I stopped by the post office again this morning to finally ship off my video card for RMA. It cost me more to insure the package than it cost me to actually ship it, which makes me wonder what the chances are that it won’t make it there.

Everyone was busy doing their own thing at work all day, so I ended up taking lunch by myself. This doesn’t happen a lot any more, because the guys have about 4 restaurants that they rotate through like clockwork. I went against my better judgement and had the buffet at KFC. The food was decent, though I’ve had better from there. The problem didn’t occur until later when I couldn’t stop shoveling food into my mouth hole.

While I was sitting there, an old man walked up to another guy that was sitting alone at a high table behind me, and asked if he could eat with him. It’s so seldom we see things like this. Neither had a lot to talk about aside from the weather, or where the younger man was from. Washington state. He was here on business, doing some training on some new equipment they just had installed at the local sawmill. Long hours. He flew here, but he’ll get to go back home soon. The older man used to drive a big truck.

They’ll probably never see each other again, and it reminded me of this video:

The night was full of embarrassment in nearly every game of Rocket League I played with Johnny and Josh. Like mismatched gears, we ground to a halt.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Breathing intensifies…

Last night I had a dream that I was at a school in some position in which I was to write a letter of recommendation for a student. I don’t know what for, but I know that I spent most of the night trying to get this letter written with great difficulty. Every time I’d wake up, I would go back to sleep and continue trying to write it. After that, I was driving in a futuristic version of Russellville, where there were two levels of road, and I was on the elevated one looking down at all the city lights on the street below.

Today, I’m back to being a computer tech, and I want to smash this laptop out of frustration. I had a lot of difficulty getting motivated in the morning, but after lunch was better. I ended up staying late to help with setting up some equipment at Oakland Heights for their kindergarten registration.

After work, I went to my parents’ house to finish up some spring rolls.

I don’t even know where the rest of my evening went. Typical.

I hate your stupid face.

Today started like any other day, and ended much the same.

I never could find an appropriately sized box to ship my video card, so I stopped by the post office on the way home. The cost of shipping always surprises me any time I need to mail something. The “free shipping” machine of online purchases makes it completely transparent, so I have no bearing on the actual value of post.

After work, my parents wanted to go to KFC, but changed their minds when we got there and the buffet was closed. They did the exact same thing like a week ago. Monday through Thursday at 11-3, and then later hours on the weekend. There’s a sign.

I wasn’t too hungry anyway, so I just came home. I spent way too much time fighting with a broken set of mini blinds. Why are these so expensive? Why am I wasting hours trying to tie up a broken string that still won’t really fix the blinds? What can I do to learn a sense of style so I can feel good about buying a whole new matching set for the house? Why is it like $400 per window to get smart blinds that integrate with the rest of my smart home?

It’s 2017. Things were supposed to be better by now.

I’ve been searching for the daughter of the devil himself.

Jack and Nichole came through town on the way to visit family for the weekend, and we met for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Penny’s still learning how to eat. If you ask me, I think they just got a defective model but they don’t want to return it because this one’s so cute.

Afterward I stopped by Apex to see the guys there. Eric, Jordan, and I went out back to throw a frisbee around for a while. I had been playing through a headache that started when I left the restaurant, so after a little while I decided to head back home for the day.

This evening I finally gave up on my video card and contacted customer service for an RMA. I forgot that I had this card replaced once before, but it has a lifetime warranty and I’ve overall been super happy with it. I tried installing a Radeon HD 7950 I had lying around, and even tried removing the cooling assembly to reapply some new thermal paste, but I could never get the system to power on with it installed. I settled for another significantly lower end video card I got from scrap at the school just so I’d have something to work with until I get my replacement.

The good news is that I got some new feather pillows in today from Meh. I’m not sure I love the texture of them, but we’ll see tonight.

Would it help if I turned a sad song on?

Fridays are usually pretty exhausting, and today was no exception. Amanda, Gary, and I helped Allen run cable at the upper elementary building all morning. It was a warm and humid day, but still only a taste of what’s to come over the summer.
I had to take the Murano in for an oil change after lunch, which was a welcome break. Then the rest of the afternoon was just wrapping things up for the weekend.

After work, I came home to check out the work they had done to the trees in my yard. The large trees made me feel like I was further away from the city than I am. Somewhere older and closer to nature. I’d love having the open view of the sky if I could actually see the stars from here, but the city lights drown out the rest of the universe. Now it’s all just light reflecting off the haze in the distance. I guess the bright side is that I’ll have plenty of firewood if I ever convince anyone to come over long enough to burn it. I always thought s’mores would be a better incentive than they’ve proven to be.

The cardinals seem to be doing well this spring. A bright red couple has just finished building a nest on my aunt’s back porch, and today was the first day we got an egg. This should be lots of fun to watch over the next few weeks. I miss having a bird around.

In the evening, I ended up having some computer trouble. I think I’ve narrowed it down to a driver issue, but I don’t know why anything changed in the first place. I guess I’ll keep working on it tomorrow when I have less trouble keeping my eyes open.

I’m not ready for the summer.

Today was a lot of fun. Jason, Amanda, and I got to go to Conway for a vendor’s open house and meet-and-greet. We got to check out their new facility and demo a bunch of display tech, but most importantly they grilled lunch. For a decent sized event, they didn’t have any music going outside, so I did them the courtesy of scanning for devices I could commandeer, and whipped out some Feelin Good in the ’90s jams.

After lunch, we headed back to the shop to work out the rest of the day, and Zach and I got into another one of our trademarked religiosity talks where he tries to convince me that I should have a backup plan, and I try to explain to him that being dead is just like not having been born yet. I was reminded of The Egg by Andy Weir. I felt like it was a feel-good short story about how we’re all connected, even though we may not know it, or understand why. It made me think about how it would be nice just to be the good we want to see in the whole world rather than worry about who has the better origin story.

After work, I headed home to wind down. At one point, I heard my aunt talking to someone outside. She’s been trying to cut down the trees in my yard, which I hate because I love the tall trees in the neighborhood. She’s so worried that they’ll fall onto the house in a storm, but methinks the oak knows better, and it would be such a shame to stunt my maple brother in the front. We compromised at $700 to fell a sweet gum tree in the back yard, and trim three more. Roll with the punches.

In the evening, I took some time to resurrect the Legacy Galloping Cow website. It’s nice to have a home for it again, even if it is without any real purpose.

But what does it all matter if I’m just going to be reincarnated as Zach in the next life anyway?

This morning was a rough, pull-start kind of day. I had some pretty weird, vivid dreams last night. I normally don’t remember dreaming much.
Work was super slow, and I’m tired of reading about low level computer hardware.

After work, my parents and I went out to Ruby Tuesday for the franchise’s 45th anniversary where we got 45% off the food, bringing it down closer to the actual value of the food you can order there. We ran into Suzanne and Nicole outside, which was nice. I hadn’t heard from Suzanne since like December, which was super weird. Then we saw Jasmine working inside.

On the ride home, I caught the hint of the first honeysuckle of the season. My favorite.

That is so fetch.

Over the weekend, the first-gen Moto 360 smartwatch I’ve been using had all but given up the ghost. The battery was just too weak to go on, so I brought my old Pebble that Shain got me for Christmas back out of retirement. It was probably the best gift I’ve ever received in my life, and it’s still kicking. It really makes me sad that Pebble crashed so hard as a company.

Jesica said she was sick today, and mentioned she had never had a pizza delivered before, so after work I went by Domino’s to get some food. Not wanting her to miss out on the delivery experience, I donned an old Domino’s hat and jacket when I brought it to her apartment. Then she watched wrestling. The WWE kind. On her phone. Not ironically.

The mind reels.

You can’t see me, my time is now.