Category: Uncategorised

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Handbook Policy

Alisha sent us the offer paperwork to decline this morning, but that was just the start of a wild ride. I headed to work and got behind a bunch of slow people, so coming out of Centerville I laid on the accelerator so I could pass someone way ahead of me when the road split into two lanes. Little did I know that tiny speck of a vehicle was a State Trooper. I was going the speed limit when I got to him, but he had me. He pulled over until I passed and then lit me up. It was a short stop with only a warning, and apparently his “granny” works in the cafeteria. No idea if that helped my case, but it was funny that everyone at work knew exactly who it was that pulled me over. Small town.

After I got to work, Alisha sent me a message asking if we still wanted the Sherwood house for $275,000. Apparently after receiving the counter rejection, the seller’s agent thought they might be able to make it work if they could have until Friday, and wanted the offer in writing. I had Alisha send back our original offer with the addition of a delayed occupancy, and we’ll see what happens.

Kim came in late again and picked at a few things. I don’t know how many hours she’s supposed to work, but I guess I can’t complain for what she’s paid. I worked on a Chromebook handbook for most of the day. We went down to the elementary for a bit, but then I ended the day by myself to finish up my handbook. I was pretty proud of how nice it looked, but hopefully we can implement it for this school year.

I was a little sheepish to drive home too quickly, but I made it. I stopped at Casey’s to use some rewards, went home to change, and then went to the other Casey’s for another reward before going to my parents’ house. I ate some spring rolls and chatted with them for a little bit.

I eventually made it up to the girls’ house and tried to wind down relatively quickly, but got caught up going full Matrix mode on a bunch of houseflies that had gotten in somehow. I’ve gotten pretty good with my Bug-A-Salt gun. Then Eaddie came out to chat with me for a little while about her day with Autumn yesterday, lunch with her father the day before, and the negotiation for the house. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day with the board meeting in the evening.

Hi. I’m the guy you hired.

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Bargaining Hard, or Hardly Bargaining?

I forgot my beansprouts at home, which is a weird thing to mutter out loud to yourself in the car on the way to work. I got there on time, but forgot I would be leaving for Plainview after just a short while. I needed to get serial numbers from some touch panels, and wasn’t sure whether the lady out there would be able to get them for me herself. On the way back I stopped by the Superette, which is apparently just a word, to see what all the fuss was about. The fuss was not about bargains. Sodas were nearly three dollars. A bottle of apple juice was five. I got a deep fried burrito and a ham, egg, and cheese biscuit. The one from Ola was better.

I definitely did not feel as productive today. Between feeling pretty tired and having another meeting scheduled at one, I just didn’t feel like I could get super deep into any learning. I attended a Zoom call for OperationsHero again and got a little bit of clarification on some questions I had, and hopefully my suggestions were heard.

The afternoon drug on forever until I finally left for home. I went straight to Superfast where I barely caught Summer as she was leaving, just to tell her that I was going to get tacos and go to my house to do some laundry.

Alisha came back with news on our offer. We had gone from the $300,000 asking price down to $270, and they countered with $285 with no repairs, and they wanted a week after closing to move. Being me, I bumped our offer to $275 and gave them a whole month to move. They came back with a $280 minimum with a 14 day delay to avoid moving right at the start of school. Comparing the Sherwood house to Ouita, the parking sucked. I would have nowhere for my motorcycles until the storage building’s floor was completely replaced, and even then I would have to build a ramp to drive up into the thing. Ouita, on the other hand, was larger with more land and twice the parking after tearing down some drywall. Sherwood was a way cuter house, but dollar for dollar I think Ouita was just a better deal in spite of its flaws.

I finished laundry and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie had gone out with Autumn for a while, but was back in her room by the time I got there. She never came out, and Summer was in bed, so nobody said a word about it. I told Alisha to let our original offer of $270 stand while we continue to look around, and called it a night.

Now we play the waiting game…

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Traction

I felt pretty accomplished at work today. I started off with another error when trying to disable a whole OU of Chromebooks, which led me to learning about time servers, and best practices for domain controllers. It’s mornings like today that really make me want to stick around in education, because it really is like being the king of the sandbox.

Summer had some leftover stir fried noodles in the refrigerator when I left the house, so I took them for lunch over the next couple of days. Between that and crunching on ice all afternoon, I felt pretty good. Blake came into my office and then called Josh in to talk about Chromebook carts for the middle school. I’m pretty sure we’ll have enough carts at the Plainview campus, so we shouldn’t have to spend any more money on that. The hard part will be unburying them and cleaning them up for use after they’ve rotted for years at the abandoned school.

I left work a little late, but made it home quickly to start some laundry and try and make it to my parents’ house for some phở before I had to meet Alisha at the Sherwood house. Summer had just gotten home and wasn’t in the mood to eat, and Eaddie had New China with her father for lunch. Julie was running late after getting caught up at the airport, so the target just kept moving. In the end, I got laundry about halfway done before leaving. I got to my parents house just in time to see everyone sitting down to eat, and then left to meet at the house.

The girls were late, and then Alisha was even later, but we had enough time to look the place over again briefly. All the lights were out, so it kind of gave me a feel for how I’d normally live in it. The real trick was to get my car into the garage without scraping the ground. The dip in the driveway to keep rain from coming into the garage was pretty severe, so I really just barely made it. I didn’t try to back in since there was too much stuff against the walls anyway, but that might help. I was pretty sure that if I had eaten before we got there, the car would have sat low enough to scrape.

The girls took the Model Y to my house to charge, and I went to my parents’ house to eat. Then I had to get back home to finish my laundry so I could get up to Summer’s house to sleep. The evening flew by pretty quickly, but I felt like I got stuff done.

Just a little kiss on the chin.

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Housing by the Foot

Summer made sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits for breakfast this morning. I talked to Alisha sporadically throughout the day about the Sherwood house. Summer wanted to take Eaddie out on a hike, but I had to do some laundry, so they went to Haw Creek Falls while I went home. Summer’s car was still low on charge from our trip to Rogers, so I took it to my house to top it off.

Eaddie felt pretty cruddy when they got back, so we gave her a bunch of sinus medicine and she took a short nap. It didn’t take long for her to feel better, and we went to my parents’ house for spring rolls. Julie and Kevin were already there and watching TV. I tried to help out a little bit, but there wasn’t a lot left to do.

We had to split up into two tables, but dinner was good. Afterward, I showed Eaddie the World Book Encyclopedia I had growing up. Then Dad brought out a few slides to share. We hung out for a little while before heading back to the house.

Autumn tried calling late in the evening because she found out Rick died, but after the conversation with Beth last night and the subsequent unfriending she did on Facebook, nobody had much sympathy. She ended up hanging up on me, and then Eaddie came out to chat with me for about an hour before I went to bed.

Those tears are reptilian.

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Oo-De-lally, Oo-De-lally

Even after getting to bed near three in the morning, I was wide awake before nine. I’m dead all week, and then fine all weekend. I got up and sent a text to Alisha to try and schedule a time to look at the house on Sherwood. They added some pictures of the kitchen, and we were interested enough to have a closer look.

I had a burger for brunch and then went home to clean up before. Then I went back for the girls before meeting my dad and Alisha at the house. Dad went to the house next door at first, which happened to be Kevin’s and his parents’ old house. Alisha’s kids were there running all around the place, but they weren’t too bad. We really liked the quirky layout of the house. The garage was a little small, and the whole lot itself was pretty tiny, but that just meant there was less to mow.

Everything was pretty soggy after the heavy rains, but even before that, the shop out back had a pretty extensive water leak. The ceiling and the floor were both really bad, and particularly squishy in a few places. They had it set up like a little apartment though, and if it were a little larger with a powered garage door, it would have been exactly what I wanted for the motorcycles. Dad also spotted some rotting wood on the fascia and soffit, but it may have been from before the roof was replaced.

We went by my parents’ house for a few minutes after we finished at the house, and then we continued back to Summer’s to start cooking some ribs. I started my smoker tube and got the ribs seasoned to slow smoke, and then Summer left for the gym. Eaddie hung out with me in the dining room after Vicky dropped off some snacks for her. I baked potatoes for dinner, and then we ate a little while after Summer got home.

Sometime after Summer went to bed, Aunt Beth started texting about Autumn, saying they were trying to get her into college, and scolding her for dropping her health insurance because they would have to pay for it. Summer got incredibly frustrated but wouldn’t respond, so I ended up doing it for her. Not one person in that family knows a damn thing about being a parent, and it shows in every single one of the kids they collected. The entire thing is a hot, dysfunctional mess, and we don’t want anything to do with it.

Golly, what a day!

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Even When it Looks Like Rain

Today was the day for my interview at ANO. I was almost too relaxed getting around this morning, but ultimately I showed up exactly when I wanted, with enough time to be prepared, but without having to wait around in the lobby for too long. It was a bit rainy again, but nothing torrential. It was a pretty typical, scripted, and dry panel interview. I honestly didn’t feel super confident in my answers, but it was such a departure from my typical working environments. I did get at least a couple laughs, and the whole thing was over in about half an hour.

I stopped by to chat with Dad for a bit on the way home, since Summer had her car charging at my house anyway. Then I met her at the house so she could take it back home for our trip to Rogers. I collected a few things and met her there so I could make myself a leftover hamburger for lunch.

Eaddie’s friend Eli came over and we all played a little Switch until Summer finished at her therapy appointment. Then we pretty quickly headed up north for dinner before the show. Eaddie seemed to really want Olive Garden, so I took us there hoping I could find something enjoyable to eat. I had forgotten how small their menu is, and I was super disappointed to be eating there. I ended up just getting soup and salad, knowing that service would be slow and that I probably wouldn’t feel very satisfied by the mostly liquid diet. I guess the bread filled me up so at least I didn’t feel hungry. The chicken gnocchi soup was good, but just didn’t have enough stuff in it. The flavor was good, but it was all just liquid that was quick to slurp down.

We made it to the amphitheater in a decent amount of time, but a little later than I really wanted. That put us pretty far back in the line, so we tried sending the kids to find a seat while Summer and I waited in line for some shirts. I guess they came back because Eaddie wasn’t confident she had found a good spot, and Eli and I waited in line while the girls went back to the lawn. When we finally made it to them, they were sat on the very front edge of the lawn, right behind a barred handrail where people would be constantly walking in front of us. There was nowhere good to stand, and nothing to lean against, and it was hot and humid, which made sitting cramped together on a blanket even more uncomfortable.

Loverboy didn’t play at all “due to weather,” and Mick Jones wasn’t even there with Foreigner. They put on a decent show, but I was uncomfortable, irritably hot, and annoyed by our position and the constant flow of asses in front of us. The show ended up getting rained out after people started leaving in droves. Then we were just stuck in the parking garage for an eternity while Summer griped that I wasn’t inching forward enough. It poured rain for most of the trip home, so we had to stop in Lowell to charge. We thought we might have to stop again in Ozark, but we made it home with 11% after dropping Eli off at his house.

The girls went straight to bed, but I bounced around for a little bit with an upset stomach. I felt exhausted and my eyes were fatigued from wearing contacts, but I didn’t get to bed until late.

And we can weather the storm.

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GAMblin’ Man

I was sleeping super hard when my alarm went off this morning, and I couldn’t help but sit in the car for a few minutes when I got home. The past several days have just gotten worse, and I can never seem to catch up on sleep over the weekend. It started pouring down rain just as I left the house, and the drive to Ola was pretty rough. I got caught behind a couple different people going overcautiously slow, but managed to make it to work right on time.

I worked on GAM some more and finally tweaked it enough to get it working. Kim showed up after a while, and then I finally worked out the command I needed to run to move a bunch of devices around. I thought we’d go to Plainview to pull some carts out of the grossness, but we never made it. It was hot and humid outside, so neither of us were feeling particularly ambitious. Instead, we spent the last part of the day unboxing and enrolling a few of the brand new Chromebooks, even though we had several from an old order that had never been used at all.

As people eventually vanished, I headed home. I saw a crop duster fly super low over some houses in Dardanelle, which was neat. Then I almost ran over a turtle in my garage when I got home. Dad saw a couple yesterday when the guy from the restoration place came back to stage some fake photos. One of the turtles disappeared, but the other apparently ended up inside my garage overnight and all day. I brought it inside for some water and then released it back into the back yard before heading up to Summer’s.

The girls were just relaxing at home when I got there. Summer had just finished cooking dinner, so we all sat down to eat. Then we eventually watched some Modern Family before everyone went to bed.

Big bucks, big bucks, no Whammies, STOP!

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GAM and Cheese

I left a little early today and stopped at Burger King for breakfast. This time I played my order online and picked up at the counter, and it worked out way better. I ran into Tom, who was chatting with a couple other guys. He asked about the new job and about Gary. It wasn’t long before I was out of there and on my way. The rest of the drive was relatively slow behind some folks just taking a leisurely drive in the morning.

Nicky came in with an even bigger stack of paper with things needing asset tags, but I didn’t even touch them. I spent most of the entire day trying to figure out Google Apps Manager. It looked like we had several installations of it somewhere, but I couldn’t find credentials for it and I ended up just reinstalling it on my own. This time I’ll have to document it for the next guy.

A few people came in throughout the day, but it wasn’t too distracting. I mostly had my head in some music and just kept busy. The drive home was hot and boring, and then I headed up to Summer’s and finished up the fish tacos. After Summer ate some leftover spaghetti, the three of us watched a few episodes of Modern Family. Then it was off to bed for everyone.

Subprime Day

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Pain in the Asset

I made it to work pretty early this morning, so I stopped at KWIK Stop to see what they had in the way of coffee. It was a big, open, and mostly empty store, but I found a cappuccino machine that had quite a few choices. I went with Almond Joy, and then grabbed a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit, and headed to work. The coffee was amazing and the biscuit wasn’t bad, but the bacon and egg were both super thin for such a big biscuit.

It wasn’t long before Nicky showed up with a huge printed packet of assets that needed new tags. I spent several hours just printing them off for her. I wasn’t really sure exactly how much time was spent because other people kept coming in throughout the morning, but I got it done.

There was a pretty good rain shower in the middle of the day that kind of cooled things down a bit. Someone had the door propped open on the dock all day long, which was a bit annoying to see all of that cold air blow right out. I didn’t want to close it for fear of annoying someone though. I just stayed in my office and kept busy for several droning hours. It got progressively difficult as the afternoon dragged on. I even took a walk to the elementary to try and get some pep, but that just made me more tired, and evidently I had already tagged the printer down there anyway.

I made it home a little early and took my car in for a wash. It needed it in a bad way, and the bugs still didn’t really come off very well. I’ll have to see if Summer will hook me up with some time in her special wash in Conway sometime. She had left her car to charge, but then didn’t come to get it after going to the gym, so I had to play Musical Teslas. She and Eaddie went to get stuff for a spaghetti dinner, and she had it going by the time I got to the house.

We ate, and then everyone disappeared. Summer had been feeling off all day, and it didn’t help that she got a message that her most recent ex died of a heart attack. She broke the news to Eaddie, who was initially caught up in the silent suspense before Summer could blurt out what happened, but then seemed to handle it alright. I felt bad, because it still feels like this year is just one thing after another.

I did a little better winding down a little early, so hopefully I’ll wake up feeling rejuvenated instead of startled by the alarm.

S-g-h-e-t-t-i

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I’m a Tipi! I’m a Wigwam! I’m a Tipi!

I had quite a bit of trouble falling asleep last night as I tossed and turned, and it felt like I kept getting ant bites, but we haven’t had any bugs. Once I did finally fall asleep, it was only a couple of hours before I woke up feeling wide awake again, but fortunately I was able to fall right back to sleep.

Work was really quiet as I rehearsed my conversation with the superintendent. I brought leftover donuts and a kolache for lunch, but then fought gnats until all the food was gone. Toby came to my office and basically said that Harry was on his back to get stuff moved out of my office, so I doubly had to find time to talk to him. I had a FedEx truck show up without a lift gate and had to unload a pallet of Chromebooks by hand. I basically saved my conversation until the last couple hours of work.

I went into the front office and was a little worried that he might not be there. Everyone else was long gone, and the locks had been changed to keep everyone else out. Harry heard my footsteps and slowly turned around to see me in his doorway, and he seemed a little spooked. I assumed he might be expecting the conversation about my office, but instead I started by talking about my expectations versus reality regarding my position. I shared my thoughts about what it would take to keep someone in that position, and he kind of just did the finance dance and tried to explain budgeting. I was no stranger to the concept, so the conversation ran a bit longer than it really needed to. My hope was to put him at a little bit of ease, but also to make my concerns into his concerns in order to stimulate some results.

As I started to leave, I finally brought up the office situation and expressed our need for a place to work and also store inventory. He seemed to be caught between work and his wife, and I wasn’t intimidated by either. We ended up walking through her office where she was still working, and then through mine.

I finally got home late, and went to my parents’ house to help clean up some leftovers. They still had so much random food from even before having family over, so I finished what I could. Then Dad got out a new telescope to briefly look at Venus, which basically looked like a micro-crescent moon with no resolution. High resolution photos from space telescopes have spoiled me.

Eaddie and Summer were in bed when I got to their house. Eaddie got a new fan because her old one kept tripping the breaker. The new one has way brighter lights, so I think she’s happy. Summer fell asleep pretty quickly, leaving me to finish my nightly chores before bed.

Relax man, you’re two tents!