Reborn As An Early Retiree, I Now Wander America’s Costliest City: Volume 1, Chapter 9

Hey, y’all. I received some dreadful news yesterday morning about my sister that’s in a convalescent home, and the update I received on her condition after dinner was not promising. That’s why I’m posting the briefest of updates a day early. — Robzilla.

WHAT I ATE

Mexican blueberries. The ones I ate were just like any other blueberries, except the package they came in had, um…. the last time I saw so many stems and seeds was at the bottom of someone’s bong bowl.

WHAT SACRED TEXTS I READ

I won’t list them this week for brevity’s sake, but I should announce I canceled my GTA+ membership and used those funds to buy an annual J-Novel Club subscription. This gives me access to light novel chapters translated into English well before they’re published into full length novels. I’m currently reading three titles on a near daily basis in addition to the weekly manga.

WHAT YOU CAN READ

After posting this update, I found this Jalopnik article about Katherine Legge's latest race at the Indy 500. While her engine went Cheech y Chong (Up In Smoke) early in the race, what her sponsor did during the weekend may have changed motorsports for women... and some men as well!

WHAT I BOUGHT

I’m juggling five affluent redheads aka The Quintessential Quintuplets. Two Japanese story/puzzle games have finally made it stateside with English subtitles, and I’m now playing the first of them on my PS5. 

FYI The Quintessential Quintuplets is now available on Netflix. It’s the best rom-com anime, and it’s 99% wholesome despite the obvious harem situation.

WHAT I’LL WATCH

June isn’t just Pride Month. It’s unofficially Endurance Racing Month. 

Tomorrow is the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, which combines the modern Formula 1 track with the old Nordschliefe course, aka The Green Hell. I’ll watch bits and pieces of the race on YouTube throughout Saturday and Sunday, but Super GT will get my full, undivided attention when their three-hour race at Suzuka begins just after 9 pm Saturday night my local time.

If that isn’t enough endurance racing action, two weekends from now is the 24 Hours of Le Mans and at the end of the month is the 24 Hours at Spa. Ara ara!

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED IN GAMING

I’ve settled on one livery for all of my cars in Gran Turismo 7, but I’ll save the deets for a future post.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY HEALTH

It turns out I have a cold. After showing no other symptoms for what seemed like forever, I finally started showing some on Wednesday. With the proper self care since then, I’m getting the upper hand on this. I hope to resume exercising on Monday morning.

I have not yet weighed myself for the week, so I’ll post an update on that next time.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

Without Red Lobster’s help, I finished editing Chapter 11. I was beginning Chapter 12 when I received the news about my sister, and I’m holding off on further editing until Sunday at the earliest.

(Not) Wordless Wednesday: New Avatar

 
This is my Gran Turismo 7 character's new fire suit and helmet. He's dressed as if he's ready to race in Japan's Super GT series, hence the Japanese lettering alongside the Nissin logo. MSI is his primary "sponsor", and I've loved their products ever since I used one of their motherboards to assemble my gaming PC nearly a decade ago.

As much as I love the "Kurumi" helmet design, seeing that Zojirushi logo makes me a little sad. My rice cooker had been dormant since last September for obvious reasons, but now I know I can include half a cup of cooked basmati rice in my chicken and steamed vegetable dinners without an issue. 

I shall buy some at the market today!

Things That Make Me Happy...

I spent about an hour and a half working on an idea for a racing helmet in Gran Turismo 7 and came up with this livery. Most of the anime liveries look more like a cluttered mess, so I went with something that looks traditional yet features Kurumi on both sides. I really like it!

Then this happened in an online race with the Alfa yesterday. Can you read that racer's rear bumper?

Now see that same racer's rear bumper pointing in the wrong direction one sweeping turn later when he accelerated too quickly upon corner exit and slapped against the guardrails on the right. Bye!

Reborn As An Early Retiree, I Now Wander America’s Costliest City: Volume 1, Chapter 8

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

My brother is in a rehab center for now, and I visit him thrice a week. He still needs physical therapy for a medical issue in addition to the other stuff that’s going on, and yet he may be released soon. As you can imagine, this has been a near constant source of stress.

When I helped my sister dispose of the plethora of ultra processed food from his kitchen at the beginning of the week, I acquired a tube of Pringles. More on that later...

WHAT I LISTENED TO

Nothing. I kinda sorta forgot to stream podcasts when I sat down at my writing desk this week. 

WHAT I ATE

Have you ever heard Spo use the term “crack cheese”? This taco seasoned Monterrey Jack cheese is as addictive as Doritos. When it was combined with Marie Sharp’s habanero hot sauce, it gave my veggie omelets a finishing kick like Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes.

WHAT SACRED TEXTS I READ

• Robyn Hood: Blood In The Water
• Fairy Tale Team-Up: Robyn Hood & Belle: The Beast Hunter
• What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?, Volume 4
• My Girlfriend’s Not Here Today, Volume 1
• My Lovey-Dovey Wife Is A Stone Cold Killer, Volume 6
• Cheeky Brat, Volume 10
• The Kept Man Of The Princess Knight, Volume 1

The abundance of new sacred texts this week was like ending a drought with a flash flood. I still have a couple of titles I’ll carry over into next week.

WHAT I’M WATCHING THIS WEEKEND

Super Taikyu’s 24 hour race at Fuji Speedway will be underway by the time I post this. I'll watch the first hour before I go to bed, and then I’ll watch bits and pieces of it throughout Saturday afternoon and evening. Sunday features the Indianapolis 500, plus McDreamy’s return to competitive racing. I’m assuming they’ll run simultaneously, so I’ll likely stream Indy on the TV and McDreamy on my tablet so I don’t miss anything.

Neither the Monaco GP or the Coca-Cola 600 interest me. The former lacks passing on Monaco’s narrow city streets, and the latter is mostly a five hour substitute for Nytol.

WHAT I BOUGHT

This Kurumi Tokisaki “Calligraphic Beauty” figure is on its way. Soon the Date A Live femme fatale will write alongside me at my writing desk. Or will she try to distract me with that seductive look? Ara, ara!

WHAT MADE ME LAUGH

Schadenfreude! I was in fourth place watching two people play bumper cars in front of me at over 150 miles an hour, and sure enough the one that had raced me rough to pass me was the one who wrecked. Later on that same lap, either the leader or second place car did the same thing shortly afterward. 

Guess who slid into second place like a nuisance into someone DM’s?

WHO’S ON THE DOCKET IN SLAP COURT

The defendant: Me

The crimes: Since Monday, I wanted to see how a serving of Pringles (14 chips) for lunch would affect my weight loss. 

The punishment: I stopped on Friday morning. Keep reading...

WHO DESERVES A FIST BUMP

After a half decade of near misses and misfortune, Tadasuke Makino finally won his first Super Formula race last weekend at Autopolis. His celebration was gloriously over the top by Japanese standards for decorum, reminiscent of Josef Newgarden’s 2023 Indianapolis 500 victory. I hope to see something like that again soon.

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED IN GAMING

On Thursday night, I switched to Motion Sense steering in Gran Turismo 7. In plain English, you hold the PS5 controller in front of you like it’s a steering wheel. When you rotate it up to 90 degrees left or right, the car you’re driving will steer in the same direction.

Surprisingly, it’s only taken me about a day to run laps as fast as I did when I used a joystick to steer the car. I imagine I’ll only get better at it with more practice.

WHAT HEALTH MISADVENTURES I'M ENDURING

After going two months maskless, my sinuses have become an energy sapping snot factory. I’m masking up again, just in time for everyone to pass around COVID-19 this holiday weekend. Amirite?

I had 0.2 pounds of remorse when I threw the half full Pringles tube in the trash yesterday afternoon, the same amount of weight I GAINED this past week. It’s amazing that it only took four servings of those little fuckers to sabotage my weight loss efforts.

Despite this minor setback, I will still partake in the unhealthy food binge everyone takes for granted. I have Johnsonville brat dogs, and this Saturday night I will not be denied!

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

I finished editing Act I, the first ten chapters of “Unbound”. I’m now confident the writing will both set up the rest of the story well and hold the reader’s interest. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to rewrite Chapter 11. Perhaps I can ask Red Lobster to help me with that? 

Okay, I’ll see myself out the door. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

(Not) Wordless Wednesday: Confession Time

 
Hello. My name is Robzilla, and I'm an Alfaholic.

No Longer Dreaming

 
One of the things I've always found fascinating was Patrick Dempsey the race car driver. Yes, you read that right. Patrick Dempsey. Race car driver. Now that you're over the shock of seeing those terms in one sentence, let's keep moving...

Patrick is better known as "McDreamy" on some doctor show that I never watched, but every so often I'd watch Porsche factory driver Patrick Long and McDreamy race together in a Porsche 911 all over the globe from 2009 until both of them stepped back from driving duties to become Porsche brand ambassadors. 

Like legendary Corvette Racing driver Ron Fellows, I thought I'd never see either of them behind the wheel again so imagine my surprise when I learned Long and McDreamy will participate in the newly formed Porsche Endurance Challenge North America series. They will partner in a GT4 spec Porsche 911 with sponsorship from Mobil 1, and with GT3 cars sharing the track the series promises a crowded pit lane.

If you're interested or have nothing to do this Memorial Day Sunday, you can stream the first 60-minute PEC NA race from Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) live on their YouTube channel gratis! 

That One Time I...

 
... Was Grateful To Finish In 6th Place.

This afternoon, I faced my fears and participated in a 10-lap Group 4 (aka GT4) online race with "Rin" in Gran Turismo 7. Unlike offline races where you can make mistakes without punishment, the online world has a penalty system in case you do stupid things behind the wheel such as exceeding the track limits (aka cheating) or causing accidents. 

Before I could join my first race, I was required to watch a six minute video that left two impressions on me: One, online racing is serious business even if there's no money involved and two, I don't want to be the asshole that ruins someone else's race. More on that later.

Rin and I qualified 8th in the 16-car grid, which is a less than ideal place to start your first race. When you're running mid pack, you don't have to look for trouble because it will find you. I was nervous as hell on that opening lap. Rin is a three decades old touring car, so I had zero expectations to win again modern machinery. My goals were to stay out of everyone's way, finish the race, and earn valuable experience, plain and simple. 

Easy, right? Well, not really. 

Things got off to a rough start. I was muscled out of position by an impatient driver, then I had to dodge a couple of wrecks by racers that I assumed blew off that orientation video about sportsmanship. 

I thought I had settled into a groove on Lap 2, but then I became that asshole that locked up their brakes and overshot a corner while overtaking two cars. I thought I had caused a multicar wreck, so I felt quite humbled when Rin limped back into the pits for her early, compulsory stop to fix the damage and change her tires.

I reentered the race as the last car that was still running, but that open track helped settle my nerves. I concentrated on running consistent laps with Rin, and with every lap I learned more about the track as well as how Rin prefers to be handled. My lap times improved accordingly. 

In the latter half of the race, I passed a couple of cars on the track and a few others that made their required pit stops. I was in 8th place when I took the checkered flag, but then things got really interesting. Two cars that finished ahead of me had 1 minute time penalties added for one or more infractions, which elevated me two spots in the final standings. My sportsmanship rating, which is ranked on a Japanese system that runs from S to E like on their report cards, shot up from its default E rank to a B rank after the event.

In other words, I kept my nose clean after all.

I look forward to getting more racing experience with Rin later tonight. That was so much fun that I really don't care whether or not we win.

UPDATE 8:31 pm PST: Rin and I qualified fourth and won our second race! It was a clean one, too.

While Mistress Maddie Entertains Visitors...

 

... all I get are crows! Thankfully, I'm already awake by the time they're serenading the neighborhood with their cries.

Reborn As An Early Retiree, I Now Wander America’s Costliest City: Volume 1, Chapter 7

 

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

I'm a little melancholy today, believe it or not. Yesterday I received a calendar notification that today is Terri and Torrie’s birthdays. I still fondly miss my little girls, mostly because they gave me more love than any human ever did.

WHAT SACRED TEXTS I READ

• Fly Me To The Moon, Volume 23
• Virgin Love, Volume 3
• We’re New At This, Volume 16
• The San Diego Reader

Read what? The Reader is a convenience store staple that keeps you informed of all things happening in the big city that The San Diego Union-Tribune doesn’t report. 

That also includes one of three bonkers legal notices posted by someone that’s two cans shy of a six pack. Per a Google search, this person may or may not be acquainted with the Department of Justice. Ara ara!

WHAT I LISTENED TO

The latest New Heights podcast. It’s refreshing to listen to the Kelce brothers speak with Deadpool’s language filter, as I sometimes do. 

WHERE I WENT

A watch repair shop to replace the Victorinox's battery. 

WHAT I WATCHED

Train To The End Of The World is like Akiba Maid War, a dark comedy that punches well above its weight but is sadly overlooked by the masses. The best way to describe it is to imagine a writer is told to create a post apocalyptic world featuring a wireless network gone amok and cute anime girls, but drops acid before they write the script. 

If that were true, it would explain the insane stuff I’ve seen so far like people that become living hosts to mushrooms or turned into talking animals. This anime makes me look forward to Monday afternoons.

WHAT I ATE

Sliced and seasoned andouille sausage with steamed vegetables. It was scrumptious, but my arteries would prefer I don’t eat that on the regular. 

WHAT MADE ME LAUGH

I’m still amused that my Sense 2 wants to know how I feel at the most inappropriate times. 

WHAT I BOUGHT

Yet another pair of ASICS sneakers. All eyes will be drawn to its vibrant blue but they’re strictly for my indoor workouts. 

WHO’S IN SLAP COURT THIS WEEK

The defendant: John Doe, a third party company tied to a previous employer.

The crime: I’m now enrolled in credit monitoring for the next two years, and my credit reports are marked “Fraud Alert” with all three bureaus. You can probably figure out from those clues what happened.

The punishment: San Quentin. If California ever brings back the death penalty, that’s where the sentences are carried out. 

WHO DESERVES A FIST BUMP

The benevolent owner of the aforementioned watch repair shop. He’s a wonderful conversationalist, and I’ll gladly refer him to family and friends. 

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED IN GRAN TURISMO 7

I earned my Master Super License on Wednesday, but I didn’t have the patience to pass every driving test in International - A or the Super License categories with a Gold level time. I settled for Silver, but after I received my MSL I’ve since retaken those tests. As of this writing, I’ve achieved Gold in all but the Super License Final Exam.

Why would I torture myself like this every afternoon and evening since Monday? Free cars, like this glorious 1988 Porsche 962 I earned for all Golds in the International - A license tests. It doesn’t turn laps like today’s hypercars that will compete at Le Mans next month, but it’s 200+ mph of barely harnessed mayhem.

Yeah, I’m smitten.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY HEALTH

Is it a head cold? Is it seasonal allergies? All I can tell you is that I was desperate enough to pop a Claritin two hours before bedtime last night to get my first full night’s rest since midweek. 

On the flip side, I weighed myself a day early and lost 1.8 pounds this week.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

The John Doe situation meant surrendering two writing days to stress and anxiety, and the blog ate up additional writing time. I’m surprised I got anything done this week, but now I’m quite pleased with the first eight chapters of my novel.

I shall play hooky from my novel for another day and resume editing tomorrow.

(Not) Wordless Wednesday: The OG Alfa Romeo 155

Yesterday, you saw a screenshot of the rechristened "Rin". Today, I present the original Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI race car as raced by Nicola Larini in Germany's DTM series. This legendary car won 12 of its 20 DTM races in 1993, and in Gran Turismo 7 is quite formidable in Group 4 races despite its age.

It's no mistake there's a silhouette of the Alfa Romeo logo on Rin's doors and hood beneath the Highspeed Etoile anime characters. It's just one way I've chosen to honor this car's heritage.

That One Time I...

... Made A Startling Self-Discovery 

As you can tell from the above screenshot, I've had a lot of fun playing Gran Turismo 7 since I donned the VR headset on Friday afternoon. After some of the Akiba Maid War decals went AWOL from the game, I created a new MOMO/Highspeed Etoile livery for my legendary 1993 Alfa Romeo 155 touring car. That Alfa Red paint color is striking in sunlight, and I've renamed the car "Rin" after the pink fire suited girl on the hood. 

When I looked inside my closet this morning, I noticed that even after I had disposed of my old Thrustmaster T300RS wheel and pedal set I somehow hung onto the TH8A shifter, a wonderful accessory that makes driving even more realistic. It can be configured into a sequential shifter that moves forward and back to shift gears, or you can install an "H" pattern plate to mimic old school race cars. The latter is fun to use until you mistake third gear for fifth!

This discovery led me toward the Playseat web site. I always thought it was a pipe dream to own one of those "sit in" gaming chairs that look like you should wear a fire suit and a helmet before you sit in them. It's not that I couldn't afford it. It's that I had always greatly exceeded the seat's maximum weight limits.

I viewed a gaming seat that looks a lot like the real life one inside Rin, Miku, and other touring cars that I own in GT7. When I looked at the specs, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that if I lose another six pounds I'll be within its recommended weight limits. With the additional accessories I'd want, the final cost before tax and shipping would be about $400.

Then I visited the Thrustmaster web site. My old T300RS racing wheel is still available, but there's a pricier model that I assume is the latest and greatest. The same goes for their pedal offerings. Although GT Sport never used the clutch pedal, I prefer pedal sets with a more realistic feel to them. The configuration I want will set me back about $1,000.

Then there's this alcantra leather wheel that's a must have accessory. You probably think it's bougie, but the stone cold truth is the stock steering wheel doesn't have sufficient padding. Your hands will get quite sore if you race over 100 miles with force feedback -- the changes in resistance and vibrations you'll feel when the car goes over curbs, makes turns, etc..

I never imagined losing weight would open my world in this specific way, so don't be too shocked if I gift myself a few things for my 55th birthday.... even if it's one or three months early!

Reborn As An Early Retiree, I Now Wander America’s Costliest City: Volume 1, Chapter 6

 

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

Money matters. I learned that Wawanesa sold their American division to AAA, which means at some point in the future Akeno's renewal will resemble a swift uppercut to the crotch rather than an offer to insure her. I now wonder if a gently used convertible Nissan 370Z would make more financial sense. 

Several entities are also asking me for more money for everyday things, and my frustration has morphed into enough rage to refuel the Red Lantern ring Sassybear gifted me before the pandemic. It's not that I can't afford these higher prices. I'm fed up with the ever present feeling that I'm not getting my money's worth. 

If I recite the Red Lantern Corps oath one of these days, y’all better keep your distance!

WHAT I ATE

A cauliflower crust roasted vegetable pizza, upon which I added diced tomatoes, parsley and Parmesan cheese. I really wanted chicken and kale, but sadly it wasn’t available at the Vons I now shop at.

WHAT I BOUGHT

To celebrate my ongoing weight loss, I purchased a Fitbit Sense 2 plus a handful of straps in various styles and colors. For kicks, I tried out its voice call feature while speaking with a friend and that felt so Dick Tracy to me.

One of its new features is a little embarrassing. More on that later…

WHAT I LISTENED TO

The Disgraceland episode featuring Ice-T brought back some good, and sometimes disturbing, memories from his “Body Count” days. I also caught up on Bawdy Storytelling and New Heights.

WHAT SACRED TEXTS I READ

Strangely, there were no new sacred texts to read for a second week in a row. I eagerly look forward to Monday night’s new offerings.

WHAT I WATCHED

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio reminds me of Shirobako in many ways. It’s quite enjoyable to catch a behind the scenes glimpse of the world of voice acting, and the gyaru Yasumi and the introverted Yuhi sometimes get along like a Molotov and a match. Ara ara!

WHAT MADE ME CRINGE

I learned what a Carolina Squat is, and surprisingly it’s not a Charlotte resident sitting on the toilet. It’s not just an abomination of half ton pickup trucks, it’s a safety hazard to everyone on the road. I hope I never see one of those here.

Speaking of potty humor… please skip the next section if you’re easily offended.

WHAT EMBARRASSED ME

The Sense 2 always wants to know how I’m feeling whenever it detects a change in my emotions. Most of the time, I respond by telling it I’m excited or happy because it’s the truth. It’s usually not big deal, but if the Sense 2 could talk I imagine Friday morning’s conversation would have gone something like this:

Sense 2: I detected a change in your emotions at 8:42 am. You marked you were content. Did you reflect on why you felt that emotion?

Me: That’s TMI, and for accuracy’s sake I felt relieved.

Sense 2: But I need to know these things to better serve you.

Me: It’s a personal matter.

Sense 2: So what happened that made you content or relieved?

Me: (Muttered after a brief pause) I dropped a deuce.

Sense 2: You dropped a… what’s a deuce?

Me: (Audible sigh) You’d never understand unless you could do one yourself.

I now fear what the Sense 2 will ask me when I start dating again someday. Some details are better left unsaid, you know?

WHO’S ON THIS WEEK’S DOCKET IN SLAP COURT

The defendant: The Toronto Maple Leafs

The crime: Losing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Again!

The punishment: No slaps. I might make my surviving friends and family members wear Leafs jerseys at my funeral. When they lower my urn, the team can let me down one last time.

WHO DESERVES A FIST BUMP

Indiana Pacers legend and current TNT broadcaster Reggie Miller, who three decades later still fuels New York Knicks fans with rage. If I were Reggie, I’d gleefully report to my Sense 2 that I’m excited to be serenaded with “Fuck you, Reggie!” chants by sports fans that could never be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED IN GAMING

I had 10 wins in 10 OWR races in GTA Online last week, but I have something more exciting to repot.

Yesterday I made a triumphant return to VR racing after an eight month absence. I once feared my diabetes diagnosis permanently made my Sony VR2 headset a pricey dust catcher on a coffee table shelf. I’m thrilled that I only suffered the expected eye strain after yesterday afternoon's gaming session, and that went away overnight. I look forward to using the VR2 again on Monday afternoon.

Another gamer recently uploaded Miku’s 2024 decals, so she’s been updated to be as bewitching as the real life Goodsmile Racing Mercedes race car. I’m also quite fond of her deep blue metallic paint. It closely resembles the color of Dan Gurney’s 1970 AAR ‘Cuda Trans-Am race cars in honor of Swede Savage.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY HEALTH

Despite demolishing the aforementioned pizza for dinner Wednesday night I still lost 0.6 pounds this week to reach yet another weight loss milestone. I’ve unofficially lost 75 pounds since last summer, and with ten more pounds I’ll have yet another exciting reason (and purchase) to celebrate.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

I’m now in the middle of editing Chapter 7, and the prior chapters now read like a polished, published novel. I couldn’t be happier about my writing right now.

(Not) Wordless Wednesday: Getting Serious

 
You know shit is about to go down when I break out Mikuzilla, my 2018 Nissan GT-R GT3 race car, out of storage in Gran Turismo 7. More on that this Saturday.

That One Time I...

... Almost Bought A Second Car Out Of Fear

If you've been here long enough then you already know I love Akeno almost as much as life itself. She's a Super Black 2022 Nissan Altima SR VC-Turbo that has been a pleasure to own for the past two plus years, but there were a few moments during the past two weeks when I thought about parting with her.

It all started when I got wind of this Forbes article published last December that detailed the troubles Nissan and Infiniti owners have had with the innovative VC-Turbo engine. Although the NHTSA review does not cover Akeno's model year, it's a little scary to think that one day she might have a catastrophic failure that would require an engine replacement.

It also didn't help matters that Nissan has been pretty aggressive lately in advertising an extended warranty for Akeno. The original warranty is good until late March 2025, but between the Forbes article and Nissan's pestering it's understandable why I felt a little spooked about Akeno's future.

This led me to do a casual search for gently used cars online, and with my current financial situation I could put it on a debit card with a simple phone call... but then the old me that could barely afford a 2016 Nissan Versa Note SV back in the day slapped the shit out of today's version of me back to reality.

I took a deep breath and realized I've babied Akeno since day one. I've had her oil changed at 2,000 miles, 5,000 miles, and 9,000 miles and she always gets synthetic oil. Her Bridgestones rarely go less than a pound beneath their recommended pressure, and she usually looks as clean as she did when I first brought her home. Lets not forget the $1,300 in dealer accessories that I had installed on her right after I took the above photo.

In summary, I have every reason to believe Akeno's engine is unlikely to do its own impersonation of a hand grenade so perhaps I'll stop worrying about her heading to the Nissan dealership on a flatbed tow truck.

Reborn As An Early Retiree, I Now Wander America’s Costliest City: Volume 1, Chapter 5

 

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

Besides “May The Fourth Be With You!”? Rage. It’s the only emotion I have left regarding the traumatic event I’m enduring. I have no more fucks or sympathy to give, so I’m going to just come out and air this dirty laundry. 

My brother attempted suicide two weeks ago. I was the one who discovered him and called 911. From the moment the police and paramedics arrived, I also learned a few things that left me nearly as traumatized as the 911 call itself.

It’s troubling that he will freely tell my sister his future intentions but he doesn’t open up to his therapist about those feelings. She alerted them via email, and hopefully whoever makes decisions on his care will reconsider the current one that says he’s no longer a threat. 

I likely don’t have all the facts since I’m just a bystander, but everything screams malpractice. He’s scheduled to return home in the near future, which means I should steel myself for the inevitable, future 911 call to haul him away, dead or alive. Fuck. My. Life. 

Anyway, let’s move on to happier things shall we?

WHAT I ATE

A Ready-Pac Asian style chicken salad. I typically have one with a can of Amy’s soup twice a week, but it’s notable since I can’t have certain foods like wonton strips and sunflower kernels for several days after a deep cleaning. 

I can’t wait to have one of these delicious salads for lunch later today! 

WHAT I BOUGHT (AGAIN)

Carol Danvers, Hal Jordan, Harleen Quinzel and Robyn Locksley. I can afford their statues, but I updated the so called comics harem in my closet.

After a five year old Captain Marvel t-shirt met its demise last weekend, I took a chance and reordered replacements in my smaller size. The new t-shirts are a perfect fit. I can’t wait to show off my favorite version of Harley Quinn for the first time in several years.

WHAT I LISTENED TO

I streamed the latest New Heights podcast and the “Three Presidents” Smartless episode on Friday morning. I still have a few others podcasts to listen to during this weekend.

WHAT SACRED TEXTS I READ

• The Dangers In My Heart, Volumes 7 & 8
• How To Treat A Lady Knight Right, Volumes 3 & 4
• Rise Of The Outlaw Tamer And His S-Rank Cat Girl, Volumes 2 & 3

The last week of any given month is bereft of new sacred texts, so I caught up on these ongoing titles.

WHAT MY GTA ONLINE CHARACTER IS FLASHING THE BIRD

I finally took the Open Wheel Racing (OWR) plunge. Rockstar is tripling the prize money this week, and if you win three races you earn a special Rockstar logo racing suit. Hell yes, I finally get to see how I measure up to other racers in cars modeled after past and present F1 cars!

How did my first four OWR races go? I was that bully that snatched your kid's lunch money. My fastest lap was usually at least five seconds faster than my closest rival. I lapped several cars in every race, and in one race I lapped the entire field. 

I made at least one competitor rage quit during every race, and I'll admit that I'm euphoric whenever I read that notification on the bottom left corner of my TV screen. OWR is no different than any other GTA Online racing series. Racers deliberately wreck opponents at every opportunity, so I've decided to update my victory celebration to give my rivals the same courtesy they extend to me.

I also love the fact that my character and I get paid about $49k in GTA bucks to remind competitors that I'm similar to the late Dale Earnhardt: I'm a good person but I don’t mind playing the villain.

SLAP COURT IS ADJOURNED THIS WEEK

Family members aren’t eligible to be Defendants.

WHO DESERVES A FIST BUMP

I don’t have any candidates for this either. 

WHAT NERDY THING I DID

I cleaned two old coins, or at least attempted to.

This 1976 penny was so heavily oxidized and corroded that I originally thought it was a dime or a slug when I found it in the backyard. The coin has battle scars from four decades exposed to the elements, but otherwise is worthy to reenter circulation. However, it will remain on display at my writing desk as a good reminder that anyone regardless of age is capable of change... but only if they want to.

That 1974 quarter next to it has an uneventful backstory. I likely acquired it prior to 2020, back when everyone paid cash for things. It only required baking soda, a little water, and a toothbrush to clean up.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY HEALTH

My dental hygienist was pleasantly surprised with my rapid recovery from the first deep cleaning appointment. She told me diabetics typically take much longer to bounce back, so this is further proof my blood glucose is well under control. I'm already recovered from the second appointment as well.

I lost 2.4 pounds this week, and that is shocking. I stress ate lightly salted peanuts last night while streaming the three hour Super GT race at Fuji Speedway, so I expected to weigh the same as I did last week.

I may do some retail therapy later today to celebrate this achievement!

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

With further edits to tighten up the writing, I’m now satisfied with the first three chapters of Unbound. Unless I forgot to add something that’s important for a later scene, there won’t be any further edits of those chapters. 

I’ll resume working on the fourth chapter sometime this weekend once I’m in the right frame of mind to do it.