Author: gallopingcow

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Hell-o

I didn’t get to sleep until after three in the morning, so I had to fight to keep from sleeping in too late this morning. We lounged around for a bit, and then Mom said she had bún bò Huế for lunch. The girls drove separately so I could go home to charge and clean up afterward. The five of us ate and hung out for a little bit before going about our day.

I wanted to do a bit of laundry, but got sidetracked while cleaning up the laundry room. I ought to have time this week to get some laundry done though. The afternoon flew by, and then Mom had egg rolls for dinner, so I went to pick up Summer to go eat. Eaddie was out mowing the lawn and wrote “HELLO” in big letters on the front lawn. The slope of the yard made it a little difficult to make out some of the letters, but she did a good job.

Eaddie wanted to stay behind to finish up, so Summer and I went to eat. My parents were out watering the garden the whole time, so we ate and then left so we could get ready for the work week. I stopped for a car wash on the way back to Summer’s, and then I warmed up some egg rolls we brought back for Eaddie. It wasn’t long before everyone crashed after that.

No teacher, no cry.

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I’ll Try to Think About the Last Time I Had a Good Time

Eaddie and I had a concert in Little Rock in the evening, so I had to get home to charge up. I grabbed some hot wings on the way home since I’d be there for a little while. I actually didn’t feel great for most of the morning, but it was better once we were in the car.

I picked her up and we headed straight to The Fold: Botanas & Bar in Little Rock. Mitch had taken me there when he was in town, and I thought the girls would really like it. We got the big appetizer to try all the salsas, cheese, and guacamole, and then both got assorted taco plates. I didn’t think it was quite as good as last time, but it was a cute place and we still really enjoyed it.

We had a little bit of time to kill before the concert, so we went by Franklin’s Charging Hub for a little juice and to use the restrooms. Then we headed to the Simmons Bank Arena and parked on the south side parking lot. It didn’t seem like a very big crowd, and we got into the building really quickly. We found our seats, and then went back up for some shirts.

They had the upper bowl completely closed off, and there were still empty seats left. I was surprised, especially for $25 tickets. Simple Plan was up first, and I felt kind of bad about how low-energy the crowd was behaving. I’m not one to get up and dance, and I prefer to sit in the seats I paid for, but you could just tell that people were there for different bands. On the other hand, there was a group of girls across the aisle from us that appeared to leave after Sum 41.

We were surprised by how many small children were in attendance. There was a pretty big family with several small children seated right in front of us, and when before The Offspring came on, they had a blimp with a camera and then several other cameras taking videos of the crowd. After a kiss cam, they had a bird cam, and several of the kids were being encouraged by their parents to flip off the cameras, much to the delight of the crowd.

Overall we had mixed feelings about the concert. All three bands struggled with low vocals, and it was difficult to hear what any of them were singing. The rest of the music was just blaring, which didn’t help. We did get to witness some crowd surfing and a mosh pit, as well as The Offspring stopping for a moment due to an injury in the crowd.

After the concert, we made the quickest getaway we’ve ever had at the arena. There was no waiting at all to get out of the parking lot, and then the roads were clear right by us, all the way out of town. We decided to stop at Waffle House in Conway for a late night dinner, since Eaddie hadn’t been to one recently enough to remember. The staff was loud, friendly, and attentive until they started getting really busy with other concert-goers. We both really enjoyed our food, and then we made it home in good time to go straight to bed.

I’m sick of always hearing “act your age!”

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Purgatory

I didn’t go to work today, and instead woke up and did some remote work. Duvall’s Air Conditioning came out early to replace Summer’s air unit, both inside and out. Eaddie stayed in her room the whole time, which was a few hours. I took breaks to eat and make more hummingbird food, since there was nearly a cloud of birds buzzing around the feeder. I managed to get all of my network equipment updated, and now I feel a little more comfortable in the Ubiquiti software.

After the guys left and we had some cool air flowing, Eaddie came out and cleaned up some leftovers with me. Then she left for band practice and I started to head home. Mom called just as I was getting ready to leave, and said that Lelan was having them over to pray for Bác Vân’s 49th day in purgatory. I hurried home to clean up and then got there just as Julie and Kevin arrived.

On the drive over, Ben called to chat a little more about work stuff. I didn’t have anything too exciting to share with him, but we talked for a little while. Then I went in and socialized with our small group of family for a few hours.

I forgot Eaddie’s band family event was tonight, but Summer went to learn how to march with her. I eventually made it back to their house, but didn’t feel super Smurfy. I eventually got settled in though, and made it to bed around midnight.

Twice a day, five days a week.

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Floating the River

The teachers didn’t show up until later today because they had open house in the evening, which meant there was no breakfast to be had. I had a Red Bull to pep myself up, and after a little while I had to meet Blake and Courtney to teach her how to edit the website. I didn’t really have much to say about that, but tried to point them in a direction of posting to the website first, and social media second.

I think Kim worked on carts for a little bit, but I spent the rest of the morning messing with something else. Then we had Ridgewood Brothers for lunch, which was awesome because they didn’t just have pork. They brought brisket and turkey, as well as some potato salad, baked beans, and an assortment of desserts. It really was too much, but it was awesome.

Kim and I eventually made it down to the elementary to try and close out some work orders, but herding her around was a little like trying to herd a cat. Anything would catch her attention. At one point, she was literally playing with a basket of toys in the counselor’s office. Then I learned that the open wireless network wasn’t even split off to its own VLAN. Everything is exposed, and I’ve got teachers fussing because their work orders haven’t been addressed yet.

I ended up staying quite late to pen an email that I didn’t even send because Ben called on his way home. We chatted for a little while, and then I set up some remote software so I could work from home. It just didn’t seem worthwhile to go in on Friday when nobody else would be there.

I charged up and dawdled around at home for a while before making it up to Summer’s. She was supposed to get a new air conditioner, but evidently that didn’t happen. The house was cool from all the rain, though Summer kept complaining about being hot. I never even saw Eaddie until she came out of her room super late to find some food. I felt pretty cranky, so I avoided sleep for a couple hours before going to bed.

Elective Idiocy

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Cartesian Planes

This morning was rainy again, but I was early enough for a calm ride to work. Breakfast was more or less leftovers today, and I fussed with the task scheduler for a while before giving up to make carts with Kim. I think I nearly caught up to her other work so far, but the built-in clips in the carts ate up my fingers. It was helpful to lift the carts up off of the ground though, so I could scoot in closer to reach all the way through while I sat on the floor.

We ate lunch a little early to beat the line of teachers. They brought fajitas from some Mexican place that were pretty decent. Then I left pretty close to four and charged up at home for a while. Ben called to catch up on work stuff a little bit, and then Becky returned my birthday call and we caught up for the first time since around Christmas.

When I got to Summer’s, I remembered to look at her windshield that took a rock yesterday. The small smashed spot had split right up the middle of the windshield, which meant it would have to be replaced. She said she and Justin actually saw the rock, which was really large and came from the left, with no vehicles except for across the median of the interstate. Of course she forgot that she could honk the horn to save dashcam footage, so there’s no chance of ever knowing what actually happened. I started the claim online and then let her take the call to schedule the windshield replacement. Two Tesla windshields within six months of buying the cars seems like it can’t be a coincidence.

I tried to wind down quickly because I kept falling asleep on the couch, but then I had to look at home insurance stuff again. Eaddie got home from her friend’s house late, and then I wrapped up quickly for bed.

Update those profiles!

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Croc Code Dial Rock

It was pouring down rain on my way to work again, but I was plenty early to grab some breakfast. They had a variety of meat and cheese biscuits or “crescents,” which were super good. Kim actually made it in before me, and finally got started on wiring some carts without me. I felt a little bad, like I wasn’t a leader, but they aren’t really paying me to be one, and I haven’t even gotten the impression they want me to be.

I spent virtually all day long trying to fix the Clever sync. I was finally successful after nearly half a day and rebuilding the script from “scratch,” or at least from the repository. Then I spent the afternoon doing the same for the eSchool uploader, so students would have their email addresses attached to their accounts.

We grabbed some pretty sorry “chicken strips” for lunch and ate in the office while we kept working. Then I tried to slip out a little early but kept hearing people outside. When I finally left, it was nice and clear outside and I made my way home quickly.

Summer said she had dinner ready, so I charged a little bit and then headed up to her house for the evening. She re-boiled the boiled chicken in some cream of mushroom soup with some new vegetables, which made it taste better over a bowl of rice, but would have been better still if she had just baked the damn thing. She’s made a chicken and broccoli casserole dozens of times before, so I don’t know where she got the idea to boil it all in a pot. At least it tasted alright, and then I put the leftovers together in a baking dish for later.

I played 20 Minutes Till Dawn for a bit, and then did some research on insurance and escrow for the house, I’d been tired all week, so fortunately I made it to bed “on time.”

There’s got to be a 12 step program for this.

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The Crocodile in the Room

I switched back to five day weeks today, just because I assumed I was supposed to. I took the opportunity to sleep in just a few short minutes, but then still had to get to work before eight. I didn’t have enough time to stop for coffee, but luckily they had breakfast for us with some coffee and an assortment of other drinks as well. I ate in the cafeteria by myself with my laptop, though I could have just as easily taken it to my office. Then I took my things to the auditorium where I ended up having to loan my laptop to the superintendent and anyone else that wanted to present, because the ancient laptop they had for the stage was just a piece of junk.

I was on stage to help for just a bit, and then spent the rest of his speech in the sound booth upstairs. I came down afterward and spent some time in my office through lunch, when they brought an assortment of Subway sandwiches. They weren’t bad, especially for free.

Blake came and prompted me after lunch so I could go present after him. I don’t know if anyone really expected me to have a presentation ready, but I did my best to put one together in a very short period of time. I thought I could go into it confidently, but of course I started melting as soon as I was on the spot. It actually went reasonably well, with teachers nodding in approval as I called the district out for their lack of accountability when handling students with devices. I tried to signal that administration would have our backs in the future, specifically so it would be solely on them if the failings continued into my watch.

The afternoon was a bit more loose, and Kim disappeared for a while. I’ve been disappointed that she’s just been waiting for me to start wiring carts, but it’s on me for not leading by example already. There’s just so much that she can’t do, and yet she’s waiting for me to help with the things she should be able to do.

I still left a little late, but not much over a full day. I went home and fixed my garage door sensor, which broke off of the wall when I manually opened the door yesterday. Luckily I found the two sharp screws in the driveway and under my tire, not having punctured anything. As soon as that was back together, I headed up to Summer’s where she and Eaddie had dinner waiting.

Summer has been trying to use up some of the food we’ve had in the freezer for a long time, and this time she boiled a bunch of chicken thighs for tacos. I tried to be positive, but was immediately disgusted by the sight and the taste of it all. I had two tacos and then tried to stop, but gave in to one more after feeling angry and hungry. After all of the cooking shows, the best she could do was boil chicken, and then throw out the liquid that would have actually made decent broth. I took a moment to cool down, and then talked to her about it afterward. I appreciated the gesture, but grew tired of the spectacular failures.

Later on, Eaddie and I went to Freddy’s to pick up some free custard for National Frozen Custard Day. I was a little skittish at first to place three free orders, but of course none of the minimum wage employees cared enough to even acknowledge our arrival. We scooped up our custards from the freezer and left.

I ate two bites and put the rest away, deathly afraid of what the dairy would do to my insides. The girls wound down quickly, and then we were all off to bed.

…with gently smiling jaws!

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What Hindu

I woke up early this morning to get home for a shower before our day in Little Rock. On my way to the shower, I heard rainwater dripping into the bedroom where the roof still hadn’t been repaired, so I had to stick a bucket under it to prevent any further damage. It didn’t really seem to be storming, but while in the middle of my shower, I heard three or four loud pops outside as transformers blew one-by-one. My lights flickered for the first couple, then went out for a couple seconds for another, and finally went out for good after the last bang.

I finished my shower without power, and then struggled to find a way out of my home. I haven’t been able to find a door key in ages, so I ended up manually opening the garage to leave, hoping things would be back on quickly enough to lock things up again.

My parents picked us up at Summer’s, and we headed to meet Julie and Kevin at Costco. I worked on my Google Slides presentation for the whole drive, and felt like I had some pretty good topics to cover with the teachers for tomorrow.

I was pretty hungry, so Julie got us all hot dogs or pizza at the deli, which was super cheap and pretty tasty. I was surprised at how much of the store we covered, and we picked out a couple things to bring home. After that, we went straight to the IMAX for Oppenheimer.

I think most of us liked the movie alright, but Eaddie and I probably enjoyed it the most. Mom and Dad ended up going toward the back of the theater because Mom couldn’t see the screen well enough from the seats I picked. I think Kevin thought it would be more about the Manhattan Project than just Oppenheimer’s life, but I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and felt good about what we watched. It definitely felt more like a biopic than anything else, and didn’t drown the audience in the science.

After the movie, the girls had to thaw out a bit. We walked partway down the Promenade before turning around to find something to eat. Nobody seemed really excited for food except for me, because I knew that was the plan and was going to eat regardless of how I felt. It almost devolved into a full-blown argument choosing where to go, because nobody wanted to just call the shot. I finally picked Star of India after we discovered that Julie’s pick of Three Fold Noodles + Dumpling Co. was closed.

We tried to order full-sized orders of everything in the Chef’s Special, thinking that it would be way more food than what we actually got. In the end, I think it was pretty close in portion size, so I was left wondering if we had inadvertently ripped ourselves off. I just couldn’t quite remember how much we got the last couple of times I got the special. In any case, the food was good and everyone got to try something new that the girls and I have really enjoyed.

I poked around my slideshow a bit more on the drive home, and then had my parents drop us off at my house so I could take my car to Summer’s for the evening. My water bucket hadn’t overflowed, and it was a quick and quiet evening until bedtime.

Impromptu Best Presentation Ever

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Caring for Plants

I was a little scattered and a little off track today. I wanted to make a slide presentation for the teachers on Monday, but I never got around to it. Eaddie wanted to go to the park, so I had her take me to my house while Summer went to the gym. Dad came by to meet Kevin and take Bác Vân’s old mattress to the dump. Mom stopped by at the same time, and then Doug came out to see everyone. I loaded up the bike rack and a couple bikes for Eaddie, which got me super sweaty due to the humidity. It threatened rain, but it never came down.

I eventually had a shower, and then Summer picked me up for lunch. We found Eaddie at Kroger so I could return the bike lock key to her, and then we went to New China. We ran into Sharon there, and she stepped over from their table to talk for a moment. The sentiment about the district seems as shaky as ever.

Summer didn’t feel great after we ate, but we still made time to go by a junk store in the old mall parking lot. I guess they buy pallets of returns and fill a bunch of bins with it, and then sell things for a set price that drops every day of the week until everything finally goes for a buck. It was mostly pilfered junk, but we picked up some Andes mints, a bag of coffee, and the most surprising find of all, a sync module for my Blink camera.

We laid on the couch when we got back to the house, and I played a game on my phone while Summer watched TV. Eventually Eaddie was ready to come home but had to do something with the bikes first, so I met her at my house to put all of that away. Then we came back to the house for the night. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 with Summer, and then it was off to bed way later than I intended.

Just a little watering routine. Nothing to cry about.

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Too Much Milling About

I got up with the girls this morning, but then napped for a little bit longer before going home to shower. I planned to take some Ridgewood Brothers BBQ to the mill as a gesture of goodwill since I still hadn’t actually accepted their job offer yet. Gary didn’t answer my call, but then responded to my text to say that they ended up filling the position earlier this week. I was pretty upset, but it wasn’t much of a surprise after all the time I had wasted since the original offer. Part of me thinks I should have just left the school without any qualms, since I had no evidence that the superintendent was actually putting forth any effort to increase my pay. Maybe he has, but he’s certainly not any good at communicating his intent.

Around that time, Eaddie finished at band practice. I told her I was free for lunch, so she came to pick me up and we went to Ridgewood ourselves. She made me get the two meat plate because she wanted a bite of some ribs, so I wasn’t quite as satisfied with my meal as I usually am. Then we went back to my house to get my car, but ended up leaving it there to stay on the charger.

As we left, I noticed she had things strewn all around the car, and my lip balm had been tipped up on its side, leaking out all over the place. Fortunately there was a removable rubber tray and it wasn’t terribly difficult to clean up. I was mostly upset that my lip balm was wasted all because the girls couldn’t pay attention to what the hell they were doing in my car.

When we got back to the house, I sat and played 20 Minutes Till Dawn on my phone. I brought my little 8BitDo controller, which made the game a lot more playable. Summer eventually made it home, but didn’t want to get back out. Eaddie and I went back to Ridgewood to try their pork belly pops and some brickle bars. We were in and out, but then got stopped by a train for several minutes as it went back and forth in front of us.

We loved the porksicles, and the desserts were great too. Then I laid in Summer’s lap while she watched TV, and played more of my new game until bedtime.

I like to think I would have been less happy there anyway.