Um… an 18 gauge needle is HUGE!!! πΆ
The needles I ordered to aspirate my knee came in today, and I looked at the diameter of the needle through the sterile packaging, and my eyes went. π²
Call me a wuss, but it makes me think twice about aspirating my own prepatellar bursitis bubble on top of my knee cap. I’m gonna do it anyway, but… that’s a big needle!
I figured I’d do it myself because… well… my knee doesn’t hurt, so it’s almost certainly not infected. It’s been full of whatever is in there for a good while now, and I figured, I can pay a couple hundred dollars and lose a couple hours of work time having a doctor be the one to jab the needle in my swollen knee cap, or I can do it for… the cost of the needle π (I bought 20 18 gauge syringes with needles for like… $15 or something).
Like I said, I’m still gonna do it. It’s just… that’s a big needle. π¬ Yes, I know it’s they use a bigger needle for giving blood. (I think they use a 16 gauge for that?) But I can’t give blood since I have heart issues, so I’ve never had them honkers jabbed in my arm. (Do they numb you up first, or just dig right in?) Anyway, I’ll probably do it Saturday night, so I can have my day off to recover, so it’s easier to keep clean while it heals.
Let’s see… the day… The summer sun rises super early, and being the light sleeper that I am, I wake up around 6:30 with the bright light even if I don’t get to bed until 1:30 ish (like last night π). Accordingly, when 6:30 ish rolled around this morning, there I was awake from the light. Like yesterday, I tried to doze a bit more, since I hadn’t gotten much sleep. Fortunately, I was able to doze a decent bit, finally getting up about 8:30 or 9 I think.
Ummm… chatted with Mr. Omniscient for a bit, studied a little bit, ate breakfast, and then out to work. I only did three cars today, but guess what?!?! Other big stuff happened today that was really cool!
But we’ll get to that.
Patience.
The first car was a brake job, front pads and rotors on a 2010 Malibu. He’d driven until the grind had begun. Though it was the first job, it was a little later in the morning, and it was a hot one today. 90+ degrees with 90% humidity. π¬ Which means, if you’re a Carman, the sweat drips off you like a faucet (which might be good for detoxing the body?)
After that job, I picked up some parts from the Honda Dealer for a Civic, and put in an AC compressor bracket (using my new digital torque wrench for the first time? π).
Oh! I guess there was a third car (but I only charged her like $20, so it wasn’t really anything.) That one was in the AutoZone parking lot, and while i was in the lovely air-conditioned store, I had a lovely little miracle happen (not really a miracle, but something I’ve been needing/wanting for a long long long long long time happened.
Y’all know I’ve been looking for an accountant, right? Well, for the last couple of weeks or so, I’ve had the thought recur many times to text brother Wall to see if he had a recommendation for an accountant. His wife has a small business. They’re super honest people (at least that’s the impression I get), and so I thought “they’ll probably have a good, honest accountant.”
I kept forgetting to ask, but today I finally remembered this morning, and I sent a text to Barry (brother Wall). Not too long later, he sent a reply, and then he got the info for his wife’s accountant and sent it to me. I called her, chatted with her about the mess I have with my taxes, and she didn’t bat an eyelash, said she’d help me get it all squared away, already knew exactly how shed tackle it, and she’s like half the cost of the other guy who I felt was dishonest, and… and and and!
I’m excited!
Oh, and she lives in Utah, but she knows Arkansas taxes because she’s been doing it for the Walls, so… I’m golden. And funny enough, she lives just six blocks away from my friend Brittani.
Small world. π
So… I’m on my way! At least another step, that is! It doesn’t really help me with the mountains of bookkeeping stuff that I still have to fight through to even get the information to her, but it does at least get me going with a person who I hope/believe will be honest and will help me get this all sorted out.
Wa-freakin’-hoo! π₯³
So… that happened. π And right about the same time, my friend who wants to rent my skid steer and mini excavator next week for a job he’s got decided he wanted to rent it this week, too, so… yeehaw!!! I might have myself a budding rental business. π₯³ It’ll be a little tricky to get it all going tomorrow, as I’m not really prepared, but we’ll do our best. I was planning on next week and feeling a little pinched to get even that done, but hey, we’ll make it work tomorrow.
Somehow.
The fire extinguishers showed up two days early. So that’s something. π
What else… oh, right… after the quick $20 diagnostic at AutoZone, I drove up to Bella Vista and helped a guy with a motorhome who thought he’d put a gallon of coolant in his engine. But when I got there, there was no evidence whatsoever that there was any coolant in the oil, so… I drained it anyway because he was positive he’d put coolant in there, but I couldn’t find any. Maybe it burned off some how. I’m not sure. But I couldn’t find any in the oil.
It was good that I was there anyway, as I found that he had a cracked coolant expansion tank, so I noticed that, which was why he was overheating in the first place (coolant leaking out at that location), so I’ll get that figured out for him tomorrow.
After that, I went to Wally World (Wal-Mart) and bought 4 super-heavy-duty ratchet straps for tying the heavy equipment down to the trailer. I went home and bolted my trailer license plate to the trailer. I put a shim on the bucket for the mini excavator, and I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to load that all up safely and get it over to Carl’s place. It’s certainly going to be interesting.
We’ll see how it goes.
#1. I’m so grateful to have the accountant stuff in the works.
#2. I’m so grateful for that little prompting to reach out to the Walls about an accountant.
#3. I’m grateful that I was able to stay hydrated today in the nasty hot, humid, nasty nastiness.
#4. I’m grateful that I finally remembered to get my credit card swiper/chip reader stuff into my van.
#5. I’m grateful I was able to get the van home before dark again. my adapter cables for the headlights come in tomorrow–supposedly. It’ll be nice to have functioning headlights. π
#6. I’m grateful that my rental business could really do what I’m hoping it can do. If I could keep three pieces of heavy equipment rented out at a time, that would basically give me what I’m making right now as a mechanic but with a lot less headache.
#7. I’m grateful that while I was at Walmart, I remembered to buy a new pillow.
#8. I’m grateful that Walmart had the super-heavy-duty ratchet strap tie downs.
#9. I’m grateful to be making strides in different areas of life right now.
Daily Accountability:
The Positive
- 17 days. Grateful. Slow progress, but progress. My last relapse feels like forever ago, but it’s only 17 days. Perspective.
- I’m making an effort to keep putting first things first, even if it hasn’t gone as well as I’d have liked.
- I’ve been doing pretty well with not using my phone for things I ought not while driving.
- Sports has melted back into the “whatever” category. I’m sure I could rile myself up a bit if I thought about it, but I’m back to not caring, and that’s so nice!
The Needs Improvement
- ‘Tis 12:11 π¬
Good night, my lovelies! π
Lift the World.
~ stephen
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Lift the World 
Super progress, Stephen!