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Trashcycle

I made it in to work this morning with some of my last returns to the graveyard. Jason had come over from Atkins to pillage some of our trash before it went out, so I didn’t even spend any time in the office at all in the morning. A couple of big guys with a big box truck showed up, expertly parked at our makeshift loading dock, and loaded 12 gaylords full of our electronic waste. The biggest heartbreak was probably all of the student Lenovos that have been absolute workhorses for us for the past four years, going on five. Sure they were showing their age, but they were still great laptops that were super easy to service.

Jacob, Zach, and I stayed in the graveyard all morning to help move all of those piles of junk. That got us to lunch time, but Gary and I were the only two that didn’t have plans. He and I both independently thought about The Gunslingin’ Burger, so that’s where we went. It took them a typical several minutes to cook everything. The burger was good, but the fries were cheap and uninspired frozen crinkle-cuts. Sixteen bucks later, I had slowed down quite a bit. I kept eyeing the Sonic across the street though, and grabbed a Cherry Limeade on the way back to work.

The afternoon dragged on for what felt like forever. I ended up way more sore from the morning than I expected, plus I just felt super sleepy the rest of the day. I did manage to get a little bit of work done, but otherwise the back of the office was pretty quiet all afternoon. I was the last one out the door, and headed straight home to try and stay up.

I went outside again and moved a log to the side of the house so I could tinker with the siding and figure out a way to hang the windchime. I finally figured out how to pull one of the panels out, and ultimately decided to hang the thing with some velcro. I wasn’t completely convinced that was the best place to hang it though, so I may come back later to move it around again.

I took a short break, then did about a mile and a half on the treadmill while watching Love, Death & Robots. It’s been on my list since it came out, but I didn’t realize how absolutely perfect it would be for me. I love sci-fi shorts, so I burned through three episodes before deciding to give it a rest. I can already tell I’ll be really sad when I run out of episodes.

Xerox, Styrofoam, Taser, Thermos

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Graveyard Dead

I unloaded the last of the old laptops this morning, but I still had some other odds and ends to bring back before recycling day. Gary was back at work again, but now with his arm in a sling. I was worried he wasn’t in great spirits at the start of the day, but as we got into it, he seemed to be doing alright.

A bunch of us went to Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday. Then we had everyone come to the shop afterward to help rummage one last time through all the junk in the graveyard. We pulled out a bunch of old Lenovo laptops, which have been absolute workhorses. I almost hate to get rid of them after all this time.

As we finished up, everyone filtered off. Zach and I ended up in my office at one point, and I decided that I just had to have a Sonic slush. I went around the office to take orders, and then Zach and I picked them up in the middle of an apparent controlled burn across town. It was so hazy that it nearly blocked out the sun.

After work, I took some new scrap home to unload, then cleaned up a bit more junk at the house to take back tomorrow. Summer came by after her workout to help me load some into the car, and then I eventually went up to her house, taco in tow.

The girls had karate and got home late. Autumn seemed to be in a much better mood, but I didn’t see Eaddie all night. I forgot my medication, so I just got ready for bed as quickly as I could.

To parts-store, or not to parts-store…

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Mission: Success

It was pretty cold out this morning, but it turned into a beautiful day for a few hours in the afternoon. Work was pretty uneventful for the most part. Zach was out of the office all day. Greg was in his office making a bunch of racket when he spilled coffee everywhere and decided to mount a TV to the wall as his monitor instead. It really looks like a grandpa setup now.

I was talked into Brangus for lunch, where I tried their grilled chicken sandwich. The chicken didn’t look like much, but basically came with an entire salad’s worth of fixings, and it tasted alright. I think I ate too many peanuts though, and I felt pretty stuffed the rest of the day.

The afternoon was equally quiet, if not moreso. I did go by Oakland for a few minutes, but only to drop off a badge holder. Somehow quitting time still snuck up on me, and I was the last one out.

I went home to change, and then met the girls at the high school to talk to their advisors about their student success plans. Autumn didn’t want me there on account of her hatred toward anything remotely challenging, but warmed up to me later in the evening. Summer wasn’t super impressed with our first visit, but I knew what to expect. Eaddie’s went much better, but then I had to take her to the junior high to look for her lost phone.

The junior high had their own evening plans, though it was basically a ghost town with teachers sitting around bored in the cafeteria. Hope helped us look in the office for Eaddie’s phone, but it wasn’t anywhere to be found. I ran through Taco Bell on the way up to Summer’s, but that took an incredible amount of time for no apparent reason.

Once we got to the house, Eaddie found her phone in her backpack. Autumn had brought a very trying friend home, but they stayed in her room until Autumn had to take her home. Summer had brought Popeye’s home for everyone, but had a ton left over.

When Autumn got back home, we had a short heart-to-heart before she went to do homework. Then Eaddie came and looked through some old photos with me until I went to bed.

Life is just a series of choices, one after the next.

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Don’t Forg* So Easily

I slept in for a while today, to the point that by the time I got up and around, the girls wanted to go out to eat. Summer thought Noah and Eaddie wanted to go to New China, but Noah had gone to work. Evidently the rest of them still wanted to go, so that was our plan for the whole day.

As I was getting ready to run home to get clothes, Autumn decided to pitch a fit and say she didn’t want to go if I was going, and that she didn’t like the way I talked to her mother. As someone who frequently has to listen to her scream at her mother, it was difficult for me not to burst into hysterical laughter, but I managed.

I went home and decided to shower before changing, and then made my way back up to their house. As I pulled up, they were all getting into Summer’s car. I didn’t vocalize it, but in hindsight I would have been very angry if they weren’t there when I got back. Summer said Autumn calmed down and apologized, but her apologies mean less than nothing to me. It’s all just more manipulation to get whatever she wants at any given moment. The reason she doesn’t like me is because I can see through her bullshit and I’m not afraid to call her out on it.

As though nothing had ever happened, the three of them climbed into my car and we went to New China. I really didn’t want to take Autumn with us, but I wasn’t going to stir that pot again. We went, ate, and then went straight back home where we sat around for most of the afternoon. Summer had Autumn come out and try and talk to me about her issues, but we didn’t resolve anything. She tried blaming us for her issues as usual, and then just spaced out any time we responded to anything she had to say.

As the evening drew near, Summer went to the gym. Without asking, and instead fussing at me because I was inconveniencing her, Autumn nagged at me to take her to the high school so she could get her car. She wanted to go to her grandparents’ house for some reason, and tried working around doing her chores or homework. Summer called her out on it when she got into my car without the homework.

I dropped her off and continued home to start some laundry and clean out some more old laptops. I spent the rest of the night getting pretty heated in my head.

I’m cleanin’ out my closet.

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Pick Up the Upside Down

I didn’t sleep in a whole lot today considering how late I was out. I eased into it though, and finished up some leftovers for lunch. As I got motivated, I started to pick up a bit around the house. I filed some more paperwork, threw out some other stuff, and tested some laptops to decide whether I wanted to get rid of them. Eventually I had cleaned up enough to do some laundry, and played on my phone intermittently while that was going.

As I finished up a second load, I decided to head up to Summer’s for the evening. I stopped for a taco and burrito, and arrived to find Eaddie and Noah playing Switch on the couch. Summer was in bed, and evidently Autumn was home without her car because she threw up on her Quiz Bowl trip today, and Summer didn’t want her driving for some reason.

It was an early night to sleep, with nothing else going on. I was tired anyway.

Nike.

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A Dandy, Mandy Birthday

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

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

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

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

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

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

It don’t confront me none!

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Melo

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

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

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

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

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

Anything to keep the blood pressure down.

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Back in Zax

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

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

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

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

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

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Taco Threesday

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

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

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

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

Increasingly elaborate tortilla sandwiches…

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Super Cheesy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sucks to suck.