Category: Uncategorised

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WikiWhat

I spent all day today getting the wiki going at work. What I thought were relatively straight forward steps ended up not working in the end, and Ben had to help modify their code to make it work. Lunch was leftovers from yesterday, and not much else happened beyond that. It was a slow, somewhat frustrating, yet ultimately successful day.

It was beautiful outside after work, but I just felt drained and wanted to stay in. I ended up jumping into some Overwatch to get a couple daily loot boxes. Then I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. I got her oscillating fan fixed with some WD-40 while she girls were all watching The Voice. Then when Summer went to bed, Eaddie and I watched a couple more episodes of The Defenders.

Only eight episodes makes for a depressingly short team-up season.

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Gotta Get Down on Fryday

I’ve been a little worried about my coughing the past couple evenings, but it seems to just come and go throughout the day. I felt pretty good this morning though, aside from not wanting to get out of bed. Zach wanted to clean up the graveyard, so I went upstairs and helped him until lunch time.

I took my little deep fryer to work so we could make fries for the smoked pork Ben brought. Zach didn’t see my message that I was bringing baked beans, so he brought a couple cans of his own, along with a frozen strawberry pie. We all sat together in the break room and chatted a while. It’s actually been really nice at work this week, and I wish it could always be this way.

After lunch, I spent all afternoon even working a couple hours late trying to set up a wiki. I decided to use BlueSpice just sort of on a whim because it seemed to have good reviews and features. The first part of the setup was annoying just because of restrictions on the server, but after I learned some tricks it turned into step after step after step of installing different components. In the end I felt like it would have just been easier to install all the prerequisites for a MediaWiki, but in the end I would have probably missed some features.

I stopped by Casey’s on the way home for a free rewards Kickstart, then got changed so I could take my Sun Joe pressure washer out for a spin. I spent a little while trying out different arrangements of my garden hose quick disconnects, and then got started washing all the things. With only 2,000 max PSI, it wasn’t going to blow anything away, and at first I was even a little bit disappointed. The sprayer was too large and annoying to hold, and I just generally did’t have a great time with it. The more I used it, the more satisfied I felt. It’s not as strong as the car wash down the road, but it’ll be perfect for little jobs around the house.

As the evening came to an end, I headed up to Summer’s and picked at some leftover Popeye’s she had brought home. Then I tried fixing a little oscillating fan she brought home from work. When she went to bed, Eaddie and I watched one episode of The Defenders that actually started to get really exciting. It was too late to continue on though, so we’ll have to pick up again tomorrow.

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Good Documentation Takes Time

I picked up another breakfast pizza this morning, this time with gravy instead of the cheese sauce base. I really couldn’t taste much in the gravy, but the lack of cheese sauce was noticeable. I can’t say whether I like one over the other though.

Most of my day was spent documenting a process for purging Help Desk accounts so I’m not the only one doing it. It’s really only two steps, can be stretched out into three numbered steps, and then was further fluffed up into a six page knowledge base document.

In the middle of all that, Ben got a call that the secondary learning center needed a laptop charger for someone that took home a laptop. In the past couple weeks, they’ve been stripping chargers out of laptop carts we built after we ran out of loose charging bricks in the warehouse. It’s going to be a bit of a nightmare recovering from all of this, and it’s a new lease year for me on top of that.

Zach took us to Chick-fil-A for lunch, and I had a super sad looking salad from there. I was already upset that they had gotten smaller, but this one was pathetic today. I just want some more cheap greens in my eight dollar salad, and that doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

After work, I picked up the girls and took them to my house so they could ride bikes. Summer came over after work and went on a run while Eaddie rode alongside her. Autumn didn’t want to get outside at all, but at least she spent most of the time reading up for her driving exam. I’m being super strict with my expectations, because I refuse to be one of those people I used to laugh at with kids that failed the test multiple times.

While Summer and Eaddie were out, I finally unboxed my electric pressure washer and got it assembled. I didn’t get it done in time to actually use it before they got home though, and then Summer took Autumn home. Eaddie and I followed shortly thereafter, and I snacked on some leftovers for dinner.

It wasn’t long before Summer went to bed, and Eaddie and I started watching The Defenders. The first episode was super slow to get started, but I get they’re trying to bring a lot of characters together. The second episode wasn’t much better, and left me wishing I could recall some of the details from prior shows. I think it’ll get good though.

Entertaining documentation takes an irresponsible amount of time.

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Back to the Office

Today marked my first day back to the office in three weeks. I went by Casey’s to pick up a breakfast pizza, and they had made both of the pizzas I ordered for Monday and Tuesday. I wasn’t quick enough on my toes to think to just buy the second one off of them, so I just left with the one and went in to find Melinda, Zach, and Ben all in their usual spots.

It felt a little silly to be there at all since we basically were only manning the phones. Administration could have very easily just let any one of us be on-call while working from home, and have office calls forwarded to any of our phones. As usual, Zach seemed the most upset, and I couldn’t really blame him after only being out of the office for a couple of days.

I spent the first little while just kind of catching up on what all has happened in the last three weeks. Then I set up my mobile battle station in the conference room and chugged away at deleting duplicate Help Desk accounts. It was boring but kind of nice to be out somewhere else for a change.

We were only working half a day but still got a lunch break, so Zach took me through the Wendy’s drive-through, and we dropped some food off for Summer. We had only just gotten back to the shop to eat when Gary popped in for a bit. He shaved most of his beard off, and it was a pretty big shock for me. It kind of reinforced my own not wanting to do anything with any of my hair.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly as well, as we tuned in to the governor’s press conference. They officially closed brick and mortar schools for the remainder of the year. There’s no telling what kind of work we’ll have ahead of us now, but I’m sure it won’t be good. Only time could tell.

Autumn texted that she had a therapy appointment today, so I ran to get and deliver her. On the way, we saw that someone had hit the lifting gate at the railroad crossing. I ran home to clean up after the cat, then made it back in time to get Autumn back home.

Summer got there shortly after we did, and almost immediately got called back in to work to fix a broken bay door. She wanted me to drive, so I tagged along and actually proved myself useful by prying the motor pulley away from the housing that kept the motor bound and unable to move the door. Just as we got back, Summer received some more bad news that someone else is being quarantined, which brings the virus that much closer to home.

We grilled some pork chops for dinner along with some quick mashed potatoes and green beans that all turned out really great. Then Summer tried to relax in front of the TV for a bit before bed.

Eaddie and I finished the first season of Iron Fist, which went by much faster than Luke Cage did for me. I couldn’t really say I liked one over the other though, because they both felt hokey to me in their own ways.

Is that a ruttin’ rooster crowing at midnight?!?

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End of Quarantine

Today was the last day of quarantine for me, and Monday would start my turn at a week at work. We got up and had some grilled chicken for brunch, and almost ate a metal bristle from the brush Autumn used to clean the grill. Afterward we all sat around on our devices until eventually Summer and Autumn left to get some groceries for her parents. Then I went home to wait for them all.

Bác Vân was outside, and I decided to go out back to try and burn some brush. Everything ended up being way too wet though, so I just let it smolder and go out. The girls eventually came over and took their bikes out for a ride while I picked up around the garage. It was slow, but good progress. Autumn eventually came home before the other two because she fell into a mud puddle and got super upset about messing up her nice shoes.

When Summer and Eaddie got back, they came inside for a little while. Becky called me to catch up a bit, so I put together the bathroom shelf I ordered while talking to her. She had quit Asurion a while back, but got a part-time gig at Brookdale. The girls headed home after I got off the phone, so I picked up a little more and then caught up with them.

Autumn made bacon for them to all have BLTs while Summer did some OxiClean voodoo on the shoes. I warmed up the leftover steak, but was sorely disappointed by its ruined, tough texture and lack of flavor. I figured warming it up in the skillet with the bacon grease would enhance it a little, but it was awful.

After dinner, we watched the first episode of the fourth season of Glee. Then Eaddie and I started in on Iron Fist again. I just had to roll my eyes at some of the story, but overall it’s still been pretty decent.

Sure it’s a little qisy sometimes, but it’s not all bad.

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Pooper Party

We got up this morning and Summer made sausage and eggs. I spent too long playing Alto’s Adventure until the girls wanted to play Mario Party. That took forever, so we took a break in the middle of it and picked at some leftovers for lunch before finishing up.

After a while, I went home to clean up. Johnny, Aaron, and Clint came online and played some Overwatch with me for a while. Then on the way out, Split started yowling for me, so I went back inside and laid with him for a while before leaving.

It was near midnight that I headed back to Summer’s, and the roads were so peaceful. I only saw three other cars out for the entire drive, and it reminded me of quieter times.

It wouldn’t be so bad if society mellowed out a bit.

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Quick Night In

Friday kind of loses meaning when you’ve been home for three weeks. I got up and did a little work, mostly cleaning up more duplicated accounts again. Autumn had been up a while and started chores, and woke Eaddie up shortly after I came out. I took a break after a while and watched an episode of Iron Fist with Eaddie, then went back to work.

The tomato bits I had planted started to sprout on the porch, and within just a couple hours of checking on them throughout the morning I could tell that they were noticeably bigger. I wish I had thought of it sooner, but I started a hyper-lapse video of them on my Pixel 2 XL to see if I could get any movement. A little over an hour later my phone started to go dead and I had about 30 seconds of video. The movement didn’t really start to happen until the last few seconds, but I did get to watch them grow a tiny bit.

Summer brought a bucket of chicken strips home after Autumn called asking for a chicken sandwich. We all ate pretty quickly, and then Eaddie and I went back to watching Iron Fist. Summer went to bed and watched an episode of Cake Wars, but when that was over Eaddie and I joined her to finish the third season of Glee.

With everyone else wound down for bed, Eaddie and I watched a couple more episodes of Iron Fist, then went to bed ourselves.

More routine than usual.

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I Don’t Care About the Cats

Today was just one more day of work from home. I didn’t really get anything good accomplished, but maybe I helped someone else get something done. Most of my morning was babysitting, getting the kids up and active with their own obligations.

Summer queued me up to take Autumn to a physical therapy appointment, so I dropped her off and went home to shower. When I picked her back up, we went by Walmart for a couple things for dinner. Then I stopped by Lowe’s to pick up an online order. That ended up being a little bit of an ordeal, and they were visibly frustrated with how busy they were.

When we got back to Summer’s, I started the ham bone soup for dinner and waited for her to get home from work. She came home saying she was being peer pressured into watching Tiger King on Netflix, so she made me sit down with her to watch the first episode.

I could not have been any less interested. Either the rest of the world just wasn’t already aware that big-cat people are weird, or the quarantine business has gotten them so down and bored that they’ll watch anything. I ended up playing Alto’s Adventure on my phone until even Summer couldn’t take it any more. It just wasn’t interesting, and was completely and predictably stupid. Maybe I was just aware of that particular subculture because Dad was into magic, and I remembered that Siegfried & Roy had a stage show.

Autumn started making chocolate chip cookies, and the rest of us watched an episode of Glee until Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I started on a surprisingly addictive first season of Iron Fist. I didn’t think I would like it based on the first episode, but each episode after that kept me hooked on that auto-play feature of Netflix.

The cookies were perfect, but we’ve gotta get off of snacks.

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Tacos de Otoño

I got up this morning to another dip in the stock market that triggered a limit buy I had been waiting on. I lost a couple bucks right off the bat because it just kept dropping, but it was still relatively small change and the market will either correct itself, or we’ll be propelled into another great depression.

Autumn was up and around while Eaddie was still in bed as usual. I had some leftover eggs for breakfast while I got to work, and then eventually got the girls up to start chores and homework. I had to do a bit of hand-holding for someone else working from home, but after a couple hours I think we got her going.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and I eventually ran home to clean up there. On the way back, I stopped in to Walmart for a few things so Autumn could make dinner. She wanted to grill some strip steaks for street tacos, so I got some limes and veggies. I didn’t see any masks on at the store, but it was still pretty quiet with just a few people scattered around. It felt a little like a smaller population coming out of hiding after an apocalyptic event, and it was quiet and peaceful. Why move to a smaller town when the virus could bring the smaller town to you?

The tacos turned out great, and it was a decent learning experience for Autumn as long as she’ll keep it up and not just change interests again when this one gets more difficult. She only almost set the house on fire once, and nobody lost any fingers. My refried beans were a big hit after blending them with the immersion blender and adding some more water.

After dinner, Summer and Autumn cuddled up in bed to watch a movie, so Eaddie and I finished up the first season of Luke Cage over some ice cream. Next up is Iron Fist, and I’m feeling like this is going to go downhill a bit more before it gets better.

You’d think Alto would be better than he is. It’s his game, after all.

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Quarantine Away from Home

Eaddie really didn’t want to go to Little Rock with us for Autumn’s appointment, but today she actually behaved really well in spite of her frustration. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast, and then we all got ready to leave. My trolling motor came in for the boat, so I stopped by the house to bring it inside, and then we hit the road.

I wasn’t sure what traffic to expect on a Tuesday at lunch time, but it wasn’t awful. There were still lots of cars on the highway, and Waze had my route all kinds of jacked up, but we made it with time to spare. Rather than drag everyone in, I dropped Summer and Autumn off at the entrance, then parked and sat in the car with Eaddie. She spent the whole time on her phone, and I ended up video calling Suzanne to check in. She took me along on her walk around the neighborhood until Autumn was finished.

We didn’t even bother trying to do anything else in Little Rock, and headed back to Conway instead. Eaddie stayed in the car again while the three of us went in to Sam’s for some supplies. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the types of people that were there, or the change in behavior. There still wasn’t any toilet paper to be had, but at least it was quiet.

When we left, I ordered a couple pizzas from Old Chicago, and we took them home to eat. I wasn’t really impressed with the pizzas, and the restaurant was eerily quiet. It’s always been a treat to dine in there, but for 30 bucks after a BOGO deal, I would have preferred Pizza Hut.

After we ate, Summer had a little workout while I looked up a manual for her Bowflex. I figured out how to get some more features out of it, so she was happier with her improved workout away from the gym. Then we went to my house and rode bikes to the high school so I could water my plant. The doors were physically locked, so rather than continue looking for another way in after the announcement that one of the staff there tested positive for COVID-19, we headed back home where I continued to clean out the garage while Summer went for a run.

When we got back to her house, she made some pico de gallo and I started some refried beans in the Instant Pot. She went to bed before I even got the pot sealed, but when it was done and I got them mashed up, I got Eaddie out of her room to try them. Then I made us a couple little baby bean burritos before we sat down to a couple episodes of Luke Cage.

So long as nobody got the coronavirus, I’d call today a success.