It's Hot

Note: I wrote this post not just near labor day of this year, no no, this post is from near labor day a year prior to that. So enjoy this 1.5 year old post that Brooke only now got around to editing!

It has been a long time since I have posted here. Frankly, life just escapes me sometimes. I’ve signed myself up for a lot of differing activities, which I don’t want to bore you with at this time. However, I will tell you a bit about what I am doing this very second. I am at the public library because it is well over 90 degrees outside. My little house, which we moved into just a year ago, has no AC, and it is a furnace. So instead I am here. 

On one side, I don’t really have a way to play video games or other distractions here, so that is good. It gives me some time to actually write. You may or may not know it, but I’m working on my first novel (depending on when you read this it may be free to read on Wattpad). So I probably should be writing that instead. I’ve found the best way for me to get writing down is by postponing or procrastinating something else. So I am being productive while I procrastinate! It is a win-win.

The library is mostly quiet, although I just heard a man lightly swearing from a table over. He must be losing a game or a bet of some kind. Actually, perhaps it is Sonic The Hedgehog based on the sounds I have heard. The cool air is refreshing but the plastic backed chair is not so relaxing. Still, better than being hot. 

On the way to the library, Brooke told me, that “San Diegains need to just admit that San Diego isn’t perfect year round and that sometimes the weather is awful.”  Given the current weather, I guess she has a point. It is hot.  Maybe we do need to just “admit it and get air conditioning.” 

I will get Monday off, Labor day off. While I always mean to post these things soon after I write them, I generally don’t. So maybe it will be Christmas time before you read this (Note from Ricky in the present, I was really on the nose here). Maybe that will be the next time I read it as well. And I will say to myself, “Oh, it wasn’t really that hot was it.” To which I say to my future self, “yes, it was really that hot.” In any case, I will have to try to figure out how to stay cool, as staying home isn’t really an option. 

Wherever you are, I hope you are staying cool, unless it really is Christmas when I get around to releasing this, in which case, stay warm. Or maybe if you are in the southern hemisphere where summer is winter and winter is summer, then… Ok, I have digressed. But then again, I think this whole post is a digression.  The rambling of a hot person in a cold library trying to write and not entirely succeeding. At the very least though, I can say I did this.

My trip to Woodland a long time ago

 I have an archive of posts I intended to post but I guess didn’t. Here is one of them, a very short summary of my trip to Woodland CA. During my time at EY I would sometimes do inventory counts, so I would show up to a warehouse, watch people count things and count along with them. During this time I traveled all over the bay area and saw a bunch of towns in CA. Anyways, here is the original post. Maybe I will start publishing content on here again at some point, but not promises. 

So I had to make a trip to Woodland, California for work. Sometimes I go to the strangest little towns. Well, I guess this one might just be a suburb of Sacramento or something. 

I also passed through an interesting in little town that had like a vacation town/small town feel, like a cute little main street. I didn’t capture a picture, for what I hope are obvious reasons. Also, during the drive, I saw a beautiful sunset. There were some foothills in the distance, and some grasslands, and a picturesque multicolor sunset.

I also had to pay a toll (hear the story on the podcast).

And like every time I go to a hotel, I watch a little television - this time Food Network. I had a relaxing morning the next day, I didn’t have to go to work until 10, so I enjoyed breakfast and took my time getting ready. I finished my work really quick, then made the trek home almost without incident. As I got close to home but still on the freeway, I narrowly avoided an accident. Someone merged into my lane without checking their blind spot. I avoided them by moving into the other lane. It was close, but I fortunately avoided an accident.

Another Podcast?

Well, as you probably know, Brooke and I haven't been keeping up with this blog. I'm not sure that will change anytime soon, but in the meantime, I do have another project that might interest you, yes, another podcast.  It is just a bit of meandering and nonsense not too dissimilar from what this blog was like.

Our License Plate Saga

From the Archive

It looks like I have some posts I wrote a while ago that I didn't publish. Well here they are now:

It has taken us awhile to get new California license plates on our car. Read further to find out why. Hint: it involves 3 trips to the DMV, 2 smog tests, a trip to the hardware store, and a trip to the body shop. Hopefully you can learn something from our experience.

When we first moved here in September, we didn't know there would be a fee for not getting California plates within a certain amount of days. We didn't even look into it much when we got here because Ricky was busy with his new job, and I was busy trying to get a job. In November, we finally looked into getting our car registered here. We found out that there was going to be a $66 fee for not doing this within 20 days of taking up residency here. We made an appointment at the DMV for a date at the end of December, because that was the soonest available appointment date.  

In order to get our car registered here, we would have to have a smog test done. So Ricky went and had that completed mid-December. We went to the appointment at the DMV the day we got back from Christmas vacation in Utah. There was a long line out the door, and a lady was talking to people in the line one by one to see what each of us needed. Turns out, the computers were down that day, so they couldn't help us with what we needed done. So we scheduled another appointment for another day (which Ricky had to request work off for). 

When we went back to the DMV, there was thankfully no line out the door. However, there was literally nowhere to park, so I dropped Ricky off and was driving around looking for a place to park for like 15 minutes. In that time, Ricky had gotten most of the things taken care of at the desk. I finally came in and just signed a few things. The lady informed us that our smog test was done incorrectly and we would have to have it done again. Apparently, the people that did our smog test saw our Utah plates and did a smog test under their out-of-state requirements, and not California requirements. She said everything else was good, so we could just pay and have our plates mailed to us when our smog test was taken care of. However, they did not accept credit, only debit, cash or check, so we literally couldn't pay during that trip. We didn't know they wouldn't accept credit! The lady was really nice though, and got everything else in order for us. She said to just come back to her desk once we got the new smog test done.

Ricky went back to the place we had our smog test done and let them know what happened. They did another smog test for us, one that met California's standards this time. Then he went back to the DMV and finally got our California plates!

However, when we went to switch out our old plates for our new ones, we realized the screws holding in our back license plate were were stripped. So we went to Harbor Freight and bought vice grips. Ricky used those to try to turn the screw, but ended up breaking off the head of the screw! I then asked on a Facebook page and found someone in the ward who had screw extractors and a drill we could borrow. We tried those, but our screws would still not budge. 

So I ended up calling a nearby Auto Body Shop to see if they could help. It was an unusual request, but they said we could bring the car in. It was a struggle even for the worker there, and took a little while, but he was able to get our screws off. He used a blow torch to heat up the screws, and that's what did the trick. 

Unexpected Places

Sometimes you find yourself in an unexpected place or situation. Like I didn’t intend to go to the birthday party of a six year old today, but here I am. 

Perhaps it is the times we are in. With Covid, I don’t go much of anywhere nowadays. The office (while the bank I work at is online only, the employees are not) and home are the only places I really go. But sometimes I think we need a little variety in life, sometimes we need a little bit of surprise.

When we don’t physically go places, it is harder to find yourself in an unexpected place. It is a little hard to get lost in your own living room. 

When I stopped by to drop off a package, I thought it was just that, to drop off a late Christmas gift. But then I started chatting and pretty soon a party was around me, just like that.  I think it is in moments like that we can break from the monotony of daily life and to something out of the normal.  Let’s hope we can get back to normalcy too, as I think everyone has missed a birthday or two.

…

Perhaps that's why I haven’t been writing too much for the blog. What is there to say? I went to work and I came home? Sure, that is a bit of an oversimplification. And I do have lots of items to mention here. 

Brooke and I are loving our stay in San Diego. So much so, I think we are going to start looking at buying our own house in the area. It may be quite a process (with real estate prices so high right now). But we will see where the journey takes us. I think I am looking to stay more or less in the same area I am now. One of the perks of working at a bank is access to cheap financing. So with that aspect of the home buying process simplified, I can work on getting a good deal. This is all a topic for my other blog and podcast though.

Well stay safe, wherever you are. 

And oh, Happy Birthday Alice.

Parks and Rec

Prior to Brooke and I getting married, Brooke had like never seen a TV show. OK, maybe I am exaggerating slightly. We did watch a few when we were dating. But prior to that, her favorite TV show was Arthur from PBS… Which must have been from like when she was 7 or something.

So after getting married, we first watched The Office as I personally had just finished Parks and Rec recently (Well, I guess the whole world had finished it recently in a manner of speaking). Anyways, after The Office and a few other shows, we have finally started Parks and Rec. Now, with the benefit of a few years of hindsight, I am able to see how formative the show was for me in a number of ways. For example, April Ludgate's favorite band is Neutral Milk Hotel and her favorite singer is the lead vocalist of the band, Jeff Mangum. I started listening to the band when I heard this and I still enjoy them to this day. Brooke and I recently finished the season 6 Grand Finale which had the Decemberists in it, which I now enjoy as well.

As I reflect on some of my political leanings, I can see a resemblance between me and Ron Swanson. At the same time, I do relate to Leslie's character. Ron is often more of a caricature of libertarian ideals than a realistic libertarian. At least in my mind. I don't hate the government; it is a very necessary part of our lives. I do think he has a point often. The government's meddling in our daily lives is expensive and unnecessary. But this isn't my political blog. You can read that here.

No, this is just the personal blog, which I think Brooke and I have been neglecting a bit lately. Just a few months ago we were traveling the world. That’s a part of it. But another part of it is a new project I am working on. I am working on a new book. This one isn’t about bitcoin or money or anything like that. No, this book is about me, and some of the journey’s I have been on in life. This book is about some of the people I have met and my experiences interacting with them. I’m still in the writing phase of the book, so it will be quite a while before I publish it. But you will hear from us again soon, in one way or another.

The Coronavirus Pandemic

Things have escalated pretty quickly with the news of this coronavirus, COVID-19. Last Thursday, the 19th, Ricky and I went to Walmart to get a few more necessities. It was so crowded! It was impossible to stay 6 feet away from anyone! The aisles that actually had stuff in them always had 4-5 shoppers, so you can’t just wait until the aisle is empty to social distance because people are everywhere. Walmart was really stocked with water! It had so much water of all brands all over the place! But we thought we should get a few more rolls of toilet paper, and the toilet paper aisle was turned into an Easter aisle! It was like the toilet paper aisle never existed! So, no toilet paper for us. Gratefully, we have a bidet. Here are some pictures of the empty aisles. It was scary how empty many of the aisles were! There were like three choices of cereal, only canned corn, and absolutely no bread, which is what we came for. Luckily, we found some English muffins and cinnamon raisin bread in the bakery section. 

 

On Thursday night when we were in Walmart, I got a text that I would not actually be going into work the next day. The preschool I worked at closed, effective immediately. We also heard the news that the whole state of California was to now shelter in place, or stay at home. So, I am now furloughed and Ricky is working at home for the most part. It’s been an adjustment and I feel like I’m just starting to get used to it. We’ve been going on daily walks, which allows us to stretch our legs a little and get some fresh air. We love walking in the canyon that is right by our neighborhood.

Also, Ricky has been busy cracking open our macadamia nuts from our tree and roasting them. They are DELICIOUS!!! I tried to capture it and it's hard to see, but the birds were moving in and chirping like crazy! All types of birds were interested by the nuts - there were finches, pigeons, and even a hummingbird flying around, watching Ricky, and waiting. It was so funny!

How are you guys doing during this strange time?