2020-05-12 — Oops?

Buenas noches, amigos y amigas, familiares y extranjeros! Bienvenidos al resumen de mi día! 😁

Soooooo… oops?

I accidentally bought another car from the auction today. 🙃

I know, I know… my friend Miguel had the same reaction: “Accidentally? You pressed the button, didn’t you?”

Yeah yeah… Somehow I’ve done this twice in the last week. I only buy Run/Drive cars from the auction, but apparently, I’ve somehow gone blind for a split second and missed that they’re not run/drive cars?

Weird.

I could have sworn it was a run and drive.

Anyway, so I accidentally bought this: https://www.copart.com/lot/37280030/?eid=email_G2US_mktg_transactional_BT_US_1022_Buyer_Offer_Submitted_Rec

After fees and whatnot, it’ll be about $788, which is fine, but it doesn’t run. Given that it’s a 2008 Civic, it’s probably got a bad starter, but who knows? It’s got a lot of miles. Could be anything. It’ll need, at the very minimum, a fender, door (the door is fine, but it’s the wrong color, and I’d really like to have the right color door on there), and whatever is needed to get it to start and run well (battery, starter, engine, …one of my kidneys…😬).

Anyway, that little mistake is… well… I’d say a learning experience, but I keep making the same dumb mistake, so… if someone can help me learn, that’d be appreciated. 🙃 Who knows. Maybe I’ll luck out, and it won’t be a mistake. Maybe I’ll even make a buck or five on it. Fair condition is about $2500, so… cross your fingers and toes and eyes, and whatever else you can for me. If it’s just a starter, a door, and a fender, I’ll be fine. Otherwise…

Let’s see. Today was a bit of a wash. The car I linked to yesterday sold just a few minutes ago. I should have bought it. Ugh. Such a great deal on a car I’ve loved. Oh well.

Mostly, the day was a wash because it rained all day (and it was cold), and David doesn’t have a canopy right now, so… Yeah… he couldn’t do anything today. His wife also had surgery today, so even though he couldn’t be with her, it’s probably better for him to have the day off anyway.

I’m gonna lend him my canopy tomorrow, and I’ve ordered another one that should be coming in the mail in the next week to 10 days or so. Hopefully sooner rather than later. It’s a killer to lose business because of the weather. The canopy will pay for itself in 3 1/2 hours, so… yeah… no brainer.

I was happy with myself today, for a number of reasons, which balanced out the dumb car purchase decision (although, I’m not mad with that anyway. I actually laughed at myself when I realized the mistake of accidentally buying a car–again).

Anyway, I’ve mentioned that I haven’t felt like much of a mechanic the last few days, striking out on a few cars (not being able to figure out what was wrong with them). Today went better. One of the ones I didn’t figure out the other day, I did today, and I learned a little trick to speed up diagnostics for the future, which was nice.

It was the second car that I was happiest about. It was a weird situation where they’d replaced the battery, but the starter was just clicking like it had low voltage, but the battery was totally fine. That could be a number of things, but here’s where it got weird. I could manually jump the starter and start the car by jumping the terminals on the starter relay, but when trying to start with a key, it wouldn’t start. Just clicked loudly and rapidly, like it wasn’t getting enough voltage.

Long story short, I did some research and learned that a lot of those Hyundai Santa Fe’s had ground issues with the body ground cables, and I checked one, and low and behold, the bolt was stripped out, and the cable wasn’t as tight as it should be against the body, so I tapped a new thread, put in a bolt, washers and a nut, and it’s starting wonderfully now. So… more learning and more experience, and I’m feeling a bit better today about my mechanicking. 😊

What else… went and visited Miguel at his shop today, and then left to head to a job in Fayetteville (pretty much an hour away from Miguel’s shop). The job canceled as I was leaving Bella Vista to head south.

I wasn’t sad.

I didn’t want to drive for basically two hours for a single diagnostic job.

With the schedule mostly cleared by that point, I decided to head home. I spent some time cleaning up a bit, and then I got sidetracked playing pyro with the weeds on the driveway.

Thomas came home during the extravaganza, so he joined in the pyro fun. 😎

Other than that, I got some things cleaned up a bit, got ready for some errands I need to run tomorrow, and… well… here I am. It’s 11:45. If I’m gonna exercise, I’ll need to get up at 6 because I’m leaving at 6:30 to head out and pick up the car in Prairie Grove. So… I need to go to bed ASAP. And you know what that means.

#1. I’m grateful that I was able to get my first MasterCard rewards amount redeemed. I’d been hesitating redeeming it because it’s a “personal” card, and I’d been using it as my business card, and I didn’t know if they cared or if that would void my rewards, but I wanted to know for sure before I cashed them in (over $800 worth of rewards from the last 5 or 6 months worth of business purchases). So, finally, after hemming and hawing for a while, I both called and emailed customer service, communicating with two different reps, and they both said it was totally fine. I’d read through the terms and conditions of the card as well and hadn’t found anything that prohibited it. I just knew that they didn’t offer that good of a cash back rewards program on their actual business credit cards, so I wanted to double check. I’m happy the rewards are legitimate. I’ve got the phone call recorded in case it ever comes up again (I learned a handful of years ago to record important phone calls, as that whole issue I had years ago that I’ve written about in my autobiographical sketches where some lies were spread about me that significantly impacted my life with a person I care about, that whole incident was supposedly based off a phone conversation I’d had with the person who spread the misinformation (whether accidentally or purposefully, I don’t know, but what they spread wasn’t true, so the damage was the same whether it was intentional or unintentional deception). At the time, I had connections with someone who worked for one of the government agencies that “doesn’t exist,” and he told me he could get the government’s recorded call of that conversation if I wanted it. I asked him if it was legal, and it was a bit of a gray area, as I recall, so I chose not to. Later, when I realized the damage that was being done by the lies that were spread, I went back to see if I could get the recorded conversation to clear my name, but my friend said that by that time, because of Edward Snowden, the govt. didn’t have it anymore!

Bad for me, but go Snowden!

Oh wow… can you say squirrel!!!

Wow.

So… I’m grateful to be able to feel good about keeping my rewards and earning more! 😎

#2. I’m grateful that I can borrow Miguel’s truck and trailer to bring my new “project” home.

#3. I’m grateful that I felt less stressed today even on a day during which I could have felt super stressed.

#4. I’m grateful for each of you who have taken an interest in my life and are commenting and reading. I don’t expect you to read, especially given that I post every day. I know I don’t have time right now to read others’ blogs, so I don’t expect you to read mine, but it’s fun that you do when you do. I know I write it regularly, but I hope these entries are meaningful and inspiring to you.

#5. I’m grateful that my ulnar nerves seem to be steadily calming down from being a mess a week ago. I’ve been trying to take it easier with them and to watch and see what aggravates them, and I think it’s helping. I still probably need to get myself medically repaired before it gets too much worse or becomes permanent, but I’m grateful for small improvements.

Well… Oh, I’m still going strong!

37, 45, 36, 10, 4

There have been some less than wholesome pictures on news sites and whatnot, so there have been some little triggers, but I’m going strong with everything right now (except exercise. With that one, I’m white knuckling it. It’ll be hard tomorrow. Exercising early before running out the door to get that car.

Good night, my lovelies.

Lift the World.

~ stephen