck. Now my side mirror decides to not return to the home position after being in reverse so I have to adjust it every time I put the truck into drive from reverse. Add that to the underpowered rattle trap motor and I have no idea how they had the money to pay off mags to get truck of the year multiple times.

The new F-150 interior and tech is light years ahead of the Ram garbage. I feel the interior is a big step back in getting stuck with this thing over the Platinum F-150.

I am having trouble calling it a Tonneau cover, when compared to the garbage one that comes from Ram. Probably should have a better name than those poorly engineered tissue paper models. I will call this a bed defender.

The lady with the Diamondback actually had the tool box sitting in back as well so got that installed as well to hold straps, hitches, etc.

Do you even play drums anymore Iain? I sat in with a group of local musicians last night and had some fun. Turns out one had a one hit wonder back in the day, Peter Quinn who did the Curly Shuffle. Weird guy.

Yeah, it is a tiny trailer and the opportune hitch height is 12-13”, while standard height in the truck in normal mode is 20”, so tons of drop needed.

The Kayak trailer has 13” wheels and at level I need a ball around 13”. Even with a five inch drop I am 6 inches too high at Aero mode with the air suspension. I think I will get the 90lb 10” drop so it will work. The difference in height for the two driveable modes is only .5”. If I could drive at the load height it might work. Highest (off-road 2) vs Lowest (entry-exit).

Threw on the heavy thing, but it is obviously not heavy enough as I am going to need twice the drop to get down to the kayak trailer. Also had the shitty Chrysler tonneau cover disconnect and try to come off the truck today. Got to figure the PoS out in the rain and found it loose again by the time I got home. Luckily, I found a former Diamondback dealer locally that actually had some in stock after Diamondback dropped all dealers last year so that will be installed Friday.

I was getting the PowerBoost which is quicker than the Raptor in most tests. The Ram is slow and drives much more like a truck than the new F-150 does. I think the Hemi needs to be replaced with something with some real horsepower and torque in such a heavy truck. I have never been impressed with any of the Hemis I have had in rentals and this feels about the same. Luckily speed is not a concern. Comfortable interior and okay tech are what I care about.

Yes Ram Limited with every option but the bed buckets that make the bed too narrow. Rides nice with the air suspension and came with some ghetto tonneau cover that will work until the second Diamondback cover makes it here. I like the Delminico Red more than I thought I would and outside of the loss of massage seats and generator I am not losing much, outside of speed, from the Ford.

Success.

You have no idea how shitty everything about my stupid house/property is.

Now you think I live on a estate with ample parking. 🙂

The issue is less the purchase and more the fact that nothing is in stock. The one high end Ram here was a dealer car and has 6k miles on it already.

Drove the orange truck and riding a Clydesdale as my daily driver would be more comfortable. No Hemi Grand Cherokees in stock here so cannot really try that one. Looking at a Limited 1500 now, the last one in the area that I can find.

In a bidding war on a horse at auction now so I at least have one alternative to the motorcycle as a daily driver/rider.