D life blog

Recently I put my 3rd set of tires on my car.  Here are some lessons I had to re-learn. Comfort - A set of tires can make a huge difference in the comfort of your ride.  I need to go to tirerack.com every time and check the ratings for comfort.  They also have ratings on lots of other important aspects of many brands of tire.  Rotating - Towards the end of the lifespan of my previous set I was not rotating on a regular basis, so the tires began to wear unevenly.  Why wasn't I rotating?  Because it was inconvenient & out of my way.  This time around I installed at Costco with hopes that I'll already be there - so I should be able to stay on a good rotation schedule.  Also, I found out that Costco sends reminders for rotating if you want them to. Installers fees - when shopping you have to pay attention to the details.  I tracked every expense each installer had which included warranty, install/disposal fees, TPM (tire pressur...

Here are some of the things I found to consider when looking at purchasing Z-wave Smart Switches. What it ships with : Check what the switch comes with.  Some come with different color face plates, but more importantly, some do NOT come with a bit of wire to connect to your neutral. Protocol : Some are Z-wave, and some are Z-wave Plus.  Z-wave plus seems to mean that the switch is faster, has longer range for connectivity and usually has more features such as central scene control (means you can program double/triple tap behavior. )  Look and feel : Some look like a normal paddle switch, while others have LED lights to tell you their setting level.   Normal looking paddle switch in white with only an on/off indicator LED Paddle switch in light almond with LED dimmer level indicator LEDs Things to note :  Some switches don't support LED lights.  Check the description to avoid these.   Note the supported wattage of the switch - they...

I replaced some old dumb light switches with new smart light switches.  Note 1 :Before I go through the steps, here is a little bit of important information to know.  There may be several wires required to make the new switch connect - here is the definition of what you should see available in the housing for the switch. Smart light Switch = In my case, this is a wall light switch that has a radio that can be connected ted to a Hub for remote control or for programming on/off/dimmer based upon triggers. The protocol of the radio is z-wave in my case. Line = always hot wire - this is the source of current to the switch. Load =wire that goes to light out the other side of the switch and is only hot when the switch is turned on. Neutral =  White wire (in my house) that carries a current back to the source for the unbalanced portion of the load Ground wire = the wire that grounds the circuit. Note 2: I've only installed z-wave switches with a neutral ...

I find it hard to make steak the way I like it on my Traeger.  My preference is called 'Pittsburg' style which is sort of similar to 'black & blue' in that it requires a high temperature to sear the meat on the outside (carbonize it without overcooking the inside which I like rare).  Here are the steps I take to make it the way I like it.  Note step #5 is sort of cheating, but it works for me. Put the Traeger on smoke setting.  After smoke starts,put the steaks on the grill for 20-30 minutes. Get the steak off the grill and crank the temp up as high as it goes. Season the steak with Light oil, salt, pepper, garlic (while waiting for the grill to get up to temperature) Steaks back on the grill & cook at least at 400 degrees for 4 minutes each side Sear on iron skillet on a gas stove for a few seconds until it looks like you want it. Finally, if you want to get unhealthy, you can add clarified butter and put that on the steak wh...

  As a recent cord cutter living in close proximity to a metropolitan area, I enjoy over 40 HD channels for free.  Ok, well maybe I only enjoy about 8 of those channels and the others are not so good.   What I really use this for is local channel news and channel flipping.  In any case, to be efficient, I wanted to only have 1 antenna power a TV signal to any coaxial jack in the house - so I searched the web looking for a good example of how to do this.  Unfortunately, google didn't show me what I was looking for, so I experimented on my own & I'm happy with the result.   The challenge - how to use 1 antenna to feed an HD TV signal to all of the TV coaxial jacks in the house (except 1 that I hijack). Here are some of the prerequisites for this project if you approach it my way. Have good coaxial cable throughout the house Have a centralized closet where the coaxial cables in the house all converge. Have an HD Antenna with the range ...