Ugh, that's the worst. Read a forum post once where a guy's dado just seized solid from resin buildup. Could be that, or maybe the arbor nut just worked itself loose?

Funny how that works, your boss probably hasn't paid the repair bill. The altitude in Denver might be a factor people miss. Thinner air means less cooling, so everything runs hotter and works harder. That extra stress could be pushing marginal parts over the edge sooner than they would at sea level. Seen similar early failures on trucks that do a lot of mountain passes.

Honestly, I'm still learning this the hard way. I killed a perfectly good maidenhair fern by treating it like my pothos, which is basically a plastic plant at this point. My local climate is a dry joke, so following generic "water weekly" advice was a death sentence. Now I obsessively check humidity for my fussy plants and ignore it for the tough ones. It turns out my green thumb only works when I stop assuming all plants want to live in my personal desert.

That "real weight" feeling is what finally got me to finish my own projects too.

What do your birds think of the cord? Mine are OBSESSED with pecking at anything new. I had to run my extension cord through an old garden hose I slit open, then zip-tied it to the fence post. They still try, but the rubber seems to confuse them enough to give up. Total MacGyver move but it worked all last season.