Author: gallopingcow

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Nothing Passive About It

We had our meeting first thing this morning, and I tried to compose myself after the strange conversations I had yesterday. It wasn’t long into the day that I got an email from the superintendent with an infographic for Robert’s Rules of Order. I wasn’t completely sure how to take it, but I knew I wanted to at least show that I had some idea of what I was talking about. She tends to be kind of a fast talker, and doesn’t really give much time for a response, so written communication to me is much more effective for completing my thoughts with her.

With that, I got sucked into drafting an email again for most of the morning after our lengthy meeting about how awful Incident IQ is. We went to Quiznos for a relatively quick lunch, and then it was back to the shop for a short afternoon due to the homecoming parade. I ended the day at Oakland again, and then went downtown to meet Summer for the parade. It was surprisingly hot sitting out in the sun, but it was a short parade.

Afterward, I rode the opposite direction of traffic across town and stopped at the Ridgewood Brothers to visit with Grant and Robert. We chatted about security systems for a bit, and then I continued home. As the sun went down, I went to visit with Mom for a few minutes before going to the homecoming game to catch halftime. Summer was crammed up in the stands again, so I sort of worthlessly stood on the ground below until we could leave.

Summer wanted to eat, so we dropped off the Shadow and went to Chili’s where we were served by a student from her very first year of teaching. She really enjoyed her steak, but 100% of my food was cold. Not lukewarm, but outright cold. I went home to get her car, and then met her at her house. The girls got home after a shocking turnaround of the depressing score we left, and everyone was quickly off to bed.

Do I have your attention?

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On Nesting Hornets

I spent nearly the entire day on my meeting minutes, trying to research additional resources to review changes, perfecting my wording, and ultimately getting it to the members that were present so they could review and suggest changes. I forgot my watch at home though, so I felt naked for most of the morning. When everyone gathered for lunch, I quickly ran home for it before meeting them at Linhs.

In the afternoon, I finally finished my first draft and sent it out for review. Judy was quick to check it out, and had something for me to add. Then I saw it move up the ladder to Justin, who spent a fair amount of time reading it. After he left, I saw Ginni going down the whole document, and then highlight a line I had written about administration not budgeting for a Christmas bonus. A moment later, Justin was back on the document, and then Thomas appeared in my doorway and asked me to call her.

It felt like she was mostly concerned about a possibly negative perception, and I don’t think she really understood that I was on her side. I’m sick of hearing about people feeling entitled to a bonus because they can’t manage to save for Christmas on their own. I’m sick of departments that aren’t losing people complaining about pay. She had me call Justin to try and come up with some better wording, but he didn’t really have any suggestions either. In the end, I modified three of the bullet points to try and spin the story a bit in the direction she seemed to want.

After that, I noticed an urgent work order from Sheri and took off to Oakland. They had a robotics tryout, and needed some software installed so they could update their robotics hardware. Then I finished up with some trouble Sheri was having on her laptop before heading home.

Autumn asked if I could get Eaddie from her own robotics event so she could go to a volleyball game. When I eventually picked her up, it seemed like Autumn might be hiding out in the band room, so we snooped around a bit before giving up. From there, we went to Mom’s to check in on her. Eaddie wanted to ride her bike to her friend’s house to finish some homework, so I helped Mom warm up dinner while she was out.

Eventually everyone got fed, I took care of dishes, and Mom ran us off as it got late. Summer was nearly asleep when we got to the house. I never actually saw Autumn, but she seemed to be up later than usual. Eaddie practiced her flute for a while, and then spent some time with her new earbuds. I chatted with Grant for a little bit about some games, and ended the evening by finishing the Pixel 7 announcement stream.

Mmm, beefy.

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New Committee, New You

I forgot that we had our CPPC meeting this morning, so after a while at work, I had to run home to grab my Pixel for some superior notetaking. I actually got the time for the meeting wrong too, so I started walking over about 45 minutes early. I stopped in at Transportation to talk to those guys briefly, realized I was way early, then got my Pixel, and finally arrived back at Central Office. I was the first one there by a longshot. Then Justin and Justin came in. Judy brought some donuts for us. We very nearly didn’t have a quorum, but Ginni showed up along with two more administrators, and we dug right in.

I volunteered to do the secretarying again, and to my dismay, I didn’t have the right strings pulled to get Justin as our president. I’ll guess I’ll have to go for that next year. As far as the meeting went, we sped through most of it after confirming that everyone had a chance to read the changes. There wasn’t a whole lot of jibber jabber until Janie wanted to express distrust over the wording of our bonus announcement. Ginni was quick to passive-aggressively shut her down, and everything else passed with very little formality.

The rest of the day as pretty quiet. Josh and I were the only two around for lunch, so he took us to Stoby’s, where Gary coincidentally was meeting some other friends for lunch. I spent most of the afternoon working on my CPPC minutes, but had to walk back over to Central Office to take Gary a replacement UPS battery. That ended up being a faulty power outlet, so he had to call an electrician to come out tomorrow.

Autumn was supposed to meet with a recruiter after school, but changed her mind to hang out with her new boyfriend under the guise of “not feeling well enough to meet the recruiter.” This caused a conflict with Eaddie, who wanted to get home to do good kid things, like homework. I was actually able to get Summer on the phone, and she called to set her straight, and then talked to me a bit while she was on her way to Target to try and find some clearance Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds for Eaddie.

Since Autumn took Eaddie home, I left work in pretty high spirits and great weather, so I took the bike across town and ended up at AT&T to see my old crew. Hope and Nicole both came up to give me a hug, and I spent most of my time chatting with Kevin. I hung out there for a little while until Kevin finished his shift. Then I headed on home to change before going to my parents’ house for dinner.

Mom had just gotten home from work, and they were outside looking at the ditch where they had a tree service come and clean out a couple of big trees that have been there since my childhood. I hated to see them go, and I worry about continuing erosion, so hopefully it was for the best. We went in and warmed up some curry, but Mom ate something else again. Dad and I chatted for a while, and eventually I had to head over to Summer’s to help Eaddie with her science homework.

On the way, Summer asked for food, so I ran by Lowe’s quickly to see if they still had the headlamp I had reserved over the weekend. They didn’t, so I left and picked up a burrito at Taco Bell before making it up to the girls. Eaddie came out, and Summer didn’t want to wait to gift her headphones. Then I helped with the homework, and everyone was off to bed.

I’ve waited my whole life to be a parent that knows everything.

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Yo, I’ll Solve It

I was back in my office today, and Gary brought me some stuff to work on. First was the Cognos report that I made recently, along with some ambiguous feedback and no real tools to help me resolve it. He ended up taking that one back, and let me look at a report of some other rostering issue that, at the end of the day, was completely unrelated to rostering.

The morning went by quickly though, and Thomas had the group go to lunch early because he was hungry. I went a little after they left, but still a few minutes early. I met Josh in the parking lot and told him that they left early, and then met Summer at Taco John’s to meet up with everyone else.

Lunch was quiet and quick, and then it was back to the shop for a long afternoon. I came up with a fix for my second project, and then I went to Oakland for the last 45 minutes or so to run a new video cable. From there, I went home for a little while before going to my parents’ house for some food. Mom and I finished up some phở while Dad ate some more curry. The pot of curry doubled in size after yesterday, and I still don’t fully understand the process.

I left there shortly after we ate so I could help Bác Vân with her iPad. After running back and forth to reset my router, it ended up being the iPad itself that needed to be restarted. My next step is to set up my new mesh Google router.

Finally, I ended up at Summer’s for the evening. She was winding down for bed, and the girls got home late after band practice. It was relatively early to bed for everyone.

Check out the hook!

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Evicted

We had interviews outside of my office today, so we were all told to stay away from the shop. I stopped in to get my laptop, and then walked across the street to talk to Kayla for a bit. I really just wanted to check on the size of her monitors to see if I had anything bigger to offer, but the ones I found were the same size as what she had. While I was there, I learned that Joseph actually earned his associates degree in IT, and he was interested in our open position, but didn’t apply after being discouraged from previous conversations.

From there, I headed to Oakland for the day. I got a quick breakfast on a whim, and then hung out in Steven’s office all morning. He was there for a little while, but then had to run and fend off some spitting kid. I went back to the shop only to learn that nobody was around for lunch, so I went to McDonald’s by myself.

They had remodeled the lobby since I was last there, and the front counter seemed very unfriendly. They built a wall around the kitchen area so you couldn’t really see into the back, and there was only one human register to order from a digital menu with tiny print. They were clearly trying to limit the interaction time with humans, and pushing app or digital ordering from the self-service menus. You could even have your food delivered to your numbered table.

I ordered their Cactus Plant Flea Market Meal Box for a crappy collectible, and found that it wasn’t really worth the premium price. Mellissa spotted me while there with her granddaughter, and came over to share some custodial gossip. On my way out, an employee mopped by my table and I nearly died carrying my open sweet tea back to my seat.

Back at Oakland, I spent the afternoon in the office and kept as busy as I could until school let out. I had to get Eaddie when she finished with band, and then took her home to get her bike. Afterward, I was at the house when a kid rang the doorbell to ask about my Fiero. He seemed a bit more put-together than Zach, so we talked a bit about the history of the car.

After he left, I went by the shop to plug in my laptop and get some ice. Then I went to my parents’ house and waited for Eaddie to get there so we could eat the curry Mom was making. We didn’t stick around too long after that since it was getting a bit late and Eaddie had to study. We just left her bike there and headed on up to their house.

Summer picked up some rolls from Golden Corral for me, since my points would have expired otherwise. Autumn came out of her room once, but I never actually saw her. Everyone went to their own rooms to complete chores and nightly routines, and eventually I was off to bed myself.

Beat it, four-eyes.

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What a Breach

I woke up fairly early this morning and laid in bed until Summer got up to make biscuits for breakfast. I finally finished up the gravy I had saved from a couple weeks ago, which was only a little bit questionable. Afterward, Eaddie came out for help with some math homework. I didn’t remember doing matrices as a kid, but it seemed to make sense to me now. I finally got the achievement in Into the Breach that I’d been working on for a couple weeks, and eventually Summer got ready to take me home and go to the gym.

I spent a little time outside cleaning up inside the Montego, and then poked around in the garage to get Eaddie’s bike out. I don’t know why the tires seem like they don’t hold air for very long, but I got them aired up as well. I eventually wound up in a bath, and Summer brought Eaddie over to bike. I felt much better afterward, and then we loaded up the bike rack and headed to my parents’ house for chow mein.

Eaddie met us there on her bike and ate, and then wanted to ride across the neighborhood to try and find a friend’s house. When she got back, we loaded the bike up and came back to my house to unload. Then they went home while I did a couple loads of laundry.

Summer called a little later and said that Autumn hadn’t invited her to senior night, and in fact wanted to have her grandparents walk her onto the field. It didn’t mean anything to me, because the majority of the students don’t have a senior night in the first place, and because Autumn hasn’t really done anything in particular for us to be proud of her anyway. She’s done everything she can to make our family life hell. I understand why it upset Summer, especially since Autumn wouldn’t even have a senior night herself if Summer hadn’t refused to let her drop out of band. The whole thing is a power-play, and honestly I’d rather avoid homecoming week anyway.

Move along.

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Fireworks Stand

The girls had a marching event for band today, so Autumn left really early, allegedly to do makeup. She left Eaddie behind so she could take a shower first, so Summer made her breakfast and then took her to the high school before going to the gym. I headed on home and got around to cleaning out the garage some more. I took a folding table out to the driveway and used it to sort out my super old box of fireworks.

I set a whole bunch of stuff out by the curb, and almost looked like I was having a garage sale. The folding table itself looked like I had opened up a fireworks stand. Summer came over after the gym and brought some food. I didn’t feel great, so I just had a cup of chili and she had a salad. I found the outside wall of the garage, which I hadn’t seen in years. Eventually I needed a break, so we came inside and I took a shower.

We considered grilling dinner there, but I knew the girls wouldn’t want to stay the night, and I really needed to focus on cleaning anyway. We left to drop off some toner at Staples, and then went to Walmart to walk and browse around. I saw some croissants that looked like they would be good for burgers, and Summer got some stuff to make some guacamole on the side.

The girls got home as we were cooking, but Autumn wanted to go to her father’s for the night. Eaddie didn’t, which suited us fine. The three of us ate, Autumn left, and then it was a quiet night until bedtime.

Again, but faster!

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Taco Bout It

I’ve ridden a bike to work all week because the weather has been so nice. It may be jacket weather in the mornings next week though. This morning’s meeting was our first that required an agenda from Zach and Gary. Zach took the lead, which he took awkwardly. It was pretty easy to tell that he was given direction without purpose. After the meeting, everyone else went through the shop and cleaned all the flat surfaces.

I didn’t have a whole lot going on, but I decided to go through and clean out my stale tickets after that was mentioned during the meeting. Then I wrapped up a couple other things I had been working on, and I was basically done with projects for the day.

When lunch time came around, Zach wanted CJ’s. I rode my bike behind them, but got lost in traffic. By the time I got to CJ’s, they had already left for Cracker Barrel because there wasn’t an empty seat in the house. I left the line and went after them, but got another message that Cracker Barrel had a 30 minute wait, so they had gone ahead to Brangus. I opted out at that point and went back to the shop to eat my leftover Slim Chickens. Evidently Brangus didn’t work out for them either though, because the line was out the door. They ended up at La Chiquita, which wasn’t busy because as I’ve said before, it’s not particularly good.

The afternoon was super quiet, and I had trouble killing the rest of the day. Autumn had been at Dwight all day for her educators class, but called to say she could take Eaddie home. I asked her to drop her off at her hair appointment so I could go scrap the metal I had been hanging onto for so long. I ran home at quitting time and made it to Cunningham just in time. I was disappointed that I only got $15 for the lot of it, so I probably won’t be saving cans any longer. It’s just not worth the storage space.

Lelan finished Eaddie’s hair before I even got halfway across town to pick her up. I was surprised that it was still so long, but Eaddie said she really liked it. She sent us home with some tea tree shampoo because she still picked out some nits after all this time. I figure Eaddie has just accepted a symbiotic relationship at this point, because she doesn’t complain about itching, and nobody has really purged the house.

We went home for a bit, but Eaddie immediately started talking about ice cream. Autumn was in her room, but eventually came out to mow. As she finished, Eaddie and I decided to go to Bocadillos for tacos and ice cream. On the way, Eaddie saw Noah at work, so we stopped by PDQ to see him for a bit on the way back. While we were there, I saw the guy I passed the other day on an R1 that looked just like mine.

Summer finally made it home, so we headed on home ourselves. We tried stopping at Tropical Smoothie to get her some food, but they had shut everything down. We ended up at Wendy’s instead, for a reliably good burger. Summer was up surprisingly late watching TV, but we only saw Autumn out of her room once, and Eaddie disappeared as soon as we got home. I was pretty tired myself, so I went to bed relatively early.

ERROR

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UpToDate

I was phlegmy all day today, which was no fun. I went through two cups of coffee to keep my throat soothed. The office was quiet again, except for when it literally wasn’t. The girls up front were cackling over something, so I had to give them a hard time. I got into a few different things that people sent me, but nothing too difficult.

I wasn’t super hungry until right at lunch time, and someone suggested Western Sizzlin. I probably should have stayed at the shop to eat my leftover chicken mac, but I figured I would feel a little less guilty if I started with a salad.

Just before school let out, I went to Oakland to take care of a couple small things. I ended up staying longer than I originally planned, and left after most of the kids were gone. Everyone had wound down at the shop by then, so I was quickly out by quitting time.

I was supposed to pick up Eaddie from school, but Autumn called just as I was about to leave and offered to pick her up and take her to the football game “so she could hang out with Maleea” instead of going to karate like she had planned. I knew immediately that she was full of shit, but then she asked whether I was going to spend the night with them, and said she would take Eaddie to school early in the morning if I didn’t. I took the opportunity to stay home and spend a bunch of time cleaning up the garage while the weather was nice.

The mosquitos eventually got to me, but I was happy with the dent I had made in all the junk in the garage. I came inside to watch the latest episode of She-Hulk, and then Brandie texted out of the blue to check in. I shared with her our new week of drama, and it sounded like she has a pretty busy rest of the year.

Summer eventually called before going to sleep, and I showed her around the garage. She had called her clinic for an update, but both her doctor and nurse were out, and the neurologist referral apparently wasn’t able to get her an appointment any earlier than mid-December. When we finished talking, I wrapped everything up and did my best to keep from getting distracted from going to sleep myself.

Abomaste

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The Extendables

It was a quiet day in the shop today, which allowed me to slowly pick away at a few different things. I didn’t feel super smurfy first thing in the morning, but I made it through lunch. I spent some time at Oakland in the afternoon, and had to borrow an extension ladder to climb up the side of the building and check a speaker. I finished the day upstairs to babysit a computer image that didn’t seem to get its necessary chipset drivers to allow the input devices to function.

It was nice outside after work, so I spent quite a while outside cleaning out the garage. I broke down some boxes and rearranged a few things, and then loaded up some stuff to take to the graveyard. I had seen Amanda drive by Oakland earlier in the day, and she reminded me to pick up my mini crock pot. I stopped by her house on the way to the shop and got it, and also gave her a computer monitor. Then I took the rest of my junk to the graveyard.

Summer and Eaddie were home when I got there, but Autumn was out at church with some friends. Eaddie was in a bit of a mood, and Summer was busy finishing up some laundry. I ate my leftovers from dinner yesterday, and then remembered to call Bác Vân back to help with her iCloud account. I think I’ve forgotten her password, but I should be able to reset it.

Autumn eventually made it home, and all the girls went to bed fairly early. I’d had an emotional couple of days, so I wasn’t far behind.

Needs more amp.