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Croc Code Dial Rock

It was pouring down rain on my way to work again, but I was plenty early to grab some breakfast. They had a variety of meat and cheese biscuits or “crescents,” which were super good. Kim actually made it in before me, and finally got started on wiring some carts without me. I felt a little bad, like I wasn’t a leader, but they aren’t really paying me to be one, and I haven’t even gotten the impression they want me to be.

I spent virtually all day long trying to fix the Clever sync. I was finally successful after nearly half a day and rebuilding the script from “scratch,” or at least from the repository. Then I spent the afternoon doing the same for the eSchool uploader, so students would have their email addresses attached to their accounts.

We grabbed some pretty sorry “chicken strips” for lunch and ate in the office while we kept working. Then I tried to slip out a little early but kept hearing people outside. When I finally left, it was nice and clear outside and I made my way home quickly.

Summer said she had dinner ready, so I charged a little bit and then headed up to her house for the evening. She re-boiled the boiled chicken in some cream of mushroom soup with some new vegetables, which made it taste better over a bowl of rice, but would have been better still if she had just baked the damn thing. She’s made a chicken and broccoli casserole dozens of times before, so I don’t know where she got the idea to boil it all in a pot. At least it tasted alright, and then I put the leftovers together in a baking dish for later.

I played 20 Minutes Till Dawn for a bit, and then did some research on insurance and escrow for the house, I’d been tired all week, so fortunately I made it to bed “on time.”

There’s got to be a 12 step program for this.

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The Crocodile in the Room

I switched back to five day weeks today, just because I assumed I was supposed to. I took the opportunity to sleep in just a few short minutes, but then still had to get to work before eight. I didn’t have enough time to stop for coffee, but luckily they had breakfast for us with some coffee and an assortment of other drinks as well. I ate in the cafeteria by myself with my laptop, though I could have just as easily taken it to my office. Then I took my things to the auditorium where I ended up having to loan my laptop to the superintendent and anyone else that wanted to present, because the ancient laptop they had for the stage was just a piece of junk.

I was on stage to help for just a bit, and then spent the rest of his speech in the sound booth upstairs. I came down afterward and spent some time in my office through lunch, when they brought an assortment of Subway sandwiches. They weren’t bad, especially for free.

Blake came and prompted me after lunch so I could go present after him. I don’t know if anyone really expected me to have a presentation ready, but I did my best to put one together in a very short period of time. I thought I could go into it confidently, but of course I started melting as soon as I was on the spot. It actually went reasonably well, with teachers nodding in approval as I called the district out for their lack of accountability when handling students with devices. I tried to signal that administration would have our backs in the future, specifically so it would be solely on them if the failings continued into my watch.

The afternoon was a bit more loose, and Kim disappeared for a while. I’ve been disappointed that she’s just been waiting for me to start wiring carts, but it’s on me for not leading by example already. There’s just so much that she can’t do, and yet she’s waiting for me to help with the things she should be able to do.

I still left a little late, but not much over a full day. I went home and fixed my garage door sensor, which broke off of the wall when I manually opened the door yesterday. Luckily I found the two sharp screws in the driveway and under my tire, not having punctured anything. As soon as that was back together, I headed up to Summer’s where she and Eaddie had dinner waiting.

Summer has been trying to use up some of the food we’ve had in the freezer for a long time, and this time she boiled a bunch of chicken thighs for tacos. I tried to be positive, but was immediately disgusted by the sight and the taste of it all. I had two tacos and then tried to stop, but gave in to one more after feeling angry and hungry. After all of the cooking shows, the best she could do was boil chicken, and then throw out the liquid that would have actually made decent broth. I took a moment to cool down, and then talked to her about it afterward. I appreciated the gesture, but grew tired of the spectacular failures.

Later on, Eaddie and I went to Freddy’s to pick up some free custard for National Frozen Custard Day. I was a little skittish at first to place three free orders, but of course none of the minimum wage employees cared enough to even acknowledge our arrival. We scooped up our custards from the freezer and left.

I ate two bites and put the rest away, deathly afraid of what the dairy would do to my insides. The girls wound down quickly, and then we were all off to bed.

…with gently smiling jaws!

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What Hindu

I woke up early this morning to get home for a shower before our day in Little Rock. On my way to the shower, I heard rainwater dripping into the bedroom where the roof still hadn’t been repaired, so I had to stick a bucket under it to prevent any further damage. It didn’t really seem to be storming, but while in the middle of my shower, I heard three or four loud pops outside as transformers blew one-by-one. My lights flickered for the first couple, then went out for a couple seconds for another, and finally went out for good after the last bang.

I finished my shower without power, and then struggled to find a way out of my home. I haven’t been able to find a door key in ages, so I ended up manually opening the garage to leave, hoping things would be back on quickly enough to lock things up again.

My parents picked us up at Summer’s, and we headed to meet Julie and Kevin at Costco. I worked on my Google Slides presentation for the whole drive, and felt like I had some pretty good topics to cover with the teachers for tomorrow.

I was pretty hungry, so Julie got us all hot dogs or pizza at the deli, which was super cheap and pretty tasty. I was surprised at how much of the store we covered, and we picked out a couple things to bring home. After that, we went straight to the IMAX for Oppenheimer.

I think most of us liked the movie alright, but Eaddie and I probably enjoyed it the most. Mom and Dad ended up going toward the back of the theater because Mom couldn’t see the screen well enough from the seats I picked. I think Kevin thought it would be more about the Manhattan Project than just Oppenheimer’s life, but I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and felt good about what we watched. It definitely felt more like a biopic than anything else, and didn’t drown the audience in the science.

After the movie, the girls had to thaw out a bit. We walked partway down the Promenade before turning around to find something to eat. Nobody seemed really excited for food except for me, because I knew that was the plan and was going to eat regardless of how I felt. It almost devolved into a full-blown argument choosing where to go, because nobody wanted to just call the shot. I finally picked Star of India after we discovered that Julie’s pick of Three Fold Noodles + Dumpling Co. was closed.

We tried to order full-sized orders of everything in the Chef’s Special, thinking that it would be way more food than what we actually got. In the end, I think it was pretty close in portion size, so I was left wondering if we had inadvertently ripped ourselves off. I just couldn’t quite remember how much we got the last couple of times I got the special. In any case, the food was good and everyone got to try something new that the girls and I have really enjoyed.

I poked around my slideshow a bit more on the drive home, and then had my parents drop us off at my house so I could take my car to Summer’s for the evening. My water bucket hadn’t overflowed, and it was a quick and quiet evening until bedtime.

Impromptu Best Presentation Ever

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Caring for Plants

I was a little scattered and a little off track today. I wanted to make a slide presentation for the teachers on Monday, but I never got around to it. Eaddie wanted to go to the park, so I had her take me to my house while Summer went to the gym. Dad came by to meet Kevin and take Bác Vân’s old mattress to the dump. Mom stopped by at the same time, and then Doug came out to see everyone. I loaded up the bike rack and a couple bikes for Eaddie, which got me super sweaty due to the humidity. It threatened rain, but it never came down.

I eventually had a shower, and then Summer picked me up for lunch. We found Eaddie at Kroger so I could return the bike lock key to her, and then we went to New China. We ran into Sharon there, and she stepped over from their table to talk for a moment. The sentiment about the district seems as shaky as ever.

Summer didn’t feel great after we ate, but we still made time to go by a junk store in the old mall parking lot. I guess they buy pallets of returns and fill a bunch of bins with it, and then sell things for a set price that drops every day of the week until everything finally goes for a buck. It was mostly pilfered junk, but we picked up some Andes mints, a bag of coffee, and the most surprising find of all, a sync module for my Blink camera.

We laid on the couch when we got back to the house, and I played a game on my phone while Summer watched TV. Eventually Eaddie was ready to come home but had to do something with the bikes first, so I met her at my house to put all of that away. Then we came back to the house for the night. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 with Summer, and then it was off to bed way later than I intended.

Just a little watering routine. Nothing to cry about.

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Too Much Milling About

I got up with the girls this morning, but then napped for a little bit longer before going home to shower. I planned to take some Ridgewood Brothers BBQ to the mill as a gesture of goodwill since I still hadn’t actually accepted their job offer yet. Gary didn’t answer my call, but then responded to my text to say that they ended up filling the position earlier this week. I was pretty upset, but it wasn’t much of a surprise after all the time I had wasted since the original offer. Part of me thinks I should have just left the school without any qualms, since I had no evidence that the superintendent was actually putting forth any effort to increase my pay. Maybe he has, but he’s certainly not any good at communicating his intent.

Around that time, Eaddie finished at band practice. I told her I was free for lunch, so she came to pick me up and we went to Ridgewood ourselves. She made me get the two meat plate because she wanted a bite of some ribs, so I wasn’t quite as satisfied with my meal as I usually am. Then we went back to my house to get my car, but ended up leaving it there to stay on the charger.

As we left, I noticed she had things strewn all around the car, and my lip balm had been tipped up on its side, leaking out all over the place. Fortunately there was a removable rubber tray and it wasn’t terribly difficult to clean up. I was mostly upset that my lip balm was wasted all because the girls couldn’t pay attention to what the hell they were doing in my car.

When we got back to the house, I sat and played 20 Minutes Till Dawn on my phone. I brought my little 8BitDo controller, which made the game a lot more playable. Summer eventually made it home, but didn’t want to get back out. Eaddie and I went back to Ridgewood to try their pork belly pops and some brickle bars. We were in and out, but then got stopped by a train for several minutes as it went back and forth in front of us.

We loved the porksicles, and the desserts were great too. Then I laid in Summer’s lap while she watched TV, and played more of my new game until bedtime.

I like to think I would have been less happy there anyway.

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4 10 2 5 8

My car didn’t get a full charge this morning, but I still had plenty to get around. I was a little bit early to work, but not enough to comfortably stop for a coffee after getting stuck behind some slowpokes. My mind scrambled to fix as many major issues as I could, while being tugged in about a dozen different directions. Overall I enjoy the pace and how things are different every day, but it comes down to wanting more money. I shouldn’t be making “tech” level pay for what I have to know to do that job.

Kim came in late after one of the kids stepped on a rusty nail. It seems like every day it’s something, but I can’t get too mad if she’s there on a day off. We’ll see how long her days are when she’s actually on contract, but I’m not super impressed by the summer help any more. I have a feeling I may just be too ambitious for that district, though.

Denise was working with new hires for orientation, so I met up with them later to distribute some Chromebooks. I still don’t know where any of them are going for inventory management, but I can do that on spreadsheets for now, and then the next guy probably won’t care. There was some leftover pizza from feeding someone, so I had that for lunch.

I eventually headed home, where Summer had beat me to the charger. I changed, and then just took her to her house so her car could charge overnight. Eaddie decided she wanted chicken for dinner, so I ran to Popeye’s and ordered there after having repeat trouble with my payment getting refunded on the app.

After we ate, Eaddie and I listened to some Zelda music for a bit. Then I tried to help Summer finish some loan paperwork for the house. She had some kind of Social Security Number on her credit report that she didn’t recognize, but I’d never seen anything like that before. I guess we’ll have to contact the agencies to figure out what that’s about.

No more three day weekends for awhile…

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Out of Summer

I stopped by Burger King for breakfast since I left the house a little early this morning. I felt better after getting a little more sleep last night, and made it to work feeling relatively refreshed. Most of my day was eaten up trying to calm down the cafeteria manager, but we did find a legitimate issue with an old password being used with our Cognos Downloader script. After that, the new students just weren’t showing up on her POS because the year hadn’t started yet.

Kim came in and worked with me for most of the day, but we were a little bit all over the place. We still didn’t enroll any more Chromebooks or wire any carts. We simply won’t be ready for the start of school, and I don’t think I care.

I left work pretty late because Kim’s daughter brought her laptop in for some help. I guess she interrupted an update that caused her wireless card to stop seeing any networks. Luckily I was able to find a USB wireless adapter and performed some updates that got her working again.

Summer was home before me, so when I asked about dinner plans, she just said, “yes.” I called Taco Villa for a taco salad and nachos, ran by the car wash for a quick, 75-cent wash, and then picked up the food. The three of us picked at everything I brought, and then I played some EVO on my Steam Deck until everyone went to bed.

I’ve been your Summer IT guy.

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Carti-B

The maintenance folks brought our Chromebook carts back from Plainview purgatory for us, so after Kim got there this morning, we went out and cleaned them up a bit so we could load chargers into them. My days are only going to get more and more scattered as people start filing into the building, and it’s difficult to care a whole lot when I don’t know where I’ll be in two weeks.

My days are boring without any real peers, or places to go for lunch. I’ve just been snacking on random things throughout the day without anything for lunch. Kim did mention that someone had a coffee pot for us to keep in the office, so that will be nice to have.

Later in the afternoon, I had my phone interview with a lady from the EEOC. She was really easy to talk to, and did a good job of explaining the process and answering my questions. Now I’ve just got to make a decision, in the middle of picking my career for the foreseeable future, and trying to purchase a new home.

I got home late, went to Taco John’s for some food, and then went up to Summer’s to eat with the girls. Then it was a pretty early night to bed since I’ve been so exhausted since this weekend.

I’m gonna sue, sue, yes I’m gonna sue!

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Crying Over Spilled Coffee

I was up a few times in the middle of the night, and woke up still very exhausted this morning. I had to stop by Casey’s for a coffee on my way to work, and then I fought a heavy head for most of the day. I thought I’d poke around the Ubiquiti stuff a little more, but then random things just kept happening. I had several people come into my office, and even a phone call and some emails. I’m nowhere near ready for the start of school, but somehow the stakes feel even lower than before.

Alisha said the repair wasn’t going to be ridiculous, and the sellers agreed to pay for the truss repair and the bad nail in the roof. I really wanted the trusses to be fixed before we agreed to buy the house, just in case something else went wrong, but hopefully the inspector and the guy giving the quote for the repair today were both right, and it won’t be a big deal. I signed some more paperwork, and then made my way home.

Eaddie started marching season, so she was out in the car all day. I stopped by Casey’s again a couple times for some rewards, and then made it up to Summer’s house. She had a rough day and was sat in front of the TV, so I ate some leftovers. It was a pretty quiet evening, except for a short, mad dash to renew some registrations on some vehicles and then upload some paperwork to the bank for the loan. I have a feeling I’ll fall asleep pretty quickly tonight.

Needs more music for my ears.

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Three Early Five Me

Julie finally fell asleep last night after screaming at me for an hour about how early she had to get up. I showered at night so I could just jump out of bed at 3:15, giving me 45 minutes to do any last-minute packing, and then we were off to the airport. There wasn’t really any traffic because of how early it was, and we ended up waiting at the gate for a couple hours before boarding. The trip back to Fayetteville was even faster than the trip up, at about an hour and 15 minutes.

We got to the car and headed toward home, stopping at a Sam’s Club and then a Vietnamese place called TyPHOon for lunch. The phở was pretty good, but the bánh mì was really lean on filling. From there, we made it to Ozark so Dad could take over driving from Julie. I just played my Steam Deck the entire way.

Once home, I unpacked and decompressed for just a little while before heading up to Summer’s. Eaddie has been driving herself around in the Murano, so I guess I’ll be taking the Model 3 up there overnight now. I should be able to charge up fast enough in the morning while I shower, to keep up with my usage throughout the day.

Summer made a turkey breast in the slow cooker, along with mashed potatoes and broccoli salad. I ended up taking over the gravy, which turned out super salty from saving all of the drippings. I kept trying to fall asleep after that, so I popped an iron pill and went to bed early.

Oh, man.