Happy 11:11, folks! 😊 Tis the day, and I also saw 11:11 on my phone this morning while driving south to Springdale.
😊
I’m getting started writing a lot later than I’d like because I got home a lot later than I’d like. I think it was maybe a quarter to 8 or 8 when I got home.
I don’t really have an explanation for why I’m so late today. I did five cars, four that were paying, and none took that long, so… I’m not sure why I was out for 9 hours? 😶
🤷♂️
Got me.
It’s been something like four or five days in a row now that I’m waking up before my alarm–at 4 a.m. 😶 Didn’t think that would be a common occurrence, but here we are. Today, i think it was 3:58. Some days it’s been like 3:30. I guess that’s what I was hoping for, to get to a point where I didn’t need an alarm clock to get up at my time. Of course, I was hoping that because I was so excited about the day, and I’m not quite there yet, though I am much better. I still have taxes and cars to fix on the schedule, neither of which are easy to love right now, but I’m actually making really good progress with all of that. So that’s… awesome.
Though not excited this morning, I did pop right out of bed without hesitation, and I dropped to do 10 quick pushups. I did regular pushups for the first time in years, i think (I’ve done knuckle pushups for many years because of my screwed up wrist, and wouldn’t you know it, wrist is still screwed up. 🙃).
Did morning routine stuff, talked with Thomas for maybe 30 minutes, took the trash up to the dumpster, and headed off to work.
1st job (the non-paying job). It’s a 1989 Ford Crown Victoria, and it’s not what I was thinking. It’s… a lot older and… it wasn’t on a hard surface (actually on softer mud/rock after last night’s storm). I really didn’t want to do the car. I shouldn’t have said yes in the first place, and when I saw the situation of the car, I was kind of glad because then I could say no with a good excuse and not have to tell him that I just didn’t want to do the job. It’s not good to be under a car with jack stands that aren’t on a solid surface, and his driveway was a mix of regular “hard” dirt and rocky dirt. Very unlikely anything bad would happen, but why risk it for a car?
Nope. Not today (admittedly, not wanting to do the job was a large impetus to making a good choice today and for the future. No more getting under a car with jack stands on unstable surfaces).
Unfortunately, he’s still trying to get me to do it on the softer surfaces, offering to move it to a different part of the driveway, and I just… no. So, I’m trying to figure out how to say no again without getting a bad review.
8:35. Need to go to bed. 😬
2nd job was 2011 Kia Soul that had hood and hinge damage from flying up while driving down the road, so I put on a new hood and one new hinge. It’s still not lined up quite right. I’m not sure if the new hood is bent or if the undamaged hinge was actually damaged, or if there’s still other damage that I can’t see by looking at it.
3rd job was a Toyota Prius no start that I couldn’t figure out. All of the normal things I’m familiar with on those cars weren’t the issue, and my scan tool couldn’t connect to the car, so there’s something goofy going on. Might just be a bad key fob, so I told him to go get the other one when he had a chance and to try that one.
Cross your fingers.
The fourth car was a 2003 Chevrolet cavalier that was a crank, no start. When I got there, no oil was reading on the dipstick, so I had to put in about two quarts to even get it to the lowest acceptable mark. Then when I went to start it… 😬.
No bueno. Blown motor. The motor cranked at 90 miles an hour, and I knew that meant no compression, but just to be thorough, I pulled the plugs and started an actual compression test (which proved the 0 compression issue I’ve grown rather good at catching). Poor kid. Not so fun to find out your car is toast.
Last car was a 2013 Lincoln MKS that I thought was a no crank, no start, which I figured, given what he described on the phone, would be a battery or starter. But when I got there, it was a crank no start. Being already 6 p.m., and me wanting to be done because it was late, I wasn’t thrilled that it was a crank, no start, because those can be… really hard to figure out sometimes.
Thankfully…
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful for mechanics who post the fixes the find for a given symptom set. When I pulled up the vehicle info and plugged in the symptoms, most people were saying the issue was with the fuel pump driver module. And knowing it was a Ford product and that their modules tend to bite the dust, that’s where I focused my attention. And gratefully, one of the mechanics had posted step-by-step instructions for testing the module, and boom, that’s what it was.
- I’m grateful that the autoparts store was just three blocks away, so I was able to get what could have been a long job diagnosed and done in probably an hour and 15 minutes. They were happy. I was happy. Happy happy joy joy.
- I’m grateful that the last job (yes, there was still one more after that one) said it was too late and to come back another day. I’m glad they said that, but at the same time, it’s a little uncomfortable because we keep pushing it back, and it’s usually my fault. So… it’s uncomfortable.
- I’m grateful that the fill station has had decent pressure with at least one of their pumps for a good little while now.
- I’m grateful for mom, for her making food every day, for her sanding/de rusting the job box that we’re going to be using for package deliveries.
- I’m grateful that I was able to get a decent amount done with tax stuff. It’s still going so much slower than I think it will, but it’s going.
- I’m grateful to be close to bed time. A half hour late again, but better than before my pivot to a new life.
- I’m grateful to have good relationships with people, to be able to connect, enjoy company with people I work with/for.
- I’m grateful to be able to be there for family and friends during hard times.
- I’m grateful to have gotten a decent amount of my laundry done today. Guess I know what tomorrow’s 5×5, room edition, will be. 🙃
Accountability:
- Bed last night at 8:30: Think it was 9.
- Up at 4: Check
- 5x5s: Check
- Exercise: Weak. Checkish
- Cold shower: Yikes, I think I forgot the shower altogether! 😋
- Meditation: Check.
- Breakfast: Check.
- NP Work: Check.
- Tax Work: Check.
- Lunch: Check.
- Work done by 6: was about 7:15 ish.
- Dinner: Check.
- Only truly healthy foods: Getting there.
- No Wasted Life: Check!!!
- No Distracted Driving: Better today.
- Faced a Fear: Man! I was actually thinking about this during the day today, multiple times. I’m sure I faced one somewhere today, but I don’t think it counts so much because I don’t remember, and I want this to be a deliberate exercise.
- Tamed the tongue: Think I was good today! 😊
Thought of the Day: “Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of—that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Your standards are. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.”
― Ryan Holiday, Ego Is the Enemy
Thanks, folks! Love to you all.
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 