Hiya, folks! 😊
I can’t remember for sure… wait… it’s Monday. Yes, Monday. Can you tell I’m not quite with it? 🙃
I’m super tired. I was up late, and then I got up early to be ready for the Monday-morning trade bonanza (Monday morning is the busiest trade time of the week for stocks). I was all set to make my trade. I was watching what was going on, and I was ready. I went to buy the shares I was going to buy, but I got a message saying that if I proceeded, I’d be flagged for violation because my funds haven’t fully settled yet.
Hmmm… I made the transfer sometime last week. It was supposed to go through today, but I guess not first thing in the morning. 😕 And… having just checked it again, it’s still not fully ready to go. It says I have no “settled cash.”
Lovely. 😕
So no stock purchasing today. It’s kind of sad because I’d researched a particular stock I was interested in, and I was pretty confident it would like go up today, and just as I predicted, it did. It wasn’t a huge gain, just 3%, but that’s in the range of what I’m looking for. I’m not trying to find magical stock explosions. I’m not trying to buy at the absolute lowest and sell at the absolute highest: I’m just looking to buy a little lower than where history says it will get back to and then sell when it gets back–whether that’s in a few minutes, hours, or days.
And, had my funds settled, I’d have been successful on my first attempt. 🙂 So it was disappointing that I couldn’t actually succeed, but it was encouraging that my first planned effort using my particular strategy, would have been a success. I guess once my cash settles, we’ll see if I can re-create my teenage magic.
So anyway, that happened. In other news, I didn’t really work much today. It was a stormy, rainy, relatively cold day outside. I did one battery job in the morning, a person who needed two batteries for a diesel pickup truck. I drove to two different parts suppliers to get the batteries, as their quantity on hand was incorrect at the first store, and then I drove out to the job site to put the batteries in. The job went smoothly, and after all was done, and I was ready to go, the person paid me and added a $40ish dollar tip. Really generous of him, as it was already a pricey visit, but nothing out of the ordinary.
But then something happened that just blew my mind.
I wish I could give you the specifics, as it would be a fun story to tell, but I can’t for his security, so I’ll just give vagaries. Anyway, we got to talking after I finished up, talking about what the person used to do before retiring, at that point, the person wanted to show me one of the products that came as a result of a significant hobby.
It was super cool. The person showed me a whole bunch of things the hobby had produced, and I was just blown away. Some of what was shown me was–insanely amazing.
Then, totally nonchalantly, the person handed me one of the little productions, and said, “here, have one.”
I was blown away.
Totally blown away–smiling from ear to ear with a smile I couldn’t wipe off my face. It was amazing.
Sorry, that’s all vague and whatnot. Maybe one day I can share it, but for the person’s sake, I’m not going to. Probably a dumb little story without the specifics, but it was super cool to me–super cool.
After that, I went to Home Depot and warranty a couple of Husky ratcheting wrenches that were busted. Then I went to Harbor Freight and warranty swapped a socket extension and bought a ratchet to replace the one I lost last week. Then I went to Lowe’s and bought a garden rake, as ours bit the dust. From there I headed to the Bentonville AutoZone, where I returned a few battery cores, picked up some parts, and headed home, just as a downpour was starting.
I was happy for the downpour. I was tired, and it wasn’t a very nice day to be out working on cars, so it was nice to have a legitimate excuse to go home. I hadn’t promised anyone I’d be there today, so it was an easy decision to just head home.
Once home, I installed a new water pump on my mom’s Durango. I noticed that there were mice and squirrels starting to make it their home. There was a nest in a door, and there were acorns all up inside the hood insulation. There were even acorns in the air intake box. The cooling system was open, with mouse turds around, and I was a little worried that mice and gone inside the cooling system (i.e. the radiator and/or hoses and/or engine, etc.). Fortunately, after starting up the Durango to bleed the system and check for issues, it didn’t overheat, so I’m guessing there are no dead vermin inside to clog stuff up. I hope not, at least. 🙃
After that, I finished changing out the oil in the lawnmower, also changing the fuel filter, so it’s ready to go now. The spring rain has begun, and the lawn is greenifying quickly. The trees haven’t started yet. They’re still very much their winter brown and bare, but that’ll change soon.
It’s storming as we speak, a pretty rockin’ thunderstorm, so that’ll help the greenification along.
What else… took the garbage up, did a little more laundry (my mom running my auto clothes for me a second time while I was out working [my work clothes always go through twice, as they’re greasy and nasty, and I don’t want any residue left in the washer for anyone coming after me]).
And now it’s 8:45, and the storm just started pounding super hard.
I love it. 😊 Brings a smile.
Ok, I’m heading to bed. I think I’m going to have another day off tomorrow due to storm. I’m looking forward to it. I mean, I’ll still be working, but I’m churning through the to-do list, making good progress.
Happy Monday evening to you.
Love you all.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 