(written on the 26th and 29th from notes)
I actually slept in today! 🥳
It was nice to get a decent amount of sleep. I’ve had bags under my eyes, something that I don’t think I dealt with much, if at all, in New Zealand? 🤔
I wonder what causes bags under the eyes? …guess I can look it up.
…
Oh… well that’s more complicated than what I want to write here. 🙃
I started off the morning with some uplifting music and prayer, which was good for me. 🙏
Cory had a question about his suburban–starting issues and a check engine light, etc., so I scanned it for codes, finding some anti-theft stuff and fuel system stuff.
Could be that the truck simply isn’t able to maintain fuel rail pressure, so I gave him some suggestions for what to do to narrow down the issue, and he offered to the scan tool that I had bought to take with me to New Zealand that didn’t end up working with the vehicles in New Zealand. 🙏
Amazon had agreed to let me return it once I got back from New Zealand, but I’d lost the packaging it was in. I wasn’t against keeping it myself, but I already have two other scan tools, so it’s a little bit of overkill despite it being more convenient than either of my other scan tools.
I don’t really remember the order of events, but I spent time journaling, spent time putting up an ad to give away the extra Ford driver’s seat that I had taken from Cory’s van before I went to New Zealand.
A little note of personal accountability: When I started removing the seat last fall, I felt like I shouldn’t (got that little gentle nudge that I occasionally get that I’ve come to understand is a little heads up from the Big Guy not to do what I’m about to do.
If I act on the nudge by ceasing doing whatever it is that I was doing, I generally save myself wasted time or money or whatever. How do I know that? Well, because often times I haven’t followed the little nudge and wished I had. 😆
This was one of those cases. I got the nudge, but I doubted it, and the seat was in incredibly good condition, near perfect, and I paid for the van to be a parts vehicle, and I wanted the darn seat!
So I ignored His little love note. 😅
Just like with other similar experiences, listening to God’s little love note this time means some wasted time, some hassle, and a small bit of inconvenience–nothing major–but it’s a good reminder that God pays attention even to the little things. It’s also another opportunity to remember what the little love note feels like, so I can better recognize the next one.
Anyway, when I put up the ad, at the end of the ad, for kicks and to just sort of be funny, I wrote something I’ve never included before: I said something to the effect of “donations of food or money or stuff are welcome but not necessary. 🙃”
I guess we’ll see how that goes. 🙃
Over the course of the next few hours, I spent time journaling, chatting with Cory, stretching my back (using a new stretch Cory showed me), eating lunch (which he so graciously made for me), and finally… finally making an ad for my ammo. 🥳 (I’m thinking about how last I’m I was in Utah for a lengthy period of time, I was so emotionally unwell that I couldn’t even make the ad until I was almost ready to leave the state. I had interest, lots of interest, but I had already driven away. This time, I’m certainly quite late, with only a handful of days left before I go, but at least I’ll have more time with the ad up while in state than I did last time. 🙃)
I ended up eating dinner with Cory as well. 😊
Thx, Cory. 🙏
Just before I got ready to leave, I decided to check my oil, and for whatever reason, it was almost two quarts low! 😬
But why? My records show that I changed the oil when I hit 277,000 miles, and I haven’t even gone 200 miles since then.
😶
😬
I really hope I just messed up filling it up somehow. 🤞
I arranged to meet up with a guy who wanted to buy a fair bit of my 22LR ammo. He had requested that I meet him on the Maverick just off of I15 and 90th South on the north side of the road, but when I got there, he apparently hadn’t read the message that said that I was going to be there soon, so he had gone out to dinner with his family. 😅
I ended up driving over to the restaurant about 15 minutes out of the way, but that was fine. I was wanting to sell some ammo, and a little extra drive to get some of it sold was well worth it.
It was also pretty cool because I had a great conversation with the guy I sold it to. We talked about traveling a fair bit, because I’d been in New Zealand, and he was half Polynesian. We also ended up talking a fair bit about church and gospel stuff as well (I think he mentioned he’d served an LDS mission?), mostly sharing my perspective on the nature and character of God as I see him. He left the church several years ago, but his wife was still an active member, so to speak. Great conversation. Super nice guy. He told me to hit him back up for lunch next time I was in Utah.
Cool. Really love talking to great people. 😊
From there, I had made another appointment with a buyer in Orem and told him I would swing by his house to bring him the ammo.
When I got there, he came out holding what looked like a brand new baby in his arms. He was with a friend of his who was wearing a medical mask asking if there was any chance I was sick or in contact with anyone who had been sick.
Apparently, he had some sort of major major medical issue that in order to save his life in the short run, it required completely destroying his immune system.
Reminded me of what happened with my uncle with a particular kind of cancer he was diagnosed with.
I mentioned that, and though he was wanting to keep the illness secret from his friend, it seemed like I had hit the nail on the head, by the way he was talking and commenting about my uncle’s experience.
Super rough. Certainly puts into perspective the issues that I have. I deal with a lot of pain and discomfort and reduction in my freedom to go out and do the things I want to do.
But nothing like what he’s going through.
As the ammunition buyer was trying to figure out his account situation in order to venmo me the money, we were hanging out in his doomsday bunker of sorts. He had more guns than anybody I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The room looked like a scene from a movie, the kind of scene where the action hero shows up and says they need a weapon, and the weapons dealer flip a switch, and all the walls flip over and are absolutely covered in guns.
😆
Another really nice guy.
Nice to get some ammunition sold today and a little bit of cash in my pocket and more via Venmo. 🎉
From there, I was about to drive over to the Macey’s on 8th North and Orem to buy some juice (I’ve been buying a particular shape of juice bottle to use as water bottles), but the same exact juice brand and bottle is about $2 more at Macey’s than it is at Walmart, and it was cheaper to drive the extra 3 or 4 miles down the road to buy the juice at Walmart, not to mention I might be able to check in and see if the girl from the other night had been able to find her water bottle.
I looked around for her once in the store, but I couldn’t find her. 😕
Hope she recovered it. 🤞
Melts the heart to see people hurting like that.
I stayed in the parking lot of the Walmart for a little while after they closed, finally finishing up my journal entry for my big 4/20 travel day 🥳 (that one’s been hanging over my head for a good little while now), after which, I entry drove over to the Maverick station just a few blocks away from the Supercenter and crashed for the night.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 