Sorting by Piles

Last night I watched the movie The American President written by Aaron Sorkin. I wonder how many actors were in both that movie and Aaron’s later project, The West Wing. I think I recognized at least four. Martin Sheen got promoted from Chief of Staff to President. Fun stuff.

Today has been a fairly productive day, all things considered. Luckily, SM wrote me in the morning and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner and a show after all or if I wanted to stay in. The weather is brutal outside in terms of temperature. And we got a few inches of snow. So, no, I really didn’t want to go out. And this is the first full day that I have the house to myself, and I wanted to relish it. SM was understanding. I wonder if she will go to the show on her own. I am not terribly upset about missing a high school production of Singing in the Rain.

I eventually got out of bed, but not before I had some thoughts about one of my campaign speeches. More on that below.

For lunch, I had the last of my 8 pieces of chicken from KFC. And some olives, coleslaw, macaroni salad and some salt and vinegar potato chips. Hmm, sounds a lot like yesterday’s lunch.

I think I am going to try an experiment. While the waeather remains frigid outside, I will let the house sit at around 60°F and use a space heater in my room to keep that, and me, warmer and toastier. I don’t know if I will save any money, but I feel like I will since I am not heating the whole house to 68°F. No boarder!

After lunch, I worked on two projects a good bit. And actually started the book about the Finnish Prime Minister, Hope in Action. One project was for the campaign and the other was the Alice Tea Party movie.

I exported the movie again and made more notes. Overall, it is fine the way it is. I did find a few places that I could make a few changes that might make the piece a bit better. But it will take a good bit of effort to make those changes. To change or not to change, that is the question. I am leaning towards making the changes. Time will tell.

How I help things to get with like things

Augustus for President: I think I am getting closer to a decent draft of the 50+1 Capitals Tour Steps Speech. At least the first one, the one for Washington DC. Once I have that one done, I will work on Richmond and see how much tweaking I will do in subsequent states and capitals. Reading the speech aloud helps.

Last night, I ordered an inexpensive windows laptop for the campaign. I am going to set it up as a business computer and inititiate anything to do with the campaign there. Where I need to, I will also mirror stuff on my personal computer. The reason for a new, pristine computer for the work stuff, is that I want a clean delineation between me and the campaign. So when I have staff, it will be easier to hand it all off. And because I don’t know what all I have touched with what information. In order to have a fresh start on the various social media platforms and blogging platforms and such, a new computer set up around the campaign, ought to be a good thing.

Any thoughts on whether or not I ought to sign the campaign up for a twitter/X account? Rumor has it it is now a cesspool of right wing craziness. Do I want to inflict myself with that sort of crap?

I think I will just do coasters and stickers for the 50+1 Capitals Tour. And maybe make them both the same design, just slightly different sizes. I will save pens and other things for the future. 250 of each is still the plan. Maybe I will work on that tomorrow.

Weird Views

Who knows why or what or who, but some people looked at a lot of my blog posts. It is making my average views per day look like nothing. I wonder how people who get that much traffic all the time handle it. If anyone has a clue why my blog was viewed so much in the last couple of days, please enlighten me. I may check with google and see if it has thoughts on why…

Today was a quiet day. Nothing on the docket. Except I wanted to go see what Teslas EV Corner in Farmington had. They didn’t have many. Three I think. And one of those had already been sold. The one I liked and looked at was a new arrival. It is a 2023 with HW/AI3. That is one drawback. It is a little more expensive than I would like, too. But other than that, it seems like a good option. I am torn between that car and the one in Albany. I will keep thinking on it. And maybe SM will have an opinion tomorrow when I see her.

On the way home, I stopped at the Wegman’s in Canandaigua. It is so huge compared to the teeny one we have here in Geneva. I was sure they would have coleslaw. And they did! Huzzuh! I bought some. I toyed with the idea of buying some veggies, but I really want to use up my asparagus(tus) first. I think I will get Brussels sprouts or green beans for my next veggie option. I bought a nice piece of cake for dessert tonight. And I thought I might get some wasabi peas. But they only had a small container. So I passed. I have other salty things to eat when the body requests salty.

When I got home, I made myself some lunch. I know, it sounds pretty boring. But I enjoyed it. Chicken, olives, mac salad, coleslaw and some salt and vinegar chips. (See, I’ve got salty covered.)

After lunch, I looked at cars some more. And I sat and thought deep thoughts. One thought I had was that I hate having to type out my insanely long URL for my presidential site. Something prompted me to ask google if I could use the built in apple shortcuts app to build something that would let me replace text. Turns out that text replacement is built into iOS. It might be built into other OS’s too. Anyone? Anyway, I made a short cut that changes four characters into the URL. I have tried it out and it works like a dream. So exciting!

Eventually, my boarder came and took the rest of her stuff. I had given her permission to do it after her work, rather than trying to do it before she headed to work in the morning. A life chapter finished. I wonder if I will ever hear from her again.

After she left, I checked out the bathroom and the bedroom. In the bathroom, there were just a couple of hand towels to be laundered. I can also, finally, put in the replacement bidet I bought when the one in there gave up the ghost. I had asked her if she wanted it installed and she said no. Most people who don’t use bidets don’t know how great they are. Her loss.

In the bedroom, there was very little left. A nickel, so I am now rich. And a couple of socks. One of which was mine. I am guessing she found it in a load of laundry and never gave it to me. And it was a really good sock. One I had wondered about when it didn’t turn up in my sock drawer. Mystery solved! I stripped and made the bed. Turned off the heat, turned off the light and closed the door.

Empty Room!

In the kitchen, she had left a bunch of sauces that she had collected over the past few months. I threw many of them away and saved a few that were packaged for longevity.

She filled up my outdoor trash, so I guess I will put that out this weekend. I don’t think Monday is a holiday, is it? It isn’t.

I know it is going to take a few days for me to adjust to not having her in the house. But for right now, I am pretty darn happy to have the house to myself again after a year or so! Woo freaking hoo!!!

Augustus for President: I am thinking I will just buy an inexpensive windows machine to get all of the Presidential Socials up and running. Completely divorced from my own socials. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. I really have to get cracking on doing all the things I would like to do before hitting the road next month. And I really have to get a handle on my 50+1 Capitals Tour Steps Speech. Threading that needle of informing, entertaining and keeping it short.

Inching Closer To Cardom

When I got up this morning, I had no real plan. I did have one appointment that was sort of set in stone. But other than that, nothing on the docket.

The appointment was with the car rental place. Today marks a week that I have had the car. Last night, I asked Siri for a heads or tails answer and got heads – which was that I ought to make use of AD’s car. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I don’t really want to be involved with him more than is absolutely necessary. I will return the car key in the not too distant future. I was a little concerned that I might not be able to renew my rental, but with a click of the computer, it was accomplished. Woo hoo!

At home, I had a yummy lunch of chicken, olives and macaroni and cheese. Then I called State Farm and asked where the payment was. Not long after that, the rep I was working with called and sent an email – maybe even a text – saying that the check was in the email. And it was! I have set it to depositing and it ought to be in my account by Tuesday. Tomorrow I will head up to the place in Farmington and see what they have available. I am still interested in the car in Albany, except that it a) is pretty pricey still, b) is far away so I wouldn’t be able to easily see it in person before buying it, and c) has no stalk. I like the stalk. I am used to the stalk. So, I will look in Farmington and go from there.

One more car accident hurdle to jump over happens next week. Court for my two tickets. I am not looking forward to that at all. I hate being in court. And I am sure it is going to be a costly event for me. Boo.

Today is the day that my boarder is supposed to leave. She has done a pretty good job of getting her stuff out of the house. She didn’t, unfortunately, leave any of the food that she had in the fridge or freezer. Some of that looked tasty. But the bathroom is almost empty. As is the bedroom. My guess is that she will come here after work and get the rest of the stuff out of the house. Maybe she will spend one more night here. When she does leave, I will have the house to myself!! One more stressor gone. Not that she stressed me out that much, but it is always a little stressful living with someone else. No more renters or boarders or anything like that until 2027 at the earliest. Yes, my finances will take a hit, but I will struggle through somehow.

Updating some mac applications. How exciting is that?

Augustus for President: Still working on the steps speech. It feels lumpy. Not smooth. Or interesting. I am writing this draft for Washington DC specifically. Before, I was writing generically. Though I think that mostly the speech will remain the same state capital after state capital.

I requested this book from the library. I saw her on a talk show – maybe Colbert? She seemed interesting. Will I read the book? It’s possible. I’ll start it and see what happens. If it is well written and engaging, I might read it. If I were still dashing, I would definitely read it. I wonder if one of the other books I asked for came and I turned it down without reading it because I am not in a reading phase…Does anyone else go through phases of reading and not reading?

Anyone read this?

Sadly Not All Purchases Are Ideal

Today was a little odd. I got up and did my ablutions and then headed off to help AD with his tasks. The first was emptying out his car. Ostensibly so that the fog light on the front of the car can get repaired. I didn’t look for the damage so I don’t know how extensive it is. I did get everything out of his car. Well, not everything. There are still a few things in there that could come out. In cleaning out the car, I did come across a couple of items disquieted me a teeny bit. Suffice it to say that AD is an odd duck.

Next up, I headed off to run his other two errands – get something from one of his banks. And then to Dollar General to buy him some cups. He has an interesting affectation where he doesn’t use reusable dishes or glasses or cutlery, instead getting and using everything disposable. I’m glad that works for him. Reminds me of Reacher not owning anything and buying new clothes whenever he needed them, instead of washing and reusing his clothes. People are strange.

Baskets for the deep freezer

AD kindly offered me the use of his car while I am shopping for my next vehicle. I am not sure I am going to take him up on that. Still trying to figure out the whole car thing. I am leaning towards just renting the car for another week. It is easiest. More expensive than using AD’s though. Hmm.

After helping AD out, I headed home for lunch. Chicken! And it was tasty.

There was a brief fire drill about needing me to help out with EC and JC but that was averted. Postponed until tomorrow I believe. But that’s for tomorrow.

That meant that I did have some time to look at some car options. I think I found a good one, but it is in Albany. I can’t really do anything though until I have the money from the total loss.

I saw a great deal on a good Tesla. It doesn’t have a turn stalk which is mildly irksome. And it is in Albany, which is also mildly irksome. It looks like there is no easy and timely way to get to Albany using public transportation. I can get it delivered here for between $180 and $600. I put in one request and have gotten six or seven contacts/offers so far. Yay. Another factor to take into account. It is on a Chevy lot and has only been available for sale for a couple of weeks. But, that is a good sign that it hasn’t sold so far. But there are lots of cars in the world. So if I miss out on that one, I can always find another. As I told the sales person, I have had two cars that I drove for around 200k miles. All the others, not so much. I wonder how many cars I have had. I think I put a column for that in my life spreadsheet. Looks like 11 cars so far. Is that a lot?

Did I mention that my Waterpik died? Not a horrendous death. One of the tubes split. I thought duct tape would fix it. It didn’t. At least not in the way I put it on. Luckily, I have my travel water flosser to use while I decide what to do about the old waterpik. It is pretty old, if I remember correctly.

$15. Really? Sigh. People are so strange. And I thought they were a friend. Whatever. I will survive.

Augustus for President: I think I finally have a good start to the Capital Steps Speech for the 50+1 Capitals Tour. Very excited.

Back in the Chicken Flow

Today was not really a “me” day. Yes, I did things for me, but it felt like I was mostly doing things for others. Yay?

After I got up, I called AD and left a message. I figured he would call me when he wanted to. I didn’t do a lot in the morning except for my ablutions. Including a teeny bit of hatha yoga.

Lunch was the leftovers from yesterday’s diner lunch. The reuben was good, but not the best that I have had. Which would be mine, honestly. It didn’t seem to have been grilled much. Not enough Swiss cheese. And not enough of the Russian dressing. And honestly, the ratio of sauerkraut to corned beef was too high towards the corned beef. Still, it was tasty. The last of the chips were also part of my lunchtime repast.

Next up, errands. I only had one errand before heading to JC and EC’s. To take the title for the car and get it shipped off at the UPS store. Easy Peasy. Oh, I had called both State Farm and Northside Collision to make sure that they could pick up the car and that I wouldn’t be on the hook for any storage fees. Who knows how much Northside charges for storing a dead car. But it is out of my hands and hair now. Waiting on the check.

Speaking of the car, I am debating buying an interim car or keeping the rental for another week. If I buy a car before I get my new to me Tesla, I would have to register it, get insurance on it. And then turn around and do that again on the other end. Would I lose more value on that than another week’s car Rental would cost? I don’t know. I’ll try and figure that out tonight or tomorrow,

After dropping off the title to be forwarded, I headed south. At their house, we started with figuring out what they were going to do with the apartment in terms of colors and floor treatments. They had already picked all the paint colors and made a good diagram explaining what was to go where. CC had sent me pictures of the rug and flooring options and they made quick work of deciding what to do in that department. There was a little concern because the diagram that the place shared did not match my memories of the place we visited. CC had just been there again and he reassured me that it was the same place, just that the diagram was a mirror image of the actual place. Phew!

While there I also did a couple of things with their computers and phones. Just trying to help them feel comfortable with the iPhones. I think they are in a decent place for now. And I now have passwords for EC and her stuff. Woo hoo!

While I was there, AD called and I had a chat with him. Of course he doesn’t want me to do just one thing, but at least three. Or maybe four. Sigh. There goes tomorrow morning. Yippee.

After finishing with JC and EC, I headed back to town, I decided to go ahead and do my shopping straight away. First stop Wegmans. I bought a container of mashed potatoes. I have no idea if they will be any good. I guess I will find out. I wanted to buy some coleslaw but they were, for no discernible reason, out of it. I got macaroni salad instead. Unamused. While there, I ordered a bucket of thighs and legs since it is Tuesday from KFC through their app. 8 pieces for $10. A pretty good deal I think.

Bucket o’chicken

Now I am home again. I’m going to do some Duolingo and then eat dinner. So excited!

Augustus for President: The steps speech is so bad I think I might have to trash it and start again. Sigh.

Has Anyone Visited the Baldwinsville Diner?

The big news today (at least around the Chalet) is that the paperwork is going through for the total loss of the car. The bank has been paid off. And I will eventually get a payout. A little larger than I had thought it was going to be. That is a good thing. Which makes my next step buying a new to me car. A process that I am notoriously bad at. Despite having had a lot of cars over the years. One of my friends asked me if I was going to buy another Tesla. I said I was and she was not pleased. I understand. She thinks buying a Tesla is benefitting Elon. Which it might in some teeny way. But, as I try to point out, there are many more reasons to buy a Tesla. First off, the car part of Tesla is getting to be a smaller and smaller part of their business. Energy will eclipse car sales soon. And Autonomy will eclipse that. And Robots will eclipse that. And…there is one more thing that is supposed to eclipse that. So, buying a car really doesn’t add much to Elon’s (the horrible) finances. And Telsa has a lot more employees than Elon (the poop). As for the cars themselves – Tesla’s are still the best all around electric vehicles on the market. If I buy a used one, no money for Elon. Though I will admit I am toying with the idea of buying a car directly from Tesla. I will work on that tonight.

This morning, I got up and got out pretty quickly. I went to Baldwinsville to get the mats out of the car. And the license plates. And the pucks out of the frunk. Luckily, when I got there, I asked a guy who actually knew how to get into the frunk when it was being reluctant. And he lent me a screwdriver for the license plates. It was an easy drive and I got to listen to my book. And again on the way back home. With a stop in between.

Look, not a food picture

If I lived in Baldwinsville, I would probably go to the Baldwinsville Diner at least once a month. If not more frequently. The food coming out of the kitchen looked great. And with large portions. And the staff all seemed personable. Since I love diner food, there are probably at least a week or two weeks worth of choices on their huge menu. Definitely a place I would like to go again, if it weren’t so far away. I eventually chose a reuben over a club sandwich. It came with chips. Though the fries looked good too. Maybe next time. Anyone want to go up and try out the place with me?

Other than that, it has been a cleaning day. A shower and a load of laundry, were the primary parts of that.

Moving on to part three of the evening. How exciting is that? I get to eat more leftover chicken pot pie for dinner. Yippee!

Augustus for President: Still working on the capital steps speech. And the basic press release. Both need a lot of work! I updated the campaign site to reflect the new start date of the 50+1 Capitals Tour. And I noticed that there are a few more volunteers who have signed up. All of whom seemed to have provided real information. That’s exciting. And humbling. Now if only more people would start contributing to the campaign…

Every Ruble (eeek) Helps – ok, so I am not going to accept donations from foreign entities or representatives.

Some Sort of Sunday

I woke up without the alarm. Though my boarder leaving early in the morning might also have done the trick. I needed to be out of the house around 9:15 which gave me about an hour to get my morning stuff done. I am in a group of try-hards in Duolingo again, which is always a bit frustrating.

East Lake Road still isn’t a great road to drive up and down in the winter, imho. I made it to EC and JC’s house safely to find a rent-a-van in the driveway – which was expected. Inside, O was working diligently at packing the pictures she was taking home with her. Five or so, I think. And a couple of art books. The van was way too big for most of what she was taking. But one of the pictures was so huge that it barely fit into the van when we loaded things. Before we got to loading, I offered to move the van around for easier loading. That did not go so well. I tried to get the vehicle turned around and managed to get it pretty well mire at the bottom of the slight incline between their barn/garage and the level place behind their house where I originally wanted to put the vehicle. JC came out and helped. Together, we somehow managed to get the vehicle up and out to where it was needed. Woo hoo! All in all, we managed to get O out close to 11 which was her target time.

Back home, I ate some lunch and took a nap. Yay napping!

It is the end of another part of my life. My boarder is moving out. I didn’t really expect her to move out today. But she has been putting stuff in her car. We shall see if she gets out today or not in reality. I am a bad person because I have not offered to help…And it looks like she is moving piecemeal. Whatever works for her.

I wish that AI were better. Social Security sent me a message saying I needed to enroll in Medicare. I went online and I am already enrolled. Sigh.

I am going to try and do better than I usually do when buying a car. Then again, I can’t really take too much time because I don’t want to spend so much money on a rental car. I have till Thursday. With nothing on the docket except for popping down to help JC and EC. Oh, and picking up more stuff from the car. Like the license plates. And the mats. And the pucks.

My exciting dinner

Some days there just doesn’t seem to be much that is worth photographing. Without consideration that is. There’s always something that would make a good picture.

Dinner is done and it is time for the third phase.

Augustus for President: I did a little work on the 50+1 Capitals Tour step speech. Still bad.

Pizza Sans Wigs

Two yummy Cams slices

Today started with me getting a call to help SM out with a project. It sounded pretty easy. Though I knew in my heart that there would be steps beyond the ones I anticipated. It took me a bit to put the information she had found on the internet into a spreadsheet and give it to her. I gave her printed copies and electronic copies. Not my finest work, but it sufficed. First problem, she wanted to edit the work herself. Her computer skills are negligible, so I had to walk her through how to edit a spreadsheet. On Google Sheets. An app that I am not that familiar with. But we got there. Later she called me and wanted to send the list to other people. That was an ordeal, because I am not a windows user so I have to figure everything out without being in front of her computer. But we persevered and managed to get the email out. Yay! The time spent was not a great deal, the work started around 10 and ended around 4:30.

Around that, I did some of my own work. First up, going through Alice and seeing what tweaks I wanted to make. That took a little bit. I ended up with a couple of pages of notes. Sounds like a lot, but I was writing with what felt like a highlighter. So probably 20 items I could look at and see if I wanted to fix them.

Next up, some work for the Campaign.

After that, I kept flopping back and forth between Alice and the campaign work and checking out used Teslas. I found a great deal on one, but until I have the amount of the total loss payment, I don’t really know for sure what I am working with in terms of funds. My dream would be to get a 2025 that has low miles and is sold under market value. That would be nifty. I will start to look on Monday when I ought to get the figure.

Augustus for President: Today I mostly worked on the 50+1 Capitals Tour. I did some work on the spreadsheet, formatting wise and data wise. The data change was moving the starting date in Washington DC to March 15. Ides of March. And a Sunday. And since I chose to start on a Sunday, I had to make changes to the Month planner doc that I had downloaded before. First off, it was in powerpoint, which is not where I wanted it to be. I tried pasting it into Keynote and it didn’t paste well. It pasted as one big lump. I wonder if it came across grouped. Hmm. Anyway, I decided to basically recreate the doc in Keynote. I think it turned out ok. It needs more tweaking, but was adequate to my needs. I will look everything over tomorrow and then send a copy to the guy who said he might be willing to help me with travel arrangements. So excited!

I also took a minute to look at the Capital Steps speech. It is not in good shape. But I sent it to KSR anyway at his request. I will work on that and the press release during this week.