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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.

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“Banquet” Is Just a Fancy Word for ”Dinner”

Summer stayed home today after dropping the girls off at school, which let me stay in bed a bit longer. I couldn’t really sleep though, so I got up and started looking for more jobs. I got a couple rejection emails, but only for two out of the four applications I submitted, so I’m still cautiously hopeful for the other two. I saved a few other listings, but for some reason I’m afraid to apply for too many at once, and in reality that’s probably just making me lose opportunities.

I steamed some rice and fried up some leftover pork chops for a nice lunch, and eventually made it home to clean up after Summer left the house to get some work done. I picked Autumn up after school and brought her home, but Eaddie stayed for robotics, which had a banquet scheduled for the evening.

Once it was time to go, Summer and I went to Walmart for some desserts and then headed to the high school. The banquet was pretty neat, and they had catered Taco Villa for dinner. While we waited for everyone to show up, I talked to Ethan for a bit about my predicament with the school. Then once they were ready to kick things off, we ate, celebrated the students, and watched them present some awards.

We had to wait for Eaddie to help tear everything down at the end, so I got roped into helping set the cafeteria back up. While we were doing that, one of the older parents noticed my Woot! shirt. It was raining pretty hard by the time we were ready to leave, so I got the car and picked up Summer. Then we drove around the building to get Eaddie and one of her robotics friends from downstairs, and dropped her off on the way home.

Summer stayed up late reading over Quiz Bowl questions while Eaddie and I watched an episode of Breaking Bad. Then it was off to bed while listening to the rain.

I am the one who knocks!

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Fire Chicken

Eaddie decided she was going to stay home again today to catch up on homework, so I only had to drop Autumn off at the high school. I thought I’d crash the CPPC meeting in the morning, but as the time approached and I didn’t really have a reliable laptop, I chickened out. That pretty well set the tone for the day, though I wanted to get outside to try and clean up the back yard a bit. If I wasn’t going to accomplish anything for work, then I figured I ought to at least accomplish something for home.

Summer was slow at work and could take a lunch break with me, so I picked her and Eaddie up to go to New China. Afterward I dropped them off back at the shop so Summer could take Eaddie home, and I went back to my house for just a bit. Bác Vân was outside, so I talked to her a bit and went inside to power cycle her mesh router. I mentioned wanting to burn the back yard, but then it started to rain a bit.

I hung out at home for a little while, but then Summer said Eaddie wanted me to come help her with her programming homework. I hate programming, and trying to make sense of her code in a language I don’t understand just frustrated the both of us. I ended up spending the evening watching Modern Family with Summer until she went to bed.

Autumn had her final basketball game in Pine Bluff, so I had to wait until late to pick her up from the high school. Then it was straight to bed once we got home.

Fire off the apps!

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Páusé/Résumé

We dropped Autumn off at Dwight again today, but then went to my house to swap cars before dropping Eaddie off. She had made a comment yesterday about not getting dropped off in the Tesla, so I figured, “why not?”

I tried not to get too comfortable once I got home. I’ve spent too long wallowing and getting distracted. I got to work building a timeline of my career with the school, and felt pretty good about what I had. It may be false confidence. It usually is.

Bác Vân and Doug were outside all day working in the yard, and I wanted to go out to help, but I was afraid of getting too distracted. Instead, I only left the house to get some tacos for a late lunch. Then I got to work translating my résumé from the old Word file. I was worried about how it would look in Google Docs, but they improved the DOCX conversion, and I was able to copy and paste in large chunks instead of having to hand-type everything again. The hardest part by far was making the last, intentionally blank page, though that seemed counterintuitive.

Autumn had asked in the morning to go to the junior high concert after school. I confirmed with Eaddie that she actually wanted to go, but then Autumn wanted me to shuttle her boyfriend around afterward. I just knew she only wanted to go for that reason, so I shut it down. It was such a surprise when she decided she’d rather just go home after basketball practice instead of sticking around. I took her to Taco John’s for a cheap dinner, where Patrick came around the counter to chat for a bit when she went to the restroom. Then we made it back to my house just in time for Summer to pick her up and head home.

I waited the rest of the evening until Eaddie was ready to be picked up from the concert, and then we headed up the hill as well. I warmed up some leftovers for her while she chatted in bed with Summer. Then I had to change some settings on her iPhone to get MMS messages to work. Evidently the phone remembered that the Fi app was installed with my account, and wouldn’t associate with her data. With that, everyone was off to bed, leaving me to dawdle online. It may be time to do something about the attention deficit.

Never quit never quitting.

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Low Charge

I had to get up early to get the girls to school this morning. Autumn went to Dwight, and Eaddie went to the high school. Then I went home and stayed up to do a little cleaning and laundry. I also tried to research what would be involved in installing my Tesla wall connector, which didn’t seem too bad, but I really need to find an electrician.

Overall I was pretty disappointed in myself for not being more productive. I could have done more, but I just had trouble keeping focus. It’s too easy to get sidetracked until the next responsibility comes up.

Summer came back to town for work in the afternoon, so I picked up some Taco John’s for us and we ate at Superfast. Then I went back home to wait for her until it was time to go to the girls’ midwinter concert. Both of us had trouble staying awake for the first band, but the Symphonic band was much better.

After the concert, we got frustrated with the girls because they kept running around with their friends instead of seeing their family. Eaddie kept trying to come up with some other plan to avoid going with either us or her father. Autumn of course wanted to take her boyfriend out to eat with him though. We ended up leaving alone, and Summer dropped me off at home.

The Model 3 was taking forever to charge, so I investigated that for a moment and found an error that it slowed charging because it detected the outlet was getting too hot. I unplugged it for a couple minutes and then got it going again, so hopefully my house doesn’t burn down.

I finally made it up to Summer’s for the evening, followed by Autumn, and then Eaddie since she went with Maristella instead of her father. I have a bit of anxiety this week over deciding whether to try and meet the work crew at Taco John’s, and then the CPPC meeting the following day.

Fight depression.

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And Then What Are You Going to Do?

I made ham, egg, and cheese bagels for breakfast this morning. Then I spent some time researching law and combining cell phone plans. Three of us are finally on one plan together, which means we all get unlimited data on Fi for less than our individual plans. I’ve been stingy with my data for over five years, so this has the potential to be life-changing.

Summer made it to the gym and back while I tinkered. I already had fresh clothes, so I showered in what little hot water was left after hers instead of going home. I talked her into going to Little Rock with me to see the new Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in IMAX, so we stopped for gas, and then I swapped cars and picked her up. Autumn had homework to finish, and Eaddie didn’t have any interest in a completely-CGI film that required too much suspense of disbelief.

As we neared Little Rock, Summer found a Mediterranean place called Al Seraj for us to eat. It was more of a deli in a tiny market store, and they were more or less empty other than a couple groups of people coming through to shop. The food was great though, and the guy said they have a buffet throughout the week. I think that’d be pretty awesome.

We made it to the theater in plenty of time, though it was pretty dead too. I thought the movie was really good, with plenty of laughs and a few surprises. It did a fine job of setting up the next phase.

Afterward, we drove straight home except for a stop in Atkins to let Summer drive. She said autopilot hadn’t worked for her, and I forgot you had to enable it in the settings. I didn’t realize it until we were on the road again, but the car had to be in park to change the setting, so she stopped again in Pottsville, and then tried autopilot for the last couple miles home.

I dropped her off at home, and then went to Cogswell to try and find their EV charger. I was hoping it would give me a big boost, but after hanging out for nearly an hour, I only charged about 7%. At that point, I decided I should head home to clean up before making it back to Summer’s.

Autumn still hadn’t finished her homework, even after bargaining to go to Clarksville overnight, and even asking to go to Fort Smith this morning. She failed to get it done at the study session with Jennifer at the mall, so we tried to motivate her to finish before bed. Summer and Eaddie went to bed, and I laid down to compose some thoughts before getting back up to finish my nightly routine.

Win.