Blogging. How do I do this?

Seriously, I keep telling myself I’m going to write more often and here it is - almost a year after the last post with nothing to show for it.

Life stuff

The divorce proceedings are finally done. I’ve sold the house and no longer have any contact with my ex. It’s a relief, I can finally move on with my life. I’ve made a lot of mistakes of course, and I have learned a bit from all of them. This time around I’m not sure I’m really ready for a relationship. I don’t know if I will ever be. Partially because of the last one (obviously) and partially just because I’m very comfortable being alone. I’ve been alone for most of my life, and I haven’t been with someone since June 2023. I hardly think about it at all, and I believe I’m just that person.

I do miss my bulldogs. Mack sadly passed a few years ago but Gwennie is still kicking around. She was always a very healthy bulldog and she just had her 11th birthday recently. I could visit, but that’s another reason my ex can use to inject herself into my life and it’s just not worth it. I’ve thought about getting another one but I know myself too well. I just don’t have the patience to be a proper dog owner, so I won’t. I have thought about joining a local bulldog club and offering my services to dog-sit. Mack was special needs and I know the care that bulldogs need above and beyond a regular dog.

Work is frustrating. But everyone thinks that right? Honestly I don’t have anything to complain about. I don’t work long hours and I get paid really well. I had a recent “demotion” so I actually have less responsibility if you can believe it. That’s really reduced the work-related stress, and I’m managing to leave work behind when I clock out. I’m still looking for another position, but the market is so topsy-turvy that it’s not going well.

Re: everything else here in the USA. What are we going to do? It’s like watching a horror show and you can’t turn your eyes away. Ugh. I’ve started donating to various causes, and I’m trying to find a good place to plug into the local community to volunteer.

Toys

I decided to buy a bunch of toys with the house sale proceedings. I have my own reasons but honestly I figured there would be another “dry spell” of not being able to purchase fun stuff for a while so I went nuts. Obviously I paid nearly all of my CC debt first.

1. Ford Maverick. I have been driving my 2012 Mini Cooper S since I bought it new and I was jonesing for another vehicle. No, I didn’t need it, but I did want something that I could throw a bicycle into/on and something that could do a little bit of “soft roading” with more ground clearance than the Mini. I also wanted decent gas mileage. That narrowed it down quite a bit. I thought about getting a full EV, but nothing really stands out right now, and the prices are still pretty expensive. The hybrid FWD Maverick gets 45 MPG in town and was under 30k. Can’t beat that! I ordered it in March of 2024 and it arrived in November. I’ve only put 2500 miles on it so far.
2. Elise. I repurchased my old 2005 Lotus Elise! This warrants its own blog post. It’s a good story.
3. TV. I haven’t had a proper “living room TV” for over a decade so I splurged. I have a large enough room for a big-ass television so I went ahead and got a “bachelor spec” 76” television. It’s a Samsung S90D 4k UHD QD-OLED TV. Yeah, it’s worth it. What an amazing television. I also picked up a Govee backlight which is pretty sweet. I’ve got a Visio V51 sound bar/surround setup. It’s not much but I live in an apartment so I can’t blast the movies. It’s about as good a setup as you can get without having your own place.
4. Sim Rig. I finally upgraded my folding chair and wheelstand to a proper simrig. I already had a Fanatec Clubsport 2.5 wheel and pedal set, so I didn’t need to upgrade that. I hopped on down to Microcenter and picked up a Sim Lab GT1 Pro cockpit with some accessories. Even though I race in VR, I bought a friends Samsung Odyssey G9 monitor for other folks who don’t want to do VR. It works great for my other games that I play as well. The display is crazy wide, I think it might be too wide for “desktop computing” but it’s great for gaming.

That’s probably enough toys for a long, long time. :D