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Pizza Pizza

I got out of bed with Summer this morning and made an egg and cheese KFC biscuit for breakfast. Autumn was out for most of the day doing JROTC things. Summer wanted to clean house, so I left fairly early to clean up a bit at mine.

I started some laundry and picked up a bit in the kitchen. It looked nice outside, but we were under threat of a pretty short but severe storm, so I didn’t get outside at all. I tinkered for a while between cleaning and showering, and eventually I got hungry enough for dinner. Summer took a while to get started cleaning and didn’t want to get out to figure something out for dinner, so I picked up a pretzel crust pizza from Little Caesar’s on the way back up.

Just after I got there, the storm rolled in and it started to hail little pea-sized pieces of ice. Eaddie and I ate a couple while Summer fretted over them hitting her brand new car. After we ate, I put on Splash, which Summer and I hadn’t seen since we were kids. After that, I put on Logan and Summer only made it about halfway through before quitting for bed.

You probably get this a lot, but does Caesar actually own this place?

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Elec Man

I took Eaddie to school this morning and made it home to have a bowl of cereal before the electrician showed up. John and two of his henchmen showed up and got right to work, running some conduit up the side of the house and into the attic. I was a little worried about how it might all turn out, but overall I was quite pleased. I did have to climb into the attic once to pass along some tape, but outside of that, we didn’t spot any termite damage, and the Wall Connector powered right up. Dad showed up near the end to check things out, and once the guys were done, he wanted to take me to the airport to see the plane that he and Julie just bought.

I let him drive the Model 3, and we made it about halfway there before he realized he had forgotten the trash bag he needed to clean out the plane. We finally made it to the airport though, and drove past a really fancy jet to get to the hanger.

We stopped in to talk to the guy in the hanger next door, and he came around to chat with us some more while we cleaned just a little bit of trash out of the plane. I got Julie to come out, but she wasn’t in any condition to socialize. As she ran us off, she introduced us to her new boyfriend, Kevin, who would be joining us for Mom’s birthday dinner.

I got back home and put the garage back together, possibly better than it was before. By then I was pretty hungry, so I ran to Taco John’s for a snack and went by Superfast to visit with Summer. She was busy though, and put me to work filling her washer fluid drums. After that I went home and showered so we could go to Pasta Grill for dinner.

Summer had to work right up to dinner time, so I met her at Superfast and she drove us to the restaurant. Julie and Kevin were already there, and of course Mom and Dad were several minutes late. It was a fair time visiting, and most of the food was okay. I ordered the Grill Pasta, which was incredibly heavy. I was disappointed in the portion size, and then it was so saucy that it felt like eating forks of butter. I ended up taking well over half of it home.

When the girls got home from hanging out with their friends, Autumn came into the bedroom to tell us all of Eaddie’s drama, which had me rolling my eyes. Summer called Eaddie into the room so she could tell us herself, and we talked for a little bit. Then after Eaddie cooled off in her room for a while and I watched some TV with Summer, Eaddie came out to the kitchen table and chatted with me for quite a while longer. She felt good about how she responded to her classmates, and laughed at how accurately I described her friendships.

Now if only I could be as successful.

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Yard Work Makes Me Thorny

Eaddie surprised me this morning by needing a ride to school. Unsurprisingly, Autumn didn’t communicate that change with me before bed last night. I dropped her off and then went home to immediately start on some yard work. I figured with all the job hunting and other research I’ve been doing, I needed a little sunshine break.

I started a small fire without too much trouble, but it just never got roaring unless I had the leaf blower on it. It burned well enough to clean up a bunch of old, decomposing branches and sticks though. I put my heavy-duty rake to work and combed a bunch of branches out of the mowable area, so hopefully this can be the last year of cleaning up the wilderness. I was just outside by myself the entire day, and it felt good.

When I finally came inside to shower, the electrician called and wanted to start my project tomorrow morning. I took a break, showered, stayed on break, and finally went out to shuffle things around in the garage. One night of parking outside without charging won’t hurt, and if all goes according to plan, it won’t take more than a few hours to charge all the way up from now on.

Summer got Eaddie after robotics, and picked up some chicken for dinner. I headed up to their place as soon as I finished, and we quickly ate before I had to take Eaddie to another Tech band concert. Apparently she is meeting friends there, but I never see any of them around. I went home for the hour or so, and then picked her up afterward.

Everyone was more or less down for the count when we got back home. I shuffled the cars around so Summer could charge, and then hurried to bed after a long day of mild labor.

Seriously, I’m burning absolutely anything that hurts when you touch it.

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The Trouble with Shower Arguments

I slept pretty hard this morning, but fortunately I didn’t sleep as late as I thought I did. I got around and picked at a few leftovers, mostly to clean up some old, rotting fruit that Summer bought. I put Fat Lizzy outside, halfway in the sun, and he actually got a bit active. I think it ate one of the crane flies I put in the cage, and appeared to have pooped on top of the moss, so that made me feel better.

Eventually I packed up and headed out, stopping by to see Dad as he was working out in the yard. He stopped to try and hunt some worms for the lizard, but didn’t find any, so I headed on home to release it. After that, I spent a bit of time just trying to organize myself some more. After cleaning up some more food for lunch, I took a shower, and my afternoon just buzzed by.

Eaddie wanted to come over after school and ride her bike, and I had to get ready for Autumn’s basketball banquet. Summer brought her over and parked the Model Y in the garage to charge for a couple days, and then we went to the high school.

We were super early, which made me feel even more like a fraud. Once people started coming in, I kept finding people I knew. I spotted Cecil, who I don’t think I’d actually spoken to since high school. Then I saw Leslie there for her son. Jeremy actually came up and shook my hand, which wasn’t too awkward after they decided to fire me last week. Ben and his wife came in and sat next to us in the very back, but I could never figure out who they were there to support. It was neat to chat with him again, since we hadn’t kept up after Asurion.

Dinner was pretty good, and we wrapped things up about an hour earlier than we expected, so we headed back to my house where I waited for Eaddie to return on her bike while the girls went home. Eaddie asked if we could pick her up with the bike rack, but I declined.

Several hours later, Eaddie still hadn’t shown up. Evidently she was dragged around town by Maristella’s mother, and they just never brought her and the bike back to me. Eaddie finally called again and asked me to pick her up, so I had to figure out how to remove the hitch cover from the Model Y. That was a pain in the ass until I remembered that I had some trim removal tools. That helped a bit, but it was still more difficult than it should have been.

As I got ready to leave the house, I remembered that the actual straps to hold the bike to the rack were all in the Murano, which Summer drove home. I grabbed some Velcro, and just hoped it wouldn’t tear anything up. I loaded Eaddie’s bike up before she even came outside, and then she sat in the car while I tried to fasten everything in place. We made it home to disassemble everything again, and then we took the Model 3 up to her house.

Everyone was locked up and in bed, so Summer had to groggily come out to let us in. I was still feeling pretty aggravated over the whole evening, so it was just a bit of catching up online and then off to bed for me.

The other guy’s never as smart as you.

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WH and San

I woke up pretty wide-eyed today, so I didn’t bother trying to go back to sleep. I made another phone call to try and schedule a consultation, and was surprised to schedule a call within just a couple hours. I headed home to prepare, and aside from the cost structure, it seemed like pretty good news. My main concern was that after telling my side of the story, the rest of the call really sounded like a sales pitch. I spent most of the rest of the day trying to research alternatives just in case. I called another firm, and they also asked about another government acronym. After hearing about it twice, I figured I should do some research, and scheduled an appointment in August – the first available.

I didn’t get out of the house until Eaddie called and asked for a ride later in the evening. I brought her home, and discovered a lizard stuck to a glue trap in my garage. I thought it was dead, but Dad convinced me to check again, and luckily I was able to use some vegetable oil to free it. It wasn’t too happy, and kept opening its mouth at me, but I got it into a little critter keeper to try and nurse it back to health just in case anything got broken.

We made it up to Summer’s house, where Autumn had done us the huge favor of making some Hamburger Helper. Obviously it was devoid of anything even resembling plant matter, so I used one of her dirty pots to fry up some fresh broccoli and cauliflower to add to mine. That helped, but it was still such a heavy meal.

After we ate, I took Eaddie to Tech for another band concert. Then I picked her up again after it was over. We never saw Autumn again all night. I nearly forgot about my new little critter, so I caught a couple crane flies and threw them into the container, hoping he could find them. I’ll have to try for something a little squishier tomorrow.

Contingency Plan C

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Nolo Wyer

I woke up to a disappointing and short phone call from Joey, letting me know that they don’t practice in what I need, so the hunt is on for representation before taxation, or whatever. His only suggestion was to try someone local, but I know how the local politics work. Mark never got back to me, so I assume he’s lost interest.

I got up and around to do some more research, but the internet kept dropping out every few seconds. I decided I’d had enough and wrapped up Summer’s modem to take it back to TCA/Cox/Suddenlink/Altice/Optimum. I went home to shower first, and couldn’t get deep into much else. Summer said she could meet for lunch, and that turned into the rest of the day for me.

I went to Optimum while I waited for her, and had to wait in line while the singular employee processed the queue as quickly as she could. I could tell she was excited that my request was very straightforward, and I walked out with a new modem in a relatively short amount of time.

As I left, I realized I had forgotten where Zaxby’s was, so I had to circle back through the Walmart parking lot, but still had time to wait for Summer, who still hadn’t even left Superfast. She finally showed up and we had lunch, and then she said she was just going to work from home for the rest of the day. I reminded her that I had her new modem, so after we ate I had to run home to get some things and then head straight up to her house.

Most of my afternoon was pretty wasted. The girls showed up late after a long day out on a band trip. Eaddie came in and promptly fell asleep. I called Mom for her birthday, but she didn’t want to go out for dinner or anything tonight. I got hungry after a bit, but never made a proper meal and just did my best to find healthy snacks instead. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have fewer distractions and get some more done.

If I hurt my knuckles when I punch you in the face…

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Cheapest Wash in Town

I got up and munched on some of the Mexican sweet bread this morning for breakfast. I didn’t much care for it, but I woke up hungry. I put on a Kelsey Cook comedy special on YouTube, which ended up being a little raunchier than I expected. Then Summer wanted to go to the gym, so I left to get cleaned up myself.

Before going home, I stopped by the carwash to get the bug guts off of my car. It was nice and cool outside, and quiet for being relatively early in the day. Then I went home and had some cereal around lunch time. I eventually took a nice, hot shower and made it back up to Summer’s in her Model Y so we could go wash it and stop by to visit with my parents.

While we washed her car, she spotted a couple chips in the paint. I still don’t know that it’s worth getting white and just wrapping the whole car, but it sure is annoying that the paint is so thin. It really seems like there’s just no clear coat at all. When we got to my parents’ house, Dad came out to check out her car since he hadn’t seen it yet. They weren’t doing anything for Easter, so we left there and went to Walmart to get stuff for sloppy joes.

Autumn was home by the time we got back, so she helped out a little bit with dinner. Eaddie started mowing the lawn, and then came in to eat when the food was done. She was excited by a robin that kept following her mowed path to pick up bugs. She finished the lawn after dinner, and it was a pretty quiet night after that. Summer and I watched Master Chef for a while, and then it was off to bed.

Don’t fall for the false confidence.

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Work Searching Saturday

We got out of bed this morning, but it took a little bit to get started. I started playing some music videos on the TV and we all just sat around for most of the morning. Summer eventually went to the gym and I started job hunting again. We got Autumn outside to mow, but of course she tried bargaining her way out of it first. Eaddie was inside doing homework the whole time.

Summer came home feeling frustrated, but I showed her my own willingness to help out around the house by cleaning out her little vacuum cleaner. She had to call her maintenance guy because the sink had started leaking after the last time he came over to clean out the garbage disposal.

She let Autumn go out to the movies and hang out with her boyfriend, so the rest of us enjoyed a quiet evening at home. I picked up a couple pizzas from Little Caesar’s for dinner, but otherwise it was a super dull night with lots of reality TV.

Master Chef, but it’s only the dramatic pauses.

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It’s-A Me, Appropriation!

Eaddie wanted me to take her to school this morning so she could just avoid Autumn entirely. After I dropped her off, I went home and tried not to be a sack of potatoes. I had a bowl of cereal again, and tried to get in touch with a lawyer again.

Summer wanted some coffee, so after I took a shower, I headed to McDonald’s to get her one. The app had trouble switching my order from drive-through to curbside though, so I ended up having to go in to retrieve my order. I hung out with Summer just briefly at Superfast before heading down to Arby’s to take some cheap lunch home. Then I messed around with a state application for another job for quite a while.

When school let out, Autumn called to ask if Eaddie could hang out with some friends. Confused by the fact that it wasn’t Eaddie who was asking for permission, I called to get her side of the story. After a minimal amount of back and forth, Eaddie decided she would just come over and eventually ride her bike, and Autumn would bring her so she could kill some time until Adam was done doing whatever he was doing.

Steven stopped by for some money after mowing the lawn, and I wasn’t completely sure what arrangement he had with Bác Vân, so I gave him the 40 bucks he asked for. Later on I was able to corner her, and she said she had agreed to $60 per month for him to mow every other week, and wanted to add on my lawn for just a little more. She acted like they had already overpaid him, but to hear him say it, he was expecting more. The whole thing just left me feeling icky, and I’d already dealt with a lawyer once this week.

Eaddie and I watched an episode of Breaking Bad, and then she left on her bike. She was out quite a bit later than I expected, so we didn’t pick up Summer and make it to Conway in time to shop at all. We barely squeezed into the Chinese restaurant in time to eat, because they were trying to close shop. We stuffed our faces and then went next door to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which I thought was fair, but mostly fan service.

We headed straight home after the movie, squeezing in just after midnight. Summer was already fussy from being up so late, and Eaddie went straight to bed. I tried not to stay up too late, but my stomach was a bit gurgly.

Worth it.

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Leaky Rail

I slept like a rock last night, and woke up a little bit late. When I finally got up, I noticed Eaddie’s phone reporting its location south of town, out in the woods. I tried to ask Autumn and Summer if she was leaving on a trip or something, but the longer she was out in the middle of nowhere, the more I suspected her phone was stolen. Summer ended up calling the school to learn that she was, in fact, on a field trip for her outdoors education class, but not before I texted Kevin to see if he thought the cops might help me recover a stolen phone.

After that, I headed home and wanted to try and track down a water leak in the roof of the Murano somewhere. Dad ended up coming by to help, but we couldn’t find anything around the sunroof as was suggested to me. It didn’t look like there were drain holes anywhere near that. After slowly pouring a couple gallons of water on the car, we did finally find where the roof rack was leaking in the back. We couldn’t get the front to leak, but I guess it’s likely to be the same problem. We couldn’t snap the cover off to try and remove the rack though, so I’ll have to get some softer pry tools or end up taking the thing to the dealership.

When we finished messing with that, Dad was hungry for a burger, so he took us to Hardee’s where we chatted for a bit. Then he dropped me back off at the house. I poked around a bit more and was about to take a shower when Eaddie called and wanted to know if she could come over for some help with homework.

Autumn dropped her off, but before we could get into anything, Brody called to hear the story of how they fired me. We chatted for quite a while, and then I found Eaddie to help with her science work. She started getting hungry, and Summer came by to trade vehicles since her battery was low, so Eaddie and I took a break to pick up some Popeye’s.

After we ate, she looked at her homework for a little bit more, and then had me take her home for a little bit before dropping her off at Tech for a trombone concert. She was only there for about an hour and then I picked her up. She finished her homework while everyone else was asleep. I was pretty tired myself, so I didn’t wait around too long to go to bed.

Increase productivity.