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Catching up with Bae

Summer took the girls to the high school for a 5k color run this morning. I ate a few leftovers there before heading home to clean up. I’m pretty sure I lost one of my ghost shrimp, and I couldn’t ever find any of the berried ghost/amano/whatever shrimp they were. I don’t know if they’ve been hiding, or if they dropped the eggs, or if they perished as well. I didn’t want to disturb the tank too much, but it didn’t get as busy in there as it usually does while I did a water change. I guess I’ll just let it be, since it’s fully established with decent parameters.

Summer dropped the girls off with their friends around lunch time, and we headed toward Conway. We were pretty hungry and decided to stop at Yesterday’s in Morrilton so we wouldn’t be eating too late in Conway. On our approach I was worried it would be more bar than grill, but once we got our food I was convinced. The appetizer sampler with fried green beans, pickles, mushrooms, and cheddar was amazing. Summer’s chicken and grilled vegetables were great. My chicken fried steak was a bit tough but not bad. The loaded mashed potatoes were stellar. Even the toast was delicious. It was a great date that we both needed.

As we came into Conway, Summer arranged for us to get a carwash at the Splash since she wanted to visit her employee that was on loan there and get a tour of the place. It was a pretty cool experience, but odd to see the lube side completely dead. I don’t know if it’s just a bad location or lack of marketing, but there wasn’t a single lube job done while we were there. It was awesome getting the car washed inside and out though. I think I still prefer to maintain it myself, but every now and again this would be nice just to dust out the whole vehicle.

From there we went to Andy’s for some frozen custard, and then killed a bunch of time at Kohl’s. I spent forever looking through the clearance sections, but didn’t find much that was marked down enough. I almost picked up a jacket or two, but decided against it after remembering how little I actually go out in the winter for long enough to need one. It was already getting a little late, so we went straight to Sam’s after that and ended up picking up a bunch of bath towels for her.

Hannah and Dylan were slow to respond as usual, but eventually we managed to meet up with them, and we went on to Little Rock for Dave & Buster’s. We did a Jurassic Park VR adventure that was pretty awesome and didn’t cost as much as I expected. It really just made me want a VR setup at home, but I keep hoping an esports budget or stipend will help to fund that. We wandered around the midway until we all ran out of credits, then hit a Wendy’s on the way home since we never really stopped for dinner. We were both exhausted from a long but great day, so it was straight to bed once we got home.

“Let’s build a wall to keep the immigrants from bringing crime into our town!” -the townspeople
“Let’s build a casino in our town!” -also the townspeople

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Ah, the Old Bait-and-Switch

Ben and I were supposed to go take care of a few older pending things at the high school today, but instead I ended up getting a scolding for not listing things on GovDeals during our busiest time of the year as we drove to the junior high to do just that. I definitely never meant for Heather to feel any anxiety about what was left, but it just didn’t seem like a priority to me when she was coming into the job not knowing how to do most of it anyway. I did feel tremendously guilty for not having my things out first, but I also felt an obligation to wait for Dale to leave before I started shuffling things around. The entire ordeal just kind of felt like a big mess to me, and I’ve felt nothing but bad about it all for the several months it’s been since I had been advised of the changes.

In any case, he and I spent all morning cleaning up her office before we went to Bocadillos for lunch. He had never been, and like the rest of my week, nothing at all sounded good to me. I almost feel like a tiny part of me has died and is just over food altogether. I’m sure that won’t last, but it’s a weird feeling at the moment.

After lunch, we finished up with what we were doing and then grabbed a bunch of phones to deliver to vo-tech. We didn’t realize – and nobody could tell us – that they had already delivered all of the phones to the campus, and even set them in place for the most part, which was another aggravation of mine. You’d think the project manager would have known, or at least would have sent the same crew to complete the job so they could report accurately what had been done. That’s not how we do things though.

I left work a bit late after all of that, never having the chance to complete any of my work. I went by Summer’s shop to see her, but she was super busy. The girls were there, but they didn’t seem bothered by my presence either. I ended up just slowly uninstalling a bunch of old crap from the shop’s laptop to try and help its poor performance. When it was all over, I felt so sweaty from just existing there that I had to go home to dry off.

I started immediately on just about anything I thought I could accomplish. I cleaned up some email, did some research, cleaned up some things, paid some bills, and finally made it to Summer’s house just in time for absolutely nothing. Everyone was asleep and I kind of wished I had just stayed home where I could have at least continued cleaning while I was still in the mood. Instead, I sat in the dark for my evening routine and eventually went to bed.

How dissatisfying.

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The Walkabout Campus

I headed in to work just a few minutes early today after waking up a few minutes before my alarm. I still felt tired, but not as bad as earlier in the week. I went by the shop first to have Jason submit warranty claims for a couple laptops. Then I ended up chatting with Ben for a while before heading to the high school.

I didn’t start in my usual place by going to the office. Instead, I had to go to the old field house to set up a printer we removed before the renovation. I drove around a bit at first, but eventually parked at the front of the building and walked around campus for most of the day. I went to the arena a couple times, back out to the field house, over through vo-tech, and up and around the main building. I still haven’t had a whole lot come up, but I’m feeling a bit of anxiety again about repairing laptops. I spent a decent amount of time yesterday doing just that, and I don’t want to get sucked into doing too much there and not focusing on learning the things I really want to learn.

Nothing really jumped out at me for lunch, so I just snacked on leftover donut holes most of the day while walking all over the place. I didn’t leave too late either, and only have a couple more hours to work tomorrow to hit my 40 hours for the week. I almost feel like I should be more stressed, but the long hours haven’t bothered me too much. I’m just physically very tired all the time. I need to just commit to a Soylent diet for a while to see if it helps.

I relaxed at home for a little while before heading up to Summer’s for dinner. I was going to make chicken salads, but ended up making everyone clean up the super old mashed potatoes and ribs that were left over from forever ago.

Happy fridge; happy belly.

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Mutha, Don’t Wanna Go to School Today!

This was probably one of the most relaxing first days of school I’ve experienced. The drive was short and I came in late enough that traffic wasn’t an issue, though parking was a bit of a struggle. They handed out a few more laptops, but we still have plenty ready to go for now. I’m still not sure how many total I’ll have extra as spares. I didn’t really have many new work orders coming in, but I tried to be accessible for any major crises. At one point I did have to go to the library to help reset student account passwords.

The seniors had a big breakfast from the parents, and I didn’t realize until late, but they brought all the leftovers to the lounge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many donuts in one place before. They also had pans of biscuits and sausage patties. I wish I had gotten in there earlier for breakfast. Summer came by for lunch and brought 50 cent corn dogs.

I didn’t have to work too late, so I came home and started working on the aquariums. I spent hours cleaning and finally trimming some with my new clippers. They’re quite a bit better than I expected, so I may end up getting some more. I need to set up a better place to grow out in quantity so I can really aquascape something nice, rather than planting a few stems at a time the way I have been.

I think I’d rather go outside and play, yeah!

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They can be a great people, Kal-El; they wish to be.

I had to go to the shop this morning to pick up some stuff to reroute lines for Ethan this afternoon. It was a relatively quick stop, and then I dove right back into work orders. I really feel like I crushed it for being the start of the year, but then another part of me knows that the laptop returns are about to start rolling in. I’m both surprised and not surprised by the amount of specialty software I’ve had to install. It’s been almost exclusively the math department, which is convenient because that’s where my office is located. I did get stuck on a couple of more difficult tasks, but all in all I was pretty pleased with myself. It’s been nice not feeling so stressed about things, and getting to spend a little more time building rapport with my new staff. I’m still getting emails and personal requests from my old staff too though, which I don’t mind because I do miss them.

I worked right through lunch today, finishing off a bottle of Soylent along with a really gross chocolate sea salt RXBAR. I cannot express enough how not good it was. The whole thing just wanted to gum up my mouth and stick to my teeth everywhere. It was like chewing tar, except it tasted bad too. I didn’t read the label until after I ate it, and I never would have pegged it for chocolate. If anything, it reminded me of the homemade dehydrated bananas that Mom and Bâc Ván used to make. They weren’t chips like you get in the store. They were whole, but peeled bananas, dehydrated to look like shriveled up fingers. The outsides got dark, but not as dark and brown as the insides. I actually kind of liked the bananas though.

Ethan was a bit late, so I finished up some other stuff while I waited. I wasn’t about to do anything without him after he destroyed his own lab infrastructure. Even getting lucky and only needing to rearrange the lines that were already in his room, we burned about five hours getting it all set up again. I got to mess around with the switch configuration again too, which is making me feel a bit more comfortable with that aspect of the job. I actually had a pretty good time chatting with him too, which was nice. I stayed pretty late finishing everything up, but he was there too. It’s nice to see someone else with a similar dedication.

When I finally left, I stopped by the house to change really quick, and then ran straight up to Summer’s to start cooking some chicken for tacos. I feel like the tacos are relatively easy and healthy, but I still have a quantity issue. It’s like I just eat them too fast and don’t realize I should’ve stopped 12 tacos ago.

Hey Google, play my back to school playlist.

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Walking the Land

I went to the shop first thing this morning because I wasn’t certain of Jason’s plans. It ended up being unnecessary, but at least I got to see Brice sitting around eating breakfast after being out for the past couple weeks.

I rolled into the high school and jumped right into things, finally making it out to the multipurpose facility to check on some things. Eventually I made it inside to start closing work orders, and I did a fair job of catching up. There’s still a lot to do, but at least it feels achievable. Lunchtime came around out of nowhere, so I went to Arby’s for a quick meal before coming back early and diving right back in.

If nothing else, today served to better familiarize myself with the layout of the campus. There is still a ton of unexplored territory, and a surprising number of young teachers of questionable caliber. I suppose time will tell, but I had such hopes. I guess statistically I really haven’t had to visit that many rooms to hook everything up from scratch.

After staying late to take care of a couple things at the MPF, I headed home to cool off. It was incredibly hot and humid today, and I was surprised to see the Hickey pool closed and partly drained. Beth was in town for their father’s birthday, but it wasn’t long before Summer said they were leaving their parents’ house and wanted to go to Stoby’s for dinner.

Dinner was uneventful aside from my taco salad that was served with a paltry smattering of chips. Beth took the girls home while I went to the junior high to snag an old discarded switch to set up at Summer’s shop. It didn’t take long at all to get them set back up, and everything was working again. It kind of really made me want to pursue a real IT job with them, but I don’t really know enough about their existing business structure and Summer’s too busy trying to hold onto the reigns of her own position.

Finally home for the evening, I spent too much time browsing cheap Chinese goods that I’ve been meaning to buy for too long. I got a small order out, so in a few months I’ll have a surprise delivery that I’ve forgotten all about.

I wonder what a real IT job is like.

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Church Rush

I couldn’t sleep very late this morning, possibly because of how bright it got in my room. I was still pretty tired though, so we laid around for a while before I got up and around. Summer headed out first while I got showered and everything, and then I went to pick her up for lunch. I hate going out on Sundays because of how busy everybody is, and the fact that many restaurants raise their prices for it. Chinese did sound good though, so we landed at New China where it actually didn’t seem that bad. I ran into Ian there, which got the adrenaline going a bit, but it was still good to see him.

We went back to Summer’s for a bit after we ate, and didn’t get back out until we had to go to Harbor Freight. Summer needed some things for the shop, so I brought the coupon game. The girls’ father dropped them off for us there, so we got to split the transaction three ways for maximum savings. I didn’t really get anything I wanted, but nothing I wanted was very urgent anyway. From there we went to Lowe’s so Summer could look for a shop vac and so I could pick up some paver stones on which to park the sailboat so the tires won’t keep sinking into the earth.

Lastly we stopped by Walmart so the girls could pick up a last couple school supplies, and then we went back to their house so they could do some cleaning before dinner. I fried up some chicken for them to make sandwiches, and then I headed home to do some more laundry before the first week of school. Thankfully I think I’ve gotten most of the mentally draining stuff out of the way, so tomorrow I should just be able to crush the bulk of my work orders. I’m still not looking forward to re-running cable for Ethan, but I fully plan on enlisting his help for that.

They’re like tiny machines that turn spinach into poop.

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A Laundry List

We got up pretty early this morning after some storming last night. Summer went to get bread for French toast and ended up at the shop because they lost a bunch of equipment due to a power surge or lightning strike. Eaddie and I watched some Daredevil until she got back, and then after breakfast I went back to the shop with her to see if I could be of any help.

I found a few bad ethernet ports on several pieces of equipment, and swapped things around enough to get them limping. It was hot though, and I needed a shower, so I went home to get ready. We were going to go to Conway to go shopping, but by the time Summer got rid of the girls and was ready to go, I decided it was too late and started some laundry instead. It’ll free up tomorrow having so much of it done, which will be nice as the last weekend before school starts.

Summer eventually came over but didn’t feel like getting out for dinner, so I went to eat with my parents by myself. When I got back, we were both so tired that we called it an early night and went to bed.

Shopping for stuff from China is always so fun!

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OSHA Training, but Without the Jokes

I had to get up another 30 minutes earlier to make it to the back-to-school breakfast this morning. I think they had more tables this year, so it felt less cramped. Amanda beat us all there and saved a table. The food was quite a bit better than what we’ve had in the past. Summer and Ben came as sponsors and gave everyone free oil change coupons. I was sad that Ben hogged the mic the whole time and I didn’t get to hear her sing our praises.

Afterward the ceremony was pretty standard fare. The supers got up and told us not to speak ill of our superiors. We had another live OSHA training, but this time it was a younger guy that seemed like a nervous wreck to be up on stage. He got us through an hour of training in like 30 minutes, presumably by cutting all of the racist jokes.

Zach chose Morelos for lunch, so we fought traffic to get over there. I wasn’t hungry, but I still managed a whole order of fajitas because they were the day’s special. I really wish I hadn’t.

When I got back from lunch, I spent most of my time waiting on progress bars, trying to get a computer imaged. I don’t know what the problems were, but it never got much better. I ended up staying like four hours late just trying to get software installed. At that point I had just enough time to get home and clean up a few things before I had to head towards Summer’s for the evening.

I stopped by Walgreens to pick up blood pressure medicine and bacon for the morning, and cleaned up some leftover pizza before watching Daredevil with Eaddie. Then it was finally off to bed, with no early morning requirements.

Flogging will continue until morale improves.

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An Actual Day of Progress

I got to spend the whole day at the high school, and felt quite a bit of progress for it. The work orders are still flowing in, but at least it doesn’t feel like I’m still sinking. I got stuck on a couple more difficult tasks, but even then I felt like I made a little bit of progress and got to affirm things I’ve learned over the last year or so. I worked through lunch time feeling pretty good, and eventually went to Wendy’s for a relatively light meal. I did have to give up on some SCCM stuff in the afternoon, and went back to the shop so Gary could learn me a few things. I probably should have known what he showed me, but it was just one of those things that never even occurred to me.

After work, I came home for a little while before heading up to Summer’s for dinner. They wanted chicken sandwiches, but all I wanted to do was get rid of all the old stuff she had in the fridge. I almost burned the house down trying to toast some French bread in the broiler, but they got their sandwiches. I warmed up some soft taco stuff and cleaned up a bunch of the leftovers, but there’s still enough food for a week in there.

Eaddie and I finished our episode of Daredevil from the other day, and then I headed home for an early night. It’s time for welcome-back nonsense tomorrow, and nobody seems as concerned about how much work they’re putting on us at the last minute as us. Typical.

It’s less stressful if you don’t actually care.