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All I Do Is Win

I had a pretty rough start this morning, but we made it in. I got to talking with Teisha for a little while before I made it upstairs, and then I got into a few ongoing projects. I sent off my long email to Anneka last night, hoping that I wouldn’t have to pay more than double for my hood repair. It just made no sense at all to me how the estimates were so far off, even doing my best to decipher the line items. She called me back and tried to explain the “why,” but I pushed back by explaining why I understood my agreement was for the total out-the-door cost for everything. She took that back to her manager, and called back later to say that he approved the adjustment, so I would only be paying what I was originally quoted.

I also got into some routing and firewall configuration when I went out to hook up Heaven’s new printer. The first thing I noticed when we got out there was that they brought out a filing cabinet and moved the printer over to it in the entryway, past a doorway, where there was no network connectivity. I hoped that this was not permanent, but we would see. I also noticed that they weren’t paying attention when they assembled the hutch to her desk, and left the unfinished side of the wood facing out. I hope they fix that too, or else I’ll be inclined to do it myself.

I successfully got the new printer added to a new network, then created routing rules so traffic could get to it from our internal network. It was easier than I expected. I just never had the keys to do it back at Russellville, or at least, never tried. I was really proud that it worked, but now I need to start moving everything else over.

We eventually made it to Sonic for a super late lunch. It was miserably hot outside, even in the shade. Muad’Dib had to help me finish my food, because even for how hungry I was, I just couldn’t do it in the heat. We made it back, sweaty and cooked just from riding in the car that had been sitting in the sun without shades or cabin protection.

The afternoon went by quickly and quietly. I got the Aptean import needs sent back over to David, and received a different response than I was hoping to hear, much later in the evening. We ran through some rain on the way home, and passed someone who had very recently run off the road into the median. I really think that section of road just doesn’t shed water very well, because I’ve had trouble there on the way to work.

The garage was very close to flooding, but we got into the house. Summer was in the bath, so I cleaned up a bit and took care of my packages for the day. I did a bit of cleanup, Eaddie brought Eli and Ceci over to play with Muad’Dib, and I ate some more leftovers. It seemed everyone made it to bed long before me, but fortunately I wasn’t very late.

Everybody hands go up!

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Come Here, Rood Boy

As I went to bed last night, I saw a notification that the air conditioner at the old house wasn’t working correctly. It wasn’t cooling for the past day, so I alerted Dad and went to sleep. He went over this morning to check it out, and called Rood only to get the same advice that I expected. They wanted to blame the thermostat or the scheduling on freezing up the unit, and then said they couldn’t get anyone out until Thursday or Friday. He called Roy’s, and someone was out the same day to add some refrigerant.

Back in my world, I got back into my Traverse import, and finally got the data points that I needed. Of course now it’s up to David’s AI-built OCR to translate that into something I can actually import. I met Summer for lunch a little bit early, and later got a call that my car was finished and ready for pickup. Anneka tried telling me I owed more than twice what I expected for the hood job, so I had to go home and send her the old quote I had as a comparison.

Summer mentioned something about a phone interview, but had literally no information about it or where it came from. The minute she said “sales” I knew it was going to be an unreliable lead, but that upset her. She’s verbalized her dislike of sales in the past anyway, so I think she’s finally just at the point in her current career that any kind of hope at all gets her excited.

I had to get my loaner to the wash for a good vacuuming before I could return it. I asked her to help, which also seemed to annoy her. Luckily it cleaned up much easier than either of us expected. We got home and I took Muad’Dib for a run. He led most of the way, and cut the run a little bit short. Then Mom hosed him down a bit because he was hot, so I had to brush him out when we got back to the house. Eaddie and Eli were holed up for most of the night. Summer went to bed, and I got there just as quickly as I could.

GTFO

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Hound Town

I had a little bit of a rough start this morning, but we squeezed into work for a quiet day. Teisha had Janice’s two little dogs closed up in her office, so we just headed straight upstairs. Scott hit me up immediately with a dead laptop, but he just had something stuck in his charge port. Then Heaven had an issue with Rhonda’s computer monitor, but I just had to unplug it for a moment. After that, I was left to my own devices.

I had an anxiety attack pretty early in the morning that left me feeling super exhausted for a while. Otherwise I didn’t really start the day with a goal, but I got into my Netbox documentation again briefly, and did some more “practice” networking. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I think all this fighting security devices has made me more comfortable with practical networking and subnetting. Next is to get into some routing and firewall configuration, but I keep wanting to just rebuild the entire network. I need to give myself some more time to “accidentally discover” more physical stuff in our environment.

We took a late lunch and went to Taco Bell. It was hot, but we had shade and a small breeze, so it felt okay out. Summer was upset that she had to work in the heat all day, but still hadn’t made any real moves to change her situation. She got home shortly after we did, and was pretty immediately just miserable to be around. She was hungry, but didn’t want to do anything about it. I eventually just stepped away until she came to find me, and I pointed her at her leftover pasta she made a week ago. I eventually came out to have some too.

I found the new Masters of the Universe on Prime Video, so I put that on for her and then took Muad’Dib out for a run. We visited my parents, and then I let him guide us back home, skipping all of the zigs and zags. Summer was finishing up her movie and went to bed. I got things ready for work, and then made it to bed early myself.

You’re on your own!

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Return to Disarray

I slept a little bit later today, then got up to a big turkey sandwich to finish off that bit of lunch meat. It hasn’t killed me yet, so I guess I need to go get some more bread to finish off the salami and pepperoni. From there, I continued my quest to break down packed boxes of stuff. I got into the laundry room and cleared out the opposite corner, and finished up a couple more boxes in my office. The girls got home a few minutes earlier than I expected, and B-lined for the dog, who suddenly had all of the energy and no desire to sit in bed all day.

I continued sparingly, but was already feeling pretty worn out from being up and around for the entirety of two days. The girls were predictably worn out as well. I did want to make it over to my parents’ house to see if they wanted to go out for dinner for their anniversary. Dad was processing elderberries, and Mom was asleep on the couch. She had spaghetti on the stove, though, so Summer ended up coming over there to eat instead.

I had run Muad’Dib over, so I took the Onewheel back with him when we realized they didn’t have any cheese. We ate, then ran back home to try and bring the house back to a livable state for the rest of the week. I took a shower, Summer went to sleep, and Eaddie left with Eli, so I guess it’s back to normal.

THE Oakenfold???

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Put Away

I thought I’d have a little more room in the bed last night, but Muad’Dib still mostly slept right in the middle. I got up reasonably early and started picking around the house. My main goal was to clean up my office so I could actually use my own area for my projects instead of having to spill out all over the rest of the place. That also meant I finally got to unpack my boxes of stuff from when I left the Russellville School District. I’d been so focused on my new jobs every year since then, that I never got settled. Of course there’s still stuff to move from the old house as well, and even more stuff that’s already here and still hasn’t been unpacked, but this was what was immediately in my way.

I picked at some leftovers for breakfast and lunch. Summer called at one point, so I caught up a little bit with her between their adventures. I got a ton of stuff put away in the right place, but that also meant it was a slow process, so there’s not much to show for it anywhere else. Hopefully I can at least get my office done before the girls get home tomorrow, but I kind of doubt it.

Dad texted to say Mom had some phở that would be ready soon, so I took the chance to get Muad’Dib out of the house. He had been in bed for nearly the entire day, possibly feeling some depression without the girls. I let him lead nearly the entire way, but then Dad said food was ready and I had to hurry him along. We got there, ate, and then headed back to continue my project.

I finally took a shower after moving around in my own funk all day, and felt much better by bedtime. Muad’Dib was still in the middle of the bed, but at least there was enough room for him to stay with me all night.

One more for the road!

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All Roads Lead Back to Subnetting

The girls were headed to Branson after sleeping in this morning. I went to work with Muad’Dib and tinkered with Avigilon some more. I kept toying with different ways to organize everything, and no matter what project I’m on, it always ends up being a network infrastructure issue. I just don’t want to act too confidently when I change anything, because there’s no safety net if I screw up. I don’t want to lock myself out of my own equipment.

I stopped by to ask if Tammy wanted any of her other gals on the afternoon call, and she ended up chatting at me for quite a while. I ended up having to slowly back away so we could go find lunch before the meeting. We ended up at Sonic where they were replacing the road sign with a crane truck. For some reason the kitchen seemed super slow, too. We eventually got our food, but it wasn’t the greatest this time.

I just barely had enough time to get settled back in before our call. It was still short since we’re not spending a ton of time testing, but I don’t think there’s much to worry about. The afternoon dragged a bit after that, and it seemed like everyone left a little early. We had to leave out the back, and then took a casual ride home since the girls wouldn’t be there.

I decided to swing by AT&T to see Kevin, and we chatted outside for a little bit before we headed home. I had to pick up a prescription, so I took Muad’Dib for a run to the Neighborhood Market, then my parents’ house. They were out watering plants, so we went inside for a pork chop. By the time we made it back home, I felt completely sapped. It wasn’t overly hot, but the humidity made it feel terrible outside. I felt like I could just barely move.

Muad’Dib went straight to bed without the girls around. I didn’t get into very much before bed. I had Summer call me before she went to sleep, and then Muad’Dib and I passed out.

Do you hear that?

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Back Doorman

Internet at home was still out until late in the morning, without much news from TCW. I was excited to get to experiment with some scheduling instead of just beating my head against the wall over intercom programming today. Nobody else seemed to show any feelings about it, but I assumed they were just glad I finally fixed something. Of course now I also have a backup, and can replicate my success in a few minutes rather than weeks. Programming was relatively straightforward, but the holiday scheduling had me stumped for a while. The guides I found all had them added to schedules, but that wasn’t the case. Just adding the holiday dates defaulted the lock schedules to a locked state.

We took a really late lunch and picked up some free McNuggets, then had chili cheese fries and onion rings at Sonic. It was cheap and light, and the weather was great for it. When we got back, I stopped by the back gate to test the closing, and it worked perfectly. I had its schedule fixed, but now that the plant is running around the clock, the gate isn’t really even necessary.

The last piece of the puzzle for now was to get cameras integrated with the security system, but everything I tried seemed incompatible between systems. I had an anxiety attack late in the afternoon, but it cleared up well. We left a little late after verifying the gate shut properly. Then we made it home to find Eaddie back from her band conference, and Summer in the bath.

Once Summer got out, I took them to Brangus for dinner. I had a pretty awful steak, which was both overcooked and somehow cold to the touch. The girls enjoyed it, so I didn’t press. I just don’t think they’re any good for a dinner on a slow day.

I tried to take them out for dessert when we left, but they didn’t want to go. Instead, Summer and I had a beer on the back porch before I took Muad’Dib out for a run. We took a big plastic bag from Eaddie’s vacuum-sealed couch, and then came back home. As we got back, I heard the familiar frustrated cries of a man trying to recall a stubborn dog. I was proud to be able to call Muad’Dib back out of the house to run and fetch him, and then deliver him back across the street.

Not bad for a Thursday.

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Gates Closed

I had acclimated to the shower a bit, so this morning didn’t feel quite as bad. I still miss the insane water pressure we used to have, but I can wait for a good deal on a new one with more flow. I took sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, with the hopes that I would finally crack the case on my broken Aiphone intercoms. That also meant that I was fairly hungry for most of the day. I did get to really focus, though, and through all of the attempts at wiping everything, rebuilding the entire configuration from scratch, and eventually emailing the manufacturer, I finally got a response to delete the hostnames from my settings. That was the fix. Seconds before quitting time, I had a working intercom with gate controls. Somehow it also inverted my gate names, but I can figure that out tomorrow.

We got home a little late, and Summer was baking cookies for her work crew while our home internet was out. Once she reached a stopping point, we split up to mow lawns. She went to the old house, and I took Muad’Dib to my parents’ house. There, I remembered my true hatred for mowing. Patchy at best, there were only a few square feet of mowable grass. The noise, the smell, and the constant vibration of the gas-powered mower were all things that I despised. My small electric ones are lightyears more pleasant to operate. Most of the yard was so patchy that I couldn’t really tell where I had been, so I just sort of bounced around and cut what I could see. Then I trimmed around the rest and cleared up a path through the parts I always struggle to navigate when I visit.

I got home a bit after Summer, showered in an uncontrollably hot shower, and then sat in the dark with a continuous outage from TCW. They’re saying it’s a RADIUS issue. It sounds more like a redundancy issue.

You haven’t thought of everything yet!

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RESET ALL THE THINGS

We were a little behind today, but I had time to get things ready for our staff meeting. I felt like I did okay, and then I spent the entire day working on the Aiphone gate stuff. At one point, David and I walked out to the front gate and looked at the control box out there. All of that stuff was Avigilon, but it was still useful to tinker with it a bit.

I had an anxiety attack about half an hour before I left to meet Summer at Ortega’s for lunch. Then I finally perceived some luck in the afternoon. I ended up factory resetting both the master controller on Heaven’s desk, as well as the relay control module. I really thought I had something, but by the end of the day, Heaven’s phone still couldn’t call the stations.

We left a little late, and made it home just moments before Summer pulled in. She took a cool bath, and I finally made it to Leonard’s to pick up an air filter. The house took forever to cool down, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the away temperature being high, or if it’s just been running non-stop and couldn’t keep up.

Muad’Dib could have handled the store a little better, but he was excited about a new place. He was super high energy all evening, so I took him on a late run straight to my parents’ house before it got too dark. He ran nearly the entire way there and back, which was pretty intense for how miserable it was outside.

We made it home and I juggled chargers, since Summer made it home with under 10%. Fortunately I charged extra last night, so I had a little more than usual when we got home. I rummaged through the freezer and found some buns that I could use to make a sandwich for tomorrow, and then wound down for bed pretty quickly as the air finally started to feel a little cooler.

Enter Enter Enter Enter Enter Enter Enter

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Gatekeeping

My shower wasn’t great this morning, and I almost wished I had just left the old, broken head in place. When I finished, I bent over to dry off and then pinched a nerve in the middle of my back as I tried to stand back up. I was hunched for the rest of the day from that, and I could barely move without tweaking it.

I realized after we left the house that I forgot my breakfast, so I survived the morning on coffee alone. At least I remembered to bring my leftovers for lunch. The first thing I fought was actually the broken maintenance network again. This time I tried changing some STP priorities to see if it would prevent the far point-to-point from tripping the port.

The rest of the day was spent digging through and documenting the security cameras and gate system. Heaven mentioned Charles doing something on her phone that caused the front and rear gate cameras to become inverted, and I could never figure out how or where that might be set. I spent all day tinkering with settings, but never heard anything back from Fleming about what the old password might have been. I had finally given up on trying to recover anything from the non-wiped equipment, but then I couldn’t seem to write new configurations over them, so tomorrow I’ll still be stuck working on that.

I left work late again after messing around with the relay portion of the gate controls, then made it home through heavy traffic. I quickly fixed the leaky shower head and bruised the bottom of my foot in the process. Summer got home moments later and took a shower. I made her a sandwich and had some more Long John Silvers myself. A bunch of the lunch meat went bad, and I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to buy so much in the first place. We ate, and then cleaned up a bit. Eaddie was already gone to work the conference, so Summer had to finish her laundry for her.

Summer was dead tired from working in the heat, and I could still barely move. Leonard’s was closed, so I couldn’t go get the air filter we’d been needing for a few weeks. Muad’Dib hadn’t been run in a couple days either, so I decided to take him to the Neighborhood Market to get rid of some recycling. One of our neighbors had a car in the driveway with a trunk that was open the entire time we were gone, so we stopped by on the way home to knock on the door. Someone turned on some lights, but we never got a response, so I considered that the extent of my neighborly responsibility.

We hobbled home and went to bed.

Meet prep!