Tag: cleanup on aisle 5

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Starting Earlier

I wanted to shift my sleep schedule back starting today, so I didn’t let myself go back to sleep after I woke up around six. I laid in bed and played Into the Breach until Summer stirred a bit. Then I got up and heated some leftover breakfast pizza. Eventually the girls got around, so I went to Walgreens across town to pick up a deal on tooth paste. Then I went to work to drop off some scrap and pick up a TV stand before going home and starting some laundry.

Eaddie was having Gavin over for the afternoon, and they decided they wanted to go ride bicycles, so Summer brought them over while I was working in the garage. They took off, and then Summer and I went to Walmart to walk around and get stuff for dinner. From there, I went back home to finish laundry and wait for the kids while Summer went home to start on dinner.

When we got back, Summer had made some delicious looking meatballs for spaghetti. I put the TV stand together and got it stood up on the old TV stand I tried to give away before it started raining yesterday. To my surprise, the red line was back. It’s not unbearable for the increase in size, but it’s not a smart TV either, so it’s annoying not having a remote for it.

Dinner was awesome, though Autumn didn’t join us since she went out with Nick. She came home ranting about him, though it seemed like they were both really just manipulating each other. The four of us that did eat really enjoyed the home cooked meal. Once we finished, the five of us played a game of UNO FLIP! It was a surprisingly short game, and then the kids all went to their rooms.

Summer and I watched the first episode of Our Flag Means Death and then I flipped through YouTube until Gavin’s parents picked him up. We stayed up a bit longer, Summer finished up a few chores, and I made it to bed early.

Feels like finals week.

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It’s a Garage!

The girls both had things at school early this morning, so they were out of the house before we woke up. Once we got out of bed, I got started pretty quickly on the back yard, mowing and trimming a path to the shed so I could offload some stuff from the garage. It was a little warm outside, but I pushed through all day long.

Autumn came by when she finished with her activity, and went with Summer to get gas and prepare for the Sadie Hawkins dance in the evening. I continued sorting through things in the garage, trying not to let Doug distract me to much as he popped in a couple of times. Later in the afternoon, I got the pressure washer out so I could clean my old Cat Genie litter box.

I was pretty beat from working all day, so I came in as the sun went down to take a shower. Eaddie didn’t get back from her robotics trip until late, so I picked her up after my shower, and took her home. I forgot the pizza at home though, and drove back through a really heavy thunderstorm to get it. When I got back, Summer and I tried to set up their new TV, but the stands I brought for it were the wrong type.

Summer wanted to hike the next day, but I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be up for it, with my aches from working all day. I did my best to get to bed early though, so at least I’d have the option.

One tubby tubby!

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In Transit

Our meeting was fairly short this morning, as they’ve only come up with about three agenda items per week. That will grow as we bring in the two new-hires though, and we’ll continue the tradition of learning the flow of data every year and a half when we lose people. I was left mostly to myself, so I picked at a few things in my office before going to Oakland. I didn’t notice when I’ll actually start moving to Dwight, but I’m not really stoked about it.

I came back to the shop for lunch, and a few of us went to Zaxby’s. After we ate, we noticed a semi with a trailer full of identical grey Teslas going down Main Street. I had to get gas in the Shadow anyway, so I followed it until the guy parked in the turning lane at Chick-fil-A and ran across the street. I figured he was just stopping for lunch, because he was on the road again by the time I finished getting gas.

On the way back to the shop, I saw a girl tip-toeing her sport bike down the road by Summer’s new car wash, so I turned around and helped her push it over to 2nd Street. She fussed a bit about having just purchased the bike, and how they had trouble with the shift lever. They had it rigged together with some wire, and the whole linkage just fell apart. I made sure she was okay, and continued back to work when she insisted that she was fine and someone was on the way.

The afternoon was really quiet, and I spent some time cleaning out my old cubby in the office. I threw out an armful of stuff that I was saving, because my perception of value has changed quite a bit since I first started and was using that cubby. Now that I have an office, I should make room for the new techs.

When I left work, I decided to ride by Allen’s house to see if he was home. His car was there, and the front door was open, so I popped in to surprise him the day before his birthday. He was happy to see me, and we chatted for quite a while. I caught him up on all the goings-on at work, and he talked about going hunting tomorrow.

Apparently Eaddie wanted to play hooky and stayed home from school all day. Summer let her, since her lowest grade was a 94%. Autumn had to perform at an away game after school, so she was gone all evening. When I finished at Allen’s, I asked Eaddie if she wanted to go get her bike, and she quickly responded that she did. I went to pick her up, and she took off as soon as we got to my parents’ house. I stuck around for just a little bit, but they were busy either eating or watering the garden.

I went home to clean up before Summer got home. Bác Vân was outside for a little bit, and asked me to mow some of the tall grass in my front yard. I knocked that out really quickly, but then she wanted to buy my mower because she was aggravated with her own gas mower. I just kept telling her I could mow when the season comes around again.

Summer originally wanted to have a fire, but I was glad I didn’t waste the effort. She didn’t leave work until super late. Eaddie never made it home, and instead stopped at Maristella’s house. She asked me to pick her up, forgetting our conversation just minutes earlier that we had to wait for Summer to get back with the Murano. I brought her home, and then we went back for the bike once Summer arrived. They both wanted Casey’s pizza for dinner, so I ordered that before we left, and then we stopped at Kroger for some juice before getting the pizza. I ordered their beer cheese breakfast pizza and a barbecue brisket pizza, and the brisket was surprisingly good.

After we ate, we settled on watching the first two episodes of She-Hulk. I was glad I did, because I had forgotten who a couple of the characters were from the very beginning. I didn’t even realize how neglected some of those characters were as the story kept moving along. Eaddie quickly went to bed afterward, since she has a robotics event tomorrow. Autumn came over as soon as she got back to town, and Summer was quick to bed.

It must have fit, because it shipped!

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Draining

I finally remembered to bring a bánh giò for breakfast this morning, but I forgot my soy sauce. Luckily Summer was working in town and brought me some after she finished her morning workout. I spent the first couple hours of the day resetting passwords that Brody had accessed during his time with us, which was coincidentally the first time we’d ever done that before. We just never bothered in the past, but with such a new crew, it seemed like a good time.

The guys went to lunch several minutes early, but I went an hour late to go with Summer. I picked her up on the Shadow and we rode across the street to Morelos. The lunch fajitas are so good there. She had told me earlier in the day that she wanted to have family time this weekend, but I absolutely could not waste any more time getting my things in order. Then I upset her further with my response when she pushed me about John and Melissa. I’m simply juggling too many things, and I’m prioritizing them the best that I can. I’m not going to let something that’s going to drag me into the past distract me from the future I’m trying to build.

I dropped her off and planned to meet her at home right after work, where Dad was going to meet me to help with my leaky sink. I spent most of the afternoon watching more Network+ videos until I had to go upstairs for a couple work orders. Then I left on time, because Dad beat me to the house and had already started looking at the sink.

We took everything apart once I got there, and struggled breaking the garbage disposal apart until I brought out a real hammer. He had some ancient plumber’s putty from McCoys, which he was able to knead and microwave in order to make it pliable enough to apply to the sink drain. Summer came over after work and picked at weeds in the back yard, and Dad and I had to go to Lowe’s for a replacement rubber gasket.

We got most everything put back together correctly this time, but Dad had to go to a church meeting. Summer stuck around for a little while, but eventually went home. I continued compressing the putty, and scrubbed the corroded parts until they were a bit cleaner and more usable. Then when Dad came back after the meeting, we got everything sealed back up water tight again. There’s still a leak in the faucet, but that can wait for another day.

I ended the evening with the finale of She-Hulk, which was both weird and satisfying. I, for one, enjoyed it for its quirks.

Whatever, K.E.V.I.N.

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She’s a Brainiac, Brainiac on the Floor

I got a request to shuffle a bunch of stuff at Support Services yesterday, so first thing this morning, Gary, Zach, Greg, and I went over to take care of that. It ended up being way easier than I expected, and we knocked it out pretty quickly, even after we lost Zach to go watch his kid do a firefighter challenge at Sequoyah.

Afterward, I went back to my office and started in on my Network+ videos again until lunch time. It was Brody’s last day, so most of us got together and went to Cicis for lunch. While we were there, Aaron and a couple other guys from the bank came in, and he snuck up behind me to say, “hi.”

Summer had gotten a call from the neurologist that they could see her in the afternoon, which was way better than waiting for the middle of December, so she came back to town and picked me up after lunch. We went straight to their office and waited for them to open back up from lunch so we could fill out paperwork before talking to the doctor. The meeting actually went really well, and he put us at ease right away. The abnormality was some possible shrinkage of her frontal lobe that could possibly have been greater than average, but he didn’t feel like that had anything to do with the symptoms that brought her to the doctor in the first place.

Summer did a few cognitive tests with varying results, and he referred us to UAMS, which we’ll probably do at the start of next year after her deductible resets. She still felt a bit off with a headache, but I talked her into going to my house to clean up, since I had been gone from work long enough to take the remainder of the day off.

I poked around in the garage when I got home, and cleaned and organized a few more things. Summer befriended a beautiful white dog with white eyes, who I’d seen wander around the neighborhood in the past. We tested the couple of scrapped TVs I brought home, and one of them appeared to work without any trouble. The other was clearly physically broken on the left side, but it would be fine for someone that just needs one that works at all. We loaded up the better one to take to her house, and then I ran around looking for some feet. I thought I had some in my office, but I finally came back home and found them there.

Up at Summer’s house, Eaddie was already dressed down for the evening. Summer made Rice Krispies Treats, and eventually Autumn showed up from whatever she had going on. I had gotten a message that my VIN was assigned, so I hopped online to try and finalize my Progressive quote. Since the delivery is happening so late in the year, I’m actually getting a 2023 year model, which is pretty neat. I won’t have ultrasonic sensors, so I’m annoyed that some features may be temporarily disabled, but hopefully it won’t take long for that to be corrected. I had trouble making the insurance changes myself because the new year model wasn’t even in the system yet, so I had to spend quite a while chatting with support to get the changes made. My rate will be higher than I thought, but still only about half of what State Farm wanted for just one car.

The girls all wound down pretty quietly, so I surfed my nightly deals, got a little distracted, and eventually made it to bed.

We are so close to being able to speak of Tres!

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Fireworks Stand

The girls had a marching event for band today, so Autumn left really early, allegedly to do makeup. She left Eaddie behind so she could take a shower first, so Summer made her breakfast and then took her to the high school before going to the gym. I headed on home and got around to cleaning out the garage some more. I took a folding table out to the driveway and used it to sort out my super old box of fireworks.

I set a whole bunch of stuff out by the curb, and almost looked like I was having a garage sale. The folding table itself looked like I had opened up a fireworks stand. Summer came over after the gym and brought some food. I didn’t feel great, so I just had a cup of chili and she had a salad. I found the outside wall of the garage, which I hadn’t seen in years. Eventually I needed a break, so we came inside and I took a shower.

We considered grilling dinner there, but I knew the girls wouldn’t want to stay the night, and I really needed to focus on cleaning anyway. We left to drop off some toner at Staples, and then went to Walmart to walk and browse around. I saw some croissants that looked like they would be good for burgers, and Summer got some stuff to make some guacamole on the side.

The girls got home as we were cooking, but Autumn wanted to go to her father’s for the night. Eaddie didn’t, which suited us fine. The three of us ate, Autumn left, and then it was a quiet night until bedtime.

Again, but faster!

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Taco Bout It

I’ve ridden a bike to work all week because the weather has been so nice. It may be jacket weather in the mornings next week though. This morning’s meeting was our first that required an agenda from Zach and Gary. Zach took the lead, which he took awkwardly. It was pretty easy to tell that he was given direction without purpose. After the meeting, everyone else went through the shop and cleaned all the flat surfaces.

I didn’t have a whole lot going on, but I decided to go through and clean out my stale tickets after that was mentioned during the meeting. Then I wrapped up a couple other things I had been working on, and I was basically done with projects for the day.

When lunch time came around, Zach wanted CJ’s. I rode my bike behind them, but got lost in traffic. By the time I got to CJ’s, they had already left for Cracker Barrel because there wasn’t an empty seat in the house. I left the line and went after them, but got another message that Cracker Barrel had a 30 minute wait, so they had gone ahead to Brangus. I opted out at that point and went back to the shop to eat my leftover Slim Chickens. Evidently Brangus didn’t work out for them either though, because the line was out the door. They ended up at La Chiquita, which wasn’t busy because as I’ve said before, it’s not particularly good.

The afternoon was super quiet, and I had trouble killing the rest of the day. Autumn had been at Dwight all day for her educators class, but called to say she could take Eaddie home. I asked her to drop her off at her hair appointment so I could go scrap the metal I had been hanging onto for so long. I ran home at quitting time and made it to Cunningham just in time. I was disappointed that I only got $15 for the lot of it, so I probably won’t be saving cans any longer. It’s just not worth the storage space.

Lelan finished Eaddie’s hair before I even got halfway across town to pick her up. I was surprised that it was still so long, but Eaddie said she really liked it. She sent us home with some tea tree shampoo because she still picked out some nits after all this time. I figure Eaddie has just accepted a symbiotic relationship at this point, because she doesn’t complain about itching, and nobody has really purged the house.

We went home for a bit, but Eaddie immediately started talking about ice cream. Autumn was in her room, but eventually came out to mow. As she finished, Eaddie and I decided to go to Bocadillos for tacos and ice cream. On the way, Eaddie saw Noah at work, so we stopped by PDQ to see him for a bit on the way back. While we were there, I saw the guy I passed the other day on an R1 that looked just like mine.

Summer finally made it home, so we headed on home ourselves. We tried stopping at Tropical Smoothie to get her some food, but they had shut everything down. We ended up at Wendy’s instead, for a reliably good burger. Summer was up surprisingly late watching TV, but we only saw Autumn out of her room once, and Eaddie disappeared as soon as we got home. I was pretty tired myself, so I went to bed relatively early.

ERROR

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UpToDate

I was phlegmy all day today, which was no fun. I went through two cups of coffee to keep my throat soothed. The office was quiet again, except for when it literally wasn’t. The girls up front were cackling over something, so I had to give them a hard time. I got into a few different things that people sent me, but nothing too difficult.

I wasn’t super hungry until right at lunch time, and someone suggested Western Sizzlin. I probably should have stayed at the shop to eat my leftover chicken mac, but I figured I would feel a little less guilty if I started with a salad.

Just before school let out, I went to Oakland to take care of a couple small things. I ended up staying longer than I originally planned, and left after most of the kids were gone. Everyone had wound down at the shop by then, so I was quickly out by quitting time.

I was supposed to pick up Eaddie from school, but Autumn called just as I was about to leave and offered to pick her up and take her to the football game “so she could hang out with Maleea” instead of going to karate like she had planned. I knew immediately that she was full of shit, but then she asked whether I was going to spend the night with them, and said she would take Eaddie to school early in the morning if I didn’t. I took the opportunity to stay home and spend a bunch of time cleaning up the garage while the weather was nice.

The mosquitos eventually got to me, but I was happy with the dent I had made in all the junk in the garage. I came inside to watch the latest episode of She-Hulk, and then Brandie texted out of the blue to check in. I shared with her our new week of drama, and it sounded like she has a pretty busy rest of the year.

Summer eventually called before going to sleep, and I showed her around the garage. She had called her clinic for an update, but both her doctor and nurse were out, and the neurologist referral apparently wasn’t able to get her an appointment any earlier than mid-December. When we finished talking, I wrapped everything up and did my best to keep from getting distracted from going to sleep myself.

Abomaste

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The Extendables

It was a quiet day in the shop today, which allowed me to slowly pick away at a few different things. I didn’t feel super smurfy first thing in the morning, but I made it through lunch. I spent some time at Oakland in the afternoon, and had to borrow an extension ladder to climb up the side of the building and check a speaker. I finished the day upstairs to babysit a computer image that didn’t seem to get its necessary chipset drivers to allow the input devices to function.

It was nice outside after work, so I spent quite a while outside cleaning out the garage. I broke down some boxes and rearranged a few things, and then loaded up some stuff to take to the graveyard. I had seen Amanda drive by Oakland earlier in the day, and she reminded me to pick up my mini crock pot. I stopped by her house on the way to the shop and got it, and also gave her a computer monitor. Then I took the rest of my junk to the graveyard.

Summer and Eaddie were home when I got there, but Autumn was out at church with some friends. Eaddie was in a bit of a mood, and Summer was busy finishing up some laundry. I ate my leftovers from dinner yesterday, and then remembered to call Bác Vân back to help with her iCloud account. I think I’ve forgotten her password, but I should be able to reset it.

Autumn eventually made it home, and all the girls went to bed fairly early. I’d had an emotional couple of days, so I wasn’t far behind.

Needs more amp.

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Dirty Laundry

I tried not to sleep in too late today, and got up to finish the leftover corned beef from weeks ago. It had definitely gone a bit sour, but otherwise didn’t seem to have any adverse side effects. As soon as Eaddie got around, we took her to the high school to get her flute for an assignment she needed to finish. Afterward, Summer was going to take her to New China for lunch, so I had them drop me off at home.

The first thing I did was clean up the smoker after yesterday’s meal. It took me a while, but I think I’ll get better at it over time. Then I did a couple loads of laundry while intermittently cleaning around inside the house. Every time I stepped outside, I got really sweaty, so I stayed inside for most of it. I got my old computer running and started a whole bunch of updates on it. Finally, I took a shower when I got to a stopping point.

Eaddie was going to come ride her bike after lunch, but Summer wasn’t feeling well. They both decided to go back home for the day, and Summer tried to sleep it off. Autumn eventually made it home, and she and Eaddie mowed part of the lawn. I decided to go by Freddy’s for a couple concretes to take up to them, and I just ran into one frustration after another.

I placed my order online and headed to the store. Some lady flew in from the other direction and got in front of me in the drive-through, and then took a while to order. I just knew it was going to take forever for her to get everything she ordered. When I got to the speaker, the girl told me I had to pick up my order inside, but by then I had traffic behind me, and evidently there was no way out of the drive-through, so I just had to sit and wait for the lady in front of me to get everything. When I finally got inside, the pickup process was not clear at all. There were three different places to get my order, and it was in none of them. That was actually a blessing in disguise, because they simply hadn’t even made my order yet. I placed it before I left the house, which meant they didn’t even start making it for at least 10 minutes. With custard in hand, I headed out, but was cut off by some other lady that flew out of the parking lot without looking.

When I got to their house, Summer was still agonizing in bed while Autumn was trying to help Eaddie bake cookies. Eaddie wasn’t trying very hard, which was aggravating Autumn. I couldn’t believe they didn’t start fighting, but Autumn just made herself a huge glass of chocolate milk and went to her room. I took over a bit and started combining ingredients for Eaddie, and then she formed cookies on the baking sheets. I used a fork to embellish them a bit, which Eaddie enjoyed.

I ended the evening next to Summer, trying to complete an achievement on Into the Breach. My cough got worse again as the night carried on, so I loaded up on water and meds and went to bed.

It’s not a video tape.