Adventurenet.net

Saturday February 17, 9:46 am. Austin, Texas. Cloudy 38° F (3° C)

Let’s discuss Friday by starting with the bad news.

My car is making the noise again.

I took it to the mechanic where they replaced the bearings for $1,500 but the noise was still there, so they found some parts of the car’s body that were a bit loose and touching the tire and fastened them down, but now the sound is back again.

I think my mechanics will make things right, but this is the third time I’ve taken my car in for the same issue and also the third weekend that I can’t travel because of this car issue.

It’s a rough time to be a car owner, but an even rougher time to be a car buyer and so we are trying to keep our vehicle in tip top condition.

I also need to get an oil change soon. I’ll add this to the adventure list so that it is more likely to be completed soon.

I will make the best of this and focus on some of the non-travel adventures.

Tangent: I have some popsicle sticks I saw the other day. I need to find a craft for them.

I sent a postcard to The Netherlands and for the first time I forgot to take a picture of the card and upload it to postcrossing.com and this blog.

Dang.

I cannot remember the card that I sent, but I do remember the topic that I discussed which was trash talking Dallas.

As everyone knows when you hear that song lyric “deep in the heart of Texas” they’re talking about Austin. The heart of Texas.

Dallas gets so mad about this and always tries to gentrify neighborhoods and say mean things about Austin in response and so I like to tell people about the man who named Dallas.

No one knows why he chose the name Dallas, but he did die in an insane asylum in Austin, Texas.

I think this says a lot about the relationship between our two cities and now someone in The Netherlands had a better understanding as well.

Maybe Dallas folks spend too much money on hair products and that’s why they’re like this. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Haha, I tease.

There’s plenty of wonderful people in Dallas.

On this Friday I also received three postcards, though one of them was not for me.

It was for my partner Lauri.

It was one that I sent a few days ago

Last Saturday when I was at Old Tunnel State Park I wrote a card to Lauri.

Two funny stories about this card.

First, I had to mask its origins when telling Lauri of its arrival.

“You got a thing in the mail.”

“Can you open it?”

“I did. It doesn’t have a return address.”

Lauri was very nervous about the mysterious hand written letter that I was describing to her.

The second notable item is that the post office stamped the wrong part of the card.

I think their machine saw the square logo in one corner and mistook it for a stamp.

I also received a lovely postcard from China

This one has great stamps on it, but I also super enjoy that the sender added little stickers to it.

The other postcard is from a Ukrainian who moved to the U.K. in 2022.

This card also has stickers and also Washi tape. This is exactly how I make my cards that I send!

Delightful.

I have been sharing with Lauri that work-from-home can be frustrating for me because it feels like I’m always inside of our apartment and this is one of the reasons I strive to get out on the weekends.

To help break up this monotony Lauri prepared a nice picnic lunch and we went out together on my work break.

We also took a short walk and I tried a new app on my phone that can tell you what birds are around you by the sounds that they make.

The app is called Merlin.

We found three birds and tried to trick the app by making various sounds.

I was able to fool it once.

It was a day of frustrations, but also a day with plenty of nice moments.

These little adventures certainly helped take the edge off of the negative parts of this day.

This blog also helps with my mental fortitude.

My goal with this blog has always been to become a better writer and to have more fulfillment in my life.

It’s also nice to look back and remember these little moments which can be hard without a few notes and pictures.

Also…

Remus says “Hi.”