I’ve been out of pocket for a bit for a multitude of reasons. I would believe that the vast majority of these reasons are good. I was in a strange place when I began this website–going through a few things.
You may recall this post around this time last year about the night drive:
Well, the time has changed from daylight savings again so here we are… the weather is cool and it’s dark around 6 PM. Project CELICA has interior LED lights and upgraded speakers. I’m commuting to the office again. Things are certainly better than they previously were!
Now as for why I have been out of pocket. The primary reason is my commute to the office. When I was working from home I was afforded the opportunity to explore my thoughts and feelings and write. There was much I needed to get out and nobody to express it to aside from my wife, and some of those things I honestly don’t know if anyone, including her, would understand. This journal was a way to get some things out, similar to how I used to about twenty years ago during my “quarter life crisis.” Now that I am commuting back and forth to work, I no longer have the luxury of writing as I am required to focus in the office.
The secondary reason is my recent promotion at work to management. With that promotion a few months back, my workload has increased at least two or three times where it was prior. This does not give me very much free time. I’m fortunate to have the time now to even get this out–I’m being bugged regarding work as I type this and it may take a few days to finalize this post, but I did want to get some sort of update out on here.
A third reason I have been scarce is my recent reunion with sports, namely the NFL. I have a strong history with sports in general particularly back in the early 90s, but since college I have disregarded it. This is ironic as I went to a college with a particularly strong and vibrant sports program. My dorm was within viewing distance of the sports stadium and I do recall hearing football games with my window open, while I had no interest in actually attending the event. For some strange reason, particularly recently, I decided to both pick up tracking of NFL activities and statistics, join a fantasy league in the office, and pick up the latest couple Madden NFL games as you are already aware from my last post. It has been several months and I have been completely enamored and utterly distracted with football. This is a good thing as it helps me save money by distracting me from spending. That being said, it also has occupied my mind enough that I have not had as much interest in writing in this journal. I have played with the idea of further fleshing out a new sports journal category or even creating new journal categories for following my fantasy league or my favorite teams, but that circles back to having free time.
So now for what is new in the past several months. I damaged my pride and joy, my Honda Civic Type R, by reversing into my garage door. Basically, one day after lunch, I was reversing into my garage like a normally do, but either the garage door stopped in mid-rise or I lost track of my speed in reverse because the rear spoiler smacked into the aluminum of the garage door and damaged the spoiler, my hatch, and the garage door. My initial overreaction included thoughts of selling the car and contacting a body shop. Fortunately I provided myself the time to calm down and look into more reasonable repairs. Turns out that spoiler was still in decent shape, but because of the minor bends in the hatch and spoiler there was a gap in the weather stripping between hatch and spoiler which potentially could collect moisture and spill water into my rear trunk space. I ended up removing the rear spoiler and reinforcing the weather stripping with some from Home Depot in hopes of preventing water from going where it shouldn’t. I washed the car afterwards to test and did not see water in the rear trunk so hopefully I did well.
In the past several months I became increasingly interested in a Tesla Model Y, to the point of having an itchy finger to order it for 2021 delivery. I could not pull the trigger as the price continued to increase on the model to a point that I simply did not want to pay. Also, fortunately, the requirements at work as a manager removed free time I would need to look into trade-ins and the likes for the Honda, which I would need to sell towards the Tesla. At the end of the day, every time I deliberate, I end up realizing that not having the car loan and saving is of more interest to me then the bells and whistles that a Model Y can provide.
The paver patio is done, and my wife has attempted to make several pizzas with the new pizza oven. I ordered furniture as well as coordinating contractors for both gutters and sod installation. There are significant delays in receiving goods and services for the money that has already been paid–this appears to be the new normal. Every new pizza comes out better, and she is enjoying her new hobby.
Project CELICA has remained the same. I never ended up replacing the spiral cable as it simply costs too much from the dealership and I couldn’t find an aftermarket one. If push comes to shove, I’ll buy an airhorn and keep it in the passenger seat. Also, one of my door actuators, the one on the passenger side, no longer works. It did when I replaced it, but within months it already doesn’t work. It may be the actuator itself, or it may be some other mechanical problem–I’ll need to open the door panel back up to investigate. Add that to my list of things to do…
Aside from that, still trying to pay debt and begin saving…