The spirit is willing...

I hit the wall at noon yesterday.

I picked up some more landscaping material. That involved loading, jumping up into the bed of the truck to move them around of weight distribution. Unloading. Carrying. Bending over.

By noon my left calf was complaining. Too much activity. Not enough muscle, yet.

From my running days, it is pretty clear that I need 24 hours to let it calm down and recover.

Stressers

I need to give myself permission to have sub-optimal outcomes.

The PLAN is to ship out the one calf early next week but the steer might not cooperate. I need to remind myself that the cost is that I lose the slaughter slot at the butcher shop and am out the rental fee for the trailer (plus 120 miles of towing that trailer). Not a trivial cost but not a break-the-bank cost, either.

I also need to figure out how to keep my seedlings for the garden alive for the week-to-ten days we will be gone. So far my best plan is to put them in the basement where it is cooler and run them on LED lights 12 hours on, 12 off. I cannot do it outside because of the possibility of hard-freezes at this time of year.

Oh, and miscellaneous family things going on. Just like every other person in the world.

And money and prices and shopping for a new vehicle...

Searching for a new vehicle

Mrs ERJ wanted to look at a minivan that was for sale about an hour from Eaton Rapids.

Mrs ERJ is humoring me in my "process" for looking for a new vehicle.

Supposedly, mathematicians have "proven" that when exploring an unknown universe...say you need to hire a secretary and have very little information ...that you should use the first 30%-to-40% of the candidates to form a statistical picture in your head. Then, remaining 60%-to-70%, hire the first one you encounter that is "much better" than average.

The actual number was 37% and change, but we are into "rounding" around here.

The practical application is that if you can afford to look at 10 vehicles in terms of miles driven to look at them, CARFAX reports, time invested in examining them and giving them a test drive...then you shop as if you were serious for the first three or four but really have no burning desire to BUY one of those first three or four.

This vehicle was #4.

Mrs ERJ now has a list of features. We have a good handle on how many empty beer cans I have to return to pay for the vehicle.

This model seems to be vulnerable to rust on the edge of the hood. This is a six year-old vehicle. The last one we looked at had a similar rust pattern.

This vehicle was a hard no-go because the salesperson said it had a defective thermostat. Mrs ERJ drove it a half mile and it got hot. She drove it back and we said "No thank-you". I cannot imagine driving a car with a stuck thermostat (closed position) seventy miles. No-sir. No thank-you. No idea how long the vehicle has been overheating.

Home projects

The Old Curmudgeon (our doctor) suggested that it was time to install a bar in our shower. He is a good man. He shoots Sporting Clays and used to raise Brittany Spaniels.

Any guidance from the readers will be appreciated. Are single-serving bottles preferred? Should they be clear spirits like gin and rum or should I be focusing on bourbon, scotch and brandy?

Is it OK to use plastic bottles? I will have to wear crocs in the shower if I use glass bottles and drop one. Wearing crocs might be fine in Alberta but it is not considered stylish in Michigan unless you are also wearing calf-length, black-or-Arygyl crew socks.