High Schooled

I don’t know how the cops manage to single out particular vehicles for traffic stops in the morning. We nearly had a dead stop after Conway this morning because someone got pulled over. I got in and started messing with SCCM, but then Kyle called for some help replacing a switch at the high school.

I made it across town and it wasn’t too bad. He really only needed me as an extra set of hands, so I pulled a flatbed cart with the switch chassis across the campus. We looked for some rack screws to mount the old temporary switch, but instead just set it on top of another shelf. After sitting around and waiting for Kyle to investigate his issue for a while, he discovered that the problem lied in a configuration change that he made, so we moved everything back to the production switch.

At that point, I was late for lunch with no plans or lunch buddies. I tried texting Ben to see if he wanted to meet, but he responded after I had already made it across town to Arby’s. I ate my roast beef and then went into the Walmart for a few minute to investigate their clearance section. I found a couple things for the girls, grabbed some apple cider, and headed back to the office.

Instead of getting back into SCCM, most of my afternoon was occupied with more PRTG, since it was evident that it has been correctly identifying failures for Kyle before he has been aware. Hopefully making those maps highly visible for everyone will make them all more aware of their systems.

The drive home was a little slower because the Model Y’s range had diminished for some reason. I don’t know if it was the temperature, but I barely made it home with 5%. I stopped by the old house to check on the fish, and Dad had been by to move some of my stuff into the shed next door. Once I finally made it home, I took the dogs out for a pretty quick run. They were super good, and I kept trying to teach them directions.

Near the end of the run, they both had to poop at the exact same time with absolutely no warning, so I got that cleaned up and we made it home. They both got their own hot dogs for being so good, and then Summer and I watched some WandaVision before bed.

In a real magic act, everything is fake.

Peptolk

I felt pretty sick to my stomach all night, and it didn’t get a whole lot better this morning. I actually slept about half an hour late since I planned to power through my morning routine after showering so late in the evening. I foolishly thought I was ahead and could stop by Starbucks on the way out of town, but I was actually the latest I’ve ever been. Maggie and Jay were the only ones in the office though, as the old men were outside smoking.

Maggie ended up leaving early to take her kid to the dentist, so I was actually in the office by myself for nearly the entire day. I grabbed some McDonald’s for lunch to try their Chicken Big Mac. It was fine, but it really just made me want a regular Big Mac more.

The afternoon was dull until I finally left a little bit early. I stopped in Blackwell for some beer and then made it home. I took the dogs out for a longer run than usual, stopping to visit with Dad, then out to sniff around the pond. We went past the basin and then turned back around to go through it again on the way home. We passed another girl, her baby, and two large off-leash dogs that came by for a sniff. They made my dogs pretty jumpy, but they weren’t bad.

We made it home and they did super well, so they each got their own hot dog after dinner. Then I had a couple burritos before settling in. I cleaned up a little, got a couple more security cameras up, and then did some shopping before bed.

The worst kind of liquidity.

Productive Household

Summer had to go to Greenbrier this morning, and I woke up with a pretty bad stomach ache before she left. I just stayed up, hoping I would be able to get to bed early in the evening, but procrastination finds a way. I spent the morning paying a bunch of bills and then trying to clean up around the house. Summer wasn’t gone terribly long, and then we hung the towel rack in Eaddie’s bathroom.

I made burritos for Eaddie and myself since Summer had already eaten and was cleaning her side of the house. Noah came over after work and generally made himself at home. I took the dogs out for a run around the block a couple times, and eventually got wound down for bed after everyone else beat me to it.

Sure, help yourself.

Robeauven

I remembered the “We, Robot” Tesla event last night as I went to bed, so I stayed up and watched it as it started late. Overall I was pretty frustrated with what was offered. It seemed like buzzword vocabulary with a short tech demo that was only useful for people that were there in person. I immediately went to sleep, and then woke up to get to work.

The office was empty today, aside from a couple people swinging through. I just sat in the dark and did my thing, messing with some PRTG and SCCM. Then one of the ladies in the office made a baked potato bar for lunch, and a bunch of us paid $5 to join in. She had some leftover ribs and barbecue from the other day to go with it, so it was a good meal.

After work, I left a couple minutes early and seemed to miss a lot of traffic, but then the Interstate slowed to a standstill around Plumerville because of a wreck around Morrilton. I exited and drove to one of the onramps in Morrilton, which bypassed all of that, but I wondered how much time I really saved, if any at all.

On the way to the old house, I noticed they had leveled the old Hardee’s building, which broke my heart. I love their breakfast, but Summer was with some classmates at Old Bank for homecoming and said they were rebuilding a Hardee’s and Chipotle in its place.

Once I got home, Noah and his friend Wade came by so Noah could take a shower. I chatted with Wade outside for a bit while I cleaned up all the cardboard the dogs chewed up on the porch. Then I took the dogs out for a fairly good run. We took an odd route to see my parents, and then went through the basin trail before making it home. They were still distracted by squirrels, but they didn’t try to take off like they have in the past. We made it home without incident.

Eaddie was at the game late, but Summer came home after watching them play. I had spent some frustrating time fighting with my Ember mugs after a major app update that disconnected them all. I had a second anxiety attack in bed watching YouTube, but I got over it fairly quickly. I had one earlier in the day as well when I had to try and contact a board member to help with email.

Links for Later

So Many Thoughts

Traffic was dumb all day, but to my knowledge, nobody died. I was the first one into the office, and I basically spent the whole morning tinkering with things as they came to me. Nobody was around for lunch, so I ran to Rally’s for my usual, plus some surprisingly good funnel cake fries. The afternoon dragged a bit, and I spent some time in SCCM. At some point in the day, James texted, presumably for help with Savvas and the Milestone cameras. I pointed him in a direction, but there wasn’t a lot I could do for him specifically, and I wouldn’t without pay.

Traffic was thick the whole way home, and Summer was cooking since Noah was coming over. I got home and changed, then had to go to the store for tortillas and beans. I ran the dogs to my parents’ house when I got back home, and then the three of us ate since Eaddie was out late for something again.

The week went by really fast, but it’s not over yet. It’s just me by myself in the office all day tomorrow, so we’ll see who comes around.

Don’t bank on it.

Good Buy Pizza Pie

I didn’t sleep terribly late today, and hand-ground some coffee for breakfast. The girls were both up pretty early, so Summer went to the gym and Eaddie did some cleaning before her evening plans for the Sadie’s dance. Julie texted asking to borrow a phone for Kevin after he ran his over with a lawnmower, so I spent much of the afternoon cleaning up my Galaxy S21 Ultra for them.

Once the phone was wiped, I took the dogs out for a run through the neighborhood. We stopped to see Mom, and then went up the hill and through Pinewood before making it back home. Then Julie and Kevin came over to get the phone, and I gave Julie an iPad Mini to use when she’s flying.

Summer and I hadn’t eaten all day, so I ordered some Domino’s and we went to pick it up together. They were super busy, so we ended up waiting in the parking lot for a while before I went in to get it. Then we took it to Mom to surprise her with dinner. We ate and then headed home for the evening.

Get to it.

Watchtower

The guys were socializing this morning while I tinkered around in SCCM. Then as I moved on to PDQ, we suddenly started having network issues. Randy and Kyle left for the core closet, where they later reported that some new equipment being installed caused a loopback. With that fixed in the late morning, things calmed down a bit.

Maggie and I went to Taziki’s for lunch in the mall, and the food was really good. She was super excited to have someone else that would eat there, because evidently the old men in the group always want pizza and barbecue. I love being able to go to all these new places for lunch.

The afternoon was a bit more casual and quiet. Randy came back and chatted with us for a bit, and the morning’s antics inspired me to finish setting up a PRTG server to monitor our network and servers. I didn’t even realize how quickly time had passed, and I had to jump up and leave as Jay walked out.

Eaddie had parent/teacher conferences today, but Summer left work to attend them early. I got home just as Eaddie arrived with some little hockey pucks from Little Caesar’s. We ate a mix of that and some leftovers, and then I took the dogs for another really great run. I don’t know if it’s the weather, or maybe the repetition is finally paying off, but they’ve been super well-behaved. We stopped to visit with my parents, then continued up the hill and back home. I gave them some good pets and treats, and finally Summer and I watched some more TV before bed.

Coco for Cuckoo Puffs!

You Can Take Rally’s Out of the Hood

I squeaked into work this morning, and I think I’m even more consistent with my arrival time now than when I worked five minutes away. The guys sat on the other side of the partition for a while, and Randy debated his Chromebook strategy with them. I had to be careful not to ruffle too many feathers, but it was the same old story. They didn’t seem super anxious to work any harder. I still think people will grow to meet your demands if you’re consistent in holding them accountable.

Nobody showed up for lunch, so I went to Rally’s by myself. I ordered online and got my food reasonably quickly, but I felt super out of place when I saw the other people that had walked up to the window. The fries looked soggy, but tasted alright. I even tried their mozzarella sticks and found them to be pretty tasty, even without the marinara sauce they failed to give me. Then I found they had mismade my burger, so I went back to the window again to ask for a correction. A guy named Omar came up to the window and gave me some grief about it, and said, “we don’t have onion straws, so you wouldn’t have got ’em anyway.” I offered to let him just squirt some barbecue sauce on my partially eaten burger, but he called for it to be remade anyway.

I tinkered with SCCM and VMware the rest of the afternoon, and fought traffic the entire way home after work. Dad had the trees cut down in the front yard at the old house, so I stopped by to have a look and grab a few things. I didn’t care much for the look of it, but I suppose now there will be fewer tree-related problems.

The car was pretty gross from all the bugs I encounter on my regular commute, so I stopped to wash it on the way home. Summer was getting ready to take a bath when I got there, so I ate my leftover remade burger from Rally’s and discovered that they did have onion straws after all. It was even pretty good reheated. Then I took the dogs for probably the best run I’ve ever had with them. They ran the whole way to my parents’ house and sniffed around there for a while. Then we went through the basin and back up to the house without any fuss. I didn’t even have to scoop any poop!

I fed the dogs, loaded them up on treats, and then settled in to watch a couple episodes of Modern Family with Summer until bedtime. Eaddie made it home a little later, but I only barely caught sight of her as she came in and ducked straight into her room.

…but you can’t take the hood out of Rally’s.

Fun Without Hinges

I was a little slow out the door this morning, but I got to work on time. Not that anyone would have noticed. I spent a little time in the morning finishing up the Google Classroom cleanup I had to do for teachers that had left. Then I started tinkering with SCCM again.

They took me to another new place for lunch. This time it was Gadwall’s, and I had a big plate of chili cheese nachos. They were fairly good, but also fairly expensive. I was just happy that for the price, it was a pretty big plate. It occurred to me as we chattered that I’ve really missed being around people that haven’t acclimated to the unhinged things I sometimes say. It was a solid reminder of how hilarious I am, and how those who are around me more often are taking that hilarity for granted.

I was by myself for a part of the morning, and most of the afternoon. My big success was discovering the incompatible version of my Configuration Manager. Once I found the correct install for that, my laptop was able to connect to the server, which should speed up any work I do in that system.

After work, I ran back to the Target on our side of town to look for another Pixel Watch. I didn’t have any luck with that, but I did pick up a shirt for Muad’Dib and a big pool float that were both on clearance. Then I headed to Kohl’s in Conway to pick up an order before finally heading toward home.

Summer had a rough day at work and wanted Wendy’s for dinner, so I picked that up once I got into town, and we ate together before I went out with the dogs. They were super excited and had torn into a bunch more stuff in the yard. They ran the entire way to my parents’ house again, which tells me that we really need to get them out even more than we do.

I visited with Dad briefly for a walk around the yard, and then we headed home. I got a little upset to the stomach, but also had at least three separate anxiety attacks throughout the day, so I really wanted to get to bed early to get some rest. As I was just going to bed, Noah called from the ER, but it seemed to be more due to the fact that he needed a doctor’s note to keep his job. I talked to him a little bit and gave him what advice I could, but maybe we’ll hear more about it soon.

No crap.

Doggy Paddle

I got up pretty early this morning, but things went pretty slowly after that. The girls eventually got up, and Eaddie left for church with Eli. I made a “grilled cheese bacon, egg, and cheese” sandwich out of some frozen grilled cheeses and leftover bacon that I found. Then Summer and I wanted to take the dogs to the lake to see how they’d like the water.

We waited around for Eaddie to get home in the afternoon, and we loaded everyone up to go to the marina. We walked around a little bit at first, and the dogs had to run around sniffing everything. Then, as we predicted, Stilgar dove right into the water. Muad’Dib was a little slower, but eventually did get all the way in on the boat ramp. Stilgar would have tried to swim to the other side of the lake if he hadn’t been on the leash. We let them run around to play, and I even let Muad’Dib off of his leash for a little bit. I wasn’t quite confident in Stilgar’s recall to let him go, but he stayed on the long leash.

After we had enough of the water, I rode them around the loop on my Onewheel to dry off. We encountered a persimmon tree right by the road, and they absolutely loved those. I had one off of the ground, and it was pretty sweet. I tried not to let them eat too many of them though, for fear that some of the seeds would get stuck coming out.

We made a couple loops, and then Stilgar passed something bright orange. I thought maybe the persimmons had just gone through him that quickly, but when I picked it up, it seemed really hard. I couldn’t tell what it was, and I wasn’t willing to dig through the poop to figure it out. We finished our loop and packed everyone in to go home.

The dogs got fed as soon as we got back, and then they were pooped out. I went and got some KFC for the rest of us, and then the girls retreated to their televisions. I took a late shower and wound down pretty quickly. It was a fun day, but the weekends feel particularly short now.

Three months of driving…