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.

Not A Great Pair of Days

I’m not sure how to express how I feel about Rob Reiner being killed. I am not happy. And I think that has colored my emotions. This too shall pass.

I have no idea what is going on here, but it probably made sense at the time

So, the past two days have not been the greatest. Yesterday, I found that my basement was flooded and that my hot water heater had given up the ghost after only 9 years. That seems like bad design to me. Or maybe planned obsolescence. Whatever. It is all better now. My handy guy came and installed a new water heater for me. He even replaced some copper pipes with the new bendy pipes. (I wonder where the copper pipes went…) Yay hot water. I may actually take a shower tomorrow at some point. And do some dishes. Though somehow, mysteriously, the kitchen faucet hot water tap seems to be broken now. If it isn’t one thing, it’s something else.

Also yesterday was the on again off again travel plans of SM. Poor person. Her flights kept getting cancelled. Which meant that I prepared to pick her up. Then didn’t have to. Then did. Then didn’t. Then did again. Etc. Finally around 8 at night I was told that she would try again tomorrow (today). In the morning. Which of course would mean that I wouldn’t be able to get in any where near a full dash. Which isn’t upsetting but it is a teeny bit fiscally damaging.

Turned out that that flight was also cancelled. And the flight SM eventually got on brought them to Rochester instead of Syracuse around 5 pm. Yay driving in the dark in Rochester traffic. At least it wasn’t snowing. But I got a head of myself. After doing some bad dashing – too much driving for too little money – I stopped and came home for lunch. Still eating the food from the halal place. One more lunch from that tomorrow. Then, suddenly, it was time to head to JC’s to help him with a couple issues.

We spent a good amount of time putting contacts into his phone. We did a good job, I think. I am sure more will need to get in there, and either he will do it himself, or I will help him. Probably after EC and I come back from Kansas City. After SM’s delightful travel experience, I am really not looking forward to this trip. At all. But again, I get ahead of myself. The other thing we did was some banking. Which was frustrating. But in the end, I think we got it sorted. We will know in 5 business days.

But I almost ran out of time because I had to go to the Rochester airport! On the way, I stopped and charged at a new charger that has been installed in Farmington. It is a modern one. But of course, my car can’t avail itself of the fast charging. SIgh. Maybe my next car will be able to. Now there are two chargers that are about equidistant from my home (26 and 20 miles), neither of which is close enough to be really handy.

SM was very understanding when I dumped all of my less than happy thoughts on her. I didn’t even get into the whole problem I had with charging my phone today. That is another big fat poo. The cable I was using in the car stopped working. Grrr. And the damn update that Apple pushed out on everyone likes to do this “slow charging” thing – which irks me no end when I am dashing. I am sure it will be ok on longer straight travels. Hahahahaha.

Now I am home. I am going to eat some dinner. Though I am little afraid because this dinner made me ill (I think it was the dinner) last night. And I am having it again tonight. If I get ill again, the rest goes in the trash. Again, irksome.

Augustus for President: I need to have a discussion with someone about something. I am not looking forward to that. Wish me luck.

Driving Day – ME to CT to NY

One final view of Maine

My tummy is not thrilled for some reason. Probably something I ate. Who knows. This too shall pass. I hope.

I got up and packed and I hope I left nothing behind. I also stripped the bed. I like to think that I am a decent house guest.

Said goodbye to J&P and hit the road.

First stop – The Only Donut in Belfast. When did donuts become so expensive? Or maybe they have always been relatively expensive but now prices are so high, they just seem more expensive. I don’t know. Anyway, I think $38.50 for a dozen donuts is a bit on the pricey side. I got them for two reasons – one because I wanted to check the place out and two because I wanted to be able to give them to K+ when I got there. The place was cool and I think the donuts were and will be appreciated.

Lots of driving. And listening to The Great hunt.

First Charging stop was near Lawrence MA. I had thought it was going to be a charger I had not been to before. But I had been there before. Not a lot around there in terms of shops and things. There used to be a subway. And the gas station had some stuff. And there was a starbucks. I was looking for Pepitas. And a bathroom, but I ended up not not really needing to go at that point.

Next stop was K+’s house. That was a pleasant surprise. I told the car that I wanted to arrive with at least 25% battery. I didn’t realize at the time that I would be doing a bit of (self-volunteered) driving or I would have asked it to be at least 30%.

At the house, quiet chaos reined. Well, not so quiet. They have a great dog who barked and barked and barked until someone (E) eventually came to the door. During the course of the brief visit, I got to see and chat with most of the kids. And with K and C. They lead a hectic life it seems to me. But they also seem to be settled into it and comfortable with it. I hope that it is a shorter time between visits than it was this time! Maybe I will ask to stay with them when I visit Hartford in March 2026.

After that visit, it was off Home. First charger at Hartford, which I had been to before. Next charger at Lee. Also one I had been to before. And lastly, a charger in Utica, again, a previously visited location. I didn’t find Pepitas in the first two and didn’t even look at the third stop.

On the way to the house, I stopped at the library to drop off a library book that was due on Friday. I hope me dropping it in the slot on Friday night or at least before they open on Saturday will result in my not getting a fine. That would be nifty.

Exciting day or what?

When I finally got home, I really wasn’t in the mood to write a blog post. So, I didn’t. I ate a little something, watched an episode of The Diplomat and then went to sleep.

Augustus for President: Well, it is looking like I will have to end up using swift if I can’t get Powerpoint working as a kiosk like thing on my iPad. Or using the midi device I have. That gives me sixteen sounds I think. I’ll just keep plugging along. Then again, it might be the case that I can create the animation in wick on my iPad. I think I will check that out soon. (Yes, it works!)

Full Frontal!

Full Frontal!

I almost didn’t wake up in time to make my Airport run in a timely fashion. And, when I went out tot he car, I discovered that I had neglected to plug the car in over night. Sigh. I know why, but that still sucks. I didn’t plug it in because AD said he would need a ride around 4 in the afternoon. So I didn’t plug in, figuring that I would be heading out soonish (it being around 3:45 pm when I got back home). But that call never happened. Later I found out the LD had done the rides for him. But I didn’t even think about plugging the car in. Though I ought to have.

But, the supercharger in Victor was the answer to my little problem. I left a few minutes before I thought I needed to so that I could make a charging stop there. Which I did. I think I charged for fifteen or twenty minutes. I like the new feature that lets you set how much charge you would like to have when you arrive somewhere. That would have been great when I drove to KSRs a couple years ago. But it is a useful feature going forward when supercharging.

I got to the airport as one of the flights arrived. I eventually picked JB up and drove us back to the cell phone lot. Where we waited maybe 10 minutes for the other person to arrive and make their way outside. Woo hoo! Everything worked out well, imho.

The ride back was pleasant as we all chatted about this and that – two interesting people (and me) in the car is always more fun.

After I got home, I plugged in and ate some lunch. It was my sort of Mediterranean lunch. I even got some vegetables ingested! Go me, being all healthy and stuff…

Since I somehow forgot to make my bed last night, I did it today. Sometimes I wonder about myself.

Then I did an afternoon and evening dash. Which turned out to be a decent one for a change. Mainly do to a well compensated mid distance ride! True, the place I picked up from, Chester’s Chicken, was not the zippiest. The poor worker kept complaining that she was there all alone. Though why that mattered since there weren’t a lot of customers queuing for her attention, I will never know.

Door Dash has added a new perk which might be a good thing. For each month that one maintains platinum status – going forward – not retroactively unfortunately, one gets a one week voucher to use to keep one’s platinum status. I think that means that I can add a week to my travel plans, starting at the end of July. It is irksome that it isn’t retroactive since I have been a platinum dasher for probably almost two years continually. Whatever. Life (capitalism) is that way.

Now I am home and about to eat some dinner. The light lunch does mean that I am hungry around my usual (7pmish) dinner time. So excited! Left overs from lunch on Sunday. I am going to adulterate the burger I got. I had ordered a patty melt, but it seemed like there was too little of everything except burger meat. Too little cheese, too few onions, not enough mayonnaise. Grrr. I still sort of like Curley’s but my favorite restaurant in Auburn so far is still At Long Last.

How Many Days?

I’ve always been curious…how many days would I have to not post a blog for someone, anyone, to be concerned? Obviously not one, since I didn’t post last night. Oops. Maybe a week? Who knows. Any thoughts are welcome.

Yes, I did not post last night. It was an odd and, to me at least, an interesting day. And after the day was basically done, I completely spaced on the blog. After putting this picture in the post.

Good book

Yes, one of my accomplishments yesterday was to return this book to the library. I am not sure who recommended Peter Heller to me, or this particular book, but thank you if you are reading this. Which, to be fair, you probably aren’t. But anyway, if you like fiction, especially post apocalyptic fiction, then you might like this book.

Anyway, the day started with running errands. I had my day planned, as I am wont to do. And it sort of went how I envisioned. Almost immediately a twist was tossed into my plans. Part of which were a whole charging and driving schedule (long drive coming up later in the day). J wrote and asked for a pick up in Canandaigua. She hasn’t requested in one a few weeks, so it came as a surprise. Anyway, I ran a couple of my errands, the bank for twos (got two!) and then the library to drop off and pick up. Then off to Canandaigua, with a new book to start reading.

Yes, I am leapfrogging my other library book to read this one. It had a long hold on it and probably still does, so I will only get three weeks to read it. I think I will have finished it by the end of next week. Since I will be reading this weekend for sure. I have finally embarked on reading Brandon Sanderson’s books. I think there are like 40 of them…wish me luck.

(Quick aside – I see that Amazon has cancelled The Wheel of Time series. I have mixed feelings. Although it was an abomination as an adaptation of the books, it was a decent fantasy series.)

After getting J back home, I went to the grocery store and got some supplies. Mostly meatballs to stock the freezer. I am going to spend part of the morning re-bagging them into dinner sized portions. What an exciting life I lead! I’ll also be bagging chicken wings. Just think, you could be a part of this excitement if you played your cards right…I had more plans, but they were put asunder because JB was in the house! (The house being Wegmans). We chatted a couple of times as we ran into each other doing our shopping. And happened to checkout at the same time. So I offered him a ride home. Turns out he was a little burned out on Trivia – and it was raining, so he opted to stay home Thursday night. I will try to remember to write him when next I suggest a trivia night to MF and JvK.

At home, I did a little neatening in the kitchen and some other accumulated tasks. And, surprise, my boarder came home early. I wonder if she has Monday off. If so, that means I need to wear more clothes around the house. As it meant I had to yesterday afternoon, too.

My next task was to pick EC up and take her to Rochester for an appointment. Easy peasy. I drove down, chatted a bit and then headed out to the appointment. Got there in plenty of time. I left and headed out to run some more errands and got back to the waiting room to wait. And wait. They said that EC would be done around 5:15. More like 5:45. But that gave me a good amount of time to start and get into Mistborn.

After I got home, all I wanted to do was to eat something and then veg out. And that’s what I did. And completely spaced on getting a blog post out. Mea Culpa.

So, it will, probably, be a two post day. How thrilling!