All Symptoms Nominal

I decided to fast before my afternoon appointment, just in case they failed to ask me to do so. I made it with a single cup of black coffee, barely over half full. As the afternoon approached, we had a conference call with the folks working on the new website, so I got in the car and hopped on the Google Meet. It lasted for almost exactly the entire length of my commute home, where I changed clothes and left Muad’Dib at the house for Summer, who had left work and made it through the gym early.

The clinic must have been overbooked, because my total visit was about two hours. I waited several minutes to get called back, had my blood pressure taken, waited forever and had it taken again because it was so high the first time, and then waited some more until Crystal came back to chat with me. I got renewed on my meds, which was the primary goal, and then she had the nurse come back in to do an EKG as a part of troubleshooting the ongoing anxiety/panic/spaceout attacks.

Summer hadn’t really eaten either, so I picked them up and we went to Ridgewood Brothers to see Grant for his birthday and to get some dinner. We got a full order of nachos, which were a full tray of chips, some grainy cheese dip, and an ultimately disappointing amount of brisket. They tasted great, but the ratios just seemed way off and I couldn’t tell if they were made incorrectly, or if the recipe just needed some work. For the size of the gray we got, I wouldn’t mind paying more to get more meat on them. They were just so chip-heavy. Muad’Dib got a bone out of a pork butt, but we had to take it away from him as he started to tear it up.

We started watching Bee Movie to cool down when we got back to the house, but I got up in the middle of it to take Muad’Dib on a run to Walgreens to pick up my prescription. I should have brought his water, because the heat was unrelenting, and it got him just barely walking. I thought he might have to stop to cool down for a while, but he powered through. We got to the house and cooled down, and finished our movie before bed.

We are go for lunch.

Kid Napping

We stopped for a surprisingly good Burger King breakfast as we left town, and then spent the morning confirming known static IP addresses. Muad’Dib and I went to Wendy’s for a quick lunch, but he had to wait in the car. I thought I had discovered PLCs and had Charles walk me through the plant to look at the logic controllers again. When we got back to the office, Janice said Muad’Dib had been crying for me and waiting by the door the whole time. By the end of the day, David advised me that what I had found were actually wireless camera bridges, so it wasn’t a total loss, but it wasn’t quite as helpful as I had hoped.

We stopped to get my axe from the old house, then went by Superfast Splash to see Summer before making it to the house. Eaddie was there, but only briefly before leaving for more marching practice. I had an anxiety attack that came and went, and then once Summer got there, we went to Tacos 4 Ever. I gave in to the excitement of our server’s eyes as he described an off-menu offering of enchiladas covered in shredded beef and red sauce. It was good, but a bit cheesy for my taste, especially after I had also given in to Summer’s desire for cheese dip.

I took Muad’Dib for a run once we got back to the house, and he started out super slow. When we got to the Promenade, we encountered three white adults walking with a very small Hispanic girl. They asked if I knew her, and thus began my part of the quest to find her home. The older lady said the girl was lost and came knocking on her door, and I guess the other two came along to help. We circled the Promenade and I stopped by James’s house to see if maybe he or his kids knew her. He didn’t immediately answer the door, but he came out after I sent him a text explaining why I was ringing his doorbell in the middle of the night. Fortunately he could point us to her house, and she was reunited with a mother and older sister who didn’t even realize she was gone from her nap. The sister said this wasn’t even the first time it had happened.

Muad’Dib and I continued around to see my parents, and finally back to the house where we quickly wound down for bed.

help is on the way

F2025

Johnny called me while I was getting ready for work, so I called him back on the drive in. He said after his mother’s seizure, they finally discovered a tumor and gave her six months to live. We talked for the whole drive, and then I called Clint to check on him once I got to my office. The rest of the morning was more IP scanning and hunting for rogue statically-set devices. Summer was in Little Rock, so she stopped to see Kevin and Julie at the hospital while she was up there.

Muad’Dib and I went to Arby’s and sat on the curb again, and he ate a bunch of my fries and Beef ‘N Cheddar. I put him in the car when I wasn’t outside with him, so he never had the chance to run away. Later in the afternoon, we had a break for some cake for Tammy’s birthday. The drive home was entirely autonomous, and we actually got to see Eaddie for a moment between school events.

Summer and I eventually made it over to my parents’ house for spring rolls. Muad’Dib and I did our Onewheel run and met her there, and then we finished our shortened run after dinner. It was a quiet night because I’m pretty sure I’ve had a blood pressure related headache for the past couple days. Then I had an anxiety attack just as I went to put on my blood pressure cuff. It was off to bed after that.

Efitol Rx

VLAN PLAN

I caught a rat last night in our small trap. It was a small rat, but I was glad to finally have it. I planned to drop it off on the way out of town, but just as I was driving through the fields at Tech, a huge mob of college girls ran by and were in my way to turn. I ended up driving the rat all the way to Morrilton, and let him go in the wooded area just up the road from work.

I jumped right in after that, onto a call with Bret from Ashton, to try and figure out what the heck is going on with my network configurations. That led to more camera nonsense, and eventually to restarting a switch downstream from a point-to-point to get maintenance online again. I was supposed to call Bret back after all of that, but I ended up just continuing to document everything I found, and tried to trace back all of the camera lines to their endpoints.

We took a break to pick up some McDonald’s fries, and then sat outside Taco Bell where I fed them to Muad’Dib while I ate my burritos. He kept refusing to stay put, but mostly stood outside the door waiting for me. On my last trip in, he got brave and completely disappeared. That sent me into a bit of a panic and I started screaming for him. I just knew I had lost him or somebody saw and grabbed him, just because we were away from home. He eventually came around the corner of the building and got into the car, so at least the panic was short-lived.

The afternoon was more documentation until quitting time. Dad said they would have pork chops and ribs, so once Summer got home, she followed me over while I ran with Muad’Dib. I had to run to Walgreens just before dinner, because my prescription was ready and my blood pressure has been really high again. We ate, and then Muad’Dib and I finished his run. A couple little girls in the new neighborhood asked to pet him, so we stopped on the corner for a bit before making our way through the basin.

It was a pretty slow walk after that, because a ton of people were out walking dogs, and Muad’Dib wanted to smell where every single one of them had peed. Once we got back to the house, I gave him a bath with some new conditioner, and then tried to quickly wind down for bed.

Just get on the level.

Birthday Boo!

We all slept a little late today. I didn’t see Eaddie at all because she was starting band stuff and would be out all night. I had a stomach ache that lasted from the early morning hours on through about lunch time, and it may have been from the greasy hog meat.

I tried to clean up a little bit, but was kind of scattered all day. I jumped from task to task and couldn’t really focus on anything. I keep filling up with worry and then don’t accomplish much.

The big event for the day was Grant’s surprise 40th birthday party. Summer went to the gym and I was going to grab some food before the party, but then Dad said they had spring rolls. Muad’Dib and I drove over to eat quickly before going to the marina visitor’s center.

I took the Onewheel with us so I could give Muad’Dib a run around the park. Blake and Mitch beat us there, and we stood outside talking with Robert and some of the other folks. It was a pretty good turnout, and a nice, quiet place to have the party. When Grant’s mom got the text that they were on the way, I had to put Muad’Dib in the car because of a “no pets” sign. Several of us recorded the surprise, and then we got to eating the catered Subway sandwiches while Grant made his way around the room.

Summer came ot get Muad’Dib after she finished at the gym, and they went on a run before going back home while I visited with the group. We weren’t out super late, and I stopped by the Neighborhood Market for some shampoo before getting back to the house. Then it was a quick night to bed.

Gross.

And This Little Piggie

Summer left for work and I caught up on some sleep with Muad’Dib, though I don’t think he was as deprived as me. We eventually got up and I took a shower around the same time that Eaddie got up. Then I ran Muad’Dib down to Ridgewood Brothers to check out their whole hog event. Along the way, we encountered a house with a water leak around their water meter, so I rang the doorbell. I didn’t get an answer, so I called the emergency number at City Corp to report the trouble.

I kind of thought they were going to have more going on at the restaurant, but it just seemed like business as usual. They were busy, but I don’t know if it was any more busy than usual. Summer met us there, but ended up taking Muad’Dib to the store for bread and ice while I stood in line. She had to take the ice to the shop while I worked my way forward to get three pounds of meat, a baked potato, and some of their Carolina slaw.

I stepped outside to chat with Grant, Kyler, and their guest smoker, Rich Pettitt until Summer got back to pick me up. It was cool to hear about their overnight smoke, and then we went back to the house to eat.

I spent the afternoon working on Vine reviews while Summer went to the gym, but I didn’t get as many done as I really needed. It was just so hot in the house that it was difficult to get motivated. The afternoon and evening went by quickly.

Summer made it to bed, but Muad’Dib really needed a run, so I took him out until it got dark. He got a vacuum when we got home, and then I wrapped up while the girls chatted in the bedroom for a while.

Went, “wee, wee, wee!” to the moon and back.

Candid Cameras

The more I dig, the more crap I find. I thought the cameras were on a different physical network, but I can see at least some of them on our main network. We have few enough devices that it could all be flat, but somebody started building out something that remains unfinished.

I took Muad’Dib to Wendy’s, but he had to sit in the car while I ate. It was nice and cool in there, but when we got back to the office, there was a small puddle of white, foamy liquid on the seat cover. I cleaned that up, and watched him carefully as he laid at my feet. Normally he would be all over the office, or at least laying down in the hallway, but not today. Otherwise he seemed fine, especially when offered treats.

We left a little late after poking around some more at the camera system downstairs, and stopped at the carwash to get a quick vacuum and see Summer. She left just after we did, and we got to the house just in time to see Eaddie leave.

I took Muad’Dib for a run to my parents’ house once it cooled down, and I ate some leftover caramelized pork. We finished our run and the Onewheel never died, but I’ve really lost faith in it. It requires more testing.

Time for me is different than it is for you.

Southern Tails

I’m having trouble finishing up some tasks at work because of the randomness of it all, and from simply not knowing what I’m doing every time I receive a new one. Rhonda came up first thing and said her internet wasn’t working. I checked the switch and everything seemed fine there, so Muad’Dib and I went down to have a look. Peyton was having trouble as well, and while Muad’Dib and Bear were playing, Bear peed on the ground. Peyton cleaned that up, and as soon as he walked out, Muad’Dib peed on the trash can, so I had to clean that up. Fortunately it didn’t take terribly long for me to find that their DNS settings were manually set to the old domain controller, which I had inadvertently turned off, but shouldn’t have been used for DNS any longer anyway.

I took Muad’Dib outside for some impressive and unexpected zoomies around the parking lot. He had wild eyes, and his tongue flew back in the wind as he sprinted in a figure-eight. We eventually made it back upstairs and started poking at the old server and the old virtual domain controller. The server had been running out of space, and it looked to be from backups of its own database, so that’s something for me to clean up.

We eventually took a break and went to Taco Bell for lunch since they had a couple tables outside. I wasn’t expecting it to be so hot in the sun, but it was blazing with only a few clouds in the sky. He did well while I ate, but then snuck through the door the second time I went back inside to throw my trash away. One of the employees shooed him out behind my back, so I took him out and put him in the car.

I spent some time in the afternoon looking at our security cameras, trying to figure out why the IPs appeared to match our existing scheme, but also may have been duplicating IPs. Confusingly, I think it’s on a completely different physical network and they just happened to use some of the same range.

At the end of the day, I changed into some shorts and we headed to Southern Tail in Little Rock to meet Mitch, Blake, and their friend Aaron. We got a table outside and pretty quickly got into some food. We expected at least one other person who never showed. I was super disappointed in the portions with my chicken sandwich, and I didn’t love the fried green tomatoes. It seemed like the fish and chips have been the only really impressive thing I’ve had there, and that was mostly because it was salmon. Muad’Dib did great though, and we had a good time chatting, though it was a bit more scattered in conversation than the last couple times we visited. It was an enjoyable evening though, and then we eventually made it back home and straight to bed.

What’s eating you‽

Look! It’s Raph!

Last night was filled with nonstop dreams. Muad’Dib snuggled tightly between us, and I only woke up a couple of times, but each time I was in the middle of another wild, random dream. I couldn’t get up when my alarm went off, so I snoozed for ten more minutes and still had more dreams.

I felt mostly lost in subnets and VLANs today. We finally took a break and went to McDonald’s for lunch, but Muad’Dib just had to wait in the car. I had another anxiety attack at some point, but I haven’t been thorough in tracking when they happen. Summer was trying to nap when we got back to the house, because she opened and then had to go back to work to do some maintenance after hours. She woke up and I tried chatting with her for a little while before she had to go back to work.

Muad’Dib and I rode straight over to my parents’ house because I was afraid to go too far after carrying my board half a mile yesterday. Mom had the last of the fish soup left on the stove, so I finished that before we left. We headed straight back to the house and I gave Muad’Dib a double bath because I pulled four ticks off of him throughout the day. He sat in flea treatment, and then had a nice, herbal shampoo in preparation for our evening out tomorrow with the boys.

Yeah! A little too Raph!

Board to Tears

I grabbed Hardee’s and ate my biscuit and gravy on the drive in to work this morning. Muad’Dib was super pumped when we got there, and kept bouncing all over the office to see everyone. We settled in pretty quickly though, because Charles asked me about some IP addresses for a project we’ve got, and it occurred to me that I still didn’t know how any of that was set up through our firewall.

I studied most of the day in a bit of a panic, again feeling underqualified. I eventually sent an email to the MSP that helped with the HA setup, to see if they could help walk me through some of the configurations. We took a late lunch to Arby’s for a ham and cheese. There wasn’t a table or bench outside, so we just sat on the curb and shared the sandwich in the sun. Muad’Dib was super well behaved, though he did drool on my pants out of excitement while waiting for a bite.

The afternoon went by comparitively quickly after such a long morning. We made it back to town and I had an anxiety attack in the car just as I pulled into the garage. Once Summer got home for her break, we went to my parents’ house for spaghetti, and then she had to go back to work to close shop.

I took Muad’Dib out for a run, and he sprinted the better part of a mile. He did great, we stopped to see Dad, and then I had board trouble on the way back to the house. It happened once yesterday, but tonight it started flashing red, sounding its haptic buzz, and reported that the battery needed to be charged. The only problem was that the battery was reporting over 70% remaining.

I carried the board back for a little over half a mile, took a quick shower to cool down, then submitted another serivce ticket before bed.

Could use a little moon shine.