you take the dark and carve me out a home

It figures that I would catch a cold right before accompanying my mother to her MRI appointment. Anyway, the worst day was yesterday and I was able to wear a mask today in somewhat comfort. Tomorrow will be interesting on whether or not I will be going in to work or working from home. Ugh.

I believe I mentioned a while back that I needed to get new tires and wheels, as well as get my A/C fixed and get a new stereo. Well. Got my new tires and wheels, to the tune of $2600. And my A/C? Yeah, I thought MAAAYBE $1000. Yeah, no, $3500. Needed a new temperature actuator as well as what is called a rear evaporator. And that means taking the car apart to fix things. Which, whatever. It needed it. And I haven't had to put much into to it before, driver side headlamp not withstanding. And I need A/C. And, I didn't want to look for a newer car, much less be bogged down with a car payment. I will have a higher credit card bill, but I'd much rather pay for $6100 versus more for a newer vehicle.

As for the stereo, the display frequently distort as well as the aux plug in shorts out. However, to fix it, or rather, replace it, would be another $1000 to $1400. So I decided to put that off. I can still burn CD-Rs so I can make a playlist and then burn it to CD and blast it. My Bose speakers (OEM part) still work great. Though it was tempting just to charge the amount and be done with it. However, I also thought I needed to replace the driver side temperature actuator as when I picked up the car last Friday, the driver side vents were blowing warm air while the passenger was nice and cool. By the time I got it back to the dealership to see why it was blowing warm when it was the only one blowing cool before, it was not doing it so I'll have to wait on that one. I mean, I could have had them replace it. But as we're heading into the fall, and winter, I'll leave it and if it's still an issue, I'll take it back in and fix it then. Hopefully I'll have paid down the balance a bit by then.

I could have started looking for another vehicle, but I needed tires and I actually like my car. So I figured I'd address the issues and fix those and then when the engine dies, I'll decide whether to rebuild the engine (to the tune of $10k maybe) or buy new. I bought myself time.

( More rambling )

I missed day fourteen because I fell asleep in my chair at my desk and decided bed would be a good idea.

Thusly today starts my 10 days off, technically 6 work days and 4 weekend days but it's important that it's all in one string of days. I've heard that it takes 3 to 5 days to fully relax on a vacation so I'm glad that I'll get to do that without the stress of traveling. I'll miss Long Beach, but this might be better. Time off from the parents, they'll have time off from me, so it's all good I think.

Yesterday was fine. The parents took off a day early so they could take 2 days over to Long Beach rather than one 8 to 9 hour shot. So I got home and it was quiet and I loved it.

I was able to button up one issue I wanted resolved before vacation so I was happy with that and the other hopefully will be fine. All day I was very much in the throes of short timers disease lol. I wanted to be out of there. Since I was online at 6 AM for a global town hall, I gave myself permission to leave an hour early and I remembered why I leave when I leave at work because traffic is shitty at that time of day.

Also, I broke my social media hiatus again by getting IG back because a group chat was started with my best ST friends because someone leaked the Even in Arcadia demo files and while we may never know who or why, I love the more raw feeling to Vessel's vocals. I am afraid that as an ST fan, I am one of those who likes behind the scenes stuff, up to and including knowing the band members names. I, however, will not share them publicly because that would be disrespectful to them. But if you also are this way, please message me so I can commiserate with you if you also know.

Anyway, I won't be on IG other than that chat so it will still like a hiatus lol. Semantics, am I right? XD

So yeah, this morning was crashing out to the vocals and the way the songs were before they were produced for the album and I am so grateful to hear Vessel's unfiltered, raw vocals and how the structure of the songs changed for the final product.

On other news, I spend a shitload of money on Taylor's new album preorder. I'm such a sucker. But also, the 30th anniversary of Selena's Dreaming of You album has new vinyl and CDs and I'm wasting money on collecting these as well. At least I didn't buy anymore Sleep Token vinyls lol. They also released some new vinyls and re-pressed some earlier variants.

Anyway, my biggest decision right now is if I want to get a newer car, or spend the money on my current SUV to fix her up. It's probably more prudent to fix her up, but it's just a pain. The plastic frame at the base of the driver's seat broke, so there's that. In addition to the AC, the stereo, AND new tires and wheels between $3k to $4k. So it's like, I have maybe another 3 years on this vehicle's engine and it will be $9k to $10k to replace that, so I don't know. $20k in the next 3 to 5 years to keep my vehicle up, or a payment on a $30k to $50k vehicle for the next 5 to 7 years that might last 10 years. As my mom said, it is my decision, but it sucks.

I think about how I used to talk about keeping my Acadia and just fixing it up but the reality of it is different. Especially with this vehicle. I don't know. I need to make a decision soon and I don't want to lol.

Recently, I've also been thinking about getting a will set up. Plus online legacy stuff, living will, power of attorney, etc. But all I have close to me are my parents. I have a couple of online friends that I think I can trust but man, it's such a pain. I should add it to my list of things to do lol. The ever growing list.

Well, I'm going to end it there for now. I may post later, I may wait until tomorrow. But I am on vacation and doing what I want right now, so it's whatever. Ta!