carpediemracing 

All sorts of stuff changing for us at home.

Turned in our Golf TDI (diesel cheater car). Got a lot of money. Spent less than half of it on my new-to-me car. I've been doing stuff to it to quiet it down from exhaust noise, installing speakers to make it louder where I want it to be louder. Have some stuff to do but it's a hoot of a car. Saving the change from the TDI for other things.

Got a job. Started today. I feel like a Cat 5 in his first race except that in my work case it's as if I'd never ridden a bike before the race. I have a lot to learn. Not beyond me, fine, but the sheer volume is just stupendous. To have income again, to see some kind of progression possible, I finally feel like I'm moving forward with my life again. Also it seems like a great place to work.

Part of the job entails much better benefits. Starting next month we're saving our mortgage payment every month on health insurance, which is absolutely insane. It's even in pre-tax dollars. We can pay Junior's daycare with some dependent care flex spending account. And we get better benefits. I want to get new glasses (or specifically new lenses for my glasses). Also I have to ask about prescription eye protection which they will get for me as part of work.

Started progressing hard on some long term projects around the house. Little things but they seem to sit for a while. There's inertia/momentum built into projects for me and now that everything is rolling it's natural to keep them rolling. Trim in a room, painting stuff, moving stuff around, putting in some safety stuff in the garage, etc.

Next year we're getting most of the (dying/dead/overgrown) trees in the yard cut down. I'm roughly guessing 30 trees? Maybe more. We're also getting a new roof, and when they do that, some extras (sky tube so far, considering a chimney for a yet-to-be-purchased stove). Condo association so although we're in a free standing home our dues pay for that stuff, so it's just waiting for the work to be done.

Missus put her order in for a new car, we're waiting to schedule the buyback for the second TDI we have based on the new car's schedule. Still have change left over after that.

The thing that loses out is cycling. I'm not interested in promoting anymore. I'm holding onto the trailer because, well, I want to hold onto it. I also want to hold onto a tow vehicle size vehicle for a bit because we have a lot of stuff that we can't haul with a compact car. It may be that I sell the Expedition (needs a few thousand dollars of work) and buy a slightly better condition tow vehicle. Trailer I can keep indefinitely, especially since I have a spot for it off-site if you will.

I'm also not really keen on racing a ton. Just the regular stuff, Tuesday Nights, some regular courses, probably not much else.

On a tangent I went karting one night, $60 all you can drive. Drove for a little less than 4 hours of heats (got there 1 hour late, couldn't do 3 heats during that time, did all the others that were available). Qualified for their better tier ("pro karts"). Now they just changed the course. But I could definitely see that being one of my things, to go karting 6-11 PM on a weeknight I have free. A racer that did my Spring Series has offered rides and even races in his two karts, a Rotax (fast, apparently like 60-70 mph) and some spec-class kart (9 hp?, 40-50 mph top speed). Combine that with wanting to autocross my car and working at a car place, I may become more a carhead than a bikehead.