How is it 2024?

Time sure flies, doesn’t it? I managed to complete only one post last year! The year certainly had its ups and downs.

I bought a fully electric car. The plug-in hybrid was nice, but every time I exceeded the electric range, I felt like I had failed when the gasoline engine kicked in. Even worse, heating the car used engine waste heat. So if I was driving on battery, the engine would come on as soon as I enabled the heat. While operating under no load, the engine would take ages to warm up and finally heat the interior of the car. And lastly, whether true or not, I felt that two complete propulsion systems, and the mechanism to switch between them, would be more subject to problems than a simpler car. It just seems there’s more to fail there. So I went fully electric and it’s great so far.

In the span of one week in December 2022, we had two dogs pass away. Sloan and Oscar left us. They were both old, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Julie said she wanted to wait a while before even thinking about another dog, but we welcomed Millie in February anyway. It’s hard to believe that she’s already been with us for nearly a year!

Another shock came a few months ago when my boss sat me down and fired me. After 30 minutes of talking, he completely failed to explain why. He said it had nothing to do with my work, but revealed little else. We met over video chat a week later he told me that once the renovations are done in a year’s time, there wouldn’t be full time hours for me until construction of the new building was complete. One would think this would mean that I’d be looking for a job in a year, but one would be wrong. I wasn’t even allowed to finish the day. I’m still so disappointed and upset because I was entirely invested in the place and my dismissal was handled so poorly. I genuinely feel that we could have talked and figured out a solution. Instead, we sat down and I was introduced to the topic by his saying, “I don’t see a future for you here any more.” I’m certain there is so much more to the situation that was not revealed to me, but it will remain a mystery.

That said, I have employment leads lined up and I’m certainly going to get something sooner than later.

I’m also planning to write more here. Certainly more than a single post a year. We’ll see how that goes because I’ve been planning this since New Years Day and it’s still taken me nearly three weeks to get going. I just need to make it a habit again. I look forward to writing to you much sooner!