What Did I Accomplish This Week?
This week I’ve updated the look of the site slightly. Most importantly, I moved. I attended Cooper Island Rum Festival and I also started work on my gardening project!
Monday
Work
Started out with that damned pool again today. It does not feel like it is getting any better. But every time I add chlorine the pool eats it so it’s gotta be doing something. I did the usual of vacuuming the whole thing after adding a TON more chlorine. Then I scrubbed it all over and just let it cycle for a couple hours.
Then I went back and did it all again (the scrubbing and the vacuuming). And it really doesn’t look much better. I’m going to have to pull the filter again and hose it down. That means adding more DE, which we’ve only got one dose of left. So I’ll do that first thing tomorrow and hope and pray I can get the pool in better shape.
Home
So the boat with our furniture is supposed to arrive this afternoon. It’s possible we might get our stuff today, but it’s also very possible it’ll be tomorrow. We just have to wait and see. Of course, we’re still waiting on the customs paperwork too. Hopefully that’ll be finished before the boat arrives.
Investing
Man, I either have shit luck or make shit decisions when it comes to the stock market. Maybe it’s just the overall volatility of the market but it feels like it’s just me. I invest in a stock after looking at the history and stuff and then the price goes down and down, losing me money. So far I’m at a loss of around $20 of my 500 invested.
Of course, I was at a similar loss a couple of weeks ago, then my portfolio bounced back. Then it tanked again this weekend. I’m hopeful that my choices will win out in the end. Just waiting on my first dividend payout to put even more money on these losers. I did recently get a new payment from my book guy. . . Maybe just 10% of that into more investments?
Videos
So, I used to publish videos to YouTube years ago. Occasionally I will get a comment from a viewer asking when I’ll be coming back or if I’ll ever make more videos. For the longest time I really thought I would. But it has dawned on me that I just won’t. I may stream on Twitch again someday, but I don’t think I’ll ever publish another video on YouTube. All the recent changes to the platform, the controversy, and the fact that I’d have such a hill to climb just make it unappealing.
This Site
This epiphany though comes with a price. I’ve got my old YouTube content front and center on this site’s home page. I guess I’ll have to get around to changing that a bit. The original idea was to have new content available from the home page at any time. But most of those tabs never have anything new. When was the last time I posted to anything other than this site?
I actually do still use Twitter a decent amount. The Facebook tab looks like crap and only contains stuff that’s ported over from Twitter. Neither of my YouTube channels has had a new video posted in two years. My most recent Instagram picture was from May, although I think I’ll be posting more to that soon. So I need to kill three of those tabs from the home page.
I guess I can transfer the YouTube channel links to “archived” projects. And the Facebook link is all over the site since it’s social media, it can go. Maybe “Past Projects”? I need a better name for it. Maybe a whole separate page? Maybe just add to the Projects page? Yeah, I’ll just add it to the main Projects page. Who knows, maybe someday I will actually make another video. And done!
Tuesday
Pool
There is no way that pool is going to be in shape before the owner arrives tomorrow. So I put together an email about it, including pictures of the damaged filter, to send to the owner. Every one of the fins in the filter are broken and half have punctures. I’ll do my best to get it better by the end of the day, but it definitely won’t look nice.
And after two sessions, I’m done. Nothing really more I can do. The water isn’t bad, but there’s so much sediment in the pool that the filter just isn’t catching. Hopefully we can get it replaced, but for now I’m so wore out. I’ve been working on that pool everyday for nearly a week.
Home
So the furniture finally arrived! We got the paperwork, got it cleared, and it’s been delivered to the house! Unfortunately, but the time that was all done it was too late to start putting it together (You know, Ikea). So we unfurled the mattresses to let them expand overnight. Tomorrow we’ll finish the last part of the move and put all the furniture together. That means it’s time for me to go on a shopping spree!
Moving Day (Wednesday)
Sleep
Ugh, a sleepless night in anticipation of moving today. Tossed and turned all night. Brain just wouldn’t shut off. I ended up getting out of bed nearly an hour before I usually do because it was pointless to continue trying to sleep. And I’m sure I’ll have an impossible time sleeping again tonight since it’ll be a new bed.
Home
Wow, I spent ALL day on the move. By 9am all my stuff was ready to move. Once we were at the house I spent the rest of the day putting furniture together. My room is amazing, I have a desk! I have my own dresser! I’ve unpacked all the important stuff. I went out and bought a new television for my room. A 43″ Samsung smart tv. Already got my shit setup on it and ready to go. YouTube, Plex, my Switch.
This place is so much better than the last couple of houses. Why? Because it’s my home now. A true home, not some place we’re staying in “for now”. Tomorrow, I’ll be starting my garden. I’m so excited now about this move! I need to buy so many things to prepare to plant seeds.
Thursday
Sleep
Did not sleep well again last night. Wasn’t really expecting to though. It was a new bed, new room, new house, new everything. Still gotta fine tune my sleeping experience. The blinds in the room suck, if they’re not completely open they bang around and make a lot of noise. At least now I know that for future nights.
Home
The bathroom is by far better than any of the others. I can sit on the toilet and not be accosted by mosquitoes. The shower gets nice and hot, has decent pressure, and it’s indoors. No more walking out to shower and having more mosquitoes attacking me.
Pool
We aren’t able to get the leaky pool fixed before the next guests there are set to arrive. Because of that I’ve begun getting it back into working order. I went over there and began adding water while I hosed down the filter. That thing was so nasty. Filled with sediment and little chips of paint from the pool. Added chlorine, vacuumed it a bit. Now I’m letting it sit and fill for a couple hours. After lunch I’ll be heading back over to rinse the filter again and let it cycle. Prolly will need more chlorine too.
Gardening
I went out and bought supplies for my gardening project. And, of course, nowhere on island currently has potting soil in stock! THE most vital part of this project, the soil. None. Used to be bags stacked up at one store, but now there’s none. So the planting will have to wait until I can get some soil. Hopefully it shouldn’t take too long to get some here.
Pool Day (Friday)
Pools
Pools were easier this week than normal. One house is empty and the pool looked good, so not much work there. The amazing house was about the usual. My nemesis was in pretty good shape so the fight wasn’t hard to win. I skipped by our old house since I already put so much work into it and we’re going to get a new filter. Won’t put a ton of effort into that until we get it.
The leaky pool was by far the worst, but I’m working on it over time. Today I just added more chlorine and scrubbed a bit. Let it run all day to filter out the crap. Next week I’ll hose out the filter again and give it a good few days of work.
Project
I finally had some time (and now I have the materials) to begin my gardening project. Spent a couple of hours working on it. Measuring, cutting, and staining wood. There will be a whole post about it coming up once I’m done with the project.
Boat Day (Saturday)
Cooper Island
Today is the Cooper Island Rum Festival, part of the BVI Food Fete. Myself and others (roommate included) all went and enjoyed a day of sun on Cooper Island. The boat we took was a diving boat operated by DiveBVI. I much prefer the other boats I’ve taken. Dive boats just aren’t built for comfort or speed. The ocean was an amazing shade of blue!
Cooper Island Rum Festival
Once on Cooper we invested in rum ration cards. 6 rations and a raffle drawing for $48 per person. Each ration is good for a drink or food. Worth the price and ease of use. Then I got a nice new Cooper Island rash guard. My guard from Soggy Dollar is all kinds of stained, and the other one I have is really tight.
Sample stations were setup outside the rum bar for brands like Mount Gay, Bacardi, Cruzan, and more. First punch on the card was a rumarita, a lovely passion fruit rum drink. Second punch was a hummingbird, a mango rum drink. This one was so far my favorite, tasting like gummies!
There seems to be something uniquely different about getting drunk on the beach of a small island. It really feels different from the usual of Dragoncon. It’s still packed full of people but not the tens of thousands of DC.
After an extremely long wait we got some food. I had a delicious burger with fries. I was so hungry that I finished my food in an astonishingly quick time. Third punch on my card was a fleur de mule. Similar to the usual dark and stormy. The rest of my punches were spent on rumaritas and hummingbirds.
My last punch was spent on a different drink that I can’t remember. The raffle happened and none of our immediate group won, although one of the tourists with us did. Got a bottle of Pyrat XO. Lucky bastards. At 5pm everyone was ready to leave Cooper and head back home to Virgin Gorda. The trip back was as uneventful as the trip to Cooper, just a little more drunk.
Upon arriving at the yacht harbor one of the guys on the boat (not in our party) just began vomiting all over himself. Poor guy drank a bit too much and I’m sure the boat trip didn’t help his stomach. I really feel for the guy’s wife though. Seemed like she’d dealt with stuff like that a lot.
Home
Ugh, seems the tiles outside get a bit slippery when they get wet. I totally went down. Hurt too, prolly got a couple bruises. Broke my glasses, although I may be able to repair them. Not worrying about that yet, since I brought a few backup pairs, just in case of situations like this.
Off Day (Sunday)
Relaxing
Feeling a little hungover from the drinking at Cooper. Doesn’t help that I’m wearing old glasses. The prescription doesn’t seem wrong, but the fit is off a bit. I’ve had to bend them a bit to get them to sit right on my head. I may need to go get new glasses soon though. Not sure what my option are here.
I spent pretty much all day watching TV in bed. I felt so rough all day long from the drinking and the fall. Towards the evening I played a bit of Minecraft and Warframe with my friend. I’m still really enjoying both games.
Featured Image
This week’s featured image is from the boat ride to Cooper Island. The wake from the boat was just mesmerizing and I had to share.
