Archives June 2022

After not following through on my intent to weed whack Wednesday night I was steadfast in my resolve to do that AND mow after work last night.  Trying to accomplish these tasks in their entirety during a weeknight is a tall order.  I knew the only way I could do that was if I scaled back the weed whacking part of the work by just doing stuff right around the house.  I skipped the more tedious/slow parts like whacking the main property and chicken area fence line.

I hauled ass both on foot with the weed whacker and on the Husqvarna tractor, mowing most of the time at near full throttle.  I finished up via the LED headlights on the tractor a little before 9PM.  Yea it was a bit extreme but the work is now done just in time for the tropical storm that will be rolling through our area for the next 36 hours.

Yesterday I noticed my Zillow listing for my parcel of land in Lehigh Acres was no longer active.  You have to renew it every few months it seems.  When I did it this time I decided to take a look at some of the asking prices for the lots near me and I was quite surprised that it finally seems the real estate upswing of the last few years has finally touched this land as well.  The lot right next to mine was listed for 26K.  The lot I sold last year went for 13-14k and I recall feeling lucky to get that.

So based on the asking prices of other lots in the area I increased my asking price $6K, from 18K to 24K.  Do I think I’ll get that for the lot?  It’s unlikely but damn that would be lovely.  Any proceeds for the sale would go right onto the HELOC that was used to buy the lot back in 2003 which is my only remaining debt on the house.  I’m crossing my fingers that 2022 is the year I finally get to unload the last of my (bad) investment properties that I have held for nearly 20 years.

This weekend besides trying to stay dry I am going out to see Top Gun with a friend of mine.  We are going back to the Cinebistro which I have been to a couple times previously.  It’s a really enjoyable way to watch a movie.  By all accounts this sequel breaks the mold and is actually as good if not better than the original by many accounts.

Last night I arrived home with the intention of going outside and weed whacking the property.  When I pulled in the driveway there were threatening clouds all around the area with the sound of thunder rumbling off in the distance.  I had not totally written off the task as there have been many, many times I have done yard work with storms surrounding me. Hell I have done it in the middle of storms if I am in one of those moods where nothing short of a direct lightning strike will stop me. However last night I got sidetracked onto another task and by the time I got back to thinking about yard work it was too late.  I don’t like when I don’t follow through on commitments I make, even if it is just a mental one, only made to myself.  My plan is to get out there tonight and get busy.

The reason I am trying to get the major yard work out of the way is it looks like a tropical system may be rolling through our area Saturday morning which would make mowing/weed whacking problematic. Plus it is much more pleasant doing this stuff in the evening when the heat and humidity is far less oppressive.  Hell I may even catch a glimpse of a beautiful post sunset sky, like I did last night.

One of the exercises I have been working on as part of my self help/improvement stuff is writing down 50 words/things I like about myself.  These are words that describe aspects of who you are and should be positive in nature.  When I first started on the list it seemed like a herculean task.  I got to word 14 or 15 and paused, wondering how in the world I could get to 50.

I dug deeper , thinking about different aspects of who I am, what holds importance in my life, and what about me would be seen as positive.  It took awhile but eventually I had 50 words/phrases.  I was surprised I actually got there.  The point of an exercise like this is to reprogram your brain, thinking about good things in your blueprint and expand on them instead of spinning around whatever negativity that has taken hold for various reasons.  It’s hard work and there is not a magic button you press where you can say “I’m cured”.  Small steps day by day add up to real progress as time marches on.

Last night I needed to stay up till close to midnight to fire off a process for work that had to start after 11:30 pm but complete by midnight.  It was about 8:45 and I could already feel I was getting sleepy, not good.  I decided on an unconventional way to stay awake, do a live stream for a couple hours.  After all you can’t sleep if you are talking, right?  So in the span of 10 minutes I fired up a stream and started talking.  Despite the lack of notice I had 20-30 people that jumped in simultaneously. Although being on live helped me I still was feeling less than alert.  It was then that I made a big mistake, I decided I could use some coffee.

I did not feel like going through the hassle of brewing coffee so instead I grabbed the Folgers instant coffee that I typically only use in my mom’s chocolate cake recipe.  I heated up some water in a coffee cup in the microwave and then added three HUGE, heaping tablespoons of Folgers to it along with some God knows how old Coffemate powder creamer.  It was way too much coffee from a strength perspective in retrospect.

Not only was it strong, it tasted absolutely awful.  I had to dump some sugar in it just to get it down.  Despite the awful taste the caffeine definitely kicked in.  The cobwebs cleared and I once again felt awake, too awake.  I shut down the stream after a couple hours and ran the task I needed to do at about 11:45PM, it went fine.

I went back and took a shower.  When I laid in the bed I immediately noticed that despite the very late hour I was not feeling tired, at all.  It was at this moment I knew I had a problem.   I simply could not get my brain to wind down.  The end result of this was my being awake most of the night, getting a couple hours of sleep, maybe.  It was a lesson I will not forget anytime soon.