2025-11-08 (Saturday) — Trading Up!

(written on the 30th from notes)

Not a lot to say about today. I was up again at 12:45 a.m. for trading, and I did really well!!!

I was lucky though. I’ve had a couple of mistakes because of the clunkiness of trading with a cell phone. 😅

Fortunately, the errors worked out in my favor, and I made about $450 today. 🥳

At first, nothing looked good, but then… oh! Tesla looks good! With the positive errors I made  I started out quickly up $384.84!

Then I sized down, dropped as low as $37x.xx, and finished up at +$454.01 on the day.

🥳

And yes, mosquitoes again! Fewer, but still… what the?!!! I’d looked everywhere. I’d checked the weatherstripping. I saw there was a larger gap on one side of the hatch than the other, and it was, but I’d tested the seal (putting water all over the van and then closing the hatch), and it was good all the way around.

🤷

What on Earth?!?!

How are they getting in?!?!

If there’s a way in, I’m hosed when I get to sand-fly country. They’re absolutely brutal on the West Coast of the South Island. I’d be eaten alive!!!

And sand-fly bites… 😬. Mosquito bites generally itch for a couple of hours for me (except some breeds? Every once in a while, I get bites that get really big and can last for days), but sand-flies… that itch can last weeks. They’re a lot like chiggers, except the itch starts probably within 30 seconds of being bit.

I’m still dealing with a few bites from when I was walking barefoot in the shade at Waipu Caves.

Anyway, woke up to a wild horse near my little van, but it wasn’t too keen on hanging out with me. 🙃

Drove up to Cape Reinga, stopping off for hours at a lookout just before the parking lot, taking pictures and… wasting away in front of my phone. 😕

At first, it was sunny and beautiful, but the fog/clouds rolled in, covering the view.

Lots of loud motorcycles today.

I hate loud motorcycles (sorry, Richard. 😅). But it’s just so jarring to have that loud noise intrude on the peaceful.

For me, at least.

Eventually, I drove up to the main parking lot, hanging out there for a bit. I think I was on the phone with someone? but I don’t remember.

Having been to the Cape last time, and not really having an explorer’s mind set right now, and with the clouds having rolled in, I left relatively quickly.

Headed over to the Great Sand Dunes but didn’t stay there long either. It was crowded, being a Saturday here, families and kids sliding down the sand dunes on boogie boards.

But my… adventurous spirit isn’t… active. 😕

😞

I’m just existing these days.

Headed down the road hoping to get to 90-mile Beach to maybe do the beach drive, but the Google directions kept sending me to private roads, and then it looked like people actually got there from the Great Sand Dunes area, so I backtracked (I don’t like backtracking 🙃), and ended up staying the night at a parking area with a gorgeous view of a lake, forest, bright green hills, and the east side of the dunes.

Lift the world.

Bring it on.

~ stephen