Author: gallopingcow

Uncategorised

Sleep on It

I couldn’t sleep in very late today because of the light and phone noises. The girls all slept in a little while, but Autumn had to wake up for a full shift at work. I had some coffee and split a bagel with Summer, then had a bath while she and Eaddie went out for lunch.

After they got back, I went home to clean up. Summer and Eaddie took apart one of her twin beds and brought the frame over, so Summer helped me clean out a corner in the bedroom for it. Then we left Eaddie at my house while we went to Walmart for food, then back to their house to pick up the mattress and box spring.

The girls got the bed put together and then went home to shower before coming back over for the night. I used my new griddle plate on my grill to cook some bacon, and grilled burgers for dinner while the other two watched TV. Autumn ended up staying home after work since she had to do some laundry.

Eaddie spent most of the night in her room. Summer and I went to bed and watched Jimmy Carr: His Dark Material. By the time that was over, we were both ready to fall asleep. Tomorrow, I’ll try to griddle breakfast.

Recharge

Uncategorised

Not a Race

I allowed myself to sleep until about 7:30 this morning before getting up for breakfast. It was pretty quiet downstairs, which was even more indicative of how much of a non-event the expo was. We ate, then packed and checked out to head home without even going to the horse races like we originally planned.

I tried to make good time, because Superfast was in a bind without enough people to run the shop, and Summer wanted to go in to help them out. As soon as we got into town, I dropped her off and went home to wait for school to let out.

Eaddie wanted to walk to my house since it was nice outside, but I suggested we should get her bicycle from my parents’ house. I ultimately ended up going to get it, then dropping it off at Oakland for her to ride around and then come home. When she finally got home, we watched an episode of Stranger Things before picking up Summer from work.

We all went to their house thinking we would go back to my house to start a fire, but everyone was so tired that we didn’t get out of the house again. Autumn worked really late, so the remaining three of us ate ramen noodles and eventually went to bed.

This feels more like work than work.

Uncategorised

It’s a Gas Gas Gas

I took today off so Summer and I could go to Hot Springs for an oil marketers expo. I picked up breakfast on the way out of town, then headed straight to the convention center. Summer was originally expecting something pretty big over the course of a couple days, but as we discovered the schedule and eventually showed up, we found it to be a pretty said affair. It was pretty obviously geared toward convenience store owners with lots of food and drink vendors. Summer was really happy to find someone that had Clearly Canadian drinks available, and we got some Chester’s Chicken for a free lunch, but that was it. We could have been finished in about 15 minutes.

When we decided to leave, we had to kill quite a bit of time until we could check into the hotel. We decided to go across town to a small theater behind the mall to watch The Lost City. I expected it to be a really horrible theater, and the lobby didn’t seem like much, but the theater room itself wasn’t bad. They had nice recliners with tables, and a pretty big ultrawide screen. The problem was the resolution. They just had the movie stretched across the ultrawide format, which made everything really fat on the screen. The projector was also pretty dim, so the picture came out really dark and washed out. The movie was good though, and we had a good time.

After the movie, we checked into the hotel and got settled in. Then we walked down a block and went to The Porterhouse for dinner. We decided to get “The Porterhouse for Two,” which ended up being the equivalent of two porterhouse steaks, two lambchops, and a stuffed portabella mushroom. Between that, some fried zucchini and calamari for an appetizer, and a tiramisu for dessert, we were pretty stuffed. We walked back to the hotel and settled in for the night really early to watch The Office in bed.

Hi, I’m date Mike. Nice to meet me. How do you like your eggs in the morning? ;)

Uncategorised

What’s Up, My Neighbor

Thomas, Gary, and Kelsea were out for training again today, so it was really quiet downstairs. I thought I’d get out more than I did, but ended up just churning through more flash drives. Gary asked us to take a look at some of his work orders, but I think I’m the only one that did anything at all, and even that was after they got back.

Zach really wanted La Chiquita, so he, Greg, Brody, and I went there for lunch. The fajitas were good, but a little too much. I always feel like I get either too much or too little there. I can never find a happy middle.

It rained pretty much all day, but started coming down a bit harder as we finished lunch. We made it back to the shop and I continued with more of the same until Dale and Neletta showed up to visit. I eventually made it upstairs to deliver a couple laptops. Then Tammy and I were the last two out at the end of the day.

My head was hurting quite a bit at the end of the day again, so I stayed in for the night. I got a few things ready for the next couple days, spilled a bunch of popcorn oil everywhere, and just barely managed to stay awake long enough to make it to bed after all the cold medicine.

Now you can mouse anywhere!

Uncategorised

Brassers

I continued to churn out flash drives today, as though that was my sole purpose in life. Predictably, Jacob was immediately concerned that they would quickly be lost due to their diminutive size. I continued on until lunch, when Gary, Greg, Thomas, and I went to Taco John’s since Taco Tuesday can be both cheap and healthy. I was neither, as I took the rare opportunity to order an actual combo meal instead of squeaking by with three tacos.

After lunch, I spent some time at Oakland and took care of a few things before ending back up at the shop to finish the day. Things got really quiet at the end of the day, and I think I was the last one out. I went home until Eaddie needed me to pick her up from the robotics camp at the high school.

We went to McDonald’s for another Mario Kart Happy Meal, and met Summer back at my house. Earlier in the day, I had gotten a call from Lowe’s that our refrigerator would be pushed back yet another week. Summer wanted to look at our options, but after spending some time shopping, it looked like most everything of interest would be about the same timeframe.

Summer surprised me first thing in the morning, saying she purchased tickets for us to see a group called Dallas Brass at the Center for the Arts. I looked them up and was okay with the idea, but once the show actually started, I thoroughly enjoyed the event. It was a nice, quiet concert compared to the full school bands that we’re used to hearing. They went on for a very entertaining two hours, and even played some pieces with the Tech and high school bands.

After the show, Summer dropped me off back at home and I rushed to sleep. I was up all night again last night, but hopefully tonight I’ll sleep straight through since I drugged up.

Still not cool.

Uncategorised

Quiet Return

I slept straight through the night for the first time in over a week, and felt so much better for it. I made it in to work a couple minutes early, and things were really quiet. Gary came through my office a couple times and had me start making updated flash drives for the high school and junior high, because apparently they are expecting to push some testing up to the start of next week. This is a problem, since hardly any students have updated their devices to the required version of Windows.

Nobody went out for lunch since they’re all doing a weight loss challenge, so I took the opportunity to have a Soylent for the first time in a really long time. I felt pretty good about it, though I did snack a little bit on things I had in my desk as well.

At some point, Gary needed help at Central Office, so we walked a replacement monitor over for Justin, then helped Cindy with her broken printer up front. The rest of the afternoon was super quiet as I continued to fight my slowly-failing laptop.

After work, I went by Superfast for an oil change. They were really busy, but had the staff to keep things rolling, so I waited. Then I went home until Summer was done with work and the gym, and took a bunch of salad stuff over to their house for dinner.

Autumn was asleep the entire time I was there. Summer and Eaddie ate with me though. I just air fried the chicken strips, so they came out kind of dry, but they weren’t bad. I just hated to have to melt the ice before getting to fry them. After we ate, I headed home and got to bed as quickly as I could, still tired from a long week.

I can’t decide whether I’m happy or upset that my news feed didn’t think I’d be interested in Will Smith today.

Uncategorised

Something in the Water

I was up at least every hour last night, much like I have been for the past week or so, and it’s been the absolute pits. On top of feeling like I was wide awake and couldn’t fall back asleep every time I laid back down, we ran into some trouble with the water in our motel. There was a bunch of air in the lines, which I tried to purge by running the bath and sink. The loud glurging sound of course woke the girls, and the water started turning brown with lots of sediment. The tub wouldn’t drain either, and basically started filling up as though I had the plug in it.

We all got up and decided to just check out. My parents still had a good shower across town that I wanted to use, so Autumn and I grabbed a few things from the continental breakfast in the office and made our way out. The lady was super friendly and apologetic about the whole thing, and evidently she discovered a problem with the air pump that feeds their water supply. It might have been fine to go back and shower, but by that time we had already packed up and were ready to go.

The Christ of the Ozarks was just at the end of the road, so we drove through there quickly and got a few pictures at Eaddie’s request. Then as we drove through downtown, the girls decided they wanted to go on and find a coffee shop or something that was open while I went to shower.

Mom was still in bed, but started getting around once I got there. I had a nice shower, then caught up with the girls. I chanced it by parking in front of a broken meter, and walked to a few shops with them. I thought we might spend more time there, but they were over it pretty quickly. Autumn got to see her “working bunnies” and bought a shirt. Summer and I went up some stairs above the park in the middle of it all. We thought we might get lunch with my parents, but Summer, Autumn, and I were the only ones that were very hungry.

Instead, we just decided to stop by McDonald’s on the way out of town. They were super busy and clearly understaffed, so we ended up waiting quite a while for our food. The app also let me order a McRib, which they did not have, so I got a refund for that. The food was otherwise good, and I even got a Mario Kart Happy Meal for Eaddie before we headed out.

The drive back was different for some reason. I just trusted Google to get me home, not particularly caring how. We came through Lamar, then hit the interstate, making fairly good time. Autumn had plenty of time to get ready for her evening shift at Denny’s. Eaddie cleaned up a bit and then fell asleep super early. Summer and I just laid on the couch all evening until we decided to make some ramen and then go to bed. I went home to unpack and clean up, but made a quick night of it.

Collecting ALL the vacations…

Uncategorised

Witchcraft!

We all woke up early to leave for Eureka Springs this morning. I had to stop by Superfast first though, to check my coolant level again. We took a jug of some extra along just in case it got bad later, but I really shouldn’t have, because at the end of the day we found it had leaked all over the trunk.

It was a long and pretty drive, though the trees were all still dead from winter. Eaddie did great in the car, and we didn’t even have to drug her. We got to the Inn of the Ozarks a little before the last lecture let out for lunch, so we picked up Dad, then Mom and went to the top of the hill for lunch at Myrtie Mae’s.

After lunch, we watched the matinée for Dad’s performance. Then the girls had to cut out partway through the closeup show in order to make their zipline appointment. My parents and I got back up to their room just as the girls finished up, so once they walked back across the street, we headed to The Rockin’ Pig Saloon for dinner.

They had a bunch of menu items with Wagyu beef, including an $85 ribeye that made even our server’s eyes go wide. Mom got a non-Wagyu ribeye for less than half that, and the rest of the table got a pretty good mix of things. Somehow Autumn ended up with a pepperoni pizza, and even it was pretty good. I still think the brisket at Ridgewood is more tender though.

We got back to the Inn just in time for the raffle drawings, and then we watched the evening show. It was a good time getting to see everyone again after putting the event off for COVID. As they closed up shop, we left my parents to go find our hotel across town.

The Statue Road Inn was a cute little motel, at least in the dark. There was some confusion with the check-in process, because I was sure that I paid in full online, but I received an email saying I had to make a partial payment at the inn, and the lady at the front desk didn’t have any record of payment at all. She was super friendly though, and unable to find any credit card history, I felt comfortable making the partial payment. After researching some more online, I’m not convinced that I don’t owe the rest of it, but we’ll sort that out later.

The room was kind of cute, but it looked like they had some renovations going on at the other end of the building. This was the second time I’ve had a physical, metal key for a room I’ve stayed in as an adult. Aside from the miserable water pressure that Summer reported, everything seemed to be on the up and up. I guess we won’t know for sure until morning.

Short trip.

Uncategorised

Waiting for Nothing

Though I wanted to sleep in today, I knew that doing so would keep me up way too late tonight. I got around and made a chicken wrap with the leftovers that were successfully kept fresh by the cold weather outside. After a little while, I headed home to decompress and clean up before the refrigerator showed up.

Sandy got a hold of Summer and wanted me to hook up a computer for her, so once Summer showed up after her workout, we headed out of town to meet her. She chatted with Summer for a bit while I poked around under her enormous desk and got her computer replaced. Then we went back to my house to wait for our delivery.

Getting impatient, I called the Lowe’s customer service number as well as the local store number. After about four tries, I got through to someone in a call center that said the order was delayed by a week. This was particularly upsetting because we’d basically built our spring break vacation around this expected delivery schedule.

With the day basically completely wasted, Summer and I decided to go to La Huerta for dinner without the kids. When we got back to the house, she checked the coolant level in the Murano and found it to be low. I had a little bit of fluid at home, but we ended up going to Superfast to fill up with some more. We don’t know how low it really was, but we’ll have to check it again tomorrow before we leave.

Summer continued home while I went back to my house to pack. I caught up on some email and hung out for a while before loading up and heading to their house for the evening. Everyone was in their own rooms, so I wrapped things up and went to sleep as soon as possible.

No plan like dog’s plan.

Uncategorised

Crystal Clear

I was in and out of bed all night, but managed to get up in time for some breakfast with Summer before the girls got up. Then she went down with Autumn while I started getting ready for the day. Eaddie was the last one out of bed, and then we loaded everything up to head home.

Autumn wanted to stop at a crystal shop on the way home, so we went to Miller’s Rock Shop. They had a couple anoles in a sunlit window, and evidently they just hang out loose there, and they put food and water out for them. Autumn picked up a slice of rock, and then we continued to Iron Springs.

The girls were less enthusiastic about the thought of hiking, but Summer coaxed them across the wooden bridge and just off the path to dig in the dirt a little bit. Summer found a decent sized crystal, and then we continued home. She took the girls home as soon as we got to my house, and I got unpacked.

My parents were at Burger King before their trip to Eureka Springs, so I ran around the block to see them. Then I loaded up some leftover chicken strips and went to Walmart for salad to take to the girls.

The chicken lost a lot of its water to ice crystals, which caused some trouble as I tried to split it up into smaller bags and then fry. I ended up having to take the deep fryer outside, and also melt the ice in the toaster oven before frying the chicken. I eventually had a decent system, but it was a huge pain in the ass, and in the end none of the girls were really hungry. I made Summer and myself salads, but was frustrated that they watched me spend a lot of time making a lot of food for everyone, knowing that they didn’t have a refrigerator to keep any leftovers.

After Summer and I ate, they wanted to play a game of Uno Flip. Eaddie gave up after Summer won first place, and then Summer won again finishing Eaddie’s hand before Autumn gave up. Then the girls went to their rooms for the night, but stayed up either tinkering or moving and cleaning up their rooms. Summer went to sleep really quickly, and I was tired enough that I didn’t stay up much longer.

I can’t like anything out loud any more.