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Third Missed

We had a fairly brief meeting this morning, and then I was assigned the junior high for the day. Gary and I ended up chatting in the shop for a while though, and then I did a bunch of tickets from my office until lunch time. I didn’t really plan to be in there for that long, but the time just flew by.

I took Zach and Gary to Taco John’s, and we all ordered something other than our usual tacos since it wasn’t Taco Tuesday. The parking lot appeared to be really full, but there weren’t that many people there. I guess it was just a lot of staff.

As soon as we got back to the office, I headed to the junior high and was surprised to find Kyle pulling in just ahead of me. I ended up walking him through the whole building to show him where everything was, and then we went back to his new office for a bit. Wight came with some new copiers, so we had to walk back up to the gym to set theirs up with PaperCut, which went fairly smoothly. Then we chatted for a while until quitting time. His view of the new work hierarchy seemed to mirror what I’ve been feeling for a little while, which was a bit of a disappointment.

I headed back to my office to finish up some paperwork, and then went home for the day. Eaddie ended up going to the movies with some friends, so I waited around until she was ready for me to get her. We came back to my house just briefly, and I checked that the Montego’s tire still had air pressure. Then we headed up to their house for the evening.

Autumn had a basketball game, so she came home a little bit later. I helped Eaddie find the name of a song for which she only had a small portion of the sheet music, and then we watched a couple episodes of Breaking Bad until bedtime.

Could it be better?

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Disabled

I woke up to the news that school would be in session today. I don’t think we really got any new precipitation overnight. Right after I got to work, Gary came into my office and questioned me about imaging troubles at the high school, so I messed with that for the entire day. I forgot my backpack with my laptop at Summer’s house, so she brought it by for me and I tested imaging over the network as well as with a flash drive without too much trouble.

Lunch time showed up pretty quickly and we went to Brangus. Thomas said something about a student needing help with a device for use offsite, so as soon as we got back to the shop, I left for the high school to meet up with Jacob. The device issue was easily resolved, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out his imaging issues there. It ended up being an issue with old devices getting disabled, so they couldn’t rejoin the network properly during imaging. Another easy fix.

The junior high was supposed to be testing our new chat support system at the end of the day, but quitting time showed up first and I had to drive back to the shop for my leftovers before going home. I didn’t do a whole lot there, but just tried to keep warm until Summer got home from work.

When I finally left for the evening, I sensed a flat tire, so I turned around and went back home to inspect it. Both front tires were low, but the front passenger tire was down to about 10 PSI. The driver side was down to about 20, and the rear passenger was down a bit as well. I topped them all off, tripping a breaker in the process, and then forgot to plug my Model 3 back in before I left the house again. Fortunately it shouldn’t lose much charge being parked overnight.

Summer was watching loud baking shows when I got to her house, so I went to the bedroom for some quiet until the girls got home from helping with some band thing at the middle school. Then Eaddie got frustrated trying to find her math study guide and had me edit out the answers from a copy she had online. Once that was done, she came back out and spied my blog entry, and I gave her a quick tour of my website.

Maybe we’ve got a second fan of the site!

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Iced In

We were told not to report to work today, so I didn’t have to stress about burning a day of leave. Summer had meetings online for most of the day, so Eaddie came into the bedroom and we powered right through the second season of Breaking Bad. I got out long enough to make a couple bacon, egg, and cheese bagels for Eaddie and myself, but otherwise nobody but Summer got up to much.

Autumn went a bit stir crazy and came out long enough to aggravate Summer, but none of us were sympathetic after hearing the yelling through the door. Summer didn’t let her leave to see her boyfriend, so she just holed up in her room all day.

Eaddie did a bit of last-minute homework as everyone else got ready for bed. Surrounding schools were a mix of open and closed, so we all waited with baited breath to see what would happen.

Postcipitation

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Bull Sleet

I got up this morning and cautiously tried to de-ice the car, fully willing to take the day off. It actually wasn’t that bad though, so I made it home and into the office. Gary, Zach, and Greg were there, but that was it for a while. Eventually Thomas and Tammy showed up. I spent most of the morning taking a practice Net+ test with Greg.

By the time lunch rolled around, the precipitation was starting and the folks at the main office were all abuzz. They ended up sending everyone home without docking a day, which makes for an interesting level of unfairness when dealing with others who chose to take a day of leave. In the past we’ve recovered those days because time given by the district should be given to everyone, but not so with the new chief.

I made it home easily, but by then the sleet started to come down pretty hard. I headed straight up to Summer’s for the evening while she and Autumn braved going to Walmart for dinner supplies. I only barely made it up the hill in her car, and Eaddie, Summer, and I watched some Breaking Bad while Autumn cooked some Hamburger Helper for lunch.

Eventually we played a game of Catan, which went as slowly as it usually does. We had a little bit of drama after Summer skipped my turn, but she felt better after she ultimately won. I just kind of milled back and forth for most of the early evening. Eaddie helped Summer with dinner, and we all sat down for meatball subs. Then we played a game of Pictionary, which was actually really fun. Autumn kept complaining about it and saying she wanted to quit, but then she’d play a round and be laughing as much as any of us.

Eaddie and I wrapped up the night with some more Breaking Bad until we finally got word that I wouldn’t have to report to work due to the weather. The district seemed to be having a pretty rough time on Facebook, and whoever was in charge of the district’s account apparently “liked” a comment that was blasting the superintendent. Perhaps surprisingly, I’m sympathetic to this particular event, but I still feel how I feel.

Light her up!

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Forced Urgency

I was a couple minutes late to work this morning for some reason, and I walked in to the team talking about going to all of the schools to cut laptop chargers out of the carts so the kids could take them home. It was an unnecessary reaction to a threat of inclement weather because they didn’t have the forethought to make a plan.

I rode with Zach and Travis to Sequoyah, Oakland, and Center Valley where we met with Kyle and Jacob to complete the work. We didn’t actually remove chargers, but we cut zip ties to make it easier for the teachers, who ranged from unfazed to absolutely panicked.

That took most of the morning, and then Thomas took Zach, Greg, and me to Quiznos for lunch. Afterward, we met back up and went over a chat support system that Thomas had implemented in case we could work from home. A little later, Tammy was worried about verifying inventory for some touch panels we received a week or two ago, so Zach and I went to the maintenance warehouse and talked to Chris for a bit, and then counted our touch panels.

School let out a couple hours early, which really wasn’t necessary for the precipitation we had. Instead of having an AMI day with all of the newly liberated devices, administration decided it was best to just call Tuesday an inclement weather day that would have to be made up at the end of the year. It would seem that AMI days should always be used first, since we have them, but I guess not everyone was prepared for that.

I made it home and loaded up to go to Summer’s for the evening. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to burn a sick day for what probably should have been given to us regardless. Summer was feeling much better, and quite chatty. Then I settled in for some Breaking Bad with Eaddie until bedtime.

They have an incredible talent for making things much worse than they have to be.

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Sleepy Sunday

Summer made corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast this morning, and then everyone disappeared to their rooms while Summer either watched TV or fell asleep on the couch. I bounced around a little bit, and broke out my Steam Deck to play a little Don’t Starve for a bit, but it didn’t last long.

Autumn left to go shopping with her grandparents while the rest of us collectively rolled our eyes at their enabling her generally being a shitty human. She’s absolutely insufferable, and we’re all tired of feeling guilty for thinking so.

I cleaned up most of the stuff for spring rolls for the remaining three of us for dinner, and then Eaddie and I watched some more Breaking Bad until bed.

VapoGrease

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You’ve Gotta Be Shirtin Me

I woke up to a call from Thomas this morning, and apparently the robotics tournament was completely offline with a lot of cranky people. I got around and headed home in case he needed a hand, but he said he got things going, so I started some laundry.

I finished all of six loads for a total of 75 shirts washed before I made it back up to Summer’s. I got a few other things cleaned up as well, and then Summer made spring rolls for dinner. They turned out pretty good for her first time, and Eaddie enjoyed them as well. Autumn was gone to a school dance for most of the evening.

As bedtime grew near, Eaddie and I decided to start Breaking Bad as we waited for Autumn to get home. She tried to stay out later after leaving the dance early, and claimed to make it home half an hour late because she fell asleep at Adam’s house. I had no interest in listening to her excuses, but our second episode was nearly done anyway. Then it was off to bed.

Absolute Parasite

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Middle Bots

We didn’t have a meeting this morning because the whole-ly trinity was out. I kept getting pulled into various things, but eventually made it to Dwight and back. Kyle was the only one that showed up to the shop to eat, so I took him to Ridgewood and we made it in and out in just barely an hour again. In the afternoon, I had to spend some time at the junior high to take care of a few work orders, but I never made it to any laptop repairs. Kyle may be in for a shock when he gets moved.

At the end of the day, I had to meet Jeff at the middle school to help set up for a robotics tournament. They were super unprepared and just plain ignorant about what needed to be done, so we spent most of the time standing around while the guy putting on the tournament was running around setting up physical equipment. We eventually got a couple network lines down the length of the gym, and we decided to call it a day.

As soon as I got home, Thomas texted to ask about the setup, and then asked me to go back to help them install some software. That turned into a multi-hour ordeal, but eventually Ethan showed up with some answers. I still didn’t leave until eight.

I ran by my parents’ house to drop off some sweet rice, and then headed back home to try and start some laundry. I gave up after sorting, and decided to start the actual washing tomorrow. Instead, I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She was still sick in bed. I beat the girls home from a basketball game, and then Autumn came into the bedroom to yell about being angry at Eaddie. Eaddie, of course, came in and calmly defended herself. Both parties seemed to carry fault, but Autumn just makes it so hard for us to feel any sympathy for her. After that, everyone was pretty much straight off to bed.

Middle Bitch.

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Post Snow

The office was really quiet today, but the building techs seemed to be working in their buildings. Greg and I chatted for a little bit throughout the day, which was more than usual. I was pretty busy all day, just from working on random things that kept coming to me. When lunch time came around, it was just Thomas and me and I convinced him to try Ridgewood in the hour we had.

We made it through the line in a little under 40 minutes, which meant we made it back to work right on time. Considering we’ve been late for worse food, I thought it was a fair deal. When we got back to the shop, I went across the street to install some RAM for Joseph, and then spent the rest of the afternoon downstairs.

Summer stayed home sick, so after work I went to Linh’s to get her some soup and spring rolls. Eaddie shared a recording of a ridiculous argument she had with Autumn in the morning, and we collectively rolled our eyes in solidarity. Then Summer and I watched some Modern Family until bedtime.

But our princess is in another castle!

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Psych!

I felt super sick to the stomach after I went to bed last night, but I slept pretty horribly. After just a few short hours of sleep, I got up and showered so we could get some breakfast before we had to get across town for Summer’s appointment. The hotel breakfast was about standard for what I’ve become accustomed to considering an upscale continental breakfast, but I’m not sure I’d consider it a “full breakfast” as advertised.

The trip across Little Rock wasn’t too bad, and the written directions were a great help. We made it underground and then back up to the parking garage, and upstairs into the psychiatric wing. We didn’t have to wait very long to get back, and the first part of the appointment was a bit more like therapy than I was expecting. Afterward, he had a bunch of tests for Summer to do that would take a couple more hours, so I had to get lost. I ran to the deli to get her some snacks, and then ended up in the car for a while. I thought Ben might be able to entertain me, but that didn’t pan out. Instead, I just sat in the car while it did a software update.

Eventually I started to feel a little ill being cramped up again, so I went back inside for the rest of the time. My phone was enough to keep me entertained, and eventually they came back out. The whole meet was way less formal than a normal doctor visit, so it was interesting. Hopefully it’ll help motivate Summer to take better care of her mental health.

We headed straight back to Conway, where Summer had to stop and work for a bit. We moved some stuff between cars, and then I headed toward home. Just past Plumerville, I ran into a dead stop in traffic on the interstate. Evidently there was a large semi wreck way ahead, and they just closed a large portion of the interstate between Morrilton and Blackwell. I ended up stopping at the first Morrilton exit once I got there, and had a Happy Meal before taking Highway 64 back to Blackwell.

As soon as I got home, I quickly unpacked and then met Summer at Shell for some gas. Then she went to Popeye’s for dinner while I headed up to the girls. She wasn’t terribly far behind me, and everyone had a little to eat before bed. Eaddie was up trying to get help with science homework, but I was exhausted from multiple nights of very poor sleep, so I made it to bed super early.

Shut It Down