Those plastic ones from the hardware stores always seem to fail in direct sun. The UV light breaks down the plastic and then the pressure from the water does the rest. You want a barrel that's either made from thicker UV-stabilized plastic or metal like you got. Make sure you put the new one on a solid, level base too. A little bit of crushed gravel or some pavers will keep the weight from stressing the bottom seam. Good call going with the local garden supply place, they usually sell stuff that actually lasts.

Did you actually start using your own phone photos full time, or was that just for that one client?

Yeah it's the same feeling I get when I realize half my streaming subscriptions just auto renew every month without me even watching them. We're all just paying for the option to maybe do stuff someday and never actually doing it.

Back in 2014 I had a 128GB Samsung 840 EVO just die on me out of nowhere... no warning, no bad sectors, nothing. I still think about that when people act like SSDs are bulletproof. Sure they're fast and quiet but when they fail they fail completely, you don't get the clicking heads and grinding sounds like an HDD to tell you something's wrong. I keep my backups on old spinning rust drives because at least I can hear them dying before it's too late.

Long term coliving beats hostel hopping every time for actual work consistency.