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On the Color of Sheep

Julie messaged me just as I was about to go to bed last night, so I went over to her place to try and chat with her and Dad. I was there for a little over an hour before she finally kicked me out, which is to say that it didn’t go well. Then this morning she started in on me again, but followed up later in a group text with a deal that I appreciated, so I’m hoping that’s an indication that it’s not a total loss. I’d really like my sister back.

We had a busy day today. Summer wanted to meet for lunch, so I got ready and met her at Mulan’s. Then we ran to Walmart for a card before picking up the girls to go to Maleea’s birthday party at the skating rink. The girls had a bit of fun, but it seemed like Maleea was starting to grow out of that kind of party. I remember having skating parties all the time in grade school, but not nearly as much into the double digit age.

There was just a little bit of time to kill before we had to get across town for another birthday party, so we went to my house for a bit. Then we took Eaddie to Washburn Park. Amber dropped her kid off and I waved her down so Summer could meet her. We waited for a little while for Jaylinn and Maristella, but gave up and headed on to the bowling alley to wait there.

Even then we had to wait, so eventually we went inside to play a game. The girls took turns bowling for Jaylinn until she got there, then we played one more game. It was a pretty good time, but that place was absolutely packed and hardly anyone had a mask on. The sign out front basically gave everyone a pass on having a health concern that they wouldn’t ask about, so even the staff weren’t wearing masks.

The kids finished their game and spent some time in the arcade while Summer and I waited outside. Then we headed on home for the evening. Summer and I watched a couple episodes of WandaVision to catch her up, and then it was off to bed and to lose an hour for daylight saving time.

It’s been Agatha all along!

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Not Necessarily

We had our meeting this morning and Ben officially announced his upcoming departure. I’m a little terrified they’ll bring back someone else for his role instead of promoting from within, but that’s not as upsetting as it is that he’s leaving in the first place. Ben has been my favorite boss ever, and I owe most of my success in the field to him.

After the meeting, Zach took me to Crawford to swap out a cart for some tech tubs. Then we drove up to Center Valley to help Gary and Mike move some computers around temporarily. They were actually almost done, but we didn’t find out until we got back that we were actually supposed to completely strip one of the labs so maintenance could tear out the desks to turn the room into a professional development area.

Greg joined Zach, Gary, and me for lunch when I convinced them all to go to Slim Chickens instead of CJ’s. For some reason they had the air conditioner blasting inside, which froze Greg and me out, so we ate outside. I had a birthday dessert, but forgot to get it before we left, so I ended up picking it up after work.

In the afternoon, I went to the middle school and Dwight to help Josh and Kyle swap a couple SMART boards for a TV and a touch panel. The dumb thing was that both projectors worked. Evidently we were just trying to teach one teacher a lesson, and ran out of replacement bulbs for the other one.

Zach sent everyone home a little early, but I didn’t get out until later after chatting with Ben some more. Then I got my dessert jar and stopped by to see Summer before heading home.

I had a few instances of some anxiety/whatever issues today, but seemed to breathe out of them better than anything else. It really made me wonder if it was more of an oxygen thing. I guess it could still be anemia.

Who’s been messing up everything???

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No, that’s just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that.

I woke up expectedly tired this morning after a bit of sleep. I accidentally dozed off for a few minutes after the alarm went off, but made it home in time to get to work. I went to the high school first thing, and spent all morning working in the office with Mike. I shuffled some computers around on the desk to get them out of his way, but still need to move them to some final resting place.

Summer got her Invisalign this morning and wanted to meet up for lunch, so we went to Stoby’s. Then it was back to the shop to help Mike set up some brand new iPads. I eventually made my way back to the high school and ended the day crimping more patch cables for Ethan’s lab.

By the time I got home, I wasn’t feeling super smurfy, so I stayed in the rest of the night. I’ve been getting those anxious or panicky feelings more frequently lately, and have been wondering if maybe it’s actually an anemia thing that just makes me feel like all my blood is draining. Eventually I’ll have to see the doctor, but for the time being I’ve decided to play with my blood pressure medication dosing.

All through my life I’ve had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was.

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Driven Mad

I must not have slept well last night, because I could barely crawl out of bed this morning. I begrudgingly made it to work and settled in though, and after a while it was fine. I picked at a few things here and there, successfully keeping busy, though possibly not looking so. I did at least feel helpful and accomplished.

Zach and I went to Wendy’s for lunch since the lobby was finally open again. It really shouldn’t have been, because that place was a joke. It took us forever to place our orders, the kid behind the counter seemed super flustered and kept having to run around doing things twice because he wasn’t doing things efficiently, like passing out cups, lids, and straws all separately. The food, though it appeared to be made fresh, was relatively cold when we sat down to eat it. It just wasn’t at all what we’ve come to expect from our favorite burger chain.

After lunch, I rode to the high school to try and help Mike with some stuff. He was super scattered as usual, but we eventually made some progress. I did have to run back to the shop for some parts we discussed before lunch, but at least we got started. I ended up working a bit late after only making enough cable to hook up four computers.

Dad came over after work to meet another guy to quote us on the bathroom remodels. I liked these guys the most out of the four we’ve had come out. They were young and respectful, and were clearly the guys that would be doing the actual work. They took note of what we wanted, and offered useful comments without any extra fluff or ambiguity.

Summer dropped Eaddie off with me so the two of us could go to CiCi’s after everyone left. Autumn went to the gym as a sort of punishment for last night, and Eaddie and I had a nice little date night. We ate and talked for quite a while before riding back home to finish up her last episode of WandaVision. We couldn’t resist watching one more, but now we just have the finale for this weekend.

When we got up to Summer’s, Autumn was working on a school project but wanted to talk about her feelings after realizing she needed some money and permission to go on a band trip. It was a super easy decision for me, but Summer was more empathetic. Maybe I’ve just had too many insincere apologies, but I’m not going to let her jerk us around like that. Everyone shuffled off to bed pretty quickly after that, and I followed suit.

Wolf!

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Beat It

I stopped at Casey’s for a free birthday donut on the way to work, then blared sad music all morning in the dark. Melinda finally said something about the cricket in the office, so we’ll just have to see if she figures it out before she leaves us.

Summer wanted me to go to the doctor with her, so I took the afternoon off. I met her at Fast Glass to drop the Murano off to get the windshield replaced and the front door windows tinted, then we went to BFD for lunch. The asada was super dry and overcooked today, but we had the same server I had the other day and the service was great. Then she dropped me off at home so I could get some laundry done while she went home to clean up.

I must have lost track of time, because she came back to get me and I had to stop in the middle of my laundry to go to the clinic with her. When we got there, they reminded us that no visitors were allowed due to COVID. I should have known better. She went on in, and I waited in the car. At least I remembered my Pixel Buds.

Once she was done, we got gas, drugs, then picked up the girls so she could get them to their karate test. They dropped me off to get the Murano before the shop closed, and it took them a while to get me processed and out the door. I got to their meet in plenty of time to sit with Summer, Mom, and Dad to watch the class get worn down doing basic gym exercises.

Most of the test seemed random and designed solely to exhaust everyone, but they eventually got to some more exciting, non-vocabulary stuff. The best was saved for last though, when they ganged up for three-on-one fights, and then Eaddie’s five-on-one fight to earn her step up on her brown belt.

We all headed home, and I finished my laundry. Autumn evidently had a tantrum and will have to be dealt with later. After tonight, I think we’ve all learned that it is not only perfectly acceptable, but likely necessary to beat our children.

Because I’m bigger, stronger, and most importantly more stubborn than you.

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And Then, Crickets…

It seemed like a perfectly normal, average day. It was frosty in the morning, then warm in the afternoon. I spent most of the day picking at things at the shop. Things were relatively quiet, save for a brief fire at the junior high during testing. Nobody mentioned food, so I went home and finished the leftover pretzel pizza, then brought the R1 back to work.

Brody had some questions, so I spent some time with him at the junior high before ending back up at the shop. Melinda spent a good amount of the afternoon guessing with certainty that Greg had stolen the magazine to her dart gun. I planted a prank device, but it seemed to only go off shortly after she had left the room. I ended the day with some exciting, but sad news.

The girls walked to the house after school, so I picked them up after work and we got some Subway to take to Summer at the shop. We split a pair of footlongs before we dropped Autumn off for her last day of night school. Then Eaddie and I went home to watch a couple episodes of WandaVision. Summer got home just before the conclusion of episode seven, so we stopped as not to reveal any spoilers.

The girls left for home, and I reassembled my master closet the best I could. It needs to be rearranged, but at least I have a bed again. Tomorrow looks to be busy, so hopefully I sleep right through the night.

Bye, bye, bye!

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Spring is Coming

I slept super hard and super long last night, barely waking up before noon. By then it was a beautiful day outside, so we pretty quickly decided to take everyone to my house so they could ride bikes. Noah took Autumn, and Summer, Eaddie, and I went to Little Caesar’s for some pizzas. We quickly ate, and then the kids took off on the bikes for the day. Summer and I went outside to help Bác Vân in the yard, and then I started picking through things in the garage.

Dad came by for a little while and chatted, and eventually Summer left for the gym. When the kids got back, Noah took off right away and I took a shower. Then we headed back up to Summer’s for the evening. She brought home some chicken, and I cooked it with some Rotel in the Instant Pot so we could have tacos.

We wrapped up the day with a couple games of Uno, in which I destroyed all the competition. The girls all went to bed early, while I struggled to do the same after sleeping all day.

You’ve gotta be poopin’ me.

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Pipe Nightmare

I got up this morning and had a leftover pancake. The girls had their own things to do, so I went home to do some laundry and shower. It took me a little bit to notice, but eventually I discovered my bathroom floor had flooded from what I could only assume was a frozen pipe. Then I checked outside and found water all over the garage floor and coming down the driveway. The weird thing was that I had been through part of the garage recently, but never noticed any water.

Dad came over and helped clear a path and pull the cabinet away from the wall. We never saw any dripping from the pipe, but there was a lot of water there. It just didn’t make sense for there to be that much water. It took us a while to find the shutoff valve because the box by the street was flooded and filled with mud and roots. David came over from next door and helped me find it, and we finally got it shut off so we could pull the old faucet.

Once we had everything out, we went to Lowe’s to pick up a new valve. The guy that helped us was friendly enough, but definitely misguided when trying to find the part. Ultimately we got something different that would work, and headed home to finish the repair. It took us the better part of the day, but we got it fixed and I cleaned up the bathroom floor the best I could. At least that’s something I’d been meaning to accomplish lately anyway.

I got my laundry done and took a shower, then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She made some excellent fish tacos and a cake, then we played Uno with the kids. Noah was over for the night, so he and Eaddie watched TV and I went to bed early.

It’s all just a bunch of wood sitting on top of some concrete.

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38’s Special

I woke up early this morning so I could make it to Starbucks for my free birthday drink. They ran out of venti cups, so they gave me a grande and tall instead. I got to work just barely early, so we jumped right into our meeting. Then Zach and I went to the high school to check out a projector lamp. It had blown and we didn’t have any replacements, so we went back to the shop until lunch.

The guys decided on Mexican and we went to La Chiquita for the first time in a while. Brody called us late to find out where we were, and then went to the wrong restaurant, so he arrived a little late. Otherwise it was uneventful.

Kyle and I had to help Josh with a TV install in the afternoon, which ended up being a bit of a circus act. I don’t know what it is about Josh, but it seems like he just doesn’t take his time with anything, and we ended up spending more time fixing things in the long run. We got the TV up, but it could have gone quite a bit faster.

I spent the last bit of the day helping Mike set up some computers for Ethan. Then I got the girls and we headed to Summer’s shop to see her for a minute. From there we went to my house so I could take care of a couple things before heading up to their house. As soon as Summer got home, we met the rest of my family at Colton’s for dinner.

I was really glad Julie came along, and everyone had a really good time. Even when we were talking. It really was a birthday success.

Eaddie and I watched some House when we got home, because the other two went to bed early. I was pretty exhausted too, but I managed two episodes before heading to bed.

38 is the sum of the squares of the first three primes.

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You’re Messing With My Chakras

It was frosty again this morning, and I only just made it to work. I found enough to do from my office, so I never bothered getting to a campus anywhere. Zach, Gary, Josh, and I went to Western Sizzlin for lunch, and I stuffed myself in preparation for the month of free birthday food. A little while after we got back, I was sent with Melinda to run some errands around town.

Our first stop was UPS to drop off a package. I didn’t realize we needed to go into a store to pay for a new shipment, so we ended up having to hit The UPS Store on the other side of town later on. Next up was Harbor Freight to try and find some good screwdrivers for laptop repairs. Melinda couldn’t find any the other day on her own, so this was my primary objective for the outing. After finding a passable set, she wanted to stop by Sonic for drinks. Then we had to go to Walmart for some cleaning wipes for the laptops as well. While we were there, we had permission to look for a sofa slipcover to hide the ratty, peeling skin of the sofa I inherited from Zach. I didn’t like the look or the value, so I passed on those but let her buy a couple throw pillows for the couch instead. We had barely made it past the clearance section and got our wipes when she decided she was going to pick up some things for home. What was supposed to be a run across town for screwdrivers was quickly turning into a two hour shopping spree. We finally shipped the package for Greg on the opposite end of town, and made it back to the office just in time for quitting time.

I ran home to change, then had to run back across town to Wesley’s to help with his Suddenlink equipment swap. It was nice and warm out, so I took the Shadow. That should have been a quick job too, but we ended up having to call support twice after the phones wouldn’t come online. A couple hours later the sun had gone down and it was a cold ride to my parents’ house just to pop in while I was on that end of town. We ended up chatting for a little bit, but I had to get home before it got too cold.

The bike died on the way home, presumably because it was out of gas. I flipped the reserve switch and made it home to pick up a jacket, and then went to the gas station to fill up. When I finally made it back home, I exhausted myself doing a 37-point turn getting the bike back in its slot. I wasn’t up for much else, so it was off to bed a little early.

Assistant to the Information Systems Director