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Promo Sunday

Autumn wanted to go to a fundraiser pancake breakfast at Stoby’s today, but since I was the only one willing to take her, she decided she’d rather stay home. Summer ended up having a relatively full day planned, so I went home and spent the rest of the day feeling like I was just kind of waiting for something that would never happen.

I’ve been trying not to get too stressed out about my suspension, but it’s unnerving not knowing how the school board will feel. It’s easy to swing my feelings in both directions. On one hand, they’ll want to show solidarity with the superintendent they just hired for the next three years. On the other hand, I feel like I have a pretty reasonable case. Unfortunately I’m not sure how much reason will actually play into what happens, but all I can do is plead my case.

Summer asked me to stop by for dishwasher detergent on the way back, so that got me out of the house and on a bit of a quest. I had a birthday cinnamon roll from McDonald’s in the morning, so I decided to go to Wendy’s for a $1 Dave’s Single for a late lunch. Then I went to Walmart and scoped out some heavy duty rakes before grabbing detergent. On the way back across the store I ran into Sharon and shared my woes with her. She was feeling pretty frustrated by the state of the union as well. Then I grabbed my rake and headed out of the store. My last stop was Freddy’s for a free birthday dessert, but due to some stupid system glitch, I ended up having to use points instead of my free reward. That cost me about six bucks worth of rewards.

I finally made it up to Summer’s, and Autumn had mowed, and Summer had cleaned up inside the house. They had a couple candles going that made me feel a bit nauseous, so I put them out and just tried to stay quiet and calm. Eaddie ended up wanting some help with some homework that she was really just feeling too lazy to figure out herself. She eventually woke herself up enough to complete it though. She came out later playing Autumn’s clarinet, which I dabbled on for a bit as well. Then everyone was off to bed.

Except Eaddie, who came out for a 10 o’clock dinner.

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Blurritos and Tacos

Summer took both of the girls to two different events today. Eaddie had state robotics, and Autumn had solo and ensemble. I got up when she got back, but didn’t get into much of a rush for anything. Eventually she went to the gym and I ate a bean burrito, then headed home to clean up.

I ended up tinkering around the house a bit, but more in the fashion of getting continually sidetracked until it was time to leave. Summer picked up Autumn in the afternoon and got stuff for dinner. I made it back up to their house and started cooking. The prep work took the longest, and the Instant Pot did a great job of melding all of that together into some shredded chicken tacos.

The girls put on Moana and then The Incredibles, which I watched intermittently. We ate, but Eaddie missed out because she was at the tournament until pretty late. I eventually picked her up, and she was pretty excited about her day in spite of the fact that her team was the only one that didn’t qualify for worlds.

The girls shuffled off to bed pretty soon after we made it home. Eaddie wasn’t even hungry enough to eat anything, but that was okay. There’s plenty for tomorrow.

I’d feel a lot less guilty if I knew I were rich and could just do whatever I want.

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Lights On, Lights Off

Autumn tried not waking me again today so she could try and get permission to drive, but I was already awake. We didn’t get any fussing though, as I dropped them off at the high school. I don’t know where my time went after that, but it seemed like I kept fairly busy. At least I didn’t burn the whole morning on my phone. I scheduled some changes to my car insurance, and took Summer to lunch at Hardee’s.

When I got back home, I decided to poke around with my electricity in the living room again. I just wanted to find the order of the outlets in the chain from the breaker. Dad came over after a while to help, but we didn’t really uncover a whole lot. We still have phantom power coming from neutral or ground somewhere, but we couldn’t figure out why. Eventually we’ll unhook the right outlet to figure things out.

Summer picked the girls up from school and took them to the park so Eaddie could ride her bike. Autumn started in a really foul mood, but appeared to lighten up after getting some junk food in her. They made it back after Dad left, and after putting the bike away, they went home and I went to my parents’ house to finish up some fish soup.

Mom fell asleep after she ate, but I chatted with Dad for a while before heading up to Summer’s for the evening. The girls were off to bed early, but Summer and I watched some Modern Family before going to sleep.

A surprising number of outlets.

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I Liked the Original Better Than the SQL

I woke up late today, but then immediately threw my leg into a charley horse. Once I worked it out, I realized the girls had already left for school, apparently with Autumn at the helm. I messaged Summer to check, and sure enough, Autumn had called for permission while I was asleep. In reality I have no idea how hard she tried to wake me, but usually Eaddie can just whisper my name and I hop out of bed. I did have a pretty sleepless night though.

I got around to a bean burrito, and then poked at some job listings. I found a couple to apply for, and even got a response from one with a test to complete. I decided to wait until I got home to start that, since they said it would take about an hour.

It rained most of the day, but I got home in a short clear period. Summer was at a ribbon cutting at the new Greenbrier wash. I didn’t consider doing a whole lot beyond looking at jobs. I started the test after I had a shower, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so heavy with coding. The job description mentioned SQL experience, but the test actually asked me to write some code, so I gave up at the last few questions.

Autumn made it home, and Summer picked Eaddie up from robotics. They went out to dinner to catch up, and I went to my parents’ house for some fish soup. They weren’t really expecting me, but the soup didn’t take long to reheat. After I ate, Mom asked about work and I explained the predicament I’ll have to fight. She seemed eager for me to dig in as well, so it seems my path is set.

I eventually made it up to Summer’s for the evening, and Eaddie and I watched an episode of Breaking Bad while Summer did her nails. Then everyone was off to bed.

DELETE FROM Prospective_Jobs WHERE CompanyName=’MagView’;

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Birthdeals

I dropped the girls off this morning and went home to relax since it was raining outside. I ought to spend some time cleaning up indoors, but it’s still cold, and difficult to motivate myself in the early morning. It’s either too cold, or too hot though. At some point, I’ve just got to get stuff done. I ended up not feeling great in the later part of the morning, and ended up taking a long bath after applying for a random remote SCCM administrator job that I found online.

I made it to the high school just in time to be out of the road, in line to pick up Eaddie. Then we made it across town to get Autumn since she spent the entire day “teaching” at Dwight. Aaron saw me and came out to say hi, but the conversation didn’t go any further than just that. Autumn wanted to go to her grandparents’ house, but she said they weren’t going to be home, so I just took them to the house after we dropped off Autumn’s overdue book at the county library.

Summer met us at the house and had to talk to Eaddie for a bit before we could head to Conway for her work meeting. We ended up getting into town a bit late because of it, but we still had time to get dinner at Golden Corral first so I could use my free birthday meal.

After we ate, I took her to Splash for a team meeting. Before they got started, I let Jason take the Model 3 around the block. Then I drove a few blocks away to charge outside the Holiday Inn Express. The chargers outside the Comfort Inn appeared to all be powered off, but the Holiday Inn looked a bit nicer anyway. I managed to get about 10% in the hour I sat there.

Once Summer was done, I picked her up and we ran back across town to Old Navy and Kohl’s to spend some rewards money I had saved up. I didn’t even get anything for myself, which was only slightly aggravating because Summer didn’t want to go in the first place.

We made it home after that, with a couple more instances of abandoned manual lane changes in Autopilot. Once everyone went to bed, I filled out a big support ticket for the Enhanced Autopilot frustrations, as well as the troubles I’ve seen with the visuals and sensors, or lack thereof. Then it was off to sleep.

Dream big, and never have the money.

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Apply Yourself

I dropped the girls off at school again this morning, and then went straight home to work in the yard again. I was by myself this time, which was fine. It was a little cooler, since I started earlier in the morning. Unfortunately I still had trouble getting a good fire going, but I burned up a bunch more leaves and trampled some of the crispier plant stalks that were left standing. I may be able to mow some of it down tomorrow.

Once the fires burned out, I came inside to take a shower. Then I went by Taco John’s and took a late lunch to Summer at the wash. Autumn had been texting us both to try and come up with an alternative to getting back into a car with me, but when the time came, she got over it. I dropped her off at the wash, and then went to Walgreens to drop off the floormats that I needed to return.

Eaddie had a band buddies meet after school, so she got a ride there and then to Dairy Queen, where the FBLA kids were hosting a fund raiser. Desha spotted me, and then Dustin came around and got to hear my exciting story. Otherwise, the Diary Queen experience was pretty awful. The poor teen that was running the place was stressing over a downed computer system. Then the food was all cold and overcooked.

When we finally finished there, I went home to swap cars. Mom and Dad popped in for a moment since they were next door, but then I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. I finished filling out an application for what would essentially be my dad’s old job. Brody texted to basically tell me he was keeping a seat warm for me at Clarksville. If I have to go through the pains of learning a new job, I at least want a raise out of it.

I probably don’t have 43 more years in me though.

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Fired Up

I took the girls to school this morning, and Autumn pitched a fit when I couldn’t explain to her why she wasn’t allowed to have her car back while we were dropping her off at Dwight. I dropped Eaddie off, and then added a couple more details to my work timeline before going outside to try and clean up the back yard.

It was just warm enough for me to be slightly uncomfortable, and the constant bending over to cut down large weeds ended up making me feel a little sick. I’ve been thinking it to myself for a while, but I really need to find the motivation to walk on the treadmill for a bit first thing in the morning. Something just doesn’t feel right any more, and I can’t keep ignoring it.

Bác Vân wasn’t out much, but Doug was outside raking leaves out from the garden they planted around my house. I really didn’t do a whole lot of work, but tried to burn down the whole yard at once. Unfortunately the taller plants weren’t really touched, and the leaves just slowly smoldered across the yard. After a while, he said Bác Vân made lunch, so I changed and went next door for some kind of soup with pasta, rice, pork, shrimp, and at least a dozen different spices. She said she made it every day, but I’d never seen her make it before. In any event, it was pretty good.

By the time we finished eating, I had to get cleaned up to pick Autumn up from school. She said she had to go to the Navy recruiter’s office though, and wanted Robert to take her. I argued against it, but only because I couldn’t trust her motives. I ended up letting her go with him while I mistakenly took a return package to UPS instead of FedEx, then stopped by Walgreens only to learn they couldn’t print a return label. Autumn was still at the high school, so I went to quickly wash my car, and then caught up with them at the recruiter’s office right on time.

I wasn’t expecting a therapy session with a young adult, but that’s what we had. He didn’t strike me as an intellectual so much as a guy that talks to a bunch of shithead kids all day, but I figured he’s the best chance at a career path for Autumn that will more or less keep her out of trouble. As a 27-year-old, his parenting advice seemed to be, “kids are gonna smash.” In the end, I hope I at least gave him some background for the troubles we’ve had with Autumn.

From there, we swapped cars and I took Autumn home. Eaddie went to dinner with Gavin and some friends for his birthday, and then was dropped off at home. Mom called and fussed at me for not coming over to eat fish soup, so I drove across town to eat quickly, and tried to make it back in time to take Eaddie to a Tech jazz band concert. She ended up finding a ride with some friends for that too, so I just tried to wind down.

Summer made it home after opening the Greenbrier wash. Autumn came out for some math homework help, which was actually a nice change. Eventually everyone wandered off to bed, and I just hoped to crash hard after a long day following a night of restlessness.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking…

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Downhill Climb

I had a few messages for my birthday today, as well as a couple of phone calls. We didn’t have any plans, and I got a pretty slow start to the morning. I think the large dinner last night made things a little worse, but I eventually got around. Eaddie had a recital at the high school, and then wanted to immediately leave for Tech to watch their symphonic wind ensemble perform.

Eaddie wasn’t fully prepared for her recital, which was out of the ordinary for her. Afterward, her instructor announced my birthday and had everyone in the room quickly sing Happy Birthday. It would have been so much more embarrassing at a slower tempo, but she kept it fast.

The Tech concert was really great. There were several solos, with two pieces that showcased the oboe and then the marimba players. The final piece was done in the dark with a video to accompany the music, and it was really incredible. I’m excited to hear Eaddie perform at that level after she leaves high school.

After the concert, we dropped Eaddie off and went to Walmart for dinner. We decided spaghetti would be relatively quick, easy, and delicious. I ran into Janie on our way to check out the clearance section, and I told her all about my suspension. She seemed to have a lot of frustration with a lot of the administration herself.

Summer took me to my house to get the Montego, and we met up back at her house to cook dinner. I wasn’t feeling well after a day without any food or hydration. I took a minute to recover, and then helped with dinner. She baked a chocolate cake, and since Autumn was finally home, we had her run to the store for some frosting and ice cream. She didn’t eat, but Eaddie at least came out for food.

Unconventional, but what did I expect?

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Blues and Browns

Summer was at the high school for Quiz Bowl all day long, so I spent the entire day by myself. I cleaned up some taco stuff in the fridge, and eventually Eaddie came home long enough to shower, but then she wanted me to take her to the high school to meet up with some robotics kids. She ended up running around with them the entire day, so I just went to my house and wallowed around.

Mom wanted to go out to eat tonight for my birthday, but Summer didn’t finish until after six. I met her at the gas station to fill up, and then we met my parents at Brown’s. I didn’t eat as much as I might’ve in the past, but by the time we got back home, I still felt miserable.

Summer went to bed, and Eaddie eventually showed up and talked about her day. Then we finished an episode of Breaking Bad before we went to bed as well.

Sure, just wine about it.

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OptiMum

I woke the girls up late today, so I was pretty sure neither of them bathed. Eaddie might have the night before, but Autumn definitely looked like she’d slept on a park bench. I dropped them off in the rain, and then went home to hang out in the cold. It had stormed all night, and I sort of let that set my mood for the day. My biggest claim to fame was calling Optimum to lower Summer’s internet bill by more than half. The call itself was probably the most pleasant call I’ve ever had with a cable provider.

Eventually I had to get the girls from school, so I took the three boxes of textbooks with me and had Eaddie ask Ethan to let me in. I dropped off the books, we swapped cars, and then headed home. Eaddie and I started watching Breaking Bad, and Summer made it home in the middle of that.

Autumn left for her father’s, and I ended up leaving to go to my parents’ house for dinner. Uncle Rick was in town for the Hamfest, so we visited for a bit and ate curry. Afterward I took him for a ride in the Model 3, and eventually convinced him to drive it a few blocks home.

Julie ordered an Xbox for me with a Verizon half-off code, and it had arrived already. I took it home, and then went back up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie ended up going to Maristella’s to spend the night, and Summer was already in bed. She had Quiz Bowl in the morning, so I was content to call it an early night.

The whole point of those pages is to show off my personality, which should be considered an asset.