Tag: cleanup on aisle 5

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Log Blog

I slept hard last night after working hard all day. Summer wanted to clean house, so I went home and stoked the fires. I was surprised by how much some of the bigger logs had burned down overnight. In all, I had four separate fires going. One of them was a long trail of tree trunk that slowly smoldered like an enormous wick. At one point, I brought out a smoked sausage and made lunch over a fire. Mom and Dad stopped by briefly to see Bác Vân. I eventually made it back inside to shower.

Summer surprised me with a steak dinner when I made it back up to her house. Then we watched Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, which I found to be mostly pretty boring. I think Holtzmann was my favorite character and had the funniest bits, but the rest of the movie just seemed like fan service. I wished it hadn’t been a complete reboot.

The girls made it home from Clarksville, but I never saw either of them. The rest of the night was quiet until bedtime.

It’s 2040. Our president is a plant!

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Stumped

The girls got up for a 5k this morning while I slept in just a little bit, which still was less than usual because of how late we got home. When I came out, they were eating some leftovers, so I had a slice of pizza too. Summer wanted to go to the movies, so I went home to clean up first. I had a few hours to kill though, so I decided to start burning some wood out back.

The fire caught super fast this time, and I filled in quite a bit of the hole where an old stump had rotted out. I got some massive pieces of tree trunk burning, and then went inside to rest for a bit before my shower. Summer ended up getting a headache and changed her mind about the movies, so I went back out and started a second fire on top of a different tree stump. It was really low to the ground, but had stuff growing all around it, so I figured I should try and burn it out. I didn’t stay out for long though, since I had just taken a shower.

Finally I made it back up to Summer’s house, and warmed up the bean soup for dinner. The three of us ate, and when Autumn got back home, she packed up and took Eaddie to their father’s for the night. Summer and I laid around the rest of the evening, and then went to sleep early.

Sinusitis sounds like the name of a villain.

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Fire in the Hole

I made French omelets for Summer, Eaddie, and myself this morning after practicing last week. Summer’s turned out the best. Eaddie’s wasn’t bad, but was just overstuffed. Mine completely crumbled. They were delicious and creamy though. The secret seemed to be the very low heat.

Autumn had plans all day, so she left. I didn’t wait too long to go home, because I wanted to try and tackle some more of the back yard. I finally remembered to take my old fireworks box out for burning, and it lit up fairly nicely. Doug came over to give me another nut bread they brought home from the casino, and then a little while later, Bác Vân came to offer lunch. I declined, and tried to keep busy.

I started the first fire in the leftover hole from the first tree we cut down years and years ago, hoping to fill it in with the ash. Then I tried to start another fire in a big pile where a couple large tree branches fell. That one caught for a little bit, but then just immediately died. I got a bit of the high weeds cut, but there are some woody plants in the mix as well, so I really need some loppers and a good shovel to dig out stumps.

After a while, I felt a sudden sickness in my belly, so I brought everything in for the day. I wanted to start a load of laundry before taking a shower, so I got that going and finished cleaning up just in time to make it back up to Summer’s for dinner.

She made a really great Mongolian beef that Eaddie and I scarfed down, and then we had some frozen key lime pie that Autumn brought home “for me” a while back. We watched a few episodes of Modern Family until they were ready to wind down. Then Summer and I watched a Seinfeld Netflix special before going to sleep.

What’s the deal with pitch?!?

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Congraduations.

I slept in a little bit today by comparison with my earlier time to rise with commute. I needed it. I heard Autumn talking to Summer in the living room, so I just stayed in bed for a while. By the time I came out, Summer started to rush me home to get ready. She wanted to get there before the doors opened, so she ran me off to go home and shower. Then she picked me up late to meet her parents as they were coming out of the elevator at the arena. It was kismet.

Wesley and Cindy showed up and sat a couple rows down from us, so I talked with them once my parents got seated. By then it wasn’t too much longer before they filed everyone in and the ceremony started. We had good seats to see Eaddie in the first chair position in the band, as well as the stage as the seniors walked up.

Ginni’s speech was incredibly robotic. It was as if she prompted ChatGPT to write her a graduation speech that included things for which people normally have feelings, but which she as an interstellar alien, had absolutely no understanding. It was dry, emotionless, and sounded unrehearsed. I don’t think I’d feel any differently if I weren’t bitter, because all of the other speeches were pretty great, and at least seemed heartfelt.

Having graduation split into two groups made this one much more bearable. Sitting for the entire class would have sucked, not just because it would have taken twice as long for everyone to walk, but because of how many people would be there. I suggest a hard limit of two guests per student.

Afterward, we all met outside and waited for Autumn to get some pictures. Summer’s parents left after saying they would have lunch with us. My parents would join us, but made it out before we did. Summer replaced the traffic cones I moved out of the way, so traffic backed up behind us. The girl that parked next to us was having an absolute fit and had who I presumed was her mother stand out in the parking lot behind her to block traffic. I didn’t see it, but evidently she was flipping people off and screaming about it, so I just made us wait until all the traffic was done before we left.

We had both of the girls and Adam with us, and we had a shrinking window of time to take everyone out to eat, so we met my parents at Burger King for Autumn’s favorite food group. I knew there was no way in hell we’d make it in and out of Brick Oven, and by the time we got out of the parking lot, nobody thought we’d even make it across town and back from Autumn’s favorite restaurant. I ordered some food ahead to try and speed things along and maybe save a buck, but I think I really ended up just wasting even more money because Eaddie wanted a Spider-Verse Whopper that came with a couple chicken sandwiches and chicken fries that nobody really wanted. Summer ordered her own meal, my parents ordered their own meals, and Autumn got the one meal I ordered on the drive over.

From there, we rushed Adam back to the band room and Autumn left to go with him. We took Eaddie to Old Post to hang out with some friends, and Summer took me home so she could go work out, or mow, or do whatever else. I did a couple loads of laundry and then mowed my own yard, which got me much sweatier than I anticipated. The back yard is frustratingly overgrown again, and no matter how much I plead, I can’t get a hand with it. It made me seriously contemplate staying home out of frustration so that I could just tackle it on my other day off instead of wasting that with the girls too.

I did finally make it up to Summer’s for the evening, where she was nearly asleep from watching George of the Jungle, and Eaddie was up practicing her flute. Summer woke up once I got there, and was up for a while until after Autumn finally got home. I was cold and tired, yet clammy from mowing, so I didn’t stay up very long.

Your place.

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Accepting Rejection

I was happy enough with the response I got this morning, along with the general excitement expressed in the offer, that I’ll start at Two Rivers on Monday. Unfortunately we ended up offending the sellers of the Ouita house with our offer enough that they outright rejected our offer, along with the verbal one they received. I talked with Alisha some more, and the seller’s agent finally talked them into negotiating some.

Summer worked from home, so I took a shower and she took us to Mulan’s for lunch. I ate way too much and then had to go home so Dad could come help me fix my leaky faucet. That project snowballed on us, and it took one trip to Leonard’s to fix the leak at the knob, but then the shutoff valves wouldn’t close enough to stop the water and we had to shut it off at the curb. Of course the box was completely full of water from all the rain. I tried blowing it out with my leaf blower, and all that muddy water ended up in my face. We took another trip to Leonard’s and got some washers for the shutoff valves, but using the impact to remove the caps may have caused them to leak somewhere else. There’s still a small drip at the shutoff valve now.

I took another shower to clean off the mud, and then I had to go get Eaddie and a friend of hers from robotics. We dropped her off a couple blocks from my house, and then I took Eaddie home until we had to go back to the high school for their band participation awards.

The house lights stayed on the whole evening, and then having the directors read out every single activity that each individual senior had done in their entire school career was just the start to how ridiculous the night would be. After they finished the seniors, they called every single junior and sophomore onto the stage to collect their participation trophies. We almost left early because Summer thought they were going to call eighth and seventh graders up as well, but they didn’t.

The girls went out with friends, so Summer and I came home and watched a couple episodes of Modern Family. The girls eventually made it home and I added some flavor and correctly-sized vegetables to the pico de gallo that Autumn basically blended yesterday. I got a little sidetracked after that, but tried not to stay up too late.

How can I be so tired and so restless?

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Salty About It

I went to bed pretty late, but had trouble sleeping after the sun came up, so I got up and made a really nice pork chop sandwich out of some leftovers. I had some trouble with the salt shaker, so I tried to adjust it and ended up shearing the threaded rod that the adjustment piece screwed onto. I took it home to try and extract the piece, hoping there were enough threads to put the thing back together again, but didn’t have any luck.

I was a really slow starter after that. I could tell I just didn’t want to do anything. It was rainy and cold, and I just didn’t want to be bothered. I still hadn’t quite fully recovered from my stomach issues over the weekend. The best I could do was apply for a job I had seen the other day. I dreaded calling another lawyer, and put that off until after I excavated the prehistoric pile of dishes in my sink and took a shower.

Dad’s friend-of-a-friend referral was a complete dead end and it had me second-guessing my ability to get past even the simplest of secretaries. Fortunately I received a response from someone I contacted last week, who unfortunately couldn’t help me, but did at least offer several other relevant referrals after actually reading my submission. I made a call, and now we’ll play the waiting game again.

Eventually I headed up to Summer’s for the evening, stopping for tacos along the way. Evidently Taco Johns was robbed, and both of their main entry doors were smashed and taped up with cardboard boxes. When I got everything to the house, the tacos were pretty cold and awful. Summer was in a mood. Eaddie came out to eat a couple tacos with us, but I begrudgingly finished up the lion’s share.

The girls disappeared pretty quickly after that. Even I was off to bed relatively early, and hoped to get enough sleep to make a little more of the next day.

ADD

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Taxing Company

I picked at some more leftovers for breakfast this morning until Summer left for the gym. Autumn came out of her cave to gripe about having to do her taxes, and blamed us for not doing them sooner, but couldn’t find any record of her taxes from last year. In the end, she did them all herself anyway, and didn’t bother to have me check over them, so I don’t know why she even bothered bitching about it.

I eventually headed home to do my own taxes. I got up a couple times in the middle of it, and cleaned up the laundry room a bit to see if I had forgotten any paperwork in there. In the end, I just assumed my checking bank didn’t send a 1099-INT because they paid me less than $10 in interest last year. All in all, I was pretty happy with owing about $300 in federal taxes and getting back around $80 from the state. I don’t know how I could cut it any closer without overcorrecting by a larger margin.

Autumn had gone to the coffee shop and the mall to do “homework” for a while, and Eaddie went to rehearse her National History Day project at a classmate’s house. She finished up just as I did, so I picked her up and then picked up Summer to go to my parents’ house for some lemongrass pork chops.

Dad was finishing up on the grill just as we got there, and Mom said she invited Bác Vân and Julie over as well, so the three of us made our bowls and ate quickly to try and make room. It didn’t take long at all for the dining room to fill up, but the girls finished their food quickly and went to the living room. I joined them as soon as I finished, but even with her new boyfriend in tow, Julie’s loud conversation quickly triggered some anxiety in Summer and we decided to leave.

The girls wanted Dairy Queen, so we stopped there on the way home. Summer had some trouble with her app, but clearing the cache fixed that and we got our order in just after the drive-through filled up. We still got in and out relatively quickly though, and made it home with our extra-melty ice cream. Our Dairy Queen is the worst about selling ice cream soup.

Autumn made some ramen when we got home, and then all three of the girls went to bed pretty soon after that. I had a couple bites of ice cream that walked me right up to the edge of lactose intolerance, but made it to bed without any trouble.

How incredibly annoying.

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Pizza Pizza

I got out of bed with Summer this morning and made an egg and cheese KFC biscuit for breakfast. Autumn was out for most of the day doing JROTC things. Summer wanted to clean house, so I left fairly early to clean up a bit at mine.

I started some laundry and picked up a bit in the kitchen. It looked nice outside, but we were under threat of a pretty short but severe storm, so I didn’t get outside at all. I tinkered for a while between cleaning and showering, and eventually I got hungry enough for dinner. Summer took a while to get started cleaning and didn’t want to get out to figure something out for dinner, so I picked up a pretzel crust pizza from Little Caesar’s on the way back up.

Just after I got there, the storm rolled in and it started to hail little pea-sized pieces of ice. Eaddie and I ate a couple while Summer fretted over them hitting her brand new car. After we ate, I put on Splash, which Summer and I hadn’t seen since we were kids. After that, I put on Logan and Summer only made it about halfway through before quitting for bed.

You probably get this a lot, but does Caesar actually own this place?

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Elec Man

I took Eaddie to school this morning and made it home to have a bowl of cereal before the electrician showed up. John and two of his henchmen showed up and got right to work, running some conduit up the side of the house and into the attic. I was a little worried about how it might all turn out, but overall I was quite pleased. I did have to climb into the attic once to pass along some tape, but outside of that, we didn’t spot any termite damage, and the Wall Connector powered right up. Dad showed up near the end to check things out, and once the guys were done, he wanted to take me to the airport to see the plane that he and Julie just bought.

I let him drive the Model 3, and we made it about halfway there before he realized he had forgotten the trash bag he needed to clean out the plane. We finally made it to the airport though, and drove past a really fancy jet to get to the hanger.

We stopped in to talk to the guy in the hanger next door, and he came around to chat with us some more while we cleaned just a little bit of trash out of the plane. I got Julie to come out, but she wasn’t in any condition to socialize. As she ran us off, she introduced us to her new boyfriend, Kevin, who would be joining us for Mom’s birthday dinner.

I got back home and put the garage back together, possibly better than it was before. By then I was pretty hungry, so I ran to Taco John’s for a snack and went by Superfast to visit with Summer. She was busy though, and put me to work filling her washer fluid drums. After that I went home and showered so we could go to Pasta Grill for dinner.

Summer had to work right up to dinner time, so I met her at Superfast and she drove us to the restaurant. Julie and Kevin were already there, and of course Mom and Dad were several minutes late. It was a fair time visiting, and most of the food was okay. I ordered the Grill Pasta, which was incredibly heavy. I was disappointed in the portion size, and then it was so saucy that it felt like eating forks of butter. I ended up taking well over half of it home.

When the girls got home from hanging out with their friends, Autumn came into the bedroom to tell us all of Eaddie’s drama, which had me rolling my eyes. Summer called Eaddie into the room so she could tell us herself, and we talked for a little bit. Then after Eaddie cooled off in her room for a while and I watched some TV with Summer, Eaddie came out to the kitchen table and chatted with me for quite a while longer. She felt good about how she responded to her classmates, and laughed at how accurately I described her friendships.

Now if only I could be as successful.

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Yard Work Makes Me Thorny

Eaddie surprised me this morning by needing a ride to school. Unsurprisingly, Autumn didn’t communicate that change with me before bed last night. I dropped her off and then went home to immediately start on some yard work. I figured with all the job hunting and other research I’ve been doing, I needed a little sunshine break.

I started a small fire without too much trouble, but it just never got roaring unless I had the leaf blower on it. It burned well enough to clean up a bunch of old, decomposing branches and sticks though. I put my heavy-duty rake to work and combed a bunch of branches out of the mowable area, so hopefully this can be the last year of cleaning up the wilderness. I was just outside by myself the entire day, and it felt good.

When I finally came inside to shower, the electrician called and wanted to start my project tomorrow morning. I took a break, showered, stayed on break, and finally went out to shuffle things around in the garage. One night of parking outside without charging won’t hurt, and if all goes according to plan, it won’t take more than a few hours to charge all the way up from now on.

Summer got Eaddie after robotics, and picked up some chicken for dinner. I headed up to their place as soon as I finished, and we quickly ate before I had to take Eaddie to another Tech band concert. Apparently she is meeting friends there, but I never see any of them around. I went home for the hour or so, and then picked her up afterward.

Everyone was more or less down for the count when we got back home. I shuffled the cars around so Summer could charge, and then hurried to bed after a long day of mild labor.

Seriously, I’m burning absolutely anything that hurts when you touch it.