Tag: family

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I Need a Vacation

I had to go in early again today for testing, though nobody needed me. It was super slow and quiet, aside from Kim. I’ve been feeling the burnout as time runs out to sign next year’s contract, but it looks like Green Bay is hiring for a different position. I don’t know if one of the others left, or if this may be a new position. I’ll need to reach out to Gary to see if he’d like to talk about it.

I left after my requisite eight hours and made it to the old house to feed the fish. Then I got home and Eaddie was getting ready for some band concert that I guess wasn’t open to the public, or at least we weren’t attending. I changed clothes so I could go out on the Onewheel for the first time since my big wreck. It was much more difficult to accelerate since I was still feeling so much pain in my arm. I was constantly afraid of nosediving.

My only plan was to go to Arby’s for a free sandwich, but I stopped by my parents’ house to visit with them first. Julie and Kevin were there for dinner, and I had a little bowl of some sort of taco cornbread casserole that Dad made. I stayed a while just to visit since Julie was there, but then she started talking about a show on Netflix, and Dad mentioned having trouble watching it on the TV. For some reason, Julie was immediately triggered and started yelling at me progressively louder about sponging off of them and letting them pay for a service that they “couldn’t even use” until I finally snapped back at her. Every single person there just sat in silence while she continued to berate me for being a worthless parasite, so I just left.

I slowly rode across town and had to stop behind the forestry service to sob on a park bench for a little while. I only fell down in the street once along the way, at a super slow speed on a super small bump. My wheel just spun up and spat me out, so I laid in the middle of the intersection in defeat.

After pulling myself together downtown, I continued to Arby’s the long way, because I was pretty sure every law enforcement officer in the county was blocking off Detroit under the bridge. I never could see what was going on, but they were there the entire time I rode across town, ate a roast beef sandwich, and rode back home.

Summer made it home after a rough day of her own, and went to bed. Eaddie got home late from her concert and went to bed. I took some blood pressure medicine, and went to bed.

I change my mind. I’d rather plan a vacation.

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Donut Be Discouraged

I was a little early out the door, so I decided to stop at the new donut place on the way to work. I ate a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant on the drive, and made some coffee when I got to work. Shortly after I sat down with it, I took a sip that went down the wrong pipe, and coughed into my cup. Coffee went everywhere all over my clothes and keyboard, so I spent a while cleaning that up.

I wasn’t at all interested in cheesy pull-aparts, so I just had a couple donuts for punch. There was an office full of people behind me all day, and Kim spent most of the day on the phone trying to find someone to come out and fix her washing machine. I tinkered with a laptop and eventually pieced one together for the stage that ought to really scream compared to the old piece of crap they’ve had out there.

After work, I tried to wind down quickly. I fed the fish and then came home to Summer making a really good shrimp pesto pasta. Eaddie didn’t have anything going on, so it was just the three of us for dinner. Then I sat on the couch and watched the first episode of Heroes with Summer until she went to bed.

Find something fulfilling!

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Nomentum

I had a terrible time getting to bed last night, and contemplated pulling an all-nighter. I didn’t fall asleep until after 3:30, woke up a couple of times, and almost stayed up at 7:30. Somehow I managed not to sleep the entire day, and got up to some coffee with Summer before she went to the gym. She was back and forth on whether she would have to go to work, but did end up going in for a little while between rainclouds. Eaddie went to a band concert in the afternoon, so I just bummed around the house all afternoon.

Mom made bún bò Huế for dinner, so the girls and I headed over as soon as Eaddie got back. We visited for a little bit, but then the girls had to come back home to do some laundry for the week. I had to go drain the sump room, and Eaddie was up a little late making chocolate covered strawberries since she had a late-start Monday. I’ll have to go to work extra early for testing on Tuesday, and I really need to request a meeting with Harry before contracts are due. The end of the school year just has me lazy.

I need a break.

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Ungentlemanly

Aches and pains slowly dissipated today, but I think getting up and moving around had as much to do with it as anything. I’d been wanting to see The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, so I convinced the girls to take a trip to Conway to see it. Summer went to the gym and then took care of something at work, and Eaddie went to a bake sale while I showered and got ready. By the time we got out and into Conway, I was pretty hungry for some lunch. I took us to Bulgogi for some overpriced ramen, which was tasty. Then we killed some time shopping until the movie. We went to Big Lots, Hobby Lobby, and then a junk store by the theater.

As soon as we got into our auditorium for the movie, Eaddie accidentally spilled our Coke because they gave us a really flimsy, crumply cup. Luckily it didn’t seem to get absolutely everywhere, and I just had to go wash my hands. The girls survived with only a little splash damage. We all enjoyed the movie pretty well, but I was a bit surprised by the way the screentime was split between the actors. It was a good movie, but I guess it was just how they filmed things happening in different places.

I wasn’t done in Conway after the movie, and I took the girls hostage for a night of walking down the strip mall from Kohl’s all the way down to Target. I think they shopped a little more than they would admit, and even stopped to hula hoop at Shoe Carnival for a moment. The weather and the atmosphere outside just reminded me of the summer after high school, and it made me long for a simpler time.

We pretty well closed down the shopping center, and then headed home. The girls went to bed while I chased down ants in the kitchen. I put out a whole bunch of Terro around the stove, and they absolutely swarmed to it. Hopefully they’ll be gone by morning, but I already had to give them a refill once.

BLUE M3?

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Print Nightmare

We struggled with printers all day after my driver snafu yesterday. Whether it was trouble printing in color, or retrieving jobs, there was always something wrong. My only real accomplishment for the day was talking to Barry to schedule Chromebook pickup, and even that took multiple emails after a face-to-face conversation because he didn’t actually know when his staff would be finished using their devices. Denice and I spent a bit of the afternoon venting about the different idiots we had to support.

I got my contract offer for barely any more than I made this year, so I immediately started looking for work again. I found a couple jobs that may interest me, so I think I’ll be challenging myself to apply to one a day for a while to see how it pans out.

I eventually made it home after getting stuck behind people driving well below the speed limit again. People either fly or crawl down that road. There’s no middle ground.

I got to the old house to feed the fish, and I brought a little bucket pond kit to the new house. Eaddie had Eli over, and Summer was making dinner. I went out back to fill my bucket and got the fountain working. It was pretty disappointing, but I can upgrade it later.

After dinner, we played Phase 10 before bed. The kids stayed up pretty late. I kept getting sidetracked myself, but eventually made it to bed.

Control P

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Staring at the Sun Again

Eaddie and I got up this morning and went out on the Shadow. We were hungry, but wanted to cruise around town quickly before going to my parents’ house for the eclipse, so we stopped at Zaxby’s to pick up some chicken. Then we ran by my old house so I could put in some contacts and feed the fish, and we continued past the nearly empty Hickey Park and high school parking lots. We wanted to go by the soccer complex, but we ran a little behind. The Confederate Mother’s Memorial/Pine Knob Mountain Bike Park was full of people, much like the back of both Walmart parking lots we passed, but Sequoyah was empty as well.

Dad was outside with several telescopes and cameras, and Mom came in and out as the moon slowly crossed the sun. Summer left work early and met us there with plenty of time to eat and peek through the telescopes. Totality was longer than the first time we saw it, but it didn’t seem quite as momentous for me. Maybe it was because there was so much else going on with so many telescopes, or maybe because I kept having to tell Summer to take her glasses off. The solar prominences didn’t seem as big, there weren’t any big jet trails revealed, and the mountain blocked our view of the 360º sunset. The crickets and bats came out though, and everyone really enjoyed the event. I preferred being in a quiet place away from all the public screaming or music playing.

We didn’t watch much of the last half of the eclipse. The girls headed home and I ate some bánh bèo that Mom made before catching up with them. We went back out to check out a pretty disappointing “eclipse market” that was just a small handful of vendors that didn’t interest any of us. Then we finally went past the soccer complex and Old Post Park before going back to the other side of town for some free Freddy’s. Much to the girls’ dismay, I took us to Price Break, and Eaddie waited in the car while Summer and I sorted through bins of Amazon returns. I had to poke fun when Summer bought way more stuff than I did by the end of it all.

Once we made it back home, the girls settled in. I had a leftover burger and then rode the Onewheel to the Neighborhood Market to take in the recycling and pick up some more oranges. I ended the night with some laundry, and it’s back to the grind in the morning.

Thank goodness we missed the rain.

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Preclipse Day

I got up and made Summer a freshly-ground cappuccino this morning, which she seemed to like. I’ve only used it twice, but so far I’m pretty happy with the grinder we got. I finally cleaned up the corned beef and had a shower, and then struggled to start the smoker to get the ribs cooking. Summer and Eaddie ran to Kroger to pick up some charcoal for me, and the lumps were tiny. I eventually got the smoke rolling, and the girls prepped the bikes to go for a ride downtown.

We parked at the middle school, which in retrospect wasn’t much better than if we had just left from the house. The girls biked and I rode my Onewheel through some neighborhood trails before going back up to Kroger and heading downtown. There weren’t a ton of visitors there that we could tell, but there were tons of cops and “workers” riding around trying to look important. We stood in line and got some stuff from NASA, and I couldn’t tell whether I had actually offended the guy when I asked how long NASA has known the moon and sun are the same size, and why they were keeping it from us.

We didn’t really find much exciting at the depot after that, so we got Eaddie a shirt and then rode through Tech to Bona Dea. We did a small loop and then headed straight back to the car. Eaddie decided to ride all the way home, and I actually had plenty of battery to do the same, but I drove Summer home instead.

I decided to assemble the outdoor sink and prep table with the hopes that I could use it for the ribs. Summer “helped,” but we didn’t get it done in time, and I ended up bringing the ribs inside to wrap. Eli came over, I eventually got the ribs sauced, and then we had dinner. The meat was way too tender and just turned into mush off the bone, but it was still good. I just wanted a bit more bite to them. Everyone else loved it. Summer made mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and we had a good meal.

The kids hung out for a while and Summer wound down quickly. I started dragging pretty hard, and felt a bit sick from sinus trouble. I assumed it was allergies this time, but I just felt crummy all night.

He’s really not gonna like my questions about why the moon is a flat circle instead of a flat square.

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Lab Aid

McDonald’s was super busy this morning, and the lady inside was yelling at all of her employees for wasting food. I didn’t realize until I got to work, late again, that they didn’t put egg on my bagel. More on that later.

I had a few distractions throughout the day, but my big accomplishment was getting Kim out after lunch to replace 17 more lab computers with me. We had a student help as well, which was nice. We ran out of video adapters and cables, which was a bit of a surprise. The entire lab was set up with HDMI cables, so we had to go from DisplayPort to VGA. I don’t want to spend any more money than I have to, so we’ll limp along for the remainder of the year.

I had run out of gas on the way to work and had to switch over to my reserve, so I stopped in Ola for some gas on the way home. I couldn’t tell if I was flying down the road or not, because yesterday I kept getting passed at an unexpected rate. Wind isn’t my friend on the Shadow, so it’s just not comfortable going fast. I prefer something more upright.

When I got into Dardanelle, I stopped to file my complaint at McDonald’s, and bartered some free fries for my missing egg. They were the hottest, freshest fries I’ve ever had from McDonald’s, so that was a treat on a surprisingly cold ride home. Then I fed the fish before going to Orr to check on the status of the Pathfinder. Tim said it would be about three or four weeks before they could even look at it.

I stopped to see Summer at the wash, but left as it continued to get colder. Just after I got home, Dad said they had leftover spring rolls and chow mein, so I took the Onewheel over there, narrowly beating Julie and Kevin. Food wasn’t at all ready, so Kevin and I watched Julie eat spring rolls, and then Kevin, Dad, and I had chow mein once that was done.

Summer was in the bath when I finally made it back home for the night. Eaddie got home late after band solo and ensemble. We all caught up a bit, and then it was off to bed at a reasonably normal time.

Boy, do I miss Tres.

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Rolling Cycles

Mom said we were having beef spring rolls today, but we weren’t sure if it was for lunch or dinner. We invited everyone to eat at our house since we had more room, so Summer went shopping so she could make cupcakes and banana pudding. I got up to some coffee and then cleaned up the dining room. I wanted to set up two cooking stations for the beef, and three plates with veggies. Noah came over too, so we had eight people to fit around the table. I couldn’t find our new electric skillet even though I knew I brought it to the new house, so I ran to the old house to make sure. Summer ended up finding it above the refrigerator.

I stopped by my parents’ house on the way home to get some of the food. Then Dad brought over some more, and Julie and Kevin showed up. I thought the dining table worked out perfectly for that many people. The only thing I would have changed was the seating arrangement, just to make sure someone mindful was next to the rice paper water bowls.

Once everyone left, I had to take a couple trips on the Onewheel to give my parents the things we forgot to give them on the way out. We got the kitchen cleaned up, and then Summer and I ran around town to O’Reilly for an oil filter and oil, and Superfast for some tools to change the oil in the Shadow.

Unfortunately the oil pan we borrowed wouldn’t fit under the bike, so we went to borrow one from Dad. We still forgot wrenches for the drain plug, so once we got back to the old house, we decided to just take the bike to the new house to do the work there. That was when we also realized that the dip in our driveway gave us enough room to use the oil pan from the shop.

Rather than dirty up Dad’s oil pan and funnel, we decided to go back across town to get the dirty one we borrowed from Superfast. We also brought the R1 over to the new house, so I could bleed the front brake line and change the oil in it as well. Once we got everything in place, Summer was quick to drop the oil out of the Shadow. She had a fancy new headband light too, so I didn’t even get to hold the flashlight for her. The bike took a bit more than the 2.5 quarts of synthetic oil that I expected, but Summer signed off on the leak check and it was good to go. She can wear the pants in the family all she wants, because I was just glad to keep my hands clean.

I ended up riding to PDQ to air up the tires, but tomorrow may rain anyway. I may not even get to ride it, but it’s ready. The kids stayed up a bit late, and Noah ended up staying the night, but I finally convinced him to sleep in a bed this time. We’ll take the small wins with that one.

I bet we wouldn’t have had to use more than half of that one bottle if we had just let the first two bottles drip a bit longer.

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OneYoke

I was early enough for work this morning that I decided to swing through McDonald’s for a McGriddle for the drive. It was relatively quiet compared to earlier in the week, though we still had visitors in the office behind us. I tinkered with imaging for a while and discovered that resetting the BIOS to factory defaults didn’t actually reset the storage settings. I ended up loading up another desktop with the OEM operating system, and exported drivers that I can tinker with next week.

Kim left after lunch to sell enough cattle to pay for the flooring in their new house, which meant the office was eerily quiet for the rest of the day. Apart from a conference call with the GoGuardian folks, there really wasn’t anything going on.

After work, I fed the fish and dug out my factory floormats in case they want me to return them with my car tomorrow. Then I headed home to get Summer so we could go to Superfast and replace my yoke with the original steering wheel. The new instructions I found didn’t cover all of the steps, but fortunately I found the old video I watched to install the yoke in the first place.

Eaddie was out with friends, so Summer and I went straight to my parents’ house for chow mein. It would have been a nice evening for a ride on the Onewheel, but it was dark by the time we got home. I took it for a figure-8 around the block, and then we waited for Eaddie to get home with her girlfriends for their sleepover.

You’re a good car.