I can’t say that I’m sad to be leaving August behind. It was a brutally hot August. š„µ I was talking with a customer yesterday who was from Phoenix, where it’s regularly 115Ā° or whatever, and he was like, the heat there has nothing on the heat here.
And though we are not completely out of the heat of the summer (for at least the next 10 days, we are mid 80s to low 90s), still, I’ll take it! š
It’s funny how after such horrendous heat, walking outside when it’s 69Ā° in the morning, it almost feels chilly. š
Anyway, today was sort of a wrap-up day and an errand’s day. I was up late, and so I figured I would sleep in a bit, but I didn’t sleep in all that much. The phone was ringing quite a bit, though I had it on silent so it wouldn’t wake me up.
Anyway, I went up the hill to bring some things to Liz this morning and to pick up my reimbursement check from the family fund for the shingles that I bought. She and I chatted for a little bit.
Then I went to Pea Ridge to return some parts at the AutoZone there. And from there I went to Bentonville to return some parts there.
Since I’ve been having issues with refunds not actually making it back to my card if I take the parts back to different stores than I bought them from, today found me driving all over the local area to several different AutoZone’s in order to refund my purchases from the stores I got the parts from.
So after stopping at the first two stores, I went and did a warranty alternator replacement as well as a belt replacement for that 99 f150 from a few days back that ended up getting a bad alternator out of the box.
Then I went to the Rogers AutoZone to take back the bad alternator. That was AutoZone number three for the day.
Then I went out to East Lowell/ Springdale where I did a pre-purchase inspection for a company in Oregon that wanted to buy a Rivian R1T electric pickup truck. The truck only had like 873 mi on it and was gorgeous. I didn’t drive it. They just wanted me to document all of the cosmetics to make sure there weren’t any scratches or dents or anything like that.
It had some super minor imperfections, that look like they were actually from the factory, and one teeny tiny tear in the center console. Other than that, it was gorgeous, and even a little imperfections pretty much just nitpicks. It was in new enough condition that it probably could have been sold on a dealer’s lot as a brand new vehicle.
Anyway, I was there for a good long time taking pictures and videos and what not in preparation to send them all to the prospective buyer. It would have been a heck of a lot of fun to drive it, but I didn’t want to impose, and that wasn’t part of the requested service.
Oh well. š
From there I drove to the Springdale hub AutoZone and returned more parts, after which I went to the North college autozone in Fayetteville, my 5th AutoZone of the day, to return even more parts.
I could have done one more job, but I was just tired, and I think I’m probably just going to put that one off until I get back or recommend he have someone else do it. There’s no rush. It was supposed to have been done weeks ago, but things got busy for him, and now things are a bit crazy for me with my body the way that it is.
So then I drove from Fayetteville all the way back to the AutoZone in Pea Ridge with the last of the parts that I didn’t need after doing the warranty job.
Six trips to AutoZone, five different stores, two jobs completed, and a trip to the bolt and screw store mixed between the 6 AutoZone visits. The trip to the bolt and screw store yielded a bag full of washers that I will use to shore up the rear suspension on my beater work van, and I found some relatively thin washers that I can use as shims for my excavator. They aren’t as thin as I wish they were, but they are still a great size and at $2.20 each, much better than the $7ish each I was getting for the ones I was buying online.
Tomorrow I’m going to shim up the bucket and arm of my excavator. Hopefully I will be able to get everything nice and solid and stiff. That will be super cool and help significantly with the presentation when I go to sell it.
Lots and lots of slop makes it sound rickety and old and worn out. So a nice tight fit with the bucket and arm pins, bushings, and shims, will be fabulous.
Once all the shims are on, with everything tight, I will go to the work of getting rid of the rust and repainting the machine. That should help it command top dollar, and that will be nice, especially with my income stream having gone down to pretty much zero. š
Speaking of income streams going down to pretty much zero, I didn’t realize that the online company that I had sent in an application to work for as an online mechanic had sent a confirmation email after I chose a time for the interview. So they canceled my interview today because apparently registering for a time wasn’t enough. As soon as I registered for a time, they sent the email, and I was supposed to then once again confirm the phone interview.
Go figure.
So I rescheduled the phone interview for the 5th. Crappy, as I was hoping to have been hired on by then and been able to start working online, but whatever.
After going to the Pea Ridge AutoZone for my second time of the day to return parts, I went across the street to the Walmart neighborhood market, where I picked up some groceries before heading home.
Since then, I’ve eating dinner and just really been vegging, honestly. Oh! I’ve been watching a little bit of football. š I got the free trial of YouTube TV in order to watch the Utah Florida college football game.
I’m not really watching watching it. I’m more multitasking with the football game on one screen, reruns of Ally McBeal that remind me of junior high on another screen, and my phone in my hand.
Gosh, what would people from 200 years ago think of such a spectacle!? š Not only am I multitasking my entertainment, I’m being productive while multitasking my entertainment. š
What a world. š
I’m probably going to eat a second dinner here shortly, and continue with my online errands while multitasking my entertainment for the rest of the evening, until my eyes grow tired and my body goes limp for the night.
At least until I wake up because I have to pee. š
Goodnight, all.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 