Author: gallopingcow

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A Dandy, Mandy Birthday

We had a really long, relaxing meeting this morning with some fancier donuts than usual. It really felt like we didn’t have much of anything to do, and everyone was just happy to be at the end of the week. Jacob wanted some help troubleshooting a sound system that kept going to sleep, so I went to the junior high with him for a bit.

When I got back to the shop, I poked around a little bit until lunch time. Then a big group of us went to La Chiquita. We even got Tammy and Kelsea to go with us, which has never happened before. Thomas ended up paying for everyone, which was super generous. I had the fajitas for the first time in quite a while, which reminded me how much better they are than just about anything else on the lunch menu.

The afternoon went by pretty slowly after that. I ran home to grab a package, but otherwise didn’t have a whole lot at work that was just super pressing. I closed out what tickets I could for Gary and myself, and eventually made it to four o’clock.

I ran straight home and got to work making my smoked queso dip. I cooked some chorizo, then melted smoked Velveeta, smoked shredded blend, and some smoked pepperjack into the Rotel, garlic, and jalapeños. I forgot my onion and cilantro, which would have freshened it up quite a bit. The chorizo also ended up being a big mess because the grease bubbled up around the cheese and popped everywhere. It tasted alright though, and not too smokey.

As soon as I loaded that up into my little crock pot, I headed to Amanda’s for her birthday shindig. It was just her and Sarah, their roommate Steven, and their friend Khris there, so it was a really chill evening of just hanging out and playing a couple games. We picked up some pizza and candy from Casey’s, then played Sushi Go, followed by Cards Against Humanity.

I left shortly after midnight, when we wished Amanda a proper happy birthday. Then it was straight home and to bed after a long, waking day.

It don’t confront me none!

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Melo

I had trouble getting to sleep again last night, but then woke from heavy dreams. Work started to look interesting once I got there, because I immediately started receiving phone calls through Tammy from others in the district that I don’t typically interface with. I felt pretty helpful though. I actually had the last couple days to myself since Brody’s been out.

Zach, Thomas, and I tried going to CJ’s for lunch, but the parking lot was beyond full. We ended going back to Wendy’s for my burger of choice, but I had trouble getting their app to load. I finally got my food as they were finishing theirs, but the service was so fast that we ended up just sitting for most of the hour anyway.

I ended up at Oakland for the better part of the afternoon, partly to finish up the TV install we did yesterday, but then killing the last bit of time until the end of the day. Eaddie had me take her and Zane to Zaxby’s right after work, so they could hang out with Autumn and the Quiz Bowl gang. I stopped by Superfast to see Summer for a bit, and then went home to change.

I had some stuff to run to my parents’ house, so I went over there to visit for a while. Dad and I set up a new set of cordless phones while we caught up. By the time I left there, it was getting pretty late but I wanted to get my taco, so I ran through the drive-through to get it and then ended up going on to Summer’s for the evening.

The girls were still at their event. Summer was in bed. I ate, and then got to bed as quickly as I could. I was cold and tired, and ready for sleep.

Anything to keep the blood pressure down.

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Back in Zax

I remember sleeping pretty hard and dreaming when my alarm went off this morning, so I wasn’t very happy to have to get up and go to work. I made it in just a hair late, but there was nothing going on anyway. Zach had Jacob, Kyle, and me go out to the graveyard to sort through some of the stuff that was out there. I pulled out a working overhead projector, if for nothing else, then for awesome hand puppets.

When we got back inside, I made myself some English breakfast tea with milk. I had forgotten how much I like milk with tea. It was a pretty quiet day after that. I helped with a few things here and there. Zach, Thomas, Josh, and I went to Zaxby’s for lunch, since they were finally open for dine-in again. The only thing I didn’t miss was their prices.

The afternoon went by quietly as well. I went to Oakland at the end of the day to take care of something, and then Zach met me there after school to help install a new touch panel for the room that had the whiteboard ripped off the wall.

After we dropped that stuff back off at the graveyard, I headed home for a quiet night to myself. I finally picked up a bit in the kitchen after smoking all of that cheese. Then I ate some of the beef that was leftover from our night out a couple weeks ago before getting on the treadmill for a bit. I didn’t feel super great, so I stopped a little under two miles and came inside to go to bed.

Tell me it’s Jason Bourne without telling me it’s Jason Bourne.

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Taco Threesday

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning, and ended up going off routine. I made it to work a couple minutes early to little fanfare, and tried to find some work to do. Brody came around for some help, which kept me busy for a large part of my day again. I did go by Oakland for a little bit, but even that was a pretty quick in-and-out.

I almost didn’t go to lunch, but the guys chose Taco John’s and I couldn’t pass up a meal under $3. I felt pretty satisfied after that, too. The afternoon was uneventful, and I ended up killing some some until my Google user research call. That was kind of interesting, but not really as fun as I thought it could have been. I would have hoped for more insider information, but there was nothing really groundbreaking.

As I left, Eaddie called and asked me to pick her up. I had to go by Oakland for a few things anyway, so it worked out. Evidently the autism room had a kid rip the SMART board off of the wall, so we’ll have to figure something out for that tomorrow.

We didn’t spend much time at my house. I vacuum sealed some of the shredded cheese, and then we left for Summer’s. I picked up another taco along the way, and then ate it along with some more leftover double decker tacos once we got to the house. Autumn was out late at some wrestling event, and then it was a quiet evening until an early bedtime.

Increasingly elaborate tortilla sandwiches…

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Super Cheesy

It was a crisp sort of frosty this morning, lugging my cheeses back home for smoking in the evening. I made it in to work without event, but Gary messaged to say he would be out for a few days after slipping on ice and breaking his arm. It was pretty quiet, otherwise. Thomas sounded significantly better, and said he was finally nearing normal.

I spent a large portion of the day finishing up some work for CPPC, between helping Brody with random things. I thought I’d make it to Oakland at some point, but I never did.

Zach, Thomas, and I went to Arby’s for lunch. I had thought to myself recently that it had been a while since we’d eaten there, so it was a treat. Their new Brisket, Bacon, ‘n Beef Dip was awesome, and then Zach bought us all turnovers for dessert.

When we got back, I printed off some copies of the CPPC email and changed policies, and walked them over to Transportation, as well as all the way out to the bus barn for the drivers less likely to read their email. The rest of the afternoon just got quieter and quieter until quitting time.

As soon as I got home, I rushed to get things ready to smoke my cheese. I did some quick research, sliced up all of my big blocks, and loaded them onto a metal rack to stick in the grill. My A-Maze-N Tube Smoker lit off like a champ, and we were off to the races.

I stuck around for about an hour and flipped the cheeses, then went to Taco Bell to pick up dinner. I video called Summer while I waited in line, and then made it home to eat. I flipped the cheese some more, then did a couple miles on the treadmill before coming back in to finish things up.

It took me a bit to get the vacuum sealing right, but I was pretty pleased with the results. All of the cheeses looked pretty good, but I won’t know until at least the end of the week how good they really turned out. They’ve got to rest a bit while they’re all wrapped up, so the smokey flavor mellows out. I did sneak a couple pinches of the shredded cheese though, and it was pretty good.

Sucks to suck.

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Mush Fry

Today didn’t manifest much. The girls got up and went home. I ate some leftovers and eventually took a shower. Then I met Summer at Walmart to pick up some groceries and walk around a bit. I bought a ton of cheese to try my hand at cold smoking it, so I’m excited for that. I also got a bunch of stuff to make smoked queso on the grill.

I picked up a taco on the way up to Summer’s house, then started prepping veggies for stir fry for dinner. I kept forgetting ingredients, so by the time everything made it into the wok, the broccoli and cauliflower was had all turned to mush. At least it tasted okay.

I was bored the rest of the night, and spent a little time cleaning up some email before bed. Weekends just aren’t what they used to be.

Damn, they got me with the more expensive quart jug.

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Clean Mess

I got up this morning and piddled around the house some more. There was some filing of paperwork, and more shuffling things around to different places. I still don’t know where I can put everything I’ve hoarded, but I’ve got to make room to move some furniture somehow. I eventually made it to the shower before Summer wanted to take Eaddie out for dinner.

Autumn left to spend the day with her father, so the three of us that remained went to Venezia’s for dinner. Eaddie was invited to the movies to see Sing 2, but wanted to come to my house for the evening, so we went to their house to get some clothes. Summer headed straight to my house, and I took Eaddie to the theater, stopping for my taco along the way. It made Eaddie really angry, but we made it to the theater with perfect timing.

I laid on the couch with Summer while she watched TV until it was time to get Eaddie again. Then the two of us watched the last episode of Hawkeye before bed. I felt like it was one of the weaker shows, and I really hated this version if Kingpin. Daredevil did it so well, and this just made me hate it. I guess that may not matter though, if the story was as short-lived as it appeared to be.

Persistence.

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Iced Out

I woke up this morning and cautiously waited for a notification that never came. Work was happening, in spite of any remaining ice. I went outside in the dark and tried to get into my car, but there was a quarter inch thick sheet of ice wrapped smoothly around my entire door. I managed to get to my door handle, but the more I pulled, the more I felt like I was going to rip the handle right off. It just wasn’t worth the damage, so I opted to work from home for the morning.

I answered some emails, had an hour and a half phone call with Aimee about bus driver pay and benefits, and tried to help someone with a VPN issue. As I wrapped that up, Bác Vân called to offer some sweet rice she made for the new year’s celebration. As I walked next door, I was able to get my car door open, so I started the car and let it defrost while I went nextdoor. She gave me a big bag of fruit and a couple rounds of rice.

Heading in to work was a piece of cake, as the roads were almost completely clear. I arrived just as a big group of the guys were headed to lunch. I wasn’t much interested in La Chiquita, so I just went inside and shared my rice ball with Thomas and Tammy. I didn’t have a lot to work on right away, but eventually the guys made it back from lunch and I went over some CPPC stuff with Zach.

Eventually Thomas came back to socialize with everyone, and after a while he sent us on home for the weekend. I went home and tried to keep up my momentum to clean up a bit. It was less cleaning, and more trying to organize a bunch of random stuff that ended up in the bedroom floor. Time got away from me as I documented healthcare receipts for later HSA reimbursement. Eventually I gave up and took a shower so I could go to bed grime-free.

It’s poteen, me boys!

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Hot Ice

I woke up this morning and found myself to have quite a high blood pressure out of the blue. I’d gone several days without medication, so I was surprised to see it spike. I took some medicine and tried to chill out as I waited for the message that work would be closed due to the ice. I preferred Ben’s later policy that just said we were out of school was out, since at least then we would know well ahead of time. I felt bad for those that live further away and might have actually started the drive in before getting the call.

I never got up to much after that. I didn’t go back to sleep, though maybe I should have. I just sat around the entire day. I watched a little YouTube, played on my phone, and otherwise bounced around the house while constantly checking my blood pressure. At one point in the early afternoon, I started to doze off on the couch under the heated blanket.

The biggest thing I did all day was watch most of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I just love that movie. That just about got me to sundown, so I wound everything up super early and went to bed.

Notivation

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Stand Up

I got in to work this morning and continued work on what I had to say for the CPPC meeting. Justin happened to call me with some thoughts just as Gary came back to review it with me, so he came down and they both listened to what I had to say before the meeting at 9:30.

It was drizzly out, so I drove around the building to our central office. I got there without much time to spare, so once the meeting started I actually took a little bit to get myself situated to make my speech. I got all kinds of looks, but I was too concentrated on breathing through my mask to notice much. I said what I had to say, and I got roughly the response I thought I would. It’s our meeting, and we’re welcome to come up with whatever policy changes we would like. Janie was back after being out for the last meeting, and her response was actually less incendiary than any of us expected. I think overall it went well, because everyone was pretty involved in the discussion of every policy moving forward for the rest of the meeting – at least until people started to disappear, one by one.

I made it back to the shop about half an hour before lunch, which gave me just enough time to get settled before Gary came around and said we were going to McAlister’s. I drove him, Josh, and Thomas there to meet Greg, and of course my online order that I submitted while we were still halfway through the line came out after they had gotten theirs at the table and already started eating. Mine was deliciously customized though, with every free vegetable they offered.

After lunch, I spent most of the afternoon working on the CPPC minutes. I decided to leave out my 30 minute diatribe about Chrissy, and instead stuck to the policies we changed. I’ve felt better, but it didn’t feel bad to stand up for something I believe in either. Near the end of the day we got an email announcing the closure of school for the students tomorrow. Thomas’s policy is that we would work unless Central Office closed, which was a break from what we were used to with Ben. I’d much rather just have the day off like everyone else, obviously.

Just as I got home from work, Julie called to talk about our Disney trip. She felt that I was making a grave mistake by threatening Autumn over her grades. She didn’t think it was right to position our family vacation either as a punishment or reward. I tried to stop and let her know that it was a non-issue, but she stood on principle. It was clear there was nothing I could say to satisfy her. She started the conversation with clear intent. Frankly, I had run out of polite ways to tell her that it was none of her fucking business how we choose to parent. She ended the call by saying that Disney was cancelled, and hanging up on me.

I’ve only ever had one other person that was able to stress me out so instantaneously, and I swore myself out of that situation. Julie is evidently incapable of accepting that there are things that she cannot change, and she refuses not to fight over it at every chance possible. I’m absolutely through with it. I’m mustering every bit of will that I have to make good decisions for myself and for my family, and I will not have anyone bring me down from that. She can blame me or our family for all of her issues, and I do not care. In the end it is personal responsibility that you can rely on. I hope she makes a better life, but I won’t have her making mine worse.

I walked a brisk 1.6 miles on the treadmill with a glass of apple pie moonshine and a cream ale to calm the nerves, and ended the evening with a couple tacos and some fries because I’m no stranger to bad decisions either. Eyes forward.

Quit wasting my time.