The AJ Chronicles: 28 June 2024
Startled by a phone call, Stephanie's car MOT, going through old stuff took me away from Medium, Mum’s anniversary, plus my recent Medium stories
Sections
a. Recent Moments
b. Medium Stories
a. Recent Moments
Startled by a phone call 📢
Stephanie’s car’s MOT test 🚙
Going through old stuff took me away from Medium 📦
Mum’s anniversary 💐
1. Startled by a phone call 📢
It’s rare for me to get phone calls while I’m driving. Years ago, I would ignore them until I got to my destination, or I’d pull over if I suspected something urgent.
My current car has Apple CarPlay, so my phone rings using the audio system. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to retain a low ringer volume for driving!
A few days ago, my phone started ringing using what seemed like the full power of my car’s upgraded speakers! It’s ridiculous how they implement dozens of safety warnings, yet they don’t consider the effect of being startled by a loud ringer!
After grabbing for the volume control, I answered a call from my mother-in-law.
It can be hard not to sound rude, but I like to tell people if I’m driving. I hope to avoid a long call or soften shocking news.
My mother-in-law verbally shrugged her shoulders when I said I was driving. She went on to ask if I could give my father-in-law a lift to the hospital the following day.
He wanted to get there before 8 am and would get a taxi home! (The other way around would have been more appealing…)
Then she passed the phone to him, and once again I mentioned that I was driving. He chatted away for ten minutes as I navigated busy junctions, going into great detail about how he’d fallen over the previous day and been taken to hospital by ambulance.
It turned out he got tired of waiting and got a taxi home. Once he got in the house, they phoned him and told him to go back the next day! If only he’d waited a little longer — he’d not have needed to return.
Luckily, my son was available and willing to take him back to the hospital the following day. It’s so good that he can now help his grandparents. Unfortunately, when the morning came, he was late getting up which had me on edge, expecting I’d need to take over. Somehow, he made it on time.
2. Stephanie’s car’s MOT test 🚙
Last year, my fiancée Stephanie had all kinds of car trouble; I’ve written about it many times before.
The short story is that she bought a car in 2022 from what turned out to be a bad garage. When it had its annual MOT test in 2023, it failed due to major corrosion. The previous MOT must have been faked because those faults would not appear in 12 months.
The garage agreed to fix the car, but they kept it for many weeks and little was done. Eventually, they said they’d get her a replacement.
Then the owner died!
His then-new business partner took over and charged her a considerable amount for the ‘upgrade’.
He was a vile man who was incredibly rude when I expressed my opinions about his shoddy business practices.
The car he sold to Stephanie had multiple minor faults like non-working bulbs and flat tyres — yet it had a recent MOT certificate. Talk about history repeating itself…
Other faults came to light, but she had a trusted garage fix them instead. At least the replacement car had no corrosion.
Back to the present
As you can imagine, Stephanie was apprehensive about this year’s MOT. Thankfully, it only failed on a broken suspension spring.
They also advised about a noisy wheel bearing. I mentioned that to them last year but they could not find anything wrong. Then again, my ears are sensitive to annoying noises!
I’m trying to convince her to get the wheel bearing fixed sooner rather than later. And to get the engine oil and filter replaced.
3. Going through old stuff took me away from Medium 📦
This week, I’ve barely been on Medium. I feel bad to be so far behind with reading and notifications.
I’ve spent many hours dealing with sentimental items such as old toys and schoolwork. That’s an ongoing project that will take time to finish.
Years ago, my eldest son had a wooden toy stable set. He decided to let it go a few months ago, and I finally took it to a charity shop yesterday. I was surprised at how upset I felt. I regret that he never had quite enough space to fully enjoy it. Maybe it was also a reminder that my children are not little anymore.
I’ve also done a lot of work on the scans of my parents’ old photos. They were scanned in 2005 and 2009.
Unfortunately, the newer scans are not always the best. That means finding all the scans of each photo to compare them. Looking at every photo my parents took has been an emotional experience.
As well as many print albums, there were 14 boxes of slides. I had hoped they would all be in the same order in the 2005 and 2009 scans. But no. Someone must have mixed them up. And not just within each box, but between boxes!
Image comparison software did not help, and it has been laborious to match thousands of images in random order manually.
I became obsessed with finishing it and spent many hours on it, neglecting almost everything else in the process.
I can’t believe how long this project has dragged on, but none of the scans had dates, names, or places.
I’ve told my sister I’ve nearly finished many times before, and I hoped the pressure of seeing her next week would help me focus and get it done. But I didn’t want to continue neglecting my writing and other everyday tasks. So here I am, trying to do a little of everything again today.
4. Mum’s anniversary 💐
It’s sixteen years since my mum died, so I stopped writing this to take flowers up to the crematorium.
June is quite a month because it was the 11th anniversary of losing my wife Jane a couple of weeks ago.
My fiancée Stephanie is lucky enough to have both her parents still. However, they both have health problems, and she has been taking her mum to the doctor a few times recently.
Sometimes it’s hard to accept the changes life brings our way. But changes come whether we like it or not, so we must make the most of the present.
Thanks for reading
Alan
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b. Medium Stories
The titles below are links to my recent Medium stories. I’ve included quotes to give you a taste.
The Worst Boss I’ve Ever Had
June Prompts, Day 27
Keith spent hours creating huge company rulebooks and making it a miserable workplace. He had no idea how to manage creative people and thought imposing his new terms and conditions would keep people in line.
Remembering the Dragon 32
Facts, opinions, and personal memories of a computer I used briefly in the 80s, and again several years ago
As luck would have it, in the mid-80s my sister’s boyfriend bought a used Dragon 32. He knew little about computers, so she asked me to test it for him. Always keen to try new gadgets, I jumped at the chance. I remember spending quite a few hours playing around with the machine.
Where to find Alan AJ
Everything digital seems to be set at the highest volume by default now, so that you even here it loud when you have it on a soft setting. It makes it hard for me to enjoy some things I used to.
I really think some of these companies should offer a lower level mono sound option for people who dislike noise. They don't seem to think we exist.