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Logan’s Roadkill

Summer and I decided to run to Conway today instead of going all the way to Hot Springs. I was hoping to score a deal on some Nest cameras, among other things. She went to the gym while I got ready at home. I accidentally spilled a bunch of water in the kitchen and had to clean it up first, so I took a frustration break in Overwatch before we headed out.

Our first stop was Logan’s Roadhouse for a late lunch because we were both super hungry. It was the absolute worst food I’ve ever had from a Logan’s. I let them talk me into a choice sirloin that I could barely even cut with a serrated knife, much less chew. Worse yet, the steak didn’t even have any flavor. It was truly awful. Even the potato was bad, with Summer feeling like they were overcooked and dry, and me thinking the opposite that they were undercooked. The service was great, but I wasn’t going to send the food back. I just cut my steak into tiny little pieces, mixed it up with the potato and A1, and swallowed it whole.

Our next stop was Home Depot to see if they had my Nest cameras. We wandered around the store for a bit and ultimately ended up at a register with a piece of paper off of a tear-off calendar-like display. I went to talk to the manager as she got into the locker to look for the goods, and she was the polar opposite of helpful. She didn’t seem to understand a word I was saying, and just had a completely garbage attitude. Maybe it was the masks, because I know I was sick of mine just from our first store visit.

Next up was Kohl’s to burn a $5 reward, bringing a blouse for Summer down to just over a buck. This was our first win of the day, but the mask was really wearing on me by this point. Our next stop was Sam’s, where we just picked up a couple small things and left. On our way out of the shopping center, we decided to stop at Rita’s Italian Ice. This was our second win of the day, because the custard and Italian ice were both amazing.

On the way home, I remembered wanting to get a carwash, so we stopped by Splash and got a quick detail. They were pretty dead, so they had the job done faster than I could pepper my lunch potato.

Summer didn’t feel great most of the afternoon, so when we got home, I put on Fun with Dick and Jane until she was ready to go to bed. Then I played some iMessage games with Eaddie to end the night.

Now all I can think about is an actually-tasty steak.

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Is This What White People Sound Like?

I went to the shop first thing this morning to try and recruit some help moving all of the old laptops from my office to The UPS Store. Josh and Kyle drew the short straws, so I got the truck and we headed out. We managed to get it all into the back of the truck, except for a half box of laptops that we forgot to grab.

Once that was done, I dropped Josh and the truck off, and then Kyle and I went back to the high school to replace some docking stations. It got me a little out of my groove I was in, but we got a lot accomplished and I appreciated the help. He was only working the half day, so he cut out at lunch and I went back to my office for the afternoon.

I still had a leftover sandwich in the fridge, so I ate that while I worked. All of my flash drives accepted the new laptop image, so hopefully I can start on that next week. I got a couple huge boxes of parts in, but it was all for Heather’s new laptops, so I’ll have her come take them away eventually.

After work, took the last few laptops to The UPS Store and encountered a loud, ignorant couple that was just hellbent against wearing masks. It seemed like they were just out for an argument, because he was wearing a completely open mesh mask that I guess was intended to comply with the most generic definition of the word. The girl at the counter asked them to step away, and they both immediately started spouting off about how the CDC said surgical masks didn’t protect against COVID-19, and asked on whose authority was his mask deemed unworthy. I’m sure if they had done a little more digging on that same internet where they found their information, they would have learned that idiots and assholes are not protected classes of people, and that private establishments like The UPS Store aren’t infringing on their rights by not serving them. I spent the rest of my evening winning arguments and delivering sick burns to them in my mind.

I stopped by to see Summer on the way home, and then finally broke out my new carpet cleaner to make my living room a little less gross. It seemed to do a really great job, and really made me want to continue on cleaning the rest of the house. It did pull up a lot of carpet lint, but I figured at its age, that wasn’t enough of a reason to stop cleaning. I felt like the room looked a lot better when I was done.

Summer headed over after work while I ran to Walmart to pick up some wet cat food. Split has lost a ton of weight from his formerly fat and floppy self, so I imagine he’s finally on his way out after 15 years. He really took to the canned food when I got home though, so maybe he was just having trouble with the dry stuff.

I warmed up the leftover nachos with some extra salad stuff and watched Forged in Fire with Summer until she started to fall asleep on the couch. I think even I was more tired than I realized.

The lady asked you to leave….

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One, Two, Three O’Clock, Four O’Clock, Dock

I went in this morning and scrapped the flash drives I made yesterday in favor of making new ones with current Windows Updates. While that processed, I got a cart together and started replacing docking stations. I just kept chugging along, well into lunch. I missed the email that Ben sent out offering to buy everyone lunch to welcome Kyle to the team. He called me just after I found it, and I ran to Linh to meet them.

After lunch, I chugged away at more docks until I finished the bottom floor. That left me just enough time to start copying more flash drives before heading home to change. Then I went by Mark’s office again to help his other staff with their questions.

When I got back home, the house was a balmy 85 degrees, and it was clear that my air conditioner was doing nothing but pushing hot air around. Summer went home, and I picked up some Taco Villa for dinner on the way.

Summer had Forged in Fire on, but otherwise it was an uneventful night. At least it was cool in her house.

Start a dockin’ round the clock again…

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Commendearing Cow

I did it. I got up nearly an hour and a half early this morning in commitment to a joke that only served to entertain myself. I had the time, so I stopped in to Casey’s for a free breakfast slice on the way to work. When I got there, the new guy was already standing awkwardly downstairs outside the basement doors. I guess nobody told him we’ve been starting at 9am, so he showed up at 7:45am.

We went inside, and I invited him into Ben’s my office, where I planted my pirate flag and sat down in his my chair. We chatted for a few minutes while I opened up my laptop to check some email, until Ben and Greg walked in together. Ben came in and without any hesitation just knocked my pirate flag off his desk and pushed me out of his chair. I was really hoping we’d have an hour to chat alone, but with Kyle starting his first day and others trickling in, it just didn’t happen. We all sort of openly groaned about how disappointed we were in his response to the board last night, but I guess that’s just what we get for trying.

I made my way to the high school and started on a few things there. Most of it blurred together into a haze of meaningless work, but I know I got a couple docking stations swapped. It was uncharacteristically quiet for my hallway, but I wasn’t going to complain. I made my way back to the shop in case anyone wanted to have lunch, and Allen suggested Cici’s. He got Greg and Josh to go, and even Kyle and Melinda decided to join us. Summer took the day off from work and met us there to eat.

Kyle was kind of super awkward, though seemingly familiar. He kept making jokes about all the cops and Army fellows coming in because they heard about my act of piracy this morning, but I never saw anyone from the Navy.

After lunch, I started to go back to the high school but got roped into helping Allen get the bus yard gate open. I thought it would be an easy task, but then we both got trapped and had to call on Gary to let us out. I guess our garage door opener was failing, so he had to borrow one from maintenance to let us out.

Once I finally got back to the high school, the afternoon went by pretty quickly. I started pumping out flash drives for the student devices, and it was time to go before I knew it. I headed home to meet Richard from Dependable, and he poked around my air units to check for leaks. I’m not even sure he checked whether it was low, but he ended up adding some dye before he left, and said he would be back in a few weeks.

Summer came back shortly after, and I started picking up a tiny bit while she watched TV. I washed my comforter, warmed up some egg rolls, and made myself a salad with what she brought over. We spent the evening shopping and dreaming about cars, and it just made me sad to know how poor I am.

You know it’s going to be a long day when you start by commandeering the whole department.

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Fumble

I had to get gas first thing this morning, so I decided to Treat Yo Self to a Wendy’s Maple Bacon Chicken Croissant on the way back to work. It was delicious, if not a bit of a greasy mess. Work was a bit stressful first thing just because teachers are still trickling in, and my math hallway always seems to be super needy. I can’t tell if it’s just because they’re closest to me, or if it’s because they legitimately just have more software needs than other departments.

Ben texted me to say that five of them were going to Linh for lunch, and I didn’t want to miss out on the group meal even though I wasn’t really hungry yet. I just had a couple spring rolls since they were mostly iceberg lettuce anyway. While we were there, I mentioned trying to put things into motion that would get us some attention from the school board. I figured that would help right the ship, but it’s possible I misjudged the point of failure.

After lunch, I tinkered with my flash drives and came to the conclusion that any speed difference beyond the initial copying of data to the drives was negligible. The $10 extra per flash drive ($400 in total) would only really save me about four minutes (half the time) of making and updating each of the drives.

I went by the shop at the end of the day so I could return the one failed drive that I had, and tried to help Ben with an imaging issue on a brand new laptop model. Then I headed to Mark’s office to help a couple of the others there. We got a fair bit fixed in a short amount of time since it was less teaching and more doing, even though I had to tinker with it a bit myself to even figure out what I was doing.

When we finished, I went home for a little bit to wait for Summer to get off work. Then I met her at her house to make up some leftovers for dinner. It felt good to clean up the couple of things we did. While we were there, I got a couple messages about the school board meeting and tried to check out the live stream. Unfortunately there was no way to scrub back in time, so I had to wait for the stream to finish before I could go back and watch it.

Summer and I headed back to my house for the evening, and she settled right into bed. I tinkered online for a bit longer than I should have, but it looks like this captain has some work to do.

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These Aren’t the Laptops You’re Looking For

This morning was rough getting out of bed, and it didn’t get much better into the day. I started out well enough, trying to make sense of everything I have left to do before school starts again. It wasn’t long before Allen and Josh showed up to pick up some laptops. I thought they were there to help take the old devices to UPS for me, but after some forced conversation and a bit of random chance, I discovered they were actually looking for the old teacher devices that we were keeping. I didn’t have very many for them to take since they’re still picking them up in the office, but we loaded up what we could and packed them into Josh’s car.

I didn’t have a whole lot of time to get into much else, so I started unboxing more parts so I could find the three LCD screens that required broken parts to be returned. Then I went to the shop and picked up Zach, Allen, and Greg for a trip to Firehouse. They had a bunch more new vegetables to try, so I loaded up my New York Steamer and went to town. It was excellent.

After lunch, I went back to the high school and did my best to keep busy between all the off-contract employees bugging me to fix their issues immediately. I managed to replace a couple docking stations, helped Al type his password in correctly a couple more times, and eventually got around to taking a sample laptop and box of 80 chargers to The UPS Store to get a quote.

I went by the shop on the way back across town, but Ben wasn’t there for a chat and the others were busy imaging and loading iPads into cases. I only had a little bit of time left, so I went back to the high school and tested out my new USB flash drives. So far, the Patriot Supersonic Rage Elite is the fastest, but out of two drives, I’ve already broken one and was unable to format it. I’ll give it another try tomorrow, but I’m starting to run out of options.

I left work a little late and ran home to clean up a bit before going by Mark’s office again. He had a bunch of questions for me, and I grew to hate offline email clients just a little bit more. He hooked me up with the headgear I needed for my CPAP, and it still baffles me that those simple elastic straps sell for $15 when they’re “on sale.”

Summer got home just as we finished up, so I met her at the house and we went to my parents’ for dinner. Mom made some killer bún thang out of the leftover wing tips from Julie’s BBQ Birthday Bash. After dinner, we headed home and settled into bed pretty quickly after I put together my Kobalt string trimmer.

So I know you’re super busy dealing with like three times your usual workload, but can you pay attention to just me right now?

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Wing It

We got up this morning and munched on some leftovers for brunch. The girls would be going with their father for the week, so Summer had them up and into some chores before I left. I went home to try and clean up a bit myself, but I just felt sapped pretty much all day for some reason. I had a little trouble getting to sleep last night, so it’s possible I just wasn’t well rested.

It took me a few trips, but I got everything unloaded from the car. I had to stop and clean up after the cat as soon as I got into the house, so I didn’t really get anything put away properly until later. Instead of getting things properly cleaned like I needed to, I got into tinkering with Plex until it was time to get a shower and meet back up with the girls.

Dad grilled chicken wings for Julie’s birthday party yesterday, so I met the girls over there for dinner. Their father showed up just a few minutes after we got there, so Summer sent them off and then came back in to eat with me. Infinity War was playing on the TV, so we watched the end of it before heading back to my house for the evening.

Just make the decision to be confident, and no one else will be the wiser.

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If the Boat’s a’ Rockin, Don’t Come a’ Dokkin

We only slept in a little this morning before trying to get the kids up and at it. Summer took Autumn to the gym while I went home to clean up. I loaded up some camp chairs and empty bottles for our trip to Magic Springs, then stopped by Lowe’s to pick up an order before making my way back up to the girls.

They were still cleaning up and getting ready to go, and I was too hungry to wait and eat after the drive, so I cooked a whole package of Petit Jean pepper bacon and we all made big bacon salads before we left. We finally hit the road pretty late in the afternoon, but I was determined to get us there.

We made it nearly to Centerville when I realized I didn’t grab our season passes. We probably could have gone through guest services to get in, but I didn’t want to drive all that way and chance it, so we made our way back home to get them, and then drove back down into Hot Springs. We wanted to eat at a phở place we saw last time just outside of Magic Springs, but when we got there it was closed and we didn’t even bother to get out to read the sign.

Summer did a quick search for restaurants and came across a hibachi place we had gone to before without the kids, so we made our way to the Osaka Japanese Steakhouse. I didn’t remember loving it the first time, and I felt like it was pretty overpriced this time, but everyone seemed satisfied enough. The service was a bit slow for me since I was already on edge about leaving late, then having to drive back for our passes.

We finished up pretty quickly and headed to Magic Springs to try and catch the main attraction. The park had closed down all the rides, and the openers had already finished their portion of the concert by the time we got down to the amphitheater. Fortunately the pandemic had most of the crowd gone, so we had our pick of where to sit.

I didn’t recognize a single song of theirs, but fortunately Summer did. At least she enjoyed it if no one else did. It wasn’t too hot and miserable out, so I enjoyed just going to a concert at all, but I still would have liked to have some more time in town.

There was hardly any traffic on the way out since attendance was so low. We made our way to the spring water fountain to fill up my bottles, and then hit the road. Summer started having nerve pains again, but she would have gone straight to bed regardless of that. Everyone but Eaddie was pretty tired since she was the only one to really sleep in late.

Wait… the lyric is “lucky!”

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Connected

I got up this morning and toasted myself a donut, which is my new favorite way to eat donuts. Noah called me and needed a ride to work, so I went home to clean up, then dropped him off. While I was there, I stopped in to see Summer during her customer appreciation day event, and had her sign Autumn’s work permit request form. I didn’t stay long though, because they were super busy and everyone who was anyone was there.

I took the form to the shop and chatted with Ben for just a little bit before they ended their half day of work. Then I got the Ridgewood gang some Sonic drinks to kill some time before Dependable came out to look at my air conditioner at home. Richard called me just as I got back with the drinks, so I had to head home and meet him.

At first he kept talking at me like I was stupid for having my air conditioner turn off while I’m not at home. He insisted that a properly sized unit would only just keep the home at a set temperature, and not be able to cool it very fast if I let it get hot every day. I never had any trouble cooling the house with my old unit of the same size, but that never seems to phase his opinion. By the end of the visit though, he discovered it was about three pounds low on refrigerant, which was a little over a third its total capacity. It still took a couple hours to really cool down, but it definitely made a noticeable difference.

I played a little Overwatch and made some calls to pay some old medical bills, and eventually I made it over to Mark’s shop to finish up some work for him. We got to chatting a bit, and it seems like he really does just enjoy being a mover and shaker. I’m hoping that’s a good thing, but I should probably still learn a bit of self control when I get to rambling.

It was pretty late when I left there, but I had to pick Eaddie up before I could head up to their house. Summer was already catatonic on the couch, and Autumn went to bed shortly after we got home. I tried to clean up a bunch of leftovers, and then settled down at the computer a bit. Eaddie came out and caught up with me for a little while, and then it was off to bed.

Politicking for Dummies

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Shipping and Receiving

Autumn stayed at my house today, but was probably well enough to come work. It was just as well though, because I spent a good portion of the day running all around the place.

Zach, Gary, Allen, Ben, and I all went to Sam’s for lunch, which was just great. It’s a bit expensive, but that’s to be expected. I’ll have to try one of the po’ boys next time, instead of always getting the 3-piece of everything combo.

After lunch, I went by the shop for a little bit, chatted with Ben some more, and then went back to the high school to finish up. All of the old lease stuff is boxed up and ready to ship, but I’ll have to take a sampling of it to the UPS Store to get a quote for shipping. I’ve been getting a ton of parts in lately too, which I’m just stacking up for later. I have a feeling we won’t even use most of it, but it’ll be nice to have just in case. I sort of feel bad for knowing I can get bulk orders of that stuff instead of filing individual claims the way Dale had done for all those years.

When I got home from work, Autumn was in the floor still trying to see how many screens she could get between her face and the wall. I let her continue on watching TV while I went to unwind in some Overwatch. Summer eventually got out of work and headed home, so Autumn and I headed up for the evening.

What if no lives matter?