It was Dale’s last day of work today, but by the count of our accomplishments, we were all retiring today. Jason tried sending us all on a wild goose chase with phones, but then diverted us upstairs instead. I lead a group of three others in replacing telephones there, and basically did three of the six we found. By the end of it, I had to make Amanda do one herself. Gary split off first, and was followed by Brice soon after.
I had to run to Oakland to look at their fax machine, but made it right back so we could go to lunch. Jason used the scrap metal money we made to buy us all Dale’s choice of Brown’s Catfish. Gary, Amanda, Jason, Dale, and I were all that went, but it was a good time. Then after lunch we went to Sequoyah and dusted more computers until everyone sort of lost momentum again. We did encounter a dumpster scrapper back at the shop, who we invited in to take some old printers and CRT monitors. I’m not sure he’ll get much of anything for them, but at least we don’t have to mess with the junk any more.
We killed the rest of the afternoon at the shop while Dale mumbled about wanting to go home. I’m not sure anyone was really surprised, but we all wondered why he didn’t just leave anyway. When Jason finally did tell us we could leave early, he jumped up faster than I have ever seen anyone jump before. He handed me his keys and I forced a bro-hug on him, and Amanda walked out with him.
Gary and I went by Superfast to check out some cabling and other electronics they wanted to have relocated, and Ben offered to give him a free oil change while he was there. Afterward I went home to change and clean up a bit before running to the junior high for my tools and meeting Gary back at the shop. They had just closed, so Summer finished her stuff and then shut everything down so I could get to work.
The rat’s nest looked a lot worse than it really was, but it still took me a couple hours to get everything cleaned up and looking nice. There’s still more to do, but they still have some finishing work to do in the lobby first, and then I can come back and finish my part. I struggle a bit on how much to charge them for the work, but it’ll be really nice to make some extra money on the side. It’ll be good to bring a little bit of the hustle back.
When we got back to Summer’s for the evening, I fried some chicken strips and made some great looking salads for the three of us. Then we had dessert and watched an episode of Parks and Rec before bed.
“Highskoo’ Teknicken” and other Daleisms!