September 2023 – The most mixed of bags

Yes a special shout out to the month just gone in September 2023 for throwing in all sorts of good and bad across it’s thirty days including a stonkingly good AFL Grand Final, a great looking car with very little oil inside, one of the worst sales months ever and a passing fever that bowled me over like Bill Murray in Kingpin..

WHAT I WATCHED: Old Top Gear episodes, the AFL Grand Final and American Gods

WHAT I READ: A few comics

WHAT I PLAYED: Far too much Wartales and now back into Warhammer 40k Gladius

September 2023 – (Still) Down with a sickness

Yes we’re covering the month that was by starting at the end, namely because we’ve clicked into October and I’m still feeling like heated up death. I woke up on Grand Final Day (Sept 30) and absolutely struggled. Everything and I mean everything was sore, I felt weak and very lethargic and more forehead set a new record on the family temp gun – just a sniff under 40 degrees Celsius (104 for my US doctor friends). Temps were sky high, the want to eat or do anything was super low and I spent most of the long weekend struggling through things and becoming one with the couch.

Three days into the latest month and I’m still feeling the effects of things. After a rough night (Albury weather went a little nutso last night) I drove to work with barely any sleep and then found the stairs I don’t usually care about were all of a sudden quite the chore. I can’t move too quickly (not that I have the energy for it) and if I plan to do anything, I’m finding I have to give myself a bit of run in time for the plan to actually get off the ground.
(You won’t believe how many times I promised myself I’d get up for some food on Sunday only to stay planted on the couch, ready to do things at the end of the next episode of whatever I was watching. And I burnt through a lot of episodes of Top Gear and American Gods before I finally found the energy to stand up again.

So what is it exactly? I’m guessing a passing virus (the daughter had a rough illness a couple of weeks back in September 2023), co host Lu suggests it might be influenza (oh joy) where as my wife suggests it might be something a little more on the power strain side of things, namely

Human metapneumovirus anyone? Let’s hope not. But whatever it is it certainly has kicked the bejesus out of yours truly as I haven’t felt this sick since…uh…since…actually I haven’t felt this rough in years so that’s saying something! But good news for the motherly instinct front, I am taking steps to better things. Cold and flu meds, lots of rest (when I can sleep), plenty of fluids and such clean eating my body wants to start a riot.

Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be back to my chirpy self?
Please?

September 2023 had one of the best AFL Grand Finals of all time!

There’s nothing worse than a let down AFL Grand Final. Like when two teams enter and one team suddenly forgets what they’re doing about a quarter through the game. For fans of the team stomping that mud hole it’s a great experience watching your mob bringing home the trophy but for anyone else it’s like watching a very one sided brutal MMA match where a pro pummels the rookie from pillar to post so much that after a while you start to wonder if there’s a more even match up erupting in the car park.

In 2021 Melbourne smashed the hapless Doggies all over the park to the tune of 74 points.
Then last year Geelong completely crushed an under performing Sydney, practically burying them in the first quarter and then continuing to pilot the earth mover over the grave for the rest of the game, leaving them gasping for air and completely miserable, winning by 81 points.
Which was an exciting game for cats fans but for anyone else (especially Sydney supporters) it was a case of ‘Welp, there’s no redeeming things from here. I wonder what else is on?’

So you could just imagine the trepidation in September 2023 after the last two squash matches with the dreaded feeling that bad grand finals might just come in threes. However that fear was well and truly unfounded just minutes into the clash between the Pies and the Lions as they produced an absolute cracker of a game. The score went back and forth like two championship ping pong players overdosing on skinny flat whites and after almost three quarters of one upmanship, I never thought I’d ever hear these words from any commentary team ever:

We have no idea what’s going to happen here!

-The call team, AFL Grand Final, September 2023

Collingwood hung on for the win (just – 4 points!), Bobby Hill hung on to score the Norm Smith Medal (what a stellar performance for the small forward!) and I just hung onto the couch, struggling to make it through lunch feeling worse and the day progressed.
Because of how I was feeling, I stuck with one beer. That’s saying a lot especially when it’s grand final day.

Also I thought it might be a nice day for a BBQ! And that idea would have been brilliant had I not forgotten to check if we had enough gas. So the feast was half cooked by the BBQ and the rest of the day in the oven. Not that I had much of an appetite as stated by the time it was time to eat..

I’ve been down the freeway in a car with no oil, it felt good to out of the rain..

Okay, two things here.
1. This isn’t the 2023 remix of America’s Horse with No Name (Thankfully)
2. I didn’t actually drive down the freeway in a car with no oil (but could of.)

Yes while waiting for all moons and druids to meet and greet in the finance department of car loan life, wifey and I checked out a car. And largely things were looking good for this particular Hyundai wagon too. It looked in great condition, was well kept, drove beautifully and the owner was an absolute pleasure to deal with.
And was this over a year and a bit ago, I would have handed over great wads of cash for it, shaken her hand and driven it long into the sunset.

But after being burnt already by the Subaru surprise we decided not to risk rolling the dice again and this time called in a mechanic. If he gave it the all clear, the deal would be done and we’d all go home happy (especially the mechanic earning a couple of hundred easily.)
And wouldn’t you know it? He didn’t give it the all clear. In fact he had some doubts.

You can check out the full story right here but the gist of it? It had no oil in it and it was overdue for a service. Which meant either someone forgot to put oil in it roughly 15k kms ago (not good) or it’s developed a taste for the oil stuff and has been busy sacrificing it along the way (worse.)

Either way, it was a no from us. And while it was an expensive lesson to learn, it could have been a far more expensive one at a later stage in September 2023 when cruising down the highway in it and suddenly wondering why the engine was starting to sound like it was eating itself.

Back to the car shopping drawing board then!

(It was listed on Facebook and Carsales and soon after we checked it out, it was off Facebook. A week later I got an email from Carsales stating it was either sold or unavailable. If sold, I hope things work out for the new owners..)

There’s no time to read all that!

Did I shoot myself in the foot here?
Because on the car front September 2023 saw me continue to ride the idiotic wave of frustration of people looking at my car ad, deciding they want it, not bothering to read about the issues and then messaging me direct to ask me what problems it has. Then as soon as I point out where that information is (IT’S IN THE AD YOU JUST SKIPPED!) I’d never hear from them again.
And so naturally that led to this Tik Tok to vent frustration and put a public service announcement out there:

But it seems that ‘no time to read anything issue’ has now mutated from my car, to my books. Because for the entire month of September 2023, I didn’t make a single cent from any of it. No seriously, not even a single half cent page read from someone who decided one page in was more than enough for them, nothing.
Not a bean.

And this in the biggest year of my writing career sales wise too. Also January was dead flat, just like now. I get the start of the year but seriously what happens in September that I’m unaware of? Is it national let’s stop reading month? Did someone send a memo about this? (And I forgot to read it?)

INTERESTINGLY THOUGH…

Amazon did send me a payment recently…for about $100 more than I was expecting. I’ve checked Kindle earnings and it doesn’t seem to be that, nor does it seem to be from Amazon Associates. Which means it could only be one thing – namely the cheque I thought was now completely useless!
Maybe they looked at the records and thought ‘He hasn’t done anything with this’ or maybe they finally understood the email I sent about it a year ago but whatever reason, it landed in my account. And just in case it was a mistake…I quickly cashed out it and find a way to spend it. Half went to shares, the other on a nice pair of shoes. Exciting I know, but I need some new boots (which I actually ordered from Amazon, so fair’s fair..)

Now to get people reading my stuff once again this month!..

Late edit: Not a mistake, I’ve dived deep enough to discover it was a cheque I never redirected back in Oct 2020! It must have been hit with a ‘No longer at this address’ and sent all the way back to American where finally it’s been cancelled and the funds sent electronically instead. Thanks Amazon, what a great surprise!

And all that’s left:

FINANCES

Doctors visits for ill family members and an eye appointment (now I have two pairs of new glasses instead of the sole one I’ve had for close to three years now..) plus a car loan has meant my debt levels have more than doubled. But all for positive reasons really. My shares keep growing though and that’s fantastic.

And fitness wise things have taken a bit of a back step with how I’ve been feeling. But maybe next month I’ll get back on track when I actually have a bit more energy back (and a working car to take me places!) Wish me luck!