That $280 sounds about right, I got hit with nearly the same bill last year. The silent failure is real, mine went out with zero noise too, just the battery light and then nothing. What the shop didn't tell me until later was that the voltage regulator on those can die first and that's what kills the alternator, so it's worth asking them to check that next time. Also, a tip for down the road, keep an eye on your headlights at night, if they flicker even slightly when you're idling, that's your alternator saying goodbye before the battery light ever comes on.

Just a heads up, the drift method is actually for fine tuning after you've already gotten it close with the polar scope. It won't fix a totally misaligned mount from scratch, it's more for that last tiny bit of error. Usually you want to get it roughly centered in the reticle first, then drift align to nail it down. Took me way too long to figure that out myself, my first drift session was a mess because I started from zero. Once I did the quick polar scope rough alignment first, the drift method took like 5 minutes instead of fighting it for an hour.

My garage shelf became a mini nursery after I hit 50 last spring. I started labeling pots with painter's tape and a sharpie, just so people could tell me what they wanted when they came by. Honestly, the neighborhood thing got real when I put out a little free pile by my mailbox and it was gone in two days. Now I keep a box of 2 inch terracotta pots and some cheap cactus mix on hand, it saves me from giving away plants in old yogurt cups. Just set a limit for yourself now, like 60, before you're propagating leaves in every windowsill. That's how I ended up with a jade plant in my bathroom, no regrets though.

Honestly, I always blamed the ink, but profiles really are everything.

Did you slowly move it over a few days or just plop it in the window?