Friend of mine bought a $60 scanner last year for his BMW. It read the check engine light fine until the transmission started acting up. The cheap thing just sat there blinking like it was confused, meanwhile his car was stuck in limp mode on the highway. He ended up paying a shop $150 just to read the code and it was a simple speed sensor. So yeah, those bargain scanners are basically paperweights once you step outside basic engine stuff.

My wife volunteers at the local food bank every other Saturday and she's got over 300 hours now without even realizing it. It's funny how we tend to shortchange our own efforts when we're just doing something that feels normal or routine. I've seen this pattern with folks who coach youth sports too, they'll say "oh I've only been doing it a few seasons" and then you add it up and it's like 400 hours of practice time. We're all pretty bad at estimating our own time investments until someone else points out the total.

I had a similar thing happen with my nephew last year, wanted a story about a penguin who ran a detective agency but was scared of fish. I mean, it sounds so dumb on paper but writing from the perspective of this penguin who had to solve cases while basically avoiding the entire ocean ecosystem was surprisingly fun. The best part was when he had to interrogate a sardine but couldn't look it in the eye without getting nervous. Idk, maybe that squirrel agent and my scaredy-penguin should team up for a crossover episode or something.

Lol @michael_bennett11, so are you saying the Hakko is just overhyped trash for most jobs?

Oh man, I used to roll my eyes at people calling a warm day "shocking" but last Tuesday changed my mind completely. I was out walking my dog and the heat just hit me differently, like it had this heavy, wet feel to it that I've never noticed before. It wasn't just hot, it was this weird oppressive kind of warmth that made me feel off the rest of the day. So yeah, I get where you're coming from now, that temp really did something strange.