2021-02-03 — Mental Health Saw

Well… I sort of rebelled today. I have a mountain of cars that need to be looked at, and there was a ton to do today… but I was burned out a… lot, so I put on my new chainsaw gloves and chopped a bunch of trees down. 😁

Mental health break. 🙃

I finished roughing in the return trail on the west side of the ravine, and so now I’m gonna turn my attention to making them sort of park-type trails with wood liners and wood-chipped walking paths. So… that’s the next step… cut a bunch of 6-10 foot log sections to line the trail with. Once it’s lined, then I’ll start hauling wood chips everywhere.

Chainsaw stopped working, though. Not sure what the deal is. I think it’s happened once before. I think it was something simple?

Oh! Engine brake! It’s not broken!!! I forgot about the engine brake! Just popped into my head, went out, and voila, still works. Good ol’ Milwaukee power tools.

Wahoo! I still have a working chainsaw. 😎

Anyway, so… mental health break. That was good. I also took it slow even though it was crazy today. I only did two jobs (had one long-time customer that makes autonomous vehicles ask me to take a part of one of their vehicles so they could get it on their other one that had been in an accident and bent a control arm. They tried to do it themselves, but didn’t… do so well. They actually want to have some sort of contract with me that I’m their service guy. I’m flattered, but I’m not sure how that would work. They’d probably want to be on my drop-everything-and-get-them-taken-care-of list. That’s a hard thing to do in my business because… well… just about everyone needs me now. Anyway, did that for them, and then I drove way south to West Fork to diagnose and repair a Ford Super Duty diesel in an elementary school parking lot (turned out to be a starter). He also needs a water pump, I think). Then I did some grocery shopping, I also hired a helper who’s gonna start on Monday who will go with me, man the phones, order parts, learn to do quotes, interface with customers, and run the spreadsheet. Oh, and since he’ll be a passenger, he’ll text while I drive. 😎. I told him it could all be temporary because I’m actively looking to move on, either by finding good mechanics and someone to run the business or by just… moving on and letting it go. Anyway, it’ll be nice to have someone to do all the busy stuff, though, and I’ll be teaching him to be a mechanic along the way as well. Then he can make more money, and I can train him, and… yeah.

I also accidentally-ish bought an ’07 BMW 3 series from the auction, but then they had no record of me being the winner, so… that was probably actually a good thing. Was a really nice car, though. 🙃

I am seriously thinking about buying this though: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2911473629073868/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined

It’s my mom’s dream car, and it’s one I’ve always liked as well, and… gosh, when you can get a dream car for near beater car prices… yeah. And these cars… with it fixed, they can go for a pretty penny. I might even hold onto it as an investment. Fun and worth a bit. Some of these are selling for 7500-10,000+, I think. And the body on this one looks pristine. Anyway, might take a little trip to Texas and come back with a little rolling silver piece of metal. 😁

Fun. 🙂

#1. I’m grateful that we are so lucky to have the resources that means that when I come home from the grocery store with frozen fruits and vegetables, and I open the full, upright, deep freezer, that it’s so stuffed that it’s hard to find places to put the food. We. Are. Lucky. What a privilege to never have to worry about where I’m going to get food for myself or my family. That’s one thing on my “what one man can do” list of things to change the world. We’re gonna eliminate hunger. We’ll find a way. We will. We will. Through education, technology, service, etc., we’ll do it. That’s one of the reasons I want to create the simplified English spelling, phonetic. It would make it so much easier to level the playing field for people to find jobs, increase competition, etc, compete for better jobs online, etc.

#2. I’m grateful to have made some great progress on the trails today. Today was a big check mark–the last of the second-round trails roughed in. Yay!!!

#3. I’m grateful to be feeling much better today, choosing to get some “recreation” in, choosing to take it slow today.

#4. I’m grateful to be a bright spot for people in their troubles, helping them out of jams.

#5. I’m grateful for online classifieds that make finding things so much easier!

Thought of the Day: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” ~ Steve Jobs

Lift the World.

~ stephen