I did it!
No, I didn’t get to at 5, but I did a really good job at putting first things first today!!!
🥳
I don’t think I even left my van until like 10:00?
I got up late, somewhere around 7:30, I think, but I spent my morning hours focused on the things that were of greatest importance to me instead of allowing myself to go whole hog into the mass of to-do list for the day.
🥳
Heather came over and said hello to me, and I eventually came in, and then we had a wonderful little gospel discussion to start the day.
It was lovely. 🥰
After that and breakfast, I headed out to put the tractor back together the rest of the way. Last night, we had ended with just getting the hydraulic line on, so today I was able to get it all put back together, with no leftover parts 🙃.
It was a hot one today. I think it only reach the high 80s, maybe low 90s, but it was a powerful son today that just cooked.
Please forgive me, Arkansas family, but I’m so glad I’m not in the brutal humidity. I honestly don’t know how I did that for so many years working outside all day everyday and even with vehicles that didn’t have air conditioning. 🤯
Spend some time trying to put some bug screens on my two front windows in Rover but after getting everything pulled apart on one of the windows and getting the screen cut to fit, I realize the screen was too stiff and strong for my little magnets to properly hold it.
Not to mention the openings were just too wide for my taste. Having fought the no-seeums in New Zealand back in ’22 and ’23, please give me some super tight mesh! I think the mesh size that I had on what I ordered, which I didn’t realize until after I it had already arrived and I had already tried it, was 18×14. If you’re not familiar, and I wasn’t, that means there are 18 squares per inch One direction and 14 squares per inch the other direction.
I want smaller holes. 🙃
That size won’t let flies in, and nor will mosquitoes be able to get through, but those little flies, little tiny ones, yes, they can still get through, and If this were New Zealand, those darn no-seeums would get through.
If I do go back to New Zealand, and I’ve been doing a heck of a lot of research into it the last couple days, you can bet I’ll be bringing some very fine mesh with me to put in the windows of my vehicle. 🙃
I think there’s probably a decent chance, at this point, that I do go, but each day that goes by, the deals get pushed further and further out, so it’s becoming less and less attractive financially to go. It’s a little discouraging, but it is what it is.
New Zealand changed its visa laws, at least one of them for the better, but either I misunderstood last time, or things have changed since I was last there, but I’m only allowed, unless I pay for an actual Visa, to spend 90 days at a time in the country and no more than 6 months in any 12-month period, so I could go for 90 days, but then I’d have to leave for a little while and then come back if I’m on the normal NZETA Visa waiver program like I was last time.
Anyway, it’s… complicating things.
But that’s a little bit of a side trip. So my efforts in getting screens in my front windows have once again failed. I’ve tried twice, and both times have failed, so the next step is to buy 22 mesh, which is 22 squares per inch horizontal and vertical. That should be small enough, I think, I hope, to take care of the flies. I wish I knew what mesh my screen door was that I bought for my side doors. But it doesn’t say. That’s super fine mesh and it’s absolutely perfect. The problem, is it doesn’t come in a way that is readily usable for windows. It’s meant to just sit there and hang in a doorway, and if you go cutting on it or modifying it, then it gets ruined pretty easily. I cut mine and modified it, and then I had to melt all the edges to keep them from fraying. Unfortunately, they are still fraying a little bit, but hopefully it’ll be okay. I might need to melt them again.
Anyway, I helped Hans a little bit with the Jetta, helping him briefly with the brake hose and then briefly with the parking brake cable, but he did 95% of the work on both.
I continue to answer some questions today, still trying to be more disciplined answering at least some questions every day, so there isn’t a single day where the pressure is on to get a bunch of questions and to be lucky enough that the day is full of available questions.
Hans made an absolutely tasty dinner, and we ate together and talked, and then I did everyone good evening, and now here I am. It’s almost 9:45, so I’m late to bed, but I’m closer than I’ve been, and now is a perfect time to go to bed and to try and get up at 5:00 tomorrow morning. I really hope I can make it. 🤞
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful I was able to have a good, productive, best things first morning. 🥳
- I’m grateful that I didn’t get mad when yet another effort to put screens in my front window didn’t yield a functional result.
- I’m grateful to Heather for making smoothies so frequently. They are nice to have. 😊
- I’m grateful for the wind that kicked up a little bit later today. It was baking like an oven in the middle of the day, but later, the wind picked up which made it much more bearable.
- I’m grateful to be in my van on my way to bed, though late, at a better hour than lately.
Success:
- Best things first! 🥳
Improvement:
- I can get to bed on time. I can.
Thought of the Day:
I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.
~ Alma
Hand of God In My Life Today:
Had some nice little spiritual insights today that didn’t feel like they were from me. 😊
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 