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Dirty Volunteer Work

Burger King has been knocking it out of the park with their biscuits lately. The sausage has been pretty good, and even the hashbrowns haven’t been awful. I’ve always kind of liked their coffee. I got to work just as the boys club started walking in, and then I spent several hours trying to figure out an issue with our food service application that really should have been resolved with a proper rollup.

At some point I finally made some progress with setting up a RADIUS server, but then I discovered that the board meeting was tonight. In anticipation for a reasonable salary, I decided to stay for that, and it was an incredible waste of time. Nobody said a word to me until I asked Jill if I needed to work next week. She just shrugged and said I didn’t have a contract, so she couldn’t pay me. Next week, Harry will be at a retreat with the board, so there’s just me, being angry and unpaid until who-knows-when.

Being Julie’s birthday, the family decided to take her to Brick Oven. The girls went with them, and I showed up late and ate some of their leftovers before we left. Eaddie wanted to go to the store to get dog food, so Summer took the Model Y home while I went to Walmart with her. We stopped by the old house to feed the fish, and then shopped for a bit before heading home.

It was super dark when we got home, so I took the dogs out for a walk on foot. I let them roam at the end of the leash, and they were pulling pretty hard the whole time. I’m upset that I don’t have any one-on-one time to do any real training, but I just feel like I don’t have time for anything. Summer was asleep by the time we got back in, so I fumed for a bit and went to bed late.

What a pissant.

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Case o’ Grillies

I ran pretty lean on food today with only a McGriddle on the drive in. It rained pretty hard for most of the drive, but cleared up after I got there. I didn’t get into anything too serious again because I had a few people in and out for a while in the morning. I tried breaking my day into shorter sessions to focus, but it wasn’t super successful.

Near the end of the day, I noticed a whole case of prepackaged, grilled cheese sandwiches left out in the kitchen. I asked Steven, and he said they were probably being thrown away, so I snagged them and stuffed them into my freezer. There were some with obvious mold, but I ate two that looked okay, and I haven’t died yet.

I worked a little late, but made a quick drive home. I finally got my free Gold Peak Tea from Casey’s, and then stopped by the old house to feed the fish. Noah got home just as I was coming into the house. Summer got home a little bit after that, and found me playing with the dogs after she had a shower. They ate quite a bit while I was sitting with them, and Stilgar was still hungry after three cups. Muad’Dib ate slowly, and then felt like he had to guard his bown from Stilgar, so I slowly fed him a few kibbles at a time. He took them so gently from my hand.

Summer went in to scramble an egg for dinner, so I ate the leftover chicken, pasta, and potatoes. Then I took the dogs out for a quick walk to my parents’ house. I let them pull pretty hard while I rode the Onewheel behind them, but they weren’t super well behaved. They’re still too easily distracted, and disobedient when I try to correct them.

We circled through to see Dad, but Mom was asleep, so we headed right back home. It was a bit of a struggle, but we made it. I did a load of laundry, Eaddie made it home late, and eventually made it to bed super late.

Stop it!

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Zoomin

I got a couple biscuits this morning to last the day full of online training webinars. Johnny called and interrupted the first one to say that he was called and offered the Hector job even though he never applied. He was all wound up over the drama and strange nature of the position, but I told him it sounded like it could be a really good opportunity depending on whether he could make the pay work and how self-motivated he was.

I really didn’t get into anything else at all. The Veeam call lasted forever, so there just wasn’t time apart from the couple interruptions I had throughout the day. Summer had dinner going at home, so I went home for that after stopping at the old house to feed the fish.

Noah and Eli were both there as well, but I didn’t see a whole lot of them. We all ate a pretty good, but overly lemon-peppery chicken, cold pasta salad that you’d take to a potluck, and some really good asparagus.

Noah went to his room pretty early, Eli left, and then I took the dogs out for a fast run around the cul-de-sac. It was still super humid and hot, so they wore out quickly. Overall, I did a fair job of wrapping the day quickly.

Wrapped

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Twisting the Night Away

After being ill for so long, and exhausted from overexerting myself all day, I still could not sleep last night. I tossed and turned in a damp sweat, with cold burning in my nose from sinus trouble. My mind reeled in restlessness, and even when I would occasionally doze off, I would wake up in some delirious state, half dreaming, half in some anxious panic.

I got up with my alarm, pushed back and got up a little later and still got to the door on time. Both of the Murano keys were gone. I screamed. Summer yelled back to take her car, so I threw the things she had in the seat into the floor of the garage and left. I picked up a burrito from Sonic and made it to work a little bit early.

The admins saw me. First day off-contract. Will I get a paycheck? They’re normally deposited around this time of the month. I haven’t gotten anything yet. Labor laws dictate that I must be paid for the time that I’m there, and nobody has run me off yet. It feels like I’m playing a rich or stupid man’s game of Chicken.

I made it through the day with a bowl of ramen and a cough drop. I finished up the last few minutes at the elementary and then headed home a little early. Who can stop me now?

I fed the fish and slowly made it home. Eaddie and her friend Autumn were at the house for the night. I changed clothes and settled in for a little bit. Mom was making Phở, which wasn’t the eggplant soup I anticipated, but welcome nonetheless. The girls would be making dinner, so I’d go by myself since Summer was working a little late. Then Noah called to “warn me” that a “strange hairy dude” was going to come by and drop several boxes of his things off at our front door, and that he would be along afterward on his bicycle.

I roped up the dogs and we hit the road on the Onewheel. We made good time to my parents’ house with the runs. Both kinds. I tied them up in the back yard so we could eat, but then I had to get them home in the hot humidity. They made it with plenty of energy after they had some time to rest, so I hoped they’d be too tired to mess with anything overnight.

All three kids were in the kitchen making “food” and “noise.” I dried up the sweat and sought refuge. Eventually sleep.

I’m with stupid.

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Bye Week

I could feel something in the back of my throat Wednesday evening, and by Thursday I had a 103º fever that Tylenol would only coax down to about 101º. I ran the full gamut of chills, heat flashes, body aches, and eventually sinus and chest crud. Dad brought me a COVID at-home test that was advertised as having a propensity for false-negatives, so it wasn’t COVID. Maybe.

I remember getting out on Friday with Summer to take Kevin his birthday present to the airport, but we didn’t stick around for pulled pork. I stopped by the old house to check on the fish, and in hindsight I should have left the automatic feeder on. We made it back home, and the next thing I remember doing is getting out late to pick up some burgers from Sonic. The pickle fries were awful.

The fever never let up, but between waves of medication I felt well enough to watch The Secret of NIMH on Saturday, and then out of nowhere, the fever was gone on Sunday morning. Recovery was nearly as rough, with more crud in my chest than anything else. I felt gross and sweaty all day, but I had a shower and brushed my teeth.

Summer had mowed in the morning, so she left it to Eaddie when it came time to walk the dogs. She didn’t mind, but said she couldn’t walk both alone, so I went with her. It was immediately obvious that they hadn’t been properly walked in my two week absence, as the line was taught nearly the entire time. We made it about halfway to my parents’ house, which was already a longer route than Eaddie wanted to take, when she had to stop to scoop some poop, so she insisted that it was my job to walk the dogs alone the rest of the way. She might have reconsidered if I had pressed, but I had more fight in me for the dogs than for her.

We gave them a drink at my parents’ house, and then headed back home. It was a hot struggle, and I was completely drenched in sweat, so I took a cold shower and finished up my laundry. The dogs were fussy outside, and tore into the bags of potting mix on the porch. I went back out to discipline and clean that up, and left the hole they had dug under the north fence for another day.

If you do nothing, bite your tongue when I do.

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Half Asleep

I slept for nearly 12 hours last night, though I woke up a couple times with a pretty bad headache. Once I got around, I felt much better for the rest. Someone tagged me in a lost dog post on the Nextdoor app, but upon checking, both of our dogs were still home. They had gotten into more stuff again, so I’m having to deal with random chewed up garbage all the time.

Summer was working from home, and I was pretty hungry for some lunch, so I ended up going to Burger King to get a big bag of food. Eaddie was already awake but wasn’t hungry, so Summer and I were the only two that ate any of it. I had the best shower I’d had in a week and then took the dogs for a walk to my parents’ house to help Dad move the refrigerator out of its little nook so he could investigate a hiss and some possible steam. The dogs did pretty well, and weren’t completely chaotic when tied up to the deck. Stilgar took a dip in his pool when we got back, and then I tried to do a little bit of training with them while they were hungry.

Noah came back over after work, since he’s been driving our Pathfinder. Eaddie spent most of the day in her room while Summer worked. I eventually had to go back to help Dad move the refrigerator back into place, but I just took the Onewheel instead of walking the dogs again. Mom was hungry, so they decided to get some Taco Villa. I went with Dad to pick that up, and then headed back home in the dark after we ate.

Everyone went to bed pretty early after that. The kids took the dogs out for another walk while I was gone, so even they were pretty tired and just slept on the porch.

It’s all just noise.

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We’re in for Some Chop

I was on the verge of crashing all day long, but still stayed up late trying to get things back into order. We rolled out of the hotel and hailed a Lyft as we walked down the hallway. The ride was quiet, and traffic wasn’t bad at all until we got right into the airport. Evidently there was a convention for the National Federation of the Blind this week, because I’ve never seen so many white canes in my entire life. It was interesting to witness them traveling through such a hectic environment that even we struggled to navigate, and I’m sure they appreciated the time to see each other face-to-face.

We timed things just about right, so we had plenty of time to get through security and grab some pretzel breakfast sandwiches from Auntie Anne’s. I watched part of Dune: Part Two on the first flight, which was pretty smooth. We had just enough time in St. Louis to switch planes, and then I watched a bit more during our much more turbulent flight to Little Rock.

Eaddie wanted Mexican food for lunch, so I found a well-reviewed place called Tortas Mexico in North Little Rock that had some of the best food we’d had all week, at a third the price. I felt rich. Then we continued home, unloaded, and played with Muad’Dib for a bit before Eaddie and I went to get Stilgar from the vet.

Muad’Dib seemed a little happier to see us specifically, while Stilgar seemed happy to see anybody. He did pee a little in the excitement. The lady that helped us was really concerned that we might have lost Muad’Dib, but I told her they simply didn’t have room to board both of them while we were gone, and we decided to make sure the younger spirit was kept safe.

Stilgar wolfed down a whole bunch of food, as though he hadn’t eaten anything all week. We played with them for a bit, and then I went inside to unpack and get things in order. Noah came back after work and Summer had a talk with him about some responsibilities, but you could tell he was just sitting in silence to receive the lecture.

Once I had things put away enough, I took the dogs out for a roll through the neighborhood on the Onewheel. They did really great, but I did finally see worms in Muad’Dib’s poop. He had to stop a couple more times on our journey to and from my parents’ house. We didn’t stay to visit for too long, and made it nearly all the way home before Stilgar got too hot and tired, and flopped onto some cool dirt. He refused to move, so I tried to get Summer to bring us some water. She and Noah walked up the wrong street, but it didn’t matter because a girl came out of the house across the street from us, and her dog ran at us full-force off-leash, which got Stilgar up and full of energy immediately. They wagged and sniffed, and then we were on our way home.

One or the other of the dogs kept chewing on potted plants I had on the deck, so I repotted what was left of one of them. Hopefully having both of them here again will settle them down overnight, but more importantly, hopefully they can’t get out of the fence again.

The ants we had in the master bathroom looked to have moved on, but after just a short while they came back. They went straight for the bait, but I wish I knew what triggered them to come back in the first place.

Finally down for the long snooze.

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All Parks and No Play

We got up extra early this morning for the Animal Kingdom. We didn’t quite get out as early as I wanted, but my sleep deficit has only grown while we’ve been on vacation, and I just didn’t care as much on the last day. We headed straight for Flight of Passage, where everyone else seemed to be headed. In reality, we probably could have circled the entire park and ridden or watched everything else while everyone else was waiting for that one ride, but instead we just followed the leader and watched the rest of the wait times in the park go up.

I got us a little breakfast snack that the girls didn’t really ask for, and we ate in line for the Na’vi River Journey, which was the last of the Pandora area. We spent the rest of the morning and a large part of the afternoon in Africa, wandering in circles. I got incredibly hot, tired, and irritable after seeing pictures of the ruin that Noah has left around our home, and I just wanted to scream at Summer.

We ate lunch a little early at Tusker House and got to see Mickey, Donald, Daisey, and Goofy multiple times throughout our buffet. It made me appreciate them that much more, because at Cinderella’s castle, we just got to see her sign autographs from afar. I did ask Mickey to blink twice if he was being held against his will, which got a silent chuckle and zero blinks. I still think something’s up.

We finally moved on after giving up on the Lion King show, and watched the Feathered Friends show instead. One of the crows brushed my face when it flew by us in the audience. Then we made it to Asia where we got stuck in line for the Kali River Rapids while they waited for the distant lightning to go away. Everest was so fun that it was basically the last thing we did. We weren’t able to do anything else because of how much time we sank into walking around the gorillas. We thought we’d at least get to Dinosaur, but the girls opted not to wait for the entire last hour at the park in line for that. Luckily we were able to get back on Everest back-to-back eight more times because they were just speed running people through it. We walked back on every single time. We tried to get ten, but they had a security guard posted at the start of the line after we got off our ninth ride. I made the comment to him that we only needed one more ride to make ten, and without a smirk, giggle, or friendly tone, he said to try again tomorrow.

The bus back to the resort was packed, but a short ride. The girls spent some time in the gift shop there while I went back to the room to make some green tea and change for a swim. They ended up closing the pool for more storms, so I went out on the balcony down the hall and watched the zebras, giraffes, and whatever else was outside.

Get me outta here.

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Island of Misfit Toys

As far as we could tell, we were on the first bus to Hollywood Studios this morning. We got to the park and past the box office where they held everyone, and then made a dash straight for Slinky Dog. We stepped up all the way to the ride as they started loading people, and just as our turn was coming up, they stopped the ride. Evidently one of the doors to the loading platform wouldn’t close correctly, and they had to shut it down for safety. Luckily we got Lightning Lane passes for it.

After that, I checked us in to Oga’s Cantina for our reservation, but we rode Smuggler’s Run before that, while the wait was low. The guy that wanted to pilot with me was awful at it, and kept crashing into things. After that, we were a little late to our table at Oga’s, but they weren’t busy. I had considered cancelling it because they didn’t actually have any proper breakfast, but we ultimately decided to check it out. The girls enjoyed it.

After some weird juice and charcuterie, we headed to Rise of the Resistance for a long wait in line. It started to get hot pretty quickly, but the line had lots of fans and shade. The ride was great, but kind of breezed by after such a long line without a virtual queue. We continued around the park through Star Tours, and then had to make lunch at the Brown Derby.

The food there was really good. I had a root beer brined pork steak as recommended by our server. Eaddie did not like the grapefruit cake we had for dessert, because as she discovered not long ago, she doesn’t actually like grapefruit.

After lunch, we continued to tick rides off of our list. Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Rollercoaster were good, but the lines were long and the sun was hot. The Runaway Railway was fun, but with another ridiculous line. At least it seemed fair with less Lightning Lane nonsense. After that, we were able to catch the last Indiana Jones show before trying to wrap up Toy Story Land.

Unfortunately, we ran into more trouble, as the Alien Swirling Saucers also had door problems and we were stuck loading. Then just before we were about to load onto Toy Story Mania, they had another door fail. Luckily we just barely got out of there and up to the 50s Prime Time Cafe for our dinner reservation.

Dinner was good, and some of the cheapest we’ve had so far on our trip. Our server wasn’t particularly sassy to us, but I had her laughing myself. As soon as we finished eating, we headed to Fantasmic to finish the night. Eaddie had suggested we might skip fireworks, but she was glad we didn’t.

Somehow we managed to miss the last bus that was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, so our bus had plenty of empty seats on the way back to the resort. One more, much shorter day, and then it’ll be time to figure out how to get home.

Keep up.

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Springstime

I slept in super late today to catch up, and woke up feeling much better. I was still the first out of bed though, which I just don’t understand. We got everyone up and headed to Disney Springs to shop for souvenirs. I told the girls we should find something to eat for brunch so we could have a nice dinner, but we just started walking through stores instead. They were the only two to walk up to a giant physical map of the place, and still asked me for directions. We pushed through as it got hotter and hotter in the early afternoon, and just went straight to T-Rex for a late lunch. Our server seemed good, but our food took forever to come out, and my pot roast pot pie had a film of dried gravy on top. Everything tasted alright, but this whole trip, I’ve been thinking the food has only tasted as good as it does because we’re all so hungry by the time we eat.

We circled the property, then doubled back so Eaddie could find a keychain that we ultimately could have just bought in our resort gift shop. Then it was a sleepy bus ride back to the room. Summer went down to lay out by the pool, and after taking a break for a while, I got Eaddie to go down and swim with me. She didn’t last long before heading back up to the room though, and then Summer and I followed shortly after that. Then the two of us went to the front of the resort to visit our gift shop before settling in for the night.

Storms comin’.