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Clear for Landing

We didn’t get up too early this morning, but tried to leave at a reasonable time. I went home to clean up, then brought my stuff back just as the girls were ready. We still had to get gas though, and while we were across town I stopped at my house again to try and find a phone mount.

With all that out of the way, we made our way north, stopping at the Rotary Ann and then at a Walgreens in Harrison. We made it into Branson just in time to check into the hotel, but we didn’t stay long. With today being the only day of really nice weather, we decided to go to Branson Landing where we could walk around outside.

We were pretty hungry by the time we passed through a couple stores, so we stopped at Guy Fieri’s Branson Kitchen to eat. We sat outside, right next to the ziplines, which were way noisier than they had any right to be. Summer and Autumn got some burgers that looked pretty good. Eaddie ended up getting the steak sandwich that I kind of wanted, and I got a whole rack of ribs so I could share a bit. I thought the ribs were probably the worst thing on the table, and they tasted fine, but were pretty dry and tough.

We continued around the shopping center and stopped for some ice cream at Kilwins before going back to the water show at the center of it all. It was a short show with a little water and fire, and then we made our way back to the hotel for an evening of The Avengers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Mac and cheese on top of toast? Where’s the cheese?

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Clean Out Your Fridge!

I slept in for a while today, and eventually got out of bed to clean up some leftovers. I made one last bean burrito, and then warmed up some fish for Eaddie. She had been up cleaning and doing laundry. Autumn hardly came out except to gripe at Eaddie. I thought I’d make it home earlier than I did, but Summer beat me to it after leaving work early.

It rained all morning, but had mostly quit by the time I left. I packed most of what I would need for our trip into a backpack and took a shower. Julie called me after that, and we caught up a bit. Eventually I made it back up to the girls, and picked at some more leftovers. Noah came over right after I got there, and he hung out with the girls all night while Summer and I went to bed relatively early.

That groundhog is kind of a pig.

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Breaking Blahs

Eaddie was up pretty early this morning, so I had her come into the bedroom to start watching Breaking Bad. After an episode or two, I made her an avocado toast, and then we continued watching in the living room. Autumn wanted to go out with Adam for a while, so Summer let her go. Eaddie and I never got up to much of anything else. In fact, we were proud that Autumn wanted to go to the gym after she got back from hanging out with Adam.

Summer made it home later in the evening after a long and trying day, so Eaddie and I went to Chick O’ Fish to pick up dinner. The family meal was more food than you could get for the cost of three meals, so that’s what we got from the surly girl in the window. Autumn joined us for some chicken strips, and then Summer and I tried on a few comedy specials on Netflix before everyone went to bed.

What a long day.

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Noisy

We didn’t get up to much today. We lounged around the house for most of the morning until Summer made Autumn go to the gym with her. Eaddie came out and sorted all of her music she had shuffled in her room. I thought I might make it home, but never did.

The girls decided they wanted burgers for dinner, so Summer and Autumn brought back everything we needed. I cleaned up one of the kitchen cabinets a bit, but otherwise spent a lot of time spinning in circles. Eventually we had to start prepping dinner while Autumn took Eaddie to pick up a few things at the last minute.

Noah came over when he was done with work, and I shuffled burgers through a frying pan as quickly as I could. It wasn’t super satisfying, and none of the spatulas were rated for a hot pan, but we got it done. Then Eaddie put together half of a gingerbread house while Autumn and Noah started The Lord of the Rings. Of course Autumn fell asleep pretty early, and Noah finished it with Eaddie.

Summer went to bed and I finally just took a shower there. Then it was off to bed in spite of how loud all of the TVs were playing.

Too bad there’s no noise cancellation for what’s going on inside my head.

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Can I Speak to Your Manager?

I got up this morning and made breakfast burritos. Autumn didn’t want one, so I had two. They were pretty great. Summer had to work, and the girls wanted to go out shopping. I went home for a bit, and then had the girls take me to Superfast so I could get the Pathfinder. I took it to Splash to vacuum out the inside, and then ran it through the car wash. It took hours to get the thing clean, and it still smelled awful. I thought it smelled like cats, but Summer said it was just mold or mildew from holding so much water for so many years.

Eventually I made it home, but was caught in limbo waiting to hear something back from Mark. I really wanted to send my request for a hearing yesterday, but that turned into this morning, which turned into “before 4:30,” which turned into “freakin whenever.” I eventually got it sent, and this was the easy part.

I headed back to Splash to catch Summer on her way out. She had to close shop late, and then we headed up to her house. The girls came out for a little bit while Summer ate some leftovers and I picked at some summer sausage. Summer got ready for bed, and then I got a message from Ernie, who wanted to chat on the phone. I called and talked to him for a little while, and he kept wanting to get together sometime. While I’d enjoy hanging out for a bit, the kilt club drama sounded a whole lot like the furry club drama I had just read about. I guess that’ll teach me to hang around Facebook.

I’m shipping up to Boston, whoa!

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Mark My Words

Summer took Eaddie to school today, so I laid around for a little longer this morning. Eventually I got up and had some tacos for brunch before prepping a corned beef in the slow cooker for dinner. Then I went home to try and gather my thoughts for a bit before getting some last-minute help. I felt like I had everything pretty well organized, but I should have reached out for help sooner.

The afternoon was there soon, and the girls headed home with Autumn’s boyfriend in tow. Eaddie went to her room for most of the time, which meant I had to keep an eye on Autumn and Adam so I could call them out later.

Finally I was able to meet up with Mark at their new building, and I gained what perhaps what shouldn’t have been such a surprising level of insight. He definitely looked at things from a different angle, but I wasn’t too far off with some of the things I had considered. I found myself wishing I had involved him sooner, though I still felt like when the time comes, I’ll screw something up. My best-case-scenario is just a moving target, and it stresses me out.

When we finished talking, I headed up to Summer’s where she had just gotten home to an empty house. All the kids went to the movies, and ended up watching Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Summer and I ate our traditional corned beef, and then I got to work assembling my documentation into its final form. The girls eventually made it home and I talked to Eaddie a little bit. Autum talked to Summer while she settled into bed, and eventually everyone went to sleep.

Hey, I’m the victim here!

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Clean Car Gone

Autumn found the missing key fob for the Mercury this morning, so I was all set to transfer ownership to cousin Nick and Phil. Eaddie convinced me to pick up donuts on the way to drop her off, and then I took the car to the quarter wash for its first bath, possibly ever. I tried going to Superfast to visit with Summer after that, but she was too busy to come out. I ended up taking it to Splash to vacuum everything out, and finally ended up at home to wait for the guys to show up.

They got there a little bit late, but it wasn’t too bad. They were in a bit of a rush to get back though, on account of some expected bad weather. Nick drove the Montego around the block first, and then they were off. After that, I messed around with my old email archive for a while before picking up some salads from Zaxby’s to take to Summer for lunch.

I waited around for her in the office for quite a while, and got hangry enough to eat without her. The paperwork her parents dropped off for the Pathfinder was completely wrong, so that frustrated me as well. I knew we wouldn’t actually get that car out of the shop right then. She finally came up to eat, and then I went home to a super cold house for the rest of the afternoon. I did at least call Mollie and Leslie for some help, and Leslie was able to produce a document I needed. It was nice to talk to them even for a moment.

Eaddie ended up calling me for a ride when she was done with school. We stopped by the shop again to give Summer the correct paperwork for the Pathfinder, and then continued on home. I thought we’d leave again so I wouldn’t have to keep the Tesla at their house, but of course once Summer made it home with her own work frustrations, she didn’t want to leave again.

Laura Beth eventually called me to discuss my work woes, but didn’t have any additional insight, and I felt like I wasted her time. Finally, it fell to me to book our stay in Branson. Fortunately I stumbled upon a bundle through the Titanic exhibit site, and managed to get tickets for that, the Dolly Parton Stampede, and a hotel all for a pretty significant discount from their individual prices.

It truly is a parody of a town, and I hate tourist traps.

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MonteGo

I took Eaddie to school this morning and then went home rather aimlessly. It’s been three weeks, and I’ve been feeling the stress of not knowing what will happen. Eventually I got showered, and Summer asked for lunch since they were busy at Superfast. I picked up some corndogs from Sonic and brought them up to her office. Of course she was busy when I got there, so I had to wait around for her to be ready to eat.

When I left there, I went to the revenue office to see what I would need to register the Pathfinder without a title. Their parking lot was absolutely packed, so I went home for a break before trying again. By then, they were completely dead and I was the only one waiting with a number. Apparently the form I found online was wrong, so I got a different form from the girl there, and went back to Superfast to talk to Summer.

Cousin Nick was ready to move on buying the Montego, so I went home to trade vehicles, and then made it up to Summer’s to clean all of her stuff out of the car. I grabbed some Freddy’s on the way, and paid for it again by the end of the evening. We got everything out of the car and found the title, but couldn’t find the other key fob. Hopefully it turns up tomorrow.

Eaddie was in bed super early, so I never really saw her. Autumn passed through a couple times when she wanted something. Summer was exhausted from work, so of course she went to bed as quickly as she could.

I think I’d just rather be on a boat.

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Mountain Mutt

I thought I was taking Eaddie to school this morning, but Summer snuck out with her instead and left me to sleep. I still didn’t sleep in too late, and got home to take a shower before Dad came over to take me up Petit Jean. Uncle Rick and Ginny were up there in the RV, and Dad wanted to visit and tinker with a radio. Uncle Rick warmed up some hot dogs over a fire and we took a break to eat, and then I wandered around the area with their little dog.

We had to get back down the mountain before too late, because the girls had been chomping at the bit to go to CiCi’s for Pi Day. As soon as I got back in to town, Summer had me pick up Eaddie from her band buddies meet at the middle school. Then we stopped by Superfast until Summer was ready to go, and the three of us met Autumn for pizza.

After we ate, I went home to clean up a little bit before making my way up to the girls. I got a couple pictures of the Montego so we could possibly sell it. Autumn finished mowing the lawn, and Summer was painting by number on the couch while watching Galaxy Quest. I watched an episode of After Life when that was done, and then everyone was off to bed.

It’s a little nice for a beater.

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Ungrounded

Summer took the girls to school this morning, so I just went home after stopping by Tropical Smoothie for a free birthday smoothie. From there, I didn’t even sit down before breaking right into my power outlets. I started pulling outlets one-by-one to see how the lines ran through the walls and attic. Dad eventually made it over to help, and we ended up drilling out a part of the cabinet in the spare bedroom so we could pull the outlet that had been buried behind it.

The grounding issue appeared to be all the way back at the panel, but after tinkering long enough, we at least got my two bad outlets working again. We just left the cabinet outlet out, and wire-nutted the cables instead. We even got the three-way light switch working correctly after having never worked for as long as they’ve owned the house.

We got things working again just as it was time for me to get Autumn from school. I ran her home after waiting patiently for a train to pass. Then I continued putting outlet covers back together until Eaddie called for a ride home. Dad had left his phone, so I had Mom come to get it on her way home from work. He ended up coming back anyway, so we saw them in passing. Then once the outlets were all back together, Eaddie and I headed up to their house.

Autumn went out to mow the back yard, and Summer made it home shortly after we arrived. I was completely beat from being up and down all day. I made some spaghetti for dinner, and then Summer and I watched a Taylor Tomlinson special on Netflix before she went to bed. Autumn came out in the middle of that and begged for permission to drive again, and we decided her recent good behavior was probably about the best we could get. Once Summer was in bed, I finally took my shower for the day and made it to bed as quickly as I could.

Let’s get our shit together.