I went to bed at a reasonable time the night before, woke up at 0530, and told everyone that had messaged me on a couple different dating apps in the last month and everyone who had messaged me on WhatsApp in the last 3 months that it was Xistday.
Talking to ladies is a zero-sum game, but I try.
Some old friends reached out on Facebook, one sister had some stuff delivered, including mango products, which Mom confiscated, and my other sister sent me $100.
Some mango syrup I ordered arrived on-schedule.
It was nice on cheesecake, but then my brother drank straight from the bottle.
Today I received a "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" t-shirt, mango leather, dried mangoes, and another bottle of mango syrup, which I hid, so my brother wouldn't drink it straight from the bottle.
It was great on pancakes on waffles!
As I mentioned, I drained the rest of the oil from my Camry into a disposable pie pan, and used the Oil Udder to remove the filter, but oil still spilled all over, so I looked up a WatchJRGo video, where he mentioned the solo cup technique.
I took my brother to several stores. I just wanted a medium soda, but the convenience stores we passed only had paper or styrofoam cups in that size.
I didn't want to buy an XXL soda just for an oil filter.
The Oil Udder didn't fit and the soda cup is even bigger!
I also tried to clean the top of my 2002 Civic engine block, but blue Scotch-Bright pads and shop towels (with brake cleaner) just shredded, now I need to vacuum!
Mom had told me she scheduled a doctor's appointment on Xistday.
I thought she wanted me to drive.
No! She wanted me to sit in on my brother's Zoom session with the fourth-best speech therapist we know!
I started working with him while we waited, but the invitation never came. We did a full session, Mom finally came home, and yelled at me for not letting her know that the fourth-best speech therapist we know didn't do her job.
Mom reached out to the owner who said that due to daylight savings time, which we don't observe in Arizona, the fourth-best speech therapist we know cannot continue working with my brother.
She only saw him twice!
The last one didn't last much longer.
It has been a while since he had speech therapy more than 50% of the time, but the one before that regularly canceled and often didn't do make-ups.
Ah curses.
I have two in-person clients scheduled for Friday morning, but Show Low made up a snow day, although that mom didn't tell me. Another mother did, so I reached out to this parent, she confirmed with one word, I asked if there was another time we could meet, and she said "Maybe Saturday."
Anyway, I never cancel, I always ask to reschedule, and only if I am sick, was in an accident, need to take Mom to the hospital, or something else I cannot avoid.
I still see my teleclients when I am out of town!
Anyway, Xistday.
Mom bought a Belgian waffle maker and made me a waffle before leaving. She had asked what I wanted for dinner and I requested shrimp tacos.
I saw her looking up recipes a couple of times, but then she gave me chips and a 7-layer dip.
The tacos were good, but not ready until 2100.
Overall Xistday went well, with a life-and-death caveat.
I saw both clients in Holbrook today, drove, and stopped to take this picture when Mom asked me to turn around and buy whipped cream:
I was just driving along when I saw a huge cow head and neck sticking through a barbed-wire fence!
The name-brand whipped cream was $7.50!
I finally got my eyes checked and ordered new lenses, which cost almost $400!
They were ready on Monday, but I didn't finish seeing clients until Walmart Vision & Glasses had closed.
It was a busy week, but I took my brother to Home Depot yesterday, which is just past Walmart, and we got home at 1800, so I could have gotten them yesterday.
I went straight there from Holbrook and to help me remember I set a course on my phone.
I thought it was funny Google said "Take a right in 46 miles," not "Straight for 45 miles."
I bought a box of protein pancake mix and another that was supposed to be birthday-cake-flavored.
I made the whole batch, ate pancakes and waffles, and crashed for hours.
I had a million things to do, not tossing and turning!
Then Mom complained she spent an hour trying to order a pizza.
The problem was that when you added a pizza to your cart it seemed to start over.
She just didn't notice 1 pizza in her cart.
The problem was that with all of the extras her pizza would have cost $25 from Little Caesar's!
I have three add-ons which are supposed to find coupons, but none of them were any good, so I spent altogether too long finding $3 off coupon manually, took my brother to the store and to get the pizza.
I went to change Mom's oil, but I needed to clean stuff from changing my oil the other day.
I had it dripping in the drain pan, but only so much dripped out.
Then I noticed that Mom had an empty water bottle among a bunch of other... random prized possessions...
Why did Mom have an empty water bottle in her garage?!
I went to grab it and realized there was still some water in it.
Why did Mom have a partially-empty water bottle in her garage?!
I tried to grab the random partially empty water bottle and other random... prized possessions... fell on the edge of my drain pan and made a big dirty mess.
I thought that I was out of shop towels, but I found some that were relatively clean, picked up the oil that I could, put them in the 50 cal ammo can with the other oil-soaked shop rags, put a bunch of soap on the oil spill, and scrubbed it the best I could.
At some point I need to clear out the garage and pressure-wash the floor, but I have plenty more projects, and I am afraid that I will just make more messes.
I just need to always put down tarps--and tape the edges so I don't trip on it and drop automotive fluids.
I never reached out to that mom, but she didn't reach out either, and I was probably too sleepy to work, then I was busy with... all of this.
So, I got my cylinder head back 10 days ago, but I have been talking to my friend dying of cancer, trying to figure out things for her, taking care of my family, and changed the oil in my Camry and changed the oil in Mom's, but since the jack and stands are tied up I tried to extract it, which worked better than everyone said it would, but still not good enough.
I built some 3" ramps from a 2x8. That should give me just enough space to slide my drip pan under Mom's car and pull the drain plug.
I glued one together last night, but have 2 quick clamps and 2 c-clamps.
I wish that the two pieces were closer together. I put in 3" screws that didn't seem to draw them any closer.
The first Phillips bits I found were in the Harbor Freight kit I bought when I drove my first Camry to Scottsdale after the first wreck.
It turns out that there are over a dozen of the same Phillips bits--and I needed to replace one after driving 2 screws!
I drove another 2 and the second bit is damaged.
I didn't have time to glue and clamp the second ramp before driving to Holbrook and I didn't take care of it before napping or before taking my brother to get dinner.
Not until after dark, so I drove Mom's car around the block, put the one ramp in front of the passenger tire, near the oil pan, went to get the drain pan, and Mom's... prized possession... knocked it onto the concrete, so I needed to clean instead of taking care of Mom's car.
I also have less used oil to run through the 2002 Civic.
I am going out tonight to see if my plastic razor does any good on the engine block and I guess that I am doing some light vacuuming before Church tomorrow.