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Droopy Roofy

We had our home inspection today, so I had to go home to clean up before the girls came to pick me up. We made it about halfway to the house before I realized I forgot the check to pay the inspector, so Summer turned around. Luckily the inspection seemed to be going quite a bit longer than we anticipated. I wasn’t sure if he just got started late or if it really was just taking him that long to be that thorough. Summer had to stop by Rose Drug anyway, and Nick was still in the attic by the time we got there.

Summer and I wandered around a bit, and Dad eventually showed up. When Nick came down, he let us into the house to continue looking around while he worked. When he finished, he went over some of the worst repair issues he found, and it really was pretty varied. The biggest concern was a drooping ceiling in the living room. Evidently the new roof over the addition was just built on top of the old roof, so the trusses weren’t built to support the shift in weight. He said some of them had just split apart, and needed to be lifted and put back together. He also measured the water pressure at 120 PSI, which was a little more than excessive. I didn’t realize that he didn’t inspect the out building at all until I got his written report later in the day, but that is one of the big repairs that has to happen for us to move in at all.

Dad headed home after that, and the girls and I went to Stoby’s for lunch. As we finished up, I saw Shane from Howard sitting at the table across from us, so I talked to him briefly before we left. Summer had to go to work, so she dropped Eaddie and me off at my house so we could go for a motorcycle ride. Eaddie wanted to see the new splash pad at the city park, so we rode there first and walked around.

It was incredibly hot and humid outside, so I didn’t much enjoy baking in the sun. We continued on to Splash to see Summer, and then rode around the city, up the mountain and down past the arena until we made it back to my house. We were both hot and sweaty, so we decided to get our suits and go to my parents’ house to swim.

Eaddie did a great job driving across town, and swimming was a good time. The pool was still in full sun when we got there, so I propped some floats on top of the ladder and we just hid under them for shade. We talked for a really long time about a whole lot of things, and it was really great. As the shade started to cover more of the pool, it got a little chilly and we decided to get back out and dry off.

We chatted with Dad for a bit inside after we got changed, and he reminded me that it was their anniversary. Mom didn’t want to do anything when she got home from work, so Eaddie and I headed back to the house where Summer was home early after having a pretty rough day. She wanted a pretzel crust from Little Caesar’s, so we picked that up on the way. It wasn’t until we got back to the house that we realized they gave us the wrong order though, so I had to go back. As soon as I pulled up, he ran out with the correct pizza and we got to keep the first one he gave us.

I reviewed the inspection paperwork and talked to Alisha a bit before going back home to pack for the funeral trip. I felt like I needed a slightly larger backpack for the trip, but didn’t want to increase my load to carry. I may just have to leave my Steam Deck behind, but I really don’t want to.

I eventually made it back up to the girls, and Eaddie greeted me at the door with excitement. Just a little bit earlier in the evening, some friends invited her to go with them to play their instruments at a nursing home, and she was super happy about it. We talked for quite a while longer while I tried to wrap up for bed. Tomorrow would be an even earlier day than usual, and I wasn’t excited.

Just don’t die.

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Switching Cart Wheels

I had a Soylent today for the first time in a while, and it served to keep me going. I spent the morning tinkering with the switch, and learned that link aggregation set at the core was preventing our downstream switch from talking. Once I had that fixed, I was able to get the fieldhouse working again, and spent some more time factory resetting the old fieldhouse switch. Once I had that done, I felt like I really showed some ability to some of those guys. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like they’ll be doing anything to keep me around, and I hate that because I really love the job.

Kim came in and needed some help with a printer at the elementary. Then I drove us to Plainview to dig out some nasty carts. We found just enough for what we needed, so hopefully they’re workable. A few had broken wheels or doors, but we won’t really know until next week. It’s seeming more and more like we just won’t start school prepared.

I ended up leaving a little bit early so I could meet the girls at UEC to see Barbie. I stopped at Taco John’s for a little bit to eat first, since I was pretty hungry. Then I made it to the movie just in time to find a seat at the back of the floor section. I got us some “free” popcorn, and we really enjoyed the movie. I wished they had made the movie a little bit less inappropriate, but it really was a steady stream of laughs. It wasn’t until the very end that things got a little drawn out and weird.

After the movie, we went to my parents’ house so the girls could see what plants needed watering. Mom invited a little coworker over for dinner, and Julie was already there making rolls to take back to Kevin. I had a few myself, and then we headed home.

Eaddie did a great job driving across town in the dark, first with Summer to get her car from my house, and then with me to get back home. It was a bit sticky and hot in the house, but we settled in quickly. Summer went to bed while Eaddie stayed up to chat with me for quite awhile. I showed her the intro to 2001: A Space Odyssey that Barbie parodied. Then we went outside to listen to the super loud mockingbird in the yard for a bit before coming back inside where I showed her the original King’s Quest game. For some reason I couldn’t find a version online that had the bird sound effect in the background, but I thought it would be funny to teach the mockingbird a new tune. That may be a project for later.

Cause actually, my job is just “beach.”

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The Smell of Sports in the Morning

I was a little early this morning, so I took it easy going in to work. I got hungry pretty early after having an upset stomach all day, so luckily I had a leftover breakfast croissant in the refrigerator. It wasn’t long before I got a couple visitors, and I felt relatively helpful. Then Todd came in to take me out to the fieldhouse so we could check out the switch. All the lights were on, but nobody was home. We ended up taking it back to my office so I could troubleshoot it.

I couldn’t find a USB to serial adapter in my office, but I eventually made my way down to the core closet and found one. By the time I made it back, I realized the switch hadn’t actually been provisioned in the system yet. It wasn’t even the MAC address I was expecting, but then Todd came back through at the end of the day and showed me the bricked one in the box. After the new switch was updated, we took it back down to the fieldhouse but still didn’t have any luck. We ultimately decided it could be a problem for Future Michael.

I got home a little bit early since we gave up, and went to my parents’ house for some phở. I didn’t stick around super long because I had to wash my car, and then I made it up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie tried mowing during the day, but didn’t get very far before a guy came by to refill the refrigerant on their air conditioner. Hopefully now they can avoid the $300 electricity bills.

Someone’s not good at being in charge.

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Dairyère

The inspector texted back last night, so I scheduled the inspection for Wednesday. Summer was stressing a little bit about moving, which didn’t help my own stress levels. It’s a lot of money and a lot of interest with very little buffer if things go wrong, and they always do. I don’t want to go into debt for an even longer amount of time, since it’ll already be years before her student loans are gone. All of those concerns were compounded by the fact that I may just go absolutely crazy trying to cohabitate with them. It’s completely different when I can’t leave to go home somewhere else.

Summer left for a while, and I intended to go home fairly early to try and mow, but Eaddie didn’t get out of bed until Summer got back home. I went home even later, making it back just in time for dinner. Summer made shrimp Alfredo and I went outside to grill the sweet corn I got from the school board meeting. The pasta ended up soupy, and the corn ended up just plain tasteless. Eaddie made some brownies afterward that were pretty good, but I didn’t care much for the peanut butter mix-in.

We wrapped up the evening with some Modern Family. Julie called a couple times to book tickets for Uncle Rich’s funeral, and I ended up getting sick from the Alfredo sauce and little scoop of ice cream. I was in pain for the rest of the evening.

Nothing this year has gone according to any kind of plan.

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Where’d Y’all Brang Us?

I was a little worried that he hadn’t emailed us back yet by this morning, so I sent a text to Nick, the home inspector that Lelan recommended. Summer made breakfast again, but I was a little frustrated that she burned my Petit Jean bacon in the oven, and then let the bacon sit in the grease-filled pan after she took it out of the oven. She said they were out of paper towels, so we couldn’t soak it up with anything and it just made my stomach hurt.

I poked around a little bit, and then went home for a few hours. I took a shower and had a really bad anxiety attack that lasted quite a while. I had to open the shower door to breathe some cooler air, and my ears started ringing really badly.

I eventually made it back to their house after they had gone out into town for a bit themselves. Eaddie was going to see Barbie with some friends, so she wouldn’t be joining us at Brangus for Julie’s birthday dinner. We dropped her off a little early or the movie, and then arrived at the restaurant just moments after my parents, Julie, and Kevin showed up.

Dinner was good, and we stood around to talk for a bit afterward. When Julie and Kevin left, the rest of us went by my house so Mom could check out Bác Vân’s garden, and so I could give Dad some old bug spray I had. I took a small handful of peaches, and then we went across town to get Eaddie. We had a little bit of time to kill, so we drove down Sherwood just to check the place out at night. Then we waited in the UEC parking lot for Eaddie.

We headed straight to the house, and the girls went to their rooms. I was way more tired than I expected, so even I took the opportunity to crash early.

Peaches peaches peaches peaches peaches.

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Bank On It

I got in touch with Missy this morning about our loan application, and spent most of the morning after breakfast trying to decide on which loan to take. All of the rates were pretty bad, so I ultimately picked a 15 year loan just to keep the interest to an absolute minimum. It will be a little bit tighter than usual, but I should also be able to count on a raise pretty soon, one way or another.

I sat down to watch one episode of The Good Place with the girls, but otherwise I was feeling a little stressed being the only one paying attention to the loan information. As lunch time came around, Summer made some more spaghetti to finish up the sauce from the other day. Since we didn’t get out of the house, Eaddie decided she wanted to bake something. We dug out the Stranger Things pizza cookies we bought a while back and made those. We really didn’t get up to much of anything else.

Michael called me to ask about crypto trading bots, and as usual I had to tell him I just wasn’t paying any attention to that kind of stuff. We talked for a while, and eventually Summer decided she was ready to go to bed. Eaddie came in and we watched some Modern Family, and then everyone was in bed by midnight.

Such disinterest in comparing interest for interests.

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All A Board!

I went in to work late today since I planned to be there late for the school board meeting. Without any real options to eat, I decided to run the fast food gauntlet on the way. I backtracked to McDonald’s for a frappé, then Wendy’s for a chicken croissant. Then I stopped by Burger King in Russellville for a couple more croissants and another black coffee, but didn’t realize until after my app order was placed that it was in Dardanelle. I raced out of town and picked it up, and then made it to work a little later than I expected, but still with plenty of time to fit a 10-hour day.

Kim came in to spend the day with me, and we picked at a few more things than yesterday. I did a couple work orders, but I don’t think she actually built any carts. I get the feeling she’s waiting on me to start, but then I don’t know who’s going to do the actual hard stuff that literally no one else on campus knows how to do.

Todd came into the office late after most everyone had gone home, and we chatted for a little bit. Kim said he was fussing that I hadn’t fixed the internet at the fieldhouse yet, but I had told him multiple times to just drive me down there to look at it. He said Samuel told him that I was on a short list for the job at the plant, so that change may be happening soon if the school doesn’t fix me quickly enough.

Alisha texted me late in the afternoon and said that our offer on the house came back signed, so the pressure worked. We got it for $270,000. After the fact, I wished I had changed it to $269,666 since it would have spelled COWMOO in phonewords. I was so close.

I had printed off the Technology Handbook I put together in case the school board members wanted to see it, but when I got to the auditorium, Harry approached me and asked if I expected to speak. It seems like every time he and I talk, he’s always physically taller than me. The juxtaposition makes me laugh every time. I told him I was prepared to speak if they recognized me, but he said matter-of-factly that they wouldn’t. I did get a really great chance to talk with Blake though, who along with Jill, were the only other two people there in the theater. After the meeting, I did get to shake a couple hands and talk with a couple of the board members, so I consider it an overall success as long as I can get Harry moving on my pay concern sooner than later.

Someone brought in a big bag of sweet corn and leaned it up against the stage for everyone to help themselves, and that aside from getting to know Blake a little better, that was probably the highlight of the evening. I took a small bag of them home with me for later.

Once I got into town, I changed and headed straight up to the girls. I had already told Eaddie, but Summer didn’t answer the phone when I tried to tell her. Eaddie wanted to see her face, so once they were both in the living room I told Summer that our offer was accepted. They were excited, and I secured my position as the master negotiator.

I finished up the last hamburger, the girls went to their rooms, and I contacted an inspector and Arvest, so hopefully tomorrow we can get something going with the house. I’m almost a genuine adult now.

Adversity is a wonderful propellant.

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Handbook Policy

Alisha sent us the offer paperwork to decline this morning, but that was just the start of a wild ride. I headed to work and got behind a bunch of slow people, so coming out of Centerville I laid on the accelerator so I could pass someone way ahead of me when the road split into two lanes. Little did I know that tiny speck of a vehicle was a State Trooper. I was going the speed limit when I got to him, but he had me. He pulled over until I passed and then lit me up. It was a short stop with only a warning, and apparently his “granny” works in the cafeteria. No idea if that helped my case, but it was funny that everyone at work knew exactly who it was that pulled me over. Small town.

After I got to work, Alisha sent me a message asking if we still wanted the Sherwood house for $275,000. Apparently after receiving the counter rejection, the seller’s agent thought they might be able to make it work if they could have until Friday, and wanted the offer in writing. I had Alisha send back our original offer with the addition of a delayed occupancy, and we’ll see what happens.

Kim came in late again and picked at a few things. I don’t know how many hours she’s supposed to work, but I guess I can’t complain for what she’s paid. I worked on a Chromebook handbook for most of the day. We went down to the elementary for a bit, but then I ended the day by myself to finish up my handbook. I was pretty proud of how nice it looked, but hopefully we can implement it for this school year.

I was a little sheepish to drive home too quickly, but I made it. I stopped at Casey’s to use some rewards, went home to change, and then went to the other Casey’s for another reward before going to my parents’ house. I ate some spring rolls and chatted with them for a little bit.

I eventually made it up to the girls’ house and tried to wind down relatively quickly, but got caught up going full Matrix mode on a bunch of houseflies that had gotten in somehow. I’ve gotten pretty good with my Bug-A-Salt gun. Then Eaddie came out to chat with me for a little while about her day with Autumn yesterday, lunch with her father the day before, and the negotiation for the house. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day with the board meeting in the evening.

Hi. I’m the guy you hired.

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Bargaining Hard, or Hardly Bargaining?

I forgot my beansprouts at home, which is a weird thing to mutter out loud to yourself in the car on the way to work. I got there on time, but forgot I would be leaving for Plainview after just a short while. I needed to get serial numbers from some touch panels, and wasn’t sure whether the lady out there would be able to get them for me herself. On the way back I stopped by the Superette, which is apparently just a word, to see what all the fuss was about. The fuss was not about bargains. Sodas were nearly three dollars. A bottle of apple juice was five. I got a deep fried burrito and a ham, egg, and cheese biscuit. The one from Ola was better.

I definitely did not feel as productive today. Between feeling pretty tired and having another meeting scheduled at one, I just didn’t feel like I could get super deep into any learning. I attended a Zoom call for OperationsHero again and got a little bit of clarification on some questions I had, and hopefully my suggestions were heard.

The afternoon drug on forever until I finally left for home. I went straight to Superfast where I barely caught Summer as she was leaving, just to tell her that I was going to get tacos and go to my house to do some laundry.

Alisha came back with news on our offer. We had gone from the $300,000 asking price down to $270, and they countered with $285 with no repairs, and they wanted a week after closing to move. Being me, I bumped our offer to $275 and gave them a whole month to move. They came back with a $280 minimum with a 14 day delay to avoid moving right at the start of school. Comparing the Sherwood house to Ouita, the parking sucked. I would have nowhere for my motorcycles until the storage building’s floor was completely replaced, and even then I would have to build a ramp to drive up into the thing. Ouita, on the other hand, was larger with more land and twice the parking after tearing down some drywall. Sherwood was a way cuter house, but dollar for dollar I think Ouita was just a better deal in spite of its flaws.

I finished laundry and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie had gone out with Autumn for a while, but was back in her room by the time I got there. She never came out, and Summer was in bed, so nobody said a word about it. I told Alisha to let our original offer of $270 stand while we continue to look around, and called it a night.

Now we play the waiting game…

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Traction

I felt pretty accomplished at work today. I started off with another error when trying to disable a whole OU of Chromebooks, which led me to learning about time servers, and best practices for domain controllers. It’s mornings like today that really make me want to stick around in education, because it really is like being the king of the sandbox.

Summer had some leftover stir fried noodles in the refrigerator when I left the house, so I took them for lunch over the next couple of days. Between that and crunching on ice all afternoon, I felt pretty good. Blake came into my office and then called Josh in to talk about Chromebook carts for the middle school. I’m pretty sure we’ll have enough carts at the Plainview campus, so we shouldn’t have to spend any more money on that. The hard part will be unburying them and cleaning them up for use after they’ve rotted for years at the abandoned school.

I left work a little late, but made it home quickly to start some laundry and try and make it to my parents’ house for some phở before I had to meet Alisha at the Sherwood house. Summer had just gotten home and wasn’t in the mood to eat, and Eaddie had New China with her father for lunch. Julie was running late after getting caught up at the airport, so the target just kept moving. In the end, I got laundry about halfway done before leaving. I got to my parents house just in time to see everyone sitting down to eat, and then left to meet at the house.

The girls were late, and then Alisha was even later, but we had enough time to look the place over again briefly. All the lights were out, so it kind of gave me a feel for how I’d normally live in it. The real trick was to get my car into the garage without scraping the ground. The dip in the driveway to keep rain from coming into the garage was pretty severe, so I really just barely made it. I didn’t try to back in since there was too much stuff against the walls anyway, but that might help. I was pretty sure that if I had eaten before we got there, the car would have sat low enough to scrape.

The girls took the Model Y to my house to charge, and I went to my parents’ house to eat. Then I had to get back home to finish my laundry so I could get up to Summer’s house to sleep. The evening flew by pretty quickly, but I felt like I got stuff done.

Just a little kiss on the chin.