Chill Out: A Lesson, For Me

I like to be quick and efficient when I do things, particularly when I know that there are people waiting in line behind me. 

This is because not only is it courteous, it also recognizes that they are busy and have things to do. 

It doesn’t matter where I am: the bank, the grocery store, and yes the gas station. 

Yesterday was payday, so part of my running around is to buy fuel. The place that I buy fuel from is always the cheapest place in town and so it has a line-up for every pump.

I have a system down where I can fuel up fairly quickly, and let’s face it I’m not buying much fuel, perhaps $30 - $50 worth.

Yesterday, one of the gas attendants who patrol back and forth amongst the pumps told me to not pull up to the front pump next time, but instead just the back one. 

Why? Well because I have Wanda on behind me, so if I pull up to the front pump I am blocking the back pump. 

If I do this then someone from behind me can drive around me and use the front pump. 

So, on one hand, on the surface, I see his logic. This sounds reasonable, right? Sure, except for one thing.

I have done this before and by the time the person has: 

• Driven around me

• Parked

• Gotten out

• Preauthorized his credit card (Pre-Pay Pump)

• Started fuelling

I am already finished!

Then I have to wait, and blocking the back pump, while this person finishes fuelling up and leaves. Why?

If I was just in my truck or in a small car, I could drive around this person in the space between the cars at the rows of pumps.

With Wanda, however, I am way too wide to do this, so I have to wait. 

I tried only twice (and quickly) to nicely convince this gas attendant that my method was best and theirs was clearly wrong.

I am not an arrogant person, or always assume that I do the right thing (I have made some doozies) but in this instance, I know that I am clearly right.

As you can imagine, on the drive away from the gas station, and in the privacy of my truck, and then trailer after parking and setting up, I cursed up a storm.

Thankfully I was only shouting to myself and not to said individual, or this could have been a veeeeery different blog entry, made from a veeeeery bad place.

Yet, let’s review this situation shall we? We are talking about me wasting a few minutes of my time (and that of the people behind me) . . . that’s it. 

Sure, I am right, and I could pull said individual aside and prove it to them, yet I know the type.

They will never admit that they are wrong. They will instead just keep quoting the procedure and insist that I follow it or make up reasons why they are right.

This is one of those cases where it is just better to suck it up, follow the rules, not stress about it and move on with your life. 

We all have moments like this, we all face these situations, so it is best to remember the larger picture and pick your battles. This is not a hill worth dying on.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward! 

One Month to Kill a Bill

As I sit here on the morning of Payday, I can’t help but notice how interesting it is that my plan is nudging forward, mostly on track.

There have been bumps and unexpected detours, expenses and yes mess-ups by myself, that is life. 

You deal with them and move on. You adjust what you are doing in order to get yourself back on track.

So, I sit here and reflect on the fact that one month from now the first of the two monthly bills that I have will be eliminated. 

I am talking, of course, about my Truck Insurance Payment. I will be sitting down with my insurance company and refiguring my Insurance as well as paying it up front.

I used to do this, years ago but stopped (somewhere in the early Clinton years). Since then I have always paid my vehicle insurance on a month to month basis. 

I am looking forward to finally stopping doing that and just paying it up front. 

One advantage in doing this is that I don’t pay any extra fees or finance charges. 

Another advantage is that the cash will stay in my account and over that period of time may earn enough interest for me to buy a chocolate bar . . . ooooo.

Earning any interest, however small, is better than paying interest. 

The main thing I am looking forward to is having one less bill come out of my account each month. 

The last two I will have (in a month from now) is my Wanda Payments and of course my mobile phone bill.

The Wanda payment will go in October, but the mobile phone bill will stay, but at least it will be at my discretion, and that is nice to know.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Random Act Of Kindness

Another thing that happened on the weekend is that I was given free food. It was completely unexpected and totally unasked for. 

I was in my Western Home, just relaxing for the evening when two guys walked over and offered me what was left of their food. I was taken aback to say the least.

It turned out that they were from France and had taken a year off of work (something that you apparently can do ever six years) to travel across Canada in an RV that they rented.

Well, they were heading back the next day and didn’t want to see their food go to waste. So, they looked around and saw me.

I graciously accepted the food and chatted with them for a bit, and it was interesting to bump into someone from the other side of the world here in Calgary.

With this extra food I plan on making another batch of my “Goulash” . . . stuff, for use in lunches as well as for evening meals this weekend. 

It is healthier than I have been eating lately and I am due for a change in diet. So, thanks to this random act of kindness I shall put their food to good use. 

As always, Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Good Weekend, Rocky Finish

All in all it was a good weekend and there were a number of things to be happy and positive about. 

So, I choose to focus on those things rather than the frustrating way my weekend ended.

For one, I was able to get my favourite spot in my Western Home. As I have said before, we all have our favourite places to park or visit, I am no different.

For another the weather was not all that bad and so I was able to enjoy the light breeze drifting through the place as I relaxed.

I did get some considerable work on a novel that I am writing, (which I am unsure if I will ever publish, even if given the chance) . . . long, odd story.

The way things ended was this morning with me driving north to that RV dump station that I used all summer last year.

This is where things get frustrating . . . the RV dump itself was padlocked, but the water was turned on.

???? Why ????

I thought that perhaps they had decided to charge now, and were going with a simple system. One good look around found that this was not the case as there was no sign, even hinting at that. 

Perhaps they just haven’t gotten around to unlocking it yet, perhaps a phone call this week can shed some light on this.

If this is the case, I am not totally hooped, as I can still dump at the local RV dump station (yet this one does not have water and hasn’t for the past two years).

So, I need to find a local source of water in order to fill my main tanks and just pay to dump when the Black and/or Gray water tanks get full.

Once again, I will scratch my noodle and figure out a solution to this problem. Ah well I can always just revert to Spring Mode (with faucets working) if needed.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Feeling Fiscally Better

These past few paydays have been a bit rough and it seems like I have been constantly draining cash out of my Mid-Term Savings. 

This is quite frustrating and not the direction that cash is supposed to be flowing in, yet not. 

You see, that Mid-Term Savings account is there for me to dip into in order to smooth out the rough patches. 

You know, so that I can still do what I need do to, despite lower than expected paycheques or that larger than expected expense.

I have had both this past while, but this past payday I was finally able to get things back to what I consider normal. 

As I move forward (as long as I am not stupid or life tosses me a curve ball) I will be able to have balanced budgets and put cash into that Mid-Term Savings account again. 

Until a month from now when I pay my truck insurance off in one fell swoop, which will completely drain that account . . . but that is planned and an expected expense.

Yet, as I move forward I am happy and confident that things are moving in the right direction. 

I am less worried about my finances, though this has just been downgraded to “concerned” . . . so all is “normal.” 

The point is that I am feeling like I am back on track and that things are moving forward towards that goal of October 22 . . . and beyond.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Water Conservation . . . Again

As predicted and expected, my water in the main tank did not last until I can next fill up on Monday morning. (I got seven showers out of it . . . not bad.) 

Or at least when I hope to fill up Monday morning, as I don’t know if the dump station that I have been using the last couple of years is active or not . . . who knows.

I will find out early on Monday morning, as I make a detour to it after leaving my Western Home in order to head for work. 

For now, I am back to jug showers and using the water in my last 5 gallon jug of water. 

Again, this is nothing new and so I am doing what I always do: adapt what I am doing in order to better suit the current situation. That really is the trick to this lifestyle. 

When faced with a situation, just ask these three questions: 

• What can I safely get away with? 

• What can I possibly get away with, but would be risky?

• What can I not get away with?

That should help you spell out our options and your better judgment, along with experience, and your risk tolerance will help you determine what the best course of action is. 

For now, I will just use the remaining water in my main tank to wash my hands and flush the toilet. I will use my 5 gallon jug for my sole water and just make it through until Monday morning. 

If for whatever reason in can’t use my usual RV dump station, I will figure out what to do then. The one thing I won’t do is roll over and die. 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward.

The Digital Penalty Box

It is a place that I am sure we have all been in . . . that place you put yourself in when you get near (or over) the Data Cap of your mobile internet plan.

For most people this is an inconvenience but not that big of a deal, as they still have their home internet package. 

For me, this is a larger deal, as my mobile internet is my home internet. I have a plan which shares a pool of data between my: phone, iPad, and laptop. 

For the most part (as in all the time) I keep the mobile data on my phone turned off. This is because I only expect it to answer phone calls as well as send and receive text . . . and tell me the time.

The mobile modem for my laptop I only plug in once in a while and only for specific tasks. Otherwise I steal Wi-Fi (only from safe networks or ones I trust).

My iPad is the device that I use most of my data on. I check the news, surf the web and chat with friends over messaging apps, watch a few videos. You know, the usual.

Well, this month I have gone a bit overboard and have now just about reached the cap of my total mobile data plan. (Thank you, cell provider for texting me the head’s up.) 

This means I now face a choice . . . what to do until my plan cycle starts anew (on June 6th). 

I could respond to their offer to “top up” my data plan with one of their three options. That, of course, would mean an additional, unplanned, and unnecessary expense (and we all know how I feel about those).

I could (unwisely) just carry on and get dinged with those overage charges (higher than the “top up” offers). This is a bad idea on so many levels.

What I will do is the unthinkable for most people . . . turn off my mobile data on all three of my devices and wait it out. 

I will just steal Wi-Fi or use it when I am at work (where Wi-Fi abounds). I will be okay as I am not a Borg Drone with a constant need to be connected to the hive mind.

I will live, I will grumble, but I will live . . . and on next Tuesday morning I will giggle like a school girl, as I will once again be able to use mobile data.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!