Weather Day

Or is that Whether Day? Whether or not to go outside that is. When I woke up, it was snowing. I looked at the weather widget on my phone and it suggested that it would be snowing or precipitating all day. So, I chose to stay in. A few hours later, I thought, maybe I would go out and run an errand, but, I looked at the weather widget and it suggested it might be raining and then sleeting and then snowing again. Guess what I chose to do. That’s right, stay in. Yes, I will take just about any excuse not to Dash.

Oh, I turned down an offer to drive someone an hour and fifteen minutes away starting at 6:30 am this morning. Which they generously offered to me last night around 5 pm. Am I a terrible person? To answer for you, no, I am not. I chose my health and safety and sleep over the drive. Sue me.

What am I going to do with my free day? I hope to accomplish miracles, move mountains and leap into the heavens wings afire. Or something like that.

Actually, right now I am scanning pictures from my baby book. Does anyone else have the tradition of giving a picture album full of pictures of a spouse to the spouse-to-be? My mom, I think, created this baby book of me for my marriage to Emma back in the 1980s. It has a lot of pictures of me through the ages. I think I just did 59 scans! Ok, time to crop and name and store. So much fun!

Wow! That was a lot!

I got a package! Which turned out to be for my housemate. Which she bought as a replacement for something she broke. Poo. I am hoping that I my package of pen leashes comes soon. I think it is supposed to be here by next Monday.

Once again, I would like to say that the Wheel of Time television series had good costumes, good sets and a few good scenes. But over all it was poop.

Ok, the end of day and beginning of night phase is happening. It has been a good, though not lucrative, day. I did all the scanning I had in mind. Some interesting finds. I also got the eleventh shelf books ready to be catalogued. Took a shower, always a high point of any year. Did some dishes. Put out some trash. And generally felt productive. Woo hoo!

I ate the last of my Chinese leftovers for lunch. And the last of my Italian leftovers will be dinner tonight. I have yet to do my Duolingo.

Last night I watched A League of Their Own and enjoyed it again. Not a great movie, but definitely fun and interesting. What’s not to like with Geena Davis and Tom Hanks (and lots of other people) playing roles. Tonight I might watch Merv just because I like Zooey Deschanel. And since it will probably be brainless and formulaic, it will be good to have on while I catalogue shelf eleven.

I had “the talk” with my boarder about my travel plans and how they affected her. I hope she understood. I will draft an email and send it to her over the weekend just to be sure. She has a friend coming for a few days over Christmas and I told her that her friend was welcome to use the orange room instead of sleeping with her in her room (unless that’s what she would prefer of course). I hope the orange room will be habitable by then. It is pretty close now. I could easily move the rest of the books somewhere if the timing gets close. But I do have 7 days to do the 7 remaining shelves. I just hope they don’t burn the house down while I am away. I may request that my boarder write me every day to tell me that the house is ok.

Augustus for President: One of the things I did today was get help from the bank in getting back into my account, now that all those ducks are in a row. I got some checks for the account. And I can access the account through both my laptop and my cell phone. I also asked for paper copies of my statements.

More ideas are percolating in my little brain. Like: a donation/contribution page that defaults to one theme, but that other themes or metaphors are available depending on how people think the government runs. Is it a circus? Is it a business? Is it Pirates? I am sure there are a few others. Maybe that’s all too much, but then again, maybe it will be something that catches the interest of some people.

As I told my boarder, I will re-evaluate my thoughts on my candidacy after my trip to all fifty states. Though I think it will be more determinative to see what happens during my actual tour of places holding events/rallies in the summer/fall.

Maybe I will spend November traveling all of the Southern States, focusing on Florida and Texas. Then maybe December in California. Anything is possible. I need help though. Although only one person can be president, it is going to take a city to make that happen.

Shall I make this one of my primary Presidential Campaign pictures?

Lucking Not Dashing Through the Snow

What a terrible dash! Exacerbated by being the car being a bit undercharged.

I woke up around 4 in the morning and decided to check the charge on the car. And sure enough, I had neglected to plug it in. Sigh. This resulted in only having about 71% charge when I hit the road this morning around 8:30 am. I asked the universe to provide me with lots of short rides. Hahahaha. Nope. Most of my rides were long. A couple insanely long. So long that I decided to quit early. And because I had so little charge left when I decided to stop. I made a whopping $.50 a mile. Not a good dashing experience. I did, though, get to listen to a lot of my book! Woo hoo! I also did a teeny bit of shopping. And started reading a new Young Adult book series that looked interesting. So, it wasn’t a total loss.

Looks like I am heading to Kansas City next week. EC is going to try again to check out possible living places. Though I think she is going with ill intent – planning to dislike them all – which, honestly, probably is a decent response. But we will see. Anyway, thanks to SM’s suggestion, CC decided that it would in fact be good if I traveled with EC so that if there were any travel hiccoughs, I would be there to help her through them. It ought to be an adventure!

Since I am doing this little bit of traveling, I might just have to get a new piece of luggage. I love my main travel bag, but I think it may have sized out of most carry on allowances finally. I have had it for a really long time and it has served me really well. But…I think I would like a new bag that can combine both carry on and computer bag so I don’t have to lug two different bags on short trips. When I take my trip in February, I will be driving, so size won’t matter as much.

Yes, we look mostly happy and I did have short hair – briefly

On a completely different note. I have noticed that Elon has stopped touting autonomous driving as a way to increase the value of one’s vehicle five times. I don’t think we are going to see the option to put one’s personal car on the cybercab/robotaxi network anytime soon. If at all. Too many logistical problems. Imho

I am full. I ate most of my second helping of Chinese leftovers. I can’t decide if I want to set the rest aside and eat it later. Or eat it tomorrow for lunch. I am leaning towards the lunch thing. I have also done my Duolingo. German today. Last week I was with a bunch of super duper try hards. I mean, seriously crazy people. This week, only moderate try hards. Yay.

No exciting plans for the night. I hope to finish shelf ten in book cataloguing and maybe do my baby book pictures for scanning.

Augustus for President: Do I need to buy a teleprompter like the big boys use? Hmm. I will keep thinking on that one.

I am thinking that it is going to be a really hard row to hoe without major financial backing to become President. Especially in light of the upcoming SCOTUS decision to allow even more money from rich people into politics. One thing I will not do is go into personal debt to become president. I can do a lot with little money if I have the right ideas and people to support me and them.

I am sure ethics investigations into all of the Right Wing justices would reveal that they are bought and paid for. Either that, or they too are people with no empathy. Apparently there are few with no empathy, but about 30% of the population that has very little empathy. Which is about the percentage of die hard Drumpf supporters. Coincidence? Hahahaha

Huzzuh! It was a Monday!

Hi anyone who reads this. I hope you had a good Monday. Mine was good. Except for the ongoing terrible political news that just seems to never ever end under the Drumpf administration. Grrr.

Ok, moving on. And no, that wasn’t cathartic enough, but I am not going to dwell on that crap. Way too disheartening.

It was a cold, cold day here in the Finger Lakes. I hope this polar vortex thing isn’t going to last that long. Sadly, according to the web, it is going to. Yay.

My car doesn’t like the cold weather. I think I have mentioned before that the horn doesn’t work when it is cold. And now, the voice commands don’t seem to work either. And that also sucks. I wonder if the Tesla repair people will have an answer for me on Friday. And this leads me to my next car thought. Maybe, after I finish my tour in April, I will see about leasing a newer version. If I get a three year lease, by that point, maybe Cybercabs will be ubiquitous and I won’t need a personal car. Or I will be in the White House and again won’t have need of a personal car. We shall see of course. Anything is possible. Most things are unlikely.

I did a marathon dash today. Not really marathon, but the long mode version of my dashing. I started a little after 8 and ended at around 1. A lot more driving than I would have liked, especially in the winter when some roads are not all the great to drive on, but it was a decent dashing day. Yes, really looking forward to not dashing anymore. But I will keep dashing until I leave for my capital trip in February.

I stopped and came home for a light lunch. And then ran some errands. I got a library book. And was told that there was no way to track whether or not books I had requested the library purchase were being purchased or not. Then off to Wegman’s. My goal there was to buy some saltines – I am almost out – and they can be a staple at the Chalet sometimes. And to buy more windshield wiper fluid, as I was going through it like there was no tomorrow. My car’s windshield seems to attract schmutz. Actually, my whole car does. It looks like I haven’t washed it in forever. Which is kinda true, actually. But in this particular set of circumstances, it seems like it accumulates more snow and crap on it’s sides than other cars I have had in my life. Sigh.

Last night, I finished up the 9th shelf (of 17) of the back stairs books. And I also scanned a lot of pictures from my wedding. Not because of the wedding. But because of all the family members and friends that are in them. Ok, I scanned a couple of pictures of wedding stuff just for the fun of it. That wedding was in 1984. Long time ago…

See anyone you know?

Augustus for President: I had ordered some pen leashes for clipboards and they didn’t come when I was told to expect them. The order kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed. I finally asked for a refund. Yesterday I think. And today Amazon told me that they had received the item back at their warehouse. Grrr. I went to staples to try and buy them more locally and they didn’t have them. What? Anyway…

Back to today’s news that SCOTUS is probably going to allow Drumpf to, again, do what no president has been allowed to do – fire anyone he wants basically anywhere in government without oversight. I mean, really! I think one of the first things I need to do as President is figure out how to fix the Supreme Court. This is insane. At this rate, there may be elections in 2028 but there won’t be a country to run. The US will be a shadow of it’s self. And heck, maybe that is a good thing. We really aren’t that great a country if you look at history. American Exceptionalism, while a lovely thought, just isn’t true. That being said, I truly do believe that we can do better. And be a better country and citizen of the world. Maybe a good space alien invasion is just what the world needs about now…

Sort of Handy

I am reluctantly handy. My first response when I have an issue is – Eeeek. Then I think if I can handle it or if it is better handled by someone else. Someone with actual skills in the handy skills arena. This evening I was presented with an issue. Eeek.

When I took my laundry down to start the regular Sunday load, I bumped my head on a pipe that I don’t usually bump my head on. Confused, I looked to see what the problem was. The duct had come away from where it connected to the duct (not the right word) that leads fumes out of the basement and up and out the chimney. This duct was connected to a piece of equipment that is no longer in use (which reminds me, someday I need to make sure that the gas line to that device has been sealed). So it wasn’t necessary. A few well placed yanks resulted in the duct being completely removed from the main room of the basement. Including the bit in front of the washer and dryer upon which I banged my little noggin.

The larger problem was that a hole was thus exposed. I decided I wanted to seal it for the time being until I could get a qualified handy person to take a look and see what they can do about it. I thought about sticking something over the whole and then using duct tape (for its actual purpose) to seal it closed. Nothing in the vicinity looked to do the trick. So, after cleaning off the top of the chimney targeting duct (by judicious use of duct tape (yeah, it didn’t stick because it was so dirty on top of the duct)) I managed to get some tape to stick. And sealed the whole. Ta dah! I have done my handy duties for the year. Good thing that I did this before the year was over!! 2026 look out!

Good enough for Government Work…

Although I haven’t done much, I feel like I have been much more productive today than I was yesterday. More thoughts and more actions make Augustus a happier camper. I have clean sheets, I’m clean and a load of laundry is working itself through the system. I have done a few books. And I have done some work on my candidacy. Always a learning experience. Yay learning!

Soon it will be left over Chinese food time. Then I will hunker down and do more books and more thoughts.

Augustus for President: I am making some progress on assigning tasks in the thoughts database. Not really sure who to assign quotes I have put in the database to. Maybe I will make an assignment category that says Quotes or something like that. So, no one will be assigned. Or maybe I will leave it as me. Though I also want to use the quotes during events. And speeches. Sigh. Life is so complicated in some ways. Simple in others.

I looked at the CVs of the Political Science people at HWS and two look like they would be a good fit. I will write them on Monday and see what response, if any, I get. I wonder if I have an HWS email address. I doubt it. I wonder if as an alumnus I can get one. Probably not. But it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Every Day Can’t Be Productive

Every day can’t be productive. At least so it seems in my life. Today was one of those days where I really didn’t accomplish much at all. So be prepared for a pretty boring blog pst, even for my posts!

Got up and did almost nothing. Eventually I ate lunch. Which was a bagel with cream cheese and other stuff. Ho hum.

At 1:00 my helpers came and put up the railings. It took them about half an hour. Only two of four came, but I wished them all a happy Christmas and told them I would be reaching out after the holidays.

The refreshed backstairs

I am really happy with how the back stairs turned out! They did a great job. And now it is on me to finish putting the books back. Next project? Maybe my annual clean out and repacking of the red room. We shall see if that happens.

After the helpers left, I finished up the books from the 8th shelf and…yup, then I did nothing.

Finally, though, it was dinner time. SM wanted to go out. We went to Avicoli’s over in Seneca Falls. It was well attended. Luckily we managed to get our order in before two bigger groups. Phew! SM had the same thing she had last time, I had the lobster ravioli. Mine was good, though I felt there was too much sauce. Which will work out in the end since SM gave me her side pasta (sauceless) to bring home. She got spaghetti instead of angel hair. I will persevere through this hardship.

Back home, guess what I have been doing. Yup. Nothing. Tomorrow is another day. I hope I have more get up and go.

Augustus for President: I am thinking of getting one of those fancy teleprompter screens that the big people use. And maybe a stand up banner. Still thinking about sound. Sound for the people watching, if any, and sound for the camera, whatever that happens to be.

I don’t understand why my running for president upsets some of my friends. I really don’t. Maybe they just don’t think I would make a good president. Or maybe they think that I will be devastated if I don’t win. Or maybe they don’t want to look crazy or foolish for being associated with me. Oh well. If I worried too much what other people thought of me, I wouldn’t have done half the crap that I have done. Onwards.

This was my Friday

I don’t remember where or when this was taken – thoughts?

I don’t understand how some days I get hundreds of views on this blog and then others, just the same five people reading it. It doesn’t really matter to me, but it does make me curious. Maybe a title or a tag hits just right? Or maybe it is a bot farm that gets over zealous? I don’t get it.

It has been a quiet and semi-productive day here at the Chalet. I did the dishes, which is always a good thing. I took care of almost all of my reminders. There is one that I am putting off and I think I will put it off until tomorrow. Again. Sigh. I did some books and will, hopefully, finish shelf 8 of the back stairs tonight and start on shelf 9. Which would put me past the halfway point. Or actually is the halfway point. I also finished the latest book in the Rivers of London series. I hope that the library buys the next two books that I have requested in that series. They did buy the 7th book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. But that could have been because someone else requested it. Though I did get notified when it came in…Speaking of which I requested another book to be purchased by the library. We shall see if that happens.

And I ate some lunch. A lot of lunch actually. My plan for the afternoon is more of the same. Not the eating…

This evening, I plan to head to the library. Then the grocery store. Then to Ling Ling for Chinese food. Then home for a quiet evening at home.

Plan results. I made it out and got to the library before seven when it closes on Friday night. Except for tonight. There was a staff event and the library closed at 5. Sigh. So, I dropped off the book I had finished and will try to get the book that’s waiting for me there sometime soon. Off to the grocery store! There, I bought the thing I needed, which was deodorant, and then added lots of frivolous things to my shopping cart! Yay frivolity! At the chinese buffet place, I ordered a pint of pork fried rice and a huge container full of a variety of dishes. The food ought to last me a couple of days at least. Maybe even three meals. That would be nifty.

Sadly, I think I can speak Chinese, but my listening comprehension sucks potatoes. Sigh.

Augustus for President: I have drafted an email for the political science faculty of HWS. I am trying to decide if I should send it only to the Chair of the department? Or to all of the members of the department, sans Mark Gearan though? I am waiting to contact him until after I have done my 50+DC capital trip. So maybe in April. I am leaning towards mailing it to all of the staff. I can also ask one of my helpers who is supposed to come tomorrow to see what he thinks of the various professors since he is taking political science classes.

Assigning tasks in the thoughts database is going to be a longish process. It feels like most of them are being assigned to me. What I am trying to do is figure out if I am going to have enough for a virtual assistant to do. I guess we will see. I have given myself until the 15th of this month to assign what is in the database.

There and Back Again, Jiggety Jig

Today was a no dash day. I guess I could have dashed if I really wanted to, but guess what? I really didn’t want to. I am really over dashing at this point. But that’s ok. Instead, what did I do?

CC wanted EC to come to his neck of the woods to look at potential living places. The craziness, of course, continues. EC and JC are still waffling about what they want their next step to be. I really wish they would just pick one idea and stick to it. Me, I would like to be near family when my faculties are declining. They seem to want to be near friends and community. I don’t think they realize that as they age, people will continue to die and their community will continue to shrink. Perhaps rapidly. This is all neither here nor there. Literally.

So, I offered to take EC to the airport in Rochester today so she could fly out to visit CC and see some possible living options near him. Luckily, the flight was at a reasonable time, so I didn’t have to get up insanely early. The drive up started in snowy conditions which tapered off as we got closer to Rochester. By the time we headed back, we had partly sunny skies. Woo hoo. At the airport, since I had borrowed one of their handicapped placards, we parked just about as close as one could possibly park to the entrance to the airport. The place was deserted.

At the ticket counter, we learned that EC’s flight was delayed. And that there were a dearth of flight options to her ultimate destination in case connections were missed. Which seemed likely in this day and age. I had planned to stay with EC until she boarded her flight. But, in light of this new situation, I sought guidance from CC. We eventually agreed that we would punt and postpone the trip until another time, despite all that CC had done to get ready for EC’s visit. One reason for putting it off, was that it was going to be insanely cold up there. And there was the possibility of missed connections with no one in place to actually aid EC if that happened. In other words, we drove up to Rochester for no reason. Yay.

But I had a reason to be up there. Before I share that though, I want to say that for some reason the parking ticket machine did not accept any of my credit cards – either being swiped or inserted. I ended up using cash, which isn’t a big deal, just a little frustrating. I also learned that we could also use machines at the parking lot exits and that I hadn’t had to stand in the bitterly cold weather and try to get the machine to take my money. Yay learning.

My reason for wanting to go to Rochester was to go to the Tesla place and see about getting my horn replaced. It is showing the same problem that my previous Tesla had: if the weather was below 34°F it stopped working. And that has proven to be frustrating. And potentially dangerous. It seems like a common issue, and I am minorly miffed that Tesla isn’t replacing it for free. Though the repair or replacement isn’t too terribly costly. Less than I used to spend years ago on any work that was done on my VW Passat. I made an appointment for a week from Friday. This will entail some driving since I am also taking SM to the Syracuse airport that morning. Then I will drive from Syracuse to Rochester for the appointment. Having lunch in Rochester is my current thought. Barring terrible, inclement weather.

Back in Geneva, we met up with JC at Grounded, their favorite lunch place it seems, for a bite and a chat. Then they headed off to run their errands and I came home.

At home I did nothing. Well, not nothing, but virtually nothing. Sigh. Then again, I did have a good political thought and I think I might actually follow up on that tomorrow.

Augustus for President: Here’s the thought. Quick aside. My mom used to say “Hold it, it’s in a strange place.” I used to just nod and smile. I didn’t realize that it was an insult until I was almost 40 years old. And I think she used to preface it by saying that it was something that her mom used to say to her. In any case, I have lots of thoughts. All the time. Creative ones, even.

Anyway, here’s the thought: I can probably use alma maters (I have four) and local schools to do some events. Fact finding and such. Maybe reach out to the faculty. I guess I need to draft a script or at least come up with a pitch. Maybe I will start really local and talk to the people at HWS. FLCC too maybe. Anyway, I think that would be a decent place to start. I can do some events in January and early February before I hit the road. Though I could start planting the seeds now. I would think that some political science professors, at least, would be interested in having a candidate for president come and chat with their class.

Another of my favorite pictures from my trips to China

Is it February Yet?

I am so over dashing. And I think I will stop as soon as I take the winter/spring trip next year. I don’t think I will dash in all of the capitals. Then again, anything is possible. I guess it depends on how fund raising is going.

I got up and got out at a reasonable time this morning. My first two orders were Lowes orders. And they weren’t terrible. Not great, but not terrible. The whole order pickup thing has changed, though. Before, we asked at the service counter and the person there had to do the heavy lifting – typing in long numbers, finding the right stuff and bringing it to the driver who would then take it to their vehicle. Now, the driver has to either enter the order number, or if the item(s) are small enough, they will be in a locker. The locker number is provided by door dash. Type in the six digit number and a locker (somewhere – that needs to be fixed I think) pops open. The driver (me in this case) grabs the stuff and goes! Woo hoo! No human interaction ought to be necessary. Go modernization. Does this count as AI? I don’t think so, but some people might.

Anyway, my first two Lowes orders were a toilet auger and a cement brick. Very exciting stuff. Not too heavy and awkward. Long drives, as usual. Glerg.

One of the minor annoyances of dashing is that often times the customer doesn’t pick up their phone when I call to ask them for substitutions or for directions. Or to let them know that I am standing where they said to stand and am waiting to give them their food and get their GD PIN number from them. Sigh.

This just tickled me!

The whole dash was ok, actually. And I let myself stop at a little after 1. Came home, had my next to last slice of pizza and started working on all the things I had put in my reminders during dashing. Maybe 15 items. But wait, is that my phone ringing? It was. Someone who I have given rides to in the past needed to get to a doctor’s appointment. What with one thing and another, that basically ate most of an hour and a half even though the ride was local. Sigh. But I eventually got to clean out most of the reminders for today. I still have a few but I will look at those after dinner.

Leftovers for dinner. I want to finish up at least two of the three sets of leftovers. I might just go for all three. Yes, I will be too full, but life is that way sometimes. What I have to do…

Augustus for President: I wonder if the virtual executive assistant can actually mail things. Or would they just create the files and then give them to me to print out and mail. I am thinking the latter. Which is still better than nothing. I also need to ask the sales rep if I don’t use all 10 hours in a month, does it roll over?

While dashing, I saw a couple I know at one of the restaurants. They asked how the campaign was going after I joked that their five dollar tip on the table was for me. One said it was a donation to my campaign. Hahahaha. Anyway, I gave them stickers and mentioned that I was working on slogans. The other one suggested that we get together and have a slogan brainstorming session. Maybe after they come back from Florida in January!

I am starting to think about places to stay while I am on the capital trip. I think I can convince my nephew to put me up in DC. And I might be able to find someone in Raleigh. And Topeka is near enough to Kansas City that I think I have a place there. So that’s three out of 51. Maybe LdF can find me a place to stay in Hawaii. And maybe I have a place in Arizona. Every place I can stay is a good thing. Maybe Columbus OH too. That could be seven…

S’no Dash (Snow Dash)

It’s No Dash Day. S’no Dash. Woo hoo! We are having the first decent snow today and I have barely looked outside. When I heard plows I decided that I would spend the day actively not dashing. Or is that passively. Well, I hope to be active at some point. (I looked later – and even did some shoveling – and I told the car to “heat thyself” so I didn’t have to clean the snow off the car.)

Lately, I have been doing both scanning and cataloguing. I feel like I am accomplishing things around the house, though really, it is just teeny nibbles at the elephant at this point. But every nibble swallowed is one fewer someone else will have to nibble. Perhaps. At least it’s one fewer than I will have to nibble if I live so long.

Is “less” and “fewer” a pet peeve for anyone else?

The Town of Geneva Court says that their credit card machine may be working. I will check tomorrow. Hopefully it is.

My nest thermometer confuses me. I told it to heat up the house. It said ok! I checked an hour later and it had stopped heating the house again, almost immediately after I had asked it to heat. Maybe it was just bad timing on my part. Who knows. So I just turned the heat up again. I toyed with the idea of just heating my bedroom, where I am currently spending most of my non-dashing time, but in the end decided not to do that. Mainly because there is no space heater currently in my room. Maybe I will rectify that situation at some point. Maybe not.

Our China group!

Ok, it has been an interesting day. I finished another shelf of books on the back stairs. 6 down, 11 to go. I might get another one done tonight. I don’t know that I will do any more scanning this evening, but the night is young.

I also did some reading. And a little bit of work. See below.

Coming up on dinner time. More leftovers, from the BBQ place tonight. Tomorrow, did I mention this already, I think I might go and try the place called Fully Loaded. A fellow dasher said that it was her daughter’s place.

It looks like it is going to be a very light dashing week. I didn’t dash today. And I might not dash much on Thursday. I was asked by CC to take EC to the airport and act as her companion to get her onto the plane. That will be a long morning. So I might not feel like doing much dashing in the afternoon. I guess we will see.

Oh, the courthouse said that their credit card machine might be working. I will go up there tomorrow with money in hand just in case. I still think the amount they charge for court fees is ludicrous. I wonder if that is how the judge gets paid, though. Hmm.

Augustus for President: I am, as people following along know, looking for an executive assistant. I don’t think I can afford a full time one, so I am thinking of using a “rent a sec” type service. I had a long chat with a sales rep of one of the companies today. I might look at others, but he was a pretty good salesperson. I put him off until mid December or early January. The key take away for me was that they wouldn’t do the campaign manager search because it was basically cold calling. Since they couldn’t guarantee the results and cold calling tends to be a huge waste of time it was not something that they offered as part of their services. He did, though, mention that there were companies that did that. I have looked on the internet and yes, there are many. I will need to do some research and see if I can figure out if any of them can do what I would like done.

I also need to go through my database of thoughts (up to almost 700) and decide what might be delegated. I can put a TBD in that field and then a quick search will bring up the list. If there are more than 10 things on that list, the $390 for ten hours (for a month?) might be money well spent. I will have to think on it.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the number one mission of my government will be taxation. We need to get more money coming into the government so we can stop asking “how are we going to pay for it” and actually do things that help the majority of the people in the country. I just hope the country survives until the next election. But that is looking more and more doubtful.

Happy December!

Today was a long one dash day. As are most of the days to come, I think. At least until I hit the road in February. Anyway, my first order tested my decision making skills. Tell me what you would have done. Let me give a bit of context, though. I hate Lowes (the hardware store) orders. They are generally too little money for too much time and distance.

The Lowe’s order was $25.54 (or something like that) for 24 miles. One way. Up to Clyde or something like that. Maybe past Lyons whatever is up that far. And it was to transport 10 40lb bags of de-icer. The kind you put on sidewalks and things. That 24 miles would have taken me at least an hour for the round trip. Probably longer. Especially with loading and unloading times. And I would have had to lug that 400 pounds on my own. And in my car – the weight of two full grown humans. So, I chose not to do it.

I don’t know if it was the “right” decision. But I felt good about it. I might have made less money today because of not taking it, but I am ok with that. For my peace of mind and for my body, I just didn’t think it was a good offer.

The dashing shift came to an abrupt end because I was given a ride that took me very close to home and I had agreed to a personal pick-up around 2. The abrupt end allowed me to eat lunch and change my perspective a bit before my afternoon’s activities.

I gave the personal ride. Then I dropped two books off at the library. And then headed to one of my myriad banks. More on that below. My last errand of the day was to buy two longish eye bolts (with screw ends) at Tractor Supply. They were expensive!! But worth it to keep the ladder from attacking me again. Either I will do the work, or I will see if one of my workers wants to learn how to do it. They might also be the people to fix the front porch that I sort of broke…We shall see how I feel come Friday and Saturday.

After that burst of activity, I did a whole lot of nothing for a long while. I finally got my second wind and here we are. All caught up. Now it is time to eat the most of the last of the leftovers from Thanksgiving. Probably not all of the stuffing though…

My Grandmother on a sailboat – not the Setauket, I don’t think

Augustus for President: I finally got the letter from the IRS with my campaign’s full name on it. I took it to the bank and got E to fix the account’s name. Woo hoo! That means that I can start to accept donations/contributions. Watch that money start rolling in! Oh, wait, I can accept money, but only in person. In order to do it electronically on the website, I will need KSR to set up a company to accept donations through. I still suggest Stripe as that is the one that the campaign website recommended. But I feel the campaign is trudging forward in baby turtle steps.

After seeing what the timing of Bernie’s campaign was (about 500 days (A year and a third?)) before the election), I am feeling better about when I am hitting the campaign trail. I will have a year and a half to enter the country’s awareness before I hit that point. That ought to be plenty of time. At least that is my thought currently.

Ok, I’ve started the process of looking for assistants to help with research, cold calls, and travel.