2021-07-28 — Dog Days X2

I was hopeful today wasn’t gonna be as wet (sweaty) as yesterday. The air was drier to start the day, and though it was hot, since the humidity wasn’t too bad, I was fine, honestly. But… somewhere around… maybe 3 o’clock? it started to get bad. And I started leaving body prints on the pavement and rubbing the top layers of skin off my face as a result of the constant wiping of the dripping sweat off.

Yeah…

Drip, drip, drip, even worse than yesterday. It was so hot. No joke, I think I lost like 7 pounds today just in water weight. The sweat just poured off. Even after dark, it was awful. Even with the sun down, I was still a faucet as I struggled with the job I was working on.

(I’m not complaining, by the way, just expressing the circumstance for better understanding. 🙂

Anyway, the day…

Got started late. Don’t remember why. I was nervous this morning because a whole bunch of files that were important to me that a friend had shared with me on Google Drive were just… missing from the folder they were were in. Couple that with not seeing an update from my friend in longer than I expected, and I wondered what was going on. Hoping everything is ok.

So… late start, partly because of the above, I think. I decided to try to drown my nervousness by burying myself in work today, so I wouldn’t have time to worry; and to a decent degree, that worked. I was so slammed that there wasn’t too much time to let my mind go nuts.

So that was something.

First job was an ’05 Nissan XTerra that died while driving. Just a month ago or so he’d had the same issue, and I replaced the Crank sensor, and he was good. Exact same symptom this time, but it turned out to be the right cam sensor this time, so I put in a cam sensor and called that one done.

Second job was a 2006 Honda Accord, finishing that brake job from yesterday. I was a bit frustrated with the customer because, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, he wanted to bargain, but I’d already given him the price, and when I finished the job, he tried to bargain again.

Nope. First, I don’t bargain. Second, you’ve already agreed to a price, you don’t bargain.

Third job was installing a tow hitch on a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It turned out to be a good bit more intense than I expected. I actually needed to trim the rear bumper and grind off the exhaust beauty covers in places to get it all to fit on, but I got it done, cooking in my own sweat (that’s when the heat really began hitting, and the job I was working on was the perfect angle to catch the hottest part of the sun.

I completely forgot to put my canopy up. I only just now remembered. 🙃

That certainly would have helped. 🙃

Fourth job, they wanted me to replace the battery, and I did, but when we started it, the charging from the altnerator was 0, and then I looked over, and there was no belt on the engine, and I realized that the belt tensioner had seized up and actually snapped off the bolt that holds the assembly to the bock.

Yikes. 😕

Really crappy for them. They might just get rid of the car. That bolt is in an awkward place and will need to be drilled out. Gonna be expensive, I would guess. More than I’m comfortable doing. No more rabbit-hole jobs for me. No thanks. Have plenty of regular, decent, relatively simple jobs to dig myself a hole and jump in, thank you very much.

😊

Fifth car was a girl who called because she saw smoke coming from the front of her car. I went over there, and her radiator had exploded.

Boom!!!

Part of the radiator was actually peeled back and wedged against the radiator support or AC condenser (I don’t remember which).

That job, done mostly after dark, was a killer. I was a runny faucet, even with the sun down. It was nutty. Super nutty. But I learned a much better way to do the job, so if I have that one again, I’ll be golden next time.

That was the end of the road for the day. Went home about 11. M wonderful mother made me eggs on toast to try to help me come back from be a million miles over.

I didn’t eat anything pretty much all day. I was running on pure will power. Hungry, soggy, dehydrated, and just gutting it out sweating like a pig.

I’m grateful for showers. I’m clean now. And dry. I don’t feel like a sponge that’s so wet it’s leaking down it’s sides. That’s how I felt earlier. So sweaty that even my fingers started to get a little pruny, I think.

Nutty.

Right now, I’m trying to get myself back to good, trying to avoid a major crash. By all rights, I should have a major crash from what happened today, especially after days and days of these kinds of days.

Cross your fingers I and my migraine pill can head off the worst of it. I feel the headache there. I know I’m still dehydrated, but I do need to pee, so… that’s good. 🙃

I’m breaking all sorts of work and money records right now. That’s… something. I’m grateful. Hopefully, that’ll help me get better situated for the nonprofit that’s shortly to be on the horizon. Once I get a name I’m satisfied with, I’m gonna have my accountant or some other company get it going for me.

Fun fun fun.

Time for bed. Loves and hugs to all.

Lift the world.

~ stephen