48 thoughts on “April 22, 2021: Calliope”

  1. Definitely for the time being I will stick to watching Buxton highlights rather than Twins games. If, and hopefully when, they start playing some actual entertaining baseball, I'll start turning it on again.

    1. This is the place I'm at right now as well. MLB The Show is finally available for the Xbox, so I can get my Twins fix there.

          1. It's the perfect GamePass title for me, haven't played any version of the show since 14 and that was on the Vita.

            Such a gorgeous, technically great game. But man, sim baseball games might have just passed me by. Hoping to spend more time with it this weekend to tweak settings (my old reflexes need slower pitches!) and try out some other modes to see if anything clicks. But first impressions are that I'll spend more time with Super Mega Baseball, despite how good The Show is.

            1. Yeah, I am utterly garbage at recognizing pitches which makes hitting not easy, so I hear ya on that and on SMB3 being tons of fun.

  2. On opening day, Kyle Gibson gave up five runs in a third of an inning for an ERA of 135.00. Since then, he has allowed one earned run in twenty-one innings, lowering his season ERA to 2.53.

  3. Do you know now long in life I pronounced this "CALLY-ope" instead of "CAH-lye-oh-pee"

          1. Hey, small world!

            Further localizing. SelectShow
  4. DPWY, if you're around, what company did you use for your solar panels? I just met with someone from Avolta but feel like I need to do some more research before making any decisions. Also, if anyone else in the Twin Cities area has experience with solar panels, please chime in!

    1. We didn't move forward with the install, but I was happy with my experience All Energy Solar. Pretty thorough overview of the benefits of the system, cost, expected break-even, etc. We unfortunately have a gigantic tree in our neighbor's yard that would really reduce the peak power of our potential system. Maybe when cells get a little more efficient it'll make sense.

      1. Just as a random aside: I've always thought that the first person to manufacture a solar panel that looked enough like regular roofing would make a fortune. Musky looked like he was trying that (pared with a house battery too; even smarter), but it didn't seem like that went anywhere..

        1. We just finished getting the Tesla solar tiles installed on our roof a couple months ago, along with the batteries, and have been very happy with the results so far. Power generation is good, and I like the way the tiles look, too.

          The install took longer than it probably should have, in large part because they are expanding slowly, and they didn't have that many people ready to do the install. It was very clear that our house was also being used for training. There were some days where 15-20 people would be up on the roof getting safety training, while others were installing things in a different section.

          I think a big part of it not immediately catching on with everyone is that it's much more expensive than installing panels. It's priced about the same as getting a new roof and then putting panels on it, which in some ways makes sense because that's essentially what it is. We were nearing the point of replacing the roofing soon anyway, with broken tiles all over and frequent leaks, so it made sense for us to go with Tesla. But for people who have a roof that will last many more years, it's probably a less attractive option.

          1. That's awesome! I haven't heard about it in so long I thought it was swept by the wayside. I figured pricing was going to be an initial issue so I'm hoping it will gradually come down. I hadn't considered the "new roof" aspect of it. Also, glad to hear it's working out well. Hopefully it becomes more popular (and cheaper).

      2. I'm very interested in actual experiences with configurations and actual performance. I have a roof with a pretty steep pitch and an East-West orientation (i.e., facing a North-South street) and some mature trees. So I would want to know a lot about expected performance and the challenges of installation and roof maintenance (I have a ~30-year old roof of fake slate, i.e., coated cement board "slate" tiles, which probably means installation is a non-starter anyway, unless I re-roof). But I also have a flat carport that gets pretty good sun from mid-morning to late afternoon.

          1. thanks, sean. That site suggests that my house gets around 1,500 hours of usable sunlight per year. It also suggests that I have 1,885 sq feet of available roof space for solar, which is a pretty big over-estimate. Judging from the view, it includes our carport, a small studio (originally a one-car garage) and a balcony area that covers a breezeway between our house and the studio/carport spaces.

            But, nonetheless, it's a helpful starting point.

        1. I have the same thing with some really big ash trees in the back, which might be obscuring the bottom half of the roof. Luckily, heh, there are three ash trees about a block away that are getting cut down (presumably because ash borer). So those trees might not be a problem for much longer.

          1. :-0

            I am informed that the big trees on the south side of our lot are ash trees as well. No word on ash borers in the neighborhood. They seem healthy as horses. One of which is shading my carport at the moment (2 pm local), suggesting that I shouldn't expect a very good yield on solar on my carport.

    2. We got panels installed last year through a company called Primitive Power. The solar installer was Empire Solar, which seems like one of the bigger names. There were a few bumps along the way to get the system installed and operational, but they were good to work with and we're getting good power output now.

      If you think you may go with them, drop me a line, as I think they give a chunk of money to both parties for a referral.

  5. It isn't 100% done because the shifters I bought initially were garbage and the new front shifter won't arrive for a couple of weeks, but it has brakes and rear gears so its rideable:

      1. A 24" pipe wrench did the trick. Now I just need to get some stickers to cover up the bad parts of the paint job.

  6. Dougie with a scoop

    1. I'm so old, I remember 1990 (Twins 74-88, last in the West, Yanks 67-95, last in the East).

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