2021-07-30 — A Bit Rough

Almost 2:30 a.m.

Can I get away with saying it’s early? 🙃

It’s been a long day. Very long.

Started a bit rough… Driving away from the house on DeGraff, the garbage truck was coming the other way, and… it’s a very narrow dirt road. I drove about a foot into the weeds on my side to hopefully have room for both of us to pass, but… the weeds that weren’t that tall and could easily be driven through were actually really tall because… they were… coming out of a deep ditch. 😬

Oops.

Yeah, I ended up half in the ditch. Tried to get out but couldn’t. I called my mom, and she tried to pull me out with my truck, but it was a no go. Then she called our neighbor who, gratefully, was home, and who, gratefully, was able to come with his big tractor and pull me out of the ditch.

For a little bit, even while being pulled out, I though I might roll over in the ditch, but, gratefully, no. He pulled me out, and I rushed off to my first job.

The first job was an ’08 Santa Fe that needed an AC condenser after the driver hit a deer. It was an easy one to replace, but I realized I didn’t have all I needed. That, in itself, was super annoying, especially given the ditch incident. But if that weren’t enough, the little bag that had two studs in it that I needed for the job, and they just… disappeared.

It was insane. I literally spent like an hour looking for them. Never moved them, and they just vanished. I…

Was so frustrated.

Fortunately, the next job was a battery. Easy peasy, 2015 Camry). That helped the sting of the morning struggles. Third job was a diagnostic, and that went smoothly (lots of issues, 99 Chevy lumina). Next one was a Ford Fusion that needed a battery as well. He was told it needed an alternator and a battery, but no, just a battery.

After that, a 2014-ish Sentra that needed a new washer fluid bottle installed.

The last three cars were all… partials, no payments today. I went to a ’93 TownCar, and I realized it needed a lot more than I had. Then on to the Jeep Wrangler to do the fuel injector. I got a decent amount done, probably half the job, and it took a lot longer than hoped to even get that far, but I made good progress.

Had a long conversation with the owner (an extremely mature 18-year-old kid). We talked life, religion, politics, all sorts of stuff. Pretty cool. I shared with him my ideas about god, and he seemed to grasp what I was talking about, seemed to be open to it.

Stimulating conversation.

I stopped about halfway through the job there and headed to the last job–pads, rotors, and a caliper in a 2006 Honda Civic. I got almost all the way done with that one, but the caliper was bad out of the box, so I didn’t even install it (the seal was all jacked up, so I didn’t dare install it)

So… sometime after midnight, I called it quits, and now it’s after 3, and I need to be up fairly shortly to go back and get the Civic job done, so he can go to work.

Time for bed. Lots more to write, but it’s so late, and I’m super tired.

Lift the world.

~ stephen