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Center of Attention

I took the Grom in today to complete the set. I stopped at Oakland first to swap a couple iPads, and then got a couple more Chromebooks to work on from the library. Back at the shop, we had a visitor from eSchool working out of Greg’s office. I kept my room to a dull roar, and mostly kept busy until lunch time.

Thomas took a bunch of us to Brangus, but I rode the bike so we didn’t have to ride five-deep. Even Tammy came along, and Brody met us there. My inner dialog kept telling me to take half of my beef spud home, but almost instinctually, I continued to finish my plate.

Sometime in the afternoon, we were scolded for not making an appearance at Center Valley, so I dropped some stuff off at Oakland, ran home to swap for the R1, and sped north out of town. I just didn’t feel sanguine riding that little bitty bike all the way down the hill, and then back up.

I ended up bringing a backpack full of devices back to the shop, which I think is more than the number of part replacements I’ve had to perform at Oakland all year. The end of the day approached relatively quickly, and I went home exhausted because of my poor sleep the night before.

At some point I video called Summer for a bit, and we did some parental plotting and scheming. I could barely get into anything else, and went to bed early.

Her: “He’s probably thinking of other girls…”
Him: “I wonder when I can drive the forklift again…”

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Just Forkin’ Around!

I took the R1 to work this morning and immediately realized that I was low on gas. I had plenty to get around for the day, though. Gary asked me to take care of an issue upstairs, which I was able to resolve remotely. Then after a while, he wanted some help throwing out a few pallets worth of Chromebook boxes. We hired a group of guys from Louisiana to wire our certified pre-owned carts, and they were just churning through, loading them all up with the new devices.

Gary and I walked over to the warehouse to get someone to help us with a forklift so we didn’t have to load several truck beds full. Justin came out, and I immediately started asking if he would let me drive it. I’m not sure he thought I was serious at first, but eventually he agreed to let me drive it to the dock once he got it out into the road.

I had the absolute time of my life.

It took me four trips for four pallets, while Gary basically spent the entire time just throwing armfuls of boxes into the recycle dumpster. I got pretty fast once I was confident with the controls, and made quick work of it all. My only regret was that I forgot to beep the horn, but I’m betting I’ll get to do the same tomorrow with the last of the pallets.

On the way to put the forklift back in the warehouse, I accidentally got it stuck on the curb, but managed to wiggle it off after Gary threatened to use our work truck to bump me off. That got us a few minutes into lunch, so I just drank a Soylent while Zach and Gary ate their food in the kitchen.

The afternoon was relatively quiet, except for another conference call outside my door. I kept pretty busy checking in on Brody’s tickets since he was out at an auction all day. A bit before school let out, Autumn texted and said she had to get her paycheck, and wanted to know if I would get Eaddie home. Me, being an alpha parent, told her that there was no rush to get her paycheck, and that it was her responsibility to get Eaddie home and to karate.

About an hour and a half later, I got a call from Eaddie that Autumn was being a “b-word” about picking her up. Just as I was about to hang up and call her, Autumn rang beeped in and I level-set her expectations. She seemed to be receptive, and at least calmed herself down while I was talking to her. Eaddie beeped back in, and I told her to take the ride home, and that we would all talk about it when we got home.

I got gas after work, then waited at home for Summer to get back into town. Then I met her at Lowe’s to look at the LG refrigerator we were considering. They had my returned fridge marked down again to $850, which was an incredible deal that made me consider re-purchasing it. If they had told me they would just give me that much of a refund to keep it, I would have gladly done so, and been perfectly satisfied with my backlit food and slow water dispenser.

Summer was tired of my indecisiveness, so we left and went to Walmart so she could pick up ingredients for banana pudding. Then she went home while I checked out clearance before meeting her at the house. We ate leftover pasta until Autumn got home from hanging out at Denny’s, and then we had a chat to try and set some more family expectations. Eaddie has been making an effort to communicate better, but Autumn is continuing her rebellious tendencies.

No matter what we say or do now, she’s going to pursue some kind of relationship with this older kid she works with. She’s also encouraged that someone told her she could be a salaried manager in a few years if she keeps up the good work, but she conveniently forgets that she still works at a goddamn Denny’s. I’ll take Unsuccess Stories for 1000, Alex. I’ve been exactly there.

I eventually made it home to find my charger had errored out on the Grom battery, but it started successfully and strongly. I got a little air in the tires, and it’ll be three for three on getting all of the bikes out this spring. Maintenance needs to happen early this year though, on account of how far behind I’ve gotten.

Slummers gonna slum.

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Return of the Whirlpool

I got a call from the Lowe’s truck drivers shortly after I woke up this morning, saying they were about 10 minutes away. That nearly got me in a dead-run to get everything cleared out and ready to go. It occurred to me that they are making a lot of assumptions every time they come out, and as a customer, I should be more upset about my experience. They walked the fridge out without having to do any door gymnastics, and even walked it past both of my grills after I moved the deck box. I guess they were less worried about damage coming out than they were going in.

Somehow, I still managed to make it to work on time, stopping at Oakland to take care of a backup battery issue, and then making a quick run through the rest of the work orders I had from the end of the week. It didn’t take terribly long, but did help the morning go by.

Gary was a little stressed with Zach, Greg, and Brody out for the day, and me out of my office first thing. I chatted with him briefly and did my best to ease his worries. We evidently had some more unexpected, sweeping changes that we weren’t informed about, which frustrated us as I had to troubleshoot an issue that we caused. There are a lot of wheels turning, and not all of them are aware of the others, though they’re all connected and affect each other. It makes for a disjointed team.

Lunch came quickly, and I just went home to some leftover Ridgewood barbecue. I ended up eating a bit too much and didn’t have time to go to Lowe’s to see about my refund, so I just went back to Oakland to finish up some stuff. The rest of the afternoon was relatively quiet, and Kyle was the only one I ever saw back in the shop.

As I left for the day, Eaddie called for a ride. I had to drop some things off at Oakland anyway. She was hungry, so we picked up some chicken strips from Dairy Queen for her, and then went back to my house to start Moon Knight. I absolutely hate the accents and how quiet the voices are, because it makes the dialog that much harder to understand. Otherwise it seems like it’s going to be a neat show, and unlike many of the others, they didn’t waste any time getting right into the action.

When we finished the episode, Eaddie rushed me to take her home. In turn, I made her wait in the car while I stopped at Lowe’s to resolve my return. The kid at customer service said it would take a day for them to process the return, but I was concerned about having made part of my purchase with gift cards. He insisted that I would “probably” get a call in the morning, but rather than risk it, I walked to the back to find someone. I never could find an employee that wasn’t busy, but I did find my refrigerator that had been marked down by $450 to be sold as-is. It was almost tempting to re-buy it at that price.

While I was back there, I saw the windowed version of the LG we were looking at. I didn’t love it either. The freezer seemed really small and narrow, and the shelves had nearly no adjustability. I think one shelf in the fridge side had a choice of two levels, but the rest only had the existing molded mount points. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even fit a frozen pizza in the freezer anywhere unless I left an entire shelf out, which would make for one super tall shelf. I may end up spending quite a bit more money for something much nicer by the time this is all over.

Back at the front, I explained that my refrigerator was already on the floor ready to sell, so he called a manager up to process the refund and I was on my way. When we got to the house, Eaddie went to her room to practice her flute, and I went outside to dig out the lawn mower. I probably spent about an hour trying to get the thing started, and eventually did with the help of some starter fluid, but it wouldn’t stay running for long. I’m inclined to think it’s the leftover fuel, but I can’t get any of the girls to run the mower often or long enough to keep that stuff flowing through it.

Summer got home super late. I thought I might stay over, especially since she arrived with some apparent energy left. Ultimately she ate and went straight to bed, so I headed back home. I took another crack at charging the Grom battery after stopping it last night when I heard it sizzling. Hopefully the lower amperage will keep things from exploding.

People actually lived for ages without refrigeration, so maybe I can just make it to Black Friday for a better deal.

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Typical Two Hour Visit

Summer and I got up this morning and decided on a whim to go have breakfast at Denny’s since Autumn was working. Eaddie didn’t want to go because she was supposed to go with her father, but after a while he showed up there without her. The restaurant was packed, but there was still no reason any of the service should have taken as long as it did. Every single time I’ve been there, it’s been painfully clear that the place is simply mismanaged. My guess is that if the owners would invest in one good store manager, they could probably turn the whole thing around. Autumn seems to enjoy working there, so I can’t see it being entirely due to staffing issues.

Ronda and Steven were there as well, and stopped by our table to chat briefly on their way out. We were in the restaurant for at least a couple hours, through the rush, and into a pretty quiet time in the early afternoon. The kitchen never got any faster, but after that long, I’d had enough eggs. It’s sad to say that I’m very rarely out of that place in less than an hour and a half, and I simply can’t imagine how they could possibly take that long to scramble eggs.

I dropped Summer off at home to clean house, and then went back to my house. Eaddie was up in bed, but said she never received a call from her father as he had said. I heated up my leftover spaghetti and meatballs, which she enjoyed while we watched the last episode of Stranger Things. We’re super excited for the next season in a few weeks.

I tried getting Eaddie to go out on the Grom for a bit, which she was up for at first, but after some television decided she’d rather be lazy and spent most of the afternoon in her room on her phone. I probably should have forced her outside, but I was still feeling heavy and sleepy from breakfast myself.

Eventually Autumn came by to get Eaddie after staying an hour late at work. She wanted to chat about her day and about some 27 year old she’s crushing on out there. Eaddie just rolled her eyes and pleaded to be taken home while I did my best to briefly explain, without being too negative, that she should probably aim higher.

The rest of the night went by quietly, and was just as dull as most of the afternoon. I made an effort to charge the R1 and Grom batteries, so hopefully they can both come out to play soon.

I can tell you all about guys that hang out with girls 10 years their junior.

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Garth eVader

I tried to sleep as much as possible last night so today wouldn’t drag on. I made it out of the house in time to get Eaddie and meet Dad at the train depot to see Summer cross the finish line for her half marathon at right around two and a half hours. Ben and Sarah were there, and snuck up behind me while we were waiting in line to take Summer’s picture in front of their big inflatable. From there, we split back up because Summer needed a shower and Eaddie wanted to go ride her bike in the nice weather.

Once Summer was cleaned up from her morning race, I got gas and picked her up for a quick bite to eat at Zaxby’s before heading to Fayetteville. That was when I learned that she didn’t actually have any tickets because every purchase she tried to make had fallen through. She was on her phone the whole time trying to arrange for new tickets.

When we finished eating, we picked Eaddie up from her friend’s house and came back to my place. I tried to help Summer pay for some tickets, but it just didn’t work out. I started feeling sketchy about all of the different failed payment attempts, and it was getting late fast. We ultimately decided to just stay home. We let Eaddie go back out on her bike while we watched some TV to relax a while.

Eventually we were hungry enough to have a nice meal. Eaddie still wasn’t hungry, so Summer and I drove across town to see if the boys at Ridgewood Brothers had any scraps left. Grant gave us their last half pound of beef and some banana pudding, and we caught up really briefly as they finished cleaning up. I’m super excited for them to build their new place and get out of the trailer.

After running around town dodging prom-goers, we ultimately ended up at La Villa for some reward pasta for Summer. Then we picked up Eaddie’s bike from her father’s restaurant so they could go out to eat together. Summer and I watched an episode of Middleditch and Schwartz improv, which had me absolutely rolling. Then when Eaddie got home, Summer went to bed and we stayed up late watching Stranger Things.

We nearly finished the season, but Eaddie gave up just before we started the last episode. It’s just as well though, because I’d rather not have to wait for the next season to start. I’ll be curious to see if they really try to make it scary.

Flayed

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Cartagain Weather

Thomas was out this morning, so Gary lead the team meeting with an intro for everyone to our new ticket system. The highlight of the morning was Brody calling out that Gary likely had more important tickets to work on than building out an unnecessary new system. Zach split everyone up for projects, but the big one for the day was cleaning up all the old carts we got from Bentonville so the group we hired can come wire up all the new chargers.

I went upstairs with Gary to troubleshoot a printer issue in the computer lab, but he had to bail early for a meeting. I came out of nowhere with an unexpected fix involving the shared account they were using in the lab, and made my way downstairs to help with the carts.

Brody suggested Mulan’s for lunch after much debate, so he took took Zach, Gary, and Josh. I rode the Shadow to work, so I rode separately through some pretty stupid traffic. I took a different approach to my plating, with most of my rice being in the sushi. I still ate a lot, but I wasn’t completely miserable by the time we left.

I spent most of the afternoon working in my office until everyone came back to the shop to rest from their own work. I was the last one out, and decided to swing by Oakland to see if Eaddie needed a ride. She and Zane were walking to her father’s restaurant to eat, so I got gas and headed home until she needed a ride.

Summer was headed home from Conway about the time Eaddie and I started watching an episode of Stranger Things. Then they left to get ready for a 5k that Summer registered the girls for. Eaddie was worried about homework and stayed home, but Autumn ran. I ended up meeting Summer at the finish line, and we were proud to see her finish strong.

I came home to try and rest up for a super long day tomorrow, but had trouble getting to bed. Hopefully I don’t drag tomorrow night, because I already feel like a bad boyfriend for not wanting to go.

Friends take work. You’re not going to spontaneously summon a crowd.

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Circus Town

I had one of the worst times I’ve ever had getting out of bed this morning. I snoozed for 45 minutes and then crawled straight into a shower, and just barely made it in to Oakland. Mollie was back, certified cancer-free with just some maintenance going forward, so everyone had treats for her in the lounge. I took care of the tickets I had gotten on my day out, and made it to my office.

Gary came back and had some coffee with me since I made some “fancy” stuff that Greg wouldn’t have liked if he were there. I kept relatively busy all morning until Zach showed up and took Thomas and me to Old South for lunch. They were packed, but the food was fair. The service was middling, but I got out cheap too.

The afternoon was super quiet, and I never heard from Lowe’s about the pickup of the refrigerator. Autumn didn’t want to wait for Eaddie to get out of tennis, so she asked me to pick her up. I stopped by my parents’ just briefly to drop off a printout for Dad, and then got Eaddie and her boyfriend. We dropped him off at home and then went to my house to wait for Lowe’s.

It wasn’t until after we moved all of the crap out of the way of the front door that I got a call saying their truck had been broken down for hours and that I would have to go to the store to reschedule for another day. Eaddie and I finished one episode of Stranger Things, I watched one super short episode of Old Enough, and then Summer picked her up.

I should have gone to get some dinner first, but I thought Lowe’s would be quick. I ended up hanging out for nearly an hour waiting for Sergio, who appeared to be the only one in the store that could actually reschedule me. I think I finally got a little bit of sympathy after being exceedingly friendly to everyone that I’ve interacted with at the store. Not like a lot, but I made a joke about us being best friends by the time this is all over, and he smiled and said we were best friends.

On the way home, I stopped at Sonic for a chili cheese coney, all the while laughing at the blue screen of death on their drive-through speaker. Then I grabbed some very mediocre fries from McDonald’s and went home to eat. I was so excited to finish my food that I didn’t even take my backpack off once I got in the house.

After I ate, I excavated the Shadow and took it for a spin around the block just to warm it back up after the winter. It took a little bit of time to get the tires aired up, but tomorrow looks like a good day to ride in to work. There wasn’t much left of the night by then, so I wrapped up as quickly as I could and went to bed.

Everything has been a joke today. Why is life awful?

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Chauffeur

I got up early after very little sleep so I could get breakfast with Summer before she had to go to work. It was super rainy all morning, so I went back up to the room to take a long bath since I didn’t want to go back to sleep. When I loaded up for checkout, they said the elevator had quit working, so I had to take the stairs. I was just glad I didn’t have to go back up three floors since I got everything in one trip.

I went to Splash and loaded up a bucket of cleaner, then took Summer to the Greenbrier lube to drop it off. It was a tiny one-man shop that was down the road from the carwash. We weren’t there long before heading back to Conway to do some shopping for that store.

I decided to take us to the Dave Ward store since I had already spent so long in the other one the night before. Summer picked up what she needed, and I found some salsa on clearance. I tried really hard to convince her that she could find a better chair at an office supply store, but she insisted on getting the crappy, overpriced one from Walmart.

We were both hungry by the time we finished shopping, so we went across town to Chipotle. It was delicious, but I had forgotten how expensive it is. It was just over $30 for both of us, and she didn’t even get a drink. I think next time I’ll ask if they can make me an open-faced burrito, because her bowl appeared to have much more in it, but I love the tortilla.

Back at Splash, I assembled the new chair and tightened bolts on their old ones, which made a huge difference. I stuck around too long and got really tired, but I made it home without incident. Traffic seemed a bit slow, but at least it wasn’t raining heavily by that time. Eaddie called me just as I left Conway and asked if I would pick her up, but she ended up going to her grandmother’s instead.

As soon as I got home, I started a load of laundry. Then I faced the monumental task of cleaning out the refrigerator so they could pick it up the next day. I pulled a bunch of drinks out of the mini fridge and kept as much here as I could, then loaded up my entire trunk with stuff to take to Summer’s house. I went to get Eaddie, but when I got there, she said she was helping with dinner and that Summer was going to get her. Summer didn’t even realize she was there, which lead to compounded aggravation for me. I was already frustrated and hangry last night. Then I had to unload the trunk and move all of that food into Summer’s refrigerator all by myself after letting it thaw out for a drive across town.

I got everything packed into the fridge and waited for Summer to get home super late from Conway. Then I went home and cleaned up all the stuff I had strewn across the kitchen floor. I really wanted to keep some ice, but there’s no real point. Hopefully the new refrigerator won’t take long to arrive, and also won’t fail and leave me needing to contact the dreaded LG warranty support.

What a waste.

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Return to Sender

I made it in to work a little early again today, and was soon asked to cover the phones while the leads had their meeting. The phone didn’t ring a single time, so it was mostly just babysitting for an hour. It was all around pretty uneventful all day. The morning went by quickly, and we found ourselves at Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday. I ate cheaply again, and it felt pretty good.

Sometime in the afternoon, Thomas wandered to the back and set up a video conference with someone about our ticket reporting system. Evidently he’s been asked for data that hasn’t been collected in Web Help Desk, so we’re looking at spending some more money for something a little prettier.

The end of the day dragged on a bit, but eventually I made it home. I got things ready to stay with Summer in Conway, but had to stop at Lowe’s on my way out of town. I scheduled the pickup of the dreadful Whirlpool refrigerator and talked to a couple of guys about our top picks for its replacement. They required payment for the new one up front, and said the refund of the old one had to come back to me in store credit. I opted instead to just wait for the refund before ordering the replacement, so I’ll have to move a bunch of food up to Summer’s place until the new one shows up.

The drive to Conway was quick, without too much traffic. I stopped in Morrilton for some beer, and then hopped onto Discord to chat with Mitch again until I got to Splash. Summer was busy, so I grabbed some popcorn and headed to the hotel to check in.

After unloading, I went across the street to Walmart to kill some time. Easter candy was half off, and I found a few deals on clearance. I had been assuming we would go out for dinner, but Summer got to the hotel super late and just went straight to bed. I considered going home to sleep in my own bed, because I didn’t like the idea of taking off so much unexpectedly for that plus the fridge pickup, but with the promise of lunch in Conway, I decided to stay.

What book are you even reading???

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We Got to Move These Refrigerators

I made it in a couple minutes early today, and relatively quickly got called to build some tech tubs with some Chromebooks to take upstairs to the stage for the virtual kids’ testing. It took us a couple hours at least to get everything together and then for me to help with some updates upstairs, so lunch time was there before I knew it. It was Zach’s birthday, but he brought leftovers, so I ended up picking Summer up to go to Arby’s.

When I got back, I had to work on an updated deployment for Brody, which took up the rest of the afternoon. We’re having to juggle between “safety and security” and being able to test students, and at the end of the day, the job is only difficult because there are no stakes. There is no punishment for bad behavior. We’re forced to use technology to babysit instead of educate.

At one point, I took a break to Duo call Mitch for his birthday. He seemed to be doing well, and was excited to get to chat with Gary and me. I ended up calling him again later in the evening as well, just to catch up some more.

Immediately after work, I met Summer at my house to move my old refrigerator outside. Then her workmate Justin came over to help us lift it into the truck. I had to run to CrossFit to borrow it from Brody for about an hour, and we managed to get the refrigerator delivered to Summer’s house. She and Justin had to go to an after-hours meeting for work, so I went back home to clean up all of the refrigerator parts.

While I was cleaning, I called Mitch, and then managed to get Discord working well enough to talk to both him and Blake for a while. Blake just got his CCNA recently, so I was super proud of him for that. I was surprised how good the audio quality was over the phone app, and it was awesome getting to surprise both of them with the call.

As soon as Summer was done with her meeting, I met her at Lowe’s to try and lay hands on one of the two models of refrigerator that I wanted in exchange for the Whirlpool that I hate. It took forever to get any help, but eventually we did from a guy that Summer actually knew from another old coworker. We didn’t actually get an order placed, but hopefully I’ll get a call tomorrow along with an opportunity to see one of these things in person.

We headed back up to their house to put the shelving back into the refrigerator, and I had a chat to try and reach through to Autumn about her attitude. I tried giving my position some context to see if I could get her attention long enough to accept a lesson in good faith. Parents just want their kids to grow up healthy, wise, and strong.

Now look at them yo-yos. That’s the way you do it.