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Husky Nights and Melancholie Days

Summer had to open one of her stores today, so I just met her at Saint Mary’s for her mammogram and ultrasound. I walked in and saw Allen sitting there waiting to go back, so I sat next to him to chat until seats cleared up and we could all sit together. He was there getting X-rayed, and stayed to chat with me while Summer went back. She wasn’t in there long though, and came out looking really upset. I may have misread her based on our conversations the rest of the day, but they referred her to get an MRI in Conway instead of taking a biopsy, so I’m hopeful that it’s just nothing.

She had to go back to work, so I ran to McDonald’s to grab her some breakfast before meeting Allen at Price Break. Wednesday was apparently dollar day, and the place was absolutely packed. He didn’t stay long, but I grabbed a Christmas ornament of Rocket Raccoon and a case of some soda or energy drink stuff to try. He had another doctor appointment after that, so I headed toward home but stopped at Ridgewood Brothers just to say, “hello.” Grant accidentally messed up his macaroni sauce somehow, so I got out of the way and went home just long enough for Allen to text that he was done.

We met at Panda Express for some lunch and chatted for quite a while. I thought he’d come see the new house, but he changed his mind at the last minute and I headed home to run Muad’Dib. We went to the basin and saw that Dad was at the old house, so I thought we’d run across town to see him. He was mowing the lawns, so we rode on down to Allen’s house and got to play with Davis, his new dachshund. Davis ran circles around Muad’Dib in the back yard for a bit, and then we continued on down to the airport to visit Kevin for a little while.

Summer mentioned us coming to see her, so we headed back to the old house for a break before making our way to Superfast. Everyone there loved him, but Muad’Dib was tired. He had some popcorn, and then we continued home, stopping at the little paved pad with bike tools and a picnic table to rest and enjoy the shady breeze for a while. We got through the basin, visited Dad at home, and finally made it home where he laid down on the porch for a snooze.

Shawna called and we caught up for a little bit while I sat out on the porch with Muad’Dib. Eaddie got home from band solo and ensemble, and played with him for a little bit before coming in to eat. I cleaned up some of my own leftovers from work lunch, and then Summer got home and I made her a bowl of meatballs she made last night. We had a nice chat for a while until she went to bed, and then it was a slow wind-down for me.

Perfect.

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Beef Stroganov

Neither Summer nor I slept very well last night, but for all of the up and down, I actually didn’t have any trouble getting moving. I actually got out of the house a little bit early and beat everyone to work except for Gary. The middle school was still down, and there was some finger-pointing about whether it was a problem on our side or on Windstream’s side.

I tinkered a little bit, but again didn’t have much direction today. I was actually alone for much of the morning since Randy had his executive team meeting and Maggie had some kind of training. Lunch time came around pretty quickly and I ended up going to Popeye’s for a couple chicken sandwiches. The chick that was working the drive-through wasn’t in the mood for whatever her customer kept saying, because I could hear her sassing him over the speaker as I walked in, then got to witness her exaggerated eye rolling once I made it inside.

The sandwiches were good, but I didn’t quite “get” the pickle seasoning version. The pickle slices were huge on both sandwiches though. After that, I tinkered in Mosyle for a bit to try and deploy the Adobe suite on a “donated” MacBook. The afternoon went by more slowly until the last hour, which sped by.

Traffic home was incredibly slow for no discernible reason. I got home and took Muad’Dib out for a good run while Summer was at the gym. When we got back, we ate the slow cooker noodles and meatballs that she made to resemble a beef stroganoff. It was actually pretty good, and it kept growing on me the more I ate. The green beans she made were good, but undercooked for me. Overall it was a good, easy dinner.

She was still nervous about her second mammogram, but kept busy doing some work from home while I put together an Adirondack chair. I wasn’t quite confident enough to sit in it myself, but I think Summer liked it alright. Eaddie was out late having Eli’s mom do her hair as practice for prom. We settle down fairly quickly, then it was off to bed.

Turns out all of my highs are making love to my lows

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Dynamism

Randy had Kyle, Jim, and me meet at the high school core closet today to try and resolve an outage from over the weekend. It was a fair amount of sitting, but I did manage to pull a DHCP configuration off of a bare metal installation, then import it into a spare DHCP virtual machine we already had. Kyle did some magic on his side to fix some other related issues, and I think we eventually got the middle school back online as well, but Randy indicated that was Windstream’s fault.

That got us all the way to lunch, and I met them at David’s Burgers for one of the better burgers I’ve had there. I like their fries when they’re hot and fresh more than the ones I’ve had from CJ’s in town. Then after lunch, I ended up back at the office for the rest of the day.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and I washed the car as soon as I got into town. Muad’Dib ended up eating the Google TV remote last night, so we put him outside again. I took him out for a really good run and chatted with Shawna for a little while. We got to meet a little dachshund that got away from her owner, so she got a treat. Then we encountered Dad’s drone on the way back toward the other side of the basin trail, since our usual path was flooded.

We visited briefly, but then headed home to meet Summer. Her mammogram came back cloudy, so they scheduled her again for Wednesday to do an enhanced image and ultrasound. She had a difficult day even before that call, and had to discipline one of her leaders that was showing signs of her own personality traits, and I think that was a turning point for her in a good way. There’s no reason for her or anyone else to break themselves for a job like that. It might be different if they were helping people, but they’re changing oil and washing cars.

Summer went to decompress in a bath, and I ended up calling Shawna again while I drained the sump room. It was absolutely full of water, and Josh peeked over the fence to remind me in the most polite way possible that I was flooding his yard. I’ve got to run a drain line over to the corner of the yard, or at least hook up an automatic sump that drains more frequently to avoid flooding.

When I got back inside, Summer and I talked about her day and ended up calling Shawna together to break through Summer’s resistance to accepting the fact that friends aren’t burdened when they get to listen to your troubles. It’s different if you’re constantly in turmoil that you’ve created yourself by being an idiot. They’re shaping up to be beautiful friends.

I always play Support class.

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Leftover Sunday

I was up way late, but woke up in the morning when Randy texted about some systems being down. I got up and the three of us each had some leftover pizza as we came around. I sat on the computer for a bit trying to help Randy, but there wasn’t much I could do without understanding what he was seeing, or knowing what the vendor might be doing remotely as well.

Eaddie had a recital that she didn’t want us to watch, so we stayed home all day. The afternoon went by really quickly, but I did manage to get Muad’Dib out for a little bit. The basin was flooded, but we ran straight down Vancouver to the roundabout. Dad was cooking some bacon when we stopped to see them, and Mom kept trying to run us out of the house even though Muad’Dib was relatively clean.

We got back home and had some time to relax and clean up, then ate some leftover Tacos 4 Life that was really good. It really was a good recovery day. I gave Shawna Summer’s information and they started texting, so I really think this will be a good thing for everyone. As the sun slowly set, Muad’Dib and I laid on the couch and let Summer pet us for a while. I kept falling asleep, so we eventually headed to bed a little early.

High Availability? More like High Failure.

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Triple Threat

Summer got up and made breakfast for us this morning before taking Eaddie out to shop for prom stuff. I cleaned house until they got back, and then Summer and I took Muad’Dib to the dog wash for a bath so he could stay inside for another rainy day. Shawna was going to head toward town around noon, but had a late start and wouldn’t get to us until later in the evening.

I continued to clean up, Summer went to the gym, and Eaddie eventually went with Eli to watch Minecraft. Summer and I ended up laying on the couch in the early evening watching a documentary about a touristy volcano that erupted. Shawna finally got to town, and to save the awkwardness of leaving any two people in one place, I ordered our Little Caesar’s for delivery by DoorDash.

The three of us sat in the living room in a bit of awkward silence until Shawna started to share some of her recent trauma. That at least got us talking and reacting. Pizza showed up sooner than I expected and we ate, then played a few rounds of Uno Flip. Afterward we kept chatting at the dinner table and I thought it went really well. Even Summer opened up a little bit and shared some history, even if she did so begrudgingly.

I was glad Summer stayed up as long as she did, but evidently she had enough “bashing” me for fun, and went to bed. I think all three of us thought it might ease any awkwardness, but apparently there was a limit. Shawna and I continued talking for quite a while longer before she finally chose to drive home. Eaddie had made it home not long before that, and was in the bedroom talking with Summer until I was ready to wind down.

You’re the Brighter Side of Things

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Gateway 2000

I started getting texts early on the drive in this morning. Internet was down in multiple buildings, which meant something was down at the core. I got there and was able to ping switches, so I knew it wasn’t a network issue. Kyle was out, so Randy and Jim were at the high school trying to figure things out. It took them until just after lunch to figure out it was a misconfigured switch due to a power outage last night.

David from Howard brought a Clear Touch representative and lunch from Jimmy John’s to discuss some of the issues the techs had been facing ever since the boards were installed. I don’t think anyone was super impressed by the cold sandwiches, but free was free. We sat and talked for a while, and Randy eventually showed up once they got the switch reconfigured.

The afternoon was just as quiet, because nobody wanted to do anything by that time. I watched a livestream of Eaddie performing at Tech for the Music for All, but Summer was actually able to go in person. The temperature spiked outside and storms started blowing in, so Jimmy, Maggie, and I left the office a little bit early to beat the weather. I stopped in Morrilton for some drinks, then made it home where the kids were waiting for Summer to finish dinner. I cleaned up a bit, we ate, and then Summer and I sat outside with Muad’Dib and talked for a while.

Summer also made strawberries and whipped cream to go with some angel food cake for dessert. After we ate that, we considered taking the dog out for a bath. It got kind of late, and it was already gross outside though, so we ended up staying in and playing Heads Up! with the kids. Afterward, Eli left and Eaddie settled in. I laid down with Summer for a little while, cleaned up just a hair more, and eventually made it to bed.

I was caught in the middle of a railroad track.

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Two Player Co-Op

Randy wanted me to go to Arch Ford with him today, so I got to sleep in just a little bit and only had to drive to Plumerville. It was raining pretty hard and my car didn’t love it, but we made it on time, and well before things got started. I sat with Randy, and Gary, Greg, and Ryan showed up to sit at the table behind us. It was just a day session on all of the new cybersecurity policies and how to interpret the laws.

The training itself was a lot of read along and discuss, and then White River served pork loin and mashed potatoes with gravy for lunch. It was a pretty good meal, and I appreciated Randy for just getting me a break from the long commute.

Summer and I thought we might meet in Conway for dinner or something afterward, but I finished too early and we ended up crossing paths around Morrilton. She went to work out before going to her team meeting to say goodbye to the stores she was made to give to some other moron, who she’s afraid will destroy the team morale.

I got home and it was too rainy to run Muad’Dib, and Julie was stressing about a logo for Humble Aviation, so I spent the rest of the afternoon working on that. I was fairly happy with the final result, but I still wish I could convert it to a proper vector better. I’ll have to learn my tools better.

Summer came home obviously upset from her difficult team goodbye. We talked for a little while before she went to shower. I cleaned up some leftovers and then we chatted for a while longer before Eaddie got home. It seemed to get really late super fast, but I guess the evenings always fly by.

It just might be crazy enough to work.

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Heavy Stuff

Muad’Dib ended up staying inside again last night, and he tore up some stuff in the living room. I stepped on a wet spot, but it turned out to be a cup of water someone left in the sunroom. One of the stuffed cows lost an eye, and he completely destroyed the 3D-printed heart gears that I had made. Other than that, it was just some packing material I had saved.

I was a little worried I was going to be late to work, but I had a tailwind and got there just a little after seven. It wasn’t very long before we had to run to the high school because FedEx showed up unannounced to deliver three big, heavy pallets of Chromebooks. Jim took Randy and me over to help move them, but we really didn’t need to be there. The truck driver fussed about making it to the loading dock, and showed up with a bit of an attitude after Maggie had called his supervisor. He did fine, so I don’t know what all of that was about.

I met with Randy and Kyle a little later in the afternoon to talk about some of the new cybersecurity guidelines we have to follow. We had a Tacos 4 Life bar from Genesis for lunch, and it was cool that they actually had the chafing dishes to keep the food warm. After that, they sent everyone home due to some incoming storms.

Randy let me go particularly early since storms were coming from my direction. It never really got bad for us though. It rained heavily for a bit, and we had some thunder and lightning. I hurriedly ran with Muad’Dib just as it started to sprinkle. We saw Dad briefly and then made it home. Summer was there and we went to the Neighborhood Market to pick up a couple things for dinner.

Eaddie got home just as we did, and we went outside to play with Muad’Dib for a bit and listen to the rain. Eaddie had a band thing scheduled, so I drove her to Tech only to find that it had been cancelled because they had no power. We had a good chat during the drive though, and it makes me so happy to hear how emotionally intelligent and smart she is.

When we got back, I sat by the tub with Summer so we could talk for a while. Then she got up and fried some potatoes and onions while I got the grill going with some premade burger patties and corn. It was a good, quick dinner and Muad’Dib sat under the table so calmly to accept scraps. Then everyone went to bed pretty quickly after that.

Naders are comin’!

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Wheird

Muad’Dib ended up staying inside last night, but he behaved well and stayed on the ground, at least until the end of the night. I woke up thinking I heard him scratching in the corner, and my stirring caused him to jump up into me in the bed. I took him outside and couldn’t get to sleep again until my alarm went off. It was a rough start, but I was the first one there after the old men. Randy was at the co-op all day.

I had the hardest time concentrating on anything today, but things turned out pretty alright in the end. I’ve been feeling sinus issues coming on slowly, and they continually got worse throughout the day. Jim called and wanted some printer help at central office, so I had to drive across town for a little while. Beyond that, I skipped lunch and ended up staying at the office late until Summer was ready to meet in Maumelle for Eaddie’s All-State concert.

We went to El Charro Bar and Grill for dinner first, and I talked to her about my conversations with Shawna. It all went pretty well, as I suspected. All three of us individually have some things to work through to figure out what we want, and I don’t think any of us think it’s the worst idea to all be friends in spite of a little history. Maybe some shared trauma dumping will help everyone.

We got to the high school just in time to be seated for Eaddie’s concert. They did great, but I think my heart was pounding from dinner, running around, and being slightly uncomfortable in my work clothes. The kids did wonderfully, but I wish I could have focused better.

Shawna called while I was driving home and I offered every ounce of support that I could. I hope that reminiscing with her helped to bring a little bit of peace. Muad’Dib was amped up with the zoomies when I got home, so I ended up racing him around the block a couple times before the girls got home. I didn’t have time to do laundry, so it’s dress socks tomorrow!

I really don’t think you guys are considering the healing benefits of having a sister wife.

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What Is

I got very little sleep last night, but made it to work at a “normally” late time. It was not a day for accomplishments. I went to McDonald’s with Randy for some breakfast and had a steak, egg, and cheese bagel. That got me through to a late lunch with him and Jim at Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken just up the road. They liked their food pretty well, but my jambalaya was poured over rice that simply wasn’t cooked.

I guess the afternoon went by pretty quickly. I charged a little extra last night so I wouldn’t have to stop on the way home now that my free Supercharging is expired. I took Muad’Dib out for a run and did two laps of our usual course while I took a phone call

Completely out of the blue, Shawna sent me a friend request over the weekend, so I entertained her message, fully expecting to be phished or scammed in some way. To my absolute surprise, it really was her, so we had been catching up since Sunday. I think in hindsight, that conversation went fairly predictably. Then, again by chance, I got a call from Johnny and I talked to him for a bit as we made our way to my parents’ house to see Dad, who had gone out for a flight with Julie since she earned her next step in her licensure.

We made it home for the night and I brushed him out. I desperately wanted to take him for a bath so he could stay inside for the night, but we dawdled too long and didn’t make it. I threw myself a pity party and reminisced as I gathered myself for bed.

What Should Never Be