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Virtually Unbusy

At last, I made it to work a bit early. I probably slept for about nine hours last night, but still awoke begrudgingly to my alarm. Greg drew the short straw and got the lion’s share of the Brody calls all day, which left me to do a bit of cleanup on some old tasks I had been neglecting.

I convinced Gary, Zach, and Greg to let me drive them to La Huerta instead of La Chiquita for lunch, which was a treat for me. Greg complained about still being hungry after his meal, and Gary didn’t even take a swing when I tried to flirt with the cashier, who had her opposite arm in a sling, on his behalf. Otherwise I thought it was a super fast and tasty lunch.

When we got back, Gary wanted to show Greg and me his process for upgrading VMware on four of our physical servers. That took the rest of the afternoon until eventually Zach and Thomas came to the back and we had a relaxing sendoff for the day.

Just after I got home, Summer asked me to get Eaddie from tennis practice at the high school. Her phone was allegedly delivered, but after trying five neighbors, she was unable to locate a package and came over to my house empty handed. Eaddie had to work a band event, so Summer took her to that while I chatted with Fi support to report the missing package.

I spent the rest of the night cleaning up in the kitchen, and then looking around on Zillow for anything new. I thought about it some more today, and felt like maybe building a workshop/garage out back would be a better first step so I could have somewhere to offload some things before doing the rest of the renovation. With Summer’s loans nearly paid off and both of us fighting for better pay, more of this feels within reach than ever.

It won’t cost much. Just your voice.

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Market Price

I was out of step again this morning, and a few minutes late into work. I felt like I was on track, so I guess it’s just that time of year when I need to roll my alarm back a bit. I had a CPPC meeting pretty early, so I didn’t get up to a whole lot before that. I also didn’t have a whole lot planned for the meeting, so it was a relatively short one.

Without any donuts at the meeting, it was a struggle to make it to lunch. I forgot to bring any apples to snack on, and everyone else brought food, so I just went home and ate the last hamburger from the other night. On the way back, I stopped by Oakland for a little while. Then I was at the shop for the rest of the afternoon to work on my meeting minutes.

Immediately after work, Summer and Eaddie came by to pick me up, and we went to look at a house. Alisha and another lady met us there, and my parents showed up shortly thereafter. Parts of it were really cute, and other parts were really old. It ticked a lot of boxes for us, but ultimately the high price and a fear of the cost of upkeep were predictably too much for us to be serious about it. It looked like it might have been Judy’s parents or grandparents that lived there though, because there were pictures of her family on every single flat surface in the place.

Summer dropped me back off at my car and I headed home. After looking at a new place, I found a familiar comfort pulling back into my own driveway where I’ve lived for nearly two decades. It’s not perfect, but I think I can make it better. I finished up the corned beef for dinner, but my head continued to feel a little bit worse, hour by hour, as the night carried on. I was up late last night, so I figure I’m due for an early bedtime.

You’re not listening.

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Whims

I’m not sure what happened, but I did not make it to work on time this morning. I felt like I was in step with my routine, but something got out of whack. It was pretty quiet though, which was fortunate because I was charged with answering the phones while everyone in the front of the office had a top secret meeting. Gary was out after being aggravated yesterday, but the meeting continued. Greg was there with me at first, but had to leave for a while, which left me to my own devices. Luckily we only ever got one phone call that I had to answer, and it was an easy one.

As lunch time approached, Zach informed me that our meetup with Dale had been postponed. This was after I had invited Allen to meet us as well, so I had to see if he wanted to wait or come out today. He chose today, so I invited Thomas, and then found Greg as he was walking back to the office from across the street. We had a good lunch though, with just a dash of awkwardness as only Allen could provide.

When I dropped the other two off after lunch, I went to Oakland for a little while to take care of something and then just to hang out for a bit before going back to my office. It was quiet all afternoon until quitting time when I went by my parents’ house to drop off a letter I printed for Dad. He had gone to pick up Mom from work, so I had to wait a bit for them to show up. Then Eaddie called and needed me to let her in after riding her bike.

I stopped by Kroger on the way home to pick up about 16 pounds of cosmic crisp apples. Dad said they were on sale for a buck a pound, and the piece I had at their house was really good. I figured they’d make a good snack at work, and the girls would probably want some as well.

Summer came by after the gym to get Eaddie, and shared the article that Splash was publishing about her in their newsletter. It was really good to see, even if it was a pre-release copy. They left pretty quickly, and I cleaned up a few leftovers before settling in for the night.

It’s the time of year when things get warmer and I get more anxiety about all the projects I want to complete before the attic becomes too hot to bear. I’ve been wanting to move the girls in so we could save money, but this house just needs so much work and I just have so much stuff. There’s simply not enough room for everyone. Another house on Zillow caught my eye, and upon further inspection I noticed my old friend, Alisha, was an agent for the realtor that listed it. I messaged her on Facebook, and we arranged to have a look at it tomorrow, completely on a whim.

As it turns out, without all these expenditures, we’re rich!

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The Begrudging Return

It rained most of the day today, but I spent almost all of it inside. I still don’t feel properly rested after all of that vacationing, but what else could I do? I caught up on a bunch of email and dabbled with a few things that were still left over. Jacob called me a couple times, concerned about the Windows upgrade process at the junior high. It went predictably poorly, but progress was still made.

There wasn’t a group for lunch today, so I took the opportunity to go home and clean up some leftovers. The steak, potato, and vegetables from Porterhouse actually reheated pretty well. I felt pretty bougie, apart from sitting in a computer chair and using a ceiling fan box as a dining table. All of the rearranging has left me without any usable space, and it feels like the opposite of progress most days.

I went to Oakland for a little while after lunch, and took care of several things there. Then I finished the day at the shop before making it back to Oakland to drop off a couple laptops and pick up Eaddie. We came home and watched a couple episodes of Stranger Things until Summer got home from Conway. I fed them some leftovers, then cleaned up a few more myself after they left.

It’s nearly tax time, and I’ve done nothing. I also have a lot I’d like to do around the house before it gets hot. Time just keeps on flying by. I feel like crap most of the day because of all the coughing, so all I want to do is sleep.

I just need less stuff everywhere.

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Lessbius

About every other night, I’m up every hour. I still feel exhausted all of the time. I thought I’d get up today and make breakfast, but nobody was hungry. Summer and Eaddie left me for a while, and I started a corned beef in the crock pot, then cleaned up for a matinée. Eaddie wanted to go to the 1:50 show so her boyfriend could come along. His father dropped him off at the theater, and we met him there after I picked up Summer and Eaddie.

I was ready for a letdown after reading some reviews of Morbius. It was pretty bad, but overall I wasn’t upset to have watched it. The action scenes were highly stylized, but mostly garbage aside from that. It was all just blurry, dark, After Effects nonsense. The story wasn’t great either, but I guess I’m used to that from Sony.

After the movie, we had some time to kill before dropping Zane off with his mother, so we went to the park and let them wander around. Summer took a phone call, so we just sat in the car until they got back. Then I dropped him off, followed by the girls, and then went home to add some carrots and cabbage to the crock pot for the last hour.

Autumn worked all day and went straight home afterward to do homework, so just the other two came over for dinner. They ate and watched TV, then went home for the night. I cleaned everything up, and then went to bed as early as I could.

Sony, wat r u doin? Staaahhhhhp.

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Sleep on It

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

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

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

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

Recharge

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Not a Race

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

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

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

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

This feels more like work than work.

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It’s a Gas Gas Gas

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

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

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

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

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What’s Up, My Neighbor

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

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

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

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

Now you can mouse anywhere!

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Brassers

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

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

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

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

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

Still not cool.