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Cold, Cold Heart

Summer and I left the house this morning and stopped by Superfast and the wash to check on things. It was brutally cold, and the office at the wash didn’t have any heat. It was actually warmer in the wash than it was in the office. One of the gates had broken off, and I tried to help reattach it, but we had trouble in the frigid air.

When we finally finished checking in for work stuff, we went to Walmart for cookie materials. Then Summer dropped me off at home while she went about her day. Sheri texted me shortly after, and wanted to meet up at Oakland so I could diagnose her laptop. I tinkered a bit there, but then took it home to try and pull parts until it would POST. It never did, so I’ll have to get an adapter to try and recover data for her instead.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon rewriting my write-up rebuttal, and felt pretty good about my timeline. I just know it’s painting an even larger target on my back, but my facts were straightforward and well documented. I’d been writing it with the assumption that it would just go into my file without anyone reading it, but it’ll be interesting to see if it’s actually ever reviewed.

Eventually I got showered up and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Dad and Julie had their return flight delayed by yet another day. Summer baked cookies all day so we could decorate them tomorrow. Noah came over late when he finished up at work, and he and Eaddie stayed up late watching a horror movie. I kept trying to fall asleep early, but had to get up to finish blogging. I read my rebuttal to Eaddie, and she said it was the most professional burn she’d ever heard, so at least I’ve got that going for me.

#4word

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It’s Better Than Diggin’ a Ditch

Summer left early for the ribbon cutting at her new wash. I was sleeping really well after a rough night, and had to get up in time to make it to Summer before the big ceremony. I thought I would be going back to pick up Eaddie, but Autumn decided to bring her down herself. I brought a little PA system for them to use, which was moderately helpful. The girls showed up looking absolutely homeless in the baggiest clothes they owned.

Cindy showed up, which was a great surprise for Summer, and played into her own speech after Paul’s, about how she found a new home, a new family, and a new career after teaching. It was a beautiful, tear-jerking, fist-pumping welcome home speech.

I stuck around to mingle and help with random things after all the important people left, but as the wintery mix quickly blew in, I ran to Orr to get Julie’s car keys before they closed. Evidently Tim was working there now, so I gave him a ride around the block in the miserable weather.

From there, I went home and waited on Summer to get there so we could go back and actually get Julie’s car. We dropped it off at my parents’ house, and then she took me back home while she went to the gym. I was pretty sure that I was down to two ghost shrimp, which was a bit of a surprise after watching them appear perfectly happy. My new JBL Studio 550P came in to replace my prematurely-failed Polk PSW 505. It felt unnecessarily heavy, and then after I got it set up, sounded pretty underwhelming. Hopefully that’s due to settings.

When Summer finished at the gym, she came back to get me and we went to Ridgewood Brothers in the ice for some barbecue. Even with the weather, they really never had much time between customers coming through the line. As Summer and I picked at our huge platter of meats, Kyle came through and took some to-go. It was mildly frustrating, because I’d seen him call in to work due to better weather.

After we ate, we went to visit with Mom for a bit, and I put out some fresh, not-frozen water for the stray cat(s?). The girls had their boyfriends, Noah, his roommate, and his girlfriend over to the house, so we headed home right after that. They were playing cards when we got home, and eventually the visitors filtered off while Summer went to bed. The whole day felt super short, though it was longer than yesterday. I stayed up to see that Adam made it out the door, and then it was off to bed.

This isn’t your home.

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Hit the Gymnasium

I rolled into work a hair early this morning, and everyone was already outside with trucks loaded and ready to go to the middle school. We wasted no time getting started with running like seven new lines all around the gym. I was vaguely over a crew with Jacob, Jeff, and Kyle. We had to get four lines from outside the coaches offices to the switch closet. Greg mostly drove a lift around to run two access points up the opposite wall. We had all hands on deck, so several of us bounced around a lot.

Thomas cut everyone loose as soon as we were done, but I was stuck on a ladder trying to finish up one last wireless access point. We ultimately gave up, and I headed to the carwash to check on Summer. She and I thought we would get lunch, but passed Autumn and Eaddie as they were pulling into the wash. We turned around to give them a tour, and then decided to join them for lunch at CiCi’s.

After we ate, the girls left and Summer and I went to Lowe’s to pick up a bathroom cabinet for the wash. I started putting it together when we got back, but we were actually missing a part out of it all. Jordan and I went back to Lowe’s to try and get the part, but ended up buying a whole new cabinet just to scavenge the part from the box. Then after I finished putting the first one together, I returned the other to Lowe’s.

On my way out, I spotted Zach leaving and ran up from behind to tackle him. I was pretty impressed with my jog until I got back into my car wheezing. I went home to clean up for a bit, and then went to visit with Mom. She didn’t have any trash to take out, so I just hung out on the couch with her until my phone and I were both too tired to carry on.

I stopped by Ridgewood on the way home just to check on the guys. Grant was needing some alone time in the smokehouse, so I chatted with Robert out back and tried to be helpful as he stacked some wood. Those guys are working themselves absolutely ragged, and I wish I could do something to help every time I see them. I didn’t stick around long since it was so late, so I went home to change and headed up to Summer’s for the evening.

Everything hurts, and I’m too old for this.

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How McDonald Stole Christmas

I thought we were headed to the middle school first thing this morning to scope out tomorrow’s cable run, but evidently Zach planned to do that in the afternoon. I mostly stayed low and cleaned up some old work orders before break. Several of us met up at Taco John’s for lunch, but even that was pretty quiet after the chaos from getting orders to the correct customers calmed down.

Right after lunch, we all met in the shop so Judy could train us on another new system for requesting time off. As soon as we finished with that, we all headed to the middle school to plan tomorrow’s work. It’s a big job, but hopefully it goes well with so many hands on deck.

After work, I went to Splash to check in with Summer. She had me run across the street to get some Zaxby’s for a couple of them. I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention, because the curb reached up and grabbed the bottom of my front bumper when I parked. It was low enough that the scuffing was just on the very bottom of the car, so hopefully it won’t be visible in the daylight.

I probably stuck around longer than I should have, just because everyone was busy and I felt out of place. I ate a bunch of chicken though, and then headed home to change. The girls went bowling with their boyfriends, and then Autumn wanted to bring Adam over for a little bit afterward, so I beat them home. They watched The Santa Clause until Summer got home, and then I wound down pretty quickly from there.

I’m still stressing quite a bit about how this month’s superintendent is cracking down on holiday traditions within the school. It feels like she’s picking new and unnecessary battles with the few good staff members we have left, and I really don’t know how much fight I have in me. It may just be the bump I need to move on with my life.

Packed it up with their presents, their ribbons, their wrappings, their snoof and their fuzzles, their tringlers and trappings!

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Washed Up

Summer got up super early this morning for opening day at the new wash in town. I made it in to work several minutes early on account of how sheepish I felt from Friday. I absolutely did not want to be there. It wasn’t bad work though, because Jeff had individual carts set up for each hallway at the middle school, and we all split up to deploy them.

Josh ended up sharing a cart with me since we had so many people there, and we covered one of the sixth grade hallways. We had a lockdown drill in the middle of it, and I made sure to stay in a dark room, but mistakenly thought the window was covered and didn’t hide in the corner. Evidently they saw me, and called me out by name, so I’m just waiting for that writeup too.

Infuriatingly, none of the classrooms we visited were actually doing anything other than holiday activities like drawing or goofing off. One of them was specifically watching Arthur Christmas, which burned after being written up for publishing a FICTIONAL POEM ABOUT TEACHERS SHOWING MOVIES because it would be poor use of instructional time.

Lunch was about as unawkward as possible with Thomas, Zach, and Josh. Most of us got the burrito supreme lunch, which was a pretty great deal. Then we went back to the shop and I spent the afternoon with Jacob. We ran to Dwight to take care of a ticket, and then spent the remainder of the day in my office trying to convince Kelsea to move to Peru.

After work, I stopped by the wash to visit Summer, who was mostly busy with work stuff. They had several cars come in, which was good, but also meant I didn’t get to visit with her much. The wash was really impressive, but I’m still upset that they aren’t cleaning interiors.

From there, I went across town to visit with Mom. She worked really late, so I tried to get dinner warmed up for her before she walked in. I didn’t have to wait long though, and then she was more worried about feeding me than eating anything herself. I got everything warm and ate, and then she finished some soup and kicked me out before it got too late.

Autumn went to her father’s for the evening for some reason, but Eaddie and Summer were home. Eaddie was laying in Autumn’s bed for most of the evening just because her bed was messy. Eventually she came out to play some flute for us, and then everyone was off to bed. I stayed up chatting with Ben for a while just to get some advice in dealing with our new bully superintendent. I ended the night pretty defeated though, so it may just be time to go.

Burned Out

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Kick ‘Em When They’re Up

Summer had to work for a couple hours again today, so I ate some leftovers and headed home myself. I did a bit of poking around the house, cleaned and sorted things out, and took a shower. It seemed like a good day to be a shrimp. After I got cleaned up, I did a couple loads of laundry.

It was a little later when I got back to Summer’s. I cleaned up some leftovers while they watched TV, and then everyone filtered off to bed. I made it to bed early, both tired and bored from a largely wasted day.

Kick ‘Em When They’re Down

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Sand, Which is There

I woke up when the girls were getting around for their robotics tournament this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. As soon as Summer got up for work, I headed on home to recover from my night. I warmed up my week old Bronco sandwich from Ridgewood, and it would have still won in a flavor, tenderness, and juiciness against any other barbecue in town.

Mom was supposed to sleep in, but texted me a little while later asking if I wanted to come over for bánh mì. I thought I would be taking her to Ridgewood Brothers to check out the new restaurant sometime today, but she was more worried about finishing up leftovers before they went bad.

I showered and ran by Splash to check on Summer. Then I headed to eat with Mom, and hung out with her until Summer finished at work and the gym. Mom made her a sandwich that I had to carry around until after we did some shopping. I met Summer at Hobby Lobby, where Zach and Sara snuck up behind me. Then we went to Shoe Carnival, and finally Walmart for a relatively quick trip.

Summer headed home while I swapped cars. Then she spent all evening cleaning up the kitchen and making deviled eggs. The girls eventually came home from spending all day at the high school. Autumn immediately closed herself up in her room. Eaddie at least ate in the dining room while we were there, and then cleaned her room before bed. I was pretty tired myself, after a mostly boring day, so I didn’t stay up.

Refutious Says…

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Antici

I woke up on my anniversary with Summer, already dreading an evening with John and Melissa. I didn’t realize how emotional the day would become.

Shortly after our morning meeting, I got an email from Thomas saying that he needed to meet with me, and that the meeting was disciplinary in nature. Of course that got my mind reeling, wondering what I could have possibly done. I didn’t know if I had offended someone, or if I just wasn’t keeping myself busy enough. It’s been a slow time of year, but I’ve always offered to help anywhere possible.

I was eaten up with stress for the rest of the day. Gary took Zach, Greg, and me to IHOP where we coincidentally ran into Brody, who was upset that he had suggested IHOP multiple times but we would never go until after he left us.

I went to Dwight right after lunch to return a laptop, but didn’t learn anything there either. I headed back to the shop and eventually went to my meeting in Thomas’s office at 3:30 with Gary, who offered to stand in as a witness, or representation I suppose. I was written up for the parody poem of A Visit from St. Nicholas that I wrote for my CPPC minutes email earlier in the week.

I thought the poem was rather clever, but I have to assume that Ginni took it as an opportunity to twist the words and make it sound like I was speaking ill of the district. Though Thomas wrote the write-up himself, it seemed out of character for him to call me out on something like that so specifically. I have to assume that he was instructed to shut me down by the superintendent, because it’s the only way I can continue working for him for the time being.

My stomach had been in knots all day, so it didn’t even register that everyone left at four. Kyle found me in the office by myself, and then we left for the weekend. I drove by my parents’ house, but Mom was working late. I ended up back at home for a bit before going back across town. Mom was working really late though, and I ended up swinging by Brody’s house to take him for a ride.

We chatted for a bit afterward, and then I finally went to visit with Mom for a bit. We discovered a very small leak under the kitchen sink, so I cleaned up a bit but didn’t actually do anything to fix it. She said she was sleepy after a while, and I went home to trade vehicles and head to Summer’s.

Summer wanted to talk about my day, but I was already completely beaten down by it all. I killed a whole bunch of time and nearly left, but drank myself to bed instead.

What’s wrong with being me?

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Parkour Parking

Kayla called me to the Transportation office pretty early this morning, but this time they had questions about the CPPC minutes. I stayed and chatted with them for quite a while before making it back to the office. Then I ended up at Support Services for a quick ticket before lunch.

Brody said he was required to do volunteer work, but that there was no paperwork to fill out, or requirements about what he had to do, so he asked if he could come to the school to hang out. He wanted to go to Ridgewood for lunch, but after a quick stop there it was immediately obvious that we wouldn’t make it through the line in an hour. Instead, the guys wanted to drive out to London for Fat Daddy’s, which didn’t at all appeal to me, but I took Thomas anyway. My hot dog was fine, but ten dollars just felt stupid.

The afternoon was slow, but I finished up one old ticket with some help from Gary and Thomas. Then I went to Dwight to pick up a Chromebook that had some keys ripped off of it. Replacing the keyboard was really more like moving all of the components out of one chassis into another.

We had our department Christmas party at Nonna Bella’s in the evening, so I went home to change. Then Summer picked me up and we went to the restaurant. We arrived right in the middle of the whole group, and settled right in. Our server seemed a little slow, or at least, seemed not to be fully engaging her thought muscles. Thomas had to prompt her to get some food started so we wouldn’t be there all night just waiting for everyone. Travis was the last to show up, but I was glad he showed up. It was a good dinner, my pizza was delicious, and I had the giggles for most of it. I always enjoy holiday parties with the crew.

Getting out was a chore, because parking was so narrow. Travis ended up taking his giant truck offroading over the parking bumper just so the rest of us could get out. When Summer dropped me back off at home, I finally watched The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which I thought was great. It was much more sentimental than I expected, but it was a great end to the evening.

That sounds like sentiment, son!

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Dropped Merch

After not feeling well last night, I slept in today and then left for work a bit early, unrelatedly, so I could pick up some McDonald’s on the way in. They were supposed to have a merch drop with some kind of shirt or beanie, or possibly something else. Unfortunately I never got the notification in the app, and never made it to the store.

Work was pretty boring, as we lead up to break. I went back to McDonald’s again for some fries on my way to Dwight, but never got the link to the secret store for that either. When I got back to the shop, a group of us went to Quiznos for a proper lunch break. I just had a little cup of soup, since I had already eaten so much that morning.

When we got back to work, Gary sent me down the block to set up a computer for a new girl with Child Nutrition. Shane came by with some macarons from Kneading Hands Bakery, which were delicious. Then after work, I hung out with Gary while he upgraded the firewalls.

I went to see Mom when I left, and she had rice soup warming up for dinner. Summer needed to pick up a prescription from Rose Drug, so I offered to grab it quickly since I was already on that side of town. I went back to eat with Mom, and then headed home to change before going up to see the girls.

Autumn was finishing up with baking some cookies. Eaddie had been wanting to play Rocket League, so she got it loaded onto the Switch. She drove in circles a bit, and then had me actually play to show her how the game works. Playing on a new profile had such bad players that it was mostly everyone running into each other as they chased the ball. I didn’t play long on her profile though, because I didn’t want to get her into a rank where she couldn’t compete. I was surprised to see they moved the goals in from the outside walls for the hockey mode. That was neat.

The girls eventually went off to bed, and I wrapped up later than I wanted. Phase 10 still has my attention on the phone, but I managed not to check in on ExoMiner today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, though.

Probably not merch. ಠ_ಠ