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Speaking of Unboxing

It was another quiet day at work today. I didn’t hear much from anyone, and just kept busy in my office. I actually closed quite a few work orders, which was nice. It’s starting to look like I’m not doing much, but I made an effort to create work orders for all the little things I did today.

Gary fetched me for lunch, and I met the guys at La Chiquita after I finished my chat with Dell to get a depot kit. Then I stopped by to see Summer briefly before going to Oakland. Things were pretty quiet there too though, and eventually I made it back to the shop to finish the day.

I ended up being the last one out of the office, but I wasn’t really that late. I went by to see Summer again, and then went home to spend some time cleaning up. I finally unboxed the last two speaker towers I had in the corner, and got them ready to place. Then I picked up and stored some stuff that’s just been sitting out for ages. Progress feels pretty good, but I know another wall is approaching fast.

You know, from this angle, it kind of does look like I have a problem!

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to the

I woke up absolutely dreading getting out of bed this morning. I was absolutely beat, and needed another several hours of sleep, but I willed myself up and into the shower. It was pretty quiet at work, but I still spent most of my time working on other peoples’ issues. I finally got the CPPC minutes sent out to the applicable email groups, and immediately afterward, Thomas asked me to remove the “Assistant to the Director of Information Systems” line in my email signature. I wasn’t particularly surprised, but it still kind of made me feel uneasy about my life there. It all started when Ben moved me into the office to the right of his, literally making me his right-hand man. We joked about how people in the district just made up their titles with seemingly nothing to back them up, and went with the Dwight Schrute “to the” moniker.

I worked through lunch since nobody said anything to me about it other than Brody, who actually took lunch about half an hour late. By that time, I was two minutes away from the Pixel 6 launch announcement, so I just stayed and watched that in my office. Then after lunch, I eventually made my way to Oakland and finished out my day.

When I left work, I went straight to the high school to pick Eaddie up for karate. We went to my house for just a bit before deciding to meet Summer at a taco truck for dinner. Eaddie really wants to quit karate, so we didn’t make her go, and I think Summer will finally let both girls drop out. Eaddie, particularly, will still have ways to be active. Autumn needs more encouragement, so I’m not sure whether we’ll let her drop out, but for now at least, she has plenty of afterschool activities that keep her occupied.

Summer couldn’t stay until we got our food, so Eaddie and I ate on a bench there and had what were probably very funny and awkwardly inappropriate conversations in front of other patrons as they came through. Then we took Summer’s food back home and waited for her to get off of work.

I finally got my missing grill parts in from China, so I put that together while we waited. Then a little while later, Summer called to say she didn’t realize we were going to my house to wait for her, and that she had gone to her house instead. Autumn came over instead, and picked Eaddie up to go home. I stayed behind and watched a Pixel Superfans stream, which didn’t really provide me any more insight into the device. The price for the smaller device was lower than I expected, but the Pro is about where I thought it would be for the storage size I wanted. I’ll have to wait and see if Google Fi has any deals around Thanksgiving time.

Black Friday will finally look right in photos on the Pixel 6!

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Let’s See What We Can Stirrup

I got to sleep in for about an hour compared to my normal work alarm since Summer wanted me to go to her appointment with her. She went in to work for a bit, so I got up to a hard boiled egg for breakfast before going home to shower. Then I picked her up and we went to Millard Henry. The appointment took a little while, but it wasn’t ridiculous. They did a good job of spacing patients out so there was hardly anyone inside while we waited.

After the appointment, we stopped across the street so I could give Aaron a projector remote. Then I dropped Summer off at work before going to McAlister’s to pick up some lunch for us. She wanted Stoby’s, but I had a free potato that expired at the end of the month, and I couldn’t trust that I’d ever end up eating there otherwise. I went back to the shop to eat with her, and then headed home for the day.

I was on my feet for the rest of the afternoon and on into the late evening, rearranging furniture and cleaning things up. I opened the garage and back doors to let the cooler air flow through the house all day long. I felt pretty good about what I accomplished, but there’s still so much more. At least now I have room for the loveseat, while still having an exit path out the back door. I ended the night cleaning some more carpet, but this time it was in a different area, so I didn’t go crazy.

This felt like an incredibly long day.

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Tread on Me

I slept in pretty hard today, and actually woke up a little later than I wanted. Aaron was already up and ready to get the computers I had for him, but Summer wanted to know if we could get the treadmill he was supposed to deliver to me several years ago. Things actually worked out in our favor, so we went straight up to his house to load up the treadmill. Then after we delivered it to my garage, we went to the shop so he could bring an old, metal, rolling cart back to the house for me too.

Summer had gone to work out, so I did some rearranging in the garage for a bit. Then I met her at Arby’s for a late breakfast/lunch/early dinner. From there, I went back home to clean up because we had to get to Old Post Park for Angela’s end of treatment celebration.

I picked Summer up on the Shadow and we rode down to the park, stopping at Dollar General for some cookies along the way. When we got there, Allen was the first person I saw. I was a bit surprised to see him and Charlotte there, but I was glad they were. I was really disappointed in the number of people that showed up, especially from Oakland. I really thought it would be a big deal. It was still nice to visit with everyone though, and Summer was really entertained by Michael’s personality, never having spent any time around him before.

While we were there, Michael let me ride a Trek mountain bike that he had converted to an e-bike. It was really neat, because I didn’t really feel the motor doing anything and I still felt like my legs were getting a workout, but it kept my speed up enough that I could feel the breeze on such a nice day.

After winding the party down, I took Summer back to my house to trade for the Murano, and then we went to her place for the evening. Aunt Beth got back eventually, after spending the day cleaning up at their parents’ house. Summer settled in for bed pretty quickly, but the others stayed up surprisingly late. I got stuck shopping at Kohl’s for longer than I should have, but eventually made it to bed.

I feel like there’s progress, anyway.

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Wipe and Recover

I woke up this morning after a pretty typical amount of sleep, which really wasn’t enough after the long night last night. I didn’t want to burn the whole day though, so I got out of bed and got to work. Aaron was supposed to come by and pick up a couple computers, so I cleaned them up and got them running again. I had to do more hardware juggling than I expected, but it all worked out in the end.

Summer had to work, so I spent the rest of the day trying to clean up a little bit. The carpet still needed another day at minimum to dry, so I spent a little bit of time in the garage, expecting to have to find a place for a treadmill. Aaron ended up not coming over because they spent the day at a pumpkin patch instead. Maybe he got lost in the maize.

When Summer got home, she showered and then we went to Mulan’s for dinner. She crashed as soon as we got back, and then I spent most of the evening trying to spend some rewards money at Kohl’s. Sometimes I forget how ridiculously high some of their stuff is priced, so that even with stacked discounts and reward earnings, I could still get stuff cheaper elsewhere. I’ve got to remember the clearance trick of browsing things by category next time.

Normally $100, but today only, $15.99!

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10 Hours Carpet Remix

I made it out of the house earlier today, but I still thought McDonald’s was going to make me late. The drive-through line was out to the road, so I went inside to order. The girl at the counter seemed new, and had to ask for help a couple times. Then I was surprised when my food came out almost immediately. I ended up getting to work a few minutes early for a change.

We did a little bit of refresher training this morning, and then I was left to myself for most of the day. I didn’t have anything in particular that I really spent any time on. Brody really wanted Venezia’s, so six of us went there for lunch.

It took a while to get our food, and then once we got it, I didn’t much care for what I ordered. I was just trying something new and decided I didn’t love it. Then I made the mistake of telling that to the girl at the register, and she yelled across the room at, presumably, the guy who made it. He proceeded to give me all of the reasons that I was wrong for not liking it. I dropped my leftovers off for Summer, then made it back to work in a torrential downpour. It was a pretty quiet afternoon from then on.

When I got home from work a little after four, I started cleaning the carpet again. Eventually the girls came over to stay the night because Autumn had a late game and Summer didn’t want her driving to their father’s at night. I just kept cleaning the carpet, until nearly three in the morning. I hurt everywhere, and nearly reached peak exhaustion. I think I’m over it for now.

Blisters, of all things.

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DAFT

I woke up nearly an hour and a half before my alarm this morning and was wide awake from that point on. I wasn’t uncomfortable, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I thought this would give me plenty of time to get my free McDonald’s breakfast again, but I was wrong. Somehow I was still five minutes late. I made up for it by working through lunch though.

It was a really quiet day at the office, for the most part. I picked at a few things, and finally got my CPPC meeting minutes draft finished and sent off for approval from the rest of the committee. I may have been a little too extra, but I was proud of my jokes, dammit.

I ended the day running to Oakland to change a projector bulb. Then I went to my parents’ house for some more fish soup. Mom wanted to add more elephant ear and dill to the pot, which ended up pulverizing all of the fish that was in the pot. It ended up being not enough fish for all the extras.

Eventually I made it home so I could continue with the Great Carpet Scrub of 2021. I finally got enough transparent water from the first half of the area I’ve been cleaning to feel good about calling it done. Hopefully I can get the last half of it tomorrow, and then let it dry up before moving furniture at the end of the weekend.

That’s the joke.

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Eight Hour Email

I hit up the other McDonald’s for breakfast this morning and got the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit this time. The biscuit was much better than I remembered them being, but the overwhelming taste of butter was probably what did it. The iced coffee is always good, but was made extra strong with the coffee cubes I added as I drank it down. It also kept me fueled for the rest of the day, since I didn’t take a lunch again.

The biggest thing I focused on all day was the CPPC, and the email along with all the formatting and organization I wanted to create to make it feel much more official than it has in the past, at least since my own involvement. I had some good examples online of what it should look like, so hopefully people are pleased.

Zach came into my office and chatted with me for a while, and we ended up leaving work pretty late because of it. I went straight to my parents’ house and ate fish soup with Mom, and then headed home to work on the carpets some more. I finally got some partially transparent water out of the carpet, so the end can’t be far. Some of the carpet still felt very slightly less-than-soft, and that may just be the extra soap more than anything else. I think I’ve been going way too heavy, at least at first, causing the first few rounds to foam out a bunch. Some straight water should help finish most of it off, but I’m going in strips now, and just sticking with the same spot until I get clear water.

Comic Sans, but only ironically.

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Three Meals a Day

I got up a little bit early this morning so I could go by McDonald’s for a free “Thank You” meal for working in education. Even being out of the house early, the line at the drive-through was slow enough to make me a few minutes late to work. The morning was otherwise pretty quiet as I worked on a couple different projects.

Suzanne came by the shop a little bit before lunch just so she could see my office, and then we went to Linh’s to eat. It was nice catching up a little more since this was really only the second time we’ve talked in several years. After that, I spent the rest of the school day at Oakland taking care of some work there.

Just as school let out, I went to the high school to talk to Ethan and one of his kids that was wanting to compile some C++ code but couldn’t run the executables due to our security restrictions. We discussed some workarounds and basically settled on having a couple unrestricted computers for his overachieving students to use.

As I left work for the day, I realized that Summer was at the high school as well for a marching competition. I went on home to clean up, and then met her at Chili’s for a date night while the girls were both at the competition.

When I got back home, I got right to cleaning carpets again. The water still isn’t coming up clear, but it wasn’t crispy either. Hopefully I can be done for a while after today, but if it’s still bad, I have some ideas for tomorrow’s cleaning session.

Heck, it took 30 years to make it. It’s not coming out overnight.

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Oxiplosive

It stormed a bit last night, but I missed all of the rain today. I made it to work abnormally early, and it was super quiet all day long. Thomas came into my office to ask about the CPPC meeting, and confirmed that the changes likely wouldn’t be made to the classified salary schedule. He suggested we ask pointedly how much money we can afford, so that we can work backwards from there.

Lunch time came and went. I lost track of time and noticed people walking out too late, so I just skipped lunch and continued working. Brody wanted some help hanging a touch panel after school, so we did that to finish up the day.

After work, I stopped by Summer’s shop to see her briefly before continuing home. I decided to work on the carpet some more, since it still felt crispy all over where I had cleaned it last week. The pump sprayer I got from Harbor Freight ended up splitting. I think I filled it up too much with water that was too hot, so the pressure from pumping air into it just ruined the plastic. I thought I had let all of the pressure out when I put it on the sink, but halfway through my first pass at cleaning the carpet, I heard a crash in the kitchen and ran in to discover Oxiclean had exploded all over the kitchen. I guess as far as things you’d want to explode in the kitchen, cleaning solution is right up near the top.

The water kept coming up black the entire time I was working, so I may end up doing it again tomorrow. I’d rather focus on the one strip now than have to move furniture around repeatedly in the future. The one neat side effect of all this is that my toilet bowl has never been whiter.

That’s fast.