Planner Fasciitis

We had a staff meeting first thing, so I tried to get out early and get a biscuit from McDonald’s before we hit the road. We were slightly behind after that, but it wasn’t too bad. I locked Muad’Dib up in the office, and the meeting ran pretty short. Only the operations guys really had anything to discuss. Joel did ask me to come up with a way to share my projects, so I dug through Brandon’s stuff again and discovered Microsoft Planner. It seemed easy and integrated, though not without its faults. I found out pretty quickly that it didn’t have an “undo” button, so I’ll have to be cautious with my clicks. It was also designed with some strange behaviors with text and click boxes. I spent all morning trying to square up there, and organize all of my thoughts.

We left really late for a quick lunch at McDonald’s. Service is back to being pretty terrible, but there was at least one little ray of sunshine behind the counter among the others. Back at the office, I had a pretty heavy anxiety attack, and then we finished up the afternoon so I could head toward home to help Mark with connecting his new “server.” That took a while, but they didn’t care that Muad’Dib was with me, so we just did what we could as quickly as we could.

It was already starting to get dark, so I ran Muad’Dib to my parents’ house. Dad was out chasing comets, but we saw Mom and then ran back home. I ate some leftover wings and realized I had been unintentionally dehydrating myself, which may have caused a dizzy spell. My blood pressure was okay, but I started to feel out of phase like I was going to pass out. I downed a couple tumblers of water, and things seemed better before bed.

You are aware of water at all times.

Cloud Failings

Today started out pretty early with SharePoint sync issues, which reinforced my frustrations with Microsoft cloud services. I’ve avoided OneDrive at home for so long, and the business experience is no better. Sync had broken on one of the computers downstairs, and reconnecting overwrote all local file changes with the older cloud version, which it thought was newer.

Lunch was interesting because I wasn’t the best dressed person in the Morrilton McDonald’s. There was something in the air, because it looked like there was a higher-level manager on duty, and there was actually someon walking the lobby to keep it clean. The usual staff was still just as curt with their yelling order numbers, but the food was good, and otherwise it was a decent experience.

Muad’Dib had some big zoomies to run out when we got back to the office, and fortunately it was a quick afternoon after going to lunch so late. Mark texted earlier in the day, so I called him on the drive home. Then I stopped by Julie’s house to trade a Dutch oven for a pretty loaf of sourdough. We talked for a bit before I continued on to visit my parents.

When we left there, Muad’Dib started whining and I let him out of the car to run home. He did great as I followed him in the car, and then Summer and I ate some leftover enchiladas before she wound down for bed. I opened up some Vine stuff and then continued vacuuming until I had an anxiety attack, which mostly just left me feeling suddenly extra-exhausted, so I wrapped up to go to bed too.

Sleep Paralasys

Prodogtive

I tried extra hard to stay focused today, and it sort of went okay. I tried to tie up some loose ends and choose a project of some importance that could keep my focus. We ended up getting pulled away from that to go downstairs, and I decided to let Muad’Dib into the office with Teddybear. I was proud of him for listening and playing nice with the little pup, and even Rhonda had to stop and take a picture of them just staring at each other. Being down there gave me the project I needed to focus on, so we went back and pecked away at that.

Monopoly was back at McDonald’s, so I had to go there for lunch. Muad’Dib was mad that I left him in the car, but I was only inside for a little bit anyway. The afternoon went by at a very normal pace. I couldn’t remember whether I had my anxiety attack then, or earlier in the morning, but it hit me pretty hard whenever it was.

When we finally left, something caught Muad’Dib in a laser-focus, and I turned back around the corner to see one of the guys leaving the plant with a bag of chips. He offered one up for puppy tax, and then I had a little trouble rounding him up to leave. We stopped at the wash to see Summer, but she was too busy to really visit anyway.

We weren’t at the house for very long before Summer showed up, and we decided to go to Cici’s since they had the cheapest meal in town. I just had to go easy on the pizza, and left actually feeling pretty decent after a good salad. It was dark when we got back, but we walked Muad’Dib to my parents’ house to see Dad after his trip to Alabama. Then it was right back to the house for bed.

Toxic Gift Cards

Suck It Up

We ran a little late today, but not enough to matter. Between the pain in my elbow and my head cold, I wasn’t worth a whole lot. I did at least manage to bring my OneWheel to send along with our UPS pickup. We had a quick peck at Sonic and made it back for a long afternoon.

Summer had met the TCW tech to fix our fiber, so internet was back up at the house and everyone was there to celebrate. Eaddie and Eli practiced stuff with notes while Summer bathed. I cleaned up an assortment of leftovers and started a load of laundry before getting to vacuuming as quickly as I could.

I extracted canister after canister of the finest powdered dust, as though someone had dumped a bag of flour all over the living room. There would be occasional bits of hair or fuzz, but it was almost entirely the broken down insulation dust. I completed less than a quarter of the room, and I’m sure I’ll still have to go over it several more times. I had a pretty bad anxiety attack near the end that had me in a daze for a while.

McMonopoly looms.

Time Goes By…

We had an excellent biscuit and hashbrowns from Burger King this morning. We got out of the house a little bit late, but there was a thick line of fast traffic that carried us to work. I had an anxiety attack fairly early, but otherwise had a fairly busy day with some decent productivity. I had to leave early, so I tried to take a short lunch to make up for it. We went by Sonic for a chili cheese coney and Frito chili cheese wrap, and a guy I had never seen before came out and commented that I was starting to be a regular. I laughed and mentioned they were one of the few places I could take my dog.

Lunch was cheap and fast, so I let Muad’Dib run around outside before we went in. For some reason he took off down the side of the building, and by the time I got around the corner, he had gone in the back door. Luckily he found some guys by their breakroom that happened to be looking for me. We went in to talk to Rhonda, and suddenly I had another project.

Just as I was getting ready to leave, I got a call from Aptean support, who wanted to remote in and help Heaven set up printing. I ran downstairs quickly to take care of that, and then booked it home. Fortunately we got to the post office with plenty of time, I got my vacuumc leaner, and then changed clothes at the house before riding the Onewheel with Muad’Dib to see Dad.

I got an email late last night offering $300 cash for a video of the Dreame robotic pool skimmer, which I reviewed extremely poorly, failing to perform its task. They didn’t send me any specifics about what they wanted, so I thought we’d just try to set up a time lapse video. When we got to their house, Dad was gone, so we started to leave before we encountered him near the end of the road. We turned around and learned that he was repairing a water leak under the house, but he had already set up his phone to record a time lapse from the end of the pool. I set mine up in the middle to get a better view of the length, and let it record through dinner.

Mom got home and we ate some chicken wings, and then Muad’Dib and I finished our run before dark. It was a great night for a ride in the cooler air. Summer was home when we got there, and we caught up a bit before I started unboxing Vine stuff, and eventually made it to bed.

…So Slowly

So Much for

Today was kind of rough. I got up and made some rice to go with some of the leftovers we had. Summer came in from her porch coffee and just had a look about her. I broke down a ton of old boxes I had been keeping to help with moving from the other house since I seem to be out of control of everything now.

I did some more reviews, cleaned up some stuff, and hoped to maybe take the girls out for a nice dinner. The day went by pretty quickly and we never got our heads together to rearrange the living room. Summer helped Eaddie with some homework and I had an anxiety attack before I eventually convinced them to go for dinner. Of course I wouldn’t learn until after we got our food at Sam’s that neither of them were very hungry.

I decided to try their surf and turf at the recommendation of our waitress, and it came out quite a bit later than the girls’ food. It looked really good, but the aside from the color of the inside, the steak itself was bland and tough. It was served on a massive pile of soggy, grilled onions. My hushpuppies were practically burned, and were like chewing a mouthful of dry cornmeal. All the while, the girls spent the entire time complaining about Eaddie’s friend and how she shares more than a name with her sister.

We got back to the house and I took Muad’Dib for a run. I forgot his treat pouch, so we had to run back for that. We passed by a house where a couple were working outside, and the girl asked if I was a professional dog trainer. I shared our story, because apparently I love to do that. Then we made it over to see Dad before rushing home as it got dark.

Summer had to go in for a work meeting and didn’t get back until a little bit later. I gave Muad’Dib a bath since he splashed in some water in the street gutter. Then I discovered our garbage disposal had a small leak under the sink, so that will be a problem for another day. Eli came over to visit with Eaddie for quite a while, and I went to bed.

anything

Bark Back

We had enough time for Burger King again, but got to work and had a surprise staff meeting. I had plenty of time, but I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t on my calendar. It may not have been on anyone’s, and they just didn’t tell me. It was a reasonably short one though, and helped the morning along. I stayed pretty busy all day. One of the guys came up from the plant, and Muad’Dib didn’t like something he heard, because he let out a singular, loud bark in Tyler’s office.

I let him outside to run around after he whined at me, and he took off like a bolt. I don’t know what gets into him when he’s like that, but he just had wild eyes. I took him over to the grassy area on the side of the building, and then we went back in until lunch.

Sonic had a deal on chili cheese coneys, so we went there for lunch. He got his own, but I only let him eat about half in case it could make him sick. McDonald’s had 50 cent double cheeseburgers, so we got one of those on the way back to the office for the afternoon. I ended up having another flash of feeling like I was going to feint, and my blood pressure was super high. I didn’t take any meds though, and instead opted to monitor my blood pressure for a while. It went down very slightly, but at least didn’t keep trending upward.

At the end of the day, I was getting things ready to leave when Muad’Dib started wimpering again. Fortunately everyone was gone, because he barked loudly at me again when I teased him. He’s never been vocal like that, so I don’t know what got into him. There was a chance of some rain, so we got home and I immediately took him out for a run.

As we made it through the neighborhood, we passed Grant’s parents’ house. Lucy was in the pen with the other dogs, but jumped over the top of the fence and met us on the other side of the wooded area. Muad’Dib did a great job of running to her to get her attention, and then she would usually follow him back to me. It took some running around the block, but we finally got her back into their back yard. We stopped to see Dad, but had to leave quickly as the sprinkles slowly increased.

Summer had been home a while, but was busy working on her laptop in the bedroom. I finished up the leftover salad and unboxed some stuff before winding down for bed. Summer needed soda water, so I got all of those filled up and then had another quick anxiety attack before going to sleep.

Assert your dominance.

In Like Venn

I finally felt like I was “getting” some stuff today, and maybe even found some strengths in what I’m doing at work. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster between feeling underqualified, overqualified, and downright confused by the strange overlap between my predecessor and myself. Today was a decent day though.

We took a late lunch and sat on a rock outside Arby’s. I was disappointed in how unloaded the Loaded Italian was, but it tasted good. Afterward, we went to Sonic for some mozzarella sticks, and the girl that delivered our food offered a pup cup. She was so excited when I let her feed him herself, too, and he got lots of pets.

I guess the salt got to me, because my blood pressure spiked when we got back to the office. I didn’t feel bad, but I felt off just enough to tell, and ended up taking a clonidine to try and chill out. I never saw a drop, but I felt a little better for it.

Summer was working late again, so we stopped to see her when we got into town. She spent the entire time on the phone, and we almost just left, but she eventually hung up long enough to say hello. We went for a run shortly after that because it looked like a storm was coming. We heard lots of thunder, but only got a couple sprinkles.

My parents were trying to figure out dinner, so I stayed for some rice and egg with RO*TEL and a bit of dried turkey. It was pretty dark by the time we left, and we had caught another rat when we got to the house, so we had to take it to Washburn Park. Eaddie was out until I was ready for bed, and all I could do was leave a light on for Summer. Of course the evening wouldn’t have been complete without an anxiety attack.

Jailbreak!

Frog Went a-Jumpin’ and He Did Ride Onewheel

We skipped breakfast this morning but had some coffee at the office. I felt busier, but it was still quiet, and that may just be the nature of the place for me. That would be swell. I did have an anxiety attack pretty early in the day that rattled me pretty hard, but as usual it was gone within seconds. I had to go downstairs a couple of times, and I was helpful both times, which was great.

I forgot Muad’Dib’s lunch, but we went to Taco Bell and I shared some of my burrito. While we were there, an older couple came up with three small, well-groomed dogs to eat at the other table. I chatted with the lady while the gentleman went in for food. I was super proud of Muad’Dib for his behavior – especially when I asked if I could leave him outside while I went in for a refill and to throw away our trash. I had him sit and stay, and he didn’t move a muscle the entire time I was inside. I almost couldn’t believe it.

Summer was going to be working until one in the morning, so we were on our own all evening. Diana wanted to chat, so I called her on our way home. Then we stopped to see Summer at the wash. I took the opportunity to vacuum my car, and then took it to the quarter wash for a 75-cent job. We got to the house and I got a call from Kyle from Hydro Carpet Solutions. He quoted $150 to clean the carpets and the sofa, which was significantly less than I expected. His first availability wasn’t until Friday evening, and I was surprised to hear that he worked that late, but he got us on the schedule.

Eaddie was gone, so I took Muad’Dib to pick up some Popeye’s to take to Summer. It took over half an hour to get our food from the time I played the order, but after a surprisingly bad experience with everyone I spoke to, the guy that bagged my order actually hooked us up with a little bit of extra food. We made it to the wash and saw the crew that was there to help with the deep clean. They were all excited to see Muad’Dib, and upon learning his name, one of the guys said he had that tattoo. He pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of his black and white, realistic style mouse.

We ate, Summer gave away what was left before I finished eating, and then Muad’Dib and I went back to the house for a quick run in the dark. When we got to the basin, a frog jumped at my path on the Onewheel. I swerved to try and miss it, but wasn’t sure of its fate until I felt it jump off of my foot a moment later. I was glad it survived. We stopped to see my parents just briefly, then got to the house to find Eaddie locked away in her room. Finally, bed.

Does this make me Shai-Hulud?

Build Me Up

I had to go downstairs to help Peyton and Heaven with some stuff this morning, and Muad’Dib snuck downstairs with Janice. Then he started being rowdy around us, and I had to take him outside to burn off some energy. It must have been the smell of the other dog that got him wound up so tight, because he ran around a bunch, and then came inside and tried to do it some more. I ended up taking him back outside and putting him on a short leash the rest of the day. He knew he was in trouble.

I went to McDonald’s for lunch and made him wait in the car. Service was expectedly terrible, and I got a guy “in trouble” for going behind the counter to get his own drink cup when nobody responded to his cries for help, but my food was okay. Then Shane put me on the spot in the afternoon when his new girl couldn’t enroll her laptop in Intune due to a licensing issue. Fortunately I was able to figure that one out pretty quickly.

Eaddie had her first ballgame in the evening, so I ran home to change and pretty immediately got picked up by Summer to go to Tech. We were super early, found seats, went back out of the stadium and found Eli’s family, and waited outside with them as the band marched up, played, then went inside and played a pregame show. I thought we might leave for food during the game and come back for halftime, but we stayed.

I tried to play Don’t Starve on my phone, but couldn’t do much because it was hard to see and the touch screen controls were terrible. I did get most of my map plotted though. Halftime was super short, and Dardanelle came to play with Tech for some reason, so we actually only got to hear a couple pieces from Eaddie’s set. Then we headed home to crash.

I had an anxiety attack in the kitchen trying to track down whether the kids had brought in a package. If they didn’t, then we’ve got a package thief.

Let me down.