Call that a waste of money and time honestly. A 12x16 patio is barely bigger than a nice living room rug, you could've hand finished that whole thing in about the same time it took you to load that 36 inch trowel into your truck and rent it. Power trowels are for warehouse floors and big slabs where your knees give out, not for a pour you can reach across with a hand float. Plus you're adding fuel cost, rental fee, and the risk of gouging the concrete if you don't know what you're doing with it. You got lucky it came out clean but that tool doesn't belong on a job that small.

Man I put a Jasper in a 6.0 last year and it's been running fine so far...

Spend less time trying to sound profound and more time mapping out a scene. Put two characters in a room, give them a specific conflict, then shut them both up for a few beats. That's where your real story shows up.

Classic case of aperture fever turning into back pain real quick! That first Jupiter view had you hooked, but then reality hit when you tried to move that monster. The 80mm might not show as much detail, but at least you can carry it without calling in reinforcements.

You said "sometimes pricier spots just dress up average food" - what specific place are you thinking of when you say that? I'm genuinely curious because I've been burned the same way before. Like that time I paid $14 for a "Neapolitan" pizza that was basically a cracker with wet dough in the middle. Ifdanielwhite is just talking about one bad experience or if they've got a list of overpriced joints that fool people.