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And the Fog Rolls In

I woke up exhausted this morning and sleepily made it home, through the shower, and then in to work. The air was thick with fog the entire way to work, so traffic was slow. I struggled to really get into anything all day with nobody there. I did at least complete the purchases I needed to make before the end of the month, and I made a handful of key fobs for some contractors. If I’m around long enough, I’ll have to go through and do a badge audit to wipe out what I’m sure are dozens of open badges that shouldn’t have access any longer.

I snacked on some carrots the lunch ladies left me, and whatever else I had in my desk. It was really quiet in the afternoon, and I ended up leaving just a few minutes early because I was tired and my parents were getting back into town after picking up Bác Tran and Bác Loan from the airport and taking them through the cemetery in Pine Bluff. I stopped for a car wash on the way home, and then headed up to get the girls.

Summer was home a little early, so she and Eaddie changed and we headed to my parents’ house for dinner. They ended up needing some lettuce for salad, and then realized their French bread was moldy when we got back, so Summer and I went back out. Dinner took a while, but we eventually all sat down for spaghetti and chatted about how I look like Leonardo DiCaprio.

Summer had to work the next day, so I took the girls home and everyone got settled in. I was exhausted but still didn’t get to bed right away. Hopefully I can sleep in a little tomorrow.

Order of Operations

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Roll Party

I got up and made bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits for breakfast this morning. Julie said everyone was supposed to meet at my parents’ house around noon, so the girls and I went to my house to get towels and my suit, and we headed over to go swimming and socialize.

We were the first ones there. Dad and I took the grill apart to fix the saggy charcoal tray. Then the girls swam while I got it started and grilled the pork chops and shrimp. Julie and Kevin eventually showed up and joined us in the pool. Lelan, Stephen, Randall, and Danielle eventually showed up, but weren’t hungry. The girls and I made noodle bowls and ate outside with Julie and Kevin. I could tell I was going to be a bit burned, so Eaddie gave me her towel to cover my back from the sun while we ate.

We swam a bit more after we ate, but then the storm clouds started to roll in and we packed everything back up and went inside. Mom was being particular about her egg rolls, which wasn’t really conducive to receiving any help from anyone else. Doug brought over the wonton wrappers, but then mostly stood by himself until he eventually disappeared without saying a word to anyone.

Julie played a couple rounds of Heads Up! with us on the couch, Eaddie fell asleep in the chair, and everyone more or less sat around bored until Randall and Danielle headed back home. I ended up taking the girls home and then running to my house to put some digital photos onto a flash drive for Lelan to take to the funeral home. I also had to go next door to get the physical photos from Doug.

As I started to leave to head back, it started to storm pretty hard and I saw some near-dime-sized hale hit the ground outside my garage. The rain was coming in sideways, so I had to close the door and wait it out before I could drive back to my parents’ house.

When I got there, Lelan and Steve were just getting ready to leave. I took the photos out for them, and then went back inside to make a double noodle bowl for Eaddie to eat while Summer and I are away at work. I eventually made it back to Summer’s for the evening, and Eaddie gave me a big hug. Summer was already in bed, and I tried not to delay too long myself.

“special”

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Arrangements

I only slept in a little bit today, relative to when I went to sleep. When I got up, Dad said everyone was meeting at Humphrey Funeral Service, so I got around and went straight over there to meet them. When I arrived, I didn’t recognize any cars, so I waited in mine until my parents snuck around the side and told me to come in. Lelan, Steven, Randall, Danielle, Doug, Uncle Giao, and my parents were all there. Julie and Kevin showed up a little while later after getting back on the ground. The conversations didn’t really seem to necessitate most of us there, but I guess it was good practice.

We had a few small laughs, and Lelan and her closest picked out a casket. Julie made some coffee for a few of us, and they provided information for the obituary. It was basically just business. When we left, Steve took us all to Ridgewood Brothers for lunch. Grant and Robert were both there, and then Kyler brought us a tray of chicken they had smoked for a catering job. We ate and socialized for a bit, and then split up into a couple groups to visit a flower shop and take care of a few other things. I went home to get a shower, and then we all eventually ended up at Bác Vân’s house where we spent the rest of the day.

The family dug through photo albums for pictures to show at the service while the rest of us just kind of socialized a bit. Julie and Kevin ended up leaving to pick up some food from the oriental food store in Little Rock. Later on, I let Randall drive the Model 3, which got his blood pumping. As the evening progressed, a few others stopped in, including Tom and Steven, and Chris and his wife. Julie brought a duck home, which we had for dinner. It was a pretty long and mostly dull day for me, but it was really nice to catch up with Randall.

Eventually everyone headed home and left Doug to unwind in the house by himself. I felt less angry and more empathy for him rattling around in an empty house full of mostly somebody else’s things. I headed straight up to Summer’s, but both girls were long asleep. I was exhausted, but didn’t get to sleep right away. I just felt restless.

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

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I Wish the Real World Would Just Stop Hassling Me

I woke up early this morning and headed home to get ready for my interview. I casually made it to Morrilton a bit early and went in to talk with Gary for a little bit. He had planned to take a work truck to show me around the plant, but someone else had taken it. We ended up taking a little side-by-side, but fortunately it wasn’t too hot outside. It was really cool getting to see the industrial process, and I even got to see a full truck being dumped at the start of the process.

We made our way through the whole process, from sorting wood chips to water treatment and recycling. Then we headed back to the office so I could meet Ben and Terry. They brought lunch in from somewhere, and Gary let the three of us eat together and get to know each other a bit. It was a really good time, and we had a lot of laughs. Ben actually reminded me a bit of Ryan with his quirkiness and general curiosity about all things. He was much more talkative though. Terry seemed fun and a little quirky as well. I think we all enjoyed sharing stories.

Since the plant manager wasn’t there to meet with me, I left a little early and made it back to town so I could charge before we headed to Rogers. I stopped to wash my car first, and then I passed Dad as I was heading home. I got changed, and he called to say that Doug had called him over because Bác Vân was breathing, but unresponsive.

I made it to Summer’s house unsure of what we were going to do next. I finally got word that she had a brain bleed, and they expected comfort care and hospice. I had become angry from the moment Dad told me he was called instead of 911, and it only got worse from there. Knowing there was nothing I could do, and being afraid of lashing out, Summer and I headed out of town.

Julie texted while we were driving to say that we had one opportunity to go see her while she was “technically alive,” which is the worst form of alive. I chose instead to keep my last memory of her, which was only a brief hug after I had just discovered the tree branch embedded in the roof of my house. Summer said she spoke to her yesterday and gave her a hug when she stopped by to charge her car, so I felt better about that. I just kept getting angrier and angrier.

We made it to Fayetteville and stopped at Longhorn Steakhouse to eat before the concert. I texted Eaddie to update her on the bad news, and just seconds later I got the text from Dad that Bác Vân had passed.

Dinner was pretty good, but our server was slow and seemed not to be very good at his job. The food tasted like they were overcompensating with butter to flavor absolutely everything, which made every bite pretty greasy. We left there and found our way to the second floor of the parking garage where there was another EV charger. It was cheaper than a Supercharger, so we plugged up and headed to the Walmart Amphitheater.

Matt Nathanson opened, and was a bit more unnecessarily vulgar than I expected, especially for the type of music he played. For having the hit that he did, I kind of expected a little more, but I guess that defines a one-hit-wonder. It took a while for the reset, but then Matchbox Twenty came on and put on an incredible show. They had a weird quarter-sphere on stage with a projector that I assume was inside of it and behind it. Of course everyone stood up as soon as they came out, so the second half of the show was spent leaning against the rail.

My mind and feelings were everywhere, but also a bit numbed out after the constant barrage of bullshit I’ve experienced lately. Even Summer said she finally understood wanting to just sail away from it all. Everyone knows that nothing bad ever happens at sea.

When we left, traffic had us stuck in our parking space in the parking garage for a ridiculously long time. Once we did finally start moving, we were gone in no time, but I guess someone had traffic blocked or directed in a stupid direction. It didn’t used to be this bad. We had to stop in Lowell to charge and use the restroom. I picked up what I assumed was an apple fritter and a drink, and we headed home. Summer tried to sleep, but Autopilot was being really stupid and jerking out of lane changes, and throwing a warning and braking once.

Between Alma and Clarksville, we encountered someone from Washington that was hogging the passing lane and kept varying their speed from 65 to 85. At one point I was passing them in the right lane again when someone else ran up on their bumper. I had enough and sped up to pass them, honking for them to move. They took that to mean that they should run up on my bumper and then try to pass me, but that wasn’t going to happen unless I chose to let them. They ran up on someone else, and I finally hit the brakes to let them fly by me and hopefully go away. Then they pulled up next to a semi and slowed down to about 60 to impede traffic. I ended up calling the state police to try and get them pulled over.

We eventually made it home without incident. I took out my contacts, and then we took the Murano to Summer’s for the evening. We were home super late, so Eaddie was long in bed. Summer went to sleep, and I eventually wrapped up.

You absolutely useless muppet.

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Aw, Eli’kes it

I had a pretty quick drive in to work this morning, and stopped at Silver’s Food Court for an instant pumpkin spice latte on the way. I thought I had a meeting at 11, which turned out to be later in the afternoon, so I just spent most of the day tinkering with our new work order system. At first glance, I like it a whole lot more than Incident IQ, and it seems to have most of the features we used from that system. Some of it wasn’t super intuitive, but I think that was because it was designed more for the maintenance crew.

Lunch was pretty middling burgers, so I spent most of the day kind of hungry. The lunch ladies have been using up anything they had left before the last day of summer school, so pickings were pretty slim. I did get a bag of baby carrots to snack on next week after they’re gone, but I guess otherwise I’ll be on Soylents for a while.

My afternoon meeting turned out to be more or less a one-on-three, with two of those only really listening in the background. The guy leading the meeting just chatted with me about my questions, and I really got my answers within a couple of minutes. I don’t know if I was just late to the party, or if all of the meetings have been relatively small. I definitely got the feeling that there weren’t many other tech directors participating.

I left work a little bit later than I expected, since I got Howard to beat their competition. I sent another requisition form, and was on my way home behind several speeders that made the trip short. Evidently Eaddie had her jazz flute performance while I was driving home, but she never told either of us that she was actually performing for an audience. By that time, I assumed it was more of an activity than anything else.

As soon as I got home, I changed clothes and headed to Popeye’s to get dinner for the girls. I had to wait over 15 minutes for my food, which seems to always happen there. I was worried we would be late because Eaddie wanted to get back to Witherspoon by seven, but we chowed down and made it. We still ended up watching all three bands. My parents showed up for the last one for Eaddie, and joined us in the center of the front row.

Summer had told me earlier in the week that Eaddie didn’t have a solo, so I didn’t really think anything of it. For some reason I just believed that maybe Eaddie wanted us to be able to hear her better this time because she wanted a particular song recorded. Everyone got super excited when a group of the flautists came forward, with Eaddie to the right by herself, and a couple more to the left of the conductor. I had been recording the entire performance, so I mostly got Eaddie’s backside on camera, but it was my favorite song of the night in spite of her. We were all beaming with pride for her though, and even Mom got out her phone to record her performance. It was also really cool to see all of the bands get to play music by Katahj Copley, who was there to introduce the pieces he composed.

After the concert, we bought a DVD and then worked our way back around to let Eaddie know we would wait for her in the car. Her friend stopped me to say he was reading the blog every night, which was more love than I’ve gotten from either Summer or Eaddie in a long time. They should take notes.

We waited in the car for a while, but then Eaddie finally came out and we headed home for the night. Summer went to bed, and Eaddie sat with me to look through band camp photos for a while before she went to bed. I stayed up later than I wanted on account of having to get up for an interview in the morning, so hopefully I wake up fresh and sharp.

I’m not trying to leave, but free lunch is free lunch, and twenty grand is twenty grand.

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Rugs, Not Drugs

I woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm and headed home this morning. I was still exhausted, but I just wake up early like that now, without enough time to go back to sleep. I took a bit of a long shower though, and made it to work at what I would consider “just on time.” I tried cleaning up some old emails and tasks, which at one point included going down to the Elementary to collect copier serial numbers.

I had taco soup for lunch from the cafeteria, and spent some time in the afternoon placing stickers, and even went out to Plainview by myself. It was really the first time I went out into the buildings alone, and it was an even mix of people recognizing who I was, and others that had no clue.

Dad met the restoration guys at my house again, and they cut some drywall out and found a termite nest, along with a bunch of wet insulation in the wall under the window. I never recognized any leakage, but I guess that’s what they were going with. I’d almost suspect the outside water faucet. I overheard one of the guys on the security camera while he was talking to someone on the phone, and he kept repeating that I had a Tesla, and said he was pretty sure I was a drug dealer.

When I made it home, I changed and went to my parents’ house to discuss plans for the house. Mom made a great point that insurance may pay to re-carpet the entire area since it was all one solid style that wouldn’t match otherwise. That made enough sense to me that I felt a little better about it.

I headed back home, looping around to try and see any tree damage on Brody’s new, old house. There wasn’t anything broken that I could see from the road. I made it home to swap vehicles, and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. There, I scrubbed through camera footage to find clips of the restoration guys taking pictures of my motorcycles, the Tesla Wall Connector, and even telling another guy to come take a look at the hoarder house, but to carry a fan in so it wouldn’t look suspicious. I did not at all feel good about them being in my home, but it’s blue collar work. All I could do was hope they were only looky-loos.

Seriously, they start at less than $35,000 if you get the tax credit.

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Carpets to Match

I tried going to Taco Bell for a free Breakfast Crunchwrap this morning, but learned as I pulled in that they don’t actually open until eight. Resigned being late, I stopped at McDonald’s for a coffee on the way, and was pleased with how much I liked the caramel. I wasn’t actually that late, and nobody would have noticed anyway. I spent most of the day in my office alone again. The first couple hours were burned talking to Google Admin support. Todd came through for the first time in forever and chatted for a bit, and I had a couple students return four Chromebooks, but otherwise there wasn’t a whole lot going on. I did at least get lunch today.

Near the end of the day, I tracked down a bunch of copy machines, and even went out to the agri building where the outside doors appeared to have been left unlocked by mistake. As I finished up and printed some asset tags, I saw Dad had gone to the house and met with some guys from a restoration service. I thought they’d just be there to look things over, but then I got a picture of a half-empty room with the carpet ripped out.

I headed home at the end of the day, long after everyone else had gone, both from the school and from my home. I had to clean everything out of the other corner of the room, which was the harder part. Summer got back into town and mentioned going home to cry about her day at work, which was frustrating because I had mentioned having to move things at home in order to fix the gaping holes in my roof, ceiling, and bedroom wall.

She turned around and came over, where we shuffled things around the best we could. We took a break for dinner and got Taco John’s to eat at her house where I still had some hot sauce from Taco Villa. Then it was back to my house to finish pulling everything out of the room and two closets. We left things that weren’t touching the floor, so hopefully they have enough room to work. I was really surprised to see that they had ripped carpet out of the hallway. They should have been able to complete the job in just the one room.

Exhausted, frustrated, and still mildly infuriated, we loaded up the twin mattress and box spring to take to the dumpster at Superfast. I drove with the Murano’s hatch open, and we appeared to make it without any damage. Nearly everything has been moved out of one room of the house, and a path has been made to that side of the house. It’s a good of a time as any to get some remodeling done, if I can find anyone to do the work.

I’m really sorry work was hard today, but I have a hole in my roof, and strangers are ripping out my carpet.

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Vacation Vacation

I struggled to get moving this morning, and ended up skipping the shower since I had taken one late in the evening after sucking as much water as I could out of the carpet. I picked up a couple biscuits at Burger King, which seems to be a really hopping place in Dardanelle, and after getting to work and eating one, I could tell why. It was the fluffiest, flakiest, most buttery biscuit I’d ever had from a fast food joint since Hardee’s. It was even still hot after the 30 minute drive to the school. The black coffee was good too. It didn’t even need any add-ins.

I spent the entire day to myself, and was only interrupted briefly a couple of times. I felt completely lost for most of the day, and frustrated by my lack of support from either someone in the department or in an administrative role. I’d probably feel a lot better if I at least participated in one staff meeting.

I missed lunch by a few minutes, so I just continued snacking on whatever I had brought. I thought I was leaving a little bit early at the end of the day, but I was still the last one out after starting a little early. I drove home and checked in on my spare room that smelled musty and was still pretty damp. The water had gotten under the wall and into the bathroom, but I didn’t really notice yesterday. I vacuumed up what I could, so at least there’s not a bunch of gross stuff sitting on the carpet. We’re not sure if insurance will cover anything at all, because I remembered my parents saying something about only having coverage for a fire. After all the electrical issues I’ve had, that really seemed the most likely, but in the end it was another element that got the best of us.

When my parents got home from shopping, Mom called to offer soup for dinner. I stopped by Julie’s to drop off the Air and Space Museum keychain I got her, and then continued to my parents’ house. We all ate together, and then I went out back with them for a little bit while they watered plants. They said eggs were on sale at Kroger, so I stopped to get a couple 18-packs on the way home.

I only passed through to trade cars, getting mine back onto the charger, and taking Summer’s back to her house for the night. She was already in bed in a quiet house. I watered my own plants, screamed at my phone for having an unpredictable battery life, and briefly checked in on Gary. This week is another busy one.

It smells worse today.

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Told Me So

The steady tone of the storm sirens confused me this morning. I didn’t even identify it as an alarm, and tried to go back to sleep. It wasn’t until I felt Summer moving around that I realized it was a weather alert. She said a tornado was confirmed in Knoxville, but all we heard was thunder and heavy rain. Eaddie woke up and crawled into bed with us, and I held onto her for an hour or so while she chatted nervously about the weather. Once it all calmed down, she went back to her room and we were all able to get back to sleep.

When I finally woke up for the morning, I started making some biscuits and bacon for breakfast. Summer came in and made eggs and corned beef hash, and the three of us sat down to eat together before we had to take Eaddie to band camp. She had been super excited about it for a while, so I wanted to go with Summer to drop her off.

There was debris everywhere, and we could see several branches down all the way to Tech. Trash can lids littered the campus, and lots of things were just knocked over. Eaddie hit the ground running as she encountered a bunch of friends that were excited to see her. Summer took me back to the house, and I left for home.

As soon as I got to my house, I peered around back to see if there was any damage. Then I saw some limbs down in the front yard. That was when I spotted a huge branch sticking straight up out of my roof like a lawn dart. I went inside to investigate, and it had gone down through the roof and into the wall of the front bedroom. It looked like it very easily could have gone into the bathroom, but it didn’t. Water was steadily dripping down onto Eaddie’s bed, and of course the paperwork I had scattered everywhere waiting to be put away was completely soaked.

I texted Dad for some help with a chainsaw, and had Summer come over as soon as she could. I started moving things out of the bedroom, and then Dad and Summer went up onto the roof to cut the branch up and remove it from the roof. As soon as it was removed, the water stopped actively dripping into the house. Luckily it didn’t rain again during the day, but we didn’t get to watch The Flash in IMAX like I had planned. I spent the entire day with my carpet cleaner, and sucked about five gallons of water out of the carpet instead.

The highlight of the day was hearing that Eaddie had made first band, first chair at camp. As my water extraction project slowed down, I took a shower and headed toward Summer’s for the evening. I picked up some Zaxby’s for dinner, where I ran into Allen and Charlotte. We chatted for a bit, and then I continued up to Summer to share our dinner. She was already in bed, and returned to it as soon as she finished eating. I ached absolutely everywhere, and tried my best to get to bed early.

Stupid me-tree.

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ReCharge

I didn’t have much luck sleeping in today. Summer went to work and I laid around for a little longer, but couldn’t really sleep. I got up and made myself a leftover burger for brunch, and then woke Eaddie up when I finally decided to go home and unpack my things. She had a private lesson in the afternoon, so I didn’t spend much time there. I got showered and then headed back to get her.

I just waited in the car while Eaddie had her lesson, and then I took her back home where I tinkered with the emulators on my Steam Deck some more. I got E.V.O.:Search for Eden working and played it for a while. Mom made bún bò Huế for dinner, so Eaddie and I went over there to eat.

The soup wasn’t quite ready when we got there, so Eaddie sat down and thumbed through a bunch of old sheet music they had. Dad had gone out of town for a wedding, but made it back home for dinner. While Mom was getting everyone’s food ready, Dad accidentally dropped a fresh jar of watermelon pickles they had made, and it shattered all over the kitchen floor. They got a little cut up from the glass, but it wasn’t too bad. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a small, but luckily smooth piece of glass between my toes. They got that cleaned up and we ate.

Summer got home from work and didn’t have her house keys, so Eaddie and I left as soon as we finished eating. We stopped by PDQ to see if Noah was working, and retrieved her key from him. Then we continued to their house for the evening. Eaddie had spent most of the day getting ready for band camp. Summer ate and then pretty quickly went to bed. I played my game a while longer, but tried not to stay up too late.

Rumors circulate among the cucumbers.