Car stuff
Wednesday night I headed off to the dealership to buy out the lease on the Honda Fit. When it comes to cars, I'm rather...change averse. I had the Integra (bought used) for ten years, the Civic (leased for three, then bought and driven another ten) for a total of thirteen.
It takes me a while to get used to a new car, not to mention to figure out whether or not I like it enough to keep it another seven to ten years. So after selling the Civic to friends, I started leasing a 2015 Honda Fit. It's much like the TARDIS - bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside, with a surprising amount of cargo space for a little baby not-even-quite SUV. The lease is up in May; I've decided to buy it and wanted to just get it out of the way.
Shopping for rates took a week, then trying to pin the finance guy at Honda down for an appointment took another two. I should have taken that for a sign: when I got there for my appointment, I was told he was not in...fortunately, another finance manager was free and was able to locate the paperwork the absent dude had started.
I enjoy killing two birds with a single stone, scheduling an oil change that was due for the same time as my purchase appointment. The mechanic delivered my
Driving home. Three quarters of the way home, the low tire pressure indicator light comes on.
Don't they check that when they do the oil change?
Drove straight back to the dealership. Check in guy tried to be condescending - I shut him up in a hurry. Had him inflate to one psi over the recommended pressure and clear the indicator.
I suppose if an indicator light has to go on in the car you bought just half an hour ago, this was the way to go.
Creative stuff
This is Drop and Give Me Twenty month - the goal is to quilt or do quilty activities for at least twenty minutes every day this month, for a total of at least 560 minutes (9 hours 20 minutes) for the month. I've done this for the last couple of years, hoping to develop some sort of weeknight regularity in the studio, even if it is a short time. All those minutes add up.
I must be doing something right; as of last night, I stand at 1,125 minutes for the month. I'm trying to finish a comfort quilt for a friend who is going through a health crisis, then I need to get to some things I am woefully behind on. Most of those minutes have been on the weekend, though I've managed at least two hours total over the course of the last two work weeks.
Frustrating stuff
I have armless, adjustable office chairs both at my desk in the loft and at the sewing machine in the studio. As with all inexpensive (ok, cheap) chairs, eventually the pneumatics give up the ghost. Yeah, both chairs decided to depart for heavenly realms at the same time. The one at my desk isn't dead yet, holding its height most of the time. The one in the studio, though, gently but quickly lowers you down to eighteen inches off the floor. I'm short, but not that short.
I tend to focus when I'm sewing - it's only when I realized the bed of the sewing machine was at eye level that the lightbulb lit up.
A folding chair works, but is not exactly comfortable, and I greatly miss the casters. I have the replacement as of yesterday for the studio chair. The office will have to wait a while.
Sleep stuff
I've not been sleeping especially well this week, which rarely happens. I'll wake up to use the facilities between midnight and two, which, honestly, is pretty normal. But I'll have, um, end-of-the-digestive-cycle issues and be up for half an hour. This wakes me up completely, and it takes longer than my usual five minutes to fall back asleep. Three nights this week.
Changing up my diet this weekend, to work on the digestive stuff. I may also have a touch of the flu, or a flu-like virus. I've been fighting the same cold since fall, which leaves the door open for opportunistic crud.
Book stuff
Updating my 2019 reading list is on the to-do for this weekend. I realize I'd vowed to power through the numerous non-fiction books in my kindle, but...I've discovered Terry Prachett's Discworld series, and am enthralled. Smart, funny, irreverent and thoroughly entertaining, the action takes place on a disc-shaped world being carried through space on the backs of four giant elephants, who in turn are standing on the back of a giant cosmic turtle. I've read six, almost seven of them in the last month.
Each book can be read as a stand-alone, though some characters show up regularly, and it is helpful to have read the books more or less in order. Thus far, my favorite character by far is the Luggage (exactly what it sounds like, in one sense - it's a largish steamer trunk...but it gets around on hundreds of tiny legs and has a a ridiculous loyalty to whoever its current owner is).
It's been a great year for reading so far.
Odds and ends
I'm babbling (see: Sleep stuff - I babble more when tired). Not too much else exciting. Filed my taxes. Am starting to think about what bush I want to plant in the front bed this spring. I have a reblooming lilac that has gotten rather larger than it is supposed to (it really, really likes its location) and want something a bit smaller for the other side of the bed. A small hydrangea, if there is such a thing, maybe. Fairly low maintenance, but with some pretty blooms.
Stupid HOA is considering changing our fee payment schedule from quarterly to monthly, which will mess up my budgeting process for at least the first six months. I'd forgotten, also, until yesterday, that my auto insurance is now a six month policy rather than a twelve month one. Coincidentally, I remembered that the morning of the day the bill for the next six months arrived.
Being adult is...overrated.
Tonight? I'm picking up a grocery order on my way home. Put away the refrigerated/frozen stuff. Have pizza and a glass of wine for dinner, then spend an hour in the studio. Well, maybe have the wine after I'm done sewing...
No comments:
Post a Comment