2024-06-06 — Trying Gratitude

I bit the bullet and took the skid steer cylinders to Springdale tractor to have them rebuilt. It was nice that they were willing to use the parts that I provided, but as I was leaving, they told me that it might be over $400.

😶

Are you joking me? To remove two nuts and replace a few seals? They’re not even press-on seals. They’re just slide on… take the old ones off with a hook tool and stretch the new ones in place. Done.

The only reason I’m not doing them myself is because I don’t have the right tools–the right socket and a strong enough impact wrench, and I’m trying to get this done relatively quickly.

(sigh)

I left them there because it wasn’t a for sure thing that it was going to be that expensive. I guess I’ll find out shortly. For that price, I can probably buy the tools that I need. I’ll see.

Came home and did some cleanup outside, getting the burn barrel going and full of stuff.

I did a tiny bit of JustAnswer stuff. Then I spent who knows how long trying to clean out the animal hair out of my Volkswagen Beetle. Holy freaking crap. I was shocked, no joke, at how hard it was to get the dog hair out of the carpets and that fuzzy trim stuff. I spent hours and hours with the vacuum and with a dog brush trying to get out the hairs that had woven themselves inside the fabric. What was even crazier was that using the dog brush pulled out massive numbers of hairs that weren’t even visible, so you would use the dog brush to try and get out the hairs that you could see, and you’d end up with three or four times that many hairs coming out of the carpet to vacuum up, but then the carpet would look just the same because it still had a gazillion hair stuck in it That were previously invisible and now were just as visible as the original ones you were trying to take off.

😶

Good freaking gravy.

Whatever kind of dog it was, it had a short white coat. I love me my animals, but holy freaking crap.

It was probably 8:00 p.m. before I got done, and “done” Definitely did not fit my normal standards. It was more of “good enough.”

After that, I spent most of the rest of the evening trying to clean up and sort and thin out and what not. Going through bins of my stuff. I’ve got tons of electronics cables, charge cables and what not from various different pieces of equipment.

I also have three old laptops that have been sitting around only because I needed to, at some point, get the files off of them before disposing of the computers.

No time like the present…

So I sorted through cables, and I transferred the files from those old laptops onto my external drive. I had to get a bit creative because the screen was bad on one of my laptops, but fortunately The screen was set to duplicate on a second monitor, so I was able to get that connected and the files transferred.

🥳

Gonna try and do some gratitude. Don’t know if I’m going to be successful. So much has been going sideways, and I don’t really have any hope to speak of for the future. And without hope, there isn’t any motivation because there’s no sense that anything that I do will actually make any real difference.

I’m just spent. Done.

But here goes…

• I’m grateful that I can at least work on the Volkswagen now knowing that the vehicle is officially mine.
• I’m grateful that I have my dump trailer rented out right now. I’m just crossing my fingers that it doesn’t get abused. I’ve worked so hard to keep it in good condition.
• I’m grateful that my work van hasn’t died on me over the last couple days since I gave the harness a good yank out of the position that it was in. I think it’s probably got a wire that’s exposed that was rubbing on metal somewhere and causing it to die. I’m guessing I probably moved that wire off the metal it was rubbing against. Either way, I’m glad it hasn’t been dying on me.
• I’m grateful that I was able to get all the files off of my laptops. That’s important to me. Lots of pictures.
• I’m grateful to have a wonderful mother
• I’m grateful to have the flexibility to be spending so much time trying to get things squared away for the move.
• I’m grateful that I haven’t had to be in this kind of situation much in my life where I have to be gone by a certain amount of time. I’ve always left wherever by my own choice, I think. Well, other than going to the boys ranch and what not.
• I’m grateful that I’m able to make at least an okay amount of money through JustAnswer, and that I can do that from anywhere.
• I’m grateful to have the freedom and life circumstances to be able to take the time off that I’m going to need to get my heart and head right again.

That’s all for now, folks.

Lift the world.

~ stephen