Tag: cleanup on aisle 5

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The Doge Days are Over

I slept most of my way through Thursday with a pretty steady 103ºF fever, body aches, and fortunately a lesser chill than I had during true COVID and my first Moderna shot. It still hurt to move, or to sit wrong, or to adjust, or to lye in one place for too long. I still couldn’t get up and do anything, or watch TV, or really bother staying awake. By Thursday night I was hungry enough to eat some real food, so Dad brought me some leftover chicken and scalloped potatoes.

I woke up Friday having finally broken my fever and chills, but after trying to continue with my morning routine it was clear that I wouldn’t be much use at work, so I took another sick day. Summer came over after taking Autumn to school and laid with me for a while. It was Melinda’s last day, and I didn’t want to miss sending her off, so I made it out of the house to meet everyone at Morelos for lunch. Ben pulled a quick one on us and paid for everyone. Then I headed up to Summer’s for a while since she was still feeling pretty rough.

It wasn’t long before I had to get Autumn from school. She got her phone back from Summer’s office after a paltry week without it. When we got home, their father was there to pick up Eaddie for the weekend. Autumn had previously volunteered for an event this weekend, but backed out so she could go as well.

Summer and I eventually made it back to my house for the evening, and she watched TV while I shuffled around in the laundry room. I was still working out some aches, but felt good enough to push myself a little more, so I got the dryer vent duct cut and temporarily placed. All we have left to do are a few finishing touches to seal everything into place, and then I’m ready to do laundry again!

Dogecoin has been on a tear, jumping from when I purchased it at around 4.6 cents to just over 49 cents. It felt really surreal to watch it keep climbing over the two days I was stuck in bed sick. Unfortunately I was too optimistic to cash out at its peak, but I still came out plenty ahead. It’s hard not to make snap emotional actions when you can make or lose hundreds of dollars in just a few seconds, but at this point I have enough of a buffer that I can afford to ride it out a little longer.

Wouldn’t mind another run at a dollar, though.

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It’s a Brick…. House

I had trouble sleeping last night, and woke up in the night with a really sore left shoulder. My only guess was that it was from moving the workbench around in the garage. I ended up snoozing a bit late before getting up for work. Somehow I managed to make it in on time, but as soon as I got settled in, Zach asked me to cover testing for Josh so he could go fix a door.

I went to the middle school and found him in the library, then walked over to the fifth grade side to much fanfare. They didn’t need me for anything, but they were still excited to see me. Once Josh got back from removing the pebble that was holding the door open, we went back to the middle school library to image some computers and fix their printers.

Brody had called me several times already by this time, so I went to the junior high next to help with something there. He’s got some super weird gaps that I can only explain away by his youth. This is what happens when we obfuscate file paths and directory structures.

That got is through lunch, so we headed back to the shop just in time to see Zach and Gary had already left for BFD. We caught up and had lunch with some of the lesser service I’ve had there. Then I spent the afternoon at the shop working on the iMac.

After work, I took the girls to Summer’s shop. On the way we spotted a red Model 3 that looked to be the performance edition that I want. The red was much darker in person than I expected, but it was beautiful, even with its older chrome accents. From there, I headed home and started drilling out holes in the brick of my house. The larger drill bit wouldn’t stay in the drill, so I had to back off to a smaller one.

By some stroke of luck, I was just about perfect in my placement, and Dad came over with a hammer and chisel to knock the brick out. The test duct I stuck in the hole slid in with a little resistance, but then the new vent we bought slid in perfectly with just the right amount of wiggle room. We still didn’t have enough time to finish the job, but we finished the hardest part. All that’s left is to finish the run and seal the outside of the house.

This is Not a Drill: It’s Hammer Time!

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Wholly Holy Hole

I forced myself up this morning instead of sleeping in, with the hopes that I could get back to sleep for work the next day. Summer got up and immediately left for her nail appointment, then came back and took Autumn to the gym. I went home and mounted a couple bikes to the Murano so she could take Eaddie out for a bike ride while Autumn was at a graduation party at Old Post.

Once the bikes were mounted, I started moving things around in the garage and called Dad so we could start mounting the new dryer vent duct in the garage. I had to go to the office to borrow the hammer drill, though we never got far enough to actually need the hammer function. We had to go to Harbor Freight for a hole saw, and then Lowe’s for mounting hardware. Then we went back to my parents’ house for a couple things before we could get started.

We decided to repair the drywall next to the power outlet first, since the dryer vent would likely cover that up, or at least make it more difficult to access. We finished up the drywall and drilled a hole through the outside cabinet wall and the garage drywall. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a bit of insulation in the garage walls. There’s at least one area with some pretty heavy water or pest damage, so I’m hoping that will be a good excuse to redo the walls with some proper insulation.

Dinner time came, and we didn’t want to start drilling brick that late, so we packed everything up for the day. The girls brought the Murano back and I unloaded, then went to my parents’ house for some leftovers. Dad and I chatted for a while after, and eventually I made it back home for the evening.

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Mama Bear

I slept on top of the sheets last night, so it was pretty rough getting out of bed. I eventually made it to the high school to drop off the last of my CDs for Daniel to use in their play. Then I continued to the shop for the day. I told Melinda about the trouble I had the night before, and she went full-on mother-mode with the advice and being super nice all day.

Brody and Kyle came to the shop so we could hang a touch panel at Crawford, which got us through to lunch. Melinda and I were the only ones still at the shop, so she insisted that I choose, and we went to New China so I could eat my feelings. Then when we got back, she turned off her Britney Spears playlist and played Linkin Park for me for most of the rest of the day.

My office has been a big hit lately for people to mingle, which is both new and kind of neat, though distracting. I spent most of the day trying to help other people and not getting much of anything else done. I worked a little bit late, but had to get the girls to karate.

Both of the girls were pretty quiet today, and the drive to karate didn’t take long. Once they were out, I went to my parents’ house to figure out what was really going to happen with my living situation. As I suspected, it was all a misunderstanding since I’ve been watching the housing market. I’ve been pretty vocal about my plan, but still caught a lot of flak for reasons I don’t understand. At the end of the day, I get to keep living here, which is what really matters.

Dad came back with me to seal the wall back up, then move the cabinet back into its corner. We had to try multiple times because it wasn’t quite square, causing the doors to not open or not stay closed. I never got it quite perfect, but it worked well enough to load up with a bunch of stuff from the garage. Still not enough room for activities, but at least it’s easier to move around in there.

When attacked by a bear, simply lie still on the ground and cover your face and head with your hands. When the bear is finished batting you around and mauling you, contact the US Forest Service.

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Burninating the Countryside!

Summer had to work for a little while today, so Autumn and I got up and had breakfast at Hardee’s. We had a pretty good chat, then dropped a sandwich off for Summer on the way home. Eaddie eventually got around to eat and came outside to help Autumn and me burn the brush in the back yard. I was a little surprised how well it burned, considering how much green was back there. The trick now is to mow it regularly so it doesn’t get bad again this year.

As the fire died down, Eaddie went through and clipped down larger plants that didn’t burn down. Autumn moved some of the ash around to try and level the ground, and found a box turtle that we accidentally roasted. I dug a hole for her to bury it, and then went to clean out the garage. Once the girls were tired of working in the yard, Autumn came inside and Eaddie took off on her bike.

Eventually I got the girls back home to clean up, and we had to sit down for a family chat about wanting to go to their father’s for the weekend. I still had to get cleaned up myself, so we started Eaddie on mowing the lawn. Summer went to the gym, and I stopped by to give Robert another Cyberathlete Professional League sticker I found. He gifted me a little bit of brisket, and finally I headed home to shower.

I started feeling pretty sick after my shower, with a bit of a chill and some general wooziness. I made my way up to Summer’s for the evening, but there was so much noise in the house that I had to break out the XM4s to just chill out in silence for a bit. Summer took Eaddie to get Dairy Queen since I was killing her vibe. Then everyone went to bead.

Burninating the peasants!

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Computer Chores

Today was almost entirely spent taking care of old, stacked-up chores on computers. I finally wiped my work laptop and got it loaded back up to where I needed it. While that was going, I had to poke around on the SCCM server to make some space so I could see if that was the reason I wasn’t able to build a task sequence image yesterday. I took lunch with Zach, Greg, and Gary at Las Palmas where they’ve started charging more if you pay with a card.

After lunch was more of the same, but at least it was quiet. The girls had a ride to karate, so I just went home after work until time to pick them up. Then I cooked some spaghetti noodles for the leftover sauce. The girls all went to bed pretty early, so I spent hours cleaning up email and picking through Autumn’s Disney receipts to calculate what she owes me. She figured a little under $300. I calculated a little over $600. Looks like there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

This is the first time I’ve been outright unable to hear a high frequency sound that I used to hear, and it made me feel old.

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Path of Logical Hoarding

I woke up this morning and jumped right into organizing again. It was a cool, sunny day out, which was perfect for rummaging in the garage. While I was out there, I saw Uncle Giao, Erica, and Nova pull up at Bác Vân’s, and he brought out a couple old helmets for me. The girls showed up just after that, and we decided to go out for lunch to Linh’s with them.

The service was spacy, slow, and just generally bad. I keep thinking there must be something she can do to improve the experience, but it’s just always bad now. The food was fine, except for two very obvious black hairs entwined both in Summer’s shrimp fried rice and my phở. Things weren’t going well enough for us to really feel comfortable sending anything back though.

Steven and Ronda stopped by the restaurant to drop some wine off for Summer. Then Summer had to take off early to hold an interview at the shop. When we all finally left, I stopped by the house and picked up some old brake fluid, and took it to Summer.

The afternoon was more cleaning and organizing while Summer and Eaddie went for a bike ride and Autumn went to hang out with Harry. She’s been constantly asking to go to church with this kid, and I’d be alright with it if it was actually making her a better person instead of just trying to manipulate us into letting her do what she wants to do.

When Summer and Eaddie got back, they headed home and I went to Arby’s for a quick dinner. Then I wrapped up outside and came in to archive Summer’s skydive media. Time really accelerated after that, and before I knew it, it was well past bedtime.

Let’s build a new structure, dedicated to this hobby of collecting things!

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Homing In

I slept in pretty late today, forgetting that Summer still had to work. It’s been a busy spring break so far, and today was no exception. As soon as I got up, the girls started asking when we’d leave for my house. I told them to get things cleaned up, and then we could go any time. They dawdled around, mostly forgetting to actually do anything, until I forced them.

Autumn wanted me to drop her off with Summer so she could help out at the shop before and after therapy. I took Eaddie on home, but as soon as we got there, she took off on her bike. I spent the whole time outside, slowly poking through the garage. I felt pretty good about the little bit of organization I did, but there’s still so much to do.

A little while after Eaddie got back, I decided to take a break and take her out on a motorcycle ride. We stopped by the shop to see when Summer would be off, then took the scenic route to my parents’ house. I chatted with Dad for a little bit about the renovation, and then we headed back home once Summer was off work.

She wanted chicken, so we settled on Slim Chickens for a whopping forty five dollars. I recognized the little girl that took our order from school, and we noticed the crew in the back mouthing her for fussing at them while she was running all over the restaurant cleaning everything in sight. I told Summer she needed to hire her, so we did a little headhunting. Summer needed some practice being smooth, so I had to get her name to get the conversation started. Then Summer started probing about her job and invited her down for an interview.

Arms full of that delicious strawberry lemonade, we headed back home for the evening. Still unsatisfied, Summer sent Eaddie and me out on a Blizzard quest. Then Eaddie and I sat in the living room: her on her phone and me on mostly YouTube until she went to bed.

Take inventory, itemize, and make it happen.

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With a Bow

Summer had to work today, so I stayed in and eventually got the girls up and out of the house. We went to Walmart for some things for lunch, and I made a big Everything Loaf sandwich to take to Summer. Afterward, I took the girls home so they could clean up the house. We took my electric mower up there since we couldn’t get Summer’s gas powered one running.

Autumn went to the gym with Harry while Eaddie mowed the lawn. I tried to help clean up a little bit. Summer got home, so I made spaghetti for dinner. We didn’t have any sauce or noodles though, so I had to run back to Walmart to get them. I ended up getting an armful of things, and somewhere along the way I set down the noodles and never picked them back up. When I got back to the house, we decided the bowtie pasta we had in the cabinet would be good enough.

We were all pretty tired after all the running around, so Autumn and Summer went to bed. Eaddie and I watched an episode of House, and then she stayed up late playing Fortnite.

Don’t keep your ice cream next to the hot dogs, or it won’t stay cold enough.

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Never Trust the Banker

Summer felt well enough to go to work today, and left me to fetch the girls from their friends’ house. Autumn ended up getting a ride from another Explorers friend to their meeting at Old Post, so I just had to get Eaddie. We stopped by Hardee’s for a little lunch to take to Summer. Then we went to my house so she could ride her bike.

Summer got busy and forgot to get Autumn, so I headed across town. Just as I got there, Autumn called to tell me she passed me in someone else’s truck. I mentally scolded her as I turned around and headed back home. Then I pushed some leaves around in the yard and did a bit of rearranging in the garage while Eaddie spent the entire afternoon at her grandparents’ house. I finally had to call her back home so we could go eat dinner.

We arrived back at the house just before Summer, so it worked out well. Autumn had cleaned the house as she was supposed to. Summer and I ate some leftovers while Eaddie went out to try and mow the lawn. She couldn’t get the mower started though, furthering my hatred for simple combustion engines.

Autumn wanted to play some Monopoly, so Summer and I finished the evening with that. They decided to gang up on me to prevent any possibility of winning, even after overcoming the already incredibly bad odds, so I took matters into my own hands just to see if Summer would notice. Stacks of money later, my allergies got the best of me and I decided it was time for bed.

One for you, and one for me. Two for you, and one, two for me. Three for you, and one, two, three for me. Nyah.