This weekend I had a 3-day weekend because I opted to take Monday off from work as a mental health day (company approved, of course). It was a lovely, relaxing weekend – exactly what I hoped for.
On Saturday I pulled all my car service reports together and determined that unless something catastrophic happens in the next 12 months, I should only have about $1,000 in expected repairs/maintenance on the vehicle. New tires are first in order – probably in December. The timing belts will likely need to be replaced sometime in the late spring. A couple other piddly things. That encouraged me in my decision to keep my car for one more year rather than incur a car payment along with an increase in insurance and property taxes.  Now, if for some reason the transmission drops out of the bottom of the car tomorrow and requires a $3,000 repair, I’ll just leave it at the shop and walk away. *lol* But $1K of expected repairs/maintenance I can handle, and I’m patient enough to wait for December 2020 to roll around and treat myself to a nice car as a Christmas gift to myself. A couple women at my office joked with me that they are annoyed at my determination to be financial responsible instead of going out to get a SHINY! NEW! CAR! But I know it’s the right thing to do for now.
On my day off yesterday I made my first eggnog french toast of the year (yum!), I took a nap on the sofa for a couple hours, I vacuumed (see it wasn’t all laziness), and then I binge-watched “Unbelievable” on Netflix. Wow, was it ever a great crime miniseries (based on a true story). So, so well done. It co-stars Toni Collette and Merritt Wever as two Colorado investigators on the hunt for a serial rapist, as well as the story of a young girl in Washington (expertly portrayed by Kaitlyn Dever) that reported being raped but then recanted the story under pressure from the police, who didn’t believe her. It’s a harrowing story, and one made all the more spellbinding because of the electrifying performances of Collette and Wever and nearly perfect scripts. Wever was UNBELIEVABLY GOOD in this series. I can’t stress that enough. Additionally, the storytelling was riveting, gripping and horrifying all at the same time. I highly recommend this series to anyone and everyone.
My next day off is in November when I head to New Jersey for a convention. I’m taking lots of vacation days because at the end of this year my company is switching from accrued PTO to a flexible time off policy. Any PTO that we have not used by December 31 disappears – we don’t get paid for it, and we can’t bring it into 2020. So I’ve got lots of random days scheduled between now and December 31 as vacation time.
