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You Don’t Know Jack

I successfully took the Murano to work this morning. I did not successfully place an order for breakfast at the correct restaurant. The McDonald’s app switched locations on me while I was nearing the bridge to Dardanelle, and I refused to turn around and drive across town to retrieve my order. Fortunately it was refunded later in the afternoon, but it was infuriating that I was completely powerless to do absolutely anything until then. I just went to Burger King instead.

Work was relatively quiet, and some of my deployment issues were resolved. Others I had to keep opening new tabs to research. By the end of the day, I could barely see the icons of each site I had open. Johnny called while I was eating and asked for my reference as he applied for a Dover tech position. It was a little tempting to apply for it myself, but I just don’t think that’s the right move yet. Hopefully something else will present itself, but until then, I’m left daydreaming about what it would be like at the paper mill.

I stopped by Walmart in Dardanelle on the way home, because it was the only store that would offer free online pickup. Then I picked up the coffee table from the old house and headed home. Along the way, I called Jack out of the blue to try and catch up with him. All I could do was leave a voicemail. Summer was already home when I got there, but taking work calls and then heading to the bath after helping me unload the car. I went to my parents’ house briefly, came back to get my backpack and chargers before going back for dinner.

It was nice out, so after dinner I rode all around the neighborhood and the west side of town. Then I came home through the Waco Detention Basin Trail, which was actually dry. With both the Onewheel and the Murano depleated, I plugged in and drove across town to fill up the car. I didn’t realize how much I hated pumping gas until I didn’t have to any more. I still miss my car.

I chatted with Jack for quite a while. Eaddie got home super late, and Summer was in bed early.

Calm

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Cold Mornings Are for Suckers

Eaddie beat me to the shower unexpectedly this morning, which meant I finished mine in lukewarm water. Any colder outside, and it wouldn’t have lasted that long. I got out the door and realized she had taken the Murano to school, which was different than the plan we had set the night before, whereby Summer would drop her off so I could not ride the bike to work in the cold. I ran back inside and got a jacket, but failed to get my gloves, so my hands were ice cold when I got to work. I started with some coffee, but it took a while to get over the deep chill.

I spent most of the day fighting printer drivers, and still never really fixed the deployment, I guess I’ll dig into it some more tomorrow, and likely start from scratch. The ride home after work was a bit warmer, but the warmer weather has really brought out the asshole pickup truck drivers. Maybe I just didn’t notice them in the Model 3, but the Shadow doesn’t have quite the pep to keep at the head of traffic.

I fed the fish and then went home until Summer got there. She worked a short day after having a doctor’s appointment, but still came home looking like hell with no will to exist outside of the house. I left on the Onewheel and had some rice and sausage that I like with my parents. Then I rode around the neighborhood for a while before making it back home. It was a short, quiet night after that.

Direct Translation

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Lab Aid

McDonald’s was super busy this morning, and the lady inside was yelling at all of her employees for wasting food. I didn’t realize until I got to work, late again, that they didn’t put egg on my bagel. More on that later.

I had a few distractions throughout the day, but my big accomplishment was getting Kim out after lunch to replace 17 more lab computers with me. We had a student help as well, which was nice. We ran out of video adapters and cables, which was a bit of a surprise. The entire lab was set up with HDMI cables, so we had to go from DisplayPort to VGA. I don’t want to spend any more money than I have to, so we’ll limp along for the remainder of the year.

I had run out of gas on the way to work and had to switch over to my reserve, so I stopped in Ola for some gas on the way home. I couldn’t tell if I was flying down the road or not, because yesterday I kept getting passed at an unexpected rate. Wind isn’t my friend on the Shadow, so it’s just not comfortable going fast. I prefer something more upright.

When I got into Dardanelle, I stopped to file my complaint at McDonald’s, and bartered some free fries for my missing egg. They were the hottest, freshest fries I’ve ever had from McDonald’s, so that was a treat on a surprisingly cold ride home. Then I fed the fish before going to Orr to check on the status of the Pathfinder. Tim said it would be about three or four weeks before they could even look at it.

I stopped to see Summer at the wash, but left as it continued to get colder. Just after I got home, Dad said they had leftover spring rolls and chow mein, so I took the Onewheel over there, narrowly beating Julie and Kevin. Food wasn’t at all ready, so Kevin and I watched Julie eat spring rolls, and then Kevin, Dad, and I had chow mein once that was done.

Summer was in the bath when I finally made it back home for the night. Eaddie got home late after band solo and ensemble. We all caught up a bit, and then it was off to bed at a reasonably normal time.

Boy, do I miss Tres.

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Commutercycle

I didn’t think I was running behind this morning, but I got to work about five minutes late after stopping at McDonald’s along the way. Kim had texted that she would be out sick, but I didn’t expect every single administrator to be in the back office meeting. I spent the entire day tinkering with my task sequence as I imaged more computers. I almost skipped lunch, but got hungry and grabbed some pizza a little late.

There was a threat of rain in the afternoon, but I never saw a drop. The roads were a bit gritty, and I kept getting stuck behind jerks that would kick all of that crap up into the air. I headed straight home for fear of getting caught in something if I went to feed the fish first.

Summer made burgers, which I re-pattied and grilled. Eli made it here before Eaddie did, and they made music in the bathroom after we ate. Weird, right? I cleaned up the grill afterward, and then the rest of the night went by really quickly as I struggled with the anxiety of feeling like I was forgetting to do something.

Full self driving would have been perfect for this.

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Rolling Cycles

Mom said we were having beef spring rolls today, but we weren’t sure if it was for lunch or dinner. We invited everyone to eat at our house since we had more room, so Summer went shopping so she could make cupcakes and banana pudding. I got up to some coffee and then cleaned up the dining room. I wanted to set up two cooking stations for the beef, and three plates with veggies. Noah came over too, so we had eight people to fit around the table. I couldn’t find our new electric skillet even though I knew I brought it to the new house, so I ran to the old house to make sure. Summer ended up finding it above the refrigerator.

I stopped by my parents’ house on the way home to get some of the food. Then Dad brought over some more, and Julie and Kevin showed up. I thought the dining table worked out perfectly for that many people. The only thing I would have changed was the seating arrangement, just to make sure someone mindful was next to the rice paper water bowls.

Once everyone left, I had to take a couple trips on the Onewheel to give my parents the things we forgot to give them on the way out. We got the kitchen cleaned up, and then Summer and I ran around town to O’Reilly for an oil filter and oil, and Superfast for some tools to change the oil in the Shadow.

Unfortunately the oil pan we borrowed wouldn’t fit under the bike, so we went to borrow one from Dad. We still forgot wrenches for the drain plug, so once we got back to the old house, we decided to just take the bike to the new house to do the work there. That was when we also realized that the dip in our driveway gave us enough room to use the oil pan from the shop.

Rather than dirty up Dad’s oil pan and funnel, we decided to go back across town to get the dirty one we borrowed from Superfast. We also brought the R1 over to the new house, so I could bleed the front brake line and change the oil in it as well. Once we got everything in place, Summer was quick to drop the oil out of the Shadow. She had a fancy new headband light too, so I didn’t even get to hold the flashlight for her. The bike took a bit more than the 2.5 quarts of synthetic oil that I expected, but Summer signed off on the leak check and it was good to go. She can wear the pants in the family all she wants, because I was just glad to keep my hands clean.

I ended up riding to PDQ to air up the tires, but tomorrow may rain anyway. I may not even get to ride it, but it’s ready. The kids stayed up a bit late, and Noah ended up staying the night, but I finally convinced him to sleep in a bed this time. We’ll take the small wins with that one.

I bet we wouldn’t have had to use more than half of that one bottle if we had just let the first two bottles drip a bit longer.

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3 Little 2 Late

I woke up early this morning so we could get to Tulsa for lunch. The girls were chittering around the rest of the house, so I stayed hidden away until I was ready to leave the house. They had disappeared in a cloud of body spray by the time I walked through.

I did another software update on my car, which wasn’t long after the last one. This one evidently gave me a 30-day trial of Full Self Driving, which would ironically only get me to the Tesla dealership in Tulsa where I would relinquish my car. I followed Summer most of the way, stopping at Rose Drug, then the Van Buren Supercharger, and finally the Love’s oasis. Somewhere before we hit the turnpike, a truck kicked up a bunch of large pieces of wood. One of them struck the middle of my windshield, but fortunately no damage was done that I could tell. After Love’s, I led us the rest of the way to the dealership where they seemed to be waiting with baited breath for me.

I only had a couple of pages of paperwork to sign, including handing the title back over. Then we unloaded all of the remaining stuff into Summer’s car and left it there to Supercharge while we test drove one of the brand new Model 3s and a Model X. The new Model 3 was incredibly quiet, and had a great ride. The doors were the other big improvement. The turn signals were less of an issue than I expected for normal driving, but in a pinch I would still want stalks to quickly signal and maneuver. The only solace is that the responsiveness of the vehicle makes it nimble and quick enough to maneuver around most other vehicles faster than any signaling might help, in that type of situation. I guess that’s what really matters, and signals can be left for more polite, less urgent driving.

After our test drives, we found a nearby Shoe Carnival to use a birthday credit I had. Then we crossed the street to get a free birthday burger from Red Robin. We were more disappointed than usual with our lack of “bottomless” fries when we sat down, so we ordered a couple more rounds as soon as our server brought our food to the table.

Bellies full, we headed back home with a nearly full charge. Headwinds made us stop to charge for a couple minutes in Ozark, and then we made it home without incident. I went out on the Onewheel to destress and stopped by my parents’ house. I was really sad about selling my car back, but the market price and current upgrades made it the right financial choice. It’s just nuts that I could buy a brand new one and still save money after the whole ordeal.

Once I got back from my ride, I cleaned up Summer’s car and put my aftermarket console trays in for her. All I want now is for her to keep the car clean, but she just doesn’t live that way.

Miss you in the saddest fashion!

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OneYoke

I was early enough for work this morning that I decided to swing through McDonald’s for a McGriddle for the drive. It was relatively quiet compared to earlier in the week, though we still had visitors in the office behind us. I tinkered with imaging for a while and discovered that resetting the BIOS to factory defaults didn’t actually reset the storage settings. I ended up loading up another desktop with the OEM operating system, and exported drivers that I can tinker with next week.

Kim left after lunch to sell enough cattle to pay for the flooring in their new house, which meant the office was eerily quiet for the rest of the day. Apart from a conference call with the GoGuardian folks, there really wasn’t anything going on.

After work, I fed the fish and dug out my factory floormats in case they want me to return them with my car tomorrow. Then I headed home to get Summer so we could go to Superfast and replace my yoke with the original steering wheel. The new instructions I found didn’t cover all of the steps, but fortunately I found the old video I watched to install the yoke in the first place.

Eaddie was out with friends, so Summer and I went straight to my parents’ house for chow mein. It would have been a nice evening for a ride on the Onewheel, but it was dark by the time we got home. I took it for a figure-8 around the block, and then we waited for Eaddie to get home with her girlfriends for their sleepover.

You’re a good car.

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RAID, the Enemy

I got to try out the autopark feature on my car this morning, for the first time since I bought it, and it didn’t even include reverse summon, or even summon for that matter. After that, I spent nearly the entire day trying to image one of the new computers for a computer lab. I had new Rapid Storage Technology drivers and everything, but it still seemed to be a problem after the Operating system deployment was completed. I did get one machine done, and I sent Kim to replace it in the lab while I worked on two more. All the while, Denice had people in and out of her office all day, which had me playing the doorman.

I left work a bit late and went home to feed the fish. I didn’t get much else from there, and headed straight home to find Summer working in front of the TV. We eventually went to my parents’ house for meatloaf for dinner. When we got home, I went out on the Onewheel for a couple laps around the block before coming in for the evening. I stopped briefly to talk to the Sign Hub family as they walked the neighborhood as well. Eaddie got home late after watching some bands, and watched most of Tron: : Legacy before everyone was off to bed.

Chaos. Good news.

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Asshole Pickups

I had a terrible time crawling out of bed this morning. I must have been in an incredibly deep sleep, because it took me nearly an hour to wake up. It was bad enough that I wonder if snoozing for a few more minutes might have helped. I made it to work, but Kim wasn’t there the entire morning. She showed up for duty and then was around in the afternoon, but she didn’t really have anything to say about where she was, other than looking for one of the boys’ lost backpack all over town.

It took me a little while to get focused, but eventually I hammered out a couple of software deployments. I should be able to try imaging one of the new computer lab machines by tomorrow morning. At least it’s quieter in the side room when the air handler above our office starts shaking and buffeting the air pressure against our heads.

It only took a couple miles to find my first asshole on the way home from work. Some guy in a big, red pickup ran up behind me at the end of our two-lane stretch of road and passed about eight of us, including a full logging truck, on a double-yellow on a blind curve/hill with oncoming traffic. It I had better signal out in the county, I would have called 911 to report it, but I didn’t trust my call would be comprehensible.

I fed the fish and grabbed a handful of stuff before going to the wash to see Summer. They were busy, so I just washed my car and went home to wait for her. On the way home, I saw another truck cut off two people downtown. Then he took a turn in front of oncoming traffic as the second light turned green. I’d have given anything to be a stealth cop today.

Once Summer got home, we went to my parents’ house for some bánh tôm chiên khoai lang, which is just a more difficult way to say and spell, “fried shrimp cake with sweet potato.” Eaddie came over to eat as well, once she was done with some band concert event.

We weren’t home for ten minutes after eating before Summer had to go back to work to help clean the lube. She said someone called in, and I just couldn’t comprehend why someone in her position would feel like she had to go in to cover it.

Little DNS, little code, little vCard

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First Post!

The basement flooded again overnight, but I didn’t have time to get out to drain it. I forgot my coffee creamer again, so that was also a bust. I spent much of the morning reading about Act 754, and what it meant for my own record keeping. I pushed the request for the app back on the teacher that requested it, and surprisingly she got a response from the vendor right away. No other district had an agreement yet, so I got to be the first.

Later, we finally deployed the one computer I’ve managed to image, and closed four duplicated work orders in the process. We also tried to tone out a lost line, but didn’t have any luck with that. For some reason, whoever ran the lines in the agri building duplicated a couple lines in two different rooms, and we could trace it back to the switch closet, but couldn’t narrow it down to a particular port or cable.

I left a little late after going back out to the agri building to check on Jennifer and Blake, but he was gone and she had already given up since the vendor shipped her upgrade to the wrong state. It was either that, or they just gave her the wrong tracking number.

The drive home started out stupid with FOUR drivers hogging the passing lane, but I eventually got a chance to blow by them at the end of the strip. I made it home to feed the fish and grab a couple things, and then went to the new house. Eaddie was at a band fund raiser at Freddy’s, and Summer was finishing up some stuff for work. The two of us went to my parents’ house for some egg rolls after Dad offered.

The remainder of the night went by pretty quickly. Eaddie got home and went to her room to do homework, and I did my best to get to sleep earlier.

Finished!