2020-09-02 — Overheats and Insights

Hiya, all you wonderful people, you. 🙂

Happy Wednesday!

I think I slept decently well last night on my side-of-the-road car hotel. No one bothered me, and I probably got somewhere around 4-5 hours of sleep, I think, probably closer to 5.

I got up around 5:30 and got to work trying to get my tech scheduled for the day. Gratefully, I was blessed to be able to get him a full day after forgetting to do *any* scheduling last night.

I’m tired.

I’m sitting on the bed in the spare bedroom of my dad and Cindy’s house in Nevada, and I’m so ready to crash. I’m wiped out. I’m taking the day off tomorrow, so I’ll sleep in, though. I’ll still be up for a little while longer because I’ve got an important phone call coming in.

Anyway, I had a great gospel discussion with my friend Brittani this morning. We’ve been talking discussing a speech by Neil A. Maxwell called Free to Choose. It’s been one of my favorites for years. My brain’s not working so well right now, or I might be and to share more about what we talked about, but it was a wonderful conversation. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think I tried to do a meditation. I listened to some scriptures. I listened to part of a talk. I tried to ponder. And… I forgot to turn my GPS on, so I accidentally went the wrong way and went probably 30-45 minutes out of my way. 🙃

That didn’t seem to be a problem, and I took it in stride and didn’t care, until I had a tire blow out on my 30 miles from the nearest town (Baker, CA, gateway to Death Valley, so… Yeah… It was hot.)

Well, shouldn’t say until, I was still fine. It just donned on my that I probably would have had the tire blow out pretty much right at the town in ended up limping to at 55 mph on a donut in 100+ degree weather.

Still, I was in good spirits and only slightly concerned. I got to Baker without further incident, and thankfully, there was a tire shop, and they had a tire of the right size. It was a little pricey for my taste, but I didn’t bat an eyelash, being reminded of something Jeffrey R. Holland said in a speech many many years ago: “Spend cheerfully on things that matter, time as well as money.”

Today I did that, which was good. 🙂

I grabbed a foot long Italian Classic sub from Subway, got a few gallons of gas ( was $4 a gallon there, so I only bought a few gallons, filling up fully in Vegas where it was $2.xx).

After that, I stopped into visit my dad and Cindy, chatting, having dinner with them, and chatting some more.

I’m super exhausted. It’s 9:18, and I’m beyond fading fast. I’ve faded 🙂.

There’s a lesson I’ve been learning that’s made a massive impact on my life the last few days or so, but I’m too tired to write it here tonight. I’ll write it later, I think. Perhaps you can remind me if I forget to share it. 🙂

Well… So I’m lying down in bed writing this now, perhaps just seconds away from sleep if I let myself, so I’m gonna say,

#1. I am grateful that I still haven’t had any major issues with the car. I had the one blowout that was caused I think because the tire was low on air, and with the super hot temperatures and increased friction from the road due to increased surface area touching the road, I think it’s super overheated the tire and finally blew. had the air compressor that I had purchased recently for flat tires worked better than it did, I probably wouldn’t have had the tire blow because I would have checked my tire pressure. I also had the car start to overheat at one point on a long ascent. the AC stopped blowing cold, and the car started to overheat, so I had the crank the heater up when it was over 100° outside. Fun fun fun 🙂. Fortunately, I only had to do that for maybe 20 minutes, and fortunately, I was in a good mood through all of it, not bothered at all. The only time I got annoyed was when traveling in the slow lane I had a Mercedes riding my butt, probably only 10 or 15 ft behind my car. Maybe less even.

#2. I’m grateful to have had a good visit today with my dad and cindy. I haven’t seen them in about 4 and 1/2 years, not since I left there to go visit my mom in Arkansas and ended up never leaving.

#3. I’m grateful I was able to make the visit to them a surprise, thanks to my sister Heather who had the address. I thought I remembered where they lived, but I couldn’t find their house and realized I was on the wrong side of the highway after my sister gave me the address. Thanks, Heather!

#4. I’m grateful to my sisters for being such supportive people in my life. It’s greatly appreciated, the comments that I get on my blog as well as the phone calls and whatnot.

#5. I am grateful for the increased determination that I have and the increased commitment that I have to be the absolute best person I can be and to dedicate my life to that so that I can be a greater blessing to other people.

To be better…

I want to be a little bit better at keeping my commitments–all of them.

Loves and hugs you beautiful people, you.

Lift the World.

~ Stephen