Dis Boom Bah

Seen While Dashing

It has been a heck of a weird day imho. I have felt a little off all day. Not in a depressed sort of way, just like everything was a teeny bit skewed. Those (these) days happen. Luckily, not all that often.

It was a two dash day. My first dash was not typical. I didn’t drive very much and did ok fiscally. A little less $$ than I would have liked to have made, but I wanted to quit on time, so I could charge enough that I didn’t need to charge after getting my tires rotated. So maybe I quit a smidge early.

Lunch was more of my cuban sandwich from Sunday. That was a huge sandwich I guess. I still didn’t finish it so I have more for tomorrow’s lunch. Woo hoo?

During my lunch time, I did some of the things that I had reminded myself to do while dashing. That is one of the great things about dashing, I do a good bit of ruminating and I ask Siri to make me reminders so I don’t forget things. One of those things was to add one of my accounts to my bank’s pay system. Another was to tell GR what was what.

GR had sent out a note saying that tonight would be the next Board Meeting. More like a party-let at her home. In celebration of getting the recent show completed in a satisfactory manor. I really didn’t feel like attending, either in person or through Zoom. For two reasons. First, I didn’t think I actually did all that much, especially since I purposefully did not put myself forward to do anything outside of my teeny purview (light tech stuff for the website and for the sales app). And second, because I was going to resign. So, when I replied to her email, I decided to bite the bullet, so to speak, and tell her I was resigning. And not coming to the meeting. Not five minutes after I sent the message she called. We had a nice chat. She seemed a little surprised that I was running for President (fairly typical reaction). She also asked me to stay available until they could find somebody who could do what I do – or the end of September. Whichever happens along second, I guess. I told her I would be happy to help when I could, but that I didn’t want to have the commitment to help and to be able to say, no. She understood.

Before heading out on my second dash, I went to Mavis Tire to have my tires rotated. And I had also picked up something that had punctured one of my tires (right rear). Sigh. They were very kind and did the rotation and repaired the tire – for free! Can’t really be upset about that. I headed out to dash a little late (around 4:10 instead of 3:30ish).

My second dash was lackluster. I had a lot of underpaid rides. I mean, a lot. One order I delivered, the guy complained that I hadn’t given him his whole order. I told him that I had delivered what the store had given me. And if he didn’t believe me to call the store and ask them. And to call Door Dash. I think he gave me a 2 or a 3 rating. Not that I really care because I know I delivered what I was given. And GD doordash has changed their app again. Now we have to verify every order. Yet one more time wasting step on our end. Grrr. I really am looking forward to the day that I don’t have to Dash anymore. The company really pisses me off. Oh, and I saw at least three new to me dashers out and about today. Not happy about that either.

While I was toodling around, I noticed that the car was telling me that the right rear tire was still under inflated. Despite me having just inflated it at Byrne Dairy. So I went back to Byrne Dairy again and tried to bring it up to snuff. And it still is showing up as being under inflated. Despite the pump saying that the tire was at the correct pressure already. Grrr. I have restarted the computer. Maybe that will fix the glitch. If not, I will call Tesla service or go there on Friday when I take EC up for her appointment.

Now I am home and getting ready to eat the last of my leftover pizza for dinner. How exciting is that? (Not very – though I still like the pizza.)

Augustus for President: I held the door of McDonald’s open for a couple who, if I had to guess, were in their late 80s (or older). They seemed surprised that I would hold the door that long – they were just out of their car and were zipping across the parking lot at about 1 inch per hour – but I thought that holding the door was the least I could do for them. The man stopped, read my badge, shook my hand, looked me in the eye and said “You have our vote!” Only 71 million to go…

Do Tread On Me

My major accomplishment for the day was the addition of these treads onto my front stairs. And I have started to add similar ones to another set of outside steps. So excited! The top one I added when I discovered that a squirrel was squeezing under the door to get to the recycling box on the front porch. Someone has a tendency to not rinse their recycling items before putting them into a recycling bin. And the squirrels liked to eat those tidbits. I think that the strip has deterred them.

The main reason for putting these on was the middle step which had been taking a lot of dripping damage from the roof above. I think this will stop that damage from getting worse. Unless the dripping wears through the tread! Eeek! I put the rest of the treads on for symmetry and for peace of mind. I know that sometimes during the winter months, these steps can get treacherous for one reason or another. And I am hoping that this will stop that from happening. Luckily, we won’t find out if this works for months!

Stair treads!

My other task I accomplished today was getting a list to GR that she had requested. TBH, I had forgotten how I generated the list last year, so there was a bit of a re-learning curve. It came back to me though and I managed to make the list in less than 5 minutes. Once I refigured out how to do it! Yay monkey memory.

Other than that, I haven’t done a lot. I have listened to a lot of This Inevitable Ruin (DCC Book 7). I am listening to it on my bedroom television. That one is a Fire Smart TV from Amazon, so there is an Audible App. Of the smart TVs I know, the Fire TV is the only one with a standalone audible app. Neither the Roku TV or the Apple TV have standalone Audible apps.

I can also listen to the book on my phone with my airpods. I did that for a while yesterday while waiting for my tires to be installed. I was a little freaked out (in a good way) because of the sound cancelling feature of the airpods. It really did make the whole experience way better!

Speaking of tire installation – my last set of tires lasted a little over a year. Turns out I had “performance” tires. Not sure what that means, but one of the guys mentioned that those sorts of tires get lower mileage. I think I was right at about 35k miles traveled. Which isn’t too bad. The ones I got this time are rated at 40k. Which doesn’t really matter as I hope to be rid of the car (and tires) by the end of 2025.

The tire place, Mavis, couldn’t find their “lift pucks.” Good thing I had mine! Which I will keep when I get rid of the car. I am also keeping the charging cable and different assorted plugs that I have purchased for it. I don’t think that will change the trade in value of the car.

Speaking of which, does anyone want to buy the car from me? It is a 2019 Tesla Model 3 – white with white interior. I will have a bunch of miles on it by the time I let it go. You can buy them in the wild for between $15k and $20k. Mine will be on the low end of that. Lower for family and friends! Let me know if you are interested. And if you want the pucks and the charging cable, we can certainly talk about that…

I didn’t get to the help wanted sign. I will do that tomorrow.

Next week, I have at least three rides to pick up from the ROC airport I think. Yes. One each on Monday through Wednesday. That’s the most I think I have ever had in a week. Everyone thinks I charge too little. And they are probably right. But I will continue on in my less than strident capitalistic ways. This also means that I won’t be doing as much dashing in a week as I normally do. Yay! I can’t wait until I am not dashing at all!! Come on third bathroom!

I am still a little sad about the solar trailer not working out. Sigh. If I can get a variance, I will see about putting solar in my yard. But since my side yard is considered a “front” yard, DL may be correct that a variance won’t be given. It doesn’t hurt to ask, though. I will do that next week, I hope.

And suddenly we are reaching the end game of the day. It will soon be time to do Duolingo, finish this blog post and eat something for dinner. Huzzuh!

Dinner is going to be the last of the leftover pasta, with some protein. And a side salad. At least that is the current plan.

No Solar At This Point After All

So much for my easy peasy solar dream. Sigh. So many answers were only a phone call away. Which I made today because I was looking for another electrician to do the work of tying the solar trailer into the house and grid. I ended up with Dan Lewis who works out of Penn Yan. Here is what he told me.

He built the trailer. 10 or so years ago. And it was good for what it was. A mobile power station. But, as it stands today, it is not ready to be attached to the grid. It would need new inverters. And the batteries, he thought, were nearing their end of life. So, that isn’t good. He also said that it would be better to build something new from scratch. He suggested solar on the roof (which would mean I would have to have a new roof) since getting a variance to put solar in my yard probably wouldn’t be approved. That isn’t going to stop me from exploring it. I mean, I do live in a mixed use zone – so maybe the variance wouldn’t be impossible to get. He suggested 18 solar panels and 15kw of storage. At first he didn’t include the storage. Bottom line ball park without the batteries was $13k. With the batteries, around $20k. Sigh. Maybe solar isn’t in my future after all.

This means that I am not going to buy the solar trailer since it is useless to me. That sucks.

It has been quite a busy day for me, despite getting up and out late. First off, picked AD up and took him to Staples so he could work on a project there. Then I went to Mavis Tires and set up an appointment to get a new set of four tires. Tires are expensive. And I am getting the least expensive ones I can. One, because I hate spending money on tires. Two, because I plan on trading in this car for a new one come the Winter. I am thinking November or December.

Back home, I finally got the spring reattached on the outer porch door. I don’t remember why it wasn’t still installed. But maybe that will help my boarder to shut the door going forward. Reattaching it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

After my apple turnover for lunch, I returned my cans and headed to Lowes to get new bulbs for the kitchen fixture. Pricey little things at $13 a piece. I got them back home and installed them and voila! The fixture still didn’t work. So I am pretty sure that the fixture is dead. And I might as well replace it. I saw two and have asked JM to let me know which one he thinks I ought to go with.

I also wandered out into the yard and spread the little container of wildflower seeds around. I doubt anything will come from that. But if something does, yay!

Oh, books. I am reading one of the books that SM passed along to me. I am not impressed. It is a book of short stories that are, frankly, not all that great. Little slice of life stories. Good enough in their way, but nothing really impressive. So far.

And, I came up with a way to “read” the seventh book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I joined Audible for free for three months. And I got a credit to buy one book from them. And guess which one I bought? That’s right, book Seven, This Inevitable Ruin. So excited. I have already started listening to it! It isn’t as fast as reading it would be, but it is enjoyable. Especially because the narrator is doing voices for all the characters!

Flers

And there we have it. Quite a day. I am ready for some food. I am going to go to Ling Ling and get a container of food from the buffet. And then have an eggroll from home. And rice. So excited!

Strapping In

I am feeling a little blue – but this too shall pass. (It pretty much has already) Probably a combination of the heat and the pork I had last night. The poor pig must have been scared and unhappy to be butchered. Anyway, it isn’t anything major, just a dip in mood. We all have them to one degree or another, I believe.

I got up after having had an intense dream about which I recall almost nothing at this point. Gone are the days when I wrote down my dreams as best I could upon awakening. My boarder was still home, so I played on my phone for an hour – Duolingo took up a good portion of that. Speaking of which, I really hate the Spanish construction that results in things like Digame. Grrr. All the irregulars irk me. Anyway, I eventually got out of bed, did a light yoga and headed out relatively early. I wanted to hit Mavis Tire before I started dashing.

They set me up an appointment at 2 pm to look at my tire that was making irregular (though the sounds themselves repeat regularly) sounds.

Then I started dashing. It was not a great dash by any stretch of the imagination. I had almost exclusively Dunkin orders and they were not only slammed but also had a lot of inexperienced people working. One of my orders (no tip) wasted almost 45 minutes of my time. Actually more I think. And door dash didn’t offer me the unassign option. Grrr.

One nice thing about the dash, though, was that I chatted with LG who I hadn’t seen for a while. And a young girl who said she had studied some Chinese. That was pleasant.

So, the dash was so bad, that I decided to quit early.

At home, I had some lunch. And I opened my package from Amazon. I ordered some things that were supposed to help sheets stay on the bed. They didn’t work for me as I wanted to lock down a quilt and not just a sheet. Oh well. I also got 4 Help Wanted signs.

I plan to put one of the signs up in my yard in hopes that some student or somebody sees it and inquires. I need to find my heavy duty stapler. I am pretty sure I have one, but finding it will be a challenge.

After lunch, I headed to Staples to return the sheet locks. Hmm, maybe I just need a larger quilt – the one I have I got at the flea market and it is just barely big enough for the day bed. Maybe if I got a king sized one it would tuck in and stay.

After doing my return (I hope – my account hasn’t updated to show it was returned), I went to Harbor Freight in search of a solution. I came away with some packing straps. I have attached two to the bed at either end. We shall see if that does the trick. Somehow I don’t think it will…

Bed straps are a thing, right?

Off to Mavis Tire, where they discovered there was indeed something in the front left tire. But…they couldn’t repair the hole if they took the nail or whatever out. Firstly, it was too near the sidewall. Secondly, the tread was too worn down such that their guidelines wouldn’t allow them to fix it either. Woo hoo! Tires suck! So, since I am coming up on my next 5000 mile tire rotation, I will just get new tires. I hope they have a deal going on. (They don’t.)

My second dash was a decent one for a change. I actually made more money than miles I drove! And I quit early! Not too many long drives, which made me happy. One drive that was long was about half paid for, but it all evened out in the end.

Looks like tomorrow is going to be a crazy day! I may or may not dash in the morning depending on what happens with the pickups I may be doing. More on this tomorrow.

And other exciting tidbits. For now, I have pretty much caught up. I am going to eat some food and then see what the evening holds!