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Keeping the Road Warm

I ran really late and really fast this morning after barely remembering to pay the mortgage before jumping into the shower. It was a pretty quiet day though, and I was excited to have two more kids pay fines for damaged Chromebooks. I tinkered with SCCM and some other things, and then Kim left for the afternoon. I hesitated to dig too deep into anything new, but hopefully we’ll be ready to deploy some computers next week.

After work, I took a leisurely drive home behind a bunch of idiots driving WAY under the speed limit. I fed the fish and stuffed some things into the trunk. I thought I’d go out on the Onewheel, but had a bit of a stomach ache and had to sit it out for the night. Summer eventually texted to say she wanted to go to Walmart, so I went to the wash to pick her up while Eaddie stayed home to go to the art walk downtown.

We followed each other so we wouldn’t have to backtrack and pick up the other car. Summer was fussy about buying some new clothes, and we didn’t end up buying much of anything. She didn’t even want to look at groceries. Instead, we left and went to Dairy Queen for dinner. It was a stark difference from the service Eaddie and I received the other day. It was just children working, and none of them seemed to be communicating well enough to run a restaurant. We got food, and it was hot, but it took way too long for that kid to assemble two chicken strip baskets.

After that, we made it home and Summer settled in while I took the Onewheel to my parents’ house. Dad wanted to try out an antenna, so I rode to the end of the street with another radio to test. It was pretty cold outside, so I didn’t stay very long before heading home. There, I sat in the dark and played on my phone for hours until bed.

Pity Potty

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Testing my Patience

Late but early again. They surprised me with more testing, and I had a call with tech support for our crappy FlySense vape detectors. Without knowing more about what wasn’t working, I just accepted the guy’s response that for some reason, several people weren’t subscribed to specific devices. The management website seemed bad.

The noise came roaring in around lunch when testing was over. I just had to stop and put my head down for a minute while it was unbearably loud. At least the meatloaf wasn’t bad, though we didn’t get much of it. They threw a couple steak fingers in to make up for it, so I didn’t even get a salad today like I usually do.

I spun my wheels a lot in the afternoon, unable to make up my mind on a naming convention for new computers. I’d like it to be different enough to be glanceable, but everything I’ve tested just kind of looks bad. I guess that’s what I get for using serial numbers, but somehow it didn’t seem so bad in the past. I guess at this scale, it doesn’t really matter what we name them. They’ll just be glad to have something that actually works.

It rained on the way home, but was only sprinkling when I got into town. I met Dad at Bác Vân’s to get my old Atari from her house. Doug had apparently moved out completely. I loaded enough other stuff from my old house to fill the trunk, and then headed home to where Summer was finishing up dinner. Eaddie got home and I started some laundry, and we sat down for a nice chicken spaghetti that was baked a bit for some crispy cheesy goodness.

I thought we might go back out so I could show off my leap year t-shirt in public, but it continued to get colder and rainier all night. I just wrapped things up, and then wrapped up in bed.

Why is there so much email?

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Pizza Cake

I ran a little late again this morning, but rolled into work early enough that I didn’t have a problem taking a beat to make a coffee. I knew the day couldn’t hold a candle to the success I had yesterday, so and Kim was back after a day off, so I didn’t even try. I still got a couple more deployments made though, and overall it was a pretty decent day.

Dad met someone at the old house to look at some remodeling, but I missed them by the time I was off work. I fed the fish and then pretty quickly headed home to get Eaddie for dinner. Summer was working late, so the two of us decided to go to Pizza Hut for a change.

I started a load of laundry and we went to eat. Zach and his family were there with Gray’s basketball team celebrating a tournament win, and he came over to chat a bit before we ordered. Then Eaddie and I had a really good chat about life and stuff. I tried to save some leftovers for when Summer got home, but all she got was bread sticks and chocolate donut bites.

The girls settled in pretty early, and I saw another offer from Tesla to buy back my car. I accepted at a loss of a little over $8,000, which is still less than how much they dropped the price of the car after I bought it. A big part of me is excited to see the next performance Model 3, but another very present part of me is curious about home solar. Finances may need some time to settle, but how neat would it be to have both?

We’ve had one, yes. What about second winter?!

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Gummy Victory

It’s ironic how running a little late can sometimes result in a modified routine that lands me at work a little earlier than usual. A lack of traffic helped. Kim was out to take one of the kids to get a tooth pulled, so Denice and I were the only two in the office all day. That meant a wild mix of tunes and some real focus time in SCCM. Accordingly, I had great success after learning that you can’t join a computer in OSD to the default OU. This stuff is probably documented somewhere, but I don’t understand any of the reasoning behind any of it. You just have to know it’s that way because the way it is.

I continued to suck down hot tea and honey, knowing I couldn’t possibly beat the success I’d had in the morning. I could have just left for the remainder of the week after that. I tinkered with Software Center and made a deployment for Microsoft Office, which went way better than the time I did it at RSD. I ended up leaving close to quitting time and then getting stuck behind idiots the rest of the entire evening any time I drove anywhere. I seriously had better luck everywhere on the Onewheel.

Once I got back to town, I loaded a bunch of stuff into my car and headed home. Eaddie was helping with the junior high concert and Summer was late coming home from Greenbrier, so I went out on the Onewheel until she got home. I didn’t realize she was going to be so tired or fed after work, otherwise I would have eaten earlier.

I picked up some tacos, and then redeemed a $0.95 single-topping mini sundae from Freddy’s. For some reason they saw it fit to expire my birthday coupon a full week before my birthday. The app experience and the customer service were both poor enough to warrant a review. I topped the thing with some more goodies once I got home.

Eaddie eventually made it home and started working on some school work with Summer. Our ceiling fan remote died and Eaddie wanted some more strawberries, so I took the Onewheel out again well after dark and grabbed what we needed from the Neighborhood Market. Summer is going to be hot, but I’m loving riding this time of year. Maybe I should move to California.

If I had a nickel for every time I thought something was working correctly, I could almost afford a stick of gum.

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Midwhenter Concert

I barely got out of Casey’s with my life today, much less my free coffee. There was a huge line of people at the checkout, and then I had to jump out into traffic to leave. Kim was late after getting her shot and not taking a sick day. I spent the entire day fighting SCCM again, and finally found someone with the same problem I had with my distribution point.

I got pretty sleepy in the afternoon, and just gave up at a stopping point in the afternoon. Eaddie had her midwinter concert in the evening, so I went to feed the fish and grab a few more things before heading home. Nobody else would be coming home for dinner, so I ended up going to my parents’ house for spaghetti before taking Dad to the concert to meet Summer.

We ended up beating her there because she got stuck at work. It was a pretty good concert though. I think both bands actually sounded better than the last high school concert we watched. Afterward, I dropped Dad off at home and then took a lap around the block on my Onewheel while Summer settled in for the night. Eaddie went out to eat with friends, and it was a pretty late night for a Monday.

I preferred the birthday speeches.

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Greyvy

Summer was snoring pretty badly this morning, so I got up and went to the couch to start my morning. When she got up, she started cooking sausage gravy and I came out to cook eggs for breakfast. I got frustrated when she muddled packaged gravy mix with the sausage, which ended up being way too rich and sweet, so I added flour and water to even things out.

I was a little cranky and depressed for the rest of the day, so I just tried to make some space. I took a shower while Summer went to the gym, and once she got back to clean house, I went to the old house to try and pack up some more stuff. I ended up spending most of my time just going through papers and things, throwing out anything that was irrelevant or out of date.

I took a quick break to run to Harbor Freight, but they were out of the free reach tools that I wanted. It would have been nice to pick up trash while on the Onewheel, though I don’t actually see myself riding too many places where that’s a problem anyway.

When I made it back home, the girls hadn’t eaten anything, so I deep fried some French fries and warmed up the old leftover steak. We really should have committed to cleaning that up over a week ago, because it wasn’t good tonight.

We’ll do better tomorrow.

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Teenager Berries

I took some guaifenesin last night to dry up the crud in my chest, and it seemed to work pretty well. I woke up early and then dozed off a bit after Summer got out of bed. She went to the gym and Eaddie went to a band thing at Tech, so I got around to some coffee and eventually a shower.

Summer wanted to clean house a bit and then cook fajitas for dinner, so we went to the Neighborhood market to get groceries. I cleaned and cut up strawberries for shortcakes when we got back, and some of the berries had seeds with leaves on them. One of them in particular reminded me of a patchy high schooler’s beard, or a transition gone awry. I left it out to sprout and see if we could get any strawberry plants out of it.

Once Summer got the shortcake into the oven, we went outside so she could try riding around on the Onewheel. She got her first few falls and scrapes out of the way, but overall did a great job of moving slowly down the road and making turns. I just kept emphasizing that it was better to bail early than try and ride it out when you’re just getting started, because skill at bailing, running it out, or even falling is just as important as skill at riding.

Eaddie eventually made it home after also going to my parents’ house to rake some more leaves, but then she wanted to go out on her bicycle. Evidently Eli came over as well, and I rode around the block to find him walking alongside her on the bicycle toward my parents’ house. I popped in to say hello, and then headed back home to cook.

We considered putting the leftover chicken and some fresh veggies on the flat top to grill outside, but I ended up just heating it up on the skillet over the stove instead. I didn’t have very much room, but it worked alright and didn’t take as long to get heated up as it would have taken outside for such a small amount of food. I also cooked some black beans in the Instant Pot that turned out pretty good, though next time I’ll let the “bean/chili” setting finish instead of following some arbitrary recipe I found online.

The four of us started to play a game after dinner, and I excitedly brought out Hail Hydra, but I think it wanted at least five players. Eaddie kept fussing that she didn’t remember anything about Hydra anyway, and wanted to watch the movie instead. We all settled in and watched Captain America: The First Avenger, though Summer went to bed partway through. I enjoyed revisiting the movie, but seeing all of the hokey 3D stuff without 3D glasses felt a little silly. It was a silly movie anyway.

Eli left and Eaddie crashed as soon as the movie was over. Summer stayed up in bed to watch baking shows until I finished my own chores. I guess we plan to make more food tomorrow.

And why not? We like to eat.

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Wheelin’ to the Ball

I forgot to charge my car yesterday, but it was no sweat making it to work and back. I typically only use about 20% of my charge per day. I spent the entire day trying to get a computer to image over SCCM, but it just wouldn’t work. It took me all day to even find the right log files to dig into, and even after staying late, it ended up being a problem for Monday.

It was a nice evening drive home to feed the fish and load up some more stuff from the old house before swinging through the car wash. Eaddie was going to be recognized with the other all-state kids at the basketball game in the evening, so I went home to eat some leftovers before that.

Just as I finished up, Summer texted to say she was going straight to the high school after work, so I hopped on the Onewheel and huffed it across town. It took me a little longer than I expected, but I stuck to the sidewalk for the majority of the ride. Roads are always faster because there aren’t as many uneven cracks or breaks. I ended up beating Summer there by several minutes, and I misunderstood when halftime would be anyway. We got into the arena just as the girls were finishing their game, and then the guys came out.

I sat through half of the game on my phone, wishing I was out wheeling around. Once we got to hear them call Eaddie’s name, I headed outside to ride until Summer came out. Then we went home and settled in. Summer showered and ate leftovers. I set up the new coffee grinder that I had Julie order for me. It was way smaller than I expected. Eaddie made it home around that time, and practiced her flute a bit before everyone went to bed.

♫ We regret to inform you that the Keurig will have to find a new home! ♫

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High Beams

I forgot to charge my phone last night, but luckily I woke up early with a CPAP tube full of water. I got that mess cleaned up and made it to work, but I felt pretty crummy all day. My throat hurt from coughing so much, so I sipped on some Theraflu all morning, and then some hot tea in the afternoon. At the very end of the day, I got a computer to PXE boot to my new SCCM server, so how I get to play with the more familiar task sequences and start deploying some computers.

After work, I fed the fish and grabbed a few things from the old house before stopping by the wash to check on Summer. I thought I’d bake some potatoes to go with the leftover steak for dinner, but Eaddie was at robotics until a little late, and neither of the girls were very hungry.

I ended up riding the Onewheel to my parents’ house for some curry. They got some stuff from Bác Trân for new year’s, and he sent me an over-the-neck reading light that I ended up using as headlights for the Onewheel after dark. I rode home, but wanted to keep riding a bit after being cooped up the past couple days, so I grabbed the recycling and took it to the Neighborhood Market. It was a quick run, but fun on the smooth asphalt.

The girls had pretty well wound down for the night, so I did my best to get to sleep early. I’ve got the humidity turned down on my CPAP now, so hopefully I won’t drown in my sleep.

Tea for me, and me for tea!

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Mac is a Side

Summer and I both woke up with a bunch of crud in our chests, but it wasn’t until I saw macaroni and cheese as the lunch entrée that I made the final decision to stay home from work. Summer took a little bit of convincing to stay home, but it wasn’t long before she fell back asleep. I spent several hours playing Fishdom on my phone, but got up a few times to make more Theraflu and eventually some pot pies for lunch.

We were both coughing and sneezing pretty regularly, and it probably won’t be much better tomorrow, but time will tell. We finished the chili dogs in the afternoon just before Eaddie got home. She came in to shower, and then hit the road again to hang out with Eli.

I thought I’d make it to bed super early, but kept getting distracted. At least now it’ll be a super short week.

Tammy and the T-Rex?