Tag: anxiety

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Who’s the Boss

I got out super late today, yet still somehow showed up first. Summer wanted to take the Tesla, so I arrived white-knuckled after manually driving in. Jay came in and out while I was getting water, so he didn’t see me. Maggie predictably came in about half an hour late, and I don’t know if that’s just what she’s arranged, or if that needs adjusting. Randy and Kyle were at the Arkansas Conference of Technology, so I was “running the show.”

The morning was super quiet. I had a late coffee and helped Johnny with some more Google Cloud Directory Sync stuff. Lunch time came around and I just ran to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal to get the Mario Kart toy. I wasn’t super happy with the “pink gold” Peach I got, but what do you do? Someone went through the drive-through with a U-Haul trailer, and didn’t look jackknifed, but the truck was tilted up on its side somehow.

I got back to the office and had a long afternoon. I talked to Johnny some more, and eventually dug around in SCCM some more before taking off a few minutes early so I could get home to run the dogs before our parent meeting for Eaddie’s band trip.

The dogs took off full-tilt to my parents’ house to see Dad, and then we went around the basin trail to take a dip in the creek. We got back home and they got some hot dogs, and I ate some of the lasagna that Summer made yesterday. Then Summer and I headed to the high school band room to meet up with Eaddie and the other students and parents that were going on the trip.

Dan seemed to be the one running the show, so he talked to us about the trip and some expectations. Summer and I were really just along for the ride on account of our flexibility. That went on for a while, and then the three of us came home and went to bed.

Shopfree!

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ReServed

I didn’t sleep very late today because I wanted to get to the other house to move some stuff. Eaddie left for church while Summer was out with the dogs, and then Summer left for the gym. I started feeling sick to the stomach, possibly due to one too many bites of ice cream last night, and then when I finally took a shower, I had a pretty rough anxiety attack that hit me out of nowhere. It left my head spinning for much of the afternoon.

I eventually had an energy drink and then took the dogs out for an early run. We visited Mom, and then went around past the basin trail. The dogs chased after some kids, then after some squirrels, then took a dunk in the creek before we finally made our way back home.

Summer had started to do a bit of work from home, but then we got up and went to the old house to pick up some big, heavy stuff. We loaded all of my big rack-mount servers and some switches into the back of the Model Y, and I aired up the tires on the Fiero. While we were there, my old neighbor Stanley stopped to say hello and asked about the Fiero. He had a friend that he said would probably be interested, so I gave him my number.

We were just barely on the way home when I got a call from the friend, Tommy. He said he was a 69 year old, retired engineer from GM, and that he used to have a 1985 pace car that he bought his wife, which had been stolen. He said his wife would be tickled, and I liked that it could go to someone who could work on it as a labor of love.

Summer and I unloaded the car when we got home, and then we went to McDonald’s for $1 McNuggets. I ran back inside for a deal on fries, and then we stopped by Wendy’s to pick up some fries for her. That ended up taking forever, which was in stark contrast to how things were back in the early 2000s. Wendy’s used to be the king of drive-through speed, and McDonald’s simply operated. Now, McDonald’s had everything automated and staff interactions minimized, so they churned people through in no time.

We ate at home, then went out with the dogs for a while. Eaddie had been gone all day doing homework and whatever else. When she got home, she chatted with Summer for a while, then came to check in with me before bed. I was pleased to be in bed by ten.

Now I almost have to get another car.

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Garaged

My hand hasn’t been hurting too bad, and it didn’t start bleeding again until I was out of the shower and trying to put my hair up. That put me behind getting to work, so I burned through the battery trying to make that time up. Randy was the only one there when I got there, and he was fine with me pulling into the shop bay to charge, so I more than made up for what I burned to get there.

School was out, and most of the administration was out as well, so Randy figured we would probably cut out a little early. We chatted for a while in the office, and I tinkered a little bit, but didn’t get too deep into anything. We Maggie said NextStep was taking people to Topgolf, but then Randy said he and Jim were meeting Hunter and Corey at BJ’s Market Cafe, and I wanted to meet up with those guys. About that time, Ben texted about lunch and I invited him to join us. Maggie just went to Topgolf by herself because she wanted to meet with the vendor.

I tried having Google Duplex(?) make a reservation for us, but that didn’t work and I just called myself. When the time came, Jay decided he was going to go, and Ben said he had a +1 with him. Unfortunately, he misunderstood the location that I didn’t clarify, and he ended up at Skinny J’s instead and never made it to us.

The catfish dinner was pretty decent, and it was nice to meet the old director and network admin. I didn’t have much to add to the conversation, and Hunter seemed mostly sour on the district for good reason. We finished up there and went back to the office for a little while before Randy cut us loose.

Traffic ground to a full stop twice on the way home, but I made it. Summer was home early due to the weather, but it was only barely sprinkling when I got there, so I took the dogs out for a quick, early run. We stopped just long enough to see Dad, then made it around the basin and back home.

After a while, Summer and I decided to leave for dinner, but she didn’t know what she wanted to eat. I activated FSD as we left the house, and decided to just let the car go and see where we ended up. It drove north over the Phoenix bridge, past Tech, and around the old gymnastics building. As we drove by IHOP, Summer decided that was what she wanted.

The food was good, but the service was better. We ate, and then left in some heavier rain. She went to bed, and I wasn’t long behind her. I saw Eaddie briefly as she came in from her rehearsal day in Conway, and we’ll head that way tomorrow for her concert.

SLZZZZZP

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Sliced

I got out really early today, and it seemed to make a huge difference in traffic. The guys were outside talking, but I went in because it was chilly out. Most of my day was pretty scattered, but quiet. I started with a cup of oatmeal, and the morning went by reasonably quickly. We took a late lunch, and I went to BJ’s Market Cafe with Jim and Maggie, where they had us in and out within minutes. They were like Old South, but bigger, and possibly even more packed. I had the “beef tips” which mostly reminded me of rice and roast beef that had been in the slow cooker too long.

The afternoon dragged on a bit, and Johnny called right at the end of the day to gripe about Lamar. I finally got out of there and made my way home after coming to a dead stop right out of Little Rock. Summer was in bed with a bad back, so I took the dogs out for another record-breaking run. They did 2.3 miles at a 9.5mph pace with a top speed of 21.2mph. We stopped at a house along the way home because it looked like they had a water hose running into their yard and all down the neighbor’s yard. They didn’t answer the door, so I went to find their neighbor, who had already texted the lady but hadn’t gotten a response. Hopefully they were just draining their pool, because the back gate was padlocked so I couldn’t get back there to turn a faucet off. The dogs and I finally got home and I gave them treats before making myself a burrito for dinner.

Kevin came over with Mathai to get his laptop. Then after they left, I ended up slicing a huge gash on the right side of my right hand as I tried to swat a fly off of an open can of refried beans. Blood gushed everywhere for a moment, and I called Eaddie for some help as I leaked life fluid into the sink. She brought alcohol, bandages, and even helped clean up the blood splatter all over the floor.

Once I got my hand cleaned up and bandaged, we sat in the dining room and talked for quite a while about growing up and her future plans. It was a great moment, and eventually I had to make a mad dash to get to bed late.

I’m pretty sure I’ve learned this lesson before.

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Just a Little PXE Dust

I had a rough start this morning, but things eventually worked out. I had to get out of bed just after I had gotten in it because Stilgar was barking at something. When I got outside, Muad’Dib had shredded my newer grill’s cover trying to get to a foil pan that had fallen behind it. I ended up beating him for it, and he ran off behind the outhouse for the night. He was back on the porch for breakfast with Summer in the morning though.

I got to work and the guys were chatting outside as usual. I went in to test PXE booting, and wouldn’t you know it, adding IP helpers completely fixed the issue. I don’t know why the DHCP policy didn’t work, since I’d used that successfully before and all things pointed to it being a different issue, but I had an image booted in no time.

Maggie and Randy were both somewhere else in the district all day, so Maggie turned the lights off and left me alone in the dark for nearly the entire day. I ended up going to Arby’s for lunch when I couldn’t get a response from Randy, but then he called to say they were going to Hogg’s Meat Market just after I got back to the office.

At one point, Gary came in and started cussin’ about Maggie, trying to tell me that it was her job to go to all of the buildings and do inventory. I wasn’t going to roll over on that, and told him that “we” had always delegated that to building techs since they were the ones that had to deploy and verify inventory for any areas for which they were responsible. He didn’t like that answer at all, and told me that this wasn’t wherever I came from. He didn’t stick around long after that.

Randy came in near the end of the day saying he heard that I had pissed Gary off, so I shared my side of the story. He appreciated that I backed Maggie and stood up to the old man, and we chatted while I continued to work on SCCM stuff. At the end of the day, he mentioned something about getting home after dark, so I brought up my struggles with 13-hour work days. I raised my question about cutting our lunch hour down to 30 minutes again, and he said he would be okay with it as long as he could get permission for the department. In reality, there didn’t seem to be a policy in place anywhere, and they were only taking a full hour lunch “because that’s how they’d always done it.” He also suggested working remotely for one day a week, and I told him I’d rather try and ask forgiveness for doing something like that as-needed, rather than be shot down for asking permission to set that as a weekly schedule.

I eventually got out of there, and Ben called as I was making my way home. He asked about the job, and we chatted for a little while up until I got off the interstate. When I got to the house, Eaddie and her friend Autumn were there doing homework, and Summer was coming home from work a little later. Dad had already come by the house and taken the dogs for a walk, but I took them out for a faster run. I think they beat their record with a 20.6mph top speed and a pace of 9.2mph for 2.1 miles. We visited Dad, then went around the basin which had surprisingly already drained most of the way back down. They did well enough for hot dogs when we got home, and then Eaddie left to take Autumn home. Summer was along shortly after that, and I worked on Kevin’s computer a little more until bedtime.

So are we skipping the moon and taking Doge straight to Mars now?

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Breakfixst

I didn’t sleep great last night, and it stormed for most of it. I woke up groggy, but made it out of the house early enough to take the drive a little easier. Surprisingly, Maggie beat me to the office and started talking about breakfast shortly after I got there. I made coffee, and when Kyle and Randy came in, she took orders from everyone and went to get food from BJ’s. I had a western omelette with hashbrowns and biscuits, and it was pretty good. I ate way slower than everyone else since I was trying to work at the same time.

I didn’t really get hungry until late in the afternoon, so I didn’t take a lunch. I just kept chugging away at SCCM, trying to fix PXE booting all day. I asked Randy if I could take off an hour early since I didn’t eat, and he just said not to make a habit of it after Javier had been taking advantage. I made it home quickly, and it had dried up, so I wanted to take the dogs out on a good run.

Summer had been home much of the day since the washes were rained out. She was working in her office when I came and left. I took the dogs to my parents’ house to sniff around the yard, then went to the basin trail, which was mostly flooded into one giant pond.

I let the dogs splash around a little bit, and then we chased off a big flock of geese. Stilgar was whining because he wanted to chase them so badly, but I knew he’d never come back. He could have so much more fun if he’d just have better recall, but he won’t listen. We ended up going out further, crossing 12th, and visiting Sequoyah Park. Then we made it around to the Boulevard before swinging back through the roundabout. It was nearly a five mile run at an 8.5mph average, so they got home hungry. I actually ran out of poop bags and had to come home to get a new roll after Stilgar left a big pile at someone’s house. Embassingly, the lady pulled up to check her male as I was looking around the yard to find it, but she told me she didn’t care and not to worry about it.

We got home for some hot dogs, I ate some leftover pizza, and then Summer and I sat down to chat for a bit before I opened up a couple more Vine packages. They keep coming out with “neon” signs that I love. I wrapped things up early after that, and actually managed to get to bed really early.

Silly goose.

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Negligence

Just before I went to bed last night, Eaddie’s car alarm started going off. I yelled across the house at her for her keys, and she just yelled back through her bedroom door to check the valet. I knew damn well the key wasn’t there, but I looked anyway. Fortunately the alarm quit, and I found no evidence of tampering. The rain must have triggered something in a sensor.

I finally got to sleep, and Summer woke me up a couple hours later because it was going off again. I found the keys, this time in Eaddie’s purse that she thought she left at school. Keys go in the valet, so we always know where they are. If nobody else is going to lift a finger, then I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

I slept in a few minutes and ran an alternate routine in the morning to get to work on time. I didn’t feel too awful for it, but it wasn’t great. I was the first one there, and started out with some coffee pretty early. I got through to lunch when Randy, Kyle, Jim, and I went to American Pie Pizza. Maggie said she wasn’t going, but then beat us there. She and I split a pizza, but she only ate two slices. Kyle and Randy split another pizza that I thought we might share from, but we each stuck to our own, and Jim got a salad. I liked the brick oven style crust a lot, but it made for eating half a pie.

The afternoon was spent on SCCM again, and I finally cracked the puzzle by setting a compatibility version on the SQL server. That got me right to the end of the day, so I’ll dive into it again first thing tomorrow.

Summer went home early in the rain and had dinner going for us. I raced there to get the dogs walked before sundown, but we still ended up in the dark. We had to go on an acoustic walk since the ground was wet and I didn’t want the Onewheel to kick water up at my leg the entire time, though the dogs wouldn’t have cared. I need to get a fender for those types of days, but I like the exposed wheel otherwise.

I had to take a beat when I got back because Summer said she left the grill cover out and the dogs ripped a hole in it. She overcooked four well-done strip steaks, steamed five potatoes, and made a huge bowl of salad for the three of us plus Eli. I was irritated and disappointed. The dogs will be dogs, but I’m tired of her absent mindedness. After dinner, I had to unload the dirty dishwasher to load it correctly, and she scolded me for having a fit, but I was really just trying to get it done, and frustrated that I was having to fix her mess again.

She went to bed and the kids stayed up doing homework. I eventually got outside to clean up the grill because I knew she hadn’t, and that’s when I discovered the burner had been on the entire time, wasting propane and keeping the grill hot. I sat outside with the dogs while it cooled down, and then managed to get the ripped cover mostly back over the grill. I don’t think they make that model any more, and the shape was pretty specific with the smoke vent, so I may just have to do my best to patch the thing up.

I don’t know when it turns from negligence to stupidity, but I don’t know how much more I’m willing to overlook.

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Furniture: Assemble!

I got up with Summer this morning instead of sleeping in. Eaddie had to leave early for her Tech Band Member for a Day event, and then I made some coffee for Summer and myself. She had to leave for an employee’s wedding in Tulsa, and she wanted me to stay behind and watch Eaddie’s band performance.

I cleaned up the house a bit and started assembling the new “media console table” that we got for the sunroom. It was cheap, but it fit the space well, and would give us somewhere to put some of the random things that would go in that room.

Eaddie ended up texting to tell me not to go to the game because they only got to play one song at the start, and then another one at the very start of halftime. I actually found the livestream on YouTube and watched it there, and of course it just looked like a big mob of people. They kept talking and playing commercials over some of the other performances, but fortunately they stopped during the segments the kids were playing.

Once I got everything cleaned back up, I took the dogs out for a really long run. We went to my parents’ house, then circled back to see Eaddie while she was changing clothes at the house. Then she and Eli left for a game night with friends, and the dogs and I kept running. We took a backwards route through the basin, then around through some other neighborhoods before circling back. We did 5.4 miles total, with a couple stops to dip in the creek at the basin park. They did really well, but I think I’m just getting lucky with most of my directions training.

Once we got home, I fed them and called Summer to check in. She had stopped to charge before heading home. I forgot we didn’t have tortillas, so I ended up going to Little Caesar’s for some dinner. Then I discovered Summer had been charging for over an hour and I had to show her how to monitor her charge rate. She should have been on the road within just a few minutes, but didn’t know any better.

The girls both ended up getting home around the same time, and I didn’t waste any time getting to bed. The night had dragged on a bit, and I was drained from sleep deprivation. No time to make it up.

We on neon!

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Chasing Goblins

I woke up to a rainstorm and practically had to push the car through the rain to get to work because Full Self Driving didn’t want to go over about 60. Traffic after Conway slowed down to the 40s, so I showed up plenty late. Randy was the only one there, and he only walked in just before me. A few others trickled in, but most didn’t stick around long.

I ended up sitting in on a quick call with Kyle and Maggie, but that was mostly just receiving a proposal from a vendor that Randy didn’t want to attend. I was just happy my microphone worked this time. Then I sat in with Maggie and Randy when the Acer rep came to talk to us in person. He tried name dropping Russellville as a client, but I confirmed with Gary that they hadn’t bought any Acer stuff. I don’t know if he was just lying or mistaken.

We didn’t get out for lunch because Robin cooked pork chops and baked potatoes for us. You really couldn’t beat it for five bucks. We’ve been eating great every couple of weeks out there. Then I poked around with the KMS server a bit more in the afternoon. I left work early so I could go home and vote, but I had to stop at the old house first. Then went and stood in line at the election headquarters. They were churning people through there pretty quickly, so I was in and out in no time. Then I headed straight home to see Summer before the trick-or-treaters started coming around.

We had some leftover burritos, and then as soon as we got our first group of kids, I took the dogs out for a run on the Onewheel. They must have smelled it in the air, because they took off running like crazy. There were people all down the road, and we flew by without too much trouble. They did want to sniff at people at first, but overall they did pretty great. We stopped by to see Dad, but their street was dark.

From there, we went around the block to Promenade Circle, and that place was packed. There were cars parked on both sides of the road around the whole block, and you couldn’t get farther than about ten feet away from people in any direction. We rolled on through and went around the main circle once before going out to the basin trail. There was nobody out there, so we continued around Vancouver and then came back up by my parents’ house for some water before taking the long way home.

Summer kept handing out candy for a little longer, but then we put everything away and got ready for bed. Eaddie was out all night with Eli at a Tech band concert. I saw her come in, and then went to bed.

It’s like a candy festival of light!

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Forced Drive

I got out a little earlier today and had a more relaxed ride in to work until around Mayflower. Conway traffic was thick and fast, so I was in a mob of cars that were flying down the road at 88 miles an hour. This is both the speed at which you travel through time, as well as the speed at which Autopilot will no longer autopilot. I had to take over, and with such heavy traffic, didn’t feel like pulling over to park and re-engage. Stress was much higher the rest of the way in, which was also the most busy part of the drive.

The morning wasn’t too bad though. Maggie split her biscuits and gravy with me, and I puttered a bit before really sinking my teeth into anything. The morning went by quickly though, and then I had to text Randy to see what they were doing for lunch. He, Jim, and Kyle were at Cary’s Grill and Bar, which was closed the last time we tried to visit. Maggie wasn’t going to lunch, but changed her mind when I told her the place, so we drove over to meet them.

I had a pretty decent chicken fried steak, but the hashbrown casserole was pretty awful. All of the food could have been a bit more fresh and hot, but wasn’t bad. I also had okra for the first time in the day. Maggie was too nervous to let the car drive us back, so I drove to the office by myself, and I finished the day trying to wrangle our KMS server.

Julie called on the drive home to say she wanted to have Kevin’s celebratory dinner tonight, so I called Eaddie to queue her up before I got home. I didn’t have time to run the dogs, but I got cleaned up before picking up my parents, and then had the car drive us to Brangus to meet Eaddie, Julie, and Kevin. Summer came along after we got inside, but then had to deal with an accident at work.

Dinner was pretty good, as Brangus usually is. We lingered a bit longer than I really wanted, since I still had to run the dogs before bed. Summer took Eaddie home while I took my parents home, and then I took the dogs out for an short, alternate run in the dark. They did alright though, and then I had another speed run to bed.

Sure it works, but is it better?