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If you’ve been following along, you’ve probably noticed the conspicuous absence of posts all summer long (despite the visual overhaul which did take quite some time (I still hate it btw)). The difference between now and before is that my client load has come on pretty heavily and I’ve been quite busy all summer with projects. I could probably update the site but I have huge issues with balance of time. When there is work to do, generally I will worry only about that. I mean after all, what would a client think if he’s waiting for work from me and can see me updating this site? It’s kind of a conflict right? But time management is one of those things you don’t really think about when you go to work for yourself. In the beginning you’re just happy to hear that phone ring, that word of mouth and that potential income source. Nobody thinks about what happens when you bite off more than you can chew but it’s a big problem. If you blow one of your projects or ignore one of your clients, the positive news that got you the clients to begin with will change to negative news, serving to sabotage future prospects.
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So what do you do when each one of your clients expects an 8 hour workday on each of their projects? Manage expectations I suppose. I’ll let you know when I figure out how to manage my time properly. Until then I tend to work from sunrise to sunset when I do, and then take days off when I need to. That’s not to talk about the fact that we are in Pennsylvania which means repeated visits to family, friends, weekends on the race track and more. Not to mention the availability of my beloved supercharged E36 M3 which is not normally available to me. It means lots and lots of very fun activities consuming my time.
SO is pretty content with sitting around but she would prefer to be in Florida near her family, if for nothing else, for babysitting services. Myself, I get pretty ancy. We’ve been here for 3 months now and for me it is well past time to go. But not yet. First I noticed last winter that the bedroom zone of my aqua hot system was not producing heat. That problem now compounded itself with an odor of diesel fuel in the central storage bay. The aquahot on our rig is buried dead in the middle of the storage bays. It’s not that hard to get to, but you do have to crawl INTO the storage bay.
I found a pan wet with diesel fuel and somehow one of the brushes for the circulation motor backed itself out. Fixed the brush and decided to test diesel and sure enough it was spraying diesel fuel everywhere! Turns out my generation of aquahot has issues with the high pressure fuel pump. $350 bill later and we’ll see how easy replacement is in a couple days. You have to pull the webasto burner out and then you can do much of the work on the bench which is a bit easier on the back.
The other thing we’re up against is a highly aged set of 8 tires. Tires which are over $400 each. So tomorrow or one of these days I have to get over to the commercial tire place and drive them insane picking the absolute youngest tires they have in stock. We’re going with Continentals versus the stock Michelin XZA3’s. I guess we’ll see if that decision proves foolish or not. Btw the front tires are about 7 years old while the tags are 8. The drive tires I can see are nearly 9 years old(!). We’ve certainly gotten the previous owner’s money’s worth out of these tires but there is no way I am leaving the east coast on them. There is only signs of exterior dry rot on the youngest front tires ironically.
After that we head to my brother’s wedding, and then we boondock our way to California(ish). We intend to hit over the next 2 months the Grand Canyon, Arches, Moab, California coast, Vegas and a few other places. Should be fun. We have 2 years left until child can enter Florida’s voluntary pre-kindergarten program (and he will) so I intend to make the most of these magical years of location independence we have for now.
As for the strange title? ANTS! Tons of tiny little ants seem to be finding their way in every tiny crevice we have! Clearly it’s time to get moving.
Last modified: 21 October, 2014
Created: 25 August, 2014