(Written on the 29th and 30th from notes taken previously)
Started trading again about 12:45 a.m. (big time-zone difference. 🙃)
Almost right away I had a great gain and could have stopped early with like $175 of profit after only just a brief period trading.
Buuuuuuut I wanted a round number like $180 or $200 or something, so I kept trading, albeit at much smaller share sizes, and promptly lossed a bit of what I’d gained
Ended up trading for hours more at tiny share sizes to make back what I’d lost. 🙃
But I did make it back. Ended up with about $180 profit for the day.
But mosquitos. Holy. Freaking. Crap.
They were constant. All night. Doors and windows all closed.
Where on earth are they coming from?!?! How are they getting in?!?!
I probably killed… dozens? but they’d just keep coming… one at a time, sometimes two, like there was some opening in the van they were coming from. Seemed like maybe every 10 minutes?
Hear them buzzing in the dark.
🤷
What the?!?!
After getting up for the day, gratefully undisturbed, I headed down to Spirits Bay again.
Ironically, on the day where I would actually be going out and enjoying myself, it was raining, and coming down pretty good.
As I was coming back to the parking area, I noticed that the Hood was open in the rain on the truck of the gentleman who gave me the fish yesterday, so I walked over to make sure he was okay, and he was just using his truck to keep the refrigerator going for the fish he had caught.
Heading back to my van, I noticed that on the passenger side in the back, there was rain coming down on the inside of the van.
😠
Having seen the tape covering the seals around the sunroof on top of the van, I had specifically asked about leaks inside the van.
😠
I spent a little while trying to figure out where the water was coming from, expecting it to be dripping down from the sunroof seal area, but everywhere I looked, it was dry. That meant that I was going to need to pull down the headliner which… isn’t quick.
So I set to work removing trim pieces around that back area of the van, removing seat belt bolts and whatnot until I was able to pull the headliner down far enough without damaging it.
I sent the sellers a message frustrated with their not telling me when I’d specifically asked, to which they responded by blocking me.
As I started taking things apart, I realized the cause of the leak was that at some point, someone has put in some aftermarket wiring, and they must have loosened the window back there, because there was wire between the window’s weather stripping and the van body.
I couldn’t loosen the window bolts because I needed a deep-socket 10 mm, and I didn’t have one, but the wire pulled right out. If the weatherstripping returns to its previous shape, then the leak will be fixed.
🤞
When the rain stopped, I headed over to the beach for the first time–beautiful beach, surrounded by bright green hills with wild horses on one end, rugged rocky terrain a little bit over from there, Forest behind, and then more beach–a lot of it–to the west.
Gorgeous.
Took some pictures with the wild horses in the background and sent them to my sister Heather.
Such a magical place, New Zealand.
It’s perfect for little me, who loves the outdoors. I never have to worry about dangerous predators of any kind (except in the ocean, of course). No bears, wolves, mountain lions, poisonous snakes or spiders.
Just mosquitoes, sand flies, and humidity. 🙃
But there’s water everywhere to cool off in, so the humidity is… easily mitigated. 🙏
Took my boogie board out for its maiden voyage. Did I mention I’d bought a boogie board?
Well, I did. 🙃
I dragged my folding lawn chair (came with the van), my wet suit, phone, charger, and whatever else, and headed back to the beach.
I set my lawn chair in the edge of the ocean to let the little waves roll up and lap against me, some coming in high enough to go over my legs.
Once the waves got a bit higher, I put my chair up in the dry area of the beach, grabbed my boogie board, and had a good little time.
There were a couple of girls on the beach and one of them was out trying to body surf, so I offered to let her borrow my boogie board.
The girl was from Germany and had just graduated high school. She didn’t know how to use the boogie board, so I gave her a quick tutorial and let her have at it, with me just swimming and body surfing a bit.
Gosh, what was her name?
Don’t remember… same as a famous actress, I think.
Anyway, turned out they were the same girls I’d helped with their windshield washer fluid a couple two or three days ago. 🙃
Headed back in after a good while in the ocean, the sun getting lower on the horizon, veged out for a bit in my van there in the parking lot, also chatting with a couple for a bit and then the husband later. They were on a cycling trip, and he was having derailer issues.
Anyway, headed back to the logging road, veged out a bit more, and… that was the day.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 