Apart

I left work when I saw Summer was home early. We got back to town just as she and Eaddie were leaving the house, but they pulled over at Kroger so I could talk to them.

I ended up at Ridgewood to see if Grant was there. I knew he was safe. I called, and he wasn’t there, but he came in from home and just hugged me. We came back to the house and talked for a long time. I realized I forgot my eyeglasses there, so he called someone to have them put them in the office for me.

The girls got home and I talked to Summer briefly. Grant left to have his family time, and I went with Summer to her vein appointment. Then we went to Bona Dea to walk with Muad’dib. Then we went to the house to get a coupon to go to Colton’s for a late lunch.

Neither of us ate much of our food. We boxed up the rest and came back to the house where she bathed for a while and I moved things out of the kitchen. We eventually talked for a bit, but it was for nothing.

Now we unravel the knot with haste and move along.

Decades.

Death Spiral

I got up reasonably early again today, expecting to do some more cleaning and furniture assembly, but boy was I wrong. I felt pretty ignored all day. The girls went to the gym together, so I finished the leftover turkey bean soup and took a bath. Summer barely approached me when they got back, and didn’t acknowledge my response when she asked what was wrong, so I knew something was up.

She warmed up some pasta, but I didn’t end up eating with them. Mom had said she was making phở at some point, so I had been holding out for that. Eaddie left and I finally pinned Summer down to figure out what was going on. She acknowledged the same death spiral I had been feeling for the past few years. We talked for a bit, but it was mostly emotionless by that point.

I took Muad’Dib for a brisk walk to my parents’ house where Dad and Nova were already halfway through their soup. Mom made mine and I ate, and then we walked back to the house. I felt like our conversation after that was a little less doom and gloom, but we still don’t have anything actionable.

The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math.

Flat Packed

Summer had a lot of trouble sleeping last night and I found her on the couch in the middle of the night. I got up fairly early and took Muad’Dib with me to Hardee’s to pick up some breakfast since they owed me a sandwich from the day before. A little later, Summer had to take care of some stuff for work, so I took her to Lowe’s where I hung outside with Muad’Dib while she went in to pick up an order. Then we stopped by the wash and I vacuumed my car while she took care of a personnel issue.

I got a fire started again when we got back, and started putting together a piece of furniture I got from Vine. Mom made bún thang, but Summer didn’t feel well and wasn’t hungry, so I went over by myself to eat. I finished up the furniture when I made it back, and then had a late shower before Summer eventually started making a seafood Alfredo dinner.

The kids got home and we ate, then played some Phase 10 Tiles before they wanted to move to the living room to watch Breaking Bad. I put together another piece of furniture that felt super cheap, and they ultimately took up more space than the boxes they came in, but it felt good to get something done and ready to be put to use, or even sold off if we decided not to keep it.

You can’t break some eggs without making an omelet.

Shop Chop

I really wanted to stop for breakfast this morning, but we got out late after I couldn’t find Muad’Dib’s collar. I later learned that Eaddie took it off of him in the night because he kept shaking with it on, and I guess it bothered her. We squeezed in and I got right to work on email signatures. I spent a lot of time formatting and organizing staff photos, but CodeTwo made it as easy as possible. I didn’t love working in Affinity for photo editing, but I’m sure it’d be great with some experience.

When lunch time came around, I queued up a few places depending on the weather. It ended up being pretty cold and windy, so we went to Wendy’s for a burger that was twice the price for something easily twice as good. I had an anxiety attack right in the middle of it, but it came and went without too much of a daze afterward.

The afternoon was more of the same, to the point that my mouse hand ached from all the repetition. I finally sent an email to the sales folks with instructions on how to remove their own device-set signatures, and then got everyone that was still in the office fixed up before I left.

When we got to the house, the kids were in the living room while Summer was having a bath. I took Muad’Dib for a walk, and he seems to know that we always go straight to my parents’ house when I’m on foot. Mom was in the middle of making bánh u̕ớt, so we stayed for dinner before walking back to the house. He took me down Ridgewood this time, and then we laid down with Summer as she fell asleep to WandaVision.

I still had to enable my work email signatures, and Jon apparently didn’t like the photo that was in the favorites folder, so I had to edit that as well. It didn’t take too long, and then I went to bed early.

Affinity for carpal tunnel.

Mortality

I got out a hair earlier this morning and considered stopping at Hardee’s, but just headed straight to work instead. I felt a little bit odd for much of the day, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I begrudgingly tinkered with Intune and the Android tablets and phone I had, and made minimal progress. All roads continued to lead back to certificate-based authentication.

We took a break to go to Sonic for lunch, and a guy in a stall next to the picnic tables chatted with me about Muad’Dib. He was a good boy who got lots of tots. The Smasher was actually pretty good, too.

The afternoon crept by, and I felt worse and then better until quitting time. I had brought my Onewheel to ship for RMA service, so I asked Summer if she wanted to walk with us in the evening instead. She started her vericose vein procedure in the afternoon, and needed to walk on it a bit. By the time we got to the house, she had dinner about ready, so we ate instead.

Eaddie sat down to eat with us and it was a good meal. Eli showed up a little later for some, but then went home for second dinner. I had stopped by the Neighborhood Market on the way home to try and return some poor quality beef jerky, but was turned away because I was outside the return window, so I called the number on the packaging instead. It took a little while, but a nice lady said she would send a giftcard to reimburse me. Then I moved to the couch across from Summer and put on Ricky Gervais’s new special on Netflix. I didn’t think it was terribly funny, but watched it through before moving on to some MKBHD before bed.

The meatbags are failing.

Horse Humpin, Wing Stoppin, Dog Shoppin Day

I made myself a fancy capuccino today before realizing the milk was curdled, so I threw that out and then had a cup of black instead. The girls got up and watched TV, and I cleaned up around the house. I cooked my turkey beans some more and added a block of frozen broth from before. That helped quite a bit, and though we didn’t actually plan to have a meal of it yet, Summer and I shared a small cup because it was tasty. Sometime in the afternoon, a deep squat exercise machine I scored on Vine showed up, and I put it together for Summer. She actually seemed pleased with it, so I put it together for her.

Later in the evening, she wanted to go to Walmart. Eaddie had left, so we took Muad’Dib along for the ride. We went by the wash first so she could print something. Then we went to the newly opened Wingstop to check things out. They were barely more than a food truck in a sliver of a storefront next to McAlister’s. Completely cashless, and basically just pumping out mobile orders. We ate there, and it was pretty good, but very salty. I still think Zaxby’s is the best in town.

Muad’Dib had been in the car for a little while by then, so we took him to PetSmart to walk around and pick up some treats. Then we went to Walmart so Summer could get some cross stitch thread. Finally we got back to the house and I took Muad’Dib out for a run.

My parents had gone to Fort Smith, but were on the way back. I thought we’d circle around a bit and meet up with them, but my board died just as we made a loop, so I limped it home and boxed it up to ship back to Futuremotion for like the fourth time. I sat on the couch with Summer and flipped through some YouTube until she got up for bed. Eaddie came home late, and they chatted for a little bit as I got ready for bed myself.

Not half bad.

²

It was damp out today, and slightly drizzly, but not too gross. There was a truck off the side of the road going the other direciton just as we got to Morrilton, and we could see traffic backed up from there. Things were quiet for me, and I tried to replicate my focus from yesterday. I did fairly well, but everything I was doing led me back to square one. I just need to decide whether to spin up a new DC and go hybrid, or pay for more cloud services.

When lunch came around, we went to McDonald’s for a McRib. After waiting a while, they came out and said they weren’t selling it any more, and offered to make me something else. I forgot how pitiful the McCrispy was, and got that. It tasted fine, but was just a small, sad sandwich. I ended up redeeming points for some McNuggets before I left.

A little while later, I had an anxiety attack at work. I wish I had a better way to track this along with some vitals from my peripherals, and I’m surprised there isn’t an app for that. The rest of the afternoon went by kind of slowly, and I was alone upstairs for much of it.

The ride home was quiet and fast. My parents were making egg rolls again, so I ran over with Muad’Dib. Summer was already in the shower when we got to the house, so she met us over there when she was done. Julie and Kevin showed up, and I got a little spun up as we were starting to put food together. I felt like my heart was racing and I felt a little dazed, but I think Julie’s aggressive loudness just had my blood pressure up, so I just had to relax and let it pass.

We all actually sat together and ate together for once, which was nice. Muad’Dib did a wonderful job sitting in the laundry room, and we had a good run back to the house afterward. My heartrate was about the same as it was during my episode and I felt fine, so I’m sticking with blood pressure with a side of dehydration since I was a little bit shy on my water quota.

Eaddie and Eli were at the house watching Breaking Bad when we got there, so Summer went to bed while I wrapped up fairly early myself. I think the sleep helps, though the afternoon anxiety attack and evening daze had me a bit puzzled.

1

🥓

I anticipated feeling a little less than great today, but I actually wasn’t bad. We stopped for breakfast and had some pretty stale hash rounds, but Muad’Dib didn’t complain. The biscuit was great though. I had a lot of trouble pinning down one particular project all day, so I’ll be picking up the slack until our staff meeting next week.

We went to Wendy’s for a change, looking for some top-tier fast food. Their deals haven’t been nearly as good, but the food was easily twice as good as a deal anywhere else. Muad’Dib was a good boy in the car, and my burger was great. I finally managed to make a little bit of progress in the afternoon, but it was nothing of much use.

We had a decent ride home and immediately went for a run. Dad said they would have egg rolls, but Eaddie wanted to go have dinner with her father. Summer got home just before us, but didn’t feel well and wanted to soak in a bath instead.

The egg rolls were rubbery until they were air fried, and then we just had them with some rice since the noodles weren’t ready. I ate too much, and then we made it back to the house in the dark. Eaddie came home briefly and then left to practice, and Summer went to bed. I finished a couple hours early and took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep with the hopes of focus in the morning.

8R

Pro Duck

Sleep was really touch-and-go last night, and of course as morning drew near, sleep felt heavier with more frequent dreams. Muad’Dib beat me out of the gate and we had a fairly gentle ride in to work where I actually stayed pretty productive all day, though in the end I still felt like I gained more projects than I finished.

We had a cheap lunch, splitting between some cheese sticks at Sonic and a sandwich from Arby’s. We ate the cheese sticks in the car while we waited for the Arby’s, and then ate the sandwich back at the office before calling Gary back to troubleshoot a display issue he was having.

The afternoon ended up speeding by, especially the closer we got to quitting time, and we walked out a little bit late. I had a couple of dueling super duty super douches on the Interstate, so we exited early and went to PetSmart to avoid any more road rage. Muad’Dib did great, and I ended up getting him a floppy rubber frisbee like Cutie always has.

Summer surprised me with shrimp and veggies over rice for dinner, and it was just the two of us, so we ate in front of the TV and watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 before retiring for the night. Eaddie had plans to take Muad’Dib hiking th enext day, so I set up his Fi Mini tracking collar and got everything ready for her. I was a little nervous about it, but the tracker helped.

Wild that it’s more expensive than Fitbit Premium, but I guess there’s a cellular aspect.

Out of Nerves

I fell asleep late, but surprisingly woke up fairly early. Summer got up for coffee, and I made us a couple more sandwiches. I thought it would be a good, productive day, but Summer almost immediately started irritating me by being loudly obtuse. I just had to walk away before my inside thoughts got too mean, but of course that upset her too. I thought she left for the gym, but she actually just quietly started cleaning the laundry room, and rearranging everything in there. I walked out of my office and the house was cold because she had the door wide open while she was doing that.

Things just got worse all day long, as I struggled to make sense of how she had compacted everything. I didn’t really get anything accomplished except for the cooking of some old food that needed to be consumed. I started the turkey carcass in the Instant Pot, and boiled the liver and leftover broccoli stems for Muad’Dib.

Dad called and needed to borrow a carpet cleaner, and somewhere along the way, the handheld one got a damaged charge port. I blamed Summer because she had just moved it in her cleaning, but that upset her too. Dad had to bring it back and swap for the upright carpet cleaner. I took Muad’Dib for an early run while the sun was up, and then spent the rest of the evening finishing up the turkey broth and beans. It wasn’t anything like the soup I wanted to make, and it was more beans than soup, but it was edible, and it got junk out of the fridge and turned it into something that everyone will have to eat.

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