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Mental Health Work

I had some coffee this morning and then got into PRTG again. Maybe I felt like I had been too productively lately, but I just wanted to work on something for me. I think I got it looking pretty good, and even got a little now-playing ribbon for my music. That’s not to say that I didn’t do anything important. I cleared a troublesome log in VMware. That fixed the error, but not the root of the problem. There will be time for that tomorrow.

I stopped by McDonald’s on the way home for some free fries, and loaded up another trunk full of stuff to take to the house. Then I started to go out on the Onewheel when Summer texted that she wanted fried chicken for dinner. She agreed to actually go out instead of just coming straight home, so I made it around the block and headed back home to pick her up across town. I nearly ate a face full of sand at the top of the hill, but was able to hit the ground running as the board tumbled end-for-end behind me. I bruised the bottom of my foot a little bit, but not too bad.

Eaddie was out with friends again, so Summer and I went to Zaxby’s and hung out there for a little while. Then we went to Walmart for some stuff so I could finally make turkey soup. When I dropped her off at the carwash, we found where she had hit something in the road, and it gouged the rocker panel trim on the right side in front of her rear wheel.

We made it home and wound down for the night. Eaddie made it home late and talked to Summer for a while before coming to me with a W-9 from school for some reason. She couldn’t even assemble a sentence as to why she needed it. All I heard was something about “superintendent” and “National History Day.” We didn’t get paid to take the kids on the trip. We hadn’t even been reimbursed like we were promised, and they wanted this form filled out overnight with barely any explanation. It sounded fishy to me.

Needs more maths done.

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On Content Libraries

I was a little early for work today, and I did a pretty good job of staying on task with my VMware project. I did get pulled away from that a couple times, but by lunch time I understood how to make a content library, and got my VM running with a guest OS. I was pretty stoked.

After work, I picked up some more stuff to take home. As I was leaving, an old guy walked by with his tiny dog and wanted to talk about the Fiero, the Tesla, OPEC, and his dog. He was a little quirky, but seemed super nice. I was pretty sure he said he lived at StoneBridge at the end of the road.

I made it home and immediately took the Onewheel out before it got dark. I went by my parents’ house and let Dad try it out again. He had some trouble with the dismount, but I still do too. I think it may just take a more assertive approach than what I want to take. As it got dark, I rode on home and eventually went back out for some tacos for dinner.

Summer went to bed, I started some laundry, and eventually Eaddie made it home after robotics and dinner with Eli. I dug around for some paperwork to send to Tesla, and then it was off to bed.

Fringe understanding

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Make Life Take the Lemons Back!

I didn’t feel great this morning, and after picking up a Casey’s coffee, I made it to work about 12 minutes late. Otherwise, it was a decent day of learning VMware, with several student interruptions. I was surprised I was able to stay as focused as I did for the entire day, but I still didn’t have a whole lot to show for it by quitting time.

I had the rumblies for most of the late afternoon and all the way home, where I loaded up my trunk with more stuff from the old house. A bird got me while I was parked at work, so I ran by the carwash to hose it down. Then I made it home and quickly unloaded.

Eaddie was hungry and Summer was late getting home from work. I wanted to kill a bit of time until we at least got a response from Summer whether or not she had any opinions on dinner, so I decided to run a couple things over to Dad on the Onewheel. Just as I was hopping the curb out of the driveway, I stumbled and the board sucked up my pant leg. It was really wedged in there, and I had quite a lot of trouble getting free. I felt pretty helpless standing in the road with that heavy thing stuck right at shoe level.

I finally freed myself and jammed my thumb in the process. Then I made it to my parents’ house without further incident. I didn’t stay long since it was already dark. I got home just before Summer did, and she didn’t want to get out. Eaddie wanted to celebrate a good flute lesson, so we went to Cici’s and had a good time.

Summer was on the couch when we got home, so I put on an episode of The Brothers Sun. Afterward, I saw an email from the Tesla service center saying that they agreed to buy my car back. I have mixed feelings, partially because there’s not a current Model 3 Performance for me to repurchase. I’ve got to try and get some documents from my closed loan account anyway, so maybe they’ll have a solution for me that doesn’t involve being without a car for several months. I love my car, but it would be stupid not to get a newer, potentially nicer one for less money. Wouldn’t it?

I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?

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Nearly Drained

I woke up early and had a bowl of cereal this morning. The girls both slept really late. I ran the sump periodically throughout the day, and it ran for shorter and shorter amounts of time. I doubt the yard will dry out with only a week without rain, so maybe this week I can run a trench through the yard for drainage. I wouldn’t mind making a rain garden with some deep-rooted plants, but that will take a lot more time that I don’t really have.

Summer got up and went to Morrilton to deliver some tax paperwork for her employees there while Eaddie did some homework. I cooked a chicken pot pie in the toaster oven while I took a shower, but it really didn’t satisfy my hunger at all. I ended up eating some leftover turkey and mashed potatoes as well.

When Summer got back home, we went to wash my car and then to the old house to feed the fish and pick up a few things. Then we went to Walmart to shop around a bit and get some dinner. She decided on spaghetti, and we headed home so she could cook.

There was still a little daylight left, so I went out on the Onewheel. I stopped by my parents’ house for a couple minutes, and then went up and down the hill around the neighborhood. It was way better now that the roads were mostly dry.

I made it back a little before dinner was ready, and started unpacking the things I brought home. We ate and talked a bit, and then everyone eventually made it to bed.

But I see the birds in the sky, they’re high flying.

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Regionaires

Eaddie left for all-region early this morning. Summer was out of bed super early after a work call, and I woke up pretty early myself, but laid in bed for a little while longer, unable to go back to sleep. I eventually got around and cleaned the kitchen a bit while Summer went to the gym. She didn’t stay long because she had to get Eli’s boutonniere from the flower shop. The kids came over around lunch time but weren’t hungry, and I eventually had a shower and had to drain the basement again.

We picked up my dad for the concert, and made it plenty early for the percussion ensemble before Eaddie’s band. The whole thing was about half an hour behind, so we were worried about the kids having to rush through pictures and dinner before the dance. We dropped Dad off at his house and then the kids met us at home to get ready.

We took a bunch of pictures, and then Eaddie refused to wear her fancy new dress to dinner or the dance, and wore her band dress instead. Once they left for dinner, I finished the eggplant soup. Then Summer and I went home so she could get ready to chaperone the dance. I stayed home and tinkered a bit, but didn’t actually get as much accomplished as I had hoped before everyone got back home.

The kids watched a little bit of TV before Eaddie took Eli home. Summer was already in bed by then, and I eventually wound down around midnight.

If you’re sumping rain, in your neighborhood; who you gonna call?

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So Long, Dot

We got up early this morning so we could make it to Tulsa early enough to make a day of it. Eaddie didn’t feel great, so she went to school a little late. Summer and I left for my house, then the wash to vacuum out the car. From there, we made it to Ozark to charge and get breakfast at the restaurant inside. It wasn’t bad at all, but I had kind of hoped for better, given my experience at truck stops in the past.

That got us enough juice to get all the way to Tulsa, but we stopped briefly at the Love’s oasis for some energy drinks for ourselves. When we got to downtown Tulsa, we parked right by the Center of the Universe “art piece.” The look on Summer’s face when she finally spoke up enough to hear the echo was priceless. We didn’t stay long though, and went to the nearest supercharger to get some juice before finally just heading straight to the Tesla service center.

I met several new people this time. Blake was working the service counter and contacted the manager, Jess, about my buyback inquiry. He indicated that he had already escalated it internally, and that I should hear something back in a couple weeks. He blamed the weather for the delay in getting the replacement battery pack. After that I met Tam, who introduced himself as a Vietnamese American for some reason after I asked his name. I drove him down the road to try and reproduce the rattle in my passenger door, and of course it really had healed itself. I don’t know if someone heard it and fixed it, if it was changed due to the weather, or maybe someone fixed it on accident somehow. When that was all done, I moved everything over from the loaner and got Summer into the car. She made a comment about my trunk being loud again, so I had Tam check it out while we were there. He didn’t seem to think there were any adjustments they could do, but said they could replace the trunk strut if I wanted to submit for a new service request.

We left after that, and got some dinner at Cheddar’s. I tried their Cajun pasta, which was pretty good. I kind of wished I had stuck with the pot pie though, just because it really is delicious with their croissant crust. Summer really enjoyed her tilapia and shrimp as well. We started home after that, but on a whim I stopped at The Peach Barn after seeing a billboard. Peach ice cream sounded good. They had a cute little store with lots of jarred goods, nuts, fudge, and some other stuff. Then we got a peach sundae, smoothie, and a couple hand pies and fudge to take with us.

The drive home was mostly rainy until we got back to Arkansas. We stopped in Van Buren to charge, and then almost made it home when we got into some heavy traffic with a bunch of trucks, and I took a bunch of gravel to the face a couple of times. I had a few new speckles in the paint, as well as a small surface chip in the windshield, dead center in my vision. Now I’m really hoping the buyback works. If not, I’ll have to raise concerns with the service center due to at least one paint bubble that I think happened due to the freeze while it was in their possession.

We made it home, Summer went to bed, and I pumped the basement out again. Eaddie made it home late after all-region, but went to bed almost immediately after. I was up for a while just wasting time until I went to bed.

Rotten luck.

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Wet Wheelies

Everything has been pretty damp since the ice came in. It was really temperate out, but the ground was still wet. It was fairly quiet at work, but I felt mostly misguided in the work I was doing. I’d get into something just a little bit, and then get sidetracked. I did finally wrap up the last of my iPads for the moment, but I can already tell that I’m going to have to do a real inventory check sooner than later, otherwise I’ll have to increase our license count. I really doubt we actually have over 300 active iPads in the district.

On the way to the old house, I saw three kids at the Hickey parking lot with a couple small motorcycles and a moped doing wheelies. I quickly picked up a few small things and then ran home so I could get a little time on the Onewheel before sundown. The ground was wet just about everywhere, so I went up the hill and around the block to my parents’ house for just a little bit. Mom got home and reminded me she had eggplant soup, and was making fresh “egg foo young,” which I’m guessing was actually chả trứng chiên? I don’t think we’ve ever actually known what it really was.

I ran home to see if Summer wanted to go back over for dinner, but it ended up just being me. I went out back to pump some more water out of the basement, and then drove to my parents’ house to eat and visit for a little while. Dad let me take his old iPhone back to see if it would work for Eaddie on Google Fi. I cleaned up in the basement again, and hooked up a wireless switch so I could turn on the pump without having to wade over to the outlet in the water. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the remote control for it, so it may still be at the old house.

The girls were pretty settled in after that. Summer went to bed, and I helped Eaddie with her phone for a bit. So far, so good. Then it was off to bed.

Got the wobbles!

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Foreward

I did not sleep well at all last night, after tossing and turning for about an hour after I finished pumping out the basement. It was pretty foggy and warm out, and I was early to work again. I started with an AeroPress that simply took too long to make, and then I spent most of the day writing. At first, it was documenting and requesting a buyback for my car. Then it was documenting the work that I’ve done, will do, and hope to continue doing, so that I could present it to the Super Intendent Bros.

Kim had to leave for a little bit in the afternoon to unstuck her husband’s truck from the mud. I just continued my work in quiet. Then we finished the day casing up some iPads. I was surprised, but thankful that Kim stayed a little late to finish the job.

I made a quick drive home and loaded a few more things into the car to take to the new house. I unpacked what I had, and then went outside to check the basement again. No surprise, it was flooded again. Only about half what it was last night, but still annoyingly deep to wade through in my short boots. I had the genius idea to use my little remote switch, so I can leave the pump plugged in and turn it on from outside the door. That should take care of my concerns until we can plumb the stupid thing in permanently.

The girls went to bed fairly early, so I tried cleaning up a little more around the house. Noah had stunk up multiple rooms of the house, and left an entire couch cushion covered in chewed up fingernails. I couldn’t be sure that some of them weren’t toenails, as big as they were. I’m done with his inconsiderate, disrespectful, and neglectful ways in our home, and he’s only been here three nights. No sense in doing that again.

Just grow up.

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Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

It was rainy all day, so I don’t know what I expected. I got to work early, and Kim got to yapping. Otherwise it was relatively quiet all day. I was a little scattered when trying to dig into a project, so I had basically zero feeling of accomplishment all day. When I left work, I got a message from the Tesla service center that said I had 48 hours to return the loaner vehicle before I would be charged a rental fee. That felt a little dirty after they had my car in service for 31 days. I wished I had known the details of the lemon laws much earlier.

I continued straight home to pick up Eaddie, and we went to my parents’ house so Dad could practice taking some photos before her school dance. She fussed every time we brought it up, but when we finally got there, we had a little bit of fun with it. Noah got to the house just as we got back home, and I left to get some more things from the old house.

I stopped for some tacos on the way back home, and Noah and I ate. Then I tried unpacking and organizing a little bit while everyone else settled in for the night. Just before bed, I finally went out back to check the basement for water. I should have gone out days ago, because there was another foot of water in there. Unfortunately, my boots were only waterproof up to half that height. I can’t believe the seller said they had only used the sump like three times in their time in the home, because I’ve used it that many times in less than a month. I’ve got to plumb that thing in somehow.

I’ll never understand how some kids seem to hate showers. Frakin nasty.

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Freeze In

School was out again in case of freezing rain, but I think the temperature rose enough to continue melting what ice had accumulated. I got up and tried to make French omelets, but had some trouble remembering when to stop messing with the egg. Eaddie didn’t want an omelet anyway, so I scrambled hers first, then did the same for Summer. By the time I got mine made, I could at least roll it into an ugly egg tube. I’ll remember better for next time.

Summer worked all day, and Eaddie spent most of the day in her bedroom. I cleaned up a bit and then had a bath in the afternoon. The Tesla service center didn’t seem interested in talking much about the lemon law after having my car for so long, so I wrote an email to the attorney general’s office to see if I would even have a case. Noah came back over after work, and Eaddie took him to Brick Oven. I did more dishes, and wound down pretty early so I could make it back to work in the rain the next morning.

Bubble, bubble, grumble tumble