Last night the temperature dropped to single digits for a span. This prompted several outside activities to prepare for the cold.
I covered the strawberries with leaf mulch and doubled up the row covers. Water hoses were disconnected and covers placed over the spigot.
Buckets and other vessel’s normally filled with water were turned over and their contents spilled out on the lawn.
We had snow the previous week, so much of the preparation was already partially completed.
My LEAF in the air.
The last chore for further cold weather is getting my tires refilled. The cold pressure has reduced the psi in my back tires by nearly 6 points.
The back tires are the new pair I got from the dealership. The mechanic said they didn’t see any signs of leaks and the drop in pressure was just the cold weather.
My next appointment will be in March for tire rotation. Shouldn’t cost more than $25. Then I’ll be set to drive for a good long while.
I have just received word that the delivery truck has left the dealership and is on the way to drop off my new (used) 2021 Nissan Leaf SV Plus.
I have the cashiers check all signed and ready to go, my insurance is active, and I’ve spent the morning watching YouTube videos about the car functions.
I’ll update this post when the car arrives.
My new car has arrived. I cannot wait to get out on the road and start driving.
My next goal is to get some income going so I can pay the insurance.
Yesterday I went to the Raleigh-Durham airport to pick up my mother after her trip to Portugal. I was doing fairly well, I thought, right up until I accidentally exited off of the highway exit to Aviation Parkway.
What followed was a confusing mess. I found myself once again in Brier Creek. I had the presence of mind this time around to find a turnaround right away, rather than going off into the sticks out of town.
I got back on the road that led to the airport, and there was this red sports car ahead of me that seemed to be in a hurry I incorrectly assumed they were also heading to the airport, so I followed them.
Once more I exited off of Aviation Parkway and now I was heading to Durham. Luckily, I noticed a turn-off that was marked Raleigh. This spun me around quite a bit and I ended up in a section of orange cans and traffic cones as construction was underway all over the roadway.
I slowly followed the road signs while this old car behind me kept revving its engine. I thought that they were maybe impatient, but as we rolled up to a stop light I heard their engine stall and stop. The other car managed to start up again and the driver pulled off the roadway. It was a very old car.
Once the light went green I pulled away and left the old beater by the wayside. Following the cones I eventually found myself on a northbound route to Raleigh. Some way down the road there was another exit to Aviation Parkway, which I happily took. This was sort of good but by this point, I had already overshot the airport by a great distance, and I was now traveling south.
At this point, I knew I needed some help. I pulled over to the side of the road and checked my map. For today’s trip, I had the good sense to bring an old phone that had Google Maps on it. It doesn’t have a SIM card, but the GPS worked enough that it could pinpoint my position after a few minutes. It doesn’t work for real-time navigating but I could at least see where I was concerning the airport.
After I got my bearings, I found a street where I could do a U-turn and I got myself headed back north. I was close enough now to the airport that I could see the big black signage indicating the terminals. I had intended on using the Cell Phone Lot at RDU as a waiting area until my mother’s flight had landed. I got lost trying to follow the directions I had written down and I gave up and instead used the parking garage.
Most of the floors were listed as OPEN in green letters on the electronic board, but when I started climbing up the round tower thing, each entrance was blocked with signage saying it was full. I did manage to find a spot on the 4th floor, quite far from the elevators.
Once I had parked, I took some time to breathe and congratulate myself for surviving the trip. The trip back was much easier as I had my knowledgeable mother with me in the car and she knows these streets very well.
While I was at the airport I took some pictures of the planes and the facility.
Questions or comments, put them below. Thanks for reading!
Yesterday, I drove my mother to the airport for her vacation trip to Portugal. I drove her car there and back, a round trip of 70 miles on the fast expressway. The journey there was relatively simple with my mother’s guidance. However, the return journey turned out to be a challenge.
Everyone was driving so fast (70 MPH), so I decided I would hang out in the rightmost lane and go a bit slower. Unfortunately, I realized too late that I was on a Right turn-only exit off of the highway much too early.
I ended up stuck in Briercreek, just outside of a subdivision, and lost inside a shopping area. It took me twenty minutes to finally figure out how to get back to the highway. Not only had I never been to that part of the state, but I also had a clamshell-styled feature phone that could not use apps. I had no map to base my decisions on or a robotic voice to guide me to the highway entrance.
It was a game of eliminations. I managed to drive all the way outside of the shopping area and out into the suburbs where I turned around and backtracked my route. I made several wrong turns until finally, I began to see intersections that looked vaguely familiar.
I’m not sure when it happened, but I realized that the exit from the expressway should also be close to the entrance back onto it. Once I understood that I was able to make my way back to the exit but from the other side of the road. Sure enough, I could see the big blue sign marking the entrance to the 540 highway.
After I got back on I had no qualms with “going fast,” and I kept to the center lane the rest of the way home. It took me two hours to get home instead of one.
When I get my car, later this year, I will get one with onboard navigation. I swear this will never happen again.
I took my road test last week and passed. It was actually a lot easier than I was expecting.
I spent a long time reading the manual, practicing driving, and watching YouTube videos about the test and the maneuvers I would need to know.
Surprisingly, I didn’t need to know much. I didn’t have to parallel park, perpendicular park, pass another vehicle, or back around a corner.
Technically this was my 3rd attempt. But the first two times were in Washington state back in 2007. There I had to know the above items as well as learn how to safely navigate a double-lane traffic circle.
Thankfully none of the previous skills were necessary for the North Carolina road test.
Now that I am licensed, the next step will be to start shopping around for a vehicle. I have been looking at mild-hybrid and fully electric cars. I am not sure which I will go for, but I will likely get a used car.
Fat Wallet Refugee 