Category: Uncategorised

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Heated Rampage

This week really flew by. Half of the crew was out today, so the remaining five of us kept busy with the few things we could do. First thing in the morning, we prestaged 10 of the non-touch TVs at the high school for mounting once the wall mounts come in. I was ready for two more truck loads, but nobody else wanted to do it, so we killed the rest of the morning waiting for a FedEx freight shipment. It finally got there right before lunch, so we unloaded it before heading to Subway for a quick lunch.

I spent most of the afternoon taking care of a few things at Oakland, and then it was home to change into something cooler to deal with the 114º weather. My Yakima FullTilt bike rack came in, so I unboxed it and mounted it to the Murano to check the fitment. It was super heavy, but seemed really sturdy and came pre-assembled. I’m pretty happy with it. The Murano looks ready for so many adventures.

The girls came over as soon as they could, and we took Bác Vân to meet the rest of my family at Western Sizzlin for a birthday dinner for her and my sister. It was a bit chaotic with so many people, but overall I think it went pretty well. Once we parted, we dropped Autumn off at her grandparents’ house for the evening, and the rest of us went back home to watch Rampage. It was pretty silly, yet entertaining. The 3D was excellent again, and I really felt like they’ve started getting that right recently.

I can’t stay awake.

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No Power to Breathe

We lost power in the middle of the night last night, and I couldn’t breathe for the few hours while it was out. I tried going to sleep without my CPAP, but I just tossed and turned and couldn’t pass out at all. Eventually the lights all came on and I was back in business, but I was ragged by the time I had to get up to go to work. I don’t know what happened, but it just affected a small area down my street.

Once at work, we hooked up the trailer to deliver a bunch of Chromebook carts. I feel like I have way more devices than students, and it just feels ridiculous. It would make more sense if they actually used them properly, but most of the time they end up used as babysitting devices.

Allen and I went to Taco Villa for lunch, and then Amanda went with us to run some security wires in the high school arena. I got even more frustrated with Jason while trying to figure out exactly what we needed to do. We loaded up two trucks to go over there, and then as soon as we got there, Jason said he was going to show me what needed to be done because he had to leave us. I don’t know why I let myself be surprised at all by that. The rest of the afternoon ended up being me slave-driving the other two, because neither of them wanted to do anything. We would have finished the entire job in plenty of time if they had stopped dicking around in the bleachers, but instead we made it back to the shop a few minutes late. On the way there, we saw three fire trucks outside the Blue Chip Ice Co, which seemed super ironic.

After a quick trip home to change, I went to pick up Eaddie and talked her into going swimming for a while since she had been sitting in the house watching The Flash all day long. She resisted the whole way there, but we had fun once she got in the pool. Summer came over after her workout and picked her up to run home and get some things before coming over.

I went home and set up my new monitor before they got there. It just barely fit, with the back leg of the mount barely secured on the back edge of the desk. I could mount it on an arm, but that’s a project for another day. It’d probably be preferable to switch desks anyway. We didn’t get to start Rampage like we wanted because they got here so late, so instead we watched an episode of New Girl with some cake and ice cream, then called it a night.

What happened to pride in one’s work?

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Mush!

I had to drag Allen and Amanda along to do some work all day today. It was an easy task of blowing out computers and projectors on my campuses, but neither of them wanted to do anything. They both periodically ended up on their phones or sitting, and I had to drag them from room to room. Even pulling cable usually goes better with these two, but this was just too much for them.

We took a break for lunch at Firehouse, and I stopped by to give Summer some medicine at the shop. Then it was back to more dusting. We split up for most of that, so I’m absolutely positive they didn’t do it correctly while they were out of my eyesight. It’s things like this that make me want to just do it all by myself.

After work, I waited for the girls for a while until they were ready to go to the pet store. We had to pick up some more mealworms for the turtles. The floating ramp we found for Autumn’s red-ear was way too expensive for my taste, so we’ll have to come up with something from home. It shouldn’t be too bad, but it will take a little bit of work.

Once everyone got here, we watched Tomb Raider, which was stellar. The 3D was spot-on, and the surprises and suspense had Summer wringing most of the blood out of my hands. I really hate that I missed it in theaters.

Shoulda bought two for when the first goes out.

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You are maddeningly inconsistent.

I got really frustrated with several things at work today. The first task I was given was something that was scheduled for Jason to do yesterday, but he didn’t do it then because presumably he and Allen spent the afternoon watching a girl at the UPS Store properly pack the leased laptops he was supposed to ship back. The man is either completely devoid of any common sense, or a complete genius. I’ve never seen someone hand off so much of his own work in my life.

After Amanda and I finished that task for him, we went to Sequoyah to pull cables and rearrange a room for a new teacher there. This was frustrating for a few reasons. Firstly, the room was already in perfect form with the SMART board in the middle of one wall and the computer desk in the middle of an adjacent wall. Secondly, the technology committee is supposed to be there to deny requests like this that aren’t backed by any real instructional need. Thirdly, I felt like Ben should have stood his ground as a part of the committee. I get that the principal there may not make requests very often, so requests should be taken seriously. It was the fact that this particular room should have been the template for the setup of every other room in the district. The new layout made no sense, and I was made to feel like I was taking crazy pills just because Amanda didn’t want to try and convince her principal otherwise.

I left for lunch with Dale and Ryan at Chick-fil-A, then came back and completed the job with Amanda. I’m sure that I probably let myself get too upset over it, and at the end of the day I’m paid to do a job, so I completed the job. It was just compounded frustrations with specific coworkers.

That’s about the time Jason told Amanda and me that we wired too many of the laptop carts the other day, and that we would have to go undo the work we had just done.

That was right after he blew up in front of me about not being able to image a computer with Ryan’s new setup, even though he’s been told specifically how to do it correctly multiple times.

Home and beer in a quiet house.

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Carte Blanche

Amanda and I spent all morning wiring more laptop carts. We got all but one cart completely finished by lunch. Allen picked me up to go to KFC, and when we got back, Jason told us we didn’t need all of the carts wired. I’d like to be able to say we were at all surprised by this news. I’d really like to.

I went to Oakland in the afternoon to take care of some work orders there. Then after work, I went to Superfast to pick up Eaddie to swim at my parents’ house. It was a bit menacing outside, so we watched an episode of The Flash inside and finished up right as Summer got there after her workout. We all swam for quite a while, then headed home for the evening.

Summer and Eaddie stopped at Sonic for some dinner and we watched an episode of The Office before bed. Prime day has so far been mostly disappointing, but all the better to pay what bills I already have.

Do you pay my automo’ bills?

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Sweat Child o’ Mine

I got up this morning and spent a while making a big egg and hash brown breakfast. Everything turned out pretty good, and I learned some things along the way. It’s all about the low, slow heat when it comes to the hash browns.

The girls got stuck watching The Flash literally all day long. Summer and I dug the 55-gallon aquarium out of the garage and started cleaning it up to take to her house for Autumn’s turtle, Apollo. We even managed to get her outside to help scrub the tank for a bit.

It was super hot outside, but it wouldn’t have been so bad in the shade if it weren’t for the humidity. Even my house struggled to keep up as the inside temperature reached four whole degrees warmer than the thermostat was set. I don’t know if it froze up, or if it was low on refrigerant, but it cooled off in the evening after leaving it off for a while.

After we dropped the tank off at Summer’s, we all went to my parents’ house for some hot dogs and eggplant soup for dinner. The girls got stuck there watching the finale of Harry Potter. I’m sure I probably have, but I can’t remember ever consuming that much passive entertainment all at once. They’ve just been completely gripped by this stuff today.

When the movie finished, I took the girls back home and headed home to a cool house. I’ll have to keep an eye on things tomorrow in the heat to see how it does. I didn’t feel particularly sleepy, and it was cool enough outside that I got the bug to install my Nest Hello. I finally found the correct breaker to switch off and got to work. Everything went pretty smoothly, and I’m pretty happy with the install except for the narrow passageway up to my front door. I’m pretty sure I’ll end up moving the whole installation to the gate next to the garage.

I’d rather live with the constant threat of my island blowing up than sweating to death every summer in this humidity.

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One Time at Band Camp

I got up this morning and had to get ready for Autumn’s band camp concert. I hadn’t been to one since my sister played the flute, so this was a bit of nostalgia mixed with a whole lot of anxiety. I made it out alive though, and we celebrated with La Huerta.

Summer insisted on mowing the lawn in the middle of the day, so I went to get her some Powerade, then went home to take care of my own house. I was so drowsy all afternoon that I had trouble staying awake, but I managed to get some stuff done. Summer and Eaddie came over once they were done, and I snooped around my breaker box for a bit to try and find the doorbell chime. I couldn’t ever get it to power down, so I’ll probably just kill the whole house tomorrow so I can install my Nest Hello.

They watched more of The Flash while I played some Overwatch with Clint and Jack until bedtime. Eaddie’s completely obsessed with the show, and I’m a little sad I didn’t get in on it with them, but there are plenty of other shows for me to watch.

Take two Advil and wake up in the morning.

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Making Cardigan

I didn’t even realize it was Friday until someone at work said something about it. This week has really flown by. Luckily today was a relatively easy day. We all shuffled out into the graveyard to make Chromebook carts. It was an all-day affair, and we had several fans blowing to keep from breaking too much of a sweat out there in the heat.

Jason, Allen, and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch, and I had probably the best food and service I’ve ever had there. We got our food in about 10 minutes, our waitress kept our drinks topped off, and everything was hot and fresh. Somehow it almost made sense for it to be Friday the 13th for them.

While we were gone on vacation, central office decided we get to go home at 3 on Fridays, so I headed home and started cleaning up my desk. I found my HSA card and made sure it was activated so I can use it soon. Now I’ve just got to find my insurance card.

Keno came on and we played a couple rounds of PUBG before I headed to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie’s been watching The Flash, and I’m a little jealous she got to it before me because it’s been sitting in my queue for years. Maybe someday I’ll catch up on everything.

Maximum Fun

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Iunno…

Dale was ready to roll this morning, and he and Ryan ended up pushing everyone else to get to work. We loaded up two groups of three and headed to Center Valley to replace eight touch panels. Ryan and I did four touch panels in the time that it took Jason, Zach, and Allen to do three. Dale took care of inventory for both groups since we didn’t need the extra hand. I wish we could get points for good work.

Dale, Allen, and I went to New China for lunch since we had a relatively light afternoon. I’m not sure what anyone else did, but Dale, Ryan, and I went to the high school to image a couple labs and reroute some cables into ceiling drops. I was just glad to be there so they couldn’t gripe about me not working along with the rest of the crew.

After work, I stopped at the car wash to clean all the grime off of the Murano from our trip. Then it was home for the evening. I spent some more time re-looking in every corner of my house for my box fan that seems to have completely vanished. Then I tracked down a leak in my air conditioner that was leaving puddles in the floor of my closet. Dad’s eagle eye spotted a drain plug that simply fell out, so tomorrow I’ll have to try and find a new one that fits.

Google it.

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Won’t you take me to Junkytown?

Today had me beat. We spent all day taking down projectors and SMART boards from the high school, and almost every single room was really hot with no air circulation. The heat, plus lots of boards mounted to drywall instead of brick made for a difficult and sweaty time. We filled up two truck beds before lunch and had to unload them into an already full graveyard. Someone got wise and asked if we could take the projectors and mounting booms to the scrap metal yard, and we got a little over 30 bucks for it all. For technology that really probably wasn’t all that bad, I found that to be pretty frustrating.

After a quick lunch at Quiznos, we jumped right back into it at the high school. The guys at the scrapyard indicated to our guys with the first load that there needed to be more metal than what they got, so Zach and I drove to a different scrap yard in the afternoon. They didn’t want to pay anything at all, but they offered to let us throw them into a junk pile. It kind of broke me a little inside to be throwing that stuff away when presumably it could be sold or donated to someone in need. Summer gears are turning, though, and we have to move the merchandise.

When we got back to the shop, we were told we had a truck coming with several pallets of stuff for us, so we all had to wait outside and clean out more room in the graveyard to store the new stuff. That took us the rest of the work day, so there was no hope of going home early for most of us. Somehow Jason managed to disappear somewhere, and Dale waved goodbye as he drove off.

I went straight to my parents’ house to have a swim in the pool for a while. Summer and Eaddie came over to join me eventually. I left for a bit to get cheap Kroger gas with Dad and Julie, and then it was back to swim. Mom made pork and shrimp spring rolls for dinner, so we stayed for that. Everyone else was pretty tired by then, so we came back to my house to crash.

Where the heck did I put that box fan?