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Grocery Gettin’ Fool

Summer made sausage and eggs for breakfast this morning, and then Eaddie sent a video of some strawberry cheesecake cookies that she wanted to make. I took a shower and then rode the Onewheel to the Neighborhood Market for some flour, brown sugar, and strawberries. On the way back, Beth and Mark spotted me and stopped to holler at me.

Eaddie had been at a robotics tournament all day, so when dinner time came around, I thought we could go to New China for a lunar new year’s meal. We ate, and then went to Walmart to walk around a bit. I mostly wanted to look at some plant pots and solar lights for the front walkway. We ended up getting a watering can with a long spout like I had been wanting for a while.

We didn’t do much else since it was a bit rainy out. Summer suggested that she would be interested in trying to ride the Onewheel after hearing how much fun I’ve had on mine, but we didn’t want to get out in the wet or dark. Eaddie eventually made it home, but pretty much went straight to her room. Summer went to bed early as usual, and I stayed up late learning how LEDs work.

Just call me Max Speed!

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One Wheel Keeps on Turning

Traffic was bad in Dardanelle this morning, but I was only a couple minutes late to work. Testing went without a hitch. Kim was out of the room a lot, but I was never quite sure what she was doing. I was pretty sure it wasn’t closing a bunch of work orders. Most of my work was pretty immaterial again, because the morning went by quickly, lunch time was loud, and then the afternoon gave way to more conversations about the impossibility of maintaining my department at my rate of pay.

I got permission for Johnny to come visit for a day so I can mentor him on some things. Then Ben called at the end of the day and we chatted for a while on the drive home. I stopped by the old house quickly to grab a couple more things while Summer was home early with Eaddie and had dinner ready. Clay walked by the house and stopped to talk to me some more, but didn’t keep me too long.

I was proud of Summer for creatively making some stir fry out of the tough ribs she baked the other day and some vegetables that I had prepped from our salmon night. Afterward, I went out on the Onewheel and fed the cat, and then decided to ride on down to Ridgewood Brothers to see if Grant was there. I got him and one of the other guys on the Onewheel for a bit, and then he sent me home with some apple crumble that was incredible.

Sensing some dire levels of stress, I got Summer to go back with me for some more dessert, and we got to step to the back of the restaurant and chat for a little bit more. Hopefully we made a meaningful difference. Eaddie spent most of the night in her room, and Summer went to bed as soon as we got back home. I stayed up a while longer, but felt the exhaustion roll in pretty hard.

The morning sun is rising. It’s kissing the day.

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Broken Management

Today was more spinning wheels. Kim left for a while in the morning with a couple of the maintenance guys to bring some books from their new house to the superintendent’s house. It really seems like nobody cares how little work is done. Maybe I’m wrong for trying to change their mindset. It’s upsetting because that’s kind of my speed, but I also want to learn and grow and improve, and I just feel like I’m the only one actively working toward that.

PRTG showed a meltdown during testing in the morning, and a bunch of my switches showed offline. They came back up with different management IPs, and I’m not even sure where to look for logs. The controller VM probably needs an update pretty badly, and I’ll finally be ready to do that over the summer, if I’m still around. There’s only one person of any importance when it comes to the subject of my salary, and every time I talk to him, I hear about how he doesn’t understand anything about what I do.

Johnny called me in the afternoon and I talked to him for a while about how absolutely broken Lamar is. He says their lead guy knows what he’s doing, but based on the fact that they aren’t automating any rostering data, I can’t imagine he’s doing much. I actually spent a while on the phone throughout the afternoon, because I had to call Steven at CDW a couple times to get the invoice we needed for Jaime. Then I got a call from an auditor at the end of the day, who seemed more concerned about making sure I passed than I did. I told him I wasn’t afraid to fail, just to show somebody how broken things are. Audits should be frequent and unannounced for such mismanaged organizations.

I sped home, grabbed a few things from the old house, and then took a fast ride around the block on the Onewheel. Clockwork, the ratty looking orange cat, let me pet him a bit. The lame one wasn’t around, but at least there was still some food. Once I got back home, I warmed up some leftovers for dinner. Eaddie came home feeling sick and went to bed super early. Summer got home from work early and was watching Moana, and then went to bed early herself.

I think this weekend is for résumé tweaking and applications.

Aim high, and try to miss the foot.

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Pause and Refreshes

The car made it to work today, so whatever popped yesterday didn’t seem to be a problem. Testing was a bit quieter, though I was called out to investigate a test-side problem a couple of times. Only one student was affected, on multiple days, with multiple devices. Let support figure it out.

I spent all day playing around in PRTG, and ended up pausing every single sensor and then unpausing just what I wanted. As I would go down the list doing that, it would take a little while to refresh the sensor limit, and new ones would constantly “wake up” that I would have to continue pausing. With a limit of 100 for the free version, I basically only have a bunch of pings to be useful, but now the HUD makes sense, and is much more glanceable.

After work, I went home for fish and some CD towers to take home. I’ve been listening to Mae again for a couple days, and the “artist radio” has been bringing back memories. I stopped by the wash to see Summer frantically running around with just one employee to cover all of the bases, so I didn’t stay long. I got home early enough to ride over to my parents’ house to check on the cat food, and bring some more leftovers home.

Eaddie and I ate the ground pork omelet egg foo young stuff with some fresh rice that I made. I got to sign some permission slips for her, which is always fun for me. Then I decided to treat her to some Dairy Queen. I guess they had a regional manager, or possibly a new store manager on deck, so the ice cream was good. It had been pretty melty in recent years, but his assertive nature seemed to have things in order.

Afterward, we dropped leftover ice cream off for Summer at the wash, since she had a late staff meeting before she would be come. Then I reminisced over Mae, Deas Vail, and The Hollywood Kills CDs. I was surprised to see Mae is touring again, and it’ll be interesting if I get to go see them again.

DAVE ROCK!!!

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Resume Testing

They started interim testing today, which meant I wouldn’t be getting much work done the rest of the week. We started off with a bunch of people coming to the office looking for loaner devices and chargers, and we had to turn them away. I even got a little snippy with Denice when she started mouthing about their inability to manage an effective take-home deployment. It seems like nobody wants to hear the fact that accountability and consistency is paramount. Casey came in and borrowed a couple devices, and though I have no clue what I could have said to offend her, apparently she felt the need to make a complaint that earned me a phone call to “put a smile on that bearded face.”

I found four higher-paying tech jobs on the first page of Indeed, for which I would be more than qualified.

Kim ended up leaving after doing about zero work for the hour she was there, because she had a bunch of people coming to look at her house. It would have been quiet, had it not been for the testing traffic and some students coming by in the afternoon for help. I talked to Denice for a bit after work, and at least then she admitted to being overly-stressed about testing, and I think we left on good terms.

On the way home, just as I was pulling up to the stoplight in Dardanelle, I heard an incredibly loud “kerCHUNK” that sounded like it came from around the rear-passenger wheel. It was loud and violent enough that I swore it shook, or at least vibrated the car. I pulled right over into the gas station parking lot and walked over to the road, where I saw nothing. There was nothing on the dash cam footage, and there was no damage to the car. I couldn’t tell what it was, and I made it back home without further incident, so there’s no telling what happened.

Summer was at a meeting with the Arkansas Tech Career Center, and Eaddie was playing in the pep band for a basketball game, so I went to the old house to feed the fish, then to Walmart to use a coupon for some free Dawn. Then I grabbed some tacos and made it home to eat before taking the Onewheel to my parents’ house to check on the cat.

I took some dry cat food to the neighbor across the street, who reminded me a bit of the librarian at school. Then I rode around for about five miles, practicing some tight turns and deep carves. I felt pretty confident, even with my achy legs and feet. Then I tried riding switch, and my muscle memory was breaking everything. Evidently my riding style is heavily directional, and I got the wobbles almost instantly every time. I kept at it though, and kept switching back and forth mid-ride. I never got any better, and then ended up falling when I tried to do a 180º pivot, and banged up my left elbow. I laid my head back on the street and sighed for a moment before packing it up for the night.

Summer got home shortly after that, followed by Eaddie a little while later. I got a little more sore as the night went on, but was ambitious enough to swap out one of the smoke detectors for a Nest Protect.

All interviews are just for practice until you take the job.

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Documents for Their Documents

I had a slow start this morning, grabbed a free cappuccino, and strolled into work a couple minutes late after fighting some dumb traffic. Denise was actually in her office all day because they’re actually doing testing, and I think that makes four whole days this calendar year. Kim was pretty chatty all day, and I struggled to deal with all the noise.

Lunch time came and went, and we kept having people in and out of the office, which further frustrated me. I spent most of the day trying to spin up SCCM, but it seemed far less than straightforward. There are so many pieces to set up manually, and for some reason I thought it would be a click-through install.

When quitting time finally arrived, I headed toward home, stopping at McDonald’s for a cheap Big Mac before going by the old house to feed the fish, and finally making it home to where Summer had been cooking dinner for a while. I changed clothes and rode to my parents’ house on the Onewheel to pick up some things, but ended up leaving more than I took because the things kept adding up to more than what I wanted to haul in my backpack.

I headed back home before dark, and Summer had baked ribs and potatoes, and pan-fried some Brussels sprouts. Eaddie made it home late for dinner, and then everyone wound down pretty quickly. I was tired and uneasy, but eventually made it to bed.

Settled down.

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Raya and the Blackest Dragon

Everyone slept super late today. I got up first, and started making breakfast croissants. We had some leftover ham we had frozen a while back, and I fried up slices of that with some eggs and cheese. They were really awesome with the “everything” croissants. It was pretty yucky out all day, but Summer went to the gym and I cleaned up the kitchen before running outside to run the sump and then taking a shower.

We really didn’t do anything after that until dinner time. Eaddie had a bunch of dreams about food last night, so I took that inspiration and made some pizza on toast with leftover pizza dipping sauce, slices of mozzarella, and some hard salami that Summer was letting go bad slowly in the refrigerator. Eaddie and I tried melting some old chocolate to dip strawberries, but that didn’t work well. At least we ate the chocolate and got it out of the cabinet. I was still hungry, so I had some leftover turkey soup.

Summer and I watched Raya an the Last Dragon, and I found Awkwafina’s voice to be completely out of place and offputting for the story. It made the whole movie feel less authentic, and took a lot of weight out of the theme for me. It just felt cheap.

Eaddie didn’t even bother watching with us, and went to her room. Summer quickly went to bed after it was over, and I ended the night by paying some bills.

What is culture, anyway?

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McDate Night

Eaddie had her all-state audition today, and I was going to get up to make her breakfast, but I was sleeping pretty hard and Summer got up to get her going instead. I eventually got up and had some spaghetti for lunch while Summer went to work and the gym. I took care of my plants, took a shower, and started picking at things I had moved from the old house.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly, and Eaddie went out with Eli after band, so Summer and I decided to go out to McDonald’s to get their new Double Big Mac, which is four all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a new brioche sesame seed bun. While we were eating, a school bus from Texarkana pulled in with a load full of band kids.

After we ate, we went to T.J. Maxx to shop around for a bit. It was just really nice to be out of the house with Summer for a bit, because she comes home burned out from work every day, and we never get to do anything. We picked up a Blizzard for her from Dairy Queen on the way home, and then watched some Modern Family until Eaddie got home.

Eaddie was relieved to make first band, sixth chair for the second time in a row. I thought she’d make a higher chair with how hard she’s worked on it, but it sounded like her nerves get to her at auditions. I told her to do some drugs first next time, and get first chair.

The girls went to bed after that. I stayed up for a bit longer than I expected, but all of today went by pretty quickly.

Rain, rain, go away, long enough to dry my ba…sement.

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Fillet and Grill’t

This morning went by pretty fast, but then the afternoon dragged a bit. I got parts of VMware updated or patched, but I feel like you need a certification just to understand the vocabulary. There are so many parts, and it’s tough to keep up with how they are all interconnected.

After work, I loaded up a bunch of Soylent at the old house to take home, and then I went by the carwash to see Summer. I went ahead and washed my car there, since there’s not much sense in babying the paint any more. Then Summer finished up and we both headed home.

Eaddie was already home, and we made her go to Kroger with me to pick dinner. It was really nice out, so I thought I’d grill something. Eaddie thought salmon sounded good, so I picked up a really big fillet, some broccoli and cauliflower, and shrimp.

I had to clean up the kitchen when we got back, and then Eaddie invited Eli over. I cleaned up the fish and cut the fillet off of the skin really easily. Chef Ramsay would have been proud. I got everything on the grill, and we had a late dinner that everyone seemed to really enjoy. I thought it turned out great, though I did get a little heavy-handed with the salt on something. The steamed rice helped cut that down though. We had just enough left over for me to pack them up into individual meals, and then I precleaned a little more so I’d have room to make breakfast in the morning.

The girls went to bed early because Summer had an early day today, and Eaddie had all-state band tryouts in the morning. I stayed up a bit longer, but the sleepiness got to me.

More surface area!

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That Last 92%

I kept getting behind slow people to and from work today, but the weather was nice and the clean acceleration for passing was nicer. Kim walked in right behind me, but spent a good portion of the day out of the office somewhere else around on campus, as far as I knew. I spent most of my day behind emails, trying to wrap up Jaime’s nonsense. It became more and more evident that nobody there really knew how the grants were supposed to work, and it really seems like the district is just sort of winging it.

In the middle of Kim’s lunch duty, she stuck her head in the door with a couple disposable trays of food and said she didn’t want any of it. Evidently they made extras for kids, but nobody wanted them and they were just going to throw them away. That meant early, free lunch for me. I didn’t get my usual salad, and the food was cold and dried out, but it tasted alright.

The afternoon was fairly quiet, again with Kim out of the office for a large portion of the day. Most everyone was gone by the time I left, and I raced home to load a few more things into the car. Doug caught me outside and talked to me for a little bit, and then I made it home to start some turkey soup.

As soon as everything was in the Instant Pot, I headed out on the Onewheel. I felt fairly confident on it today, and went up and around the hill to swing by my parents’ house. When I got back home, I drove to the Neighborhood Market for some noodles. Just next to the egg noodles, I saw a package of gnocchi that looked pretty good, so I decided to throw them in the pot too.

I was a little worried, but the broth actually came out really good. It was probably the best turkey soup I’ve ever made. I was worried about not having enough meat in it, but it was fine. The gnocchi was really good too. Even Eaddie liked it, even though it wasn’t a full multi-course meal.

How am I the expert here?