Down to Less Than Three Bucks a Day

Time to update the Cost per Day for the Drama Playset.  We have now owned the Drama Playset since January 14, 2022, or 1553 days.

Now the local cousins don't come over as much as they used to, but Boris swings literally every day, and Natasha joins him sometimes, especially when our pseudo third child is around.  So I'm going to keep using the previous formulas with some tweaks.

Conservative Estimate: I'm assuming that 2 kids using the playset on most days equals 1 kid using it daily.  Also, we have had an additional kid for most of the year.

So, using the Time and Date Duration Calculator to figure out the time between January 14, 2022, when it finally arrived, and today this year, I get 1553 days.  

That works out to $6000/1553 = $3.86 per use.

Slightly Optimistic Estimate: If we get more optimistic, we can assume that 3 kids using the playset most days equals 2 kids using it every day.

That works out to $6000/1553/2 = $1.93 per use.

If we take the average of these two values, we get the more likely CPU of $2.90.

Other Entertaining Outside Activities

So as we have now owned this for 4 years and some change, it costs $2-3 bucks a day to keep my kids entertained and off their iPads.

Got my First Troll on Quora

I answered a question on Quora, and at the bottom of the post, like many other Quorans, I said, "If you liked this answer, give me an upvote."  It seems to have worked because this is the most upvoted answer I've ever had.  It's likely more that it was posted to a very active space, and the question is getting a lot of answers.

Anywho, someone commented, "I block upvote beggars" and did so.  I went and looked at her profile, and as you can imagine, she has a whacky About Me which implies she thinks she's more sought after than reality would suggest.  

"And asking me to upvote and follow is the fastest way to earn a mute and block. Don’t be tacky. Earn your upvote."

As she blocked me, I could not reply to her comment.  If I could, I would say something like: 

I didn't beg, I asked.  Unless my answer got sent directly to you somehow, I didn't personally ask you for an upvote.  I'm not sure how I'm supposed to know about this rule of yours that you feel should carry the day,  especially since other Quorans do it all the time.  You could have just scrolled past or silently blocked me, and I'd continue blissfully in not even knowing you exist.  

But I guess that is the point, isn't it.  You want attention and the last and only word.  Well, go peddle crazy somewhere else, we're all filled up here.

Good Bye March, Hello April

 For almost the entirety of March, we were able to function with the heat and AC set to OFF.  We were even able to sleep with the windows open, and it was some of the best sleep I've had since the kiddos arrived!

There were 2 cold snap days, and a few mornings I needed to run the heat for an hour so the kids could defrost and get to school.  And toward the end of the month, we did have a few above-average hot days when AC was desired.  These were offset by us going out of town for a weekend and being able to leave the Nest set to ECO.  

Alas, the temps are steadily creeping up and I have a small window to do any outdoor/garage projects before the Southern Summer begins (in Mid-May). 

The Running Shoes  

As soon as I got home from dropping Moose and Squirrel off at school, I changed into my running clothes and went for what passes for me running these days.  It was my second run since buying the new shoes.  Anyway, I managed to eke out another 1-mile run, slightly faster than the first one.  More importantly, I ran longer than I walked.

Date Distance Pace Time

04-01-2026    1 mile 11:35   11:42 

03-23-2026    1 mile 12:04   12:22 

On the first run, it took a quantum of seconds to get the Strava App to pause, so the Time was probably at least 10 seconds faster. By the way I really hate the Strava app and website.  it is hard to navigate and it is constantly trying to sell you the pay version.  Since my data lives here, I'm stuck with it for a while.  If the running thing takes off and gets anywhere in the neighborhood of consistency, let alone what it once way, I'll look for a better tool.