Uncategorised

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!

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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’;

Uncategorised

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.