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Blocked

This morning we had a meeting with the assistant to the superintendent to go over the new sexual harassment policy. I got my couple of jokes in, but she did a pretty poor job of making it a serious talk anyway. She kept saying things like, “two can keep a secret if one of them is dead” like we could harass someone if we also kill them. Maybe it wasn’t quite that crazy, but I still found it funny. I only cracked once, and that was because everything was so “hard.”

I spent the rest of the morning at the junior high, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time before a slightly early lunch. It started pouring rain which quickly flooded the parking lot, so my feet were wet the rest of the day. I met Dale at Arby’s to try their new meat sandwich. It was pretty great. Allen met us there a little later, but I’m not sure why because he ended up taking the afternoon off to drain his pool before it overflowed and broke.

After lunch, I went with Dale, Zach, and Amanda to hang a touch panel at Allen’s building. At least it was a quick job, but it also made the afternoon feel that much longer. Once on my own, I got quite a few things closed out, so at least I got to leave for the weekend on a relatively good note.

Dad said they were making egg rolls for dinner, so I came home to change and wait for Summer to get there. Bác Vân was mowing her lawn, so I went to the gas station to fill up her gas can for her. As we pulled up, the clerk was outside tidying things up around the gas pumps while smoking a cigarette. In nearly immediate hindsight, I should have pulled right back out of the parking lot, but laziness got the best of me..

Finally, we went to pick up Eaddie from her grandparents’ house, then went to my parents’ house for egg roll salads. We watched a few YouTube videos on the TV afterward, then headed home to sleep.

Dot dot dot…

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Local Cupcake Day

I got way more sleep last night, but still woke up tired. I’ve got so many work orders that are open but waiting on something that I’m feeling a little edgy all the time, but I guess that’s just the way it goes. I’ve got things I could close, but also others that are more important.

Summer said she heard on the radio that it was cupcake day somewhere. I didn’t bother confirming it because she debunked it herself, but I still went by the Neighborhood Market and picked up some strawberry shortcake cupcakes for us. I lived on that and a Soylent all day, skipping lunch again.

I stayed and chatted with Ben and Gary for a while after work until I went to Summer’s for dinner. We started watching Mama Mia! until she had to pick Autumn up from the Back to School Talk where the kids get together and don’t dance.

Back at home, I helped Bác Vân hook her car up to my battery charger, then came in for the evening. I was a bit startled to find my toilet seat lid up, but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if I’ve been murdered in my sleep.

It’s the old one!

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Wednesday is spelled wrong.

I’m dead tired again today. It rained all day long, which probably didn’t help. I spent the morning at Oakland, worked through lunch, then the afternoon at the junior high. Nothing exciting happened.

I went straight to Summer’s after work, and she made some chicken alfredo using a rotisserie chicken for dinner. I didn’t stick around too long though, because I kept trying to fall asleep on the couch while we watched Demetri Martin’s new Netflix special. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel more rested.

Those are not your feet. Get the hell outta here!

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Hunker

Waking up was really rough this morning. I just didn’t want to get out of bed and dragged all morning. I didn’t go to sleep particularly late, but I just felt completely worn out. I started the day at Oakland to wrap up a couple things, and then spent all day at the junior high. I eventually started making enough progress that I wanted to maintain my momentum and just finished my breakfast Soylent through a working lunch. I felt better for not eating, and was in a good place by the time I left.

I stopped by the house for just a bit before heading to Summer’s for some leftover kabobs. She still wasn’t feeling very well, so we just sat on the couch watching some TV until it was time for me to head home. There, I spent a little time picking up again before heading to bed.

In the end, the greatest snowball isn’t a snowball at all. It’s fear.

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Welcome Back, Fodder

It really wasn’t too bad for the first day of school. Teachers were busy enough with students that I had some time to catch up again. I spent all morning at the junior high, probably spending too much time trying to fix Hall Pass after I swapped out a computer. It ended up being a low power issue with the USB-powered scanner, and I should have figured it out a lot sooner.

Nobody said anything about lunch, so I went to McDonald’s by myself. It was a little rainy, and I just sat by the window to eat. I managed to double up on discounts and got a Big Mac, medium fry, and large drink for $2.18. The guy delivering orders to the tables tried giving my order to someone else, but I managed to catch it before that happened.

After lunch, I spent a bit of time at Oakland before heading back to the junior high. I had a stack of Chromebooks I had to set up for the teachers, so I spent most of my time on that before knocking out a bunch more work orders. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have most all of them done.

I went straight to my parents’ house for dinner after work. I cleaned up some soup, then scavenged some vegetables for the turtles and tadpoles before heading up to visit with Summer for a bit. I helped Autumn change her turtle’s water again while trying to explain to her how siphons work. Maybe I only understood it after living a childhood with fish, but I couldn’t understand why she just didn’t get it, or why she didn’t seem to care. I wish she showed more interest in knowing how the world works.

Summer had me run her to the Dollar General for some things, and then I headed home to clean up before bed. I got a load of laundry done, and did some minor cleanup tasks. My kitchen has been out of control for too long. It’s time to recalibrate my anti-hoarding mindset.

Hi, I’m Cortana!

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Hunger Crank

I tried getting everyone up a little earlier this morning so they’d be able to go to sleep tonight for the first day of school. The only plans we had were a bit of shopping. There were so many leftovers in the refrigerator that we didn’t bother making any breakfast.

Autumn was finally in enough of a helping mood to clean the 55-gallon turtle tank for Apollo. I showed her how to siphon the water out, and we went to my house to look for some old driftwood I had gathered some years ago. It will take some time for the wood to soak up some water and sink, but hopefully the turtle will be able to climb up on at least one of the logs we threw in there.

We left my house to go shopping, and all three of the girls were pretty cranky. Autumn had a fashion meltdown, and Eaddie just wanted to eat. We didn’t end up getting any new overpriced fashion sneakers for Autumn’s marching band, and all we did at Penney’s was return a ridiculously oversized 2XL shirt I picked up a few days ago. I was pretty hungry by the time that was over, so I let the girls talk me into some CiCi’s for dinner. I guess it was just hunger, because they were all playful and lovey as soon as they had some pizza in them.

Summer was feeling quite a bit worse, so we all headed back to her place for a while before I took Autumn back out to Walmart to pick up some groceries for her school lunches. The trip took way longer than it should have for the few things she had to get, but I wanted her to lead the way and pay attention to what she was picking up so she could keep a mental note of how much it was going to cost. She only went over her $30 budget by $4, and that was because she picked up a clearanced phone case while we were there.

As we finished our trip, it started to pour outside. We heard the thunder from inside, but we had no idea how much water had actually flooded the parking lot. Luckily I parked on a bit of a hill, but several others weren’t so lucky, and had to trudge through several inches of water to get to their cars. I dropped Autumn off, then came home for the last night of the summer.

They will see us waving from such great heights.

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Meet the Girls

Summer got up and out this morning to pick up Autumn. Eaddie slept all morning until they got back to the house. Jesica texted and said she would be in town, so we decided to meet up for a quick lunch and then some shopping for dinner.

Summer, Eaddie, and I went next door when Bác Vân called with some mashed melon. It was strange and tasteless, but the sugar made it better. Jesica got there and met Autumn before we made it back inside, which I have to assume was awkward and hilarious. From there we went to Burger King for a quick lunch, and then to Walmart for groceries.

We ran into Brandie on our way to pick up kabob skewers, but Summer and Jesica just kept on walking like a pair of awkward children when adults start having a conversation. Eventually they made their way back around so I could introduce them. I think they were mostly shocked that Brandie already knew who they were from my talking about them.

We rounded the girls up and made our way out to start prepping the shish kabobs. We decided to grill at Summer’s house so the girls could get a couple good nights of sleep at home before school starts on Monday. Summer and Jesica had some wine and chatted while I prepped the food. It was a good way for them to get to know each other, and it gave us plenty of time to get hungry again after such a late lunch.

The kabobs turned out pretty great, and the girls all ate over Dinner for Schmucks. Autumn couldn’t finish the movie before passing out as usual. Eaddie had to be told when to go to bed. Jesica was ready to pass out by the time the movie was over, so we let her sleep on the couch. I guess it’s leftovers the rest of the week.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not.

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Relentless

We didn’t have a team meeting this morning, so I spent all day in my buildings trying to keep my head above water. For some reason people feel like now is the best time to try and request new things from everyone, so on top of them finding things that have been broken since last year, they’re creating new work for us as well.

I met up with Summer at New China for lunch, then continued on with more of the same until it was time to go. I took Eaddie along with me while Summer went to work out, and we got some milkshakes from Sonic on the way home. Once Summer got here, we all went to pick up some Wendy’s for them before coming home to watch Unbreakable.

Monday will bring out the priorities in everyone.

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thats racist af

I got up early this morning so I could go to the high school for our welcome back assembly. Breakfast was suboptimal. I got the last piece of real bacon. There was a ton of turkey bacon left though. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had, but geez.

I actually won a door prize this year. Most of our table did. Allen, Heather, Jason, Dale, Gary, Ryan, and I all won something. I think Ryan’s $50 Leaning Willow gift card had the highest technical value/lowest personal value ratio possible. I made a joke about my prize being racist because of the bamboo. I didn’t realize they were just getting started.

The actual assembly at the Center was interesting. We actually sat through a live OSHA presentation this year instead of watching a prerecorded video. The guy giving the presentation was super old and southern to the point that I actually had some trouble understanding him. My favorite part was when he made a joke that he submitted a recommendation for a new HCS Pictogram for explosives involving a guy wearing a turban. I’m not one to shy away from off-color humor, but the balls on this guy to say it on stage in front of a mixed crowd. Holy. Shit. Just a few minutes later, he asked us to “pardon his French” for saying that a kid dying “sucks.” Priorities, I suppose.

After the assembly, Summer wanted to get lunch. She was craving Mexican, so we decided on Morelos. It wasn’t until the third one of my team pulled into the parking lot that I realized everyone happened to make the same decision collectively as they left the auditorium. I’m only just now realizing that this meant they didn’t invite me, but we all sat together anyway.

The afternoon was spent catching up on the massive influx of work orders I had been receiving all morning while we were at our mandatory meeting. The couple of things I tried to finish quickly at Oakland ended up taking a couple hours, which left little time at the junior high. I stayed a bit late, but I’ll still have plenty for tomorrow.

Summer had to stay for the open house, so I headed home and burned the entire evening.

I keep dragging around what’s bringing me down.

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Feelin Froggy

It was a bit rainy last night, but it was dry enough for us to do our group work this morning. Jason asked if I wanted to go with him and Allen or Dale and Ryan. I hesitated out of courtesy, but then Allen made a comment about being stuck with Amanda and I took the opportunity to ditch them for the brofessionals. We hung one TV and one touch panel at the middle school for Allen, then headed to the high school arena to hang a TV there.

We finished just in time for lunch, and Ryan told me to pick something. Given the company and the amount of time since my last visit, I chose Popeye’s. It was by far the fastest service I’ve ever had there. They actually had spicy chicken cooked and ready to go for lunch. They even had shrimp ready. The disappointment came in the size of the meat under the breading. I got plenty to eat to be sure, but it still wasn’t worth the price of admission. Summer stopped by to visit after a while until we had to go back.

When we got back to the shop, most everyone else had left, so we split up to work on our own things. I got a bunch of work orders closed out at the junior high, and managed to go from having the most work orders to third place, even after being out of my buildings for three days last week, so I was happy. I also had the second most closed work orders of all the building techs.

After work, I dropped my dad’s retainer off at their house, then came home to start a load of laundry. Then I fished out the most frogs I’ve ever had to release at once. There were three that had completely lost their tails, and two more that had very short tails. They don’t seem to be coming out super healthy, and I don’t know if that’s just because normally they wouldn’t survive this long in the wild, or if it’s something to do with their environment. I definitely feel like more tadpoles generally die before making the transformation though.

Once that was all done, I headed to Summer’s for a leftover sloppy joe for dinner. Eaddie was still stuck watching Arrow, so we watched with her over some cake and ice cream until I had to head home to finish laundry. Tomorrow is the back to school extravaganza, so it’s early to bed and early to breakfast.

Do it right, do it well, and do it once.