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Opportunities Rebound

I didn’t sleep great last night, but my biggest struggle was slow traffic and feeling hungry on the drive in to work. I parked by the loading dock for the second time, assuming kids were only out there yesterday due to the staff softball game they had, but evidently that’s just what they do every day after lunch. Some of them were playing basketball nearby, and the ball hit my car and set off the alarm. What surprised me the most was that I didn’t even notice the notification because it wasn’t a special sound. It was just a regular notification that didn’t draw any special attention. One of the maintenance guys had to come in to get me when the alarm was going off. Unfortunately I didn’t even catch the event on sentry mode, beyond seeing a basketball bounce away from my car, and then be caught by a girl that looked like a deer in headlights.

The best part of the day was the “taco Tuesday” nachos, which was a big, ugly glob of meat and cheese with a heap of vegetables on top from the salad bar. I’ve actually been overall pretty happy with the lunch there. Otherwise I spent most of my day writing up thoughts on our device deployment, and trying to come up with compelling ideas for administration to limit damage and loss.

The second best part of the day was the confidence boost of getting a job offer from Compsys, and then later a request for an interview at Green Bay Packaging. The former wasn’t going to pay well enough for the commute, but the second would be worth the sudden jump. I’ve really liked the people at Two Rivers so far, but it is a lot of work for very little compensation, comparatively. It’s a bit like when I started at Russellville, making way too little for an ever-increasing workload.

I made it home through some more slow traffic, but Summer was charging in the garage, so I changed clothes and took my car for a wash. Then I came back home to do some laundry. Once it was in the dryer, I left to visit my parents, but they were out at Lelan’s shop getting Mom’s hair cut. I turned back around and waited out the laundry, and then headed up to Summer’s for the evening.

Summer was already in bed and wanted me to sit with her for a bit. Autumn started watching TV at an obnoxious volume in the living room, but fortunately left around the time I was getting ready for bed. Eaddie decided she didn’t want to go to work with me, but then came out fussing that she didn’t have a source to stream The Office. First world problems.

Don’t blow it.

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Fed

I made it to bed a little early last night, so I ended up wide awake before my alarm this morning. That allowed me to get a very small head-start on my day, and I made it to work a few minutes early. I brought the leftover chicken sandwich from Burger King and ended up eating it an hour or two into my day, and then did my best to accomplish anything at all. It’s so hard not to be incredibly scattered, just because so many things need attention.

I didn’t take a lunch, and I ended up staying fairly late to finish up an email, to which I didn’t even really receive a satisfying response. I raced home so I wouldn’t burn the remainder of my evening, but as soon as I got up to Summer’s, she and Eaddie just wanted food. I immediately threw the super old, leftover ham bone into the Instant Pot along with some beans and anything else I could find.

Eaddie wanted to watch Modern Family and wasn’t willing to wait for soup, so she made a bowl of ramen. Summer ended up not eating anything at all before going to bed. I was frustrated and bitter, so I had a small bowl myself before going to bed.

All the way up.

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Fire in the Hole

I made French omelets for Summer, Eaddie, and myself this morning after practicing last week. Summer’s turned out the best. Eaddie’s wasn’t bad, but was just overstuffed. Mine completely crumbled. They were delicious and creamy though. The secret seemed to be the very low heat.

Autumn had plans all day, so she left. I didn’t wait too long to go home, because I wanted to try and tackle some more of the back yard. I finally remembered to take my old fireworks box out for burning, and it lit up fairly nicely. Doug came over to give me another nut bread they brought home from the casino, and then a little while later, Bác Vân came to offer lunch. I declined, and tried to keep busy.

I started the first fire in the leftover hole from the first tree we cut down years and years ago, hoping to fill it in with the ash. Then I tried to start another fire in a big pile where a couple large tree branches fell. That one caught for a little bit, but then just immediately died. I got a bit of the high weeds cut, but there are some woody plants in the mix as well, so I really need some loppers and a good shovel to dig out stumps.

After a while, I felt a sudden sickness in my belly, so I brought everything in for the day. I wanted to start a load of laundry before taking a shower, so I got that going and finished cleaning up just in time to make it back up to Summer’s for dinner.

She made a really great Mongolian beef that Eaddie and I scarfed down, and then we had some frozen key lime pie that Autumn brought home “for me” a while back. We watched a few episodes of Modern Family until they were ready to wind down. Then Summer and I watched a Seinfeld Netflix special before going to sleep.

What’s the deal with pitch?!?

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Congraduations.

I slept in a little bit today by comparison with my earlier time to rise with commute. I needed it. I heard Autumn talking to Summer in the living room, so I just stayed in bed for a while. By the time I came out, Summer started to rush me home to get ready. She wanted to get there before the doors opened, so she ran me off to go home and shower. Then she picked me up late to meet her parents as they were coming out of the elevator at the arena. It was kismet.

Wesley and Cindy showed up and sat a couple rows down from us, so I talked with them once my parents got seated. By then it wasn’t too much longer before they filed everyone in and the ceremony started. We had good seats to see Eaddie in the first chair position in the band, as well as the stage as the seniors walked up.

Ginni’s speech was incredibly robotic. It was as if she prompted ChatGPT to write her a graduation speech that included things for which people normally have feelings, but which she as an interstellar alien, had absolutely no understanding. It was dry, emotionless, and sounded unrehearsed. I don’t think I’d feel any differently if I weren’t bitter, because all of the other speeches were pretty great, and at least seemed heartfelt.

Having graduation split into two groups made this one much more bearable. Sitting for the entire class would have sucked, not just because it would have taken twice as long for everyone to walk, but because of how many people would be there. I suggest a hard limit of two guests per student.

Afterward, we all met outside and waited for Autumn to get some pictures. Summer’s parents left after saying they would have lunch with us. My parents would join us, but made it out before we did. Summer replaced the traffic cones I moved out of the way, so traffic backed up behind us. The girl that parked next to us was having an absolute fit and had who I presumed was her mother stand out in the parking lot behind her to block traffic. I didn’t see it, but evidently she was flipping people off and screaming about it, so I just made us wait until all the traffic was done before we left.

We had both of the girls and Adam with us, and we had a shrinking window of time to take everyone out to eat, so we met my parents at Burger King for Autumn’s favorite food group. I knew there was no way in hell we’d make it in and out of Brick Oven, and by the time we got out of the parking lot, nobody thought we’d even make it across town and back from Autumn’s favorite restaurant. I ordered some food ahead to try and speed things along and maybe save a buck, but I think I really ended up just wasting even more money because Eaddie wanted a Spider-Verse Whopper that came with a couple chicken sandwiches and chicken fries that nobody really wanted. Summer ordered her own meal, my parents ordered their own meals, and Autumn got the one meal I ordered on the drive over.

From there, we rushed Adam back to the band room and Autumn left to go with him. We took Eaddie to Old Post to hang out with some friends, and Summer took me home so she could go work out, or mow, or do whatever else. I did a couple loads of laundry and then mowed my own yard, which got me much sweatier than I anticipated. The back yard is frustratingly overgrown again, and no matter how much I plead, I can’t get a hand with it. It made me seriously contemplate staying home out of frustration so that I could just tackle it on my other day off instead of wasting that with the girls too.

I did finally make it up to Summer’s for the evening, where she was nearly asleep from watching George of the Jungle, and Eaddie was up practicing her flute. Summer woke up once I got there, and was up for a while until after Autumn finally got home. I was cold and tired, yet clammy from mowing, so I didn’t stay up very long.

Your place.

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Director? I Hardly Know Her!

I was exhausted this morning, but I made it to work just before the bell rang. Today was the first day I really let people just fetch me out of my office, which was annoying, but Kim wasn’t reliably available, or possibly yet capable of fixing some of the issues. I got a pat on the back from the superintendent as he walked down the hall, so I guess that meant the school board approved of hiring me.

When I got back to the office for a while, I dug around at a couple things, but what took the most time was finishing up the Jamf purchase. It was my first purchase order, and they wanted even more paperwork filed after I submitted the PO. I had a break for a cafeteria burger in the middle of that, and then I was one of the last few people out of the building.

Traffic back home was slow and stupid, but I think it was mostly due to the bridge construction. I reviewed an email from Alisha when I got home, and made some refinements to our next home offers. Then I headed up to Summer’s house for the evening.

Eaddie was playing her instruments while Summer bathed. Autumn was gone to Adam’s house for a while, so I warmed up some leftovers for everyone. Then I laid in bed with Summer for a bit. Everyone went to sleep pretty early, and I was exhausted myself, so I managed to get down by midnight.

So much for eating light.

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Liquids

I brought a couple things to work today, like the nameplate I got from Dad, and my keyboard and mouse, since the one in the office was kind of gross and difficult to use. I didn’t care much for the ergonomic keyboard. They were having a field day, so Kim took me around the elementary building and then through the high school just to tour a little more of the place before she leaves. I got to see their golf simulator which was tucked back in an old science room, but we never made it to the heavy equipment simulator.

When lunch time came around, she described it as “the school cafeteria’s version of chicken alfredo,” so I stuck with the remainder of my Soylent and some lemonade instead. Then we had to help the Gator Parent Organization set up for awards in the auditorium for the following morning.

I ended up staying pretty late, debating on staying for the board meeting in the evening. I had a little less than an hour to go when I finally ducked out, since I had to start some laundry if I wanted to leave the house the next day.

I made it home, started washing shirts, picked up a cheap dinner with McDonald’s fries for a buck, and a free Baconator from Wendy’s. That was probably the hottest, freshest, best-assembled Baconator I’ve ever had. I wished they had added more veggies, but it was great.

When I finally finished my laundry, I headed up to Summer’s where all the girls were already in bed. I should have just stayed home for the night. I was exhausted anyway.

Seriously, way nicer facility so far.

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Stupid Pilot

I was just a hair late for work this morning, but I don’t think anyone even noticed since I’m not really expected anywhere at any time. I had my first encounter with a vendor when I got an email from a months-long chain trying to renew our Jamf license. Fortunately I was relatively familiar, so I responded and got us on track. Purchasing will be a weird, probably easy thing to learn that I’ve just never been a part of before. It’ll be nice to be the one making a few decisions, but I’m sure I’ll have to make other less fun ones in the future.

The lunch ladies gave me a huge plate of chicken strips for lunch, and then it was a pretty quiet afternoon. I didn’t really figure out a whole lot of anything else because I spent most of the day trying to clean up old emails. Everyone has just been using a shared email account, which seems like very bad practice from where I came from.

I ended up leaving pretty late, and tried to make it a quick drive home, though I had to fight Autopilot from driving on the center line. I guess I should try to recalibrate soon. It was a beautiful day out though, and it was nice to have a couple days of big, puffy clouds in a big, blue sky.

Summer made it home a little early, or at least earlier than I did, so I didn’t waste any time getting up to her house. Eaddie and Vicky were outside trying to resize their History Day project so it would fit in the back of the Murano. I warmed up some leftover pasta to eat. I didn’t hear Autumn come out of her room even once, so it was like she was already gone. I just keep getting more and more bitter at her every day, so that was fine.

I talked to Alisha for a bit about the house and the stubborn sellers, Eaddie came out to chat for a little bit about her History Day trip, and everyone went to bed pretty early. I was tired as well, so I didn’t stay up as late as usual.

Doesn’t feel like home yet.

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Fix One Thing

I was a little less scattered at work today, and finally managed to resolve one issue that nobody was really talking about. Evidently one of our domain controllers had some major updates pending, and I don’t know if that was the cause, but Google Password Sync wasn’t working for Workspace for any changes to that controller. Once I fixed that, I was able to sign into my new email account with the password I set in Active Directory.

I followed Kim through the lunch line again for a lunch break, and afterward we went down to the gym to check out the sound system while the elementary kids practiced their musical before the big show in the evening. She said she had to go to the evening show and press “play” for each of the songs they would sing, because evidently that was too much work for whatever teacher would already be there adjusting the volume.

I ended up leaving a little bit early since I stayed late yesterday and basically worked through lunch both days. They had the construction lights going at the two bridges I crossed, so traffic was quite a bit slower coming home today. I stopped by Superfast once I got into town, to check on Summer and get some pictures of the paint defects on her car to send to the service team.

Autumn was running all around town for some reason, but Eaddie found a ride home. I went home for a little bit and Ben called to check up on the new job. We talked for a little while, and he offered to come visit since I guess we’re paying members of the APSRC. Finally I headed up to Summer’s house once she was off work. I stopped for some tacos and a car wash along the way, but had to backtrack when I saw both a train and emergency vehicles parked all over the road on Elmira.

When I got to the house, Eaddie was trying to figure out their History Day trip. They couldn’t figure out how to get everyone up there, so I finally said we could still chaperone if we needed to. Having a job again made me a little more comfortable with how much money the trip would cost.

The girls all went to their rooms early, but somehow I still ended up awake pretty late. I just kept coming up with weird Monopoly-esque offers in my mind for the house we liked on Ouita. I guess that’s more thought for the commute.

Then onto the next.

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Collector of Worst Practices

I got up super early today to make sure I would make it in to work on time. I wasn’t sure how the commute would go, but I was pleasantly surprised at how uneventful it was. I made it in early and had to track down someone to let me into the office. Blake was at a picnic table with several other admins watching kids come in from the buses, and came inside to let me in before I had keys or a badge. Those showed up pretty soon after that, though.

It was a fair first day. I spent most of the morning filling out my new hire paperwork. Kim and I had chicken noodle soup for lunch from the cafeteria, and then I spent the afternoon just poking around, generally getting sidetracked by one horror after another. It appeared that every prior tech coordinator still had active accounts in the systems. Among other things, I also found an installation of Starcraft II, and a VM dedicated solely for a Plex media server, which was hosting a singular video – The Polar Express. It was then that I knew without a doubt that my entire life was a work of satire.

I really didn’t accomplish anything at all, and only barely found some of the systems I needed to access. I’ll probably have to dig into one of their more pressing issues tomorrow, just so they don’t feel like I’ll also be putting all of those things on the backburner indefinitely. Everyone filtered out about an hour earlier than I anticipated, but I stuck around to tinker some more before heading home.

The drive home was literally much faster. Traffic just worked out that way. Some guy flew up behind me, so I just followed him at interstate speeds until we got to Dardanelle. Autumn called and wanted to know if I would get Eaddie after a middle school band concert, so I went home to wait. When Summer got back into town, I met her at my parents’ house for dinner, and then she went home while I went to the high school for Eaddie.

Summer was in bed by the time we got there, so I tinkered on my new work phone for a bit, and then went through my nightly routine so I could get to bed as early as possible. I didn’t sleep super well last night, and I don’t think tonight will be much better.

Seriously, nearly all of this is a very bad, bad idea.

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Omelette du Fromage

I woke up naturally pretty early today, and made Summer an omelet out of a bunch of leftovers. Hers was the ugliest, and then mine happened to turn out the prettiest. Eaddie didn’t wake up until much later, but when I made hers, it came out looking somewhere in the middle.

Summer didn’t want to do anything, so I eventually left to shower and get ready for my first day at a new job. I spent some time trying to fix my still-leaking kitchen water lines. I couldn’t really tell where the water was coming from, but I think I mostly fixed it. Then I took a shower and got my backpack loaded before heading up to get the girls for a late lunch or early dinner with my parents.

Autumn stayed home, and the remaining three of us went to my parents’ house for fried shrimp and sweet potato. Dad was working up quite a sweat outside, as I had done earlier from the heat and humidity. We mostly finished eating before my parents made it back inside, and then visited for a little bit before heading back home.

Summer and I watched Jerry & Marge Go Large until Noah came over later in the evening and spent some time with us. Then I played some random YouTube videos on the TV until Summer went to bed. Eaddie hung out with Noah for a while after everyone else went to bed, and I tried to get to sleep really early.

I hate being the new guy again.