Clean, Cut, Kick, Fallout, Sustained

After work last night I headed to go get my hair cut. I have extended a week or two longer than I normally do between cuts and I was feeling shaggy. I had Suzanne as my stylist whom I have had a number of times. She always seems happy to see me and does a good job on my hair, or at least I think she does.

By the time I got done it was 5:30, the heart of rush hour. I decided to give Tesla supervised full self driving a pretty significant test, to see if it could navigate the sea of vehicles cleanly and get me to my house, without intervention. It did it cleanly. This latest iteration of FSD truly acts more and more human in it’s reactions and responses to situations. There were multiple times I was thinking that if I was driving I would make this decision and just as the thought entered my head, the car did it. There is none of that startling braking or unexplained direction change. It basically just works. I need to make the time to shoot some more videos about it as well as test other features.

I did several things last night, one of them was install a new kickstand on my V13 to replace the unit that was bent and deformed from it’s journey with UPS. I got a sweet deal on the part, paying probably a fifth of what I normally would pay via a parts blowout one dealer was having. Installation took 5 minutes and I now have the ability to have the wheel standing on it’s own without being overly tipsy.

I have been plowing through episodes of Fallout, the new series on Amazon Prime based on a popular video game that I never played. Despite having no real game experience I have latched onto the series and have been enjoying it quite a bit. End of world as we know it scenarios always appeal to me, for some odd reason.

Last night as I was walking Elsa after work I found myself thinking about some of the changes I have made that I have sustained in the last few months. Walking Elsa was one of them. For most of her life formalized walks were not a thing, I would just let her outside to do her thing and she would almost immediately return once she does her business. However now the first thing we do when I get home is leash her up and walk her to the end of our development and back. It gives her a set time to poop, exercise and the walking on sidewalk also helps keep her nails in check. When we started she was very resistant but now I think she almost kind of likes and looks forward to it. It also gives me an opportunity to interact with any neighbors we see along the route.

I also have implemented my own daily walks during the work week where I walk the outer perimeter of the government complex which is about a mile, every afternoon. I put my air pods in and just let my mind wander as I stroll the pathway. It is a good way to break up the monotony of a job that has me sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day. There are other things that have recently shifted. I now try to shave several times a week instead of every week or two. I also pay more attention to what I am wearing. Looking good is tied in with feeling good.

I think one of the bigger things I have been trying to change is being more open to interacting with other people. I am an introvert by nature but I realize that especially with being single, that tendency can lead to isolation that just is not good for me. I am trying to keep that door open, sticking a two by four in there if necessary to keep it open.

Last year the cabinet/counter project had begun in earnest. I also had started mentioning Christine in the blog regularly as I was happy to have a fresh start with someone that was a genuine person. I’m not sure if that relationship would have continued on or not if other events had not unfolded. If I have learned anything in the last year it’s that I value my peace more than anything else. If I can not find that peace in a relationship with a person I would rather just be alone. That statement is a big one as I have spent years upon years doing exactly the opposite of that, sacrificing my peace for someone else.