Tag: anger management

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The Hired Help

Autumn came with me to work again today, and again outworked and outperformed the paid help. Heather was exactly as late as usual, which makes me wonder why she can’t just set her alarm ten minutes earlier.

We started off walking down to the storage area under the cafeteria and found some waxed chicken boxes we could use to haul the laptops to the junior high. Then we went back upstairs and finished imaging everything we had. Once we had the last of the laptops on the benches, I sent Heather to go track down the older 20GA models so we could ship those back. I did not hear from her again, other than to tell us to which room we should deliver her laptops tomorrow in her absence.

Autumn and I went to Chick-fil-A and picked up lunch, then went to eat with Summer. Afterwards, we stopped by the shop to see if we could intercept Heather or anyone else. Gary and the newbies were in the breakroom having lunch, so Autumn and I went back to the high school and retrieved the boxes from the dungeon.

I built a spreadsheet to compare what serial numbers Lenovo expects to receive back while Autumn folded boxes. Then the two of us started my third inspection cycle of all 1,015 laptops while we packed them into the boxes for transfer to the junior high, ensuring that they would receive the best of the best of these gross, teenager-used devices.

When we left, I dropped her off at Old Post Park for an Explorers meeting and ran home to clean up. I decided to pick her back up on the bike, so I got the pressure washer out to blow the cobwebs off of the R1. She had never ridden before, but reacted much more calmly than ever before when I had suggested she try to ride with me in the past.

We went by the shop to meet up with Summer and Eaddie, but they were inside waiting for a tow truck that would deliver a vehicle that had seized up after dropping all of its oil when it left. I noticed the streak of oil in the road, but I thought it was just a wet spot from someone leaving after everything had been cleaned at closing time.

Eaddie was picked up by her grandparents, and the rest of us went back home. Summer, having had a pretty bad day, sent me to Wendy’s for a bag of Baconators. Then I took Autumn home to clean up and get some fresh clothes before coming home for the night. Of course, around that time I realized I had forgotten to do my own load of laundry I needed for the next day, so it was a bit of a late night for me.

Bye bye, birdie.

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Unhelpful

Evidently I forgot to change the pickup time on my breakfast pizza this morning, so by the time I got to Casey’s, they had given up on me and put my pizza in the warmer. The guy pulled all the slices out and boxed them up for me, but was going to short me a slice they had sold to someone else. I’m sure it was inadvertent, but I called him out on it and he gave me another slice of something else.

Heather got to the high school a bit late, and we did our best to find a groove with inspecting and re-imaging all of the old laptops. I’m not sure she really understood what kind of damage I was trying to call out, but that may have been my fault for poorly explaining the different things I’ve seen.

Lunch time snuck up on me, and she left for about an hour and a half, then returned with lunch to eat there. I just worked straight through and found a good groove. By myself, I was better able to find the bottleneck in our process. There were still things I wanted to change in the process, but I gave up on some of them for time and sanity’s sake.

I stayed a couple hours late just trying to finish up the fourth bin of laptops, then headed to my parents’ house for dinner. They got home just before I did, and Mom made up some shrimp soup. I was pretty beat from doing squats all day to lift and drop laptops, so I was pretty lame until we ate dinner, and then I headed home for the night.

Zach was already at my house when I got home, and had the Fiero up on jack stands. As I bounced around the house cleaning up, he pulled the fuel filter and verified that it wasn’t clogged. He said his next suspect was the fuel pump itself, but he wasn’t quite sure how best to tackle that project. The city code prevents me from just leaving it up on stands, which feels really stupid if it’s not in the grass.

As the sun went down, he put the car back down and I decompressed with just a little bit of Overwatch before bed.

I still think maybe Thanos was on to something.

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Step Back

I still didn’t really get anywhere today in my imaging process. Time is running out, and I’m getting pressure from the custodians, of all people, to get my work done.

Summer came to see me, and then we went to Bocadillos for lunch. It was obvious the bosses weren’t around today, and the change to Latin music was pretty funny after the pop party we attended yesterday. I’m guessing the Christian music will come back around tomorrow.

I worked late, and then Summer brought me one of their boomboxes to loan to the high school for their drive-through retirement party for Bruce. I headed on home and waited for her to bring the girls over from her parents’ house after mowing the lawn.

Autumn wanted to go to Dollar Tree for something, but forgot what when we got there, so I bought a guilt-trip scrub brush. Then they wanted Subway, so we picked up one of the worst bags of food I’ve ever gotten from a Subway before. The sandwich I got for Summer and myself looked like it had been cut an additional time or something, and I would have probably had better luck eating my half with a fork.

Eaddie and I wrapped up the night with an episode of The Punisher, and then it was off to sleep.

We’ll get ’em tomorrow, buddy.

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Unaccomplished

I spent all day banging my head against the wall with my image task sequence. It’s such a slow process to build the media that I only get to test it a couple of times per day, and I’m running out of time. Tomorrow I’ll just have to start over and make smaller changes each time.

A big group of us went to Bocadillos for an excellent lunch, but outside of that I didn’t see many people all day. The Great Technology Hunt of 2020 is still underway.

After work, I had Zach come over to start looking at the Fiero. We went to AutoZone together to pick up a replacement battery, and we could tell the car wanted to turn over, but the clutch was completely shot. There was a very small amount of resistance on the first push, but after that there was none at all. It wasn’t until then that Zach said he didn’t really know anything about clutches, but I figure I don’t have much to lose outside of money for replacement parts.

He didn’t stick around for very long, and I figure I’ll eventually have to just let him have the keys so he can work on it during the day while I’m gone. Once my load of laundry finished, I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. I grabbed some Zaxby’s for dinner on the way, and we made salads at home with some chicken strips. Then it was an early evening to bed.

I don’t remember the Fiero being this close to the ground…

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Feudal Review

I felt a little sour this morning, so I went in to work a bit late. I wasn’t really supposed to be staffing the office anyway, so nobody really cared. I was surprised to learn that it was review time, but we really didn’t have much to talk about since we have a pretty communicative relationship. I would have liked higher marks for being one of the top performers, but we don’t reward good behavior here.

I had a really pointless conference call to try and set up a live demo of Linewize Classwize, and they seemed a little confused that all I really needed to see was the big-brother capabilities of their classroom management software. Since that call lasted through lunch, Ben and I ran to get BOGO Subway afterward, and chatted in the conference room.

Summer came by to eat my leftovers, but mostly to visit with me. Then I tinkered until quitting time. Autumn needed a ride home from physical therapy, so I got her and we stopped by my house to pick up my freshly delivered black flags. Then we went to Julie’s so I could try my hand at arts and crafts. She cut some vinyl and showed me how to screen print, and I made a handful of little desk pirate flags for my future conquests.

The screen printing process was tedious, but fun once I understood some of the different variables to control. It didn’t take long to become proficient with the tools I had, but to make all 36 flags I purchased, I started to really think of some ways to increase efficiency.

By the time I got a few done, Summer was home and ready to eat, so Autumn and I headed on up and had some leftover pulled pork sandwiches. We ended the evening with another thrilling episode of Game of Thrones, and stopped on a bit of a cliffhanger – probably the biggest we’ve had so far.

When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

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Ridgewood Gang

I woke up a bit before Summer this morning and played some Animal Crossing. When she got up, she had to run to the shop to help with their bay door that wouldn’t open again. Then when she returned, we went to the Ridgewood Brothers’ BBQ and waited in line for roughly an hour.

Social distancing had the line wrapped way around the back of the parking lot, but either way there were quite a few people there. Brandie was there just in front of the last person in line, so we chatted for a little bit. It was overcast but still warm to be out in line like that, so I’m thinking it’s preorders from here on out. We picked up a Hog Trough with some friends-benefits, as well as three giant beef ribs, which were my favorite of the day. Still didn’t get any burnt ends though.

When we finally got through the line, we stopped by to pick up the girls from their friends’ house. Then we went up the hill to eat. Summer developed a headache and napped for a while, and I just laid in bed with her watching YouTube for a frustratingly long time. I didn’t have any other plans, but it would have been nice not to burn an entire day just sitting around doing nothing.

Eventually she felt good enough to leave again, so we went back to my house so she could get her car. I immediately discovered the cat had chewed up the top of my avocado sprout, which sent me into even more of a rage. Summer went back home while I cooled off at home for a while. It wasn’t productive, but I did eventually get a shower that helped.

When I got back to their house, the girls were all finishing up Frozen II. Then we watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

Three words: Bone Wind Chime

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No Lessons Learned

I let myself sleep in a little today since I was working from home again. The kids got a pizza delivered from their father, and I had some leftovers while I worked. I made the mistake of replying-all to an email chain of teachers that were confused about how to use a VPN, and got bombarded with direct emails asking for help.

The kids had a bit of trouble getting motivated today since they’ve been used to being out of school for two weeks now. Noah was especially sluggish, and didn’t want to put his phone and headphones down. I wasn’t impressed at all with any of the work that was sent home anyway. Eaddie had one assignment to draw a vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curvy line in a big box. She is not five. Then she had another assignment to label North American countries, and she couldn’t even tell me what two countries border our own. She may actually be five.

I ended up going home for a while, but didn’t get too much accomplished there. The rain really started coming down, and I eventually made it back up to Summer’s for the evening. Summer had already been in bed for a couple hours, so I picked at leftovers again, played on my phone a bit, and eventually found my way to bed.

What the hell do these kids do all day at school, anyway?

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Mandatory Fun

Summer got up this morning and made pancakes for breakfast. Then we snuggled up for some Master of None for a little while before Autumn came in and pitched an absolute fit about wanting to go visit her grandparents. I simply couldn’t empathize with her, because I’ve never been that way with anyone. Especially not at her age, and doubly so for being in the middle of a public health emergency. I get being cooped up for two weeks has been different, but it’s been far from difficult. We’ve had everything we could possibly need, and she’s always the one to sit around and do nothing anyway. Even when we did try to get out and actually do something outside of the house, she resisted when everyone else showed nothing but excitement. Realistically, the only thing she’s really missed out on is a bunch of Wendy’s and a “proper” public school education. After a bit of screaming and crying, Summer went and talked to her one-on-one, and then had me join them to talk about her frustrations with me. Who knows if any of it will stick, but at least I’ve made my own motives clear.

After that, she turned around and wanted to make a board game, so she and Summer found the old box from Summer’s digital smart scale and started to paint it. I played and tinkered for most of the day, and got the kids to play a tiny bit of the Switch with me. Most of the day felt kind of like a wasted blur of a day. Summer and Autumn did get together to make a spaghetti and meatball dinner, and then we played a long and complete game of Phase 10 in which I decimated even the Dominant One.

Summer ended the evening in bed with a little TV before going to sleep. Overall it was a good evening, but I wish I had gotten to spend a few hours at home.

And with that, Spring Break 2020 was over.

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If the Wild Bird Could Speak

Sleeping in this morning was pretty typical for how it’s been the past couple weeks. I woke up for a while in the morning and couldn’t sleep, then eventually fell back asleep until close to noon. I got up to make breakfast for the kids that were still asleep and chopped up some bacon for eggs, Rotel, and rice. About the time I finished cracking thirteen eggs into the pan, Autumn came around the corner with a comically large pizza that you only see in cartoons. Their father was supposed to bring that for dinner so Summer and I could have our steak dinner together, but evidently plans changed.

I ate my share of the rice and eggs by myself and played some Overwatch until Noah was ready to go by Western Sizzlin’ to pick up his paycheck. We stopped to see Summer on the way out, then went by my house so I could take care of the usual things. Then it was back up to Summer’s to sit in on the kids until she got home.

Eaddie spent all day cleaning her room while Autumn and Noah sat in front of the TV. Eaddie got out a tiny bow and arrows, and I lost one over the fence. I wandered around through the foliage and down the road to look for it, but couldn’t find it for all the brush. I headed back empty-handed and eventually got to prepping potatoes for baking. Summer and I were going to have our steaks.

When she got home, I started the steaks and asparagus on the grill, and we had a quiet dinner. Eaddie came and sat with us and had some as well, and Autumn and Noah picked at leftovers. Summer went to bed pretty soon after dinner, so I hung out with Eaddie for the rest of the evening. She had pretty much finished cleaning and rearranging her bedroom, but I helped get power to where she needed it. She had a CD player that wouldn’t work, so I took it apart twice to find both places it was assembled incorrectly, and got it to work.

And she knows all the ways of the wind.

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Waterlogged

I had trouble sleeping this morning for a while, but eventually went back down until the noon alarms went off. I got out of bed and made a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich for myself. Then Summer came home super early and wanted one as well. Eaddie was forced out of her room, and Noah got out to mow the lawn. Eaddie eventually went out to help with the front yard as well while Autumn put Moana on.

When the movie was done, I went home to clean up for everyone to come over. The weather was super nice and I wanted to try and have a fire for the kids since they’d been cooped up for nearly two weeks. Unfortunately even the coals inside the fire pit were soaking wet, even though there was a tarp over the whole thing. I haven’t quite figured that one out. All the wood in my pile was soaking too, so after spending way too much time trying to get it to light, I gave up and started the grill. Of course hot dogs didn’t take any time at all, so I felt wasteful with the charcoal, but at least everyone got fed.

Summer got really nostalgic for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and made us all sit down to watch it. We only made it about halfway through before she was ready for bed though. I took a shower, and then we stayed up a while longer talking about how awesome my facial hair is. Then when she fell asleep I chatted with Eaddie for a little bit before going to bed myself.

Maybe the heat wave tomorrow will dry it out.