Tag: bike

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I Made Sliders

My medication alarm kept nagging me awake this morning, and I got up to make an “everything” sandwich for lunch. I got the girls up and had to go out to air up my front bike tire again since it was completely flat. Then we rode to the shop for lunch with Summer. There was quite a bit more traffic in the middle of a Friday, but we managed without too much trouble.

They were pretty busy, so Summer had us go upstairs to eat inside away from the paying customers. I guess the bagged sandwich was too loose and the meat and cheese slid down through to the other sandwiches, leaving Autumn’s first end piece without. It wasn’t terrible to correct though, and we had a feel-good lunch. Afterward we rode back home, the long way again, through the city park. The heat was hot and the ground was dry, but the air was full of sound.

When we got home, we drove back to the shop so Autumn could stay and work for some money to “buy” the Matrix from her grandparents. Eaddie had to get her bag with a change of clothes too, since she forgot to bring the bag inside last night.

With just the two of us left, Eaddie and I decided to try and clean up the house a little bit. We were going to start in the garage, but as it got warmer that felt less appealing to her, and she landed in the kitchen instead. She poked around a little bit while I got some dishes shuffled. We didn’t get a whole lot done, but at least it seemed like a noticeable difference.

Summer and Autumn eventually came home and we had to figure out dinner. We were craving Chinese but decided against Sumo because of the price. Then Summer got set on Brown’s but I discovered they had shut down for a few days to remodel for social distancing. At a buffet. Still seems like a bad idea, especially with how many old people eat there.

We ended up getting Wendy’s, then came back home and ate while we watched Autumn’s pick of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Summer seemed a bit broken after a decidedly non-happy ending, but we made it better with some Yahtzee and Moana. Julie invited us to kayak tomorrow, so we called it an early night to give us plenty of time to get everything together for Summer’s first time on the creek.

Listen. For a thousand years, I’ve only been thinking about keepin’ this hair silky, getting my hook, and being awesome, again.

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Off Trail

Summer and I got up late today and went to Walmart for the last few things we needed for lunch. They had a bunch of “everything” bread marked down, so we got all of it to freeze, and I took one loaf to make a sandwich. Since it was already late and a bit warm outside, we decided to eat at home rather than take it all to the bike trail. It was a quick lunch in the back yard, and then we loaded up the bikes and headed to Old Post.

When we got there and unloaded, I climbed onto my bike only to find the front tire was completely flat. I loaded it back up and went home for air, and decided that a portable pump is probably a must-have. While I was gone, Summer and Eaddie checked out the trails but couldn’t leave Autumn behind, so they all rode downhill to the main park area. I made it back and met up with them, and we rode all over the flat park area.

We stopped for snacks on the amphitheater stage, then made a couple more loops around the drive before packing up to head back home. The girls left pretty quickly after we got back to my house, and I spent a few minutes doing a major trim in my shrimp tank. Then I loaded up and headed up to their house for the evening.

Summer made sloppy joes with mashed potatoes and corn for dinner, and then I planted all of my trimmings in Autumn’s aquarium. Summer, Autumn, and I played a game of Sorry, and then they went to bed while Eaddie and I started the second season of Luke Cage. We both got bored with how slow the first episode was, and decided to quit there for the night.

Back to the grind.

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Burn Everything…

I didn’t sleep very well last night just because I hadn’t slept in my own bed in so long, but at least I didn’t wake up in pain like I have been. Summer had to work, so the girls and I took our time getting up and around. Eventually I started putting together an everything-loaf sandwich for lunch, and we packed a couple backpacks for a bike ride. We rode to Summer’s shop and had a surprise lunch with her while they were slow.

When we finished eating, we rode over to the city park for just a moment, then took the long way around Detroit back to 4th to get home. The girls did a great job of riding together, and the pandemic has traffic manageable, so it was a great time. It was under an hour total, but my hands and arms were still pretty sore by the time we got home.

I let the girls rest for a little while inside, and then we went outside to start cleaning up the yard. They were both pretty slow to get productive, but eventually we got a little bit of a fire going, at least enough to reduce some of the brush we pulled up. They pressure washed the back patio until they ran out of power cord and hose, so there was a strip of black concrete still on the north side.

Brittany stopped by to give me a few more plants and some guppies she had been breeding. I had too much going on, or I would have thought to send her on with a couple little baby shrimp. I guess they’re a little more sensitive to the alkalinity of the water anyway.

Summer came over when she got off, and brought hot dogs to cook over the fire. We spent a good long while trying to get a decent fire going in the fire pit since the logs weren’t burning well at all. It was enough to get the food warm, but it was a lot of work to maintain. I was pretty upset that some embers blew up and melted a couple holes in a couple of the cushions, but it’s all over now. I would have hoped for something a little more retardant.

As the sun went down and we lost all of our light, the girls filtered back into the house and I trudged back and forth getting everything else put away. I could barely move after being so active all day long, but I had to get a shower before bed.

…the calories too!

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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….