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Trump Town

I got a bit sidetracked today, but that’s not out of the ordinary. I still felt alright about what I accomplished, but it also kind of feels like there’s never any way out. Summer took the girls to work with her, but none of them would respond to me all morning, so I took a late lunch and went home to eat a burrito by myself.

After lunch, I discovered that Summer had lost her phone. I was mostly concerned that someone had stolen it, and tracked it down to a specific house just south of Scottsville. It took me a while to get an answer out of anyone, but Summer realized she dropped it in a customer’s car and just didn’t feel the urgency of getting it back.

When I left work, I dropped by the shop to see them, then rode on up through Dover to retrieve it. It was a really nice ride, apart from all the bugs. Trump flags were out in full force, and someone had placed a hay bale on top of another and painted it to look like old Donnie. It was actually kind of cute. The “neighborhood” was actually really cute, and I was surprised at how many houses were out there along that road. Luckily I found an old lady outside, and I guess it was her family across the street that had the phone.

With that relief, I headed back to town and delivered Summer’s phone to her at Planet Fitness. Then I met them all at my parents’ house after the girls finished karate. Mom made chow mein, and we even got Autumn to eat some. We didn’t stick around too long since Summer was exhausted from her chaotic week. At least she managed to get her stitches out today. Next week has got to be better.

That’s 2020 for you.

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Kinder Class

This morning was super quiet at the high school, but Zach asked Josh and me to help deploy laptops at Oakland after lunch. I met them at the shop for lunch, and since Linhs was closed, we went to Smackin’ Wings and Things for the first time in months. The menu looked a bit more finished, but I couldn’t decide what to eat, so I had the waitress surprise me. She did well, with some wings and one of their fry dishes.

After lunch, Ben and Kyle joined us for the deployment party at Oakland. I really didn’t do that many myself, because I kept getting stuck fixing dumb things, or helping others. It was incredibly humid wearing my mask the whole time too, which made it pretty miserable. It was fun getting to see a lot of those people again though, and I had forgotten how much fun it is to walk into a chaotic kindergarten room with kids running and screaming everywhere. Tracy’s room is always a hoot anyway, and she had stories as usual.

We finished up right around the time that school let out, and went back to the shop. Zach got permission for us to leave work early, but I ended up sticking around and chatting with Ben until closer to quitting time. Then I ran by Sonic for a drink on the way to see Summer and Eaddie at the shop.

They wanted to come over and ride bikes, so I came home and cleaned up a bit first. Then when they got there, Summer took Autumn to get some food and face wash while I took Eaddie on a bike ride. It got dark fast, so we didn’t get to stay out very long. We all got back home at almost exactly the same time, so the girls came in and watched The Simpsons while I caught up on some email. Then it was off to bed.

They never quite know what to do when the strange adult starts copying their crying.

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Talk About Feeling

It was pretty brisk getting home this morning, but I did it. Work was really quiet, and I just spent most of the morning trying to catch myself back up mentally. I took a moment to do my wellness questionnaire, and made an appointment for my wellness visit the same day as Summer’s dentist appointment.

I took a late lunch and brought Summer a Baconator since I knew she could really use a lunch break after returning to work. Then I went by the shop for a little while, but Ben wasn’t there to chat. I went back to the high school to wrap up, and the afternoon went by really quickly.

The girls had karate, so I ran home to change and to take a peek at the Grom to see what kind of damage we were looking at. The handlebars seem a smidge off, and the headlight leans left a bit now. The right handlebar stop seems not to work, but I couldn’t tell why. Hopefully the damage isn’t too bad, but maybe I’ll feel more confident working on a tiny, cheap bike that isn’t also my main ride.

After getting the girls to karate, I went by my parents’ house for some fish soup. They had already eaten, so I just ate on my own. Dad had some comments for me that required some thought, so after eating and heading back home, I decided to go back up to Summer’s for the evening.

The girls were all winding down, but Summer brought them in to chat, and we kind of just made sure everyone was happy. Maybe there are assumed guidelines to the whole step-thing that I don’t adhere to, or maybe it’s a lack of anyone else seeing the interactions of my family in their own home. Maybe they’ve underestimated how long we’ve all been around each other in such close quarters. At the end of the day, the Captain’s got to go with his gut.

No complaints from the crew tonight.

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You Must Restore Your Qi

I got up this morning and made some more egg sandwiches, only this time I added some sliced American cheese for the extra melty texture. The girls got around shortly after I did, and started on schoolwork. Summer was feeling a bit better, but still sore from the wreck. She made an appointment at the dentist to check out her chipped teeth, and tried to proactively schedule an appointment with the doctor to remove her stitches.

It was overall a pretty quiet morning, otherwise. Ben evidently had to spend some time at the high school, so he took care of a few work orders for me. I took Summer to her dentist appointment in the afternoon, and we filled out paperwork in the car until they called us in. The weather was perfectly cool and sunny for that, so we just relaxed with the windows down.

The exam didn’t really take long at all, since they just checked out the damage and scheduled a visit for the end of next week. It’s a bit of a bummer that she’ll have to wait that long, but at least she’s not experiencing any real pain with her teeth. She was super hungry afterward, and craving Chinese, so we stopped by New China only to find out they were still not open for dine-in.

We stopped by the house and got Eaddie, then went to Mulan’s for dinner. Autumn had eaten a snack earlier, and had to get ready for an Explorers meeting, so we left her at home to get ready. After dinner, I dropped Summer off, and Eaddie went with me to drop Autumn off at Bona Dea.

Eaddie and I drove across the street and walked along the bank of the lake for a bit. I tried to get artsy with my Pixel’s camera and a low sun, but the best pictures didn’t happen until later. We drove up and around Washburn Park before finally ending up at the main entrance of Bona Dea for a walk around the Rabbit Run. She really wanted to do the “obstacle” course, so we walked around as the sun went down. Autumn’s crew eventually jogged past us, but still had plenty of lecturing to do before they would be done.

When we finished the trail, I could see the sunset was giving off some pretty good color, so we went back across the street and took some more photos that came out pretty well. Then we went back to get Autumn, and stopped at Subway to get her dinner on the way home.

Summer was already in bed, and the girls weren’t up much longer either. Summer’s going back to work in the morning, so hopefully she won’t be in too much pain for it.

Now just do a high kick over your head!

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Sunday, Recovery Sunday

I got up and made egg sandwiches for Summer and myself this morning. Autumn got around, and asked to go to their father’s house for the day, which was only a minor inconvenience to our plans. Summer let them go until Noah had to go to work at five. The rest of us watched some Cobra Kai, then the first couple episodes of Jericho on a whim.

I helped Summer get cleaned up a bit, and even got her outside a couple times to stretch out her limbs. She was definitely feeling the ache in her muscles today. It was bright and sunny, but cool and quiet. I wished we could have been out enjoying it more, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

The girls showed back up at the agreed-upon time, and Summer and I took Noah to work on the way to my parents’ house. They grilled pork chops and shrimp to go with noodles. We didn’t get quite the backlash either of us expected for Summer’s condition, but it was a good evening.

We stopped by my house so I could take care of a couple chores quickly before heading back to her house for the night. The girls appeared to be doing the schoolwork we required of them. Summer went straight to bed, and I chatted with the girls for a while until they went to their rooms. Tomorrow will start to tell us how Summer’s week will go.

Why do all of my late night conversations with you make it sound like we’re stoners?

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What a Wreck

Autumn got up this morning ahead of everyone else, and actually wanted to take the others out to do something. Once everyone else was up, we sent the three of them to get breakfast from Burger King. When they got back, Eaddie said she had slipped in some gravel and had a little wreck, breaking the bottle holder off of her bike. Fortunately I had about a dozen more, so I had her fixed up with a replacement in no time.

They took off again to go exploring on their bikes, so Summer went to the gym while I took a shower and started some laundry. She and the kids all got back home around the same time, and they came in to rest while I went outside with Summer so she could practice riding the Grom around the neighborhood.

I was in and out with laundry since she seemed to be doing really well. That’s when I heard someone beating on the door. The neighbor came over and said he thought someone hit her in the road. I ran outside, and she was standing on the sidewalk at the end of the road with a couple stopped cars and a bunch of people.

Luckly she hadn’t actually been hit, but she had a low-speed crash after what I guessed was a failed downshift in the middle of turning onto our street. As far as crashes go, it couldn’t have happened in a more convenient place. She was able to walk to the house, and I got the Grom started up and rode it home. It wasn’t until we got there that I realized how bad the gash in her chin was.

We dropped Noah off at work, then tried to go by MedExpress. They came out to check on her, then politely suggested the emergency room just in case it was something more serious. We really should have insisted on getting stitches there, because it took over four hours at Saint Mary’s to get three stitches in her chin. The staff there was overall much less friendly and helpful, and I’m sure it’ll be more expensive. We were running with an abundance of caution though, and didn’t have the gift of hindsight.

Julie was nice enough to pick up Noah from work while we were stuck at the hospital. When we did finally make it back to the house, I had Noah take her home while I finished up my laundry. Then I ran to get her a Baconator for dinner before Wendy’s closed, since we never did eat after breakfast. I picked the girls up from my house, then headed up to theirs for the evening. Summer was obviously exhausted after an afternoon of road rash, a laceration on her chin, and at least one chipped tooth, but didn’t seem as defeated as she had been the rest of the evening. She made it up into bed for some of her kids baking show until she fell asleep. I struggled to get my laptop running long enough to get this blog post up, and then crashed myself.

See what I did there?

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Maybe It Wasn’t Jason

We had to meet at the shop this morning for a brief training meeting and then project work. The project work ended up being mostly already done though, so there was just a touch panel install in the afternoon. I ended up sticking around the shop all day anyway, so Ben and I could tinker with some of Impero’s broken features.

A group of us went to Fat Daddy’s in London for lunch, and it was some of the worst barbecue I’d ever had from them. I decided to get the brisket sandwich, and they forgot my slaw on the sandwich. I didn’t bother going back up, but then the brisket itself was dry and tough. Maybe I’m just spoiled now, or maybe the quality of the beef suffered due to the pandemic. I think I’m spoiled.

We stopped by the Ridgewood Brothers on the way back into town and chatted with Robert and Felix for a little bit just to complain on the way back to work. I wish they would hurry up and start service on Fridays so we could get some decent barbecue for group lunches.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly. I still mingled around the shop, partly waiting for our project at the end of the school day. Melinda had me go upstairs with her to fetch a couple stacks of boxes, and Josh called wondering where I was. He had the truck and trailer all loaded up and ready for the job, and I was making him late.

Evidently Zach and Greg were already there, but we didn’t realize they brought everything for the job already. Everything Josh brought was just extra, and they already had the old SMART touch panel down and the Newline up. We finished the wiring and tidied up a bit, and then we were out of there.

I wrapped up the day chatting with Ben for a while, then headed home just long enough to change before getting Autumn from therapy and taking her home. I cleaned up some leftovers there while we waited for Summer to get home from the gym. Then Noah called and needed a ride up. I didn’t even realize he was coming over this weekend, but everyone got along pretty well all night, so it really was a treat.

We got gas on the way back to my house, and then Summer pretty well passed out as soon as we got there. We tried setting up something for the kids to do, but nobody could settle on anything. I got Slender running for a bit and played through a round of it. Autumn went to bed before he got me, and afterward I crashed and left Noah and Eaddie up for some late night television.

Maybe we’re just bad at projects.

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You R1 to Talk

It was another pretty lovely day, so I got the big boy out for the ride in to work. I meant to call in for service, but never got around to it. The morning was relatively quiet, though I did spend some time with Ethan trying to troubleshoot a software installation.

I took another late lunch and just ran home to make a burrito. Then I went to the shop for a little while to sign some paperwork and put in for vacation time. Ben had me extract another headphone plug from an iPad, so I got to deliver that to Oakland on the way back to the high school.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly too, and I spent the last part of the day chatting with Karen in the library. I guess I caught her in a calm mood, because for a moment it felt a little like I was kicked back on a therapist’s chaise lounge. It was a good chat though, and I felt like we bonded a little.

Summer made chicken and dumplings for dinner that was ready before I got off, so I had to run straight to her house for dinner after work. The girls had karate, so she took them in while I waited. Then we chatted for a bit until she had to pick them up.

I went home for the evening with the hopes of getting a bit more cleaned up, but it just didn’t happen. I did get one relatively large object out of the house though. The cats never really liked their little play thing. Hopefully Kayla’s will. I ended up going to bed early with a headache and some congestion.

Let me get this straight. You desperately need this to do your job, but you don’t know what it does? Of course, how silly of me.

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And Then You Marry One

It was so nice out this morning that I took the Grom in all day. Something was happening in front of Hickey Park though, and traffic was backed up about halfway to my street. It looked like they were moving stuff from one Tyson truck to another, but the trucks were already in the parking lot and for some reason they had a portable canopy set up between them. There were some cops there as well, but I couldn’t make out what was actually happening.

I closed out several old work orders, and even dealt with a sassy teacher. I guess it wasn’t really a surprise to find out she’s married to another thorn in my side out there. The morning went by so quickly that I ended up taking a late lunch. I had a couple expiring deals, so I made a coupon run through McDonald’s and then Chick-fil-A. I stopped by the house to eat quickly, then went back to work and caught up with the Google hardware announcement.

After work, I came home and got busy cleaning. My shower had been leaking water from the door trough, so I decided to take the doors out and powerwash them. I didn’t notice until I was nearly done, but there was actually a cavity in the bottom of the doors that was just full of lint and soap scum. Undoubtedly, that was what kept pushing water out of the shower when the trough got full.

I hit a wall pretty quickly after that. I tried to keep the momentum going, but I stopped for a light dinner and then just couldn’t get moving again. I felt so sleepy that I rushed my evening routine and went straight to bed.

I didn’t want the ashes, and I surely didn’t want a vial of his fur, but thanks for the thought, I guess?

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Uppers

Today went by pretty quickly, as all days seem to do lately. It wasn’t long before I found myself taking a late lunch. Slim Chickens had BoGo tenders and mac, so I had lunch with Summer on the bench outside the shop before she went to take the girls home.

On the way to the shop, I picked up a free coffee from Casey’s. After work, I picked up another one from the other Casey’s, which kept me up through the evening.

Autumn wanted to spend the night with her grandparents, so I went home after work and had dinner by myself before putting all that energy to work picking up around the house. Summer and Eaddie came over after karate, showers, and dinner. Then we watched an episode of Glee until Summer went to bed. Eaddie and I wrapped up with an episode of Jessica Jones.

He who controls the Pumpkin Spice, controls the basic white girls!