So today I picked up Vik ( @Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe ) from St Louis Crematorium, 4 weeks and a day since his passing. It took a while as there was a problem with his death certificate which I think I mentioned

Not sure what I feel, now I have his ashes and his death certificates, I guess it seems a little more real? Before I was just cleaning the house, sure, somewhat intrusively and making decisions on stuff that he'd usually decide on, but some how it still hadn't sunk in I guess?

I'll need to get some help with making financial decisions, definitely want to speak to someone what works for me rather than a rep at Fidelity or Morgan Stanley with regards to investments and 401K, and then there's chasing down bank accounts. And of course taxes will be rather interesting I'm sure.

Beyond that, mostly just continuing to sort, sort and sort some more, and figure out who wants what, who buys what, etc. I've got help on the comics and fountain pens, prolly give a lot of the stickers and stationary to the local journalling group. Need to donate some bags and basic stationary items to someone, and for the rest... No idea yet.

#Life #death #family

Three weeks since my husband passed. I took this week off in a number of ways, I went back to work, I needed to get some normal back in my life.

Bit of a rough week, little work for me Wednesday and Thursday, so I worked yesterday, and still fell short of goal. Wednesday wasn't a surprise, my main #gig RXD doesn't have much on Wednesday, and most of what they have is garbage, but Thursday was a surprise, I couldn't get a route for the life of me. Also I wasn't available Monday as I was taking care of things at his office.

This week I've got a Better Trucks shift lined up for Wednesday, and depending on how the week goes, I might start signing up for more shifts. Pay wise its better than RXD, however I actually have to work, so... Might go back to my old zone if'n I do, my husband was a good part of why I dropped it, at least until winter, that zone has an 1140 load time and takes 6 to 8 hours, so I'd be getting home after him by an hour or two, no more dinner together. Now though? Yeah, my night vision sucks, so when it starts getting dark at 1700, I'll have to drop it again if'n they don't shift the load time earlier by then.

Any how, as I said, going for a normal week, not dealing with his passing in any way this week, being a little lazy, I do have some proofread work that I should've been doing, I'll just have to make time this coming week to get that done.

Friday brought an interesting phone call from the crematorium, I had been wondering what the delay is. Apparently they're having problems getting his death certificate signed, for some reason his GP was listed, and he refused to sign it for obvious reasons, he works out of SSM DePaul, Vik died at SSM SLU, so no real surprise that he's refusing to sign when he wasn't there. Not sure if'n that was a mistake, or its standard practice out here for his GP to sign off on a nature cause death. I've emailed them about the mistake, and I think they were contacting the city Medical Examiner for some help, so hopefully this'll be sorted soon, and things can get moving, I kinda need the death certificate to close accounts, collect life insurance, and so on. Might also need to grab a few copies of my marriage license as well, might be necessary to prove our marriage.

Got his car cleaned out today, though the interior will definitely need cleaning. Also have a link for sorting out the title as he didn't put down a TOD for whatever reason. Trying to avoid probate court if all possible, I mean my relationship with his family is fine, they expect that I inherit everything, so there's no real reason to get the courts involved, the only thing is on Apple, but if'n I'm reading that right, that'll just get me access to his iCloud, and I'm not sure I need anything there.

So, that's about all the news.

#family #Life #death

Yeah, doesn't look like much, does it? This is the test button on the package of a neon look LED sign that I got. The thing that's so neat about it is that is what's not there, the sign is powered by a USB cord, unlike the decorative signs I've gotten in the past that are powered by batteries. This becomes important, because those would come with batteries installed, and a switch like this that connected to two bins on the sign. This sign however has no batteries, so how does it work?

The give away is the thickness, I haven't tried opening it yet, but I'm willing to bet that there's a button battery in there. Kinda amazing how cheap this stuff has become, the sign is $9.99, and for testing you get a free button battery, cheap switch, and a USB female socket, how are they even doing that?

#sign #electronics #China

I have a Bip 3 Pro, which is a fairly cheap smart watch, but cheap means the fitness features don't work great, but that's fine, I mostly bought it to check time and alerts without having to pull my phone out of my pocket.

Thing is I've had a few posts go viral or near viral (what is viral on the Fediverse?), and the alerts are killing my watch's battery, so I had to turn off alerts from @Fedilab Apps . Besides, those have gotten distracting at this point.

So when cleaning my husband's desks (work and home) and bag, I've been finding some money...

Yeah, coins, paper, foreign as well as US, savings bonds, gift cards and certificates, and credit/bank cards. Need to figure out if'n there's anything valuable here and what to do with the foreign currency, any ideas? Paper currency's current stack is over $200, plus what I have in my wallet, and what little bit I've spent so far.

I also really need help sorting here, I've collected 9 collapsible cube storage bins worth of stuff that needs further sorting, and I'm not done yet, though I am running out of places to put stuff. Anyone in #STL up for a sorting party, especially someone who wants to take a lead on figuring out how best to further sort this stuff? I'll pay for the pizza, and within reason, anyone what helps can take what they want.

I've got help to deal with the comics, I've made 3 short boxes from his desks so far, and I think I've found all the loose ones, but there's still this downstairs:

Some stuff has already been set aside to figure out what to do with it, like his collection of fountain pens and ink, I've given a shout on Messenger to the STL Pen Show in hopes that they can help me figure out what to do with those. Craft stuff I'm giving his family first dibs. Ditto for clothes, after that...

Anyone in the furry community want to help with that side of things? We've got prints around here as well as MFM memorabilia, and possibly other stuff.

#STL #Mo #missouri #help #fountainpen

Ok, starting to agressively clean up @Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe 's desks here in the computer room, largely because with no access to his Apple devices, I have to hope there's paper here to help me find accounts.

So, the good news is that this desk...

now looks like this...

Unfortunately, that's because the area where we have the trash can and recycling bin looks like this

That also where the A/C vent is, so its getting rather warm in here. A lot of that will be getting shredded, quite a lot, because with this volume of paper, the rule will be when in doubt, shred.

―

I'm still trying to figure out how I'm supposed to feel about losing my husband, my reaction is certainly not what you're told you're supposed to have, at least as society says, but then I've always had a problem with society and relationships, is it me or is there no grey in it? Its either love or friendship, that's what's expected, nothing in between. But really there is a lot of grey, isn't there?

Did I love him? Honestly I'm not sure, I mean what is love (feel free to insert Haddoway)? I'm sure some of my problems come from my autism, maybe a lot. Me, I'm a hermit, I leave the house for work, grocery shopping and Sunday brunch, and that's about it. I avoid people like the plague.

He always said he was introvert, something that seems so weird, I mean he was well loved at work and involved in some many parts of it. He was active in the fountain pen community and Ingress community, active in local government, and genealogy.

Certainly hard to imagine him as an introvert, right?
But introverts need to recharge mentally, right?

I suppose that's where I fit in, I provided that, a place where he didn't need to be anything but who he was. I kept the house clean more or less, took care of finances, had last word, sometimes only word on big things, it was me who decided we should stop paying rent and buy a house Here he could come home, touch base with me, then crawl into a computer for the rest of the night, food would be taken care of, home was where he could relax.

I suppose I'm angry at him, the obvious would be for leaving me, the less obvious, I've been nudging him to take serious the fact that he would get out of breath on stairs. Lately when grocery shopping, at the second store, and sometimes the first, he'd have to use one of those powered carts. And then there were another minor problem, at least that one he went to the doctor, but that was just a couple weeks ago. Then there's the problems here, from the fear over money, I don't make much with what I do, and I had no idea what he had in place as he'd never told me. Frustration, since we never really planned, so I have no access to his computers or devices, which has me operating somewhat blind. I'm pretty creative, so I've got some idea of what I need to deal with, but still. Sad? That comes and goes, it has to be rather strong loss for me to be sad, that's been rare in my life, and this is definitely a strong loss. A stew of emotions and confusion.

My greatest strength is organizing things, putting together a plan, its just a matter of figuring out where to start. I'm lucky that help is available, as I told his father this morning, I'm kinda drowning in help, plenty of family, co-worker and friend support, but its hard for me to ask for help, harder still when I don't know what I need. I think funeral and memorial is the biggest area where I need help, I have an idea of what cemetery I think would be appropriate, but not just for him, but for his mom and his cat, assuming all three would be allowed, but the details are something that I'm uncertain about.

Beyond that, its a very simple though annoying process of reporting his death to various banks, insurance, etc, providing proof, settling debts and closing accounts. Honestly that's mostly easy, its my comfort zone, while I hate desk work, I do enjoy any task that amounts to fill in the blank. Interspersed with that will be returning to work, and trying to clean this place, a task that I'm estimating at taking months.

Surprise sympathy flowers sent to me by Chewies after settling my husband's account The image features a bouquet of flowers arranged on a marble surface. The bouquet consists of white lilies with subtle purple speckles and yellow carnations, complemented by green foliage and small white flowers. A white ribbon is tied around the bouquet, adding a touch of elegance. Two cards are attached to the bouquet: one is a business card for "Bloomers Florist" The other card is a handwritten note that reads, "Sorry for your loss. I am so sorry to hear about your loss. All my love and prayers are with you. Love, Andrew and your Chewy Family." The background is a simple, light-colored marble surface.

I think I'm going to have a lay down, hopefully this was understandable, it certainly was draining.

#love #Life #death #feelings

As I mentioned on Monday, my husband passed away suddenly. This is bad enough, but he neither left a will that I'm aware of nor access to any of his computers or devices, a rather large problem as his life is mostly stored online.

So, I've been dealing with minor loose ends while things got sorted with the morgue, cancelled the cat food subscription, and the toilet paper subscription, got a computer trade in he was in the middle of wrapped up. Got instructions from Patreon on how to close his accounts, and scared up a site that helps me find out what bank accounts he had, though its accuracy is somewhat iffy.

I'm hoping to avoid having anything to do with the courts, anyone know if they need to be involved? I'm his spouse, we're legally married, and his family has accepted that, so there's no challenge to me inheriting everything, I see no reason to get the court involved unless its required. There is however one thing that might need to involve them, and that's his Apple account, the only way I can access it is with his death certificate and a court order. There may be other less pleasant ways to get access to at least his computer, but I'd kinda not do that, though it might be necessary. Does anyone know what you get in a case like this? Just what's on his iCloud, or can we unlock his devices? I'm not sure if'n he exclusively stored to his iCloud, backed up to it, or had a mixture of backed up and not backed up files on his computer.

Beyond that, I think its just sorting his belongings and deciding what to keep, if'n you're local, I may have some food to give, some of the stuff he liked not only wasn't stuff I like, but stuff I don't think the food bank'll have much interest in, especially the perishables.

#Life #today #STL #stlouis #missouri #Mo #death #help #family #Apple #advice

I'm kinda having a problem over here, my husband @Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe just passed away a few hours ago. Unfortunately in our life he was the chaos and I was the order, and he left me no arrangements, estate info, etc.

Yeah, I know, sounds like I'm moving fast, but as I said, I was the order, the solver of problems, the planner, plotter and schemer, as such, the only way I can really handle this is to fix what I can fix, try to make some order here, and keep moving.

I'm working on figuring things out, if'n anyone can point me to some good resources for how to handle this, I could use them. If'n your local and want to help me, I could use some help obviously as I'm dealing with a hoarder who didn't share much information with me unless I thought to ask. Oh, and I have a memory like a sieve, so that only makes the situation worse.

For those wondering if'n I need any financial help or anything like that, I'm fine, I was in charge of that, so I've got enough for I think 3-4 months with zero income, and obviously at some point I'll get back to working.

I have contacted @Bitwarden 's support to see if'n its possible to get access to his vault, as that'll allow me to sort out his private life.

Every time I see mention of Guam, I think it might be nice to move there. This time I took a serious though not detailed look, and I gotta say I like the idea. Kinda like Hawaii without the rampant tourism from the looks of things? Been to Hawaii, and quite liked it, everything cost more, but manageable, especially if'n you had the option of shopping in Honolulu, and avoided Oahu.

Anyone recommend some good resources, or want to answer questions? Mostly wondering how the costs stack up compared to Missouri, taxes look like they'll drop, housing will be a bit higher, not sure about the rest.

#guam #missouri #retirement

I love pizza, I mean really love, as in I could live on pizza and coffee as my only foods, and I love trying new combos. Aldi is a great source for this, while they don't carry many pizzas standardly, they often have special buy pizzas, and those can get really interesting, like this one that I thought was just a BBQ chicken pizza with a fancy title.

So I toss it on the pizza stone, ready to cook it up for lunch, and... Is that corn chips on there?

Check the label, yep, it is. Well that's new, and actually not bad, adds an interesting crunch to the pizza and pairs well with BBQ chicken. I think this is one of my favorite pizzas, frozen or fresh, but unfortunately I have no idea who makes it, Mama Cozzi's is a house brand, they relabel the source brand, sometimes without even changing the packaging other than removing the original brand, and in this case, this is not something I've ever seen here in #STL .

#Food #pizza

Oh come on, had to use that headline, even if'n we're just talking about my accounts. For the most part I'm on the Fediverse, although I am also on Reddit and Tumblr.

For those that remember my last post about this, I got rid of my Diaspora, the idea was for it to serve as an easy bridge between Tumblr and here, since Friendica doesn't thumbnail Tumblr post usually. Diaspora does that, until it doesn't, plus sometimes posts on Diaspora wouldn't properly display here, so that was rather pointless.
These days I just throw the memes up directly here, however there can be some lag if'n I forget to make a new post, and then I need help with alt text and @Altbot isn't entirely reliable ( @Micr0byte ), such as giving me alt text in the wrong language, or not at all. In fact today it managed to give me no alt text, but to message me and tell me that I should add the alt text to the image.

Here I have four accounts, this one, @Kāpitan which is the admin and occasionally posts server, admin or moderation commentary, @Recalls which posts all the recalls I can find, and finally @The Taur Nation which is devoted to posting centaur, lamia, naga and related artwork links and occasionally artwork, rated from G-R18G, content warninged as necessary.
Here there be questions, things about my life, and politics, though we do try to make sure they're properly tagged so you can make them go away.

If'n you don't like the politics, try my Mastodon, @Taurnsndhaus Admin , originally planned to be a back up in case something happened here, its boosting general content from here, occasionally original posts, so long as the post fits in a single tweet. Any politics that show up there will be local, St Louis, St Louis metro or Missouri, nothing national.

Like politics? Then my Tumblr is for you, here I post the most interesting and/or important stuff I find there, but I boost a lot more over there. Not much original content over there, despite how much I like it, I just tend to forget about it.

And lastly Reddit, which is mostly content I can't find here on the Fediverse, r/StLouis and ones related to my car (r/ChevyBolt) or my gig work. If that stuff starts showing up on the Fediverse, I'll start moving away from it.

#friendica #mastodon #Fediverse #socialmedia #Reddit #tumblr #STL #stlouis #missouri

So, over the weekend, I finally got around to putting up my M2 car collection mounted, which was not easy.

The picture doesn't show it well, but we live in a split level, so those are on the wall above the stairs leading to the basement level. That took some fun ladder settings which was still janky as hell. The shelves are an older Ikea picture ledge mounted upside except for the bottom one that I scored off of marketplace at an awesome price, 7 for... I think $30, something around that. A quick check on eBay, and people were selling NOS ones for over $100, so... I already have some figures on the newer model of picture ledge, those cost about $12 each, so it was a no brainer to snap these up, especially as they were nearby and I could pic them up while working.

I do have a thing for cab overs, which is why the vast majority are VW vans and pickups or 60's era American pickups and vans. I do have a few other things, but those were mostly bought before I found that I could get these at WalMart, when my choices were slimmer, stuff I like, but don't love.

And yes, those two cars with the orange background are Batmobiles, the Adam West one as well as the one from Batman Adventures, my two favorites.

#collectibles #Cars #diecastcar #homedecor

Figured I'd make some extra money, I mean over $200 to do a route? Sure, it's 150 or so mile route up in farm country, but we've done that before.

First problem was getting out there, Doppel's never had great highway range, but with the new tire and wheel combo, it's noticeably worse. Of course I kinda new that, but hadn't worried about it as my regular gig has very little high speed driving, plus I didn't expect it to matter much on this, but I'd forgotten that in Illinois, most rural roads are 55MPH. Yeah, problem.

Still, manageable, until we got to Staunton, this is wear things really went pear shaped. I mean Worden was bad, connection problems, and the app is garbage, but not too bad. Staunton? Forget having a connection at all, for some reason it's a dead zone. Aside from by the Casey's, I couldn't get a signal, we're talking showing one bar of 4GLTE at best, but nothing actually working. Weirdly, just 3 miles out of town and across the border into the next county and I'm getting two to three bars of 5G, so this is really weird. Also the app had one stop in the wrong place requiring four miles of backtracking, and with the connection down and the app glitchy, I had to route m'self as best as possible which really wasn't all that great, adding more miles to the route.

After that, connection was sometimes bad, but mostly worked. App was still a dumpster fire until about ten stops from the end when it would finally show me what the route plan was so that I knew what it was doing and could correct it as necessary, a big improvement.

Finally get to the last stop in Carlinville, and I have... fifty-nine miles of range left. Lovely, nearest charger? Around 32 miles or so, and remember the highway range problem. We did make it there, with a little over twenty miles of range left... And the charger won't work with my car. Thankfully it was only about five or so miles to another charger, most of it low speed roads, so not as much range degradation. Still, finally arrived with all of eighteen miles left.

When I took the job, I was expecting to finish around two hours early, and I suppose I did, but once you take in the trip to the charger, which was basically on the way home, and the trip home, that ate up those two hours, so I didn't get home until... eightish I think. By that point I was too tired to care, got home, plugged in as I didn't bother fully charging where I stopped, enough to get home and then some, but not a full charge.

Yeah, that whole thing was one problem after another problem. Not doing that again, Staunton, only if'n I get another cell service, which is something that might happen, maybe a prepaid that's not tied to any one network, thanks to modern 5G that could work, as long as at least one of the companies has good service out there. There's also the possibility that @Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe and me might change service entirely, assuming we can save over Verizon where we're spending about $195 for 5G home internet, two cell phones and around 5 or 6 streaming service accounts I think. Yeah, getting a lot of services at a discount, so I doubt we'd find a better deal. I'd say that my next EV will get better range, but that's iffy, I'm looking at getting a Slate Van in 2027 possibly, and the standard range battery is only 150 miles, there will be a longer range battery, but price and range haven't been announced.

#electricvehcles #work #gig #driving #badday

Not sure why though. Yes, I didn't sleep well nor much last night, but that should just mean tired, instead my neck, upper back, shoulders and feet all hurt.

#today was a good enough day, because of the sleeping problems I cancelled my shift with Better Trucks, but in the end wound up working any how even though I didn't need to as I had the opportunity to work in Wood River, somewhere I have been in at least six months, maybe longer. Funny, thanks to the tariffs, Better Trucks is drying up, but one of my other gigs is heating up as it looks like UPS is trying to build their own alternative to the USPS. Well, money in my pocket as long as things keep going like this, so no complaint here.

Oh, and this song just feels appropriate today: youtu.be/YApDcvIhlWw

#YouTube #Music

For those what don't know, I drive an electric car, a Chevy Bolt to be specific. While I don't usually need a fast charger, when I do, it's a bit of a pain as there aren't a lot of CCS chargers in St Louis, but Tesla chargers are a fair bit more common.

Obviously the solution is an adapter, but I'm frugal, so I've been holding out. Frugal, not cheap, you can get some adapters down around $100, but those are usually unknown Chinese brands with a warranty not worth the paper its printed on, and quite capable of melting down when used. So, I went to one of the well respected companies, A2Z to get one, now that they're on sale, use the code FLASHSPRING and it's just $127.50

#ElectricCar #NACS #CCS1 #Charging

Not much to say about #today, relatively slow down, household finance stuff and did some work for fun. Yes, work for fun, picked up in Glen Carbon, did one drop in Edwardsville, three in Marine, and one in Highland, four from WalMart, one from Petsmart. I've already more than made my money for the week, so there was no need to do any more, but... Couldn't resist.

Too many miles for too little money, but like I said, did it for fun. Turns out I've been to both towns, did Amazon deliveries in Marine around 2018, and last time me and @Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe drove out to PA to visit my family, we'd stopped in Highland at Huddle House for breakfast. Ain't a Huddle House no more, which is a shame as I like them, but I'm up for trying the new place, Eddies Rise 'n Dine, if'n it's still around next time. Whole thing was just wandering around rural and small town Illinois for a few hours, then coming back 44 miles.

At least nothing formal, not that I plan on doing anything today, another than recovering from seven days of work and I think around sixty-five hours. Yeah, I might've over done it, both knees, one foot, back, and shoulders all hurt. Still, got a lot of things to catch up here, household finances, cleaning, and might do some online used shopping off Marketplace, if'n I get to it, but going to a store? Nah, not happening, haven't got the energy for that.

Oh, any #android programmers here?

We did say we got it, right?

loops.video/v/6BstSglyI4 sums up things quickly, but a few details as to why the purchase, as I'm anti-consumerist.

Like I said in here, it's an upgrade in all but memory over my previous G Power 2023. I did have to give up half the memory and settle for 128G, but since I was only using 47 and have an SD card option, that's not exactly a big deal. In return, I got a better camera, bar code scanning yesterday was lightning quick, wireless charging which is a nice plus, IP68 and IP69 water resistance, along with Gorilla Glass 5.

As a delivery driver, those last three are very important, the IP ratings are for water, one is for spray, and one is for splash/submersion, apparently you could clean this by throwing it in a dishwasher. And unlike the model one step down that has Gorilla Glass 3 which is scratch resistance, this one is impact resistant, ostensibly to a nearly four foot drop. I also hedged my bets by buying a case for it.. Actually two, there was a delay on the second as the one I ordered was out of stock, instead of clear magnetic, I'll be getting a black one. That kinda sucks as I like showing off the fact that I have a green phone, something interesting considering how many phones come in black. I did get a clear regular case, but I want to try the magnetic one, as it allows the phone to work like an iPhone does, allowing the use of magnetic charging and accessories.

Not much else to say, light on the pre-installed apps, and all but Google and Motorola are unistallable. Yep, don't want FaceBook on the phone, then feel free to delete it, though you are stuck with Google's stuff as that's an Android requirement. As to the Motorola, that's mostly just stuff to customize it, and it works rather nice, I like the experimental monochrome icon theme m'self.

Obviously it doesn't work on everything, but quite a lot work, with the funniest failure being Frayt, which just turns into a dark blue blob.

Overall, I gotta say I'm liking this, we'll see if'n the battery is big enough for work, I do currently have it set to battery saver where it stops at 80%, the camera works much better than the old one. I'll have to find a magnetic charging mount for the car and see how that works. I definitely have to recommend Motorola if you're looking for a phone that works, and is reasonably priced, they're made by Lenovo who makes computers that are reasonably priced and perform well, but won't blow your socks off, and the same holds true for the phones.

#android #cellphone #phone #motorola #Lenovo #review

Fairly big box with something clunking around in it...

That's an Amazon quality packing job, though the worst has got to be REI.

Salutations all y'all, whatever your are.

Not working today, I'm waiting for the cursed phone to arrive, besides, I needed a break, it's been a week. Monday wasn't bad, chaotic, but nothing bad, Tues was normal.
Then there was Wednesday, where I started work at 0530, picked up 136 packages in my Bolt and spent around 7 hours delivering.
Next morning was supposed to start the same, but got there and wasn't needed. Too late to go back to sleep, so home until standard start time, but at least dispatch did me a favor and gave me my favorite route. And why's that my favorite route? 75 stops plus having to take packages back to the warehouse, and I still only drove 47 miles and got $103. Yeah, that zone is a gold mine and for some reason none of the sorters claim it even though they get first dibs on zones. Ran an errand, grabbed some food, then grabbed a delivery that wound up being unable to be delivered, but at least there I get paid for the return trip, $27 for 14 miles anyone?
So, today is waiting for UPS so I can finally get my cursed phone. You might remember me mentioning that I was supposed to get a new phone last Friday. Yeah, that didn't happen, in fact on Sat it was still showing as not shipped. And then on Sunday the order status link stopped working. Tues I poked the customer service chat bot, as there's no other online service, and it said there was no such order...! And then on Wed I get an email it's on it's way, yay... Shipping delayed due to mechanical issues, and unless I'm blind, none of the emails nor the tracking screen said anything about signature required. Yeah, you know what happened. Ok, so now I'm here waiting for them, and expecting the phone to be defective or destroyed in shipping with the way my luck is going.

So, how's everything going out there for y'all, whatever y'all are?

Not much to say, ordered a Motorola G Power (2025) this afternoon, should have it tomorrow.
I'm already rocking the same phone but the 2023 edition, this one'll have half the memory, but be faster, have wireless charging, and most importantly considering my job, higher water rating (IP 68 & IP 69 IIRC), along with MilSpec for drop. Memory isn't an issue, I'm only using 47G of 256G right now, so being cut down to 128G is no big deal, especially since this still takes SD cards.
Oh, and the battery might be bigger, which would be nice, the apps I gig on are power hungry, I don't come close to making it through an entire shift with the current phone.

Only bad thing is getting it set up, that'll be a hassle as I prefer not to import my apps and such, I prefer a clean manual install, so lots of work getting everything set up on a weekend where I have to do household finances, normal chores and want to do some extra shopping.

Oh, and I have to sell the old phone, I could've gotten $75, but with them selling on eBay for $90 to $125, I figure I should sell it m'self. If'n anyone wants a good phone, give me a holler. Oh, and I have a 2020 edition Razr for sale too, usable, but needs repair, along with a Lenovo 11 inch tablet if'n any of that interests y'all.

#cellphone #motorola

I've been thinking of going solar in the future, and was thinking why not run as much of the house off DC as possible?

Well, YouTube offered me this video, which basically covers the same thing only targeted for off grid campers.

youtu.be/UAZGX379dmc

Anyone know what it is?

Seriously, the cruelty is the point only works short term, make the rich richer?
These days we don't make things, we consume them, so every person that's deported?
One less sale
Every person arrested?
One less sale
Every person who loses their income to a government shut down, etc?
One less sale

Crashing the economy doesn't make a lot of sense, as the rich need the economy to keep making them richer, so where is this even going?

#uspol #trump #consumerism #capitilism #economy

Wait, I've always been a bit loopy, I meant to say that I've joined Loops. Actually joined it last week, but finally posted my first vid, just a little intro video, but I think there'll be more as I like it. I could use to find a PeerTube for longer stuff, and I'll likely do a second intro since I think I'm going to make more use of this than I'd originally thought, but we'll see.

loops.video/@Vextaur

#Loops #video

The joys of being a delivery driver in #STL Yep, snowpocalypse, so very fun to work in.

Hasn't been a terrible week, but it's hard to make money when you have to take two days off because of weather, and then on the third day, make $105 but wind up spending $150 to get recovered on the way to your last delivery.

Rest of the week hasn't been bad, though yesterday was interesting, had a couple near stucks where it became a matter of keep moving. That or find a way out before no forward movement becomes no movement at all, including at one point driving nearly ¼ mile backwards to the nearest place I could safely turn around.

By the time I get home, I'm dead, so haven't been keeping up with online stuff including doing proofreading for people. Hopefully next week'll be better, couple cold days in the forecast, but most at or above freezing, and no snow in the forecast either.

So how's your week been?

And what is there to say, I'm still here. Really, it's not been a really notable one, which I suppose is a blessing in itself, I mean I've lost my father a couple years back, and it's inevitable that I'll lose more in the future, but this year wasn't one of those.

Work, still the perfect job for me, I'm almost undeniably autistic, and have found the perfect place for me. Of course the tariff threats worry me as my job is delivery, which is of course import driven, heavily Chinese imports driven. But what can I do but wait and see? On the work side, we have streamlined things, shut down my LLC, everything I was doing had fallen under the sole proprietor envelope, so no point in wasting money on that and making things more complicated.

Money, we survived, but our backup account is in rough shape, down around $1K maybe. Checking is always depleted, but that's how our finances are set up. Property saving account is going strong, I was originally going to put it into a short term CD, but I'm leaning towards using it for home improvements instead. We will be reducing how much we put into property by $50 every two weeks as well as potentially increasing my pay and lowering the phone bill, so if'n things don't change too much we'll end 2025 better, but time will tell.

And me? I work, read, occasionally proofread fan fics, and that's about it, assuming I even have energy for that, something that's been a problem lately, not sure if'n it's winter issues, or something else. I don't really go anywhere, the world is too peopley for me. Seriously, I mean my job requires about 1 minute of interaction with people, otherwise interaction is option or accidental. I want to retire somewhere rural, maybe southern IL, where there's less people.

I'd post a year end selfie, but I need to shave rather badly.
Whelp, onwards, it's 2025 (time not year) as I type this, that seems appropriate. Bedtime will prolly be within an hour, sleep when I get to it, unless something interesting pops up on one of my apps.

#2024recap #life

Remember this?

Yep, it really works, that's the good news.
The bad news?
Well...
You can find a similar one on the Ninja brand, and I'm not sure if'n the differences are to protect against lawsuits, or just cutting every corner they can.
Instead of a central filter like the Ninja and many other cold brew devices, you just pour your coffee into this.
Instead of a digital control, you have a simple knob, turn it until a vortex forms, then turn down until it just touches the mixer.
Yes, it'll make coffee in 15 minutes, so long as you want a light brew. It's 10 minutes for light, 20 for medium, and 30 for strong, plus five minutes for the grounds to settle.
Once it's settled, you push the filter in, it's attached to the lid with a plungers, and you push down until it clicks onto the mixer, then hold the lid while drawing the plunger up to pull the grounds out. Its messy even when done right, and more so when you mess up, my last batch needed me to filter the coffee a second time before I could drink it.

Is it worth the money? Prolly if'n you have an Ollies near you or find one in another discount chain, since it's $5 there, and the Ninja lists for around $50 or $60 on Amazon. I do like the fact that I can fairly quickly brew cold coffee, but it is rather messy, and by no means fast, it's almost easier to use a Keurig on a strong brew and put a lot of ice in the cup.

#coffee #coffeemaker #coldbrew

Just a nice traditional tree...

What do you mean bats, margarita glasses and peppers aren't normal Christmas lights?

tumblr.com/taur10/769952833272… (video)

Yeah, we don't do traditional here

#christmas2024 #christmastree

Yeah, just not feeling it this year. I supposed compared to many my year has been pretty good, and it has, but the tail end, woo, chaotic, but that was mostly my fault.

Nov was spent mostly not working as my truck spent nearly three weeks in the shop trying to find a problem. Three weeks and nearly a thousand dollars by the time all was said and done. I had the money, but that took a bite out of company finances. And of course that means not contributing to the house, no work equals no paycheck after all, so the house is a bit strained right now including back up funds. And there were some bumps with the room mate's share of things, he switched banks and is now in the same credit union as us, however they don't have an easy way to transfer funds between members, it's through a third party, it's manual, and it's slow, like three days assuming you don't hit a holiday or weekend. Once again, nothing big, just disruptive.
Oh, and did I mention getting a new car? Yeah, been meaning to do that for like a year, but the three weeks of repair hell led to it finally happening, and luckily only $2500 out of pocket and no payments. Yes, the company was doing really good.
Heck, and then there was dissolving my LLC, it hasn't been doing anything in a year, but it was the holder of my domain name, so that meant dissolving the company, changing insurance, getting rid of the bank account, changing email, and on. Yeah, that's been chaotic, and it's still going on, though it's at least down to a trickle.

Dec is fine, work's going great, I'm settling into the car, capacity and range, especially winter range was a big concern. Despite having electric cars in the household for three years and being gung ho on electric vehicles, the transition wasn't quite as smooth as it could be because I was still a bit nervous about what the limits would be and how they'd effect the job. Frankly, no real change. Sure, the lack of seat and steering wheel heaters means I have to charge more than I'd planned, and my fuel savings will likely be smaller than expected, but that's basically it, no changes needed, Chevy Bolts are surprisingly roomy inside.
Outside of that, all that's kept me from Christmas shopping and decoration, I mean all the chaos I mentioned, plus work, plus story proofreading equals little spare time, and no real motivation. Wed I finally got the inflatables set up after getting the lights on the garage, but the wind picked up and I didn't feel real safe going up on the roof, so the main string of lights hasn't gone up. And today its 36°F and raining, so that's not happening, ditto for tomorrow. Wed is my last day off, so maybe then if'n the weather is good, otherwise no Christmas lights this year. I think I also have a car costume 'round here, but no radiator grill means how do I put the nose on? And then there's the tree, going to have to figure out how to make some room in the living room, between the record player on the folding chair, the unfinished computer project on the couch and a dismantled desk that no one wants to buy taking up the spare living room space... Ummm, where to I put it?

Any how, that's about where things are here, bit more than a month, and then we'll see how the new admin messes up my life, my livelihood is very much in danger, but no use worrying about something I can't change.

#life #christmas2024 #electriccar

and then I bought this today at Ollie's

Tornado effect allows you to make cold brew coffee in minutes instead of 12 to 24 hours...
Yeah, sounds like horse hockey to me, and definitely not the kind of thing I'd normally buy, but it was... $5. Yeah, really, how could I refuse at that price?

Might be trash, but I've wasted the price of what, less than one cup of coffee at Starbucks?

#coffee #kitchengadgets #kitchenappliances

So, saw þis sign...

Yes I know, it's referring to þe school's mascot, but seriously, am I þe only one picturing a club þat delivers a new hawk to your home every monþ?

So, #today was a good day, first part was actually pretty great. Decent weather, 19/43°F today, bit cold in þe morn obviously, but considering þat we went from 16/59 on Wed to 14/26 yesterday, definitely a much nicer day. Heck, yesterday I had to break out my old Þermal overalls from when I used to ride a scooter between Florissant and Maryland Heights, MO.

Þe day started wiþ a small run from the Dispatch app, $10.50 for 10 miles. Sure, a little light on pay, dollar a mile is my minimum after all, but it ended me on Dorsett down the street from Tony's, a donut shop where I like to grab a gyro, egg & cheese on an asiago bagel, so that's fine.

My main gig, Better Trucks, had delayed þe start from 9 (realistically more often 9.30) to 10.30, so I swung by þe credit union to take care of closing an account. On the way I noticed a CVS order on Roadie that looked pretty good, and surprisingly when I got out, not only was þat one still þere, but it was joined by anoþer order on þe way to it. Shockingly I got boþ, $6.80 for one, $6.40 for þe oþer, and a mere 3 miles of driving. Yes please.

From þere it was a quick trip home for a half hour of charging while trying to get two more email changes sorted out. After þat, off to þe usual gig, and a typical if'n slightly smaller package route, my night vision sucks these days, normal for my age, so I wanted to avoid being out much after dark.

I guess þat brings up þe car, my 2020 Chevy Bolt. Only real negatives are þat it's an LT, so base model, lacking features like heated steering wheel, and heated seats, boþ of which would likely help keep me warm without as much impact on þe battery. Speaking of battery, since it's one of þe battery fire years, it's in 80% jail, so my range is a bit more limited þan normal. Still, despite þat, it works fine for þe job. Sure, gotta charge a bit extra, but þat's just a winter þing... Maybe summer too, we'll see, not sure how much AC drains þe battery.

#gig #work #driving #food #STL #stlouis #mo #missouri #chevybolt

Not much to say about #today , cooked breakfast, straightened the kitchen, dishwasher is chewing on a load—— Not literally, thank you.

Gotta make a batch of rice, and fill my water bottles for work tomorrow. Get a few things straightened out with my email, the fun of transitioning. Yesterday we gave the house 20% of my company's money, since the company is being wound down, this is part of why social.xcetera.biz the instance is shutting down, although we will be keeping the domain and email for another year, I have burnt m'self too many times by forgetting to change an account's email before deleting that email account.

Not sure if'n the day will have any more to it, maybe take a chainsaw to the old deck if'n I have time, and/or putting some more stuff up on Marketplace to sell/give away, watchband, and some clothes (kilt, shirt, nightshirt, maybe some shoes). I really need to find one or more selling partners here in #STL so I can get back into flipping storage units, anyone interested?

Frankly, I'm just moving ahead as planned, and waiting to see whether things'll get derailed, there are just too many variables.

I've already said that the pride, humanity and pagan flags out front aren't going anywhere, or at least not unless they get replaced with something better, metal signs I can attach to the house would be good, something that can't be torn or burnt. While I don't have the skills to do it, I've suggested starting a liberal party to do what the Democrats won't, and while I can neither start it nor manage it, I'll be happy to loan my help whether an unskilled person can. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I bought an electric car to replace the SUV I was using for delivery?

What else is on the agenda? Well, assuming things don't get real bad, in the next few years, solar panels, wind power maybe, some work on the house... win the lottery and I'll expand it. Maybe get more property, dunno. Ideally I'd retire to rural southern IL, get a few acres, put an off-grid or mostly off-grid shed home together, and start selling plots to others that want a safe place to go, heck, maybe even create a tiny town to go with the tiny home, who knows. Prolly a pipe dream, but I'm certainly not giving up dreaming.

But what about Trump and the Repuglicans?
What about them? Trump's a loud mouth idiot who's nothing without his supporters and yes men. Sure, some of the Reps will definitely kiss his ring, Johnson was no surprise, if he didn't he likely wouldn't be speaker much more, he only got the job as he was the least bad choice. And Cruz will of course, he's a squealer, I can always recognize the squealers... I mean, he's a sell out. I'm wondering all of those that don't have an election coming up any time are going to do, the threat of a challenger, the threat of losing their job I think is what keeps most Repugs in line, but when that threat is gone? It's not going to be good, that's for sure, but it might wind up not being that bad, if'n Trump meets any resistance. And then there's all the faithful who are going to find out just how bad they screwed up voting for him, they're going to be out for blood, so a lot of politicians are going to have to decide who's scarier, the voters or Trump.

In the eighties we all were scared that they were going to drop the bomb, but after a while, we just got on with life, if it happened, we'd deal with it then, best we could do was just go on living until we knew what was coming.

#uspol #life

youtube.com/watch?v=d9xN_o70nF…