The Blackstone is assembled, now I need to remove the residue from the persnickety sticker they put onto it, and then give it a proper seasoning. Perhaps this weekend, or next week, I will make my first meal using it? I may have to make another trip to CHaRM to responsibly dispose of all of the styrofoam packed inside its shipping box.
I forgot to mention that I encountered a small snake yesterday while weeding more tall grass. Fortunately it was afraid of me and slithered away.
No bike riding last night. The severe storm (1.25″ of rain made WLF plants happier, except for the ones that toppled in the wind) was reason enough not to ride. It was also a SLUT night so some of the weekly riders were planning to do that. The last SLUT I ran in April 2022 ended at Dain’s house, and then I laid the next one but didn’t participate in the on-in festivities because of “reasons”. You will not be surprised to read that I am not camping at the “Bring Your Own Boat” campout again this year for those same “reasons”.
Yesterday was IPA Day and like an idiot I opened an English Pale Ale to drink. D’Oh! I rectified this gaff by opening an IPA after drinking the pale ale.
Now that I have hit the two-year mark without collecting a salary it’s high time for me to do something I don’t like to do — create and follow a budget. For some reason my spending continues to be through the roof. Sure, I have that nagging $800/month health insurance payment, about $300/month (on average) for utilities, and $300/month for car and home insurance, but the rest, well that’s discretionary spending. Occasionally there is a fly in the ointment such as expensive car maintenance/repair, or property tax payment, but it seems as if my bills are too high every month. And I have neither a car payment nor mortgage! Ironically, I said all that knowing that I have a boondoggle planned next week, if the weather permits, that will cost me as much as $500.
I solved today’s Wordle in three attempts; my starter today was TRUCE.
My Decluttering Week
Saturday: book (reference)
Sunday: fairing for the roof rack I used to have on the Jackmobile
Monday: book (reference)
Tuesday: book (novel)
Wednesday: decorative wine bottle
Thursday: old hashing sneakers [trash]
Friday: old, worn out sneakers x2 [trash]
Wordle in 2.
Tickets for Chicago at Chastain secured. Now to find someone to accompany me.
Not much else to report today. At some point I’ll share my Indianapolis and Chicago misadventures with the broader ITP universe (those that attended dinner on Monday got a first-hand account). I need to finish this goddamn book first QuickBooks literally has 3 different versions of its main menu. It’s nutty and feels like working in a hall of mirrors at some points. Oh well, I’m closing in.
By the way, Drivin’ and Cryin’ is doing a free show in Chamblee tonight. My brother is flying in today for a week. We’re going to the show tonight and doing his inaugural Silver Comet ride tomorrow, hoping to get his first half-century in. Sunday we’re headed to Lake Lanier for a boating day with my former boss from 25 years ago. Wow, that means I’ve been self-employed for 25 years now. Whoa.
I guess I did have things to say after all.
I just google mapped where that show is going to be – I look forward to hearing about it – are you going to take Marta up there?
Yes, definitely. My designated driver is working her hostess job tonight. Seriously though, MARTA is a no brainer for this show.
Minty is up for the Chicago show. Woot! I think the last show she and I went to was Tom Petty at the Gwinnett Arena.
Sadly I never saw Tom Petty perform. I blew it when I had the opportunity in Gainesville in the very late 1980s / early 1990s. No one I knew wanted to go, and I wasn’t independent enough at that time to go solo.
Oh man, that would have been incredible. We saw him in the late 90s. It was a great show, but I do wish I’d seen him when he was younger. I think the acoustics at the arena had something to do with it as well.
I understand 100% about not being independent enough to go solo. I am prepared to go solo to Chicago if needed, but I’m sure I’ll find someone if Minty has a conflict arise.
Wordle in 3. Nice work, David.
Still coughing. Lungs full of crap. Although I haven’t taken any medicine all night, the medicine doesn’t really seem to be doing much.
A good storm overnight and hopefully we got a decent amount of rain. But little rain we had yesterday barely moved the gauge.
-FP
did you take a covid test? When Allan had it – he went & get Paxlovid (or whatever similar med they actually gave him) and it seemed to knock it out quicker.
Thanks, Steve, I hope what ails you moseys on down the road soon.
WORDLE IN 2 – WHAT A GOOD GUESS!!!! (using Paulie’s start word)
We got a good bit of rain yesterday afternoon too – but I have no rain gauge so I can’t tell you much we got.
Went to dinner at a place in East Cobb – Seed – last night. It’s a little too pricy for me, the food was excellent, but I hate paying that much for dinner. But since we were the guests – we didn’t have to pay the check.
Fancy dinners will certainly not be included in my budget. What did you have to eat?
I had the special – a blue fin tuna dish, with some very tasty cheesy grits & okra. I’m not a huge okra fan, I wish you could substitute, but not at this place, the Okra was actually ok.
Allan had a scallop dish, (but it had a cilantro crema, so that was out for me)
Our friends got Blue Cod & Korean Short Ribs (that looked really good, but again, they had something with cilantro in the description)
Wish my okra would produce this summer. I may have waited too long to plant it this year.
Look at you two getting deuces! You should play the lottery! Oh wait, you are… 🙂
thought I won $2 on my Cash for Life ticket- but you have to have 2 numbers, not just the last one. That just bummed me out.
The cool thing about buying tickets online is they email you if you win, so I don’t have to bother confirming that “I’m a loser, baby!”
A budget might not be enough going forward. I have a new home repair concern on the horizon. Home repairs, the thought of having to buy a car in the future, and all the rest of the rising costs of living may force my hand back into the working world. I must ensure that I have time off next August to travel to Europe, however.
In my view it is way easier to raise the revenue line than it is to lower the expense line, comparatively, that is.
Agreed, especially when expenditures are sometimes out of one’s control. See also: new ITP Estate issue.
there’s always contract work……..
but every job I’ve ever interviewed for – when it came down to the actual offer, I negotiated in any vacation. It really was never an issue.
Preach, Barb!
Paulie, look at wew.upwork.com. You never know what you might find
The issue I have is multi-fold:
– my skills have deteriorated, for me closing is a “use it or lose it” proposition and I have lost it. I will need to do a lot of studying before I can be hired again.
– the iOS world changes every year, so even if I had the skills I had two years ago, there have been changes I need to learn.
– I am older than your average bear for my industry, and may experience ageism.
I’m not saying I can’t do it, I, saying that it may be harder than most people anticipate.
All the more reason to pick up contract work, even little gigs, on Upwork. See below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog
Sign up for flat rate jobs, and then burn as much time as you need to in order to get your skills back. Be sure to look at gigs adjacent to your actual skills. This is the approach I’ve used from the beginning of my career to move my skills forward. You’re never going to be “ready” to interview, you have to jump in and let muscle memory get you through the first couple of situations until your mojo comes back.
I know NOTHING about what you do, but I would think there are plenty of places that use “older” technology – so you’d be able to get a job somewhere. From past experience, Matson always had some outdated systems we were using.
Some companies in the transportation world still use some old mainframe AS400 systems.
There are many places with legacy code. However, I haven’t been writing code consistently enough to remember things, so I need to study regardless. Sure it will come back, but I need to put in the effort necessary to convince someone they should hire me.
Dude, it’s all on the internet, you can just look it up when you need it. I find it ironic that I write books given that I haven’t bought hardly any computer books in 10 or 15 years. I mentioned at dinner how a minute or into playing Qbert all of my strategies from 40 years ago came right back. Get out of your own damn way, land a gig and then as I said burn whatever time you need to figure out how to accomplish it, because it will come back. You’re never ever going to will yourself to get current, and even if you could, see below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49y0XZ1oCw
Inertia is a motherfucker. Get the wheels moving, however, slowly, and you’ll get where eyou want to be. Otherwise you’re still going to be tending WLF and bemoaning money running through your fingers.
With all of that said, try this: just look on Upwork and see if you even find any gigs that remotely look like a fit. If you do, put in an appplication, just to see if they respond. You can always say “something came up, I’m not available”, but this is a way to get some baby steps in.
Look it up when I need it works once you have convinced someone to hire you. It has been my experience that you have to be able to write code before you get hired to write code.
I understand inertia, and am trying to figure out to live the life that will make me the happiest.
I never said that I wouldn’t look at Upwork. It is a good suggestion, thanks.
for anyone that likes the TV show Ghosts –
Allan read somewhere that with the writers’ strike they don’t have the new episodes for fall, so they might run the British episodes. That TOTALLY excites me. I really want to watch those & haven’t found a way to stream it.
The Roswell umbrella held again last night and we were able to ramble and there was zero rain. You just have to believe 🙂
Since it was IPA day our beer stop was Jekyll brewing where I tried their new release Fly Rite which is more like a Pale Ale than IPA but was very tasty.
I’ll throw in my 2 cents on your job search here. I think gig work would do you well to build your skills and also afford you the flexibility you currently have. Jumping in to a regular job would be painful in my opinion since you have not worked in 2 years. Just food for thought.
I may have to try that beer…
Gig work (coding, not driving for DoorDash or anything like that) would suit me, as would short term contract work through an agency. I’m actually okay with never having a regular job again as long as I can earn enough to cover my expenses and emergencies.
Um, why was yesterday IPA day? I mean, ,any day that I’m having a beer is an IPA day for me. 🙂
Oh, I see now. Made-up holiday, but sure, OK, I’ll have one.
Yeah, yet another made up day.
I’m not normally in to made up holidays but I was able to lean in to this one 🙂
LOL
Another $50 for the flu shot vaccine added to my card- phone call took less than 5 minutes. Only 1 more call, in 3 months.
I asked if I could get in on one for this next season, she said they’d let me know when they get the funding & have it set up.
I like getting paid to get a flu shot.