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DogGos

Summer had a 5k this morning, and I awoke to a knock on the front door. Then I got a text a little while later from the neighbor a couple doors down saying our dogs were over in their yard. She was cool with them playing with her dog, so it wasn’t a big deal, but of course they got out of her yard by the time Summer got home and we made it over to retrieve them. We talked to a couple of the other neighbors while we were out there, and then I hopped on the Onewheel to try and find them.

I texted Dad to have him check his yard while I went toward the basin trail, and just as I was getting close to it, he said he had them both. It was cute that they went to his house, but Stilgar had gotten into the pool cover again, and I’m just worried he’ll end up drowning if he’s not careful. Dad tried to walk them to our house, but they took off again, so I told them to stay put.

Once I gathered them up, they were visibly tired and slow. We made it to the house, and I unboxed most of the Vine stuff that was delivered while I was gone. I had eaten most of a leftover bánh mì, gave the rest to Summer, and then had to take the other one to Julie at the airport. Summer wanted to go to Walmart after that to pick up stuff to make her baked kielbasa and vegetables with some leftover sweet potatoes.

After we got home, Summer realized she had forgotten Brussels sprouts, so I rode to the Neighborhood Market with the dogs. I saw Derick out in the yard of a house just behind Walmart and we waved at each other. It looked like he traded in his IT hat for real estate. The dogs did great tied to a bench in front of the store, I grabbed a bag of Brussels and dropped off some recycling, and then we headed on home.

I made some rice to go along with what Summer made, and we ate together. Eaddie wouldn’t be back from making first band/first chair in All-State until after midnight. Summer went to bed not long after that, and I wasn’t too far behind.

Tagline!

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The Long and Unnecessary

I got up to pack this morning and started to take a shower, but then I thought I heard Julie scream “LET ME OUT” from somewhere across the house. The next thing I knew, Mom was up the stairs looking for her. It didn’t take us long to realize she was just screaming about hot and cold water shifting due to a flushed toilet. I continued packing until it was my turn to shower, and then I came downstairs to help clean up the food we had in the fridge. Julie made omelettes, and I ate mine with some leftover hot pepper oil and the last of the injera.

We got everyone loaded up and out of the house just in time for our late checkout, and someone we presumed to be a housekeeper pulled up just as we pulled out of the driveway. We went to get some food for Bác Tuấn and let the adults go in while Julie and I unloaded the goodie bags we made the night before.

I left her to chat, and when I got back to them, Uncle Tuấn had started feeding himself really well. I thought he was going kind of fast though, and after a little while we realized he was just packing his mouth with food but not swallowing. Bác Trân had him spit out a HUGE wad of food that nearly filled an entire plastic cup, he rinsed his mouth out with some water, and we gave it a rest for a bit. Otherwise he was in good spirits though, and was very lucid.

Dad and Julie spent nearly the entire time talking to the staff to get the real story of what happened to bring us across state lines, and we basically learned that we were there due to poor communication across the board. Lan was visiting fairly regularly and making an effort to care for him, but was not doing a great job of rehabilitating him. Nobody held this against her because she was simply not an occupational therapist, or a doctor, or a professional caregiver. Instead, she was simply acting as a traditional Vietnamese wife trying to do her duty to care for her ill husband. Unfortunately, what we did witness was her loading him up on low value, non-nutritional treats because that’s what he would eat without any fuss. She didn’t want to hear any feedback from us though.

Bác Tuấn was very capable of feeding himself, but did have trouble swallowing. The biggest problem was that he didn’t like the cafeteria food and had been steadily losing weight. From our family conversations/fights, it seemed like Lan, though well-meaning, was doing more to interfere with the care that was being given by the facility. She felt like they were stealing his clothes, and she said she told him not to take all of his medicines. On the other hand, his level of care did allow him to refuse their food and starve himself out. At least Lan was bringing him “things” that he would eat.

We were happy to see that he wasn’t on the brink of death, but the family drama that ensued all week was incredibly frustrating. They had the best intentions, but every single one of the Asians wanted to interfere with the staff who were operating like a fine-tuned machine. Diaper changing times and inspections were done regularly, but not at the pace the family wanted, so they would interrupt staff while they were trying to work elsewhere. I had to chase Bác Trân down constantly and wrangle him away from getting in the way. Not a single one of them wanted to trust the system, but on the other hand, nobody wanted to accept the fact that they would have to pay substantially more for more involved care that Bác Tuấn may not really need in the first place. Instead, the perceived meddling in the situation immediately put Lan on the defensive and made everyone combative. On the other hand, Lan can’t play the poor-English miscommunication card and then turn around and make her own decisions on the best care for him.

We didn’t have very long before Bác Trân’s flight, so Mom called Lan and had her meet us in the parking lot as we were leaving. For some reason, they told her about the gift bags we made for the staff, and she didn’t like that at all. She immediately wanted to interject on our simple act of kindness, and wanted to redistribute them as she felt appropriate, which simply wasn’t the point. Furthermore, it was our act of kindness to perform, with or without her. We had already spoken with those in charge, and were assured the gift bags would reach all of the souls who directly care for our loved one at all hours of every day.

Eventually we were able to shove off and made it to the airport. Bác Trân was able to navigate himself from the drop point, and we killed some time at a restaurant called Paris Bánh Mì. The others had more traditional sandwiches, but I had one on a croissant. I would not recommend that because of how greasy and soggy it got. The sugarcane drinks were good, but may have been from a mix and not actually from fresh sugar cane. Overall I thought it was a super cute place though, and I thought the food was pretty good. They even had Korean corn dogs, so Julie and I split a half sausage/half cheese dipped in Hot Cheetos. She didn’t like it, but I did.

After we ate, we stopped at what was easily the cleanest Oriental grocery store I’ve ever seen. It didn’t smell funky, but had all of the usual goods. Mom said she wanted snacks, but didn’t buy anything, so we headed on back to the airport and waited a few hours for our flight.

While we were waiting, another flight was waiting for a whole new crew. The lady at the desk misspoke and said they were still waiting on a captain, which got a chuckle from everyone in the area. Bác Trân’s flight was delayed and then later cancelled, so he ended up staying the night in the airport hotel. Our flight came in quite a bit later, but we eventually got loaded up and flew home. It was a long flight and everyone was pretty tired, but Julie got us home without incident. I had her stop at the old house so I could turn off the light that the restoration folks left on all week. Then we dropped her off and they took me home.

The dogs knew something was up, so I went out to see them first. They were super excited, but behaved well and just laid down and nuzzled my feet while I scratched their bellies. Summer was asleep, but I let her know I was home and eventually made it to bed after an exhausting week.

Ring around the rosie…

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Western Hierarchy

We didn’t do breakfast today, so I quickly toasted some bread for a couple more dried pork foldovers. We got out of the house early to pick up some phở from the same restaurant we’d been going to, and took it to Uncle Tuấn. He still had something in his mouth when we got there, and was super groggy and disoriented. We got him cleaned up, and then Julie did much of the feeding. Lan eventually showed up and finished the job as he became more aware of his surroundings. She kept cramming him full of more and more, even after he finished an entire serving of phở, and Julie was worried he was going to be made sick. That was the start of it all.

Julie wanted to go to Open Rice for a dim sum lunch, and Lan and her sister followed along slowly after us. Our server was great, and worked around our family feud incredibly well. Julie ended up picking a fight with Lan over turning in the dim sum menu, which turned into a fight over unearned Asian family hierarchal respect. It got loud super quickly, and we just continued to pass apologetic glances back and forth with our server.

The food was good, and Dad won the race to pay the check, which got Bác Trân a slip of receipt paper that said “Happy Lunar New Year” on it. She really was the best server I think we’ve ever seen. Lan’s sister brought a plastic sack full of nylon webbing that was “like parachute rope” for Julie to take, but of course she didn’t want any of that. They disappeared and I decided to walk the block to Best Buy to charge my watch a bit more, because I figured they’d be right behind me.

Nearly an hour later, my watch was full and they finally made it to the car so we could leave. We went back to the house to rest for a bit, and Julie and I sat out back with some beers in the nice weather. Mom came to get us when it was time to get dinner, and they tried to take him some leftovers from lunch while Julie and I crossed town to find a Costco to make goodie bags for the staff of 35 we were told cared for Bác Tuấn.

We got a bunch of stuff, then stopped at Michael’s for some craft paper for notes, and made it back to the nursing facility just before closing. He ate something Lan had brought, and we eventually all loaded up to leave. Julie had everyone in an assembly line to make goodie bags, and then wrote over 40 “Thank You” notes to not only the 35 caregivers we were told, but also some extras with the extra goodies we had.

With that, it was finally time to settle in for our last night in the Airbnb. We’ll have to check out pretty early tomorrow, but only after packing up and helping to clean up some of our mess in exchange for getting an early check-in and late checkout.

Diacritical Hit!

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Family Reuniration

I didn’t sleep great on the hard, flat, box spring-like mattress last night, but it could have been worse. I was pretty tired, but not as tired as I would find myself after another full day with the family. Dad got up and started making some breakfast. I made it downstairs and made myself a couple eggs to eat with the rest of the Ethiopian leftovers, and it was absolutely spectacular. I may have some eggs with the last of the injera tomorrow. Bác Trân brought a load of shredded pork with him for some reason, and kept setting out bowls of it in the kitchen, so I kept eating little bits of it any time I would pass by. Mom always made it with chicken when we were younger, but it was all pretty similar.

Julie ended up taking the adults to get some food for Uncle Tuan while I got ready to go. I hate shower curtains because they always blow in toward the shower. This one was twice as bad because my shower had a window with a curtain that stretched the span of that entire wall. So there I was, taking a shower between two full-sized shower curtains, having a terrible time. It could have been worse too.

I noticed a vehicle parked out front before Julie got back, but he got out when she pulled up. He was here about a couple maintenance issues she reported, and then he was gone. We headed on back to Park Village to visit with the family, and Uncle Tuan seemed to be doing much better than the night before. He seemed to be all smiles, had eaten all of his soup they brought him, and Julie even had him talked into rolling outside for a bit of sunshine.

I wasn’t ready to blame it all on her, but when Lan showed up, things seemed to shift. The Vietnamese started flowing, so nobody else could keep up. Their voices escalated as they always do, and we could see Uncle Tuan’s smile shift to mild anguish and eventually some tears. It was all we could do to force all of the adults out of the room to have their discussion elsewhere, but from that point on, Uncle Tuan was back to being disinterested. I don’t know how much of him was ever there, but the family needed to make a better effort of keeping things positive around him.

Dad found us a room across the property and I said my peace. Then Julie and Lan came down and Dad and I ended up going back to sit with Uncle Tuan. We watched Teen Titans, but didn’t make any other progress after that. Eventually the rest of the family came back around and they wanted to go eat, so we drove up the road to Phở Hoà for a late lunch with Lan’s family.

The food was pretty good, and then we had them over to the Airbnb for a tour. I caught up with Summer while she walked the dogs, and the elders took a nap. When they were ready to go back, Julie and I dropped them off while she went to a wax appointment in the city. It happened to be right next to the Best Buy, so I went there to stand by their Pixel Watch display and borrowed their charger to get my watch back up to 97%.

Julie actually finished before me, but I found her at the car and we headed back to the home to visit. Lan had brought him some more food from home that he ate, which seemed to have spirits up again, but then he was getting a little hazy from his evening medication so we left for the night.

Lan really wanted to show off the house she just bought, so we drove way across the city to see that. She was there with one or two sisters, but I couldn’t be sure without speaking the language. She had some nice things, but overall it felt more like a college roommate situation than anything else. We stood there for a while before we finally made it out.

Julie and I spotted a Jack in the Box nearby, and I was a little bit surprised to see that it piqued her interest as well. We stopped on the way out to try and get some food, but they were only open for drive-through. Julie wanted to order at one closer to the Airbnb so the food wouldn’t get so cold, even though it meant driving past our exit and then turning back. Neither restaurant had good reviews, and they definitely messed up our order, but it was interesting having a late-night munchies type meal with the elders.

After that, everyone fell out pretty quickly. It was a long, difficult day, and I honestly couldn’t predict whether the next two days will be even more difficult, or if they’ll turn around. Eventually a decision will have to be made, and I just don’t know how well it will go for someone who thinks it’s 1990-something.

Oh, how I’ve missed these little talks.

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Half Awake

I got to sleep in a little bit from my normal work schedule, but still had to hit the ground running. I had all but a couple of things packed and ready to go and thought I might have enough time to take the dogs for a quick run, but after staying up so late to pack, I just didn’t make it out. Dad felt like we were super late, so he sped over to get me and then had to go back and get Mom, but they could have just finished loading themselves up first.

After a harrowing trip across town, Julie took over and got us to the airport. We got parked, through security, and onto the plane without any trouble or much wait. Things seemed pretty quiet in the airport. We had a straight shot to Charlotte, but then that airport was under major construction. It was a mess getting out of there, but we finally got our rental van and made it to the Airbnb.

It was an old house, next to some brand new construction, all behind a church. It seemed like an odd place, and just a couple blocks away there was a coliseum where Jo Koy would actually be performing on the Saturday after our departure. The house was pretty rough, and it basically looked like someone moved out and filled it with a bunch of cheap furniture to rent out. I suppose it suited our needs at a better price than multiple hotel rooms, but I think I would have preferred something with better housekeeping.

We didn’t get to spend much time settling in because we had to get back to the airport to get Bác Trân. If anyone thought it was a circus before, then I don’t know what it turned into at that point. It was a wonder he didn’t get kidnapped, but with some help from a kind stranger we found him and loaded him up. Julie wanted to look for food, but we went back to the Airbnb first to get him settled. I finally got a call from the Genesis Cancer and Blood Institute to schedule my visit, and of course that’s another two weeks out. Then we ended up going to an Ethiopian restaurant just up the road called Abugida.

We struggled to get some help with the menu at first, but after talking to who I presume was the owner, we ended up on a big platter for all of us to share. It all came with one spoon for serving, and the rest was eaten with our hands. I think it went much better than any of us expected, and the food was great. Mom ended up using the spoon to load her injera, but everyone got fed.

After we ate, we went further into the city and found a Trader Joe’s, which I think was too organic for everyone but Julie. Mom wanted some sweeter coffee creamer, and they didn’t have any eggs, so Dad and I walked to Target a couple of blocks back. Julie drove Mom and Bác Trân to meet us, and we got the rest of what we needed. Importantly, I got some Simply Spiked and mango Blue Moon for Julie and me.

Most of us were up too late once we got back to the house. I eventually had a video call with Summer to catch up. Julie and I sat in the dining area on our laptops for a while, and eventually everyone but Mom and Bác Trân went to bed. They stayed up in front of the TV until the wee hours of the night, talking too loudly and watching gameshows.

Half Asleep

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Professional Emailer

Work was a bit of a blur today because I was rushing to clean things up for the rest of the week. I still didn’t really tie up any loose ends because Jim was having trouble with imaging and I got sucked into SCCM. I did send out a couple of my trademarked customer service emails, where I resolved one issue and started helping someone on another.

Randy said he wanted a pizza buffet for lunch, and I reminded him that Cici’s was still doing their early week $4.99 deal. He, Charles, and I ended up going there, and it was pretty good. I missed out on my barbecue and spinach Alfredo, but I loved my salad.

When we got back to the office, Greg and Scott were in the building, which startled Randy. He disappeared for a bit, and then had a meeting with them afterward. I ended up staying a little bit late just trying to clean things up, but I couldn’t stay very late because I had to meet Summer in Conway for our dinner date.

I stopped to charge first, then met her at Old Navy to return the pants Eaddie didn’t like. Then we went to Outback and had what I thought was a super overpriced, poorly-cooked meal. The Bloomin’ Onion was good, but my baked potato was burned. The steak was pretty chewy, but it was a deal for a sirloin that came with a salad and cheesecake for dessert. Paying $70 for all of that plus a tip was wild.

From there, I headed home quickly so I could take the dogs out. Of course it was super dark out by the time we made it, but they did fairly well. They did try to chase a cat, and I had to yank them back and discipline for fear they’d yank me off the board again. We made it to my parents’ house, where Julie called in to verify some travel plans. Then I got the dogs home for their dinner.

Summer was settling in quickly, Eaddie came home and went straight to her room without a word, and I spent all night trying to pack and get things cleaned up for the girls to minimize their stress while I’m gone.

All my bags are packed. I’m ready to go.

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Crampache

Summer and I both got up fairly early today. Eaddie’s friend snuck out early while we were on the couch. I got a major thigh cramp that may have caused some muscle pain in my leg for the rest of the day, because I didn’t recall hurting that badly from yesterday’s fall when I first woke up.

Summer went to the gym and Eaddie left for church, and then was gone for the entire day. Summer said she wanted to clean up the back yard when she got home, but it was still soggy. I need to dig some trenches for the water to flow away from the house, and we probably need to clean out the gutters again before the spring rains show up.

I loaded up on some vitamins after cramping so much, and ate some leftovers for lunch. Then I took care of the plants, took a shower, and Summer and I took a bunch of bags to Walmart for recycling. We walked the store to try and stretch my legs out a bit, and picked up some dog food. Then we went by Lowe’s where she saw a couple of people from work. Our last stop was PetSmart to browse, where I encountered my old buddy Keith.

Summer needed to get home after we left there, so we made it to the house and I took the dogs out for a run. They did better than yesterday, and I was much better about staying behind them after the tumble I took. Both of the dogs wanted to splash in the creek a bit, but Stilgar wanted to dam up the stream. We met Dad in the street again, then made it home for dinner.

I finished up some leftovers with Summer, then spent the rest of the evening trying to clean up the kitchen area before I leave the girls for a week. They’ll have to bring in all of my Vine stuff while I’m gone, so I didn’t want that to stress them out much more than it already does.

Drop it!

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Blunderive

I woke up several times last night with terrible shin and calf cramps. Then as the night progressed, I started waking up to Stilgar barking at something outside. I eventually got up when Summer got out of bed, and she made us some bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then she went to the gym and Eaddie got up to go do something in the early afternoon. I had plans to meet with Mark to help with some computer questions, so I eventually got cleaned up to go help with that.

I stopped by Walgreens to pick up my iron pills, and I should have just asked the pharmacist if I could take it with my antibiotic, but I didn’t think of that in time. I made it to Mark’s place and waited a couple minutes for them to get in, and then I tried to help him talk through the concerns he had. They’re never really deeply technical problems that he has, but rather software quirks he has to work around because he just seems to have a lot of stuff he wants to manage. I ended up hanging out there for about three hours, in part waiting for OneDrive to sync, and he handed me a hundred bucks as we finished up for the day.

Summer had Eaddie outside taking pictures before the Sweetheart dance when I got home, and I made it inside to find my Mothman onesie just in time to get dressed up and take some pictures with her. Then we took pictures of her with Eli when he showed up.

Dad invited us over for spaghetti earlier in the day, and I still had to run the dogs before dark, so I took them out while Summer saw the kids off. We were doing pretty well until we made it around to Promenade Circle. We got to the last stretch of that road, and Stilgar decided he had to make an emergency stop to poop. Muad’Dib was already pretty far ahead, so that yanked everybody by the rope, and I tripped off the board as I tried to slow down. I landed on my right hand hard enough to draw a little bit of blood on my palm, and the dogs both wanted to come up and check on me. I got myself up, picked up the trail of poop, and we made our way to my parents’ house for dinner.

I left the dogs in the fence out back, and Summer showed up while Mom was prepping the last of the salad. It was completely dark by the time we finished eating, so we didn’t stay long. As soon as I stepped out back, Muad’Dib was there to greet me at the door. They must have pushed their way out through the fence and run around and back in somewhere else. I called to Stilgar, and saw him climb out of the pool cover to excitedly come greet the three of us. Dad and I tried to inspect the fence by phone flash, and he found a couple loose boards they probably pushed through. Luckily Stilgar didn’t appear to have pushed the cover all the way into the pool, but it made another good case for a taught cover.

Summer followed me home and the dogs were rowdy enough that they didn’t get dinner. Summer sat on her phone in the living room while I wrapped up on the computer, and we eventually made it to bed. Eaddie ended up bringing her friend Emma over to stay the night because she lives a little ways out and it was late.

Don’t oversync it.

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Rolled Foods

The drive to work was super foggy this morning. For the first several miles, I could barely see a couple car lengths ahead, so I had to take things slow. Gary and Randy were there, but things were quiet. Maggie gave me a sausage, egg, and cheese eggroll from the donut shop up the road. After that, the most excitement we saw was our CDW rep getting successfully phished. He tried shipping us a lab-worth of laptops, but luckily they caught it. Randy wanted to gripe at Steven, but of course when the conference call actually happened, he was much less confrontational. I told him not to rag on him too hard in spite of the PO printed in Comic Sans. He’s a human dealing with paperwork from possibly hundreds of clients.

I ended up taking lunch by myself, so I thought I’d try Blue Coast Burrito. It was a bit like a Chipotle, but for the hood. The food was good though, and they had individual cups of different salsas available by the drinks. I would have preferred a salsa bar to eliminate the plastic waste, but the salsa was good. After that, I went by Walmart to check their clearance aisle. It’s always sparse, but since they also sold beer, I picked up a couple things for Summer.

On the way back to the shop, I picked up some fries from Rally’s since I had an expiring coupon. Then the afternoon was mostly dull and quiet. I tried getting Jim into SCCM, but for some reason his laptop wouldn’t connect to the server.

There was an accident or something on the way home, so traffic was super slow for about a quarter of the way to Conway. I didn’t really have to, but I stopped to charge so I wouldn’t run my battery too low. Summer had dinner going again, so I quickly ran the dogs and made it home to eat. She made a sort of baked chicken cordon bleu with Burssels sprouts and mashed sweet potato. I thought it was all really good, but the potatoes were cold, which made them taste more like pie.

After we ate, I had a bunch of big Vine packages to process. My absolute favorite was a watch winder that felt pretty high quality from the moment I opened the shipping package. It was in another brown shipping type box, which housed a well-padded retail box. The winder itself was super cool looking. I never thought I’d actually get one, but I’d wanted one ever since I saw the dressup scene of the first Doctor Strange. I had to search to find out why his watches were spinning, and from that moment I knew I wanted one. Funny enough, his setup probably didn’t actually wind his watches because they were all laying flat instead of standing upright.

I tried not to stay up too late after that. I contacted the clinic again because I still hadn’t heard from a hematology referral. She sent me a prescription for iron, but the antibiotics she put me on specifically say not to take them with iron products because it reduces their absorption. Hopefully I can just take them a few hours apart, but it still got me worried about how urgent this alleged anemia is. She said to call the clinic myself on Tuesday, but didn’t tell me which clinic. I was feeling really good about having a new PCP, but now I’m questioning it.

Ah, cramp.

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Division of Duties

It rained all day today, and the latest version of FSD won’t let me just step on the accelerator for an unlimited amount of time any more to keep it moving along at higher speeds. That meant I had to drive for a few miles until things got a little less foggy and misty. I was a little bit late, but Randy was still at the conference and Kyle didn’t come by the office in the morning.

Jim and Jay came in and were going to help me hang a TV, but Jim ended up having to pick up Maggie because she was dropping her husband’s truck off for a tint job. Jay and I got the old TV down, but the screws for the new TV were too big to fit into the holes on the old mount, so we were stuck again. I don’t know why the whole move has been such a priority, but the secretary called Maggie again to check on a timeline, and we were later asked to write up a statement about the whole ordeal.

I met Kyle at David’s Burgers for lunch in the rain, and they were pretty good but slow for how many people were in the kitchen. I don’t love their fries, but I love that they’re unlimited if you can ever catch someone with a fresh bowl. I do like the seasoning on their burgers, but every time I ask for “all of the extras” they just give me the typical burger build instead of the jalapeños, grilled onions, and everything else.

The afternoon dragged on a bit. Randy showed up after the conference and we all caught up. I had been bouncing between tasks all day, but my biggest accomplishment was shrinking my SQL database so the drive would no longer be completely full.

I had to stop and charge on the way home due to the rain, but I ended up getting a leg cramp and wanted to get out to stretch anyway. Luckily it wasn’t raining and I paced the parking lot for a bit, then got back in and made it home. Summer had dinner ready and we ate some kind of weird orange glazed hamburger meat and green beans over rice. It was sort of “Hamburger Helper Meets the Far East.” It was alright, but I think it would have been far better on chicken.

Eaddie was helping at a swim meet, so the two of us just had dinner and a calm evening together since she wasn’t stressed from work and I didn’t run the dogs in the wet. Then it was a slightly earlier night to bed.

Who’s responsible for this???