😶
Am I asleep? That would be nice.
It’s… 2:13 a.m. It’s been a long day. I slept in a little bit. Then I spent a couple hours plus helping my hill family do hill family projects. That was good. Glad to have made progress there with the hill clan.
Then it was off to work for about 12 hours (I said yes way more than I should have). Put in about 7 billable hours during those 12 hours, so that was at least a decent ratio. It was a pretty tough day. I’d like to get that number up a bit (the ratio). I’d like to have 80% of my time spent as billable. That’d be nice. I’ll need to work more efficiently than I do. But I’m happy with the day, especially since the last job was emergency after emergency.
First job was a diagnostic. Second job was stripped the forklift starter. That went sideways quickly when I realized the way it had been previously fastened was with studs that were the wrong thread pitch and nuts that were the wrong size, and it was stripped.
That… wasn’t so nice.
You know what is nice, though? I didn’t panic. At all. I was a little concerned, but I didn’t panic. A year or two ago, I would have panicked. Sky is falling, sky is falling. I didn’t. I didn’t panic. I just went, okay, this is what might need to happen, and you know what? I was able to get it figured out enough that the emergency was averted. Yay!
Third job… crammed in… Guy called me from a store parking lot wanting help with an alternator. Book said it was a 3.5-hour job. We figured out a way to do it in about an hour and a half. Well, he’d already done a bit of it, but still. It was really good.
Fourth job… they asked me to replace a belt, but I got there, and the tensioner was bad, so I couldn’t put it on, so we rescheduled for another day.
Fifth job… this was the crazy one. It was another alternator job, but this one was a bit more challenging. And… I made it even more challenging. It was one mini crisis after another. And I didn’t even really get started on the job until about 7 p.m.
Started with me not being able to get the belt off, so I had to cut it off… but I screwed up. I accidentally cut the power steering belt. 😶 And guess what? It wasn’t just any power steering belt. It just so happened to be a stretch belt.
Yeah.
And guess who didn’t have the tool for it?
Yup. Good guess.
Fortunately, YouTube came in handy, and my customer actually was able to find a YouTube video that was really helpful. Small miracle, I was able to get a new stretch belt on.
The next minor crisis, was that when I went to put the alternator stud back in, it started to cross thread… somehow… and I spent probably the next hour trying to get that figured out. Finally, I did.
The next minor crisis is that the belt that wouldn’t come off, well it wouldn’t go back on, either. Something was wrong with the tensioner, but he’s a taxi driver, and the parts stores were closed, and tomorrow’s Sunday, so I wanted to get him going. Took another hour to find a way to fenagle the belt on a broken tensioner so it was at least driveable for the time being. I’ll go back probably on Wednesday to fix that for him.
Nutty.
So many things went sideways, but I finished, and he was grateful, and he gave me a tip, and that was nice. I got a few tips today. I’m grateful.
So… that was that.
In more important, but very sad news, one of my mom’s friends died today–hemorrhaging blood in his lungs until he drowned from it. She was there when he died. Awful scene. Coughing blood again and again.
Perspective.
So many things of so little import that I worry about.
#1. I’m grateful for events that bring great perspective, though I’m sad when they are as awful as those of today with Philip.
#2. I’m grateful that the rain that was supposed to come didn’t rain us out in the parking lot alternator job.
#3. I’m grateful that the parts store had both the needed belts for the alternator job that I cut the belt on.
#4. I’m grateful for the ideas that came to mind for how to get the stripped bolt issue figured out, both at the forklift job and at the Lincoln job.
#5. I’m grateful to have Sunday tomorrow, time to rest. All. Day.
Thought of the Day: “The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important because of how long you live, you are important because of how effective you live.” ~ Myles Munroe
Good night, my wonderfuls. 😊
Loves and hugs.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Daily Accountability Summary:
Morning Routine Weighted Success: 26%
Evening Routine Weighted Success: 54%
Pornography/Sex Addiction Victory: 3
To-Do Top 3 Prioritization: 0%
Free of Texting While Driving: 2
Lift the World 