Baby Bites

These looked good but were hard as rock – oops

Guess who didn’t dash again today. It is a blustery 20°F outside and I just wasn’t interested. I already know that next year is going to be an income negative year, so I am just getting a little head start on that. Or something like that. Instead of dashing I wasted a lot of time on my phone. I think maybe a lockbox for it would be a good thing. And I am thinking that I might just have dashed my last dash. At least until after the election.

My water meter got switched out today. I guess this means that my water bill is going to go up by a large amount. I think I have been paying about $33 a month for water and sewer services. Let’s see how high it goes when next I get a bill.

No back mail delivered again today. I was pretty sure I had asked for my mail to be collected and delivered to me when I got back on Monday, but I didn’t receive it yesterday. Or today. So I called. I had to sit through a solid minute of messages before they put me on hold with my local post office. Then when I spoke with someone there, they put me on hold for another few minutes. Turns out that my mail was just sitting around somewhere, unlabeled. I have no idea what that meant. It does not give me great confidence in the US postal service. Damn Drumpf for destroying it in his first at bat. My (not so exciting) back mail will be delivered tomorrow.

I am in a group of Try Hards on Duolingo again. Sigh. Luckily, there are enough people who don’t seem to care, that I am not too worried about not staying in the Diamond League.

Augustus for President: I am stymied. I have a couple of reasons for this. One is not going to be mentioned on this blog. Another is the amount of money that will be flowing out after I have finally managed to get to get to a fairly decent financial position. A third is losing my campaign treasurer, which may not seem like a big thing to anyone else, but to me it is huge. I had an ally. I was an us. Now it is back to me being an I again. I can do it all, but only for so long. I need help. And helpers. And as time goes by the need for people will grow to ridiculous amounts. So, yes, I am feeling a little daunted. But this too shall pass. I just need to take one bite of the elephant at a time.

I’ve taken the first step (bite) towards accepting donations on the campaign site. And I’ve started looking into business credit cards. And I’ve started the process of finding a virtual assistant. Tortoise steps.

Haha Universe, Funny One

The Universe is funny. Last night, I pretty much decided that I didn’t want to go out and dash today. Why? Because I was in my car for most of ten hours yesterday. And much as I love dashing and earning money (well, the latter is a good thing apparently) I just didn’t want to get back in the car and do more driving. So, when the morning rolled around, I rolled over and went back to sleep. I will at least take a nap later. What I did do is I made a conscious effort not to go out and dash. Good thing, too. Guess who forgot to plug his car in last night. Yup, this guy. And when my message asked me to check to see that the car was charging – what did I do? I ignored it. Sigh. Anyway, the car is plugged in and charging now, so I can go back to sleep with impunity. (That would be a funny name for someone).

Just started researching Medicare and I am not impressed. I would rather be on Medicaid I think. More research is necessary. I think a trip to the SSA office or maybe a governmental information line would be a good place to start. Though I don’t turn 65 until April…Then again, JC is asking for my opinion and advice about this. Not sure why CC isn’t all over this subject.

I really haven’t lifted a finger today, except to do a load of laundry. So that’s where all of my long johns had gone! Happy to have them back. Today, Geneva had a high of around 40°F and it is now down to 26°F. And it’s supposed to stay cold for the next ten days at least. I don’t remember any of the last four winters being this cold so frequently. Maybe three days here, three days there. Now it is two weeks here and two weeks there. We really have messed up the jet stream. (Hahaha – like I know what I am talking about where weather is concerned.)

The car is getting another software update. So cool. I like how it gives me time to stop the update if I change my mind. It’s the little things.

Tomorrow is another day. And I hope to get some of the things done that I have been putting off. Mostly things to do with the campaign. I think. I will have to check my todo list at some point.

Augustus for President: I got my first bit of negative interest in the campaign today. Someone took the time to write to me and tell me that my running for president is a vanity project. Duh. Of course it is. No one who doesn’t have a strong sense of self would ever run for president. Would they? And they compared me to one of my favorite politicians, Vermin Supreme. I guess the person who wrote doesn’t like ponies. Anyway, I can’t decide if I want to engage with them or not. I am leaning towards not. Thoughts? Turns out that I can’t contact them because they submitted the comment through the contacts page and of course left no information on how to contact them. And they put in nonsense letters where they had to in order to be able to submit the form. Chicken shit.

The newer house

Home again home again

It is another travel day. The navigation system is suggesting a lot of stops. Probably in part because it is so cold. Yes, evs currently (haha) lose a lot of range in the cold. Maybe even 1/3 of their capacity. I haven’t paid much attention to that. Especially since getting this long range model 3.

I saw an interesting comparison drive between a model 3 running FSD 12.x and one running FSD 14.x. The main difference seemed to be mostly in smoothness and start and finish of trips. I don’t mind parking the car. And getting it out of parking lots. 90% chance that I will get FSD for the 50+1 capital trip.

I like to charge a bit more than the car recommends. I like a like battery energy cushion. Especially in the cold. The car took me down to 3% today.

Third charger pit stop. The first two were new to me. Both were newer zippier charges. This one is old and slow and crowded. I guess this area needs another super charger. I’m just going to sit here rather than wander around. I bought a sandwich and some chops at the Hannaford at the last stop and have been eating those for lunch. Did I get some fruit? Sadly, no.

Another new to me dipper charger. Something strange happened. I was targeted at one dipper charger and then sight u was changed to another. This one, though faster, was way out of my way I thought. Oh well. At least there was convenience store here.

Unfortunately the weather is turning to crap soon. I’m going to start heating home, but if the weather and the roads are too bad, I’ll pull over and find a place to sleep for the night. It’s only money.

The Old House in Maine

Another supercharger, at Turning Stone. They have fairly zippy chargers there. Woo hoo.

Well, that last bit wasn’t all that fun. 3 hours of precipitation to drive through. The first hour and a half was in slush, sleet and who knows what else. Luckily, the last hour and a half was mostly just in rain. Still, a lot of not fun driving. One of the things I like about the trip I will be making soon, is that all of the driving will take place during the day. Woo hoo!

I am safely home. I have eaten some dinner and I need to do one Duolingo lesson, just to keep my hand in.

Augustus for President: Should I start a Patreon? A Go Fund Me? A Kickstarter? I have no idea how any of those really work. Or how money going in there would go to me or to the campaign? Can I fund raise for myself? And for the campaign? As two separate entities? I really need to find someone with a head for this kind of stuff. I really don’t want to cultivate it in myself. I think I have enough to rattle around in that emptiness.

Beat it!

Antique beater I used when making the chocolate lava cakes last night!

Happy Saturday! It is a cold gray day here in Maine. Yes, we are at a balmy 12°F outside. I was hoping we would have a day at home, yet another day of relaxation. But no, we have an assignation for mid afternoon. It will be at one of my favorite places in Belfast, but still. It could even be my third place. Come to think of it, I don’t really have a third place even in Geneva at this point. I have only the two – my home and my work – which for now is my car. Anyway, It is cold out there.

That will not stop me from taking a shower and changing my clothes. For tonight we mingle. And tomorrow, I will make my way back home. I wonder what time I will be able to shake myself loose and hit the road. Not with a full charge. But life is that way sometimes. We shall see where the car wants me to stop. I kinda like having the car make those decisions for me. One less decision I have to make. Which leaves me freer to make more important decisions. Like which pair of mismatched socks will I be wearing today…

I was today’s year old when I noticed that there was a way to refill the water reservoir on the mobile water flossing device without taking it apart every time. This makes me happy. And a little excited. I cannot lie. Well, that’s not strictly true, but you get my drift, right?

Our outing was a success! The three of us met up with SF and her son JF and nephew PF (I don’t know if his last name is actually F) at Front Street Pub. When I got there, JF and P were playing pool. So I got my pool cue out of the car. I do enjoy playing pool. And P had a good idea – invite a local politician to come play pool with me and talk about whatever issue or issues is or are most important to them.

Back at J’s house, we had a delicious beef stew for dinner. Yum!

Augustus for President: Well, my task just got a little more daunting. Definitely not insurmountable, but still, more daunting. Because I lost my treasurer (for completely understandable reasons), I now get to do all that stuff on my own. Joy and rapture. I will start on Monday afternoon, after I have gotten home and done a day of dashing to clear my head and center myself. There are a few more days this year and I will start the New Year running at a gallop. Ok, maybe meandering forward at a tortoise’s pace. But forward we will go.

I had lots of speech thoughts last night and guess who couldn’t be bothered to open the computer and make note of them. I didn’t even ask Siri to remind me. Sigh.

Some people might think that my 50+1 Capital trip is running away. I will disagree with that thought. I am going to be running around the country to find out what the heck is going on out there, outside of my little bubble.

I need to make a list of what I need to do and what order I can do it in. Like getting contributions set up on the website. And sending in the FEC forms. After that, it gets a bit nebulous.

More About Sox

More about the lovely socks present I got from my nephew. He took the time to unmatch all of the socks. He really knows me! And I did not do well by him and his wife this year. Maybe when I see them in February I will bring them gifts. If anything comes to hand and to mind.

So far today I haven’t done much of anything. At some point soon, I am going to head out to do some shopping. Mostly food for the dinner I am making tonight. Though I would also like to find some Rain-X. And something non-skid. One of the teeny issues with the bed in J&P’s guest room is that, due to my liking to sit up and lean back in bed, the bed, which is on wheels, likes to slip away from the wall. I bought doorstops the last time I was here. But they didn’t do the trick. So I am going to look for a further solution. Something rubberlike that won’t slip on the lovely wooden floors they have in this room. Gee, I lead such a thrilling existence sometimes.

And dammit, I am going to make the god damned chocolate lava cakes tonight if it kills me. I hope it won’t kill me. But you never know.

We are in the teens temperature wise here in Maine. How exciting is that?

This shopping expedition was much more successful than my last one. First off, the pizza place was open. I got a fresh slice right out of the oven! Woo hoo! Then I got Rain-X at the Auto Zone – where the first person I asked was clueless, but another person helped me who was great. He is destined for greater things than working in an Autozone. Then to Job Lots. I wanted to get something non-slip for the under bed. I got a rug non slip pad thing which I later cut two little pieces off of and hopefully that will do the trick.

At the Hannaford, I got the groceries that I needed and nothing else! I feel so proud of myself. And I got to use my Hannaford card for he first time. So exhilarating! Then I zipped back to J’s house.

Tonight I am cooking dinner. I told J I was going to start cooking at five. When I went to the kitchen, though, P was making something. It is a good sized kitchen but doesn’t have a lot of counter space. So I left the kitchen and returned when P was done doing what he was doing. Hopefully what I have to make won’t take too long and I can still feed P&J when they want to be fed. Or it could be they will get a very late dinner. Life is that way sometimes.

Somehow my dividend tracker has gotten out of kilter. My brokerage account says I have one amount, the tracker says a different amount. I am sure the error is on my side as I am not the most diligent in entering the dividends into the tracker. Still, I am pleased with how much I earned in dividends alone. I don’t think it was enough to get taxed, but K will tell me, I am sure.

I still don’t understand why measurements of ingredients aren’t included in the step by step instructions. Seems like an easy no brainer fix. What am I missing?

Even I thought these were good

Augustus for President: And then there was one. I am alone again in my campaign. Moving on.

Happy Merry!

A nativity scene complete with Three Wise Turtles – but no lobster…

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! And all those other things. Oh, Season’s Greetings! I am always torn about what to say to whom. And how much to actually do in terms of reaching out to people at this time of year. I have gotten a few actual Christmas Cards. And a bunch of social media greetings. One person from our high school sent out greetings to 100 people. And lots of them (us) responded to all. Poor mail servers this time of year. Speaking of which, Earthlink told me, repeatedly, that I was running out of room in my mail service. Google never tells me that. Whatever. I will do some judicious deleting at some point on the various mail services that I use.

For lunch, I had some of my leftovers. The steak was still over done. But everything was tasty. There was an odd vegetable that neither J nor P could tell me what it was. I also looked on the internet but did not find a satisfactory answer there. I did not, sadly, take a picture of it. Either intact or after I had taken a bite. It was green, about the size and shape of a pecan, with a long step – and inside it had lots of little very crunchy seeds. It was a little odd, but not bad tasting. Sort of gave me a pickled sort of feeling. But it wasn’t a type of cucumber that I had ever run across before. If the restaurant were closer I would go back and ask. I am not sure if it was on my dinner plate or on the charcuterie board that we shared.

It has been a very relaxed day. I have started the next book in the Susan Cooper series. It follows a different person than the first book did. And honestly, I am a little confused so far. But I am only 30 pages in.

It looks like dinner is going to be leftovers. And I get to make dinner tomorrow night! I am leaning towards shrimp cocktails and a shrimp/pasta entree of some kind. Which means I get to go shopping again tomorrow. And I get to use my Hannaford card for the first time. I’m special. Before I go I will, once again, check with J about what she has and what I will need. I admit, I miss my kitchen.

I have not yet made the chocolate lava cake. Since I will be in the kitchen tomorrow, I guess I will make them then. I hope this meals turns out half as well (or more than half as well) as the sweet and sour pork I made on Monday.

Augustus for President: It is going to be an expensive year. I have lots of things I would like to spend money on for the campaign. Like incogni. And a dedicated phone. I really ought to make a list. I think I definitely need a good microphone that links with my cell phone for the 50+1 capital trip next year. And hopefully I will have some money come into the campaign next year.

I had a dream last night that someone wanted to volunteer to work for the campaign. I hope that happens too! Any takes? Please sign up on the website. My website name is not the same as my campaign slogan. Though I do like the thought it conveys.

What rhymes with Augustus? I still like “Augustus for the Rest of us” If only it was Rust no Rest. Or Auguesstus. Hmm, is it too late to change my name?

I Love Sox!!

To Ramekin or not ramekin, that is the question. I don’t know that J has enough ramekins for the chocolate lava cakes. The recipe I am looking at calls for 6 of them. I know she has one. Maybe a few more glass dishes that are ramekin like. The recipe did say that a muffin tin could also be used in a pinch and I know that J has at least one muffin tin. I didn’t think ahead about this otherwise I would have brought my four ramekins (I think that’s how many I have) or brought some of my muffin tins. I think I have at least three tins of varying sizes. Well, we will do what we can. The whole thing is supposed to take half an hour to make, which means an hour for unprepared and infrequent cooks like me. I guess it might be a late night snack since we won’t be having dinner, if we go out today, there was snow, until around 7:30. Which means 8:30. And then an hour drive back. Which makes 9:30. Oh, but I can make the batter ahead of time…hmm. There’s a thought. Maybe I will make the batter at some point today and then all I will need to do is bake them…

Nope, didn’t make the batter ahead of time. It seemed like we were all going to just go to bed after getting back from dinner so making the chocolate lave cakes was not going to happen tonight. I will make them tomorrow.

Yes, we got some snow. Not the devastating huge snow storm that was prognosticated. Though it isn’t over yet. And who knows how hard hit the rest of Maine was. Nope, ended up being a not too terrible an event around here. Woo hoo!

P has is developing a game that is based loosely on scrabble tiles. It keeps changing. We played a few rounds this afternoon. After we were done, P came up with another, good, rule change. He is teaching himself python so he can make a program out of it. Rock on!

Before heading to dinner at a place south of us, we had a present opening session. I did not give particularly good presents to my nephew and his spouse but the ones I did give were slightly better than nothing. They gave me great socks!! Lots of great socks. J&P also gave me good things. And I think my few presents were decently well received.

Birthday dinner

Dinner was good. I was minorly miffed because my steak was over cooked. But I asked the party to have a vote and the consensus was that I shouldn’t complain. Poo. I brought it home anyway. And some other bits. It’ll make an ok lunch meal I guess. Fun evening.

All in all, I think we all had a pleasant Christmas Eve and sister/mom/spouse birthday.

Augustus for President: I felt naked being out in public without my badge. I am a teeny bit upset with myself for forgetting to wear it. I will admit to being a bit distracted. The place we were going to dinner was an hour away on potentially unhappy roads, the family was not moving with any urgency and I didn’t pack the shirt I had thought I had packed so that I would look sort of presentable at dinner. And I forgot the badge. Poo.

I did ask G about possible attorneys general and she said she had some thoughts. And that if she did get a role in my government, she wanted to be solicitor general. Sold!

Once again, I have lost track of time

I think it is Tuesday. This is a holiday week, so time is inherently strange. And leading up to this I had that weird bit of travel last week. Anyway, here we are, whenever we are.

Some purchases turn out to be good ones. Others, not so much. One that I am happy to have spent the money on is my portable water flossing device. Since I haven’t been traveling that much, I haven’t used it all that frequently. But now that I am out and about, I am finding it very handy. And will definitely, barring strange unforeseen circumstances, take it with me on the 50+1 Capital Tour. (How is that for a name for the tour?)

I got up and stayed in bed. After doing my morning Duolingo (I often do two rounds of Duolingo each day), I mostly played on the internet. I have two more potential scammers writing with me. Hope springs eternal that they are real. Reality hits like a bludgeon, though and I am guessing neither of them are real. Anyway, it helps to keep me engaged with the world. I have to balance all the inward facing things I do with some outward facing things.

Eventually, I had some leftovers for lunch – both some of the yummy pasta that J made the other night and some of the decent dinner I made last night. Yay!

This afternoon, I have three goals: wrap some presents, take a shower and make a batch of brownies. Anything else that I accomplish will be gravy. (Did them all!)

J&G are supposed to arrive this afternoon. Me, I like to over communicate so would be updating us with their travel progress. Not everyone is like me, I have to keep remembering.

This morning’s view

I’ve been led to believe that some people actually enjoy wrapping presents. I am not one of them. I do enjoy unwrapping them, though. Wrapping is all done. They are not works of art, but they will do. I left a couple of things unwrapped as I am not sure what is going to happen to them.

Well, I thought I knew how to cook brownies. I put them in at the recommended temperature and cooked them the recommended time and…they weren’t done. Half an hour later a toothpick was still coming up with brownie on it. Oh well. They are out of the oven now and they will be as good as they are. TBH (to be honest) any brownie, even an overdone one, is better than no Brownie.

Ok, so the brownies were throughly over done. I haven’t cooked them in a long while. Next time, I am going for goopy brownies rather than over done.

Augustus for President: I added a thought to the database I think. I know I came up with someone else who lives near a capital. I wonder if I am still in touch with them. I guess I will find out. Starting in January, I am going to start social media accounts on Facebook, Threads and BlueSky – maybe on Instagram. Maybe on X(ick). Maybe on Tiktok. The last two, not so sure. And I hope that people I know will magically appear and offer me places to stay on the 50+1 Capital Tour.

Sweet! Dude!!

It feels like home here at my sister’s house. I was just lying on the bed in the guest room and I went to turn on the bedside light. And I reached for the extension switch that I have in my bedroom at home. It wasn’t there, obviously.

I got up this morning and did a lot of nothing. Well, I had some thoughts. And I did some little chores. So, I guess I did something. And I convinced J to let me make dinner tonight. Which prompted a trip into Belfast.

I had three missions in Belfast. Pizza for lunch. Foiled. The pizza place that I like – one of my favorite pizzas currently, is closed on Mondays. Maybe Tuesday too, I don’t recall. Anyway, no pizza for you. I also wanted to see if the odlest shoe store in America, where I bought my current favorite pair of shoes – Olukai, had some Olukai short boots. They didn’t. They had lots of other brands. But no Olukia. Foiled. And lastly, I wanted to go to the grocery store and get the ingredients for the dinner tonight.

On the way, I stopped at a Chinese restaurant and picked up a quart of vegetable fried rice. I had been toying with the idea of rice with dinner and decided that instead of trying to make some (J does not have a rice cooker I don’t believe) and then adulterating it, I would just buy some. The counter person ws very nice and spoke Chinese with me.

At the grocery store, I found everything that I needed. I also found things I didn’t need and bought those too. It’s only money. At least I got all the ingredients for making Sweet and Sour pork. I hope it turns out ok. The meals I prepare here are hit or miss. And I haven’t made this dish before. Well, not recently. And not with this particular recipe. We shall see. I am going to do my best to follow the recipe as closely as I can.

Dinner

The meal turned out pretty well. We all had seconds even! I think the sweet (dude) and sour pork could have used a bit more garlic, but since I was using garlic in a tube, I couldn’t really measure the equivalent amount to what the recipe asked for. I am, though, a garlic fan in most cases, so needing more garlic could have just been a me thing. I also think a smidgeon more ginger would have been ok. All in all, I will call this meal a success. Woo hoo!

Augustus for President: I think one reason the whole country is no longer as unified as it seemed in the past is because there is no unifying media. And that is part of the reason that MAGA is unified – they have Fox news. There really is no equivalent on the left. And there certainly isn’t one in the center. Back in the old days, the lack of unifying media was unifying. Newspapers were ubiquitous. Then radio came along and there weren’t a lot of radio stations and everyone listened to the same stuff. And the same with television, up until the proliferation of stations that happened in the late 70s. Until then, there were basically three TV stations and people all watched the same news, the same entertainment, the same sports. Now, not so much. Can we make a US media outlet? Like Fox News, but unbiased? Playing 24 hours a day. With national news mostly. And international news. Maybe each state has a ten minute round-up of their local news. I think this is a brilliant idea. Then again, I think all of my ideas are brilliant. Sigh.

I love talking about the campaign. And the issues. Just saying…

Driving Travel Day

Yes, that’s right, I am a traveling fool! Or a fool for traveling. After having a nice relaxing day yesterday, I did a long drive, from Geneva, NY to Belfast ME. In my Tesla. So much easier and faster and better in my long range Model 3 than it was in my standard range Model 3. Woo hoo! And it was an almost perfect drive. No inclement weather. No traffic slow downs. Easy peasy!

Nice driving weather

I had three super charger stops. And all three were new to me. The first was in NY state near Albany. In a strip mall like location. The super charger was busy, but I got a space as soon as I arrived. No place to go to the bathroom unfortunately. Trust me, I looked. Looking took me all the time that I needed to charge. So when I got back from my fruitless wanderings, the car was ready to go. Good thing, as there were two people waiting for a spot.

The next super charger was in MA. At one of the Thruway’s rest areas. That made life much easier and quicker. I didn’t have to get off the thruway, drive to some out of the way place and then back again. And I got to pee. Woo hoo!

The last supercharger was in ME. Unfortunately, it was not on the thruway. It was at a Fairfield Inn. Fast chargers, which is good. But the stoplights to get there were really long. I mean like 4 minutes long! So I wasted almost 10 minutes waiting for lights to change. Grr. And no bathroom. I guess I could have gone into the Fairfield Inn and asked, but I didn’t really have to go. But it is good to have a bathroom at a charging place if one needs it. Imho.

I got to my sister’s place around 6:45 pm. I spent a few minutes setting up the charging for the car. It is very slow charging as it is just from the wall outlet. Maybe I will go into Belfast tomorrow and charge more. We shall see. I’m not too worried since the car is a long range. I could probably make it to Augusta and charge there if push came to shove when I head home.

J made a yummy chicken dinner. I think I am going to make a slow cooker recipe for the 23rd. Pork. Since J said that she has a big batch of beef stew that she made already. And we had chicken tonight.

I don’t think I am going to do much Duolingo tonight as I am in a decent spot in the leaderboard.

Augustus for President: I had a lot of thoughts and put them all in the database already. Like, who votes the most. Why don’t we target them somehow? Seems like a good initial strategy.

In the car, I listened to a decent book. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the title – Giving Up is Unforgivable. It had a bit about voting. And had some good thoughts and ideas for books and such that I would like to read. I have added those to the database as well.