Uncategorised

Big, Bad Waffle

I hardly got any sleep again last night because I stayed up too late writing reviews, and then when I finally laid down in bed, my mind was racing. I eventually passed out and woke up to a bright orange sun peeking over the horizon beyond the lake. I didn’t take much time to enjoy that before taking a shower so I could meet the guys for breakfast.

I met Randy, Kyle, and Jim at Phil’s Family Restaurant across town, and it was a cute little restaurant in an old house. I ordered their waffle special, and it was a ton of food. The waffle was awful though, and had a rubbery pancake texture like it was just pressed into a waffle maker after it had already been cooked as a pancake. It wasn’t crispy on the outside at all, and they charged me an additional $1.29 for a tiny cup of peanut butter. The servings on the eggs and hashbrowns were enormous though. It said it came with two eggs, but there had to be at least four scrambled on my plate.

I think Randy was the only one that had anything scheduled today. I was pretty sure I told Maggie I wanted another class in the afternoon, but I didn’t get anything. Jim disappeared, and I don’t know if Randy took Kyle to sneak into another class, but I ended up heading back to my room by myself, but I stopped at Proglide Car Wash first because I was long overdue.

I ended up signing up for an unlimited plan because they had a $10 special for their best wash. When I got around to the entry, I saw that they had a guide that I was worried about hitting, so I stopped and talked to one of the employees. He insisted they had never had any trouble with Teslas, so I took the chance. I wasn’t super excited when the two of them then got some soapy sponges out to try and scrub off the worst parts. I’ve had bug guts with grit in them, and I didn’t want them to scratch my paint. I let it happen though, and made it through the wash without incident. I stopped to vacuum my car, checked the rims and paint, and then went back around for a second wash to get some more of the bird poop that it couldn’t remove the first time. The guy cleaned it off by hand, and then I finally made it back to the hotel.

I worked all day on Vine reviews to try and get my ratio up, and I’m still showing only 80% reviewed for some reason. I can’t seem to figure out how they’re calculating their number. Beverly Hills Cop II was on, so I watched most of that, followed by some of Beverly Hills Cop. That seemed counterintuitive, but what do I know? A storm started to roll in, and I watched part of the new RoboCop remake. Eventually I met Randy and Kyle downstairs and took them downtown to meet Todd at The Rooftop Bar for the ProMAS social.

The food and drinks, and the outdoor restaurant atmosphere was more my speed, even if our server appeared to be the only one serving the entire restaurant, but the guys wanted to move on to the Howard social across town. We went straight to H2O HAWG, the usual biker bar that Woody rents out. We were followed by Sam, the Jessieville coordinator that we had met at the previous place, and we chatted among a small crowd. Kyle, Sam, and I played some darts, and I won a Yeti mug in a drawing at the end of the night.

We got back to the hotel and it was a slow wind down for me. I tried to crunch some more numbers, but I could just never make it work out. Hopefully it all comes together in a couple of days though.

Wing and a Prayer

Uncategorised

Greatest HSTI Album

I had so much trouble getting to sleep last night. I had to go outside a couple of times to drain the basement because the water was nearly up to the door. I even had to turn the pump on again this morning because it was full again. I got up with my normal work alarm and got out the door without too much trouble. I stopped at Burger King for a croissant, and then hit Highway 7 like a madman.

The roads were completely wet, but I didn’t encounter much rain. It wasn’t enough to make anything particularly dangerous, and it was fun to triple the suggested speed warnings and get white knuckled on the way to Hot Springs again like I used to do in the olden days. I carved off nearly half an hour of the estimated drive, and got to experience a newer highway that I hadn’t been on before once I got closer to town.

There weren’t a ton of people there when I arrived, and that was because the first class didn’t actually start until nine. I worked so hard to get there at 7:30, and I could have really used the extra hour of sleep. Randy, Jim, and Kyle eventually showed up for a little bit of breakfast before we split into our different rooms.

My network security class was mostly stuff I had actually just done this year in North Little Rock, but they didn’t tell us that in the course description. I breezed through the morning, then had cold, boxed burgers with the guys, and then had a short afternoon wrapping things up.

I got to the hotel early, but it took about half an hour for the old, seemingly clueless lady behind the counter to process the three people in front of me. I did get checked in and up to the room to rest for a bit though. Jim was humorously the last one out of class, and then I met Randy, Kyle, and Jay downstairs. Jay drove out just to visit us for some shooting and dinner. We drove forever to get to a shooting range in the mountains. There was one other guy there with some high-powered stuff, and they took turns blowing chunks out of the mountainside.

I borrowed Summer’s gun and shot a few rounds. Then Jay let me shoot his pistol and I blew several holes into a coffee can before it flew off its post. I was pretty proud of those shots. Summer’s gun was super small, so it was much harder to hold onto. The guys had their fill, and then we headed back to town to have dinner at Back Porch Grill.

It was a pretty quiet night there. I split a special with Randy, but our steak was super bland. It was cooked well, and was obviously a pretty decent cut of meat, but it just didn’t have enough seasoning. The lobster and shrimp were okay, but I think the scallops were my favorite. After we ate, Randy, Kyle, and I thought we’d go to A&W, but they were closed. My second suggestion, Kringles and Kones, was closed permanently. That took us to a whiskey tasting at Hotel Hot Springs with ProMAS. I had a bunch of banana “moonshine” that had been mixed with coconut syrup and orange juice, and it was delicious. We sat and the guys talked for a while, and then it was back to the room.

I spent most of my night alone writing Vine reviews to get my ratio up over 90%. I’m still not quite there, so hopefully they’ll get approved quickly as I finish them up tomorrow.

Whatever you do, don’t touch the water.

Uncategorised

Welcome to My Level

Summer had to check Eaddie in to band camp this morning, and then went to the gym. I worked on more Vine reviews and then took a shower. I talked to Dad about what he might want to do for Father’s Day, and he ultimately landed on pizza. Julie and Kevin were out of town, so it would just be Summer and me to come over.

We thought we might walk, but it started to rain and we decided to take him in the car anyway. It was a pretty short visit. We ate and then went back home so I could continue cleaning up and working on reviews before my conference week. I tried to wait until it got a little cooler and then took Muad’Dib out for a run. I thought we’d go by the Neighborhood Market to drop off some recycling that had been sitting in the laundry room. We generate so many plastic bags, but I don’t even remember the last time I went to Walmart to be able to recycle them.

On the ride down, I had a pretty wild anxiety attack. I was riding down the hill and then became super disoriented. I remember seeing the street sign and then just used muscle memory to guide me on down the road. I shook it off and we made it to the store without any more trouble. It didn’t take long to drop off the bags, though I wish they would put their bin back by the front door so I wouldn’t have to keep walking it in to the service desk.

We rode back to our normal path, but avoided the flooded basin. We visited my parents again, and I dipped my feet in the pool while I tried washing some of the dirt off of Muad’Dib’s paws. We got home and I took him to the bathtub just to scrub his feet, and he didn’t protest too much. It seemed like Summer started to feel the stress I’d been feeling for the past several months, so we talked very briefly and then just sat together for a bit before I continued cleaning.

I got a load of laundry done and packed way too late, so I got to bed about two hours later than I wanted. I’ll let the adrenaline of Highway 7 wake me up in the morning.

But you turned into a pretty big waste of my time.

Uncategorised

How I Met Your Dragon

Summer got called into work super early because someone didn’t work out her two-week notice, so Muad’Dib and I slept in. I eventually got up and had a pretty good bologna sandwich and wrote a bunch of reviews. I asked Summer if she needed anything, and she asked for some soda water. I decided I’d take Muad’Dib along for the ride since I moved the seat cover over to my car.

When we left there, we stopped by the airport to see if we could find Kevin and retrieve one of my smaller rat traps. We haven’t had any luck trapping the one that’s still in the house somewhere. That was another failed mission, so we drove on home past lots of silt and debris that had flooded onto the roads. Muad’Dib wanted to stay outside when we got home, so I let him hang out a while.

Summer came home around noon, after Eaddie and Eli left for Clarksville. We were looking at more rain, so we decided to blow out the gutters quickly to alleviate some of the flooding around the house. Summer went up on the roof with the leaf blower and took care of that easily, then we got her down just as the rain came in. She took a bath and shower, and then I took a shower myself because she wanted to go to UEC to see How to Train Your Dragon.

I had somewhat surprisingly never seen the originals, and for some reason this remake wasn’t high on my list of priorities either, but it was a decent movie. We saw the only showing in 3D, and though the auditorium was mostly empty, the people that were there were mostly inconsiderate assholes. Children screaming, people whose cell phones went off repeatedly without being silenced, and people who were incapable of coughing without engaging their vocal cords.

After the movie, we came home to find Eaddie outside, and Eli sitting on the couch inside. He said he forgot she was outside, and evidently just settled in. Weird kids.

I took Muad’Dib for a run, and he did really well. The basin was incredibly flooded, so we went around, encountered a huge litter of puppies, visited my parents, then made it home before more rain. Summer was prepared to give him a bath, so I helped scrub him down. He seems to enjoy the blow drying now, and of course loves being vacuumed. We watched some YouTube and stayed up too late. Tomorrow will be full of catching up on weekend chores.

You just gestured to all of me.

Uncategorised

Miscellany Friday

I slept in pretty late today, then got up for a shower so I could get lunch before going to Morrilton. I opened Eaddie’s bedroom door so Muad’Dib could find her after I left, and she sat right up and wanted to go to lunch with us, so we left in the rain and picked Summer up at the wash. Summer was having a bad day at work, so while she was ranting about that, Eaddie and I tried to decide where to eat. She chose Stoby’s, so we made it back across town and found a seat.

We devoured a large cheese dip. Eaddie bragged about her Arrow Burger, but Summer hated her French Dip. My taco salad was fine, but nothing special. While we ate, David spotted me through the window and I went to talk to him. I let him know that I was leaving the school for Bitec, and of course he said to reach out if Howard could do anything for us in my new role.

After lunch, we had to rush Eaddie home so she could go to a flute lesson. I took Summer back to the wash, and then headed to Morrilton about half an hour early. That ended up being a good thing, because traffic came to a stop due to another overturned semi truck. It looked like some trees had burned up around it, so that was there for quite a while.

Once I got to Bitec, Teisha actually made me sign my social security card. I felt bad, because nobody had ever made me do that in 42 years. It felt like defacing it. She got me paperwork to take to the clinic for a drug screen, and that didn’t take terribly long. I felt a little sick to the stomach after that, so I stopped at Casey’s for a drink on the way back. I still had more new hire paperwork to do, so I headed on home from there.

I stopped in Blackwell and Atkins for more drinks, then decided to drop into AT&T when I got back to town. Kevin was on vacation, but I talked to Hope and David for a bit. They said Brandon was moving to the IT department for the state, which was cool for him. They started to get busy, so I moved on to Splash and cleaned the seat covers in the Model Y before moving them to my car so Summer could use her own.

We both left there and went home for the night. She bathed for a while and I did some Vine reviews. Then we laid on the couch for a while. I should have gotten up to take Muad’Dib on a run earlier, but I didn’t see any rain on the radar. Just as I started to get up to take him, the sky opened up and dumped a whole bunch of water on us.

We stayed in and I baked a frozen pizza. Eaddie left to go bowling with friends, so the two of us just sat on the couch the entire night until bedtime. Summer made a bologna sandwich and discovered our rat had chewed into the back end of the loaf of bread she just bought, so we’ll need to get more aggressive with the traps.

We’ll die on that mole hill.

Uncategorised

Just Quit Already

Last night was the first night I slept in my own bed since we bought the house. I just needed some time and space to ground myself. I made it to work and looked at my new-hire stuff for Bitec, then talked to Randy about it. He was immediately supportive, and we chatted for a bit before I went back to my desk to draft let Gemini draft a resignation letter.

It was pretty quiet after that. I spent more time working on my paperwork than anything for actual work. By lunch time, it had started to rain pretty heavily. Randy drove Jay and me to BJ’s where we met Kyle and Jim for some white people food. It stopped raining by the time we left, but we were already pretty soaked.

After lunch, I told Maggie about my job offer, and after some quick math, we determined that today was essentially my last real day at work. I have a conference in Hot Springs all next week, followed by a couple sick days for Summer’s oncology appointment, and finally two vacation days. I’ll only have one day left after that, so I might as well take a sick day. I spent the rest of the day packing up my things so I could take them home.

The afternoon actually went by pretty slowly, as the rain started again. Summer said she was making dinner, and Maristella was there with Eaddie. Traffic was super bad through Conway, but I eventually made it home. She made pork chops, green beans, and mashed potatoes that were all pretty good.

After dinner, I took Muad’Dib for a run to try and avoid any more rain. We went around the basin trail because I was afraid it might have flooded, and on the way out of that area we saw my parents drive by. We tried to follow them, assuming they were going to the Neighborhood Market, but they weren’t. We sat at a bench there, realized they were already back home, and headed back across town to find them.

After a quick dip in the creek, we visited my parents. Then we made it home where Summer and I had a chat outside on the porch. Neither of us have a clue how to make any of this right, and both of us are miserable. It was actually a bit of a relief that she admitted it herself. I don’t know whether any of it can be made better, but all I really hope is to find some common ground where we can stop resenting each other all of the time.

Of course the evening after that wouldn’t have been complete without its own unique set of frustrations. I’ve been at the point, for a while, where I truly don’t know what the preferred outcome would be. Timing is everything, and that fucking sucks.

I wrapped it all up by giving Muad’Dib a bath, since he had taken a dip in the creek on our run. I had an anxiety attack in the middle of it, but that’s just life now. He hated the bath, but then he loved being vacuumed, and the bow on top was wrestling with me and Eaddie before bed.

kys

Uncategorised

Pack Rat

I heard something making a racket in the kitchen this morning, and after sneaking around a bit, I discovered a small rat in the dog food bag. After that many failed attempts to get out, I thought I might be able to grab the bag and move it outside, but of course as soon as I approached, it was able to leap out without a care in the world. It scurried under the kitchen table, so it might as well be gone forever. I set a live trap with all of my remaining hopes and dreams, and a bit of peanut butter, and got ready for work.

I was running a bit late, but Maggie and the two old men were the only ones there. Nobody asked anything of me, so I quietly stared at FortiAuthenticator documentation for the entire day. I had an anxiety attack at some point, but otherwise it was uneventful. We’re officially on four ten-hour days, but that actually worked out to about nine and a half. I left briefly for some McDonald’s since nobody else wanted to do lunch.

While I was at work, I saw Summer shuttling back and forth between the house and Added Space Storage. I guess she figured that was an easy midway point between both houses. I couldn’t tell what she was moving, because none of the large, obvious things were moved out of the house. She didn’t respond to my text, so I made it home for the surprise.

The laundry room had been cleared out, which seemed like an unimportant space to me. I changed clothes and started to take Muad’Dib out for a run, but Summer asked me to sit with her. I sat in the floor and pet the dog while she finished her episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Then we left for our run. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I needed something different, so we rode to Ridgewood Brothers to see what they had cooking.

Wouldn’t you know it was burger day, so I had another hamburger. I’m sure that it was better than my Double Quarter Pounder Delux, but I was buzzing too hard to really tell. They gave me some scrap pulled pork for Muad’Dib too, so he climbed up to sit at the picnic table with me and we had dinner together.

After dinner, we stopped in to see my parents. Dad had come over to help Summer find the dead rat in the house, which was different than the live rat I found in the morning. Summer had candles burning to cover up the smell, but I hadn’t smelled it when I left in the morning anyway. I’m sure it was a nasty discovery though.

We made it home and I took out the recycling and trash before wrapping up for the night.

I’ve got doodles I’d undo.

Uncategorised

Whoa Black Cherry

I was a bit in and out this morning, enjoying an upside-down dog in the bed between us, when Johnny called to check in. I got up and talked to him for a bit, and then made sausage and eggs for Summer and myself when she got around. Eaddie was slow to get up, but didn’t want any breakfast.

Summer had a couple of meetings to attend online and did some work from the couch, and I tried to clean up around the house a little bit. I don’t remember exactly what it was that had me feeling amiss, but I eventually found myself in my office writing Vine reviews to get my ratio up before the end of the month. I’ve got to get it up 20% in ten days to keep my account in good standing.

We had a few more flies, and were all pretty sure something died somewhere, but didn’t have any luck finding it. Muad’Dib seemed unaffected. Later in the evening, Summer ate our Mexican leftovers, so I grilled a single burger patty to place between two frozen grilled cheese sandwiches. It wasn’t edible. Eaddie had left to do things with friends, so it was dinner for one over the sink.

It was still a little warm when I finally decided to take Muad’Dib out for a run, but he had been cooped up inside all day and was excited to get out. We did a leisurely walk under five miles an hour, hung out at my parents’ house for a bit, and then took a short path back home for the night.

What a sweet dog.

Uncategorised

Keeping Abreast

I woke up at my usual time this morning since we had to make it to Little Rock by 6:45 to check Summer into the Carti Surgery Center. It was immediately clear where the money was going, because it nearly felt like walking into a space station. The chaplain found and greeted us just after we found a seat, and we spoke briefly just to say that we really hoped we wouldn’t need him yet. It wasn’t long before we were called back to register, and a little longer before they called us back to get her prepped.

Dr. Fant said the whole procedure would only take about half an hour, and I was eventually taken back to the lobby as they wheeled Summer off to the back. From start to finish, I barely had time for two cups of coffee. I was taken back for a consult when she was done, and Dr. Fant said everything went really well, and reiterated that it seemed to be erring on the side of caution, but we should know definitively by the end of the week.

From there, I waited a bit longer for Summer to wake up, and then I was taken back to get her ready to go. We loaded up and started toward home, but stopped at Los 3 Potrillos in Conway for lunch. She had her camarones a la crema, and I tried their “Tex-Mex fajitas” which featured the cheapest tasting slices of hot dogs I could imagine. I ate it, but I wasn’t happy about it.

We made it home and I got a text from Dad that cousin Stephen had passed suddenly overnight. We didn’t know anything more than that. Summer was still in a lot of pain, so she went to bed. I combatted a swarm of flies that found their way into the kitchen, and then Eaddie wanted to start Daredevil: Born Again. The first episode seemed very inferior to the original Netflix series in every way. Eaddie actually fell asleep before the first episode was over. Then I took Muad’Dib to Walgreens to pick up Summer’s medicine. On the way home, we rolled by a family running a lemonade stand at the end of their driveway, so we stopped for a premium-priced glass after a 300% tip.

I checked in, and then we continued our run to my parents’ house. Rick passed me on the way home, so I stopped at the end of his driveway to say, “hello.” Tasha and her family were actually on their front porch, so we waved at them too. Then we made it to my parents’ house where Dad had aired up the boat trailer tires to see if we could make it to the lake. Ernie messaged me with the same news, but didn’t have any more to share than what little we already knew.

I stayed for dinner and had some bún bò Huế with Mom while Dad ate something else. Then we made it home where Eli had come over and found Eaddie with bed-head on the couch. They left and I laid down with Summer for a bit after getting her some more medicine. It was a quiet night from that point on. Eaddie left with Eli for a bit, and I fought a bunch more flies. Tomorrow we’ll do some more digging under the house to see if we can find where something might have perished.

NOT AN EXIT

Uncategorised

Long Weigh Down

Summer would have to work all afternoon and close the wash, so I thought I’d get up and lay with her on the couch for a bit before she left. Then she said something about the flies in the house, and I mentioned them leaving the food out on the counter the other night, and that spawned a whole ordeal. She got up in a huff and cleaned the kitchen, then went outside to mow the lawn, and then left to go to the gym before work. I managed to stop her for a moment on her way out, but it just wasn’t a good conversation.

Eaddie left for church and I went through a few things to clean up a little bit. Dad was grilling pork chops for noodles though, so I had to get showered and left early for that so I could visit with Julie and Kevin while they were there.

Muad’Dib ran with me while I rode the Onewheel around the block, and we hung out while Dad grilled ribs, shrimp, and pork chops. Then Julie and Kevin showed up and we eventually all sat down to eat. I quietly had a short anxiety attack at one point, but it passed pretty quickly. As the evening went on, I quietly let Muad’Dib inside to get him acclimated, and Mom slowly expressed less anger each time until he was finally able to sit inside when Summer eventually made it over to eat after work.

It was getting dark, so we all headed home. Eaddie had left to hang out by a fire with Maristella, so Summer, Muad’Dib, and I quietly wound down before Summer’s surgery in the morning.

Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you, and everything you do.