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Sin City? More Like Stress City
Oct. 20th, 2022 05:27 pmI left Tonopah before noon after stopping at the Raley's (as one does) for tea, Diet Coke, and sammiches, and had a largely uneventful drive to Las Vegs. Unfortunately, things started going off the rails when I got to Henderson - the room at the Best Western was not in fact prepaid as I thought it was, and I didn't have enough flex on the credit card to cover it. So I booked a room at the OYO (was Hooters; different name & logo, more innuendo) for one night and begged James, Carlos and Stacy for some help, James was tapped out, but Carlos came through with $50 and Stacy with another $50 so that I had enough to cover the next night.
Got up disgustingly early, spent the last half of my remaining Amazon earnings from the Emerald card on breakfast at McD's, then motored on up to the Park & Ride off Durango to catch the bus to the Test Site. The tour was interesting, even if the guide was kinda garrulous and prone to laughing at his own jokes as well as what I thought were odd moments. I did get to talk to some of the other board members, and maybe I can get NNSS, the Testing Museum, and UNLV to buy tables at Son of Silvercon by way of recruiting kids to work at the Site, in the state agencies that work with it, and so on. The tour finally wrapped up back at the P&R around 1700, and before I headed down to the Red Robin to claim my free birthday burger, I got on Priceline and found a room for cheap at the Golden Gate.
The burger was good, I didn't go overboard on the fries, and I left the waitress all my remaining cash since the CCCU card was getting low. Got to the Golden Gate and wound up having to beg Capital One to cut me some slack since while the OYO had refunded me the deposit and the resort fee (the latter is normally NEVER done) they had done so in such a way that it wouldn't clear off my card for 3-5 business days, which left me with zero credit on the card despite having a balance well under the limit. Since I was so far from home and had a medical appointment in the morning, Capital One cut me some slack so I was able to check in, go upstairs, take my insulin, and crash.
Woke up the next morning still tired (after about 10+ hours of sleep, go figure) and motored out to Synexus, where they informed me that I'd failed out of the study. I (politely but firmly) lost my shit. They wound up paying me first and failing me later by way of apology, but part of me thinks they aren't actually going to fund this card, they just wanted to get me out of the office. Anyhow, either the card will have cash tomorrow or in a couple of days, or it won't. I took a chance and fueled up at a nearby Maverik since the fuel light was on; also got a breakfast sandwich, a free birthday cookie, and an XXL Diet Coke. Headed over to Las Vegas Boulevard and hit the McD's by South Point for a BOGO Big Mac deal and another Diet Coke, and made an executive decision to just head home, eschewing stops at Walmart, Sam's Club, and Sonic since I was pretty much tapped out on all cards and banks. I have $11 left in CCCU, $5 in PenFed, $1 in NSB, It looks like Capitol One increased my credit limit to $1600 and cleared all the nonsense with OYO off, so I have $87 worth of flex if I really really need it, but I'm hoping I won't.
So I went straight home, stopping at Terrible's in Indian Springs for fluids (the Coke machine was broken so I bought a liter bottle of Diet Coke to refill my foam Maverik cup), the usual chicken salad, and a Moon pie. Also stopped at the Test Site historical marker, where I hacked the L8 portal and then blew the shit out of it since the frogs didn't put shields on it after the last time I attacked it. Also also stopped at the Goldfield Tourist Area to take a much-needed dump, after which it was just 30 minutes up the road to home.
Hauled all my shit upstairs, checked my BG and took more insulin, put a few things away, decanted a jar of yerba mate and dug into the catchup blogging. I also approved my travel voucher for the DOE, which looks like they're going to pay me over $600 for travel expenses. I can live with that. I am tentatively going to Amargosa Springs for a two-hour open house about water (subject is HUEG LIKE XBOX out here in the rurals) on November 2; I think I can drive down there and back from Tonopah without completely fucking up my finances.
For now, I think I'm going to throw some bread fixings in the robot, take a couple Tylenol, and nap for a couple of hours, because all this stress and travel has tired me out.
Got up disgustingly early, spent the last half of my remaining Amazon earnings from the Emerald card on breakfast at McD's, then motored on up to the Park & Ride off Durango to catch the bus to the Test Site. The tour was interesting, even if the guide was kinda garrulous and prone to laughing at his own jokes as well as what I thought were odd moments. I did get to talk to some of the other board members, and maybe I can get NNSS, the Testing Museum, and UNLV to buy tables at Son of Silvercon by way of recruiting kids to work at the Site, in the state agencies that work with it, and so on. The tour finally wrapped up back at the P&R around 1700, and before I headed down to the Red Robin to claim my free birthday burger, I got on Priceline and found a room for cheap at the Golden Gate.
The burger was good, I didn't go overboard on the fries, and I left the waitress all my remaining cash since the CCCU card was getting low. Got to the Golden Gate and wound up having to beg Capital One to cut me some slack since while the OYO had refunded me the deposit and the resort fee (the latter is normally NEVER done) they had done so in such a way that it wouldn't clear off my card for 3-5 business days, which left me with zero credit on the card despite having a balance well under the limit. Since I was so far from home and had a medical appointment in the morning, Capital One cut me some slack so I was able to check in, go upstairs, take my insulin, and crash.
Woke up the next morning still tired (after about 10+ hours of sleep, go figure) and motored out to Synexus, where they informed me that I'd failed out of the study. I (politely but firmly) lost my shit. They wound up paying me first and failing me later by way of apology, but part of me thinks they aren't actually going to fund this card, they just wanted to get me out of the office. Anyhow, either the card will have cash tomorrow or in a couple of days, or it won't. I took a chance and fueled up at a nearby Maverik since the fuel light was on; also got a breakfast sandwich, a free birthday cookie, and an XXL Diet Coke. Headed over to Las Vegas Boulevard and hit the McD's by South Point for a BOGO Big Mac deal and another Diet Coke, and made an executive decision to just head home, eschewing stops at Walmart, Sam's Club, and Sonic since I was pretty much tapped out on all cards and banks. I have $11 left in CCCU, $5 in PenFed, $1 in NSB, It looks like Capitol One increased my credit limit to $1600 and cleared all the nonsense with OYO off, so I have $87 worth of flex if I really really need it, but I'm hoping I won't.
So I went straight home, stopping at Terrible's in Indian Springs for fluids (the Coke machine was broken so I bought a liter bottle of Diet Coke to refill my foam Maverik cup), the usual chicken salad, and a Moon pie. Also stopped at the Test Site historical marker, where I hacked the L8 portal and then blew the shit out of it since the frogs didn't put shields on it after the last time I attacked it. Also also stopped at the Goldfield Tourist Area to take a much-needed dump, after which it was just 30 minutes up the road to home.
Hauled all my shit upstairs, checked my BG and took more insulin, put a few things away, decanted a jar of yerba mate and dug into the catchup blogging. I also approved my travel voucher for the DOE, which looks like they're going to pay me over $600 for travel expenses. I can live with that. I am tentatively going to Amargosa Springs for a two-hour open house about water (subject is HUEG LIKE XBOX out here in the rurals) on November 2; I think I can drive down there and back from Tonopah without completely fucking up my finances.
For now, I think I'm going to throw some bread fixings in the robot, take a couple Tylenol, and nap for a couple of hours, because all this stress and travel has tired me out.
