Tag: anger management

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Calm Down

I had to comp some time today so I could get the girls to school and then take Eaddie to a flute lesson afterward. I just took my shower and got ready for work after I dropped them off. When I got up to leave, Bác Vân was already outside with the guys cutting the trees, and they had almost completely cut down a tree that I absolutely did not want cut down. While I agreed that it was almost scary-tall with almost no lower branches, I was less concerned that it would break and crash into anything. What I was left with, was nothing short of a reverse mohawk.

Fully aware that I couldn’t change what had been done, I went on in to work and walked right into my next cluster. Daniel and Jason were there and had brought back the Mac I gave them. Evidently it didn’t work, and was having all sorts of fits. With absolutely zero time to dedicate to getting it working, we had to take off for a meeting at The Center about an upcoming event. Daniel didn’t even realize he was invited, but we still made it over there before anyone else.

After the meeting, I sent Mike off to get lunch and I worked straight through. I tried going room to room to check for technology needs, but ended up striking a nerve with Karen, who totally went Karen down the halls. She stormed into Mary Beth’s office, and I foolishly chased her down. Mary Beth ran her off pretty quickly because she had actual work to do, and I basically just had to wander the halls for a few hours getting nothing accomplished.

I ran by the shop for a little while before having to leave to get Eaddie. She brought along a friend that needed a ride to the same flute lesson. I just waited for them in the car since it was a short lesson. Then we came back home for a bit until it was time to get Autumn.

Summer hadn’t been able to get around all day, so we stopped by 10 Box for some essentials, then grabbed dinner from Little Caesar’s. On the way home, Mom called to gripe about the tree trimming, as though I should have had the forethought to be home when all of this was happening. I certainly didn’t want it to look this way, but at least they cleaned up the rest of the yard as well.

Somehow both Eaddie and Autumn ate half of a pizza each. Summer had a less-than-good time, then went back to the bed. I watched some TV with her until everyone was off to sleep.

I have no wealth, and riches and fame have never come my way.

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Caustic for $200

This morning started out pretty rough. I had trouble getting to sleep last night in spite of how exhausted I was. When I finally made it to the shower, I discovered my towel had been used to wipe off what I assume was someone’s face cream that bleached the blue right out of the towel. I screamed in rage at the situation because this made the fifth or sixth time that this exact situation has happened within a relatively short amount of time, and it feels like nobody’s getting the goddamn memo. Chemicals are bad. That feeling was amplified because I put a cheap hand towel in the bathroom for them, and for some reason they still went for my bath towel. I had finally broken down and bought a really nice, complete set of everything, and it felt like nobody values any of it.

Work was fine, except that I had to cover the middle school for Josh while no fewer than three of them fixed a total of one door. I struggled to find my way around, and had at least one medium-level moment of embarrassment because hardly anyone there knows me. When I made it to the shop, I slowly discovered that I would be on my own for lunch. I considered just finishing a Soylent, but thought I’d take Summer lunch instead.

Wendy’s was a shitshow of mouthbreathers that simply didn’t have the capacity to maintain both a drive-through and inside counter. It was the same kid that was working last time, and he looked equally flustered. It’s not entirely their fault, because evidently nobody wants to work at all right now. Summer’s basically been short staffed since she started, and everyone there is burned out on hours. I ended up just eating my half of the lunch alone in her office before going back to work.

The afternoon was a little more quiet. Gary brought his new Carvana purchase in: a 2019 Nissan Altima that was used as a rental car in its past life. It had relatively low miles and looked to be in pretty good condition. We were all really happy for him as he discovered automobile features from the early 21st century. The afternoon went by pretty quickly from there as I tinkered with some things in my office.

The girls walked home from school, so I basically just came home to pick them up. We dropped Autumn off at her Explorers meeting, and then Eaddie and I went to my parents’ house for rolls. Summer and Julie showed up when they each got off from work. Tensions were manageable but awkward. Everyone filtered out, and I finally headed home for the evening.

Relaxation is requiring quite a bit of force these days.

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Skydove

Summer had an appointment to go skydiving early this afternoon, so I got up and headed home to clean up. The girls were all waiting outside for me when I got back to pick them up, and we made our way to the Clarksville airport. We hadn’t been there very long before a group came down for a landing, and one of the pros that had been doing the filming for that jump came down super hard and broke his leg. They called an ambulance, but the guy ended up taking the bed of a truck instead. After seeing my nonsensical COVID bills, I don’t blame him.

It took us a while to get started on account of the injury, but Summer wasn’t phased. Another group of kids came in for a jump as well, but Summer was up next since she had an actual appointment. The plane ride didn’t take too long, but we couldn’t actually see them leave the plane because of some large clouds. I did get a bit of video as they approached the field for their landing, but she paid the extra $150 for a premium body and external cam footage anyway.

Autumn wanted to go to their father’s restaurant afterward, but he had already closed. We settled on El Molcajete instead, but as we parked, we realized that not a single soul other than myself had brought a mask. That irritated me enough on account of my hunger, but then Autumn started in on an attitude when she should have known better than to leave the house without her mask after more than a year of this.

I drove us straight home instead, where we picked at some leftovers for an early dinner. Then I sunk a bunch of time into Photoshopping an explosion behind Summer and her tandem partner in a photo I took of them walking back from the airfield. Frustrated from the loss of daylight and everyone else taking naps, I left for home and spent the evening poking around the garage.

You never look back at the explosion!

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A Boiled Pot Never Watches

I slept in quite a bit later than I wanted to this morning. When I did finally roll out of bed, the girls were already up and picked at leftovers for lunch. I scavenged some chicken tacos myself as Summer got them onto chores for the day.

I felt pretty helpless all day, and wanted to go home to accomplish anything. Summer and Autumn went grocery shopping and brought back stuff to make patty melts for dinner, so I waited for that.

Instead of cooking any of it on the griddle, Autumn burned some onions in a pan and then made hamburger patties on the grill. She kept disappearing while she was supposed to be cooking, and didn’t realize when the fire had blown out from the wind outside. She had me cook fries because she didn’t want to deal with the deep fryer, but I ended up making a mess of things when the whole pot boiled over. Fortunately there was no serious damage, but it sure made a mess.

When we finished eating, I stuck around for half a game of Monopoly, and ended up settling in as the sprinkling outside turned into a full-fledged rain. Finally, we finished WandaVision, and did our best to go to bed at a reasonable time after losing an hour last night.

Get your hoe ready!

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On the Color of Sheep

Julie messaged me just as I was about to go to bed last night, so I went over to her place to try and chat with her and Dad. I was there for a little over an hour before she finally kicked me out, which is to say that it didn’t go well. Then this morning she started in on me again, but followed up later in a group text with a deal that I appreciated, so I’m hoping that’s an indication that it’s not a total loss. I’d really like my sister back.

We had a busy day today. Summer wanted to meet for lunch, so I got ready and met her at Mulan’s. Then we ran to Walmart for a card before picking up the girls to go to Maleea’s birthday party at the skating rink. The girls had a bit of fun, but it seemed like Maleea was starting to grow out of that kind of party. I remember having skating parties all the time in grade school, but not nearly as much into the double digit age.

There was just a little bit of time to kill before we had to get across town for another birthday party, so we went to my house for a bit. Then we took Eaddie to Washburn Park. Amber dropped her kid off and I waved her down so Summer could meet her. We waited for a little while for Jaylinn and Maristella, but gave up and headed on to the bowling alley to wait there.

Even then we had to wait, so eventually we went inside to play a game. The girls took turns bowling for Jaylinn until she got there, then we played one more game. It was a pretty good time, but that place was absolutely packed and hardly anyone had a mask on. The sign out front basically gave everyone a pass on having a health concern that they wouldn’t ask about, so even the staff weren’t wearing masks.

The kids finished their game and spent some time in the arcade while Summer and I waited outside. Then we headed on home for the evening. Summer and I watched a couple episodes of WandaVision to catch her up, and then it was off to bed and to lose an hour for daylight saving time.

It’s been Agatha all along!

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You’re Messing With My Chakras

It was frosty again this morning, and I only just made it to work. I found enough to do from my office, so I never bothered getting to a campus anywhere. Zach, Gary, Josh, and I went to Western Sizzlin for lunch, and I stuffed myself in preparation for the month of free birthday food. A little while after we got back, I was sent with Melinda to run some errands around town.

Our first stop was UPS to drop off a package. I didn’t realize we needed to go into a store to pay for a new shipment, so we ended up having to hit The UPS Store on the other side of town later on. Next up was Harbor Freight to try and find some good screwdrivers for laptop repairs. Melinda couldn’t find any the other day on her own, so this was my primary objective for the outing. After finding a passable set, she wanted to stop by Sonic for drinks. Then we had to go to Walmart for some cleaning wipes for the laptops as well. While we were there, we had permission to look for a sofa slipcover to hide the ratty, peeling skin of the sofa I inherited from Zach. I didn’t like the look or the value, so I passed on those but let her buy a couple throw pillows for the couch instead. We had barely made it past the clearance section and got our wipes when she decided she was going to pick up some things for home. What was supposed to be a run across town for screwdrivers was quickly turning into a two hour shopping spree. We finally shipped the package for Greg on the opposite end of town, and made it back to the office just in time for quitting time.

I ran home to change, then had to run back across town to Wesley’s to help with his Suddenlink equipment swap. It was nice and warm out, so I took the Shadow. That should have been a quick job too, but we ended up having to call support twice after the phones wouldn’t come online. A couple hours later the sun had gone down and it was a cold ride to my parents’ house just to pop in while I was on that end of town. We ended up chatting for a little bit, but I had to get home before it got too cold.

The bike died on the way home, presumably because it was out of gas. I flipped the reserve switch and made it home to pick up a jacket, and then went to the gas station to fill up. When I finally made it back home, I exhausted myself doing a 37-point turn getting the bike back in its slot. I wasn’t up for much else, so it was off to bed a little early.

Assistant to the Information Systems Director

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What Are You Syncing About?

I had to get up extra early this morning to get the girls to school. I decided to take Eaddie in first, since we usually drop Autumn off first, and I needed to end up at the high school anyway. Autumn didn’t appreciate it, and Eaddie dawdled getting out the door, but hopefully having the tables turned will teach both of them to be more considerate and thoughtful in the future.

The office was super cold all morning, stuck at around 64 degrees. I could never tell that the thermostat kicked on, and I’m convinced it’s actually just a thermometer they installed to mock me. I spent all morning and into lunch just working on getting some software loaded for some digital electronics kids. I really hate those HP laptops we got, but I never would have seen that coming when we chose them in the first place.

I ran home and ate the leftover nachos for lunch, then went back to the shop for the afternoon. I did a few work orders remotely for the junior high and middle school, and tinkered with Web Help Desk a bit to see if it would benefit me to set myself as a manager over the other secondary techs. It was a pretty quiet afternoon otherwise. I stayed a bit late just messing with things in my office, then had to run to the high school to get Eaddie’s karate bag that Autumn forgot in the library. I still don’t understand why Autumn did think to bring Eaddie’s stuff with her to the high school, but left her own stuff at home.

After dropping off their gear, I went to my parents’ house and hung out for a little while. Dad had the stereo slides from vacation out, so I looked at those before dinner. Then we worked on the fish soup some more. Eventually I headed home for the evening and bounced around the house picking at various things. I had to sync my text messages with Google Fi again, which wreaked havoc on my notifications. With any luck, my phone won’t be dead when I wake up in the morning.

Am I really just doing all of this, only to wipe my phone and have to do it all over again?

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One Man’s Treasure

I forced myself out of bed this morning so I wouldn’t ruin my bedtime for the whole weekend. It was finally time to head back home to freezing temperatures after our week around the palm trees. We got breakfast on our resort, then took the bus back to the airport. After that, we spent all day flying or hanging out in terminals. We were long gone by the time I realized that housekeeping had thrown away the souvenir Coke bottles I picked up at Black Spire Outpost. After making it all the way through the vacation with my new phone, I also scratched the hell out of the back of it on my seatbelt.

The flights were a bit bumpy as we flew through some turbulence, but we made it out alive and relatively on time, even after our last flight changed terminals at the last second in Dallas. The drive home was exhausting as well, so I got particularly upset when we got back home to Summer’s house to find a cat had been left inside the house and tore up a bunch of stuff. The smell really got to me, so I ended up just heading straight home by myself after that.

Good talk.

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The Room is Spinning

We almost got out of our rooms in time this morning. The day started off with some pretty heavy lightning storms. Mom wasn’t ready on time either, but we still made it to the Animal Kingdom in time to cover everything we wanted that was actually operational, in addition to a second round on a couple favorites at the end of the day. The first thing we did once we got into the park was make a break for the Avatar First Flight ride. Julie expected both of the rides on the Pandora wing of the park to be pretty popular, but the rides were worth the waits.

We trekked across the map a bit, but it was a much smaller park with super fast moving lines compared to some of the older rides. Mom rode everything again, even Expedition Everest. When we stopped for lunch, Noah, Summer, and I tried the foot-long chili cheese dog, and it was one of the best, most reasonably priced meals in any of the parks. We wrapped things up with enough time to ride Everest and First Flight again before grabbing some dinner and heading back to the room.

The food was pretty good, but Eaddie ate one of my hamburger bao and then didn’t let me eat my fair half of her rice bowl. We shuffled back to the buses, all finally feeling at least a bit of the wear from all the walking. The kids left to wander the resort for a while, and I ate the leftover salad from our first day here. Tomorrow is our rest day, and I don’t think it could have come any sooner. Just laying in bed after all these rides is starting to make me a little dizzy.

Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

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Whatever’s Left of The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow Center

It took quite a bit more prodding to get everyone out of the resort hotel this morning, which was a pretty good indicator for the rest of the day. I knew the hours were pretty severely cut, but I still had high hopes for my favorite park. We actually had the closest resort to the Skyliner that would be taking us to EPCOT, but had to walk to the farthest resort just to get in line. The ride was pretty neat, but seemed somehow less elegant than a lot of the other rides because there was no moving loading platform, and the gondolas shook a bit as you stepped on, making boarding that much trickier.

When we finally got to EPCOT, we unloaded at the back of the park right next to where we had dinner reservations. I knew that didn’t work out in my favor since I mostly wanted to see the front of the park, and we would have to retrace our steps after dinner for whatever time was left before the park closed. The kids didn’t get that grand welcoming experience that we’ve always had in the past, and it all sort of felt like walking into the dingy back door of a restaurant. Everyone was slow to get moving, because obviously everything they saw was new and exciting. People started immediately splitting up and disappearing, so I eventually just wandered in the direction I wanted to go to try and prevent getting trapped in a gift shop loop.

We got to the Test Track line just in time to be called to the opposite side with the slower rides and aquarium. Eaddie lost her phone momentarily on The Seas, but luckily they caught it before it wandered off. Shortly after that, Julie stressed that we had to get moving IMMEDIATELY if we were going to make it back to the opposite side of the park in time for dinner. It felt like we had only just gotten there, and she just took off walking without the rest of my family behind. Summer and Autumn got the message to catch up, but evidently they weren’t anywhere near Noah and Eaddie. I had to run back to find them, then catch up to Spaceship Earth again.

At the end of the day, we basically skipped all of the World Showcase rides just to get to dinner. Luckily Julie was able to move our reservation to just before the park closed, so we just ate through the park closing time. The food was good, but tasted a whole lot like my cheap slow cooker pot roast. Maybe I should be a chef.

I’ve been on rides so much that I feel like I’ve got sea legs.