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These Aren’t the Laptops You’re Looking For

This morning was rough getting out of bed, and it didn’t get much better into the day. I started out well enough, trying to make sense of everything I have left to do before school starts again. It wasn’t long before Allen and Josh showed up to pick up some laptops. I thought they were there to help take the old devices to UPS for me, but after some forced conversation and a bit of random chance, I discovered they were actually looking for the old teacher devices that we were keeping. I didn’t have very many for them to take since they’re still picking them up in the office, but we loaded up what we could and packed them into Josh’s car.

I didn’t have a whole lot of time to get into much else, so I started unboxing more parts so I could find the three LCD screens that required broken parts to be returned. Then I went to the shop and picked up Zach, Allen, and Greg for a trip to Firehouse. They had a bunch more new vegetables to try, so I loaded up my New York Steamer and went to town. It was excellent.

After lunch, I went back to the high school and did my best to keep busy between all the off-contract employees bugging me to fix their issues immediately. I managed to replace a couple docking stations, helped Al type his password in correctly a couple more times, and eventually got around to taking a sample laptop and box of 80 chargers to The UPS Store to get a quote.

I went by the shop on the way back across town, but Ben wasn’t there for a chat and the others were busy imaging and loading iPads into cases. I only had a little bit of time left, so I went back to the high school and tested out my new USB flash drives. So far, the Patriot Supersonic Rage Elite is the fastest, but out of two drives, I’ve already broken one and was unable to format it. I’ll give it another try tomorrow, but I’m starting to run out of options.

I left work a little late and ran home to clean up a bit before going by Mark’s office again. He had a bunch of questions for me, and I grew to hate offline email clients just a little bit more. He hooked me up with the headgear I needed for my CPAP, and it still baffles me that those simple elastic straps sell for $15 when they’re “on sale.”

Summer got home just as we finished up, so I met her at the house and we went to my parents’ for dinner. Mom made some killer bún thang out of the leftover wing tips from Julie’s BBQ Birthday Bash. After dinner, we headed home and settled into bed pretty quickly after I put together my Kobalt string trimmer.

So I know you’re super busy dealing with like three times your usual workload, but can you pay attention to just me right now?

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Wing It

We got up this morning and munched on some leftovers for brunch. The girls would be going with their father for the week, so Summer had them up and into some chores before I left. I went home to try and clean up a bit myself, but I just felt sapped pretty much all day for some reason. I had a little trouble getting to sleep last night, so it’s possible I just wasn’t well rested.

It took me a few trips, but I got everything unloaded from the car. I had to stop and clean up after the cat as soon as I got into the house, so I didn’t really get anything put away properly until later. Instead of getting things properly cleaned like I needed to, I got into tinkering with Plex until it was time to get a shower and meet back up with the girls.

Dad grilled chicken wings for Julie’s birthday party yesterday, so I met the girls over there for dinner. Their father showed up just a few minutes after we got there, so Summer sent them off and then came back in to eat with me. Infinity War was playing on the TV, so we watched the end of it before heading back to my house for the evening.

Just make the decision to be confident, and no one else will be the wiser.

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If the Boat’s a’ Rockin, Don’t Come a’ Dokkin

We only slept in a little this morning before trying to get the kids up and at it. Summer took Autumn to the gym while I went home to clean up. I loaded up some camp chairs and empty bottles for our trip to Magic Springs, then stopped by Lowe’s to pick up an order before making my way back up to the girls.

They were still cleaning up and getting ready to go, and I was too hungry to wait and eat after the drive, so I cooked a whole package of Petit Jean pepper bacon and we all made big bacon salads before we left. We finally hit the road pretty late in the afternoon, but I was determined to get us there.

We made it nearly to Centerville when I realized I didn’t grab our season passes. We probably could have gone through guest services to get in, but I didn’t want to drive all that way and chance it, so we made our way back home to get them, and then drove back down into Hot Springs. We wanted to eat at a phở place we saw last time just outside of Magic Springs, but when we got there it was closed and we didn’t even bother to get out to read the sign.

Summer did a quick search for restaurants and came across a hibachi place we had gone to before without the kids, so we made our way to the Osaka Japanese Steakhouse. I didn’t remember loving it the first time, and I felt like it was pretty overpriced this time, but everyone seemed satisfied enough. The service was a bit slow for me since I was already on edge about leaving late, then having to drive back for our passes.

We finished up pretty quickly and headed to Magic Springs to try and catch the main attraction. The park had closed down all the rides, and the openers had already finished their portion of the concert by the time we got down to the amphitheater. Fortunately the pandemic had most of the crowd gone, so we had our pick of where to sit.

I didn’t recognize a single song of theirs, but fortunately Summer did. At least she enjoyed it if no one else did. It wasn’t too hot and miserable out, so I enjoyed just going to a concert at all, but I still would have liked to have some more time in town.

There was hardly any traffic on the way out since attendance was so low. We made our way to the spring water fountain to fill up my bottles, and then hit the road. Summer started having nerve pains again, but she would have gone straight to bed regardless of that. Everyone but Eaddie was pretty tired since she was the only one to really sleep in late.

Wait… the lyric is “lucky!”

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Connected

I got up this morning and toasted myself a donut, which is my new favorite way to eat donuts. Noah called me and needed a ride to work, so I went home to clean up, then dropped him off. While I was there, I stopped in to see Summer during her customer appreciation day event, and had her sign Autumn’s work permit request form. I didn’t stay long though, because they were super busy and everyone who was anyone was there.

I took the form to the shop and chatted with Ben for just a little bit before they ended their half day of work. Then I got the Ridgewood gang some Sonic drinks to kill some time before Dependable came out to look at my air conditioner at home. Richard called me just as I got back with the drinks, so I had to head home and meet him.

At first he kept talking at me like I was stupid for having my air conditioner turn off while I’m not at home. He insisted that a properly sized unit would only just keep the home at a set temperature, and not be able to cool it very fast if I let it get hot every day. I never had any trouble cooling the house with my old unit of the same size, but that never seems to phase his opinion. By the end of the visit though, he discovered it was about three pounds low on refrigerant, which was a little over a third its total capacity. It still took a couple hours to really cool down, but it definitely made a noticeable difference.

I played a little Overwatch and made some calls to pay some old medical bills, and eventually I made it over to Mark’s shop to finish up some work for him. We got to chatting a bit, and it seems like he really does just enjoy being a mover and shaker. I’m hoping that’s a good thing, but I should probably still learn a bit of self control when I get to rambling.

It was pretty late when I left there, but I had to pick Eaddie up before I could head up to their house. Summer was already catatonic on the couch, and Autumn went to bed shortly after we got home. I tried to clean up a bunch of leftovers, and then settled down at the computer a bit. Eaddie came out and caught up with me for a little while, and then it was off to bed.

Politicking for Dummies

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Shipping and Receiving

Autumn stayed at my house today, but was probably well enough to come work. It was just as well though, because I spent a good portion of the day running all around the place.

Zach, Gary, Allen, Ben, and I all went to Sam’s for lunch, which was just great. It’s a bit expensive, but that’s to be expected. I’ll have to try one of the po’ boys next time, instead of always getting the 3-piece of everything combo.

After lunch, I went by the shop for a little bit, chatted with Ben some more, and then went back to the high school to finish up. All of the old lease stuff is boxed up and ready to ship, but I’ll have to take a sampling of it to the UPS Store to get a quote for shipping. I’ve been getting a ton of parts in lately too, which I’m just stacking up for later. I have a feeling we won’t even use most of it, but it’ll be nice to have just in case. I sort of feel bad for knowing I can get bulk orders of that stuff instead of filing individual claims the way Dale had done for all those years.

When I got home from work, Autumn was in the floor still trying to see how many screens she could get between her face and the wall. I let her continue on watching TV while I went to unwind in some Overwatch. Summer eventually got out of work and headed home, so Autumn and I headed up for the evening.

What if no lives matter?

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Tag and Bag

Karen came and worked in my office today to get all the teacher laptops tagged with barcodes. I pushed around a few more chargers, boxed up some more old laptops, and played the shell game in my head all day long. I felt more scattered than usual, and I felt like it was because I was just tired from all the work lately.

Lessons for the day were pretty good, though. Stale donuts in the toaster oven make for caramelized deliciousness. Always discuss your value up front. It doesn’t matter how loud your speakers are, because Karen is louder.

I worked through lunch but still left just a little bit late. When I got home, Dad was there checking out the siding job on the house. It looks awesome. I had no idea they were doing doorframes, otherwise I would have discussed relocating my doorbell before they cut a hole in the siding where the button currently exists.

I was just in and then back out because I had to do some more work with pain-in-the-ass Outlook email files for Mark. It’s funny, because we discussed his aggravation with people in government (and elsewhere) doing things the old way just because that’s how they’ve always been done. I’ll say it any day of the week. POP and IMAP mail are dinosaurs that need to go away forever for most people. Unless you’re so serious about privacy and security that you’re running your own mail server, just be done with that garbage and quit carrying around your old 30 gigabyte archive of email from 20 years ago. There are more than enough companies that will do that shit for you.

Once I stalled out there waiting for more mail imports to finish, I headed to the shop to get some paperwork. Unfortunately I didn’t have my badge, and the app didn’t work, so I couldn’t get in. Ironically, the door was actually left ajar, but I accidentally shut it all the way when I felt for a draft coming out through the crack.

From there, I ran home to troubleshoot why my doorbell and other connected devices weren’t talking. I think the siding folks had Suddenlink come out and recable some things where the line came into the house from the pole, and my modem and/or router just couldn’t recover from it for some reason. I had to reboot both to get it going again, but at least it came back up.

From there, I went to Summer’s for the evening and had some leftovers for dinner. That’s when the girls decided we had to come back to my house for Autumn’s meds, so we just stayed at my house for the night. I went up the ladder to change the bulb in my outside driveway light, and discovered it was only not working because the bulb was loose. I guess that’s my win for the day.

Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

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Training Costs Extra

Autumn was able to finish imaging the teacher devices this morning, and then got most of my power adapters counted and boxed up for shipment. I arranged for pickup of all the depot claims I had ready to go out, and even helped a couple fussy people with their technology woes.

We took a late lunch at Cici’s, and it seemed like right as we sat down, Autumn started acting like she wasn’t feeling great. She ate a little bit, but wanted to go home for the afternoon, so I dropped her off at her house before going back to work.

Ben came over, and we had another conference call with Impero, which went only slightly better than yesterday. It turns out we’ve got a lot of work to do to get Clever to play nicely with their software, and exactly zero of us has any free time to dedicate to it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon straightening up a bit more before heading home to change, and then off to get Mark and his team switched over to G Suite. It turns out he had already initiated a trial but needed to confirm ownership of the domain, so the affiliate link was out, but the discount code still seemed to work. He kept wanting to do things for himself, which was both endearing and frustrating because I love getting to teach people new things, but it takes significantly longer to get things done because I’ve spent most of my life learning how to do what he’s hired me to do. There’s some combination of feeling like I’m burning time on the clock, and worry that the value of my time is being vastly underestimated. Most of my time was spent waiting for his old Outlook data to export, and we ended up having to put off importing it until the next day.

I headed up to Summer’s to meet them for dinner, where Autumn seemed to be feeling a little worse but still wanted to go back to my house for the evening “because her quilt was there.” I didn’t need an excuse to go back home, so after we ate, the girls started to get cleaned up and I went back home to wait for them.

Just as I got there, Summer called and said Autumn was having leg cramps and feeling extremely sick, so I went back up the hill instead. It seemed to me like another case of bad babysitting because she just simply didn’t take care of her body. It’s one of the most aggravating things to me because I want her to be healthy, but I can’t be bothered to micromanage every ounce of anything going into her body. If she hasn’t learned proper hydration and nutrition by the age of 15, then I don’t have the patience to rein her in now, nor the sympathy to put up with her declining health. I’m certainly not going to give her any attention in the hospital.

Once we got her a regimen of fluids for the evening, Summer and I sat down for an episode of Master of None before stopping to talk about our feelings for a bit. Then it was off to bed.

Yes. Turned out great. This is fine. Everything is fine.

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Bulk Deliveries

Autumn came to work with me this morning and started imaging the teacher devices. She kept running into problems with some of them, and I probably remade about half of the flash drives over the course of the day. I couldn’t tell if it was an issue with the drives, the laptops, drivers, or something else entirely. I ultimately sent a request for a couple more brands of flash drives to try, and hopefully one of them is the key to our 1,250 laptop imaging nightmare week.

In the middle of all the imaging, Todd came by my office to let me know that I had received a whole ton of empty-feeling boxes from FedEx. It was, in fact, a whole bunch of small parts, and another bunch of depot kits for warranty service.

We ran by Arby’s for a late lunch and brought it back to the shop. Then Ben came by for a conference call with Impero to get our server set up. We had trouble from the very start just receiving the phone call. Then we had trouble with the remote desktop session. Just as we got things rolling, we realized our server didn’t have the required .NET framework installed, so I had to take a moment to get that done even after we received a list of minimum requirements last week. Overall I just felt a little silly for having to schedule a second call the next day since we ran out of time.

After work, I dropped Autumn off at my house and went to visit with Mark again about his potential switch to G Suite. That was where I discovered an apparent loophole in Google cloud storage. Evidently there’s not really a storage limit for Shared Drives, so people with G Suite accounts are selling invites to Shared Drives, and then removing themselves as members so the buyer can be the sole manager of the drive with near-unlimited storage.

Once we settled on the jump to G Suite, I headed home to wait for Summer to get off work. Then the three of us went up to their house for dinner and so they could get cleaned up for the evening. I went outside to clean up around the little pecan trees I planted, and realized one of her trees out back is a persimmon tree. It had been dropping small, hard fruit that I had never noticed before.

When we got back to my house, the girls watched TV while I filled up my old 35-gallon tank as a dumping ground for excess aquarium plants. Afterward I discovered a farm of gnats in the cat box and cleaned that out as well. The cat ate most of my avocado leaves again, and I’m about ready to murder him. I’ll save that for another day.

Maybe it’s time to think about a Galloping Company again.

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A Hot Day for Company

We got up this morning and the girls finished cleaning up for company. I found enough stuff in the refrigerator to make some chicken tacos for brunch, then ran home to clean up before Summer’s friend came over with her family.

I got back and helped patty hamburgers, but had to run to Walmart for some lettuce just as they arrived. When I got back, I took over grilling so everyone else could go catch up. The corn on the cob was taking a bit longer to cook, but then the whole grill caught on fire with all of the grease in the bottom. That would have to be a chore for another day, but the corn came out great.

The girls played a bit of Switch, then Autumn put on The Lorax. I think everyone had gotten pretty tired, and there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation. Autumn spent most of her time with the toddler.

Once they left and everything was cleaned up, I headed home to finally start my taxes. Summer dropped Eaddie off with her parents for a few days, then brought Autumn over for the evening. They watched TV while I scrambled around the house looking for my tax documents, and then I caught the end of Cool Runnings with them before bed.

Image party tomorrow!

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Rather Be Napping

Summer and I got up this morning and put together a big “everything” Italian loaf egg sandwich for breakfast. Autumn protested the eggs, but I convinced her to eat everything else by reminding her how many times she had gotten her way with food all week long.

As soon as we finished, I made Eaddie go outside to mow the lawn before it got any hotter. She didn’t do a great job of listening, and had to split the sweaty job with both Autumn and Summer, but I was glad to see Autumn volunteer. I got some bills paid and was going to go home to start on taxes, but just cleaned up a bit instead since I thought the girls would be staying the night.

I brought Summer’s string trimmer back with me and trimmed a little bit of the fence line before they all got back from shopping. They ended up making a pretty big supply run for her guests tomorrow. We all picked at some leftovers for dinner, and then Summer prepped some things for that while I put on Firefly.

Autumn went bowling with a girlfriend and her family, and I had to go pick her up when they finished. By the time we got back and settled in, it was too late to really go down to my house. Eaddie had already been asleep in bed for a while, but I bribed her out with an ice cream run.

We went to Sonic first, but were turned away because their ice cream machine was down. Then we went to Dairy Queen and spent even more on a couple Blizzards. Everyone was off to bed when we got back, and I spent a little time snoozing while Summer watched TV before we finally went to bed.

Nervous poops?