We Continue Being Busy

Time continues to fly at a rapid rate. I have been busier since my last post almost a month ago. A few of my friends have commented that it seems like I have a full-time job now. I guess I do but like 20 some years ago I enjoy the work putting listings together to sell on eBay. Results have been very positive, enough that I almost can't quit. Yet, I still have a lot of stuff here at home I am wanting to get rid of.

Today will be the first day since March 2nd that I will take my own day off. Yes, I am serious. I have worked 7 days per week, more hours than I want to count, to keep up with listing new inventory, packing up and shipping what is sold. I have finally have some kind of daily routine now that gives me time to walk 30 minutes per day, and give four other dogs their walk. Walter still refuses any kind of aerobic exercise, just starting his 6th year.

We have had a couple of major storms past through but so far this spring most of it has moved in a NE direction about 100 miles north of me. Here is a little tree limb damage and luckily that one fell on the berm instead of on top of my fence. I cut that up and tossed it back on the berm. No, not a chain saw. My pacemaker no longer allows that piece of equipment.

Henry continues to roam through the now thick green grass in the back yard, nose down every inch of the way along that fence line. Then he will migrate into the middle of the yard. He doesn't dig, he isn't destructive and he loves being outside as much as possible.

You will see here though that Walter prefers being inside and he loves sleeping. These photos under the desk are his early morning naps. By 10am he has moved to under the window where he will stay most of the day unless it is time to eat or go to bed.

I had bought some hip/joint supplements from PetScy because he was limping at times, even holding his foot up while he walked. Yet I would catch him sprinting in the backyard from the fence to the patio door when he finished what he needed to do. So which is it .. his leg hurts or he is okay?

Anyway he flat out refused the 4 daily supplements. He spit one out when I hid it cheese. He would eat all of his kibble and leave the 4 hidden pieces in his bowl. After a couple of weeks I got a return number from PetScy and sent both containers back for a full refund.

I might try the joint/hip supplement that Stella used for years.

With most of my time at the computer desk, really no different then before, it's just that I am doing different things now, the hounds don't know what is going on. I pack things back in my large walk in closet that previous owners installed a good sized cabinet. I take photos of everything I sell in my bike room since it has natural light from the east shining through the windows. 

The hounds and dogs get the same amount of attention. In good weather we spend time outside in the backyard. Watson really is the only one that likes to play fetch. Ava runs after the ball with Watson but only wants to bark at him. Walter, Henry and Cletus like hanging out on the patio when all that exercise is going one.

I looked at the time of this photo and it was 7:15pm CT ... and really it is the normal nightly routine for them.

Currently I have 240 listings on eBay and another 20 or so on Facebook Marketplace. I have 25 scheduled to post in the next few days on eBay automatically. Like before I never know what is going to sell. Things I think should have don't and I am shocked sometimes when something else does, that I almost didn't list to begin with due to my lack of interest.

I started looking for new inventory on Facebook Marketplace because I needed some new stuff to list. That has turned into my best profits. I don't buy anything for more than $40 and a lot of it is $5 and $10 with local pickup. Some of those things I have sold with better photos, better writeup for $70 - $250. Some things have sold within an hour that I posted it.

I have found buying on Facebook Marketplace with local pickups, there is a huge network of people that sell and most of the time when I pick up something I have bought, we meet in the parking lot of fast food restaurants. A few were at their house but I investigate their profiles before I agree to that. I can usually tell though who I am dealing with by what I buy. 

I tend to buy sports stuff like I sold many years ago. Then I was drop shipping everything so I never had to pack things up and ship it. Now I cut off the daily shipments at 2pm and have been shipping things out on a daily basis. If they buy and pay for something before the 2pm cutoff I will ship it out the same day they bought it. Otherwise everything is shipped from the post office the next business day. 

I have spreadsheets to track all my expenses and I even track my miles to the post office to ship, when I pick up something I have bought in town and my trips to Walmart to buy boxes, poly mailers and bubble wrap.

I sense that the hounds and dogs spend more time in my computer room than before. They are always loud and happy when I come back home from my short trips around town. They surround me while I am at my desk and sleep with the spring time windows open now.

This past Thursday around 6pm someone made the mistake of ringing my doorbell. That set off my burglar alarm which is all five at the windows looking out onto the porch, baying, howling, and Ava barking. Two young ladies had backed off the porch and were standing on the sidewalk. I had seen them in the neighborhood earlier in the day so I figured they were selling something.

Well it was AT&T.

Not quite 2 years ago I canceled my AT&T service which you can read about here and again here. So I was a bit skeptical. With my Spectrum mobile and Internet bill going up a lot this July when my 2 year good deal is up, I was willing to listen to what they had to say.

"I can guarantee I can beat your Spectrum price" ... go for it and see what your price is. Like all other companies it seems now days, there was a little bait and switch, that I didn't find out about until late last night. I went back and was reading their confirmation email confirming my order for service Thursday a little after 7pm ... but this time I noticed there was an attachment.

Off topic ... Ava loves dragging the muddy mats out into the yard. Those are NOT the brand name Muddy Mats but something similar I bought that the dog food place last year.

So this AT&T attachment was an itemized list of charges, credits and length of time. Internet companies like to yell "we don't have contracts you can cancel anytime" but that is not true. That "free" phone that really isn't free, keeps you locked into that 3 year time limit otherwise you will pay the full balance for that phone and credits deleted if you leave early.

I found that out in July 2024.

So it did not surprise me when I saw they were charging me $5.99 per month, after their $10 credit, included in my bill for a new iPhone 17e ... where they told me "you will get a free phone and you can keep your old one" ... One thing good out of this deal, even though I found the monthly bill to be $28.33 more than I was told it would be ... that monthly bill will not change for 36 months.

In the past 21 months Spectrum has raised my mobile and internet bill 3 different times.

The router showed up yesterday and since I am computer literate at my old age, it didn't take long to get it running their fiber service as you can see the modem behind my tv. I had all my devices up and running off of that signal without issues. 

The fun part was getting my wireless printer working again. It does but without some computer knowledge most people would have never figured that out. You basically have to start from scratch and install the old printer like a new one, then turn off your computer and back on so it can reboot and the wifi will pick up the 'new' printer that was added.

So my strongest signal is back by the tv again like in 2024 and it is much slower where I sit on my computer yet I can upload the photos without much problem. Spectrums' hook up had the modem next to my computer for some high speed internet and slower out by the tv. Most likely that caused my streaming issues at times. I might look into getting a wifi booster since my computer is on the other side of the house from the internet modem.

The weather has been fantastic. The hounds and dogs have been fantastic. The grass is green and thick in back so all of that seed I planted last summer and fall has come back very thick. 

Is it safe to assume that when you are on a phone conversation with a friend and while you are talking you are unaware they are no longer on the other end of the call ... they've hung up ... that they don't want to talk to you anymore? Since they never called right back with a lost signal excuse and not a word for almost three weeks I guess they have decided something I said irritated them enough to end the friendship.

He has gone from multiple texts and calls per day to total silence.

No, politics were not involved, nor religion, not even sports ... I was defending my "new full time job" by telling him I had spent all afternoon outside with the dogs and hounds and that I had even found time to not only mow my yard but my neighbors larger yard too. IF that is my new full-time job then I am all for it.

Then I realized I was talking to myself and wasn't sure how long I had been doing that.

So that is the latest update from the beautiful "tropics" of Southern Indiana. 

While I was proof reading this post I glance out the window to see Ava's nose in the center of the rolled up garden hose. I had a pretty good idea what it was so I put on some gloves, grabbed my phone and got a picture. 

I am using that hose every day a couple of times each day to pour out drinking water for the water bowl outside for the hounds and dogs. So I guess I was out there late yesterday afternoon. They built a nest from late yesterday afternoon to now ....