Category: Uncategorised

Uncategorised

20th Percentile

Autumn helped with a few more laptop handouts this morning during the makeup day, and I pretty much stayed in my office. I ended up making a breakthrough in my printer madness, and was able to successfully deploy multiple printers. That will cut down a bunch of my work orders next week.

Autumn wanted to go to Cici’s for lunch, so we invited Allen and Josh along as well. Zach replied to the group text and said we shouldn’t eat together, and that’s when Ben sent out an email calling out a mandatory quarantine for 80% of our department. Heather and I are the only two that remain, and I think I know how that works out by now.

We continued on to Cici’s by ourselves, then went to the shop to pick up a bunch of Chromebook chargers that needed to be delivered to the elementary schools. Ben and Melinda were still there, but not for long. We made a big loop around town, from Sequoyah to Dwight, then on to London and Center Valley. We came back into town and got Crawford and Oakland before going back to the high school. I wrapped up a few quick work orders, and then we left.

Before we went home, we stopped by The UPS Store to pick up our chicken boxes. Then we stopped at my house for Autumn’s band stuff before taking the chicken boxes up to my office. I dropped her off at practice and came back to watch a couple episodes of Jessica Jones with Eaddie. Then I picked Autumn up again, and took both of the girls to their house for the night.

I tried to spend a little time there, but then wanted to get back to Split. He seems a lot better with the company, though he’s still barely eating anything. I don’t really know when enough is enough, but now at least I have the weekend.

Maybe if they had watched more Fox News, they wouldn’t have gotten the coronavirus.

Uncategorised

The Cat’s Out of the Bag

I got up this morning feeling pretty rested, and let the cat outside to wander around while I got ready for work. To my surprise and delight, he ran right back in when I called for him. Summer brought Autumn to me, and we headed to the high school for the last day of laptop pickup. We have a makeup day tomorrow, but at the end of today, most of the devices were out of my way.

Richard from Dependable called and wanted to check for leaks on my AC unit, so I woke Dad up and had him run to the house. There was a leak, and I was about two pounds low on refrigerant again. That explained the huge jump in my Nest’s inefficiency this month.

I let the girls carry on in the library while I beat my head against the wall some more over some printers in my office. I eventually took a break to pick up lunch from Zaxby’s, then continued on with more of the same. We actually left close to quitting time and came back to my house for a little while before Autumn’s band practice.

Summer got Eaddie to karate, then brought everyone back home for the evening. We picked at some leftovers for dinner, and then the usual suspects settled in for a pretty early bedtime while I stayed up too late cleaning my inbox.

The emails just won’t quit, and I still don’t understand why I can’t just fall off the map to go live on a ship.

Uncategorised

The Great Outdoors

Summer got up with me this morning and took Eaddie to the gym. Then Autumn and I went to work, where I left her to tend to the library while I holed up in my office to complete my super important task of building Impero deployments and creating an actual test environment for James to use in training.

Autumn must have done really well, because I only had to stop in a couple times. I felt relatively accomplished, especially considering I had to deal with a CenturyLink outage first thing, instead of working on my Very Important Project. I did go pick up lunch for everyone again, along with some Sonic drinks for everyone. Some of that went into the floor mat because they were a bit overfull, but that rinsed right off when I got home after work.

We didn’t have to sort any after-school activities today, so I worked a bit late over the phone with Ben, then went home to tend to the cat. Summer wasn’t feeling well after work, so I took Autumn home, then came back to start some laundry and let Split explore the front yard a bit.

I think Split may have spent just a little bit of time outdoors when he was very young, but other than that he’s been an indoor cat for all 16 years of his life. He had so many smells and things to taste outside, and he just slowly, quietly stalked around the yard. I’ll never be able to keep a cat indoors like that again. I really don’t want any more pets outside of an aquarium for a very long time. It’s been so long, and not really worth it in the end.

Now playing in select theaters???

Uncategorised

Looking for a Handout

Summer brought Autumn to work for me again today, and we started handing laptops out to the seniors. It was an all-day affair, and for the most part the kids were pretty spread out. Seniors are always a bit more chill since they’ve been through the motions a couple times before.

Noah came by to get his laptop and then needed a ride home, so I dropped him off on the way to pick up Stoby’s for lunch. Autumn had a dentist appointment around lunch time, but then came right back. Work orders continued to flow in all day, and I did what I could remotely. Ben called at the end of the day and said he needed me to work on deploying Impero first thing tomorrow, so hopefully Autumn can handle my part of the laptop handout without me.

Autumn’s band practice was cancelled due to the rain, so we picked Eaddie up after work and I dropped them both off at karate. Then I went by my parents’ house for some fish soup before heading home to clean up a bunch more carpet. It was a bit of a slow-motion nightmare, and I was exhausted by the end of the night. The girls came over to spend the night, and I just crashed as soon as I could.

I don’t like it, buddy. I don’t like it.

Uncategorised

Workin’ 8 to 4:30

In the moment, waking up this morning felt like the saddest I had ever been in my whole life. I was not prepared to go back to work after all these months of shorter days. At this point, I’m not even sure I’m not willing to accept the sacrifice for COVID to stick around forever. I kinda feel like we had it coming anyway. Maybe it’s the reset that humanity needed.

Summer brought Autumn to work for me so I didn’t have to wrestle her out of bed. I didn’t have much for her to do today, but did find a couple gopher errands she could do. I, perhaps unwisely, spent most of the day fighting my printer deployments. I never could get any of them going, but obviously I’d been successful in the past.

We left a bit late for lunch and I dropped a laptop off for shipping at Walgreens, then we went through the Arby’s drive through, ate at the shop, then headed back to work. The afternoon went by quickly but not much more productively. I did fix one department copier, but it wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place if they had only deployed it correctly before I took over.

Autumn had band practice afterward, so I ran her home for her instrument that she was supposed to bring to work with her, then by her grandparents’ to pick up a special face mask with a Velcro flap for her clarinet. It sounded ridiculous in my head, and I was absolutely positive that nobody else in the goddamn band had one, but she insisted that it was a requirement to play her instrument. I suggested she just put a surgical mask on the end of her instrument instead. Seriously, school is so stupid.

I went home to clean more carpet. Split seemed to have more of an appetite, but I can’t spend this much of every single day cleaning up after him. That’s when I decided I would be spending the rest of the week at home with him. I’ll give him some time to explore outside in the evenings, then probably take him to the vet at the end of the week. It’s a sad inconvenience.

When Autumn’s band gig was over, I picked her up and we went to their house for the evening. I had a quick salad for dinner, and everyone was off to bed.

It’s truly the end of the second era.

Uncategorised

Bickerdoodles

Summer and I got up this morning and had leftover waffles and eggs for breakfast. Then she tried to motivate the kids out of bed to clean up the house while she went to the gym. I left as the girls started bickering at each other. I gave Noah permission to knock them around if needed, and headed home to try and clean up a little bit.

Noah had to work, so Summer brought the girls over after dropping him off. Then she and Eaddie went out for a bike ride in the heat while Autumn stayed inside and watched multiple screens as usual. I cleaned more carpet, because that’s my life now. When they got back from their ride, Summer took them home to prepare dinner.

I eventually made it back up the hill, just in time to eat. Summer grilled some pork chops to go with an asparagus, mushroom, tomato, and mozzarella dish, and some mashed potatoes. It was nice to have a well-rounded meal again. Afterward she watched a couple episodes of Glee until everyone scattered to their rooms.

But they don’t look like pigs’ tails.

Uncategorised

Yeehaw.

We all got up this morning and Summer made waffles for breakfast. Autumn drove me to Dollar general so we could pick up some peanut butter for them, and we had a great breakfast. On a bit of a whim, everyone agreed to go to Magic Springs for the day, so we all got up and ready pretty quickly. We had to stop for gas, then by my house to check on the cat. Dad wanted to go with us, so he came over and drove down with Autumn while Eaddie and Noah rode with us.

It was a pretty uneventful drive down, and Dad just happened to get right behind us after we got stuck behind a box truck that was just creeping along. We got to the park in the early afternoon and sent Summer and Autumn off to swim while the rest of us went down the hill for some rides.

We really only had time to ride a couple of the rides. Dad took Noah and Eaddie on the Hawk while I took pictures from below. Then we all rode the Gauntlet. That line experience was the worst we had all day because of all the trashy people cutting in line ahead of us, but we eventually got our turn.

The others tried to ride the X-Coaster, but it got stuck while they were in line. We wanted to ride some more, but we ran out of time before having to meet the others back at the top. It was hot and humid, so we wanted a chance to cool off in the waveless pool before eating. Eaddie insisted that someone else brought her swim suit, and instead learned another important lesson in doing what I tell her to do even if she thinks she knows better. At least we had someone to sit and watch our stuff.

After a brief swim, we went up to the Split Rock Grill and had a bunch of hamburgers. Except Eaddie, who had a sad three little chicken strips. The burgers were surprisingly satisfying, yet devoid of any extras. The kids went off to ride a few more rides while we went to get chairs for the concert. Then we all went down the hill for Lee Brice.

The lawn was absolutely packed with people. It was nearly as crowded as any other popular, non-pandemic concert I’ve seen there. We squeezed in between a few people, quite a bit closer than we really should have, but nobody seemed upset. We watched for a few songs, then left pretty early to beat the traffic out.

We stopped to fill up on some spring water on the way out of town, and decided to do a lap around a few blocks. It was a bit too late to get into any shops, but the kids had fun hanging out together and seeing the night life. Then it was a slow drive following Dad back home for bed.

Lemme hear y’all holler if’n y’er a country bumpkin!

Uncategorised

Last Friday Night

Summer went in to work this morning while I caught up on a bit of sleep. When I got up, I spent the morning and most of the afternoon tinkering with G Suite. Autumn got up and started cleaning house, which eventually prompted Eaddie to do the same.

I had to run home and shower so I could meet up with Mark in the late afternoon. When I got there, he said he forgot to text me that he wasn’t going to have time today, so I headed back home to clean up after the cat. He left me several little presents, so I got the carpet cleaner out and went to work. I ended up liquifying some food for him to see if that would help.

When Noah got off of work, I picked him up and we headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She grilled some chicken for salads, and we watched a bit of TV with the kids until they wanted to watch something without us. Then Summer and I retired to the bedroom and watched Starship Troopers until bedtime.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

Uncategorised

Come On, We ‘Rona Schedule

Summer took Autumn to work with her this morning, so I picked her up from there on the way to work. She only had a few more student laptops to finish up, and the morning flew by for me as I ran around closing work orders.

We took a late lunch to pick up some Burger King, drop some off for Summer, then went back to the shop to eat. Next week we’ll be back on our full-time schedule, so I decided to take tomorrow off before hell week.

The afternoon was pretty uneventful, though I did get a handful of printers converted to my new deployment scheme. After work, we ran by my house so I could change, then got Eaddie for karate.

While they were at karate, I went to my parents’ house for some fish soup for dinner. I just barely had enough time to eat and run before picking up the girls and taking them home. Summer was absolutely beat from work, but Eaddie convinced her to watch an episode of Glee before going to sleep. Afterward, Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones before she decided she wanted to go to bed early.

Hurry up and relax!

Uncategorised

Steady Hustle

Autumn nearly finished imaging laptops today while I continued to run around cleaning up any work orders that I could. Next week is hell week in any normal year, and everyone’s stress over digital learning will only make it worse.

Zach called everyone back to the shop for a pizza party on the department, so Ben, Autumn, and I ran to Pizza Hut to pick up the order. The guy recognized us as being with the school district somehow, which was cool. Less cool was when he asked if we wanted plates and napkins, then gave us exactly three plates for our five pizzas. We immediately just laughed it off, then proceeded to the shop and made everyone use tiny cake plates that we had on hand.

After lunch was of course more of the same until Autumn left for physical therapy. I soldiered on until quitting time, then got Autumn home and went to Mark’s office again for a couple hours. Sometimes I feel like we end up repeatedly covering a lot of the same stuff, but I guess it’s just a part of the job.

Summer was going to get home a bit late while the girls were stuck mowing the lawn, so I went by Popeye’s to redeem a free sandwich before going home for the evening. Summer said someone hit her car door, so I went through security camera footage of when she went by the school to see if it happened there. No luck.

I was pretty beat from running around all day, so I played just a little bit of Overwatch between bits of tinkering. Then it was off to bed at a reasonable time.

Why can’t Popeye’s be consistently like today?