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Weekly update
Jan. 5th, 2013 12:05 amA quiet week for the most part. The best part about major holidays for me is that they mean a day off from work. Monday, we closed the office early, and I had Tuesday off for the new year. Because fireworks had been banned on July 4th, they were allowed New Year's Eve. Thankfully, it was so cold that there weren't many.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. My nephew Kyle celebrated his third birthday January 3rd. Cole, his older brother, was hoping I'd be there, but didn't think I was fast enough to get there in time, but maybe I could be there for his birthday in March. I told him I wasn't sure if I could, but I'd try to be there in the summer.
I'm not sure I can even pull that off.
My brother managed to sell my father's truck for me. It turned out that there was significant rust damage to the underside of it, as my father had only been driving it in the winter, then letting it sit. The road salt damaged it badly. My brother took it to a town in West Virginia and used it as a trade in on a different vehicle for himself, paying cash for the difference. He's now going to get the new vehicle financed so he can send me the $8,200 he got as a trade-in value for the truck.
That money will cover my moving expenses and three months of living expenses. So, I'll have three months to find work once I move. We've tentatively planned to move at the end of February, but I don't want to plan anything until I have the money in hand, and my brother said that could take until the end of the month.
I'm in no hurry. Moving terrifies me, to be honest. But staying where I am scares me even more. I need to live again. If I don't get out now, another ten years will pass before I realize whats happening. Another ten years of accomplishing little. I need to accomplish big, or at least attempt to do so.
I'm frustrated with my sleep mask and machine. I've been taking the mask off in my sleep, and then wake up later and wonder where it is. I'm not just ripping it off, either- I'm setting it neatly on top of the machine and turning the machine off.
I gave it a good cleaning this week, too- did a vinegar solution cleaning of the machine itself, and took the mask apart and washed it thoroughly, as well as the air hose.
And now, it smells. Not like vinegar, but there's an ammonia smell, like stale urine. I don't know where it's coming from, but I'm hoping to find out this weekend. I'm hoping there's not mold or something growing inside, forcing its fungal spores into my lungs while I sleep.
It's been bitterly cold here for weeks (5 degrees F outside now, and dropping). I inherited one of my father's coats, and shipped it back but never opened the box. On a whim, I unboxed it a week ago, figuring I had no reason not to. The coat is amazing; it's the warmest coat I've ever worn, and keeps me warm without making me hot. It has a lot of pockets and hooks and such, which I'm not sure what they're all for.
The only issues I have with the coat are that it is hard to zip up, because of the way it seals, and the hood is so large that I can't wear it when I'm driving, because it blocks my vision. Warm though.
I did some work on the house on New Year's day. The hallway ceiling has had an ugly hole in it since 2006, when we removed the original evaporative cooler but left the vent behind. The ceiling tiles were ugly with water stains as well, so I painted a section of the ceiling around the hole. I've wanted to do this for years, but I was never sure what I could use to cover the hole with. I thought about table tops or something like that, or a finished piece of wood, because I really didn't want to just slap some plywood up there and paint over it. It occurred to me that that the perfect thing to use would be shelf boards, since they're already finished in white! I got two of them from the hardware store and covered the hole with them. It's not perfect, but it looks better, and I filled the hole with insulation so hopefully it will be warmer back there as well.
We also have trouble with the cold water pipes to the sink in the bathroom freezing up in the winter, so I insulated them as well as the hole they come out off. I also got a part I need to replace a joint in the hotwater pipe that has been leaking, but that's a project for tomorrow. Unfortunately, my efforts were for naught, as the pipes STILL freeze. So tomorrow I'm taking off the outside door to the water heater cubby (which is where the pipes feed out from, oddly) and I'm going to try to insulate it well enough that old air isn't coming through to the bathroom. Hopefully, that will do the trick.
I also have a computer installation to do this weekend, and a computer to build at the hotel. I also determined that the second video card in my brand new uber-laptop is bad. I took the card out and shipped it back for replacement. The replacement probably won't get here until next week at the earliest, so the laptop is just sitting to the side for right now. I also went ahead and bought a SSD for it during a holiday sale, as well as a new mouse. It might even take longer, since the returned part isn't scheduled to be delivered until January 8th.
The laptop is so large and heavy that it's difficult to get it into the carry bag they provided when I bought it; I have my eye on a laptop backpack on amazon.com that looks nice, but is pretty pricey.
For the first week in 2013, life is going smoothly.
For now.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. My nephew Kyle celebrated his third birthday January 3rd. Cole, his older brother, was hoping I'd be there, but didn't think I was fast enough to get there in time, but maybe I could be there for his birthday in March. I told him I wasn't sure if I could, but I'd try to be there in the summer.
I'm not sure I can even pull that off.
My brother managed to sell my father's truck for me. It turned out that there was significant rust damage to the underside of it, as my father had only been driving it in the winter, then letting it sit. The road salt damaged it badly. My brother took it to a town in West Virginia and used it as a trade in on a different vehicle for himself, paying cash for the difference. He's now going to get the new vehicle financed so he can send me the $8,200 he got as a trade-in value for the truck.
That money will cover my moving expenses and three months of living expenses. So, I'll have three months to find work once I move. We've tentatively planned to move at the end of February, but I don't want to plan anything until I have the money in hand, and my brother said that could take until the end of the month.
I'm in no hurry. Moving terrifies me, to be honest. But staying where I am scares me even more. I need to live again. If I don't get out now, another ten years will pass before I realize whats happening. Another ten years of accomplishing little. I need to accomplish big, or at least attempt to do so.
I'm frustrated with my sleep mask and machine. I've been taking the mask off in my sleep, and then wake up later and wonder where it is. I'm not just ripping it off, either- I'm setting it neatly on top of the machine and turning the machine off.
I gave it a good cleaning this week, too- did a vinegar solution cleaning of the machine itself, and took the mask apart and washed it thoroughly, as well as the air hose.
And now, it smells. Not like vinegar, but there's an ammonia smell, like stale urine. I don't know where it's coming from, but I'm hoping to find out this weekend. I'm hoping there's not mold or something growing inside, forcing its fungal spores into my lungs while I sleep.
It's been bitterly cold here for weeks (5 degrees F outside now, and dropping). I inherited one of my father's coats, and shipped it back but never opened the box. On a whim, I unboxed it a week ago, figuring I had no reason not to. The coat is amazing; it's the warmest coat I've ever worn, and keeps me warm without making me hot. It has a lot of pockets and hooks and such, which I'm not sure what they're all for.
The only issues I have with the coat are that it is hard to zip up, because of the way it seals, and the hood is so large that I can't wear it when I'm driving, because it blocks my vision. Warm though.
I did some work on the house on New Year's day. The hallway ceiling has had an ugly hole in it since 2006, when we removed the original evaporative cooler but left the vent behind. The ceiling tiles were ugly with water stains as well, so I painted a section of the ceiling around the hole. I've wanted to do this for years, but I was never sure what I could use to cover the hole with. I thought about table tops or something like that, or a finished piece of wood, because I really didn't want to just slap some plywood up there and paint over it. It occurred to me that that the perfect thing to use would be shelf boards, since they're already finished in white! I got two of them from the hardware store and covered the hole with them. It's not perfect, but it looks better, and I filled the hole with insulation so hopefully it will be warmer back there as well.
We also have trouble with the cold water pipes to the sink in the bathroom freezing up in the winter, so I insulated them as well as the hole they come out off. I also got a part I need to replace a joint in the hotwater pipe that has been leaking, but that's a project for tomorrow. Unfortunately, my efforts were for naught, as the pipes STILL freeze. So tomorrow I'm taking off the outside door to the water heater cubby (which is where the pipes feed out from, oddly) and I'm going to try to insulate it well enough that old air isn't coming through to the bathroom. Hopefully, that will do the trick.
I also have a computer installation to do this weekend, and a computer to build at the hotel. I also determined that the second video card in my brand new uber-laptop is bad. I took the card out and shipped it back for replacement. The replacement probably won't get here until next week at the earliest, so the laptop is just sitting to the side for right now. I also went ahead and bought a SSD for it during a holiday sale, as well as a new mouse. It might even take longer, since the returned part isn't scheduled to be delivered until January 8th.
The laptop is so large and heavy that it's difficult to get it into the carry bag they provided when I bought it; I have my eye on a laptop backpack on amazon.com that looks nice, but is pretty pricey.
For the first week in 2013, life is going smoothly.
For now.
