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Update 10/22/26. Our installer put us off a couple of weeks and has now landed on the install date next week. At that time, we’ll replace the Powerwall 2’s with 3’s. Our expansion units will be handled under additional engineering and permitting at a later date (I guess).

When the Powerwalls Went to Zero: Turning a Tesla Recall Into a Home-Energy Upgrade

On September 2, 2026, we woke up to an unwelcome message in the Tesla app:

“Powerwall Disabled — Your Powerwall will be replaced.”

The year began with a trip to Palm Springs where we stayed in La Quinta for the Palm Springs Dog show. The desert is great in January and I got some nice bike rides in and around the region.

We came home to an atmospheric river event that showed us where some new engineering would be needed for our grave paths. The storms also dropped a huge douglas fir onto other trees blocking our route, power and internet for about a week.

I got into home automation with an environment known as SmartThings when I read about them on Kickstarter back in 2013. As you can read here, over the years we went from just SmartThings with its proprietary UI and migrated towards Apple Homekit in our ever expanding home Applesphere.

We've finally abandoned SmartThings in favour of Hubitat Elevation. My objective was to get better and more consistent behaviour from our Zwave devices using Apple Siri voice commands.

2021 began with a trip to Palm Springs for our first dog show. Lynda and Leo were competing in confirmation, rally and obedience. The trip was successful and we all learned a lot about the difference between the movie and an event.

Due to the pandemic and home schooling and TKD via Zoom, we decide to permanently park the cars outside and change out the flooring from hard plastic tiles to rubber mats style tiles. This would give some extra give for workouts and TKD. By this time Lynda was also participating in TKD.

In 2017, we started the year in Australia. Lynda rented a home for Gunnar, Courtney, Mom and I in the Darlinghurst neighborhood of Sydney. We used this as our home base to enjoy the city sights especially the New Year’s Eve events and fireworks.

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As the world locked down, we adapted. Sure there were a few accidents (broken arm, cut forehead).

The world (ours at least) turned sideways in March of 2020. We went from having a grandnephew in first grade at Baymonte and dog training classes in Capitola to starting a home school at the dining table and Tae Kwon Do classes in the garage via Zoom.