Author: gallopingcow

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Had a Bed Day Again

Summer and I hardly left the bedroom today. We laid around all morning until she went to the gym. Even after we got showered for the day, we went back to bed and just napped or watched TV in bed. We eventually decided to just head to my parents’ house to see if they were ready to go, and pulled up just as they were leaving the house.

We met at New China and ate too much. They were really busy, and service was pretty slow. I wanted to go to PetSmart afterward, but we decided to just go straight home instead. There, we watched more TV in bed until I surprisingly felt sleepy enough to call it a night.

You wouldn’t understand.

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Cleared for Lunch

This was our last quiet Friday for a little while, since people are starting to filter back in next week. I spent the morning in my office tinkering with a few things before lunch. Then Gary, Kyle, and I met Brody at Zaxby’s for national wing day, where Brody and I both got BOGO orders of boneless wings. I ate way too much and still took some back with me.

I had to run to the middle school for a topcap before I could meet Kyle at Oakland to run a video and touch line in the new kindergarten alternative learning environment. I still can’t quite wrap my head around stuffing a bunch of poorly-behaved kindergartners into one room together. The 50-foot optical HDMI cable wasn’t long enough to go up into the rafters and back down, so we had to re-run it right on top of the ceiling tile. That kept us there quite a bit after quitting time.

After work, I went home and had to help Bác Vân add a new entry to her iPad’s address book. We couldn’t get it to recognize it as an iPhone number though, so I’m not sure it will work for her until we can figure out what kind of device that person has.

Summer went to the gym after she got back into town, and then I met her and my dad at the aquatic center, where the paramotorist he had been talking to was about to go up in the air. We watched him take off and then make a few loops around the area before heading up north. Then Summer and I headed to Linh’s for dinner. I decided to stop by the shop for some ice along the way, and happened to run into Melissa, who was giving Sandy some moving boxes out of the Transportation office.

I finally made it to dinner where Summer satisfied her craving for an eggroll salad and boba tea, and I had a fresh bánh mì. She wasn’t certain, but she thought she saw her ex, but she didn’t seem too incredibly bothered and the moment passed. We finished up, they started closing the place down, and we headed back home.

I ran back next door for some more iPad training while Summer took a shower, and she was in bed watching TV by the time I got back. She passed out pretty early, and I tried not to stay up too late.

Icy crunch.

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RTFM

It felt like Monday all day after being off yesterday. I never quite shook the feeling of it being the start of a new week, but I’ll appreciate that tomorrow. I had a Jamf call with Gary after a short meeting this morning. We were a small crew, so what was left finally delivered a bunch of computers to the new high school A/V lab. Our call with support was a bit awkward, but the guy finally sent me a link to a proper setup guide that resolved our issue. It was frustrating that it took a week of bouncing messages back and forth, but we were glad to be done with it.

I spent the rest of the day in the office tinkering with different things, because I didn’t want to drive anywhere after hearing my brakes grinding this morning. Summer ordered some new pads for me, and I planned to go to Superfast after work. Thomas took Gary and me to lunch and ended up paying for us, along with cheese dip and possum pie, so that was an awesome surprise.

The afternoon was quiet up until I left. I ran home to change, still expecting to do the brake change myself. Then I watched a video on it, and decided to pay to have it done when I saw what else was involved. Justin, Austin, and Alexis all three came out to knock the job out in about 15 minutes, and then I went to Sonic to get some drinks for them, along with a few extra bucks.

When I got home for the evening, I tinkered with a speaker and microphone bundle I picked up from work several weeks ago and had left in the trunk of my car while it was waiting to have the radiator replaced. I got the wired mic to work, but didn’t have batteries for the wireless one. Summer came over with some Taco Villa for dinner since the girls went to stay with their father. Then she took a shower and went to bed watching Rise of the Guardians while I tinkered on the computer until my own bedtime.

Maybe provide the friggin’ manual next time.

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Frustration = Family

Mitch messaged me just as I climbed into bed last night, so I stayed up until about two in the morning catching up with him. I awoke several hours later and tried to climb out of bed, but had a long-lasting charley horse in my left thigh. I got around for a bit and then watched a couple more episodes of Ms. Marvel, leaving the finale for another day.

I showered and picked Summer up at her house as soon as she got back from Conway, and then we went to Clarksville to meet with Autumn’s therapist. He was a few minutes late arriving back to work, and then left us in the lobby for several more minutes, so we didn’t get back to him until about 15 minutes into our session.

I don’t think either of us had the right expectation for the meeting, and it seemed much more like a touching base than anything else. We certainly didn’t feel like we learned anything, but hopefully our sharing gave him some insight. He showed us a printout on Choice Theory with the Seven Deadly/Caring Habits, and at the bottom was a pixelated clipart picture of a balance scale. I told him that Summer basically nailed all of the caring habits, which meant I had to balance the scales by enforcing all of the deadly habits. I think he saw the irony, but he laughed and told Summer to get me outta there.

I hadn’t eaten all day and made the assumption that we might eat out of town, but instead we had to get home to cook dinner. It was still a little early, so I fought my hangry urges and talked her into running through Walmart with me to look for any deals, and also pick up the peppers we needed for dinner. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything good, but I did finally remember to get Eaddie’s lava lamp bulb.

When we got home, we both started prepping the peppers, potatoes, onions, and kielbasa sausage for a pan-fried dinner. It turned out really great, though the potatoes mushed up in the time it took to prep everything else. Eaddie ate with us since Autumn was at karate, and then Autumn showed up later with some Tropical Smoothie.

While we were in Clarksville, the girls had some house inspectors come by to investigate for animals. Evidently another property had been hiding a dog that caused quite a bit of damage, so this left the girls in a panic to find homes for the cats. This frustrated me deeply, because I was the one to originally let the stray cats run through the house as a joke. After that, no amount of screaming or threats could get them to stop letting the cats in, and they just continued to acquire more and more pet supplies. They refused to listen to any reasoning that they could be evicted, and now the cats would pay the price. I’ve tried to re-home fully-grown cats before, and it rarely works. It’s anybody’s guess what will actually happen now.

Do it for the Graham!

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Marvelous

It felt great being back in the Murano today, but now I have muscle memory for the Montego. We chatted a little bit in the morning, and then all loaded up to go to the middle school and shuffle some TVs around. Josh struggled a bit with directing everyone, but I rode around with Greg to get other things we needed, and we got the job done before lunch.

Summer wanted to meet up for lunch, but I didn’t feel super. I ended up going to Taco John’s with the rest of the crew, but just felt even sicker as soon as we got back. I spent all afternoon at Oakland to finish up the building, but over half of the rooms were still not done.

I came home after work to change, and then went to my parents’ house to wish them a happy anniversary and invite them out for dinner. Mom was too tired to get out though, so I just hung out there for a while and had a little bit of eggplant soup with the hopes that it might make me feel a little better.

When I got back home, I tinkered a bit and then settled down to watch Ms. Marvel. I made it halfway through the, which was a tiny six episodes, and I’ve liked it so far. The style of the show is neat with all of the animations.

I think I may have inadvertently killed a cricket when I was digging around in the bedroom to try and find it. I heard it when I got home first thing in the morning, and then again in another corner of the room while I was watching TV. Hopefully it’s not too gross.

Cosmic!

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Moorano

It felt great to sleep in a bit since I woke up at home. I made it to work, and we all sat around the table for nearly an hour before anyone got up. When I got into my office, I started feeling bug bites, and discovered a few random ants all over my desk. I could never figure out where they were coming from, and ended up leaving anyway to take care of some things at Oakland.

I got a few phones logged in, and then put my Pixel Buds in while I went room to room, hooking up technology. It was slow, but kind of Zen just wandering through the empty halls by myself. I ended up working a bit into lunch, and then just picked up some chicken strips with gravy from Dairy Queen. I took that back to the shop and ate in the breakroom, and then spent a bit of time in the afternoon in my office again.

Summer called to say the Murano would finally be finished by the end of the day, but he’d charge an additional 3% if I paid with a card, so I texted Dad to see if he had access to some money immediately. He came by to deliver that, and then I spent the end of the day at Oakland again.

I went home to change, and then went to Accurate Automotive to pay the younger Mike for the work. Autumn was home, and Eaddie had tennis practice, so I just had Autumn drop me off on the way so I could take the Murano home. It was super hot outside, and I couldn’t hear the engine well over the air conditioner, so I left it at the house and Autumn took us to CiCi’s for dinner while Eaddie played tennis.

It was super hot in the restaurant, and I never got any barbecue or spinach alfredo, so overall it was a very uncomfortable visit for me. When we finished, Autumn dropped me off again, and I met her at the gas station after she picked up Eaddie. They filled up and went home, and then I drove across town on the interstate before making it to my parents’ house. They were watering plants, so I didn’t stick around too long in the heat.

I stopped by the quarter wash and cleaned all the dust and water spots off of the Murano, and then made it up to Summer’s house just seconds before she pulled in from a day in Conway. Everyone settled in pretty quickly, except for me, who dawdled too long and made it to bed late. At least I’m tired from the heat.

Friggin ants!

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Scramble

I had to fight the urge to sleep in today. Summer slept hard, so I just laid in bed for an hour or so until she woke up. I finished up some leftover pasta from days ago, and then made her a big bowl of rice and egg. When Eaddie got up, we went into her room and hung out with her in there for a while and shared some music. She’s discovered alternative, punk, and emo from our generation, which is kind of a trip.

Summer eventually wanted to go to the gym, and since we were still without a second car until Autumn came home, I had her drop me off at my house so I could clean up a bit. I started some laundry and then sweat out trying to re-run a network cable so I could share my wireless with Bác Vân. I had an iPad ready for her, but wasn’t able to get signal much beyond my outside walls.

I planned to clean up and meet back up with the girls, but Autumn was headed to me, blind without a phone. It took her about twice as long to get here as I expected, so I held off on doing what I needed to do. As soon as she walked into the house, she looked around in shock and made a comment about how she hadn’t seen the place since I gave them my refrigerator. She started looking all around the house, and it made me super uncomfortable. Then since I never had a chance to clean up, Summer had to pick her up and leave the Montego with me. I ended up not feeling great and decided not to meet them for dinner so I wouldn’t have to deal with Autumn’s groans and glares for having to wait for me. Then I pretty quickly decided to stay home for the night because I think the bigger truth was that I needed a break from the hate, and I just wanted to be left alone for a while.

I took a long bath and ended up killing my phone in Into the Breach. Then I finally took the iPad next door and showed Bác Vân how to make FaceTime calls. The address book didn’t seem super intuitive, but hopefully she gives it a try and enjoys it. We talked to Lelan for a couple minutes, and then my parents. Nobody else would answer, but nobody else was expecting a call either. She gave up after that, and I went back to my den of recluse.

Like me, they are solitary creatures and deeply misunderstood.

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Unbirthday

Summer started some breakfast this morning, but I wasn’t hungry right out of bed and made my own egg sandwich later. She got called into work and took Autumn along with her, which was alright on account of the nonstop scowling I’d been getting since last night. I just had to get Eaddie to a friend’s house for a party in the afternoon.

I went home and started some laundry and took a shower. My sticky traps finally got some spiders, and they weren’t small. Horrifyingly, the busiest traps were in the bedrooms. The ones in the kitchen where I actually see the spiders didn’t really have any action.

I got Eaddie delivered and then headed back home to some more laundry while I set up an iPad for Bác Vân. My parents wanted to take her and Julie out for a birthday dinner, but Julie didn’t seem too pressed about it, and Bác Vân backed out because she didn’t want to eat late. However, Julie came back hungry as the afternoon progressed, so I met them at Pasta Grill as soon as they opened.

Summer called just after we ordered food and needed a ride, since she let Autumn drive to her father’s to help clean up the house for some visitors. I thought she would be working much later, and was frustrated that we had communicated times poorly. She got a ride to the gym while we ate, and then I picked her up after we finished.

We headed back up to her house for the evening, and eventually Eaddie called for me to pick her up. She scolded me for coming out of the car and into the house, but then beamed about how much fun she had for the rest of the night. Summer asked me to bring her some food, so we stopped by Taco Bell before heading home.

Eaddie talked about her day while Summer was already in bed. I beat a game of Into the Breach on my phone, and then it was off to bed for me as well.

What a joke.

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Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

I had a pretty wicked stomach ache last night that woke me up for about an hour. While I was up, the smoke detector in the girls’ hallway started going off every 30 seconds to a minute, so I scrambled around looking for a 9-volt battery for a while before giving up and burying my head under a couple of pillows. I just barely managed to get any more sleep before I had to get up for work.

We were still a bit short today, so it was still pretty quiet. I had a couple donuts and a homemade bagel that Tammy brought. Then Gary asked me to go to the Transportation office with him to install some software, but that hardly took any time and was mostly unnecessary for two people to be present. I only got one response from our Jamf rep today, so I didn’t make any progress with that either.

I ran to Oakland a couple of times. Before lunch, I finally figured out that it was the USB barcode scanner causing the computer not to boot quickly. It was only when I plugged it into the monitor first though, so plugging it directly into the computer fixed the issue.

Six of us went to Slim Chickens for lunch, and I loaded up on receipt barcodes for points. I even got a free brownie, which I thought was decent. For the price, it was great! When we got back to the shop, I killed some time in the shop before going back to Oakland to tinker with the cafeteria manager’s computer. It had a similar issue, which seemed to be caused by a USB drive plugged into the computer.

I made it back to the shop for a few minutes, and then went home to change before heading up to Summer’s. She started grilling some barbecue chicken and corn, and mashed some potatoes for dinner. The girls all sat down to eat, and Autumn was just scowling the entire evening. Summer tried to pressure everyone into playing a game, but I just quietly loathed the though. Luckily everyone split off to their rooms, and I just played Into the Breach on my phone. It plays well on the touch screen, but I think I prefer a controller or the Switch.

Too much noise.

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No, It’s Not Fixed

Today was another really quiet day, and I was continually surprised how fast the week flew by. I spent all day in the quiet of my office again, and finally got some correspondence from Jamf. We bounced emails back and forth a couple times, and though he asked for my availability for the day, he never actually reached out. It was frustrating that after a full day, I sent two additional log files and was back in the same spot where we started.

Gary took Josh and me to Bocadillos for lunch, and the salsa tasted sour. We were the only table there, and only two other tables showed up the entire time we were there. The food tasted okay, but the al pastor was dry. I got a mangonada on the way out, which was awesome though.

The afternoon was quiet as well, and everyone filtered off on their own. I went home for just a bit, and then took Eaddie to tennis practice for an hour. When we got back to their house, Summer brought some Little Caesar’s home for dinner.

I tried to be helpful around the house by replacing light bulbs while everyone else either watched TV or continued to paint. I have a feeling I won’t sleep very well, but at least tomorrow is Friday.

Shut up, Walgreens.