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Lotería!

Summer got up this morning and made some delicious eggs scrambled with a variety of peppers and onions for breakfast. Then she picked up Autumn from her Explorers camp trip before we went to Walmart to pick up what we needed for her work Friendsgiving dinner.

When we got back, she started on her broccoli salad, and then I got the ham started in the oven and took a shower while they went to get Eaddie from her friend’s house. Everything finished up right on time, and one of Summer’s employees dropped off her foster kid to hang out with the girls while we all attended the party.

We had a really good time. Everyone put together a really great dinner party with lots of good food. Summer got to announce her two promotions at the shop, and made a heartwarming speech that had everyone’s hushed attention. Then we gambled quarters in a game of Lotería, which was a lot like Bingo with tarot cards.

We were the first to go, partly so the rest of the crew could enjoy themselves and partly so we could get back to the kids. Everyone settled in for the evening and I headed home just to make my morning a bit easier after getting all gussied up today. My blood pressure seems to be high in the evenings after being low throughout most of the day. The clinic cancelled my last appointment and declined my medication refill though, so that’ll have to be a discussion once I get a little closer to the bottom of the bottle.

Just keep cleaning. Just keep cleaning. Just keep cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. What do we do? We clean, clean!

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Re-Pathing

I made little ham sandwiches for brunch this morning before Summer took Autumn to her Explorers group for their camp trip. Eaddie decided to stay with her friend for another night, so after the gym, Summer came back to help me rearrange the garage.

We finally got the workbench moved to the other wall under the cabinets, which required us to move a whole lot of stuff out into the driveway first. I didn’t get to explore quite as much as I wanted, so there’s still a ton of stuff to get rid of, but I still felt really accomplished. The motorcycles are going to be problematic once we’re ready to garage two cars, but I’ll have some time before I need to tackle that.

It really was like going through a time capsule though. It was a real bummer that John got motor oil all over my NEW flag. I never really put much thought into the publishing of stock prices back before the internet. We also got rid of a huge red carpet, but I don’t have a clue how I inherited it. I don’t think it was the first carpet in my house, but it could have been.

We took a break and got some Zaxby’s for dinner before moving everything back inside. With the motorcycles lined up on the right wall, I had a slightly different path into the house. It’ll be much better once I have some more time to reorganize the things I have in there. After the move, everything was stored pretty inefficiently.

Once we finished up, Summer went home to clean house a bit. I had an amazing shower to get the grime of a good day of work off of me. Then I headed up to her house for the evening before her work Friendsgiving event tomorrow.

We literally rolled out the red carpet to make room for the motorcycles.

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On Queue

I woke up half an hour early today just to go to Starbucks for a plastic red cup. When I got there, the drive-through was coned off and traffic was wrapped around the parking lot, so I waited for just a minute before leaving after I saw absolutely no movement.

That threw me a little off of my morning routine, and I ended up late by a few minutes, but nobody was talking about anything at work. In fact, there were only five of us there, with Melinda and Josh out with COVID, and Allen taking a vacation day to avoid a cable pull. Ben said he’d buy us all lunch since we all made it to Friday.

I didn’t have any group work in the morning, so I went to the high school until lunch. Then I beat everyone else back to the shop. We decided to check out the Ridgewood Brothers’ first Friday lunch first, and would move on to Peg Leg if the line was too long. Our third option was Fat Daddy’s in London if Peg Leg wasn’t open for dine-in. Fortunately there was hardly a line, but unfortunately they were out of everything but loin back ribs and pulled pork. It still made for an incredible lunch though, and it was a beautiful day to eat outside.

After lunch, I had to help Kyle take some carts to Sequoyah. It was predictably awkward, and then he wanted me to put the truck away afterward since he had some other work to finish up there. I went back to the shop for a little while, then ended the day at the high school.

When I got home, I traded for the Murano to get some gas, then came home and waited for Summer and Autumn to get there. Autumn and I set up a dome tent I found in a repossessed vehicle back when I worked at AAF, and surprisingly it looked brand new aside from a couple missing pieces. As long as it doesn’t rain this weekend, she should be fine to camp in it.

Meanwhile, Summer got a fire going in the pit out back, and then we cooked some brats over it for dinner. We ran out of fire just as we finished as many marshmallows as we wanted, and then we came inside to watch Ralph Breaks the Internet. It didn’t have quite the amount of easter eggs as Ready Player One, but it was really good. I wish we had watched it in 3D though.

Queue? Cue? Que? Q?

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MacNuggies With Bae

Ben emailed us early this morning to say that Melinda tested positive for COVID. We were all pretty sure she had it the other day when I was at the shop, but evidently she refused to go home. Surprisingly, I don’t think anyone else chose to quarantine. Even Zach, who I think jokingly hugged on her that day, was at work today. Josh apparently took COVID days, but refused to test because if it comes back positive, his breadwinner wife would have to quarantine as well. The level of selfishness kind of astounds me.

I stuck to my office for most of the day, but was mostly aimless. I left for a late lunch and got a big bag of McNuggets to share with Summer, and we ate on the bench outside her shop. Then I went to our office for some parts and to talk to Ben for a bit before going back to the high school.

I wrapped up the day at the Center, getting their new box office ticket printer working. There wasn’t a lot of useful troubleshooting I could do, but through enough tinkering, I finally got it to work.

I stopped to see Summer again on the way home, then spent a quiet evening alone at the house. I got some more laundry done while Inception played, then went to bed.

You’re waiting for a train.

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On the Subject of Customer Service

I had a few new things come in this morning, so I spent all day working on those. The kids were back, which meant I had to work around the bell schedule again. I also kept getting phone calls instead of work orders, but fortunately it wasn’t anything too serious.

Summer got a lunch break, so I picked her up and we went to Brangus. A big group of the guys were there with Dale, and it hurt my feelers that not one of them said a word to me about it. I knew it was Gary’s birthday, so I guess it was my fault for not finding my way back to the shop before lunch, but a text doesn’t seem like too much trouble if they wanted me there. On the plus side, our waitress was my favorite, and remembered my order.

I spent all afternoon fighting my way around a switch configuration, which really ended up being due to port security and forgetting that there was another network device in line that kept breaking things as I fixed them. I won in the end, except for some lag in how often PaperCut updates printer IPs.

After work, Julie brought me some leftover donuts from work. Then Summer came over and took a bath while I finished up some leftovers. Autumn called for a ride because Nick’s car quit on them on the drive over, so we picked them up.

While the girls were inside watching TV, I called Belkin WeMo support for help with my new light switch that won’t update firmware. The support was surprisingly really great in spite of having to call back when the line went dead the first time. The guy I got the second time could tell I knew my stuff, so we sped through the troubleshooting stuff really quickly and he escalated the issue with an expected callback in a day or two. Best of all, they’re open 24/7, so I really can take care of it when it’s convenient for me.

Once off the phone, I had to play catch-up on a conversation with emotion that the girls were having. We de-escalated pretty easily, and set some expectations. With that, the leash will get just a little bit shorter, and the behavior will have to show marked improvement.

Finally, just before bed, I ordered a new Shorai battery for the Shadow. I had to email the manufacturer this afternoon for the correct part number, and they responded in like an hour. Of course I went back to MotoMummy for the battery, since they’ve always been spectacular on top of having the best price by a long shot. This time we’ll see if they can draw my namesake on the shipping box.

“Like hugging a giant rotisserie chicken.”
Sometimes you just have to take the compliments as they come.

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Where Yeezy At?

Today was the second virtual day to account for conferences, so I quietly closed a few work orders at the high school before taking a lunch. This time it was Burger King that had a free Whopper, so I picked that up and then ate at home.

It was a gorgeous day at that point, so I tried starting the Shadow. It didn’t even grumble, so I put it on the charger and took the R1 back to work.

I spent the afternoon at the shop with Gary, troubleshooting the terrible performance in Cognos. We drilled it down to something likely in Group Policy, so it’s anybody’s guess what the difference between our laptops and desktops is. I broke off of that project and got a software deployment made, and then it was time to go.

I only stopped at home long enough to change, then took the girls to karate. I still had a $5 off coupon for Ace Hardware, so I went by Leonard’s and just perused the kitchen wares for nearly an hour. I ended up getting a tea infuser that immediately broke as soon as I unpackaged it, and a tire patch kit for my mountain bike, all for like 40 cents.

I ended the night with some laundry and an early bedtime. I couldn’t bear to stay awake knowing Kanye was relegated to the “Other Candidates” heading.

You may be talented, but you’re not Kanye West.

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On the Subject of Furnishing

The whole district scheduled virtual learning days today and tomorrow, so it was super quiet all day. I kept myself slowly busy, but didn’t ever feel very accomplished. I took a late lunch and picked up another free Big Mac, then went by the shop to find a spare desktop I could use to replace one in the front office.

After work, I changed and went to get Autumn to an Explorers meeting. Then I mostly played some Rocket League on the Switch until Summer got home. Eaddie came out so we could watch an episode of Glee, and then I picked Autumn up after her meeting.

When we got back to the house, we stopped by the neighbor’s trash pile to scavenge a couple lamps. I half joked with Autumn, telling her that’s how we would furnish her college dorm room. That’s when she threw a tantrum about not going to college and hating school and not having to tell us what she likes or doesn’t like.

Summer had a talk with her once inside, and eventually they included me, but by that time I felt like my part had been mostly diminished. I think it’s going to take a firmer hand to produce better results from her than Summer is willing to give.

Eaddie came around and I showed her how to set up filters in Gmail, and then everyone wandered off to bed.

‘Cause you’re his cheeseburger; his yummy cheeseburger!

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Flushed

We slept for a really long time last night, and woke up feeling pretty good. The girls were up around the same time, so Summer took them home while I got started tearing my toilet apart. It could have been a simple three minute fix to replace the lever arm, but I was tired of the flapper valve getting stuck on the chain because it was oriented incorrectly, so I decided to strip out all of the hardware and completely rebuild it.

Summer met me at Lowe’s in the afternoon so we could walk around and browse for some deals too. They didn’t have anything great, but I got a little Frankenstein pot with a succulent in it for half off after Halloween. It was nice just to shop around for a bit together without dragging the kids around too.

Afterward, I went to my parents’ house because they made some bánh giò. I helped them move some plants around in preparation for the potential frost, and then I picked at some older leftovers for dinner.

On the way back home, I stopped by a house near the end of the street where someone recently moved out, and picked up a huge sheet of half-inch acrylic and a couple other little things. Then I got to work putting the toilet back together. Now I’m ready for the next project.

After spending all day fixing a toilet, I think I know my useless superpower. I can do things in super slow motion, while appearing to move at regular speed.

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“Strenuous” Hike to a “Waterfall”

I got up this morning and went to meet with Mark for about an hour while Summer went to the gym. When we got back, Summer and Autumn picked up some corn dogs for lunch. Then we all loaded up and went to Mt. Nebo for a hike.

We went down a short path to a tiny waterfall first. I struggled way more than I thought I would or should coming back up. Then we started around the rim trail until it was time to turn around and come back.

The girls went home to clean up while I did the same. Then they came back over and we went to my parents’ house for a movie night. Dad grilled burgers and hot dogs, and then we watched the original Clash of the Titans. I missed out on a big chunk of it while I got up to make popcorn, and I didn’t remember much of the story from my childhood, but I can always rewatch it later.

By the time we got home, everyone was pretty exhausted and went straight to bed.

What if courage and imagination became everyday mortal qualities?

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Becoming a Spooky Ghost

I crawled out of bed after a few hours of sleep, and got things rolling for my big, spooky ghost show at work. I got there nearly an hour early and started setting up. Melissa was already there fogging the area for Coronavirus, but I didn’t get in her way. Allen showed up about half an hour before work, and I had to hide all of my laptops in a hurry and then sneak out the back door before he saw me. Unfortunately, once I got set up in the graveyard, I realized that two of the laptops weren’t set up right, so I made the decision to go back downstairs and fix it, even though it would give up the joke to him.

Everyone else started trickling in, but Greg and Josh were both gone. It ended up being Allen, Zach, Gary, Kyle, Ben, and Melinda in the shop. To my surprise, some guy from Hector schools showed up to pick up some of our scrap. That was all fine and dandy until nearly the entire crew showed up at the door to the graveyard. Ben was giving the guy a walk around the whole area to pick through any scrap he wanted. I didn’t have anywhere to go, but luckily both Ben and the guy from Hector didn’t say a word when they caught glances of me, and Zach took the others back downstairs.

Once they got the meeting started, I had Zach turn the lights off and I began my Spooky Ghost performance. Melinda seemed to have a lot of fun running around the room trying to find where I was actually hiding. They didn’t realize I could actually hear them at first, so when I started responding directly to them, it got even more exciting.

After the meeting, I went with Ben, Allen, and Kyle to the junior high to repair student laptops all day. We got several of them done, but at the expense of getting none done at the high school since the start of the year. That’ll be fun later.

We took a break to go to Sam’s for lunch, and then Ben and I went back to the junior high to finish up. I was supposed to get to go home early for dressing up, but since Ben was my ride, we ended up staying a while after four. They can see if I ever dress up again.

The girls all came over in the evening, and we watched some Glee until bedtime. Hopefully I’ll wake up well rested tomorrow, and can get some stuff done.

I’m obviously in the Great Beyond.