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Back in the Office

I went straight to the high school this morning to try and clean up in preparation for picking up 1,000 more laptops through the rest of the week. It really was like I had to re-learn my own processes just because it’s been so long. I felt pretty lost most of the morning, but at least I had my speakers.

I ended up taking a late lunch with Summer, where we went through the Arby’s drive-through, then ate in her office. Every time I go to lunch late, I forget how awful and busy it is. I feel like I’ve kind of lost some of my taste for fast food too, but we haven’t been very adventurous at home in a while either. It’s just that nothing sounds good any more.

After lunch, I went to the shop to see if anyone could help me haul a bunch of fiber equipment out of my office. Ben had the new HP demo units in, so I disassembled one of them as well as one of the Lenovos just to compare. It’s all integrated and solid state now, so not at all like traditional computers. I told him they were mostly not repairable, and he basically just accepted that I won’t be doing many repairs any more. That’s a good thing.

We ended the day hauling the equipment out of my office and taking it back to the graveyard. Tomorrow is the big day, but I’ll have an extra set of hands and a better idea of what I need to do to keep organized. I went home and nearly fell asleep from exhaustion.

When Summer got home, I headed up and started warming up some dinner. Amanda called and asked if I could come help her into her house because she forgot her keys, so I ran across town to help, then went back to dinner. Summer crashed super early, and I tried not to lag too far behind. Tomorrow’s a big day.

“To beat the bureaucracy, make your problem their problem.”
-Marshall L. Smith

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Feudal Review

I felt a little sour this morning, so I went in to work a bit late. I wasn’t really supposed to be staffing the office anyway, so nobody really cared. I was surprised to learn that it was review time, but we really didn’t have much to talk about since we have a pretty communicative relationship. I would have liked higher marks for being one of the top performers, but we don’t reward good behavior here.

I had a really pointless conference call to try and set up a live demo of Linewize Classwize, and they seemed a little confused that all I really needed to see was the big-brother capabilities of their classroom management software. Since that call lasted through lunch, Ben and I ran to get BOGO Subway afterward, and chatted in the conference room.

Summer came by to eat my leftovers, but mostly to visit with me. Then I tinkered until quitting time. Autumn needed a ride home from physical therapy, so I got her and we stopped by my house to pick up my freshly delivered black flags. Then we went to Julie’s so I could try my hand at arts and crafts. She cut some vinyl and showed me how to screen print, and I made a handful of little desk pirate flags for my future conquests.

The screen printing process was tedious, but fun once I understood some of the different variables to control. It didn’t take long to become proficient with the tools I had, but to make all 36 flags I purchased, I started to really think of some ways to increase efficiency.

By the time I got a few done, Summer was home and ready to eat, so Autumn and I headed on up and had some leftover pulled pork sandwiches. We ended the evening with another thrilling episode of Game of Thrones, and stopped on a bit of a cliffhanger – probably the biggest we’ve had so far.

When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

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Student Driver

We got up this morning and picked at some leftovers for breakfast. Autumn continued watching The Sound of Music, and we watched through the intermission. Then she wanted to go out for a drive, so I let her take me to Walmart where we walked around the whole store to pick up whatever we could remember needing.

It rained pretty hard while we were in the store, but it quit by the time we left. I let her drive to the gas station to fill up the car, then we went by my house to feed the cat before going to her friend’s house to pick up some clothes she wanted to buy.

Shortly after we got back to the house, my parents invited us to Linh, so Summer, Eaddie, and I met up with them for an early dinner. Then it was back to the house to finish the movie. Summer eventually went for a run, and then we all sat down for an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

Eaddie came out of her room to talk to me for a while as I worked on the blog. Then she sat next to me learning Spanish on Duolingo until I went to bed.

What’s “hospital” in Spanish?

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Ridgewood Gang

I woke up a bit before Summer this morning and played some Animal Crossing. When she got up, she had to run to the shop to help with their bay door that wouldn’t open again. Then when she returned, we went to the Ridgewood Brothers’ BBQ and waited in line for roughly an hour.

Social distancing had the line wrapped way around the back of the parking lot, but either way there were quite a few people there. Brandie was there just in front of the last person in line, so we chatted for a little bit. It was overcast but still warm to be out in line like that, so I’m thinking it’s preorders from here on out. We picked up a Hog Trough with some friends-benefits, as well as three giant beef ribs, which were my favorite of the day. Still didn’t get any burnt ends though.

When we finally got through the line, we stopped by to pick up the girls from their friends’ house. Then we went up the hill to eat. Summer developed a headache and napped for a while, and I just laid in bed with her watching YouTube for a frustratingly long time. I didn’t have any other plans, but it would have been nice not to burn an entire day just sitting around doing nothing.

Eventually she felt good enough to leave again, so we went back to my house so she could get her car. I immediately discovered the cat had chewed up the top of my avocado sprout, which sent me into even more of a rage. Summer went back home while I cooled off at home for a while. It wasn’t productive, but I did eventually get a shower that helped.

When I got back to their house, the girls were all finishing up Frozen II. Then we watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

Three words: Bone Wind Chime

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Rapping Up Before the Weekend

Ben was out this morning, so with Melinda working from home, Greg and I just hung out at the shop all day. I kept pretty busy, and even successfully helped someone remotely. The morning went by pretty quickly, and then Greg gave me some leftover pulled pork he brought.

Ben came around in the afternoon and did some work in his office, and then came back to the shop and chatted with me for a while. We got my virtual machine working for the Watchfire sign software, which was my biggest success of the day. Then I went home for the weekend.

Summer came over right after work, and I ran to Taco Villa to get her some nachos before we eventually sat down to watch Captain Fantastic. I thought it was a pretty great story, but I couldn’t remember how it ever made its way to my watch list in the first place. It was nice getting to mark out something completely new.

If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.

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Secretariat

I was supposed to do some experiment work with Ben today, but he and Greg were mostly out of the office this morning. I just assumed I should stick around to answer the phone, so I spent the whole day in the office just picking at random things.

Gary came by in the afternoon and chatted for a little while until Ben showed up, and then we finally upgraded LanSchool to see if the changes improved anything. They didn’t appear to make a difference.

When I finally left, I ran by Taco Bell since I assumed Summer hadn’t had lunch either. We ate in the office, and then I went home to wait for her. The girls spent the night with a friend, so I did a little work on the aquariums until Summer showed up.

My poison ivy worked up a pretty decent infection in my right leg, so it was a pretty uneventful evening from there. I spent a really long time looking at modern lighting fixtures from China. Everything seems to just be rebranded cheap stuff from China. It’s not even worth buying things at the store.

No assembly this year. No matter, we have another retiree that would have gotten the employee of the year award anyway.

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Adobe House

Today was warm and humid, but you couldn’t tell from indoors. I had to go upstairs into Gardner this morning to redeploy some Adobe Acrobat packages. I couldn’t tell what, if anything, was actually broken because every installation I touched was installed as a one-off instead of deployed in SCCM.

I didn’t even bother taking a lunch break, and instead ate a leftover soft taco that Greg didn’t want because it had lettuce in it. Then I went to the high school to close out a few tickets for the day.

Eaddie reminded me that she had a private flute lesson, so I went home to change and then picked her up. The lesson wasn’t very long, so I just waited in the car playing Animal Crossing to complete my daily tasks. Then we went back to my house because she wanted to ride the motorcycle to see Summer. We stopped at Casey’s momentarily for a freebie, and then I dusted the pollen off of the bike.

Summer called her just as we were about to leave, and said she took the rest of the day off with a headache, so we stayed at my house for a while and finished the second season of Iron Fist. We were pretty confused by the ending, but it did open up the possibilities for future seasons. Unfortunately that’s unlikely now that Marvel is in the House of Mouse.

We finally headed back up to Summer’s and picked at some leftovers for dinner. Everyone went to bed pretty early.

YouTube Music is awful in ways I just can’t even seem to express effectively.

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Free, Zing!

It was cold and rainy all day today, and really mostly worth it for all the freebies. I redeemed a free pizza and water bottle at Casey’s on my way to work, and the breakfast pizza had everything on it, including both breakfast meats and extra cheese. It was incredibly delicious.

I was sent to Oakland to help with a file conversion, and chatted with Erica and Sheri for a little while before heading back to the shop. Then Greg wanted Taco John’s for lunch, so I redeemed a free combo there as well. After lunch, I spent some time playing with the sign again before ending the day at the high school.

Eaddie was still asleep when I got home, so I woke her up and we watched Iron Fist until she was just screaming to go home. I made a salad, and we all watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

No, wait – it’s at least a C+!

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Just Get It Done

I picked up another breakfast pizza this morning, and headed to the office. My working from home days are coming to an end with the impending stress of a new 1:1 device lease. Ben had a meeting at central office this morning and at the very least confirmed that we are going to get more Windows devices instead of Chromebooks next year. He also confirmed that, though we’ve not backfilled a higher paying lead technician position, they’re not ready to offer raises or a second tier for those of us that put in the extra effort.

Being the only one at the office, I worked right through lunch, and ended the day at the high school for a work order. Then I went home and ate some leftovers before picking up Autumn for her physical therapy. She decided to stay the night with her grandparents, so I went by the shop to see Summer for a bit before going back home to clean up.

It was nice and cool out, so I took Summer’s string trimmer out and cut down most of the back yard. I ran out of juice very near the end, but that was mostly around some sticks and branches anyway. The yard looked loads better, and when it dries I should be able to burn the rest of the rubbish.

My next project was to sift potting soil for future aquariums. I cleaned out a couple buckets, put on some rubber gloves, and sat in the driveway with a piece of metal mesh until Summer and Eaddie got there for the evening. Then we watched an episode of Glee before putting Summer to bed. Eaddie and I finished with a couple episodes of Iron Fist.

I don’t want my dirt to get dirty. I just finished sorting it!

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Happy Mother’steak

I beat everyone else up this morning and ordered some breakfast pizzas for Summer to pick up while I took my shower. The kids finished watching Back to the Future Part III, and then I took them to Walmart so they could get something for Summer while I picked up what I needed for our family dinner.

They all went outside to play cards in the weather while I baked potatoes. Then Eaddie and Noah wanted to ride bikes to my parents’ house, so Summer took them while I drove with Autumn.

The kids wanted to swim in spite of our warnings that the water was ice cold, so they ran around outside while Julie and I got things cooking inside. Summer helped me scoop potatoes out so I could twice-bake them, and Dad got the charcoal going so Julie could grill the steaks she picked up at the butcher in Centerville.

Dinner was pretty great, though I had the same frustrations I always have with steak dinners. The steaks always end up cold by the time we get salads and everything else ready to eat. That’s why I prefer to eat the salad while I’m cooking everything else, and then have my steak right off of the grill.

Eaddie and Noah really wanted to ride around on the bikes some more after dinner, so Summer finally relented and let them ride to Sequoyah until we were ready to leave. Then she rode out to them while Autumn and I drove everything else back home.

Summer dropped Noah off and took Eaddie home, then Autumn and I followed after some cleanup at my house. Then we watched an episode of Iron Fist before bed.

I’m glad we could all make time to meat like this.