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Wood You Look at That

I took a couple personal days this week so they wouldn’t turn into pumpkins sick days at the end of the month, but I forgot to turn my alarm off for this morning. Overall I think I was satisfied with the amount of sleep I got, and I still beat the kids awake anyway.

I got up and had some leftover breakfast pizza, then played some Overwatch. Eventually Noah woke up and we finished District 9. I woke Eaddie up, and before long Autumn came home with Subway for lunch for all three of them.

The afternoon slipped by pretty quickly, and after minimal fussing at the kids to clean up the house, I just had to get home to try and be a little productive myself. I spent the majority of my time there cleaning off my computer desk, and I finally managed to get down to bare wood in at least one place.

As the night quickly approached, I made my way back up to Summer’s, had some leftover rice and chicken for dinner, and played some more Overwatch until Summer got off the phone with Aunt Beth. We caught up a little bit until it was time for her to go to bed. Then I was going to stay up and watch an episode of The Punisher, but the kids lost the remote and none of them wanted to hunt it down. Instead, I subdued my rage with a few rounds of Overwatch, then went to bed.

Therapy is not a substitute for effective communication at home.

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Taco ’bout a Party

We got up this morning and pretty immediately started prepping for Eaddie’s birthday lunch. I prepped vegetables, then got the chicken started in the Instant Pot, and it finished cooking shortly after everyone arrived.

The chicken tacos turned out amazing, and Summer had all of her dressings for them out and ready to go. Nick brought his new girlfriend Robin along, and it was a pretty quick lunch shindig before the opening of a few presents.

When everyone left, I headed out to spend some time at home. I tinkered with my Kobalt cabinet again, and got the doors to close a bit better after some leveling. I got a little cleaned up inside, played a bit of Overwatch, and spent a bit more time trying to configure Plex. I think I’m about ready to start up a rack server for some of that stuff, but that will take some excavation.

As the evening came, some guy rang my doorbell looking for signatures on a petition to remove the county from the list of counties eligible for a casino. I forget how many signatures he said they needed, but I hope it helps.

Eventually I made it back up to Summer’s for the evening. Noah was there, and we watched an episode of Black Mirror before putting Summer to bed. Then the three of us watched the first half of District 9 before Noah and I were ready for some sleep. Eaddie quietly turned 13 and wandered off to her room as well.

Fookin prawns.

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Juicy Fruit

We tried to sleep in a bit today, but the sun got me up early. I went outside to bang on my new cabinet to try and get the door straight enough to close properly. As I was finishing up, Summer left with Autumn so they could start their day.

I bounced around the house for a little while until I settled on the computer to troubleshoot my Plex subtitle problem. I never could get it to behave properly. Zach came by at some point and worked on the Fiero for a bit. I eventually took a shower and headed up to Summer’s house.

Autumn went to spend some time with her father, so Summer and I just picked at some leftovers for dinner and then sorted out what we needed for Eaddie’s little birthday gathering tomorrow. Then we went to Walmart and picked up everything for chicken tacos. When we got back to the house, Summer started prepping some sauces and sides, and I started some refried beans in the Instant Pot.

When we both got to a stopping point, we watched some Master of None. As soon as the beans finished cooking, I scooped them out of the water and blended them. That really made all the difference both in taste and volume, and Summer liked them so much she wanted a bowl to eat right away.

By the time everything was finished, there wasn’t much point in going back to my house just to sleep, so we ended the evening with another episode before bed.

Yabba dabba doo it!

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Movers of Things

Autumn chose to come to work with me yet again, so we met what was left of the crew at the shop this morning. Everyone but the newbies had taken the day off, so I met Ben, Greg, and Josh at the high school to load laptops into the trailer. They hauled everything out so quickly that I actually lost count, and ended up shorting them by one box of 20 laptops, so I’ll probably have Heather come pick those up later. I’m done doing all of this extra work for no good reason or appreciation.

The guys were meeting some old coworkers from Service Plus at Linh, so I convinced Autumn to try it out, and we picked up Ben from the shop. After lunch, we went back to the shop to pick up a bunch of old model laptops that were pulled from the junior high and took them to the high school. We stopped for some happy hour drinks from Sonic along the way, and though my Red Bull Summer Edition Slush was good, I did not necessarily feel like it gave me wings.

The afternoon was much more relaxed, and we eventually started sifting through laptops we had set aside with what I considered to be heavier damage. Fortunately most of those are actually just cosmetic damage that we can ship back to Lenovo without any additional service.

We ran back by the shop after work so I could sign my contract for the next school year, but everyone had already left the auditorium. I had mentioned the Bargain Barn to Autumn earlier, so we decided to stop in to see what they were about. Allen told me about them and mentioned that they had good snacks. I had no idea. It just seemed like a normal little thrift shop from the front, but then we walked through a door in the back of the room and it was like walking into some kind of slumlord Willy Wonka shop. We picked up a couple things, including a giant tin of butter cookies to take to Summer. Then we went home until dinner.

Since Eaddie was staying with her grandparents another night, Autumn and I decided to go to Cici’s for dinner to try and catch the Corona again. They had plastic wrap all around the front of the buffet so they could serve you cafeteria-style. It was pretty empty, but the drive-through looked busy. All the pizza on the bar was pretty dry and gross from the lack of traffic, so I asked them to make me one with everything. It was absolutely Zen.

When we left, Autumn wanted to go Bowling, but somehow I convinced her to go shop with me at Lowe’s instead. We wandered around for a bit just chatting along until I stumbled upon a big 48-inch Kobalt garage cabinet that had been marked down to half price due to some damage. I figure with just a very little bit of work, I could get the thing back into nearly new condition.

I spoke to a manager, took Autumn back to my house, then went to Allen’s to borrow his truck. The trip back into Lowe’s was a little more chaotic just because of how busy they were, but eventually I got someone to help me check out and load the cabinet into the truck. I only had to adjust it once, just because the cabinet door wouldn’t lock shut, and the wall-mount straps on the back were blowing around and hitting the glass.

Autumn helped me unload the cabinet and I walked it into the garage, then I went back to Allen’s and chatted with him and Charlotte for a few minutes. Eventually I made it back home, and I watched some random stuff on TV with Autumn until Summer got home from her late night bowling teambuilder. Then I put on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 until everyone got bored, and we went to bed.

Come with me
And you’ll be
In a world of out-of-date confections.

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The Hired Help

Autumn came with me to work again today, and again outworked and outperformed the paid help. Heather was exactly as late as usual, which makes me wonder why she can’t just set her alarm ten minutes earlier.

We started off walking down to the storage area under the cafeteria and found some waxed chicken boxes we could use to haul the laptops to the junior high. Then we went back upstairs and finished imaging everything we had. Once we had the last of the laptops on the benches, I sent Heather to go track down the older 20GA models so we could ship those back. I did not hear from her again, other than to tell us to which room we should deliver her laptops tomorrow in her absence.

Autumn and I went to Chick-fil-A and picked up lunch, then went to eat with Summer. Afterwards, we stopped by the shop to see if we could intercept Heather or anyone else. Gary and the newbies were in the breakroom having lunch, so Autumn and I went back to the high school and retrieved the boxes from the dungeon.

I built a spreadsheet to compare what serial numbers Lenovo expects to receive back while Autumn folded boxes. Then the two of us started my third inspection cycle of all 1,015 laptops while we packed them into the boxes for transfer to the junior high, ensuring that they would receive the best of the best of these gross, teenager-used devices.

When we left, I dropped her off at Old Post Park for an Explorers meeting and ran home to clean up. I decided to pick her back up on the bike, so I got the pressure washer out to blow the cobwebs off of the R1. She had never ridden before, but reacted much more calmly than ever before when I had suggested she try to ride with me in the past.

We went by the shop to meet up with Summer and Eaddie, but they were inside waiting for a tow truck that would deliver a vehicle that had seized up after dropping all of its oil when it left. I noticed the streak of oil in the road, but I thought it was just a wet spot from someone leaving after everything had been cleaned at closing time.

Eaddie was picked up by her grandparents, and the rest of us went back home. Summer, having had a pretty bad day, sent me to Wendy’s for a bag of Baconators. Then I took Autumn home to clean up and get some fresh clothes before coming home for the night. Of course, around that time I realized I had forgotten to do my own load of laundry I needed for the next day, so it was a bit of a late night for me.

Bye bye, birdie.

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Bring Your Daughter to Work Day

Autumn wanted to go to work with me today, so I let her come help with the laptop processing. She ended up being a huge help, and even spent less time griping about the work than Heather. Having her there filled the little gaps where Heather and I were previously tripping over each other. The downside to that improved efficiency was that there was basically no downtime at all. We were basically moving the entire day, so we pretty much finished sorting all the laptops out.

Ben texted that they were heading to Bocadillos for lunch, so I took Autumn there instead of Chick-fil-A where she had been asking to go all morning. We’ll probably end up there tomorrow to make up for it. I wasn’t even hungry, but ate anyway and ended up regretting it. I really kind of preferred just working straight through lunch.

At the end of the day, Ben stopped by to see our progress and chat for a bit. The logistics of getting 875 laptops to the junior high are still a bit daunting, and there are a lot of options on how to handle which laptops will be returned for the lease. At least I can take comfort in knowing I still have some time left to file the warranty claims.

Autumn and I headed to my house to change, then went to Walmart to pick up some stuff for dinner. She made both teriyaki and Buffalo sauces for some chicken and rice. I helped a bit, and made some broccoli to green things up a bit.

When Summer got home from the gym, we ate and then packed up to head to my house for the evening. We had to stop by her parents’ house first to meet her sister and niece. Eaddie decided to bail on us and stayed the night there, so Autumn came back with us and we watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

What do we say to one more episode?
“Not today.”

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Squatsville

Today was day two of the great laptop imaging race of 2020. We found our stride a bit quicker this time, and got up to around 600 laptops done. I also discovered that the warranty is good until the middle of August for most of our laptops, which was a tremendous relief.

After work, I went home to decompress for just a little bit before meeting the girls at my parents’ house for dinner. Autumn and I went out for a short swim before dinner while Mom finished the eggplant soup. Eaddie and I ate soup, and Summer and Autumn had some leftovers instead.

Eventually we made it up to Summer’s for the evening. I got a massive cramp in the front of my right thigh, which seemed like a really weird place to cramp. I figured it was from the two days worth of squats moving laptops around. I still prefer that to the hundred depot laptop claims I’ll have to file.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or more!

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Unhelpful

Evidently I forgot to change the pickup time on my breakfast pizza this morning, so by the time I got to Casey’s, they had given up on me and put my pizza in the warmer. The guy pulled all the slices out and boxed them up for me, but was going to short me a slice they had sold to someone else. I’m sure it was inadvertent, but I called him out on it and he gave me another slice of something else.

Heather got to the high school a bit late, and we did our best to find a groove with inspecting and re-imaging all of the old laptops. I’m not sure she really understood what kind of damage I was trying to call out, but that may have been my fault for poorly explaining the different things I’ve seen.

Lunch time snuck up on me, and she left for about an hour and a half, then returned with lunch to eat there. I just worked straight through and found a good groove. By myself, I was better able to find the bottleneck in our process. There were still things I wanted to change in the process, but I gave up on some of them for time and sanity’s sake.

I stayed a couple hours late just trying to finish up the fourth bin of laptops, then headed to my parents’ house for dinner. They got home just before I did, and Mom made up some shrimp soup. I was pretty beat from doing squats all day to lift and drop laptops, so I was pretty lame until we ate dinner, and then I headed home for the night.

Zach was already at my house when I got home, and had the Fiero up on jack stands. As I bounced around the house cleaning up, he pulled the fuel filter and verified that it wasn’t clogged. He said his next suspect was the fuel pump itself, but he wasn’t quite sure how best to tackle that project. The city code prevents me from just leaving it up on stands, which feels really stupid if it’s not in the grass.

As the sun went down, he put the car back down and I decompressed with just a little bit of Overwatch before bed.

I still think maybe Thanos was on to something.

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Impromptu Father’s Day

Julie was on vacation, so Summer and I decided planned a quick and easy Father’s Day lunch with my parents. She baked a bunch of bacon while I baked potatoes to make a twice-baked potato casserole. Then we took that along with the smoked turkey over to my parents’ house.

It was a pretty quick, late lunch, but everything was really good. The cold turkey was awesome on the potato bread buns. After lunch, I dropped Summer back off at home so she could do some chores, then I went home to do a little of the same.

Eventually Summer came over for the evening with some Sonic Blasts, and we watched some Forged in Fire until bedtime.

That sounds too much like a Disney villain.

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Give ’em the Quintuple Bird

Summer had to go by the shop to take care of some stuff today, so I took some time to do some much needed aquarium maintenance. I’ve got a pretty good plant die-off in the shrimp tank, and I think I just need to avoid floaters in that tank since they grow too fast and keep light from getting to the plants below.

After a shower, I ran across town to see if the Ridgewood Brothers had anything left for the day. They were winding down and cleaning up, so I helped Grant take down the canopies and then spent a really good amount of time catching up with Robert. It blows me away how much those guys remember from back in the day, but I’m guessing still being in that circle helped keep a lot of those memories alive. I hate that I had to step out of it for so long, but I’m happy to have an opportunity to peek back in occasionally.

As they finished cleaning up, I picked up their last five pounds of smoked turkey and headed to Walmart for a few things. Then I headed up to Summer’s to make some salads for dinner. When we finished, I decided to take it upon myself to clean up the three bananas she had left on the counter all week that were as dark as the night. I don’t remember, in my lifetime, having ever made a banana bread by myself. It’s possible that either Robert or Grant could recall a time at Papa John’s when I somehow concocted a way to bake one in the oven using some kind mixture of pizza dough and banana peppers, but as far as I can tell, tonight was my first.

It. Was. Awesome.

I just found a recipe online that looked relatively simple, and got to it. The streusel on top really made it, and I got through the whole ordeal without having it spill out into the bottom of the oven.

We watched a bit of Forged in Fire until Summer couldn’t keep her eyes open, and we called it a night.

I can’t wait to start cold turkey tomorrow.