It's always hard to get an oil change at Mavis these days. The place is usually very busy, and that means business like mine gets pushed to the side to accommodate more profitable efforts, such as selling tires. But if you get to the shop early enough, you can usually get in and out of the place before 10 am. Instead of a trip for minor service costing me $500 at the dealership, my car can get what it needs for under $200. And when one is living on a fixed income, the $300 is better in my pocket than in the dealership's till.
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Last night, I knew that I had to wake up early the following morning. So I went to bed around 1 am, started the "white noise" maker, put on my CPAP mask, and readied myself for a few hours of sleep. While I was semiconscious, my phone rang. Seems that RO accidentally dialed me, and killed the call as soon as she started it. But that didn't keep me alert for long, as I passed out again shortly afterwards.
When I got up, it was a couple of minutes before 7. So I turned off all my alarms, took my shower, and went out the door as Mario. I arrived at Mavis at 8, and asked them to look at my front end when they did the oil change and rotated the tires. I was right, when I hit the curb last Thursday, I knocked the front end a little out of alignment. So I was glad I got this taken care of before I ruined my tires by uneven tread wear. About $160 later, my car was ready, and I was ready to drive home. So back to Croton I drove, and back to bed I went for a little while to try and catch up on a few Z's I missed the night before.
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Of course, with the coffee I consumed earlier, I didn't have a chance to catch those Z's. Instead, I took care of a couple of little things around the house and took it easy for a while. But then, I realized that I may have an interesting set of schedule conflicts. Either I will need to cancel my attendance at a FTF Meetup dinner or cancel my attendance at a Beacon Meetup dinner due to a dinner engagement with RO. It'll be nice to be able to see her again this year, as she had some good news to share - her daughter is finally getting married! YAY!
But I digress a little....
Around 5:00, I started to get ready for tonight's meetup by changing into my female presentation. It took a little longer than expected for me to get out the door, and I barely made it in time to the Meetup's restaurant. The usual gang was there, but I couldn't sit at the table I wanted to be at - the last 3 seats had already been taken, so I ended up at another table with other people I don't get the chance to speak with that often.
Originally, I figured that I would order a small dish and get out of the place for $25 or so. Instead, I ordered the prix fixe 3 course dinner, and ended up spending roughly $50. (I was glad I took a $50 bill with me, as it made it possible for me to leave a nice tip without going overboard.) Of course, I fluttered between our 3 tables, chatting with people I wanted to chat with. However, I didn't chat with all the people I wanted to chat with - the appetizers and main course came while in the middle of chats with friends. (At least, I'll get to chat with these people the week after Thanksgiving.)
All too soon, the evening had to end. So it was on with my coat, and back down to Croton and home. Although I can't keep up spending money at this rate without cracking open my 401k, I'm roughly where I expected to be today. Hopefully, one of the jobs I'm applying for will come though, and I'll be able to stop the short term drain on my savings account.
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