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Tell Me About It

Brice had three more lines for us to run at Dwight this morning. Amanda and I were put on his crew, so our first demand was to re-check the rooms in question for existing lines. It only took us about three hours, but wouldn’t you know we found two lines already in place? We did have to run one more in a room that had several oldschool telephone drops, but we spent so much time trying to track down other lines that we didn’t even get to run it before lunch.

Jesica was in town for another meeting, so I met her at Sumo for lunch. Her client was evidently pretty crazy, which only served to upset her. The waitress dumped my water all over the table, but fortunately only a little bit over me. Then for some reason she only came back with a single rag to clean up a whole glass of water, and had to run off and get more. Just as Jesica’s food came out, her boss called to check up on her and she spent the entire meal talking to him about her appointment.

I was a bit annoyed that Brice had suggested Brown’s for lunch and actually had others agree to go, because nobody ever wants to go when I do. I suppose only to annoy me further, Brice didn’t even go, and Allen and Jason were the only two that did. Sumo isn’t exactly a favorite for me, but Jesica said she started keto and felt like she could only eat raw fish.

After lunch, I got out of running that single line with Brice and Amanda because Jason wanted me to meet Al and Kenny at the high school while they scouted out locations for new hallway wall clocks. I tried to convince them that digital watches for the entire student body would be cheaper, but they didn’t seem to like that idea. Somehow I managed to graduate with honors using only the existing dummy clocks though.

When I got home, a bit of rain cooled the air down quite a bit and made the house quite habitable. I started to get into a few things, but ultimately only really cleaned up some email and played some Overwatch. Later in the evening, I made my way to Summer’s where she talked at me about her week at work before bed.

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Like a Damn Circus

Jason had me drive him to the field house this morning so he could show me where we were putting equipment back into the building. He hadn’t mentioned the part where he was going to have to go back to the shop immediately after while I went back to the field house to run the lines for this equipment. We ended up with three personal vehicles on site, and then I think we had at least two more show up not very long into our exploratory mission.

We ended up having to pull a fiber line back to its entry point into the building, and then re-run it to the new switch location. Having a bunch of hands on deck helped the line runs go faster, but did leave the end product a bit less organized, which required some extra finishing work to make things really nice. We all went to Brangus for lunch, but luckily we finished running all the cable before we left. When we got back, all we had to do was terminate and mount wall plates.

By the time we got back to the shop, everyone was so exhausted that we mostly just sat around the shop for the last hour and a half. I would have liked to resolve a printer issue at Oakland with Ben, but it just didn’t work out. Hopefully I can try tomorrow.

I went by my parents’ house to chat with Dad about air conditioners after work until I had to leave to get Eaddie from karate. I could tell immediately that it was going to be a challenging evening with very little compliance from her. We ran by my house so I could change, and then stopped by Sonic for 99 cent cheese sticks on the way to their house. I fried up some chicken strips, but Summer never got around to making salads. Everyone just kind of picked at what food was already made while she struggled to get the kids to complete chores before their trip to Texas.

I know I was a whiny kid, but I just can’t remember being this completely insubordinate. The stern talkings, screaming, and eventual spankings seem to only last for so long.

It’s feeling real Lord of the Flies over here.

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Heave!

I was incredibly achy this morning when I woke up, so it was tough to get moving. I had to run to the junior high to get my blower, and then I met up with a group at the high school to clean out projectors and what few desktops were around. The campus has changed so much since I graduated that it’s easy to get lost, especially in the science area. So many of the rooms are connected through back hallways or closets. I’m hoping it makes a bit more sense once the rooms are filled with people, but I’m not sure that will be the case. Some of us had never seen the new multipurpose facility before, so we made the trek by foot. I got a pretty good sweat going by the time we got back to the cars, and that got us through to lunch.

I still had a bit of Soylent and felt contrary to the group’s choice of Chick-fil-A, so I worked through lunch, going to Oakland again to help with some summer school issues. When I got back to the shop, Amanda was outside getting things ready for Brice’s network runs at Sequoyah. Things looked bleak at first, then started to go really smoothly before making a turn for the worst.

After Amanda and I had run two lines to two different classrooms, we discovered that there were already network drops in both rooms. We went to check another room, and found multiple drops in multiple places in the room. Every single room we checked already had network lines in them. The aggravation was only compounded when I was reminded that he took the campus from Amanda earlier this year, so really she didn’t have much right to be upset with him when she could have patched the computers up instead of leaving them on the wireless.

With a face full of sawdust and rat droppings, we headed back to the shop in a lull of the thunderstorm. I chatted with Ben outside for a little while when Autumn called to ask if I would take her to Dollar Tree for some things. It was odd to receive a phone call for this, especially in the middle of a storm, so I was maybe unnecessarily short with her. Not long after, I got a call from Summer that she also received a call from a distraught daughter. I figured it was a good time for a sit-down chat.

Aching from a lack of food, I ran to my parents’ house and warmed up a little bit of fried rice before the power went out in the storm. Dad tried boiling some okra, and then inadvertently left it in the hot water too long after it didn’t boil due to the power outage. It came out like stringy apple sauce, but tasted fine. I finished up and went home to do some necessary cleaning in the heat and humidity of my home.

Luckily the cat box behaved. While that was going, I did a slow water change in the aquarium after feeling unsatisfied by the visual water quality. Unfortunately, I discovered another dead snail, possibly due to a lack of fresh veggies they had become accustomed to. With only two of the six left, I felt obligated to throw in some old, wilted lettuce with the hopes that they would eat it instead of ignoring it as usual.

Finally I made my way to the girls for the evening. Summer looked exhausted from the day, which upset me a bit more, so we had the chat. I’m hoping the humor didn’t distract from the point I was trying to make or the disappointment I felt for the situation, but it was also important to me that she understood I didn’t intentionally hurt her feelings in response to her poor decision. I am just a mean, old man with higher expectations.

It’s too early to be mad at each other already.

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Sounds like Treasure to Me

We were sent out to hang touch panels and do random campus cleanup tasks this morning. It took us two trips back to the shop to get everything we needed, and even then we each had plenty of time to sit around while someone else was doing the work. I would have appreciated a break if I didn’t feel completely overwhelmed and behind in cleaning and moving between campuses.

Allen, Amanda, Zach, and I all went to Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads, and I ran into David there again. I told him we must be living right to be seeing each other this much after all this time.

I had to run to Oakland to take care of something right after lunch, but then I met up with the others at the middle school again, where we completed the two touch panel installs and then removed a bunch of hallway TVs for the painters. We ended the day blowing out computers, which would have been fine, but doing an entire lab at once with three other people made the air completely unbreathable. I would have preferred to just do the lab by myself.

Summer had to work late, so I ran to get the girls and take them to karate, and then went to my parents’ house where Dad was grilling pork chops for noodles. Summer met us to eat once she got off, and then Dad and I went to the graveyard to rummage through the pallets of stuff that was being thrown out.

I was out there for several hours, and ended up with a couple giant speakers, a karaoke machine with cassette tape and 8-track players, and a couple beefy amps. To make me even more crazy, I saw the JBL 530 bookshelf speakers on sale when I got back to Summer’s, but she wouldn’t let me get any more. Some people seem to think I have a problem, but I’m just not hearing it.

They thought I wouldn’t find it… but I did!

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Trash or Treasure

Going back to work this morning wasn’t quite as difficult as I thought it would be. I managed to get there with time to spare, and brought along plenty of Soylent to choose for brunch. We met at the shop, but didn’t really have any major projects to do. Ben just had me go to the junior high to clean up my office all day. I loaded up a trunk full of stuff to bring home, and then after lunch time he came in a work truck to help me with a bunch more. We filled the truck bed nearly to the brim, and there’s still more little stuff to pack as well. I’m cautious to start moving anything to the high school yet, and it’s hard to motivate myself to move things out when it feels like Heather doesn’t have anything major to move into the space I’m leaving.

I met Ben back at the shop to unload, and then Gary invited me to the server room to move the phone equipment between racks, and then mount four new servers we got in. It was a very light $100,000 worth of equipment, which snapped into place as easily as Lego bricks. I really enjoyed the hands-on, though I’d like to see the software setup side as well.

That got us to the end of the day, and I went home to unload the trunk and grab a couple things I needed for the evening. Dad had come over earlier in the day and had someone look at my broken air conditioner. They deemed it irreparable and quoted $4,945 for a new one, which felt like chump change after dealing with the new stuff at work. It’ll be nice to have something reliable and relevant to this century though, and hopefully we can get some duct work done as well.

I left home and went to my parents’ to chat about it, and ate some leftovers while I was there. I also brought Dad a box full of some old yearbook photography equipment that he sifted through. Summer was working late on her first day at the new job, so I took her some fried rice and egg rolls when I left. We watched Parks and Rec over a big strawberry shortcake, and then it was off to bed.

Throw it away?!?

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Last Minute Grind

I successfully climbed out of bed earlier this morning in preparation for my return to work tomorrow. Summer made sausage and eggs for breakfast before going to the gym, and eventually I went home to get their bikes ready to ride.

The girls got there, picked up their bikes, and rode to her parents’ house first, and then went to my parents’ house to help scrub the pool cover. I was going to stay home and clean in the heat, but I wasn’t inside for very long before Ronda texted with contact information for a Pelican Matrix 100x kayak for sale. I called the guy and then went straight up to meet him.

I didn’t realize how that subdivision had sprouted up in that area, but they seemed like some nicer houses. The guy had a slingshot in the garage that he said he just purchased from someone on a swap page as well. We took the kayak out of his garage, and then went straight to putting it up on my car. In hindsight, I think he probably expected me to haggle him down a bit on the price, but I figured the $125 was a “friend of a friend” price already. If I had given it any more thought, looked over its condition some more, and considered that it didn’t come with a paddle, I think I would have tried for $100. He helped me get it on top of the car, and then I climbed up and strapped it in under the raging sun.

I considered going home first, but then decided to go straight to my parents’ house to see the girls’ reactions. Nobody really said much, but Summer and Eaddie came over to look at it. I was already sweaty from mounting the kayak and felt gross from my lack of a shower in the morning, but I stayed outside and helped spray down the cover while the girls scrubbed it. They got it all done in record time, and Summer caved and let the girls go for an early swim. The water was cold, fresh out of the hose while Dad was refilling the pool.

Mom made fried rice while Dad fried some egg rolls, and we all sat down to eat. I ate some 7-layer dip before we had dinner, but I didn’t expect that to make me feel so full. The girls had to ride home afterward, and I followed along in the car shortly thereafter. They got to the house right as I was ready for help getting the kayak off of the roof of the car, and we made room for it in the garage on top of mine.

From there, the girls ran to Walmart for groceries while I took a shower at home. It was too hot to do much else, but I managed to pack my backpack for work, and loaded up some things to bring to Summer’s for the evening. I made some strawberry shortcakes, and we watched an episode of Parks and Recreation before bed.

Shave his belly with a rusty razor!

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Go Go Gojira!

I wanted to get up early to help get my sleep schedule back in order and so we could spend more time in Conway, but I slept pretty poorly, and then woke up really early to the sound of a cat barfing, so I ended up sleeping in a while. It didn’t help though, because I still felt so drained all day long. Maybe it was the weird dream I had about going to a conference, seeing Egon Spengler, and then losing Summer in some kind of psychotic, murderous, space-bending maze while trying to find our room in the casino.

When we finally got ready to leave the house, I noticed the house was really warm and discovered my air conditioner had blown the fuse outside again. I wasn’t going to let that hold us back though, so I called Dad and then we skipped town while my house heated up.

Our first stop was Hog Pen BBQ for lunch, and boy was it a treat. I told our waitress that it was our first time, and she brought us each a sample rib and some pork skins. It was some of the best barbecue I had ever had in my life. I got the sampler with ribs, chicken, and sausage, and it was some of the smokiest, most tender meat I’ve ever had. It was a good cut of rib meat without too much bone. The sauce didn’t seem like anything special, but it was really only there to wet the meat a little bit anyway. It definitely wasn’t lacking in flavor. The sausage wasn’t my favorite and had some gristle to it, and the sides left something to be desired mainly in portion size, but you could tell the focus was on the meats, and there was no shortage of that.

Neither of us could finish our plates, so I packed up another meal worth of meats and we headed out to the strip mall. We had never been to a Kohl’s before, so we stopped there first. They had a fair amount of clearance stuff to skim through, and Summer picked out a shirt for me. I’ll have to slim down a bit to fit it properly, but at least I have until winter. Then we went to Shoe Carnival so I could spend my $10 reward coupon. Finally we stopped by Target for a Frappuccino and to kill the last bit of time before the movie. We ran into Courtney and Eston there and chatted for just a second before we went on our way.

We made our way to the Cinemark early for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I thought the story lacking quite a bit, and I found the characters unrelatable at best. I never felt any kind of emotional investment in any of them, and I didn’t get the feeling that it was because I didn’t see the first movie. The action was larger than life though, and it was a relatively fun, mindless action flick. I still can’t get over Godzilla’s tiny head on his massively fat body though.

On the way home, we stopped in Morrilton for some drinks and I picked up a couple bottles of cocoa cayenne Bird Dog that ended up being super delicious. Amanda invited us over to hang out with some of her furry friends, and we got to hear some interesting stories while Summer tried her first Jell-O shots. Nick took the girls to the house, so we didn’t stay out too late. We did have to stop at Taco Bell for a midnight snack, and we finally crashed at her house for the night.

History shows again and again, how nature points out the folly of man.

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Gordita My Dreams

I woke up early several times as the morning light poured in through the windows, and eventually hopped out of bed and ran home to get ready for lunch with Brandie. She had to push it back an hour due to some stuff at work, but that just gave me a little more time to relax at the house. We met at Stoby’s, where I tried the Philly cheesesteak. Nothing else really jumped out at me, and the sandwich seemed messier than it should have been, but it did the job. We chatted for a while, mostly about her work and how things have changed over the years.

After lunch, I went back up to Summer’s and killed some time while she and Autumn went to the doctor. I ended up watching the Netflix special about a guy that memorized the prizes from The Price is Right while Eaddie hid in her room. Once that was over, we went to my parents’ house and met up with the others to uncover the pool. It went pretty smoothly aside from having to teach adolescents how to use brooms. It’s reached a point where I feel like the sucker because I do the work when they pretend to be terrible at everything.

Their father decided to take them for the night, so I volunteered to drive them all the way to Clarksville so Summer and I could visit the taco truck. Nick pointed us toward a different place called Rico’s Tacos that he claimed was better. Though it was delicious, I’m not convinced it was superior. Blue taco truck still has my heart. They did have gorditas though, which are probably my favorite dish, possibly because of how hard it is to find a place that makes them.

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart to scout for deals. I picked up a few super cheap things, most of which I had no real use for, but the savings were just too legit to quit.

Back home, I wanted to get some housework done but failed again. Being in the sun and the heat today really made me sleepy.

If only running out of time counted toward my daily step count.

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Gravy Boat

I didn’t get much of anything accomplished today, though I had hoped for something. The girls left around lunch time to do their things, and I took a shower and prepared to leave the house late. When Summer and Eaddie got back, we went to Walmart to shop for a few things including dinner. We settled on a lazy evening of instant mashed potatoes and chicken strips with white gravy, and a bit of salad to make things a little more healthy.

After dinner, we watched a few episodes of Parks and Rec and called it a relatively early night.

A boat sure would be useful right about now.

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Nearly Under the Sea

I slept in quite a bit today, snugly tucked under my weighted blanket. It was still a bit warm, but it may have been better with the new cover. All I know is that it’s going to be amazing in the winter.

I got up and around, and went to pick the girls up to go to Conway. We were running more behind than I wanted, but Summer had chores she wanted to accomplish first. We made it there for a late lunch, but the barbecue place I spotted was closed for the day. On the way across town we noticed a Korean barbecue place called Bulgogi that had a 4.9 star review, so it was an easy choice to stop in. They had an assortment of rice, noodle, and ramen bowls, and even some cheesesteak sandwiches. I’ll give you one guess who didn’t like their food, but everyone that got something traditional really enjoyed theirs. The cheesesteak was even pretty good, but needed some sauce to spice it up a bit.

After we ate, we went to Sam’s to kill some time. Summer picked up a few things, and I thought really hard about getting some beach chairs. Ultimately I decided against them, because geographically it just doesn’t make any sense for me to own any at all. I really liked the whale though, and there are times when I wish I had some kind of folding camp chair. They had a rocking one that was pretty nice too.

We made it to the movie pretty early, and the previews seemed to run forever. The movie was good, but it seems that 2019 is the year of the women’s power movement. As someone who grew up in a household where the matriarch clearly wore the pants, I simply can’t empathize, and frankly I feel preached-at for no reason. When I hear a character say something sexist, I don’t need a woman to sing a song about it to get that the dude is being a dick. I already understand that he is a villain. It’s just a little too SJW for me, and it really takes away from the movies. I guess “it’s not for me” though, so I should just be quiet.

It started storming pretty hard right as the movie started, and evidently we had some flooding back home. It wasn’t too bad in Conway, but it never really stopped raining the rest of the day. When we got out, I took us back across town to do some shopping. Summer picked out some shoes at Shoe Carnival, while I wandered back and forth trying on every shoe in the store only to bring back nothing. Then we went to Dick’s for a missing valve stem cap, and the girl at the register remembered us and asked about the bikes. That brought us to a very late dinner time. Most everything had closed, so we ended up going to JJ’s Grill, which turned out to be more of a bar than a restaurant. The food was good, though priced like bar food. I had a fried bologna sandwich with an egg on it, which would have made a great, if greasy breakfast.

On the way home, I stopped at Andy’s and got frozen custard with Eaddie. The others wanted to stay in the car, so it felt kind of special to get out and have a treat for ourselves in the rain. When we got back into town, the usual half of us were ready to crash. Eaddie will probably stay up longer than me too.

The genie from Uncanny Lamp