Had a chat with a dude at a red light about blasting heavy metal

I was sitting at a stoplight on Broad Street last Tuesday with Slayer cranked to 11, and this guy in the next car rolled down his window to tell me he used to do the same but his wife made him turn it down. Made me wonder how many people out there have surrendered their go-to car anthem to someone else's taste. What's the one song you refuse to lower the volume on even with passengers?

Pro tip: Don't use cheap PVA glue on leather hinges

I tried a $5 bottle from the craft store instead of spending $18 on proper bookbinder's PVA. After 3 weeks, the hinges pulled apart and I had to redo the whole spine.

Remember when we used to desolder with braid and a iron?

I started doing board repair back in 2008 and it was all braid and a Weller station. Took forever to clean up thru-hole joints on old console boards. Now I got one of those cheap hot air rework stations from Amazon for like 60 bucks. It changed everything for me, especially on those tight multi-layer boards. Anyone else make the switch later than they should have?

Snapped a hoist cable on a routine lift in Baltimore last Thursday

I was just moving a 2 ton AC unit for a rooftop job and the cable gave way with a bang that echoed across the whole block. Had to shut down the site for 3 hours while we swapped it out, anyone else had a cable snap out of nowhere like that?

Had a horse spook mid-shoe and nearly took a hoof to the shin

Was working a draft cross in a muddy paddock outside Lexington last Tuesday and he stepped sideways, yanked the nail puller out of my hand, and I had to grab his leg and hold it while I finished with the clinch cutter one-handed just to get the shoe off safely has anyone else had a close call that made you rethink setting up in a wet field?

Found an old relay in a 1960s Otis that still had the original paint

I was swapping out a door control board in a building downtown last Tuesday and pulled the cover off an old relay cabinet. The whole thing was caked in dust but the paint was still mint, like it hadn't been touched since the 60s. Anyone else run into old parts that are somehow still cleaner than the stuff we install today?

Tried dry brushing before a chemical peel on a client in Austin last Thursday, and it actually cut down their peeling time by 3 days.

She had really thick buildup and I figured the manual exfoliation would help the peel penetrate better, has anyone else tested this combo or had it backfire?

Saw a stat that 30% of drywall jobs fail because of bad mud mixing

I was reading through some trade journal my buddy left at the site last Tuesday. It had a spread on common drywall mistakes and said nearly 30% of callbacks come from mud that wasn't mixed right. That blew my mind because I always thought it was about taping or sanding issues. I've been mixing by eye for years, just eyeballing the water. Any of you guys measure out your mud mix or just go by feel?

Just realized my old house in the North Valley has way more insulation than I thought... found out from a free city energy audit.

Update on that Whirlpool washer with the weird F7E2 code

Spent an hour checking the main board, turned out a mouse had chewed through the wiring harness behind the unit. Anyone else run into rodent damage causing phantom errors?