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Mini Reunion

It was an odd and quiet day at work today. I heard a lot from Brody as usual, but not so much from anyone else. He’s been putting some work into learning his way around some of the Apple stuff, and was shocked to learn that doing so makes him the leading expert now.

I ended up taking a late lunch break and picking up a couple sandwiches from Subway, then surprised Summer at work. We ate quickly, and then it was back to work. It wasn’t until the end of the day that Gary came around to my office and chatted for a bit about this weekend’s class reunion. He seemed to think I should have just come out, but also understood why I didn’t. Fortunately he and a few of the people I actually did care about were getting together at Taco Villa for dinner, so he invited me out for that.

Most everyone was there by the time I pulled up. Robert and Grant were talking to Mike, and Gary and Jon showed up right after I did. The building was packed as usual, but we squeezed in and got our orders placed. Then Gary and I just carried food outside for everyone so we weren’t using up all the oxygen in the place.

I mostly sat and listened, but I was glad the others had a chance to catch up. It was a proper boys night out, and I got to hear stories about Jon being a shithead. That was most of the stories. Grant did show us their building design, and hopefully the bank will sign off so they can break ground soon.

We didn’t stay terribly late, and I went home for the night. I had to scrounge up enough packaging to ship off an old TV remote I sold on eBay. I honestly never thought it would sell, but here we are. It wasn’t worth much, but it’ll pay for lunch… or half of lunch.

Keep it short. It’ll be less awkward.

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Buddy Thing

I didn’t let myself sleep in today, and got up to finish the leftover chicken tacos from weeks ago. Summer got the girls up and around, and eventually we left for a day in Conway. We went to Kohl’s first so Summer could look for some clothes. As we finished up, I wanted to run through the guy’s clearance, and that’s where I ran into Kyle and Terri. It was great getting to catch up with him for a bit, because it’s been ages since I’ve seen them since they moved to Conway.

As they had to run, the girls rushed me out so we could find some food. We landed on Golden Corral since we had over an hour to kill before the movie. I stuffed myself pretty silly and paid the price in various cramps during the show. Venom wasn’t even playing in 3D at all back home, so we settled for a smaller screen in Conway again.

The movie was relatively forgettable, much like the first. It was mostly a buddy film, with not much of a story, especially for an iconic villain. I was glad to see them fold the cinematic universes together at the end, though It was a bit jarring how they did it. The whole thing felt super forced, so hopefully the final result isn’t awful. I think we’re going to be going off the rails from here on out though.

When we made it back home, the girls got ready for bed. Eaddie and I stayed up for a couple episodes of House, where we got to a less procedural episode. I like it when they try different things like that in long-running shows.

Disappointment is anger for wimps.

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Let Your Hearts Grow a Little Fonderer

I woke up in an anxiety attack this morning, which was a new experience for me. Summer was there, so I just clutched onto her and rode it out. I vaguely remember an unpleasant dream, but I don’t really thing that set it off. We got up after a little while and she took the girls home while I worked on the house. I sort of had a direction I wanted to go, but I didn’t really execute it very well. Hopefully it’s at least staged for next time so I can jump right in.

I think I want to run some new speaker wire soon, and I might as well unbox the other two tower speakers I have left, if only to get the oversized shipping boxes out of the way. I keep getting caught up in the fantasy of moving into a larger house, but I need to remember our goal of just saving money. We could be making even faster progress if we’d focus on those efforts when it comes to shopping and food, but we’re just too comfortable.

Summer and Eaddie came back after a while to ride their bikes to the tennis courts. I kept doing what I was doing on into the late evening, though I slowed down kind of early. My 20-year high school reunion was this weekend, and I’ve been saying I didn’t want to go ever since the five-year. I don’t think I was feeling regret, but maybe a little sadness because I didn’t feel regret?

School wasn’t a particularly fun experience for me. I cycled through a couple close friends from first grade through 12th, but overall didn’t have a whole lot of love for anyone I grew up around. I’m sure there were some people there that I wouldn’t have minded seeing, but overall I felt indifference toward most everyone I saw in the pictures. I don’t know if that makes me a worse human, or just a cranky old man filled with bitter grudges. I’m not sure I care about that either. As far as I’m concerned, the simulation isn’t rendered much beyond my character viewpoint anyway. I hope everyone is doing well for the most part, but I don’t think anybody that I really would have wanted to see was making an appearance.

When I wrapped up at home, I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Autumn was still at a band event, so the three of us that remained watched The Voice until Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I watched two episodes of House before she went to bed. Autumn made it home and reported that her band and color guard both placed first. Then it was off to bed.

I’m happy to stay in touch if anyone wants. I just don’t think anyone wants.

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Alumna Foil

I rolled into work a little late again today. I guess it’s that time of year that I need to set my alarm about five minutes earlier. We had a brief meeting to go over some things for the newbies, and then Thomas showed us his requirements for the three new tech levels, assuming they will be written into policy this year.

The morning went by relatively quickly as I struggled to make things work the way I wanted. When lunch time came around, multiple people reached out to me about lunch, but then it seemed like we were splitting into two groups because the Service Plus guys were going to have a little reunion. For whatever reason, everyone kept waiting for the holy trinity to leave, which ended up making Gary yell at us for standing around. It’s been nothing but mixed signals, and I’m over it.

We ended up driving in four groups to Brangus, but Greg and Josh didn’t make it in time to eat with their old coworkers. We didn’t even sit in the same room because I was the one that requested the table and nobody would tell me how many people we actually had coming. We ended up removing a table, and then bringing it back when Josh and his wife and baby showed up. By the time it was all said and done, there were nine of us there to eat.

Lunch ran long because we left about half an hour late. When we got back, Zach kind of got on to me about not skipping out on the group lunch to go help Jacob hang a touch panel at the junior high. It wouldn’t have mattered, except that Central Office called to tell us to go home at three. I ended up just loading up a truck and bringing it to Jacob by myself in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a huge rush to begin with.

I made it back to the shop just before three, and tried to finish up some weekly paperwork before going home. That’s about the time the lights went out and Thomas, for the first time that I’ve ever seen since he started in July, came through the shop and shut everything down. Normally office lights, shop lights, TVs, and everything are all left on as everyone goes home and I’m the one that goes through the effort to save a buck.

With him hollering at me to leave since there was nobody left to turn paperwork into, I went home and waited for the girls to show up. I picked up a few things to make some room, and then Summer and Eaddie eventually showed up after the homecoming parade. Summer wasn’t there long though, and got called in to work to look at something. Eaddie was hungry and wanted me to take her out for some pasta, but I made her wait for Summer to get back.

When Summer finally got back, we tried going to Venezia’s and had to bypass a stopped train. Failing that, we went across town to Pasta Grill. They had a mob of people waiting outside, so we took the overpass back to Venezia’s to see if they were any better. The parking lot was full and Summer decided she needed to get to the football game, so Eaddie hopped in my car. We thought we’d try waiting for Summer to be done at Autumn’s game, but got stuck at the train again going back to my house for about 35 minutes.

Summer made it to the game to watch Autumn present the flag for JROTC, and after committing to wait for the train to leave, Eaddie and I made it back to the house. When Summer got back, we tried going to Pasta Grill again. I found a parking space that was labeled as a tow zone for non banking customers, but the bank was closed and I thought I’d take a chance. As we walked across the street though, we saw there was still a mob of people waiting to get in. I didn’t want to deal with any of that homecoming nonsense, and the girls were too hungry to wait any longer anyway, so we left.

At the end of the day, CiCi’s had it. It was my speed of people, with no dresses or six-inch spike heels, or really anybody I didn’t want to see. The food was good, and we even got a whole custom spinach alfredo with mushrooms pizza delivered to the table after nobody else in the restaurant would claim it. The biggest problem we had was carrying out everything we had eaten.

They closed up a couple hours earlier than their posted hours, which I thought was super weird for a Friday night. We headed back home and split right up. Eaddie went to her room to watch a movie. Summer went to bed. I stayed up, but for no real reason since Eaddie didn’t want to watch TV with me until her movie was over. Autumn eventually made it home from the game, and everyone went to sleep.

From everything to nothing.

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Hung Like a Bicycle

Again, it didn’t rain today. It didn’t even really look like rain most of the day, but it got humid in the evening. I didn’t get enough sleep, so it was a bit rough getting in to work. Once there, I just dove right back into my project.

Brody called for Bocadillos for lunch, so four of us made the trip to meet him down in Dardanelle. Evidently they have all-you-can-eat enchiladas on Thursdays, so we’ll have to go sometime for those and some dessert.

The afternoon was relatively quiet, but still mostly unsuccessful. I just haven’t had any luck this week. When I left work, I stopped by the shop to see Summer for a little while. She was actually in the office for a change. She showed me her cleaned up stock, and then I headed home.

I finally drilled some holes in the wall for a single bike mount. With my luck, one of my five screw holes hit a nail, so the load-bearing mount only has two of the three screws in. It creaks a bit too much for my comfort when you swing the bike around. On top of that, somehow my perfectly level screw holes lead to a slightly slanted mount. The mountain bikes are so heavy that I’m not entirely sure I trust those mounts, especially if someone eventually parks next to them. I guess some time with a bike up on the wall will comfort me.

And the walls kept tumbling down…

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Mmmm… hungry.

It was supposed to rain today, but I don’t think it ever actually did. It would have been a fine day to ride again, but I was happier to get my four return packages shipped off anyway. I kept trying to figure out a way to deploy a C++ compiler for Ethan’s classes, but no matter what I do it doesn’t seem to like something about our setup.

A group of us went to Quiznos for lunch, and the whole time we were there I just kept thinking about how the food is always just okay, but always feels like it’s missing a whole lot of something. I very seldom leave satisfied, and I was left hungry for the entire rest of the day. I think I’ve only ever had one sandwich there that I really enjoyed. Next time I’m going to go all-in with the vegetables to see if they look at me like I’m crazy. Subway never flinches.

After lunch, I ran to Oakland for a bit to try and fix an issue. Then it was back to the shop for a relatively slow moving afternoon. Even with that, I still can’t help but feel like time is just flying by this year. I still can’t get a grip. I feel like I’m constantly losing time.

After work, I went by to see Summer at work. While I was there, I printed a return label that I forgot to print at work, and then dropped off my last package at Walgreens for return by FedEx. Then it was home to try and pull focus on some more junk.

I got sidetracked a bit in the garage, but cleaned up one tiny box. I guess it had to be done at some point anyway. We may try to host something tiny for Halloween, so I’ve got a lot more to do in a month’s time.

I have hunger.

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If It Doesn’t Fit, It Ships!

Today was relatively quiet for me. I spent most of the day helping others with things they didn’t know how to do, which can be fun. When lunch time came around, Summer wanted to go to New China. I went to meet her, but discovered they are closed on Tuesdays now, so we went next door to La Huerta instead. They had a pretty good lunch special for three tacos, and our service was awesome. It was plenty to fill up without feeling overstuffed.

After lunch, I went to Oakland for a while to take care of some things. Then I went to the high school to help Brody for a bit. As I pulled into the high school, I saw that they had a helicopter in the parking lot with a group of people around it. I didn’t stare too hard, so I couldn’t really tell what it was from, but seeing aircraft in unexpected places is always fun.

I spent the last part of the day working on some things for myself in my office. I made it home a bit late and tried to keep busy cleaning up. I loaded some recycling into the car for tomorrow, and packaged up a whole bunch of returns to take to the post office. I ordered so many pairs of jeans from Old Navy, only to decide that I have no business wearing anything without some level of elasticity. With my size, my bits flex and squish into different shapes depending on how I’m moving around. It doesn’t help that I’ve always worn my pants too high, so they fit around my belly that really does most of the shifting. Things that fit when standing don’t fit when sitting. The flex also makes mounting motorcycles way easier, so there’s just no reason to ever go back to stiff pants.

I ended the evening scheduling a bunch of Microsoft virtual training courses for the free certification exam vouchers afterward. I’m sure it will be just as awful as that sounds. I fully expect them all to be sales pitches.

Imagine my surprise, the certifications are a trap.

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License to Deploy

The folks at PLTW have been a bit slow to respond, so I was happy to come in to a new license file today that ultimately resolved the issues I was having. It didn’t unwaste the time I burned on it last week, but at least I could close the ticket.

Lunch time came and went pretty quickly. I was just going to go home for a break a bit late since I never heard from anyone else, but on the way out Zach asked me out, so we went to Mulan’s together. He still wouldn’t tell me the big secret, but I didn’t really figure he would.

After lunch was much more relaxed since my big project was out of the way. I ended the day at Oakland running a quick HDMI cable through the ceiling and banging my head against a SMART board. I finally just gave up on that one and left.

I stopped by to see Summer at the shop, but they were pretty busy for a moment and I didn’t really get to talk to her. They were slow both times we drove by during lunch, and apparently they had only just broken the trend. I fought her bathroom door for a bit because it was wedging into the doorframe, but I didn’t have much luck.

Finally I went home to finish up some laundry and decompress for the evening. I even tried to treat myself to eight full hours of sleep.

Still better than the live action movie.

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Clean Up, Settle Up

Autumn had to work today, and Eaddie was still with her father for the weekend, so Summer and I got up to a day to ourselves. We ate some leftovers for breakfast, and before too long I headed home to clean up. I spent the entire day in and out of the garage trying to clean things out so I can park in there again. There were plenty of big things I could move around, and there’s still plenty more to go.

Summer showed up after her workout and kept me company, but by that time I was feeling really tired and clammy as it got warmer outside. I started slowing down quite a bit and really just wanted a shower, so she went home while I cleaned up.

Just as I was getting ready for a shower, I remembered that Little Caesar’s had a promotional $5 ExtraMostBestest deal, so I ran across town to pick one of those up instead. The guy at the window was super nice and polite, and the pizza was one of the prettier I’ve had from there. The crust was overly thick in some places though, and it looked more like a regular sparsely-topped pepperoni than an ExtraMostBestest. It was good though, and fit my craving.

After my shower, I was feeling really sleepy, and it felt like it should have been about eight or nine o’clock. I kept picking up and started making some ice cream before my milk and cream could go bad. Unfortunately I warmed the milk up too much when mixing the dry ingredients, so it never quite got down to freezing as it spun. I just had to pour it into some cups to stick in the freezer instead.

To wrap up the night, I had to comb through my Discover Card transactions to pull out Autumn’s purchases again. You’d think there would be a way to easily separate authorized users from everyday transactions, but there’s just not without looking at the details of each transaction. Luckily I know that I almost never go to Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Tropical Smoothie, Dollar General, or Dollar Tree.

I always play banker.

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Pessimist in Denial

I mistakenly told Summer not to let me sleep in too late today, so she got me out of bed way earlier than I was ready. I ached from the lack of sleep all day long. I had some leftovers for breakfast and eventually made it home to clean up. The grill cover I had to buy from a scalper off of eBay showed up, so I got the new grill moved outside. Eventually I got a shower and Summer showed up so we could go help Dad cover the pool.

When we got there, he said Uncle Rick tested positive for COVID, so he was trying to be careful while we were there. We covered the pool and then took off for Lowe’s.

We only needed to pick up the air filters I ordered for her, but Summer and I walked around the store for a while first. They had some nice bathroom vanity displays up, so we spent a while back there before making it through some more of the store. Then we picked up the filters on the way out.

We were both a little hungry by then, and she wanted seafood, so I took her down the road to Sam’s. We ordered the big fish, shrimp, and crab cakes platter I usually get, along with a smaller one with some chicken and shrimp to share. I wish I had just gotten the gumbo instead, because it made me feel like crap the rest of the night.

As we left, Summer expressed how she often visualizes worst-case scenarios in her mind. It finally dawned on me that she has really just been a pessimist all along and didn’t realize it. Every example I could come up with lead to her thinking of the most negative outcome. With that insight, I figure I’m an optimist in denial.

I wanted to clean up the house when we got back, but I barely picked at anything. It got hot outside with the sun shining directly into the garage, and I was already feeling sleepy. Summer went home and I tried to pick at a couple more things before following after her.

Autumn came home as we were watching Modern Family, and it was quickly off to bed for her. We didn’t stay up very late either. Hopefully I can make some use of tomorrow.

Spit Fire