Got My Wheels Back

December 16, 2025 by Adam in Adam

I'm back from Salem, having drove the loaner Tesla up to the service center and taken my now repaired Tesla back home.  I was a little sad not to have autopilot on the way back and having the Tesla pass other cars on the freeway.  Still, my car did a fine job staying in the same lane - that's all I get unless I pay extra each month and I so rarely drive long distances.

The fix was a little expensive, but I very much appreciate having a car that feels reliable once again. 

Mocha Monday

December 15, 2025 by Adam in Family

I feel like I have a touch of a cold this morning, so I poured myself one of my medicinal Cafe Madvils, the mocha and Advil combination the perfect cure-all for every woe.  It's not too bad and soon enough I'll feel great.

It was a generally good weekend, with Saturday being the start of a new Delta Green game.  It was a "haunted house" sort of scenario, with players doing a bunch of research on the house before they finally went in.  I got to break out a cool old tape recorder with the AI generated voice of the dead man they're investigating.  Later I had the player's cell phone ring, made Emma put on headphones to listen, and played his voice again in a conversation with her.  There's something special about building out a new evidence board and I can't wait to see where this one goes next.

I fiddled around more with my Traveller space trucker sim thingie, tweaking the cargo rules and so on.  I spent some time doing some 3D modeling of the player's starship, just because I wanted to.  I'm not very good at it, but I have something workable I could display in a web page if I wanted.

Sunday morning I implemented Christmas, putting up lights and decorations as well as clearing space for the tree.  It's a live tree we've named Bob (the variety's name is something like Bob's Blue Spruce), and it's outside for a little longer.  We'll bring it in to decorate and then plant it out at the farm.

Emma and I did a library run, returned the Nike's that hurt her feet, and picked up some practical ones that hopefully work out better.  Eventually the day wound down, I played some more Hades 2, and wrapped up the weekend.

One more week of work and I'm officially on vacation.  Hopefully I can actually accomplish things this week.

Mocha Friday

December 12, 2025 by Adam in Family

We've had a couple beautiful days this week, warm and sunny before the cold rains of winter start.  I had a touch of a headache and was a little dreary before perking up towards the end of the week.  I figured out a tricky bug, so I'm feeling optimistic about work again.  I still have plenty of half-finished things, but I'm slowly beating back the chaos.

I keep getting ready for the upcoming D&D campaign, overpreparing as usual.  I'm still waiting on one player to make a character, but hopefully we'll be ready to go soon.  I signed up once again to a "build a character to print" service, making custom minis for my different players.  They've added more things since I last subscribed, so I'll probably crank out a few different minis just for fun.

My Tesla is still waiting for parts - they updated the estimate to January 30th - but the replacement is nice, so it's not a big deal.  I haven't put any Christmas decorations out or wrapped any presents, but that's something I should start on soon.  One more week and I'm on vacation - my list of fun and practical things to work on keeps growing longer.

I've got Delta Green with the family tomorrow.  Hopefully it's relatively entertaining and my various props and tricks work okay.  They're a rowdy bunch, so who knows what wacky schemes they'll get up to.

Tuesday Already?

December 09, 2025 by Adam in Family

I got really focused on work yesterday, to the point where I was ignoring everything else and forgot to give an update.

Basically we had a chill weekend.  Nothing too exciting - library run, got a live Christmas tree, and went for some walks.  I bought myself the collection of virtually every classic Traveller rpg book and decided to vibe code up a system to fly your cargo starship from system to system, moving cargo and passengers.  We'll see if I ever use it, but it was super fun to put together.

Theoretically my Tesla is getting repaired today, but I suspect they're still waiting for the parts.  If it does I guess I'll be driving to Salem tomorrow.

As for me, I'm still enjoying listening to the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks, fiddling with minis, playing Hades II, and very much looking forward to my two weeks off at the end of the month.

Mocha Friday

December 05, 2025 by Adam in Family

It's a dreary rainy Friday, but at least my mocha is still next to me, slowly disappearing.  We keep crossing off big things from our to-do lists.  Theoretically my Tesla will be repaired tonight and ready to pick up tomorrow.  We got our second heat pump installed, perfectly timed for all the state and federal rebates, and we should have much improved temperature control in Yvonne and Duncan's bedrooms, along with Jo's office.  Duncan's sweetie arrived safely at the airport Wednesday night.

Emma and I might do a road trip to Salem this weekend to pick up my car.  I'm sure we'll end up at the library sometime too.  Emma wants to get some better shoes since she stands all day, so we might also end up shoe shopping.

As for this week, I keep prepping for my D&D game, cranking out endless images of the player characters doing cool and funny things.  I'm also playing Hades 2 occasionally.  I've been enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook, usually while doing dishes or painting minis.  Jo and I watched Stranger Things with Yvonne this week.  It's a pretty good life.

My Car Makes Quacking Noises

December 01, 2025 by Adam in Family

I drove my car up to the Tesla service center.  Very quicky they identified the issue - water damage caused shorts which they're now replacing for nearly $4,000.  On the plus side, they gave me a loaner while my car is being repaired.  It's a newer model with autopilot, so it drove me back home, changing lanes and passing cars which surprised me the first time it happened.  There are a few other quirky new features, such as making a quacking noise instead of honking when the car locks itself.

They need to wait for a part to come in, but hopefully it'll be ready by the end of the week.

Five Day Vacation

December 01, 2025 by Adam in Family

I'm back to work after five days off, every morning starting with a mocha and blueberry pancakes (except the last which was dutch babies).  It was amazing to be able to putter around and do whatever I wanted.  Waking up and telling myself "there's nothing I have to do" is such a luxurious feeling.  Of course I did end up doing a bunch of little tasks - organizing and cleaning and taking care of things I've been putting off. 

The big thing for today is driving my Tesla to Salem to get it checked out.  I'm hoping it's just a simple electrical issue, but it's possible I need to get a hotel and spend the night.  I've already started packing.

The five days off were wonderful.  I saw my eldest kid on Wednesday and had him open presents.  Thanksgiving was great, and we got to meet his new girlfriend.  The crowd was generally entertaining and well behaved, and it was great to hang out with 2/3rds of my sisters.  Sunday Emma came back from the coast and my dad came over to hang out.  His Tesla apparently drove him all the way over from the coast and he didn't touch the steering wheel once.

As for me, I painted and printed minis, worked on my D&D prep.  I cajoled the new players to send me their characters and I started cranking out AI generated images of them doing cool things.  It was a silly good time.

Busy week ahead.  Duncan's sweetie is coming to visit on Wednesday.  Thursday has the heat pump people coming to install our second heat pump.  It's the end of the term for our two college bound kids, so they're wrapping up projects and scheduling next term's classes.  We'll see if Yvonne gets into the EMT program.

Endings and Beginnings

November 24, 2025 by Adam in Family

The weekend has come and gone and already I'm itching to get some time off.  My Tesla woes are back, despite swapping out the battery.  This morning I was supposed to drive to Salem but I decided I'd try and fix the problem myself.  I added some coolant, drove around for a little without alerts, then got the recurring "steering assist reduced" message while backing into my driveway.  I might do a little more troubleshooting but it's looking like it's time to soon give up and book a service appointment during my vacation time.  It's all a little stressful.

Duncan's giant external hard drive is failing.  I'm doing my best to move files off to a new one, though the recovery software says it'll take weeks to finish.  I also ordered a 24TB internal hard drive, with the plan to backup all the other drives to this one.  He's got a lot of things he cares about on that drive, and relies upon me to fix the problem, so it's another thing weighing on my mind lately.

Tomorrow morning I have a customer call for work - they're in Europe and customer support is in India, so we'll see if it really happens.  It's in an area I'm unfamiliar with, so I'm spending the day trying to feel slightly less incompetent.

I had the final D&D session of the 4+ year campaign  on Sunday.  Marty didn't show, but the other players hopefully enjoyed the grand finale rewriting the rules of the universe and defeating the evil villian.  They used a dragon to submerge him in lava, which worked surprisingly well.  While I'm a little sad it's over, it felt like it was time to wrap it up and start something new.

Emma and I had some good hangout time, going to the library, watching Time Team, and sitting on the couch petting kitties.  I'm having fun playing Hades 2.  I'm having fun prepping for various upcoming RPGs.  Jason invited me to a Black Friday board game night.  So life's not all bad.

Mocha Friday

November 21, 2025 by Adam in Family

Well, I hopefully fixed my Tesla with a battery replacement.  I sent photos of the alerts and service screens to both Copilot and ChatGPT, who both thought the low voltage battery was the problem.  Jo and I went by Walmart to pickup a new battery for date night, which isn't particularly romantic, but at least Jo got to look through the sticker aisle. 

The one quirky thing is that there's supposed to be a venting system so hydrogen gas released by the battery doesn't pool under the hood and cause a fire risk.  The previous battery, which theoretically was installed by the service center, didn't have it hooked up.  I didn't have the right attachments to the venting holes, but it turns out drip irrigation connectors work just fine.

My AI overlords tell me I should take care of the low coolant alert next, so I'll try to pick some up and see if that alert goes away.

Yvonne continues to become increasingly self-sufficient, taking herself to appointments on her electric bike.  Duncan's giant external hard drive seemed to be failing, so I got him a new one now that Black Friday sales are starting.  It's crazy how big hard drives are getting these days.  Emma's a working stiff, though she reports she's not as constantly tired as she used to be.  The eldest kid and I had tea with mom this week and got the farm update - apparently the inspectors need more land cleared before a permit is issued.  One day they'll start building.

I've been enjoying playing Hades 2, which is theoretically just a action RPG, but has great story and Greek mythology worldbuilding.  This weekend I have the grand finale of my 4-year D&D campaign - hopefully it all comes together.  I can't stop prepping for upcoming D&D, Mothership, and Delta Green games.  I've been having a great time vibe coding an AI-powered supercomputer - it's wild that we can now talk to computers and they'll answer us back.  I've got more minis to paint for a D&D campaign I'm hoping to start in December.  Lots of fun things to plan for.

Exciting and Chill Weekend

November 17, 2025 by Adam in Family

Saturday was a blast, finishing up our Convergence Delta Green mission.  The players all ended up scarred and battered, with my oldest son's character ending up with Paranoia, but I think they all had a good time.  The threat was maybe contained, or at least blown up, and they lived to fight another day.

Emma and I went thrifting afterwards, returning with some weird things like an old speaker that contained modern equipment stuffed inside.  Emma's been trying to figure out what media to keep her music on, and starting to realize the flaws of cassette players with their warbled audio and challenges recording.

Sunday was extremely chill, hanging out at the house with a short outing to the library.  Unfortunately my Tesla, which has already been having problems, gave a new warning and power steering died.  A hard reset got the steering back, but it was troubling and I scheduled a service appointment a week from now in Salem.  Hopefully I can make it there.

Now I'm back to work, finally getting off call and hopefully returning to a more normal work week.