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Experience Depreciation

I got up extra early today so I could try and beat the new guy to work, but that failed for multiple reasons. I stopped at Taco John’s for breakfast, which ate up all of that extra time, but he also showed up a full hour early. Todd had already given him the tour, and as I would learn later, Samuel had actually given him a tour the week before last, while I was still there. In fact, Samuel was the one that called him the week that Blake told me they weren’t going to keep me, and told him they were looking for a new Tech Coordinator. The entire thing has been super shady, and it just made my day worse and worse until the end.

I walked around with him again and we visited all of the switch closets in the high school and elementary. We didn’t bother going anywhere else, and I probably won’t, except maybe Plainview to see if there’s anything out there that I want for myself. Maybe I could get lucky and find some rails.

We had several waves of kids come in for password resets, but otherwise it was relatively quiet. I had to keep telling him that I wished him the best of luck in spite of how crappy they’ve been to me, but secretly I just hope he gets the same and leaves them in a short amount of time. It’s just not fair that I invested all of that time and effort to fix so many major problems, and he gets to come in and ride the calm seas at a higher rate of pay with two fewer years of school experience.

I was the last one out of the office, and I had already relinquished my keys, but luckily Keith was there and I could borrow his to lock the office. I headed toward home and fed the fish, and got gas at Casey’s. Summer was making a baked spaghetti with pink sauce when I got home, and I just held her for a bit before I got changed and went out to sit with the dogs.

Summer called Eaddie home for dinner, and the three of us ate. Julie called because she saw a Cybertruck in town and thought it might actually be me. Then I went out for a run with the dogs. They did super well, ran hard, had some mostly solid poops, and for the most part weren’t too bad about getting distracted until the very end. It got dark fast, so we only stopped at my parents’ house long enough to say, “hello.”

I wound down pretty quickly, and everyone was off to bed. It was an awful, emotional, maddening day of being the better person, and the frustration of living by an unmatched code of integrity just made me incredibly sad.

And either I’m right and justice is never served, or I’m wrong and I go to Hell anyway.

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Collared Greens

Summer was up early doing some work, and I ended up sleeping in later than I wanted. I eventually got up and made some more eggs for breakfast, and even cleaned up some leftover stir fried beef. It was rainy all morning, but it eventually dried up enough to go out with the dogs.

Eaddie wanted to take my car to drive around with her friends because it was nicer than her Pathfinder, and we ended up having a big family discussion after she didn’t like my answer. That threw all of us off for the rest of the day.

I took a really late shower and then took the dogs out for a walk. We took a new path up and around Inglewood this time, and on the way home I couldn’t break their focus off of a nearby squirrel. I’ve got to do something to fix that behavior, because Stilgar is just able to throw around too much weight.

They were about out of food when I got back with them, so I got Summer up and we went to Walmart to look around a bit. We got more food, and a couple cowhide sticks for them to chew on, with the hopes that they’d stop chewing on important things. Eaddie spotted us while we were there, but we didn’t actually see her. She was out super late, and we ended up going to bed before we ever saw her again.

Interesting days ahead…

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National Lazy Day

Stilgar chewed up the extension cord from under the deck last night, so I tried to take the reel away from him, and he ended up chewing straight through the cord by morning. I got up and made some more eggs with Ro☆Tel for breakfast, and then went out to clean up after them. It felt pretty nice outside, but I still felt sleep deprived and tired all day. It really was fitting for what was apparently “National Lazy Day.”

Eaddie went out with friends, but then brought Autumn and Eli back to make chocolate covered strawberries in our kitchen while she took a shower. Confused, I left to take the dogs for a run. We stopped briefly at my parents’ house, and then continued through the basin trail and on home.

The kids were gone again, so we settled in for a while, and eventually sat down to watch Deadpool 2. I stopped halfway through to make some popcorn, and eventually made it to bed.

Threefer

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Interview Season

I let myself sleep in a while since I was up so late, but I still wanted to get up early enough to shower before my phone interview. I had leftover waffles for breakfast while Summer was at work, and then went outside to clean up after the dogs. They had gotten into a bag of potting mix and dumped it all over the porch, and at some point they also killed a possum. I cleaned up some poop in the yard, but I’d have to borrow a better shovel to dig a hole for the possum.

Eaddie went out with her friend Autumn once they got up. I sat down for my interview with DeepNet, and as the appointment time passed, I saw an email from the lady saying she couldn’t make it due to a family emergency. Fortunately I also made the shortlist for a job with Moodle, and the pay should be comparable to what I’ve been making. It’d be nice to get a raise, but not having to leave the house will save me some money and a lot of time.

Dad was mowing the lawns across town and wanted help moving a display case out of Bác Vân’s house, so I called Eaddie back with my car and headed over. The restoration people were also there to fix the drywall in the front bedroom, but I didn’t see much of them. It took some work to air up the tires in an old dolly to move the case, but we got it into his car and then I headed back toward home. I stopped and saw Mom along the way to borrow a shovel. Summer was home when I got there, so I sat with her for a little while.

Mom had leftover pork chops and noodles for dinner, so Summer and I headed over for that. We tried to get Eaddie to walk the dogs over, but she insisted that she couldn’t, and I drove back home to take them on the Onewheel while she drove over. We got there, I tied the dogs up, and then Summer and I went for a swim. Eaddie yelled at me for disciplining the dogs for being bad around the cat in the yard, and I got mad at her for speaking out of turn when I’ve been the only one to actually try and fix their behavior.

From there, the girls went home and I continued around the block with the dogs. They were still pulling really hard and trying to chase things, but we made it home alive. Everyone went to bed pretty quickly after that.

Sleep time.

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To Hale With It

I was kind of surprised at how many people were at work first thing this morning, since I kept hearing that everyone had to work late for the open house. They didn’t have breakfast, but I had some tucked away in my office fridge. I kept getting calls for support unimportant things, and I really only spent any time cleaning up my own things to leave. I took almost everything home, except for my coffee supplies, so I could still have that for the remainder of my time there.

Kim was late, kept getting lost, and even then was super proud of the whole two work orders she completed after I left. I could tell because she texted me while I was on the road that she completed them after. I took off around 1:30 to get Eaddie, and then we picked up her friend Autumn to take Summer’s place at the concert.

We stopped briefly at the Ozark charger before making it to Chuy’s by the Amp. We didn’t quite make it to the first opener, but we didn’t love the music anyway. We were also disappointed in the shirts, so we didn’t get any merch. Fit for a King wasn’t really for us. Hollywood Undead was pretty good. I think I Prevail was Autumn’s favorite, and they had a big mosh pit going with a bit of overproduction on the stage. Hailstorm was slower than the last time we saw them, and it sounded like Lizzy was recovering from a strained voice. They still put on a good show, but there was no encore.

We stopped to charge in Lowell, and then made it all the way home with Autumn for the night. I made them listen to 8-bit covers of pop songs for the first half of the trip, and I think they actually enjoyed trying to sing along.

They’re so angry!

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Big Ask

Breakfast was better this morning, but Kim was by all accounts worse. She disappeared often, and left at some point to drive to another town to retrieve her wallet from her husband’s unlocked truck where he parked at work. Fortunately it was mostly quiet for me. The afternoon dragged horribly after we got our hibachi food truck for lunch.

I got a call from Grace Manufacturing to do a same-day phone interview, so I took that at the end of the day after everyone had left. I thought it went alright, but I had the feeling they weren’t looking to pay anywhere near my asking price, and it’s not at all in the technology field either.

I eventually made it to the old house to grab some things and feed the fish. Then I headed home for some peace for a while before Summer got home and I left with the dogs. I took their water bottle along this time, and it really seemed to help pace them. We stopped at my parents’ house, and then went through the basin again. We ran across several others walking dogs, so we had to take some breaks and then ended up on the divided street before circling through the neighborhood again to get home.

Noah was back for some reason. Then Eaddie got home late, and I was upset at the state of her room. Summer failed to take the evening off for our concert tomorrow, and Eaddie still doesn’t want to go next week, and it has me wondering why I plan anything with them at all.

Good boys, anyway.

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Foaming

I got to work a little bit early this morning, but breakfast was already pretty picked-through, and definitely not as good as yesterday. It was quieter today though, I think because teachers were stuck in the auditorium for a large part of the day. I used my time to try and clean up some things before I got, but it’s getting harder to keep my spirits amicable.

Lunch wasn’t great either. I remembered the Junction Cafe having pretty awful chicken strips, and I was right. I don’t know how they got them so flat or dried out, but at least there was some food left over from yesterday.

I got the fish fed once I got back into town, and then headed home and played with the dogs. Then I took them out for a long run to my parents’ house for some water, and then the long way through the new neighborhood and the basin area. Stilgar was pulling and huffing pretty hard, and started to foam at the mouth quite a bit. I was a bit worried, but we tried stopping by some sprinklers along the way, and he managed to keep going. I gave him a good misting from the hose once we got back to the house, since he’s not allowed a bath for the time being.

I was pretty hot myself, so I rode back to my parents’ house for a quick swim before coming back home. Eaddie suddenly said she didn’t want to go to see Five Finger Death Punch next week even though I triple-checked with her before I submitted payment, so I really want to make her go anyway. It’ll be a lesson in maintaining a working calendar for her schedule.

Besides, we’ve got to start practicing now if we’re going to survive another Trump presidency.

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Badges?

Teachers were back, which meant breakfast and lunch was provided at work today. I got there a couple minutes early and made a plate to take back to my office. There was no way I could have done anything important, because I had visitors all day long. I made an ID badge or two, and suddenly word got out and a I practically had a line of people wanting their picture taken. We’re almost out of RFID tags too, so I’ll leave it up to the next guy to figure out what to order.

We had El or La Something for lunch, which was pretty good. There was a mountain of chips and salsa left, but it all got cleaned up before Kim or I could go back for more. We had our fill though, and I made it through the end of the day with more food than I’d had at work since probably last year.

Just before I left, I snagged “Possum” on his way out the door, and mentioned my grief with the superintendent. I raised the concern about lost devices and how I had been wronged, and he basically said he just does whatever the superintendent or board president want. What’s the point of being on the board if you don’t use your own thoughts and considerations?

I made it to the old house to take care of the fish, and then got home to check on the dogs. Summer took them in for castrations this morning, so they were still drowsy when I got there. Muad’Dib was hiding under the shallow part of the porch where Chani died, which only had me a little nervous. He came out and let me feed him a little bit by hand, and I pet them for a while before going in to eat some leftovers for dinner.

When I came back out later, the dogs were feeling well enough for a walk, so I took them to my parents’ house. They did really well, but Stilgar kept getting distracted and wanted to do his own thing. Muad’Dib was the one that was feeling more affected by the drugs anyway. We made it back home and I ran a bath for Stilgar, because Summer didn’t tell me that he wasn’t supposed to get wet for a week or two.

I gave the dogs lots of attention until bedtime, and then I actually made it to bed on time, fairly exhausted. I haven’t even had the energy to do any more job searching since last week, so hopefully one of the leads I have now will lead somewhere.

You don’t need no stinking badges!

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Cook and Clean

Summer had to go to work today, and Eaddie spent the entire day locked away in her room. I got up and made some eggs with RO★TEL® for breakfast, which was great. I went out to see the dogs for a bit, and they were relatively calm, though I discovered someone had chewed up one of my grill covers and ripped the VELCRO® off completely on one side.

I cleaned up around the house and cleaned up a whole lot in the kitchen before Summer got home. Then she went out to do some yard work. Dad needed some help removing the diving board to work on the pool light, so I took the dogs for a run to their house. The dogs did great, but the bolts were completely rusted, so I took the dogs back home and got my impact wrench. We just ended up snapping the bit though, so we ran to Leonard’s to get an impact bit that did the exact same thing.

Failing that, I rode back home and finished some leftover pasta for dinner. Then I laid on the couch with Summer for a while and started to doze off a bit. I tried getting to bed super early, but just barely made it after 10. The dogs have their neuters in the morning, so I had to make sure they didn’t have any food or water after midnight. Then it was off to sleep.

Unparked

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Walk and Roll

I slept fairly well after a long day yesterday, and got up at a decent hour to make some breakfast for myself. Summer got up and found that Stilgar had pulled the fountain apart and chewed up the spout and the intake filter. After feeding them, she took the dogs for a walk and then went to the store with Eaddie to get stuff to make burritos for dinner. I went through boxes of stuff to try and make room to bring home more stuff from the old house. My office badly needs to be organized, especially in case I actually get one of these work from home jobs.

Summer went to the gym, and then took Eaddie out to walk the dogs again in the afternoon. I started cooking some refried beans in the Instant Pot, and eventually got the taco meat going as well. We had to send Eaddie to the store for olives and tomato sauce, and then Dad rode a bottle of fish sauce over on his bicycle.

Dinner turned out pretty good, and afterward I took the dogs for a slow ride on the Onewheel. It wasn’t miserably hot by then, and they did much better than Friday night. We rode to my parents’ house and I kept them on a short leash. Then we took a different route home through Promenade Circle. They got a little slow, but overall did really well.

Once we got back home, I finished putting away the leftovers and started getting ready for bed. It wasn’t as late as I thought it was, but I still didn’t get to bed early on account of some dawdling and some email and bill housekeeping.

You have to separate them by color, just as people should be!