Day one of the year and already have a project done. Woman wanted another manger in the goat barn so she doesn't have to put the tub in each night. The feed tub, not Lugnut the tubby goat.

All recycled wood and at least half the screws are recycled as well. It's kinda janky but will get the job done.

Also got this done, but did it a few days ago and just forgot to put it here. Swapped the music corner around so now the Taylor sits on top of something instead of being on the floor and I sit more in front of the monitor so it's easier to line up the camera to see me while I can still read the music stand and see the screen when on a lesson.

Kinda thought about moving the posters down now, they look too high now. Some day, just not today.

At sword fighting class the other night the Jeep got 'ducked'. I saw this chick approaching while I was still 30' away so I slowed down my walk and pretended to be watching the other class still in progress (it's outside so you can see it from the parking lot). She tried the back door and then front door trying to get in and then just left it on the mirror. Jeep people are strange now.

Forgot to post these here, my test results after the first month of activation. Pretty amazing.

Removed the platform and most the junk from the van, putting the floor and seats back in. I'm either going to keep it as my daily without the pretense of going camping... or trade it in with the Jeep and get something else.

The adventure is coming to a close.

The woman said that thinking about cars is making me cranky, and she is right although for reasons I don't think she understands entirely. Dealers are getting worse, adding on literally thousands of dollars in bogus fees and 'options' and crap. Yes, you can negotiate around that but it's still just annoying and saddens me because it must work. I'm sure a majority of people just pay that crap because they don't know they don't have to and they're payment shopping anyway so 'whats a few dollars a month'. That's just a sad way to live, being cut to death just a few dollars at a time.

The other thing that's bugging me is that I can't ask anyone for help or feedback. There are zero people who can listen to my criteria and help guide, everyone just has their own ideas they will not set aside. Friends don't understand, dad keeps tripping over vanity and ego which doesn't apply to me and the woman just doesn't care.... or maybe isn't capable of caring because cars are so out of her world view.

Found myself painted into a corner on my story and think I've found a way out and forward.

The lack of regular journal entries is due to the story, actually. If I sit down to write I would rather make progress on the story than add words here that no one will ever read.

Sword fighting class got canceled, something about them losing the use of the basketball courts at the park after two years. Some Karen must have complained about something. Hope they get that sorted out and it doesn't move class some crazy distance away.

Got the floor and single rear seat and seat belt back in the van. It is really noisy without all that wood and carpet back there.

Writing this at Panera during writing group because I've been ignoring the journal more and more and there are legit things happening in life that should be written down. I feel like I said that recently.

So... yea. The Jeep was a really practical, sensible flexible choice. Good MPG, can haul a little stuff, some snow/ice AWD capabilities, rolls down the dirt road well, cheap comfy tires... but not really exciting. Being practical it overlapped with the van for 900f my use cases (other than road trips) so being a manual was it's only draw. Been looking at a zillion options, replace the van, replace both with a plug-in hybrid, replace the Jeep with an EV and probably some other stuff I've forgotten (but are on the spreadsheet).

With all that said, I made my choice. Found a 1 owner low mileage unmodified Focus ST with a short CPO warranty and got it. Jeep is gone, and now this is sitting in the garage on the trickle charger. I tried to sell the Jeep and shopped it around to the car buying places but they all use the same algorithm and do not care about the repairs being done. A private buyer would, but at the volume they move stuff they can't really price things that are 100 percent fixed any different than those with unknown problems. It's not efficient on the low end and I just have to accept that.

The fabulous Food Lion lunch I had while waiting to get into the finance office. The whole process from walking in to driving off took over four hours and the dealership was not busy at all. Once the price is set there is no reason to burn you out.... except for the warranty sales pitch in finance where they try to talk you into $3500-$7000 worth of warranty and service.

The Jeep was labeled for wholesale before I even left the lot. Sad.

I'm hoping this doesn't turn into Porsche 2.0 where just having it sit around bugs the crap out of me. Per the worry/regret book though I have to risk it. I can't let a decision I made, I was going to say 10 years ago but that would only be 2015, so 15, no, almost 20? Damn. So a decision 20 years ago that was made in good faith with the best info I had at the time color what I do now. I'm different, or at least 20 years older. Maybe I can hang on this time. Also the Fiesta isn't 'perfect', it's just a 7 year old econo-box with a turbo and some awesome seats. It's already got some minor damage so when it gets a door ding I'll not freak out. Probably. Hopefully.

While waiting for some fabric cleaner and detail tools to arrive (the detail guys at the Ford dealer did a shit job on the car, I think the Jeep was cleaner when I traded it in) and for the temps to get above freezing I went ahead and did the first mod. Removal of that dumb dealer sticker. That 3M wheel earns it's keep again and reminds me that sometimes paying the high price for the right tools for the job pays off. That's why I'm getting the pro detail rotary brush and chemicals to clean the seats. No skimping since I can clean all the cars and enjoy the cleanness more than the $40 in cash in my account.

Second mod, of sorts.

Taking the sights off the G44 to trade it in I found that the front Trijicon was actually busted. The threaded post that goes into the oval cutout on the slide was cracked and fell apart when I removed it. It could have been like that for a long time and only removing it let it come apart (with the slide oval keeping it all together). They issued me an RMA to send it in, but did not pay for shipping. Rumors say they don't pay return shipping either which will suck, I'll end up paying $20 for something I don't need and will just have to sell.

Oh, and from 'first ducking' to gone in 15 days? Some sort of record, probably.

I wanted to know if a G43x MOS slide would work on a G43, just to kinda experience a G43 MOS without having to get one and have the slide cut. Sean had both so he swapped the slides, the internet says it works. Well... it didn't'. The X slide went on the 43, but the 43 slide didn't go on the X. It went on, but would only rack about 3/4 the way back, not enough to pick up a round. Something was not 'the same' between the frames/slides and I said it wouldn't work. Sean insisted that because the X slide fit the non-X gun it would work and I should shoot it. Nope, they don't interchange, something isn't right.

Anyway, he ignored that and fired the 43... and it worked until it didn't.

A nice maybe out of battery detonation? Not really sure but it blew the frame apart and sent the extractor flying through the screen at the end of the range and off into the forest. Took a lot of battering to get the slide off, the locking block had been shifted inside the frame and a corner of it had to be broken off to get the slide to move past it. Jason suggested he just 'trade them both in on a sig', as if FG&G is going to take one destroyed and one non-functional gun in on trade. That's dumb. I suggested he put the 43 back together, or at least all the parts in a bag, and send it back to Glock. Replace the extractor in the 43x slide and put the 43x back together and have at least 1 working gun. If Glock replaces the blown up 43, he's back to two working guns. Then he can go trade them for a p365xmacrolegiontacopscomp whatever the latest hotness is.

Got some fabric cleaner and a scrubby brush attachment for the drill and test cleaned the van seats before cleaning the Fiesta seats. The difference is pretty amazing considering how easy it is to do.

New wiper blades on the van and truck, been meaning to do that for a long time now.

Repaired the nesting boxes that had rotted out. Instead of replacing the plywood with new marine grade plywood (which we didn't use the first time obviously) I just made an upside down deck under the boxes. Using the reclaimed deck boards I made wooden hangars to screw to the existing 2x4s and then cut boards to slide into the slot created by those hangars. There are no screws attaching those boards to anything, they're just cut to fit and slid into place and then the end board keeps them all in place. They're wedged in so shouldn't move and even if they do it will be less than half an inch front to back. That won't hurt anything, no creature can get in.

Remembered to calk the seam this time, should help keep water out. That whole nesting box is starting to rot away though, the edges are crumbling. Probably going to have to figure out how to completely rebuild it in another few summers.

I found the tuner used on the car in the car while cleaning it. Unfortunately there is no 'going back', the OEM tune was not in the tuner to put back, only the new tune was available to download. Both the internet and the kid I sell all my Glocks to say this is a pretty mild tune and was offered as part of a 'stage 1' kit from Ford that didn't violate the warranty. I can't remove it, so hopefully they're right and it's mild and won't damage anything.

I pulled up the dyno chart from the web site. There is a huge boost in torque with this:

Once I get this tank of cheap gas out of it I'll switch to ethanol free premium. I won't drive it enough for that to matter, the cost that is. I did toss some STP octane boost into the tank to make up for the low octane gas the dealer inevitably put in. Hopefully the original owner was using good gas with this tune.