Tag: cleanup on aisle 5

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Looking for a Handout

Summer brought Autumn to work for me again today, and we started handing laptops out to the seniors. It was an all-day affair, and for the most part the kids were pretty spread out. Seniors are always a bit more chill since they’ve been through the motions a couple times before.

Noah came by to get his laptop and then needed a ride home, so I dropped him off on the way to pick up Stoby’s for lunch. Autumn had a dentist appointment around lunch time, but then came right back. Work orders continued to flow in all day, and I did what I could remotely. Ben called at the end of the day and said he needed me to work on deploying Impero first thing tomorrow, so hopefully Autumn can handle my part of the laptop handout without me.

Autumn’s band practice was cancelled due to the rain, so we picked Eaddie up after work and I dropped them both off at karate. Then I went by my parents’ house for some fish soup before heading home to clean up a bunch more carpet. It was a bit of a slow-motion nightmare, and I was exhausted by the end of the night. The girls came over to spend the night, and I just crashed as soon as I could.

I don’t like it, buddy. I don’t like it.

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Living Within the Means

Summer got up and took the girls home while I started cleaning in the garage. Frustration and anxiety about some of the things I’ve hoarded has made it a tiny bit easier to get rid of them, but it’s still not easy. Seeded deep within me is a primal need to be prepared for the day I’ll need some of those things, and I have a genuine fear of not having them when the day comes.

Along with removing the less valuable things comes reorganizing the things that will stay. I have amassed a veritable trove of things larger than I am, and I’ll have to find enough wall space to store them all. I can get a little creative with suspending things from the ceiling, but that will take a considerable amount of work in and of itself. It is neat to be back in a place where I can imagine a realistically finished project though.

The girls eventually came back and we took the leftover barbecue to my parents’ house for lunch. We got there and realized I had forgotten the sauce, so Summer and I ran back across town for that before we could eat. After lunch, Mom seemed to be feeling some kind of way about the way I’ve tried to live within my means, and kept encouraging me to go into debt all just to build a new house. Being out of debt and having money in the bank has been a point of personal pride for me for quite a while, so building a new house isn’t even in my 10-year plan.

We made it back to my house and the girls went home while I cleaned up a bit more. Split wasn’t well, and has gotten to the point where he only eats the gravy out of the canned food I’ve been getting him. Of course he’ll eat the more expensive cans though, so I suppose I’ll be getting more of those tomorrow. Ultimately I made my way up to Summer’s for the evening, and watched some Glee with her and Eaddie before bed.

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
-Douglas Adams

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Is This What White People Sound Like?

I went to the shop first thing this morning to try and recruit some help moving all of the old laptops from my office to The UPS Store. Josh and Kyle drew the short straws, so I got the truck and we headed out. We managed to get it all into the back of the truck, except for a half box of laptops that we forgot to grab.

Once that was done, I dropped Josh and the truck off, and then Kyle and I went back to the high school to replace some docking stations. It got me a little out of my groove I was in, but we got a lot accomplished and I appreciated the help. He was only working the half day, so he cut out at lunch and I went back to my office for the afternoon.

I still had a leftover sandwich in the fridge, so I ate that while I worked. All of my flash drives accepted the new laptop image, so hopefully I can start on that next week. I got a couple huge boxes of parts in, but it was all for Heather’s new laptops, so I’ll have her come take them away eventually.

After work, took the last few laptops to The UPS Store and encountered a loud, ignorant couple that was just hellbent against wearing masks. It seemed like they were just out for an argument, because he was wearing a completely open mesh mask that I guess was intended to comply with the most generic definition of the word. The girl at the counter asked them to step away, and they both immediately started spouting off about how the CDC said surgical masks didn’t protect against COVID-19, and asked on whose authority was his mask deemed unworthy. I’m sure if they had done a little more digging on that same internet where they found their information, they would have learned that idiots and assholes are not protected classes of people, and that private establishments like The UPS Store aren’t infringing on their rights by not serving them. I spent the rest of my evening winning arguments and delivering sick burns to them in my mind.

I stopped by to see Summer on the way home, and then finally broke out my new carpet cleaner to make my living room a little less gross. It seemed to do a really great job, and really made me want to continue on cleaning the rest of the house. It did pull up a lot of carpet lint, but I figured at its age, that wasn’t enough of a reason to stop cleaning. I felt like the room looked a lot better when I was done.

Summer headed over after work while I ran to Walmart to pick up some wet cat food. Split has lost a ton of weight from his formerly fat and floppy self, so I imagine he’s finally on his way out after 15 years. He really took to the canned food when I got home though, so maybe he was just having trouble with the dry stuff.

I warmed up the leftover nachos with some extra salad stuff and watched Forged in Fire with Summer until she started to fall asleep on the couch. I think even I was more tired than I realized.

The lady asked you to leave….

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Rinse and Repeat

I spent most of the morning duplicating flash drives for next week’s imaging party. Heather will be with me then since they’re going to be her laptops next year, but today it was just me by myself finishing up what I started at the beginning of the week.

Gary and I ran by Wendy’s for some lunch, and I had some trouble with the app. There was no line at all, so I just ended up ordering off of the menu for about four times what I would have paid for my promotion through the app. Then I spent all afternoon shopping for more flash drives.

After work, I stopped by the shop to see Summer since she seemed busy all day. She had a lot going on, so we chatted for a little bit before I headed home to meet Zach. He eventually came over after interviewing at the shop, and started working on the Fiero again. We got some brake fluid into the clutch reservoir, and I was able to get the car in and out of gear. The starter worked, but the fuel pump never made a sound.

Zach’s father and grandfather came over to look at it for a little bit as well, and then they all left for dinner. When Summer finally got home after her long day, I went to Zaxby’s to pick up some dinner. I heard a pretty loud wreck from the end of the block, but it was too dark to really see anything.

I wrapped up the evening with some Overwatch with Johnny and Aaron. The kids are gone all weekend, so tomorrow is my chance to clean up at home.

Bite off more than you can chew; What can you do?
DARE TO BE STUPID

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Post up and Roll Out

We all slept pretty well last night after such a long day. As soon as Dad was free, I met him at my house to replace the wooden support posts by the front door. It was so hot and humid, but we made relatively short work of it, and I think it looked pretty good.

I cooled off a while inside while Summer and the girls went to get supplies together, then I met them at my parents’ house to swim for a bit before dinner.

Julie came over, and Mom spent all morning getting things together for beef spring rolls. Even Autumn did well with an alternative meal of beef and noodles with some vegetables since she didn’t care for the rice paper. Then Mom made strawberry shakes for dessert.

We poked around the house for a little bit after dinner, and I tried out my old Ninja Turtles suspenders that I never actually wore during my childhood because I hated suspenders. Then we all headed back up to Summer’s for the evening.

In hindsight, maybe we should have measured the distance between pillars.

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This is Normal

Summer got up this morning and started prepping for lunch with my parents. The girls took turns being moody for a bit, but did fine for lunch. Summer made grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, some fresh broccoli salad stuff, and some guacamole that we barely got to for the appetizer. Then she had a pound cake made for strawberry shortcake for dessert.

My parents hung out for just a little while, but then went home to make bánh bao. The girls decided they wanted to spend a couple nights with their father rather than go help, so when they left, I headed home to start cleaning house.

I got a bunch of old laundry done, but still have loads [pun intended] more left to do. Summer eventually came over and watched TV while I worked. Suzanne called at some point and said she thought they heard gunshots from protests happening downtown, but I couldn’t ever find any evidence of it, nor could I hear any noise from outside over my laundry. It seemed like the most action we got were some guys open-carrying rifles around town.

Tomorrow everyone is back to work at the office, but we’re sort of left to our own devices to help with social distancing. It’s been nice spending so much time at home, and I’m in no way looking forward to going back.

Surely homesteading isn’t that hard.

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Do You Pay My Automo’ Bills

I got up pretty early this morning after going to bed early, and managed to get invited to another island to offload the rest of my turnips. The stalk market has been good to me, and today turned out to be a pretty good day in the stock market as well. I even hosted a couple other people to my island to buy the rare royal crown item that was being sold at my tailor’s shop.

Autumn told me around lunch time that Noah forgot his work clothes here when he went home, so I had to leave pretty early to deliver them back to him. I stopped at Casey’s on the way for a free water, dropped off his clothes, then went on to my house for the afternoon.

I did my best to stay at least a little bit productive, but I was pretty easily sidetracked today. I did manage to pay off a couple old medical bills that I had been avoiding because it appeared as though they kept fluctuating due to insurance. In the end, most of them did still have to be paid, and I’ve decided that a better course of action would have been to follow my own advice with what I already understood of my own body, rather than go to a doctor and a specialist to end up paying a bunch of money just to confirm what I already knew.

Mom and Dad came by to look at my porch columns, and I fed the bettas some fresh larvae I spotted in my water bucket. I ate my leftover pasta from last week, and generally milled around the house all evening before finally taking a shower and heading up to Summer’s for the night.

I – Don’t – Think – You – Do!

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Just Get It Done

I picked up another breakfast pizza this morning, and headed to the office. My working from home days are coming to an end with the impending stress of a new 1:1 device lease. Ben had a meeting at central office this morning and at the very least confirmed that we are going to get more Windows devices instead of Chromebooks next year. He also confirmed that, though we’ve not backfilled a higher paying lead technician position, they’re not ready to offer raises or a second tier for those of us that put in the extra effort.

Being the only one at the office, I worked right through lunch, and ended the day at the high school for a work order. Then I went home and ate some leftovers before picking up Autumn for her physical therapy. She decided to stay the night with her grandparents, so I went by the shop to see Summer for a bit before going back home to clean up.

It was nice and cool out, so I took Summer’s string trimmer out and cut down most of the back yard. I ran out of juice very near the end, but that was mostly around some sticks and branches anyway. The yard looked loads better, and when it dries I should be able to burn the rest of the rubbish.

My next project was to sift potting soil for future aquariums. I cleaned out a couple buckets, put on some rubber gloves, and sat in the driveway with a piece of metal mesh until Summer and Eaddie got there for the evening. Then we watched an episode of Glee before putting Summer to bed. Eaddie and I finished with a couple episodes of Iron Fist.

I don’t want my dirt to get dirty. I just finished sorting it!

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Recovery Room

I had to get out right as I was getting into bed so I could cover the fire pit before a storm blew in. Then I slept for a while, but still woke up several times throughout the night. It felt a little like I was too dependent on the higher constant pressure of my CPAP at Summer’s, but my newer one at home shouldn’t have any trouble adjusting as needed. I guess I could bump up my minimum pressure to see if that helps.

I was still incredibly sore when I woke up, but the worst of it worked itself out throughout the day. The girls got up and went home pretty early, so I had some time to clean up around the house.

The oldest male guppy that Brittany brought me yesterday wasn’t doing very well, so I spent quite a bit of time trying to arrange a place for him to go into quarantine. At first I put him into a little container of his own, but then ended up splitting my external breeding tank into three compartments so he could join my two bettas. I could see he had gotten really stiff and would just float in the corner breathing, but nothing else looked really wrong. A few of his fins were a little thin, so I wondered if he was getting harassed in his overcrowded container while I acclimated them overnight. At the end of the day, he finally stopped breathing and I sent him off for a burial at sea.

While I was messing with the fish, I also noticed a bunch more dead leaves floating in my bathroom aquarium, so I cleaned it up a little and added some soda water for a little carbon dioxide kick. I’m hoping they’re still just dying off because of how neglected the tank was, but there could be something else going on too. Only time will tell.

Summer wanted to get Sumo for dinner, but evidently they closed up at the start of the COVID-19 stuff, so I just ate the girls’ leftover Taco Villa before heading up to their place. When I got there, I tried working on Kayla’s laptop with absolutely zero success. Summer went to bed after some TV, then Eaddie and I watched a couple episodes of Jessica Jones before heading to bed ourselves.

But why is work, anyway?

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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!