Celery Stalk Day

I might buy one or two donuts from them – never another dozen!

Well, poo. How did that happen? I missed the deadline for putting my hat in the ring to attend the November Stock Holders Meeting for Tesla. I had to wait until I had a statement from my brokerage firm proving I held stock at the time designated. I got that only a few days ago. My brokerage didn’t have the necessary document ready when I first checked. I checked and downloaded it later, around the 15th of October. But I didn’t check then to see the date by which I had needed to apply. Since the meeting was in the beginning of November, I thought I still had time. I didn’t. Poo. Not that I would have gotten a space anyway since I don’t hold very much stock and I think the number of entries one got in the lottery was equal to the number of shares held. Whatever. Saves me a long drive. I can just watch it on TV with the hoi polloi (from the Greek meaning “the many”).

Today has been another vegetable day. Maybe a stalk of celery. I had thought I would be helping JC to visit with TC but I got a call saying that he (JC) wasn’t feeling up to it. I am going to try to get down there this week sometime. I think Wednesday might be good. The week’s schedule is unclear at this point. First, I am hoping that I have enough rides stored up to dash anytime. If not, I will have to use one of my “dash anytime for a week” passes. I have three. And secondly, SM ought to be returning soon. Not exactly sure when. Or how. I guess she will ping me when it gets close.

So, instead of heading to Auburn, I got to stay in. Woo hoo.

Tomorrow, I am going to ask my erstwhile contractor and friend to help me with two emergency issues. If he won’t help in a timely fashion, I will have to find someone else to help me. First is the nest thermometer. Last night it heated the house to 75 degrees! It lost internet connection and power. I wonder if the wiring needs to be looked at. The second is a dripping faucet in the blue bathroom. I have replaced one of the faucets already. (Though that was a while ago – and I didn’t like doing it) I don’t really want to replace the other. So, I am going to ask JM to installed shut off valves for the two lines into the tub. Neither job should be too onerous. Or take too long. I hope he can get to them quickly. And if not, as I said. I will find someone else. There must be many handy people around. It is a good gig sort of job.

Augustus for President: K+ asked me to put my picture back on the badge. Which I did and sent to him.

I am already thinking about my second country wide sweep next year. I hope by that time to have some funds coming in from donations. Anything is possible. What I am thinking most about, though, is what proportion of time I plan to spend in each state. Mostly population driven I think. Have I mentioned lately that I love spreadsheets? Did you know that a little more than half of the population in the United States lives in just 10 states? (CA, TX, FL, NY, PA, IL, OH, GA, NC) So half of the 3-4 months that I am allotting for that tour will be spent in those states. Or at least thats what makes sense to me right now.

As for getting on the ballot in all the states, the rules aren’t up on Ballotpedia yet. But from the 2024 information, it seems that we want all of our ducks in a row, all of our i’s crossed and our t’s dotted by June 30, 2028. I would love to download that information, but I couldn’t figure out how. And there didn’t seem to be a way to contact the people managing the site. Google gave me an email address and a phone number. I sent an email and will wait to call until Tuesday. Give them all of Monday to respond.

Moo

One of my favorite mailboxes!

It is coming up on Halloween. Not a holiday that I have had much to do with over the years. As a kid, I did some stuff. Yay candy. As an adult, I rarely do much of anything. I did, though, one time, go to a cool party that someone threw to celebrate the season (though it was a week or two before Halloween if I remember correctly). Recently, I have been dressing up as the Grinch for Halloween while dashing. This year, Halloween falls on a Friday. I don’t normally dash on Fridays. So, my conundrum is whether I dress up on a day that I normally dash, or dash on Friday all dressed up? Also, I am also debating whether I want to do make-up or the mask this year. I just realized that I know someone who does make-up here in town…

And the person who does make-up doesn’t do it for anyone but herself. If she wants to be a professional make-up person or make money from it, I think she will have to change her mind at some point. No worries, I can do it myself, I just would have preferred to pay someone to do it. Her loss, imho.

It was a two dash day. Actually, because of how much I had made during the first three days of the week, I really didn’t have to Dash today. But, since I am heading to Maine for a week, the more dashes I have accumulated, the fewer I will be behind when I get back.

So, the two dashes. Neither of them were great. And neither of them really had anything particularly noteworthy about them. Oh, maybe this is noteworthy. I was picking up from Dunkin and a guy I had never seen before was going to get my dash ready. He had never done it before or been taught how to do it. So I had to teach him. He still ended up with the receipt inside the bag. I think he appreciated my instruction. He said he would vote for me in 2028. Hahaha. Another notworthy event, I got a $2 post delivery tip from someone – because I spoke Spanish with them a little bit. Meanwhile, the guy from Phoenix Flavors gifted me another beef empanada and a whole lot of talk in Spanish. I think the gist of it was that he wasn’t doing as well here in Geneva as he had hoped.

At lunch time, I did a few of my many reminders. The most important one was calling the District Attorney’s office and asking them to tell me what exactly I needed to do to get my ticket resolved. I was passed from the receptionist, to the DAs office, to Patrick, who apparently dispenses all the answers about traffic tickets. He did not pick up. I left a very nice message at around 1:15 this afternoon. So far, no call back. I am shocked. If he calls tomorrow, great. If not, I will call him twice a day, every day next week until I get in touch with him. This is not rocket surgery. The piece of paper that the Assistant DA handed out is useless. No idea why they even bother handing that out…

After my last dash, a not great offer, but it put me over my lowest goal for the shift, I headed to Wegman’s to get travel goodies. I only bought five items but they cost me $42!! The bridge mix has gone up from $7 to $11. Damn Drumpf to hell and back. What a total ass. I can’t wait for his administration to be over! (Which is one reason I am running for President)

I am having pasta for dinner tonight. Last night I was debating with myself about what dinner was going to be this evening. In the end, I decided to use what I had in the house rather than getting something from out in the world. To be honest, I was tempted by the new Steak Bites that Arby’s has. If they still have them when I get back from my trip, I will have to try an order of them.

Augustus for President: Besides adding a little bit to my ever growing document of thoughts about the presidency and the campaign, I did tell a few people that I was running. Like the kid at Dunkin. Tortoise steps. Oh, does anyone like pins? I am thinking of becoming the “pin” campaign. If only I had a good graphic designer…and I am still trying to figure out what I want to do about an assistant.

Yay Crappy Dashes!

My first dash today was odd. Not bad, not great. Just odd. I had ten dashes. 9 of them were “hand it to me.” Not one of them was a high value dash. And again, I was underwater – drove more than I earned per mile. Which always is a little irksome. I also had a little scare. After I dropped off an order, I found a carton in the well of the passenger seat. I thought I had forgotten to give someone something. But it turned out to be SM’s coleslaw from last night. I asked her what she wanted me to do with it and she told me to drop it off at her house. Which I did.

Waiting for things from Elon’s companies is frustrating. There are so many things that are just within reach but never seem to come: Full Self Driving, Optimus Robots, Cheaper cars, Semi Trucks (all Tesla), next starship launch, first catch of the second stage, refueling in space etc. (SpaceX), vision (from Neuralink – there was just a cool video from a guy who has ALS so Telepathy is working better and better), All the tunnels in Las Vegas and elsewhere (though the tunnels to the Airport in LV are percolating along, slowly). Sigh. Waiting sucks.

A little Altar to the gnomes?

My lunch was dull, and it was interrupted by giving MdF a ride from her work back to her house. And I get to do it again tomorrow! Am I the luckiest, or what? I think I might earn more from those rides than I do doing Door Dash. Oh, to make lunch even less fun, it was bill paying day. Boo!

After lunch, I did a second dash. I probably should have just stayed home. The same deal that started in the morning continued in the afternoon. I think I actually got one or two high value (blue) rides though. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, almost all the dashes were barely worth doing. I even chose to unassign from one. It was a pickup from one of the Speedways in town. For a teeny tip. I got there and the poor clerk was there alone. And people kept coming in. He would stop what he was doing (looking for door dash items) and wait on the customer. And then, surprisingly slowly, would wander back to look for more items. I was listening to the items he was getting and they weren’t even on the order I was waiting for. My guess was that it was going to take him at least another 5 or ten minutes before he managed to get both (or more?) orders together and ready for pickup. So I bailed. Yes, my completion rate dropped to 99% but I don’t care. I was not going to waste my time waiting for an order that wasn’t going to even pay me for the time I wasted. Grrr. I spoke with a couple other dashers and they both said that today had been bad. I wonder why. Mondays can be great. But, I may change it up and start dashing on Friday. Still give myself a three day weekend, but shift it from Friday/Saturday/Sunday to Saturday/Sunday/Monday. We shall see how I feel next Monday.

I am home now. And I am really ready to eat, drink, and be merry.

Happy Monday my brave readers! (Don’t forget to comment to let me know that you are alive…)