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Spring 2024 (Mar-May)
The more ''MAGA'' Fascist B.S. and sheer stupidity of the heavy-handed Reality Denying ''Conservative'' politics & laws I have to witness in this deranged ass-backwards clown-show State of Florida, the more constant are my thoughts & determination to escape this lunatic asylum... and the relatively mild Winters and/or lack of a ''State Income Tax'' is/are not enough to sway my opinion on the subject any longer!
However, the sad reality is that I'm not left with very many reasonable alternatives that I'd consider somewhat economically appealing. I'd considered ''Mountain (Eastern) Tennessee'' for a good click, because of their having eliminated their own State Income Tax, but I'd eventually learned that they still assess sales tax on groceries and have eschewed any increases of their ''Minimum Wage'' beyond the cheap-assed ''Federal'' guideline. Going back to the ''Roanoke Valley,'' a place I'm not really fond of apart from the Mountains, is always an ''open offer'' option, but it would mean living in my Mother's house with her again, at least for a time, because housing rents there have gotten just as ridiculous as many other more prestigious & popularly desirable areas. And just nix ''West Virginia'' again, because it is still, and insists on remaining, stuck in the Stone Age.
The fact that I'd fallen victim to this State's scam of waiting TWO WEEKS AFTER my Driver License expired before I'd received one of their ''Courtesy Reminders'' in the Mail certainly helped further & deepen my anti-Florida sentiments... especially since they've made it seemingly impossible to get through to them on their listed contact number to hopefully try to explain the situation in order to express a desire to have their ''Late Fee'' penalty waived (which they almost certainly wouldn't do anyway), thus essentially forcing you to ''pay in person'' at a Tax Collector's office in order to be subjected to an additional ''Walk-In'' fee on top of their long list of other ''Convenience'' Fees!!!
But what I've been finding far more concerning and worrying is the fact that this corrupt system and its corrupt players seem intensely determined to find every way possible to piss on the U.S. Constitution and throw Dictatorial Power to a raving narcissistic PROVEN criminal who had he been just your average ''Working Joe'' or ''Jane'' indicted on even a small FRACTION of what's he's been charged with would have already been sentenced to Prison without parole if not outright executed for Treason against the United States. I'm afraid that if (or at this point, seemingly heavily leaning toward ''WHEN'') these sycophantic ''MAGA'' zombies succeed in getting their manipulative Puppet Master reinstated in the Office of the Presidency, it'll not only be all over for American Democracy, but will also lead to irreversible chaos, inter-societal violence, and the establishment of a Christo-Fascist ''Police State.''
March 1 - 3, 2024 (Friday - Sunday)
After a week of procrastinating & putting off leaving the apartment (largely due to being stuck in a wave of depression) to go get my Driver License reinstated, after accepting that there's likely no possible way I could ever get through to the number listed on their renewal application, I still made the decision to go into work Saturday (Mar. 2) despite my License being expired.
I'd had every intention on doing the same again Sunday (Mar. 3), dressing for the rain, despite very little indication of any storm activity past or pending, as well as having been presented with ambiguous & conflicting information from the three different weather apps I've installed on my phone. I'd had a major change of heart by the time I'd nearly reached ''Florida Highway 54,'' when I'd encountered a sudden and entirely unexpected squall, which caused me to double-back and return to the apartment... not so much for my being inconvenienced, mind you, but in all truthfulness out of primary concern for the safety & protection of my Helmet Camera.
I sent a text and placed a called to inform our Supervisor and select co-workers that I'd be running very late due to the weather immediately after returning inside -- but for all that I'd been dealing with in recent Daily Life, particularly from these tax hassles, and because of what I've been made to deal with from the uncaring and disinterested operations personnel of this Company who have been jerking my chain, disregarding me and/or surreptitiously hindering me and filling me with a bunch of false hopes, I'd made the not-quite spontaneous decision to drop the idea of going back out there entirely and kept the remainder of the day for myself, risking possible reprimand if not termination... not that I'd cared a whole bunch about any potential repercussions, considering that my major expenses are mostly paid-up enough to ride this whole thing out until the end of my lease.
During this time I'd received a text from ''Mimi,'' expressing an interest in wanting to have a get-together: because of the horrific state of my apartment, I'd decided to hold off on responding for a while until things can be made a bit more structured.
Unmentioned Highlights from Previous Quarter...
''Weekend in Review''
February 9 - 11, 2024 (Friday - Sunday)
After another week of putting it off, I finally decided at practically the last minute to go the the ''Tax Collector's'' facility to submit my ''extortion'' payments to the State of Insani... I mean, ''Florida,'' Friday Afternoon (May 8) in order to get my Driver License renewed, which all ended-up costing me almost $70 (with all of the penalties and bogus ''convenience fees'') only for me to get just barely 3/4 of a year's worth of value out of it before I ultimately bag it all up at the end of November and escape this fried-brain madhouse.
Throughout the entire time of my procrastinating over the issue, I'd had every intention of walking to the destination, just to avoid having to ride out there without a valid license; but because of how late I was already pushing my departure time, I'd decided to chance it. After receiving my updated license (and not thoroughly aghast at how my mugshot turned out) ventured on to ''Sam's Club'' for a few grocery items.
Upon being confronted with the new time-stamping procedure after arriving to work Saturday Afternoon (May 9), using their intrusive ''Private Information'' mining method that I've always tried to avoid or circumvent, I'd determined right then and there that this was going to be the final kick in the teeth to alert me to the awareness that it is definitely now time to cash in my chips with this Company... but the subsequent debate centered around whether or not to try to pad out my remaining time with a different operation or to simply ride out the wave to its point break. Amid all of the different speculative scenarios I played out in my head, I was trying to decide how much consideration to give to the idea of arranging time to make ''pre-establishment'' preparations for the local work area, and how the timing of doing so might impact whatever decision I'd decided to make going forward.
While at the jobsite, with the constant windy conditions, I observed evidence that the motorcycle cover removal I'd suspected involved foul play two months ago (Jan. 8) may actually have been a result of the buffeting wind after all.
And as far as things relating to the motorcycle, this Weekend saw the return of the ''FI'' engine light & associated timing issues again -- and while none too surprised by its return to form, my amazement came in that they had managed to hold themselves in check for as long and as consistently as they had.
I composed the letter to our site supervisor announcing my decision to resign from the Company while at the jobsite Sunday (May 10), making my ''official'' declaration that I'd no longer be making myself available to work for them in any foreseeable future... at least not ''locally''; I then proceeded to take a snapshot of the letter in question and forward it as an email attachment to our Operations Manager, who was my biggest backstabber in the first place, and made sure to drop-off the original hard copy to our immediate supervisor's personal desk on my way off property at pau hana time.
''Weekend In Review''
March 18 - 24, 2024 (Monday - Sunday)
Sunday (Mar. 24) marks my First Full Week of my having officially disassociated myself with my now former employer! Although I've still been dealing with being in the doldrums and lacking certain motivation, one change that has occurred is that my ''Night Owl'' routine has largely been restored to its ''normal'' pattern, for the most part. Otherwise, I've been considerably less stressed. And of course, I'd informed those within my familial circle about the official change.
Most of my activities were still mostly relegated to working inside and around the apartment, doing spot-cleaning here and there sporadically, but mostly applying my attentions to trying to update & restructure my computer files.
My standout event date was Friday (Mar. 22), when I went to retrieve my latest ''Amazon Vine'' packages from the Post Office (whereby I was greeted to the fact that the locker within which one of the two packages had been put in had been ajar/unsecure since whenever the box was placed inside, which I had no specific idea as to when that had been done, but surprisingly the package had remained undisturbed), a short time after which I rode out to ''Sam's Club'' for some stock-up items; I'd also pruned my broccoli plants to gather some fresh leaves for the bean/rice/pasta soup I'd be making later that night.
My maintaining my ''Nihongo'' & ''Espaņol'' phone app lessons also managed to fall by the wayside throughout the week, only managing to get back into them somewhat during the Weekend Days.
Vikki sent me a ''Who?Tube'' link Sunday Evening, featuring a commercial she had done locally for her place of employment, wherein she'd featured a picture and story of her older sister who had died, which she'd mentioned the last time I'd visited but never went into any detail about, so I used this as the opportunity to get the inside scoop, wherein she'd revealed that her sister had undergone surgery for stomach cancer but had wound up losing her life due to a medical error post-treatment.
''Full Week in Review''
April 12 - 15, 2024 (Friday - Monday)
Checked my texts Friday (Apr. 12) and saw one from Mi Madre from the previous day where she'd mentioned that she was wanting to place my Sister's and my names on her Deed and requested my input on how to go about doing that: I chose to wait until the next day (Sat., Apr. 13) before responding, having wanted to dig a tad bit deeper into the concept of ''Living Trusts'' and how those things tied together, explaining to her that thoughts about establishing some sort of guardianship over the Estate has been assaulting my brain literally multiple times a day over the past month or so, and that I'd hoped that all of this surface tension wasn't some sort of Harbinger of things lying in wait.
Working on my Tax Returns kept getting pushed back since Saturday, first thanks to a persistent migraine, and through the entire weekend because of all of the infuriating formatting corrections I had to keep making in these Word Processing programs (ALL of them!) as I was continuing to restructure/reformat the ''HTML'' tagged hard disk copies of my online journal to transform form them into just regular text document records, but they kept me in a continual state of active conflict with them as I had to keep trying all varieties of tweaks and hopeful workarounds to prevent the documents from disrupting and destroying my formatting choices (switching/resizing fonts, changing spacing, inserting unwanted borders/boxes, ignoring & resetting template preferences, etc.) -- despite the fact that for all of the madness (which was still never fully resolved, and seems so incapable of being), it did have the ONE positive benefit of helping me discover numerous errors (mostly in spelling) that had slipped by originally, which I was able to ''Fix In Post,'' as it were, and I must admit that it is uncertain as to if I'd have ever been alerted to any of them otherwise: my major post-concern of course now being just how much of a portion of my Journal Records ended-up being LOST or inadvertently ALTERED as a result of all of the Trials-&-Errors of fighting against these overly complicated programs in trying to set everything established and stable.
I finally managed to finish my Taxes late night Sunday (Apr. 14), opting not to file through the mail this time, as this time I'd received a ''refund.'' My next step was to clear my Credit Card balances before the Midnight Hour (something I kept trying to tell myself to do earlier in the month), but two of the providers' websites kept locking-up on me, either not linking me to the payment/activity pages (Chase) or not allowing me to access the account at all (CapitalOne), so I wasn't able to get around to paying those two off until the following day (Mon., Apr. 15), which was my payment ''deadline'' date.
In taking the trash out Monday afternoon brought me face to face with the reality that all of that stitching repair work I'd done to try to preserve my motorcycle cover was essentially pointless, as it continues to deteriorate and do so in spades.
''Extended 'Tax Return' Weekend in Review''
April 17, 2024 (Wednesday)
I'd been getting [re-]accustomed to working within ''Kingsoft WPS Office'' since downloading & installing it in the Pre-Dawn hours Yesterday Morning, in hopes that through this one's Word Processing program I might finally be able to format my Journal HD copy transfers to where everything will hold together exactly the way I've been trying to establish them... and at least thus far it is appearing to be a [mostly] effective workaround solution. This would be my third time trying 'Kingsoft Writer' (a scan of my earlier Journal records indicating that I'd had it installed on my System as late as 2015 -- which also indicated that I've been in this penis-shaped Insane Asylum for almost a full Decade!), but no indication(s) relating to why I'd uninstalled it the previous time(s), but I could probably speculate a few guesses, based on what I think I might remember, especially given some of the issues I've been finding myself experiencing with this latest installation.
I suddenly (and finally) got the urge to venture out of the apartment and make a shopping trip to ''Sam's Club'' this Afternoon: While at the register the Checkout Girl went into the standard ''upsell'' pitch to try to get me to ''upgrade'' my Membership to the ''Gold'' tier, but this time there was an extraordinary incentive attached with it, in that this ''upgrade'' (which would last until the current Membership's expiration date in about four months) would only cost me the Super-Low Low Price of... ''seventy-one cents!'' ($0.71) I agreed to rank it up after I'd been ensured that the upgraded status would likewise carry-over to my Mother's card as well, despite the fact that mine is the ''Guest Account.''
After returning to the apartment, I attempted a temporary patch-up fix on the motorcycle cover by stapling the ripped portions together, as I did not wish to go through another long & tedious (and probably even more subpar) ''stitching'' process -- especially given how long the motorcycle would be left sitting out completely exposed in the high direct sunlight.
22:45, Eastern Daylight Time
April 23, 2024 (Tuesday)
Double Dose of infuryism today, as I spent LITERALLY almost the entirety of the daylight hours trying to format a ''SINGLE'' word processing document, mainly attempting to rid the entirety of the text body of squiggly red underlines which mostly, but not exclusively kept showing up in the ''.rtf'' format, almost exclusively in the in the Apache ''OpenOffice'' suite ... and even when it would seem that I'd finally somehow managed to eliminate the seemingly endless assault after going through MULTIPLE STEPS & utilizing ALL FOUR of my text editing programs, trying to figure out an effective sequence, the problem would either ''re-appear'' as though nothing at all had been done, after having been left alone for a certain period of time, or the program(s) would resort to hijacking & altering my texting/spacing formatting, mainly within all or certain select ''paragraph breaks.'' By the time it had started to approach dusk, I decided to ''remedy'' the problem by thoroughly shit-canning ''OpenOffice''... which I really did not wish to do, as that was forever my ''go-to'' program for cross-platform word processing. Because of the all of the frustration with my preferred ''open source'' document saving format, I'm now determined to transmorph all of my ''Journal'' documents into ''.doc'' formats.
Also later in the early evening, I'd decided I'd about had enough with the next door neighbor's whimpering & howling dog, which they'd acquired only a couple of days or so ago -- and because of this, I sent off a text to the ''Prop-Man'' office to ''inquire'' as to whether the animal had been reported and ''officially'' included on their lease. I can barely tolerate their frequently arguing & hollering at each other at whatever odd hours; I shouldn't be expected to have to deal with a whining & yapping puppy whenever they leave the apartment for any amount of time on top of it all!
22:15, Eastern Daylight Time
April 25, 2024 (Thursday)
Accessing several of units of my DVD collection in order to re-record some specific movie soundtrack themes that I could not locate on & download from any online sources, I discovered that the ink medium my Tim Burton ''Planet of the Apes'' had severely degraded & broken down, which would require me to purchase a replacement.
Finally encountered the newest ant invasion, which I was surprised had not already manifested itself weeks ago, where I'd expected them to start making their presence known inside my bedroom -- instead, this latest infiltration revealed its source as possibly emanating from the water heater closet in the kitchen.
23:45, Eastern Daylight Time
April 26 - 28, 2024 (Friday - Sunday)
Took time out Saturday (Apr. 27) to harvest the three of the six broccoli plants that had produced any heads at all (while only one of the group was actually of any barely mediocre significance, but I felt with some of the florets starting to bloom necessitated the action), leaving a few leaves on the remaining stalk to see if they would continue to grow; I then stored the head portions away and proceeded to steam the leafy portions of what I'd brought inside and set them aside for future use.
Late Sunday Night (Apr. 28) I scheduled my second ''Shingles'' vaccination appointment along with a refill of my prescription eyedrops, to incorporate in tandem with my payment of the ''Parking Violation'' ticket I was greeted to when I briefly stopped into the ''Ridge-19 walmart'' on the Saturday of the previous weekend (Apr. 20), which I decided not to challenge, despite having helmet camera evidence that proved that I had NOT parked in the ''Fire Lane,'' as claimed on the ticket -- but because of how it worded other supposed ''parking violations,'' despite walmart having never posted any signage or expressed any concerns regarding motorcycles parking in the ''bicycle rack'' area, I still had to accept that there would still be some ''technicality'' issues that would rule against me regardless, with the likely end result of my having to still pay the fine, if not a stiffer fine... along with any ''Court Costs'' -- so I just resigned myself to taking the $108 hit to both my bank account and my pride.
''Weekend in Review''
April 29, 2024 (Monday)
Went to get my Shingles shot and eyedrops prescription (amazingly one of those exceptionally rare times when I've arrived to a medical-related appoint on-time), then gave the County their check for their at-least ''HALF-bogus'' parking violation citation, with absolutely no intention of explaining the situation to the taker behind the collection window, but he inspired me to briefly explain my feeling of having been partially set-up with an illegitimate additional charge for which I had recorded video evidence to the contrary, then debated whether or if I should tack-on an, or a few, additional ''errand'' stop(s) before deciding against the idea.
Back inside, I immediately informed my Mother of the Morning's events, but had failed to mention my broccoli harvest, as I'd intended.
I then went about setting-up my preferences on the ''Brave'' browser app that I'd downloaded & installed onto my Primary Smartphone the previous evening, to serve as the replacement ''Chromium-based'' companion to the ''Firefox'' browser I'd installed the previous weekend (Sat., Apr. 15), when I finally had to come to and accepted the realization that my forever browser choice, ''Blokee/Bloket'' (which I was to learn was from developers in Korea) was no longer circumventing ''Who?Tube'' video ads. It was during this restoration & icon restructuring process that I'd do some tracking-down investigating and would discover that not only was ''Bloket'' no longer accessible (visible) in the ''App Store,'' but I'd ultimately learn that there had been NO UPDATES to the App for Two Full Years! -- and as such, its functionality fell out of ''support'' for the ''newer'' Android OS version on my Primary Phone. It still operates fine, and due to storage space limitations, I've chosen to retain it as the sole Web Browser on the ''Secondary'' phone; it's just no longer capable of smacking away Goo-Goo's annoying video ads on their ''YOU''-purged site).
After a bunch of searching for still no answers, I was finally able to implement a ''pseudo-Hiding'' feature for the list of App icons openly visible in the ''Apps Drawer'' of my Main Phone (something that comes as a standard function in the replacement phone)... which was what I'd been desiring to do as a pre-emptive counter-maneuver ever since the Woman in Tampa whom I'd missed having the opportunity to Pussy-Lick at my jobsite last year had begun scrolling through my then-Main phone trying to search for a non-existent ''Ride-Share'' app and was only met with ''Dating'' and ''Learn-Japanese'' apps after her own phone had died.
The vaccine caught up with me later in the Evening, causing me to develop a tiny bit of a fever, some serious light-headedness and a persistent urge to just fall back and go to sleep.
Also... neighbor dog is still here and disrupting the silence: unsure if this means the ''Prop-Man'' investigated and found that the animal was ''authorized'' to be in the apartment, of if they've still not gotten around to checking it out yet.
22:30, Eastern Daylight Time
May 1, 2024 (Wednesday)
Still coming down from the after-effects of the Shingles vaccination, which had gotten more severe in the late-Monday Night and persisted on that level roughly through to the post-Dawn Tuesday hours before they began to subside to the point of ''relative'' comfort, although despite the lessening of symptoms in other areas, head/face/neck pains fluctuating in severity remained [and continues to remain] consistent throughout.
(Having not clearly recalled other post-vaccination symptoms, but knowing that they had managed to drag me down quite a bit during my ''Tri-Vax'' doses back in September, I speculated that the symptoms I've been experiencing this time around might likely have been more closely tied to the ''C-19'' vaccine, as I could not remember going through these symptoms, and on this level, from whenever I'd received those shots... but a search through my Journal records confirmed that I had indeed experienced these exact same symptoms with at least one of the solitary ''CoViD'' vaccines I'd received -- so there it is.)
During these lay-down & try-to-sleep periods of inactivity, I decided to come to my senses and commit myself to culling through and trashing the vast majority of the ''Wallpaper/Screensaver'' Naked-- and naked-ish --Women images stealing space on my Hard Drive... especially with regard to the more PROBLEMATIC images which should've never found a place on my system except for my being driven by intense ''curiosity'' about certain aspects I'd wanted to ''demystify'' and view in a somewhat ''detached'' state of mind.
23:50, Eastern Daylight Time
May 6 - 12, 2024 (Monday - Sunday)
The ''Hot Water'' knob on my shower, which I'd been having problems with its loosening itself for the past several weeks; finally came loose and lost all gripping ability Monday (May 6), and no amount of tightening the screw could reset it, nor could I (on my own, at least) figure out how to remove it altogether. Because of the continuing aesthetic state of the apartment during this still ongoing ''computer files'' restructuring session, I made the decision to delay reporting the incident until I've managed to address those concerns more intently, relying on the use of one of my screwdrivers to open & shut-off the water flow when needed. (I would also be able to confirm later in week that the weakened seal of the Hot Water line, rather than any excessive splashing that might've been taking place during showering sessions, was directly tied to all of the "spill0vers" I'd been finding myself dealing with, finally tracing it to the ''dripping'' faucet which, rather than being just a regular normal ''built-up'' drip, was a combination of a drip that was connected to an unbroken stream of water which clung to the underside of the tilted-back faucet which guided the flow back toward its base in the wall, which then resulted in the water to stream down the wall and follow the edge of the tub until spilling over onto the floor: leaving the only way to effectively address this issue being closing the ''main'' faucet line and leaving the ''shower'' line open.)
This also turned out to be the night that I finally decided to open the washroom window since finding one of those invasive geckos trapped inside about a month ago (at this point, it had finally been dead, or completely incapacitated, for about two or three days). As it turned out, the ''timing'' seemed... something indescript, as up until that point I'd really felt no need or impulse to open windows on any consistent basis, especially not in connection with anything relating to heat relief, as I'd been conditioned to believe that the ''blackout curtains,'' which I'd been keeping drawn shut rather consistently, seemed to be contributing to a ''cooling effect'' inside the bedroom -- but because of how intense the internal heat was on this day, I had to concede that even with the room blacked-out, this place will still turn into a veritable oven when it gets hot outside.
''Mimi's'' ringtone set off around 04:15 Tuesday Morning (May 7), reaching out, but not really making any sort of a request or anything. I'd been deliberately putting-off trying to contact her, or even desiring any sort of engagement with her, until I'd completed re-downloading, converting & tagging at least the ''Motion Picture & TV soundtracks/themesongs'' selection of my Music Library, which I've also been focusing attention on but found to be a much more difficult process than I'd ever anticipated, still not having gotten even halfway through the task.
Later in the Night, and on through the entirety of Wednesday (May 8) my Journal Documents formatting task was further exacerbated by my doing battle with trying to figure out how to purge a bunch of "phantom blank spaces" and what I call ''ghost relic'' lines that kept stubbornly sticking around and refused to be deleted.
(And as I continue working my way further back through the 'Raw Files' of my ''Time Capsule,'' not only has the task of text editing become more complicated & time consuming, but as I review random segments of my history I'm realizing that my life was far more eventful than I'd remembered or would've believed: I also came to a better understanding of just how indignantly ''angry'' and ''reactionary'' I truly am at my core... more so than I would've otherwise realized.)
I managed to discover two more ant invasion hiding spots Friday (May 9) -- the first was by accidental discovery when I'd decided to pull out one of my nightmasks from their storage box and found a large colony had established itself there, which I sprayed to death (I'd known there was one hiding somewhere inside the bedroom which I couldn't trace but which kept making itself known by their biting me on my scrotum periodically); the other, which I'd known existed somewhere in the bathroom for the past several days but could not trace, finally revealed itself later in the Evening when a bunch of them began swarming around the boogers on a partially used tissue I'd left atop the toilet tank, whereby they exposed themselves as hiding somewhere behind the wall mirror.
Later in the night, while watering the garden, the two tomatoes that did managed to come into being were found to be completely ripened, though very small; plus I learned that a new eggplant was also coming into form.
Finally sent a brief 'acknowledgment' text to Mimi late Saturday Night (May 12), only mentioning that I'm still on non-employment hiatus and continuing to tackle my files & folders, etc.
''Full Week in Review''
May 13 - 16, 2024 (Monday - Thursday)
Two more ant spots were found Monday (May 13): the first in the bedroom again (as I was already aware that there was a second one, which I'd initially been unable to trace back to the northwest wall outlet); the other also in the bathroom, this time behind the medicine cabinet.
Tuesday (May 14) I was able to figure out how to remove the flow control knob(s) in my bath/shower, which I'd intended to switch around so that I'd be able to have unfettered access to the ''Hot Water,'' as I'm almost never using the Cold water, since the water heater never brings the temperature up high enough to resort to opening it. Instead of making a direct switch, I'd determined that the condition of the knobs was so gross & disgusting that they required a ''Vinegar Bath,'' which I subjected them to, along with my shower head and the kitchen sink sprayer nozzle, just past Midnight Wednesday (May 14).
My documents reformatting progress hit another snag Thursday Morning (May 16), when the ''CCP'' word processor kept locking me out of editing my files, claiming that they were all ''Read-Only,'' and I was able to confirm through various investigations and manipulations that none of it was in relation to anything I'd done relating to all the various tweaks & folder deletions I'd resorted to in order to disrupt the constant ''pop-ups'' nagging me to ''upgrade'' or request access to Internet, etc. This was later confirmed via a search query which linked me to a ''reddit'' post which complained about the exact same issue, which offered as the only workable solution (apart from buying into the ''upgrade'' bait) a complete uninstall/reinstall -- (I'd tried to do a ''restore-fix'' reinstall before learning about this, and it of course did not correct the problem). According to a couple of the posters, the Program automatically locks-up like that after 30 days have passed.
While continuing to work ''back-in-time'' on prepping the earlier and more ''challenging'' (read: ''complicated'') documented records, I was met with confusion as to why my entries showed two separate instances of recorded ''work trips'' to the Island of ''Kaua'i'' noted in two different Seasons in the same year (2007). Thus being forced to review those separate instances in order to get clarification and perhaps expose & subsequently correct accidentally included entries, I came to realize/rediscover that I actually had in fact accepted Off-Island work on Two separate instances which I'd completely forgotten had occurred as I'd recorded them, having over the years fallen victim to my own ''Mandela Effect,'' having resulted from my MERGING the two separate events into a SINGLE connected memory. I was also very appreciative of the many details I'd included in each retelling (in spite of the challenges of trying to read through and decipher my own confusing & chaotic writing composition style), as they helped me recall many times, places, dates, etc. that had long since faded into the subconscious ether -- many of which, apart from the descriptives themselves, I'm still incapable of conjuring up to the surface of my mind. In reviewing those events, I'd also been given a fresh reminder of just how ''problematic'' (to say the very least) my experiences have always been whenever I've done ''Air-Travel'' alone.
''Week in Review''
May 17 - 19, 2024 (Friday - Sunday)
Took time to scour the ''Amazon Vine'' offers Friday Evening (May 17) in search again of a replacement bathroom mirror (and of course still not finding any), but also to see if I could come across any shower knobs so that I could have one on hand to offset the stripped grooves condition of the one that had been attached to the Hot Water dial, and found a cheap plastic set that was indeed being offered and appeared to be compatible with the dials on my bathtub/shower. The decision to seek these out and order them however would seem to have been influenced by some intangible prophetic push, as when I finally decided to withdraw the soaking plumbing attachments from their vinegar bath (which had produced a disgusting looking and relatively foul smelling froth floating atop) in the Post-Midnight hours of Saturday Morning (May 28), at about 01:15, I'd discover that the vinegar soak had actually weakened & eaten away the ''grooved'' portions, making the knobs entirely useless -- (the only reason I still had any access to tub/shower water flow at all was because I'd made the conscious decision not to include the knob which was connected to the open/shut shower line... and I'd only made that decision based on the fact that everything else by then had already immersed for some time, and because I did not see it really as much of a priority based on its much less severely stained condition.)
''Weekend in Review''
May 20 - 23, 2024 (Monday - Thursday)
Took out the trash and watered the garden Monday Night (May 20), whereupon I noticed for the first time that the next-door apartment on the southside of Lisa's unit was now vacant. While checking on the progress of my produce I learned that I've now two eggplant pods developing, but still only the two bell peppers.
Received an email message from ''Amazon'' Tuesday Evening (May 21), alerting me that the shower faucet knobs were [quote] ''Not Deliverable'' [unquote], without further explanation (...in conducting a package transit track-down it was observed that the order had arrived as far as ''Ybor City'' before inexplicably being re-sent back to Amazon's distribution center). I contacted an Amazon representative through their ''chat'' feature to request replacement, fully expecting to be shoved aside and instructed to [1] receive a ''refund'' (for a non-purchased ''free'' item), which naturally happened, as expected, to then be followed-up with [2] instructions to ''re-purchase'' the item at-cost and receive a ''store credit,'' only for me to be shocked to learn that not only did that second part not happen, but that this time a requested item replacement actually would be sent out! In the meantime, I was able to find, an alternative acrylic shower knob (singular unit, not a multi-piece set) that was being made available which I'd ordered during the call as a ''Just In Case'' back-up, should I not actually receive the promise re-send, even though I could not be certain to any degree that it would be a compatible, or ''standardized,'' item. I also continued seeking a replacement bathroom mirror, found one available, but upon matching the advertised measurements found it way too large to request, and no alternative (smaller) sizes were being offered.
Called my Mother at around 23:20 after noticing that I'd missed a phone call from her the previous evening (either because I was knocked-out dead asleep or which had been attempted during the day when I'd inadvertently allowed the phone battery to completely drain, which I'd put on ''PC-port'' recharge while inactive). We spent the better part of three hours in conversation, wherein I'd indirectly revealed that I'd finally grown tired with fighting this perpetually losing battling with Modern-Century's insane and unforgiving housing crisis and insinuated (heavily hinted) a plan (NOT a 'desire') to return to the Roanoke Valley, taking her up on her perpetual promise that ''her children'' would always have a ''Home'' to which to return.
Not mentioned during the conversation was the fact that a considerable motivation leading me to this point, aside from the ''economic'' pressures, involves my worries & concerns over the incompetence of the Legal System in providing support & backing to Property Owners who fall victim to the relentless tsunami unauthorized occupiers who'll immediately hijack an empty free-standing housing structure and claim some bogus or legal-loophole ''Squatter's Rights,'' and I'll be dambed if I'm going to sit by idly and allow such a thing to happen to Martha's house when God decides to terminate her lease, should she precede myself and/or my sister.
It was during this time that I'd learn that she still had not reviewed that video link I'd texted to her, which explains in a concise general presentation the differences between ''Wills'' and ''Living Trusts,'' and why the latter is always going to be the better option overall in all areas of effectiveness, convenience, cost, etc. -- She explained that she still does not understand the concept of ''tapping links'' provided within a Text message to open an outside webpage. As it would turn out though, she also had not yet gone to speak to anyone in more depth about what she was trying to do regarding her assets, so that she'll still be able to benefit from the information presented in the video before she actually does try speaking to someone and thus be made aware that there'll always be a fair chance that anyone she speaks to Officially on these matters may not operate in her behalf as a ''fiduciary.''
''Week in Review''
May 24 - 26 (Friday - Sunday)
Later in the afternoon Saturday (May 25), while I was preparing my Asian-inspired stir fry, my Japanese ''bowlate'' finally decided to shatter itself into a mess of pieces -- as I knew would eventually happen from the very moment I'd made the decision to make the purchase... because the sinister forces of this life have a life-long track record of simply REFUSING to let me have anything good, nice, or personally valued for any significant length of time that barely even hints at permanence. In this instance, it chose to cast itself down out of the cabinet after I'd accessed several of my storage bowls, shattering itself first against the opened oven door before completing its destruction upon the floor, whereupon one flying shard decided that it needed to cap-off the process by slicing open the top of my right-foot big toe into a bloody fountain!
I'd soon discover that it was trying to accomplish a ''two-fer'' attempt in one go, as it had also tried to take my ''Man of Steel'' coffee mug out with it -- another personally treasured item I'm constantly handling cautiously, in dread of its also eventually being stolen away from me due to some destructive mishap: its only saving grace (at least ''THIS'' time) being that it had landed directly atop of the range and fell no further. Even so, I was still surprised (more accurately, 'shocked') that it came out of the incident entirely unscathed... not even a chip or crack!
This occurrence seemed to have been some sort of ''cherry-on-top'' to another disappointment from way earlier during the pre-dawn hours, when I was confronted with a response from ''reddit's'' ''Science Questions'' subgroup which informed me that my submission asking about why the White Vinegar bath I'd subjected them to had eroded the metal grooves on my shower knobs had been REJECTED for some bullshit reason, stating that the question wasn't pertinent to their discussion forum -- regarding which, I'd contacted the ''Motherfuc...'' ...I mean, ''Moderators'' and asked them to re-review, reconsider, and actually post the question! (There was this constant nagging annoying me the whole time telling me to actually EXPECT that the question would not be approved for no good or valid reason!)
Finally managed to wrap-up the restructuring and fixing my ''Journal'' archives on my Hard Drive and establishing a standardized base template for all my future records Late Saturday Night (May 26). Throughout the process, I restrained myself from making any significant alterations to the original texts outside of standardizing all font-formatting across the board and correcting numerous spelling errors.
Upon final completion, I decided, based on the earlier and later re-uploaded hassles in dealing with it, that I've no longer any rational or legitimate reason to retain the ''Kingsoft'' Office suite, now that it has served its primary purpose to make-up for the deficiencies of the Open/LibreOffice and MS ''WordPad'' programs that could not satisfactorily handle this specific project. Through the whole ordeal, I'd grown accustomed to & comfortable with using ''LibreOffice'' as the viable alternative to its ''OpenOffice'' forebear.
''Weekend in Review''
May 27, 2024 (Monday)
Finally ventured outside this afternoon to check my Post Office Box and reclaimed both orders of my shower knobs (only to learn later after returning inside that NONE of them were compatible with the set-up inside this apartment ~ small surprise there), initially thrown off by the parking lot's emptiness and unusually light traffic before realizing that it was because today is another of those ''holidays'' that people pretend are so blamed important.
I'd also received another letter from the ''IRS,'' this time informing me that they had siphoned off of this year's refund amount to cover the ''balance'' of the disputed amount they were claiming I still owed. Minor irritant, as this at last gets them out of my hair over the issue altogether, and puts me on extra guard to monitor the frequency of my ordering involvement with that ''Amazon Vine'' program, which was what led to these hassles in the first place.
Right after returning, I pruned my broccoli of the bulk of their remaining leaves for steaming, and plucked the ''soft'' one of the eggplant pair, while monitoring the bell peppers as one of them is beginning to take on a bit of reddening hue.
Partially as a sort of 'reward' for Journal restructuring/standardizing completion, and partially as an incentive to earn an extra ''5% cash-back'' on my Sam's/Synchrony ''MasterCard'' (of which I'd retrieved the new issued card from the Post Office), I went back out to grab a ''Domino's'' pizza order, detouring to ''Dollar Tree'' on the route back for some soda pop, not exactly finding what I'd wanted (Root Beer, or perhaps Ginger Ale) and settling for a few 160z. cans of ''Dr. Pepper'' instead.
Throughout each trip and afterwards, I'd experienced Network Non-Connection issues with the ''Mobile Data'' on my cellphone, having no idea how long it had been down as such, as this was the first time since my last shopping trip leaving the apartment for anything beyond just dumping trash and watering the garden. ''TracFone's'' ''chat'' service was no help, and I was really just too mentally & physically down in the dumps to devote any time time rushing to delve any deeper into trying to solve the problem.
23:35, Eastern Daylight Time
May 29, 2024 (Wednesday)
Eliminated another massive ant colony today -- which I thought I'd dealt with the previous evening, where they appeared to be emanating from behind the circuit breaker box, but which today proved that they were perhaps migrating/expanding to that area from the nest they had established inside one of my Ramen Noodles packaging trays (...what is it with these things and their seemingly undying love/preference for ''cardboard'' boxes?).
23:55, Eastern Daylight Time
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