1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Okay, well that’s hard for me to see in a 2” pic on my phone. Work has cut off my access from my usual monitor.

 

Gotta slip the IT guy a cold beer under the radar.

 

Or blackmail

 

The local dealer finally got this crank trigger wheel in for me, and Im glad they did. Check out the wear on the original (left) compared to the new (right).


time to reassemble!

 

Once upon a time I could do that because everything was local. Now everything is being done out of Texas with 20 people in the queue ahead of me at any given time.

 

Y'all I'm pretty stoked. July 8 I'll be starting as an HVAC tech for the University, straight M-F shift and an almost $15k/year raise.

 

Congrats! Start socking that shit away! I'm blown away at how much my 401k has exploded during the last 4 years, it's finally doing something. It took a dip 2019-2020 ish, but it's almost double what it was at the lowest point back then.

And enjoy the quality of life (maybe? ) of having a M-F.

 

If you know, is a lot of the heating and cooling all hydronic? And if so, I’d love to know the extent of what you have to do.
We have mostly hydronic systems where we get chilled water from the main plant, and then we have our own pumps and valves to send it thru our buildings, and then we make our own hot water for DHW and building heat with tube in shell heat exchangers, with backup boilers for DHW when steam goes down. Our hvac crew takes care of ALL of that for 27+ buildings. And then we have a nightmare building with all direct expansion(traditional AC) about 500 units……

 

That's the plan, half is split between my roth and 457, the other half is going into my money market.

My job now is M-F from May to September but T-S the rest of the year and we've got events nearly every Saturday so I miss a lot of my daughter's band/twirling performances so that'll be a cool change.

Our campus isn't that big and I'll be working 2ndish shift so it'll be mostly emergency calls. Some buildings have chillers, some heat pumps, some 50 year old traditional monsters.

No steam, a lot of newer condensing boilers, and some older boilers

I'll also have responsibility for PMs, general repairs, some fire alarms, janitorial and small equipment repair.

Fortunately the Housing office has their own folks so I won't be in the dorms too much.

 

The dorms are actually pretty fun. Crazy kids! They’re favorite thing is to Michael Jordan exit signs, so those are always easy call outs; cap and stuff the wires.

 

The extra time with the kids, I'd say, is a gamechanger. I never realized what I was missing out on! Now I'm questioning my "expected" life choices in the short term, next couple years, whether I should be milking my years leading up to retirement. I'm not as close as a couple of my friends, but ...

The minute I was offered and able to sign up for 401k, I did. And started dumping 10% into it. Hurt for quite a while. Didn't see anything the 1st decade, it was about halfway into the 2nd decade it really started snowballing. Now I'm laid off and having to deal with rolling that money out into an IRA, seeing where it's at now, I kinda want to just retire now, spend the teen years with the kids until both are driving age, then get back into swinging other things.

I do see a lot of friends/peers retiring out right now. Like, a LOT. Lots of the boomer crowd peace'd out totally the last few years too. The market seems plentiful right now, lots of talent loss with the glut in retirees, but I'll tell you, I am having one hell of a time trying to find a part time gig in the professional world. Surely there must be someone out there who needs specialized help, but only wants to pay 50% of a salary for someone to work 4-6 hours a day, mornings only, out the door by 2pm?

 

There's gotta be some remote consulting you could do with all of your skills and experience

 

Oh, there probably is. Consulting is definitely still on the table, maybe taking jobs here or there. I've got close friends with hooks in high up in ATL at the city level that keep trying to pull me into that world, but not sure it's my thing.

I'm just having so much fun with the kids right now that I believe I'm not even going to think about it until end of July when it's time for them to go back to school. Then I've got a few bigger things here and there I need to finish up around the house (new roof, replace a peculiar window, some fence stuff, garage door panels), and a few things on the truck (finishing audio, cap repaint, etc.) and I think I'll get serious.

Fortunately the "better 3/4" isn't giving me shit. She's seen the radical change in the kids' attitudes and bump in confidence levels after all the time we're spending together, all the cool stuff we're doing that they've missed out on prior, and also knows I'm not hurting with the severance, so she's not giving me hell. I'm grateful for that. I got a good one, I'm a super lucky dude. Still have no idea how she managed to fall for my ass, although I suspect the initial draw was me essentially being able to fix damn near anything. (EDIT: Damn sure wasn't my looks )

 

I'm fortunate in the I've still got a state pension so worst case 35 years is max payout which puts me at 61. The Roth and 457 are just icing and my wife makes good money and is putting 15% away. She 'lucked' out and was let go during March 2020 and rolled her 401 over near the bottom so she's got something crazy like a 75% return right now.

Unless things go sideways we're looking at leaving the workforce at 56.

 

I started doing the IRS max in 2022. We also max out our Roth's. I'm not messing around when it comes to early retirement. Driving a 22 year old truck and 12 year old base model RAV4 is the trade off for dumping more money in savings and taking a few decent vacations every year. If I can retire by 50 that would be a huge win.

Have you thought about doing something fun? That's my plan. When I say retire, I'll just quit my corporate job. I want to do fun jobs like work the UT Football games or teach people how to safely shoot. Or how to mangle parts on their vehicles.

 

You need to start a YT channel

 

I have, definitely. I'll always "work", everyone I've known who stopped doing everything degraded fast. You've gotta keep busy. You've gotta interact with someone, with something, it's just how humans are geared.

As for what is "fun" and can also net some semblance of income to the level I've become accustomed that allows travel and projects, and stints of nothing-on-schedule to allow those things, I dunno. That's the divide.

Speaking of the job, you're in a new position now, eh? They aren't traveling you too hard in the new role are they?

 

Funny you mention this, one of my hit-it-big-with-investments friends who just casually throws money into stuff (lots of angel investing with absurd ROI) was telling me to do the same recently. Curated content.

 

Mangler's Garage. I'm getting ready to tear down my first engine(dirt bike). I'll take pics.


BTW, I miss your old profile picture.

 

Yes, 6 months in now. Going really well. Microsoft Teams has made sales a lot easier. I'm a averaging 1 night/month in a hotel but doing 2-3 day trips/month where I visit someone in Nashville or Charlotte then go home. Charlotte is 8 hours round trip so I'll go for a lunch meeting and then just drive home. That's why I've had rental cars so often. I haven't visited my VA accounts yet. Anyone know if Richmond is nice?

 

That better?

Octothorpemetoo

picked it up on Saturday in silver city from @mr.bee(I owe him more than cactus coolers)

my main goal is just to get it running…… motor turns, no carb, no throttle cable/lever, back brake is locked up, needs a left brake handle and cable probably, and the seat needs to be redone, and tires and rims, I’ll need about 1k to get it running/rolling

 

Dude that one is even better than the OG. You guys have way better luck with the AI art than me.

I'm already picturing your boys tearing up the cinders on that thing in a year or two.

 

That’s all @UncleBif witchcraft.


I’ll probably be ripping it with them on board. It’s a Honda FatCat TR200(I dare you to look up what TR stands for!!!) so it’s not HUGE but it’s not small either. And it should rip the cinders nicely!! I will try and keep the patina as best I can, it’s been sitting in Houston for over 5 years…… not sure how long the carb was off it hahah

 

I tried, came up short. Care to share?

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8UwxgDP1R3/?igsh=aTkyMjZlemcxYTlr

 

Yo dawg, we heard you like drop brackets, so we added a drop bracket to your drop bracket

 

I usually use 303 protectant on my CV boots. walmart no longer carries it in store. Shopping around I found this 3 in 1 rubber seal conditioner. What are your thoughts about this product on CV boots.

 

I've found 2 new rabbit holes.

first. Air resistance load from trailers. Yay math!


Also, why cant i find 3-4kw hydrogen fuel cell generators?

 

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