2020-09-16 — One Day at a Time

Hey, folks. It’s been a tough day today, but it’s ended quite positively. As far as the tough part is concerned, I got to bed at a fairly reasonable hour, but then I woke up in the middle of the night and relapsed in my pornography and masturbation addiction. That was pretty discouraging… but I’m picking myself up, and I’m moving forward, and I’m going to figure it out–someday.

Being up and doing that also took away from my sleep time, obviously, and I ended up sleeping in instead of getting up at 5:30 per my goal. So… rough start to the day.

Fortunately, I did get myself on track enough to at least get my dailies done this morning. That was good. Among those dailies, is seven days in a row of meditating. That’s progress. I got some weeding done in the yard and the garden, did my servicize this morning, making some progress with re-landscaping the corner by the garden and dog area.

I made some progress cleaning up and organizing the laundry room. I got my clothes put away and my bed made-ish. I made an appointment with an arm specialist for next Tuesday to have my ulnar nerve issues looked at.

I had a conversation with my friend Cory this morning about one of the major issues I’m struggling with in my personal life. I’d detail it all here for the sake of transparency, which is what I want, but it involves another person and a very sensitive situation. So… for the time being, at least, it remains private.

My tech David made it through two jobs today before his work truck broke down again. He was quite a ways a way and didn’t have anyone to help him, so I drove down and got him taken care of. Took a few hours, and I ended up working a full day, having to cover the load of what had been promised but not done during the time his truck was down.

Hopefully, it’ll stay running for a while this time. It’s an old ’86 F600. It’s a big truck.

Anyway, I realized on my way to the first job after I got David squared away that I’d left so fast I’d left some of my most important tools at home, tools I needed for that first job after rescuing David.

Fortunately, I found ways to diagnose electrical issues without having my regular electrical testing equipment at my disposal. I got the first gentleman taken care of, and then I was able to get the next car at least figured out, if not fixed. I got it half done, but it’ll need a battery as well, so I’ll have to come back another day to do that.

What else… I got home after dark today, having to work longer.

Oh, I almost bought another car this morning. The guy who won the bid only paid $50 more than my highest bid. Super cheap price. $3k for a 2014 VW Jetta with 90k miles and not much damage at all, but… I stopped bidding at $2950, and he got it for $3000. Oh well. Life goes on. 😊

Let’s see… back to the day’s timeline… after getting home. I was really struggling with the same thing that I had talked to Cory about earlier in the day. I called, but it went to voicemail, and so I just sent him a text that read: I need you.

I was grateful he replied pretty quickly, and then he called me 5 or so minutes later, and we talked for quite a while, which is why it’s 11:41 p.m. right now instead of a lot earlier than that.

Important talk, though. He helped talk me down from the proverbial ledge that I was on, and I’m feeling a lot better at the moment. So… that’s been the day.

#1. I’m grateful for Cory and his helping me through my challenges tonight.

#2. I’m grateful that I was able to get both cars I worked on today figured out.

#3. I’m grateful for David’s help in helping me diagnose the second car I was working on. It was doing something I’d never seen before in my whole life, and he managed to point me in the direction that helped solve at least half the problems, and I was able to solve the other half on my own. For the one half, David helped me figure out that the new battery we’d put in not that long ago had dead short in it, and it was causing the car to completely wig out. It was… nutty. Every light in the car was pulsing rapidly, and the engine was dying.

#4. I’m grateful for my big lead-acid jump box. Today was a day that made me realize, as I’d been contemplating moving away from that style of jump box that I really do need it. The little ones are great to jump start a car, but yikes, they’re a pain in the petoot if you need to do testing because they auto cut off the voltage… which means the car no longer has voltage, which means… dead car. Anyway, so having left my big jump box at home today, it was nice to realize that I really do need to those big standard ones.

#5. I’m grateful, still, for the cooler weather. So nice.

Well, folks, it’s time for bed. I’m tired. It’s going to be another short night, but it’s Thursday tomorrow, and I’m taking the day off of working on cars themselves.

Good night, peeps. Loves and hugs.

Lift the World.

~ stephen