One for Many

Summer woke up wanting donuts, so I got up with her and we went to Shipley’s for a pretty large order. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of my better experiences. The filled donuts barely had anything in them, and they gave me a sausage croissant instead of bacon like I asked. Eaddie never even got out of bed until mid-afternoon, so her stuff sat out untouched. Summer was cycling and had gone fully bird-brained, and then got upset about it. I tried to help by cleaning the kitchen, which upset her further, so she left for the gym.

I got a lot reorganized and did the dishes while she stayed gone a while. Her phone case came in, so I got that put together. When she got back, I stopped her for a talk before she had a shower. Then she worked on her laptop the rest of the afternoon. I ate the KFC she brought me the other day and then took a shower, but started to feel pretty sick to the stomach again. Eaddie left for a while, then came back briefly before leaving again. I ate some more rice and shredded pork, hoping it would settle my stomach a bit for the evening.

Muad’Dib was feeling pretty cooped up all day, so I took him for a walk up the cul-de-sac and back. Of course he wanted more, but I was already looking toward bed. Somehow Summer still made it there before me, but I went down a couple hours early.

Children!

Get Up; Clean Up

Summer left early this morning for her run up Mt. Nebo. We were excited to go to the chicken fry afterward, but I was still feeling pretty crummy, and unpredictable at best. My fever did go down pretty quickly though, and slowly started to spend more time out of bed. By the time Summer made it home, I was up more than I was down, but still cautious.

Dad messaged that they had spaghetti, which I thought would be for lunch, so we cleaned up enough to go out. When I learned that they had planned on dinner, I relaxed a bit before getting back into some cleaning. Eaddie was actually home all day, so she came out and we got season passes for Magic Springs next year. She had been talking about wanting to go for Halloween, and the passes included the remainder of this year as well.

Eventually, Summer and I made it to my parents’ house to eat. We sat in the living room briefly afterward when Julie and Kevin showed up. She wanted to program her new car to open the garage door, so we spent a while trying to figure that out before she gave up, and then we could go home.

I continued cleaning for a while, but felt myself slowing down pretty quickly. As the evening got later, I sat down to watch some movie trailers with Summer. Eli brought Eaddie some food, so they disappeared to her room the rest of the night. After Summer went to bed, I saw the gecko climbing the side of his aquarium. That made me really happy, because I hadn’t seen him out of hiding since I brought him home. I think he’s been eating the moths I’ve been feeding him, so I just need to come up with a better container for him that I can take back out to work.

Lipstick on a pig!

Clean and Shuffle

I still felt super tired all day today, but I did my best to stay focused. I did a bunch of reviews in the morning, and then watched the Waveform episode video since they did it in front of the eclipse in Spain. Summer went to the gym, and I put together another little nightstand thing to put in the laundry room. The one she built before was too big to go where I wanted it, so I wanted to swap walls to make things fit better and be more accessible.

Eaddie left in the afternoon and we never saw her again. When dinner time came around, Summer wanted spaghetti. Rather than cook it among all the chaos, I took her to Olive Garden where I learned you can actually get refills on the soups if you do that instead of the salad. We had a good meal, and then I dropped her off while I took Muad’Dib on a quick run to my parents’ house and back.

I had to do a bit of work before bed, in preparation for the morning when everyone will be figuring out the Aptean migration that happened over the weekend.

Reorg!

Wackadoodle

I woke up fairly early today and waited for Summer to get around. She slept quite a while longer, but didn’t get around to doing a whole lot aside from going to the gym. I spent all day milling back and forth cleaning up a bit, mostly in the kitchen. I cleaned up a whole bunch of leftovers, but we’ve still got more to go. It just doesn’t seem to go very fast. Eaddie came home briefly and then left. Otherwise, Summer and I were just at the house all day long.

When dinner time came around, I grilled the brats we bought last weekend. We ate, and then somewhere along the way I had a pretty bad anxiety attack just walking down the hallway. After a little while, we settled down to watch Arthur the King, which I thought was pretty good. Summer couldn’t handle the suspense, but I think she liked it. It was nearly dark when we finished, but Muad’Dib told me he really needed a run, so I took him out for a really good, short one in the dark. Then it was pretty much straight to bed after that.

No one else is gonna do it for you.

A Lot for a Little Run

I got up early so I could go to Fort Smith with Summer for her run this morning. I had an anxiety attack as I was getting ready, but it didn’t seem to affect me long. I was still pretty exhausted as we left, but it was a smooth ride. We made it to Ben Geren park only to discover a disappointing number of runners, running anything from a 5k to a marathon, depending on how many times they looped back around the track. It didn’t really seem like many people knew each other, but it was a seriously tiny group of maybe 20 people. One of them was Hot Springs native, multi-title world champion, professional arm wrestler, “Monster” Michael Todd, who arrived in a giant motorhome wrapped with giant pictures of his face. There appeared to be no fanfare. We arrived early, because Summer anticipated it would take her some time to get her packet, but we spent all that extra time wandering around in the hot sun.

I had forgotten to load my Onewheel, so when the race finally started, Muad’Dib and I walked over to a pavilion with some picnic tables and sat in the shade. We had a surprisingly strong breeze over there, which I hadn’t felt at all when we were walking around. It felt really great over there as we waited, expecting to see Summer come around the bend. I took a picture of a couple cheering on their son, then shared it with them. Summer never showed up though. Evidently her run took her on another path, and we found her back at the finish after less than half the time it took us to drive to the race in the first place.

We didn’t stick around, and instead drove to a place called Digs in The Bakery District. I guess it was a little grouping of places in one spot. We found parking across the street and walked up to the patio where they were doing yoga. A server greeted us, had us pick a seat, and then the food service was quite quick. Muad’Dib did well with some passers-by, and we had a really tasty, elevated, expensive brunch. We had a couple cocktails and shared a bagel board with a couple fancy cream cheeses and peanut butter. Then Summer had a sandwich, and I had a burrito. Everything was really tasty, but definitely priced as an upscale establishment in a rich part of town.

Lastly, we swung by Truong Son on the way home to browse for some Asian foods. We didn’t get much, but I picked up a smallish can of Café du Monde coffee and chicory blend to add to my collection. I made a cup when we finally made it home, but found it mostly bitter. Summer and I lounged around the house the rest of the day, both exhausted from the morning adventure. I eventually had some leftover chicken salad for an early dinner, and cleaned a bunch of moth-filled boxes of cereal out of the pantry. We played a Netflix miniature golf game on the TV, and then Summer watched the worst of the Ghostbusters movies.

I did a bit of cleaning, but it was overall a very quiet evening until bed.

It’s a vibe.

One Flat

It was another super quiet day without much to say. I kind of spun my wheels on a couple different things, but hopefully got a step closer to improving my processes. Summer was having a slow morning and met me for lunch early. We had a new server at Ortega’s that I don’t remember seeing before, but Summer said she had seen him there. He was easily a contender for the best service we’ve had though.

The afternoon was long, but didn’t feel quite as long as the morning since I was moving around a lot more. When we finally left, I got stuck behind two out-of-state vehicles that were varying their speeds while parked in the left lane, and I couldn’t burst ahead of them in the loaner Model 3 due to the speed limiter. I pressed on, and found Summer laid out on the couch, not feeling well.

I got right to work building a chair I got for Eaddie’s bathroom. I’m not sure it fits as well as I wanted it to, and she may not like it, but Dad could take it. I continued to try and clean up a bit, and found Summer’s sunroof shade in the closet. I got that installed before it got a little cooler out, and then I took Muad’Dib on a run. We went straight to my parents’ house, and as soon as I rolled into the garage, my Onewheel went completely flat. I didn’t see a puncture anywhere, so I got the air compressor going and filled it back up. There was a huge difference, so I guess it had been super flat for a really long time. I could see some air bubbling out around the rim, so I don’t know if the seal there is bad, or if maybe it was just too hot on the pavement.

We ran a short bit more after we left there, and the board handled completely differently. I’ll have to check the air pressure more frequently. We got home just as it started to get dark, and Summer went to bed. I got some Triscuits out for chicken salad, and discovered where our moths had been coming from. I had only seen a couple, but the pantry was absolutely full of them, and a bunch of larvae were all wrapped up around the Triscuits. Luckily we had an unopened package that was untainted, so I had my snack before bed.

Can’t keep me down!

Lawn Boys

I felt like I slept okay, but the day sapped me quickly. I was up first, and tried to keep fairly busy. I warmed up the last of the pasta for Summer and made myself a sandwich out of some rye bread I found in the freezer. Then she went to the gym and I cleaned up and had a shower. I felt a bit worse after that, which slowed me down for a while.

Summer mentioned wanting the lawn done, so I texted Kevin to have him come by at his convenience. He and Matthi took care of the old house, and then came over to the new house. Dad texted that he was going to have a kid from church mow their lawn instead, so Kevin asked for $100, then backed down to $90 for the two they did, but I gave him the full amount.

I was up wandering around the house and cleaning up all day, so I was feeling pretty tired. Dad said they had fish soup, so I tried running Muad’Dib over on the Onewheel later in the evening. We got a couple blocks down the road and the board died again with a reported 35% battery. I carried it most of the way home, and then we drove over to eat.

Dad was out watering plants while Mom finished up inside. Then they both came out while I was sat by the pool with Muad’Dib. Once I realized how late it was getting, Muad’Dib and I went in to eat, and then headed back home. It was a short night after that.

Sleep it off.

Return to Disarray

I slept a little bit later today, then got up to a big turkey sandwich to finish off that bit of lunch meat. It hasn’t killed me yet, so I guess I need to go get some more bread to finish off the salami and pepperoni. From there, I continued my quest to break down packed boxes of stuff. I got into the laundry room and cleared out the opposite corner, and finished up a couple more boxes in my office. The girls got home a few minutes earlier than I expected, and B-lined for the dog, who suddenly had all of the energy and no desire to sit in bed all day.

I continued sparingly, but was already feeling pretty worn out from being up and around for the entirety of two days. The girls were predictably worn out as well. I did want to make it over to my parents’ house to see if they wanted to go out for dinner for their anniversary. Dad was processing elderberries, and Mom was asleep on the couch. She had spaghetti on the stove, though, so Summer ended up coming over there to eat instead.

I had run Muad’Dib over, so I took the Onewheel back with him when we realized they didn’t have any cheese. We ate, then ran back home to try and bring the house back to a livable state for the rest of the week. I took a shower, Summer went to sleep, and Eaddie left with Eli, so I guess it’s back to normal.

THE Oakenfold???

Put Away

I thought I’d have a little more room in the bed last night, but Muad’Dib still mostly slept right in the middle. I got up reasonably early and started picking around the house. My main goal was to clean up my office so I could actually use my own area for my projects instead of having to spill out all over the rest of the place. That also meant I finally got to unpack my boxes of stuff from when I left the Russellville School District. I’d been so focused on my new jobs every year since then, that I never got settled. Of course there’s still stuff to move from the old house as well, and even more stuff that’s already here and still hasn’t been unpacked, but this was what was immediately in my way.

I picked at some leftovers for breakfast and lunch. Summer called at one point, so I caught up a little bit with her between their adventures. I got a ton of stuff put away in the right place, but that also meant it was a slow process, so there’s not much to show for it anywhere else. Hopefully I can at least get my office done before the girls get home tomorrow, but I kind of doubt it.

Dad texted to say Mom had some phở that would be ready soon, so I took the chance to get Muad’Dib out of the house. He had been in bed for nearly the entire day, possibly feeling some depression without the girls. I let him lead nearly the entire way, but then Dad said food was ready and I had to hurry him along. We got there, ate, and then headed back to continue my project.

I finally took a shower after moving around in my own funk all day, and felt much better by bedtime. Muad’Dib was still in the middle of the bed, but at least there was enough room for him to stay with me all night.

One more for the road!

Lefthandyman

I woke up surprisingly early this morning, but put myself back to bed since Summer was still out cold. We eventually got up for some brunch. She made herself an egg, and I had some Long John Silvers. I had some coffee and sat with her on the couch for a bit, tinkering with the Steam Machine. I got some laundry going, and she went to the gym. Eaddie got around and eventually started cleaning up her areas.

I kept going all day long, barely stopping, but didn’t have a whole lot of good to show for it. My biggest project went off the rails because I thought it would just be a simple power outlet replacement. I figured Eaddie’s bathroom socket was the culprit, but after I pulled it, I still had no power to the lines coming in there. I checked our closet receptacle and found that it was the end of the circuit, so I went back to the bathroom.

I ended up pulling out the outlet and both wall switches. One was just a switch for the heater and had no power coming in behind the switch. The other switches in the two-gang box had three lines coming in. I eventually worked out which was the power in, and then the other two were just lines to the light and the vent fan. There didn’t appear to be another line going out to the outlet, so that whole project was a wash. I did learn that the fluorescent light in our closet actually worked though, and just needed bulbs. I’ll have to see if I can find LED alternatives for it, otherwise I’ll end up pulling the whole fixture for some better lighting.

Summer got home and mowed, then threw together a quick pasta dinner for the three of us. I got the new shower fixture installed, but not at all to my liking, so that will have to be swapped again too. By the end of the night, I ended up using the new diverter with the old shower head and wand, but the diverter itself seemed to be inhibiting some of the awesome water pressure we had gotten used to.

I finally took a shower, Eaddie finally finished all of her cleaning, and Summer made it to bed. At least there was some success.

Back to work!