Tag: anger management

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I Don’t See How That’s Helpful

I had to dig out some new contacts this morning, and I ended up using a trial pair I got last year. They went in fine, but I had trouble with them all day, so I don’t know how long I’ll keep wearing them. Fortunately it was slow enough at work that I wasn’t really impeded in any way. I stuck around in my office while Brody called me a bunch. Then the Big Three and Greg had a meeting with Chris about some potential equipment going in to record and transmit video from the busses.

When lunch time came around, six of us went to Linh’s for a surprisingly quick and delicious meal. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon trying to make sense of the new salary schedule drafts that were floating around, because Janie sent out the optimistic one while I had been looking at one that actually hurt our long-term employees.

After work, I went straight home and tried to pick at things a little bit, but didn’t really get anything accomplished. Today was a real struggle with the time change, and early winter is always hard on me anyway. I eventually made a couple hot dogs in some leftover homemade tortillas from La Huerta, with some mustard from Ridgewood Brothers. After a while I made some popcorn to snack on, and finally it was off to bed.

It seems to me that maybe someone should have been watching spending a bit better for all these years.

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Alumna Foil

I rolled into work a little late again today. I guess it’s that time of year that I need to set my alarm about five minutes earlier. We had a brief meeting to go over some things for the newbies, and then Thomas showed us his requirements for the three new tech levels, assuming they will be written into policy this year.

The morning went by relatively quickly as I struggled to make things work the way I wanted. When lunch time came around, multiple people reached out to me about lunch, but then it seemed like we were splitting into two groups because the Service Plus guys were going to have a little reunion. For whatever reason, everyone kept waiting for the holy trinity to leave, which ended up making Gary yell at us for standing around. It’s been nothing but mixed signals, and I’m over it.

We ended up driving in four groups to Brangus, but Greg and Josh didn’t make it in time to eat with their old coworkers. We didn’t even sit in the same room because I was the one that requested the table and nobody would tell me how many people we actually had coming. We ended up removing a table, and then bringing it back when Josh and his wife and baby showed up. By the time it was all said and done, there were nine of us there to eat.

Lunch ran long because we left about half an hour late. When we got back, Zach kind of got on to me about not skipping out on the group lunch to go help Jacob hang a touch panel at the junior high. It wouldn’t have mattered, except that Central Office called to tell us to go home at three. I ended up just loading up a truck and bringing it to Jacob by myself in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a huge rush to begin with.

I made it back to the shop just before three, and tried to finish up some weekly paperwork before going home. That’s about the time the lights went out and Thomas, for the first time that I’ve ever seen since he started in July, came through the shop and shut everything down. Normally office lights, shop lights, TVs, and everything are all left on as everyone goes home and I’m the one that goes through the effort to save a buck.

With him hollering at me to leave since there was nobody left to turn paperwork into, I went home and waited for the girls to show up. I picked up a few things to make some room, and then Summer and Eaddie eventually showed up after the homecoming parade. Summer wasn’t there long though, and got called in to work to look at something. Eaddie was hungry and wanted me to take her out for some pasta, but I made her wait for Summer to get back.

When Summer finally got back, we tried going to Venezia’s and had to bypass a stopped train. Failing that, we went across town to Pasta Grill. They had a mob of people waiting outside, so we took the overpass back to Venezia’s to see if they were any better. The parking lot was full and Summer decided she needed to get to the football game, so Eaddie hopped in my car. We thought we’d try waiting for Summer to be done at Autumn’s game, but got stuck at the train again going back to my house for about 35 minutes.

Summer made it to the game to watch Autumn present the flag for JROTC, and after committing to wait for the train to leave, Eaddie and I made it back to the house. When Summer got back, we tried going to Pasta Grill again. I found a parking space that was labeled as a tow zone for non banking customers, but the bank was closed and I thought I’d take a chance. As we walked across the street though, we saw there was still a mob of people waiting to get in. I didn’t want to deal with any of that homecoming nonsense, and the girls were too hungry to wait any longer anyway, so we left.

At the end of the day, CiCi’s had it. It was my speed of people, with no dresses or six-inch spike heels, or really anybody I didn’t want to see. The food was good, and we even got a whole custom spinach alfredo with mushrooms pizza delivered to the table after nobody else in the restaurant would claim it. The biggest problem we had was carrying out everything we had eaten.

They closed up a couple hours earlier than their posted hours, which I thought was super weird for a Friday night. We headed back home and split right up. Eaddie went to her room to watch a movie. Summer went to bed. I stayed up, but for no real reason since Eaddie didn’t want to watch TV with me until her movie was over. Autumn eventually made it home from the game, and everyone went to sleep.

From everything to nothing.

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Pessimist in Denial

I mistakenly told Summer not to let me sleep in too late today, so she got me out of bed way earlier than I was ready. I ached from the lack of sleep all day long. I had some leftovers for breakfast and eventually made it home to clean up. The grill cover I had to buy from a scalper off of eBay showed up, so I got the new grill moved outside. Eventually I got a shower and Summer showed up so we could go help Dad cover the pool.

When we got there, he said Uncle Rick tested positive for COVID, so he was trying to be careful while we were there. We covered the pool and then took off for Lowe’s.

We only needed to pick up the air filters I ordered for her, but Summer and I walked around the store for a while first. They had some nice bathroom vanity displays up, so we spent a while back there before making it through some more of the store. Then we picked up the filters on the way out.

We were both a little hungry by then, and she wanted seafood, so I took her down the road to Sam’s. We ordered the big fish, shrimp, and crab cakes platter I usually get, along with a smaller one with some chicken and shrimp to share. I wish I had just gotten the gumbo instead, because it made me feel like crap the rest of the night.

As we left, Summer expressed how she often visualizes worst-case scenarios in her mind. It finally dawned on me that she has really just been a pessimist all along and didn’t realize it. Every example I could come up with lead to her thinking of the most negative outcome. With that insight, I figure I’m an optimist in denial.

I wanted to clean up the house when we got back, but I barely picked at anything. It got hot outside with the sun shining directly into the garage, and I was already feeling sleepy. Summer went home and I tried to pick at a couple more things before following after her.

Autumn came home as we were watching Modern Family, and it was quickly off to bed for her. We didn’t stay up very late either. Hopefully I can make some use of tomorrow.

Spit Fire

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Gossip Girl

I woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm this morning, to the sound of my security cameras going off from the lightning outside. I never heard it storm overnight, but it was mostly clear the rest of the day. I squeaked into work and spent about an hour answering questions before getting into much else.

I ended up going to Oakland before lunch, and then took lunch to go home and finish up some leftover grilled hotdogs from a couple weeks ago. It was actually kind of nice to have a quiet lunch to myself.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet as well, until my phone started going off with all the gossip chatter of our Facebook group chat. I never cared for the gossip, and said as much. I didn’t expect that to be particularly well received, but I wasn’t planning to hold it back either. That got Travis on the defensive the rest of the evening, but at least he quit going on and on.

I finished the day at Oakland, working a bit late to try and figure out a SMART board. I figure the controller went bad or something, so I gave up for the day and went to my parents’ house for some leftover phở. Once Eaddie was done with karate, I picked her up and we went to my house so I could change before taking her home.

Summer was winding down. Autumn came in late from after school events. I watched the schoolboard meeting just out of curiosity, but didn’t learn much other than that the general public seemed overwhelmingly in favor of spreading COVID. I had Eaddie read our group chat just to see if I was the asshole, and she finally concluded that I was, but just as I had said, that didn’t make me any less right. She just seemed to think that what I said didn’t change anything, but it did at least serve to change the direction of the conversation, which was my entire goal in the first place.

We finished the night with an episode of House before everyone made it off to sleep.

Don’t be silly. If anything, I’d be solar-lighting you.

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Stop Buying Things You Don’t Need

I went straight to Oakland this morning for the first time this year, and got in just a little late. It felt warmer and more humid all day, which had me looking for an escape from my mask more often. I feel like the buildings need to be showing some solidarity with so many people stuck in them all day long without a break.

After running around a while and fixing what I could, I ended up back at the shop until lunch. I didn’t have a whole lot of really pressing stuff to work on, so it was finally a bit more relaxed. Our new guy, Jacob, has started reaching out with questions, but it’s a little odd since I haven’t really worked with him at all yet. He’s always just at the junior high by himself.

I went home for lunch and had some more leftovers, then took some to Summer since she wouldn’t get out for a break. Then it was back to Oakland for a bit longer. As I pulled up, Darla was unloading a big printer from her car, so I helped her bring it into the library. I don’t think she should be allowed to buy those things with any kind of district funds, since she’s one brick wall away from a giant copier, and across the hall from a multifunction color printer. There’s just nobody filtering that kind of stuff from happening, so we’re left stuck trying to decide how much we’ll support it. Imagine that, a lack of accountability.

I ended the day back at the shop, and it was just as quiet as it had been all day. I went home and just stayed in for the night. I was going to go vacuum the pool for my parents, but I thought it was going to rain. It certainly looked that way on the ride home. I guess that’ll be a job for tomorrow then.

But I waaaant it.

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Excessage

I don’t think I slept great this weekend, because I kept getting up out of bed last night as well. I didn’t want to let myself sleep in too late, but I just felt so tired. I cleaned up the last of the taco meat that Summer had, and then took Eaddie home with me as soon as she was ready.

She was supposed to go ride her bike to her friend’s house to work on some homework together, but she didn’t leave for a couple hours. I picked up a little bit in the other bedroom, then took a shower once she did leave. By the time I got out, Summer and Autumn had gotten what they needed from the grocery store and I met them at my parents’ house.

What was supposed to be some super simple grilled sausages for dinner ended up being pretty frustrating. First, about half of the zucchini I brought over fell right through the grill because Mom cut too much meat out of the middle of them and they slipped right through the grates. Then the new jalapeño cheddar sausages I wanted to try from Sam’s were super greasy and caught the whole grill on fire. Everything else was pretty burned after that. All the while, I had to hear Autumn in the background continue to be generally obtuse and uncooperative.

Summer got in the pool for a little bit on her own, but I was busy sweating over the fire. I didn’t get to swim until after we all ate outside. I think I’m learning that I simply don’t care for eating around round tables. With several exceptions, I tend to also become frustrated by having too much other stuff on the table when we’re eating. The sausages had way too much cheddar inside of them, and the cheese overpowered the rest of the flavor. By the time it was all over, I just wanted to make a lap in the pool to cool off. I just felt increasingly tired and aggravated all day long.

The girls went home to get ready for school. I stuck around for just a little bit before going home myself. I was sleepy enough to just go to bed, so I didn’t even risk staying up any later. I only got out for a couple minutes when Bác Vân called me over to get some egg rolls.

-Cap’n Crankypants

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Another Long Week

This morning already started out pretty rough, and I don’t expect things to get better for a while. I suppose it could be worse, and at least I enjoy what I do, and it provides above-average flexibility. Things stayed pretty quiet most of the morning, with everyone still struggling to keep their work order counts from growing any further. As with the past couple weeks, this morning went by really fast. For the first time in a while, nobody was interested in going out to eat, so I just went to SuperFast a little late to have a couple hot dogs with Summer during their Paint the Town Green and Gold celebration.

After we ate, I stopped by my house for a few minutes before continuing to Oakland. I wasn’t really there to close mass tickets, but instead spent some time troubleshooting a widespread print issue we’ve seen. I didn’t really get any results, unfortunately, so I’ll likely still be working on it some more tomorrow. I fussed a little about how much I’m doing, and Gary kind of snapped back that they could put someone else in my position, but there really isn’t anyone to place there that won’t need months of training just to be a little bit helpful. I think he sometimes forgets that he makes $11 grand more than what they want to pay me, and $8,000 more than what they “accidentally” signed my contract for this year.

Still, I was the last one to leave the office for the day. I did what I could, and at least for the time being, it’ll all still be there for me tomorrow. I went home to change, then went to the shop to pick up the canopy Summer borrowed from the Brothers, Ridgewood. The gate was locked when I arrived to return it, so I continued on to my parents’ house to pick at some leftovers for dinner.

I received a refurbished Dyson fan today, and though it’s far from the worst condition that I’ve ever seen in a refurb, it wasn’t at all good. Paint was rubbed off in several places, and the thing was filthy with the exception of a new filter. There was heavy dust and black, oily smudges all over the thing. I fired an email off to the manufacturer, and hopefully they’ll do something about it, otherwise it may just be returned.

As with most things here, the more you dig, the angrier you’ll be.

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Hate Heat

I woke up pretty early this morning and waited around until Eaddie was ready to go ride her bike. Then I brought her home with me so she could ride, but she ended up sitting in her room here for a couple hours before she left. I cleaned up and then had to run by SuperFast where Summer and her team were decorating for Paint the Town Green and Gold.

They wanted to paint a mural of a football field on their window, so I set up a projector and some paper towel that was thin enough for them to see the projected image on the other side. Eaddie and her friend Aaron rode their bikes there and helped a little bit before going on their way. I eventually left to try and help Dad with his pool pump issue, but he had given up for the moment.

Even being inside Summer’s shop, the heat sapped me and I felt gross again. I cooled down at home until Eaddie made it back home, and then we went back by the shop to see Summer’s progress. They were almost done, so Eaddie and I went on to my parents’ house for spring rolls. Summer met us there once she was finished, and we had dinner.

I hung around for a little while before coming home to wind down. I played tug-of-war with one of the girls that was trying to play music on her Google Home/Nest speaker at their house. It absolutely infuriates me that the stupid speakers are supposed to be able to identify who is talking to them, but there is no way for me to control who has access to my YouTube Music account. It shouldn’t let any of them play from my account, and it’s ruining my suggestions and causing a headache any time we happen to be listening to music at the same time.

It just makes me incredibly cranky.

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Dog and Pony

Today was full of meetings for me, so I hardly got anything done. First up was a meeting with Thomas and Gary about the Agile Mind sync I had been working on. Evidently Thomas was stressing over the number of work orders complaining about it, though most of it had been fixed already. I went in and immediately put him to rest with the knowledge that I had completed as much of that project as I could without any further input from their team.

The ocular migraine that I got the minute I walked into his office started to wane as I went back to the shop area to help Kyle with something. I spent a little time in my office, and then I had to go upstairs for a CPPC meeting where Karen had invited all classified staff. We had a decent crowd for a school day, and I don’t know if it spoke more about how involved people wanted to be, or how completely not busy and available people were to come hang out for two hours until lunch time. We had three people from the junior high office alone, so I’m sure they were super necessary staff.

The meeting went about as well as I expected, with the exception that it started as all meetings seem to do any more, with the new superintendent taking over the show and ineffectively communicating the purpose of what he was trying to accomplish. Judy was up front with us, and seemed to be on an exploratory mission more than anything. Once everyone else was done talking, Karen started going over the first page of titles that covered basically secretaries and clerks. Then the meeting was over, with absolutely nothing accomplished.

As everyone dispersed, Judy stopped me to mention that my contract was being rewritten. She said she saw my pay increase and assumed I had gotten a promotion. I let her know that based on the duties I was performing every day, I also assumed I had gotten a promotion. I told her I had no intention of signing a contract with a lower salary, and that if my pay was reduced before I signed one, they would have trouble. How much trouble will depend on how I’m feeling the day that it happens.

Back down in the shop, five of us went to Brangus for lunch. Greg spotted Dale coming in, so I popped out to wave him into our back room for a moment. When we got back to work, I did my best to help people as they came back to me. Then Judy came down to our dungeon to discuss our department’s salary schedule and the proposal Thomas submitted.

She confirmed that we were the only department to produce any kind of counter-proposal. I figure it’s not our problem if no other department can build a case for themselves, but they had better not drag us down. Of course, Gary shut down when Judy admitted that she hadn’t read our proposal completely, but I was feeling optimistic that she indicated she would likely just slap our proposal directly onto the second draft of the salary schedule and see where things go from there.

I stopped by to see Summer briefly at work, but she was busy and I headed on home. Eaddie had been there, but Autumn had already picked her up by the time I got home. I chose to spend another quiet night at home, and I’ll get up tomorrow to do it all over again until they don’t let me.

No sense in crying over your lack of proficiencies.

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A Real Jokester

I struggled to get out of bed an hour early today for the back-to-school breakfast. I’m pretty sure I was the first from our department there, but Greg walked in right behind me. We both expected them to be enforcing masks after the board meeting last night, but hardly a soul was masked. We got our food, which was probably the best I’ve had for the occasion, and found a seat right in front with Summer and Justin. The casserole was so good I had to go back for more, but it was okay because they didn’t have any other events or big raffles like previous years.

After breakfast, we headed over to the arts center for some quick training. Without Ben’s cyber security training, we just heard from a couple suits and then listened to Judy talk about FMLA before our OSHA training. I liked that guy the best just because he seemed like a cool, old guy.

We got back to the shop a bit before lunch, and they sent out the first draft of the proposed classified salary schedule. That, of course, sent everyone through the roof when they learned that our pay was lowered both at the base, and then significantly at the cap. I divulged that I had gotten a big raise, likely unintentionally, and was making more than Zach for the school year.

I was still full from breakfast, so I only ordered some chips and a shake when a group of us went to Slim Chickens for lunch. That left me pretty salty and dehydrated for an afternoon of crunching numbers, and then trying to find out why we were short so many new laptops for junior high students. It was just one clusterfuck after another, all day long.

After work, I went straight home and immediately had to start fighting sleep. My gut never quite recovered from the food from the day, but at least I was able to go to bed early.

Let the output reflect the input.