Tag: bike

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Into the Unknown

I spent all morning learning Wikitext to actually start entering articles for work. The translation took a while because even with a visual editor, the markup text made things look way cleaner. I still didn’t even finish publishing my first article, but at least what I have so far looks nice.

Ben got a Fat Daddy’s gift card for doing some work for someone, so he bought us lunch today. I brought prawn chips to fry since I still had the deep fryer there too. It was a really light lunch for me to choose ribs, but it was pretty good. I think I would’ve been happier with one of my usual orders though.

Ben wanted me to go try to break a touch panel before I left, so I went to the high school to a classroom with known issues. On the way, I had to deliver six iPads to the PAC. They had everyone using the main entrance with a sign-in sheet, but I just snuck in with my Technology superpowers before continuing on to the classroom. I could never get the touch to quit working, but I got so frustrated with how bad the SMART Ink was. I could draw in Paint and it would be flawless, but the SMART software lagged so hard. I hated it.

Autumn called when I forgot about her therapy appointment, so I ran home to drop off some things and then got her to therapy about 20 minutes late. Then I stopped by my parents’ house to wish Mom a happy birthday and chatted with them a little bit. She was outside power washing, and Dad was up on the roof cleaning gutters. I didn’t stick around too long though, and let them get back to work.

When I got home, I cleaned up and played a little bit of Overwatch until Summer and Eaddie came over. Then we rode bikes around the neighborhood, stopping by Allen’s, then going over to the high school. Eaddie wanted to take me to the trail that she and Noah found, so we did that. I tried riding over to Julie’s house too, but the field was so long and rugged with too many back yards that I didn’t want to disturb. We headed back around the new practice facility, then made it back to my house.

The girls headed home and I followed a little later. Autumn had some leftover fish sticks out, so I got the deep fryer going again for some of those, some more prawn chips, and some sweet potato fries for Summer. Then Autumn wanted to watch a movie with Summer, so Eaddie and I went to the bedroom to finish The Defenders. The end escalated pretty quickly, but we were happy with it.

Next up: Jessica Jones

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A Healthy Alternative to Netflix and Chips

Summer left for work this morning, and I slept in with the kids. It was nice being at home for a change, though things were frustratingly cluttered. Summer wanted me to take her to the doctor for her leg pain, so I ran by Sonic to get the kids some 99-cent cheese sticks before taking her to Millard Henry. I didn’t want to go inside on account of the pandemic, so instead I sat in the car playing Plague Inc. While I sat there, I saw a couple girls pull up in another car, and the one driving reached down to hide some trash under her car before they got out. I should have honked or something, but instead I spent the next few minutes fantasizing about fetching the trash and sticking it under her windshield wipers. In the end, inaction won and the environment lost.

After a bit over an hour, Summer came out and we ran by Rose Drug before I took her back to work. Next up was figuring out a late lunch or early dinner for the kids. I went to Walmart and loaded my arms up with some hamburger meat and steaks, some lunch meat and cheese, a couple loaves of French bread, and a bin of spring mix for balance. I went home and made an epic sandwich that left everyone relatively healthily fed. Even Summer wanted some, so I took her one before coming back home and getting the bikes out.

Noah and Eaddie were both super excited to get out of the house. Autumn took a little extra convincing as usual, but she ended up having fun. We all rode to the high school and raced through the park and around the campus. Eaddie kept losing her hat in the wind because she refused to wear it backwards. Autumn was predictably sluggish, but the others just kept taking off with all their pent-up energy.

It was pretty hot out, so we all made it back to the house a bit sweaty. I had trouble getting the garage door open, and the girls ended up in the shady back yard for a bit. Eventually we did get in, and the kids went back to The Simpsons. Summer came over after running 5k at the park, then took the girls home. Noah wanted to ride to his friend’s house, so I took the time to clean house a bit before getting a shower and then taking him back up to Summer’s for the evening.

Summer was ready to pass out on the couch, but we watched Ronny Chieng’s Netflix special while I had a salad and a little pasta for dinner. By the time I got to Autumn’s chocolate cake for dessert, she had passed smooth out, so I put her to bed and then watched one of Tom Segura’s specials with Noah until bedtime.

Self quarantining has me biking, planting tomatoes, and eating at home. What a concept.

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Gromroll, Please!

I slept pretty well last night after a couple Aleve to dull the aches of the day. Summer left to get the girls home and start some cleaning before lunch. Mom had leftover beef spring rolls ready for lunch when they got up. Summer and Eaddie wanted to ride their bikes, so I drove Autumn and met them there. Autumn was more or less a lame duck, but Eaddie at least pretended to watch Dad work on their telescope a bit.

After a little while, we all headed home so Summer could get some time on the Grom after several weeks without. I wouldn’t let Autumn stay at the house, so I gave her the choice of riding with me or riding her own bike. She reluctantly climbed onto the Grom with me, and we made our way to the park. Summer and Eaddie beat us there on their bikes from my parents’ house, but the parking lot was cluttered with cars for a ballgame, so we rode up to the highschool instead. Summer jumped on and did really well today, weaving through the concrete parking bumpers and other obstacles. She even left the parking lot and drove around the little streets around the campus.

They all had to get home to finish their chores before school and work tomorrow, so we all rode back to my house and they headed home. I milled around and did some cleaning myself after having a Full Throttle to wake myself up. I took care of the pets, started some laundry, and got things ready for work in the morning.

Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow.

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A Learnful Day

It was hot today, but I still wanted to get out on the bike. We started off building some more carts to shuffle around at the middle school. Amanda was pretty annoyed that we seemed to be doing things in a more complicated, convoluted way than she originally planned. I don’t think anyone was surprised. Zach peeled Gary and me off of the job after the first delivery since we were overstaffed for the task as usual. Gary helped me look at a couple things I had in the queue until lunch time, and then as he left to eat, I got tied up on the phone with Erica looking at some of their work orders. I decided to swing by there to see what they were doing for lunch, and Sheri ended up surprising me by buying me a nacho supreme from Taco Villa.

After I ate, I headed back to the shop and went to the server room with Gary. I got to set up three of the new servers under his direction. I only barely understood what was really going on, but it was still nice to get some hands-on and see a bit of what goes on behind the scenes. Afterward we went to the high school to take care of some work orders. I didn’t think I really needed the help necessarily, but he ended up being super handy to have around. I got to build a little more rapport with some of the faces I see more often, which was nice. I worked a little late, but felt good with what I had gotten done.

Shortly after I got home, Summer and Eaddie came over to ride bikes. I met them at Hickey Park on the Grom so Summer could practice riding around a bit more. She seemed to get a better grasp on her launches, so I had her start slaloming for the rest of the evening to get a feel for turning and curves. I wish I had started out more like this instead of the trial by fire. When we got back from that, they headed straight home to clean up, and I pretty much immediately started winding down. It was a pretty good day all around, so I figured an early night to bed would be best.

We’ll use his vehicle stipend as a unit of measurement!

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Progress Monitor

I squeaked in to work this morning by the skin of my teeth. Really I was actually late, but nobody noticed. I don’t know what happened. I lost a couple minutes somewhere too late in the game and just couldn’t make it back up. I guess I paid for it by having to load two trucks worth of monitors when Jason took Amanda and Allen with my first truck to the high school with a 30 count, and then sent me with Heather to the junior high with 90 to replace. Heather was hungry, so we stopped for jalapeño kolaches and an apple fritter. Gary joined us as well, and we got one lab done and another started before lunch.

Allen was the only one that wanted to go eat, and without any better ideas, we settled on McDonald’s. I tried the Grand McExtreme Bacon Burger from Spain, which tasted okay but was way too messy for what it was. In the end I would have preferred a Big Mac. In spite of the decent taste, the whole thing was oversauced and greasy in a way that left me just barely gurgling the rest of the entire day.

Back at work, I got some help to load up one more truck bed with the last pallet of monitors. The three of us got about halfway into the second lab when I had to leave for a doctor appointment. I hesitate to call them doctor appointments now though, since I haven’t actually spoken to a doctor in about two years. Almost unsurprisingly, they had me fill out a bunch of paperwork again because they “got a new system.” At least there seems to be an online portal now that may help with tracking some of this that I’m dealing with.

After about an hour of that and scheduling a regular appointment for six months later, I went back to the junior high and we finished the last lab with just enough time to get back to the shop for quitting time. Amanda and Allen even joined us for the last couple monitor swaps at the end. I chatted with Ben for a little bit after work, and then went home to find a hungry Eaddie with no phone or enough sense to eat the frozen sausage biscuits. She opted for the bike, and I took her to Arby’s for a sandwich and a orange cream shake.

We started an episode of Jessica Jones and waited for Summer to get there so we could go to the park again. Eaddie and I both hurt from riding bikes yesterday, and Summer let herself get aggravated with the Grom, which never helps. After about an hour we had all had enough and came back home. They went home to clean up while I did some cleaning at home myself, and then they came back so we could finish our episode before bed.

Pancho is now the machoest tecknikken!

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Slow Grind

I got up a little earlier today and started picking at the house again. It was cooler out, so I tackled a pile of stuff in the floor of the garage, organizing things as I went along. I’ll still have to find permanent homes for everything, but at least now most of it’s out of the floor and in boxes. I even threw away some stuff, like a box of tractor-feed paper.

Summer fried chicken for tacos, but I felt to gross and dirty to get out right then. Eventually I gave in to the hunger for fear of not eating and getting stuck with a late lunch/early dinner mess of a schedule. Just as I left the house, Summer rounded the corner with some tacos, so I came back and ate at home before digging back into the garage.

The day creeped along, and I slowed down as things got hotter. It finally got to a point where I no longer wanted to be outside, so I came in to shower and then headed up to Summer’s for dinner. She pan-fried some fish for fish tacos and made an avocado sauce to emulate what I described to her from Bocadillo. Autumn skipped out and went to spend the night with her grandparents, so Summer, Eaddie, and I got to split it one fewer ways. Then we watched Aziz Ansari: Right Now before heading back to my house.

It was finally time to get Summer on the bike, so she and Eaddie rode their bicycles to the park and I caught up to them on the Grom. Then Eaddie and I rode around in circles while Summer practiced starting and stopping in a straight line. The more I watched her, the more I wished I had a bike like that when I was learning. All of the bikes I’ve ever owned were way more top-heavy, and made it more difficult to balance. The Grom is so puny that even when she stalled or accidentally revved the throttle in a stop, she was able to land on both feet. Dale and Neletta spotted us out there and stopped to chat for a minute, which was really nice. I hadn’t seen him since he left, and had been meaning to call.

As darkness approached, we all road back home and put everything away. Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones while I did a load of laundry before bed.

That was a weird comedy show.

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Grom

We got up this morning and finished putting together the patio furniture and fire pit. It drizzled on and off, so we actually assembled the fire pit inside while the girls did a few chores. Just as we finished moving all of that stuff around outside, I saw Chase post on Instagram that they were selling his wife’s 2019 Honda Grom with next to no miles on it. On a complete whim, I hit him up and we arranged to go pick it up at his place. I stopped by Arvest on the way home, but my debit card was expired. He didn’t mind PayPal though, so as soon as Summer got to my house, we headed on out to London. We stopped for gas at Kroger and ran into Ronda just briefly. We only stopped to chat long enough to pump our gas, and then we were on our way.

The bike was so much tinier than I had imagined. It will be a great learner bike though, and perfect for riding around in town. While we were looking around, his pet pig kept trying to get into the garage, which just tickled me so. It kept threatening rain, so we didn’t stick around for super long. We made our way back to town, and I managed to get the bike up to 60mph, tucked and coming down a bit of a hill. Screaming along that fast and sitting so high and forward didn’t feel great, but I figure it’ll still be perfect if the girls want to learn to ride too. I bet Eaddie will want to learn, and I could see her riding to high school on it eventually. I stopped by Walgreens to pick up my medication, and then ran by Allen’s place to show him. He was absolutely thrilled about it. Then I finally took it home so I could shower and clean up a bit.

I was going to go back up to Summer’s for dinner, but I first got distracted by a fraud alert email from Discover. Evidently they stopped a $503.44 charge at Nordstrom from going through. I had to call and talk to someone, and they closed my account and created a new one. Unfortunately that also meant my memorized credit card information was no longer useful. In the middle of all of that, the doorbell rang. Michael stopped by, so I stepped out to chat with him. They had some kind of party and had some leftover food, but the friend he was going to deliver them to wasn’t home. Their loss was our gain. We chatted for a bit about some of his conspiracies, the Fiero, the Grom, and his van. I never realized he had it outfitted for living. I always imagined him roughing it out in the woods, but at least some of the time he’s just been sleeping in the van.

Finally, I made it back up to Summer’s for the evening. The girls had gone with their father for the evening, so we ate some of Michael’s leftover barbecue along with some sweet potato fries, and then went to bed with some Sealab 2021. It was definitely funnier in my 20s.

 

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Pudding can’t fill the emptiness inside me!!!
But it’ll help….

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Last Minute Grind

I successfully climbed out of bed earlier this morning in preparation for my return to work tomorrow. Summer made sausage and eggs for breakfast before going to the gym, and eventually I went home to get their bikes ready to ride.

The girls got there, picked up their bikes, and rode to her parents’ house first, and then went to my parents’ house to help scrub the pool cover. I was going to stay home and clean in the heat, but I wasn’t inside for very long before Ronda texted with contact information for a Pelican Matrix 100x kayak for sale. I called the guy and then went straight up to meet him.

I didn’t realize how that subdivision had sprouted up in that area, but they seemed like some nicer houses. The guy had a slingshot in the garage that he said he just purchased from someone on a swap page as well. We took the kayak out of his garage, and then went straight to putting it up on my car. In hindsight, I think he probably expected me to haggle him down a bit on the price, but I figured the $125 was a “friend of a friend” price already. If I had given it any more thought, looked over its condition some more, and considered that it didn’t come with a paddle, I think I would have tried for $100. He helped me get it on top of the car, and then I climbed up and strapped it in under the raging sun.

I considered going home first, but then decided to go straight to my parents’ house to see the girls’ reactions. Nobody really said much, but Summer and Eaddie came over to look at it. I was already sweaty from mounting the kayak and felt gross from my lack of a shower in the morning, but I stayed outside and helped spray down the cover while the girls scrubbed it. They got it all done in record time, and Summer caved and let the girls go for an early swim. The water was cold, fresh out of the hose while Dad was refilling the pool.

Mom made fried rice while Dad fried some egg rolls, and we all sat down to eat. I ate some 7-layer dip before we had dinner, but I didn’t expect that to make me feel so full. The girls had to ride home afterward, and I followed along in the car shortly thereafter. They got to the house right as I was ready for help getting the kayak off of the roof of the car, and we made room for it in the garage on top of mine.

From there, the girls ran to Walmart for groceries while I took a shower at home. It was too hot to do much else, but I managed to pack my backpack for work, and loaded up some things to bring to Summer’s for the evening. I made some strawberry shortcakes, and we watched an episode of Parks and Recreation before bed.

Shave his belly with a rusty razor!

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People That Do Things

I sort of halfway got to sleep in just a little bit today, but it wasn’t much. The girls went home while I showered and got the bike rack mounted. I had forgotten how heavy and cumbersome that thing is, and it makes me wish I had a better way to store it than boxing it back up in the retail package. It really is the most secure, uniform shape that way though.

Noah and Eaddie stayed behind, so it was just Summer, Autumn, and myself again heading to Little Rock. We went straight to Dick’s and met with Ryan, who I had spoken to over the phone. He threw the bike up and checked the breaks and a couple things, but evidently didn’t tighten the handlebars or air up the tires, and one of the valve stem caps was missing. Of course we didn’t notice any of this until we got home and tried to ride them.

While in Little Rock, we tried to find somewhere to go for lunch and ended up at Hooter’s right around the corner. The girls kept being super apologetic about how slow they were and how behind the kitchen was, but I honestly didn’t really even notice it at all, especially for a Mother’s Day crowd. Autumn thought she could handle the heat of the wings, but she ended up struggling to eat. Summer lucked out and got a free salad for Mother’s Day.

We stopped in Conway on the way home to get the last bike. As we walked into Dick’s, we found they had lost power, so they let us shop around under the emergency lighting. Taylor met up with us and tried to talk me into biting the bullet on a new bike for myself with his n+1=x where n is the number of bikes I have, and x is the number of bikes I need. I passed, deciding instead to hoard my money for another day.

When we got home, I ordered some Domino’s for dinner and picked it up on the way to my parents’ house. Summer took the kids to her mother’s to visit for a bit on the way, and eventually we all made it to dinner with my parents. Julie got her own broccoli crust pizza from Brick Oven. I mostly ate salad, but had a slice of Hawaiian and a slice of Julie’s chicken bacon ranch that wasn’t bad. After we finished eating, we went outside and let everyone try riding the new bikes in the street a bit. That’s when we found Summer’s had not been put together completely, or at least not tightly enough.

They headed home, and I took the bikes home to try and clean out the garage enough to store them. I managed, but only because of how much junk I had that I could rearrange. Trying to store them with another vehicle in the garage will prove to be more difficult unless one of those vehicles is a Miata. Time will tell, I suppose.

Kleer the mind.

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Splashing in the Rain

We woke up unnaturally early today so we could get to Conway for Summer’s 5k before 7:30. Autumn and I dropped her off in a place with way too little parking, and nearly got stuck in the mud after a couple jerks in trucks parked in the middle of the exit. It rained most of the day, so rather than sit around in the car listening to that, we went across town to Walmart to pick up some food to share for breakfast. Once Summer was done, we continued on to Benton to meet Jeff and get a tour of the Splash Car Wash & Express Lube.

The facility was super new and super clean, and really showed how much work they put into maintaining a positive and clean atmosphere for both customers and employees. It would have been neat to see the car wash in action, but that will have to wait for another time I suppose. It was great getting the full tour of the place though. I didn’t care for the acrylic tip boxes they had out, but that may be me projecting my feelings about American tip culture than anything else. Maybe enough people have tried to tip the “behind the scenes” employees that the boxes became a necessity. I tend to always feel that tips in the US are just a company’s way of subsidizing their employees’ pay so they don’t have to pay them a fair hourly wage, which doesn’t seem to be the case here.

After the tour, Jeff treated us to lunch at Olive Garden back in Little Rock. Then we went across town to Walmart and Sam’s where I spent too much money and too much time. By the time we got out of there, we were all pretty tired. We made it back to Conway and decided to stop at Dick’s to check out the bicycle sale. Summer and Autumn both liked the ride height of the GT Laguna Pro, so we picked one up there and decided to try and order the other two colors online since we didn’t have the bike rack anyway.

We circled back to Pizza Ranch for dinner, which I learned was another strangely Christian pizza buffet. I guess that’s a thing? The bar was small and the food was pretty good, but I don’t think it was worth anywhere near the $12 price tag per head. It was a relatively enjoyable visit though, and a decent cap to our day.

Once we got back home, I dropped Summer off at my house, unloaded the bike, and Autumn and I went to pick up Eaddie from their grandparents’ house. When we got back, I had Eaddie try to ride the bike, and she passed that test with flying colors, and in a fraction of the time it took the others to get both feet off the ground. Summer was already in bed, so the girls started some TV while I tried ordering bikes. The website inventory seemed inaccurate, so I got right to calling stores. Little Rock was the only one of the three I tried that had the gunmetal color in the medium size frame, so I talked them into honoring the sale price the day after expiration. Then I called back to Conway and talked to Taylor again, and he agreed to do the same for the light blue. I guess tomorrow we’ll drive across the state again, only this time with a bike rack in tow.

Oh hey! Look, it’s a pikachWHAT THE HELL?!?