Tag: family

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There’s No Good Time

I made it in to work just a little early this morning, still pretty groggy from waking up a few times last night. I made up my own parking space in the grass again, but I can already tell it’s going to be trouble when it rains. I’m not looking forward to it at all, but I guess I’ve got the sick leave to burn if I wanted to just not work every time the weather is bad.

I spent a little time on some stuff in my office, then wandered around the campus for a while to clean up some work orders. Zach stopped in since he was there working on something else, and we went down to the ATCC for a bit to scope out a couple things. Then I left him to go close out a couple things at the multipurpose facility before lunch. Summer wanted to join us for the $5 salad bar, but we had to wait until 1 o’clock for her. I picked Zach up on the way off campus, then we got her from the shop, and made our way to Ruby Tuesday. Our server goofed and Zach got a free meal just because he didn’t want to ring out another guest because of some fraud prevention system. To me that sounded a bit broken, but we tipped him for it.

After dropping everyone off, I headed to the shop for a bit to set up a new laptop and then research some of my more time consuming work orders. Ben eventually came around the shop and asked when we could set up a desktop computer lab, and I just had to tell him there is no good time because I feel like I’m drowning in things to do as it is, so we’d just have to make the time and sacrifice something else. Then we sat down and he showed me the system to create IVR systems in Avaya. It looked really fun, and I can see myself borrowing some of our outbound numbers in the future, assuming I ever find any free time ever again.

I worked a little late to finish making the user accounts for the new vo-tech phone lines, and then went by my parents’ house for just a few minutes. They weren’t really doing much and I wasn’t hungry since we had a big, late lunch, so I sat there for a few minutes before Dad decided we could move the boat onto the paver stones I bought. We couldn’t really push it around by hand, so we actually had to hook it up to my hitch and drive it a couple feet, but it wasn’t too bad. It was hot and humid outside though, so by the time that was over I was ready for bed. I went home and laid down for a while before getting back up to finish my evening routine, then crashing a few hours early.

For Allen Dot Hopgood, press 1.
For Amandy Bolton, press 60,000.net.
Para Pancho, oprima el numero tres.
For Customer Relations, push all of his buttons.

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On the Subject of Drowning

I got out a bit early this morning to bring Doug home after dropping his car off at the Cogswell Collision Center. He had a little fender bender the other day and asked me to give him a ride back. I actually made it to work just a few minutes late, which I thought was pretty impressive. It was all downhill from there.

All day I felt like I was just scattered and scrambling to make sense of it all. Ultimately I got several things closed out, but I’m still getting covered up with work orders and I haven’t had a chance to touch any of the 1:1 devices. The stack of repairs isn’t getting any shorter, and the anxiety is mounting. I didn’t even take a lunch, and opted for a bit of Soylent halfway through the day instead. It got me to the end of the day without too much trouble, which I guess was ideal.

Eaddie took the bus to the high school so I wouldn’t have to get her from the shop, and we went to my parents’ house for more spring rolls. I helped slice up the smoked pork and shrimp while Eaddie played on her phone. We didn’t waste any time, and ate as soon as everything was ready. Julie came by and finished up her beef spring rolls too.

I decided to take Eaddie out for ice cream after dinner, and we settled on Bocadillos for something different. She got an ice cream cone with mint chocolate and Nutella. I got a churro with strawberry cheesecake ice cream. It was all delicious and expensive. Then we stopped by my house so I could change before making our way to their house for the night. Summer spent all evening at Tech for some kind of involvement fair, so we made another stop to get her some Taco John’s for dinner. I was upset to hear they “couldn’t do Potato Olés” for some reason, but I don’t think they charged the whole combo price either.

It sounds like they’re still shaking things up at Splash, so it’ll be exciting to see what happens next. Right now all I can think about is my pillow.

House slippers in the summer just make me sweat.

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Rollin’ in Greens

We didn’t sleep in very long this morning considering how late we got in, so I felt a little drowsy pretty much all day. Summer went home to clean up, and then Bác Vân called me out to get a bunch of plant material for Mom. I got everything loaded up, showered myself, and then went by their house to drop everything off before going up to Summer’s. I couldn’t wait for our “early” dinner, so I finished up a bunch of salad greens there before we headed over to my parents’ house.

The girls wanted to swim, so they went outside for a bit until it started lightly storming. I skimmed a little bit of sleep in Summer’s lap for a while, but ended up feeling more tired for it because of my apnea. I did at least feel relaxed though. Julie came over to eat too, and we all had beef spring rolls, except a predictably fussy Autumn who ate Mom’s famous “chicken nuggets.”

After dinner, the girls went to swim a little more before they headed home. I came home myself and made a really early night of it.

The fun weekends are always the shortest.

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Catching up with Bae

Summer took the girls to the high school for a 5k color run this morning. I ate a few leftovers there before heading home to clean up. I’m pretty sure I lost one of my ghost shrimp, and I couldn’t ever find any of the berried ghost/amano/whatever shrimp they were. I don’t know if they’ve been hiding, or if they dropped the eggs, or if they perished as well. I didn’t want to disturb the tank too much, but it didn’t get as busy in there as it usually does while I did a water change. I guess I’ll just let it be, since it’s fully established with decent parameters.

Summer dropped the girls off with their friends around lunch time, and we headed toward Conway. We were pretty hungry and decided to stop at Yesterday’s in Morrilton so we wouldn’t be eating too late in Conway. On our approach I was worried it would be more bar than grill, but once we got our food I was convinced. The appetizer sampler with fried green beans, pickles, mushrooms, and cheddar was amazing. Summer’s chicken and grilled vegetables were great. My chicken fried steak was a bit tough but not bad. The loaded mashed potatoes were stellar. Even the toast was delicious. It was a great date that we both needed.

As we came into Conway, Summer arranged for us to get a carwash at the Splash since she wanted to visit her employee that was on loan there and get a tour of the place. It was a pretty cool experience, but odd to see the lube side completely dead. I don’t know if it’s just a bad location or lack of marketing, but there wasn’t a single lube job done while we were there. It was awesome getting the car washed inside and out though. I think I still prefer to maintain it myself, but every now and again this would be nice just to dust out the whole vehicle.

From there we went to Andy’s for some frozen custard, and then killed a bunch of time at Kohl’s. I spent forever looking through the clearance sections, but didn’t find much that was marked down enough. I almost picked up a jacket or two, but decided against it after remembering how little I actually go out in the winter for long enough to need one. It was already getting a little late, so we went straight to Sam’s after that and ended up picking up a bunch of bath towels for her.

Hannah and Dylan were slow to respond as usual, but eventually we managed to meet up with them, and we went on to Little Rock for Dave & Buster’s. We did a Jurassic Park VR adventure that was pretty awesome and didn’t cost as much as I expected. It really just made me want a VR setup at home, but I keep hoping an esports budget or stipend will help to fund that. We wandered around the midway until we all ran out of credits, then hit a Wendy’s on the way home since we never really stopped for dinner. We were both exhausted from a long but great day, so it was straight to bed once we got home.

“Let’s build a wall to keep the immigrants from bringing crime into our town!” -the townspeople
“Let’s build a casino in our town!” -also the townspeople

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The Walkabout Campus

I headed in to work just a few minutes early today after waking up a few minutes before my alarm. I still felt tired, but not as bad as earlier in the week. I went by the shop first to have Jason submit warranty claims for a couple laptops. Then I ended up chatting with Ben for a while before heading to the high school.

I didn’t start in my usual place by going to the office. Instead, I had to go to the old field house to set up a printer we removed before the renovation. I drove around a bit at first, but eventually parked at the front of the building and walked around campus for most of the day. I went to the arena a couple times, back out to the field house, over through vo-tech, and up and around the main building. I still haven’t had a whole lot come up, but I’m feeling a bit of anxiety again about repairing laptops. I spent a decent amount of time yesterday doing just that, and I don’t want to get sucked into doing too much there and not focusing on learning the things I really want to learn.

Nothing really jumped out at me for lunch, so I just snacked on leftover donut holes most of the day while walking all over the place. I didn’t leave too late either, and only have a couple more hours to work tomorrow to hit my 40 hours for the week. I almost feel like I should be more stressed, but the long hours haven’t bothered me too much. I’m just physically very tired all the time. I need to just commit to a Soylent diet for a while to see if it helps.

I relaxed at home for a little while before heading up to Summer’s for dinner. I was going to make chicken salads, but ended up making everyone clean up the super old mashed potatoes and ribs that were left over from forever ago.

Happy fridge; happy belly.

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They can be a great people, Kal-El; they wish to be.

I had to go to the shop this morning to pick up some stuff to reroute lines for Ethan this afternoon. It was a relatively quick stop, and then I dove right back into work orders. I really feel like I crushed it for being the start of the year, but then another part of me knows that the laptop returns are about to start rolling in. I’m both surprised and not surprised by the amount of specialty software I’ve had to install. It’s been almost exclusively the math department, which is convenient because that’s where my office is located. I did get stuck on a couple of more difficult tasks, but all in all I was pretty pleased with myself. It’s been nice not feeling so stressed about things, and getting to spend a little more time building rapport with my new staff. I’m still getting emails and personal requests from my old staff too though, which I don’t mind because I do miss them.

I worked right through lunch today, finishing off a bottle of Soylent along with a really gross chocolate sea salt RXBAR. I cannot express enough how not good it was. The whole thing just wanted to gum up my mouth and stick to my teeth everywhere. It was like chewing tar, except it tasted bad too. I didn’t read the label until after I ate it, and I never would have pegged it for chocolate. If anything, it reminded me of the homemade dehydrated bananas that Mom and Bâc Ván used to make. They weren’t chips like you get in the store. They were whole, but peeled bananas, dehydrated to look like shriveled up fingers. The outsides got dark, but not as dark and brown as the insides. I actually kind of liked the bananas though.

Ethan was a bit late, so I finished up some other stuff while I waited. I wasn’t about to do anything without him after he destroyed his own lab infrastructure. Even getting lucky and only needing to rearrange the lines that were already in his room, we burned about five hours getting it all set up again. I got to mess around with the switch configuration again too, which is making me feel a bit more comfortable with that aspect of the job. I actually had a pretty good time chatting with him too, which was nice. I stayed pretty late finishing everything up, but he was there too. It’s nice to see someone else with a similar dedication.

When I finally left, I stopped by the house to change really quick, and then ran straight up to Summer’s to start cooking some chicken for tacos. I feel like the tacos are relatively easy and healthy, but I still have a quantity issue. It’s like I just eat them too fast and don’t realize I should’ve stopped 12 tacos ago.

Hey Google, play my back to school playlist.

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Walking the Land

I went to the shop first thing this morning because I wasn’t certain of Jason’s plans. It ended up being unnecessary, but at least I got to see Brice sitting around eating breakfast after being out for the past couple weeks.

I rolled into the high school and jumped right into things, finally making it out to the multipurpose facility to check on some things. Eventually I made it inside to start closing work orders, and I did a fair job of catching up. There’s still a lot to do, but at least it feels achievable. Lunchtime came around out of nowhere, so I went to Arby’s for a quick meal before coming back early and diving right back in.

If nothing else, today served to better familiarize myself with the layout of the campus. There is still a ton of unexplored territory, and a surprising number of young teachers of questionable caliber. I suppose time will tell, but I had such hopes. I guess statistically I really haven’t had to visit that many rooms to hook everything up from scratch.

After staying late to take care of a couple things at the MPF, I headed home to cool off. It was incredibly hot and humid today, and I was surprised to see the Hickey pool closed and partly drained. Beth was in town for their father’s birthday, but it wasn’t long before Summer said they were leaving their parents’ house and wanted to go to Stoby’s for dinner.

Dinner was uneventful aside from my taco salad that was served with a paltry smattering of chips. Beth took the girls home while I went to the junior high to snag an old discarded switch to set up at Summer’s shop. It didn’t take long at all to get them set back up, and everything was working again. It kind of really made me want to pursue a real IT job with them, but I don’t really know enough about their existing business structure and Summer’s too busy trying to hold onto the reigns of her own position.

Finally home for the evening, I spent too much time browsing cheap Chinese goods that I’ve been meaning to buy for too long. I got a small order out, so in a few months I’ll have a surprise delivery that I’ve forgotten all about.

I wonder what a real IT job is like.

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Church Rush

I couldn’t sleep very late this morning, possibly because of how bright it got in my room. I was still pretty tired though, so we laid around for a while before I got up and around. Summer headed out first while I got showered and everything, and then I went to pick her up for lunch. I hate going out on Sundays because of how busy everybody is, and the fact that many restaurants raise their prices for it. Chinese did sound good though, so we landed at New China where it actually didn’t seem that bad. I ran into Ian there, which got the adrenaline going a bit, but it was still good to see him.

We went back to Summer’s for a bit after we ate, and didn’t get back out until we had to go to Harbor Freight. Summer needed some things for the shop, so I brought the coupon game. The girls’ father dropped them off for us there, so we got to split the transaction three ways for maximum savings. I didn’t really get anything I wanted, but nothing I wanted was very urgent anyway. From there we went to Lowe’s so Summer could look for a shop vac and so I could pick up some paver stones on which to park the sailboat so the tires won’t keep sinking into the earth.

Lastly we stopped by Walmart so the girls could pick up a last couple school supplies, and then we went back to their house so they could do some cleaning before dinner. I fried up some chicken for them to make sandwiches, and then I headed home to do some more laundry before the first week of school. Thankfully I think I’ve gotten most of the mentally draining stuff out of the way, so tomorrow I should just be able to crush the bulk of my work orders. I’m still not looking forward to re-running cable for Ethan, but I fully plan on enlisting his help for that.

They’re like tiny machines that turn spinach into poop.

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An Actual Day of Progress

I got to spend the whole day at the high school, and felt quite a bit of progress for it. The work orders are still flowing in, but at least it doesn’t feel like I’m still sinking. I got stuck on a couple more difficult tasks, but even then I felt like I made a little bit of progress and got to affirm things I’ve learned over the last year or so. I worked through lunch time feeling pretty good, and eventually went to Wendy’s for a relatively light meal. I did have to give up on some SCCM stuff in the afternoon, and went back to the shop so Gary could learn me a few things. I probably should have known what he showed me, but it was just one of those things that never even occurred to me.

After work, I came home for a little while before heading up to Summer’s for dinner. They wanted chicken sandwiches, but all I wanted to do was get rid of all the old stuff she had in the fridge. I almost burned the house down trying to toast some French bread in the broiler, but they got their sandwiches. I warmed up some soft taco stuff and cleaned up a bunch of the leftovers, but there’s still enough food for a week in there.

Eaddie and I finished our episode of Daredevil from the other day, and then I headed home for an early night. It’s time for welcome-back nonsense tomorrow, and nobody seems as concerned about how much work they’re putting on us at the last minute as us. Typical.

It’s less stressful if you don’t actually care.

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It’s a Match?

Allen and I were sent off to do some finishing work at Crawford today. Evidently Jason had trouble toning out a line the other day, so I had to do it. The second task was to set up a touch USB line over Cat-5, and it was actually already set up, but plugged into the wrong port. All of that took us until lunch time, but I think most of the truly heavy lifting was giving relationship advice to Allen.

The two of us went to Wind Taste for lunch, so I’ll owe him lunch again. Then the afternoon was spent with Jason cleaning up and rearranging rooms at Center Valley. They got new cubbies and cabinets in several of the rooms, which necessitated some cable relocation. We were overstaffed with three, and with Jason we didn’t even have all of the equipment we needed in one trip, so I had to run back to town once, and then we’ll have to go again tomorrow.

After work, I rode home and waited for Summer to drop Eaddie off, and we watched a couple episodes of Daredevil. When Summer got back from the gym, we went to my parents’ house for dinner, and that pretty well burned up the last bit of the day. Eaddie and I finished the evening with one more episode, and then it was bedtime.

As I started my evening routine, I noticed an email from match.com confirming a new account setup. Having never even visited the site before, my internal alarms started going off, and I immediately went through the process of “forgetting” the password so I could gain control of the account. There didn’t seem to be any profile information there, and it wasn’t even set up with my name – only my email address. Evidently I was a male seeking another male in Colorado. Once I gained control of the rogue account, I shut it down and went on to bed. I have to admit I was a little curious what would have happened if I had left it open for a day, because it appeared as though they require some kind of review process before anything is actually posted to your profile, so it’s possible there was some information provided for it. I’m fine with not existing as a weird, gay impostor on the internet.

This is a weird form of identity theft.