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How Am I Supposed to Breathe with No Air?

It hardly felt like friday after such a tough week. I came in half expecting to be able to run the show again, but Jason was there to mess with that. Somehow we convinced him to let us go home at lunch if we found all but at least 10 of the Chromebooks we were still missing. I spent the morning crunching numbers and directing people to campuses. Then Gary and I spent most of the morning at Dwight.

We got down to about 11 missing, and I think Amanda was the most upset about it. Evidently Allen saw Gary’s leftovers from BFD yesterday and decided that he had to have some of that for lunch today, so we took him and Jason down to try it. Our server was the only one there, and the place filled up really fast. He did his best to keep up, and did well at it, but it definitely felt like amateur hour for the owner to be working. I got the lunch special this time, but I think I ended up inadvertently convincing him to charge me extra for my drink. In any case, everyone loved it, but unfortunately nobody had time for dessert this time.

After lunch, Gary, Amanda, and I went to the junior high to try and track down a single Chromebook that likely shouldn’t have ever been on the campus. By the end of the day, we got down to nine serial numbers that weren’t accounted for, but a whopping 23% missing chargers. Jason was content to put that off until a later date rather than get a count of them now for some reason, so I gave up for the week.

We left work at 3, and I went home to start crunching numbers on my great air conditioner/heat pump debate. I lost count of how many hours I spent on it, but when I finally got up and went to my parents’ house, Dad convinced me that it just wasn’t worth it for a super high SEER unit. I still think I’ll go for a heat pump, but probably get one with a split gas furnace as well.

I left after eating some spaghetti and headed to Summer’s, where I flailed past a porch light of swarming bugs and into a sauna of no air conditioning. At first I thought it might be the filter, because I’ve always noticed it looking super dirty. I struggled to pull it away from the wall because it was so clogged, but that wasn’t the issue. Outside, the compressor wasn’t running either. Autumn and I ran to Walmart to try and find a replacement filter so we wouldn’t look like such jackasses for having such a filthy one, but they were completely out. I had Autumn call her grandparents to see if she could go back there for the evening, and then dropped her off before meeting Summer at my parents’ house.

We didn’t stay up long, but she did have to lay and marvel at the glowing things in my old bedroom for a bit. I’m running out of alternative air conditioned sleeping arrangements, so I guess it’s time to bite the bullet.

Why is the heat following me around?

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Big Fuggin Dessert

We lacked any real leadership today, so those of us that were left mostly finished the task of collecting Chromebooks. We got a ton at Sequoyah before lunch, but ran out of chargers part of the way through. It took us a while to get an answer for what to do from there, but eventually we were told to just send them on without chargers. I figure we can find most of the chargers we need to ship back, but some will come out at the end of these leases.

Gary, Dale, and I went to Bocadillo’s Frozen Desserts for lunch, and it was both amazing and expensive. The lunch specials seem pretty great, so I’ll have to leverage that next time. Otherwise, we could feed the family with the CheatMeal for a day or two. To cap off my assortment of tacos, I had a mangonada that was to die for. It was truly perfect.

After lunch, we finished up with Oakland, where I had to weave around through the cramped aisles where all the rooms had been gutted for carpet cleaning. We ended up missing about 50 Chromebooks somewhere, but some of the guys think they forgot to check the Upper Elementary 5th Grade library.

When I finally left work, I ran home to take care of the fish before heading to my parents’ house for a swim. I wasn’t super hungry, but by the time Summer got there and swam around a bit, we had enough room for some spaghetti. On the way out, we got to see a skunk in the cat food. It didn’t seem too bothered, or even aware that I had come outside, but I was too chicken to get very close. Maybe next time.

Anyone that knows me would know it doesn’t matter if I have a use for it.

 

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1:1 Practice

It was a little drizzly this morning, but we decided to continue on with our great Chromebook hunt. We ended up getting just over 500 more Chromebooks to the UPS store by the end of the day, with only a short lunch break with Allen to Wind Taste. It really felt to me like a trial run of returning the high school laptops. I was hot, sweaty, and sticky by the time we left, so I ran home to change before meeting Summer at my parents’ house for dinner.

Mom warmed up the leftover phở for the four of us, and then we headed back to Summer’s for the evening. The turtle tank was looking pretty rough, and I had a lapse in memory where I imagined Autumn was away at band camp and not just choosing to exist somewhere else for the evening, so I cleaned it out myself. If I had remembered she could have been here, I would have made her come home to clean it herself.

lOl

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The A Team

It saddens me to say that today was an unusually good day at work. Jason had us all go start collecting old leased Chromebooks, so we took both trucks, loaded up with dollies and empty retail boxes, and visited four elementary campuses to collect the equipment. Of course he didn’t really have much of a plan to do any of it, and he even had to leave for half of the day to work on something else while we did the grunt work. Regardless, we pulled together and got into a groove that really worked for us. Everyone participated, and nobody ever got upset with anyone else. It was really quite the sight.

Four of us went to Taco John’s for lunch, where I ended up eating too much because I craved Potato Olés, and then Gary ended up hardly touching his. I still consider it a good choice for the day though, because they were probably the hottest and freshest I had ever had, and they were seasoned and crisped perfectly. The tacos were a bit stale, but after the fried potato bliss, I wasn’t in any shape to argue.

We continued with more of the same in the afternoon, touching just over 300 Chromebooks for the day. Jason even let us go an hour early for our efforts, but Gary and I ended up going to the junior high to take care of some things for James in his new office. Then we chatted for a bit after we walked out, and finally left just before 5.

Summer went to the gym, so I had a little time to kill. I was hot and sticky from sweating all day, so I ran home to change and clean up a little, then stopped by Walgreens on the way up to her house so I could get my new prescription. Hopefully splitting it up in the morning and evening will help, but I’m still annoyed that I’m having to keep up with all of that. I guess I really do need to just purchase a blood pressure cuff for home.

When I got Summer, we went to my parents’ house for spaghetti dinner. I wanted to swim from being so overheated, but it was dark and cold by the time we finished, and we figured it’d be best to head back home to bed.

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Every Other Week

It was back to work today after another week away. I’ve really gotten used to not being around over the summer, and it’s been great avoiding so much of the negativity. I feel like summer is slipping away, and we’ve still got so much work to do. That doesn’t even include me figuring out what the hell I’m doing at the high school.

Ben was out and Jason didn’t have any direction for us, so everyone split up to do their own things. I played a bit of catch up myself before taking Brice and Allen to Chick-fil-A to meet Dale and Gary for lunch. They had their peach milkshakes, which made the whole visit worthwhile. Then I met Heather at the junior high to take a look at the outside signs. We appeared to have a bad hard drive in one, so we pulled it and took it back to the shop for Jason.

I had another nurse checkup where they fussed that my blood pressure was still high. Instead of upping my dosage again, she added a third prescription. To complicate things further, she wants me to take them at different times. She wasn’t as pumped about my tracking spreadsheet either, since I couldn’t limit the data to only include readings taken a couple hours after taking my meds. It’s beyond annoying dealing with it, and at times it doesn’t even feel worth the frustration.

After blowing an hour there, I went back to the shop where I teamed up with Brice to check out all the work orders I’ve been ignoring for Oakland. We got a few things done, and it was nice to have the help. A lot of the cleanup stuff will have to wait until the beginning of the school year since teachers will move things around again.

I headed home and spent some time cleaning up after the pets before rummaging around for a wireless charger to use in Summer’s charging picture frame. I didn’t have a lot of room to work, but eventually I got it soldered and working. With any luck, it won’t catch on fire. Mom texted that she made phở, so I stopped for gas, got Summer, and headed to their house for dinner. Summer was exhausted from work, so we headed straight home after that and went to bed.

The heat was hot.

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But It’s Hot

We got up this morning and Summer took the girls out to run Father’s Day errands. I cleaned up some leftovers before heading back to my house to take care of things there. I got two loads of laundry done, messed with the fish, took a shower, and parsed through my air conditioner quotes.

Dad wanted Western Sizzlin’ for dinner, so we all met back up there to eat. Autumn ate lunch meat and Eaddie tried to eat a huge plate full of desserts. It really made me want to put them on an original Soylent diet as punishment. After we ate, Summer took Autumn to stay with her parents while I went home and went over the air conditioner quotes with Dad. Then Mom came in and escalated things the way that she does.

Back at Summer’s, the three of us settled in for a couple episodes of Parks and Rec before bed.

Steps are for climbing.

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Ho, Ho, Ho, It’s Magic, You Know!

Summer went to a 5K in Pottsville this morning while I slept in. I eventually got up and showered before she got back, and then we headed to Clarksville to get the girls from their trip to visit family in Texas. We met them at the McDonald’s, talked for just a little bit, and then headed back home. We stopped by my house to get some things before going to CiCi’s for lunch.

After lunch, the girls got their swim suits and we went to Travis’s to visit. The pool was a little cold, but the girls splashed around a bit while the three of us sat around the goldfish pond. When we went back inside, I got to try his Vive for a bit. It was pretty awesome, but expectedly warm in the headset. Eaddie tried it for a bit too, but I was afraid to leave her alone in the room. I’d love to get one once I have a new computer.

Next the four of us played a game of Magic: The Gathering where we taught the girls. Summer had to take off to take care of some drama at work for a while, so Eaddie and I played some Mario Kart on the Switch. When Summer got back, three of us played another game of Magic while Eaddie played on Autumn’s phone. Then we headed back home.

I fried some chicken strips and fries, and even some raw potatoes so the girls could have some dinner, then we bummed around on YouTube until bed.

Sssssmokin!

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HSTI Fatigue

I slept in for as long as I could today, and I was still exhausted all day. I spent a while at Summer’s just checking email and catching up on the computer. I cleaned up some salad for lunch before heading home to clean up there.

On the way to my parents’ house, I stopped by Walgreens for a refill on my blood pressure meds. Then I sat and chatted with Dad for a while about the air conditioning quotes he got.

I still didn’t make a final decision though, and headed back to Summer’s for the evening once she got home from work and the gym. We warmed up the last steak to cut up over salads, and then watched a little Battlestar Galactica before bed. She passed out a little early, so I played the last half of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before passing out myself.

That ending was actually pretty gruesome…

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Eight Minute Labs

I slept only a tiny bit better last night, which made it all the more difficult to get out of bed in the morning. It was my last day to present, and I was scheduled for the first breakout session block in the morning. I had plenty of time for breakfast, and decided to go present my session and then return to check out of the hotel before going back for the last session and closing.

Much to my surprise, my lab pretty well filled up and it made me feel a bit better to be a popular topic. Even Thomas showed up with his tech. I was more confident in my ability to present as well, so I assumed things would go about the same as yesterday. I could not have been more wrong. We started chatting casually just a few minutes before time, and as people quit trickling in, I started in on what I had. It took me all of about eight minutes to completely cover what I had. The room was dead silent the whole time, and none of my jokes got even a groan. I wrapped it up just as quickly as I started, and several people took off. I did have a few people come in a little late, which got the conversations going again. We did have more general esports chats going on, and I got to talk to the kid doing the last session I would attend. I ended up staying the whole hour for the conversation, but overall I considered the presentation a flop.

On the way out, I grabbed a big plate of catfish and chicken strips and headed back to the hotel. I packed everything as quickly as I could, then ate while Summer ran her stuff downstairs. Once I was satisfied with the room check, we headed back to the high school to wrap up the conference. Summer went to Planet Fitness while she waited for me. I went to Connor’s presentation where he tried to quickly go through his slides and then switched to open discussion after seeing how the HSTI fatigue had hit my last session.

We wrapped the conference with a comedian that went around the auditorium trying to make jokes about things people did. I wasn’t into it. The door prizes took forever, and I didn’t have the luck I had the first night. I shouldn’t complain, but I had other plans and was ready to leave.

Summer had met up with Amanda and come back to get me. I hadn’t seen her since her time with Brandon, so it was nice to catch up a bit. I was mostly surprised she remembered our comments on her Instagram and reached back out to me right before the conference. We went to a place called Cafe 1217 that had a bunch of what I considered to be “weird” stuff. It was good, but expensive. I was still kind of full from the quick lunch, which didn’t make me feel any better about it. It was a good time though, and I was happy that at least the staff there liked my jokes.

When we finished, we ran Amanda back home before heading toward home ourselves. I think we were both just too tired at that point to do much else. We stopped to fill our water bottles on the way out, and then made it all the way to the Hot Springs Village Walmart where we stopped for a restroom break and to peruse for clearance deals. Summer got a couple things for herself, and I picked up a couple cheap frisbees since I occasionally find myself in need of one. Finally we made the remainder of the trip home in good time, I unpacked and cleaned up a little, and we went back to her house for the evening. She has to work tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll be making a decision on an air conditioner.

I’ve never had a more successful conference, but I need a vacation after that!

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May I Present to You…

We slept in a bit today since I didn’t really plan on seeing the opening keynote speakers. Breakfast had me feeling a bit off though, which made me a couple minutes late, which in turn made it awkward for me to walk into the first class I was thinking of attending. I ended up finding Ben in his booth for ARKSTE and chatted with him for a bit before making a round through the vendors and eventually finding my way to Esports 101 by the presumably unlikely ByteSpeed.

Fortunately that session ended up being wonderful, and in fact, one of the best I’ve ever attended. The guy was a former esports coach at the collegiate level, and you could tell he both really knew his stuff, and also wasn’t necessarily there just to sell us something. He definitely gave me some ideas for practice that I’ll have to use, assuming this thing ever gets off the ground for me.

My presentation was next after a bit of a break. I followed Adrian in the same room we were in before, and setup couldn’t have been easier for what I needed to do. I had a small crowd, including one guy that didn’t even know what esports are. It was small enough to be a little intimate, and my jokes were received well, so overall I thought it was a success. We actually used up the hour, which was my primary concern, and our conversations kind of floated from Discord to esports in general. All I can do is hope that tomorrow’s session will go as well.

I went to one more session before heading out. Summer came back to pick me up a bit early and was waiting outside, so I ran out after retrieving the laptop power supply I had forgotten in the classroom. Then we stopped by Dick’s to try and find something cheap to earn me the last point I needed for another reward certificate. Once we got that, we headed back to the hotel so she could get ready for dinner.

We met Ben in the lobby and had a few minutes to kill over beer, wine, burgers, and brats. I hadn’t eaten lunch and was pretty hungry, but I didn’t want to kill my appetite right before dinner, but I also didn’t want to be super hungry in case we ended up waiting for another couple hours to get our food in such a big group.

Dinner was at the same Back Porch Grill as last night, so we were welcomed back with open arms. I had the red fish this time, which was excellent. After trying Summers Cajun ribeye, I did have a taste for steak, but I still left satisfied. Summer did some work on some wine and wanted to go back to the room, so we dropped her off before heading to The Porterhouse for the ARKSTE party. I stuck to tea, and we spent most of the time chatting with a couple techs from Conway. The karaoke room was too loud, and the dining room was too old, so we stood by the bar like hip young men and got in the way of servers and ladies wishing to visit the loo.

None of us in our group won a door prize, and then they shut the thing down and we went out the back door. It was a quick trip back across town, and off to bed for one last day. I present early, and I need my beauty rest after today.

The eagle has landed.