Precision 370 garage door opener manual

In drafting this request for help, I think I stumbled myself through figuring it out. I've pretty much re-written it 5 times as I went back and forth testing things and getting closer to the root cause. Since I failed to find my issue previously discussed and solved online, I thought I would still post it to 1) possibly help someone else and 2) see if I'm on the right track. I'll wait to order parts until at least tomorrow....
After a couple years of service since being installed in 2014, our very heavy garage door paired to a LiftMaster model 8550-267 opener instantly seemed to travel at a much slower speed (even with the door detached from the trolley). I had been assuming the motor was about to fail for the last couple years. When I initially noticed the motor had slowed down, I figured out that my door was out of balance (quite heavy for the motor as it would not stay half way open when off the trolley) and I tightened the torsion springs to get the door slightly better balanced as I was concerned something got overloaded and damaged and its days were numbered.
Last week the opener failed (in the up position) with "motor control error code 1-5". With the belt removed, the motor does not have any discernable rotation whatsoever. I can hear a relay close and feel the buzz of the motor for about 300ms before the relay opens and the buzzing stops.
I then disconnected the power and i/o harnesses from the control board, measured 0.9 ohm electrical resistance across 12VDC rated motor and had no issues driving the motor CCW and CW with a jumper connected to the 12V SLA backup battery. I power cycled the unit as well as left it disconnected from power overnight, reinstalled the power harnesses and got the same error code 1-5. Using the manual up and down adjustment arrows on the housing results in the same symptoms.
It seems the 100VA 120:19VAC transformer is used only for driving the motor. I was able to verify 120VAC and 19.5VAC on the primary and secondary windings during that ~300ms while I'm holding the up or down arrow on the controls.
Next, I measured the output voltage to the motor and measured only 1.80VDC. So it seems to me the AC/DC power supply portion of the control board is the culprit, right?
My control board says "45DCBL5 Rev C". [This liftmaster.com page](https://www.liftmaster.com/receiver-logic-board-security-2-0/p/045DCT) found when searching that part number shows the part as well as numerous interchangeable part numbers, "Also known as: 45DCBR1A, 041D7356, 1D7356, 41DCBC1A, 41DCBC3A, 41DCCC2A, 41DCBC5A, 45DCCL5A, 45DCCL3A, 45DCCL1A, 45DCCR5A, 41D7356, 45DCCR3A, 45DCCR1A, 001D7356, 41DCCC1A, 41DCCC3A, 45DCJL5A, 45DCRL1A, 41DCCC5A, 45DCRL3A, 45DCJL1A, 45DCJL3A, 45DCBL5A, 45DCBL3A, 45DCBL1A, 45DCBR5A, 45DCRL, 45DCBR3A"
I assume it's a safe bet to go ahead and order a new logic board at this point right? (Can you tell I have a pet peeve at throwing parts at problems?). Any other diagnostic check I should do before dropping the $150 on one? I did find a used one on ebay for about half of that - I'm still thinking through which route I'll go (guaranteed to work per the listing and seems quite easy to swap).
I'm guessing that this is not a common issue based on my previous lack of internet search findings (although I'm sure there are plenty of motors driving heavy non-balanced doors)
I'll certainly be making sure my door is in proper balance before I put the new board/components into service.
Any suggestions or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated!

Reminder that English is not my native language, I translated this using my own knowledge of English and the use of translation tools, if you find any errors please let me know.
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Morikawa and Matsui went out of that Karaoke room, but they both stayed in front of the door, refusing to look at each other and understanding little by little the madness they had just done and witnessed.
Matsui began to feel horribly ashamed; the excitement had disappeared and then he understood that he kissed without permission Morikawa, touched her breasts, and licked them. Embarrassment began to invade him, he felt stupid and scared what would Morikawa think of him now? The desire to run away was getting stronger and stronger.
He looked towards the end of the corridor seeing the exit of the Karaoke, it's not far, he can just run away, escape from this hopeless situation.
But hadn't he done the same with Yoshizuka after their dance? That had brought no good.
He charged up his courage and looked at Morikawa with more effort than he should have started to speak "I-I... I beg your pardon" he said his voice broken and sounding almost like a whisper, expecting at any moment Morikawa's outburst towards his person.
Morikawa also had to find some courage to look at the boy, things aren't any better for her after all, she had done something rather obscene with him.
She didn't know how to feel about that, Matsui has always been somewhat complicated for her, does she like him? It's kind of confusing, she always feels good with him, talking or just hanging out and she felt jealous and hurt when she saw him dancing with Yoshizuka and the other girl.
And worse was now, despite everything they witnessed what made her hotter than anything else was Matsui's touch on her, her body, her breasts more precisely her mouth, all of that felt much more stimulating than any touch she would have given herself alone.
And when she heard him apologize, she could only ask "Pardon for what?" she questioned not understanding why those words.
"I-I kissed you without permission" Pronounced the boy "I touched you" he said mortified by that act.
Morikawa thought if she should feel bad about that, the answer came fast as a no, she liked what he did to her, it was embarrassing because everyone was watching them, and she definitely would have preferred their first time like that to be in a more private place where they both had the time to go further.
"Y-you don't have to apologize, if you really had done it without my permission, I would have pushed you... That... I liked that, what we did" Hearing it Matsui couldn't believe her.
She liked what he did to her, it certainly stroked his pride in a good way.
"r-really?" He questioned still not quite believing it.
She nodded with some embarrassment.
That made them both stand in silence looking at each other, it took several minutes before what comes from talking to each other settled in their minds.
"So, should we go back home?" asked Matsui.
"Sure... My parents will get restless if I don't come back early" Morikawa replied.
That said, they both walked out of the karaoke, holding hands.
A few hours passed since then and both had returned to their respective home, the shower Matsui took was good to free his mind from the great confusion that had taken over him from the day's events.
It was calmer that it then dawned on him what should have been the most important thing... He had been invited to an orgy.
Clearly, he didn't surprise them, they were doing it and expected him to arrive, he had been invited to an orgy of guys he barely knows.
His phone rang with the sound of a message, he picked it up and looked at Uchida's number.
"Did you like what you saw?" Says the message sent by the bold girl who the week before had been talking to him almost non-stop.
Matsui didn't know what to answer her, he had seen her give Kido a fellatio, of course he heard her moan, so she was probably naked having sex, but at that moment he was completely focused on Morikawa.
"What was that all about?" he answered her by throwing himself on his bed.
"That was our little group activity, the four of us had unlimited fun... Although seeing how you and the president acted, I should better say the six of us had unlimited fun" Matsui looked at the message, not knowing at all what to reply.
He feels that any message he can send may end up condemning him, he tries to think things through calmly, gather his thoughts and breathe calmly, but that is proving to be somewhat useless.
What should he answer? Uchida is getting him and Morikawa into a bunch of orgies.
"Are you all right?" uttered a female voice that snapped him out of his thoughts and his growing panic.
His mother looks at him from the entrance of his room.
"I heard you, start breathing hard and so I opened up to see what's going on" Pronounced the woman approaching her son who seemed to have just come from going through a rather stressful experience.
"I-I... I think I almost had a panic attack" Matsui realized where these doubts had almost taken him.
"Horrible thing that, I had a few at your age" His mother pronounced stroking his hair gently after sitting on the bed.
"You?" the boy asked confused "I don't see you having a panic attack."
"Maybe not now, but when I was young... When I was young, I used to panic about not living up to the expectations placed on me, that's why I'm always nice to you, I don't want you to feel that burden."
His mother was the one who taught him dance and it is true that Matsui has no memory of her ever being very severe with him how he had seen other dance instructors, she was always understanding and patient congratulating his successes and letting him know of his failures, but never aggressively, maybe that's why is mother has a strong character and he a weak one.
"That... That made me weak."
"Weak?" Questioned his mother as if he came from saying the most absurd thing "Honey you danced in front of a group of professionals at the age of 7 without the slightest hint of embarrassment, at 13 you danced sensual tango with a woman twice your age to the point that I had to keep her away from you for a while because she was starting to look at you funny after that" That last Matsui didn't know.
"But... That's when I dance, outside of that I'm shy and... God I can't even manage to speak clearly to the girl I like after all we've done" His mother sighed listening to him.
"You know your father is the expert at this. I admit to not being the most empathetic and the one who can least relate to how you feel, but I know you honey. When you dance or when you don't, you are a strong and brave little man, you are not a comic book character, you don't transform into someone else when you dance, you are the same precious son of mine" She pressed a kiss to his forehead, an act of gentleness rarely present in his mother "Whatever it is that has you like this I know you can cope."
She gave him one last smile before walking out of the room, leaving him alone.
Matsui watched his mother leave going over the conversation he comes from having with his mother in his head.
"I'm the same person... Dancing or not dancing... It's me... Just me" he let out a sigh, picked up the phone and answered the message.
He put the phone aside and lay down on the bed.
The message Matsui put to Uchida was "I'm sorry, I don't want to participate in something like that" It was something simple, but also something that cost him a lot, since after all, by refusing, he knows that he is forever turning away from Uchida, Yoshizuka and if Morikawa agrees to join them... Then also from her.
With all his heart he hopes Morikawa won't accept, but if she does... he will accept the pain and move on, as his father said, because after all he is brave, as his mother said.

Some family friends of ours lived in a beautiful old farmhouse house, in a small country village in the UK. It was once a farmhouse, then had been a pub for a time, then converted to house by our friends. It had many original features like crooked corridors, wonky staircases, exposed wooden beams & brickwork etc....Just a generally cool but creepy old house. The house had a lot of land & our families spent most of the time outside in the huge garden, BBQ'in...The kids would play in the gardens & the adults would sit around in camping chairs, drinking, grilling & laughing into the night! 🙌
..The owner of the house was one of my dad's best friends, they were both police officers & had worked together for years & that night, it was his daughters birthday & she asked if I could sleep over, my parents agreed & arranged to pick me up the next afternoon. We did the general 11/12 year old girly sleepover stuff, makeovers, movies, chatting etc. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣 ...I had been in this house before but never stayed the night before & whilst playing around in my friends bedroom, my eyes were IMMEDIATELY drawn to this old, wooden carved jewelry box sitting on her dressing table & I went straight over & opened it & inside was this beautiful old 18carat gold ring but it was tiny, almost like it belonged to a young child & I was fixated...It absolutely mesmerized me, the second I laid my eyes on it...I picked it up & this wave came over me, like this pulsating strange feeling (Like the drums from Jamanji but I never actually heard or saw anything)..I just felt it in my body & then suddenly, my friend came over & said 'Oh, yeah, my parents found that box in the attic when they were renovating the house...& they found that ring under one of the floor boards in there as well, it's so cool isn't it?!' ...I had this overwhelming sense of dread & for some unreason...I felt the need to steal it but I didn't, as I mentioned before, our parents were Police officers & I knew better but I could not stop thinking about this ring.
Anyway, the night is coming to an end, all the other guests including my parents have left & after a hour or so, her parents come up with her little & only sibling & they all poke their heads into our room, say goodnight & shut the door behind them & go off to bed. ...My freinds bed is against the wall but sticking out directly into the middle of the room, the door is to the left of her bed & I have a blow up bed on the right side of her bed, so my blow up bed is a lot lower down than her bed & there is a bedside table directly behind my head that goes up slightly higher than the height of her bed. ...My friend falls asleep pretty quickly & I can hear her snoring away & the house is completely silent...Her bedroom door is closed & it is completely PITCH BLACK in there... Then, I start to get that same dreaded drum feeling I had felt earlier, when holding that ring....Right in front of my eyes, the door opens but not dramatically, just creepily slowly & nothing....Then this ominous faint light, almost pulsating light, comes from the now open doorway...It's not the hallway light, it's something else, something like moonlight but that's not possible from that angle! 🤷🏼‍♀️ ...I am sat up right in this low down blow up bed, just staring at this now open, lit up doorway & then, this figure walks into the room! 😱 I knew straight away, that this was a man...This was not my friend's dad though, as he was one of my dad's best friends, around 5"7 & over 200lbs & he was the only male living in that house, there was only his wife, his two daughters & me staying that nighr...The man who walked into the room was around 6ft tall & very slim...He calmly walks through the door, past the foot of my friends bed & then STOPS suddenly, turns & looks DIRECTLY at me....I WAS FROZEN IN FEAR! 😱...What struck me the most was how much detail I can still give about his clothing & appearance...I was 12 years old at the time but I remember it like it was yesterday! ....This guy had almost cropped, tweed style trousers, almost pirate like trousers, that went to just above the calf, with a tweed style blazer but what I remember specifically, was his shirt...It was white but it had a short, upright collar, with only the very inner tips bent...It was like an old fashioned shirt, I think there's an actual name for these shirts but even as a 12 year old, I remember thinking that shirt is odd... Because my dad was a Police detective & interviewer, he would wear a suit, shirt & tie everyday & this was not a regular modern shirt with a folded collar like my dad wore...This apparition had slicked back, jet black hair & although I was aware it was a man, I couldn't properly see any facial features, apart from his eyes & I stared frozen & in horror back at him, in what felt like 10 minutes but was probably only 10 seconds....Then, I realised he wasn't looking at me...He was looking BEHIND ME! 😱
...At this moment, I had what I can only describe as the worst fear I have ever felt...It's like a primal fear & although this happened 18 years ago, I remember it & can visualize it like it happened yesterday!....12 year old realizes he's looking behind me & I do that almost movie style thing & I slowly turn my head backwards, to the left & slightly up & that's when I saw her....A little girl, PLAIN AS DAY, stood directly behind me...But 3/4 of her body was standing inside of the bedside table behind me....It was like a hologram...I could see the bedside table but I could also she her body INSIDE of it! 🤷🏼‍♀️😱 ....She was wearing a beautiful frilly, Lacey long white dress, with a dusty pink coloured bow tied around the waist...Her chest, shoulders & head were sticking out of the center top of the bedside table & she had this beautiful long curly golden hair & there was this moment, this creepy indescribable moment, where I realised these two entities were staring at eachother....Not at me & in that moment...I KNEW the ring belonged to her...This thought crossed my mind & suddenly her gaze went from him to suddenly me & I literally almost went into cardiac arrest!...That was it for me..I through the blanket over my head & zoned out....I couldn't sleep but I refused to look & I was so freaked out & panicked but too scared to run to the phone to call my parents. ... Eventually I drifted off & woke up a couple of hours later, sweating & completely bewildered...When I woke up, her bedroom door was closed, I snook to the bathroom & all her family were still asleep...I never slept there again!
...I did being it up to my friend's mum a coupe of weeks later & she said that a few nights after I stayed...They had woken up suddenly to a huge crashing sound downstairs & her husband, being a police officer, immediately jumped up & expected it to be a break in but on inspection...He found the huge old oak farmhouse cabinet, that was there when they moved in but had been securely bolted to the wall by them on renovation of the building (It was so heavy it took two adult men to lift & it had to be placed by lifting it, pushing into place & then slotting down 2 inches into secore fittings)...The night they heard the crashing sound... That cabinet was face down on the floor...This would have been IMPOSSIBLE to happen...Both the bolts were still securely fastened to the wall & for this happen, meant that someone or something had to physically lift this huge oak cabinet 2 inches up & then pull it toward them 2 inches for it to have any chance of falling...They were unable to move it back themselves in the morning & had to wait for one his other 200lb+ friends to come over later & help lift it back up.... That's how heavy it was! 🤷🏼‍♀️ Approximately 2 years later, I was discussing this incident with my dad & he pretty quickly mentioned that a man had committed suicide in their garage not long before they bought the house...He didn't tell me at the time because I was only 12 & he didn't want to scare me but I was 14, nearly 15 when he told me this! 😱 ...I still believe what I saw was older than that though, the people, the clothing, THE RING! ...

    This story began with my discovery of the greatest era of music of all time, the classic rock era. The very first “classic rock” music that I remember hearing was The Beach Boys. I came from a somewhat culturally stifled exposure to the “secular” music of mankind, growing up. So, upon hearing The Beach Boys for the first time, I simply could not fathom the pure, raw, jubilant and harmonic energy I was hearing. I believe it was in 1998 or right around the time that I was in 6th grade, and I was up at my grandparents’ cabin in Siren, Wisconsin. I remember our next-door neighbor at the cabin had a cute girl named Jenny that my cousin Josh and I were both chasing after. I think my cousin was more interested in the girl, while I was keen on getting another chance at listening to The Beach Boys on her CD player. At any rate, I remember being instantly fascinated with the sport of surfing and I wanted to know more about it. I remember downloading or looking up a video of the 1966 “The Endless Summer” documentary directly because of having listened to The Beach Boys. It was a revolutionary moment in my cultural expansion as a young boy and that was a very memorable summer for me.       As time wore on to the early 2000’s era when music downloading was only in its infancy, I once upon a time downloaded a Deep Purple song: "Hush" because I had heard about Deep Purple whisperings from my dad. I liked this “Hush” song so much I played it for my dad, asking him if he had heard of this song before as I knew it was from his era and this might trigger an interesting response or memory from him. My Father responded affirmatively. My Dad then proceeded to tell me a story, it was a story about himself; about a Deep Purple concert he had attended when he was younger. He didn't give me too many details and I’m not sure what age he was, or I can't remember all of the details, but he told me about how, somehow; during this concert-which must have been at the Met-he had ended up at the front of the speaker stacks at Deep Purple’s front stage. He told me that he continued to spend the entire show plugging his ears as hard as he could, he said it was the most awful concert he had ever been to in his life. I’m not sure if he couldn’t get away from the speakers or why he allowed himself to be subjugated to such an incessant onslaught of auditory pain, but that’s just what transpired, I guess. He told me that afterward, he was in pain and that his ears were ringing for weeks, and he told me he believed his hearing was noticeably impaired in the months and years that followed.       So naturally, having heard my dad tell this story I was instantly even more fascinated with this powerful band called: Deep Purple. And, if you didn't know or weren't aware, Deep Purple is or was considered at one point: "The Loudest Band in the World", or something to that effect. Of course, I didn't know that at the time and my dad; I’m guessing, also did not know that at the time he attended the Deep Purple concert. So, upon hearing that story as a young man-I think I might have been in junior high school at the time-again, I was intrigued with this mysterious band: Deep Purple, that had ruined my dad’s hearing at one point in his life. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many other details about that show from him at that time, as I could tell he wasn't really too fond of the experience or memory altogether and maybe he was also little embarrassed that I was so interested and fascinated having heard about it. It is really a hilarious memory.  
    Anyway, this story my father had told me really fascinated me as a young man and I knew that- whatever I did; I must remember the name of the band Deep Purple.  
    Music was somewhat difficult to acquire at this time in my young life, unless I wanted to drop $15 for a new CD at Best Buy or perchance find it discounted at Half-Priced Books, Cheapo or the like. This was far too expensive a price to pay simply to explore the music that was out there, now yes, I did have KQRS, but the scope of KQRS, like many modern classic rock radio stations; the playlists are always limited to the five-hundred or so blue-chip hits. So, what I discovered was that used records could be acquired for much cheaper, in fact only $.99 at Goodwill, but Goodwill had limited options. Also, another problem I ran into during this time was that I didn't have a vast mental capacity quite yet built up for what the “good” classic rock era albums were. Bands or artists’ knowledge hadn’t yet really accumulated in up in my head at least not enough for quick album art recall, so it was difficult to know what was good at the time. The particular Goodwill that I frequented the most as a young man was located in Hopkins, MN and it was somewhat dingy, but I loved it. One day I discovered a very used, worn-out white ring around the sleeve of a golden “Deep Purple: Live in Japan” record, which was recorded over three nights in the late summer of 1972. I remember during those days when my classic rock album knowledge wasn’t so good, but I had a crude system of helping me “guess-timate” on what might be a good album. I would tell myself that the closer an album was in year to the late 60’s and early 70’s the better chance it was good. Because I knew, classic rock sort of lost its way and got bombastic in the 1980’s, for better or for worse. At least, this was the rock n’ roll historical narrative I had created in my head at the time. So I checked the date of the Deep Purple album: 1972, not bad. So, I bought that record because this was my chance to experience Deep Purple for myself for the first time.  
    I remember biking home with the record in a plastic bag over the handlebars of my bike and it kept bumping into the bike as I rode home getting even more scuffed up. When I got home, I put the record on my parents Onkyo (ironically also Japanese) turntable and a Genesis sound system, this was a pretty decent sound system. I remember, when I got home, I was all alone in the house, so I really had the opportunity to crank up the volume to air this album out a bit. And when I listened to that album, my life and conception of rock and roll; whatever I thought that was, flipped on its head and changed me, fundamentally as a person. Granted, I had listened to some of Led Zeppelin’s material to be sure, but I had never ever heard a band rock out so fucking hard like this in my life. It was a truly amazing experience. I highly recommend that album to everyone.  
    But what you have to appreciate is that during this time it was somewhat difficult for me to know which albums were "good" and to be sought after. I just happened to hit this one time on the motherlode with this live Deep Purple album. The knowledge was out there, yet difficult to attain for a young, sheltered midwestern Christian boy. So, I spent a lot of my time seeking out records at Goodwill after this experience, where no one could filter the music, I was listening to and naturally I developed a very steeled, rebellious, pretentious and opinionated stance on my right as a human to listen to whatever the heck I wanted to around this time as well. Plus, Goodwill had the added bonus of consistently being populated with lots of interesting people to watch, not to mention lots of fun clothes to try on and just mess around and have fun. I remember one day at Goodwill, I saw these two very particular middle-aged gentlemen, guys I would call “greaseballs”; seedy types who waited at the doors from the warehouse sorting areas, in order to get their greedy hands immediately upon the incoming records from the back sorting warehouse. They took immediate authority over sifting through the records, and it was clear to me that I was going to have to wait to get sloppy seconds after these record campers. I asked myself a question:  
“Who were these music gate-keeping fucks?”  
    Of course, I didn't know how to feel at the time, and I was just sort of annoyed and confused as a young guy. I wanted a chance at checking out the records, but these two guys clearly had the goods staked out for first dibs. At any rate, I watched over their shoulders and made note of the ones that they picked from their fast-paced sorting, trying to remember the album artwork. While they were thumbing through, I even recognized the man carrying sticks on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV and reached out for it in desperation, but one of them instantly blurted out, something to the effect of:  
“Nuh, uh uh.”  
    Or something to that effect and gobbled it up into their stack of collections…It was from that point on I realized how cutthroat this mystic, esoteric knowledge accumulation about music and attaining music was, and I think it made my purpose ever more steeled and resolved from that point forward.  
    I had only begun to scratch the surface of my quest for discovering the depths of the greatest music of all time, classic rock. This quest had another nuance I will now attempt to explain. You see, classic rock is profane music of the secular world. Therefore, it was forbidden to me as a young man, or sometimes it was begrudgingly tolerated. So naturally, this created within me a burning need to rebel. I had to listen to classic rock if it meant shaking the fucking heavens and the earth. For some reason I really felt it necessary to rebel and to rebel hard. And somehow, coupling that with a saga to discover forbidden music, it had now become in the mind of this young man, a somewhat spiritual prerogative to fulfill this discovery quest, some way, somehow.  
    Why am I writing all of this? I guess I was bored during the pandemic and put a lot of thought and energy into thinking about this while at work. Music has always been a companion to me during the toughest times in my life, conversely music has also consistently been a celebration of exuberance and happiness during the good times. The music that existed during the mid-1960’s though the late 1980’s; otherwise known as the classic rock era, has always held a special place in my heart. However, I never could find a playlist that truly encapsulates or effectively represents all of the great music from this era. Most of the classic rock playlists out there were somehow for some reason exclusionary of certain groups, genres and styles for one reason or another. I have spent over a decade working with programs like Pandora and iHeartRadio doing research attempting to compile a comprehensive, inclusive and fully representative playlist, that faithfully showcases the music from the classic rock era. I used Pandora at first because I was lazy. I attempted to use Pandora’s algorithm to build this playlist for me, I spent years attempting to get the algorithm to do what I want, but it never could never be a truly random shuffle among other drawbacks.  
    Fast forward to Summer of 2020, I had finally had enough with Pandora and with the pandemic in full swing, I decided that I had to build this playlist by hand if I wanted to do it right. That meant taking on the herculean task of digging into every single notable band, group, singer-songwriter, “super-group”, ensemble and the like that existed during the years circa 1964-1989. Why those years? Chosen rather quickly and arbitrarily. Also, this task consisted of the inclusion factor, that meant digging expressly deeper into the deepest, darkest lairs of obscurity and obtusity that this musical era had to offer. The pandemic was this playlist’s ultimate inspiration, music was going to get me through this pandemic like it had all the other tough times in my life and I was resolved to utilize my classic rock knowledge over the years to build the best playlist I could. But what does the “Best” mean? To me, it meant a playlist that was as fully representative of this era in music as possible, without superfluous and capricious exclusion of artists, no matter how difficult or esoteric the listening experience may be. This was my formula. Therefore, the term “Rock” is used loosely when defining this playlist; this music certainly “rocks” but not all of it is strictly “Rock ‘N Roll”, however all of it was certainly influenced and indeed inspired by the burgeoning “rock” movement of the 50’s and 60’s. I hope that makes some sense. Also, I was sick of the corporate KQRS DJs of the Twin Cities, who play the same recycled 500 or so hits over and over with no room for pushing those boundaries, as was the original intention of the music to begin with.  
    At any rate, I decided I would use Spotify as the custodian for this playlist, simply because their catalog is the vastest compared to most music platforms, it is free to download and their prices are reasonable for subscriptions. I realize Spotify does have some scummy business practices for paying artists royalties and it’s a shame not to have Joni Mitchell and Neil Young among others on here, but it is what it is, and I had to make this playlist somehow. Just the same, I worked on this playlist almost every single day through the pandemic, researching hundreds of bands while I did it; all from that pristine era of music that had captivated me early on. In years past, I have put tremendous amounts of mental energy into reading up on band biographies and discographies before, but during the pandemic I researched music from that era more exhaustively than I ever have before. I really went at it with everything I had, even purchasing “The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll” to assist me referencing bands not covered much online. I guess this is what my history major B.A. degree brain remnant does for me these days. I’m going to be honest with you, this is not your dad’s or your mom’s classic rock playlist. It took me the entire first year of the pandemic to fill the playlist to Spotify’s 10,000 song threshold, but the playlist was still just a rough blueprint at that point. I spent the following two years honing, polishing, adding and removing songs in order to continue to attempt to make this playlist as representative of the era as possible, with a heavy leaning on “rock”.  
    So, with the pandemic finally coming to a close recently, I am finally beginning to feel confident that this playlist is finally finished after three long years of amazingly illuminating research and lots and lots of listening.  
    Without further elaboration or story time, here it is after three long years of hard work; 10,000 meticulously curated and extensively researched with zero dead or duplicate tracks as Spotify frequently adds and removes music. Consisting of, but not limited to the following genres: Folk, Country, Progressive, Early Metal, NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal), Space Rock, Fusion, British Invasion, New Wave, Punk, Pub, Blues, Psychedelic, Garage, Reggae (just Bob Marley), International, Krautrock, Funk, Soul, Disco, Art-Rock, Experimental, R&B and AOR (Album Oriented Rock) from circa 1964-1989 (dates chosen arbitrarily). This playlist is inclusive of race, gender and nationality. Be aware, this playlist is intended to expand your horizons and challenge your listening experience. Admittedly, this era did generate A LOT of challenging music that pushed the boundaries of numerous musical conventions, that was the point. I recommend putting this playlist on shuffle and just listening, thank you for your time reading all of this, I hope you enjoy listening as much as I have. Below is the link for the playlist, I hope you all will enjoy it:  
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4syEv4GeWCOv9LAQlKzq1K?si=341f43e85dfe4ff8

I found myself on a dark and lonely road, hitchhiking my way through the night. The pebbles that lay on the ground filled my shoe, the uncomfortable feeling repeated itself every step but still unbothered to stop. The darkness of the night filled an empty void with fear inside of me. The thought of what could happen to me all alone lingered in my mind. While walking, the noise of the wind swooshed intensely through the trees' trunks and cotyledons. The eerie sound gave me goosebumps and the hair inside my windbreaker stood up. In the distance, white and yellow lights blared rapidly through my eyes. Intrigued but scared, I walked towards the signals of light. Confused and after passing some evergreen, my pupils attached to what seemed like a highway. Finally, I sighed, maybe someone could help me, I thought to myself. I stuck out my thumb onto the road, hoping that someone would help. My black glove protected my hand from the cold and the rowdy breeze. The cars passed by, untroubled and unhelpful, yet, remaining with faith, I stood there. Minutes passed that felt like hours until finally a red old Chevrolet c/k 2500 flashed the headlights on my face, and pulled the car into the side road. I approached the dark-tinted window without properly seeing his face. A black hat and a red button-up shirt were barely visible. The driver had a sinister smile, and his eyes gleamed with a diabolical intensity. I stood there, still and somewhat terrified, yet against my better judgment I jumped in. The driver introduced himself as Mr. Blackwood, a man of enigmatic charm. I greeted him and then rested my head on the car window, far away from him. I took my right hand and reached to the back, hoping to feel the seat belt buckle. To my surprise, there it was. Feeling a little more confident I grabbed it and pulled it across from me, while looking for the handle, lightning struck the car seats and below me, there were stains of blood. Suddenly, my body went through an electric shock, paralyzed in the seat. I knew if I made a sudden movement or acted scared he might kill me. Trying to be calm, I still tried to buckle my seatbelt, the red handle button was standing there and I inserted it into the little buckle hole that was supposed to click in. Unfortunately, it wouldn't, struggling and sweating, the seat belt would not buckle. Mr. Blackwood sighed and told me, “Sorry there, for the last 3 years I had hunted deer, the weight eventually would break it. I'm so sorry.” He then replied rapidly, “No one gets in my car alive” He laughed sinisterly, alluding that he only gives rides to dead deer. His car sped through the pitch-black night. My fatigue was finally catching up to me and my eyes began to weigh on me. But my intense feeling of death and fear kept me awake. Weaving through winding roads as the trees whispered ominous secrets. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. The uncomfortable silence filled the air of the two-door pickup, and my eyes felt curious to see what Mr. Blackwood's attire was or if there was any escape from this car. I tried to silently slither my head a little to the left. My eyes went to the corner of my eye socket to figure out something about him. When my eye focused on the mysterious figure I could see him staring blankly back at me, not paying attention to the road whatsoever. His head quickly looked back at the road, as if he was ashamed and tried to hide the fact he was staring at me. With each passing mile, silence and small talk filled the air, and Mr. Blackwood's stories grew more twisted and menacing. He spoke about the crimes he was involved with when he was younger: “You know I was somewhat of a troublemaker when I was young” He said, “See when I was young we lived in a pretty big house. I wasn't privileged but I had my fun.” He stopped, sighed for a moment, and then responded, “My mommy was always inside and father wasn't around too much. My brother was practically my only friend. After some years, on my 13th birthday, my brother and I played cops and robbers. My momma just gave me a toy handgun, and my brother and I ran and trapped the maid. She was always the bad guy.” He kept on going “We had her on the lawn, she was trapped by 2-inch thick rope and the final act was to execute her. I pointed my brand-new handgun at her head and shot. We never saw her after” He laughed. His southern accent kept me on edge, and the way a grown man mid-fifties kept referring to her mother as momma gave me chills. It became clear that I was trapped with a man capable of unimaginable horrors. As the car raced on, the surroundings grew eerier. The moon disappeared behind dark clouds, casting an unsettling shadow over the landscape. I tried to escape, to open the car door and tumble onto the street, but it was locked. Also, there were no stop signs or anything that would make this man stop. Mr. Blackwood grinned as he watched my failed escape. Panic consumed me as I realized that I was trapped with a diabolical predator. The rhythmic thumping of my heart echoed the cyclical nature of my terror. With no way out, I summoned every ounce of courage and confronted Mr. Blackwood. I desperately demanded to know his true intentions, hoping to find a way to survive. But his response sent a chill down my spine. "Your fate was sealed the moment you stepped into my car," he hissed, his voice dripping with malevolence. "You are a pawn in my twisted game, and there's no escaping the tragic ending that awaits you." The words keep repeating in my hollow mind. My mind raced as I tried to unravel the web of Mr. Blackwood's plans. I was scared to death, not knowing when was going to be the end of me. I shivered, cried, and begged for mercy. I promised him I wouldn't say a single thing, but, once again, he looked at me as he added a small laugh as grinned directly at me. As the night wore on, I realized that I couldn't trust my senses. Mr. Blackwood's words and actions blurred the line between reality and nightmare. I managed to outsmart Mr. Blackwood, turning the tables on him. I managed to convince Blackwood for him to end my life in my family garage where most of my ancestors had passed away. He didn't know I was going to fight back once I was out of the car. Arriving at the family garage, I rushed out of the car for a secret gun my dad had stashed inside the glove box of a 1977 Ford F-150. I kept it behind my back, covered by my shirt, so he wouldn't see it. Having the gun was certainly better, but there were still shivers down my entire body. “Alright kid, it's time to die,” said Mr. Blackwood with a big smile on his face. He took out a large wooden ax from the pick-up. The silver edge reflected the face of Mr. Blackwood. As soon as he finished sharpening his ax. I was paralyzed, I couldn't feel my legs, but I was still walking. I approached Mr. Blackwood and while he was walking towards me ready to swing the ax directly at my head, I stepped back, pulled out my gun, and shot one time in the middle of his eyebrows. Without hesitation, I finished the cartridge in his head. I had an unexplainable adrenaline rush. A bullet of pleasure ran through my body, replacing my shivering with relief and excitement. Justice prevailed, but the scars of the night's horrors would forever haunt me. I got the keys from the truck and was urged to go to a hospital. I was in shock after what I had lived for the past couple of hours. From being on the verge of death to killing Mr. Blackwood. I had mixed feelings about the situation, but I was focused on getting to the hospital. I sped through the highway until the red cross sign popped up. Getting closer to it I could feel liberty at the grasp of my hand. Yet my intention was not to enter the hospital. I pulled up on the truck off to a side road into the woods. A few miles in, I took a quick right-hand turn and entered the old garage that was lying on the old shack. I parked the truck and made a big jump onto the ground. There were a couple of cars already parked there. I had done this successfully again I thought to myself. So there was I again, the same old empty road that led out of the woods. I started walking down the same path as a normal hitchhiker that led to the highway, ready to have an adrenaline rush from my next victim.

Hello, all.
I have 15amp outlet on a 15amp GFCI breaker in my garage ceiling that powers my garage door opener.
It recently stopped providing power to the unit, so I moved the unit to a different outlet on a different breaker (both also 15) VIA extension cord for the time being.
I tested the ceiling outlet and wires (there is a traveling wire that goes to a wall outlet), here were the results :
Ceiling Hot Wire: 120.5v
Ceiling outlet Top receptacle (This receives the hot wires) - 2v
Ceiling traveling wires - 120.5v
Ceiling outlet Bottom Receptacle - 83v
It is also worth noting the wall outlet that receives the travel wires has 120.5v at the wires, and 83v at the outlet receptacles.
I replaced the old ceiling outlet and it worked long enough to open and close the garage door about 4x. The breaker never tripped, the outlet just quit working.
I am now back to the starting line and have no idea what is wrong.
The current, temporary outlet works just fine. I can raise and lower the garage all day with no problem. Again, both are 15amp outlets and breakers.
Any guidance would be helpful. Thank you.

Joel wasn't an uncommon kind of man. He would occasionally immerse himself in conspiracy theories, driven by his insatiable curiosity about past events. However, there came a time when he delved a little too deeply, causing a profound shift in our world that can never be reversed.
(3 weeks prior)
"Hey kid. Have you heard of something called the Minor Awareness?" Joel asked.
"No, I haven't come across anything remotely similar to that. What kind of conspiracy theory have you stumbled upon, sir?" I questioned.
"Well, to put it simply, there's a belief that there are individuals in our world who are born with knowledge encompassing all of human existence, yet they never feel compelled to share this information with others."
"Well, that's quite an outlandish notion. It's hard to believe that people with such profound knowledge would keep it to themselves. Are you suggesting that these individuals are somehow controlled from birth, manipulated by a higher power?"
"I don't have all the details, just the overarching concept. It's said that those born with this knowledge possess the ability to tap into supernatural forces that can manipulate our reality, for better or worse."
"I'm not sure how to react to this. You usually present logical theories, but this one seems to lack a clear purpose or significance. Even if it were somehow true, how would it negatively impact my life?"
“You clearly didn’t understand the magnitude of what I’ve said, I hope one day you do before it’s all too late.”
I never really understood what he meant until it was all too late just as he once said it would be. Joel was a choir teacher at my high school, he was driven by a passion to teach others, wether it was through music, theories, or established science articles.
Occasionally, he would invite me over for weekends to hang out and discuss life. In a way, I felt like the grandchild he never had, and our dynamic worked perfectly. However, one particular night, his mood took an uneasy turn. I could sense the unease radiating from him, which in turn made me feel unsettled.
After some trial and error, he finally opened up to me about a secret he had been keeping from me for a while.
"Look, Adrian, I haven't been completely honest with you about the extent of my involvement in the world of conspiracies and ancient history. Why don't you take a look in my basement? It's on the far left side of my house."
Taking a deep breath, I walked down the staircase. The basement appeared to be like any other until I turned the corner and discovered a vast collection of ancient texts, artifacts, and even jewels. Most of them seemed to be related to the Amazonian culture. I was in awe. I couldn't believe Joel had amassed such a significant collection that correlated with all of his theories. Before I could delve into the details, I heard a voice behind me.
"Isn't it fascinating? I had intended to show you all of this after you graduated, but it seems time is running short for us."
"I have so many questions, but my first one is, how did you manage to acquire all of these things?"
"With time, dedication, and, most importantly, curiosity, you can achieve a lot. I know you have many questions, but I encourage you to read through this journey tonight. Everything will become much clearer."
That night, filled with anticipation, I hurried home and delved into the pages of that aged and worn journey. It quickly became evident that Joel had been faithfully documenting his experiences in this journal for a significant period of time. The entries contained vivid descriptions of numerous expeditions he undertook, including visits to exotic locations like the Amazon rainforest, Egypt, and remote tribal areas across the globe.
I understand if you approach this with skepticism, but let me assure you that the precise dates, specific times, and intricate details portrayed in the journal appeared unquestionably authentic, leaving little room to doubt their veracity.
Just as I was about to delve deeper into the journal, a bird suddenly crashed into my window with a force that startled me. Filled with a mix of curiosity and unease, I cautiously ventured outside to investigate the commotion. What I encountered was a distressing scene—a lifeless pigeon, its head twisted and matted with blood.
The sight of this gruesome spectacle overwhelmed me, causing a surge of discomfort and disgust that nearly made me retch. However, amidst this unsettling sight, something caught my attention: there, fastened to the pigeon's leg, was a note.
"Your eyes have become vessels for darkness; I shall reclaim you once more, mortal."
These haunting words were ominously inscribed on the note, which was eerily affixed to the mangled leg of the lifeless pigeon. An overwhelming surge of the most dreadful emotions consumed me, causing my legs to give way beneath me, leaving me kneeling in a state of speechlessness and confusion. I was utterly clueless about the next course of action.
Doubts began to assail my mind. Had I unwittingly fallen victim to a cruel prank? Or had I stumbled upon something that was meant to remain hidden? Countless thoughts swirled through my consciousness, each one more unsettling than the last. Eventually, I resolved to meticulously analyze every page of the journal, determined to uncover the truth behind these disconcerting events.
I got back to my room and fast forwarded to the back in hopes that I’d find the knowledge necessary to understand this whole situation. And there it was, “the minor awareness”, titled on the top on the last page of this journal.
A brief summary of my findings reveals the existence of a phenomenon called the "minor awareness." It suggests that at any given moment, there are at least seven individuals in the world who possess the entirety of human history within their consciousness. These individuals have no inclination to share or disclose these details for others to discover. However, the reasons why others are aware of the "minor awareness" remain unknown.
As I delved further into my research, I uncovered the remarkable ability of these individuals to tap into supernatural forces. According to the information I came across, there are parallel worlds coexisting with our own, existing in a separate realm.
While we remain oblivious to their existence, those who possess the minor awareness are fully conscious of both our reality and these hidden realms. They possess the unique ability to perceive these realms continuously and even establish contact with beings capable of manipulating our world in various ways.
For a brief moment, I managed to momentarily set aside my fear and the unsettling events that had just occurred—the pigeon's untimely demise, which seemed to carry an ominous warning. However, my nerves quickly resurfaced, overpowering any sense of calm.
In this state, I realized my only recourse was to reach out to Joel, but my attempts to contact him proved futile as he failed to answer. Faced with this situation, I hastily gathered a pocket knife and some pepper spray, hastily preparing myself for a journey to his house.
As I arrived at Joel's house, my hands trembled uncontrollably, engulfed by fear that left me in a state of shock. Doubts plagued my mind, questioning the reality of it all. Had the theories that had long fascinated me, hidden within the depths of my heart, now resurfaced as undeniable truths?
Gathering my courage, I stepped out of the car and pounded on his door with all my might. His car sat parked in the driveway, and all his belongings remained inside.
I continued to knock relentlessly for at least ten minutes until I decided to check under his doormat for a spare key. Although I didn't find a key, I discovered a note scattered with numbers, which I immediately recognized as a simple riddle he had once taught me. It involved matching the numbers to corresponding letters of the alphabet to reveal words. Within a few minutes, I managed to decipher his message.
The note read, "window in the backyard is open."
I cautiously crawled into the house, only to find no sign of Joel's presence. There were no notes, no lights on—nothing. Even his phone rested on the counter, displaying my missed calls. It suddenly struck me that I should check the basement. Perhaps he was there or had left some clue to his whereabouts. However, as I descended the steps, a wave of regret washed over me.
I realized I shouldn't have entangled myself in a world I was never meant to be a part of. I yearned to remain ignorant of all these revelations. But my thoughts were abruptly interrupted by commotion coming from the left corner of the basement. I crouched down stealthily, trying to catch a glimpse of who was there. To my surprise, four individuals in purple robes were thoroughly examining Joel's discoveries.
Feeling a sense of danger, I slowly retreated, making my way back to the safety of my vehicle. As I drove away, a peculiar sight unfolded before me—countless neighborhood pets, cats and dogs alike, gathered in front of my car, fixating their gaze upon me. It was clear that the unusual experiences I had encountered would not leave me unscathed.
I failed to mention earlier that I had kept the journal with me at all times, fearing that someone might come after it. Shortly after my departure from the basement, I arrived home only to discover that my front door was wide open, indicating a break-in. Anger surged through me, and with desperation, I shouted at the top of my lungs, "What the fuck do you want from me?!" I repeated this plea several times, and then proceeded to search every room of my house, meticulously examining every minor detail.
As I moved through the rooms, a trickle of blood caught my attention, seeping through the crack under my bedroom door. My heart raced with anxiety as I anxiously swung the door open, only to collapse in shock and heartbreak. There, lying before me, were the lifeless bodies of both my parents. In my father's hand, he clutched a vial of an unfamiliar drug, while my mother lay beside him, whispering her final words in a pained whimper.
"They made me do it," she cried, her voice barely audible.
"Mom! Everything will be okay. I'm going to call an ambulance! Please don't worry, Mom!" I sobbed uncontrollably, trying to console her.
"I love you, son. Leave. They'll frame you for our deaths. There's a suitcase filled with money under our bed frame. Run, my baby. Everything will be okay. I promise." Her tear-filled eyes expressed her love for me as she slowly slipped into unconsciousness and passed away in my arms.
Overwhelmed with hatred and heartbreak, my spirit engulfed, I made a solemn vow to survive—for the sake of my mother, even if my own will had waned.
I sped down the state highway, my belongings in tow, heading towards a camping site where my friends and I had always found solace. Throughout the journey, I couldn't help but unleash a torrent of curses directed at Joel, blaming him for entangling me in a world that had shattered my own. Emotions of various shades overwhelmed me, but above all, a thread of intense hatred consumed me for whatever forces were responsible for my parents' deaths.
Upon reaching the camping site, I secured my German Shepherd, using him as an alert system to ward off any unwanted guests. As a sense of safety gradually seeped back into my veins, my dog locked eyes with me, his gaze penetrating deep within, leaving me with an unsettling mix of confusion, fear, and hatred—a conscience devoid of clarity.
In a sudden turn of events, my dog's gaze broke, and once again, a pigeon descended, delivering a note. It read, "In the shadows, they sleep. In the darkness, they keep. In my view, you will sleep."

This post is about both institutional diagnosis and self diagnosis. I notice a lot of people don't know how to approach these things, so I wanted to help. I have also realized that this a great collection of pro-self dx arguments. So you can also use it for that.
Institutional Diagnosis:
Many people get stuck in a cycle questioning whether they are autistic. This may be exacerbated by people hostile to autism in their life. This back and forth can be torturous, and they seek relief in the form of an institutional diagnosis. I understand this instinct - this was my first instinct - but I find many people go into things without a good idea of the risk / benefit balance.
Institutional diagnosis can open the door to legally-required accommodation in school and work, given that your school or work doesn't try to legally intimidate you over it. However, institutional diagnosis can also undermine other legal rights. You will be barred from immigrating to many countries, especially those with good healthcare. Depending on where you live it may jeopardize your right to gender-affirming healthcare explicitly or functionally. Courts can potentially access it, and it may be used against you. For example in custody battles or even conservatorship attempts. It may also unfortunately open the door to worsened medical discrimination, like many other psych diagnosis. Many people report medical workers condescending them and not taking their problems seriously after diagnosis. There is also the rare possibility of non-consensual DNR, or other abuses of triage and insurance policy.
Therefore, I would advise against an institutional diagnosis of autism unless you really need it for accommodation, and there's no other diagnosis or approach that can also get you those accommodations. Institutional diagnosis is especially important to be wary of if you are already in a legally vulnerable position or are multiply marginalized.
That said, I would not panic if you already have an institutional diagnosis. In most cases, nothing extreme comes of it. I would also say it's very important to support people who are diagnosed at a young age or otherwise have no informed choice in the matter. Avoiding an institutional diagnosis is an individualized stopgap safety measure. It is not a solution that protects the most vulnerable.
Putting institutional diagnosis on a pedestal misrepresents not only its safety, but also its accuracy. Frankly, if an institutional diagnosis is what you need to personally affirm yourself, you have a warped view of the system. I also started out thinking like this, but we have to fully acknowledge the flaws of this system for the safety of everyone. It can vary wildly, but a lot of institutional diagnosis...are a joke, to put it mildly. They are clearly designed for children, clearly outdated, run by staff with alarming misconceptions, etc. This is especially a risk if you otherwise marginalized, as bias may disproportionately target you if you are a woman, Black, trans, otherwise disabled, etc.
This is another reason why you should do a thorough self dx first even if you are planning for an institutional diagnosis. You want as much confident evidence on your side as possible. You are often not being put through a test with any rigor, and even one with explicit bias against you. You should treat it shrewdly, as a barrier to accommodation which is often sloppy. It is not a magical arbiter of truth. It is a crude barrier that can be leveraged as a tool, as long as you understand the risks involved.
Self Diagnosis:
First of all I like to call this self ID or self discovery or something along those lines. To me autism is such a far-reaching and complex thing that relegating it to purely medical language is a bit silly and unnecessarily pathologizing. But that's just my personal hair-splitting opinion.
I would also like to emphasize that although self ID is ultimately your decision, as you deserve sociomedical autonomy, you don't have to arrive at the conclusion alone. In fact you probably shouldn't. Asking other autistics on the details is often an important step. Here are some other important steps:
Get very familiar with the DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria. Additionally, get very familiar with exercises in decoding the bias in them in order to get to the more truthful core. The pinned post here is a good example but this is an exercise you should be constantly revisiting. Don't be afraid to add info from other sources - common anecdotal experience and scientific trends can help paint a larger picture than the often constrained and vague manuals mentioned above. Use all this to help create your trait list. Don't rely on tests, though individual questions may be useful for your collection of data.
It is important to develop a strong sense for bias. You can strengthen this sense by reading from autistic adult activists, disabled activists, and mad activists. Not everyone is going to be right about everything, but it will help you gain a sense of when things have been tampered with by an entire century of medical abuse.
It is also important to consider alternate and additional diagnosis. Most people who get this worked up about whether they have autism are autistic, lets be real. Obsessive and introspective traits are naturally high in most of us. However you might still be missing something. Watch out for common physical co-occurrences like EDS and epilepsy. Watch out for common psych co-occurrences like CPTSD, OCD, and ADHD. With OCD, it's important to differentiate between irrational anxiety-based compulsions which respond well to patient-led exposure therapy and CBT, and sensory-based repetitious stims which need to be accommodated or redirected, but not squashed. Some actions may be a combo of both and you need to pull apart the respective threads. With ADHD, it's important to keep in mind the sometimes very convoluted ways ADHD and autism can exacerbate or mask each other in various contexts. Keep in mind that AuDHDers have only legally existed since 2013 in the US (when the DSM-5 was published) so it can be hard to find data on us.
Unmasking is important, even though it will often leave you with extra needs. You will eventually burn out if you don't sufficiently unmask, and then you will have much less control over the unmasking process. What counts as sufficient is different for different people. However all of us need at least one safe, social context where we can unmask. Other contexts can be unmasked based on how important they are for safety and whether you have the energy to maintain them.
It's also important to take care of the most vulnerable in our community. For example, there is something that is a pet-peeve of mine, and something that disproportionately harms the many transfeminine autistics out there. That is the concept of "AFAB autism". I find many progressives gravitate towards this as a way to include trans men like me in the conversation, with little thought about the implications it has for transfem people. The appropriate language here is "gender marginalized". This includes all trans people and all women. It does not exclude trans women over the trans-misogynist idea that they have any sort of relative privilege. It is also does not encourage any pseudo-scientific ideas about sex-based autism "types". IDK if any mods are reading this but "AFAB" is used this way in the subreddit rules. I realize there is no harm intended but I would encourage changing it to "marginalized". Not only to include all gender marginalized autistics, but also other marginalizations that severely impact diagnosis, such as race.
Thank you for sticking with me this long. If you haven't actually, that's O.K. Here's a TLDR;
It is dangerous for practical reasons to put institutional diagnosis on a pedestal. Only get it for accommodations. Self ID is vital and you should do lots of research while also considering the bias of your sources. Consider alternative or additional conditions. Even a little unmasking can go a long way. Get into disabled politics. Avoid the phrase "AFAB autism" and uplift our trans sisters. And stay cool :-)

I've been using home assistant for about a week and I've got all my Lutron Caseta switches added, Aqara sensors, HomePods, Pool control panel and various other things already added into HA directly (not through HomeKit).
Where I'm stumped is I have a few devices that are in HomeKit and I'd like to add them to HA through HomeKit if possible. Two devices are for my garage doors, they are the Insignia garage door openers that work natively with HomeKit and don't have their own standalone app. I thought HomeKit Controller was the solution but when adding a HomeKit controller it doesn't find any of my garage doors, Aqara G3 camera, or door locks. Am I misunderstanding what a HomeKit Controller is supposed to do?

I (45M) met my partner (42M) in 2005. He moved in about 5 months into the relationship, things moved quickly. In hindsight, there were red flags; but when you fall for someone, it is hard to separate fear from a red flag. Things were really good. He was a fun, life of the party type of guy. His personality and smile would fill a room. He followed me through school and we both got our doctorates. Vacations, family trips, I was so happy. However, about 18 months into the relationship, intimacy kind of started to die. He seemed kind of uninterested. When we did have sex, it often felt more like a hookup or like a soul-less robot I was with. I couldn't figure it out. I chalked it up to stress and school. There was always another reason I could find. It was during these first few months and years that I noticed he had no friends outside of his younger brother. Despite that, he was my best friend, we got along very well and really didn't have big fights or disagreements.
Fast forward to 2015, he is about to graduate and start his career as a doctor; it was an exciting time. His demeanor changed rapidly. He began going to the gym a lot, but this time I wasn't invited. I still had a year of school left so I was too busy anyways. His gym outings started lasting 2-3 hours. I asked mutual friends about it out of suspicion, but they assured me he would never cheat. About two weeks before his graduation, he told me we needed to talk, he was leaving me. It was very cold and to the point. I asked if he had met someone, he said "no, I would never do that". He didn't cry, no emotion. Two days later he came out of the bedroom with a backpack and said he was leaving for "a day or two". He didn't come back.
There I was, trying to study for finals which required about 15 hours a day for weeks on end. Trying not to break down constantly and be productive to make sure I passed my finals. I downloaded a dating app, if just to feel not so alone and have someone to chat with. I remember how quiet it was in those first few weeks, the silence was deafening. I chatted with a few people. One guy I chatted with had a blank profile, but quickly sent a face pic. He looked familiar. I told him my situation, to which he replied, "well, obviously it sounds like he is cheating on you". I studied his photo again and then went out to Facebook to investigate. It was my partners newest Facebook friend. I immediately texted my partner, and asked who this friend of his was, and why he says you are cheating on me. He was furious. It was the guy he left me for, he was cheating. My partners graduation was the next evening, which I was supposed to attend with him at his request, because he hadn't told friends and family that we were separated because he didn't want to ruin the celebration. I didn't go and so he went to his graduation and his party alone. He was mad at me for that. I hypothesize that this guy told me because he didn't want me going to the graduation neither my ex.
Up until that point, my ex and I had still been communicating on a near daily basis. That ended at this point, I was broken. A couple of weeks went by and then the new mister-ess contacted me. They had already had a falling out and he wanted to talk to me, said there were things I should know. I told him that he was crazy, but that at this point, what the hell, right? We decided to meet for a drink at a local rooftop bar. He made me assure him that I wouldn't punch him in the face, but I told him that I would rather punch my ex.
We grabbed a drink around 8pm. He was a very good looking guy. Kind of a rough looking Jake Gyllenhaal. I Instantly felt both jealous and insecure about myself at the same time. Is this why he left? I wasn't good looking enough? (During those early months, I blamed myself a lot for the breakup) He began by telling me that my ex was a piece of shit, and they weren't talking. I'm still not sure what had happened between them. He told me that they had been seeing each other for about 3 months before my ex left me (gym time), and he went on to say that my ex was a piece of shit and I should run as fast as I could away from him. Now, initially, I kind of chuckled.. of course you want me out of the picture, things aren't working out and he is obviously afraid my ex will come back to me. He then said something that still gives me chills and has taken me years to wrap my brain around: "He doesn't love you and he never has, he told me that when we first met. When I told him that's not possible, he told me that he has been cheating on you since he first met you.". Ok, so that knocked me back, and I'm sure I had a look of disbelief on my face. I don't know what my response was at that point, I think I semi blacked out.. but he began following up with names, dates and places. He named a guy that we met in Mexico on our 1st vacation together in 2006. My ex had just moved in with me a few months before that trip. They apparently hooked up in a bathroom of our resort he informed me. He named a classmate of my ex.. My ex had invited that classmate to multiple parties with us and to our place. He named a creepy older guy that lived in our building. At this point I think I was in shock. I felt violated. Both by the actions of my ex and by the fact that this stranger knew more details about my relationship than I did, or so it seemed. I finished my drink and got up to leave. He asked me not to tell my ex what I had been told. He then went on to say we should "hang out sometime". I left.
I arrived at my ex's new place in about 3 1/2 minutes. He admitted to everything. There was no remorse, he was just calm about it, like everything was normal. I did not know this person. It was probably one of the scariest moments in my life. This person I knew, loved and trusted more than anyone, I knew nothing about them. He told me that he did say he never loved me, but that was only so he could impress this new guy, he didn't mean it he said. I wanted to believe that. I asked him how many times he had cheated. He said he couldn't remember. He said that whenever he did something "bad" that he would mentally block it out, and that he couldn't remember anything. (Although he conveniently remembered to tell this guy about it as evidence he didn't care about me)
The next few days and weeks were a daze. Reality seemed not real anymore. Looking back, I was in shock. Over the next several weeks classmates and friends confided in me that there were other people my partner had cheated with, 6 that I know of at least now. I was looking for something that made sense of it all. Nothing did. I was back home visiting my family for Father's day, everyone was there except for my ex. It felt empty. My brother and sister tried to console me. I was inconsolable. My brother and I hung out for several hours that day, that hadn't happened for a long time. He pulled up YouTube on the TV and played me a Sia video he loved; Elastic Heart. We took turns playing videos and talking about the meaning behind them. I recall that being both an amazing day with my brother and also strange, as he was never that open. He hugged me before he left, told me he loved me. He called me "doc" right before he got in his car, even though I didn't have my degree yet..
My brother would die two days later at the construction site he worked at. The 1000's of pounds of rebar the crane was lowering down above his head would come undone and come down on top of him. It was instantaneous they told us. It turned out they had hired an out of work teacher to help on the site, he didn't know how to secure the fittings on the rebar to the crane. The company was fined $15k I believe in OSHA violations, but what was done was done. I remember at this point being almost happy for the breakup, because I was already numb when this happened. I cried a lot, but there were almost no tears left to cry at that point.
I found out about the accident via my smartwatch while I was with a patient. I can't remember if I was sitting on the floor or was leaning against a wall, but the faculty got me into an office and got me seated. They called my ex to come and get me because they weren't going to let me drive. It was 10:30am. My ex told them it was his first day of work at his new job and that he didn't want to leave early because it would look bad (yeah, I know). A classmate of mine drove me home and stayed with me until my ex got off work. She helped me pack to go to my parents. My ex came and got me and drove me the 90 mins to my parents, I don't remember much about that ride. The next few days were a blur, the funeral seemed like a bad dream. My ex did go with me, but he never cried, never showed emotion. The night before the funeral I asked if he could hang out with me, but he blew me off, it turned out he had a date. He ended up telling me I needed to find a new support system when I got upset.
The sense of loss you feel when you lose two people this close to you is overwhelming. It was at this point that I decided I couldn't lose my ex. Whatever was wrong with him, whatever he was going through, I needed to help him. This brings me to the painful lesson I would eventually learn through all of this: you really can't help someone if they don't want to change, are incapable of change, or if they think there is nothing wrong with them. Some lessons are harder to learn than others, however.
I started reaching out to my ex, trying to spend time with him. He was still seeing his fling off and on. I got him into therapy. This went on for sometime, us being off and on. I realize now that I was the back burner, he was keeping me warm. I was in the perfect state for him, I would have done anything to make things work at this point, I was broken into pieces. In the realm of narcissistic personality disorder, I was the "supply", and I seemed more than willing to put myself through that meat grinder given the circumferences.
During this time of back and forth. My ex would tell me he wanted to make things work, and then I would catch him with this other guy again. He would say they were just friends, etc.. At one point, this guy started showing up at my condo in the middle of the night, he would message me and comment on what I was wearing. I would get a text saying, "I like that red shirt", and I'd look down and I was wearing a red shirt. It got creepy fast, I never knew when I was being watched. One of the dating apps would show how far away people were, down to feet. On multiple occasions I would get a message as I was going to bed, the distance would show under 20 feet away. Those moments were horrific, because it happened on dozens of occasions. I was being stalked.
The messages I was receiving got more and more threatening. I told my ex about it, but he said it wasn't his problem. After one particularly creepy night where it seemed like this guy was in my hallway, I showed my ex all of the messages the next day. He finally told me that this guy hated me with a passion, and said he "didn't think he would actually do anything". I asked him what things he said he was going to do, and then he casually mentioned that this guy had joked about killing me. A few days later I stopped by my ex's place and was ringing the door entry panel, when this guy approached me and started a fight.. he broke my nose and threw me down a flight of stairs. My ex called the police and told me I shouldn't have been there unannounced. He continued seeing this guy.
Now, this guy had been in my school, and had just started taking preliminary classes at the request of my ex. I went to the school counselors and filed a report, he was kicked out of school and banned for two years. I filed a restraining order, but he didn't show up to court for the hearing. The school took it very seriously. Security guards were given his photo and told not to allow him in the building. The stalking did stop finally though.
My ex finally ended things with him, as he started getting more and more violent. My ex would call me saying he was scared of him, that he was there trying to beat the door down. As I'm typing this, I realize that this was probably just a manipulation technique to work on my empathy and to pull me back in. It worked. We talked about how to cut this guy off and what we needed to do to protect my ex from this crazy guy. We started spending more and more time together.
Over the next few months we began spending most of the week together. Things were starting to feel normal again. My ex moved back in with me. Although I was happy, I also was scared, because I knew deep down there was something very wrong. We had already started counseling at my request. His mother was a borderline personality disorder, which we had kind of known before. What we didn't know was how that affected a child raised by one. It would take me a few more years to fully understand the damage she caused.
Things pretty quickly fell apart after he moved back in. The kind, fun person I had known the first 10 years no longer existed. In hindsight, I realize that the kind person was a facade, an act that was used to cover all of the pain and dysfunction that was hiding underneath. After 3 months of living together I asked him to move out in the fall of 2016. I helped him find an apartment and helped him move his things. There I was, alone again, broken..
Despite being separated, we never stopped seeing each other. We regularly made dinner for each other, went and saw movies, camping trips, vacations, family gatherings, etc. I think deep down I held onto hope that therapy would slowly work its magic. I was 39 at the time, and starting over just seemed impossible.
By the end of 2018 we were back in therapy, he had been going off and on since 2015 at this point.. The question was, we can't stop spending time together, where do we go from here? I trusted our therapist, she knew us well. Judging from our sessions and how she conducted them, it seemed as though she believed we could reconcile. I had my concerns, but allowed my fears of being alone and fear of going through the full pain of losing my partner guide my decision making process. I simply could not picture my life without him. I was still trying to get my life back that I knew before 2015. Our therapist told me for this to work, I needed to be fully committed, 100%. (Although, hell, have I not been at this point??) She told me he was likely was developing borderline personality disorder, but that if he continued counseling, he could overcome it.
We decided to give it another go. However, I had been in my small condo for 15 years at this point, and he was in his tiny apartment. We needed a new place, for new memories. I wanted children, it's something we had discussed for years. We decided to buy a house together. I know, I'm rolling my eyes right now too.. We found an amazing house, and within about 6 weeks we were moving in. I was back to feeling as happy as ever. Intimacy, however, never recovered.
For about 6 months, things seemed "normal". However, something this time was different. I was different. I was becoming aware of reality. He had quickly stopped counseling after buying the house, but didn't tell me immediately. I began to notice things he said, little arguments he would start. He would belittle me in small ways. Once I noticed this, I couldn't let it go. He would also gaslight me. He would say something or make plans, and then when I would bring it up later, I was "crazy", because he never said that. I would try to point these things that bothered me out to him, but it would get turned around on me. Why couldn't I let things go, he would say. Also, my items would disappear. Mail would get thrown away, kitchen gadgets tossed. One particular night I wanted to make waffles, and I had a really nice waffle maker my parents got me. I searched and searched, but couldn't find it anywhere. I asked him if he'd seen it, which started a fight. "I didn't touch it! Stop accusing me!". I had only asked him because he had reorganized the kitchen a few weeks earlier. I searched storage, the garage, went through box after box. I looked for several days. After a few days, he said it "might" have been thrown away. Might have?? He said he wasn't sure. After another day of searching, he finally told me he had thrown it away because I rarely used it. When I got upset, he told me that I was too materialistic, and placed too much value on items. This happened dozens of times, and somehow it was always my fault.
By fall of 2019, something strange began happening. I started getting stomache pains. It was enough pain that I thought I should see a doctor. However, I quickly realized that this pain would begin only when my partner was in the room. After that, if he would try to touch me or hold my hand, I would instinctively recoil. I felt horrible about it. I told him to give me space while I figured myself out. I spoke to my therapist about it, and she told me I should read the book, The Body Keeps The Score. I didn't, but it's on my list.
Over the next few months I read several books about relationships. One of them I read twice, Too Good To Leave, To Bad To Stay. I put a lot of effort into figuring out how we could mend and repair all the damage that had been done over the years. I had seen multiple therapists, even a sex therapist. I think I was out on the porch one day, reading my 4th or 5th book, punishing myself for not knowing how to fix things. It was at that point that I realized he was in the house playing video games, had read zero books, sought out no new counseling, had not wanted to initiate any conversations on the topic. Everything rested solely on my shoulders to fix. I realized I was in this relationship alone. It felt like I was living with a roommate because I WAS living with a roommate. This person I loved did not love me, at least not the way I did him. It was a rude awakening, one that I should have realized 5 years earlier.
A few days later I told him I was leaving him, he did not react, he just said ok. Over the next few days and weeks I cried harder than I have ever cried, he didn't. At one point I realized I was having what Oprah called, the ugly cry, it kind of felt good in a way. The pandemic hit a few weeks later, so we were together until June of that summer. We discussed here and there if there were ways to save things. At one point he told me if I worked out more, it might help. It was in moments like that that I knew I was doing the right thing. I was an object to him, if I was a bit shinier I might get more attention.. at least that's what I heard. A few weeks before he moved out, he asked if he could move up to the 3rd floor, because he was sad he wasn't going to get to live in the house anymore. He thought we could be roommates. The problem was, we already WERE roommates, except I was in love with him, and he wasn't with me. Hearing that the house was his biggest concern hurt me deeply. (I had offered to let him keep the house, but he couldn't afford it by himself)
I helped him look for apartments, frequently having to excuse myself as I would break down during the showings. I helped him move his furniture and belongings. However, even after all of this, we continued to spend time together. Movies, dinners, game nights.. I started to experience deep depression after each weekend we spent together. I sought counseling, and slowly I weaned myself from seeing him. I eventually limited myself to 2 hours per week. This made him very angry, even though he was not doing therapy, and wasn't working on the relationship at all.
I realized I was doing the right thing, but I was constantly in my head. How could I leave this person I loved so much. The intense back and forth battle in my head was ferocious. I kept going to counseling, and he helped me to sort those competing thoughts out. I had been maintaining this pristine image of my ex in my head, the facade he had created early on persisted in my mind, and I longed for that perfect person I once knew. Yet the person I know knew on my day to day was this twisted person who seemed foreign to me. It has taken several years for me to meld those two people into one person, the real person.
It's been 3 years since I left him this month. I haven't spoken to him in over a year now. It gets better. There have been days and weeks when I couldn't get out of bed, and felt like I couldn't go on. For a long period the cognitive dissonance was almost beyond what I could handle. I felt like I had passed into an alternate universe, having lost both my brother and my partner. I didn't recognize my life. I had to cut off most of our mutual friends to survive, because they couldn't respect my boundaries. So not only did I miss my ex, but I missed my friends as well.
Your life will collapse as you know it. However, it is this collapse that has to happen in order to build a new, better life. Kind of like a Phoenix, it has to burn before it can rise into it's final form. There were many dark days that I held onto that image in my mind as my depression and sadness raged. The more pain I felt, the more it felt like fire burning away my old life. Let it burn. Feel everything. If anyone who has read this far has been through anything similar, you know what I'm talking about. There is no way around the pain, so walk right through it and feel all of it. The only way around is through.
I truly believe I have been through this for a reason, for something better. This is preparation for what my future holds. I am not the same person now, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I used to fear that I would be alone forever, and it terrified me. Now, it doesn't terrify me as much, but I don't think I will be alone forever, I have a lot to offer.
It has taken a lot of time, but I know understand my ex to be a covert narcissist with BPD. I was manipulated throughout the relationship. I discovered so many lies he had told me during the aftermath of the breakup, it is astounding. I believed every word. When I initially asked him to move in with me, it turned out he had made up a story about his dad kicking him out, and said he couldn't afford an apartment by himself. We went and looked at apartments for several weekends, with him sad he couldn't afford it. It was all a manipulation to coherce me to ask him to move in. There are countless other mainpulations as well. Right before he moved out for the last time, in a moment of what seemed like honesty, he told me he had never loved me, and that he didn't know what love was, but he thought it was a weakness that people had. I still miss him every day, despite the things he did. I now understand that you can love someone, but it doesn't mean you have to keep them in your life.
I have spent the last 3 years learning about myself and improving myself. At 45, I'm in my best shape ever. I've always been athletic, but I took it to a new level. Find something that makes you feel better about yourself, and run with it. I'm planning on finally learning how to play guitar and learn Spanish. I've joined a softball team and a kickball team. You have a blank slate, paint with bright colors and paint a beautiful new life for yourself. Life looks totally different than it used to, but it's slowly beginning to feel like a life again. Dream big!

Hi all!
I have an outlet in my garage (only one besides garage door opener outlet) that was showing an open neutral signal and had about 30 volts difference between the live and neutral. I had an electrician out to look at it and he said that it was a faulty GFCI that was before it on the circuit. He replaced that and the outlet itself since they were pretty old.
It was fixed and was fine for about a month. It has has a fridge running off of it and a Dewalt battery charger. Today, the fridge light wasn't on so I checked the outlet and it shows 30 volts between live and neutral with an open neutral signal again. I checked the GFCI and it seems to trip just fine and reads 120 volts. The outlet after the GFCI and potentially before the garage (guessing due to distance) reads fine as well.
Any ideas? Do I need to contact the electrician again? Any way it could the something on the panel and not the outlet?

Instructors and students of Krav Maga always like to talk about situational awareness, and everyone is nodding along with each other as if they are experts in the subject. And then you will see most of them check their phone while walking from the gym to their car as the sun sets outside.
Here are 10 small changes you can make to improve your awareness of your surroundings, and therefore to make yourself less of a soft target.

1. Don't text or use your cellphone when going from your car to a building (or vice versa). Wait until you are safely in your vehicle (doors locked) or safely inside the building before texting or making a phone call. This allows you to pay attention to your surroundings and observe suspicious people. It puts you in a better position to fight back should you get attacked.
2. If you have to make a phonecall or text in a public place position yourself with back against a solid object such as a wall. This prevents surprise attacks from behind and it allows you to keep an eye on anyone approaching from the front. I think about this one every time I see a "someone was pushed onto the subway tracks in NYC story.
3. When approaching your car take notice of the cars around you. Is there anyone sitting in a car next to yours that seems suspicious or makes you feel uncomfortable? Go back into the store, work, school, etc. until they leave or notify the proper people of the suspicious person.
   1. As an addition to this, especially for women, keep looking for ways to get a glance at who/what is behind you when walking through a store, such as every time you walk from one aisle to the next in Walmart. When I was living and training in Oklahoma City (lots of turnpikes and interstates to get someone out of the city fast) I got to see several rolls of camera footage of groups stalking a single woman through a store and parking lot. It's unnerving at best to watch how they work together.
4. If you have young children, when entering (or exiting the vehicle) they should enter (or exit) on the same side as you. This helps to lessen the odds of someone in the next vehicle grabbing your child while you are on the other side of the vehicle putting your other child in their seat.
5. If you park in your driveway, don’t program the built in homelink garage door opener or leave a garage door opener in your vehicle. To gain access to your home all someone would have to do is break into the vehicle press the homelink (or garage door remote) button and they now have entry to your house. A simple device to solve the problem is using a keyfob style garage door opener. It attaches to your keyring and goes wherever you go.
6. When driving home you should take notice of the cacars behind you as you pull into your neighborhood. Has a car been following you for a while? Has this car been taking the same turns as you? If so drive past your home. Do not pull in. Pull into your driveway/garage only after you have determined it’s safe.
7. Don’t volunteer information. In our trusting society we are quick to answer questions and in many cases volunteer additional information. Example – 2 strangers walking dogs meet.. they engage in conversation that usually starts about each other’s dog.. then it goes to their children, ages, where they go to school, what their spouse does for a living,etc,etc,etc.. You get the idea. In less than 5 minutes you can build a profile on someone and have a good idea on their daily/weekly schedules. This also applies to OTHER people’s information. Don’t volunteer THEIR information to someone. You don’t own it. It’s not yours to give away freely. Profiling can usually be done through associates of the intended target.
8. Back in when parking. Makes for easier and faster get away. Sometimes a couple of seconds can make a difference.
9. Make note of exits when in a public place such as a restaurant, theater, etc. Sometimes the time involved searching for a way out is the difference between escaping unharmed or not. Obviously the door you came in is an exit.. as well as the back of the restaurant, theater, ,etc (there’s usually a backdoor in any business) and now it’s just a matter of noticing the other exits. And in the event of blocked exits,etc… you make your own – break out a window,etc.
10. The most important tip – make changes in your daily habits NOW. Implement the tips above into your day to day routine.

Don't let yourself be so hyper vigilant (and scared of every shadow including your own) that you are a miserable and paranoid person. Every now and then you might notice someone in a restaurant (for example) with nervous eyes analyzing every detail in the room. Don't be that person. Walk in, scan, and have a good time.

Unpacking the Light Police. Light Pollution News.
Show Link: https://lightpollutionnews.com/podcast/unpacking-the-light-police/
Subscribe: Apple Podcast Spotify Google Podcast
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Guests:
John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, LLC.
Kaitlyn Evans, Conservationist.
Show:
I was busted by the light police. They had a point, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post.
Dana Milbank purchased a home in, soon to be not, rural Virginia. At night he kept the formerly vacant property lit to the degree that spurned one commentator to call it “spaceship lighting.”
Milbank recaps being visited by the “light police,” a group of concerned citizens who help educate neighbors and instill a sense of pride in the brilliance of their starry night skies.
At first, he was taken aback, but later, not only did he appreciate their efforts, but he also converted his blinding always on, white light flood lights to warm 2700 Kelvin motion sensing lights.
Per Ruskin Hartley, executive director of the International Dark Sky Association, “for 4.5 billion years there was no artificial light at night. It’s really only in the last five human generations that we transformed that. It’s one of the most profound transformations of our environment.”
Many of you may recall an earlier story, way back in our Hormone of Darkness episode, showcasing concerns by local residents prior to a 760 house (now 761) plus town center development moving into the Culpepper County, VA area. Per the Rappahannock News, this development features “a resort style swimming pool, clubhouse, tot lot, and multiple sports fields and sports courts, all connected by a network of biking and walking trails.”
The forgotten medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’ by Zaria Gorvett of the BBC.
Gorvett opened my eyes to something I never knew about, the medieval custom of two sleeps. For those of you unaware, two sleeps are exactly what it sounds like.
Folks would partake in a communal nap, complete with rigid sleeping arrangement conventions, between 9 – 11pm, then awaken for a few hours to do everything from hang out to brew beer! In fact, the idea of multiple sleeps crossed cultures and was found in places as far from Europe as indigenous South America.
How can one’s circadian rhythm make sense of all of this?!
Well, for starters, until the invention of the alarm clock, which humorously was invented by a clocks salesman so he could wake up and sell more clocks, people had no firm way to wake up at a consistent time. The industrial revolution enforced a new circadian standard.
And there’s some science behind this! In the 1992 study, In Short Photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic, researcher Thomas Wehr found that after four weeks of 10 hour days, his subjects began to engage in this two sleep cycle, involving a one to three hour period for which they became awake and engaged in between.
Want to Learn About Light Pollution? There’s a mini-course for that!, Jennifer Sensiba of Clean Technica.
Quoting Sensiba, “As I got older, I traveled a lot more and saw the problem more for what it is. Not only did I see that in many places there is no refuge from it, but I also saw that it was slowly growing worse. Places that had been dark 30 years ago had more and more light creeping upon the horizon.”
If you’re interested in learning more, or more importantly, know someone who might benefit from learning more, Sensiba links up to an International Dark Sky Mini-Course on light pollution, call it Light Pollution 101!
There’s a Play Date at the National Museum of Natural History: Lights Out exhibit!
But unfortunately, by the time you listen to this, and hell, by the time we talk about this, it has passed.
Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan. Sarah Parlette for Click on Detroit.
Evidently gambling websites have decided to honor April’s International Dark Sky week in a strange new content marketing campaign, which was to rank the best places in each state to see sunrises and sunsets. My favorite one, “Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan,” comes from Click on Detroit, whereby a quote “study” examined Michigan’s most populated cities.”
According to Click on Detroit, “to celebrate International Astrology Day on Saturday, staff at Great Lake Stakes, a Michigan online gambling news site, looked at light pollution in the five most populated cities around the Mitten state to determine which offers the best views every morning and evening.”
Star bathing is the new outdoor travel trend we should all be trying for Summer 2023, according to Amy Beecham at Stylist.
Evidently, as an attempt to destress and promote mindfulness, romanticism about sleeping under the stars has birthed a 70% increase in searches for the term ‘star bathing’ on Hipcamp. And to be sure, “Hipcamp recommends checking a stargazing calendar which outlines major astrological events – like supermoons, pink moons, and star showers.”
“Industry Must Face an Inconvenient Truth — Most LED Lights at Night are Unhealthy”
Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a circadian clock expert, recently published an article in LEDs Magazine chastising the lighting industry for not recognizing and reigning in the negative externalities of its products. Per the piece, such effects are, obesity, diabetes, depression, cancer, and more.
He cites three categories of industry responses, making the correlation that long term Denial or outright Ignorance of the Facts, may result in “asbestos-scale liabilities or draconian regulations.”
Per the piece, a recent survey by the Circadian Light Research Center of 2,697 peer reviewed scientific articles confirmed that human circadian clocks are highly sensitive to blue wavelengths, and that exposure to such wavelengths leads to major health disorders.
Moore-Ede calls for the industry to harvest the “commercial opportunity” to greatly limit future liability by creating and managing its own standards for circadian modulated lighting.
Unpacking the Wallpack, by Dan Weissman in LD+A Magazine.
Weissman, who recently purchased a telescope for his family in Cambridge, MA, discovered that the scope could only afford him views of some solar system objects and a few brightly burning stars.
The ire of Weissman’s pen takes the shape of a rectangular fixtures, be it box like or simply a panel these days, that typically hang off the side of an exterior wall or above an exterior door. “Devoid of aesthetic value” this light is often put up under the “pretense of security and safety” by “recommended practices and adopted municipal codes.”
Weissman recognizes labels that often accompany, what he calls, “Glare bombs,” including “contractor-select,” “energy efficient,” or “light pollution friendly.”
Further, per an earlier LD+A article, such lighting driven by its extreme contrasts is exceedingly common in minority communities where light is weaponized as a tool of power. It becomes a “device of alienation, creating a zone of control and separation.”
Weissman recognizes that the true reason such fixtures are selected often comes down to cost. He recognizes that it may take equally as much cost to persuade building and homeowners away from such lighting into the realm of more responsible, lower lumen, shielded lighting.
Weissman calls for producers of these glare bombs to be labeled as polluters, putting them in line with fossil fuel manufacturers and PFAS makers.
Songbirds, dusk and clear skies: Scientists explore migratory flights, by Erin Blakemore.
Bird migration season is ending here in the Mid-Atlantic. I was lucky enough to catch several Baltimore Orioles and Indigo Buntings last week. Researchers looked at 400 songbirds from 9 major species, “including the yellow-rump warbler, American redstart and Bicknell’s thrush.”
The question they hoped to answer was how are these birds so darn precise in identifying the best time to take off for their nightly migration? Scientists found that 90% of the migrating birds in the study took off within 69 minutes of dusk. A “much narrower takeoff window,” that even shocked the research team!
Per the study, taking off at night is all about maximum flight time. In addition to being able to precisely schedule their take offs, a feat that every airline I’ve flown with over the past few years has proven inept at, birds also are apparently good meteorologists! They often depart when the atmospheric pressure rises over a day’s span. Other factors also trigger migration, including sex, age, and celestial cues.
‘Lights Out’ initiative appears to be saving birds from crashing into Philly buildings by Sophia Schmidt.
Preliminary results indicate that bird death counts are down 70% at one Market Street tower, since it began its participation in Lights Out. As we spoke about on a previous show, birds utilize the stars to navigate, but city lights can disorient the birds. Combine the lights with reflective or transparent glass, and that spells fatal trouble for our migrating warblers!
Per Keith Russell, a program manager for urban conservation with Audubon Mid-Atlantic, “We’ve lost almost a third of our birds – and [collisions] contributing to that. If we’re going to want to preserve the bird populations here in North America, we have to look at these types of problems. And this is a preventable one.”
The Knoxville, TN Zoo is offering up what they call “Twilight Tours” per WVLT 8. Each event will feature a guide to showcase nocturnal critters.
I did something similar in Singapore years ago. The zoo had very dim lights in the exhibits – and they kept those lights dim as you walked so that you didn’t lose your night vision. It was a very different and, might I say, peaceful experience than the typically chaotic daytime zoo.
Flashlights posing major threat to nesting sea turtles. Fox35 Orlando
Apparently, a single flashlight can deter female sea turtles from coming onto a beach and nesting. Florida, as I did not know, is home to 90% of the sea turtle nests across the world, so losing sea turtles can affect the global ecosystem.
One visitor to Cocoa Beach stated, “Just leave them alone. Stand back and look. You don’t need a flashlight.”
Another, “It’s not super surprising because more buildings go up, more technology. As it increases, nature and stuff like that decreases,” said Zoe Jovaag, whose grandfather used to take her on walks to see sea turtles.
Capture the Dark 2023 officially is under way!
The International Dark Sky Association opens up its annual photo contest complete with prizes across eight categories and an additional People’s Choice category. Voting begins on July 3rd, entries must be received by June 30th.
City Tests Traffic Light That Only Turns Green for Drivers Who Obey the Speed Limit. Erin Marquis for Jalopnik.
And hey, you better not speed in Brossard, Quebec….otherwise you may be waiting around for a while. Brossard is testing out a new traffic light that will stay red until it senses oncoming traffic. However, it will only change to green if the car is going the speed limit. Per the Jalopnik article, “FRED [the French acronym for “educational traffic calming light] forces fast drivers to stop and gives them a chance to reconsider their life choices.” Such lights are already used in Europe, but this will be the first for the Great White North.
Why the Greatest Threat to Star-Gazing Isn’t Light Pollution, and this comes to us from Dorin Elin Urrutia at Inverse.
Elin Urrutia writes, in her compelling piece, that the greatest threat to star-gazing is actually the weather. Citing notable examples of the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia (which burnt down due to bushfires) and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (which sustained structural damage following the winds of Hurricane Maria).
While the threat of human-caused climate change has presented new challenges, Elin Urrutia references proactive burns that saved Los Angeles’ Mount Wilson Observatory from flames in 2020.
On a similar note, ABC News (the Australian Broadcasting Company, not to be confused with the American Broadcasting Company), brings us “A World Without Darkness Could Be a Reality within a Few Years.”
Per Carol Redford of Astrotourism Western Australia, “There are some people in the world now who don’t actually experience darkness anymore. They’re in a city like Beijing, Toyoko, or London. In all those big cities, it’s never dark, it’s always light. During the day of course with the sun, but then during the night with all of the artificial light. They’re not experiencing darkness, and definitely not seeing those beautiful stars…”
In the 66 years since the implementation of the UN Convention on the Peaceful Use of Outerspace, around 11,000 satellites orbit the Earth. But it’s about to get wayyy busier. Driven by innovations that have led to dramatic reductions in costs, over the next ten years, Per attorney Steven Freeland, it’s anticipated that somewhere between 100,000 to 500,000 objects will be sent up. Let me pause on that for a second.
On the travel front, we stay in the land down under, “Aussie region determined to keep its darkness is a stargazer’s dream” by Chantelle Francis of News.com.AU.
The town of Swam Reach, population 270, resides in a 3200sq km region of Southern Australia that received its International Dark Sky Reserve status over three years ago. On a scale of darkness between 0 – 22, the River Murray Dark Sky Reserve at Swam Reach, measures in at a whopping 21.9!
Tourism has become a growing business. The reserve hosts numerous telescope pads and offers tours of the night sky. There’s hope that an observatory and/or planetarium may also arrive in due course.
Best smart lights for outdoors in 2023, Brittney Vincent of CBS Essentials.
Oh there’s a lot not to love here, but it does fall in line with last month’s ‘Lumens are Coming’ article.
For those of you who feel the need to light your trees, because for some reason they need light at night I guess…I’ll try and pretend it’s not solely for ostentatious and narcissistic reasons. By the way, does anyone remember when those were negative characteristics?
The article features spotlights that can be programmed to over 16 MILLION colors including…lucky for us, ALL shades of white….which you can also do for a 500 lumen flood light set.
And hey, Ring now has solar path lighting. Don’t worry though, the fixtures themselves put out up to 80 lumens of sideways light.
You know, it’s astounding when you look at some of these pictures. The amount of redundant lighting. It honestly makes no sense to me. You have a porch light, which lights up the path. Path lighting, which lights up the path. And, in the one picture, god awful frontward facing flood lights, which also light up the path. How bright do you need these paths!? I digress. But the lumens are indeed coming.
LDS Church will get to light up its Heber Valley Temple after all, but the faith didn’t get everything it wanted, Blake Apgar of the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fought hard to rid itself of any nighttime lighting responsibility by pressuring Wasatch County, Utah officials to approve new lighting rules that would enable the church to light a proposed new temple the same way it does for every other temple.
The Church received permission to uplight the temple, enabling an exception to be made in Wasatch’s rather stringent nighttime lighting rulebook. However, the temple will be restricted by the level of lumens it can use, and it must have exterior lighting turned off an hour after sunset or an hour after normal business hours.
Smart Street Lights Market is Expected to Hit USD 14,751.1 million at a 23.4% CAGR by 2030, Market Research Future Press Release
The pandemic is officially over, smart street lighting is about to boom. Combine the rush to LED fixtures with the Internet of Things, and expect to see street lights moonlighting as traffic and parking monitors, air quality meters, and more. Not to mention, “it is anticipated that camera-connected smart street lighting will increase road safety by lowering the likelihood of accidents and criminality.”
Texas now has 7 dark sky communities for spectacular star gazing, Sana Ameer, MRT.
Let’s cheer on the city of Bee Cave, everyone! Bee Cave joins a growing list of dark sky places already in the Lone Star State, including 2 Dark Sky Sanctuaries, 5 Dark Sky Parks, and 1 Dark Sky Reserve. Nighttime is alive and well in some parts of Texas!
Our Afraid of the Dark article is a bit scary! Hilton Head’s dark roads and pedestrians are deadly combo. What the town is doing about it, Blake Douglas at The Island Packet.
Per the article, 9 pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occurred since 2018, with five occurring after dark. Prior to that period, there were 28 recorded deaths from 2000 – 2016, with 20 of them taking place after dark.
In 2018, an 11 year old resident was struck and killed while walking her dog across an intersection one night. Lighting advocates began taking shape in what otherwise is a very conservation focused island. Hilton Head, SC has a limited number of street lights, priding itself on “avoiding light pollution and blending nature with construction.”
Lighting advocates appear to be, at the very least, asking for flashing crosswalk lights on the island to indicate when an individual is crossing.
It should be noted that the article shows a chart of 9 after-dark-deaths since 2014, only two of them occurred at crosswalks. In fact, during the same time frame, 6 additional deaths occurred at crosswalks during the daytime.
As a whole, the National Safety Council reports that 74.5% of pedestrian deaths occurred at night, whereby 39.1% took place in lit areas and 35.38% took place in unlit areas.
Bryan Bloch, an auto safety expert, surmises that car companies bear some of the blame – producing cheap or ineffectual headlight fixtures, and drivers themselves, who don’t realize that they need to regularly clean their headlight lenses.
Despite opposition from residents, it appears that Hilton Head will be receiving lights at two new intersections and possibly more depending on engineering studies currently in progress.
Is lighting the key variable here? Is more light going to solve pedestrian deaths?
Our featured research article of the month comes to us from Animal Conservation, “Manipulating spectra of artificial light affects movement patterns of bats along ecological corridors.”
Bats are already known to have a wide range of responses to artificial light at night (also known as ALAN). Fast flying species tend to be more opportunistic in the presence of ALAN while slower ones tend to be more light averse. We know that “long wavelengths and reduced intensity” can minimize their environmental effects on bats. It’s not unheard of for bats to travel upwards of “tens of km per night.” Furthermore, bats are very dependent on the landscape and the structures within those landscapes.
Despite the nuances between species, the consensus is that ALAN, especially high intensity ALAN, negatively affects bats. This study attempted to answer what exactly bats do when they encounter ALAN – how do they react depending on different types of ALAN.
The study used three different light fixtures – one green, one red, and one white. The control was devoid of light fixtures. The researchers attempted to ascertain the behavior of bats as they encountered lights adjacent to woody areas. The researchers looked at three different bat groupings based on their foraging-echo location behavior, that being one of open field foraging, forest edge foraging, and narrow space – or more aptly forest foragers.
Researchers found that open and edge foraging bats increased their activity close to white and green lights, and to a lesser extent red lights. However, narrow space bats were more likely to veer away from all colors of lighting. Edge foragers were also less likely to cross a white light.
The positive effects of white and green light on open and edge foraging bats appear to be attributed to the accumulation of insects around light sources containing more blue light.
The nighttime sky over Oahu will be lit up with green lasers in the coming days. Here’s why. Hawaii News Now
Before we close up today, do you live in Hawaii? I know I wish I did!
If so, do you recall seeing green lasers streak across the night sky? Well, the Army Corps of Engineers was using lidar at night to complete a coastal mapping survey.
Why did they survey at night? Specifically, why did they do this between midnight to 5am? Simply b/c the airspace is so busy, that time was the only chance they had to complete the survey. The remaining survey was completed during daytime hours.

Sometimes if I set the alarm, open the garage door, and haven’t closed it again by the time the alarm is set, the alarm goes off. Not the regular chime where you have plenty of time to shut it off, but the one that actually sends an alert to the company and to the police. I’m in a wheelchair, so this means that I have to set the alarm, get to the car, get everything in the car, and have it closed much faster than I’m able to.
This isn’t a consistent problem, and when looking through the list of sensors I can’t find one for the overhead (garage) door. So, i have no idea what the issue could possibly be. Does anyone have a clue as to what the problem is?

I’m actually sick to death hearing about motorbikes being stolen and people saying: “I put the steering lock on” “It was kept in a garage” “I only popped in for a minute” “I didn’t hear anything”
My Nan could pop a steering lock, it’s not difficult or loud. Please buy a disc lock and a budget alarm at best. That will deter some thieves. Even the cheap alarm will have back up batteries and cause a problem. You can link them to your batter if you don’t want to spend money or a garage can wire it to the ignition. It’s hard to stop the white van pulling up and throwing your pride and joy in the van if you don’t have a chain and padlock attached to an anchor or lamp post, but it will at least stop the petty moped gangs. I have abus disc lock front that spins when you try to grind it, a cheap oxford rear disc lock, abus heavy duty padlock with 18mm thick chain with chain cover (want 22mm ideally does cost a lot more) around the rear wheel to a lamp post and another chain through the swing arm, plus a cover and cheap alarm plus Honda HISS immobiliser. If they are honestly going through that then I’m going to hear it. If you have a garage like I did and they got in for my dirt bikes I had 6 chains and padlocks which they couldn’t get through. Happened to be the one night I was drunk and left the alarm off but took them two hours to get no where caught on cctv. That’s another thing cctv just records it happening are you going to get a notification to wake you when the motion goes off on your ring camera… probably not. Alarm your sheds, garages and bikes!! Lock your shit up and don’t think out of site out of mind!!! People get followed and drummed at a later date. If it’s in site lock that shit up!!! To something that can’t be moved. 5 bikes in one week have gone in my area to stupid moped thieves. I don’t care if you have ridden for years or just started out head the word always lock your motorbikes up!!!! Doesn’t matter if you in the village, town or city same rules apply.
I do love my bikes but it’s disheartening seeing all these bikes being stolen when they shouldn’t be. Yes I would love to live in a country where I can leave my bike out side with no security, but unfortunately we don’t. If anyone even attempts to say their quaint little village has zero crime don’t bother reply you will get followed on a ride and your bike will get stolen from your garage door picked with a spam tin opener key, with your no chain anchored bike, with zero alarm.

“Greetings once again, my esteemed admiral! I do hope your journey planetside was not too uncomfortable?”
Admiral Singh, Solarian Navy, smiled warmly “Not to worry, my pilots are finally getting the hang of the local weather, we were able to avoid the worst of it.”
The last 14 days had finally given the translation software enough data to allow more or less seamless face to face translations, helped along by collaboration by the humans to explain any intractable words, and now works pretty smoothly with only the occasional mis-step or failure on uncommon words. The Humans referred to these as ˈhɪkʌps, which was a delightful word. While Imperial and human vocal chords did not really allow each race to speak the others language, their hearing ranges did overlap well enough that unaided conversation would possible with each speaking their native tongue (or at least his chief xeno linguist, Mer’es, assured him it was)
As the pair walked down the awning-covered path into the drilling rig’s interior, Himdo, whose mood had been so melancholy just moments before, realised with bemusement that he actually rather liked the demon walking beside him. While their first communications had been frosty and perfunctory, dealing with the logistics of moving the hundreds of thousands of orbital workers planetside without giving the Terrans reason to suspect foul play, they had begun to warm to each other as the translation software lessened the burden of communication.
​
The Admiral was, in turned out, a pretty reasonable man. The human reminded him of many of the Imperial navy officers he’d met out on the Frontier: professional, quick-thinking, willing to bend the letter of the rules to adhere to the spirit. In another lifetime, he’d have been happy to have such a capable man as his subordinate.
“Its good to hear that” Himdo said smoothly. The exterior doors closed, deadening the ever-present sound of rain, and they continued though the halls of the drilling rig, their entourages following behind, to a meeting room. “Please tell me you brought some more of that tiː you served last time?”
The Admiral bared his teeth in a gesture that Himdo’s translator labelled as happiness “But of coruse, my Dear Lord Commander. Since we landed first, I took the liberty of preparing some for you.” The meeting room had two tables, the main one, and a small one off to the side where several cups of various sizes, all full of steaming hot tea, were waiting. Admiral Singh took a small cup, while Himdo took a much larger one, easily the size of the humans head.
Himdo took a sip, and savoured the taste. He’d been offered some of this tea at their first face to face meeting, and had politely declined, citing possible biochemical concerns. His scientists had checked the drink, though, and confirmed it was basically inert, as far as imperial biology was concerned, so he tried some on his next meeting, and discovered it was quite nice tasting. Herbal drinks were uncommon in Imperial culture, as the Imperials were obligate carnivores, but Himdo could see this one becoming popular.
Himdo swallowed and gestured to Dal’ton, who came foreword with a ornate bottle, which he proffered to the admiral as he sat down on a chair (another intresting human custom. Imperial anatomy was much more comfortable standing that sitting, so chairs were relatively uncommon. After the first in person meeting, the humans had brought their own chairs with them).
“As a small gesture of gratitude for introducing me to this delightful beverage, allow me to return the favour.”
Admiral Singh removed the stopper, and gave a deep red liquid inside cursory sniff. It smelled like a neat spirit of some sort.
“This is blood-mead. Fermented honey, from an insect species native to the Homeworld. Don’t worry, the name is for the colour, its contains no actual blood. My biochemists assure me it is safe for you to Drink” Himdo explained. “But I will not be offended if you choose to wait for your own scientists to make that assertion.”
Admiral Singh gave it another sniff, then turned to one his aides and muttered something. A spare tea cup was brought over and Singh poured a small amount of the mead into it. “Unfortunately, Lord Commander, my religion prohibits me form drinking alcohol. However, I graciously accept this gift in the spirit that it was intended. Captain Gregor here. However…” the admiral gestured to the aide, who picked up the cup “Has NO such prohibitions” the Captain, who was tall by human standards, knocked the shot of mead back in a single gulp and put the cup back on the table.
The captain made a face Himdos translator labelled as “thoughtful”, then nodded in affirmation. “Oh, that’s lovely, real nice aftertaste. The lads at the mess will love that. Thank you, Lord Commander” Gregor said and stepped back. Himdo noticed in his accent, a soft burr compared to the clipped, precise tones of the Admiral.
Admiral Singh smiled again, then lent forward. “So” he began, in a tone that indicated the start of business. “Did the latest courier from Ti’an bring any new instructions from your superiors?”
Part of Himdo’s strategy to stall for time had been to claim that, as a lowly lord commander in charge of a backwater sector, he lacked the authority to make any binding decisions without recourse to a distant superior based on Ti’an. This was several shades of half-truth.
While Himdo was the Lord High Commander of the Spinward Domain, he was also the Lord Commander of Parbat Sector, as the previous incumbent had died in a shuttle crash shortly before the discovery of the humans, and Himdo had inherited that title and responsibility until the Court bothered to send him a replacement. As Parbat sector governor, he was, in normal circumstances, much too junior to have any treaty he signed be recognised by the Imperial Court.
The little detail that his “superior” based at Ti’an was, in fact, himself, was beside the point. It let him play for time.
That particular ruse had run its course, though. The reinforcements he’d been holding out for had been diverted to “more pressing” matters than some minor xenos incursion that had taken control of a sector capital. Himdo was privately sure the ships hadn’t been diverted, but rather, one of his rivals had managed to stall their deployment in the hopes he’d have to formally surrender, further shaming himself and paving the way for them to fly over and “fix his mess”. Well, it was time to disappoint them.
“Actually, yes, it did. I have been authorised ‘resolve the situation to our satisfaction, in the manner you best see fit.’ “ Himdo informed the admiral, and the human made a face his translator labelled as “disgust”.
“They hung you out to dry?” Singh asked incredulously. “No directions, no bounds of acceptable trade, nothing? Just an order to ‘do it right or else’?”
“Indeed” himdo said, mildly surprised that the admiral had instantly understood the unspoken part of his instructions. Clearly, human office politics were just as vicious and cut-throat as Imperial politics.
The admiral made a sour face. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way Lord Commander, but is any treaty we sign here going to be actually worth anything? It sounds rather like your superiors are washing their hands of the situation and are going to repudiate any agreement you make.”
Himdo bowed in acknowledgement, for it was a fair question. Trickery was going to get him little, so candor would have to suffice.
“Yes, it will be worth something. Because In addition to being Lord Commander of this sector, I am Lord HIGH Commander of the Spinward Domain. There are less than a hundred servants of the Emperor that rank equal or higher to me, and short of a direct command form one of them, my word is law within my domain.” Himdo explained. “While I cannot guarantee that the Imperial Court will honour it indefinitely, I can say that so long as I hold that office, no imperials you will encounter will breach any treaty we make.”
The Admiral sat back in his chair, his face thoughtful. “How long will you be in office?”
Another fair question, and again one where the truth would strengthen his position.
Himdo made a noncommittal gesture. “Truthfully? That depends entirely on how well I do in these negotiations. It could be a matter of weeks if the Court doesn’t like it, it could be several cycles if they are satisfied.”
Himdo reached into a pouch on his belt, and removed a small viewing device. He placed it on the table. “I propose the following: The Great and Bountiful Empire recognises the Gar’an system, known to you as the Chantry system, as human space. The Empire will maintain a small mission to the system, to facilitate diplomatic and trade relations. I will return the remains of the colonists and any personal items we took. In return, the Solarian Confederacy agrees to widthdarw its ships form this system, leave the orbital infrastructure intact, and that no human ship shall advance further Trailing than a line form Gar’an to the galactic Core. The Empire shall likewise agree to refrain form travelling Spinward of the same line. Additionally, the Empire will extend the status of Honoured Partner State to the Solomani Confederation”
Admiral Singh opened his mouth to say something, but Himdo raised a true-hand to stall him. “Yes, that’s a fancy title for a client state. On it’s own, its only means we recognise that your government is the legitimate government of that area, and your head of state as the sovereign lord of that space. All other details of our relationship are defined in separate treaties.”
Admiral Singh nodded in understanding, but said “your making remarkably few concessions for someone whose has a hostile fleet in orbit.”
Himdo shifted his weight slightly. He felt he’d gained some degree of understanding about the man over these last 14 days, and he was about to gamble heavily on that understanding.
“Yes, you do control orbital space” Himdo acknowledged. “and you could destroy the facilities here. Doing so would likely prevent any serious counter-attack by us for at least 5 cycles. However, your fleet is badly damaged and you have several cripples that will never get home without our help. And while we couldn’t mount an invasion, we could still launch multiple highly destructive raids into your space. How many of your other colonies are you willing to see burn, how many of your citizens, and mine, are we willing to let die before we sit down again for the next talk?“
The Admiral looked off to the side slightly, his eyes unfocused as he considered what the Imperial had pointed out to him.
Honoured ancestors, Himdo thought, Let him see reason. Just this *once*, let everyone walk away form this alive.
The admiral nodded, once, then stood up and took the viewing device. “I will need to consult with my superiors about this” he said, and Himdo noted with interest this almost certainly meant that he had at least one FTL comm system with his fleet “but I’m reasonably certain I can convince them you’ve been suitably chastised to satisfy public opinion. I believe your terms are acceptable”
The admiral walked around the table, and extended his hand to Himdo. Himdo looked down at it for a second until his translator system indicated he should offer his own hand reciprocally.
As he reached out to shake the admirals hand, the exterior window of the conference room suddenly lit up with a blinding light, and a heartbeat later, exploded into a millions shards.
Previous Chapter: introspection
This is part 7 of my ongoing work, the First Rift war. Part one is Post-Mortem.

Amid a galaxy of brutal chaos there are stories to be told, tales of valor and justice, of fear and despair. But amid these stories are the guttering flames of adventures untold, the potential for a universe of entertainment and savage joyous fun. The Oblivion Cycle embodies just this kind of crafted chaos, creating the potential for creative exploits and raucous tales. If you are new to the TOC setting feel free to join the community at TheOblivionCycle to check out some of the background lore or to discuss themes with other readers. I thank you all for your support and continued willingness to read, as always, Please Enjoy!
+ Part 1 + Previous + Next +
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Continued From Part 6
Dr. Abernathy threw up her hands in frustration again as the infuriatingly smug cyborg in front of her gave yet another counter explanation as to his actions.
“I’m just saying, I had the opportunity to test the system, aren't you happy that we found my breaking limit? I mean, what if I need to jump to save myself in the future, now I know how high is too high.” Abel explained, immobile on his charging platform.
Dr. Abernathy shook her large furred head and huffed “No, I am not happy. You destroyed valuable equipment for a stupid reason. And yes I am glad you are okay, but I can’t just slap a new pair of legs on you whenever I feel like it. They need to be precisely calibrated and attuned to your individual nervous system.”
Abel looked a little taken aback “But, that's the point of cybernetics right, that they are replaceable?”
“Replaceable yes, but you are more than simple cybernetics. Your limbs are more like mechanical reproductions of your preexisting limbs. More like mechanical bionics than true cybernetics, truly one of a kind. And so, much more difficult to replace.” She said with a sad headshake.
At the corner of the room another voice interrupted “So, you can fix him though right doctor?”
She turned and saw the slim nerivith man sitting at one of her workstations. It was Abel’s new partner, what was his name? Bittu, she mused idly. He was partially responsible for this disaster. “And you, you should have stopped him from doing something so moronic. Don’t think you are getting out of here without a lecture either.”
Bittu ducked his head and raised a submissive hand before attempting to hide behind her consoles again.
She sighed heavily and turned back to Abel. His legs had been entirely removed and his movements once more inhibited so he wouldn't injure himself further. “I have been doing some testing after this incident with new models. I think I might have found a way to strengthen your leg joints to withstand that kind of pressure.” she held up a hand before he could speak. “Note, I am not authorizing more of your moronic behavior, but I will try to prevent such catastrophic failure of your hardware if such an event were to occur again.”
Abel smiled at her widely. “Why thank you Dr. Abby, I sure do appreciate it.”
She shook her head and looked back at the pink skinned man trying to disappear into the corner of the room. Gesturing towards Officer Xeem she said “You, come over here.”
Bittu stood jerkilly, the pink nerivith’s sinuous tail twitching in consternation. Nevertheless the man did approach and stop a couple meters from where she was working on Abel.
“Yes doctor?” he asked her. His face looked like that of a chastised child in her eyes.
She made a point of saying nothing for another few seconds and smiled inwardly as the man’s long tufted tail betrayed his nerves. Finally she spoke “Abel is a very valuable and expensive asset to this station and indeed this whole city. I want you to assure me you will treat them with the utmost respect.” the man nodded and she added “That also means keeping an eye on him as he is prone to do very illogical things in the name of proving a point.”
Bittu smiled slightly and looked up at her much taller form “Yes ma’am. I have started to notice that.”
Abel spoke up next “Hey, I’m right here next to you guys you know? I can take care of myself.” the cybernetic human said a little petulantly.
She shook her great furred head. “No, you can’t. You have proven that on multiple occasions. That’s the reason we had to stick you with a partner in the first place. If you can't take care of yourself we may have to reassign your partners to someone more suited to keeping you in one piece.” she threatened. Part of her hurt to say such harsh things to the otherwise sweet man, but it needed to be said and she had never been accused of holding back the truth before.
Abel looked a bit taken aback by the comment. “I won't be... But you can’t do that. I have a job to do, I am a part of the system. You can’t just pull me out of it whenever it suits you.”
She stopped him with an upraised hand, her datapad held low to her side as she tried to reassure him “Not me Abel. The ones I work for, you know that I'm just as much a pawn here as you are.” she glanced at the nerivith man still standing a little ways away. “Like we all are.”
Bittu raised a hand and asked “Wait, I’m not a part of this.”
Abel frowned, his head immobile and unable to move. “No, she’s right Bittu. You are a part of this now whether you like it or not. It’s too late, Tegu must have known. Why you Bittu? Why out of everyone in the precinct did you get chosen?” she heard him ask the man.
It was a good point, the two of them seemed to work together well yes, but not enough so to justify special treatment. She found herself staring at Bittu in curiosity.
He looked like he had just been asked what kind of death he would prefer, his face a mix of doubt and confusion. “I.. don’t know? I was a senior officer not on special assignment and in need of a partner.”
Abel said “Well, it doesn't matter. We are partner’s, and I won't abandon my duty Abby.” he said, his casual use of her name sparking a little tingle of delight in her mind. She suppressed it.
Tinkering with the machine she finished up on his repairs and said “Ok, these repairs will hold for general operations, but please, no jumping out of buildings or such nonsense. Once we get my new designs installed you will be better able to fulfill your strange heroic fantasies, but until then take it easy ok Abel?”
Abel smiled at her as she unlocked his body. He stepped down from the recharge station and flexed his legs. He nearly stumbled and she had to catch him to prevent him falling on his face.
“Whoa! These new legs are a little different than the other ones.” He leaned on her lower torso for support and her mind went a little wild with imagined ideas, which she once more quickly suppressed. By the Five what was happening to her. She was acting as if there was any chance of a relationship between them.
Shaking her head slightly to clear it she helped Abel to his feet and used her datapad to check for calibration issues. To her dismay there didn’t seem to be any, she cocked her head and frowned. Her ears twitched as she tried to understand what had caused him to stumble then.
Abel stood and pretended to dust himself off and said ‘Well, uh, I think it's working now. I seem to be doing fine now, must have just been temporary paralysis.”
She frowned again, strange. Bittu piped up “Oh that’s good. We can get back to work now.”
Abel smiled and grabbed his helmet before turning to her and saluting “I thank you again fair lady. I’ll try not to break these ones.”
She found herself smiling, his demeanor always making her feel a little better about the whole situation. At least he didn’t seem to be suffering. She gave him a wave as they exited the door, a little sad that she hadn’t thought of anything witty to say. Nevermind all that, she had a lot of work to get done if she was going to provide the man with improved legs.
**********
Abel was suffering. Internally his mind was shattered by the phantom pain and the lack of true sensation. The terrible effects of the deadly condition known as the hollow trying to break his mind. He looked at the lanky alien walking next to him and latched onto his duty to him. Bittu needed him, he couldn't succumb to the pain when there were people on this world that still needed his help. Help that only he could provide.
Bittu glanced at him and frowned “Hey are you okay Abel? Those new legs of yours sure are neat. I wonder if I could get something similar done.” the man joked.
Abel blurted out “No!” He stopped in his tracks as he uttered the word, Bittu treaded a few more steps before stopping and turning to look at him.
“Hmm? What’s the big deal, I was just messing around Abel. Are you sure you are okay?” the nerivith man said a bit anxiously, his arms raised in a questioning manner.
Abel nodded stiffly and said “I am well enough to get back to work Bittu, I am.” He added as the other man looked ready to disagree.
Bittu shrugged and continued walking, Abel falling in by the smaller man’s side. “Well Mr. Look at me I'm so tough, we are not heading back out on patrol. Now before you ask why, it’s because we have a friend waiting for us in interrogation. Usually I like to get to them quick, hit the iron while it’s hot you know?” The man said rhetorically.
Abel said “But I'm guessing you were waiting for me to get put back together. I apologize again for the inconvenience.” he said a little dejectedly.
Bittu slapped him on the shoulder and then winced as his alloy armour must have hurt the man’s hand. “I, no. It’s perfectly fine buddy. We are just letting the fucker stew a bit, by the time we get there he will be sweating bullets. Nothing good ever comes from a long pre-interrogation wait. It usually means we have a lot of shit on you.”
Abel nodded and said “I guess that makes sense. What do we have on them?”
Bittu dodged a blood splattered Havoc trooper and shook his fist at the power armoured figure who didn’t even seem to notice. “Fuckin prick… Lords I hate those guys. They think they are so superior. Bah, anyways, your question… Right! Well, to be completely honest not very much. We know his name and checked it against his gene profile. His list of known associates is shorter than my love life.” he said with a chuckle.
Abel cocked his head and asked “So, we don't have anything on him but assault and the attempted murder of a police officer?”
Bittu sighed and said “Well, technically we don’t even have that. You knocked him out before he ever fired off a shot, so all we have is a single case of breaking and entering and assault and battery charges. Not enough to burn him, barely even enough to hold him for interrogation.” the man grumbled.
They turned a corner and were suddenly in a different part of the station. The walls were armour plated and lined with heavy metal doors. Cameras were present along every flat stretch of wall and several armed officers patrolled the hall, looking a little bored.
It was one of the interrogation blocks of the Hollow Pass precinct. Abel looked through several of the doors as they passed but saw nothing. The doors were airlocked to minimize chances of prisoner escape and the rooms were adjoining so the prisoners were totally isolated from the outside. That combined with one-way glazmite mirrors and it was futile to try and guess as to their occupants.
Bittu led them past another dozen rooms before stopping at one labeled as interrogation room twenty four, block sixteen. Following the nerivith man inside they entered into a small side chamber that had two doors. One said interrogation and the other was labeled observation.
Bittu motioned for him to take the observation booth and he did so, opening the door and entering the small dark room. Inside were a few chairs and table as well as an entire wall of recording equipment. Abel didn't bother with the equipment, he was as good a recorder as the machines were, maybe better as he could understand inflection and test to see if they were lying via their biometrics.
He sat at one of the folding metal chairs and it creaked ominously. Ignoring the chair’s dire warning he directed his attention to the one way glazmite mirror. Inside a small white room with his hands cuffed to the table was Thaee. The diminutive swanith man looked a little worse for wear. His chin was stained light green with dried blood and his feathers were in need of a preening session, dirty and rumpled as they were.
The man looked up sharply as Bittu walked in, the door closing with a heavy thud behind him. Thaee made a low warbling sound of discomfort as Bittu stood directly across from him. Bittu had been carrying a folder of mostly blank papers that he dropped flat onto the surface of the table with a loud slap causing the shackled avian man to jump.
Bittu then pulled out his chair and sat, taking time to adjust his uniform and hair as if he had all the time in the world. All the while Thaee was getting more and more nervous, his golden eyes flicking to the folder over and over, likely wondering what information it contained.
Now to be fair Bittu had managed to dig up some information on the man while Abel had been getting his repairs done. It wasn't much but if Bittu played the cards right he might just be able to leverage the rest out of the man without him even realizing he was giving them new information.
Bittu sat up straight and then started to stare at the nervous criminal, Thaee getting more and more jittery as the seconds passed by. Finally Bittu reached for the folder and dragged it to him.
Thaee burst out suddenly “I didn’t do anything man, you have no right to hold me here!”
Bittu raised a single eyebrow and said nothing, instead just opening the folder in such a manner that the other man couldn't see its contents. He flipped through a few of the random pages as if he was looking over some complex dossier on the man.
Thaee again said “You have nothing against me, you can’t hold me like this. I want a lawyer.”
Bittu nodded and said “Alright then, we will get you a lawyer. But as you were apprehended at an active crime scene and we have all the evidence we need to put you away it won't do you any good. All it’s going to do is drain your bank account and leave you destitute in prison.” he said with a certain amount of grim confidence.
Thaee looked around and said “Hey, you didn’t read me my rights! What kind of place are you running here?”
Bittu checked his chest and said “Oh shit, what do you know, my bodycam seems to have malfunctioned. And so has our recording equipment? Oh bummer, well, that's just a terrible thing now isn't it… Friend.” the nerivith said menacingly.
The swanith scrunched inwards, trying to make themselves look small and pitiful. It didn't work.
Instead Bittu asked “So, are you listening? Because this is how it is going to be. I tell you a name and you confirm the information I have or it's going to get bad for you. You lie to me and I might have to bring in my associate.” Bittu said, jerking his head towards the two way glazmite Abel was sitting behind.
It was at that exact moment that the chair Abel had chosen decided to give up the ghost and collapsed, dumping him straight on his armoured ass. The thud must have made it into the interrogation room as the swanith man jerked in terror and exclaimed.
“That thing is here? Is it watching?” Thaee tried to pull away but was held fast by their handcuffs.
Bittu frowned slightly but continued on saying “So I will do you this favor. You were read your rights when you were brought into the precinct, I am not required to read them to you again as I was your arresting officer. Between the two of us, I don’t give a fuck about you. I could cut you loose onto the street with a probation if you do the right thing here. And that is to tell me what I want to confirm.” Bittu said, manipulating the man's fears to pry the information they sought out of him.
Thaee nodded and said “But if I talk then I am going to have a target on my back.”
“And what if you were to be thrown in prison with the rumor that you spilled your guts to us huh? How long do you think you would last in that situation? At least I'm giving you even odds of a comfortable existence.” Bittu said with a shrug. “Enough chit-chat. Tell me about Mr. Zaplin. What was the point of the hit?”
Abel had stood and moved closer to the window to get a better view, the remains of his previous seat scattered about behind him.
Thaee paused and then spoke slowly. “I don’t know him. But that wasn't important for the job. I was hired.. to do a job and that's all. We were just supposed to shake the man and get the money. But…” he trailed off.
Bittu picked up, closing the folder and saying “But, he couldn't pay. And so you and the boys roughed him up as a warning. But it looks like your friend Craig was a little too rough. Yeah, I saw the claw marks on the man's face. Pretty brutal by the looks of it.”
The small feathered alien winced, clearly not liking the memory either. “I wasn't responsible for any of that. I was not part of the.. of the roughing.”
Bittu tsked and asked “Do you have any proof of your noninvolvement? He is pressing charges, and they are currently all directed at you. Two counts of first degree assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, a battery charge. Harsh to be sure, a minimum of six years in the vault. An upstanding citizen like yourself, adding the kidnapping and harm to a minor charges on top of that? Oh man, looking more like thirty to life.”
Bittu smiled as the man spouted “It wasn't me though, that was all Craig and Hobbes! They are the sadistic ones that like to hurt people, I’m only there to manage contacts!” the man cried out, his voice filled with terror at the thought of life in maximum security lockup.
Abel smirked, Bittu had the man exactly where he wanted him. He was nearly ready to break.
His partner stood and paced in front of the mirror for a minute before putting his hand to his ear as if he were listening to someone speak. Casting a slight glance at the mirror he said “Well, It looks like you haven't convinced them. You are going to have to be more specific.”
“Specific about what?” The man asked in dread.
Bittu sat back down slowly and opened the dummy folder once again. “Well, to start, why not tell me the whole truth about why you were at the apartment? You were there to rough up Mr. Zaplin sure, but what about his daughter?”
Thaee looked around the room and shook his head “That was entirely Hobbes’ idea, I had nothing to do with that!”
Bittu nodded and said “Yes I know. It was your own opinion that the girl should have been iced. Is that correct?”
The swanith warbled in shock, their beak hanging open and their inner pharyngeal jaws opening and closing soundlessly as they tried to come up with a response. Instead Bittu spoke up, looking at the folder and flipping a few pages before he said “It seems that your exact words were, and I quote. ‘Why did we have to keep this little shit alive again?’ Am I correct in assuming that you meant to cause the infant great bodily harm or even death?”
The prisoner spluttered, the sound strangely muted as their vocal cords struggled with the sound. “I would, never have. No, I wouldn't have done it!” the man cried out. “I was just tired of doing all of his dirty work.”
“Oorin Jr’s dirty work I assume?” Bittu said, causing the small avian man to freeze. “I thought so, that confirms our interior contact’s data.” he lied.
Thaee looked utterly defeated, his head slumped and his expression feathers limp. He grumbled something under his breath that Abel couldn't hear, but Bittu seemed to hear fine as he replied “Yes you likely are. So the way I see it you have only two options. You tell us everything you know and I get you an informant's pardon. Or I dump you in the vault with a target on your back. Which sounds like your best odds? And I warn you, I will not make this offer again.” Bittu leaned back in his chair as he finished talking, his hands folded neatly on the table and the folder closed under them.
Thaee seemed to struggle with immense inner turmoil before he relented. “Alright, I will loose the nids, you gotta protect me though. Oorin is crazy, he has contacts in this department…” Bittu jerked slightly in surprise but the man didn't seem to notice or care as he kept right on talking “..and they feed him a constant stream of alerts. You two weren't supposed to be there, that's the only reason you caught us. The closest officers we knew about wouldn't have made it to the building in time to stop us. Just my dumb luck.” the man chirped in despair.
Bittu cocked his head and said “These police contacts, I assume you have no information on them?”
Thaee sat up straight and said angrily “I said I would tell you everything I knew. I may be a criminal but I'm not a liar.”
Bittu put up his hands apologetically and said “My apologies. I wasn't meaning to impinge your honesty. But I needed to ask. Please continue.”
Thaee’s short white expression feathers fluttered in consternation but he spoke steadily “Well, it started with Oorin contacting Hobbes and asking for us to do some of his dirty work. I wasn't for it, we had always stuck to a few rules before that. No murder, no hurting innocents, but Hobbes wanted more money. And he didn't exactly care how he got it. Craig wasn't for or against it at first, but as the jobs got more violent he started to develop a taste for the violence. That's not what we used to stand for, but who am I to make the decisions. I'm just little Thaee, small and weak, not worthy of giving the great Hobbes advice.” The man spat, fluttering his wings. His graspers were still cuffed and so he sighed.
“But what about Oorin, if we can connect this to him…” Bittu began but Thaee stopped him.
“You know, I have no reason to protect a brutish dancer like you.” The swanith’s casual use of the slur made Bittu bristle slightly, the man's tufted tail lashing in suppressed anger. “But I can tell that you aren’t a dirty cop on Oorin’s payroll. You seem to want to protect people, and I do respect that for what it's worth.” Abel heard the man say quietly.
Abel was tempted to enter the room but he trusted his partner’s judgment. Bittu would call for him if he was needed, as of the moment it seemed that he was doing just fine on his own however.
Thaee added “It has something to do with new shipments of something, that's what I picked up on. But I never figured out what Oorin was so bent on moving.”
Bittu stood and began to pace again, the movement seeming to clear his thoughts. “Why would Oorin go through so much trouble to protect the docks though?” he wondered aloud.
Abel thought about it. Oorin was in charge of transportation, that meant he was likely not the end of the supply chain. He must be moving illegal products and getting it from somewhere else. That was the only thing that made sense to him.
Bittu looked at the man and said “Hold on a minute. I’ll be right back.”
Thaee lifted their shackled wings and said “Where could I possibly go?”
Bittu didn't answer, instead he left the room and after a moment Abel saw him enter into the observation room. Bittu stopped and looked around “Had a disagreement with the furniture huh?”
Abel glanced at the remains of the poor chair he had crushed and answered “Yeah, I should have expected that outcome. I decided that standing isn't so hard with mechanical limbs.”
Bittu walked over to the small plasteel table and leaned on it, his face unreadable. As he opened his mouth to speak Abel’s internal comm’s buzzed and he held up a hand. “Getting a communication.” he frowned as he saw the content of the message. “I’m getting a general warning that Thaee is no longer in our jurisdiction. That can’t be right though.”
Bittu looked around and stood, his hand flying to his sidearm as his stress levels soared. “What! What do you mean?”
Abel frowned again “We have been ordered to cease all interrogations activities and relinquish control of the prisoner to… What the fuck?”
“To who? What are the orders?” Bittu asked seriously.
Abel looked at him and said shakily “We are to hand the prisoner over to Zeirworks security personnel, but, those are the people who made me.” Abel said in distress.
Bittu looked at him with a similar expression of shock. “That’s not good, something is definitely wrong here…” the man said as Abel nodded, looking at their unfortunate prisoner through the one way glazmite mirror.
End of Part 7
==End of Transmission==

Buying a home in this market is stressful as all hell, and I feel for you all. Prices and availability may have you considering homes with critical flaws or in conditions you never thought you'd be willing to accept. I want to share our experience from a doozy of an inspection to the approaches we took to cut costs and make a fixer upper doable for us.
A heads up, this post is DIY heavy. I realize that's not for everyone. This is for those who are in that mindset, or are on the fence about DIY or learning how to research and manage trades quotes.
My wife and I purchased our first home in Denver at the height of the market in June 2022. Interest rates were much better than, but the prices were still very high.
We found an almost unmolested/untouched 1969 3br 3ba two-story time capsule with a full height unfinished basement in a nice part of town. It had a lot of deferred maintenance. Let's start with the inspection, which we absolutely refused to waive. DO NOT WAIVE THE INSPECTION. Knowledge gained via inspection later saved us $30k at the negotiating table.
Inspection Report - Major Items:

• Significant street facing foundation wall crack. Two structural engineer assessments point to soil expansion pushing the wall in, slipping house on mud sill on that wall only. We're told it's due to poor front yard grading in the first 10-15ft causing water to pool.
• Flat roof has seams + cracks and is due to be replaced.
• 18 somewhat leaky, poor-condition original aluminum single-pane windows.
• Potentially dangerous electrical panel, using known bad manufacturer from the 60s
• Failing valves for old water softening system; complex old piping to split house between two systems.
• 27 y/o AC condenser unit.

That was a lot barrel to stare down, but we had already done a lot of research in ways of mitigating, repairing, and spreading out these or similar issues to reduce risk and up front cost across our 6 months of shopping and putting in offers. We gave ourselves two weeks in our offer to go/no-go, to give us time to do the legwork needed to move forward, back out, or negotiate.
So we put in our offer, and quickly learn we're the only non-flippers, non-corporate buyers. The previous owners are sentimental, and so that wins us the house. After almost 20 offers, we finally have our house. The rush subsides quickly with a ton of work ahead of us.

Quotes and Fixes

Foundation fix

3 quotes, 2 structural assessments for $300 ea, 3 different approaches. We could anchor and epoxy for $12k or $15k (two companies), demo and repour for some astronomical number like $50K+ (contractor), or based on a tip I found...reinforce, epoxy, and regrade for $4.5k if we DIYed the reinforcement via a wall brace kit. After talking with the engineer at Gorilla Wall Braces, and our structural engineer, our condition was a good fit for the system and we went that direction.
Final cost was $2.6K for the kit + spec steel beams + DIY install, and what we were told might be a grade issue turned out to be a sprinkler head leak next to the foundation causing countless gallons of water to pour down it each grass watering. Once that was fixed, the area dried right up. We had it assessed and were given the clear. We later had it regraded for $700 as part of some landscape work for peace of mind.
Scary wide range, but fixed a major flaw in the report for a fraction of the price.

Old AC Unit

Stopped working within the first month of ownership during the peak of summer, in 90 deg temps. 3 quotes, Home Depot, some local HVAC company, and a guy in a truck on Thumbtack. $15k for the first for a whole new central system, $36k from the local outfit for a whole house ductless setup, and the final guy was $300 to replace the damaged capacitor and get us back up and running.
You gotta realize part of the stress here is that each outfit will sell you hard that you "absolutely want their option and no other will do, because of XYZ" and make you feel like an idiot for considering anything else. They'll use hard sell tactics to get you to sign on that line today. It can be tempting to pull the trigger for a now-fix, and they'll give you all sorts of bullshit offers and reasons to do so, but it'll eat your reno budget or trap you in finance payments for years. For every issue we had, it took really digging to find other options, but they almost always presented themselves.
Final cost was $300. Guy said it'd probably be fine for another 5 years, and had no leaks. AC worked great for the whole summer, and started up fine this year. It's less efficient, but does the job for now. Later, I'll probably install a Mr. Cool DIY ductless setup for $5-6k when we're ready to modernize, or if/when ours blows.

Leaking Roof

The flat roof started leaking almost immediately when the next couple huge rainstorms hit. At first it was a little, then a lot. That lit a fire on this one. Two quotes. $6k for a local company to patch all potential areas and guarantee the leak would be fixed, or $20k+ to scrape and reroof with TPO.
Final cost was $1.6k We ended up DIYing a Henry's silicone roof coating product for $1.6k that not only sealed it extremely well, but cut our AC bill in half due to the reflective surface. Our roof does have 3 layers on it, so this might just buy us time, but after chatting with a few folks in the field, it might get us 10+ years.

Sprinkler Valve Leaks, Line Cracks

Our first water bill revealed that we had a massive sprinkler leak, that was causing water to pool against the foundation (causing the soil expansion/foundation cracking). It was pooling under the decorative stone, so wasn't especially obvious at first. I didn't even bother quoting this one. With all the easy press-to-fit fittings at the box store, all it takes is a shovel, some fittings, and 3/4" line pipe to do most of your line repairs. $400 later everything was fixed across the yard with all new valves.

Sketchy old plumbing

The previous owners had installed a water softening system in the 80s that piped half the house on soft water, and half not. It was a mess, and every valve was questionable, including the water main. This was more peace of mind, but I opened a permit, bought the $500 PEX-A expansion gun, and replumbed the whole house with PEX to code over the summer while we had walls exposed. Total cost including the tool was less than $2k.

Leaky Windows

Call it ambition or stupidity, after a $30k quote for shitty Champion PVC double-pane double-hung windows, I hunted down a Chinese vendor on Alibaba to build us custom replacement triple-pane low-e nuts-o-quality premium casement + tilt-n-turn aluminum windows for $13k shipped to our door. They are the Bently of windows, in all but brand name. They arrived in 3-months and I was able to DIY all the 1st story windows in before fall hit. What a massive difference in quality of life they made. I might have to hire out a couple of the big 2nd story ones this summer, but even so I'll be so much better off.

Aluminum Wiring + Electrical

This one hurt, but ended up being the the single biggest improvement to the house. We learned that not only was our panel a potential fire hazard, and that the house was on old 150A service, but that most of our wiring was sketchy aluminum Vietnam era stuff that really should be mitigated or replaced. 3 quotes, all within $1k of each other. We bit the bullet. Top tier local company rewired the whole house, plus 200A panel, plus EV charger, couple sub panels, basement lighting, garage shop lighting, whole house LED lighting + switches + outlets, heated bathroom fans, really the works for $27K. Took them 4 months. Not a single old electrical cable, outlet, or switch remains. By the time it was done they told me they should have charged twice that. Feels like a new house.
Wrapping this up. These could have easily drained our reno budget and more had we gone with the first quote, or done everything by a pro company instead of DIY, or a guy in a truck / Thumbtack approach. It takes a lot more legwork, research, physical work, and usually involves taking on more risk, but I wanted to share that sometimes scary inspections aren't always costly ones. Learn what your issue is and the approaches people take to solve it, ranging from the cheap temp fix, to the best permanent one and really weigh your options. Do your homework before AND after getting quotes; be prepared to ask the right questions and be schooled to spot bullshit sales tactics and upselling, and resist and/or evaluate scope creep.
I should have added that pulling a bunch of quotes during that negotiation window gave us the leverage to negotiate the cost of our home down $30k. So while we still had to dish out for our fixes/upgrades up front, that effort was well worth it.
I also strongly advocate for FTHBs to be willing to pick up some DIY skills. I had few of these skills before owning a home. I was somewhat decent at general handyman work and picked up some trades skills from volunteering at Habitat for Humanity. With trades costs skyrocketing, the job market flimsy, and general financial uncertainty, Millennials and GenZ can't afford to throw money at the problem like many of our parents often did. Digging into Youtube and Thumbtack can stretch your budget far beyond where you'd get otherwise, and can make home ownership tenable for those who otherwise might be stretching to maintain a house.
For those considering DIY, or are hesitant, I empathize that it can be scary or daunting to take on some of this stuff at first. Just start small and work your way up. Watch videos, read stuff, double check your work. Start with projects that have lower risk to your home or yourself, where you're just risking the price of a pro to redo it right, then move up as you build confidence. Hardware stores and Youtube tuts make this stuff extremely approachable.

Hello there! I'm open to any numbers of games to trade! I only want to trade games, no paypal or any money transfer whatsoever or such. Here's my flair profile! profile
My wish list! Is outdated but there's quite a number of games that I'm still interested in it! Wishlist
THE INVISIBLE HAND
BEHIND THE FRAME: THE FINEST SCENERY
BUILDER SIMULATOR
OPERATION: TANGO
BENDY AND THE DARK REVIVAL
SPIRITFARER: FAREWELL EDITION
FOBIA - ST. DINFNA HOTEL
SHADY PART OF ME
FALLOUT 76 + FALLOUT 1
MONSTER CROWN
GOLDEN LIGHT
DEMON TURF
ROGUE LORDS
JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION 2
REVITA
THE LIFE AND SUFFERING OF SIR BRANTE
LIFE IS STRANGE 2: COMPLETE SEASON
Rollerdrome
Death Stranding DIRECTOR'S CUT
Zombie Army Trilogy
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Killing Floor 2 Digital Deluxe Edition
GROW: SONG OF THE EVERTREE
PowerSlave Exhumed
Prehistoric Kingdom
Submerged: Hidden Depths
Supraland Six Inches Under
Wasteland 3
Greedfall
Blade Assault
Toem
Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe
CivCity: Rome
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Railroad Tycoon 3
Railroad Tycoon II Platinum
Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Sid Meier's Railroads!
WWE 2K Battlegrounds
WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS - Ultimate Brawlers Pass
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: LITTLE HOPE
MAID OF SKER
JUST CAUSE 4: COMPLETE EDITION
DESCENDERS
SHAPEZ + PUZZLE DLC
Dungeons 2
Dungeons 3
THE ASCENT
GAS STATION SIMULATOR
IN SOUND MIND
MIND SCANNERS
EMILY IS AWAY <3
OMNO
Bound by Flame
Hood: Outlaws & Legends
The Surge
The Surge 2
The Technomancer
LAWN MOWING SIMULATOR
LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game
YES, YOUR GRACE
RPG Maker 2003
RPG Maker VX
RPG Maker XP
Skyborn
Monster Hunter: World
Street Fighter V
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: BATTLE FOR BIKINI BOTTOM - REHYDRATED
IF FOUND...
GENESIS NOIR
THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: MAN OF MEDAN
EVAN'S REMAINS
Finding Paradise
Kathy Rain: Director's Cut
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - The Collection
Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition
Sid Meier's Civilization V: Complete
Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sid Meier's Railroads!
BORDERLANDS 3
JUST DIE ALREADY
PARADISE LOST
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Dead by Daylight
Dungeon of the Endless
Hamilton's Great Adventure
Homeworld Remastered Collection
Little Nightmares
PAYDAY 2
PAYDAY 2 Bonus
Peppy's Adventure
Red Faction®: Armageddon™
THE HENRY STICKMIN COLLECTION
FARMER'S DYNASTY
RETROWAVE
THE SURVIVALISTS
LACUNA - A SCI-FI NOIR ADVENTURE
8 DOORS
FLING TO THE FINISH
TOHU
VOIDIGO
Kingdom: New Lands
Kingdom Two Crowns
Batman: Arkham VR
JUNO: NEW ORIGINS
TIMELIE
WRATH: AEON OF RUIN
One Finger Death Punch 2
Slap City
AMNESIA: REBIRTH
GUTS AND GLORY
GARAGE: BAD TRIP
TOOLS UP
HIVESWAP FRIENDSIM
SYBERIA 3
Tropico 3: Gold Edition
Tropico 4 Collector's Bundle
Tropico 5 - Complete Edition
PGA TOUR 2K21
NOT FOR BROADCAST
RÖKI
WEST OF DEAD
HEAVEN'S VAULT
ORWELL: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
FRAMED COLLECTION
Ageless
The Escapists
The Escapists - Alcatraz
The Escapists - Duct Tapes are Forever
The Escapists - Escape Team
The Escapists 2
The Escapists 2 - Big Top Breakout
Flockers
Golf With Your Friends
Mugsters
My Time at Portia
Overcooked
Overcooked! 2
Overcooked! 2 - Too Many Cooks Pack
Overcooked: The Lost Morsel
Overruled
Sheltered
Worms Rumble
Worms Rumble - Armageddon Weapon Skin Pack
Worms Rumble - Captain & Shark Double Pack
Worms Rumble - Legends Pack
Worms Rumble - New Challengers Pack
Yoku's Island Express
Aragami
ECHO
Ghost of a Tale
Heat Signature
HITMAN 2 - Gold Edition
Hitman (2016) Game of the Year Edition
Styx: Shards of Darkness
BLOODSTAINED: RITUAL OF THE NIGHT
SUPERLIMINAL
WE NEED TO GO DEEPER
CARTO
AS FAR AS THE EYE
CEPHEUS PROTOCOL
NOWHERE PROPHET
BLUE FIRE
ENCODYA
Drawful 2
Fibbage XL
The Jackbox Party Pack 2
Quiplash
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK HEADRUSH
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK MOVIES
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK SPORTS
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK TELEVISION
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 1 XL
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 2
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 3
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 4: The Ride
Curious Expedition
EVERSPACE™
Hero Siege Complete
Hero Siege - Wrath of Mevius (Digital Collector's Edition)
Golf It!
The Infected
Sakura Agent
Sakura Dungeon
Sakura Fox Adventure
Sakura Gamer
Sakura Gamer 2
Sakura MMO 3
Sakura Nova
Sakura Sadist
Sakura Shrine Girls
Sakura Space
Sakura Swim Club
NIMBATUS - THE SPACE DRONE CONSTRUCTOR
PARADISE KILLER
BEE SIMULATOR
ELDERBORN
S.W.I.N.E. HD REMASTER
ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION® VI PLATINUM EDITION
SECRET NEIGHBOR
STUBBS THE ZOMBIE IN REBEL WITHOUT A PULSE
WORMS RUMBLE + LEGENDS PACK DLC
MILKY WAY PRINCE - THE VAMPIRE STAR
DESOLATE
EFFIE
GUILTY GEAR XX ACCENT CORE PLUS R
Little Nightmares Complete Edition
Pac-Man 256
F1® 2020
MAIN ASSEMBLY
ROCK OF AGES 3: MAKE & BREAK
REMOTHERED: BROKEN PORCELAIN
IN OTHER WATERS
SIMULACRA + SIMULACRA 2
COLT CANYON
SKULLY
Ultimate Chicken Horse
XCOM: CHIMERA SQUAD
WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS
PEAKY BLINDERS: MASTERMIND
CYBER HOOK
PESTERQUEST
BOREAL BLADE
THE BEAST INSIDE
THE HAUNTED ISLAND, A FROG DETECTIVE GAME
FROG DETECTIVE 2: THE CASE OF THE INVISIBLE WIZARD
STILL THERE
STRUGGLING
PATH OF GIANTS
RAILWAY EMPIRE
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA DEADLOCK
YUPPIE PSYCHO
BEAT HAZARD 2
SIGMA THEORY: GLOBAL COLD WAR
DON'T ESCAPE: 4 DAYS TO SURVIVE
VERLET SWING
Vikings - Wolves of Midgard
GRID™ - ULTIMATE EDITION
HELLBLADE: SENUA'S SACRIFICE
THE MESSENGER
BAROTRAUMA
FELIX THE REAPER
MEN OF WAR: ASSAULT SQUAD 2 - WARCHEST EDITION
STYGIAN: REIGN OF THE OLD ONES
REMNANTS OF NAEZITH
THE STILLNESS OF THE WIND
THE KING'S BIRD
JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION + 1 DLC
XCOM® 2 + 2 DLC
RISE OF INDUSTRY
NICHE - A GENETICS SURVIVAL GAME
HEAVE HO
MO:ASTRAY
CHESS ULTRA
HORACE
HITMAN 2
GRIS
OPUS MAGNUM
MOLEK-SYNTEZ
RAIDEN V: DIRECTOR'S CUT 雷電 V DIRECTOR'S CUT 雷電V:導演剪輯版
TRUBERBROOK / TRÜBERBROOK
SHOPPE KEEP 2
CAPITALISM 2
Train Valley 2
AI WAR 2
ETHERBORN
Sakura Agent
Sakura Angels
Sakura Beach
Sakura Beach 2
Sakura Dungeon
Sakura Fantasy
Sakura Magical Girls
Sakura Nova
Sakura Shrine Girls
Sakura Space
Sakura Spirit
Sakura Swim Club
ELIZA
THE HEX
NIGHT CALL
Fluffy Horde
My Time at Portia
Regular Human Basketball
Sword Legacy Omen
11-11 Memories Retold
Evergarden
SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
Bridge Constructor Portal
Concrete Jungle
Portal Knights
SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
Tricky Towers
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
Avernum 3: Ruined World
Planet Alpha
Puss!
The Spiral Scouts
Deep Sky Derelicts
HIVESWAP: Act 1
Pillars of Eternity
Tyranny - Standard Edition
Darkwood
State of Mind
Death Squared
Killing Floor 2 Digital Deluxe Edition
Think of the Children
The Adventure Pals
Almost There: The Platformer
Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon
Yoku's Island Express
DISTRAINT 2
Rusty Lake Paradise
Duskers
Paratopic
Pool Panic
Clustertruck
The Final Station
Party Hard
Punch Club
SpeedRunners
Streets of Rogue
Bomber Crew
Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones
Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure
Offworld Trading Company + Jupiter's Forge Expansion Pack
She Remembered Caterpillars
Amnesia™: Memories
EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 DLC
Sniper Elite 3
Pony Island
Risen 3 Complete Edition
Saints Row 2
Secret Files: Tunguska
Westerado: Double Barreled
A Story About My Uncle
Divide By Sheep
No Time To Explain Remastered
Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition
ADR1FT
Broken Age
Grim Fandango Remastered
The Darkness II
Spec Ops: The Line
Dropsy
BATTLESLOTHS

Roughly 11 billion. Now that was a truly unimaginable number.
Throughout all the meetings he called, all the councils he summoned, all the various possibilities he discussed with the Marshal in the month prior, the Tactician uttered the word "billion" once. As a joke. Despite being known for his elastic mindset and for always considering even the most unthinkable of events, he couldn't even begin to picture 1 billion individuals, let alone 11 times that number. His muscles tensed up, he could feel his face contorting into a deep frown as he tried to imagine just how much his people were outnumbered by this new species.
The Larks were never attacked by an alien civilization; sure, some members amongst the fiercest of the species they knew were often gathered as Collected and employed in wars between Conglomerates, but spaceships soaring down from the skies and firing lasers at their home planets were stuff of fiction, nothing more. "Until this point", the Tactician feared.
He turned his head towards the Marshal, looking for his reassurance as if he hoped the Marshal could read his thoughts. He found none.
He didn't betray the same emotions, muttering half-drunk monotone nonsense to himself as usual, blankly staring at the population pods' displays until a small rock popped into view.
—-----------------------------------------------------------
"A planet whose surface consists of more water than land, those species' members must be the size of specks." The Marshal finally stated.
The Tactician replied, his voice shaking a bit:
"This goes against anything we've ever planned about this mission, I seriously hope you are reconsidering, Marshal. We must inform our scientists, the government, these aliens could pose a real threat to our existence."
"Forbidden. You too, soldier." -The Marshal turned to the Collected Quite, he wasn't a soldier but that's just how the Marshal referred to anyone below the rank of General- "You are not to speak of this. Announce the beginning of a scouting mission to the United Council and start preparations for takeoff."
The Tactician swore he could feel his vocal glands explode any moment from all the insults he wanted to spit at him, but he was well aware of the influence of the Marshal. All he could manage was cursing the United Council for assigning such a delicate mission to a hot-headed moron like him. He was just about ready to give voice to his calm and collected complaints, but the Marshal sensed his agitation.
"When at the point of my demise, the enemy shall find nothing but battle scars on my body, Tactician. When I sense opportunities, I take them; I wouldn't have defeated your Conglomerate if that wasn't the case" -he pointed his hook to the writing on his white cloak describing his victory- "I have been granted full authority over this mission, and I intend to wield it."
So much for past differences not getting in the way. —-----------------------------------------------------
The gathering of Collected was conducted cyclically between all the species the Larks had diplomatic relations with, as not to strain their population numbers too much; but when some kind of disaster struck, and those species didn't have enough time to regain their lost numbers, the Larks sounded the trumpets for another Great Search.
The Collected were the backbone of Lark society, and thus were considered of vital importance, they also greatly outnumbered the Lark population, nearly 40 or 50 to 1, in fact. They were the ones powering the industrial complex, serving as mercenaries in wars between Conglomerates, they were engineers, craftsmen, but also teachers, scientists, and some even philosophers. Only a few things they were not: rulers and politicians. Every Conglomerate had the right to have its own kind of government, under the watchful eye of the United Council to make sure none stepped out of line, of course, but there was one unspoken rule in Lark politics: no Collected could run for any kind of office.
They couldn't run for anything, in fact; instead they were appointed, employed. Not because they were considered inferior or unimportant by the Larks; even if some did take advantage of the rather primitive level of technology they possessed, any mistreatment of a Collected citizen was just as bad and as severely punishable as the mistreatment of a Lark.
Everyone knows that with time, all life comes to an end. And for each generation of Collected that perishes, more must be gathered as quickly as possible, as none of the Larks had any kind of experience in the manual work the Collected performed.
Their crooked hooks were unfit for handling tools, their stamina was amongst the least durable of any species they had met so far, and they managed to get the rank of hegemons of their slice of Galaxy only thanks to the technology built by the Collected species that they gathered in their home planet, most of which had gone extinct due to their ancestors' brutality towards them.
The Larks evolved solely to rule; in short, even a king will starve if there are no farmers to feed him.
—-------------------------------------------------------------
"Please take care, Iyrho…you've been so occupied with meetings, councils, and whatever it is you talk with that damn Marshal about lately, that it's been weeks since we've last seen you. We both miss you a lot."
"Yes…please promise us you'll come to pay us a visit once you come back, and be careful out there!" -A female voice added.
Iyrho…it had been about a month since anyone had called him by his first name, or by anything other than "Tactician" for that matter, so hearing it somehow felt a little strange to him.
He tried to regulate his vocal glands into a mellow and reassuring tone: "Mom, dad, I really miss you as well, and I often think of you both. I promise that I'll be careful and that I'll make the request for my visit permit as soon as I get back home, okay? Besides, there's nothing to worry about; it's merely a scouting mission, you know that, right?"
They had no reason to not believe him, as the announcement for that mission had been all over the news in the past few days, but they knew their son well, and they knew there was something he wasn't telling them.
"I really have to get going now, I'm sure the Marshal won't hesitate to leave me stranded here if I was late."
"...Alright, have a safe journey Iyrho, we love you very much."
"I love you too, please try not to worry about me, I'll be just fine, bye mom, bye dad."
He hated lying, especially to his own parents, but what was he supposed to tell them? That he was going near a planet with 11 billion sentient beings on it and with no clear plan in mind?
—------------------------------------------------------------
After putting on his last piece of ceremonial armor, he left his rented hotel room, made his way through hordes of journalists and simple citizens gathering around him, and finally reached the ship, where he was welcomed yet again by Collected Jawaii guards. It really seemed like they were the Marshal's favorites.
Iyrho's arrival was announced to the Marshal, but, predictably, he didn't bother leaving his pod to meet him, so the Jawaii escorted him there instead.
The door was slightly opened, and before entering Iyrho noticed the Marshal. He was resting on his armchair, but his muscles were tense, his back was curved forward, almost as if he was carrying a burden on his shoulders, and he was mumbling things to himself as usual.
The young Tactician pondered the figure of the Marshal for a moment. Half the time he spoke no one even understood him due to how drunk he sounded, and during each meeting they had only talked to each other the bare minimum; for Iyrho it was a matter of really disliking any interaction with a former enemy, but he suspected the Marshal had different reasons.
He wondered one last time just what horrors he must've witnessed in all his years as a soldier, and what wounds covered his body under his white cloak, before pushing those thoughts aside and fully opening the door.
The Marshal stood up.
“Ah…Tactician, welcome. I was about to give the order for takeoff without you, ready for departure?"
"Yes sir."