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I Am the Admin Now

I spent the better part of the day trying to suppress my instincts to blame my frustrations on perceived shortcomings of my predecessor. I’m sure he must have been good at doing stuff, but the more I had to dig through the hoard of files he left behind, the more it seemed like his greatest strength was his ability to peacock the few things that he actually did accomplish. Of course I have no idea of the state of things before he came onboard, but I certainly feel like it would have been easier to get there myself than reinvent whatever kind of wheel he built.

Muad’Dib and I went to Taco Bell, which seems to be the best deal in town with an outside table. We may try to bring food back to the office and eat out with the workin’ folks tomorrow, though he has been really good at sit/stay the last couple days. Sometime in the afternoon I had to go downstairs to help Heaven as she was taking over more and more of Peyton’s duties. I kind of gave Rhonda a hard time about a couple things and cracked a little bit of a smile, so maybe I’ll get some rapport built after all.

Dad roasted a turkey for dinner, so I rode over there with Muad’Dib after we got back to town. He was slow, but apparently he was also completely full of crap the entire run. Dad thought the turkey was underdone, so he carved a little off to eat while he cooked the rest a little longer. Just as I finished eating, I saw my prescription was ready just at closing time, so I took Dad’s car and raced across town to beat the clock. I was pretty sure I saw the pharmacy tech walking to her car as I pulled up, so I’ll just skip my morning dose. It won’t kill me, and if it does, I won’t be alive to care.

We made it back to the house and I got the news that Eaddie had a completely flat tire on the Murano somehow. Eli had brought her home, and the girls decided that either they would look at it tomorrow, or Eli’s dad would look at it during the day sometime. I shut things down early and went to bed.

Look at me.

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“Chinese”

I tried to go to bed early last night, but woke up after a couple hours with wide eyes and couldn’t fall asleep again for a couple hours. Fortunately that didn’t ruin my morning, and I stuck with a Soylent for breakfast because Summer said she could meet me for lunch on her way back from Little Rock. I took Muad’Dib inside on a leash to keep him from jumping on people, and he didn’t like that a bit. I got in to some stuff in the morning, but still no real resolutions.

When Summer got there, we went to Chopsticks, which I vaguely remembered trying several years ago when I was in town for AT&T. We left Muad’Dib in her car and went in for what wasn’t necessarily the worst Chinese I’ve ever had. The fried fish was pretty good, which I remembered from before. We didn’t take long, and the lunch price felt pretty fair. Summer took Muad’Dib home with her, so I went back to the office alone.

My heart started racing a bit when I got back, so I tried to take it easy. I didn’t feel as bad as yesterday, and I failed to take my blood pressure, but it still didn’t feel great. The afternoon dragged on forever, too. When I finally got out of there, I went straight to the house and took Muad’Dib out for a run.

It wasn’t too hot out, and we had an okay walk. When we got to my parents’ house, Dad and I tried to rehang the gate that fell over, but his drill didn’t have the juice we needed to get the holes drilled. When we got back to the house, we had caught another rat. It was our third one of the year, and may have been one of a couple noisy, squeaky ones. Muad’Dib and I took it out to Washburn Park, where I had released the other two. Then I spent the rest of the night trying to clean up a bit before bed.

Sounds like sailing away to me.

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Stay.

I went to bed super early with my feet up, and woke up just before my alarm. That got me out the door without a rush, and we made it to Morrilton before I decided to stop in at Wendy’s for some breakfast for a change. They weren’t in much of a hurry, so I got to work around the same time as usual. I got in and tinkered with PRTG and the PLCs some more, but didn’t really make any meaningful progress.

I actually ate my breakfast slowly throughout the morning since I had such a tall cup of coffee, so we went to lunch really late. It was nice out again, so we went to Taco Bell and shared a box. I was really proud of Muad’Dib for listening when I told him to stay at the table outside. He actually laid down and waited while I went in a couple of times.

When we got back to the office, Shane was there and asked for a laptop and an account, but didn’t have any details. I went upstairs and Teisha at least got me information on the account, and I spent the afternoon trying to wipe a couple of laptops. The whole process was way slower than traditional offline imaging, so I may end up using a flash drive with bootable media in the future if this becomes a habit.

As I sat there, I started to spin a bit as I felt my heart race and my blood pressure rise. I ended up taking a clonidine pretty quickly and rode things out, but I couldn’t really tell why I spiked. Caffeine and sugar? Salty foods? Stress from work? I alerted Teisha just in case, but I leveled off after a while.

Mom was making bún bò Huế for dinner, so we got back to town and waited for Summer to get home, and then I ran over with Muad’Dib while Summer drove. Along with cooler days are earlier sunsets, so Muad’Dib and I had to hurry and get the rest of his run in. He did not hurry. He made me proud with his obedience, and then immediately frustrated me with his whimsy. At some point I stepped in some poop, presumably of his, and may have tracked some into the house, so I cleaned the floors just in case.

Eaddie called just as we were finishing our run, and put me on the phone with Shaana. They wanted to add Eaddie to their family plan since Eli got a new iPad and they were giving Eaddie his old one. Eaddie’s Apple account has always been a frustration because their father had it set up at an AT&T store, and we never actually had any control over the girls’ accounts. I wanted Eaddie to figure out her own account and manage it herself since she was old enough, but she’ll just continue to ride along whoever will take care of her, and that’s a disappointment.

I had an anxiety attack while head-down in some Vine stuff, and then tried to wind down quickly to get as much sleep as the night before.

I don’t know what’s next either, but I have a pocket full of stones and a reckless kind of hope.

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f⁻¹(g)

I ended up elevating my legs last night because the swelling in my feet hadn’t been getting any better. It had done wonders by the time I got up. Summer went to the gym and Eaddie went to church. I did Vine reviews all day.

I warmed up some spaghetti for lunch just before Summer got home, and then we went out back to try and find the pendant for the living room fan. I went back in and kept doing reviews while she cleaned up.

Mom was supposed to make bún bò Huế for dinner, but when I checked in the evening, they weren’t ready. Summer and I ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings instead, and sat outside with Muad’Dib. I think the noise got to him, because he was rowdy for a while when we first got there.

Service was inexperienced, and the food wasn’t great. The chicken seemed to be cut in half or thirds from what they used to serve. Overall it just wasn’t worth the visit.

I took Muad’Dib for a run in the cool air when we got home, and he ran well. We visited with Dad, and then made it back to the house for the night.

y

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I’ve Been Crawling on My Belly

I woke up to go with the girls and Eli to Bixby for their Conquer the Gauntlet, but I could tell that Summer just didn’t want me to go, so I sat down in bed and laid down until they left. Then I went to sleep again for a few more hours with Muad’Dib. He laid in bed for nearly the whole day, but I eventually got up to a couple frozen burritos. They seemed like a good idea at the time, but they were pretty terrible.

I chipped away at reviews and tried to process some stuff from Vine, but I didn’t actually get the house cleaned up at all the way I had hoped. I spent more time writing than anything. I eventually took a shower and then took Muad’Dib out for an evening run.

It was really cool outside, so I left my hair down in the wind. We had a good run, but encountered an escaped pooch at Grant’s parents’ house. We went up to ring the doorbell and she ran right inside, but then got out the back somehow. We chased her around a bit, and Grant’s mom gave Muad’Dib a piece of barbecue. We continued around through the basin and the Promenade, and played with some Hispanic kids that live around the corner from my parents. Then we stopped in and I finished up some spring rolls. The girls got home a little while after we had left the house, but we didn’t get back until after dark.

Summer was in bed, but Eaddie left to hang out with friends for a while. I laid down with Summer for a little bit, but she fell asleep quickly. I did a few more reviews, and then went to bed after Eaddie got home.

Clearing out what could’ve been.

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I’ve Got the Sheets

I grabbed my leftover breakfast burrito and hit the road surprisingly early this morning, so I stopped at Burger King for a coffee and some free hash browns to share with Muad’Dib. I called Dad once I got to work, while he was at the house with Adam. Dad agreed that the joint in the ceiling looked worse than before, but Adam said the best he could do was float the mud joint out more. I just wanted to get over it, so Dad paid him off.

I got pulled away from more IT-centric tasks when Shane called and asked me to update some products in HubSpot. I worked on it a bit, but had to take a break for lunch because Muad’Dib kept pawing at me more and more. We went to Taco Bell again so we could sit outside while it was nice. It got surprisingly windy while we were out there, but we made it work. I may eventually start taking food back to work and eating at the picnic tables in the smoking area, because it’s at least sheltered by a field that Muad’Dib can use to burn off some energy.

The afternoon was for importing products and trying to combine the multiple cost sheets into something I could try and automate for importing in the future. Near the end of the day, Muad’Dib started throwing up in Janice’s office. It was just liquid, but he didn’t act sick otherwise. Even afterward, he ran around the office a bit.

I had an anxiety attack just before we walked out, and then we grabbed a couple slushies on the way home. Summer had beat us by a couple hours and was having a bath. The kids were in and out. I had my board charged up to 100%, so we went for a ride to try and repeat the failure.

I was going to let Muad’Dib take a dip in the creek, but he got down to eat some grass and then threw up some more. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like maybe he got some rawhide out, which would explain his lack of appetite for the last day and a half. When we got to my parents’ house, Mom said they still had meat for spring rolls that needed to be eaten, so I cooked some of that and ate at the counter. It was dark by the time we left, and we made laps near the house to see if I could get the board to fail, but it never did. Muad’Dib ran his little heart out and had a great time in the dark.

As soon as we got inside, I gave him a really good fleabath, followed by a good scrubbing. He lost a ton of hair and came out super fluffy and happy. The girls went to bed early for Conquer the Gauntlet. I mentioned going with them, and Summer didn’t seem excited by that at all.

Pick your poisons.

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Games All Day

Taco John’s was supposed to have BOGO breakfast burritos this morning, but the app was uncooperative. The friendly, but otherwise lackadaisical staff eventually got around to greeting me at the counter, and took care of the order. Muad’Dib hadn’t been to work with me in a while, so he was super excited to see everyone.

I thought I’d have a call at some point with someone from Garland, but it never happened. I carried on through lunch at Taco Bell where more corporate shenanigans took place with rising prices, and coaching people through placing their own orders at the kiosks. I would have ordered through the app if I could have used my paper coupon.

We had a good time eating outside in the reasonable weather, and then I grabbed some mozzarella sticks from Arby’s next door before heading back to work. We were the last ones out of the office at the end of the day, and it was a reasonably relaxed, quick drive home.

Summer had to close the lube, so we stopped to see her before making it home. Dad had met Adam about some of the finishing touches in the living room, and he’ll have to come back again tomorrow to get paid. They patched the hole they put in the wall, which was our biggest concern. The paint finish wasn’t great, but we’re ready for it all to be over. I could sell the house at any moment to be rid of it all.

Eaddie and Eli were around for a bit, but Muad’Dib and I went out for a run. We cut a block to avoid a noisy poodle, visited my parents for a little dinner, and then experienced another Onewheel battery failure on the way back to the house. I had Dad come get us so I wouldn’t have to carry the stupid thing the rest of the way, but after a couple blocks I got out and walked with the dog the rest of the way and just let him drop the board off at the house for me.

I looked at the living room some more, and it seemed like the rafters might have shifted some more where they crawled up to fix the ceiling fan box. There were lines that were more obvious than before. I was just ready to move on from everything.

Games all night.

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Assemblance

I worked from home today since the guys were supposed to finish work on the ceiling. They did a bit of painting, I pointed out some issues, and they touched up. The total cost increased by about $500 due to some extra construction elements they had to do to raise and level the whole ceiling. They got ceiling fans re-hung, and I immediately noticed a missing pull chain. I looked all over for it under the deck, but didn’t have any luck.

Dad came over to look at some of it with me since he would be over to hand off the second half of the money the next day. Summer got home and started making spaghetti. I took Muad’Dib for a run to the bank to get the money, and we went inside to talk to Aaron for a bit.

When we got back to the house, Dad wanted to go to the other house to uninstall the microwave so they could have the cabinets replaced. I picked him up and we got that taken care of. Eaddie finally got home so we could eat, and then I took Muad’Dib out for another run. While we were out, Summer noticed a hole in the wall, some broken trim near the floor, and I found a broken USB cable from one of my security cameras, so I had to send another email before wining down for bed.

Spaghetti and Squealy Olive Balls

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Aweem Away

Summer never got her work stuff out of my trunk, so she asked me to drop it off for her on my way to work. I did that as quickly as I could, then picked up some spicy chicken biscuits from Hardee’s on the way out of town. It was a bit wet out, but I couldn’t tell that we really got any more rain the rest of the day.

I finally got into Brandon’s old Vimeo account to cancel the subscription he forgot to cancel. Then Charles and Matt were saved by my superior/existent network documentation. I had a fairly heavy anxiety attack at some point.

Dad said they should be able to finish the house tomorrow, so I got the okay to leave work early and then work remotely the next day. Summer was supposed to be off early too, but got stuck again. The guys were packing up just as I got home.

Mom said they still had spring rolls, and Julie and Kevin were coming over, so I took Muad’Dib over too. Dad suggested I take a dip in the super cold pool to try and wash off some of the dog before coming inside to eat, but I couldn’t stay in for long. Mom got everyone going and then disappeared to the back of the house, but we had a good visit otherwise.

After dinner, I took Muad’Dib on a surprisingly short and slow walk. I thought he’d run harder with the cooler weather, but he just wanted to lollygag. Summer was in bed, so she wouldn’t get up to inspect the ceiling work with me. I had some wine and crashed a couple hours early.

Seek differing opinions. The fact that they’re haters doesn’t make them wrong.

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2 roll or not 2 roll

The clock ticked slowly today, but for no benefit. Summer had to go to work to troubleshoot an equipment outage, which took way longer than she expected. She was going to make breakfast, so I took over and made eggs with RO-TEL. She got home just in time to eat it hot, and Eaddie actually came out to join us after not enjoying her overnight oats.

We were all in limbo for much of the day. We thought we might visit with Diana, but that fell through because she didn’t feel well. Mom mentioned spring rolls yesterday, but we never heard from her. Eaddie had, for the third day, said she had Ceci’s birthday to attend. Eli came over for a while and they eventually left. Summer went to the gym for a while, and I ended up taking a bath because I didn’t feel great myself.

I reached out to my parents to figure out the plan, and discovered that Mom had broken out really badly, so she wanted to avoid us and the dog to see if that was the problem. After some back and forth with poor communication, Summer and I went over and ate on the porch outside with Dad.

There was a threat of some heavier rain, but we just saw sprinkles for a bit. Muad’Dib and I finished our run after dinner, and then settled in early. I did a bit of cleaning, so the girls beat me to bed.

Object Impermanence