Tag: dog

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Ortega Bros.

It was a little rainy, but really misty this morning, so I had to use my meats to drive to work. The weather wasn’t bad once we got there, but it showered again at least once while we were there. I had my head buried in Intune for most of the day, and was stuck waiting on my test computer for much of that.

Lunch time came around, and Grant had planned to meet me for some Ortega’s, so I walked out with Muad’Dib and waited for him. We rode to the restaurant together and had a good meal and chat. I think we’ll plan on some double date stuff soonish, and I’m hoping Summer can make a good friend of her own out of it since I don’t really know Jana at all.

I had an anxiety attack in the afternoon that left me slightly dazed, and then incredibly sleepy for the rest of the afternoon. It may have just been yesterday dragging me down, but I tried another cup of coffee and didn’t feel super smurfy for it. It felt like maybe it was stress, but I didn’t think I felt like I had any reason to be stressed.

We made it to the end of the day and ran to therapy. Summer finished up at the lube and then we had a decent session. I don’t really think the book is helping as much as if we were just talking through some of the specific pain points we have, but at least it gives us a guided tour, regardless of whether the topics are relevant ot us.

Mom had more bún bò Huế for dinner, so we headed home to change. Summer took a shower while I ran Muad’Dib, and then she and Eaddie met us there for dinner. I tried to help clean up a little, and then we made it home to try and wind down early. I showed Eaddie how to clean the hair out of the vacuum brush, Eli came over late, and they went to watch a movie since Eaddie had been cleaning up her stuff all day.

Water!

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In Memoriam

I decided to stop the iron supplements today so I could level out before my eventual annual checkup. We had brunch planned at IHOP for Autumn’s birthday, and we barely got around for that. Eaddie slept late while Summer had to go to Atkins to pick up Noah. Things immediately started going wrong.

The restaurant was pretty busy, and they were not prepared. A table behind us had some kind of drama going on, so a manager demanded that they leave. When they refused, he walked away saying the cops would remove them. Things settled down pretty immediately after that, and we eventually got our order in. Of course, it was a full hour before we saw a morsel of food, so we sipped ice waters until then.

Afterward, I ended up taking Muad’Dib home while Summer dropped Noah off. Eaddie wanted to go ride bikes, so I was tasked with getting out the bike rack in the heat of midday. I immediately started pouring sweat in the humidity, but we eventually got everything loaded, aired up, and ready to go.

We had a false start when my watch incorrectly alerted me that I had left my phone. We turned back before I realized it actually was in my pocket. We got to the lake and unloaded the bikes, but I realized I didn’t have Muad’Dib’s collar remote, so I left Summer with him on a leash and ran back home.

I couldn’t find the remote at first, and in the process, I dumped a full tumbler of water all over the kitchen floor. I mopped that up, dried my socks, and eventually loaded up again. The kids had gotten their bikes and started riding around the marina, and Summer was walking around with Muad’Dib. I brought my Onewheel since I wasn’t sure what the mood would be like after I had been gone so long.

Summer got Muad’Dib into the water and splashed around with him a bit. I was still hot and burned out, so I mostly sat from that point on, but I did take Muad’Dib for a couple short runs. Eaddie, Eli, and Ceci eventually came back around and hung out with us before we loaded up to go back home.

We unloaded and the kids went for more biking while I took Muad’Dib to my parents’ house for a brief visit. Summer started a bath for him when we got back, but I made it in there to take over, which upset her for some reason. She always refuses any time I mention that maybe she could bathe him, so I just didn’t get it.

I got him bathed and she helped dry him. Then I vacuumed a ton of hair off of him before finally getting to wind down for bed. Eaddie got home and took a shower, but then started to leave again. Summer was in bed, so I had to play bad cop again and tell her she needed to give their family a break and stay home to finish cleaning her bathroom and bedrooms, which have been complete wrecks all week.

Finally, I made a mad dash to finish up for bed, exhausted from the break.

And not one “thank you” was heard.

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Wringing the Air

I slept in while Summer went to her run, and we had a much better day after that. We got up to eat some leftovers, and then I tried to be productive with some of the stuff all over the house. Summer has been excited about the new Masters of the Universe movie, but I learned that she was completely unaware of the old 1987 movie starring Dolf Lundgren. I found it for free on YouTube, so we watched that in the afternoon. Afterward, Summer wanted to take a nap. Eaddie was around for most of the day, but left later on.

I had set up a tiny dehumidifier last night, but it hardly pulled any water out of the air. Today, I uncovered a larger one I had ordered a while back, so I set it up and found it to work much better. Even with all the rain we’ve had lately, the little one barely had a quarter tank of water after 24 hours.

I took a shower late in the day, and then Dad asked for help unloading some things they had picked up at the store. I took Muad’Dib out for his run, but then saw that my parents were already home, so we circled back and got there as quickly as we could.

By the time we got back to the house, I had worked up my appetite. There wasn’t really anything left in the refrigerator, so I used my 50% discount at Domino’s and took the Onewheel out again so Muad’Dib could get some more steps in. Summer and I ate, and then lounged in front of the TV for the rest of the night. Out of nowhere, I had my first anxiety attack, I believe since I started taking my iron supplements again. It was a really short event, but still left me a little dazed. Eaddie showed up with Eli, and they watched a movie while we went to bed.

Good journey. 👋

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Try Again

We got out a little earlier today, with a sack full of goodies to take to work. It had rained overnight, but then rained on us again on the way, but we still made pretty good time. It had calmed down by the time we got there, and I continued tinkering with my Intune policies.

It was pretty early in the day that Teisha came around to let everyone know they were closing at three. I picked a good day to bring my lunch, because I would have felt a little bad leaving for an hour and then leaving work early too. I warmed up my old gas station burger inside the network rack while I bounced back and forth between my office and the maintenance computer I’d been managing.

A while after lunch, Janice came up with a bowl of strawberry shortcake. She said she assumed I would want some from when they had it for David’s birthday while I was out. I often question whether people actually like me there, or whether they think I’m doing a good job, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had a job where anyone did something like this for me.

The afternoon was short, but I ended up staying nearly an hour late trying to reset the maintenance computer again just to test its behavior. We still beat Summer home, even though she was supposed to be off at four. It downpoured on us again on the way home, but that was short lived. We ran to pick up a package for Julie, and then Summer decided she wanted steak for dinner, so we ran Muad’Dib over to stay with Dad and went out to eat.

Check-H was pretty quiet, with mostly empty tables. The food was above average though, and we had some awesome salads and some of the best service we’ve ever had at a restaurant. We filled up, then headed back to get Muad’Dib. Dad had taken him on a little walk, so we had to go fetch some poop down the road before heading home. I let Muad’Dib run again, and he trotted along happily all the way.

Summer and I didn’t really see each other much after that. She did a little work and then went to bed. I was going to lay down with her for a bit, but then she disgusted me with her lack of attention to hygiene when handling dirty things, so I separated myself for the rest of the night.

Bugged

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Just Following Policy

I slept in a little bit today since I could wake up and walk to my office for work. It ended up being one of my most productive days as I tinkered away with Intune policies to manage the browsers for the maintenance shop PC. Eaddie was in bed all day, so it was just Intune, my speakers, Tiny Towns, and me.

I took a break to finish my old nachos from Ridgewood, but otherwise I stayed pretty busy all day. Before I knew it, Summer made it home from work and got ready for Sip + Stretch. I showered after, then had to run to my parents’ house to get Muad’Dib’s collar remote, and then Julie’s house to fetch a package. As soon as we got back to the house, I jumped on the Onewheel and Muad’Dib and I rode toward Point Remove.

As we neared the end of our run on Phoenix, we ran into Mollie and Craig walking down the sidewalk. We stopped for a hug, then continued to an absolutely packed house. There was a wedding party with a ton of people, but we managed to find a small table out back. Muad’Dib behaved perfectly and stayed right by me as we went through, then back to get him a cup of water.

Summer had gone to yoga with an old employee, and they both eventually made it down to join us. It wasn’t long after that when Eaddie showed up, and nervously walked around the outside of the building to avoid all the people. Summer ordered wings and a large charcuterie board, which was basically three giant blocks of cheese. I would be so happy if we never ordered that ever again. The wings were great, but there needed to be more of them for four people.

It eventually died down, and then we headed home. Muad’Dib wasn’t ready to come in though, so I took him for another short run to see Grandpaw. Then we saw the neighbors walking and talked to them for a moment before making it home for the night.

What a waste of skin and teeth!

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No Buds

I didn’t sleep great again, but I managed to get up and out to check on my parents before going to work. Dad was out of his chair before Mom was, and sounded much better. We ended up getting to work just a little later than usual. I chatted up front for a little bit, then headed upstairs to find a project.

Summer told me last night that she was taken out of the regional meetings, so she wouldn’t be going to Little Rock any more. That meant she wasn’t meeting me for lunch, so I went to McDonald’s for a $2 order of McNuggets, and then Arby’s for a gyro. We took it back to work to eat, and I started on the nuggets in the parking lot while Muad’Dib wandered about. The wind had been going, but about halfway through it wanted to carry my food off, so we went inside to finish.

The afternoon carried on a bit as I caught up on the Google I/O summit. Quitting time eventually showed up and we headed home, driving with my meats because it was raining too much for autopilot to do it quickly. Summer was playing Torchlight, but I asked if she wanted to check on my parents with me. She got up and we made it over there to talk briefly. Mom got up to warm up some dinner for them, so we left. Terry walked up just as we were leaving, so I pointed him to go on in.

Just as we got to the house, I realized I forgot my eyeglasses at my parents’ house, so I dropped Summer and Muad’Dib off and went back. Terry was just leaving and commented on my car, so I talked him into a joyride. Then I had to find dinner because Summer didn’t want to eat like we had planned. I tried Gary and Grant, but neither answered. I circled around a bit, but still ended up at our planned Cici’s for a $5.99 salad. The salad was great, and I felt like I didn’t stuff myself.

I made it back to the house and took Muad’Dib on an acoustic walk before coming in for the night. I thought to look for my earbuds for our concert the next day, and couldn’t find them anywhere. I’m pretty disciplined about putting things like that in their home, so it was frustrating that they seemed to have disappeared. Even Summer eventually got out of bed to help look, but we couldn’t find them anywhere. I just went to bed, disappointed again.

How did I get here?

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Up in Arms

I felt like I woke up about every thirty minutes last night, but somehow I didn’t feel completely worthless when I got up. We made it out the door a little early, but then I remembered at the last minute that I had a Starbucks deal, so we actually showed up at work just a few minutes later than usual. I was greeted by an office of four other dogs, and I’m pretty sure they’re planning to take over our jobs. I was also greeted by a concerned controller who thought her account may have been compromised based on a bunch of automated emails that were sent from her address.

I traced back the emails, and along with some good old fashioned human memory, discovered they were from an old Traverse report that somehow came back to life after being broken for many months. That was how I learned a little bit more today.

I wasn’t super hungry by lunch, but we went to Sonic and McDonald’s to “build our own combo” out of deals. I ate in the office since it was super windy outside anyway. The afternoon was some birthday cake and then a bit more of the same until quitting time.

We were just approaching the Phoenix bridge when Summer texted that Mom had to take Dad back to the emergency room. He had surgery for his torn rotator cuff first thing in the morning, and he said it was worse than he expected. After he had been home all day, he discovered he wasn’t able to go to the restroom, and also felt nauseous. Mom had called Summer since she was in town while Julie and Kevin were on vacation and I was working out of town. I met Summer and a very groggy Dad in a packed waiting room while Mom was out getting prescriptions filled.

We eventually got him into a room, and then I swapped with Mom so she could go in and I could take Muad’Dib home and change clothes. They let me back as well, after fetching his discharge paperwork and some Jell-O, which he actually wasn’t allowed to eat. We sat for quite a while until Mom kicked us out to find dinner and get cars charging.

Summer and I went to Cici’s for a quick and cheap salad, and I had more pizza than I planned, but this time I really meant it. They had half the restaurant closed up early, but the pizza was somehow still good. Afterward, I took Summer back to her car at the hospital and checked on Mom. She refused anything, so I went to the Neighborhood Market again for some bananas, cheese, coffee, coconut water, and then a bag of bagels for Summer.

I got back to the emergency room and Mom refused everything but the coconut water, so I headed back home to quickly unwind. It wasn’t very long after that when Mom texted that they were headed home, so I raced over to help get Dad out of the car, up the stairs, and into the recliner. Then it was back home and straight to bed.

Don’t shoulder it alone!

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Reedy or Not

I slept in pretty well today, and hoped that would help my recent concerns. Summer and I ate some leftovers and Eaddie left to get ready for Jenny’s recital in the afternoon. The whole day went by pretty quickly, but I tried to stay useful and productive. Summer took some time to get out her old laptop and play Torchlight II, which seemed like a good mental health break.

I got showered and we barely made it out of the house in time to drop Muad’Dib off with Dad before making it to the recital. Eaddie was only playing in one of the songs, but it was a nice, quiet show with just a bunch of the band kids and families. The kids did great, and then afterwards I saw Russ and talked to him for a moment before heading out.

Summer really wanted ice cream, so we went to Las Delicias where she got a cone and I got a mangonada. I didn’t think it was as good as Bocadillos, and I didn’t much care for the atmosphere being dark and loud, so we left and headed back to my parents’ house to get Muad’Dib. We visited there for a while before I really wanted to find dinner.

I wanted to try and find something with a bit more nutrition than the leftover Ridgewood nachos that were in the refrigerator, so we drove across town looking. We turned around at the old Valley Park Center where they had a whole lot of construction finishing up. Then we stopped at Aldi’s to see what aldi fuss was about. It was surprisingly cold and quiet in there, with a pretty limited selection. It didn’t seem worth the drive to me.

I got a box of salad, and we headed home to eat the last of the spaghetti squash casserole that Summer made. Then she cleaned the kitchen while I picked up around the house. She eventually went back to Torchlight and I took Muad’Dib on a run to take some old shirts to Dad before his surgery in the morning.

We wound down a bit more, then I did my best to get to bed on time.

DRINK MORE!

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Mortality is Weird

I felt like I hardly slept at all last night. I just laid in bed feeling like I was awake all night, but my watch and phone insisted that I got a good night’s rest. I didn’t feel groggy when I got up, and we made it to work a little early. I brought along a Soylent for breakfast and my leftover Subway sandwich for lunch in an effort to save money and my health. I felt surprisingly good all day, and kept pretty busy.

Things got pretty quiet upstairs with Janice out. I don’t think anybody said anything to me all morning, and the guys left in the afternoon after I had eaten. I did step outside after lunch to give Muad’Dib some air, and decided to install my headliner to block the sun and try to keep my car a bit cooler in the summer.

Joel reminded me that we had our Traverse call in the afternoon, so I made it upstairs just in time for that. Having my phone muted lately has me missing most of my notifications, but I’ve also got notification fatigue from all the noise coming through. I’ll have to work in finding a balance.

Later in the afternoon, Elizabeth called me down for some help, but she was the only other face I saw the rest of the day until we stopped by Superfast to see Summer when we got back to town. She was just finishing up, and then we came home where I ate some leftover spaghetti squash casserole by myself.

I took Muad’Dib for a run to the Neighborhood Market to drop off some recycling, and he did great. It was probably our best run of the year, and I couldn’t say why. It was nice outside, but not as cold it normally has to be for him to get super excited. He even sat outside the store and waited for me while I deposited the recycling. We trimmed a couple blocks off of our usual path to see my parents, and then Eaddie called for advice on washing her floor mats at the carwash. While I was there, Julie called my parents from the beach, so I popped in to say hi before heading home.

When we made it back to the house, Summer and I finished the Kevin Hart roast before she went to bed. I was still feeling pretty good, but when I went to my office to try and recover my lost tab session, I started to really space out. I felt lost and confused, and I felt like I couldn’t remember things. It was like I knew I had a history of anxiety attacks, but I couldn’t remember what they were like. I was really disoriented for a while, and it was pretty scary because I just didn’t understand what was going on.

I took my blood pressure a couple of times, and it was a little bit high at first, but fine the second time. I slowly came out of the fog, but it was super strange. I don’t know if it was some new health concern, or maybe just the anxiety plus a lack of good sleep, but I just felt lost. I could hear Eaddie coming home and I knew where I was, but it was like my memory of everything was cloudy. All total, I think it took about two hours for me to recover from whatever that was, and then I went to sleep.

Let’s try extra hard to wake up this time.

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Unseasonably Stressed

I tried to relax coming in to work, but we had a staff meeting first thing in the morning. That went okay, and then I brought my stuff downstairs to work with Tammy for a bit. I didn’t feel bad up to that point, but then I had an anxiety attack while I was kneeling next to her at her desk. I was able to quickly log it in my spreadsheet, but I asked later and she said she didn’t notice anything strange about my breathing or anything.

I was a little foggy for a bit after that. I wasn’t super hungry at lunch time, so I grabbed the Soylent I didn’t drink in the morning and carried it outside for a walk to see if I could stir up an appetite. We did a short lap before I decided to grab some Subway, and brought it back to the office to eat.

I managed to get the price sheet updated in HubSpot, though it took me a couple tries because it didn’t properly check all of my import rows. Things got quiet in the afternoon and we wrapped up helping downstairs for a bit before heading home.

As we got close to town, I decided to stop by AT&T to give Kevin a gift I had for him. I chatted with him, which jogged my memory about having anxiety issues due to anemia. I decided to start taking iron again before my next checkup at the clinic, to see if that would help. After he left, I talked to Candice for a little bit before heading home. We just barely beat Summer to the house, and I told her that talking about red meat had me craving a steak, but she wasn’t very hungry.

We ended up going to Ridgeewood Brothers so Muad’Dib could sit outside with us. It was a nice evening for it, and I wish I had felt better, but I didn’t feel awful. We ate, and of course Muad’Dib got some “scraps.” Then I took him for a short run when we got back home.

It was a rush to get in bed after that. With any luck, it’s the lack of sleep and iron getting me down, but something’s got to change. I don’t feel right.

Outside, in the distance, a wildcat did growl.