I did some guided underwater caving myself in coastal reefs in Egypt.

I’ve been in tight caves, skydived and may soon buy an ultralight, climb without a rope (class 3ish) with fatal fall exposure, etc. I’ve managed to stay alive because of heavy risk assessment and mitigation efforts.

Cave diving is a whole different category of risk. I’d never attempt it. As a hobby it’s certain death. Please say something about this in your post above.

Thirty years ago I spent three months as a USGS intern as part of a team taking depth readings on explored portions of caves.

What makes Mammoth so cool is the huge size of the passages. But, I don’t think I’d have been nearly as impressed if I’d not spend three months mostly crawling through the tiny passageways that comprise the vast majority of most caves.

Wyandott cave once ran a 12 hour 2 person + 2 guide tour into the tighter areas. If they’re still running that tour then I highly recommend it. At the time, it was damned near impossible to ever see a cave in that way unless you had a friend already hooked into the spelunking community.

Makes sense. I’d not sell a hack job. But, for a temporary thing that’s mine, sure.

The suburban solution is to create a false dichotomy to rationalize outsourcing a simple electrical issue to Lowes.

The hack solution is to cut two ends and reterminate them.

I’d hack it. To do it well it’s 8 crimps, wire loom, and harness tape. So, 10 minutes and $5.

It could. But, there’s more layers to this swiss cheese model of safety. For example, the lineman’s procedure is to ground out, then isolate, then test. They’d need to skip both ground out and test to be electrocuted by an asshole with a generator.

(If you) are sure you understand how they work

And

If you really need one

I understand how power systems work. But, I can’t come up with a situation where I’d use a male-male AC cord rather than a safer and more reliable alternative. Most relevant is simply cutting off the female termination and reterminating through a breaker to the outlet ($15 and 15 min).

Technical details and the social contract mandate that your generator is never connected to the main power grid. The generator should be wired to an enclosed AC transfer switch. This switch will connect either the generator or the main grid to your home, but never both.

Some detail: If the generator is wired to the main grid it can prevent restoration of main grid power. While an AC transfer switch will perform the task, many jurisdictions mandate additional safety precautions (which can be quite expensive).

O’Brien, Miles (Colm Meaney)

My Vicorinox was a daily carry for ten years. I only gave it up because my wife needed a pack and I wanted a new feature. She’s carried it for another couple years. The pack is made better than my Osprey hiking pack and the 5.11 that replaced it.