Author: gallopingcow

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The Loaner

I woke up extra early today and made it home for a quick shower before picking up Dad in the rain. We headed west and stopped in Van Buren to charge before making it the rest of the way to the Tesla Service Center in Tulsa. I didn’t even consider it, but evidently I had the car set to avoid tolls, so we took the long way there and still made it in plenty of time.

We started to drop off the Model Y, but they said it would probably be a multi-day repair anyway, so we could do our test rides first. Dad drove the Model X first and took it around some neighborhoods, getting proper lost in the process. We made it back and I took it for a quick spin, and also got to try Full Self Driving, which was pretty cool. I thought it did a great job, but it wasn’t without faults. When we got back, they let us take a Model S, which I really enjoyed, although I think between them, I’d almost rather have an X and a 3 just because of the size difference. The S would be fun if I needed it for the longer range, but the 3 is sportier and handles a bit better overall just because it isn’t like driving a boat.

Once we got the test rides out of the way, we picked up a loaner vehicle. He brought out an older Model 3 at first, but then took it back when he couldn’t get the screen to work. Then he brought out a Model S, which got me excited. It wasn’t until we got in it that I realized how much of a hunk of junk it was. The wheel wells squeaked, and there were random things wrong everywhere, like a cracked windshield, missing driver vanity mirror, a passenger vanity mirror that was taped in place, and more. Not only that, but there was no way to charge my phone, so I just had to hope it would last the day.

From there, we went to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. Dad enjoyed it, but I found it to be really heavy with the reading, with relatively few exhibits. What they did have were mostly cockpits and engine cutaways. We spent a while covering the floor though, and then went outside to walk through a full size jetliner they had outside. Dad almost tripped and fell down the stairs, but luckily I had my footing and was right behind him with an inertial advantage. I propped him right back up and we continued into the plane.

It wasn’t until we were done that we thought to check the planetarium times. We had to kill nearly an hour before the next show, so we wandered through the gift shop and then back through some simulations we had skipped earlier. Once we got to the planetarium, I wasn’t super impressed with the show. It was probably the weakest one I’ve seen in my memory. The animations weren’t as great, and the first half was just a guy giving a lecture.

We were pretty hungry by the time we left, so we made it into downtown Tulsa to a place called Sisserou’s Caribbean Restaurant & Catering. The food was pretty good, but I expected the flavors to be a little more pronounced with some more heat. We did get some habanero sauce with the bread and butter, which was weird. It was pretty good sauce, but I don’t even know what it would compliment. I did not think it paired well with the crumbly bread, though.

After we ate, we headed right back toward home. We stopped to charge in Van Buren again, and we had trouble getting the charger door open. Luckily I got it unstuck with my finger, so we weren’t stuck without a vehicle. We charged enough to make it to Ozark where we stopped to charge some more. It seemed to be going a bit slower than I expected, so rather than fill up on Tesla’s dime like I wanted, we continued on home.

We visited with Mom for a bit, and then I started towards Summer’s for the night. Along the way, I saw Kyler’s car outside the restaurant and stopped at Ridgewood. Then Grant came out and invited me in for a “family tray” of leftover barbecue from the night. Nobody wanted anything else from it, so they let me have it all. Then they were going to throw out a whole tray of baked beans that they let me take home as well.

Once I got to the house, things were quiet. Summer wound down quickly, and Eaddie made it home from her football game around midnight. She made first chair in a wind ensemble at Tech, so she shared some music with me before bed.

What a piece of junk!

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Inverted Coffee

My alarm went off in the middle of a very deep sleep this morning, so I had a really rough time getting going, until nearly lunch time. I had to make coffee twice because I spilled the first one all over the carpet. Then we had a presenter for a cookie dough fundraiser, so we had to go “work the projector” for him. Just before that, Blake came into the office to tell me I was, in fact, having to move into the front office with Kim. It’s just as well, since I can never hear her through the wall anyway. The rest of my career there will probably end up being pretty passive-aggressive.

Summer took her car to Fast Glass again, and just as before, I got a call that they didn’t have the right windshield. At least this time they didn’t rip out the old one, so I called Progressive/Safelite to confirm that I could take the car to the dealership, and then messaged Tesla to see if they would be able to add it to my service. As luck would have it, they actually did have one in stock.

I felt kind of crummy near the end of the day, but made it back to town in time to catch Shaun at Fast Glass to confirm he would get it parked outside their shop before he left for the night. Evidently he had to start disassembly before he could tell they had the wrong glass. He was working with someone else at the time, so I went to see Summer at Superfast before going home to change. Once her car was moved out, I headed back over to move some things to my car, and then went to my parents’ house for some shrimp soup.

After I ate, I headed straight up to Summer’s for the night. Summer was doing work things most of the night, and Eaddie was having trouble with her new piercings she got on her birthday. I spent some time on my résumé, and went to bed way later than I wanted after Summer got off the phone.

This is a normal and appropriate level of anger.

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Lost Forwards

I felt a little lost at work today, and struggled to keep focused. I bounced from one thing to another, and didn’t really accomplish anything of use. The one thing that I did complete was signing up for gas and water service for the new house. Everything should switch seamlessly, and I think all that’s left is to decide on an internet provider.

After work, I made it over to my parents’ house for some leftovers before getting into some more carpet cleaning. I couldn’t tell if I was psyching myself out just trying to over-scrub them, or if that was me trying to talk myself out of having to clean them some more. I experimented a bit with vacuuming, running a light spray of white vinegar, and finally scrubbing one area with the detergent’s recommended dosage in the machine. We’ll see how they feel tomorrow.

I made it to Summer’s late, so I tried to wrap things up quickly to get to bed.

If my people could stop dying, that would be greeeaat.

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Somebody Else’s Fix

I was a little bit early to work this morning, so I let the car do its thing to get me there. It was a pretty quiet day without much new work coming in. I had to make a few key fobs for Todd, but otherwise my big project for the day was to finish upgrading our state VPN. All I did was test the DIS guy’s fix though, so no brain required.

After work, I loaded up some stuff to take to the house and then stopped at Walmart for a new air filter. While I was there, I noticed the barbecue prep cart that I picked up last week had been marked down another 30 bucks. I tried to get it price-matched, but the four employees I talked to didn’t seem to understand the policy. Furthermore, they didn’t actually take care of me at the customer service desk, and instead asked me to wander around and find a training lead. Ultimately they made me go back and buy the last one on the shelf, carry it out of the store, and then wanted me to return my old one that was also still in the box. When I finally got back in, I thought I was going to have trouble returning the same one, but then a different manager came up and basically told them they were being stupid, and just shook her head at them. Even as we completed the transaction, the girl processing the return made comments about being confused. I could not imagine a simpler scenario.

I finally made it to the house and unloaded my stuff. I didn’t have time to start on new carpets, so I just checked on the previous rooms and left a bit dissatisfied. Then I shuffled some light bulbs around to match fixtures and rooms before locking everything up again. As I was about to leave, I noticed that with the lights out and the doors shut, the back hallway appears to be pitch black and just disappears forever. It was slightly terrifying.

My parents had leftovers ready for dinner, so I went to eat and chatted with Dad for a bit before heading up to Summer’s for the night. Noah was in the same place on the couch, watching the same videos on YouTube as he was a full day ago. Eaddie had homework to do in her room, but came out to discuss it a couple of times before I went to bed.

Transplant

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Crispy Carpets

I was super sore all night, so I didn’t sleep very well. Everyone else was fast asleep when I got out of bed, so I headed home to clean up before heading to the new house. Summer ended up waking up and beating me there, and started vacuuming carpets some more. When I finally got there with the kids, the room I finished last night felt really stiff and crispy.

Eaddie and Noah decided to start bringing some things over from their house while Summer and I got Subway for lunch. Then we went right back to cleaning floors. We worked on that until Summer left to do some laundry, and then I eventually went to my parents’ house for dinner.

By that time it was pretty late and I still needed to wash a load of laundry, so I ran home and did that. I didn’t get up to Summer’s too terribly late, but it’s back to work in the morning and I just hope I rest well.

We require more parking.

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Fury Carpets

I stopped at Hardee’s for a biscuit this morning before going to Harbor Freight to get a pump sprayer. Then I met Summer at the new house to start cleaning. I was a little later than I was planning, so she was hungry by the time I got there. We took the Murano back to her house since we had left the Model Y at the new house, and then we went to New China for lunch. Eaddie had homework to do, so she stayed home.

The restaurant was packed from the church crowd, and we barely found parking. We ran into Allen and Charlotte in the restaurant and I talked to them briefly. After we ate, we headed straight back to the house so I could work on carpets.

Eaddie eventually came over, and the girls cleaned cabinets, bathrooms, and basically any other hard surfaces while I focused on carpets. At one point, I had to run home briefly, but then I came back and continued shampooing carpets late into the evening.

Noah was going to come over, but went to Summer’s house instead since Eaddie had gone home earlier. They watched scary movies until late. Summer went to sleep as soon as she got home, and I followed as soon as I finished my other chores.

It’ll be a miracle if we make it.

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Home Sweat Home

The girls went to Tulsa for a Conquer the Gauntlet run today, so I was on my own to start cleaning the new house. I loaded up some supplies and stopped at Wendy’s for breakfast. Then I went home to get a few more things before heading to the new house. I started going through cabinets and drawers and found quite a bit of stuff that had been left. Jeremy had mentioned a few things, but some of the things that were left seemed like things they would have wanted to keep.

Dad came over to help vacuum the house, and then we went back to their house for some lunch. Afterward, I went straight back to work on the carpets, and started shampooing Eaddie’s room. Shasta came by to pick up a bunch of stuff, but there’s still more that I’m not sure they intended to leave.

The girls eventually made it home, and we learned that Summer’s car scrapes the ground pretty badly on her side of the garage. I never would have made it, but we kind of assumed she would. We’ll definitely have hire someone to run a drainage channel with a grate that we can drive over.

I wore myself completely out trying to clean carpets. I didn’t even really finish Eaddie’s room, because I needed a better sprayer for the cleaner. We’ll do more tomorrow, and I’ll make sure I have a better plan.

Late in the evening, we went to my parents’ house for some spaghetti for dinner. I took a quick dip in the pool to rinse off the day, and then we lumbered back to Summer’s for the night.

This is going to be expensive.

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Hot Diggity Dog

I had a room full of kids waiting on me in the office this morning, but we got them some Chromebooks and sent them along their way. I had been crawling out of bed more and more begrudgingly over the course of the week, and Kim didn’t make any coffee this morning, so I tried out my Aeropress Go. It really only made about half of a cup, but I felt like the scoop was bigger and it probably used more coffee grounds than the regular one. The coffee was good, though.

I continued picking through work orders to close out some older ones, and finally moved some things off of the backburner. One of those things was a door controller with an undocumented password. I mentioned something to Todd about it, and the next thing I know, he called Samuel down to have a look. They showed up while I was on a call with a guy from DIS, but came back around a little later.

Sam sidled up to my computer and hammered away rather belligerently at my keyboard as he discovered my troubles, one-by-one. We eventually took a walk down to the core closet, and I got a little more history and some guidance for what equipment I had. I felt a little better about digging into some new stuff, but then he left after having broken my phone.

The rest of the day was pretty slow. We had hot dogs for lunch, along with some other leftovers that made for a pretty big meal. I left work early, but then got caught in traffic with some busses after a pep rally, so my call with DIS from home didn’t happen. I was only a few minutes late, but I think he misunderstood what time I would be available to troubleshoot his VPN issue.

After a little while, I took my car to the wash, and then to my parents’ house to visit for a moment. I tried to convince Mom to come with me to the Model Y service appointment to test drive an S or X, but for some reason she kept fighting it. The prices just dropped substantially too, so now would be a great time to buy.

When I left there, I drove by the Sherwood house just to check things out again, and Jeremy saw me and waved me down. I stopped and we chatted for a little while, and he seemed super nice. One of the kids peeked out the window at us, but I never saw anyone else. He said they would be out of the house later in the evening, so we would be free to move on in.

I finally made it up to Summer’s, but mostly dawdled the rest of the night. I wanted to go to the house after Jeremy texted me, but it was a bit late. I guess I would have been more productive to go early in the morning anyway. Summer went to bed, and Eaddie didn’t get home until really late from an away game. They also had a Conquer the Gauntlet race in the morning in Tulsa, so I figured I’d have a day to myself to get things done.

How do utilities work again?

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Catching Upwards

I was early again this morning, so I stopped into Sonic for breakfast, and they were super fast. The drive to work was mostly slow while I was stuck behind traffic for most of the drive. I was feeling a bit more caught up and less ragged, which was nice. Nothing remarkable happened over the course of the day, though I think we’ll need to order a lot more Chromebook chargers than I expected.

Julie called me after I got home and said in a lot of words that she decided to delay our impromptu vacation. I headed up to Summer’s kind of late, stopping at Casey’s for a second time in the day to try and find a S’mores coffee. They still didn’t have any. Then I stopped at McDonald’s but only got fries since Summer had just started heading home. I had her warm up the chicken and I made everyone leftover tacos for dinner.

Eaddie came out to do some homework with me, and then it was off to bed a little earlier than usual.

The fact that I can no longer “supersize” my fries because of one asshole’s documentary is absolutely the current world’s greatest injustice.

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79% Deployed

Today was another relatively dull day of scattered students coming in for Chromebooks. We did get down to the elementary for a bit, so I was glad to close out some of those work orders. At one point I had a pretty bad anxiety attack. My vision went dark, and I got super dizzy and sweaty really fast. It took me a little while to shake that one off.

I finally got an answer from Entergy, but not the one I was looking for. I suppose it will let me focus on the school a little harder, but it was disappointing all the same. Summer said Splash was hiring for another IT person, but that work sounds very entry-level with nowhere to go.

I stopped by Casey’s after work, but they didn’t have the coffee I wanted, so I continued home to clean up a bit. Mom had some phở to clean up, so I ran across town to eat and then chatted with them for a bit before heading up to Summer’s.

Eaddie helped me fill out the family calendar with all of her band events, and I went through the house baiting for ants again. Then it was off to bed.

So close, yet so far.