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Stresscation

Eaddie wanted to drive today, so my fingers nearly froze off on the ride to work this morning. I picked up a McGriddle on the way, but had to microwave it when I got there. It was a PD day, and they had a visitor who needed to use the auditorium, so I was waiting for him in there because he was half an hour late. Then my big project was fixing printing for everyone. CentraQ was eating the print jobs and I couldn’t figure out why. I finally found logs, but it was so poorly documented that I had to call Wight Office Machines and get Thomas to remote in and help. He didn’t really have anything more than the setup guide, but he knew which check boxes to select and got it going again.

It was hard to get very motivated after that. They had a crane replacing air units on the roof, so there was lots of noise from up there. Kim ended up being out all day, and I only saw Denice a couple of times. I had some ramen for lunch, but there really wasn’t anything else going on.

I made good time on the roads both ways, and went to the old house to feed the fish after work. Summer had been home early, and had spaghetti on the stove when I got there. Julie came over to help plan and book a Disney vacation, and if I had realized we were basically just booking everything on the site without any extra needs, Summer and I could have dedicated a day over the weekend to get it done. I just kept feeling stress and anxiety even thinking about it, and the total cost will probably be close to double what I really wanted to spend.

Eaddie and I ate, and then she had Eli come over to eat and hang out a while. I left on the Onewheel to get some oranges, and then rode the long way around the basin to see my parents before making it back home. The whole Sign Hub family was out walking and Onewheeling the neighborhood, so I went back out to talk to them for a minute before finally going back inside.

I continued to feel fairly stressed all evening, so I made sure to get to bed early.

I’d rather talk to my sister than plan a vacation.

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The Productivity of Our City

I kept dawdling last night and stayed up super late, but then got up pretty early this morning. I made some French press just as Summer was getting around, and fortunately I made enough for the both of us. She wanted to mow the lawn and be productive for the day, and I was fairly ready for it in spite of being kind of tired all day from the lack of sleep. She had to go to work for a bit, so I had my shower and then rode to the Neighborhood Market to get some milk and eggs for her and Eaddie so they could make a tres leches cake.

Not long after that, I met my parents’ at the old house to move some things out to the curb. We decided we didn’t want Eaddie’s old twin bed frame, and I finally got rid of the old love seat that I got from Chelane’s grandmother or whoever, years ago. I loaded up some potting soil I had in the garage, and my parents poked around Bác Vân’s garden a bit. I hated to see that Doug cut down the big fig tree. Maybe he was worried about the roots being close to the house, but he left anyway.

I headed back to the house and unloaded while Summer mowed the lawn. I hadn’t eaten anything all day, so I ran to Arby’s for a weekly free sandwich. I ate at home, and then I went out to clean up the grass clippings for Summer. I got her on the Onewheel briefly, but she had a death grip on me. Then we took the Shadow around the block for some gas before coming home to look around the yard a bit and try to make plans and get ideas. We cleaned up some branches and thought we’d have a little fire outside since it was cold, but the fire pit was rusted out.

We went to the old house to get the fire pit from there instead. The cover I had over it was all torn up, so I threw it away and we’ll have to go back for the chairs later. I tinkered around outside a bit more while Summer took a shower. Eaddie had been out for most of the day, I think at some band practice. I never know any more. In the end, we never had a fire. When Eaddie got home, they watched Hannah Montana: The Movie for some reason. I guess they had history.

Tomorrow will be a cold ride to work, so it’s off to bed early.

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Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good

Summer really wanted to go to the movies today, so we got up and ready to go to Conway for the day. Eaddie wanted to stay home, so we ran the mouse trap by for Dad to fix up and then headed out of town. We went to China Town to eat first. Then I really wanted to go to Sam’s to see if they had anything worth buying a membership for. Failing that, we circled back to Home Depot and picked up a whole bunch of planters on sale for my parents and ourselves.

We got to the theater with plenty of time to load up on popcorn. The auditorium itself was pretty small and I was frustrated by the number of people that were literally just talking through the entire movie. Summer had decided on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which I didn’t think was bad, but neither of us felt super strongly about it.

Once we got back into town, I rode some planters over to my parents’ house, and then came back home to test some placements around the front entryway and the back deck. Summer got cold outside, so we came in and watched The Marvels since she had never seen it. Eaddie was out a little late, but came home just as the movie was finishing up. It wasn’t too long before everyone was off to sleep.

Puppies. Love them or kill them?

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Print Nightmare

We struggled with printers all day after my driver snafu yesterday. Whether it was trouble printing in color, or retrieving jobs, there was always something wrong. My only real accomplishment for the day was talking to Barry to schedule Chromebook pickup, and even that took multiple emails after a face-to-face conversation because he didn’t actually know when his staff would be finished using their devices. Denice and I spent a bit of the afternoon venting about the different idiots we had to support.

I got my contract offer for barely any more than I made this year, so I immediately started looking for work again. I found a couple jobs that may interest me, so I think I’ll be challenging myself to apply to one a day for a while to see how it pans out.

I eventually made it home after getting stuck behind people driving well below the speed limit again. People either fly or crawl down that road. There’s no middle ground.

I got to the old house to feed the fish, and I brought a little bucket pond kit to the new house. Eaddie had Eli over, and Summer was making dinner. I went out back to fill my bucket and got the fountain working. It was pretty disappointing, but I can upgrade it later.

After dinner, we played Phase 10 before bed. The kids stayed up pretty late. I kept getting sidetracked myself, but eventually made it to bed.

Control P

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0.00000000037%

There was a threat of rain again today, but it never happened. I got to work a little bit early and made an iced coffee out of some leftover from the day before, and tried to replicate the general mood of the office as well. I finally fixed my printer deployment issue, so I spent the rest of the day tinkering with an automated task sequence that even Kim won’t be able to screw up.

After work, I kept getting stuck behind people going under the speed limit. I got to the old house to feed the fish, and my check from Elon Musk had been delivered and left in my driveway. I immediately ran across town to Arvest to deposit it, since it was too much for me to do over mobile deposit. While I was there, I caught up with Aaron for a little bit, and took a few broken and battered coins that were discarded by their change machine. It was mostly chipped-up pennies, but there were a couple carwash tokens and something from Germany.

When I got to the house, Summer had gone out for a haircut and a meeting at work, so I went out on the Onewheel. I went around the neighborhood a bit, buzzing back by Arvest to see if I could show off to Aaron. Then I ended up over at my parents’ house and had some shrimp soup since Summer would be home late.

On my way home, I noticed Summer had stopped at the Neighborhood Market, so I thought I’d ride over there and catch her. I put my Onewheel in her trunk, but then somehow missed her as she left the store and drove away with my ride. I quickly called her to come back, and rode home with her. I took one more loop around the block before coming in for the night.

Eaddie had been doing schoolwork and practicing her flute, so we didn’t get to watch TV like I thought we might. Instead, I actually managed to get to bed a little early. I may actually get seven hours of sleep tonight.

That’s a pretty big wealth gap.

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Valet Point

Today was super humid all day, so it felt pretty gross in the morning. I struggled waking up, so I made a big pot of coffee in the morning that got me through the afternoon. Overall I tried to keep things a little lighter while I played music and tinkered all day. I ended up breaking printers somehow when I was trying to fix a deployment issue, but I think I got everything back in place before I left.

I missed the passing power of my Model 3 or the R1 on the drive home, but the Murano was no slouch. I made it to the old house to feed the fish and loaded up my valet tray to go to the new house. Summer was home early and cooking dinner after having a little cyst or something removed from her leg. I rode the Onewheel to my parents’ house and talked to them a little bit while Julie was there. Then I did a big loop around the neighborhood before going back home to clean up the laundry room.

Summer and I ate alone since Eaddie was with Eli after a long day of concert assessment. Then I rode a handful of things back over to my parents’ house so I could set my valet up on the dryer. I’ll be happy to have a place near the door for all the vehicle keys, glasses, and whatnot.

It was a quiet night after that. I chatted with Eaddie once she got home, and then it was off to bed a little earlier than usual.

Pen Island

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Ci’s

There was a threat of rain again today, but I don’t think I ever saw a sprinkle on my drive in. It took me the entire trip to finish my bagel, but I guess I was glad to have something occupy the drive. I made it in a few minutes early, but wasn’t any more productive for it. Kim was back, and she’s always particularly chatty after having a day off. I didn’t break anything, but I didn’t fix anything either.

After work, it was a relative breeze home to feed the fish and grab a box to take to the new house. I stopped by the high school to try and catch Eaddie so she could return the robotics toolboxes that have been rattling around in the trunk for the past few weeks, but she was just leaving as I was pulling in.

I got home and took a beat to relax before trying to take a bicycle over to Dad on my Onewheel. I got to the end of the street and had to bail due to uneven ground, and the rear tire of the bike just fell off! I struggled to get it back on, but eventually had it in place on the wrong side of the chain. That was enough that I could at least pick it up and carry it while riding the Onewheel.

After I dropped off the bike, I continued a long ride around the neighborhood before Eaddie and I went out to try and find some food. We weren’t super hungry, and couldn’t decide what to eat. We thought we’d just swing by the wash to see Summer, and then find something to eat on the way back. Eaddie decided on New China, so we drove all the way across town to find they were closed. I drove us back to town to get gas at Casey’s, which took forever because the pump was super slow.

We ultimately ended up going to Cici’s, which was a miserable experience. It was a little bit late, but not alarmingly so. There were no store hours posted on the door, but there were people inside. It wasn’t until after I had a salad that I went back up to the bar to find they had combined everything under one heat lamp. There was no variety, so I ended up with a plate full of pepperoni pizza. They’ll get a review for that move, because a relatively large family came in as we were leaving, and they weren’t opening the bar back up. There was no telling what that family ate.

We got home just as Summer did, and we settled in quickly. The week is flying by, but the work hours are crawling. I could really use a win.

Stupid bubbles.

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I DEMAND A REFUND

Kim was out today, and Denice wasn’t in the office for the first part of the morning, so I made myself some coffee and tried to concentrate on my Modern Driver Management in SCCM. Somehow, the server stopped responding to PXE requests, and then started working again after lunch, just as suddenly as it had quit.

The drive home was pretty fast, but that didn’t stop a jackass truck from passing me at over 70mph, and then end up parked in front of me once we got into Dardanelle. I’m sick to death of those idiots kicking road grit in my face and gaining nothing for it.

I was racing against the potential of rain, so I went straight home where the girls were just getting back with dinner. I went to my office and started working on taxes, determined to file on time. It took a trip back to the old house to find some paperwork, and then doing some math to make up for forms I didn’t have, but by the end of it all, I felt pretty confident in what I filed for both of us. Summer didn’t even add any of her interest accounts, so I was that far ahead already.

Sick of it.

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Taxing System

I tried not to sleep in too late today. Summer got up and wanted to talk, and then made me breakfast while Eaddie was still in her room. I eventually got started on my taxes, but it was a real struggle to get everything together. I just got more and more angry at the whole system because I kept having to do more and more research on something that should be click-to-pay.

Eaddie had band practice at some point, and Summer went to get stuff for dinner. I had a shower and did a load of laundry. Once we were all back together, we had dinner and then Summer had to host a meeting at work for a bit. Eaddie went to the park, so I went out for a quick jaunt on the Onewheel to see my parents.

I didn’t get to bed until a usually-late time, but I felt fairly confident in my tax work. I guess if they tell me I did it wrong, at least I’ll eat for free.

Deduct the taxes you paid? That’s a little meta, isn’t it?

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Twelve Mile Island

I woke up with a bit of a headache and made some coffee this morning. Summer got started on her taxes and was in the living room all morning. I put on some old Disney tunes and took a shower, and then made tuna pitas for everyone.

Summer wanted to clean house without us around, but most of the afternoon was burned doing nothing. I eventually left on the Onewheel and rode to the old house to box up some more small stuff. By the time I was done, it was late and dark. I rode over to Arby’s for something to eat, and then lollygagged through down on the way home. I picked up a Snapple at Casey’s and stopped to take a couple pictures at the new co-create place, the middle school, and the Waco Detention Basin.

I stopped by to see my parents briefly, and Dad was outside looking at the moon while Mom dehydrated shrimp inside. Then I circled the neighborhood a couple times before finally landing at home for the night.

I have scaled these city walls.