2020-06-15 — Happy Gratitude Day!! #2

I think it’s time I do another one of these. Here’s the day and my thoughts in bullet thoughts of gratitude:

#1. I’m grateful that I was able to get the people in Missouri helped relatively easily. They had a CV axle stuck in their transmission that they couldn’t get out, and historically, coming into jobs where the customer has already tried to get one out and failed, I’m only successful perhaps 50% of the time, so it’s always a risk, and I’m grateful that today was one of those successes–especially since they were way out of the way in Missouri (they’re a long-time customer).

#2. I’m grateful I was able to finally get my Google Voice set up properly. I have my old 801 number attached to it, the same number I’ve had I think since I came home from my mission. Before I switched over to my new 479 business number, it’s what all my old customers called me on, so I still need it active, as it’s still in use (and some family members still use it, too), so I’m glad I finally got it back going and functional, and that it didn’t give me any troubles at all to get it set up again.

#3. I’m grateful that the jobs I did today were relatively simple. CV axle pull/diagnostic. No start diagnostic (bad battery), and overheat/coolant leak (ruptured coolant hose).

#4. I’m grateful that my tech was able to get the first two jobs on his schedule done. I was a little concerned about both (there was an AC diagnostic and a fuel issue, the former seemed a little odd, and the latter was acting a little weird as well, so I wasn’t super confident that we’d have the diagnoses correct, but he got them both figured out and taken care of.

#5. I’m grateful that I had a backup number today. T-Mobile was down across the country for hours and hours and hours, and I had no idea. I was able to call AutoZone and other people, and I had no idea that no one could call or text me. I didn’t find out until later when I called my tech after the job he was on seemed to be taking forever (The fuel pump job that I knew was going to be a bear), and I found out he’d been trying to get a hold of me for three hours!!! I tried calling one of my sisters and my mother, and it would try to call, and then just hang up. I thought it had something to do with my Google Voice that I’d set up earlier in the day because the outage happened at nearly the same time as I got my Google Voice set up, at least as far as I could tell. So I uninstalled the app, but no dice. I finally called the T-Mobile store, and they told me of the outage, and so I Googled the outage, and it was nationwide. It’s so weird that the network itself was allowing calls, just none to their own customers–yeah… super weird. But I’m glad I had the Google Voice number because I could still at least receive calls on that one (though the vast majority of people call me on my new number instead of that old one). Anyway, I’m grateful to have that backup number so I didn’t lose everything today, just most of it.

#6. I’m grateful for a lighter day. It wasn’t the nicest of circumstances to bring it about, but it was nice to have. Unfortunately, my tech only got a half day of work because of it, which was no good for him, but he’s worked super hard as well, so it’s probably not a bad thing for him either.

#7. I’m grateful that the biggest job that we had today wasn’t lost, that they were relatively kind about our not showing up (David ended up going home after not being able to get in contact with me for three hours and didn’t know what other jobs were on his list because we still haven’t gotten him trained on the scheduler yet). We rescheduled that big job for first thing tomorrow morning. I’m still waiting to hear back from the other one that we were a no show for, as to whether or not he’ll still have us do it.

#8. I’m grateful that because of the outage, I was able to get to Aldi (our local cheap grocery store) before they closed and do some grocery shopping, which I haven’t really been able to do very well because our grocery stores have been closing at 8 because of Covid-19, and I don’t get home until… let’s just say after 8:00.

#9. I’m grateful I remembered to get tortillas! Peanut butter and jelly burritos, here we come!!!

#10. I’m grateful that after a rough spot yesterday, today was much better. I don’t think I’ve cursed at all for two full days now–not even fliers.

#11. I’m grateful that I got the GMC Safari sold today!!! Grand total o’ $350 (which was the price I was asking). One more down. Four-ish to go.

#12. I’m grateful that though we were down for most of the day, one of the top-two, if not the busiest, day of the workweek, we’re still fairly decently filled up for tomorrow. We don’t have much of anything for after tomorrow, but I’ll hope we can get things built up a bit, and at least we’re good for tomorrow. I think there are like…8? cars on the schedule for tomorrow, and likely we’ll have some others come in. Hopefully, we won’t feel it too badly the rest of the week for what happened today.

#13. I’m grateful for IHop! I have really been wanting a restaurant to go to where I could actually sit down and eat. IHop was the only one tonight. We drove around, and they were literally the last restaurant option before I was going to give up, but they were open and taking dine-in customers! Wahoo! Bigger tip for them just for that!

#14. I’m grateful that I was able to have my nephew with me to eat with tonight and catch up with a bit, and talk about the goings on in the world today and whatnot.

#15. I’m grateful that though my body has been on edge since sometime yesterday, that I’m still not over the edge. I’m close… trying to decide what to do about my exercising tonight… don’t want to go over the edge, but don’t want to have the first day of the week be a raincheck exercise day, swapping it out for Saturday. Gonna drink a bit more and hope to get it more under control. I’ve had plenty of food, so it’s gotta be a hydration issue right now.

#16. I’m grateful that I’ve been in a much better place all day today than I was yesterday. Man, my days off can be the toughest of my week. It’s hard not to get down, and yesterday was a killer for me. I’m thinking a bit more clearly today.

#17. I’m grateful to still be going strong, moving forward. I poured blueberry syrup on my pancakes at iHop, only to scrape it off for the sugar thing. My sugar-free sparkling peach water, or whatever it was from the other day (super tasty, by the way) brought me concern, and it didn’t even have sugar in it. It was the “is this junk food” category, and realizing I haven’t even set the actual standards yet for what I’m even doing with this no sugar thing. What about my peanut butter and jelly? My burritos!!! I’ve gotta be careful to not let this turn into an end in and of itself but to keep the spirit of it. The goal is good health, not to make a statement or tally an impressive total. I’ve just historically not been so good at laying off sweets once I let myself go after them. Moderation is a struggle for me in a lot of things, though, as I’ve noticed as I’ve been writing this blog, I’m making progress there, too.

#18. I’m grateful for y’all lovelies. Thanks, again, for reading and posting your thoughts, and encouragement, and advice. Loves and hugs!

Lift the World.

~ stephen