Tag: Tesla

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Test Daze

I was supposed to go to work about 20 minutes early today, but I didn’t make it. I woke up pretty sore, but not too tired. It had stormed all night, and I couldn’t find my wallet when it was time to leave. That put me in a panic, thinking that it might have somehow fallen out when I crashed yesterday, but I didn’t see it in the road when I circled by. The weather got rough and I ran into some hail and fog, which brought traffic down to about 25mph on the highway. By then, I was glad to be stuck behind a truck, and I just surrendered to traffic the rest of the way.

I still got there about 10 minutes early, and it wasn’t needed anyway. I handed out a couple Chromebooks, but that was all. It was pretty quiet apart from that, which was good because I was hurting quite a bit and couldn’t really focus on anything important. That, plus a dash of burnout led to a very unproductive day.

I left just a couple minutes early and made it to the old house to feed the fish. No wallet. Then I remembered that I had taken it to my office when I called TCW to set up new internet yesterday. I made it home where Summer was baking a lasagna, and I found my wallet. I started to get a headache that had me a little worried, but I was pretty sure it was from the neck muscle pain that had been increasing all day. We ate and then I laid down for a while when Eaddie unsympathetically kept playing loud concert recordings.

I ended the night by resetting my Pixel Watch 2 because of battery issues, and then did my best not to get distracted crunching numbers for a new car. I’m tickled by the new Model 3 Performance, but still curious if something better will come along soon. On the other hand, the $7,500 tax credit won’t be around forever.

But what if we paid off the house in under six years?

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Wheel of Destress

They were testing this morning, but I was still early enough to grab breakfast on the way. It was a bit warmer, so I didn’t freeze to death on the ride in. It didn’t take them long at all to pass out an entire cart full of Chromebooks, because they hadn’t held kids accountable for bringing their own devices. Otherwise, it was pretty quiet for most of the day. Kim brought lunch, so I didn’t even look up when it was time to eat. I just skipped lunch and kept poking around in inventory, mostly hoping that I would have a good return at the end of the year. I did take a break for a minute in the afternoon when I got a text that the new Model 3 Performance was available to order, but I wasn’t impressed enough to jump on the first wave of ordering. I may wait on a few more reviews first.

The ride home was mostly unencumbered, and I came straight to the house where Summer was working on the couch and Eaddie was out again. Summer wanted chicken, so I ended up going to KFC to pick up the only fast food that comes in buckets. There were a lot of people in the back, but only one girl up front, who spent most of her time running to the back. Nobody looked to be in charge, or even in understanding. Michael was there eating with family after another parent night at the high school. Eaddie’s flute tutor, Kim, came in behind me and waited to place an order. Our food finally came out about 10 minutes late, wrong at first, and still wrong in the end with none of our requested sauces.

I got to the house where Summer and I discovered that nearly all of the food was old and dry, which made less sense of how much waiting I had to do. Then I went out on the Onewheel for about eight miles. I stopped to see my parents briefly, but then kept rolling around to decompress. I’d like to think I made some kid’s whole lifetime so far by giving him a high-five as I rolled by.

Once home for the evening, we wound down pretty quickly. I finally though to check my blood pressure, which was super high. I took some medicine for it, had a drink, and loosened up the best I could before bed.

Arch Ford in the morning makes for a short day. Maybe that will help.

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0.00000000037%

There was a threat of rain again today, but it never happened. I got to work a little bit early and made an iced coffee out of some leftover from the day before, and tried to replicate the general mood of the office as well. I finally fixed my printer deployment issue, so I spent the rest of the day tinkering with an automated task sequence that even Kim won’t be able to screw up.

After work, I kept getting stuck behind people going under the speed limit. I got to the old house to feed the fish, and my check from Elon Musk had been delivered and left in my driveway. I immediately ran across town to Arvest to deposit it, since it was too much for me to do over mobile deposit. While I was there, I caught up with Aaron for a little bit, and took a few broken and battered coins that were discarded by their change machine. It was mostly chipped-up pennies, but there were a couple carwash tokens and something from Germany.

When I got to the house, Summer had gone out for a haircut and a meeting at work, so I went out on the Onewheel. I went around the neighborhood a bit, buzzing back by Arvest to see if I could show off to Aaron. Then I ended up over at my parents’ house and had some shrimp soup since Summer would be home late.

On my way home, I noticed Summer had stopped at the Neighborhood Market, so I thought I’d ride over there and catch her. I put my Onewheel in her trunk, but then somehow missed her as she left the store and drove away with my ride. I quickly called her to come back, and rode home with her. I took one more loop around the block before coming in for the night.

Eaddie had been doing schoolwork and practicing her flute, so we didn’t get to watch TV like I thought we might. Instead, I actually managed to get to bed a little early. I may actually get seven hours of sleep tonight.

That’s a pretty big wealth gap.

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3 Little 2 Late

I woke up early this morning so we could get to Tulsa for lunch. The girls were chittering around the rest of the house, so I stayed hidden away until I was ready to leave the house. They had disappeared in a cloud of body spray by the time I walked through.

I did another software update on my car, which wasn’t long after the last one. This one evidently gave me a 30-day trial of Full Self Driving, which would ironically only get me to the Tesla dealership in Tulsa where I would relinquish my car. I followed Summer most of the way, stopping at Rose Drug, then the Van Buren Supercharger, and finally the Love’s oasis. Somewhere before we hit the turnpike, a truck kicked up a bunch of large pieces of wood. One of them struck the middle of my windshield, but fortunately no damage was done that I could tell. After Love’s, I led us the rest of the way to the dealership where they seemed to be waiting with baited breath for me.

I only had a couple of pages of paperwork to sign, including handing the title back over. Then we unloaded all of the remaining stuff into Summer’s car and left it there to Supercharge while we test drove one of the brand new Model 3s and a Model X. The new Model 3 was incredibly quiet, and had a great ride. The doors were the other big improvement. The turn signals were less of an issue than I expected for normal driving, but in a pinch I would still want stalks to quickly signal and maneuver. The only solace is that the responsiveness of the vehicle makes it nimble and quick enough to maneuver around most other vehicles faster than any signaling might help, in that type of situation. I guess that’s what really matters, and signals can be left for more polite, less urgent driving.

After our test drives, we found a nearby Shoe Carnival to use a birthday credit I had. Then we crossed the street to get a free birthday burger from Red Robin. We were more disappointed than usual with our lack of “bottomless” fries when we sat down, so we ordered a couple more rounds as soon as our server brought our food to the table.

Bellies full, we headed back home with a nearly full charge. Headwinds made us stop to charge for a couple minutes in Ozark, and then we made it home without incident. I went out on the Onewheel to destress and stopped by my parents’ house. I was really sad about selling my car back, but the market price and current upgrades made it the right financial choice. It’s just nuts that I could buy a brand new one and still save money after the whole ordeal.

Once I got back from my ride, I cleaned up Summer’s car and put my aftermarket console trays in for her. All I want now is for her to keep the car clean, but she just doesn’t live that way.

Miss you in the saddest fashion!

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OneYoke

I was early enough for work this morning that I decided to swing through McDonald’s for a McGriddle for the drive. It was relatively quiet compared to earlier in the week, though we still had visitors in the office behind us. I tinkered with imaging for a while and discovered that resetting the BIOS to factory defaults didn’t actually reset the storage settings. I ended up loading up another desktop with the OEM operating system, and exported drivers that I can tinker with next week.

Kim left after lunch to sell enough cattle to pay for the flooring in their new house, which meant the office was eerily quiet for the rest of the day. Apart from a conference call with the GoGuardian folks, there really wasn’t anything going on.

After work, I fed the fish and dug out my factory floormats in case they want me to return them with my car tomorrow. Then I headed home to get Summer so we could go to Superfast and replace my yoke with the original steering wheel. The new instructions I found didn’t cover all of the steps, but fortunately I found the old video I watched to install the yoke in the first place.

Eaddie was out with friends, so Summer and I went straight to my parents’ house for chow mein. It would have been a nice evening for a ride on the Onewheel, but it was dark by the time we got home. I took it for a figure-8 around the block, and then we waited for Eaddie to get home with her girlfriends for their sleepover.

You’re a good car.

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OUTAGAS

We all slept in this morning after I initially woke up just before five as Eaddie jokingly suggested as a departure time. We loaded up quickly, and Summer and I went in for some breakfast while Eaddie sat in the car. Then we met Dad at McDonald’s to pick up some steak, egg, and cheese bagels for Julie and Kevin. The kid at the register kept wanting to tell me too much information about his struggle finding the right picture on his employee register, or how he’d eat his Quarter Pounders with leftover gravy from the morning’s breakfast. Eaddie wanted to try one of the bagels, so we split one before we left.

Dad followed us while we kept getting stuck behind slow traffic, but eventually we passed most of it and got ahead of him. We stopped for a restroom break in Ozark, but didn’t need to charge. Eaddie had rehearsal at Tech after we got home. I unpacked and then left on the Onewheel to see Mom, and then ride the bagels over to Julie across town. She suggested I could go find Kevin at the airport, but I ended up a couple blocks over at my friend Kevin’s place.

Kevin hopped on the board and rode a little bit, but then wanted Matthi to try it out. That kid wasn’t afraid of anything, and immediately jumped on with reckless abandon. He got pretty good at it too, and then brought out a RipStik and a classic two-wheeled hoverboard to show me. Kevin and I ended up chatting for quite a while before I left and circled through the old house to feed the fish.

I didn’t quite make it back home before my battery died. I would have made it if I hadn’t circled through the Ridgewood Brothers’ parking lot, and nobody was there anyway. I had to walk most of the way up Honeysuckle, and the Onewheel got heavy fast. I got to the top of the hill and was able to ride it for a few more feet, but then had to walk it from the end of the street back to the house. It was the hardest workout I’ve had with the thing, but it was worth it.

I eventually had a shower after getting all sweaty carrying the Onewheel. Eaddie ate with Eli, so Summer and I had some leftover corned beef. She spent most of the evening like the rest of the weekend, not feeling great. I thought for sure I had seen something about not having school on Monday, but I don’t know where I hallucinated that, because there’s even a lunch menu. I’ll have to take another day off to take the Model 3 back to Tulsa, which makes me a bit sad, but I think it’ll all be worth it in the end.

I could ride you, but I’d have to charge.

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City Swamp

I didn’t catch our rat last night, but it made another appearance on camera. We ended up having to take Eaddie to Little Rock today for less than an hour of rehearsal, but she was at Tech for the state robotics tournament all morning. Summer and I picked her up around lunch time and headed out of town. We were hungry enough to stop at McDonald’s in Morrilton, and then we made our way to the Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School.

We left Eaddie, and then I took Summer down the road to the Lorance Creek Natural Area where we walked down a trail through a swamp. It was pretty neat, but there were clouds of gnats everywhere. We almost made it back to the car when Eaddie texted that she was done. We picked her up, and she wanted to head straight back home to catch the end of the tournament, so we didn’t get to do any other shopping or adventuring.

Charge was low, so we had to plan a stop somewhere. Fortunately they built a new Supercharger in Conway, so we stopped there for just a few minutes before completing the journey home. We left Eaddie at the coliseum and then the two of us went to Ridgewood for an early dinner. Grant looked to be doing better, and things were kind of slow and steady at the restaurant.

I took the Onewheel around the neighborhood when we got back home. It wasn’t any surprise that Summer didn’t want to get out of the house again, so we settled in to watch some TV for the evening. Eaddie got home late, without a trip to Worlds, and then everyone was off to bed to do it all over again in the morning.

That’s just a lot.

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Buyback’s a Pitch

Summer couldn’t sleep last night and got up early to sit on the couch for a while. I felt pretty bad myself, but went in to work just a few minutes late while she stayed home for the day. I tinkered with SCCM some more, and then put together another Chromebook cart for one of the teachers that didn’t get one earlier in the year.

After work, I went to feed the fish before going home to find Summer in bed. I left on the Onewheel before Eaddie got home with pizza for them, and went to my parents’ house for curry instead. It was dark by the time I left, and I rode to the Neighborhood Market for some more Nyquil and Theraflu. It was a little chilly out, but the moon was bright, and it was a good ride.

Eaddie had a friend over to do homework, and I spent the evening in my office fighting the sickness. I got a buyback quote from Tesla, and 15,000 miles cost me $8,761.61 in depreciation. Unfortunately there’s no apples-to-apples comparison right now, but I’m betting that even when the new Model 3 Performance comes out, I’ll still be able to buy it for less than what I’m getting back on the old one.

Every day I’m stuffy now.

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Rollin Errands

Best I could tell, I wasn’t expected to work today for the “winter break.” I still felt pretty crummy anyway, so I had some breakfast and took a hot, steamy shower to try and clear my sinuses. I had some errands to run, and thought I might make some homemade chili to put over some grilled dogs for dinner.

I tried to go to the DMV to get some kind of receipt for my vehicle sales tax, but forgot it was a national holiday. I still had plenty to do though, so I continued to the car wash to see Summer and clean my car. Then I ran by the Nissan place and talked to Tim about trying to fix the old Pathfinder sitting at the other house.

From there, I dropped in to feed the fish before going down to Clear View to talk to Mike about the crummy tint job they did last year. He agreed to give me a discount on my new car, whenever I eventually get one. By the time I got home from that, Eaddie was home from school. She went to my parents’ house to rake leaves, and I rode my Onewheel over there with Dad’s leaf scoopers.

I took off from there and rode to the Neighborhood Market for stuff to make chili dogs, and dropped all of that off at home before going back to my parents’ house. I saw Mom when she got home from work, and once Dad and Eaddie were finished raking for the day, we headed back home.

Summer made it home much later than she expected, and the chili dogs turned out pretty great. Eaddie thought the chili was missing something, and I kind of agreed, but that seems to be the style of hot dog chili. I guess it won’t hurt to experiment though.

The girls went to bed, and I cleaned up in the kitchen before settling in. Hopefully tomorrow won’t be too taxing.

HAPTIC BUZZZZZZZ

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Quick Cuts

I took Summer’s car to work so she could have mine in town for service. The guy never actually talked to either of us, and just did the work on the car while she was working. One of her employees said the alarm was going off, but I never got a notification, so I don’t know whether that was really true, but hopefully my bolts are there to stay for as long as I have the car.

Otherwise I felt super productive at work today. DIS finally got Cognos going again, and I fixed a bunch of our scheduled tasks and PowerShell scripts. My SCCM client appeared to install correctly, but I wasn’t sure about another part of the setup, and I’ll have to continue that tomorrow.

After work, I decided to head home and grill some steaks for Valentine’s Day with my parents and the girls. I ran home to feed the fish, and then stopped by Kroger and Neighborhood Market for several different cuts of steak and some zucchini, squash, and salad. I probably could have gotten more squash, but we still had a little bit left over. Dad baked some sweet potatoes to go along with it all, and met us at the house a little after Summer got home from work.

It was a quick dinner to throw together on the grill, and Dad got to share about their trip to California while Mom fell asleep on the couch. Eaddie dipped a few leftover strawberries in chocolate, but they didn’t last very long. Once my parents left, Eaddie packed up for her weekend at All-State, and Summer went to bed. I would have gotten there sooner if I hadn’t been distracted by Prune.

Porterhouse, Loin, Strip, Ribeye