Rachel X's Secret Diary

  Quick update: My car was fixed yesterday. I took it in a little before 7:30 and they were done very quickly. It's much better. The steering is stiffer than it was. The service advisor said the alignment was out because of the bad steering rack assembly. It's much better now. In a couple of days we (my companion and I) will be leaving California and heading back to South Carolina. I haven't talked much about the car fire or anything here because I've talked about it on my Wordpress blog. The whole post is here:  https://rachelholbertjonespage.wordpress.com/2024/03/12/finally-got-power-steering-rack-replaced-ravenblackheartllc/ Nevertheless, we will be making the long trip back in a couple of days. We came to a different coffee shop today because the manager at the one we like the most said we practically live at the store and my companion started thinking about it and it really bothered her. It's not something that would bother me but things like that bother her an...

UPDATE: This was posted many years ago on a Life Blog I had and for some reason I transferred it to my Wordpress blog because I was trying to add more content and be approved for their advertising program but as soon as I purchased a domain and a subscription I was automatically approved but I had quite a few articles. Many of those articles don't belong there because it's strictly a haunted blog hence the beginning paragraph. But I'm not inclined to make that blog a big mashup which it is/was turning in to. I'm moving a number of posts to here. When I first posted this I was going through some phase where I was following a number of different bloggers. They were all in the top 100, top 50 or top 10 most popular blogs on the internet. Mind you, this was back in 2012 or 2013 so who knows if they are still just as popular. Nonetheless, this was a popular blogger I was following at the time. Originally posted in 2013...........I know this has nothing to do with van life, l...

UPDATE: This was posted originally on another blog and I'm moving it to here. It was originally posted on February 19, 2024 so not as far back as the previous post.  I'm writing this post to clear a few things up. I created a new post today on wordpress (https://rachelholbertjones.com) that has nothing to do with the update I'm posting here (it was about a power steering assist fault that came up on my car). I made some changes to my signature, the place at the bottom of my posts where I explain a little about me and what I like, my situation, etc. A few people were asking about the situation as to how I became homeless because they didn't see a video explaining it and I posted a comment or two and I really need to go back and explain the situation a little better so my subscribers, followers and others know the story but for now I'm explaining it here in the written word. I added some details to my signature on wordpress and later when I have time I will create a n...

UPDATE" This was posted a few months ago on October 16, 2023 and I wasn't officially living in my car. I had taken a trip to Aiken SC but we didn't offocially take homeless status until November 2023 so it has been three months.  This is more or less an oxymoron because I've been living full time in my car, off and on, for the past six months. I was taking care of my aunt in West Virginia until late June when I had to return to North Carolina for a deposition and have been so caught up with litigation for the past few months that I've had no time for anything else. And that's what I'm going to talk about in this post. I mostly vlog on YouTube about what's going on in my life but I've been trying to get this blog going and failing miserably. I've been traveling for the past sixteen years but I never intended to live full time in my vehicle without a place to call home but like many circumstances are forcing me to take on nomad life full time in a...

We are still in California waiting for my car to be fixed but today I'm going to talk about chocolate, candy, cookies and berries. The first post about this is here:  https://sassygrrl32.livejournal.com/7823.html  on my livejournal blog which is strictly social media type posts. Lately, I've been eating far more sweet stuff than I should. It seems during the winter months I always eat more junk. Last year when I was in a house, it was ice cream. Blue Bunny sugar free vanilla to be exact. I was eating it every day and gained up to 160 pounds which is way too much for my 5'3 inch frame. I usually hang around 152 pounds which is still too much but every since I've been on heart medication I've weighed more than I should and can't get down no matter what I do and weight gain is a side effect of the medicine. A few months ago, during summer I dropped down to 147 pounds. I used to hang around 145 pounds. I guess it's true what they say about age and weight. The ol...

I'm out of the dealership now and am sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops because there's really little else I can do. It's just as I thought, the power steering rack assembly. My rear tire sensors are also bad. The total for all of it would be $3200, without the tire sensors and a new rack assembly would be $2700, with a remanufactured steering rack assembly it is $2400 for everything. That includes the rack, nuts, bolts, spindles, four wheel alignment. I told the service advisor I have to wait on the tire sensors. They didn't really want me driving the car but I don't have a lot of choice. I'd already made a reservation with enterprise, just in case, but was hoping I could leave in it. She kept stressing what a safety issue it is and I understand that completely. It's just that I have no other choice except to drive the car. It's my home. I couldn't tell her that. I just said I needed my car for work and I don't live in the area which is ...