Libraries Are Loud

It was frosty this morning, but turned out to be a beautiful day. I spent the morning at the high school again, and cleaned up some more random work. Just before lunch, I was in the library jabbering with the girls when our conversation caught the attention of some of the kids in the room. It really got me considering the podcast idea again, but it would be so much work to come up with weekly content. I’d nearly have to mic myself and just go back every day to recover useful content.

I just went home for lunch and ate the leftover Subway sandwich. Then I went to the junior high to get my computer chair. Brody had a couple questions, so I had a look and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there.

The girls walked from the high school to Oakland, so I picked them up on the way across town. I had to get some gas at a much higher price than I had gotten used to paying. Then we went to Summer’s shop to get their karate gear. Both of them were having fits about different things, but we made Autumn go to karate anyway, and then I took Eaddie with me across town so we could have a chance to talk about her feelings.

Things got better pretty quickly after we all sat down to talk together, but they’ll both need to work on addressing things more immediately. Summer bringing home Zaxby’s probably helped their moods too.

I developed a pretty good sinus headache, so I wasn’t worth much after that. At least I had plenty of time to get to bed early.

When the Teachers Are the Bullies

What Are You Syncing About?

I had to get up extra early this morning to get the girls to school. I decided to take Eaddie in first, since we usually drop Autumn off first, and I needed to end up at the high school anyway. Autumn didn’t appreciate it, and Eaddie dawdled getting out the door, but hopefully having the tables turned will teach both of them to be more considerate and thoughtful in the future.

The office was super cold all morning, stuck at around 64 degrees. I could never tell that the thermostat kicked on, and I’m convinced it’s actually just a thermometer they installed to mock me. I spent all morning and into lunch just working on getting some software loaded for some digital electronics kids. I really hate those HP laptops we got, but I never would have seen that coming when we chose them in the first place.

I ran home and ate the leftover nachos for lunch, then went back to the shop for the afternoon. I did a few work orders remotely for the junior high and middle school, and tinkered with Web Help Desk a bit to see if it would benefit me to set myself as a manager over the other secondary techs. It was a pretty quiet afternoon otherwise. I stayed a bit late just messing with things in my office, then had to run to the high school to get Eaddie’s karate bag that Autumn forgot in the library. I still don’t understand why Autumn did think to bring Eaddie’s stuff with her to the high school, but left her own stuff at home.

After dropping off their gear, I went to my parents’ house and hung out for a little while. Dad had the stereo slides from vacation out, so I looked at those before dinner. Then we worked on the fish soup some more. Eventually I headed home for the evening and bounced around the house picking at various things. I had to sync my text messages with Google Fi again, which wreaked havoc on my notifications. With any luck, my phone won’t be dead when I wake up in the morning.

Am I really just doing all of this, only to wipe my phone and have to do it all over again?

New Digs

I went to the high school first thing this morning, but quickly realized that Mike wasn’t coming in again. Evidently he’s decided to get tested, so the next day or so will be an exercise in the “filling in” portion of my job. I felt mildly accomplished after spending too much time remembering how to configure switches, and then I took a break to pick up some Subway.

Summer was at the house after prepping a slow cooker roast, so I brought lunch and we ate there. Then I went back to work at the shop for the rest of the afternoon. I tinkered a bit in my new office while some slower processes churned away. I’ll enjoy being there more, but the soundproofing at the high school was unparallelled. I’ll miss the big tunes.

After work, I made it home just before the girls got there, and then Summer took Eaddie out for a bike ride. I had Autumn drive me to Walgreens in her new car, and then dropped her off for her night class. When I got back home, I finished digging out an old side table I’ve had in the garage forever, and used some furniture polish to bring it back to life.

We ate when the girls got back from their ride, and then I picked Autumn back up. We eventually got around to watching an episode of WandaVision, but Summer shut us down on watching any more for the night. Everyone’s getting up extra early tomorrow, so it’s off to bed early.

Needs more portraits.

You Have to See It for Yourself

Summer and I got up this morning and went to breakfast at IHOP since I had a free birthday stack of pancakes. Our server was a former student of hers, but that only made us a little nervous. The restaurant was absolutely packed though, mostly from an after-church rush. She barely came by the table at all, but the food was good.

Summer was going to go home afterward, but we ended up hanging out at the house until the girls got home. Then we watched a couple episodes of WandaVision before heading to my parents’ house for fish soup. We chatted for a little while since we hadn’t been around much since Disney. Then we stopped by Summer’s parents’ house to pick up the Toyota Matrix they were giving to Autumn.

The battery was dead, so we had to jump start it in the rain. The dome light was also burned out, which made finding buttons in the car a little difficult too, but we got it going enough for Summer to bring it back to my house. The girls went on home from there, and I spent some time tinkering with my Galaxy Watch3. I’m afraid it’s not doing much to grow on me, but at least the used market for them looks decent.

AGTSMTH

Home Away

Summer had to work for a few hours today, so I got up and around and eventually made my way to the high school to pick up some of my things. I loaded a flatbed cart up with stuff to get into my trunk, then delivered it all to my new office under Gardner. It took me a few hours to get things situated, particularly because of the lack of power. I’ll have to come up with even more if I want to have anything set up to the right of my main desk.

After work, Summer wanted some nachos, so I stopped by Taco Villa on the way home. Then we watched Stranger than Fiction, which was an older movie than I realized. I loved it, and I was happy to see Will Ferrell in a role that didn’t have him being his usual level of ridiculous.

I stayed up a little bit late to set up my new Samsung Galaxy Watch3, but was disappointed to learn that the eSIM isn’t supported for Google Fi. That didn’t even register as a possibility, and it was super upsetting that this wasn’t more obvious when I bought it with my promotional credit. At least I was able to pick up the device protection plan for the phone after it failed to register to my account at the point of purchase.

It’s a tragedy.

I Sea Potential

We had a pretty lengthy meeting first thing this morning to cover some more processes and network structure. I felt great about my own understanding. Once that was over, we moved a bunch of tech tubs out of the shop and into the graveyard. Then I spent the rest of the morning trying to figure out the best way to run power to my desk since there’s no power outlet on that side of the room. Hopefully I won’t be drawing too much current through the single extension cord I have running across the floor.

Most of us went to Sam’s for lunch, and though the food was as good as ever, our server seemed a little off somehow. She wasn’t bad, but she just felt somehow clumsy. I got my food last, and after seeing my receipt, I was pretty sure I got the wrong side items. Everything I’ve had there is delicious though, so it really didn’t even matter to me what I got.

After lunch, I went to the high school to do some more work. Ben had a meeting with three of the computer lab aides and wanted me to stop by for a meet and greet. Then he came back to the office with me for a little while.

The girls went with their father after school, and Summer was feeling under the weather. She eventually came over as I milled around the house looking for things to set up in my new office. The night seemed to drag on forever, and I couldn’t ever really focus on anything, which made it worse. At least I was able to piece together a custom Linktree-style landing page with rotating filler text. I feel smartish.

This place needs more nautical decor.

Mooving Day

Mike was out today, but I still spent all morning at the high school, trying to get some software to work. I picked Summer up for lunch at Western Sizzlin, then ran home to bring in a FedEx delivery. It was my McDonald’s chkndrop, which consisted of an overbuilt, square-shaped shoebox type container, a seven inch vinyl record, a gold colored metal gift card, and a hoodie.

I spent most of the afternoon at the shop, and claimed a new office space next to Ben. I really wanted his old office, but evidently it still floods, so I took the office next to him instead. The desks weren’t ideal for me, but I’ll make it work.

When I got home, Dad was already there with a guy to check out my bathrooms for a remodel. He seemed the most gruff of the three guys we’ve had out, so at that rate, I’d be afraid to see what scruffy kind of fellow he’d find next. His ballpark figure came in quite a bit lower than the first guys, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about that yet.

The night went by slowly at first, and then sped by as it came time to wind down for bed. Hopefully I wake up more rested tomorrow.

I should have moved into the Murder Basement.

I’m Not Your Bud, Guy!

I took the Shadow to work today since it was supposed to be at least a little bit nice out. I spent all day at the high school with Mike, and we closed out a few things. The work there was definitely more difficult than the screw turning I’d been doing at the junior high. I’ll have more to do tomorrow as well, and then lots of claims to finish before the end of the summer.

I met several of the guys at Bocadillos for lunch, and the service was extra good today. Then I finished up at the high school before running home to get the car so I could take the girls to karate.

Summer had their gear, so we stopped by the shop to get that first. Then I dropped them off and went to my parents’ house to visit for a little while. Summer had a long day at work and didn’t want to get back out, so I took the girls home, and it was an early night to bed.

The moon, you say?

More Work?

This morning started out pretty cold, but the afternoon got up around 70. I spent all day with Brody again, and we just about finished up everything at the junior high. We both tore down some student devices all the way to the motherboards, and even that was easier than I thought, so we have loads of parts to make good laptops now.

Zach wanted to go to Quiznos for lunch. I tried to convince the crew to go somewhere else, but Brody left the office to go straight to Quiznos, and by the time Zach, Gary, and I got there, he had already taken his food back to the junior high.

After work, I went by Summer’s shop again until she closed, then went to Zaxby’s to pick up a quick dinner. Then I finally took my car in for a wash before settling in for the night.

Help! Help! I’m being repressed!

Orientation Days

It was back to work today after another super long break. With all the new blood coming in, Ben went over our new team structure, and I’ll be stepping back from the buildings in favor of more systems stuff, which is good. Hopefully we can offload more of the actual device repairs to the lab aides to free us up for other things.

I spent all day with Brody at the junior high, where we closed a few tickets and then stripped down a few laptops. We took a long lunch break at Linh’s with some of the worst service we’ve ever had, because the new guy was having to train an even newer girl. She just hasn’t been able to keep servers there for anything, and it’s suffering a lot because of it.

After work, I stopped by the shop to see Summer, then ran home to clean up before heading to their house. Zach took Autumn to her Explorers meeting and brought Eaddie dinner, so Summer and I just ate some leftover spaghetti. Then I picked Autumn up and we all settled in for the night.

I should invest in submarines with all this diving.