I had to work at the high school today for the senior laptop pickup. Gary volunteered to join me, and we both beat Amber to our table in front of the Center. It was a really cool morning with a ton of wind that lasted all day long. It could’ve been a great day on a larger boat than mine. Instead, we were stuck handling a bunch of gross laptops and dealing with the public.
The pickup process actually went relatively smoothly, though it was apparent that we were making it all up as we went along. People kept wanting to drive past us even though it was pretty obvious that we all formed different stations that everyone needed to visit. Lots of staff was just kind of sitting around not doing much, but I’m sure they were just told they had to be there.
The high school bought pizza for everyone, but it got there pretty late. The biggest rush came in the afternoon when we joked that all the seniors were finally getting out of bed. All total, we collected around 200 laptops, which left about 1,000 still out in the wild. My hope was to have the option of selling them before pickup time, so we wouldn’t even have to do most of this work. I can already start to see how much work I have ahead of me, and those further up the chain still haven’t even decided what platform of devices we’ll be using for the next round.
The one fun thing I got to do today, besides just hang out with Gary, was play with the new sign. I was pretty proud of the animations I put together, and it was cool being able to change it quickly on the fly. In the end, it’s not my job, and maybe that’s what made it so much fun.
When I finally left, I went by Wesley’s to help with a personal laptop. Nothing was really wrong with it, but they needed some basic help getting it connected to their wireless, adding desktop icons, and connecting their wireless printer. The latter took most of the time because it was a pretty old laptop, and it took forever to do anything on it. I felt bad asking a friend for money at all, but they ended up giving me double the pittance I asked for. It was good conversation with good people anyway.
I ran home to clean up a bit, and realized I got a pretty good sunburn under the clouds. Everything just kind of felt tender and warm, but hopefully some lotion will keep my skin from peeling. Bác Vân was out in the garden and dug up a couple pecan saplings and some kind of flower for me to take to Summer’s.
It was dark by the time I got up to her house, but I had to go plant the plants before I could go inside. As I dug, I discovered under the grass was mostly rock. Maybe shale. I couldn’t tell in the dark but it was solid. I’m not sure any of the plants will survive. When I finally got inside, the kids were all watching Game of Thrones without me. I fixed myself a grilled chicken salad since the calzones Autumn put together didn’t sound very good after pizza at lunch, and my stomach was already feeling a bit sour from it anyway. Then I went back outside and sat in my car for some quiet time, and blew off some steam in Animal Crossing.
Can’t I just bury some money in a hole instead of going to work?