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Forth

Summer had a run in Dardanelle this morning, and I wanted to force myself out of bed to go with her. It started super early, and she had already made it out the door, but wasn’t in the car yet. I quickly got dressed, loaded up the Onewheel, and then we were off. We got to River Front Park with time to spare, so I let Muad’Dib take off on a wild run down the street for a bit. I don’t know if it was just the stimulus of being in a new place, but he ran like crazy.

The race started, and we found a bench up by the gazebo. It got hot and humid fast. Summer finished pretty quickly, but then wanted to wait for what she thought were door prizes. I took Muad’Dib to Shipley’s for some breakfast, and not only did she not warm up my kolaches, but she also gave me the wrong ones. We made it back and rode around for a total of three and a half miles until Summer realized what she saw were actually placement prizes.

We made it home to clean up, and I got some more laundry done. Then we went to my parents’ house to finish up spring rolls and then power wash the pool cover water bags. That took significantly longer than either of us expected, especially after we were interrupted by a pretty intense storm that passed through quickly.

I finally finished up and we went home for a short rest before we decided to go downtown to see the festivities at the train depot. I didn’t want to leave Muad’Dib home for several hours since he was already cowering from the fireworks. I figured I could drop him off back at home before the show started. We picked up Dad, found a spot to park at the mall, and walked to the depot. There was still a lot of room, so I went back for the car and moved it to the end of the block downtown.

We set up our chairs on the sidewalk to watch the band, and then Summer and I wandered briefly to see what food we could find. We ended up getting a load of food from what I later learned was Cecil’s food truck. He gave us one of our meals for free, which was completely unexpected and appreciated. I really never knew the guy in school, so it was a blast from the past to see him twice in short succession.

The band was pretty good, and it felt nice for a while, but it actually got gross and humid as the wind died down later in the evening. Eaddie didn’t want to stay in Clarksville again, so she came by to pick up Muad’Dib from the depot, and we waited for fireworks. Summer had a good time, but I was pretty disappointed in the fireworks show. There really wasn’t that much to do downtown, considering the crowd that showed up. Cecil and his crew ran out of food super fast, and there were really only two other food trucks.

After the show, we hustled to the car to get out, and I curbed the shit out of the rear passenger side wheel. Then we were still stuck in traffic for quite a while before we could get out. Once we did, we dropped Dad off and then went home to go to bed. Eaddie and Eli were watching TV in her room, and Muad’Dib came out from under the bed, happy to see us.

Everything is sticky, and I hate it.

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Gross Kids

Summer had to work today, so I slept in for a while before getting up to make a sandwich for breakfast. Then I cleaned the kitchen, and what should have been a simple task of loading the dishwasher turned into a gross food-dumping exercise with extra scrubbing. Not only were dishes left with food stuck to them, but there was just plain foods left in them. Eaddie eventually got out of bed and asked for some gas money, and I remembered that I didn’t pay her back previously because she failed to write her mileage down like I had required of her.

She left to spend the night in Clarksville, and then Summer made it home and took a bath. I had a stomach ache all morning, but it eventually settled down. I did some laundry and other cleanup until Summer was ready to eat. Then we loaded up and took Muad’Dib to Buffalo Wild Wings. The service and food were surprisingly good, and it’s been fairly consistent lately.

We stopped into Walmart after we ate so I could pick up some vitamins and minerals, because I am old and malnourished, apparently. While we were there, some lady and a bunch of kids came down the aisle. One of the older kids started looking for some iron pills, but was concerned about whether or not they were green. While we were standing there, she proceeded to pop open a bottle, break the tamper seal, and then start to put it back when it didn’t meet her criteria. I immediately got onto her for that, but they likely just moved on and put it down somewhere else.

We made it back home and I took Muad’Dib for a run. There were a few distant fireworks that had him on high alert, so I let him cruise on through the neighborhood at his own rapid, and possibly nervous pace. He skipped a different zig-zag through the neighborhood this time, and we went through the basin. We visited my parents while Mom was watering her plants, and then we rushed home. He kept hiding under the bed from the fireworks outside, so I really don’t want to leave him home alone tomorrow. Summer wants to go see them up close, but I hate the crowds, the weather, and leaving Muad’Dib alone. My pick is to watch from Mt. Nebo where it’ll be much more peaceful.

Isn’t pride kind of like, the first big one on the list?

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Check the Cable

Today was very busy for me. We got to work immediately started prepping the new computer for Heaven. I brought my adjustable power supply to see if it would help, and that was when I learned that Dell power supplies have a data feed to confirm OEM power, otherwise the CPU gets throttled. I eventually remembered there was a bigger power supply on the breakroom computer, so I stole that for the rest of the day.

It was a good thing I had a frozen breakfast sandwich that I could eat late, because it was another long day without leaving for a break. I had a random anxiety attack just before noon, but luckily it passed quickly without any lingering effects. I eventually got the new computer in place in the early afternoon, but then the video would work during POST, but quit before Windows would load. I went back and forth before giving up until after hours.

Then Amanda needed help with the check printer. I fought it with drivers, but it ended up being a loose USB cable on the computer side. We had only checked the printer side, but the cable was hanging off the edge of the desk, which caused enough tension to lose connectivity.

I skipped lunch and had some watermelon that Teisha had cut up and divided out for everyone. I did some more troubleshooting, and then went back downstairs after Heaven left to try and figure things out. An hour and a half later, I figured out it was the video adapter I was using. Apparently it was having trouble negotiating the DiisplayPort signal, which didn’t make sense to me, but I found an adapter that worked.

I finally left, proud to have maybe finally worked longer than Janice. Of course, that wasn’t the case. She and Elizabeth were there much later trying to finish up something else.

I stopped by Harp’s for some beer, and Casey’s for some free slushies. It wasn’t until after I checked out that I realized it wasn’t Friday, and I wouldn’t be getting the slushies for free. I just paid and headed home.

Summer had volunteered to stuff race packet, so I beat her home by a little bit. She took a shower and then we went to New China for dinner. Some of the food was impressively good, but some of it was well below average. While I was getting my first plate, I heard my name from a table behind me. I didn’t recognize him, but it was my old classmate Cecil. If anyone had asked me, I would have said he didn’t even know my name back when we were in school, much less 25 years later. We fist-bumped and carried on.

Muad’Dib had been in the car the whole time we ate, so I took him for a run when we got home. It was dark, but he did great with his headlamp. He ran or jogged swiftly the entire time, almost never slowing down to walk. I let him lead, and he took me on the full route, but skipped the basin on the way to my parents’ house. We visited Dad, then made it home.

Summer went to sleep, Eaddie was out all day and night, and I ended up messaging Dan to ask about his Steam Machine reservation. He had posted earlier that he won the lottery but would probably pass on the purchase. We ended up catching up for a couple hours until I finally had to go to bed, itchy with residual poison ivy oils from something.

POISON!

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Underpowered

Somehow we managed to get out of the house extra early today, after a couple days of running behind. They were having some trouble with equipment overheating in the plant, and I pretty quickly got busy with tasks in the office. Heaven had enough trouble with her computer that I decided to rip the bandaid and swap it out with one I found in the upstairs conference room. Unfortunately it had the wrong power supply, and I couldn’t find the correct one anywhere. The computer would come on, but throttle itself to a crawl.

After that, I had to work on the break room signage that wouldn’t accept a presentation update. That update took forever, so I went upstairs to continue working. I had forgotten breakfast, and ended up skipping lunch because Summer said she would be hungry for dinner when she got home around the same time that I normally do.

Heaven’s new computer just barely hit 99% when it was time to go, so I just left it to finish overnight. We got home and Summer was in the shower, so I cleaned up briefly until she was ready for dinner. We ended up going to Brown’s because of how hungry I was, and because I had a coupon.

As I maybe should have predicted, Summer kept fanning herself with the coupon instead of presenting it to the cashier, so I ended up paying full price and didn’t scan my rewards card for points. Hopefully I’ll be able to get credit another way. I felt like a double-sucker when the food was some of the worst we’d had there. It wasn’t terrible, but almost everything was just barely warm. The shrimp was tiny, and it seemed like everything was really mushy, especially considering how busy they were.

We had left Muad’Dib at home alone, so we took him for a short walk up the cul-de-sac when we got back. Eaddie came home and wanted to have friends over to watch a movie, but I don’t think anyone but Eli ever showed up. They ended up disappearing while Summer and I watched Louis C.K.’s new special on Netflix. It was also pretty disappointing compared to the memories of his old stand-up. Then it was off to bed.

meh

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Price Cutter

I had another slow start this morning, but we had a pretty good day at work. Clint had emailed me way early in the morning with a question that he didn’t even realize would be about databases. I hopped on a call with him and we discussed that for a little bit. Then I continued trying to clean up some policies between other little tasks I needed to complete.

Summer had an MRI in Little Rock and wouldn’t make it back for lunch, so I went to Ortega’s by myself. It was another strange day of absolutely no service, but at least I only got charged like half of what I normally pay for that meal.

The afternoon dragged slightly, but it wasn’t too bad. We got home without much fuss, just after Summer, and I went inside to unbox a whole bunch of Vine stuff. She laid on the couch all evening, and we never saw Eaddie. She eventually got up and ate some leftovers. I did some cleaning and ate a little myself, then took Muad’Dib for a short run to my parents’ house.

I finally sat down to review the old and new repair estimates for my car, and it looked like they cut my labor hours nearly in half. I assume the first guy was giving me walk-in rates while the second girl was giving me insurance rates.

Cut it again!

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Quiet Focus

I felt like I slept okay even though my mind was reeling all night. I woke up around four and laid awake for most of the next couple hours, then got up and out for work. I forgot the power went out briefly yesterday, which messed up my clock. I was a little later than usual, but still there well before eight.

I had a pretty good, focused day after a bit of frustrating back and forth where our Aptean support just plain didn’t seem to be reading our messages. We still never got a real answer for anything by the end of the day. I had to fight with the laptop I had for Gary, since he decided he wasn’t going to be able to make it in person. I was planning to use him to test some of my recent policy updates as a part of updating for best practices, but instead I got to test something completely different.

The day went by really quickly, but I wanted to get something good for Muad’Dib for lunch since it was his birthday. We shared some chili cheese fries, chicken bites, and even a bit of my burger before heading back. It didn’t feel horribly hot, but it never felt like it got any cooler.

The rest of the afternoon flew by as well, and I didn’t even realize when it was time to leave. We walked out a little later than usual, so I just let the car do its thing most of the way home. Summer had a roast in the slow cooker all day, and Eaddie was having her birthday dinner with Eli’s family instead, so the two of us sat down to eat.

Afterward, I ran Muad’Dib to my parents’ house to help Dad pick up sticks in the front yard before they come over to mow. We didn’t stay long because it was warm, so we headed home and I gave Muad’Dib a much overdue bath. Eaddie had Eli and Mari over for a little while after Summer went to bed, so I tried to get things cleaned up quickly.

I finally got a copy of my new repair estimates for my car, and even found my original copies for the warranty work, but I know I had a check from the insurance company, and I can’t find it or any evidence that I deposited it.

Cheque please!

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Better Take Me First

I think we all slept fairly well last night. I got up and made some breakfast sandwiches for Summer and myself before she wanted to leave for the gym. Eaddie was in bed all day, so I never saw her. Not long after Summer had left for the gym, she called to say they were closed due to a power outage. Instead, she headed to the old house to mow, so I took Muad’Dib over there with the trimmer to get the rest of it cleaned up.

After that short trip, we went to the car wash to wash both of our cars. She went for a Sonic drink before meeting me back at the house, and after a little while we headed over to my parents’ house to swim. Mom was going to have spring rolls, but of course those plans were vague at best.

We ended up staying until it was time to get dinner ready. I sliced a bunch of meat while they went to the store for some more veggies, and eventually Julie and Kevin showed up with the baby. Eaddie and Eli showed up after they did some trimming in our lawn. It was kind of a hot mess with the baby wandering around haphazardly and not having much room on the table for all of the food. We set up a secondary table, but it ended up just being Eaddie and Eli out there.

I helped clean up a bit after everyone was gone, and then I left pretty upset at Kevin’s earlier comments about Muad’Dib. The baby kept going after him, and Muad’Dib was playing nicely, but he and Julie wanted to make a statement about how the baby’s otherwise neglectful family would react if Muad’Dib got aggressive, and I’m not willing to take any chances.

Summer and I went home while Eaddie went to Eli’s. Summer made it to bed quickly, and I wound down a little early myself.

It’s okay. Let’s go home.

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Supermeh

Summer had a race first thing this morning, so I went with her to the junior high for that. Muad’Dib and I rode around with the Onewheel, making laps around the building while we waited, and then he got some attention from others as we milled around waiting for results. There was another guy there with a small heeler that wanted to run and play so badly, but he didn’t want to let her off the leash, which was probably a good thing.

Summer got her second place medal just as it started to get really gross and humid, and we headed home for a snack and to clean up before our trip to Fayetteville. Eaddie was in bed until we left, and stayed home with Muad’Dib. We made it to Alma for a charge and pit stop, then continued straight to the Arkadia Retrocade.

We talked to Shea briefly after paying him twice the admission fee, just to show support for the work he’s done, and to share our excitement about the place. I think I actually enjoy it more as a walkthrough museum experience than someplace I enjoy going to sit down and play. I’m always a little disappointed in the condition of some of the machines, which I know are hard to service, but the place was also crawling with mostly unsupervised kids. It’s still a blast, and I would recommend it for anyone. It really seems like a passion project, and I love that he’s been successful with it.

After about an hour there, we decided we were hungry enough to eat a little bit, so we drove toward the Malco. I would have preferred to go somewhere uniquely NWA, but we stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings and sat at the bar for a couple drinks and some buffalo chicken dip. Then we headed to the surprisingly empty, but well-maintained theater for our IMAX experience.

Right off the bat, the audio was just too loud. It distorted dialog especially, and made a few scenes completely unintelligible. I enjoy Jason Momoa, but Lobo’s existence added nothing to the film. All of the characters were short-lived and mostly forgettable, and all of the action was depicted too close up and cloudy/dusty/blurry to be entertaining. The animation and physics felt fake, which could have been forgiven for the sake of a better story, but it just wasn’t good. There were certainly emotional bits, but overall we were super disappointed.

After the show, I found a place called House of Taste, which seemed fairly authentic Korean. At least the old lady running the place felt somehow relatable. The food was good, but seemed unnecessarily expensive. There were several signs about a long wait, but we were only bookended by two other tables during our visit. The food was served impressively hot in near-molten bowls that retained the heat well. My soup was scaldingly hot to nearly the last bite.

The drive home was much more relaxed, with a stop in Ozark to charge again. I hate that the trip is long enough to really require charging twice, since there’s not a Supercharger right in Fayetteville. We’d have to drive further north for that, so we just charge twice inbetween instead.

Eaddie had just finished mowing our lawn when we got home. I took Muad’Dib for a run to my parents’ house, but then waited by the pool for them to get home from Kroger. I helped unload groceries, then headed back home to find Eaddie practicing loudly in the bathroom while Summer was passed out in bed two doors down. I wrapped up quickly and joined her.

Who expected Seth Rogen to be the best part???

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Not Your Grandfather’s SpaghettiOs

I had an anxiety attack in the middle of the night at one point after I had been awake for a moment. When I did finally get up for work, I was able to cut my morning short and warm up my last burrito before showering and heading in to work. I was aware of my afternoon meeting with Aptean yesterday, but somewhere along the way it fell off my radar.

I took a late lunch, but fortunately I had brought leftovers from home, because a few bites into it I noticed the calendar alert. I hopped onto the call about five minutes late and felt terrible for it, but it was still a mostly pointless and short meeting.

A little while after that, I started to feel some generalized anxiety again, and I didn’t understand it. I think that hung around for an hour or so before it let up, but I had trouble focusing after that. I tried to just relax on the way home, but I pressed on as usual.

Eaddie was home from band camp, but Summer had already eaten earlier in the afternoon. They sat around talking and doing things on the couch while I processed Vine stuff and put together a couple motorcycle stands. Then I took Eaddie to La Villa for dinner. I got a seafood pasta that had so many calamari rings that it looked more like giant SpaghettiOs. She talked all about her experience as a counselor and how terrible the entire event was. It sounded like the complete lack of adult oversight could have easily caused enough of a parental stir to get Tech into big trouble, but it’s more likely that nothing will happen.

When we got home, I took Muad’Dib for a quick run to my parents’ house as it got dark. Eaddie left, Summer went to bed, and I fought sinus issues the rest of the night.

Just a trickling.

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Eager Doggies

We had all kinds of dogs at work today. Joel was back with Dexter. Elizabeth has been bringing Zeke every day. Scott brought Maple, though I hardly saw her at all because she was hiding in Tyler’s office all day. Muad’Dib was having a fit about not being the baby any more.

I had my head stuck in Intune again all day, and had a support call before lunch for my strange PIN policy behavior, but I think I sorted that out earlier. It won’t be until another intermittent issue occurs that I’ll be proven wrong.

We went to Sonic for lunch, then finished up a pretty quiet afternoon. The drive home was fast and mostly dumb. Summer had a late meeting, so I rearranged the dishes in the dishwasher that she had washed and ran them all again. Then I put together a desk hutch I got for her. Just as she got home, I took Muad’Dib to the Neighborhood Market to deposit some bags for recycling. Then we made the trek to my parents’ house just as it was getting dark. Muad’Dib was pretty exhausted by the end of it.

Once home, I tried to quickly wrap things up for bed. I used to have a life.

At least someone’s paying attention.