Tag: disappointment

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Parenting 301: Intermediate-Advanced Teenage Childhood Development

I rode the Shadow to work this morning since it was still nice out, and I figured it would be good for a ride out to Center Valley. I ended up being commandeered in the afternoon and never made it out that far, though. The morning was actually pretty quiet in the shop because the big three were out walking the new maintenance building on North South Oswego. I don’t know why so many people keep getting that address wrong, but at this point it’s just pure comedy.

I spent the morning doing some laptop repairs for Center Valley, which I’m pretty sure were more repairs than I’ve done all year for Oakland. A group of us went to Arby’s for lunch, and I rode with Thomas and the rest of the gang because I had somehow gotten a curved piece of metal in my back tire. When we got back to the shop after lunch, I managed to pull it out and confirm that it was less deep than the remaining tread on the tire, so all was well.

Zach had a big group of us out in the graveyard enrolling Chromebooks for the rest of the day. I, of course, was an efficiency monster and dominated with four complete carts by the end of the day. Summer left Conway and wanted me to call her, but didn’t answer her phone. Then Eaddie needed a ride home from her father’s restaurant.

I ran home to get a helmet for Eaddie, but as soon as I got there, Summer rang in with some disturbing news. Eaddie and I got on the bike and met her back at my house for a chat. We ended up calling Kevin for a bit of advice, and then we wound up at Chili’s for dinner.

I didn’t even order anything for myself, and instead split a full rack of ribs with Summer. Somehow I still ended up eating the most, long after they had finished. I went home stuffed, and ended up on a Discord call with Mitch for quite a while. He offered what advice and comfort he could, and we shared some laughs about the past. Things have changed a lot since January 9th, 2002, but we’re keeping it real.

AM I BEING DETAINED?!?!?

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The Sickness

Today was even quieter in the office because we had three people out on COVID leave. I did a good thing and found a script to bulk clean up some DHCP settings. Then it was mostly helping Brody over the phone for the rest of the day.

He wanted to go to lunch, so Brody, Gary, and I went down to Dardanelle for BFD. For some reason I ordered a big plate of nachos, which were good, but just too much to eat. I polished my plate though, and then didn’t really do much the rest of the day.

Zach came in for the superintendent meeting, but wore a mask until he could go get tested after the meeting. That ended up being positive – the test, and not the meeting. We can’t quite figure out the logic behind Dardanelle finding many qualified doctoral candidates for their superintendent, but we only found two candidates, who incidentally seem less qualified than Jeff.

When I left work, I stopped by Oakland to get Eaddie, who promptly told me that plans had changed and she would be waiting for Autumn to take her to a basketball game. I went on home and wasted most of the evening by myself. I tried to motivate myself to pick up the bedroom so I could move some furniture, but I just didn’t have much luck in the cold.

There’s just no home for it all. It’s homeless.

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Ring Bell for Service

I got up a few minutes early this morning so I could swing by McDonald’s for Mariah’s daily deal. At this point, I’m not even surprised at what I’ll do for random free swag. Unfortunately, the McChicken Biscuit and cinnamon roll were both pretty terrible. The Egg McMuffins and McGriddles are about the only halfway decent breakfast foods there. I stopped by Casey’s for a free water on the way home as well.

Work was quiet again, on account of the impending break. It feels like everything has slowed down, and I’ve been having trouble staying motivated. I just dawdled on a Chromebook issue for most of the morning, and then a group of us went to Taco Bell for lunch.

The drive-through line was out to the road, but there was only one person inside the restaurant. There didn’t appear to be anyone to take orders, so the guys lined up at the kiosks to order. I placed my order in the app on my phone, but it wasn’t until everyone else had received their food that I realized my order went to the wrong restaurant. I tried to cancel it and re-order, but when I tapped to cancel, it said my order was being made. I never even saw anything about checking in, so I don’t know how that happened, but I had to drive across town to get my food. Fortunately we took two vehicles, so Greg took everyone else back to the shop.

When I got to the other Taco Bell, someone else had taken my food off the counter, so I had to ask them to remake it. Then I sat alone and ate my food, basically hating everything for it. It really took me back in time. When I finished, I went back to the shop for a bit before ending the day at Oakland.

I didn’t stay home for long though, since the girls were actually home early. I went to Lowe’s to pick up a graham cracker house that I ordered a few days ago and kept forgetting. Then I went up to Summer’s and ate a little bit of leftovers. Everyone else went off to bed pretty early, so I watched the Amazon Video special on William Shatner going to space with Blue Origin. Then I killed time until bed.

Will security please report to Section 3? Security to Section 3, please?

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Lil Pops

Today was another really chill day at work. Kelsea brought a chocolate cake for Gary’s birthday, along with a 3D-printed topper. I eventually made a “candle” out of a stripped piece of Cat 5e cable with the exposed wiring inside making up the flame. I helped with what I could in the morning, and then most of us went to Sumo for lunch for dinner and a show. It was pretty muted with everyone in masks, but the food was alright.

I spent some time at Oakland in the afternoon, and then came back at the end of the day for some cake. My final act was sending out the CPPC minutes, and then I headed home for the long weekend.

It wasn’t long before Summer reminded me that the girls’ father was having a soft-open at his barbecue joint, so eventually she came by to pick me up for that. The girls were already there, but hadn’t really had dinner since they were waiting on us. He had run out of ribs, so I tried the nachos with some brisket. Unfortunately I couldn’t find much of the brisket under the canned nacho cheese. Eaddie’s bologna sandwich looked pretty good though.

After we ate, the girls headed home. Summer dropped me off, and I spent the night prepping for the trip. It got quite cold inside, and I ultimately settled down and watched Shazam! until bed. I’ve really got to find some quality Atmos content.

Time to find out who really shot J.R.

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B-

I got up this morning and cleaned up some old frozen French toast sticks the kids refused to eat themselves. Then I tried going through some more practice tests before it was time to check in for my A+ exam. I didn’t really get as much cramming done as I had hoped, but the first test was more or less a breeze. I felt pretty confident about most of my answers and ended up passing with what I’m guessing was a mid 90%.

My second exam was scheduled a little later so I had time for a shower and a little more studying. Then literally moments before I had to check in for the test, Summer said she was bringing Autumn home to shower because she suddenly couldn’t withstand her scented body wash. I told her that they would have to be completely silent and not come anywhere near me, so one could imagine my rage when Autumn started blaring music in the shower.

I had already started my exam and couldn’t back out or do anything to signal to her to turn the music down. So for half an hour, or an entire third of my allotted exam time, I shook with absolute rage that I couldn’t even read the questions in front of me. The exam was a big deal that I had put off for four years. I specifically scheduled a time when no one would be home, and when that didn’t pan out, it was a simple request for silence. I thought I had absolutely, without any doubt, completely bombed the test. My stomach was in knots for the entire 90 minutes, and when I read that I had passed, I was absolutely astounded. Of course when I confronted Autumn, the only response I got through her door was that “it wasn’t that loud.” I was just glad it was over and that I had another hour pass since my hottest moments.

Hungry and relieved, I re-prepared some awful hamburger meat that Autumn cooked a week ago. It only needed an intelligent touch of seasoning to be great enough for Eaddie and me to eat for dinner, but the star chef just couldn’t crack the code and left it to rot in the fridge.

Summer took Autumn to therapy and I took Eaddie home with me so I could pick up my contacts for real. Then we watched an episode of House until it was time to get Autumn and drop them off at karate. I waited for them at my parents’ house, where I finished setting up their new Chromecast with Google TV. I didn’t have long before I had to get the girls, and we got home just in time to realize Eaddie had forgotten her phone at the dojo. Summer eventually got home, and everyone was pretty quick to wind down from there.

If you’re not going to be prideworthy, at least be respectful and considerate.

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Solstice Outing

Summer went back to work today, so I offered Autumn to take her and Eaddie out so they could do some Christmas shopping while I cleaned up at home. I dropped them off at PetSmart, then went home to shower. They finished up about the same time I did, probably because Eaddie was tired of shopping the minute they made it into the first store. I picked them up and we got some Zaxby’s for lunch.

Summer left work early, so we met her at the city park and ate outside. It was a little bit windy and cool, but otherwise a super nice day out. Librado texted and was trying to hunt me down, so they caught up with us there. He made me a surprise record cutout of my sunset cow logo, which was awesome. Traci came over and yapped with the girls a while too.

When we finally left, Summer went to the gym and I took the girls back to my house so Eaddie could ride her bike and I could check out my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. They sounded pretty clean, but it’s too early to tell if they were worth the price. I’ll have to compare them next to the super cheap headphones I picked up for Dad a while back.

Autumn napped until Eaddie got back, and then we headed back to their house for the evening. We just barely beat Summer back, and then we watched some TV while Autumn wrapped presents. When we finished that, we started a game of Phase 10 before Summer and Autumn headed to bed. Then Eaddie and I watched a couple more episodes of Jessica Jones before going to sleep.

No, not “all of the planets” aligned. No, it is not the Bethlehem star. It’s just the cosmos, being itself.
Also, Earth only seems flat because of your perspective and how close you are to it.
Also, what the hell are they teaching you in school???

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Logan’s Roadkill

Summer and I decided to run to Conway today instead of going all the way to Hot Springs. I was hoping to score a deal on some Nest cameras, among other things. She went to the gym while I got ready at home. I accidentally spilled a bunch of water in the kitchen and had to clean it up first, so I took a frustration break in Overwatch before we headed out.

Our first stop was Logan’s Roadhouse for a late lunch because we were both super hungry. It was the absolute worst food I’ve ever had from a Logan’s. I let them talk me into a choice sirloin that I could barely even cut with a serrated knife, much less chew. Worse yet, the steak didn’t even have any flavor. It was truly awful. Even the potato was bad, with Summer feeling like they were overcooked and dry, and me thinking the opposite that they were undercooked. The service was great, but I wasn’t going to send the food back. I just cut my steak into tiny little pieces, mixed it up with the potato and A1, and swallowed it whole.

Our next stop was Home Depot to see if they had my Nest cameras. We wandered around the store for a bit and ultimately ended up at a register with a piece of paper off of a tear-off calendar-like display. I went to talk to the manager as she got into the locker to look for the goods, and she was the polar opposite of helpful. She didn’t seem to understand a word I was saying, and just had a completely garbage attitude. Maybe it was the masks, because I know I was sick of mine just from our first store visit.

Next up was Kohl’s to burn a $5 reward, bringing a blouse for Summer down to just over a buck. This was our first win of the day, but the mask was really wearing on me by this point. Our next stop was Sam’s, where we just picked up a couple small things and left. On our way out of the shopping center, we decided to stop at Rita’s Italian Ice. This was our second win of the day, because the custard and Italian ice were both amazing.

On the way home, I remembered wanting to get a carwash, so we stopped by Splash and got a quick detail. They were pretty dead, so they had the job done faster than I could pepper my lunch potato.

Summer didn’t feel great most of the afternoon, so when we got home, I put on Fun with Dick and Jane until she was ready to go to bed. Then I played some iMessage games with Eaddie to end the night.

Now all I can think about is an actually-tasty steak.