Week 867
Day 6063 - 2/5 - Dry for the moment
Today things seem dry for the moment. Yesterday it was completely pouring rain. I thought I'd be ok not using my umbrella, but in just a couple of minutes my stuff got badly soaked through. I guess I totally underestimated things.
Today my MMO had super extended maintenance, which was fine. I played a game I sometimes do in the afternoon during the morning time, did some work on my pen and paper hobby, then played an early access game I've been super into the rest of my time. It was actually a pretty good day for a change.
Day 6064 - 2/6 - Rain returns
Today the rain has returned. It was pouring off and on last night, and has been more off than on since then, but it's currently a very heavy sprinkle, moving towards actual rain.
The day was pretty good. I had fun with various things and did just a little bit of my pen and paper hobby stuff. Though some extra food I got did wreck me and ran straight through me. But it's fine, I can easily not get that again. But overall in spite of being much less focused than normal, it was a pretty good day.
Day 6065 - 2/7 - Fast day
Today wasn't really anything special. I did pretty much the same thing as yesterday, but my time in game flew by. Before I knew it, it was past time to leave the game and 'do dinner.' Everything worked out fine overall, so it was fine.
Day 6066 - 2/8 - A day off
Today I kind of took a day off. I lost some sleep, so I was kind of sleepy. Though with my doing only about 1 hour of pen and paper work lately a day, it's not exactly a big loss in productive time. Overall the day was pretty good and did move a bit more quickly once it was past noon, but it was a pretty good day overall.
Day 6067 - 2/9 - Car worries
Today I am worried about the car. For the past few years, once or twice a year, it's had trouble starting. But these past 2-3 weeks it's had the issue 3 times now. What happens, or more accurately doesn't happen, is I turn the key and the first stop that turns on the lights and fan is fine, but then it acts like the key isn't moved to the second stop where it's supposed to start. And then usually it will do that twice, then on the third try it starts. But these times it hasn't been a normal start. It's like rrrp... rrp... rrrrp... and then starts. It's like the rotating part sounds like it's sticking. Or in a hand cranked lawn mower, it would be like the rotating part either just isn't moving at all or is jerking as you pull the cable. And now after the most recent start and driving a bit, then stopping, I test started it twice. And while it reacted fine in terms of reacting to the key position, both tests the rotating starting thing was sticking.
It's overdue for an oil change, but that's not by a super lot. I should have done it at 125k miles, and it's now 131k, so sure it should have been done and done again, but I've been over by this much before and not had any real issues.
I guess we'll see if it continues to stick in the coming days. I think the last time it was sticky starting was maybe a week or 1.5 weeks ago. When driving it seems 'normal' and while three times of no reaction starts is bad, I can't say for sure it's an indication of an imminent full failure. Hopefully it will go back to being fine for its age. This does also seem to happen in colder weather, so hopefully things will warm up soon.
I'm trying to remain hopeful and not let my worry ruin an otherwise good day, but it is tough to hang onto hope.
Day 6068 - 2/10 - Dead battery
Today hopefully the car will start fine and it will be an otherwise normal day. I have nothing special other than the car being ok to really hope or look forward to.
Edit: Last night I did some research on the cost for a starter replacement and noticed there was mention it could also be a low battery issue. I decided to go ahead and use some gift card money I had at the online store I use to get a battery charger. Hopefully that's the issue, as it's set to arrive in a few hours because this morning there was trouble starting, and then at the food store it started just clicking, doing one or two revs, then that was it. Looking up the clicking online that 100% seems to indicate a fully drained battery. At least this time I know it can be recharged and I don't have to spend the like $200 to get a new one. So I've lost the day. I can be online here at the food store maybe a couple of hours, but after that wouldn't be polite. I guess I'll just sit outside, listen to stuff, and try and do some work on my pen and paper hobby stuff. Hopefully the charger can recharge the battery overnight and things will be fine tomorrow. I'll likely update in the later morning again to let people know.
Day 6069 - 2/11 - Hopefully ok start Tuesday
Today hopefully the car will continue to be fine. The more days it goes that it starts pretty much normally the better I feel. (Due to its age it's been quite a while since it started easily and immediately. There's always some kind of pause, if even a very small one.)
Edit: Yesterday when the tow guy jumped me the car immediately started, fast, easy, no hesitation. So that did indeed point towards a battery issue. His official recommendation was that I needed a new battery. But in his test results it showed 75% cranking strength and about the same for charge strength, both well within his green bar range. (And it did show only 10% of the available power capacities, so it was definitely drained down.) So he agreed that I should just go ahead and recharge it overnight and see if it seems ok. I was worried at first because a first search showed 4-8 hour charge time, and looking up the specific model of charger I had showed 80 hours, but within just a few hours of hooking up the battery it showed the 75%-99% charged light. Putting it back in the car this morning it immediately started, no hesitation, stronger than I remember it being for years. Same with the second start. So it does indeed look like the battery had just drained over the past 7-8 years (I almost never get up to freeway speeds where they say it will be recharged), so I guess the next time things seem to struggle I'll just take it out and recharge it overnight again. Though if the battery is still fine to use, I expect that won't be for possibly years. I'm tempted to return the charging thing, but at $28 it seems fine to keep it just in case.
Week 868
Day 6070 - 2/12 - Lost sleep
Today I am pretty tired. For some reason I had a hard time sleeping. I barely slept 6 hours. I am starting to relax about the car though since it totally seems like the starting issue was just the battery, which was a very easy, and very cheap fix. Overall it was a cold, but good day.
Day 6071 - 2/13 - Too far
Today was a pretty good day. I'm still a touch worried about the car, I guess mostly because it's old and has a few issues in general, so anytime I'm set off I can't help but worry. But it's kind of funny, now that it's starting super strong I'm holding the key longer than I need to. I'm used to 'turn, hold for 1 second,' but it's starting immediately on turn. It doesn't do anything bad, it's just kind of funny.
I had fun playing my game today, and a tiny bit of my pen and paper hobby. (Now that I have 3 more months than I expected.) And I got a special food. So today was a pretty good day.
Day 6072 - 2/14 - Ok but sad
Today I am feeling ok. My worries about things are subsiding. I got good sleep. My food for the day hasn't upset me.
But I still have all my sads from my sad life. I still wonder what kind of permanent damage it's having. My G.E.R.D.s issue doesn't seem to be clearing up at all. In the past few months my lungs have always felt just full of yuck that I sometimes cough up. And my muscles and back feel tight. All I can do is try my best to hang on, and hope when my life is better that I can still recover at least most of what has been lost.
Day 6073 - 2/15 - Upset tummy
Today really the only thing of note was an upset tummy and system for a bit at lunch. I had a special something I don't normally have that has a bunch of cinnamon. For some reason those kind of spices have kind of wrecked me the past few years. I used to be able to eat a big piece of pumpkin pie several nights in a row and be fine. But lately it's only half a piece and more is risky. I'd only really get it during thanksgiving, getting a half pie, but because of this I don't bother getting more than a single piece. Hopefully it is just temporary with all the other food weirdness like red lunch meat wrecking me too, and someday my system can recover and eat normally again.
Day 6074 - 2/16 - Ok but tired
Today seems like a pretty ok day. I got lots of sleep, but I'm still pretty tired. It's also still very cold, so that isn't great.
My morning game was having issues too, so I had to stop playing that and delay doing a special thing I would have been doing. But I guess overall today was good.
Day 6075 - 2/17 - Not outside
Today I will thankfully not be outside. I can be inside-ish and have a connection to do stuff, though it's pretty cold, so it's not the best. But it will be better than being outside most of the day as I was expecting to be.
Day 6076 - 2/18 - Normal Tuesday
Today hopefully will be a normal homeless Tuesday. Hopefully I can continue to hang on and be ok.
