Weeknotes 2025W34

Back to the ol’ grind. I started a new job on Monday. I actually did this same job (a chemical lab technician) for a year in 2019–2020 while I was still in college. So, I’m back to formulating specialty printer inks that chemists much smarter than me tell me to as well as track experiments, run tests, and report data. I enjoy the work, the people there are friendly, and there is a fantastic work culture. The only bad thing is a long commute and awful pay for the kind of work and qualifications I have.

At work, I’m relearning Windows after not touching it for six years. I quickly remembered why I switched to Linux after seeing all the forced AI, pop-ups, and general bloat.

Since we are in between houses right now, I have to drive about three hours on Sunday night, stay at a friend’s house all week, then drive back home for the weekend until we get settled. On the drive over on Sunday, my old beater of a car started to run weird and misfire whenever I gave it some gas. Luckily, I was able to do a roadside repair with the tools I keep in the back just for the occasion. That repair held until Thursday morning when it started doing the same thing. In the parking lot at work, I messed with it a bit and decided to just go. I got out on the street and turned back in almost immediately after my check-engine light started flashing and only three cylinders were firing.

I popped the hood, pulled out the spark plugs, hit them with a wire brush, and reinstalled them. No luck this time. In the hour I was elbow deep in my engine bay, two chemists that I had worked with for just four days stopped to see my dented and broken car full of moving boxes. Not my proudest moment. I couldn’t do a roadside repair this time and my nearest ride was about three hours away. AM wasn’t working so she kindly and graciously drove over late in the afternoon to pick me up, take me home, take me to work the next morning, take us to get the keys to our new apartment, and take us home home after that.

It’s been hectic to say the least.

But, we got the keys to our new apartment! It’s a small apartment with some character pretty close to campus and downtown. We are both very excited about it. We should officially move in (finally) on Labor Day.

For the weekend, I tried to take it easy. I went out for some coffee then ran errands with AM. Then I packed up my brother’s truck (that I am borrowing while my car sits in the parking lot of work broken down) with stuff to move into the apartment and drove over the mountain to do it all again next week.

Weeknotes 2025W34

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