Tag: anger management

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You’re Living a Lie!

We had our first conference room meeting this morning, and got a glimpse of some of the structural changes we’ll be seeing soon. A part of that change is that Greg and I will basically report directly to Gary as a part of an Engineering team, and Zach will lead the others on an Operations team. For the time being, we’ll also have to pick up some elementaries until we can get an additional tech or two, so I’ll be the primary contact for Oakland again, which is fine by me.

I spent most of the rest of the day to myself, except for when Renee really wanted some help buying some in-game currency on her phone. I was successful with my task sequence for the virtual academy devices, which was the big task of the day. I ran by the junior high to pick up a few things, and made it back to the shop as it really started pouring down rain.

Summer wanted to get lunch, so I picked her up after I got off and we went to La Huerta. I had forgotten how they made their taco salads like an enormous taco instead of a bowl, and actually prefer it. Maybe I can get them into the work rotation.

When I got back home, Dad’s vapor barrier materials had arrived, so I dragged them in out of the rain until he could come get them. Then I did some laundry until it was time to get Summer for our evening with John, Melissa, and Travis.

I ran a little late, but we still beat John and Melissa. Travis had set up a game of Candy Land with some extra Dungeons & Dragons monsters and a sheet of rules for our drinking game. We were the only ones that actually brought anything to drink, so it was “nasty beer” and Irish car bombs all night aside from the rum and Diet Mountain Dew that Travis had around.

We enjoyed the first game well enough, and things just got sloppier from there for most everyone. Travis broke out Cards Against Humanity for a bit, and then spent far too long fumbling around for Guitar Hero on an old Wii system that required disassembling most of an entertainment area in his room. In the end, I was really the only one sober enough to play the guitar anyway. My eyes were burning really badly from the smoke by that time, so I tried to get us out of there. Everyone protested, and then I was stood outside with Travis for several minutes as he lamented.

Eventually I got the urgency of leaving across, and we made it home where Summer went straight to bed and I stayed up with Eaddie getting her prepared for her flight the next morning.

No one can make you.

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Just Sit Down and Do Work

I was sleeping super hard when my alarm went off this morning. I made it in to work on time, but others didn’t and got yelled at by Gary. It was lax before, but now we haven’t had a leader there consistently for like a month. He sent everyone to the junior high to unbox laptops while I worked on the imaging process all day. I caught a break pretty late, but I think he’s still pretty stressed about getting it done since we still have new devices coming later in the summer.

We got our COVID checks today, which was nice. It would have been nicer if they paid us for the time we worked, and not based on the number of days that teachers worked, since we had to be there for way longer risking ourselves. I nearly died. Three times.

Greg took Josh and me to Taco John’s for lunch, and the tacos were actually great for the first time in a while. We saw Brice there with his 911 buddies, which is to say his work crew, and not a count of how many buddies he has.

After work, Summer came over and we went to Georgia Carpet Mills to trade some tile samples. I think we found a couple that I really like. She really liked a super worn pattern, but it didn’t come in long planks, and would require us to go all-in on a rustic look that I think would just be too stylized.

I went up to her place to help with the mower for a bit, and recorded a video of my Rolling Square InCharge 6 Max charge cable so I could submit a warranty claim. I don’t actually know if it’s under warranty for longer than a year, but the cable was always slow. Afterward I went to my parents’ house for eggplant soup. I couldn’t stick around any longer than that because the allergies murdered my sinuses.

When I got home, I dug the Grom out and took it for a ride around the block. It rode fine, but felt ever-so-slightly crooked. It’s a shame, but it’ll be a fine beater to teach Eaddie how to ride eventually.

W=A*V

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Why Did the Chicken Cross the Terminal?

I woke up at 3:30 this morning so I could have plenty of time to shower and pack up. We made it to the airport in plenty of time, but things got hectic super quickly. After checking our bag, I forgot to get my ID back, and made it all the way to TSA before panicking, completely forgetting that I had just had it out minutes earlier. Fortunately the girl that helped us brought my ID back, but then Summer had a couple oversized bottles of liquids. It would have been different if we hadn’t just flown to Florida earlier this year.

We made it to Houston without any trouble, but did have to huff it a bit to the next flight. If we had known better at the time, we would have chilled out for a while and maybe gotten some food. As we made our way out to the runway, a lightning storm blew in and kept us on the ground for about an hour and a half later than we planned. The pilot made up for it though, and we just barely made our connecting flight in Los Angeles.

That last transition really hurt us, because then we didn’t get any food, the snacks on the flights weren’t very substantial, and we also couldn’t precheck for the COVID requirements. When we finally made it down to Honolulu, we had to wait in an awful line for about half an hour just to get out of the gate.

Julie did great and arranged a taxi for us, so I made the call and made our way out to meet the guy that came out. He took us to Lagoon Tower, where Julie met us at the taxi. We got room keys and made our way up to the penthouse to unload.

Summer and I were starving, and it was dinner time for the others as well, so we went downstairs and out into a tiny, cramped marketplace to find some food. I felt super sweaty due to the heat and humidity after such a grueling flight, which just made me even hangrier. We stopped into an ABC store for a couple things and eventually got our food that had been ready for a while. Evidently the buzzer didn’t work.

We took everything back to the room to eat, and then I took a real shower and crashed.

Because his connecting flight was delayed and he had to be re-routed by the airline!

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Lunch with the Paddler

I got up and took my shower at Summer’s this morning so I could get the kids to school and still have time to get to work myself. It actually worked reasonably well, but I still struggle with the water pressure. I jumped right in to the work orders that had been assigned to me over the past few days, but had trouble completing much of anything. I mostly bounced between Impero and CPPC stuff.

Janie called me to fuss about the policy we were voting for or against removing, and she seemed unwilling to vote for anything other than something that will directly impact those that have been screwed in the past. I hope she wins that fight, but I don’t want that to hold me back from removing redundant or uselessly complicated policies.

I called Allen and planned lunch at Sam’s, and I should have called Dale as well since we saw him at Taco Villa on the way. We had a good size group and had a good time. It was nice to see Allen in public and not looking too scruffy. Retirement looks good on him. While we were there, evidently Brice was sitting across the room and came over to chat, or leer. Or at the very least, awkwardly hover. I really hope they don’t consider him for the job, if only because I don’t want to have to be around to rebuild the entire department when they quit because of it.

We found the bus that would bring Eaddie to my office, so she came over after school and we picked up Autumn after her color guard practice. Autumn really wanted to go to karate but had to go to her band awards ceremony for a grade, and tried weaseling into being toted back and forth across the complete opposite ends of town. We shut her down, and left her at my house so I could get my own chores done.

I dropped Eaddie off at karate, got Summer’s last prescriptions, and then did some work with Mark for about an hour. I had about 10 minutes to chat with Nate across the street before I had to pick her back up, and then we went to get Autumn.

On the way up to Summer, we stopped for some Burger King and had a late dinner. I tried to start on my taxes, but didn’t really get anywhere before I had to get to bed.

The problem with going to the moon is that there is no “up” in space.

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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