Daily - Feb. 23, 2026

Previously…

Today’s recap

No daily yesterday because I rested all day. Other than chores, I didn’t do anything.

The only thing of note was late yesterday I decided I need to step away from Mastodon for a while. I’m not doing too well and I’ve been seeing some truly awful takes from folks on there. So, rather than be angry, I’m just going to step away. Still posting here, still available on Signal, can still email me. Only backing away from Mastodon for now. Last time I did this I temporarily turned off my instance. I’m not doing that this time because I think I had problems when I turned it back on and federation.

Day started off a PITA and it stayed that way. Up a little early, breakfast, and then out the door for work. On my way I had to re-route because there was a house fire along the two lane highway I take to get out of my little town. I’m not sure if it was a house or an old antiques shop. I feel bad for whomever was affected. It was a big fire. So, I circled back and went to the only other route, which was of course backed up due to road construction. This all put me about 20 minutes late to the jobsite.

It wasn’t supposed to rain today, which means it rained until lunchtime. We got busy and knocked out a the last remaining zone we needed to trench and plumb. Took lunch and backfilled the trenches, which was our main goal for the day. For the last hour of the day we decided to prep for tomorrow and dig up our point of connection for the water. It should be a straight shot from the water meter to the house. Two hours later we discovered the water line does an S turn and follows all of the other utilities that go through the front yard for the whole neighborhood. This single trench has power, Comcast, Century Link, natural gas, and water, and has to be the dumbest way any municipality could organize their utiities. Plus, none of this stuff was actually in the path they marked for our locate. All of it was a good 4 feet off of their marking.

For those that don’t know: Before starting any digging project you should always call in a locate. A locate service will mark where all, if any, utility lines are in the yard. This is important because you do not want to hit any of these while digging. It could be dangerous, like with power or gas, or could cause severe damage to the internet and phone service in the area. In the US this is a free service.

Now we are going to have to cut in a tee for the water line to the sprinkler system along side all the main utility lines for the neighborhood. Fucking sucks major donkey balls.

On my way home I had to grab a couple of parts at the hardware store, plus a bag of potting soil so I can tranfer my seed starts into bigger containers. Once home I emptied the trash out of the truck, unloaded all the stuff I don’t need anymore on this job, and hitched the trailer so I can bring the trencher home tomorrow. Finally, I could go clean up, have dinner, and watch WWE Monday Night Raw. I still need to do a couple misc. biz books things before bed.

Projects

No projects today.

Daily gratitude

• I’m grateful for anyone in the President’s circle that is telling him not to attack Iran. Please no more wars.
• So glad we bought a trencher last year. I had to be convinced to buy it. Glad I conceded.
• Even though the locate was inaccurate, I’m glad we did it. It made it so we knew what to look for and hand dig in the area for the mainline connection. Otherwise this would have become a disaster.

Tomorrow’s big thing(s)

This mainline point of connection. I’m already stressing.

Loose thoughts

I have this song stuck in my head because my brain decided it was time to play this jam on my internal radio station yesterday.

I read someone say they have computers like gearheads have cars. There’s the daily commute and then the weekend hobby car. What is your weekend computer? What do you use for work and then use for personal? I’ve been thinking of setting up something similar.

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