No Octopuses, Only Gnomes

Maybe the universe is giving me a sign that I ought to stop doing door dash. Maybe that’s why my toes have been wonky for a while. And now my lower back pain is persisting way longer than it ought to. But what would I do to replace the income I make from Door Dash? Without getting a JOB! I really don’t see myself working for someone else ever again. Any thoughts, as usual, are welcome.

Speaking of dashing – here is the first dash of the day report. Weird! I only had 5 dashes. I drove over 100 miles for those dashes! I did not make over $100 in earnings. But I did ok. Still, it was really weird. I had two NAPA to Penn Yan rides. The guy down in Penn Yan said that they do around 50 door dash offers a day! I find that hard to believe, but hey, anything is possible.

For lunch I had the second half of my grilled cheese sandwich. Am I hallucinating or are grilled cheese sandwiches better the second day?

A Gnome’s Garden

My second dash was almost good. It was percolating along well until the algorithm does what the algorithm does. It gives me an offer that is just good enough that I would have a hard time turning it down, though it would be my last dash because the distance is so great. I mean, if I had turned it down, I might have made a bit more money. Maybe even a considerable amount more than the offer. But, I would get a decline, lowering my acceptance rate to 98%. And results aren’t guaranteed – I might have gotten four bad rides and not even made as much as the long underpaid ride was. I took it. The car thought it was in one place, but the Dasher App thought it was in another place. In those circumstances, I generally follow the App – as it does its best to drop the pin in the right place. (In this case it was spot on and the car was 10 miles off!)

On my way through town, I stopped at Phoenix Flavor to get some food. I opted for stewed chicken with ride, beans and potatoes. The owner also tossed a couple of pieces of beef into the container. It does pay to be nice to people. (Speaking of which, Subway has a new sauce they are trying out – spicy (they call it hot) honey – the owner gave me a taste – pretty darn spicy!)

I am home now. I will do some Duolingo – probably an Italian lesson and maybe a couple of Chess lessons – and then eat dinner. I plan to try to finish The Notebook tonight – I only have 60 pages left. And who knows what else the evening will hold.

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…)

Gnomes, not Trolls

We had a whole lot of weird weather yesterday. When I first headed out it wasn’t sure what it was doing. After a little time, it seemed like it had decided to sleet. Then it straight up hailed for a while. Then lots of rain. And eventually, a little bit of sun. Weird.

I think someone may have keyed my car. A teeny bit. Not a whole hearted attempt. But since I haven’t paid for sentry mode, I didn’t catch them in the act. Sigh.

My first dash today was surprisingly ok. Not great, and not terrible. I got an offer to Waterloo early on and I took it. Not nearly enough money, but it was early. Then I stayed over there for a few dashes. I got a decently paying one that I thought was going to take me further East. But I was mistaken – it took me west, back to Geneva! Woo hoo! Then a couple of bad offers, including one I chose to decline – $6.75 back to Waterloo or maybe even Seneca Falls. No thank you. I got a decent one after that. And then a bad one to finish up the dash. I wonder if bad tippers ever wonder why they don’t get their food…

Looks like my taxes are going to be high. I still contend that anyone making less than $50k a year ought to not have to pay income taxes. A large enough proportion of our dollars go to taxes anyway as we need to spend most of our income and most things are taxed. Sigh and poo.

What is the difference between trolls and gnomes?

I waited and waited for a call from GR about the next grant application but it never came. Life is that way sometimes. So I headed out to run an errand or two. I dropped off the latest book I finished at the library, what I thought was the last of the war sex fairy series. But it wasn’t. There is at least one more. There are more people who need to be redeemed or self-loved or something. Then off to SMs house to put the mail inside and water the plants. Actually, all the plants were ok for now. I will check again Monday and will probably need to add more water then.

My last dash of the week was not optimal at all. Lots of long rides. And not nearly enough money. A couple of crappy rides lumped with good rides. And for my last ride, I asked for anything but a ride to Waterloo. So what did I get? Two rides to Waterloo that barely added up to one good ride to waterloo. Grrrrr.

But I got home, made some food and started my GLO meeting. Suddenly the electricity went a little crazy. Off and on. Then off. Then on. Then off and on. My smart lights were all freaking out! I lost my internet connection and it didn’t come back quickly, so I used that as a good reason not to return to the GLO meeting. I think the internet finally got ok at about 7:45.

It’s the weekend. I have plans. Sort of. I have a quick pick up tomorrow. My helper might come on Saturday to start working on the back stairs. Sunday, I am going to a concert in the afternoon and then dinner that night! Look at me, do I have a life or what?

I’ve started the last book of the Broken Earth series. I still have the next Emily Wilde book. And I am only 5 away from Dungeon Crawler Carl. Life is good.

Except for taxes. They suck.