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The Honest Ones

I got up fairly early this morning and headed home to mow my lawn. Summer had me drop a couple things off for her at the wash, and I traded vehicles with her so I could load up a ladder for our second home tour. It was nice and cool outside, so mowing wasn’t bad at all. I still felt some chest pain as I got going, but it got better over time. I got the front yard and most of the back done with just one battery, and I’ll need to burn some fallen branches and other scrap wood to clean up the rest. When I finished, Bác Vân called me over to get a couple slices of pizza she brought home from the casino. Then I took a shower so I could get some lunch for Summer.

She wanted “a good burger” but wasn’t willing to leave the wash, so she got a “Whopper” instead. After we ate, Brendon wanted a ride in the Model Y, so I took him around the block before eventually heading home. Eaddie was supposed to go with us to look at the house, but decided she would rather watch a band recital instead. Once Summer left work, I headed up to her house to pick her up, where she called Eaddie to convince her to come with us instead.

Summer drove us across town using the least efficient route to get Eaddie, and then finally started following the navigation system to get us to the house. Dad beat us there, and we beat Alisha, so we took our time staring at a neighbor’s dog that was running around the driveway. David was actually outside on the front porch, so we chatted with him a bit when we found him. Then Dad and I climbed up a ladder in the detached garage to try and figure out what it would take to put the garage door back together. They didn’t appear to have the parts, and the rails were removed far enough to encapsulate the door behind drywall.

The girls finished touring the rest of the house while we were messing around in the garage, but then I wanted to walk through once more to measure some spaces. Eaddie really seemed to like the place, and it smelled way better than it did the other day. They had incense burning in practically every room, and several of the windows were cracked open. As we finished up our second tour, I took David for a ride in the Model Y, which he really enjoyed. I guess all that’s left is to talk to a bank or five.

We dropped the ladder back off at my house, and then headed toward home. I convinced the girls to go to CiCi’s for dinner, but as we walked in the door, I got a call from the last lawyer I contacted. He was at least honest enough to give me the news I didn’t want to hear. By his estimation, the risk versus reward just wasn’t good enough, and he suggested if I had 10 grand to burn, I should take it to a roulette table in Tunica and bet on even. Though frustrated, stressed, and anxious, I was appreciative of an opinion that didn’t immediately turn into a sales pitch. I don’t know what’s next, but I know I’m not quite ready to give up.

After that lengthy phone call, we went inside to eat. It was overall a substandard experience, because we learned they were completely out of forks, but only after we had made big salads. They never once came out with a barbecue pizza, but at least they had some fresh spinach at one point. Most everything had been sitting for at least a little while, so it just wasn’t great.

Autumn was home when we got back, and had made herself a sandwich after doing who-knows what kind of grocery shopping. Summer went straight to bed, Eaddie disappeared into her room right away, and Autumn went to her room as soon as she finished eating. I spent the rest of the night poring over first-time home buyer tips, and trying to make sure we weren’t about to go completely broke. I’d really love a job offer right about now.

No Bull! Know WTF is happening!

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Everything Goes

Summer got up and made us a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, and waffles. Autumn refused to get out of bed, and stumbled out to eat late, after everything had been put away. We were supposed to go look at the house again, so I went home to shower and get my ladder before picking up the girls. As I was getting ready, Alisha texted and wanted to reschedule, so we set up a time for Monday instead.

Eaddie wanted to go watch the high school play again, so we took her to that. We ran into Karen and Kim at the box office, and I chatted with Karen briefly before the play. I found myself completely disinterested in Anything Goes. It just wasn’t an interesting story to me, and it seemed like the singing parts could have been cast better. Eaddie and a couple of her friends sat with us for the first half, but then left to sit up front for the last half. I had hoped the intermission was the end, but at least I had less trouble staying awake after the intermission.

After the play, Karen came up and found me to get the full scoop on what happened for me. Then Jeff spotted me and came over to shake my hand and offer his condolences. That made me feel really good that he felt concerned enough to come see me, because we didn’t have occasion to talk very often at work.

When we got back to the house, Autumn was asleep in bed, so I had Summer make her get up so I could drop her off at the gym. I figured I could take Eaddie out to practice driving while we waited. That turned into an absolute screaming fit, and she threw her car keys at my feet as we argued about vehicle ownership. I gave her another five minutes to cool down while I talked Eaddie into riding along, and then we dropped her off.

Eaddie was stressing over homework, so we ended up coming back to the house anyway so she could start on that. I warmed us up some leftovers for dinner, and then we picked Autumn up after an absolute maximum of 45 minutes worth of working out. She had cooled way down by then, and it was fine when we got home. I continued to help Eaddie with her homework until everyone wandered off to bed. Autumn, who had already spent the majority of the day in bed, stayed up late doing laundry even past when I turned in.

I say, anyone have hot pants for a game of shuffle board?

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A Real Ham

We got around this morning and I made tuna pitas for everyone. Then after a while, Summer took Eaddie shopping for some shoes while I took a shower. When they got back, we had to go to the store for something to go with the ham that Summer wanted to bake for dinner. Autumn came home eventually, and fussed about wanting to spend the day with Adam, and then fussed about him not liking me, and how awkward he would feel if he came over for dinner.

Autumn eventually gave in to taking Eaddie shopping when she got Adam. Summer and I made a relatively quick trip to my house, then Walmart, and then back to my house because she wanted another muffin tin. Then she started cooking as soon as we got back to her house. I scheduled another visit with Alisha, so we’ll check out the house again tomorrow afternoon.

We had a really nice dinner, and then Eaddie and I went to the bedroom to watch an episode of Breaking Bad. As we finished, Summer came in wanting to go to bed, so she kicked us out to Eaddie’s room where she and I watched one more episode, trying to ignore the loud music and giggles coming out of Autumn’s room because Summer is incapable of firmly telling her she can’t take her boyfriend in there.

Eaddie had enough after the second episode, so she went to bed and I cleaned up in the kitchen. Adam left when his father picked him up, and eventually I made it to bed.

Exclusion Solution

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My Star, My Perfect Silence

Eaddie stayed home from school today, so when I got up and made tuna for a pita, I walked one into her bedroom for her. That prompted her to get out and do some laundry and clean her room. She took a break after a bit, and I brushed her hair. Then she brought out a curling iron, and we practiced putting little curls in our hair.

When lunch time came around, we ran to my house so I could change clothes, and then we met up with Summer at Superfast. She didn’t have a whole lot of input on what to eat, so Eaddie and I decided to get some Arby’s and bring it back for her.

After we ate, Eaddie wanted to go back to my house to watch TV. I got us some drinks from Sonic, and then we powered through six episodes of Breaking Bad, which was great after not watching for so long. We had a great time together, and ended up staying quite a bit longer than I expected. As we were getting ready to leave, she got an email letting her know that the second place group chose not to go to D.C. for National History Day, so her group would get to go.

When we got to Summer, she was already in bed and Autumn was staying with her grandparents. Eaddie and Summer had to plan her summer activities, and then Eaddie went to bed. I laid with Summer for a while, but she fell asleep pretty quickly watching Master Chef. Once she was out cold, I tried to learn a little more about buying a home. Then it was off to bed myself.

W.W.

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The Bœst Interview

I tried to let myself sleep in a little bit today after staying up so late last night. Eventually I got up and had another pork chop with some rice for breakfast before heading home to clean up. I dug out my old interview folders and rebuilt all of that with some extra stuff just in case. When I got out of the shower, Summer wanted me to bring some lunch to her at the wash, so I got all dressed up and took her some Popeye’s. While I was at the wash, I printed a couple more résumés and eventually headed to my interview.

It hadn’t really rained yet, but a storm was coming. I made it to Bost early and waited just inside the front door until Joshua came to get me. The first thing I noticed was his dual screen laptop, which I had been wanting for quite a while. We chatted about that for longer than I expected, and I could tell right away that he seemed like a really cool guy. The rest of the interview went similarly, with both of us winding our conversation all over the place. It seemed like they would have some really cool projects for me, and I was happy to hear it wouldn’t be just mostly break/fix type stuff.

We chatted for the better part of two hours, which was the longest, but most fun interview I’ve ever had. To my delight, he enjoyed my “fun” résumé. I really hope he liked me well enough to try and match what I was making at the school, especially since I’m sure the retirement won’t get close to matching the 17% that the school had. He said the work environment was great, and I was inclined to believe it.

It had mostly stopped raining by the time I left. We could hear it storming for quite a while, so I wasn’t terribly surprised that nobody was waiting for me outside the door with an ice cream cone. I left and went to find Summer at Superfast to fill her in. Then I grabbed a burrito and went home to change before picking her and Dad up so we could meet Alisha to look at a house.

We made it across town a little late, and climbed what felt like a 45º incline of a driveway. I’m absolutely positive the Murano wouldn’t do as well, especially in the rain. I’d probably have to drive backwards in order to keep enough traction. The house was quirky and cute, but the first thing that hit me when we opened the front door was the smell of cats. It smelled worse than just a litter box, but not the worst I’d ever smelled. There was some visible damage in quite a few places, but without an inspection, it appeared to be stuff we could mostly fix on our own.

The owner was home, sitting on a chair in the living room. We didn’t realize it until we got outside, but his wife was sitting on the porch. It all seemed very odd to me. He was kind enough to walk us around the outside, and we got into the detached garage. His wife was converting it to a rec room, and had the garage door drywalled over, and a drop ceiling installed. I couldn’t tell if the rails were still attached, but I figured they must be if the garage door was still there. It was weird to just seal that wall off behind drywall though.

Overall it was kind of a letdown, even at that price. I figure we’ll talk about it some more, and possibly look at it again if someone doesn’t scoop it up. I don’t really think that will be an issue, but maybe someone else will also appreciate the rocky terrain of a dated house in the side of a mountain.

We dropped Dad back off at home and got the Murano up to Summer’s for the evening. She ate and then took a bath before bed. Then we were going to watch TV, but she got distracted by a work call, so I had time to warm up some dinner for myself. Then we watched an episode of Modern Family before she started falling asleep. The girls were out late watching a school play, so I saw them in and then made it to bed.

The internet was here, for better or worse! *thunder booms*

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Tales From Many Moons Ago

The girls left in a fit this morning, so I was up for the day. I ate a hard boiled egg of questionable integrity, then headed home to get ready for Bill’s funeral. I had to drop Summer’s car off to have it re-tinted, so I picked Dad up and had him drive my car so we could take it to Fort Smith.

Traffic wasn’t great, but we made it plenty early. At first we thought we might be meeting for the burial at a building, but then through the powers of deduction, followed some other cars into the Fort Smith National Cemetery. It was a surprisingly small crowd, but he was old. Dad had made a joke earlier in the day about me standing in the distance in all black, with an umbrella in hand, just to be mysterious. Catty-corner from us, behind those actually performing the service, stood a man in a dark coat and glasses, already filling the role.

The service itself was relatively short. The unfolding and re-folding of the flag took the absolute longest. Having lived nearly the perfect length of time, there was no dramatic sobbing. Just tradition.

Afterward we met at a church for a much longer service of hymns and preaching, intermixed with just a few stories, and concluded with a pipe organist’s rendition of what I thought was supposed to be Steve Miller Band, but sounded instead like a memorable song from a circus, ball game, or merry-go-round. Finally, we were dismissed from the formal service and could visit with friends and the family for a while.

When we left, we thought we’d just head straight home in spite of my hunger, but traffic was backed up on the interstate badly enough that my car tried routing us off the interstate and immediately back on just to skip ahead in traffic. I didn’t want to look like an asshole, so we stopped and had Big Macs instead. Then we continued to Ozark for a quick charge before I let Dad drive us the rest of the way home.

I had Dad drive by a house that I wanted to look at, and I was excited enough that I talked Summer into looking at it. I wasn’t sure anyone else was as impressed, but I liked the price per square foot and the availability of parking. I eventually made it back home, but had to get Autumn to pick me up so we wouldn’t have all of the cars at Summer’s. Her car smelled like stale McDonald’s, and I just wanted to throw up.

Summer had left work early because her face went numb again, and her blood pressure spiked. She talked them out of thinking it was an emergency, but her seemingly forgetful or unempathetic physician just put her on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication after Summer reminded her that she had just gotten the results of her psych evaluation. When we got to the house, she had already been in bed for a while, so I laid down with her and scheduled the house tour with Alisha. Then she fell asleep pretty quickly after that. It took me a while longer, because I am distracted easily.

Hey Google, what’s this song? Da-da-da-da, da, da-da-da-da!

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Salty About It

I went to bed pretty late, but had trouble sleeping after the sun came up, so I got up and made a really nice pork chop sandwich out of some leftovers. I had some trouble with the salt shaker, so I tried to adjust it and ended up shearing the threaded rod that the adjustment piece screwed onto. I took it home to try and extract the piece, hoping there were enough threads to put the thing back together again, but didn’t have any luck.

I was a really slow starter after that. I could tell I just didn’t want to do anything. It was rainy and cold, and I just didn’t want to be bothered. I still hadn’t quite fully recovered from my stomach issues over the weekend. The best I could do was apply for a job I had seen the other day. I dreaded calling another lawyer, and put that off until after I excavated the prehistoric pile of dishes in my sink and took a shower.

Dad’s friend-of-a-friend referral was a complete dead end and it had me second-guessing my ability to get past even the simplest of secretaries. Fortunately I received a response from someone I contacted last week, who unfortunately couldn’t help me, but did at least offer several other relevant referrals after actually reading my submission. I made a call, and now we’ll play the waiting game again.

Eventually I headed up to Summer’s for the evening, stopping for tacos along the way. Evidently Taco Johns was robbed, and both of their main entry doors were smashed and taped up with cardboard boxes. When I got everything to the house, the tacos were pretty cold and awful. Summer was in a mood. Eaddie came out to eat a couple tacos with us, but I begrudgingly finished up the lion’s share.

The girls disappeared pretty quickly after that. Even I was off to bed relatively early, and hoped to get enough sleep to make a little more of the next day.

ADD

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Solidifying

I had quite a bit more energy this morning, but still felt pretty squeamish inside. I was hungry for sure, so I cleaned up some leftover sloppy joes and then soaked in the bath for quite a while. When I was finally ready to get back into some clothes, I headed home for a much-needed shower to scrub down the rest of myself.

After my shower, I felt worse again for a little while, so I had to cool off and rest for a bit. Then I got dressed and went back to River Valley Tinting and Glass to talk to the guys about the two scratches on the trim. They insisted that they wouldn’t have had any tools anywhere near the trim, but there has been absolutely nothing else anywhere on or around the car that could have produced two identical scratches in the corner above the window. After denying any damage, the guy pointed out a bubble that he wanted to fix on the passenger side, and then I pointed out a spot with some dust on the driver side, so they scheduled me to do a complete strip and re-tint on Wednesday.

From there, I went to Leonard’s to pick up some nylon washers to protect Summer’s new license plate. It’s only temporary, but hopefully her custom plate won’t take much longer. As I was walking in, I ran into Tom and chatted with him briefly about the troubles I had with the head dog. He wished me well, and I picked up the washers I needed so I could mount the new plate in the parking lot.

When I headed back home, the light at 4th and Knoxville was broken and would never change from red for the eastbound traffic, so everyone had to take turns running the light while the westbound got a protected turn. Then I waited at home for Summer to finish at the gym so I could meet her at Walmart for dinner materials.

As I was walking toward the store, I ran into Dylan and got a big hug from him. I tried to get the Cliff’s Notes for the past decade, but even that was abridged. His son is apparently playing Smash Brothers competitively for money, and he’s working at Rockline. Summer parked right by us, so I introduced them and we carried on our way.

We ran into Bác Vân and Doug separately while we were wandering the store. They caught up to us at checkout and I helped them use the self-checkout, and then we headed up to Summer’s so she could start cooking. I helped clean fruits and veggies, and Summer cooked pork chops and mashed potatoes with Brussels sprouts.

The girls made it back home after dropping Eaddie’s bike back at my house, and we had a good dinner. Eaddie and Summer were talking about composing music, so I shared a video of Ben Folds composing a song live. Then everyone quickly disappeared to their bedrooms while I cried over the three-hour Linkin Park and Friends live stream from six years ago.

May your love never end, and if you need a friend, there’s a seat here alongside me.

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Fluid Loss

I woke up super early on Saturday so I could get home to shower before taking Eaddie and a couple of her classmates to Conway for National History Day. We barely got everything loaded up into the car because it was so wide, but we managed. I dropped the girls off at the UCA College of Business building and then left to find some breakfast. I ended up at McDonald’s for a cheap breakfast sandwich and coffee, and then started toward Little Rock to see Gary. He had three hours of physical therapy though, which meant I had to kill about half of my morning before I could actually see him.

I ended up going to Walmart, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Target, and Home Depot before Gary finally texted that he was all done. For all the walking around and shopping I had done, I really only picked up a couple packages of nuts for him as a snack, and then a really nice feeling pen flashlight as a cheeky gift. I also found a cover for the Masterbuilt Gravity 800 that was on clearance, so I picked it up figuring that I might just flip it on eBay since I already have a cover for mine.

I made my way across town to the rehab clinic where they moved Gary, and visited with him for a couple hours. He thought he was ready to pass out pretty early, but by the time I got there he said he was feeling alright. It’ll be another couple weeks before he can go into surgery to reconstruct his knee, but they already worked on his elbow. Eventually I was ready for a late lunch, and headed back toward Conway to eat before I had to get the girls.

I decided on Long John Silvers since I could actually get it fresh and eat there. The entire hour I was in the restaurant, I only saw a couple other people show up. The employees always outnumbered me, and none of them looked super excited to be there. The food was super good though, and tasted really fresh. Some guy rolled in on a knee scooter with a bum, or possibly missing leg, and sat at a table next to be in a fully open restaurant. He kept trying to sell me a couple deep well sockets that he said were his only possessions.

Eaddie finally texted me that they were done just as I was leaving the restaurant, which was a relief since she had somehow turned on airplane mode a few hours earlier, and I wasn’t able to see her location. I got the girls home, and by that time had started to feel a little sick to the stomach, but I had no clue what I was about to experience.

I took a bath after not feeling so great, but then once I tried to go to bed, I had trouble sleeping and had to get up about every hour to go to the bathroom again. During one of my earlier visits, I felt an inkling that throwing up might help me feel better, and I probably lost about a gallon of fluids that way. Overnight, I had lost about six pounds.

Summer let me lay around in bed all day, and went to Walmart to get a bunch of Pedialyte and Gatorade. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I felt well enough to make some rice and egg. I finished watching Nope and then fell asleep again for a while. Summer had spent the day resting on the couch, and Eaddie had left for most of the day to watch a band concert and then help her grandmother with some gardening. Joshua texted to prompt me to schedule an interview, so I booked that for Thursday to make sure I’ll be completely over whatever killed my weekend. Summer was in bed by the time Eaddie made it back home, and then everyone was off to sleep again.

Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!

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Hang Low

Summer asked me to stop by Superfast this morning to check out their computer, but they figured out how to hook up a new monitor on their own before I got there. I stopped for a couple breakfast burritos from Taco John’s and met up with her to eat, and then continued on home and got cleaned up so I could jump right into job hunting. I had a few that I had saved from the night before, so today was for submitting applications. In the middle of a bunch of confirmation emails, I actually got one for an interview, so I’ll schedule that for next week.

Summer ended up going to Morrilton, but came back so we could go out for a late lunch or early dinner. We ended up at Wendy’s for a relatively poor experience. They didn’t have the stuff to make the bourbon burger she wanted, and they didn’t add my requested vegetables to my pretzel pub burger. It was also just really dry and unsatisfying.

We made it up to her house and sat around for a while. Autumn eventually showed up after mooching some dinner off of her grandparents. Eventually I had to get Eaddie from her classmate’s house, where they were practicing for their National History Day competition tomorrow. When we got back, I started watching NOPE on a complete whim, but didn’t get very far before we had to go to the depot for the 5k Glow Run.

We arrived at the depot a little early, but didn’t have a whole lot to do. Cindy walked by us and stopped long enough for me to give her a hug. She has always been so friendly, and was always so encouraging about the work I did on the CPPC. I couldn’t help but feel a little like I let her down, but that’s why I have to fight.

Once they started lining up for the race, I had to leave to get away from the loudspeakers. I headed home to swap cars, and then took Summer’s to the carwash before coming back to pick them up. Of course Summer and Eaddie had already finished for a little while, but we had to wait for Autumn to finish well below average.

The girls showered once we got back to the house, and I did my best to get to bed early so I could take a bunch of kids to Conway in the morning.

If you’re going to be rebellious for rebellion’s sake, then I recommend you continue being a complete twat.