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I Found the Problem

I took the Onewheel to work again today so I could ride down the hallway to scan Chromebooks into inventory and lock up carts. We only had one room that was still missing a device, so I emailed Josh as the principal and Blake as my own direct report to find out whether he actually received an end-of-year checklist from the teacher. His response was a shocking and curt “it doesn’t matter,” which I think was his way of saying that it wasn’t any of my business. I shot back my own reply as professionally as I could, and we went back and forth for a bit before I ultimately walked into Blake’s office, who hadn’t actually read any of it by then. Possibly even more shocking was his reaction that it was just “his personality” and that I should see some of the emails he gets from him. In the end, there probably won’t really be a resolution, but at least I have my paperwork in order. It becomes more clear every day that their problems are absolutely systemic.

Becky invited me to the FACS kitchen for lunch where they had some slow cooker chili and some boiled hot dogs. It was an awesome lunch in its own right, but doubly so when compared to the old ramen I had stowed in my desk drawer.

I worked until my laptop died, and then decided not to work too late since I should probably be on-site the next day anyway. I don’t know if anyone else will be there for very long, but I figure I’ll be able to slip out pretty early. I chatted with Gary for a bit just before then, and we decided we’d meet up at Ridgewood Brothers for dinner.

I ran home to feed the fish first, and then I was going to see Summer at work, but in that moment she texted to say that she was already home. I spotted a plate-sized turtle walking along the road, seemingly unable to hop the curb, so I turned around to give him a lift into the grass before finally making it to the house where Eli and the girls were sitting in the living room watching gymnastics.

I changed clothes and met Gary at the restaurant where he was already chatting with Robert. He had a whole lot to say, and it was clear those guys just needed a break. I wish they’d just accept the free conversation with Summer about how to grow some positivity in their staff. She struggles too, but I think she could bring them some wisdom and experience. We eventually got in to eat, and then Grant showed up to close shop as Robert was leaving. He seemed to be doing a bit better, but they’re both just so tired.

We chatted for quite a while and then I headed back home to find them in the same spots watching the same gymnastics. I went outside to clean up a server I brought over from the old house, and then came in to hang out for a while. I forgot that I had to do some laundry, so I didn’t get it started until late, but I eventually made it to bed.

He’s right there.

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Biscuit Bitec Boat Check Boot

I considered working a partial day today, but my headache from last night carried over and I figured I had days to burn. I got Summer up so we could grab some Hardee’s for breakfast, but by the time we both got there and got the food, I was worried about making it to Morrilton in time. Summer took her chicken biscuit and I ate mine on the drive.

The interstate was more boring than a drive through the county, but speed and distance work out to about the same commute, minus stupid Dardanelle and school traffic. I arrived with enough time to spend a few minutes in the holding area before I met with Joel and David.

The interview itself was much more conversational than I expected. I anticipated at least some questions, but I think it really was just getting to know each other and getting a feel for culture fit. Everyone there seemed pretty relaxed, and the few interactions I saw seemed really pleasant. It’s almost odd to me coming into a place with people that know some of the stuff that I do, especially when it’s not really their primary job function. We talked a bit more about future plans, and then I got to take a short tour of the plant. Overall I thought it went pretty well.

When I got back to town, I stopped to see Summer at the wash, and she still looked pretty sick. I headed home and she left work a little later. When Eaddie was done with school stuff, we checked her out early so we could go to the DMV and register the Pathfinder. While we were there, I remembered that I had my boat registration at home, which couldn’t be done online. I raced to get it so we could take care of everything in one trip, but then realized I needed a picture of the hull identification tag. This was strange to me since last time they made me get a new one because they wouldn’t accept the original 4-digit tag. I called Dad and had him take some pictures for me, though I was just able to find my old pictures at almost exactly the same moment. Ultimately, I was told that they actually reverted that rule and could have accepted the old ID if we hadn’t already gotten a new one.

The girls were hungry after that, so we ran by the bank and then stopped at Foodie’s for a late lunch or early dinner. I was super disappointed in my burger, which looked awesome in the picture. The girls liked their gyros alright, but Eaddie thought her lamb was too tender and we ended up splitting our meals in half and swapping.

We were going to go shopping for snacks for Eaddie’s trip, but decided to just go home and start packing her stuff instead. We already had a bunch of snacks stockpiled anyway, so we figured she could pick from that first. I rode the Onewheel to see my parents, but they weren’t home, so I came back and waited for Eaddie to finish so we could go clean up the Pathfinder.

We went to the wash and did a quick detail of everything inside. Then we used the cleaner and some elbow grease to get some of the sap off of the hood and front bumper. The car was nearly unrecognizable afterward. I think Eaddie was the most surprised, and she actually got excited about it for the first time. From there, we ran by the old house to pick up some stuff, and then by my parents’ house to see if she left her swimsuit there last season.

We eventually made it back home and got settled in for the night. It was a long, and mostly sticky/humid day, and the bed had been calling my name for some time.

That seems like an awful lot of money split that many ways. Somebody’s getting rich.

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Spring Server Room Cleaning

I took some cereal to work for breakfast, which actually worked out really well out of my coffee mug. I also brought my Onewheel so I could run quickly back and forth between my office and the server room. I took a couple trips worth of trash out to the dumpster, swept the floors, and then spent all afternoon troubleshooting one of my distribution switches that wouldn’t show up in the controller.

Summer was feeling better enough to get out of the house and have dinner ready for us, but wanted me to stop by the store on the way home. I ran to the old house to feed the fish first, and then went to Walmart. It’s been so long since I’ve been in the main store, and I love to shop. I hate feeling like I never make time for anything I enjoy any more.

Eaddie had Eli and her friend Autumn over for dinner, and I guess they couldn’t wait for me to get home. I got frustrated by that, and by the fact that Summer didn’t just have the kids go to the store so I could come straight home. By the time I got there, I had a pretty good tension headache going, and I just wanted some internal peace.

Denice emailed me to say that their internet at the house went out. I thought everything came back up after I worked on it, but I guess their point-to-point radio connected to the wrong upstream point or something. I messed with it a bit and got them working again.

We all ate and the kids eventually left. Then I took the Model Y out for a wash so I could take it to my interview at Bitec in the morning. Summer had a bag of some stinky clothes in the trunk, so I emptied all of her crap out of the car before coming in to go to bed.

It’s the same crap that was in there six months ago.

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Bummerial Day Weekend

I forgot to disable my alarm for the morning, so I was a little startled by that, but I didn’t want to sleep too late anyway. Summer was feeling much worse again and wanted to go to the urgent care clinic. We drove downtown but ended up turning around so I could just give her some medicine at home. I loaded her up on DayQuil and vitamins, and warmed up some chicken strips, mashed potatoes, and gravy for lunch. Then I made her sit outside in the sun for a little bit instead of being cooped up inside all weekend.

We didn’t really do anything else all day. I took a shower and picked up a couple pizzas for an early dinner, and then we watched The Wolverine, or as I called it, “Wolverine Goes to Japan.” The whole movie felt kind of meaningless to me.

Eaddie eventually came home and brought Eli over for the evening. They sat in the dining room and made Lego flowers and crochet for a while. I wanted to get outside for a bit, but it just didn’t happen.

What a depressing weekend.

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Trapped Beef

I tried to get up at a reasonable time this morning and made coffee for Summer and myself. She hadn’t fully disassembled the steam wand previously, so it was clogged and had to be cleaned. Irritations kept compounding, and I eventually found myself hiding in my office all day. I did come out to fry some rice and egg for lunch, and cleaned up the brats along with that. Summer didn’t feel well all day, and slept on the couch for some of the afternoon.

I cleaned the ceiling in the shower and then milled around the house for a while. I eventually left and picked up some dinner for us both at Arby’s. Eaddie decided to stay in Clarksville for one more night, so Summer and I settled in and watched X-Men: First Class. Then she went to sleep.

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The Very Hangry Cowterpillar

I woke up late today with an optical migraine and a headache. So much for not flipping my sleep schedule this weekend. At least it’s a three-day break. The girls had been up a while, and Eaddie planned to go to her father’s for a couple days. I was pretty hungry, so I had a leftover brat before cleaning up the kitchen. Dad was ready to uncover the pool, so the three of us hopped into the Pathfinder for a ride around the block. The pool water looked clean enough to swim in, and had probably the least amount of dead stuff in it that I’d ever seen before.

Eaddie eventually left for Clarksville, and Summer and I spent the rest of the day at home. I took care of my plants and took a shower. As dinner time approached, I struggled to come up with something to eat. Summer kept asking me how to fill out the form on the back of the title for the Pathfinder, and I got frustrated to the point that I just had to leave. I ended up at Wendy’s where I sat in peace with my Baconator and peach tea.

When I got back home, we watched X-Men: The Last Stand. I stopped partway through to make some popcorn that turned out tasting kind of stale. Then Summer went to bed while I got stuck spinning my wheels.

Dooooom

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Lab Delivery System

Becky said they were going to cook breakfast, but I got to work a few minutes early and the place was a ghost town. Steven and Keith were there wandering around the high school, but I really didn’t see anyone else. Luckily I brought my leftovers from BFD and could eat that for brunch. I brought the Onewheel in case I needed to get across the campus multiple times, and it made delivering the last couple of desktops a breeze.

Steven was talking to Possum, and later Keith, outside their little office cove, and seeing the Onewheel got them pretty excited. Then Kelly showed up with a couple of the other lunch ladies, and she actually tried it out. After that, I talked Steven into giving it a shot, and he kept wanting to ride down the hall on his own. It wasn’t until he tried turning around in the width of the hallway that he fell off.

Those guys left after a half day, and then I called Nicky to see if she was in her office. I think she and I are the only two people there that feel obligated to work our contract hours. Everyone else is content to lie on timesheets all year long.

I did end up leaving fairly early because Tim called again to say we could get the Pathfinder. Summer got home early too because she was still feeling really sick, but I made her get out and take me to Orr. Tim had previously said the battery was dead, but it started up fine today, so I drove it home after a couple trips through the carwash. Now we just have to figure out the paperwork.

When we got back in, I ate a brat and then laid down on the couch with Summer to watch Three Amigos. I was super tired though, and kept dozing off. I guess I had never really seen it before, but I’ve always been aware of it. I guess I slept through the explanation about why there was an invisible person and a singing bush in this otherwise reasonably realistic fiction.

After a while, Summer craved a pretzel crust from Little Caesar’s. I eventually left the house to try and get some food, and called the restaurant to see if they could make one with the “old world pepperoni” instead of the normal ones. I just like the fact that you get more than two pepperonis on your slice. I was immediately told that it would be a 45-minute wait for a custom order. Then my question caused a little bit of confusion, which was met with “we can’t do that because there’s not a button.” I just gave up, not wanting to deal with those inbreeds, and went to the old house to feed the fish and come up with another plan.

I ended up ordering from Domino’s, and the food was ready before I could make it there. Then I saw Neal feeding the cats out back and stopped to talk to him a bit. I guess he had never seen either of the Teslas, so he was super impressed. I started to hold up traffic, but my phone key had been giving me trouble and I couldn’t get out of “park.”

I did eventually make it home, and the girls really enjoyed my custom barbecue chicken and bacon pizza. Summer and I watched a little more YouTube after Eaddie went back to her room. Then she crashed pretty hard from feeling sick, and I eventually followed.

Definitely couldn’t do that back in RSDland.

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Lab for One

There was no way I was getting to work on time in the rain this morning. I forgot my routine for summer hours, only barely remembering that we would work four ten-hour days. I resigned myself to picking up some Burger King so I wouldn’t starve for lunch, and made it in about five or ten minutes late. I was by myself all day. It looked like Denice had been in her office at some point, but otherwise I never actually saw her.

I spent the entire day imaging lab computers and updating network equipment. I got nearly all of Jaime’s lab finished, and got rid of most of the boxes that were stacked in front of my desk. Tim called to say they fixed the Pathfinder, so we can go pick it up tomorrow. Becky came in a couple times to get trash and then invited me to have breakfast with them in the mornings in the life sciences classroom.

It was a ghost town by the time I left, which made me wonder when everyone else left. Being completely solo, and working more hours than Kim, I really don’t have a clue when I’m allowed to duck out a little bit early.

When I got to the old house, Dad was there with a guy down the street cutting branches off of the fallen tree. He wanted to get quotes for insurance, and the tree removal alone would have been slightly more than his deductible, so it didn’t seem to make sense to start removal if nothing was seriously broken. He did uncover the air conditioner though, and without any damage, it started up just fine.

The mini fridge fit in Dad’s trunk perfectly, so we took it to the new house after stopping by his house to get the rice dispenser he had already picked up from Bác Vân’s house for me. We should have left the fridge outside to defrost, but we brought it in and left it in the entryway.

Once Eaddie got home, we went to Dardanelle for dinner and ice cream at Bocadillos. The food wasn’t bad, but the service was. The girl just didn’t seem to want to be there at all. We chatted and stuffed ourselves before heading back to town. I thought we’d swing by the store to find Summer, but she was having a very bad day. She wouldn’t be home until late, so we headed home to find water all over the entryway.

I crawled around and cleaned up the water, and set the fridge up in the dining area. I think it’d probably be better in the living room, but I’d want to put something under it to keep it from leaking onto the carpet. Summer eventually made it home and I put her to bed quickly before heading to sleep myself. We were both completely burned out from the day, and needed much rest.

Government wouldn’t do something like that…

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If a Tree Falls in the Hood

Today was the last day of school, and things were quiet everywhere. Traffic wasn’t bad, and people weren’t pouring into my office constantly, so I had a little time to get settled in and put some Chromebooks and chargers away. I ended up scanning all of the returns into a sheet so I could know exactly where each device was on the shelf.

They brought us Taco Villa for lunch, and then sent everyone home afterward. Kim ate with everyone in the cafeteria, and I would have too if I had realized it soon enough. I already had everything open in the office though, so I just ate and continued working. I stayed a little bit late just to wrap things up, and then headed home.

Just as I was getting close to Dardanelle, my old neighbor David called me. I could swear he said a big branch had fallen between my house and Bác Vân’s, so I headed over to check it out. When I got there, I was greeted not by a branch, but by an uprooted pine tree from the front yard. By some miracle, it managed to fall perfectly between the houses and only appeared to cause a little bit of damage to the very edge of my roof. It missed the other house entirely.

I headed home to change, and then picked Dad up so we could go check it out. He took a bunch of pictures that we took to the insurance office, and it seemed like it would be the better option for us to just take care of the tree ourselves and then just pay a roofer or carpenter to fix the house. As long as there’s no hidden damage under the tree, we didn’t figure it would be that bad. The trunk of the tree would be a lot of work, but the upper branches seemed small and manageable for two people.

I dropped Dad off and went back home until Eaddie showed up after school. Summer was supposed to work really late, but came home because she didn’t feel well. FedEx delivered a replacement thermostat and Eaddie was super hungry, so I took her for a ride across town to swap out the baseplate at the old house and then get some food. Just as we were about to go to Freddy’s, Dad reminded me that they had both ribs and curry, so we got Eaddie a free custard and then headed back across town.

After we ate, I took Eaddie home and then took the Onewheel across town to swap thermostats. It hurt my feet pretty bad since I was out of practice, but at least I didn’t dump the board. I was afraid to test the thermostat until we got the tree off of the unit outside, so I just headed back home. I stopped to get some more pictures of the shipping container in the woods, then at Casey’s for a drink, and circled around Ridgewood and the bike path where I saw the first lightning bugs of the season.

The girls were in bed by the time I got home, so I cleaned up a bit and then tried to get to bed early myself. Kim is out for the summer, so unless we have a project for her to work on, now is my time to really get things done.

Like threading a pine needle…

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No Son, You Failed Yourself

I got in a little bit early today, but it didn’t really help. Wave after wave of kids and teachers came in to talk to me, and only me, to check out or return devices. Jace was there with Kim again, and was being loud until I finally had to yell at him myself to stop making unnecessary noise. It was just impossible to do any work, and nobody else was really helping. I knew she had a long lunch duty, and I could have given her simple instructions on how to check devices in, but we just didn’t really have a plan going into it, and I wasn’t really backed up an unreasonable amount. It was just frustrating that I was roped to my desk all day.

By the end of the day, we only had one kid with anger issues, and were left with just over 70 students that either owed money or still had to return their device. That was a better number than last year, but still more than one grade level of students.

I headed home afterward and got stuck in slow traffic for the last leg of the trip. I fed the fish and thought I’d get back out on the Onewheel, but then it started to look like rain. I had Summer cook up the rest of the Brussels sprouts she bought the other day, and I grilled some brats as the weather sirens went off. Eaddie got super nervous about some cloud rotation, so the girls hid in the bathroom for a bit while I started eating. The sirens went off a couple times, but we never saw anything too bad on our side of town.

After dinner, everyone ended up in bed pretty quickly. The storm blew through super fast, so it didn’t even rain the rest of the night. I got things mostly cleaned up and put away, and then I was off to bed.

I just carried the grading pen a while.