Really boring post about my car

you can fit a small yacht in here

January's Crisis of the Month is dealing with my car.  I have to renew my license plate sticker.  But
before I can do that, I have to pass the vehicle emissions test, which I have officially failed.  My car has an expensive catalytic converter and apparently very fragile because the check engine light has been on for over a year.  Apparently when it was replaced (because some asshat stole the original) the mechanic did a hack to save me some money.  It was a perfectly legitimate solution but the downside is that over time, the oxygen sensors break.  Or something like that, the mechanics have explained but I drown all that noise out just like others drown me out when I speak computer geek.

Anyway, I had to get a new catalytic converter and this time opted to do it the right way which means basically $1100 left my pocket.  Along with the $750 for the new mattress  and suddenly I have credit card balances.  I should be able to pay them off next month but the last time I had that much cc debt, our basement flooded.

So now we have to drive my car 30-60 miles before I take the test.  Something that would have been easy to do if I were still working in OBT but I've switched to a full time remote worker.  On top of being a Stay At Home Dad.  That means I can only really sneak away during nap time while my mom watches the kids or trade vehicles with Nightingale so she can get my miles.  However, it was freezing cold the last two days and her car has seat warmers, mine doesn't.  #firstworldproblems.


In other news, I need to run today and it's just warm enough that I can run outside.  The problem is I cannot leave the house stuck at home until the Salvation Army truck shows up to take our old mattress and the cable guy shows up to fix our internet connection. The longer I put off a run, the less likely I will get it in.  With my luck the two will show up at the same time.

Update:  Comcast came at 10am (window was 8-12) and fixed the slow internet problem.  Salvation Army came at 2 (window was 2:30-5:30) but refused to take either the mattress or the filing cabinet.

An example of how a post goes from here to ChicagoNow

Previously I wrote that sometimes a post starts out here and ends up here.  An example is this post I wrote called My Star Wars: The Force Awakens theory on who Rey is.  It started out as a couple of sentences because I wanted to write something about this video.  I noticed a hesitation at around 3 seconds, Ben Kenobi says "I was once a Jedi Knight..."

  

Once, as in no longer.

Of course once I started fleshing it out, it grew to a post more suitable for the other platform.

Follow Mysteries of Life on Twitter (@MysteriesOLife), Facebook or subscribe via email.

Friday Photo: Winter in January

Compared to recent years, we haven't had much snow at all.  Today is the first above 40 day since last Monday's snowfall and with the intermittent rainfall, I expect much of it to melt away today. 

When we got back from Grosse Pointe last Monday, I should have dealt with all the snow before it froze in place.  But after an over 8 hour car ride (because of this very snow) I had nothing in the tank left for shoveling snow.

Painters not movers

Speaking of mattresses, here is the only picture I can find of our first mattress.  Before moving the majority of our furniture in this house, we had it professionally painted.  We had a few boxes, some smaller furniture and of course this king sized mattress and box springs had already been delivered.

Some people might sleep this way

What you see pictured is how the painters put the bed back in the bedroom after painting it.  I get that they are painters and not movers.  But how back breaking of a task can it be to put the box springs down first and then lay the mattress on top of it like it was? 

These painters did a few other little things that annoyed us like not remove the light switch covers before painting the walls and they got a little paint on a door knob here and there.  Nothing devastating but enough that I wouldn't hire them again or recommend them to anyone.

2016 Getting Back on Track DietBet

So I decided to accept a friend's challenge and joined this DietBet game. When weighed myself this morning I was exactly 210.0 lbs which means I have to lose 4% of that i.e. get to 201.6 lbs.  I think that is realistic if I

1. watch what I consume, 
2. get a good run in every other day, 
3. cut back/cut out the alcohol and 
4. do all of that consistently in the month of January.

 It has been my experience that Winter is the hardest time to lose weight because we seem to be designed to store fat, not lose it.

I purposely didn't try to keep my weight down between the day my friend challenged me (last week when I weighed in at 208) and Monday morning when I submitted these photos for weigh-in.  It wouldn't have made a substantial difference in the amount of weight I'd need to lose, but I think there is something to the psychology of the numbers.  It is easier to go from 210 to 201, versus 208 to 199.

New Tuft & Needle Mattress arrived

Three years ago, almost to the day, my wife bought a king sized mattress. One of those feature rich luxury mattresses similar to the one JT bought. It was fine for a while but after the first year, my wife started complaining about the diminished comfort.

Flash forward to the present and it is absolutely horrible. There is what I can only describe as an crater sized indentation in the middle of the mattress. We are well beyond the statue of limitations for returning it. What's more, we paid a lot of money for it. I don't recall how much.

 

So at the recommendation of my chiropractor who apparently purchased one herself, I'm going to try a Tuff & Needle. The reason I am willing to take a chance is because of the price point. while $750 is nothing to sneeze at, If it doesn't work out I won't feel like I wasted thousands of dollars and am no better off than I am with our current mattress. 

What does the warranty cover?

The Tuft & Needle warranty covers manufacturing defects like body impressions or sagging, cover defects such as unraveling stitching, or flaws in the foam causing it to split or crack within 10 years from the original purchase date. Feel free to read the terms of our warranty here.
We don't cover changes to your mattress that are caused by or the result of normal wear and tear. Also, of course, we don’t cover changes caused by or resulting from circumstances or uses that go beyond the intended use of a mattress—namely, reclining and sleeping. For example, don't take your Tuft & Needle for a ride down the river.

As long as the mattress doesn't fail within the first year or so, I'll consider it a win.  I'd like it to last much longer than that of course.  One year is the minimum threshold, which means I paid $60/month for the mattress. 

2015 and 2016 in perspective

I'm not a big New Year's Resolution kind of person.  One of the few shining moments from my mid-twenties was the ongoing resolution to be in a better place each year.  Be it physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually (I'm not sure if there really is a distinction among some of those,but why not). 

So then resolution-like goals in no particular order.

Run More Miles
According the Facebook Memories, I ran about 1100 miles in 2009, 702 miles in 2013 and 300 miles in 2015.  Obviously there are a lot of variables involved in those years.

Realistically, if I ran every other day in 2016, even skipping a run or three, I can log 40-45 miles a month.  That would bring me to over 500 miles by years end.  I think that is a reasonable goal.

Weight Reductions
I was oscillating between 210 and 215 until I was able to bump my running up a bit this past fall.  Now with the SAHD thing, I'm oscillating between 208 and 212, because carrying a 22+ lb baby on your hip is a good calorie burner.



Read More Books
I don't read nearly as much as I use to b,ack in the day, which is pathetic for a wanna be author.  Therefore I joined the GoodReads challenge to read 20 books this year.  I figure I should be able to hammer out two books a month, give or take a rough month or two.
 
Write More
I want to write for Cracked.com, and so my goal is to get at least one article published there in 2016.

I also need to get cracking on that book, which means I should be writing something everyday, even if it's just a 100 words.  More realistically, I will devote 1 hour a week (at first) to writing that novel.