Actually, that’s a rubbish title, because that is a pointless task whereas my organisation has sort of worked out. Kind of. If you take a big-picture approach.
Yesterday should have been the car wash thing but a panicked message at 6:30 before a weaselly phone call at 7 am made it clear the guy was expecting to have my car for an entire day just to give it a wash. Even I have too busy a schedule for that. So all things being equal the car will be seen to tomorrow morning (Thursday). I have been very mature and grown-up about flexing my arrangements with this guy. But I think I am ready for it to be done.
So yesterday became a day of greater freedom and I used it to visit my post-operative friend and help with some stuff at her house. I went via a supermarket and was able to get a range of things to help her get fires going in the house, I moved some objects around so she could reach and operate them more easily, and I mowed the lawn. I sulked a bit when I trod in something unpleasant on the lawn but I managed to not pout too long and all in all it was a really helpful session. I then came home and succumbed to the temptations of dog cuddles. Oh dear. Whilst I had a nice second part to the day I really should try to “keep going” sometimes. Part of the problem there is poor diet. If you eat next to nothing in the morning then shovel a giant lunch in to make up for it, unsurprisingly your body shuts down.
Today I had a bright idea. I needed to run said friend to a hospital for a check-up, and it isn’t local. I intended to leave my dogs at home as they aren’t accustomed to longer car journeys but I realised that it was going to be tricky. So instead I told the dogs to sort themselves out and they came with me. They did not enjoy the journey of over an hour but when we got to the hospital, we were right near a giant park and they had a fantastic time running in the trees, sniffing, and (in Winston’s case) leaping into the lake. That joy, coupled with all the unusual car stuff, made for sleepy dogs when we got home. They were suitably surprised to get another run out with giant friend Zeus at 4 and then with Winston’s standard Wednesday date with Auntie Rose for a game of ball, he should rest well this evening.
It is pleasing to make plans and have them pan out. There were frustrations along the way and I didn’t handle them all as well as I might have. I am horrid for passive aggression and so I could have been more supportive when my friend was dithering before getting in the car. It put me in a muddled state of mind and I then found concentrating on the driving difficult. The M25 isn’t fun at the best times so I should work on keeping a mellow mind before tackling it. I didn’t lose concentration as such, just was irritated by anything trying to divert my focus.
And one such thing is my dashcam which appeared to be malfunctioning. Actually, after clarity of thought and some testing, I concluded the problem was actually the cigarette lighter socket in my car (I’m sure it isn’t called that any more as nobody really uses them for that purpose). This evening I thought I would pop out, test the theory, and check my fuses. Clearly someone at BMW does not want people to get at the fuses so the manual is as vague as is legal about where to find the, doesn’t tell you what each one does, and the car contains no spares. So I spent an hour stripping parts of my car apart to locate the various fuse locations and eventually did find one that looked as if it was burnt out. I will have spares tomorrow so will know if I have solved the issue.
The great part is that I am such a good mechanic that when I put my car back together I even had a piece left over ! They don’t do THAT at a proper BMW garage !
So I feel pretty positive about the last couple of days. The only thing I probably should have done is an advert I need to create on my computer. However I don’t anticipate any problems with that as we have done the hard parts on Monday, so my delay isn’t through anything other than finding a good time. Tomorrow afternoon looks like a good window for a task like that.