Lunch with the Paddler

I got up and took my shower at Summer’s this morning so I could get the kids to school and still have time to get to work myself. It actually worked reasonably well, but I still struggle with the water pressure. I jumped right in to the work orders that had been assigned to me over the past few days, but had trouble completing much of anything. I mostly bounced between Impero and CPPC stuff.

Janie called me to fuss about the policy we were voting for or against removing, and she seemed unwilling to vote for anything other than something that will directly impact those that have been screwed in the past. I hope she wins that fight, but I don’t want that to hold me back from removing redundant or uselessly complicated policies.

I called Allen and planned lunch at Sam’s, and I should have called Dale as well since we saw him at Taco Villa on the way. We had a good size group and had a good time. It was nice to see Allen in public and not looking too scruffy. Retirement looks good on him. While we were there, evidently Brice was sitting across the room and came over to chat, or leer. Or at the very least, awkwardly hover. I really hope they don’t consider him for the job, if only because I don’t want to have to be around to rebuild the entire department when they quit because of it.

We found the bus that would bring Eaddie to my office, so she came over after school and we picked up Autumn after her color guard practice. Autumn really wanted to go to karate but had to go to her band awards ceremony for a grade, and tried weaseling into being toted back and forth across the complete opposite ends of town. We shut her down, and left her at my house so I could get my own chores done.

I dropped Eaddie off at karate, got Summer’s last prescriptions, and then did some work with Mark for about an hour. I had about 10 minutes to chat with Nate across the street before I had to pick her back up, and then we went to get Autumn.

On the way up to Summer, we stopped for some Burger King and had a late dinner. I tried to start on my taxes, but didn’t really get anywhere before I had to get to bed.

The problem with going to the moon is that there is no “up” in space.

Calm Down

I had to comp some time today so I could get the girls to school and then take Eaddie to a flute lesson afterward. I just took my shower and got ready for work after I dropped them off. When I got up to leave, Bác Vân was already outside with the guys cutting the trees, and they had almost completely cut down a tree that I absolutely did not want cut down. While I agreed that it was almost scary-tall with almost no lower branches, I was less concerned that it would break and crash into anything. What I was left with, was nothing short of a reverse mohawk.

Fully aware that I couldn’t change what had been done, I went on in to work and walked right into my next cluster. Daniel and Jason were there and had brought back the Mac I gave them. Evidently it didn’t work, and was having all sorts of fits. With absolutely zero time to dedicate to getting it working, we had to take off for a meeting at The Center about an upcoming event. Daniel didn’t even realize he was invited, but we still made it over there before anyone else.

After the meeting, I sent Mike off to get lunch and I worked straight through. I tried going room to room to check for technology needs, but ended up striking a nerve with Karen, who totally went Karen down the halls. She stormed into Mary Beth’s office, and I foolishly chased her down. Mary Beth ran her off pretty quickly because she had actual work to do, and I basically just had to wander the halls for a few hours getting nothing accomplished.

I ran by the shop for a little while before having to leave to get Eaddie. She brought along a friend that needed a ride to the same flute lesson. I just waited for them in the car since it was a short lesson. Then we came back home for a bit until it was time to get Autumn.

Summer hadn’t been able to get around all day, so we stopped by 10 Box for some essentials, then grabbed dinner from Little Caesar’s. On the way home, Mom called to gripe about the tree trimming, as though I should have had the forethought to be home when all of this was happening. I certainly didn’t want it to look this way, but at least they cleaned up the rest of the yard as well.

Somehow both Eaddie and Autumn ate half of a pizza each. Summer had a less-than-good time, then went back to the bed. I watched some TV with her until everyone was off to sleep.

I have no wealth, and riches and fame have never come my way.

No Butts About It

I slept in a bit today since Summer took the girls to school and went to work for a little bit. When I got home to shower, Bác Vân was out back with the guys she got to cut down one of my trees in the back yard. I loved the placement of three trees for hammocks, but that one looked like it had started to rot a bit at the base, so I figured it was best to take it down before it came down on its own.

Summer dressed down for surgery, and we headed to Saint Mary’s for her procedure. We were there from a little before 10 until around 5:30, and I just played on my iPad the entire time. Her procedure went well, and they didn’t find anything to worry about. The nurse that was taking care of her was Autumn’s friend’s mother, so they had a good laugh once they realized it.

She rolled Summer out in a wheelchair, and then I took her to Rose Drug a couple times because they didn’t fill all of her prescriptions the first time. I’ll still have to go back tomorrow to get one they didn’t have in stock. On the way home, we picked up some Wendy’s for her first solid meal since Saturday. The girls shuffled themselves around with friends for their after school activities, so I laid with Summer for the rest of the evening.

After a while, she wanted some dessert, so I ran to Walmart to find something. I ended up with a turtle ice cream cake that was pretty good. The girls arrived home shortly after I did, and went to their rooms for the night.

Society isn’t woke enough yet to identify them as HERhoids.

Cubby Buddies

I went to the high school first thing this morning and kept Mike company. Most of that time was spent trying to figure out why a VLOOKUP function wasn’t working, but I finally discovered the cells I was searching needed to be formatted as string values instead of numbers. Mike already had four and a half cubbies full of student devices that had been returned, so I helped him dig through them for a device Kayla was trying to find. Turns out, the mother had misunderstood her child, who would be returning the laptop later in the day.

Lunch time came up pretty quickly, and Bryan couldn’t go after shattering his ankle over the weekend. Brody was the only one that would communicate about lunch plans, so he and I decided to try Peg Leg. Upon arriving at a closed restaurant, we made the trip back across town to Popeye’s and learned that Google Maps is not updating with dine-in status. We ran through the drive-through, and then I thought he was going to come back to the shop to eat, but I ended up eating alone. In the middle of that, I started having a panic spell that took me a while to shake off.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in my office trying to be as helpful as possible. It was a pretty quiet day, which may actually be a bad thing, because evidently we are now having to prove our need for a secretary in the department. I stayed a little late chatting with Ben since he had been gone all last week, and then left to get the girls.

Eaddie was waiting at Oakland, and Autumn had just finished with band. I dropped them off at home before going home myself. Summer’s surgery has me off work tomorrow, so I went home for a while and then came back up for the evening. I stopped at Wendy’s for a quick dinner so I wouldn’t be eating in front of Summer. When I got up to the house, the girls were already all in bed though, so it was a quiet and relatively dull evening for me.

You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.

Director

The girls went home this morning and left me to bounce around the house. Most of the day was wasted, but I completed a couple tasks that had been weighing on me for a while. The most important of which was applying for Ben’s job. I only had three letters of recommendation to submit, but I guarantee that’s more from administration than anyone else has had. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Tasty

Ebb and Flow

I set an alarm this morning and got up to make a quick bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit from leftovers before heading home to clean up for the funeral. We got to a late start, but Mom and Dad eventually showed up and we headed to Cabot to see the family for my cousin-in-law Bob’s service. The pastor was late, but a few got up to share stories in the meantime. The whole ordeal didn’t take very long since there wasn’t a burial service.

When we got back home, they dropped me off to change, and then the girls tried to meet us at Pasta Grill for an early Mother’s Day dinner. They were booked up, so Dad called Cagle’s Mill and we went there instead. A few people came and went from the bar while we were there, but we were the only group that was really just there for dinner. The food didn’t seem nearly as good as I remembered, and the prime rib was super salty. Nearly everyone had ordered it, so after some taste testing, the manager knocked 20% off the entire bill for us.

After dinner, we came back to my house to settle in. It wasn’t long before Eaddie bailed to spend the night with Maristella. I dropped her off, and then came back home to watch Falcon and Winter Soldier with Summer. We finally finished the series, and I can definitely say I wasn’t expecting to tear up so much. I’m ready for more.

Saturday Night Live did nothing for Doge. In fact, after the episode aired, it took a huge dive and broke Robinhood again. It dipped low enough for my buy order to trigger, though for several minutes I thought Robinhood didn’t even handle that. It quickly bounced back up a bit, and was my first real successful buy in a dip that I’ve ever had. Now if I could just do that a few dozen more times, I could finally retire on a yacht.

THAT AIN’T HOW MONEY WORKS! Money is a golden rock that we dig out of the ground. Then we hope no one kills us before we trade it for pieces of green paper. IT’S A PERFECT SYSTEM!

GUARANTEED TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

I can’t stop missing out on gains. All day yesterday, Doge steadily dropped while I held on for dear life. Then I sold just seconds before it shot up. I tried playing the buy/sell game today, all for $75. It’s just not making me rich like I wanted.

Gary took Brody and me to Crawford to relocate a classroom setup because the kids in that room apparently just kick and bite, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. It didn’t quite take us until lunch, but it was relatively close. We went to the shop for a little while, and then a group of us went to La Chiquita.

For some reason, there were a bunch of really big frogs thrown out in the parking lot. Someone must have hunted them and forgotten them in a cooler or something, and dumped them in the parking lot. It was either that, or a dark summoning portal.

After lunch, I stopped by Oakland for a signature and some hugs. Erica was there for lunch to visit, which was a nice surprise. I couldn’t stay too long though, and headed back to the shop for some more work.

I ended the day at the high school with Ethan, and we chatted briefly about robotics while I tried to troubleshoot his connection to a drone. Gary said Central Office went home at 3:30, so I left to trade vehicles before picking up Eaddie at Oakland. We ran into Michael, and I chatted to him a bit more about crypto before we went home.

Eaddie and I watched a couple episodes of House before Summer got home. They were hungry, and I still had to get Autumn from a band cookout at the marina, so I picked up some KFC on the way back up. From there, it was a quiet night in with various ailments.

THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE

Ride it Out

Today was much less tense than yesterday. I rode in to work, and everyone was friendly again. It was like all the tensions from the crazy start of the week had just melted away. I didn’t get into any big projects, but got plenty done all the same. We had a lockdown drill upstairs, and I got to walk around with Zach just to see what that was like. It was even more dull than I expected, as none of the adults really practiced anything.

Most of us went to Stoby’s for lunch, and the chicken taco salad I had was pretty great. Then the afternoon was more of the same. Doge just steadily dropped all day, and I kept watching the bounces as an indication that I should stay in, but it just kept going all day long.

After work, I got Eaddie and we went by the shop to set up a projector for Summer. Then I got Eaddie a kid’s meal from Dairy Queen before taking her out on a motorcycle ride all around town. It was just a little cool out for the shorts I had changed into, so I grabbed pants and a light hoodie to take her home. Autumn had a band concert that her father picked her up from, so I was out of any other kid duty for the night.

When I got back home for the evening, I successfully turned the diving Dogecoin around by selling a larger quantity of it. I still have quite a bit, but the needle moves much slower at this volume. I just keep failing to get back in at a lower rate. I guess I should either take the money and run, or hold forever.

I’m ready for my luck to turn around again.

Dogegonit

It was nice again today, so I took the Shadow to work. Things started eerily quiet and it never really got any better. I just felt uneasy everywhere I went. I stayed to myself in my office for the most part, but kept having to do things for the newbies instead of getting any of my own projects done.

I met Brody at the junior high for teacher appreciation burgers, then mingled around there for a while afterward to help with a few other things. When I got back to my office, things were still really quiet. It didn’t help that so many people are missing.

After work, I went home to get the car so I could get the girls, only to realize that Summer had already gotten them. I think she told me, but I’ve just had so much going on that I can’t keep up any more. I’m really starting to break down.

I came back home for a little bit, but then had to go to the shop to get an old projector for Summer to use tomorrow. Then I continued on to my parents’ house to help clean up some phở. After I ate, I came back home and had to clean up a different projector because Summer didn’t have anything with VGA. Then I had to mess with my computers some in order to get to my resume.

With my resume officially done, I’m just waiting for one more letter, and then I’ll send it all off. I should probably also email my intent just in case they do something sneaky with the listing online. That seems my luck.

Watch what I do, and then do the complete opposite.

Doge You Forget About Me

Zach called me this morning and asked me to run by Crawford to look at a lunch line. That was an easy fix, but evidently the middle school was hit much harder by the storms, so I was the only one in the office for most of the day. They lost quite a bit of equipment over there due to a lightning strike that made its way to the switch from an ethernet port. Gary was replacing switches, and Zach and Josh were working on doors, cameras, and intercoms. The morning went by super quickly while I did what work I could, and watched my Dogecoin make some pretty wild swings.

Gary came back with some food for teacher appreciation week, but then Zach and Josh showed up and the four of us went to CJ’s for lunch. I got sidetracked for most of the afternoon digging through contract info, and discovered some pretty nasty stuff. Then Kyle came down to the shop and asked for some help pulling an HDMI cable through the ceiling at Oakland.

When we finished, I ended up staying super late talking to Mike about cryptocurrencies and Doge. I told him not to be crazy like me. The bubble just keeps on growing, and the fear of missing out on getting rich quickly is driving everyone crazy.

I ran home to change, but had to go by Crawford to replace the CMOS battery in the lunch line computer. Then I took the girls home from karate and finished up some leftovers there while we waited for Summer to get home. We chatted and I hung out for a little bit, but then came home to sleep while Doge picked up some more steam.

Doge stop…believing!