Started out with being told I was making over $200 doing 105 packages. Thankfully they reduced my work, giving part of my route to someone else, frankly I don't want to work that hard. Plus considering that I wound up getting the car about ¾ full only to realize I'd have to more or less start over because it wasn't going to all fit, it was a good thing. Interesting part is that it was supposed to be 45cu ft of packages, but a Bolt is supposed to have just over 54cu ft of space, so I think someone's calculations were off. So in the end, about 60 stops or so, and about 64 packages, nice amount of work.

But I could never leave it at that, could I?

So, we stopped at the bank to deposit the check from selling my car yesterday. I wound up getting only $4700 for my 2020 Bolt, about half what they initially offered, but it is a lemon, so the price got cut way down, but I kinda expected that since Carvana had offered $4600 and CarMax wouldn't even make an offer until I brought it in. Sure, I might've been able to get more, but considering what I paid, and the fact that this was inline with the only offer, I decided to take it. Besides, did I really lose? The car was $14,800 when I got it last year, however I got $4500 EV credit from the government, and $8200 for my trade in, so the out of pocket was only around $2200... Should've seen the chaos it caused when I pulled that out of my pocket cash. Any how, yeah, $2200 out of my pocket to buy it, and $4700 sale, so I guess I came out ahead?

Any how, since their was a branch of my credit union, First Community, a credit union I highly, highly recommend, I deposited the check, then got back to work. And then later I was passing a DMV office, one that had only one other customer and around five clerks, so in and out in about five minutes with a plate transfer. Yep, my current Bolt, formerly my husband's, is carrying the BOXEN plates now. Hopefully I'll have to visit the DMV soon to collect the new version of that plate, MIssouri Bee Keeper Association specialty plate, looking forward to that.

Oh, and I also changed my insurance around via email, removed the old Bolt from my commercial, and moved this Bolt from personal to commercial, thankfully the DMV didn't ask for any documentation as I hadn't been home to print a new insurance card yet.

So yeah, that was my #today Tomorrow morning will be spent trying to get all my gig apps updated, car change, insurance update (did I mention that it expired yesterday on all of them?), and possibly other settings, then it'll be off to work. Prolly do a speed breakfast, homemade microwavable breakfast sandwich and K-cup of coffee while I work.

Ok, yesterday was fun. Well, sorta, I mean I don't really like doing D zone, north St Louis County, there's some real sketchy neighborhoods up there.

That said, one notable thing was an apartment complex I hit, nothing special about the design in and of itself, but this is only the second one I've found in the St Louis metro, which is kinda impressive considering the size of the area, and the amount of places I've delivered to, and these aren't even close to each other. Weird.

The second thing was fun, I delivered to a very Christian house, y'all know the type, right? Well apparently there's a bit of a feud between them resulting in the neighbor putting up a Fuck Trump flag on his garage. Seeing that, there was only one thing I could do, visit... And give him almost all of the stickers I had in my car and wallet that I got from Plastic Jesus, as well as hanging out for a bit and telling him about the Fediverse. I'll be going back soon, and dropping off links to this blog and more stickers.

While yesterday wasn't a great day, that definitely made it better.

#resist #STL

I don't normally have any problems with daylight savings time, well, other than that it exists, but this time....

Yeah, I never sleep the night through, but its only twice that I wake up 2ish and 4ish, but not last night, it was one of those nights where I wake up basically once an hour. And then there's the needing to sort out when it is.

Yeah, didn't need that on top of that, thanks.

Can we just get rid of it? Let's switch to two time zones, and split the difference by adjusting the clocks by a ½ hour, and call it American time.

#DaylightSavingsTime #sleep

So, I got my ducks in a row... In order... On order... Well, received them today.

These are for my participation in the Teal Pumpkin Project, something I found out about like 8 years ago, and have participated in every year since then. While I've offered a number of non-food items in the past, last year was the first year I did ducks when I found out you could buy a 30 count box of them. They were popular with the kids, we offered pick 2 ducks or get 4 pieces or so of candy, and most kids picked ducks. While 30 was enough last year, it was close, so I bought 100 this year.

Definitely not allowing them to choose, can you imagine how long that would take? But yeah, two ducks or candy once again.

#halloween #ducks #TealPumpkinProject

No, that's not a typo, though this one is somewhat more understandable, since rest is not an option in my life.

Get up, switch out the dishwasher, feed the cat, cook and eat breakfast. Then wash dishes, cook a batch of rice, wash counter, sweep and mop floor.

Then its try unsuccessfully to deal with Chase Bank, that's going to require a visit. Also talk to Goldman Sachs, unplanned steps towards closing Vik's Apple Card.

Got work in about 1½ hours still, no idea how big that's going to be, the current alert shows only a small route, but the last small route more than doubled in size by the time I got to the warehouse, so who knows.

Lunch'll have to be bought as I forgot to thaw out a sandwich last night, so no food for me, yay.

••yawns•• I wanna go back to bed.

#today

What a day, slept fine far as I know, not through the night, but I never do that, but wasn't up more than usual. But dreams, I rarely remember dreaming, let alone what I dreamed, but I did sorta remember these, at least in as much as they were weird, very trippy.

So for whatever reason I was dragging this morning, but I did get out of the house close to on time so I could go sit at Bread Co and wait for RoadieXD to drop jobs... And nothing today, action there's been nothing for a few weeks I think, however I haven't had the time to work for them as I've mostly transitioned back to BetterTrucks, so I was checking as frequently, but Tues is a free day, so we were looking for something today. No dice, so I'm going to have to decide what to do with my Tues in the future, maybe back to Better Trucks, or be more careful on Sunday so I can catch when Jitsu drops their Tues blocks, not sure yet. I did however while I was out make a payment on his car, once his burial and memorial is sorted, I'll have to look at what's left of his life insurance and see if'n buying out the car is an option, but with no TOD, taking ownership might be tricky, I'm going to see if'n the Credit Union can help with that by repossessing the car on paper, then selling it to me for the pay off amount and some extra fees, otherwise there's a form to fill that will transfer ownership so long as the car isn't worth too much, and of course probate court is an option, but I'd rather not deal with that if I don't have to.

Either way, came home, finished my usual web surfing, though that took longer than usual as I was still dragging. And sleepy, very sleepy. I did wind up taking a nap, but do need to figure out why I've been sleepy lately, been busy getting the comics ready for sale to the tune of 20 or so hours a week on top of 30 to 35 hours of work, sometimes more on either of those, plus chores. Oh, and the yard work, part of a much larger project that was going to involve me, Vik and our room mate, the latter is helping here and there, but I'm mostly getting the backyard sorted out, it serves as a break from everything else, but its a large project, the yard waste pile is now 6ft or so, and we have piles of pavers and concrete. It is however mostly done, just need a few cubic yards of dirt to fill in some holes, and its done. Might also be thyroid or vitamin, my mom has basically no thyroid function and my sister very little, so runs in the family, but that'll have to wait until I find some insurance (anyone want to help with that?). If its vitamin, that's going to be tricky, I did try to go back to multivitamins, Vik had about a half bottle left here, but they turn my stomach, so that's not an option.

Should've called the cemetery about the burial, but was tired, so napped, then scanned a shelf of comics, and here we are. I suspect the burial is part of my problem last night and today, Vik was often out late whether he had game, town council meeting, pen club meeting, genealogy research, and so on, so him not being here is only unusual in the fact that its for an extended period, since I haven't cleaned out much of his stuff yet, things feel mostly normal here, but planning his burial... Yeah, that kinda hammers things home.

Need to figure out dinner, surf the web and then bed.

#today #life

Started at 0630 with the front lawn that hadn't been mown in three weeks. Mostly went well, but my Hart equipment needs new batteries, could've sworn I had four, but could only account for three, one of which broke, and the remaining two seem to have drained way to fast. While waiting for them to charge, I started on project two, finally reining in the south side where things have been growing like weeds. Not sure if most of it was goldenrod, or the Missouri equivalent of bamboo, but I went to work cutting each piece down with pruners and piling it in the back against the fence.

At one point I took a break, ordering MickeyD's delivered, which is stupidly expensive. After eating, I got back to work, finishing the pruning before returning to the front to finish that. After that, we went to work using a trimmer to cut the grass in the same area because there was no way the mower would get it done. In the end, the room mate joined in, since his equipment is better than mine, and everything along that side was cut.

Yep, no before pic, but there's the after, not real impressive looking, but at least its no longer an eyesore.

That said, I do think I overdid it, from neck pain to unquenchable thirst, as well as the coffee I had with my breakfast, I went through four 12oz Gatorades while I was working. Since I came in, I've had another coffee, and cup after cup, after cup of water which doesn't come back out. My neck is also sore, and I'm fairly certain I'm a bit sun burned.

Ugh, no grocery shopping or laundry today, those can wait until tomorrow, though I will do the mileage log and finish proofreading a story I've been working on, along with my regular night's web surfing... Well, extended version since I didn't surf this morn. Once I get that all done, it'll prolly be bedtime.

Tomorrow I'll have to start scanning documents to share with my financial manager related to Vik's passing, we need to get a plan in place so I can start taking care of the big financial decisions, and winding down his estate. I did accidentally kick over a hornet's nest yesterday, hopefully the bank doesn't repo his car now that they know he's dead, I'd rather like to keep it, even though ownership transfer will be challenging, but them taking it is not that big of a deal. And I do really need to get back to the comics, prepping that for sale, and that's the really big project. I do have someone brokering the sale of his fountain pens, and that's going well.

#today #mo #STL #Yardwork #fountainpen

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.

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

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

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