My Current Obsession

For some reason, I think obsessions are better than addictions. I am currently obsessed with pepitas! EC gave me a few to nibble one day when we stopped at a farm store/stand and I liked them so much, I hunted them down at the grocery store. I think I have mentioned them a few times. Luckily, someone else at Wegman’s likes them so they are usually in stock. I hadn’t tried the maple ones before tonight and they were also very very very good. I will do my best not to eat all of them in one night.

Obsessed

I like to think I am a smart person. One thing that totally eludes me, though, is electricity. I mean, I have a vague idea of what it is. But I have no idea what any of the myriad measurements mean. I picked up a little from working in the theatre with lighting and sound equipment. And a little more from playing with computers and such. But…I need a course, I think. Maybe that would help. Why? Because I want to understand electricity better for solar power for the house, even in a small way. And because I drive an electric car. Knowledge is electricity. Er, power.

It was a two dash day. The first dash was pretty good – not a lot of driving and very good money. Woo hoo. I had tried to do the dash “by time” instead of “by offer” but I was told that it wasn’t available. Maybe Door Dash only allows so many people to dash using “by time.” On the second dash I tried again to dash “by time” and was allowed. I am not sure I liked it. I only had five dashes, but I averaged $11 a dash. But those dashes took me almost three hours. And a lot of miles. I will go back to by offer tomorrow morning I think.

At the lunch break, I got a bunch accomplished. Nothing too earth shattering but lots more little steps. Always a good thing. I think I will try, a third time, to take the Driver Education class. Sigh. Really not looking forward to it. The last one was throbbingly boring.

I still have some pot stickers in the freezer in the top of the refrigerator. I might get something else frozen, like egg rolls or something, and then I can make an easy Chinese dinner. Put some rice in the rice cooker, heat the other things up and voila! I decided that a jar of pasta sauce was past its prime. Admittedly it was a huge jar of sauce. I might try vodka sauce again if I can find a smaller container of it.

That being said, I thawed some meatballs from the deep freeze, so I will have some alfredo sauce on some pasta with a couple of meatballs and some garlic cheese toast for dinner tonight. I was toying with the idea of frozen veggies too, but I think I will stick with a salad.

Augustus for President: I ran into a fellow dasher who I haven’t seen for a while. Turns out he gave up dashing and is doing Uber passenger driving instead. I keep toying with the idea, but I just don’t really want to have to keep my car that clean. Anyway…I gave him a sticker and used my NFC card to get him to the website. He suggested we have coffee sometime. He is really smart and it would be good to have him to chat with.

When I have my first event, which hopefully will be this month, I will post it on the website and on Facebook and anywhere else I can think of. Press release? Maybe.

Another dasher got an earful from me. He thought the NFC card was cool. And I gave him a couple of stickers. We shall see if anything comes of that.

And at Wegman’s, I gave out a few more stickers.

I thought people liked to take surveys. Why are so few people taking mine? And for those of you who have, yay and thank you!! 💕 For those of you that haven’t, what is stopping you? I really could use the feedback. And each survey takes a very brief amount of time. And taking all the surveys, well, that might take you ten or even fifteen minutes!! Eeek!

Survey Time!

Stickers for Everyone!

Ok, the stickers aren’t for everyone. They are only for people who want them. They came in the mail today, a day before Vista Print promised them. Woo hoo! Since I had some down time, I cut them all off their rolls. Most are in a plastic bag. Some are in my name badge so I can grab them easily. I gave out a few today. Not many. If anyone wants some – either for themselves or to give to others (though they haven’t probably met me…), please let me know. They are smaller than I thought they would be. A little larger than the round “I Voted” stickers one can get when one votes.

Stickers galore

I got up this morning in time to get out and do some dashing before running EC and JC around. But I didn’t dash. I decided to just stay in bed and do Duolingo. My quest partner had done a large amount of the work and I wanted to finish it. And get farther up the Diamond Tournament ladder. I think I did a lot of lessons today. At least ten. Maybe more. I did at least one lesson in each of the 7 things that I am currently practicing in Duolingo. Four languages. Music, Chess and Math. Go me.

I went and picked up JC and EC and we headed to the first appointment. It was a follow up visit with their PA. All things looked good. Unfortunately, no one brought up driving. JC forbid us from asking. And PA Fix didn’t say anything about it. Personally, I think JC shouldn’t be driving, and he knows I think that. His eyes are bad. His reaction time is slow. He has some memory issues. And he gets tired. Not a great set of things to have when maneuvering a 2 ton vehicle around. Whatever. I have offered my services if he decides that driving is too much for him. Though honestly, he isn’t the best judge of that. As many people in the same situation feel, he wants to maintain his independence as defined by driving his own vehicle. Sigh. I just hope that everything goes ok.

Next stop the dentist’s office for EC. JC and I chatted a good bit. Mostly about education. I think a good use of taxpayer dollars and education dollars in general is to hire as many retired people as possible – for as little as possible for their help in classrooms from k-8. After that, high school should have much shorter classes. And lots of big group projects. I mean big – like 40 people big. Projects that can also be broken down into smaller groups. Like building floats. Or creating a play or musical or movie or TV show. Anything that takes a lot of people to do. Get them and their hormones focused on group activities.

We had made a quick stop at Grounded for a drink before heading to the dentist’s office. Later we had lunch at Sweet Acres Creamery. I was a bit shocked that they had no vegetarian options. Well, mac and cheese. And a salad. But out of 30 some menu items, that was it. Both JC and EC chose to have a breakfast sandwich, cheese and egg, without the bacon that normally goes in it. They seemed to enjoy their food. We also shared a plate of french fries. The fries were good, but it seemed like we got the bottom of a bag of fries – lots of teeny bits of fries. Not optimal. All in all, the meal was ok, not great. My cheese steak sandwich was decent but certainly not excellent.

After all of that, we headed to the ATT store so that we could try and move forward with JC’s new to him iPhone. Turns out that there is no standard methodology to creating passwords at the ATT store for people when they need a password and can’t come up with one. That’s the first thing I would do if I were the manager there. Eventually the guy got the ability to change passwords on the phone and we did. Yay. Next step, getting the phone more accessible for JC. And, hopefully, set up the GD home pod. Grrr.

I headed off and made a quick stop at home to drop off food. Then I dashed for a couple of hours. Not an excellent dash, but also not terrible. How about, better than nothing.

Home now, and I am ready for nap. But instead I will eat something and then probably go to sleep really early tonight. Tomorrow I think I will have a two dash day! Woo hoo!

Augustus for President: I got the stickers and cut them up. And handed out a few.

I also realized that I will, at some point, need to read some good point/counterpoint arguments for a lot of issues – abortion, gun rights and Israel are the big three I think. Any others that I am missing? Health care. Education. I think I can really only have ten issues total that I can “focus” on during the campaign. Thoughts are welcome. And there are two more surveys up if anyone would be so kind as to do them. Thank you to those of you who have done any of the surveys!

Surveys!

They Are Already Here…

The robots are coming!

Today at Tim Horton’s a woman thought I was my brother, K. Which isn’t surprising, we do look a bit alike. Despite us having different color and different amounts of hair. She said she would look for me on Facebook. Do people actually do what they say? I think it is, sadly, infrequent. I try to always do what I say. I don’t make a promise unless I am pretty darn sure I can keep it!

It was a two dash day – but it got off to an odd start.

It was ticket day. I was almost the last person called. I have no idea why. When I was called, the DA originally didn’t want to give me a reduced ticket. Maybe the judge, who looked really familiar, gave him a high sign or something, I don’t know. He changed his mind. I pled not guilty and have to do a video training online. I hope it isn’t the one I did before. Anyway, the instructions were really unclear. And then we were handed a piece of paper that confused me further. As I was leaving, a woman that I had spoken with before asked me for help. I tried, we asked the lawyer in the room and she gave us the information on what to look for online to find the test. Turns out she, the woman who asked for help, was a gastroenterologist from Puerto Rico who had been here ten years. If I figure out what we have to do, I will try to find her and tell her. It is really confusing. I saw a couple of people who looked familiar. Including the guy who runs the Gelato place.

Lake City Hobby closed! That sucks! Not that I shopped there, but I liked knowing that such a cool place was here in Geneva.

Anyway, as I was saying, when I so rudely interupted myself, it was a two dash day. The first dash was kinda slow. And I didn’t get started at a time I normally do, so I was all discombobulated. The second dash began at 3 and I decided to quit early Mainly because I had already made a lot of money – well, a lot of door dashing. At least in my limited experience. Only 6 dashes though. And not that much travel! Woo hoo!

Tonight is pool night. I will heat up some leftovers and maybe have a salad and then head off to play an hour or so of pool.

Augustus for President: I broke one of my badge holders. I knew it was coming. I kept getting it caught on my seatbelt. I have added more tape, but put it the car for emergencies. I also changed it a bit – I took away the QR code and added a picture of me. I think if other people chose to wear these badges, they can replace the picture of me with a picture of them – and their name. Anyone game? Anyone? Surveys? Surveys?

Bed Spread! :)

Yay for Thursdays that are Fridays for me! I really am glad that I decided to just work four days a week dashing. If I liked the job more, it wouldn’t be work. But I don’t, so it is. So four days a week is plenty.

It was a two dash day.

The first dash was almost ideal. Only one long drive and that was for NAPA, which has started paying a little less it seems. But it was still ok. Other than that, not a lot of driving. And almost all of my dashes were high value. Which I actually prefer to high paying ones.

My lunch bed-spread! (Thank you DM)

At lunch time, I ate in my bedroom. It was a little too cool for my comfort on the side porch. I really need to get a heater in there if I am going to spend more time there this fall. Or even in the winter. Anyway, I had quit early, so I felt like I had forever at lunch time. I got my reminders taken care of and a few other odds and ends. And had time for a half hour nap! Woo hoo!

The second dash was the complete opposite of the first. And would have been terrible except that one of the last people I delivered to offered an insane tip. I have delivered to them before and I think they did the same thing previous times. I had to pick up from Burger King and I think they messed up one of the orders, not, I think, the well tipping person’s. Other than that, I had three rides with 0 tip. And one that was super severely underpaid. That leaves two other trips that were ok. Sigh. It is dash sessions like that one that really make me look forward to when I no longer have to dash at all. May that day soon be upon us!

I am home now, but will be heading to Trivia soon. I haven’t trivialized in a while it feels like.

Augustus for President: A person who I had asked to do my surveys sent me a text asking me for my vote for her for some make-up contest. She did look really good. I voted for her and then asked her to do the two surveys. Which she did! Woo hoo! I also offered another person the NFC card but she declined. I was not upset. I am realizing that I just have to introduce myself to everyone I meet in hopes that my name percolates out there. At the Burger King, a woman I spoke with before recognized me and told her co worker that I was running for president and that he should vote for me. He looked unimpressed. And maybe even uninterested at all. People are funny.

Foggy and good day

Until I had a trunk that opened with a click and closed with a button push (or a click) I didn’t know how much I loved that feature! Yes, I have used it on other people’s vehicles, but it isn’t the same thing as when it is on my own vehicle! Yay technology!

One of the McDonald’s managers here in Geneva was excited to see me today. She told me she had something to give me. She rushed away and came back with…a dasher bag. Apparently Door Dash had given this McDonald’s a few dasher bags that they could give out to Dashers that they think highly of. How sweet! Now, if only she can stop calling me August instead of Augustus… Still, it was a very nice gesture.

Foggy Morning View of the Lake!

My first dash went from lackluster to very good in a flash. My last offer was a huge one. And the dash before that almost doubled in amount I was being paid from when I picked up the order to after I had delivered it. I think door dash has stopped adding a plus sign after dashes that the orderer has already added a larger than double the mileage tip to. (No, they haven’t – I guess I just didn’t notice them…) Which is fine with me. Up until those two dashes, I was thinking I would have trouble making the minimum that I like to make during a shift. Phew! It might be a good dashing week!

My second dash was decent. I quit a little early as I had made my minimum and had an errand to run.

EC’s family got her a medic alert device. And it was a good one! I had brought it home to set it up – as my experience with them in the past had led me to believe that they can be complicated to get ready. This one wasn’t. It didn’t have to connect to a phone line. Or to the internet. Or anything. My guess is that it is a teeny phone-like device. A teeny phone that only dials one number – the emergency response monitoring center. It is, pretty much, idiot proof. So it took me only a few minutes to get it set up. I left it to charge when I went out for my second dash.

After I finished dashing, I picked up the device and passed the whole thing to DW – who doesn’t like to read instructions. Sigh. I hope he gets it figured out. It really isn’t that complicated.

I am home now. Duolingo is done for the day – my quest partner seems to be pulling his weight, which is good. We have to do a combined 75 lessons! The blog post is almost done. Then it will be dinner time! I will be having the last of my chicken riggies. So excited! Tomorrow night will be the rest of my ribs and mac and cheese. And then on Friday, I will be making little pizzas and some chicken wings! Drooling.

The weekend’s activities are unclear at this point. After I take SM to the Rochester Airport in the morning, I may do some shopping up there. Maybe go to guitar Center and House of Guitars and look at sound equipment. If either place has used equipment that I can get for a discount, I may buy some – I need a mixing board, four wireless mics, a powered speaker and maybe some cables and a couple of DI boxes.

When I get home on Saturday, it looks like both of my helpers might be available. That would be nifty.

There was a tentative plan put out there to attend a concert by Steve Winwood (Low Spark of High Heeled Boys) at Turning Stone, but I don’t know if that is happening. If it isn’t, maybe I will make chocolate lava cakes. Yes, food makes me happy.

Augustus for President: As I mentioned above, I am thinking about AV equipment for the first year of touring. And yes, I do love my tech and gadgets!

Oh, and I guess I am thinking that I will start events here in Geneva to see what happens. Gotta start somewhere. After I have all the baking stuff up and working. So I can accept donations!

I think I am going to write another survey about what it means to be an American and what it means to be a Patriot. And what it means to be an American Patriot. I will post here when it is up and available as I am sure you are all eager to answer more surveys. Hahahahaha.

I looked it up and I guess yard signs might be a good idea. Personally, I think they are wasteful. But if I can get them sourced through an American Company, the expense might be worth it.

Please take the surveys! (No matter your nationality)

Take Surveys

Not as Good as Deep Fried Poppers

They look ok, but they aren’t thrilling

So, I made the poppers last night. I mostly followed the recipe though I didn’t have any panko flakes so I used regular bread crumbs. I am sure they would have been better with the panko. Still, they are tasty enough that I will be able to eat them all, in the fullness of time.

I decided to watch a show on Netflix called The Residence. It is about a murder in the white house! How cool is that? Is it a sign?

Days don’t always go like they are imagined. I had thought that maybe I would be having a date this evening. But no, that didn’t happen. I also thought I might have helpers today. But no, that didn’t happen. I thought I would accomplish some fun things. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, I did some dishes. And that’s about it. I have no reminders that need action right now. And I just don’t really want to do anything. At all. So, that’s what today will be and has been. A “not do anything” day.

Briefly, I toyed with the idea of going out to a bar this evening. Lake Drum was where I was thinking of going. But I just don’t really want to. So, guess what, I am not going to. I will just stay in and watch more of The Residence. And maybe another episode of “Bake Off Professionals.”

And yes, if you are wondering, I am feeling a little depressed today. Let down I guess. This too shall pass.

I have done my Duolingo and will post this exciting and uplifting blog. Then it will be dinner time – leftovers from Kindred Fare and some poppers. That’s the plan. Then an evening of chilling. So excited.

Augustus for President: One of my friends actually took the time to answer the survey (available on my candidate website) asking what three questions would you ask of a candidate for president. They were thoughtful questions and I will answer them in time. Though he did seem to fall into the same trap that most everyone does. Presidents (except for Drumpf apparently) are not dictators. We, I mean, they, don’t make laws. All they can do is influence the direction of the country. And can sign or veto laws. All the executive orders that Drumpf has done oughtn’t to have been allowed but were because the cowed Congress let them be done. Both the questions and the answers will, eventually, appear on the website. After at least ten people have answered the survey. Only nine more to go…