January is the month of unexpected expenses
phaidenbauer • 31 Jan 2024 •
Well, at least that seems to be the case this year. Everything started out fine, I had my budget laid out and then, two weeks ago, shit started to go down a little bit.
At first, I detected some mould in my sleeping room and in the living room. I contacted a paramedic colleague which is also a construction worker. He had a quick look, and we nailed it down to some humidity condensation on the outer walls of the Flat. So a quick to the local DIY store, getting some anti mould stuff, sprayed it, and it was gone.
A few days later, the radiator in my bath tried to kill me by falling off the wall. Luckily, I wasn’t inside the bath at that time, but I couldn’t get through the door as I heard the rumbling. With a burnt hand, I managed to get the radiator upright again and kinda fixed it in place. I called my dad and a few days later we fixed it to the wall again and put some safety in so it couldn’t fall down as easily again. I’m relieved it didn’t leak, otherwise the damaged would have been huge.
Then, the tax on photovoltaic cells fell, so I grabbed my balcony power station at just below €500. Later that day I got the power bill indicating I have to pay another €325. If I had known about the power bill, I would have delayed the ordering of the PV stuff. Also on the same day, I got notice to pay import taxes on the Freewrite Alpha, I’ve ordered on Indiegogo. At least, that was only 50 bucks or so.
I hope February doesn’t hold more surprises for me.
Comments
I think I’ve written about the Freewrite Traveller back on 200WaD, but it was way too expensive in my opinion. When they launched the campaign for Alpha, I thought I just give it a try. Early bird was only around $250 if I remember correctly. Through it is also delayed more than a year now.
I don’t have a clear idea why I bought it, but I want something I can easily use on my balcony without cranking the display light up exorbitantly in summer. And recently, while taking a walk, I found an interesting place on the way, near a river, where inspiration could really strike, so having something I can use to write there could be fun.
Besides that, I really want to crank out at least one novel. I’ve got several ideas, but never managed to put one down. My idea is to dedicate the device for such tasks, well, you can’t do anything but write on there anyway. Maybe that will sprout inspiration and, more importantly, keep me going.
Never knew about the aspiration to write a novel. 👍 Nice! Yeah it does look like a tool to help with focus.
I remember you writing about the device on 200WAD, and I remember lambasting it with a reply post. 😂 You definitely want to take any mold exposure seriously. This article has some good info. https://daveasprey.com/black-mold-poisoning-test/
@therealbrandonwilson Yes, mould can cause some bad stuff. Luckily I already have two active air filters for my allergies inside the Apartment, so if there were spores, the filters got rid of them. Thankfully, the bleaching de-moulder from the store got rid of it immediately.
@jasonleow Well, ideas have been there since years, but never an actual plan to really write one done 🙈
Oh wow, Freewrite looks interesting! Curious: Why did you buy it?