Y12 D278

 Fuck people. I had an extreme adventure last night due to people being scum sucking pieces of shit. Had to cancel a credit card once again. This time though I may actually be able to catch the person even though the police were of zero fucking help. At about 7:30pm I get an email saying I just placed a dinner order for filet mignon and shrimp from a hibachi restaurant. Oh did I? Think not! Well I call the place and the order hasn't been picked up yet. SO I spring into action. Call the police, call the credit card company, call everyone. I got this so fast that the charge hadn't even hit my card yet. I had to cancel my card but there wasn't even a charge to dispute. I tried to get the police to go wait for the criminal but they were too fucking slow. Upside is that when the fraud department calls me tomorrow, I should be able to say look, go look at the security cameras for these two places at these two times. I know who stole the card. It was from Thursday when we went to Benihana. Last placed used. If we match up the employees from one place to who picked up the order at another, boom, caught. We shall see if they are any fucking use. If they aren't, I am going to Benihana myself and reporting them. Their stupid mistake was using a card that sends me an email when charges are placed on it because I use it so infrequently. Dumb ass. I will not rest until this person is caught. Mark my words.

In other news, I had a productive day. I went to the grocery store, rearranged the garage, moved the bike and a fridge all by myself, made a 10 hour corned beef that was absolutely perfect, and cleaned the house. I also cleaned my office and mounted a monitor arm on my desk. Not a bad morning. 

Today I have to go to the pet store, one of our friends is coming over for some socially distanced socializing. Teach four days again next week. 

And in a few days, we hit the magic one year fucking mark. Joy.

Y12 D277

 Saturday. Grocery store day. Chore day. Anything but rest day.

Worked on webinar. Had kielbasa and sauerkraut for dinner. Doing a corned beef tonight. 10 hours at 180 degrees. Need to get it started within the next two hours. Nothing else to report. Life sucks. February sucks. Whee.

Y12 D276

 Man oh man did I sleep solid last night. I woke up at 2:45am just refreshed and raring to go. Go back to sleep that is. Seriously though I had a good block of just some undisturbed slumber. I did fall right back to sleep and woke up at 5. Very nice. Happy.

Last day of teaching that group. Made it through. We finished around 4:30 and anticipated. Not a bad group. Just it was a lot of material for four days with a big group. Mentally exhausting. Probably why I slept so soundly last night. Just glad to be done with it. I had a number of follow up emails from some students. Which is good. They were very eager and happy to go off and apply what they learned. No complaints about that either.

Our friend came over earlier in the day to hang out with B. We used B's birthday coupon and had Benihana for dinner. Unfortunately by the time we got home to eat everything was cold. It was acceptable but definitely not the kind of place or food you take to go. We then spent time socializing. They also took all of our bottles and cans as they can use the $40 more than we can for sure. 

Went to bed around 10. Today I have to crank out a webinar in the morning. Anything beyond getting this webinar done is gravy in my mind. I would like to be done by 1 or 2 today to enjoy my weekend. We shall see.

Y12 D275

 I have always disliked February. It's a confusing month. Between the shorter number  of days, the typically horrible weather regardless of where you live, and the extra R in the name, it's a stupid ass month. Just is. I am very confused as to what day it is, when will I get paid next, what my schedule is like, the works. I am a mess. But hey, what else is new?

Got through day three. Had 4 new students. Three of whom were excellent, one who I guess I wasn't showing enough stuff they cared about because they couldn't even be bothered to stay on the meeting. Whatever. Be that way. Only one more day with this group. I have a second session with the same client in March but with a whole new group of people. Lucky me. The really shitty part is this is another one of those gigs where if it wasn't a fucking pandemic I could have done in person. They are less than three hours from me driving. More travel perks missed out. Joy.

Had pasta with shrimp for dinner. Watched Vikings with B. Got pissed off at a video game for locking up. Went to bed. 

Y12 D274

 Woke up 10 minutes before my alarm. Yay? I actually slept pretty well last night. First time in a few days where I got some solid sleep. It did warm up a little bit here which probably helped because there's some moisture in the air. Whatever the reason, not going to complain.

Day two of four yesterday. Class went fine. Nothing exciting but nothing bad either. Just long and tedious. I had 14 yesterday, about the same today. Some drop offs, some new from the same group. Two days with this new set of people. Went until about 4:40, made dinner, watched some TV with B, helped them find a missing door knob, tripped on the stairs, and walked face first into a door. Yeah. It was a rough small patch there in the evening. 

I reconnected with a friend last night. We exchanged some texts and emails. It's nice to know what I am feeling about being disconnected and just tired of all this shit is not just me. On some level I know I'm not the only one feeling the way I do, but it's nice when that gets validated and you know someone else out there can empathize with how you're feeling. They are good people and I am grateful to be able to connect like we did. 

Meh, nothing more. I have a package coming today which I am excited about. It's from build a bear. Yeah you read that right. New stuffed buddy in bound. Woo!

Y12 D273

 500,000 dead. A half million people in one country alone dead. Not total. Not infected. Dead. I remember a year ago smugly saying "this isn't a pandemic. do you know what kind of numbers we would have to it for it to truly be a pandemic?? people aren't that stupid. it won't get to those levels!". Well, thank you American for proving me wrong. You are that selfish, greedy, stubborn, stupid, uneducated, moronic, childish, and any other adjectives you'd like to throw in here. Greed is at the top of that list for sure. Because had we just allowed ourselves to truly shut down like other countries did we would have been done with this 8 months ago. If we could have stopped the wheels of profit, indentured servitude, and capitalism for just five fucking minutes, we wouldn't be where we are. If we had leadership that wasn't the epitome of Gordon Gekko, maybe for 30 seconds we would have been on our way to recovery. Instead we are the horse with a limp that will never run again. It's time to shoot the horse.

As you can tell, I am in a depressive state. I have absolutely no energy and the weight of the world is crushing my soul. It's cold. It's snowy. I'm done. Just done. But yet I have to keep pretending like I care and teach people all week. What fun it is to be me.

Y12 D272

 Had a mostly decent day yesterday. Got up, got ready, went to the car wash to wash the truck. That was only partly successful. It was so cold that as I was leaving the ice was already freezing in places and I had all these ice dots especially on the bed. But I did manage to get a lot of the salt and nasty off the truck which is good. After that I went to the hardware store for some drain cleaner, got B some wiper blades, and stopped to get bagels. Then I came home cleaned the bathroom. I used up all my spoons doing that but it was worth it. 

When B woke up we took a ride to the store to try and find something they wanted. We were unsuccessful but then I found it on ebay later. They don't know I've ordered it. Will be a nice surprise. 

Made steaks for dinner, we watched vikings, I played some games, went to bed. 

Four days of private training this week. Same group all four days. We shall see how it goes.

Y12 D271

 My ear hurts this morning. I have been using the humidifier again because it's dry as fuck around here right now thanks to the snow. But I always have to limit my usage because one day too many and bam, ear infection. I get water on the ear and now my ear is screaming at me. Fun way to wake up. 

Got a lot accomplished yesterday. Went to the grocery store in the morning. Did multiple loads of laundry. Water change and cleaning on the big tank. That was an adventure. The hose kept popping off the the little plastic thing and making a mess. I finally found a clamp to make sure it doesn't pop off again but by that point I was soaked and pissed off. It's always a nightmare doing water changes. I seem to always end up fucking wet. Ugh. Did a manicure. Did dishes. Went back out around 4 for some specific things at the fancy food store. Picked up a pizza and some soup for dinner. Went to the vape shop and picked up a new device as mine is being flakey. Went to bed around 11. A good use of a Saturday.

Today there is nothing on the calendar. Good.

Y12 D270

 OH BOY! It's day 351 since I have been anywhere. Whee!!  Only two more weeks and it will be a full year since I've been on an airplane, left the state, not been trapped in these four walls. So much fun! Bah. Fuck every single human in this world who has been a dick for the last year and hasn't taken things seriously. Fuck our former administration, the current members of the Senate and Congress and on a more direct personal note, fuck Ted Cruz. Just because.

Finished my third day with my students. Good folks. We got through everything by 3:30, they were happy to be out an hour early and I was happy to have had a smooth class overall. No complaints on that front.

Had salmon for dinner. Watched some tv. Went to bed. Worst groundhog's day rip off ever. 

Off to the grocery store.

Y12 D269

 My poor students yesterday had just a rough day. Not because of anything they did either. One was having audio issues, one was having internet issues due to weather, and the 3rd had the application lock up on them right after we had done a large amount of work and they hadn't saved. It was just one of those days where Murphy was in the house. But everyone had a good sense of humor about it and we are still about an hour ahead of where we need to be coming into day 3. No complaints here. 

Let's see... it started snowing around 4, think it's still going. I luckily managed to get my license plates from the dealer before it started coming down too hard. Yes, I picked my plates up at the dealer. I know, weird right? Everything about registrations and licenses is done oddly here. Plates are tied to a person not a vehicle. Tags are renewed on the person's birthday not the vehicle purchase date. There's no DMV. It's all just so strange to me. 

Speaking of birthdays, yesterday was B's mom. She had to suffer through an hour phone as a result of calling just to say happy birthday. Good times. One of the axies has a hemorrhoid believe it or not. So B has to go to the vet tonight. Weird.

Payday or as we all call it, bills due now motherfucker. That's next on the agenda. Groceries tomorrow. Oh boy I will actually drive me truck! I've put 30 miles on it in one week. At that rate, I will put 1500 a year LOL. Now that would be a nice turn-in. 

Y12 D268

 You know, people are two faced pieces of shit. Especially republican members of government. "Don't speak ill of the dead!". Um, fuck you? Who am I talking about? That roly-poly piece of dog excrement Rush Limbaugh. The world is better off without things like him in it. Maybe some of you aren't old enough to remember when he would literally read the obituaries just to make fun of people who had died of AIDS. Because that's the type of disgusting trash he was. All I know is as soon as they announce where he is buried, I need to take a road trip to first dance, then piss on his grave. I wonder if I'll have to make a reservation...

Yesterday started out rough. I had trouble getting servers up and running. I finally have a plan in place to work with our install guy to make a new image next week. Long overdue. Took me nearly an hour and I was stressed going into class. Class itself went well. We finished a little after 4pm. 

B and I then took a drive to the dealership to pick up my clicker. Of course five minutes after we left my plates arrived. Yes, another screwy thing MI does is send the plates to the dealer and not your house. Don't ask me, I don't understand it either. On the way back we got McDonald's because B wanted it. Then we watched some videos together, played game, go bed. It finally didn't snow yesterday. I think we lose our reprieve today and have another few inches coming. Oh joy. Wasn't I just complaining about being fucking cold? Sigh.

Y12 D267

 Today is day 348 since I have gone anywhere of any note. We're closing in on one year in captivity. No other word for it. Especially when everything outside looks like this:

All you people in TX need to shut the fuck up. I had packaged delayed because of this shit which really sucks. Notice how the backyard looks flat? Well it is isn't. There's just that much snow. Done with it.

Did a bunch of assorted shit yesterday including prepping for a new webinar in March. Answered a bunch of emails. Thankfully for the next three days I am teaching a real class. Then it's the weekend. Then it starts all over. Because you know, never ending cycle until you die. Good times.

Y12 D266

 To everyone on the west coast who is dealing with more than the normal snow and cold, my heart goes out to you. I feel your pain. To anyone in the South or Texas dealing with snow, fuck you, hope you freeze to death in the snow. You bitches are out there with one inch on the ground whining. Piss off. This is your punishment for the elected leaders you have chosen. Plus it's the only way we can keep all you non-mask wearing bastards in the house. Stay inside, freeze your asses off, and think about the ramifications of your actions.

Here the snow continues to fall. At 9am my snow guy came and plowed the driveway plus cleaned off the walkway. By 11am you couldn't even tell he had been here. Right now it's just a solid blanket of snow outside the window. A good foot or more. It was loads of fun trying to take out the trash last night let me tell you. I am not looking forward to bring the cans back in this morning. Upside is I haven't put any miles on the new truck because, well, it's just sitting in the garage. 

I have some upcoming private training classes and dealt with a lot of that yesterday. Being annoyed by people basically is what it came down to all day. We lost one of our sales people and their tasks have been pushed on to the others which in turn means some tasks have been pushed on to us. Total BS because we shouldn't be doing administrative coordination crap. I ended up fielding like a dozen emails, getting put on a microsoft team (something we don't use), and answering just the dumbest questions. The best ones to me were the ones from future students not even realizing they had been signed up for a training class and sending me "what is this?? is this spam??" emails. Yes Gertrude, I am spam and here to steal your medicare benefits!! Bwahaha! Idiots.

We had leftovers for dinner since we really can't leave the house. Thank goodness we have a fridge and freezer full of food. I do feel bad for anyone in the south and Texas who isn't prepared for this. I honestly hope no one dies (but I am sure they will). But let me feel some joy watching them all freak out over an inch of snow, okay? 

More of the same today. Need to figure out dinner. Hopefully we won't have any power issues. The biggest concern is the more people stuck at home, the more heat being used, the bigger the draw, and boom, brownouts. Like CA in the summer when everyone turns on their AC. DTE has had all year to prep for this but you know, that would be logical. Can't have logic creeping in.

Y12 D265

 It finally stopped snowing long enough for us to go outside yesterday. It was a brief respite because it snowed again overnight and in the next 10 days we should have almost 12 1/2 more inches drop. Good times. I went to the pet store in the morning to get worms and then the two of us went out later in the day to Bed Bath Beyond. B needed a couple of things and I needed to get out of the house. You know life is pretty sad when an afternoon trip to BBB is the highlight of your weekend. Woo. But I got licorice so I am happy. We had pizza for dinner as planned. All in all a good way to end the weekend. I spent a long while reading the manual for the new truck. This week's plans involve rearranging the garage so it will fit better. Mostly I just need to move the motorcycle out. I got an all weather cover and lock for it and will be pulling it around back. Best I can right now. Not a perfect solution, but a solution. I did find something interesting things in the manual. Like that there is under seat storage in the backseat. I would have gone forever not knowing that. Still happy with the truck. Granted, I've driven it all of 10 miles since leaving the dealer. 

Teach three solid days this week. Modeling class, which I always enjoy. Today is document day and tomorrow is mentoring for one student as a follow up to last week's classes. 

I think that's everything. It's a "holiday" today. The only thing that means is no mail. Otherwise I should get the same amount of emails and distractions. Fun times ahead.

Y12 D264

 Finally had me a proper sleep in! Stayed up until after midnight though. B was too excited to give me presents. She actually found me/us an original magnadoodle! Not one of the cheesy remake ones. We have been looing for one forever. We want one for the wall to write notes but they stopped selling the original one years ago and made the new ones all ugly. Very please. I got her an outdoor one person pod so she can go outside to do her thing. All around very happy people here.

It snowed ALL day yesterday so no one left the house. Spent the whole day inside. Cleaning, fish tank cleaning, some tv watching, video games, made chicken for dinner. All in all it was a pretty uneventful day. Which is not a bad thing. But it does make for boring posts. Sorry to be boring. 

On the world front, a horrible precedent was set. That motherfucker got acquitted. He deserved to go to jail but the spineless idiots wouldn't do their jobs. What a travesty and a shame. B is afraid he will rerun in 2024. I have less fear of that because he will be 82 years old and hopefully be in too poor of health for anyone to take seriously. OR hopefully he will be dead already. Give it a couple of years and maybe we can put that part of this behind us. As for the people left in office, they need to be held accountable for their part in all this. That's the real disgusting part of the sham of a trial. They've sent us down a spiral that we may never come back from in that respect. Actions apparently no longer have consequences. If I were in charge right now I would be using that to my advantage. I would be like hmm, let's see how much GOOD I can get away with and make these fuckers look bad. But sadly when you have someone with integrity leading, that won't happen. 

Rome must fall for a new day to begin.

Y12 D263

 And it is done:

That's my new 4WD drive truck. Just in time too as you can see from the snow falling in the picture. That's how I spent my day from around noon until around 3:30pm. $850 down, $440 a month. Compare that to Ford's bs $2500 down and $475 a month. Much happier. Part of the reason it was a lot less is because B's grandfather gets the friends and family discount. That saved me over $3000 off the truck. It's a $46,000 truck that with the discount and rebates and specials, I managed to get for $39,000. I'm leasing it of course, but you get my point. 2021 GMC Canyon Denali. My insurance only went up $16 a month too. Not bad seeing as I went to a 4WD which has higher insurance. 

Took the cat to the vet in the morning. All good. Shots and bloodwork done. No issues there. Had soup for dinner. Went to bed.

Y12 D262

 Nerd up bitches:

I'm not happy with the placement right now and will work on that today, but I am happy with the amount of real estate. It's a seamless drag now across both screens because they are same make and model. It's dumb, but it helps. Gah remember when it was fancy to have ONE 21" CRT running at like 2048x1536? I do. I was so excited. Now I'm staring at 2 4K monitors. Sweet bejeebus. Oh and I should point out, work paid for that bad boy. Boom.

Taught my second day. I need a break today. I was making a lot of little errors because I just couldn't focus and keep things straight in my head. I need a day where I don't have to get up at 5:30am. Or earlier. I'm just kind of in autopilot but the classes are getting jumbled in my head and I was trying to do one demo when I should have been doing a different one. Shit like that. My class was good, the students were all good, it's just me. I need a break where I don't have to think. I am pretty much going to take today off. I just can't.

B made chili last night. She makes a really good chili. Have nice leftovers too. We need some more bread for it, but don't have to worry about dinner tonight at least. 

Going to drive truck number 2 today. There are only 7 trucks in the class I am considering - Nissan, Ford, GMC, Chevy, Toyota, Jeep, and Honda. The Nissan is out as are the Toyota and Honda. The Jeep is just too damn expensive. That leaves the Chevy, the GMC, and the Ford. The Ford was fine but I just don't want another Ford. I think that's what made me hesitate the other day. There really was nothing wrong with the deal or the vehicle, I just didn't want it. The GMC and Chevy are basically the same truck just slightly different trim packages. Driving that today. If I like it and they give me a similar deal to the Ford, I might just take it. I don't like the look of the Chevy overall but I would be willing to give it a glance as well. Worst case, I wait until July and just get another Rogue. I won't be happy but this nightmare will be over. Wish me luck on that.

Y12 D261

 Not much new to report. My buddy was on Jeopardy last night. Came in second thank to Mary Higgins Clark. He would have been a lot closer to winning if he hadn't missed that daily double. Still, he made it on which is a bigger accomplishment than most of us can claim. More power to him!

Taught all day. Have 5 students. Four of whom are sharp, smart, and having a blast. The other one is another one of those fucking people who doesn't belong in an advanced class. Whatever. I just drive the truck. We finished up the day around 4:30 and I moved on.

Leftover night as we have a fridge full of food. From leftover stew to the remains of the Chinese food. We made a decent dent in it last night. Makes me happy. 

Not much else going on. The world sucks. Things that are obvious to the rest of us seem to be out of the mental grasp of certain senators. We have lawyers who can't figure out the cat filter, and the Mandalorian apparently has lost a major star. Don't know the details on that yet, but these days, whatever. Everyone is canceled. Just stay in your houses and don't talk to anyone else please.

Oh and my coworker has covid. Got it through his kid who got it from going to fucking volleyball practice. Nope. No fucking sympathy here. Why is your kid still going to a fucking sports game practice? That's just stupid. End of discussion. Life isn't normal people. Stop trying to fucking pretend it is. Idiots.

Y12 D260

 It's Wednesday I think. Days are a-blurring again. Tonight is when my buddy will be on Jeopardy. Have to figure out some way to watch it. 

Taught. Mediocre class. Had a couple of trouble people. 13 students total, 2 of whom wouldn't respect the mute and just couldn't keep up with the class. I cringe at them being in more complex classes. But we got through the day.

Made beef stew for dinner. Have plenty of leftovers too. 

Have a new monitor coming. I have been doing the dual monitor setup for about a week now and it's been working out well except for the fact that I have two different resolutions. So when I drag something over I have to resize it constantly. I have a second monitor that's exactly the same coming tomorrow. This should aesthetically make things better as well as making it easier to switch between the two canvases. If I really wanted to go crazy I could do a 3 monitor setup as my video card has the outputs. But that's pushing it.

Worked on the cat room floor last night. Got it done. Nothing like working then working some more. Fun times. Next up is the laundry room. Joy. Just oodles of fun.

6 students the next two days. 5 of whom I already know which makes things a little easier. My poor coworker is having an issue. Her machine keeps going BSOD on her in the middle of class. 3 times it happened to her yesterday while teaching. She hasn't had a new machine in 3 years. Time to pony up bitches. But she also hasn't ASKED for a new machine in 3 years. Whose fault is that? Don't get what you don't ask for.

Okay time for this day to start.

Y12 D259

Once more MI has proven to me why I hate living here. I went to the Ford dealer yesterday to look at the Ranger. Because of where I live, they completely low-balled me on my turn in value for the Nissan. Nobody here wants a Nissan is the problem. I could have easily gotten $1000 more if we still lived in OR. Fuckers. I could also get more if I go to the Nissan dealer. Double fuckers. But with the low ball offer from Ford, I am still too far upside down on the residual. So no new vehicle for me.

That's was my morning. I then worked until 6pm on a class. I worked that late because it is being taught on Friday so I needed to get as much done as possible. It's at about 85% which is enough that the remainder can be faked. I will finish the rest Friday while it's being taught.

Had leftover Chinese food. Dragged all the basement garbage to the curb. Played video games. Went to bed.

Teaching today from 9-5. Not much else going on.

Y12 D258

 Up early so I can get a good amount of work in before I go off to the Ford dealer. Yesterday I went to the pet store in the morning. Waited for B to wake up. Went to the grocery store to get stuff for our fondue feast. Had a fondue feast. Three full courses of cheese, oil, and chocolate. B liked her present. She was extremely surprised which was awesome. Now just to make sure she uses it because it wasn't cheap. Didn't do anything in the laundry room. Need to get squares from B's dad first. Three days of classes this week thankfully all at EST times. Nothing later than 5pm this week. Didn't see a single Superb Owl yesterday. Sad.

Y12 D257

 It's B's bday. If you have her number, please send her a message. Here's what our day looked like:

Fun times, eh? 

I went to the grocery store at 6am and freaked out. Normally it's dead at that time, hence why I go then. But not yesterday, oh no. Why you might ask? Because today is stupid bowl and that apparently, even in the middle of a fucking pandemic, is still a thing here. The store was packed with men, old men, young men, men shuffling after their wives. Carts full of beer, chips, burgers. WTF? How many people will you have at your house today? Will you spreading the germs? Hope you die.

Gave myself a manicure which promptly got wrecked doing the above. B's sisters came over yesterday too which she enjoyed. I bought everyone chinese food. They were here until about 8. Played some games, went to bed.

Today is whatever B wants to do. So far that includes sending me to the pet store to buy her worms. Yay me. It snowed again last night so this will be fun. Happy bloody sunday.

Y12 D256

 I can use my water again. It was a rough time yesterday morning. I was exhausted from lack of sleep and stress about what was going to happen. The guy from Roto showed up around 10am and went to work on our pipes. Good news? It was just boring old tree roots in our pipe. While that may not sound like good news, believe me, from a cost perspective, it is. At the 75 foot mark he started hitting roots. They used a cable auger to blow it out. Took him about 2 hours and of course he was in the room right next to me with the machine running. The noise wasn't too bad. None of my students could hear it even if I could. The process is warrantied for six months but they recommended doing a full water jet treatment which would be covered for five years. We will plan to do that in July. Even at $1400 that is still cheaper than replacing all of our pipes. Yesterday luckily only set me back $350. Given what I was worried I would have to pay, $350 is nothing. Talk about relief. Now B understands why I wasn't happy about the number of trees on the property when we first moved in. I knew that one tree was going to be problems for us at some point. It's way too close to the house. It's also not easy to get trees removed especially from a front yard. You have to fight the HOA in a lot of cases. I fucking hate trees like we have for this reason exactly. Giant fucking roots that tear through everything. But the issue is resolved for the time being and I can once more pee and shower. Hurrah.

From 11 until 7, I taught, and dealt with a bunch of BS emails on the side. At 7 when I finished, I then had to help B with the rest of the cleanup. Sanitize the floors, clean the towels, rip out carpet tiles, throw everything away. By the time we were finished it was 10pm and I pretty much collapsed into bed. Just done and done.

Today I am going to the grocery store, doing a manicure, and trying to relax. I am no longer going to the Nissan dealer as they sold the one and only vehicle I had any interest in. This is what pisses me off about dealers around here. They have such little stock and the next closest one is too far for them to just borrow a vehicle. Pain in the ass. I'd go drive the Ford today, but they're closed on weekends. Yeah. It's MI law you can't sell a car on Sunday (blue laws). What? Yep. Real thing. So fucking stupid. So I wait until Monday.

Happy weekend. Tomorrow is B's birthday. Doing fondue. Her dad is coming over today to help us finish rip out the asbestos covered tiles in the laundry room. Good times.

Y12 D255

 You know how not a lot has been going around here and my posts have been pretty boring? Yeah, buckle up buckaroos because shit just got real.

Let's start with the big one; at a little past midnight B wakes me up because, well our fucking basement is flooding. The sewer drain in the basement is coming back up with loads of fun stuff. Joy. We spent the next hour plus trying to get it to drain. We snaked it, we plunged it, we poured chemicals down it. Then we cleaned up the mess it made. It was almost 2 by the time we were done. It's in a tolerable state right now, but I refuse to pay emergency plumber prices so I need someone out here this morning to check to see if it will happen again. In the meantime, no water usage for us. No shower, no toiler flushing, etc. I am supposed to teach a class in 6 hours too. Good stuff. I've had about 4 hours sleep. I submitted an online appointment form with Roto-Rooter before bed, let's see how quickly they get back to me. Plus let's see what kind of damage this is going to cost. 

Then on the vehicle front I may have resolved that but now it's dependent on how much I spend with the plumber. I won't go into too much detail on this other than I communicated with a dealer, found a truck that looks promising, and he did a preliminary quote that would only raise my payment by $15 a month. If I like the truck on Monday when I go look at it, I will probably leave with it. It all depends on the residual amount of my current lease. I may need to just wait until July if the residual is too high. But at least this way I will have the vehicle selected. 

I also managed to work yesterday. Got one of two new classes done and ready. That's a good thing.

Okay, nothing to do now but wait. Boy, I do love me some waiting!

Y12 D254

 I need to whine about something for a moment. It's a complete and utter first world issue, spoiled old white guy issue to be even more accurate, but this is my journal, deal with it.

My original plan when my lease was up was to switch to a Nissan Frontier. We can really use a truck living here and more importantly, we can use something with 4WD. Especially if B wants to two and go to the lakes. The Frontier was the perfect size for us and met all the needs while keeping the price reasonable to where we wanted it. The only issue was the 2020 didn't have all the features I was looking for in a vehicle. According to Nissan, the 2021 would have all those features. Hurrah! Except, no. They just finally posted the 2021 on their website and I guess someone fucked up because half of the features I want aren't there and won't be there until 2022. Dammit. Now I have to make a decision: do I get another Rogue which will have all the features BUT won't have 4WD (they're AWD) and might not have the towing capacity I want OR do I look at other options? The problem with other options is that I am limited. There aren't many choices in mid-size 4WD trucks. It's really down to the Ranger for me. The problem with that is the Ranger is about 7k more than the Rogue. Our payment would go up about $40. Not life threatening, but not what I wanted either. I also don't really want a Ford. There's just not a whole lot of options in that sector. Add to that, they have redesigned the interior of the Rogue big time and I don't know if I like it. Plain and simple. I am scheduled to drive a Rogue on Saturday and I sent the salesperson (whom I have been going back and forth with for three days on Frontier features) the exact build of a Rogue I would find acceptable. He sends back a link to something TOTALLY different and is like "Yes we have what you want in stock!". I replied back kind of pissy saying no, this isn't what I want, I will come look at it but don't expect me to leave with it. He got all butthurt and was like "what's wrong with it???". So I had to reply that it was the wrong color, wrong interior, and missing at least three options I selected. I shared this with B and she enlightened me to midwest car buying:  I am not a Michigander. I am used to being able to send a dealer what I want down to the last nut and bolt and if they can't find it from one of the 20 other dealerships nearby, they order it for me. When I got this Rogue they got it from another dealer 30 minutes away and traded stock. B explained that most people here either don't have the luxury of waiting, or are just so excited to be getting a new vehicle, they take what's on the lot. There's the disconnect. I have 5 months until my lease is up, not worried about the payment, and this will be vehicle number 30 for me, so no emotion or immediate need. I'm also not loyal to a brand or a dealership, but to features and my driving experience. I just think I am more detached than some of their other customers might be if I hear what B is saying about Michiganders in general. We shall see how it goes on Saturday. I am going to also make an appointment to drive the Ranger if I can to do a single comparison in one day. Wish me luck.

In other news, had a 3 hour work session where we reviewed some stuff, decided on some changes to existing classes, discussed company issues, etc. I have a task for today as a result, but overall it wasn't horrible. Finished up with work stuff around 4. Made chicken for dinner. Watched some tv, played some games, went to bed.

Y12 D253

 It's the kid's birthday. 28. Wow. I remember being 28. Seems like a lifetime ago. Oh wait, it was. B's bday in 4 days. Then Valentine's Day. Then March, again. I am still processing last March and yet, here it is again. Holy crap. 

Decent group yesterday. They made the late night much more tolerable. Wasn't happy working until almost 8pm, but there were 10 students and honestly all 10 of them were engaged, doing well, and asking good questions. They definitely made the day easier to handle. No technical issues and almost everyone made it on time. I can't ask for more than that. 

Not really much else to report since that was pretty much my whole day. B decided they wanted taco bell for dinner so on my evening break I wolfed down a couple of tacos. Reminded me of being back in retail or foodservice where you ate your food standing as you had only 10 minutes. Oh those were the days. Don't miss them that's for sure. 

Have a two hour work session meeting thing today. Was supposed to have a class from 9-1 but it only had one student and they got the class for free AND they generally suck, so we postponed it. Sucks to be them. 

The world is once more on fire. Oh it's Wednesday. What major political issue will happen today? So far we've had an attempted coup, an impeachment, and an inauguration all on Wednesday. Wonder what today has in store. Myanmar is struggling. THAT was a coup and what I think the cheeto thought would happen here. People are still dying from a preventable virus. I am on the vaccine list now. But who knows when my name will come up. I say March or April. I just want to travel again. Somewhere. Anywhere. I am tired of these four walls.

Y12 D252

 Happy groundhog's day because apparently that's still a thing in this country. Using a small creature to predict the weather just reminds me of this:

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Same principle, right?

I had such a scary dream last night that when I awoke from it, I immediately messaged myself to remember it. I was outside somewhere and for some reason had a long rifle with me. I tripped and fell under some bushes and because of the rifle couldn't get out. As I struggled to get out, that's when I realized the bush I was thrashing about in had thousands of angry spiders in it who didn't take kindly to me trashing their home. Good times.

Horrible group yesterday. Not as bad as today's and Friday's promise to be, but ugh. 2 people were an hour late which just sets the tone. The best part though was when the coordinator asked if I could have sent a reminder on Friday. When I said "No" they got snippy and asked why not. I calmly said, because YOU explicitly said I wasn't allowed to reach out and email any of the students directly, remember? That shut him down real quick. Oops. You're own rule just came back to bite you in the ass, didn't it buddy? 

Finished at 5pm by the time I was done with all the post class stuff. Had tacos for dinner. Watched some TV with B. Played some video games. Went to bed. Now today I don't start until 11:30, but yes, I am up already. Why? I don't know. Because scary spiders.

Time to go see if a groundhog has successfully determined my future.

Y12 D251

2/1/21. Neat. 

We're closing in on one year since things went kablooie. In 5 days it will be 11 months since I have gone anywhere at all.  Had an airplane dream last night. I have a lot of those. This time I was supposed to be flying to China of all places. I was missing meal service too. I don't like those dreams. But I do miss being on airplanes. 

Didn't do much of anything yesterday. Video games. Reading. Made steaks for dinner. B convinced me to install TikTok. Not sure how great an idea that was. Serious time sink. 

3 days of classes this week. 8:30 - 4:30 today but then 11:30-7:30 tomorrow and of course, Friday. Wednesday and Thursday open.

That's about it. Not much else to report. No new insurrections, no new coups. I guess that's good?