Tag: family

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Let’s Talk About That

I didn’t get shipped off with anyone this morning, but I didn’t want to just go off to the high school for more of that. Oakland had a few new tickets, so I spent all morning taking care of those. I even got a little breakfast when the girls handed me a slice of pizza as I walked past the kitchen. A handful of the work orders I dealt with today were due to a print issue within Chrome, but I didn’t realize it until Gary mentioned other schools in the area talking about the same thing.

Zach, Gary, Heather, Ben, and I went to Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads and got one of the slower servers. We didn’t make it back in time, but nobody ever really cares anyway. When we got back, Ben let me run to Leonard’s to pick up a KeySmart because I was tired of wearing my keys and badge around my neck. I think after almost four years, I’m ready to graduate and get that jingly chain off of my chest. Then I went to the high school to finish up the day.

I didn’t get a whole lot done, but I did close out all the work orders I had done throughout the day. I stopped into the library for a little while, and Karen told me a story about how our superintendent had discovered a destroyed student laptop while he was out on a run. Evidently he thought enough to send a picture of the library barcode in to one of the principals, but didn’t mention that he didn’t actually pick it up. He left it there because he was in the middle of his run, and then it was gone by the time anyone drove out to pick it up. Classy.

I had forgotten to return the district card, so I ended up having to run back to the shop to return it. Ben was back in the shop working on a sign computer, so I brought up the fact that we are still bringing new hires in at step nine. I told him that really made me not want to work at the high school, and that I really only owed him a level of competence equal to our worst performing tech if he’s not going to re-evaluate us before moving on with these new hiring rules.

Just as I was leaving, I saw my order at J. C. Penney was ready for pickup, so I ran across town to get that. Kevin was at work at AT&T, so I stopped in to chat for a bit while I was in the area. Then I stopped by the shop, but Summer had already left to get the kids, so I went home for a little while before heading up to their house.

They were watching TV, so I ate some leftover pizza before we started watching Glee. Then Eaddie came out talking about having some horrible grades due to missing homework. Evidently teachers just let you turn in assignments whenever you want these days, and there are no repercussions. That’s not how I roll though, and Summer tasked her with finishing up all of her assignments over the next day.

Unable to continue in the living room, we retired to the bedroom to chat for a while. Then I forced one more episode of Glee before having Summer set up her new Nest Mini, and then we crashed.

You can’t expect them to pay you for what you’re worth, so you have to give them what they paid for.

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Nein!

It rained all day today. Work seemed pretty slow and quiet, but I took care of what I could. I have a constant feeling of being behind, but there’s also nothing of any urgency. I called Zach, then joined him and Gary at Smackin’ Wings and Things for lunch. It took them a full 50 minutes to get our food out to us. It was a pretty good green chili burrito, but no way worth the $12.52 including tip that I paid for it. In that amount of time, I’m pretty sure I could have prepared one from scratch at my own home.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and just as quietly as the morning. I went home for a while after work and waited for the girls to finish at karate. Then I took them home and ate some leftovers at their house as we waited for Summer to get home from her work meeting.

When she got home, she made me take a “short” enneagram test to compare me to what she had been “learning” in Little Rock. I proved her wrong by being as brutally honest as I could for fourteen pages of vague, Facebook quiz-style questions as I could. Ain’t nobody gonna sum up my personality in an online test.

INFP-T

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Plant Proteins

Today was warm enough to take the bike in to work, but it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. I never heard from anyone all day, so I just stuck to myself and worked on things in my office. My morning was fueled by Soylent, but I wasn’t going to miss out on a free Beyond Burger from Hardee’s, so I left for a super late lunch at the end of the school day.

I hate to be at all disparaging toward the employees at our only remaining Hardee’s, because they’ve never been anything but kind. I just can’t shake the feeling that they all arrived for their shifts on the same bus from their community care center. They do manage to get the food out, and my burger was actually put together quite nicely today. The fries were cold though, and every interaction I observed felt really…unpolished? I’m absolutely for the employment of people with special needs; work just wouldn’t be the same without Allen. I’m just suggesting that maybe one of the staff on duty at any given time should be a better trained and better compensated employee. I really think that would raise the bar and maybe help fill some seats. I’d hate to lose the restaurant due to poor ownership.

The afternoon went by super quickly after having such a late lunch. I tried stopping at Walgreens for my blood pressure medication on the way back, but the line was both long and immotile and I had to get back to work. When I left work, I went by my parents’ house to visit while I waited for the girls to be ready to go home. They ate with their grandparents while Summer was away for a work meeting in Little Rock, so I picked at some of what my parents had out. Once the girls were ready, I fetched them, made another stop at Walgreens, then went by my house to change before taking them home.

The evening flew by as the girls begrudgingly took care of their chores. Summer eventually made it home, and it was off to bed with everyone.

If you close your eyes, it’s like you’re eating a real, overcooked hamburger.

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Meet the Cosmonaut

Summer made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast for us this morning. Eaddie wanted to go visit her father, so she started doing her chores after breakfast while Summer and I watched some Glee. A little while after she left, Autumn was returned home by her grandparents and made to do chores as well. Eventually we had to make something of the day, so Summer got up to start cleaning. I milled around a bit until she was ready to take Autumn back to her grandparents’ for the Superbowl. Then I headed home to clean up a bit myself.

I bought some marimo balls at Petco, so my first order of business was to get them out of the package and into some water. I decided not to throw them directly into any of my tanks for fear of them being eaten up, so I finally set up a little jar I had bought years and years ago for this very purpose. I filled it with shrimp water to try and help it cycle a bit, and noticed a tiny little baby shrimplet near the top of the tank. He went straight into the jar as well, and I figure I’ll finally take it to work with me. While I was doing all of this, I noticed one of my plants pearling with oxygen for the very first time, so I guess conditions are still pretty great in that tank. I just wish the algae would get under control, and the worms have become a real nuisance.

I ended the evening with a shower and a load of laundry.

Why is my house playing country music???

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Running Around Conway

Summer had a Freezin’ for a Reason 10k in Conway this morning, so I got up about 45 minutes earlier than I do during the work week and picked her and Eaddie up. It was super foggy for a good portion of the drive, but it cleared up as the sun came out. We made it with plenty of time to spare for registration, and then the race started late as well. Eaddie and I sat in the car for most of it, and I accidentally burned through a bunch of data on my phone. We caught Summer at the finish line and watched the first part of the awards before taking off to find some lunch.

Don Pepe’s across the street wasn’t open yet, so we ran by the nearby Neighborhood market to kill some time while Summer got changed. By the time they were ready to go eat, they decided they wanted sushi instead, so we went to China Town. I like a lot of the things they have that aren’t available at any of the restaurants in town, but a part of me is starting to get a little bored of it. When we finished eating, we headed across town to do some shopping.

We spent the most time in Kohl’s, where I had to pick up an online order from the beginning of the week. I picked up some super cheap clothes as well. Then it was Target, Sam’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, and finally Petco. Target and Sam’s were both ridiculously busy for some reason. BBB wasn’t bad, but also didn’t have any remarkable deals at all. The overall winner of the day was Petco, where I had a $10 off $30 coupon, and I picked up some fish food that rang up for a penny.

Eaddie had gotten sick of shopping after about three minutes, and she passed out in the back seat long before we started for home. When we did finally get home, we spent the rest of the evening watching a bunch of Glee.

Do you know what goes down in Lima Heights Adjacent? Bad things!

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Meeting the New Doctor

I had to go in for my 6-month checkup today, and my old nurse Stephanie had left some time ago. They actually scheduled me with Doctor Carter, whom I’d never once met. I got to sleep in a little, then went straight to the clinic where they got me back behind the door in record time. I still had to wait a while for the doctor to see me, and once he got there he basically went on a 20-minute rant about how I can’t eat starchy, fried foods. Both times in my life that I’ve had to meet a new primary care physician, that’s all I get. This time was probably the worst with assumptions about the kind of diet I have. Just tell me to exercise and move on with it.

When I finished up with that mandatory meeting, I went to Superfast for an oil change and to convince Summer to go to lunch with me before I had to go to work. I wasn’t sure if it was because I had left my car idling in line for a while, but after the oil change I had to get a jump start to get moving again. We stowed my car in the back bay for a charge, then took hers to Denny’s for a couple free Beyond Burgers.

Steven and his coworker were there for lunch as well, and they seemed to be having a better time. Summer seemed genuinely surprised that our service was horrible, but I’ve only very rarely had a good experience there. The food is always fine, but it’s always incredibly slow. It took us half an hour to get our drinks, and mine wasn’t even what I ordered. Our waitress actually brought them out with our food, so we just scarfed everything down at once. The burger was decent, but they were definitely disguising it with a fancy bun. The bun was great, but it was about three times the size of the burger patty. The patty itself tasted okay, but was a bit too tender.

With lunch out of the way, we headed back to the shop so I could go to work. Alex evidently tightened my battery terminal, so I didn’t have any trouble the rest of the day. I went by a nearly empty shop for a little while, then went to the high school and spent a good hour walking back and forth, getting in my steps, to work on the sign. I still couldn’t get the radio to talk, so I gave up again. The rest of the afternoon went by super fast as I did mostly things for which I did not have a proper work order.

After work, I went home to change and then ran by Superfast again for a tire rotation. Then I went to AutoZone to have them check my battery. I thought Alex had just adjusted the charger earlier in the day, but Summer said he actually moved the connector down the terminal, so the tester at AutoZone read my battery as low, but healthy.

By the time I finished there, Summer was on her way home with the girls. I stopped by Dollar General to kill a little time and ended up buying a rake. I joked with the cashier that this is why I’m normally not allowed out of the house. Then we had huge salads for dinner and watched The Matrix Revolutions.

Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose.

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Eat Your Damn Eggs

I got up this morning and cut up some fresh tomatoes and serrano peppers to scramble into some chopped bacon and eggs. Mom used to make something like that, but I’ve always just cheated and used a can of Rotel. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but after cooking off all the liquid, I thought it was perfect. We barely had enough rice for everyone, but Autumn initially refused to touch it anyway. She came into the kitchen and got really quiet when she saw me cooking, which was a good indication that it was about to get dramatic. Summer turned on her Mom Voice™ and made her sit at the table until she ate the bowl I fixed her. A bunch of yelling later, and Autumn called out to me that she actually liked it as we all let out a collective eye roll.

We spent the rest of the day watching TV. The girls each spent a bit of time cleaning up house, and I pulled all the literal trash out of the junk drawers. We sobbed through a bunch more Glee, and had leftovers for dinner. I wanted to be more productive, but I guess it was my own fault for not just getting up and going home.

Who started this tagline tradition anyway?

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Just a Formality

I couldn’t sleep in much today because of how bright it was in my room, so I spent most of the day pretty tired after my long night. Summer took Eaddie home, so I got straight to cleaning up for the day. After my shower, I finally tested out my new faucet and found that it leaked pretty badly at the drain. After mopping up all the water under the sink, I spent a little while tightening up all the connections until it didn’t really seem to leak any more. I’ll have to test it some more later, but I think it will probably be good enough when used normally and not pumping water into the bowl as fast as I can.

I had to go to my parents’ house to get some red envelopes for the kids, but Bác Vân came over and asked to borrow a bunch of money on my way out. I typically don’t have instant access to that much cash on a weekend without any notice, so I wished her good luck and many learned lessons. When I got to my parents’ house, Dad was recovering from feinting a bit after his surgery. I didn’t have time to stick around for very long because Summer had lunch ready, so I grabbed some envelopes and headed up to their house.

Summer’s mom was there finishing up Autumn’s dress, so I had lunch and just sat around with the kids. When she left and after we had all eaten, Summer and I went to Walmart for some stuff for dinner. Once she had that going, we watched some TV until Autumn’s date for the formal arrived. We missed the really good lighting, so I just did the best I could with what we had. Then we settled in and watched Glee until the dance was over.

Suzanne was in town and stopped by for just a little while to watch one episode with us. Then we chatted for just a little bit more before she left. Autumn eventually made it home, and the girls all crashed. I played some Overwatch with Clint, Josh, and one of his friends, then went to bed myself.

Well, you’ve missed the golden hour, so you get the tasteful yellow glow of a porch light.

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Sink Some Time Into Something

Jason started us off with a pretty lazy morning. I didn’t hear it, but I was assigned to pull some cable with Allen at Sequoyah. The line was supposed to already be there, but needed to be re-routed through the cafeteria. We found the coiled up cable without too much trouble, but the ceilings were high and even our longest ladder from the shop wasn’t tall enough to be of any use at all. To get started, I attached the tone generator on the end we had, then went to the closet to find the other end. I spent 10 or 15 minutes going through the nest of cables coming into that tiny switch closet, but couldn’t find it. When I went back to the other end, Allen had unhooked the tone generator and started trying to route the cable. He said he thought I went to the bathroom, even though he watched me hook up the tone generator and test that we had a tone coming through the line.

Once we got the tone generator back on the line, both of us went back to the closet and still couldn’t find a tone, so I started poking around in the ceiling and ultimately found where the line had been cut just inside the hallway, less than 20 feet from where we needed it to be. Allen wanted to run an extension from another drop in a nearby closet, but I refused. I traced the line back to see what else I could do, and then we took everything back to the shop for lunch.

Gary, Heather, Zach, and I walked to Smackin’ Wings and Things for the Philly cheesesteak fries. It took them half an hour to get our food to us, which was pretty typical. I didn’t really care much for the special, and it didn’t feel quite as loaded as anything I’ve had there before. I finished it just because it wouldn’t have been any better reheated, but I walked out filled with more regret than fries.

After lunch, I stayed at the shop and re-imaged the four computers Jason imaged for me because he used the 2016 LTSB version instead of the newer 2019 LTSC. I guess maybe he had forgotten that none of our Adobe licenses are compatible with the 2016 release, but he got really snippy and ridiculous when I told him what I was doing. As soon as I told him I’d just deliver them myself, he and Allen disappeared as if by magic, to I know not where.

When everyone left, I delivered my computers to the high school and headed home. My new bathroom faucets came in, so I decided to be handy and start on the replacement project since the one in my master bathroom had gotten to leaking quite badly. I had just barely gotten started when Summer arrived with Eaddie. Autumn was staying with her grandmother so she could finish her dress for the dance tomorrow. The remaining three of us headed to Lowe’s for some supply hoses and silicone. I ended up spending about three times as much on hoses as I wanted, but they didn’t have anything cheaper than the stainless steel braided lines.

We ended the evening with a late dinner at New China, and then headed home where I continued my work in the bathroom. The girls seemed pretty tired and passed out kind of early, but it took me a few more hours to break out all the old corroded faucets. I managed to get everything in place though, and I didn’t appear to have any water leaks. The silicone needs 12 hours to cure, so I won’t get to actually test the faucets until tomorrow. At least the spare bathroom won’t be as difficult since it already has new supply lines that aren’t rigid copper.

The more I tear apart, the less mystical it all seems. I may fix my bathroom yet…

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Cool Winter Drizzle

I really didn’t want to wake up today, but the bells, they were a’ringing. Zach stopped by my office pretty early in the day, and spent quite a while at the high school. Ben showed up just moments later, so I made them some popcorn while I worked on laptops. Ben left, and Gary came to us so the three of us could go to lunch together. We met our new guy, Greg, at Morelos and he and Zach spent most of the time going on about duck hunting.

The afternoon went by pretty slowly as I milled around working on different things. I felt like I’d lost a little bit of direction, and just wanted to go home when I started to get really sleepy. When I did finally get home, I noticed I’d lost at least two or three adult shrimp over the past few days, so I bumped up my thermostat a few degrees assuming it as the cold. The tiny heater in that tank doesn’t seem to work, so I may have to get a new one.

Eventually I left the house to run some things by my parents’ house. They were out shopping, but I had to get the girls from karate anyway. We headed up to their house for some leftover chili before bed.

$4700 in lighting?!?