05-13

woke up around 6am, decided to head down to hacienda heights and wait for the guy to wake up.  he seemed to think i'd not show up until noon. idiot.

got down there around 7am, texted him, parked a couple of blocks away and fell asleep. was awoken by a sheriff who probably figured out i was sleeping in my car. he advised me to move on, so i went to the house and rung the doorbell. looks the house is rented out to a number of roommates, including the ebay vendor.

turns out the battery is NOT designed to be used with my particular laptop, and my laptop keeps dying with it after 40 minutes. but when i turn the PC back it, it either still shows 100% charge, or the laptop can't read the battery at all.

i've contacted the vendor seeking an exchange, and also told him i wasn't pleased i drove 40 miles round trip only to require an exchange. we'll see how he responds to that.

called the smog place. new machine is in, but will take 2-3 days to be calibrated. but i should be smogged by saturday. yay.

spent the afternoon stitching up the tears in shorts i hope to use for work. the good thing about not having a place to crash is that it forces you to find things to do. better when they're things that should be done, like cleaning the interior of the car. 3 years of dust, accumulated food on the passenger seat cleaned up. i also fixed the cup holder and figured out how to reset the clock. i think i know how to reset the odometer now too.

drove down to ranch 99 in alhambra where i used the restroom and splurged on $17 of sushi discounted down to $15 - they drop $1 off the price around 4pm.

went back to the old apartment and ate at the pool. there was someone in the pool and we had a conversation about the hazards of overcrowding in the pool given the quarantine. scheduling use of the pool would be inconvenient.

around 6:30 i lit up a cigar and watched the sunset on the bridge. i've decided to make that a ritual so i can then go to the patio after dark and recharge.

i can actually recharge the old and new battery simultaneously by putting one of the batteries in my backup laptop; i have adapters for both, and if there weren't two outlets, i'd use my extension cord which allows me to move into the far corner of the patio where there are walls on 3 sides. having put the bamboo curtain back up, i'm virtually invisible to everyone unless they actually enter the patio. there are security lights, but a pillar casts a shadow on the outlets so you can't see if anything is plugged in.

after i finish recharging the old battery, i'm going to put the new one in and see how long i can go on it tonight. i've already gone about an hour and a half without recharging it, and the t420 is supposed to be able to last up to 10 hours on a fully charged 9 cell. that would allow me to type pretty much all day. i need to start writing and working on my grant proposals.

if i have to, i can drive to either nearby target and park underground during the day for shade - or to sleep.

i'm grateful the weather was a lot cooler today. i changed back into long pants to mend my shorts, but i really didn't break a sweat today. i'll forego the washrag tonight.

the neighbor on the patio above me is carrying on a telephone conversation pretty loudly. he had no idea i'm down here.

still deciding on where to sleep tonight. don't want to sleep in the carport. i think i'll park on derek's street again; no one bothered me last night, and tomorrow night i'm back to work so i'll head back down to fedex.