Traffic Trouble

I had scheduled to go eat with a past coworker. Had not seen him in more than a few months. I told him I could come to his house. He has a Fuddruckers restaurant nearby. I left my house early, planning to gas up my car. To my surprise, the GPS said it would take extra time to arrive. I skipped the gas fill up and hit the highway.

The first trouble was some vehicle stranded on the side of the road. I just went to the lane further away and was only slowed down a bit. Then there was construction. They closed down a lane or two. Disaster. I called up my friend to tell him I would be late. He said he would just leave his house a lot later to meet me.

When I arrived, I could not find my friend. I called him but it went to voice mail. He was not in the restaurant. I went outside and found him parked far away from the entrance. He said he would treat today. I ordered a #2 which costs $20. I should have got a #1 that was only $15. There were very similar in size.

The ride home was treacherous too. When I got off the toll road, the GPS told me to avoid the highway. I roamed the side street in the city where my company's headquarters is. Much construction there slowed things down too. I decided to stop following the GPS instructions. Took another toll road home. Next time I might take a train to visit my friend. Same amount of time, but a lot easier for me.

Evaluating Magazines

I got 3 magazines in the mail the other day. One of them I subscribed to. But the other two were new. So, I thought I would give them a look and consider subscribing. First up is Town and Country. The magazine is kind of thin. I don't know much about it. There were the usual suspects advertising in it. I liked that Kirstin Dunst is on the cover. This issue had an in depth article on OnlyFans. Cost is $10 per year (significantly discounted). It may be worth subscribing to.

Next up is Esquire magazine. I have heard of this tile before. Leonardo DiCaprio was on the cover. I still want to read it. Discounted rate is $6 per year for me. So, I suspect I will subscribe.

McDonald's BTS Tiny Tan Figures

Momoko introduced me to some BTS toys in McDonald's happy meals. They started out with a retro set of seven. Momoko got them all. I got a few. We would order 2 happy meals each. Sometimes I would get nuggets. Sometimes cheeseburgers. I always opted for 2 kids fries instead of apple slices.

Recently, McDonald's came out with the next generation of BTS toys. Both Momoko and I both wanted the Jung Kook one. He is wearing a black "bucket hat". At first, Momoko did not have any luck. They she decided we should all eat happy meals for dinner.

My brother and I went to one McDonald's. Momoko went to another. We both independently got a Jung Kook toy with the black hat. Good times. Momoko still needs one more to finish her collection of 7 of the latest versions of the toys. I am good with the black hat one I just got.

Gerbil Loses a Tail

I was going to let two gerbils out of their cage to run around on the floor. I grabbed the first one and put her down on the ramp. Then I grabbed the tail of the second gerbil to let her out. She dove down into a hole in her cage as I held onto her tail. Then her tail seemed to break off.

Momoko read up on the situation and said the gerbil might need to clean what was left of her tail. I put a bath in her cage. She came out to see what I was doing. It seems her tail did not fully break off. Instead I pulled off the fur and some skin.

Momoko directed Little Kat to clean the gerbil cage. He put bag a floor of fluff. Then he had Momoko cut a new box to be their house. He lowered the water bottle so they could drink easily. He left out most of the other stuff that is usually in their cage. Both gerbils seemed okay. Whew.

Shooting Range

Momoko's brother in law said he wanted to go shooting with me. So, when I woke up, I ran out to get breakfast. The local joint said they were out of jalapenos. That messed up my plans. Ended up ordering a bacon burrito and cherry slush. Was strange they charged 30 cents for the cherry flavoring,

Momoko's BIL called me asking what I wanted to shoot. I said a 22 gauge revolver was all I was interested in. He said he had plenty of that ammo. He came over and we headed to an indoor gun range. We decided to share one lane. Then we found out that BIL forgot the ammo. I had to buy 2 packs of it. I saved some money by opting for "mini mags".

I had to borrow eye protection from the range. BIL gave me ear plugs. I put headphone speakers over top of that. It was still loud with the 9mm guns blazing. I initially was shooting high on my target. When we put a fresh target up, I sent the target far down the lane. Was able to hit with half the shots. Some guy working there kept sweeping up the shell casings. There were a couple girls present with their boyfriends.

I got proficient at loading a 6-shooter revolver. Next time, I will come with stronger ear protection. I will hopefully save the eye protection they gave to me. I do prefer outdoor shooting. But BIL let his outdoor membership lapse a long time ago. 

High Lawn

Momoko's dad has the neighbor mow his lawn. But he only mows the front. The back lawn was over a foot high. Momoko's dad has a lawn mower. So, I decided to cut the back grass. I had to disconnect the power cord from the mover to move it out of the garage. Then I could not start the thing.

I was pulling the rope that normally starts lawn mowers. Momoko's dad explained that I needed to hold down a bar handle, and then press the electric start. I was off to the races. Mowing was a slow process. It took a while for the mower to move over the tallest grass. If I moved too fast, the mower would stall.

I also encountered some problems with sticks being on the ground under the grass. That would mess up the mower. I ran out of gas less than half way through. Luckily there was a 5 gallon can full of gas. I could not figure how to get the spout of the gas can working. I just skipped it and poured the gas right out of the can directly into the mower.

The grass so crazy that I had to mow over certain spots multiple times to ensure the grass got cut. Afterwards, I put everything away. Then I used a grabber to pick up sticks. They were hard to pull out of the weeds. I tossed them into the huge garbage can. I barely made a dent on the sticks though. Somebody must have cut a lot of stuff down and just tossed them on the ground. Fail. 

Japanese Hibatchi

Momoko's niece had scheduled a time for me, her boyfriend, and Momoko's dad to go out to dinner. Momoko's boyfriend recommended we go to a Japanese Hibatchi restaurant that he used to work at. From all the driving I did earlier in the day, the gas in the car was low. So, we went to Sam's Club to fill up the gas tank. Momoko's dad paid with his Sam's club card. When done, he said he dropped his wallet on the floor.

I searched the floor of his car. Eventually he recommended that I call his phone. The thing rang. The phone was in his pocket all along. He wanted me to use OnStar to get directions. But I did not trust his GPS direction. I used my phone plus Apple CarPlay. We headed to the Japanese Hibatchi restaurant. The GPS took us to a mall. I drove along the edge but did not see any restaurant. I called Momoko's niece. Her boyfriend said I was at the wrong side of the mall. They came out of the restaurant to flag me down.

Momoko's dad had a walker. But he had a hard time getting into the restaurant. He needed to climb a few stairs. He took a few rests. The place did not have any Yumi Yumi sauce. They cooked vegetables individually. They provided soup. But it was not Miso soup. The fried rice was not good. Shrimp was delicious. Momoko's dad got most of his meal to go. There was some $6 or $8 option to get 10k days of happiness. It seemed for birthdays. We skipped that option. Momoko's niece's boyfriend picked up the tab. 

Used Car Dealer

I had seen some Tiktok videos of this used car dealer 1.5 hours north of Momoko's dad. I wanted to visit them. I borrowed Momoko's dad's car and took out the oxygen tank for room. I drove over half an hour to pick up Momoko's niece and her boyfriend. They had researched places to eat near the dealership.

We ended up going to a cafe. I got a catfish lunch special that gave me access to the salad bar and soda. I got some potato salad, a hot pepper, and a salad with ranch. I asked for hot sauce. But then I noticed they gave me tartar sauce. I finished up with a loaded baked potato plus a Sprite. Momoko's niece bought a candle from the cafe.

Then I drove us to the car dealership. They had to special deals for under $1k. The lowest priced car was one at $10k. It was no good. I did look at a $15k Ford Escape with 98k miles. Too much money for too many miles. Then I spotted a 2016 Chevy Tahoe for $16k that had 140k miles. It was an LTZ top of the line model. The dash board was thrashed. The rims were big and good. Probably found on road dead.

Next we went to Hobby Lobby for Momoko's niece. I bought some $5 t-shirts. We proceeded to the apartment complex the niece and her boyfriend were going to move into. They were two story units. They planned for a 900 square foot, 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit. They were not sure which one they would be renting. I dropped them off at their home. I drove back to Momoko's dad's house. We plan to all go to Japanese Hibachi  tonight. 

Mayhem in the Metro

I was heading west to visit family on vacation. Momoko dropped me off at the train station. I checked on the amount on my fare card. Some dude was coming off the train. He had a hard time, but he jumped over the turnstile without paying a fare. Nobody did anything. I caught the next train heading out. I sat near the conductor.

Some woman came on, She had a few kids. They had a dog too. Did not know that was allowed. The woman screamed into her phone at somebody. Her kids screeched loudly as well. I saw a cop come on board. Figured he must be there for the woman. He wrote something down on a pad. Then it seems like he did nothing else.

 I was glad to switch trains to get to the airport. I went through TSA pre-check. Some CLEAR employee kept blocking our line to put CLEAR customers through ahead of us. Annoying. I ordered some tator tots. They were hot. I asked for hot sauce. Sat and ate them. Read the rest of the book I was reading.

When it got close to departure, I got a drink of water and went by my gate. It was standing room only. Other people standing kept discussing where our plane was. We must have departed 30 minutes late. I alerted my brother-in-law who was picking me up. It was a full flight. I read a whole book during the flight Kept the shades closed to keep the temperature cool. I learned that to avoid the $35 bag check in fee, I could just carry on two items. I need to buy a small suitcase. 

Changing of the Guard

We have a long retaining wall at the top of the hill in our back yard. It was an extension of the original small one that held up the ground by the edge of our original patio. One board in the wall had rotted out. My brother took me in his truck to Lowe's. I got a new piece of lumber to replace it.

Today I had a lunch meeting. So, I ate early. After the meeting, I ran a long running job at work. Then I went out. I dug up the dirt in front of the damaged board. It was tough as it was laced with gravel. And it was on top of a wire mesh. I got the new board in.

Then I had to take some breaks. I back filled the hole in front of the board with fresh gravel. Then I took the gravel I dug up and put it along a trench behind the fence. I picked up the plywood and lumber that held the gravel I dug up. Then I finally got rid of some of the trash from the project.

My boss was out of the office. But his boss, and some people on the new team were trying to get me to join a meeting. I had missed it by two hours. I told my boss' boss that I went to the lunch meeting. Then I was away from my laptop. Oh well.

Trying to Eat Fresh

I rushed up to Subway for lunch before a work meeting. Saw a lady in a red jumpsuit lounging around outside. She asked me for 50 cents. I said nuh uh. When inside, I confirmed with the worker that I could use my coupon. She said I could if it was not expired. I check the date. It said 9/11. That is a couple weeks from now.

After having my sub built, some other worker took over payment. She asked if I wanted chips or cookies. I said I wanted 2 cookies that are included in the deal. I handed her my coupon. She said the coupon expired on the 11th. She said she could still give me the discount.

I retorted that it is going to expire on September 11. This month is August. The coupon does not expire for almost another month. I don't need her to give me anything special. Just the coupon that is currently valid. WTF?

The State of Book Reading

I just finished reading a massive tome on the long history of IBM. Wanted to follow it up with something light. Started this weird graphic novel called Sharknife.

I was reading multiple technical books on the Oracle database this year. I have quite a collection of such books. The remainder in my library seem mid. Thus, I have started reading my Oracle e-books.

I was also following a print book that had python programming exercises. I started to get bored of these small exercises. By the 90th program or so, I was just about done. I sped through the last couple exercises. Now I am going to do exercises from an e-book on python programming.

Finally, I downloaded some Kindle books for free. They were made available due to Momoko's Amazon Prime membership. I have been downloading free e-books forever. Time to start reading these things. I have started with a book called The Chemistry Test. A girl gets a new fancy wheelchair to up her confidence as she starts college.

Five Beyond

 

Momoko ordered some stuff for school from Five Below online. It had free shipping to the local store. Today we went to pick her stuff up. She also wanted to purchase some additional items from the store. I thought I might get some nice cheap items too.

I saw a mirror for $35. LOL wut? Then there were inline skates for $25. Hello? What happened to a cap of $5 on each item. Momoko commented that they were now doing a Five Beyond pricing. That makes no sense. Every store has the ability to price items to infinity and beyond.

Not saying these items were not worth the higher price tag. But I am at this store to sub $5 items. The last straw was that they don't have checkout clerks. You need to scan and  pay for the items yourself. Fail. I don't think I shall be returning to this store. Maybe time for Dollar Tree.

Missed Out on Airlines Deal

I saw a TikTok video about a 50% discount on SouthWest flights. I checked online. It actually was 40% off my desired flight. I thought I had a month and a half to decide. After a couple days, I found that the deal had expired.

I tried another deal I saw online. It was just 20% off. Unfortunately, it was only for SouthWest employees. I ended up paying full price. I am expecting SouthWest to nickel and dime me to the tune of $35 per bag each way.

The only good news is that I can borrow my father-in-law's vehicle during my stay. I won't have to rent a car, which would have cost me $500+. I did notice there were cool cars available at the lowest price. Things like a Mustang convertible or a 4-door Jeep. Oh well. Too much money.

Food Melting Soon

Kit Kat has a service that provides her raw ingredients for her meals. She usually has the box shipped to our house on Fridays. She chooses from some meal options. They give her the recipe. And all ingredients are provided.

Yesterday Kit Kat was a bridesmaid for her college dorm mate's wedding. Her food package came. I was tired because I had just returned from vacation.I should have asked Little Kat to deliver the box to Kit Kat's apartment. But I did not.

Today we figured Kit Kat would come and pick up her box. But she got sick due to some wedding food. Momoko asked Little Kat to deliver the box to Kit Kat's apartment. Apparently Little Kat was booked. He was helping set up a new player for his D&D campaign.

So it was up to us. My brother, Momoko, and I went to Kit Kat's apartment. We brought up the box. But we left immediately to get lunch at Subway. I left my keys with my brother, who stayed in the car and left the car and A/C running.

House Search Redux

Momoko would not do any more driving. So I had to take the wheel. I went by McDonald's to order some new chicken tenders. The line was too long. And the drive through had two speakers that merged into one lane. I left and went to the first house.

Started looking at a house from the alley. It was a brand new townhouse. It had two carport spaces front to back. The whole neighborhood was new town houses. There was no grass to mow. It had a $50 HOA fee. At least it was an end unit.

Next I tried looking at a cheaper new house. It was close to the town house. It boasted mini-split A/C units in the bedrooms. And it had a leaf guard on the rain gutters. However when we saw the house, it was not a single family as advertised. It was a duplex. Nope.

Finally we looked at another single family house. It had a narrow but very deep back yard. It was built in 1830. That was big concern, as we just saw a Mike Holmes show that uncovered tons of issues in a really old house. This turned out to be moot. The house was on a totally busy street.

Afterwards, I went to a Sonic drive through for a SuperSonic burrito. We got there one hour before the place closed. I brought the food back to our hotel room. The ride back to the hotel was short. That means the ride from these places, which were all close to each other, was very short to Fuddruckers. 

Getting Lost on the Mountain

I was dreaming about winning the lottery jackpot. Then with the proceeds, I would buy a vacation house up north near a Fuddruckers restaurant. I had Momoko drive me to a few houses for sale. Today I took the wheel to see some more expensive houses. The last one was on a mountain road.

The GPS told us to take a road that had a covered one lane bridge. I skipped that road because it was hard to navigate. We were headed to the mountain road. Some guy in a sit down lawn mower came down a hill fast and almost came out on the street in front of us. We passed him and found the house for sale. It was too close to a busy road.

We went on and ended up by some faire grounds. Momoko entered the address of a restaurant by our hotel to guide us home. She later said her phone had a glitch. This mountain home was 10+ minutes from our hotel. However the GPS said it would take a half hour to get back there. I had to pull off the road for Momoko to calibrate the GPS. We essentially did a U-turn and back tracked to get back on the road we came from.

I am now safe in the hotel room. I plan to do some studying before the July 4 holiday. That way we can just have it be a travel day without any extra chores.  

The New Yorker Sales Pitch

I got an advertisement in the mail to subscribe to The New Yorker magazine. It is published weekly. Cover price is $10. They were willing to give me a 26 week subscription for $1 a week (total $26). If I ordered online, the price would drop to $21.

I don't know much about the magazine. But I do know a good deal when I see one. I went online to subscribe. Almost got to the checkout. Then I saw the fine print. They plan to use my credit card to automatically resubscribe me at $180 a year.

I detest this kind of sneaky practice. So much so that I am definitely not subscribing. They got so close. If they would only have had stand up practices, provided me with great content, I may have resubscribed at will. But no. They will never get the chance because of this underhanded technique. Shame on you New Yorker.

Water Under the Sink

Last week, I went to get some garbage bags from under the sink. The garbage bag box was soaked with water. The bags all fell out on the floor. I cleared half the stuff under the sink. There seemed to be water under and to left of the disposal.

I dried everything off. Placed the items in bankers boxes. Then I cleaned up the bottom of the cabinet under the sink. I emailed the family. Nobody noticed anything. Little Kat did the dishes. He said the water sprayer was leaking whenever the water was turned on.

I called the plumber who did our toilet. They sent out a guy ASAP. He confirmed the sprayer was no good. He said I should buy a new faucet. He said get a name brand like Moen or Kohler. I ran to Lowe's. There was one faucet that looked like ours. But it was some other unknown brand. I settled for a Moen.

Tried to call the plumber back. Had to leave a message. Ate lunch at Jerry's. When home, got a call back from the plumber. They said they could return this afternoon. I read my book, sitting by the winder, waiting for the plumber. A new guy came and spent 30 minutes replacing the faucet.

No Hot Water

Momoko took a shower and said the water was not as hot with the normal shower settings. Water at the sink was also not very hot. Later that day, I tried to take a shower. The water was cold. This morning I tried to press the button to light the hot water tank pilot. It did not work.

I tried a couple times calling the plumber that fixed out toilet last. They never picked up the call. Then I tried to call the guy who installed the hot water heater. Just got a message saying he is no longer a plumber. So I just googled for plumbers and chose a name I recognized. They gave me a 3 hour window this afternoon for a plumber to come.

After lunch I got a call from the company. They said the plumber was on his way, and would be here in 45 minutes to an hour. I just read my books. Three and a half hours later, I called the main office back. Nobody had shown up.

I stayed on hold for 15 minutes and hung up when the plumber showed up at the door. He said for $300 he could try to light the pilot. I asked him what would happen if he could not. He said something about me having to pay less. That was unsettling. But it was the end of the day. I watched as he did a few things and lit the pilot. I made sure I could replicate those actions myself. He said we should have full hot water in 1 hour.

Delivery Man for Kit Kat

Momoko and Little Kat drove together to work today. Little Kat's car is having problems getting out of park. We plan to drop the car off at the shop tomorrow afternoon. Shortly after getting to work, Momoko called me and said Kit Kat was stick today. She usually receives Every Plate cooking supplies delivered to our house on Fridays. Momoko asked me to bring the goods to Kit Kat's apartment.

When I finally got out of bed, I planned to go to Jerry's subs and pizza. Kit Kat's delivery had already arrived. I called her up and we planned for me to drop off her packages. She said she was too sick to open the outer door to her apartment building. I gathered the Every Plate, her Chewy order, and another Amazon package. Then I drove to her apartment.

I had to make two trips to Kit Kat's building. The packages were heavy. I put everything down in front of the apartment door. Then I struggled as usual to open the outer door. I struggled and carried all the items up a flight of stairs. I rested them on top of a window sill. Then I called Kit Kat to open her apartment door. Her two cats came out to the living room to investigate. I did not stay long so I would not contract whatever disease Kit Kat had.

Beach Vacation

Momoko and I took a trip to the beach. It was supposed to be sunny. But it rained all day one day. We had an oceanfront room. They were renovating a beach bar outside. So there was a lot of noise every morning. The snack bar inside was only open in the mornings. A dude I met was bummed the indoor ice skating rink was closed.

We met a work friend who was also down at the beach. She had a hard time getting the room at her hotel she wanted. One did pop up last minute. But it was renovated to her dislike. The big couch was gone. Large tables gone. Balcony small. Tub gone. Shower with a temporary tension bar in its place. At least our friend showed us a place on the bay side with the best crab cakes.

Our hotel was good except the door to our room would not easily open at nights. I had to struggle each night. On the last night, I just went to pick up carry out. Momoko stayed behind and opened the door for me. The restaurant asked me if I wanted ketchup with my fries. I did. I also requested plastic utensils for Momoko's turkey platter. The hostess complained of having to walk back to the kitchen.

We went down to the boardwalk one day. They closed off 80% of the parking lot, making us to walk far just to get to the boardwalk. Momoko spent a lot of time inside a jewelry store. She got a new chain, a new pendant for Kit Kat, and a pendant for herself. We bought caramel popcorn and taffy for Kit Kat. Took a while to check out as the customer before us tried to pay with a $100. They had no change.

One night we found that Dairy Queen had southern gravy for Momoko. She got the chicken dinner. I got a $7 meal which included a sundae. It was not enough food for me. But Momoko gave me some of her copious fries she could not eat. On TV, we watched local drag strip racing. The winner raced the pro-outlaw after negotiating a handicap.

Minecraft at McDonald's

McDonald's has new combo meals featuring toys from Minecraft. This is in conjunction with the new Minecraft movie. I ordered two Big Mac meals so far. But both times, I got the Bic Mac Minecraft toy. I wanted something else. So I figured I might go to another restaurant.

I went to one by my brother's work. They were closed for renovation. Next I went to one by my old townhouse. They said they did not have toys for the combo meals. They did have Minecraft Happy Meals. I ordered one.

The guy at the window handed me one Happy Meal. Then he parked me. When the food was delivered, they gave me another Happy Meal. Both meals had the same Creeper toy. I liked it because it was not a McDonald's character. It was a character from the actual Minecraft game.

Food Lion Sales

Momoko thought we would need bottled soft drinks for our vacation trip. I decided to head to my go to grocery store - Food Lion. They have 6-packs of Coke normally for $7.50. However, this week they are three for $12. I bought three. Instead of paying $22.50, I got them for $12.

I like glad trash bags for the kitchen trash can. They have handles that you can easily grab and tie. The bags have gotten just too expensive on Amazon. Boxes of them cost $17.50 through Amazon. Food Lion has knock off bags that are also handle tie. They are $5 a box. No sale needed.

Momoko has not bought 12-packs of Coke in a while. They are too expensive at Giant or even Shoppers Food Warehouse. Today at Food Lion, they were two for $11. I picked up a coke and a cherry coke. Good times should follow.

Finally I decided to splurge. I got Ocean Spray cranberry juice. They are normally $4.29, which sounds outrageous. But today I got them two for $6. I got a pair. Delicious. I think the family may prefer Cran Grape. I just like straight up cranberry.

Thai Food Thwarted

Kit Kat declared that Momoko and I have not seen her cats in a long time. So we scheduled a visit for today. Kit Kat ate brunch with her friends in the morning. Thus we planned a mid afternoon visit to her apartment. Previously she had ate Thai food with her friends. I wanted her to show us her favorite Thai food place.

Momoko and I came to Kit Kat's after she said she came home. We went up and her cats were as friendly as always. There was a bunch of meowing. Momoko played with them using a wooden stick to get their attention. Kit Kat seemed hungry even after eating brunch. She drove us to an upscale strip mall nearby. There were many people walking around. But there was little parking.

We went to the Thai restaurant. The hostess said they were very busy. It would be a 45 minute wait to be seated. We left without dining in. I called up a backup Mexican restaurant. They said they had seating available. When we arrived at the Mexican joint, there was hardly anybody there. Kit Kat and I had chimichangas. Momoko had enchiladas.

Afterwards, Momoko talked me into driving by McDonald's to get soft server ice cream. When we got home, we smelled some delicious cooking. Little Kat had cooked one of Kit Kat's every plate meals.

Couch Shopping Again

Momoko had complained that our couch was giving her little to no support. I braced under the seat cushions with lumber and plywood. This provided more than enough support. But the seat cushions kept popping out now. It was getting out of hand.

I decided we needed to go couch shopping. We went back to the place where we bought our current couch. The shopping center has an Amish market that is crazy busy. We waited until Sunday when the Amish market was closed.

Momoko was worried about bad weather on Sunday. I said we could postpone shopping for a week. In the end, we headed our before the worst of the weather came our way. We were surprised with the number of cars in the parking lot. Turns out the space next to the furniture store was some sort of church. We heard the music from the church in the store.

The store looked different than when we last purchased a couch. Momoko sat on maybe 10 couches. I sat on the top 5 she thought would do. I asked the sales guy if they delivered and would take away the old couch. He said $130 for delivery. $60 to take away an old couch.

Momoko narrows the top 5 down to two couches. Both had good support. I liked the arm rests on one. It was listed at a sales price of $1400 for couch plus love seat. The sales guy previously said he could beat the sales price a bit. I asked him how much for just the couch. When he said $600, I told him let's wrap up the deal and I would pay for delivery.

These guys are just a reseller for Ashley Furniture for this specific couch. He said they could deliver it to us next week. I will be happy when the deal is done. I spent this afternoon pulling out the supporting lumber and plywood. Momoko is vacuuming around the old couch to prep for the new one.

Chevy Acquired by Momoko

Momoko used a third party web site to search the area for cars. She found what seemed like a gem of a Chevy Trailblazer. It had remote start and heated mirrors. All Chevy's have Apple CarPlay. It did not have all wheel drive. The price seemed pretty good at $2200+ under MSRP.

I called the dealership. There was some accounting tricks of double billing freight. However the actual discount off MSRP was over $2200. It was late in the day. We decided to go to the dealership the next day, even though the salesman we talked to was not going to be in the office.

Before heading over, I called the dealership again. Confirmed the pricing. Later asked if Momoko could qualify for a $500 educator discount. She could. She could also qualify for 3.9% 36-month financing. Momoko test drove the car without a license plate. We spent a long time trying to sign up to get the educator discount.

We also spent forever waiting for the lone finance person to see us. Once we got in, finance took all of 10 minutes. I talked Momoko into taking the 3.9% 36-month special financing. I had transferred a sizable down payment amount to our joint checking account. Momoko had sold her car. So she would be in for a windfall soon. I just floated her a loan.

They had trouble getting wireless Apple CarPlay to work. I brought over my USB cord, and CarPlay worked whether the phone was physically connected. We spent 30 minutes in the new car waiting for the insurance company to pick up the phone to confirm we were covered in the new car. Momoko took the back road home in her new car.

Car Hunt for Momoko

Momoko started having problems with her Honda HRV. The brakes did not stop the car properly a few times. The trunk hatch would not open. Our mechanic could not figure those problems out. Time to sell. CarMax opened at 9:00am. We got there by 9:30. It was already crowded.

The CarMax people detected the paint job from a prior accident. Estimates for the trade in were between $13k and $16k. They offered us $15k. Momoko decided to sell. I had to drive the car into their service bay. I could not get the car to reverse. Eventually I restarted the car and it worked. Sold just in time.

We went to a local Chevy dealer. It was a ghost town. Momoko wanted to look at the Trax and Trailblazer. The Trax door frames were too small for me to get in. The Trailblazer had good head room in the front and back. Both had a 3 cylinder engine with turbo. I felt the engine working hard pulling out of the lot. The car sat high. The MSRP was at the top of Momoko's budget. 

This dealer added a dent package and appearance package, both at $699. So we will probably not buy from this dealer. The car was only front wheel drive. Remote start was an extra $599. They could not add heated mirrors. Most other SUV options were more expensive. We might be stuck for a new car.

TurboTax Failure

Momoko and I alternate who buys our tax preparation software each year. This time around it is Momoko's responsibility. She complained that TurboTax no longer offers a CD/DVD to install their software. Apparently you can only download the program online. I did not like this at all.

To actually obtain some product in hand, Momoko went to Staples and purchased TurboTax Deluxe federal and state. It just comes with an online license code. I was the first to file taxes this year. So I tried to download the software. The download failure over 10 times. The whole experience was an epic fail. Time to write the CEO of Intuit Software. Next year I am in charge. We might have to switch to H&R Block TaxCut software.

There were additional trials. TurboTax does not work on my Windows 7 Desktop. We have a family computer in the library that has Windows 10 or 11 on it. However it is seldom used. I had to clear out the area. Tried using the wireless mouse. It was covered in gunk that would not scrub off with either Formula 409 nor Dawn dish detergent. Luckily I had backup wireless mice that could be swapped in.

Low Tire Pressure in the Cold

I got a report from OnStars that my tires were inflated at around 27 PSI. That is low as the recommended pressure is 35 PSI. Then my car started complaining about the rear passenger tire. It was down to 26 PSI. I tried to use my portable air compressor. It was going haywire when I tried to fill up my tire.

Tried to warm up the compressor by bringing it indoors for a few hours. The thing was still broke. I uses Momoko's air compressor. It filled up the rear tire. But the plastic part that unclamps the hose from my tire snapped up. I was able to get the hose off my tire. But the compressor was now unusable.

Momoko purchased another air compressor. This time she chose a new brand. I was able to fill up my 3 other car tires with it. I then ordered myself one of these from Amazon.

Buying Bleach from Amazon

I was running low on bleach I use to keep the basement drain flowing. So I ordered a six pack from Amazon. I just chose the low price third party seller. After a while, the seller declared the item delivered. I waited two days. Still no bleach. I called up Amazon. They said they needed to give the seller two days to respond.

Amazon did give me a $10 credit for my trouble. I just had to order items sold by Amazon. I had a certification book on my list for a while. It costs $9.99. So I got the book for free.

The bleach did arrive after the complaint. Inside the box were three heavy duty plastic bags with two bleach bottles each. The bleach was leaking in the plastic bags. What a crock. I had to do a hazmat clean up.

Moral of the story is to only order from third party sellers with good ratings. The seller I chose had like a 50% approval rating. Terrible. I blasted them with a review having the lowest score.

Rock Salt Restock

Momoko checked the rock salt in our carport shed. It had just about been depleted. She got help from my brother to move bags of it from our back yard big shed to the easily accessible carport shed. She only mentioned this to me in passing.

I asked her how many bags were left in the big shed. We need to keep stocked up. She thought there were five. I had her double check. There were only two. When it snows heavy like it did a week ago, all the rock salt in the region sells out.

While driving past a hardware store, we saw a sign that they had restocked winter supplies. I doubted  they had any rock salt available. If anything, they would have one or two overpriced small bags of ice melt. I checked online. Our local Lowes was sold out of everything - rock salt, ice melt, etc.

I decided to check around online. A store a couple cities north of us said they had everything. I also doubted it. But I swung by. There was nothing in front of the store. There was a box of overpriced ice melt in a front aisle. Another guy and I quizzed a store employee. He told us a couple places where rock salt might be.

I grabbed a heavy duty dolly. The other guy went to the outdoor area. I went to aisle 28. Bingo. There were two sections of rock salt. I asked the employee if there was a limit to how much I could buy. He had no clue. I decided to load up 10 bags at under $12 each. The checkout girl did not care how much I had.

Put four bags in the carport shed (it had already been drained down to half a bag in there). Moved my brother's SUV out of the way. Then I backed my SUV into the corner of our driveway. I carried six bags of 50 pound rock salt into our big shed. It was tricky as the snow was high and the ramp up the shed had packed slippery snow on it.

Momoko said the true snow-mageddon is coming this upcoming weekend. Could be as much as 14 inches at a time. Multiple snowfalls are expected. At least we are prepared in the rock salr department,

Let It Snow

Momoko had a whopping two weeks of Christmas and New Year's vacation. But she felt like it was not enough. Especially because I had those two weeks, and got another week for training. Momoko wished it would snow and give her a few more days off.

Ask and you shall receive. Snowmageddon came. Her school closed Monday. Decision was made Sunday afternoon. My brother parked his 4-wheel drive SUV at the end of the driveway so he would not have to shovel his way out on the way to work.

Little Kat and I parked our cars on the old broke part of our driveway that is hard to shovel snow off of. Our plans was to dig out Little Kat's car and my car when the snowfall stopped. We dug out in front of Little Kat's car. He drifted to the street where he cleaned off his car. I cleared my brother's space so Little Kat could part in it.

Our plan was to then dig out my car, roll it to the street, and clean it off. We were too tired from the earlier shoveling. It is still snowing. We plan to regroup when my brother comes home and dig out my car. It is scheduled to snow again this afternoon and tonight. We may have to repeat this tomorrow.

Sagging Couch Repair

Momoko complained about our living room couch. We were going to go shopping to find a replacement. I recalled the last time we bought one. It was rough taking out the old couch and bringing in the new one. So I asked Momoko what the specific issue was. She said the seat area was too low. She was sinking in.

We took off the gerbil couch cover. Then we removed the seat cushions. The seat area had minimal support. I cut a 2x4 piece of lumber. Tried to brace it across the couch for support. Had a rough time getting in in past the arm rests.

After that, we had a single 2x4 lumber diagonally on the seat area. I got smaller length 2x4 lumber to brace the other areas. Momoko said there was support, but she felt like the seat was leaning her forward. I added a 1x4 board across on the front of the couch. For now the thing is working.

Eventually we will need a new couch. Maybe then I can pay somebody to deliver and remove the old one.