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As of 30 minutes ago the office is officially closed tomorrow. Damn fucking gum it, it’s only a state of emergency out there…. not night of the living dead!

After scanning a bar code off my computer screen and opening a novel on my cell phone, I can just see myself in the 2070s trying to explain to some youngster that once upon a time books used to come in something called paper.

Then when something breaks down, I’ll shake my cane and politely point out that even in the future, nothing works. Will anybody still get the quote?

Appropriately Ford Tempo’s have been haunting my dreams all morning. Yesterday ma made the final decision to scrap Rosie, which brought the price of the cars value by weight. Before we left, I took one more picture:

From Rosie & Noëlle

So that’s officially the end of an extremely old friend. The only good thing I can say, they will likely keep her around for a parts draw until they need to liquidate some cars or run out of usable parts.

O.K. so while we were at the car dealer, we had to get all the car insurance crap sorted out while finalizing things. Bad news is obviously, a slightly higher cost but good news is full coverage.

Getting pissed with the insurance company e-mailing her about the changes, she’s gone ahead and made changes to that. So now I have to contact the dealer and get that updated with the policy changes, and she has effectively increased the projected insurance bill in the process.

As far as I’m concerned, she just forfeited an equivalent share of her share of my regular pay cheque, or owes me monthly!

Today started off like a normal day, except for  the cars recent transmission problems getting, eh, worse. So instead of a nice Monday at work, I end up missing work and taking it into the the mechanics. Whose advise is run it til it dies. Of course that gets my mom banannas.

So I’ve spent time looking at used cars. There goes a nice 50% of incom, that would other wise be getting saved  :-/. The ironic thing? Years and years ago, this is the kind of time frame I thought I might end up having to get a car… lol.

Ahh, it feels good to be able to sit with my laptop and update my journal for a bit! That’s kind of a down side to such a long drive to work, I usually get home to late to focus on blogging anything. Hopefully that will change in the near future, courtesy of leaving Newnan.

Today, I slept in as it were: rolled out of bed circa 0900, where as for work I’ve been setting my alarm for 0600. Most of my time has been spent on the rather tedious subject of logistics and budgeting. It won’t be long until I know how much the regular pay cycle is going to be, but a little simple math and margining gives me a suitable ball park for plotting. The other thing that I’ve been looking at, is apartments closer to work. How I run the numbers, I also leave myself a comfortable margin!!!

Driving to work every day is around 140 miles per day across two highways and two interstates. Moving could reduce that closer to a 20-25 mile drive, which means a hell of a lot of less money spent on gas. Like 2 gal/day instead of 6 gal/day. Being able to eliminate the hike down the I-85 alone, is a net savings to be honest. Taking the Atlanta bypass, the speed limit is only 55, same as on a normal highway outside of school zones. Where as on the I-85, the speed limit is 70 at this end and drops to 65 within city limits. In actuality, people tend to go well over the speed limit out here lol. This old ford burns through gas once you start going past ~45mph; and over 60 it sucks gas like, well I won’t use that analogy here but those who know me well can guess what I would think <_<.

Geographically, if I could find something near the areas that I have outlined, it’s much less of a commute. But e.g. getting to other things, like the airsoft field or church would become a good long drive. I’d rather commute weekends than weekdays, when you combine the time and money saved with moving closer to work. When they interviewed me, they didn’t demand I/we move, they only asked if I would be willing to. Really, I don’t mind the commute, but it would be nice to still have free time left in the day when I get off work, that isn’t spent driving home lol.

As things work now, my mother is seeing 1/3 of my net income after tithing. That’s what she got out of my first weeks pay, and what she’ll get out of this pay cycle as well. Moving would rearrange that equation. Namely that money would then represent a decent months rent, and the savings out of the petrol budget could help with bills or fill in extra slack if the rents a little higher. I think it would be fair enough to my mother, that if instead of giving her a percentage of my pay cheque, I alleviated her biggest monthly bill, it would be a fair trade. She would also worry less if it’s a short drive to work, and I would be more at ease knowing my mother is taken care of, than if I was out on my own and she was at the other end of the metro area! I would also miss the dogs if I moved out :'(, and I really can’t count on my brother to lift a finger lol. Friends have been telling me for many years he should get off his arse, but I know both that ma is the only mother I’ve got, and I’m the only stooge that’s going to look after her. Maybe I’m weird, but I don’t throw people out just because I don’t “Need” them, especially family.

So in theory, between the pay from my new job and her staple income, it’s possible to pay rent, pay (and trim) bills, and still have part of my regular pay to save away in the bank (or a mayonnaise jar). That’s something I couldn’t do without my mother: have enough left to save after rent, bills, and a car. I know what it’s like to live with things tight, heck, I’m not a penny pinching S.O.B. in a family of spenders for nothing! I want to stuff away part of my income, so there’s something there for a rainy day. I’m not willing to blow every cent I make before the inks dry lol.

Yeah, I’m kind of the family freak… the one who saves money :-/.

Right now, my plan is to start calling some of the places I’ve tracked down and inquiring about details. Principally I need to know if their are any suitable units available, and how the animals would impact things. To be acceptable to me, any place of residence has to accept the dogs and the bird. Simple. Like wise a decent internet connection is required.

Hmm, maybe I can get my mother to finally throw crap out that we ain’t used in over ten years…… O.K that is probably to much to hope for, LOL!

Why after spending the work week with dynamic languages, do I feel like sitting down with C++?

If the traffic and the weather keeps up as it’s doing, I think I’m sleeping later and googling if those packets the army uses to warm your hands in gloves, are available to civilians lol. Me and this tough old ford are making it across them 70 miles like Han Solo and the Falcon pulling the Kessel run xD.

Never thought I could honestly long for that Floridian sunshine, but hey, while they’re breaking out the fur coats, they still got +20F on us here in Georgia lol.

Overslept this morning until my brain remembered the alarm clock had already gone off! Still I made it to work with plenty of time to spare. Plus I left work on time and hit the traffic jams just right, got home at a good time. In plenty of time for dinner of course :-D.

Can you really beat getting to work early and marginal traffic on the way home on a Monday?

The company I’m working for is basically doing an 8-hour work day. Since I’m in front of a code editor most of the time, there isn’t that much that can just ‘Explode’ into late hours right now, so I’ve generally been leaving a little bit late or on time, and getting there early. If I’m supposed to put in an 8 hour day, that’s what I’ll do, but I’m more concerned about getting to work early than I am about leaving on time. I don’t care much if, e.g. I’m 20 minutes late leaving work. So long as things get done!!! It’s like yeah, could get most of X wrapped up tonight… but not get off work when I am technically “Supposed to”, so I do what I can and maintain notes.

I keep a note of what I need to do next time, what to do before I leave, on what I’m working on, etc. Bonus points being, that those notes are separate from my personal ones, so I can’t screw up finding them again lol.

Things seem to be pretty cushy compared to what I’ve been subject to over the years. Thanks to time spent in my mother’s business, I’m no stranger to a work day that can leave you feeling FUBAR, or that burns through time like a sieve. Want to really see your time fly, try working 0400-2000. That will shaft you; I spent several months doing that back in cica 2008. Most of the stuff with ma’s business however, was usually crammed into 4-6 hour days. From my own time on the computer @ home, I’m basically used to working on things until I pass out, so that’s closer to 20-hour days sans food/bathroom/interrupts.

Unlike home, an interrupt at work is more like an occasional knock on the door jam. It’s down right peaceful… kind of funny really. Past few months, I’ve been thinking about how tired I am of always being burned through but never having time to recharge. Regular 8-hour days seem to be rejunvinating me.

Out of all the things I’ve experienced, I never thought I could look forward to having to get up and go to work!

Seems that I’m not the only one who hated it, since this year 94.9 The Bull hasn’t been straight on Christmas music since the day after Thanksgiving. Man, I love Christmas but ahem, if I wanted to hear the songs all month, I would sing them.

*Dances with glee*