2020-04-16 — Moving Right Along

You know, one of the really nice things about keeping a daily journal is that it helps me identify what on earth I’ve done in my life and when I’ve done it. Last night some time… or maybe it was this morning.

Both! It was both!

Last night to figure out the sobriety stuff and this morning when I was trying to figure out when I’d returned that radiator support (I was emailing customer service because they still haven’t issued my refund). I didn’t remember when I’d returned it, so I found the search widget, added it to my blog, searched for “radiator,” and voila! There it was. 😊

The search widget should be available for y’all to use now as well, should you so desire 😊.

Okay… so… still more early mornings. Days have been starting earlier for me with my tech out on jobs early and me having to order the parts in the morning, so he can pick them up and get going for the day.

Anyway, we both did four jobs each today. He did a leak diagnosis, battery, alternator, and a no start diagnosis, and I did an overheat diagnosis, a fuel control module replacement (on an extremely rusty Ford Escape hybrid… lots of rust dust in the eyes. The strong wind didn’t help either. 🙃), a tool extraction (poor guy tried to back out a spark plug and got his ratchet wedged against the steering column and couldnt get it free. He ended up having me gap and put in all his spark plugs on that side of the motor as well, and finally, I had a big box truck that had the ramp holding slide totally mangled from somebody leaving something on the lift gate and having it bend the holding frame. So, I tried all sorts of things to get it to work and finally got a torch and heated up the metal and used my sledge hammer to beat it back into shape enough to be functional.

Another long day, but it was fine, The rusty car made a 15 minute job take a couple hours, and one of my sockets made a 30-minute job take a couple hours or so. I was fine with the first job because I had the customer there, but the last job… man… I had it about up to here with the wretched thing. Definitely lost my patience on that one. 🙁

It was also another good money day, though, so that was nice. 😊

What else… I reconnected with one of my old friends from Virginia. I messaged her yesterday, and we texted back and forth a bit today. She’s doing really well, and that’s awesome. We met on a dating site back in… 2007 maybe? We didn’t actually meet in person until like 5 years ago, and then we just met for one day, I think. It’s been something 13 years of long-distance phone friendship. 😊 It’s really good to hear that things are going really well for her. She’s been through so much for so many years. I’m glad she’s getting a respite from the struggles.

Got home relatively early… around 8 maybe? Then I talked to my nephew for a good bit about the state of things with the country and Covid-19 and our freedoms and how what’s happening now to them is setting a troubling precedent. I don’t have a lot of answers, but I do wish we would have done this quarantine stuff on a voluntary basis.

Anyway, I’ll leave that topic for another time. I think it’s time for gratitude!

#1. I’m grateful to be a business owner so I can give discounts at my discretion instead of having to ask permission from the boss. I gave discounts on the first two jobs we did today. One that David did and one that I did. The one I did was a young couple that had just lost their jobs and housing because of Covid-19. Nice to be able to do that.

#2. I’m grateful that gas is $1.30 a gallon!!! We’re not that far away from double-digit gas prices, the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was a teenager driving my sister’s 1980 Toyota Corolla. (Shout out to the generous sister figure! 😊)

#3. I’m grateful that I have a search bar on my blog now 😊.

#4. I’m grateful that my GMC Terrain that had a check engine light that I was concerned about turned out to only need the MAF sensor plugged back in. Don’t ask me why I disconnected it, but apparently I did for whatever reason. I’m glad it wasn’t anything major. I’m gonna put that one up on the chopping block this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll get it sold pretty quickly. It’s my most valuable car at this point… probably about $6k. That’ll be nice to add to the bank if I can get it sold soon.

#5. I’m grateful to have plenty of work in uncertain times.

#6. I’m grateful that Covid-19 is pretty tame here in Arkansas. We’re still only at like 1600 cases for the whole state, so it’s been pretty mild here (mostly because we were one of the last states to get hit by it, so we had plenty of time to prepare. I think the staying home measures are working here. It’s quite voluntary here for the most part. We’re one of the few states without a stay-at-home order.

Anyway, it’s only 10:00!!! I can’t believe I’ve finished my journal entry, and it’s 10:00ish!!! I could actually get some sleep tonight!!!

😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

Well, my wonderful peeps. I guess life just keeps movin’ right along.

G’night!

~ s