Dust Under the Bed

 

I spotted a lot of dust under our bedroom bed. I had thought I cleaned it somewhat recently. Oh well. I grabbed the vacuum cleaning from the main level closet. At first I could not find the necessary attachments. Then I found then in a gym bag hanging from the wall in the closet.

I lay the vacuum on its side. Then I attached a small plastic brush. I kept pushing the brush under the bed. It seemed to clean okay. I moved all around my side. By the time I crossed over to Momoko's side, the vacuum did not seem to pick up as much.

I tested the attachment. There was suction. I did the best I could. There were more things in the way on Momoko's side as well. When I was done, I pulled off the attachment. That's when I found the thing jammed with mostly hair. I pulled the junk out and tossed it in the trash. Might have to clean again later.

The vacuum collection area was full. I went outside to empty it. It was snowing. So, I just did the work in the carport. Got two large sections of newspaper. Wet both of them to adhere to the dust. Then wrapped everything up in a grocery bag.

Fireplace Check

Today I wanted to test out our fireplace. Last time in the fire pit, the logs did not fully burn. I took a fat log from our carport shed. Used the chainsaw to cut it up into three small pieces. I also picked up a bunch of pieces of a tree branch I chopped up this weekend. The wood had softened up. I think the termites got to it.

I opened the flue in the fireplace. It was kind of weird. Felt like I just pushed it up. I know it must of worked. Because cold air came down on me. I put a lot of crumpled newspaper on the metal grill. Then I tossed some kindling. Some pieces were kinda thick. The I put the chopped logs on top. I lit the thing with matches and it started to burn.

I have maybe 10 full newspapers on the side. I kept crumpling the pages up and pushing them under the grill. It got so hot my legs felt singed. Even when I had a long pair of sweatpants on. I wanted to give the logs the best chance to fully catch fire and burn. The heat lasted about 6 hours. I closed the flue before bed.

Lighting the Fire Pit

I was trying to convince the family to light up the fire pit for the season. This is actually a new one we got from Momoko's sister. Nobody ever seemed remotely interested. So, today I lit the thing up myself.

Made sure to put a ton of newspaper balled up at the bottom. Then I grabbed some kindling from the trash can we filled in the car port in case of power outage. Finally, I grabbed a couple small logs from the car port shed. Again, we placed them there in case of power outage.

At first, the flames roared high. Only one of the log seemed to be marginally lit. I got a lot more newspaper that kept lighting and burning out. In the end, the logs seemed singed at best. Got to figure out what is wrong. Maybe need some lighter fluid?

Using Tech to Figure out Songs

Momoko and I went out to a steakhouse for lunch on the holiday. A sign out front confirmed they still offered $10 steaks to go with your meal. They suspiciously removed the signs for this from all the tables.

While eating lunch, I heard a song. I could not identify the artist. My iPhone informed me it was Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran. I was surprised. The chorus did not sound like him.

At home, I tried to find the song on YouTube. Had to google songs by Ed Sheeran where he talks about friends. Here is the chorus:

I'm on my way
Driving at 90 down those country lanes
Singing to "Tiny Dancer"
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it's real
And we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

Taking out the Big Trash

Today is a holiday. But it is not affecting trash pickup tomorrow. I planned to put out Little Kat's old Casper mattress on the curb. He checked with our county's trash rules. They should pick it up it we have the mattress covered. Little Kat purchased a cheap $5 kind/queen mattress cover from Amazon.

We had stored the mattress in our carport. Today I took out the trash cans by myself to prop up the mattress on the curb. Oops. There was still snow piled there from the street plowing. Luckily, it was somewhat warm. And it had rained. So, I just had to shovel a lot of ice/snow.

I called up Little Kat and my brother. We dragged the mattress to the curb. Made sure the plastic cover had the whole mattress protected. I later put some tape to keep the cover on. I also put 2 signs on the mattress with TRASH labels. I had to adjust a light trash can on one side, so the mattress did not topple the can.

Finally I bent the large new Casper mattress box and stuffed it half way into the recyclables container. Let's hope the collection people come and take everything away tomorrow. Sure beats hauling everything to the dump, which is in our county, but very far away.

Credit Confusion

At work, somebody scheduled a meeting during lunch time. I went to McDonald's in the late morning to ensure I would not go hungry. Got a $6 meal deal. When I drove up to pay, my card was declined. Luckily, I had cash to cover it.

I went home. Called my credit card company. The first person I talked to said somebody else would know what to do. I spoke with another guy. He could not figure out why the charge did not go through. He said everything was okay with my account.

That night, I picked up dinner for the family at Popeye's. Again, my card declined. I paid with cash. This time, I called up my credit card company and said the card keeps declining. I gave them the info from my card. They said another card was sent and activated. My card was now defunct.

There were no fraudulent transactions on my card. I have been using this card for around a month since I got it. I think something was screwed up at the credit card company. Their only idea was to send me another card. I scrambled to change my recurring payments to use another credit card I have.

Mattress Trouble

Little Kat thought it was time for a new mattress. He wanted to buy another Casper mattress. He thought he could get it on super sale at Costco. But when he returned to buy it from there, they had sold out. Instead he ordered one online.

The delivery was scheduled for today. The window for delivery was partially when Little Kat was at work. So, I left work early and manned the door until Little Kat came home. Then I turned it over to him and went to pick up dinner for the family.

When I got home, I saw an empty Casper box in our library. Guess the delivery happened on time. I eventually went to bed early. I needed to know the name of the next Mindy Kaling e-book I wanted to read. My list was down in the library on the family computer.

I came downstairs and found a strange light on. There was also a phone on the counter playing a video. I called out for Little Kat. Eventually I heard him downstairs. He was struggling, trying to bring up his old mattress. I tried helping him. We just could not move the large, heavy, bendy item up. I asked my brother for help.

We three struggled but brought the bed upstairs. There we put the county required plastic cover over the mattress. This was so bulky trash would come pick it up for disposal. Finally, we three dragged the mattress out onto our carport. I told the boys I would need help dragging it to the curb for trash day.

Arrival of the Mini PC

I ordered a new mini PC from Walmart. It was actually being sold by a third party. The thing is 4 inches by 4 inches. Truly tiny. It did not have an old VGA monitor connection. So, I bought a new 27 inch HDMI monitor as well.

I needed to remove the old PC from our library desk. There was a lot of junk and dust under the desk. We had Little Kat bring up a card table from his room. I laid out all the on the desk in front of the old family PC monitor. Plus everything I found under the desk. Momoko and Little Kat sorted through it.

Setup of the mini PC took a while. Windows downloaded updates as part of the first boot up. The new monitor I got had the thing tilting way too far forward. I had to stick a piece of lumber under the base to keep it straight. I realized the family PC has a great sound system. I want it.

I eventually installed TurboTax, now that we have a Windows 11 desktop computer. I am almost ready to file. But one of my brokers does not have my tax documents ready. Step up your game bro.

Taxes Ain't Easy

It is that time of year again. Momoko bought TurboTax last year. My turn now. I had it on my list of things to buy it. There does not seem to be any option to get it on DVD. You must download the software online. I pulled the trigger and bought a copy on Amazon.

I attempted to install it on our family computer. Failed. TurboTax now requires Windows 11. Our family computer is stuck on Windows 10. It struggles with Windows 10. Probably no chance we could upgrade to Windows 11 and have it work.

I got a laptop with Windows 11. Momoko uses Mac. But I want this thing installed on our family computer. Time for a new computer. Prices seem to have jumped. I found a tiny form factor computer (4 inches by 4 inches) for under $250. The catch is that it does not have a VGA monitor output. Only HDMI.

My only other option was a standard desktop computer for around $350. It was going to take a lot longer to get it delivered. I decided to go with the tiny one that comes tomorrow. I also purchased a 27 inch HDMI monitor to go with it.

Snowfall

The snow came to our area. Snowed for 24 hours. Then ice topped it off. As soon as it stopped snowing the family shoveled out our driveway. We had parked all cars at the end of the driveway. That way, we only had to shovel the active part of it.

I was surprised when a pickup truck with a snow plow came to our cul de sac. The guy did a mid job. But there was a single lane down the street. To get to it, I had to shovel from our driveway to the place where the plow made it. This let our car get out. We tried a lunch run. It was good until some GMC came from the opposite direction, almost getting us stuck.

The trash guys came a couple days late. I put out my trash on time. Kept adding more bags and cans. I saw the mail truck in the neighborhood. It took me two days to dig out our mailbox. I saw the mailman on our street. But half way down, he pulled into a driveway, turned around, and left. Slacked.

Snow Prep

This weekend, they say a large snowstorm is headed our way. We really started preparing today. Due to anticipated ice, and possible power outages, we wanted to make sure Kit Kat was safe in her apartment. We filled two bags with firewood logs. And another bag with kindling. We drove it up to Kit Kat's house.

Then we brought a good amount of firewood from the piles at the edge of our property into our carport shed for easy access. I had just purchased a new round trash can. We filled that up with kindling from my huge supply in the back yard. Brought that to the carport too.

Momoko tested one back area of our driveway. She sprinkled rock salt to see if it would melt any falling snow. Little Kat filled up his car with gas, as he is now the only one with all wheel drive. The main thing we had to do was bring the snow shovels from the big shed in the back yard to the carport shed. 

We parked the cars strategically. Two of my cars went on top of the old driveway that is hard to shovel snow off of. We also parked most cars closer to the street. That way we won't have to shovel off the full three lane driveway.

Storing Firewood

A few years back, I bought some firewood and had it delivered. I did not want the wood to get wet. So, I built a makeshift container out of lumber to store the firewood. I put a tarp on top. This worked for a few years. But the thing was not built well. It started falling apart. I decided to buy a replacement.

I went to Lowes. They previously advertised firewood holders with custom covers. They no longer had those in stock. They did sell holders. Cover were sold separately. The custom covers were expensive. I decided to take the advice of the Lowes associates, and just buy a tarp again to cover it.

I bought there holders. They were easy to assemble. I set up a temporary spot to place the wood while I swapped holders. Just some 2x4s on the ground to keep the wood elevated. Then I disassembled the old holders. Picked up all the leaves. Used some of the old holders to act as a platform. Then I put the three new holders in place.

I was going to stack the wood this weekend. But rain is coming. So, I stacked the wood. It just about hit. I made sure the center had the most of the wood. This should allows the rain to flow away from the pile.

Setting Boundaries

I had spent the day with Momoko's brother in law. We took a day trip and visited many stores. In the late afternoon, I returned to Momoko's dad's house. I told him I had a lot of training to do for work. He said he needed help figuring something out.

I heard that Momoko's dad wanted to see if the legs on two of his beds were interchangeable with each other. His proposal was to measure the height of the legs. Then cut a 2x4 piece of wood to prop one edge of the bed up as I tried interchanging the legs

I told Momoko's dad that I only had time for this one task. It took a long time to cut the 2x4, as he wanted to use a professional grade saw. While we were in the workshop, he asked about a piece of plywood there. Then he asked about a lot of other wood on the other side of the shop.

Since I was on a time crunch, I told him we did not need any other wood to figure out the bed legs. He said he wanted me to gather information on a project to repair his shed door. I told him there was no time for that as I was already behind schedule. He tried to argue with me. I shut it down. I told him this was a hard boundary for me. If I say I have budget for only 1 task, then do not ask for any more favors.

The real crime was after I checked the bed legs, Momoko's dad wanted me to change batteries in a portable air machine and charge up the battery that was dead. I did not have time to set the guy right at the moment, but I mentally scheduled a long talk for the next day. 

Supercar Show

I was scheduled to travel 2 hours north to see a super car show today with Momoko's BIL. He said he would pick me up at 7:30am. I woke up at 6:30am and tried to eat SONIC. It was closed. I went to McDonald's and got a $5 number two.

We headed north. Went on the turnpike. When we got to the town, we saw no super cars. Apparently, we were a day early. Instead we went to Eskimo Joe's. We called ahead for a lunch reservation. When we arrived, it was still an hour until we could be seated. Decided to eat immediately at the bar. Had burgers. Plus friend mushroom appetizer.

I had a QuickTime cherry smoothie. It lasted all day. On the way home, we passed an interesting yard sale. Found a lot of artwork I liked. But I was far away from home. So, I left it all there. I did pick up a gift for Momoko.

Cataract Surgery

Papa Kat needed to have eye surgery today. He wanted me to park at the front door and wheel him into the building, I told him it was a no parking zone. I could stop and stand. But not park. He tried to tell me it was okay. But I ended up dropping him off with a wheel chair and finding parking.

I found a parking space on the second floor. I had to walk to the opposite end of the garage to get the stairs. I wheeled Papa Kat to check in. They did some eye tests. Then I took him up to surgery. We waited in his room for a long time. The nurse kept coming in and doing stuff. We met a lot of doctors. Eventually it was time.

I went to the visitor room. I called an old Egyptian buddy for work, I thought he retired last year. Could not speak with him since he left for Egypt right after retiring. Today I found out he quit because he got a new insufferable boss. Also found out the boss got reassigned. So, even thought my old friend quit, and he is old, he might come back.

After Papa Kat's surgery, they signed him up for a follow up. We tried to get transportation for him. They were too busy on the day of follow up. We went to have the appointment rescheduled. The eye people could not even see the appointment. We went back up to surgery. They said go to the eye people. WTF? Eventually a doctor gave us the name of the main scheduler in the eye department. We rescheduled the visit, and got transportation for the new date.

Go West Young Man

I had scheduled a trip to visit Papa Kat again in the new year. Little Kat took a half day at work to take me to the train station. I packed a backpack and tiny carry on. It did not hold much clothing.

At the airport, I asked the info desk whether I could enter the security to a different terminal than my plane. She said yes. Once through, I visited another info desk. Got a map of all the food offered in that terminal.  I thought I would eat some Chinese. Then I figured that was a sit down place. Instead, I got a chili dog and potato salad.

The flight was less than half full. I had the last three rows to myself. Attendants were plenty and not busy. I got two servings of cranberry juice. It was dark when we landed. Felt like the put on the heavy air brakes. The seat beat kept me in my seat.

Papa Kat's house has mice. He captured one on the third night here. I put it in the trash bag and carried it out to the big toter in the carport. Have not gone to my favorite tex-mex restaurant here yet.

Lost Wallet

I drove my new KIA Soul vehicle to H-Mart. Momoko was looking for tuna Gimbap. She did find it in stock. However each serving was $5. At Costco, it is 10 servings for $18. Momoko loaded up a bunch of Gimbap. Through either luck or her H-Mart rewards card, the price per serving was lowered to $4.

We did not need to go to a second larger H-Mart, as we found what we needed. Instead, I proceeded to SONIC for slushes. Momoko got a lemonade one, which came with a surcharge. The line was slow. Then we walked into Arbys. They had no specials. The sandwiches were too expensive. Instead we picked up lunch at Qdoba.

When I got home to eat, I found that my wallet was missing. It was not in the house. It was not in the car. It was lost. I called up all my credit card companies to cancel my cards. I was worried about my ATM card. Now I have nothing to pay electronically with. I made an appointment at the DMV to get a replacement license.

The KIA Soul

I had been seeing some nice KIA Soul cars on the road. Figured it would be a car as fun as my 2006 Scion xB. Started looking around at them. Knew I wanted keyless remote, power windows, and Apple CarPlay. I thought I needed to move up the Soul S trim to get CarPlay. Nope. It comes standard in the base LX trim.

I found two new Black 2025 KIA Soul LX cars online. One was at the local KIA dealer in my city. It was more expensive, due to a smaller dealer discount, and an extra tech package. Then there was another one at a KIA dealer an hour away from me.

Today Momoko and I visited the KIA dealer an hour away. Luckily there were no tolls roads. The guy I talked to on the phone was the manager. He handed me off to a salesman. We test drove the car around the block. Then I asked to see if the out the door price to buy it matched what the manager previously estimated. It did.

I entered an online application to run my credit through a credit score agency. Then I went to the finance dude and wrote them a check. There was a $750 rebate from KIA. And another $2000 dealer discount. Only thing I did not qualify for was a $500 military rebate. I feel like the walk out was maybe $2k more than what I can sell my 2024 GMC Terrain for.

I drove my Soul home with temp tags. Could not get in touch with my insurance agent. They took the day off. Tomorrow I asked Little Kat to help me sell my GMC Terrain at CarMAX.