I got up a little earlier than normal, because someone was supposed to come look at the Volkswagen Beetle, but they never showed.
Really is funny to me how insistent people are about getting contact information and that you’re quick to respond, but then they don’t follow through and never show up.
That’s why I generally don’t like giving out my address until someone is actually going to leave to head my way.
This time I made an exception because they were coming from Tulsa, but… Yet again, another person who gets my phone number and my address and then never shows up. Never even says that they’re not coming anymore.
It’s not even an aberration. It’s just the norm. What has happened to this world? Why are people so inconsiderate? Why are people so selfish? I just don’t understand. Life sucks when you’re selfish.
Heck, what do I know.
After getting up and getting out today and getting going, I set to work painting the van. I don’t really remember anything else I did today.
But I got a coat of paint on ET. Coat one. I’m just going to do two coats and call it good.
It took a really long freaking time to do that coat of paint. First I used the roller for the big areas, and then I used the brush for all the more intricate areas.
I didn’t bother taping anything off. Hey, I don’t think I had very much tape. B, it was super hot outside, so any tape that I would use would just goo up and be a nightmare to get back off.
So it’s messy. It looks pretty crappy, honestly, but it’s just the first coat. Hopefully things will look better with the second coat. 😅
By the time I got the first coat completely done, I was so done with painting that I was just painting right over dirt and what not. 😆
I stopped caring more and more as I found places that had rusted through in the body that I had never noticed before. So if I’m just going to put a coat of paint over a vehicle that’s going to need significant rust work if someone wanted to restore it, what the heck are the odds of someone wanting to restore that?
I’m certainly not.
It already has and will continue to have a fond place in my heart because that’s the van that took my mom and me through 16 states in the United States and even into Canada.
Fond, fun memories.
And it may do it again, If we end up doing the trip, and if it survives. 🙃
If we do the trip again, I’m going to be a lot better prepared this time. Last time we just sort of got in and took off. This time, for some reason, I’m all about being prepared.
Don’t really know what changed, but apparently I’m wanting to be ready for whatever happens.
Maybe it has to do with blowing the coolant hose in the middle of a dirt road mountain pass as the blizzard was rolling in. 🙃
That was a fun day. 😆
But yeah, this time, if we go on the trip, I’m going to bring along a whole boatload of spare parts, ready to slap on to keep us going.
Anyway, I smashed my right index and middle fingers in ET’s driver’s door.
Badly. 😬
I don’t think anything is broken? But the skin was torn back, and blood pooling up underneath at least one of the fingernails.
Lots of pain. Lots and lots of pain.
It wasn’t just once during the day that I found myself just sort of walking around the field doing sort of impromptu breathing exercises to try and bear the pain.
Good gravy. Somebody needs to teach our bodies to provide pain commensurate to the damage. Slamming fingers in a car door shouldn’t hurt that much. 🙃
That actually happened toward the beginning of the paint job, so The rest of the painting was done with throbbing, swollen fingers. 😬
Wasn’t so fun.
I can’t really squeeze or put pressure on the fingers without them hurting quite a bit, and my middle finger on my right hand is about twice the size of My middle finger on my left hand.
My index finger on my right hand is probably half again bigger my index finger on my left hand.
With the pool of blood underneath my middle finger, I figured that a lot of the pain might be from the pressure of the blood pushing up against the nail, so I got a razor blade And made a pilot notch, and then I got probably 1/8 in drill bit and drilled through my fingernail using my hand as the drill so I didn’t accidentally go too fast using an actual drill.
I just spun the drill bit back and forth and back and forth, like I were trying to start a fire, until eventually it broke through the nail and blood came running out.
Quite a bit of blood, actually.
Funny, though, there was an immediate relief of pain, but then just a minute or so later, the pain got way worse, and stayed bad for quite a while. So it was back to breathing exercises as I continued about the day.
Eventually My fingers calmed down and are now still sore and quite swollen and not able to really do much, But at least the pain now is extremely mild, unless I accidentally bang the fingers or try to do something with them. But as long as I hold them still and don’t do anything or just move them very slowly, then I’m good.
So yeah, smashed fingers, first coat of paint on ET. Painting ET was kind of a nightmare. I think it probably already said that. One more coat to go.
Mike came down, and we chatted for a little bit. I showed him what I had been doing by the greenhouse and at the creek, and we talked about a lot of different things. Talked about the future of the property. Talked about things that are going on. Talked about stuff in his life. Talked about me a little bit.
Mike’s a good guy.
My mom swung by just to say hello, and I showed her the shiny white coat of paint on that looks great from 50 ft away. 😅
After my mom and Mike left, I went up to Jim and Steph’s because Steph invited me to come over for food. Jim was working in the temple, But I chatted with everyone there for a while. Good stuff.
Back at the little temporary homestead, started cleaning up branches from cutting down part of the tree yesterday and also roots from cutting away so much dirt around the trees. I threw all that stuff into the burn pile.
It’s getting to be a fairly good sized burn pile.
I’m almost done with what I’m going to do to make the greenhouse area better and easier to take care of.
I’ve done a lot. What’s left is to better store the greenhouse stuff and to smooth out what I dug up taking out that large sycamore stump and the several other stumps I dug up.
Once that’s flat, once the burn pile is burned, and once all the excess dirt is put wherever it’s going to go, I think I’m going to call it good for my efforts at the greenhouse.
From there, it’s going to be up to the family if they want to continue the work I’ve done.
My mom again stopped over to say good night. We chatted for just a little bit, and then she headed out. And right now I’m at Walmart sitting in my car in the parking lot dictating this, about to go inside to buy some things.
If there’s more worth writing about, then I might add a little more once I get home.
…
Oh, I guess there is one thing of note. I have not seen any bugs in my traps since moving all those bins into Rover. That’s got to be some kind of a miracle. 🥳
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 