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Tired

Someone decided it would be a good idea to start work two hours early today so we could beat the heat. I wouldn’t suggest that they were wrong, but my pants were still completely wet by the time we got everything moved from the junior high back to our shop, and then took all of the trash out to the recycle bin. It would have been a little warmer out by 8:00, but I don’t think it made enough of a difference. The humidity after the rain yesterday was just absolutely suffocating.

We also learned that Mike turned in his notice, and I don’t even know if we’ll see him again. Hopefully he’s healing up and on the road to recovery, but I can’t say I was terribly surprised or even necessarily upset. It is what it is.

Once everyone was rested up, a few of us moved everything out of my office into Gary’s old office. I wish I had seen how the desk drawers came out, because that would have saved me quite a bit of grief. I’ll still have to unpack more later, and I really have better things to do.

I thought we’d take lunch earlier than we did, but we only went a few minutes earlier than we normally do. The Service Plus boys wanted Waffle House, and I couldn’t argue with that after hitting my steps goals before 9AM. I had one of the lesser burgers I’ve ever had from there, but the hash browns were perfectly awful for me.

After lunch, I had to go by the junior high to help Jessica with importing her new laptops into the library system. I thought they knew how, but evidently they had no clue, and after seeing Ben’s documentation, there’s no wonder why. Fortunately I’ll actually see him tomorrow to explain what the heck I’m supposed to do.

I ended up leaving work much later than I thought, and went to Summer’s shop to get my new tires. There, they were experiencing trouble with their air system, which incidentally ran just about everything, including the tire machine. Unfortunately my car was already disassembled with all of the air out of the tires, so I was stuck until we either fixed the issue or built up enough pressure in the tank to run the machine.

I helped Alex with the whole process mostly so that I could learn how to do it myself next time. I may not still have access to the machinery in another 50,000 miles, but at least I’ll know what’s involved if I get the opportunity to do it myself in the future. We got all four tires mounted, and even found the bulge in my old tire that was causing the shaky ride and starboard drift. I ran home to get some cash to pay, then went straight to my parents’ house to take a dip in the pool.

Dad pulled up next to me right by Western Sizzlin, but I didn’t notice until the light changed and he pulled ahead of me. I followed them there and went straight for the pool. The water was really warm and gross, and the floor of the pool was covered in dead algae. I could see the path I was leaving everywhere I went. While I was in there, I video called Eaddie just to check in, and found an AR model that put my face on a swimmer. It had us cracking up that I could dip my face in the water and blow bubbles in the animation.

I stuck around for just a few minutes to chat after I got out, and then went back to the shop to finish moving my stuff to the new office. I didn’t unpack everything, but at least moved everything into the room so it would be out of everyone else’s way. Then I finally made it up to Summer’s house for the evening.

Summer had already eaten and was relaxing with some TV. I warmed up some leftovers, ate, and then laid in her lap until she went to bed. Then we talked for a bit before she went to sleep and I wrapped my own day up.

TL;DR

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Overtaken by My Own Shadow

It was a quiet, brainy day at work today. I made some progress, but it was slower than I would have liked. I didn’t get distracted much, but I did get frustrated a couple times with others pulling my attention, which I’m sure is why Gary is so grumpy most of the time.

Brody wanted to go to Fat Daddy’s in London, but they were evidently closed due to staffing issues. The same went for Zaxby’s. Slim Chickens was a solid win today with the salad I got, and then we dropped off some strips for Summer, who was stuck in the pit all day.

I left near quitting time today and went by the shop to order some new tires for the Murano before going up to Summer’s to heat up her lasagna. I made it about halfway to her house before I realized I didn’t have keys to get in because I was on the Shadow, so I ran back home to change and get the keys.

As I came back outside, I hopped on the bike and started to pull away, only barely remembering to get the keys. I stood up to get off and immediately lost all balance due to the low, heavy nature of the bike. I had forgotten that I already lifted the kickstand, so the bike tumbled over on top of me and threw me to the ground. I avoided any major damage, but the handlebar controls and mirrors got a bit out of whack. The handlebars themselves were still bent from before I got the bike, so the only new “damage” was to the rear, left turn signal that now rattles from something being broken off inside it.

I finally made it up to Summer’s with bruised palms, and heated up the lasagna and baked some garlic bread. She and Autumn both made it home from work and we ate. Then Summer had to tend to some work business as we waited for the scattered showers to wane enough for me to make it back home for the evening.

I tried to pick up a little, and ended up on a trip down Memory Lane when I found a bunch of folders from my time at NEW. Then I went to bed as hastily as I could, since someone decided that working at 6am tomorrow will be fun when moving some old laptops around at the junior high. At least by then it will have reached the day’s low of 74º.

More like PowerHell.

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One Tubby Tubby!

I realized pretty quickly this morning that things have started moving and changing at work. The conference table was in the shop area, and Gary had moved to the office across from mine. As soon as he has the rest of his stuff out of his old office, I’ll be moving in there.

The big project for the day was to assemble “the rest” of the tech tubs we had and deliver them to fifth grade. The wingnuts on those things had my finger and thumb pretty raw by lunch time. We assembled all but one of them before it was time to eat. Nobody cared about my input for lunch, and Thomas suggested Johnny’s, so I relented and went along with the rest of the crew. It was every bit as awful as I remembered it being. The prices were low compared to other restaurants, but the menu was uninspired. My broccoli cheese potato was just the insides of a potato and a can of soup microwaved together.

After lunch, we delivered the tubs in the sweltering humidity. Then it was back to the shop where we discovered six of the new teacher devices had been delivered. From then on, it was my job to figure out imaging, which I was not at all prepared to do. I worked about an hour and a half late to get something done, and it still didn’t work when I left.

I went home to change, then went to the shop to see if I could get my car up on the lift. Something in either a wheel or the suspension has been shaking, but Summer had been too busy to help me look. I wandered around the shop until she finished up, and then headed up to her place to make some rice to go along with our leftovers for dinner.

Ronda chatted with me for a bit, but otherwise it was a quiet and uneventful evening. Summer was exhausted and went to bed early. I felt restless, but couldn’t do much else.

How absolutely unsatisfying.

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Blow Me

We didn’t sleep in super late, but laid around for a while this morning before getting around. Summer’s car was at her house, so I had to take her home before I could get into anything. Autumn wanted her to make a lasagna for dinner, but I made plans to take my parents out for an early anniversary dinner instead.

Once I was ready to leave the house, I met Summer at Walmart to pick up some groceries and check out the store remodel. They ripped out all of the wood grain flooring and left everything on polished concrete, which kind of made everything a bit louder and more warehouse-like. It was pretty clear they weren’t done yet, so hopefully there will be some good changes.

They had one long aisle of clearance stuff, where I picked up two overpriced hairdryers. Reviews weren’t much help, so I figured I would just return the one I liked the least. One of them looked like a travel dryer, and pushed about as much air as you would get from a hotel dryer. The other was cheaper, but I still wasn’t sure it was worth twice the price of a cheapo model.

When we got back to Summer’s, we unloaded groceries and she prepped a lasagna to bake for dinner later in the week, and then we met Autumn, Julie, and my parents at Western Sizzlin. Things started out pretty rough, but settled as well as they could have, I suppose. I ate too much, but at least a part of that was a plate full of kale.

The girls came home with me only for a minute to get some things, and then left me to do some laundry. It was then that I unboxed and tinkered with the hair dryers. I really expected more after all that fancy packaging, but I should have gone with my gut and just gotten a cheap fan-in-a-tube. Everything else is just bullshit marketing. Seriously? Ions to coat and protect your hair? With socks dried, presorted, resorted, and stored, it was time for bed.

Have you tried being less awful?

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Single File to the Cioppa!

I couldn’t sleep in much today, and got up to rummage for some leftovers for breakfast. We sat around for a bit before Summer went to the gym and I headed home to try and motivate myself back into cleaning. I got some piles of old paperwork sorted and trashed or filed, and did a few odds and ends here and there. Summer came over after the gym and put in some major work in the back yard. She stacked all of the firewood that was piled up in the back, and even consolidated the larger logs that will have to be split later.

Every time I went outside, my body started to just seep moisture from every surface. I don’t know how Summer does it, and I absolutely hate it. I’m just ready for winter to come along so we can burn some wood now. I couldn’t believe she finished the entire pile of wood, so I treated her to a steak dinner at Colton’s.

Nearing the end of our meal, Cole and Aimee were seated at a table next to us, and I hadn’t seen Cole in several years. We didn’t chat too long though, since they had other family there as well. When we left, we came back to my house for the evening. Summer watched some TV while I just barely poked around, not feeling super smurfy. It really feels like a switch was flipped, and I’m just completely drained all of the time now. Everything hurts, and is more difficult than it should be.

This just won’t do.

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I’ll Be Your Pilot Today

I slept in just a hair this morning since our appointment with the lawyer was an hour after I normally get to work. I thought I was going to be late, but I ended up arriving first, just before Mom and Dad. It took more time for him to write down their names than anything else, because he immediately told us he didn’t do, or even recommend what we were asking about. Julie showed up at the tail end of it, and then we left to go discuss things amongst ourselves at their house.

Things went predictably, with seemingly no real personal growth for anyone. The aggravating thing is that Julie and I actually agreed on the financials, which was the important part of the conversation. I had previously suggested speaking to an accountant, and I think we should have done that first, because we really need someone to just crunch the numbers first, because the problem we’re trying to solve is almost entirely math. The legal stuff is already in order.

After Julie left, they wanted to look at homes and land for sale the old fashioned way, so Mom had me drive them around while they looked through neighborhoods. That took us at least a couple hours, plus a stop at my house for a bathroom break. Bác Vân came out and talked with us for a little bit, and then we continued on up the other mountain.

Dad and I got pretty hungry after a while, and he suggested CiCi’s. We never could tell how hungry Mom was, but she went along with it. For such a late lunch, the food was hardly fresh, so I had them make a supreme on top of spinach for us. Then we went to Lowe’s so Dad could pick up an order and we could walk around a little bit.

When I got them back home, Mom wanted to review some cars, so we poked around YouTube for a bit. Then I finally made it home and tried to do a bit of picking up. The evening went by pretty quickly, but I got a few things filed and put away. I also got the guest bathroom measured and modeled, so now I can print them both out and write in some measurements to order some tile. Next up will be deciding on fixtures.

The vast majority of the world doesn’t care about your issues. Live accordingly.

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Elementary, My Dear

Thomas and Zach were both out today, so Gary had to run the show without screaming at anyone. Most everyone had work orders they could tend to, and he was stressing over emails from central office, so I helped with what I could. I had to get a couple computers set up for new hires to fill out background check information, but I’m not sure what they asked for was really the best implementation. I don’t suppose I’m paid to make those kinds of decisions though.

Gary, Kyle, and I went to Foodies for lunch, and I don’t think Rob recognized me, which is fine because I don’t guess we know each other very well anyway. I went light with a gyro and no side, but Gary gave me the last of his fries that he didn’t want to finish.

I went by Oakland for a while in the afternoon and took care of some stuff there for the first time in a really long time. The few people I encountered there were super happy to see me, or perhaps just to see anyone there to help. Then I made it back to the shop for quitting time. Tammy was there a bit late waiting for her ride, so I stuck it out with her and helped move some files around for Kayla, who took her prior duties at the high school.

Once she left, I went to my parents’ house to finish the fish soup, and we had more conversations with feelings. I don’t know why people get so excitable. Back home, Summer was exhausted from a long day at work and went to bed early.

Just hatch a chicken.

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I Watched, I Let it Burn

Gary actually had me join him for some higher level systems stuff today, but what it really turned into was some babysitting while a guy from Pure Storage came and replaced the controllers in our drive array. It was still cool to be a part of it, and while we were in the main server room, I initiated a quick cleanup of some of the trash that had been neglected over time. It ended up taking through lunch, so I grabbed a Soylent for Gary while we waited. Greg ended up bringing him food, but I wasn’t really hungry enough to eat out and decided to stick with the bagel and kiwis I had brought.

I spent the afternoon in the office just picking at random things until it was time to go. Then I got some gas for the R1 and stopped by AT&T to check on Kevin. We chatted for a bit since they were pretty dead, and then I went on to the shop to see Summer.

When she got off work, we went to my parents’ house for leftover fish soup, and then stayed to chat while Dad brought out some stereo slides. I told him I thought we should get out the slide projector sometime this winter so the girls could come cuddle up on the couch and have a look at some real history; the important stuff – not that boring stuff they teach you in school.

Autumn got home shortly after we did, and Summer and I watched some YouTube. Bác Vân stopped by with some bánh bao that they made at Linhs, but it wasn’t anywhere near as good as Mom’s. Then it was off to bed.

I don’t care! I love it!

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Perfect Plating

Brody and I went up to sign our contracts this morning, and he was paid more than double this month for some reason. Our new payroll lady didn’t have any real answers for him, but if it was me, I would have just kept the money on the front end and let them skip my last check. I got a pretty big bump compared to every other year because of the 3.5% increase to the base pay across the board. Inflation in action.

After that, we spent the whole day at the junior high again, first with RCVA laptops, and then finishing up two of the rooms that had display changes. We had to wait on a couple of the laptops to image, and then we delivered them to the RCVA office where the only two ladies there were both in VR goggles for some goddamn reason??? It’s for the children, I’m sure.

Sara joined a big group of us for lunch at Western Sizzlin, and I tried going lighter than usual. It still wasn’t exactly healthy, but I didn’t leave feeling like I needed to be popped. Then it was a long afternoon finishing up Brody’s last two rooms. For the first time, I managed to fit two HDMI keystones into a wall plate for a super clean install in Mickey’s room.

We were both super sapped all afternoon for some reason, and I don’t think it was the food. We were just tired and didn’t want to move. As soon as quitting time rolled around, I rode across town for gas, then to see Summer briefly in the pit. Then I went home to wait for her before going to my parents’ house for dinner.

Mom had bún bò Huế ready when we got there, so we ate and I showed them the quick 3D model I built of the master bathroom. I suppose it left a lot to be desired, but looking at it through a lens of what I’m hoping to do, having the visual representation of the space really helped me make some decisions on the space.

When we got back home, Summer watched an episode of Master Chef and then dove straight into bed. I didn’t do much more, but waited up for Autumn to get home from a late night at work.

Methinks he doth prestige too hard.

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Shuffleopolis

We spent all day at the junior high, swapping touch panels for TVs and relocating displays to different rooms. I peeled off of that crew to make some more flash drives for RCVA laptops, and eventually started that imaging process as well. I hate to say it, but it was nice to be on a crew without Josh for once so I felt like I had a little bit of control over the herd. I had answers for their questions, and we got things done correctly and efficiently.

Thomas and I went to Taco Villa to pick up lunch for four of us and we ate in the break room, and then I went right back to the junior high until quitting time. Then I ran by the shop to see Summer before going home to change and then to my parents’ house for some fish soup.

I didn’t stick around long and came back home to try and be a little bit productive again. I’ve suffered from a complete lack of motivation lately, but the next couple days should be just a smidge cooler. Hopefully that helps. I did manage to sketch a 3D model of one of the bathrooms, so hopefully that helps, and I’m not just being extra.

Real sketchy.