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Surge Protector on Coax - Bad idea?
It seems that most surge protectors that are a bit more expensive than the run of the mill ones have ports for coax, Ethernet and phone lines to provide surge protection for these items. I've always ignored the Ethernet and phone line ones as I use VOIP and it is unlikely that the VOIP box would generate a surge and same goes for Ethernet. However, when I setup my UPS almost 2 years ago, I figured that connecting the coax for the cable modem into the coax on the UPS would be a good idea in case a surge came in through the cable line, it wouldn't blow up my cable modem.
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Air conditioning in coastal San Diego?
I've lived in a few places in San Diego over the last 20 years; 4 relatively close to the coast and 3 further inland. In that time, I had air conditioning in the places inland, but rarely used it. In fact, when we lived 20 minutes more inland than we do now, I don't recall turning on our A/C for the first few years we lived there; we used ceiling fans and just dealt with the warmer days. So when we bought our house and remodeled it, adding A/C didn't even cross my mind. We're pretty close to the coast, and I figured we'd get a coastal breeze. Within the first year of living here, I knew that this was a bad decision. It turns out that last year was the hottest year on record in San Diego with 12 days over 90 degrees at the airport whereas there are normally 1-2 days over 90 degrees. I thought maybe I had become a wimp and couldn't take the heat (well, that still may be true), but the facts confirmed that I wasn't completely crazy.
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Fixing my faucet, a year and a half later
When we were remodeling our house, we had to pick everything, including the kitchen sink! My wife and I went shopping for a kitchen faucet months before it was ready to be installed so that we could get it ordered and get it out of the way. We wanted a detachable sprayer and wanted it in stainless steel. We went to our local Pacific Sales and looked at all the kitchen faucets (and there were a ton). The one feature we hated on just about all of them was that the detachable spray heads were made out of plastic while the rest of the faucet was made out of stainless steel (or at least some type of metal). The plastic would chip, change color or just not hold up based on past experience. Even though many consumer faucets carry a lifetime warranty, I didn't want to deal with that (been there, done that).
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No longer feel safe in my own home
Today marks a kind of sad day for me; I no longer feel safe in my own home. The short term vacation rental next door has changed my whole sense of safety and security. The owner/operator has decided that money matters more than the neighborhood and rents it out to whoever will pay the asking price. This weekend it was a group of students on spring break. They have no respect for the neighborhood and have been loud. Last night we called the police and the noise quieted down; this morning, we saw them smoking pot in the backyard (they can see into our backyard and we can see into their backyard). Police responded and at least one of them had a medical marijuana card, so there was nothing the police could do. (Apparently police no longer deal with misdemeanor drug possession.)