Tag: family

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The Honest Ones

I got up fairly early this morning and headed home to mow my lawn. Summer had me drop a couple things off for her at the wash, and I traded vehicles with her so I could load up a ladder for our second home tour. It was nice and cool outside, so mowing wasn’t bad at all. I still felt some chest pain as I got going, but it got better over time. I got the front yard and most of the back done with just one battery, and I’ll need to burn some fallen branches and other scrap wood to clean up the rest. When I finished, Bác Vân called me over to get a couple slices of pizza she brought home from the casino. Then I took a shower so I could get some lunch for Summer.

She wanted “a good burger” but wasn’t willing to leave the wash, so she got a “Whopper” instead. After we ate, Brendon wanted a ride in the Model Y, so I took him around the block before eventually heading home. Eaddie was supposed to go with us to look at the house, but decided she would rather watch a band recital instead. Once Summer left work, I headed up to her house to pick her up, where she called Eaddie to convince her to come with us instead.

Summer drove us across town using the least efficient route to get Eaddie, and then finally started following the navigation system to get us to the house. Dad beat us there, and we beat Alisha, so we took our time staring at a neighbor’s dog that was running around the driveway. David was actually outside on the front porch, so we chatted with him a bit when we found him. Then Dad and I climbed up a ladder in the detached garage to try and figure out what it would take to put the garage door back together. They didn’t appear to have the parts, and the rails were removed far enough to encapsulate the door behind drywall.

The girls finished touring the rest of the house while we were messing around in the garage, but then I wanted to walk through once more to measure some spaces. Eaddie really seemed to like the place, and it smelled way better than it did the other day. They had incense burning in practically every room, and several of the windows were cracked open. As we finished up our second tour, I took David for a ride in the Model Y, which he really enjoyed. I guess all that’s left is to talk to a bank or five.

We dropped the ladder back off at my house, and then headed toward home. I convinced the girls to go to CiCi’s for dinner, but as we walked in the door, I got a call from the last lawyer I contacted. He was at least honest enough to give me the news I didn’t want to hear. By his estimation, the risk versus reward just wasn’t good enough, and he suggested if I had 10 grand to burn, I should take it to a roulette table in Tunica and bet on even. Though frustrated, stressed, and anxious, I was appreciative of an opinion that didn’t immediately turn into a sales pitch. I don’t know what’s next, but I know I’m not quite ready to give up.

After that lengthy phone call, we went inside to eat. It was overall a substandard experience, because we learned they were completely out of forks, but only after we had made big salads. They never once came out with a barbecue pizza, but at least they had some fresh spinach at one point. Most everything had been sitting for at least a little while, so it just wasn’t great.

Autumn was home when we got back, and had made herself a sandwich after doing who-knows what kind of grocery shopping. Summer went straight to bed, Eaddie disappeared into her room right away, and Autumn went to her room as soon as she finished eating. I spent the rest of the night poring over first-time home buyer tips, and trying to make sure we weren’t about to go completely broke. I’d really love a job offer right about now.

No Bull! Know WTF is happening!

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A Real Ham

We got around this morning and I made tuna pitas for everyone. Then after a while, Summer took Eaddie shopping for some shoes while I took a shower. When they got back, we had to go to the store for something to go with the ham that Summer wanted to bake for dinner. Autumn came home eventually, and fussed about wanting to spend the day with Adam, and then fussed about him not liking me, and how awkward he would feel if he came over for dinner.

Autumn eventually gave in to taking Eaddie shopping when she got Adam. Summer and I made a relatively quick trip to my house, then Walmart, and then back to my house because she wanted another muffin tin. Then she started cooking as soon as we got back to her house. I scheduled another visit with Alisha, so we’ll check out the house again tomorrow afternoon.

We had a really nice dinner, and then Eaddie and I went to the bedroom to watch an episode of Breaking Bad. As we finished, Summer came in wanting to go to bed, so she kicked us out to Eaddie’s room where she and I watched one more episode, trying to ignore the loud music and giggles coming out of Autumn’s room because Summer is incapable of firmly telling her she can’t take her boyfriend in there.

Eaddie had enough after the second episode, so she went to bed and I cleaned up in the kitchen. Adam left when his father picked him up, and eventually I made it to bed.

Exclusion Solution

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The Bœst Interview

I tried to let myself sleep in a little bit today after staying up so late last night. Eventually I got up and had another pork chop with some rice for breakfast before heading home to clean up. I dug out my old interview folders and rebuilt all of that with some extra stuff just in case. When I got out of the shower, Summer wanted me to bring some lunch to her at the wash, so I got all dressed up and took her some Popeye’s. While I was at the wash, I printed a couple more résumés and eventually headed to my interview.

It hadn’t really rained yet, but a storm was coming. I made it to Bost early and waited just inside the front door until Joshua came to get me. The first thing I noticed was his dual screen laptop, which I had been wanting for quite a while. We chatted about that for longer than I expected, and I could tell right away that he seemed like a really cool guy. The rest of the interview went similarly, with both of us winding our conversation all over the place. It seemed like they would have some really cool projects for me, and I was happy to hear it wouldn’t be just mostly break/fix type stuff.

We chatted for the better part of two hours, which was the longest, but most fun interview I’ve ever had. To my delight, he enjoyed my “fun” résumé. I really hope he liked me well enough to try and match what I was making at the school, especially since I’m sure the retirement won’t get close to matching the 17% that the school had. He said the work environment was great, and I was inclined to believe it.

It had mostly stopped raining by the time I left. We could hear it storming for quite a while, so I wasn’t terribly surprised that nobody was waiting for me outside the door with an ice cream cone. I left and went to find Summer at Superfast to fill her in. Then I grabbed a burrito and went home to change before picking her and Dad up so we could meet Alisha to look at a house.

We made it across town a little late, and climbed what felt like a 45º incline of a driveway. I’m absolutely positive the Murano wouldn’t do as well, especially in the rain. I’d probably have to drive backwards in order to keep enough traction. The house was quirky and cute, but the first thing that hit me when we opened the front door was the smell of cats. It smelled worse than just a litter box, but not the worst I’d ever smelled. There was some visible damage in quite a few places, but without an inspection, it appeared to be stuff we could mostly fix on our own.

The owner was home, sitting on a chair in the living room. We didn’t realize it until we got outside, but his wife was sitting on the porch. It all seemed very odd to me. He was kind enough to walk us around the outside, and we got into the detached garage. His wife was converting it to a rec room, and had the garage door drywalled over, and a drop ceiling installed. I couldn’t tell if the rails were still attached, but I figured they must be if the garage door was still there. It was weird to just seal that wall off behind drywall though.

Overall it was kind of a letdown, even at that price. I figure we’ll talk about it some more, and possibly look at it again if someone doesn’t scoop it up. I don’t really think that will be an issue, but maybe someone else will also appreciate the rocky terrain of a dated house in the side of a mountain.

We dropped Dad back off at home and got the Murano up to Summer’s for the evening. She ate and then took a bath before bed. Then we were going to watch TV, but she got distracted by a work call, so I had time to warm up some dinner for myself. Then we watched an episode of Modern Family before she started falling asleep. The girls were out late watching a school play, so I saw them in and then made it to bed.

The internet was here, for better or worse! *thunder booms*

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Tales From Many Moons Ago

The girls left in a fit this morning, so I was up for the day. I ate a hard boiled egg of questionable integrity, then headed home to get ready for Bill’s funeral. I had to drop Summer’s car off to have it re-tinted, so I picked Dad up and had him drive my car so we could take it to Fort Smith.

Traffic wasn’t great, but we made it plenty early. At first we thought we might be meeting for the burial at a building, but then through the powers of deduction, followed some other cars into the Fort Smith National Cemetery. It was a surprisingly small crowd, but he was old. Dad had made a joke earlier in the day about me standing in the distance in all black, with an umbrella in hand, just to be mysterious. Catty-corner from us, behind those actually performing the service, stood a man in a dark coat and glasses, already filling the role.

The service itself was relatively short. The unfolding and re-folding of the flag took the absolute longest. Having lived nearly the perfect length of time, there was no dramatic sobbing. Just tradition.

Afterward we met at a church for a much longer service of hymns and preaching, intermixed with just a few stories, and concluded with a pipe organist’s rendition of what I thought was supposed to be Steve Miller Band, but sounded instead like a memorable song from a circus, ball game, or merry-go-round. Finally, we were dismissed from the formal service and could visit with friends and the family for a while.

When we left, we thought we’d just head straight home in spite of my hunger, but traffic was backed up on the interstate badly enough that my car tried routing us off the interstate and immediately back on just to skip ahead in traffic. I didn’t want to look like an asshole, so we stopped and had Big Macs instead. Then we continued to Ozark for a quick charge before I let Dad drive us the rest of the way home.

I had Dad drive by a house that I wanted to look at, and I was excited enough that I talked Summer into looking at it. I wasn’t sure anyone else was as impressed, but I liked the price per square foot and the availability of parking. I eventually made it back home, but had to get Autumn to pick me up so we wouldn’t have all of the cars at Summer’s. Her car smelled like stale McDonald’s, and I just wanted to throw up.

Summer had left work early because her face went numb again, and her blood pressure spiked. She talked them out of thinking it was an emergency, but her seemingly forgetful or unempathetic physician just put her on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication after Summer reminded her that she had just gotten the results of her psych evaluation. When we got to the house, she had already been in bed for a while, so I laid down with her and scheduled the house tour with Alisha. Then she fell asleep pretty quickly after that. It took me a while longer, because I am distracted easily.

Hey Google, what’s this song? Da-da-da-da, da, da-da-da-da!

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Hang Low

Summer asked me to stop by Superfast this morning to check out their computer, but they figured out how to hook up a new monitor on their own before I got there. I stopped for a couple breakfast burritos from Taco John’s and met up with her to eat, and then continued on home and got cleaned up so I could jump right into job hunting. I had a few that I had saved from the night before, so today was for submitting applications. In the middle of a bunch of confirmation emails, I actually got one for an interview, so I’ll schedule that for next week.

Summer ended up going to Morrilton, but came back so we could go out for a late lunch or early dinner. We ended up at Wendy’s for a relatively poor experience. They didn’t have the stuff to make the bourbon burger she wanted, and they didn’t add my requested vegetables to my pretzel pub burger. It was also just really dry and unsatisfying.

We made it up to her house and sat around for a while. Autumn eventually showed up after mooching some dinner off of her grandparents. Eventually I had to get Eaddie from her classmate’s house, where they were practicing for their National History Day competition tomorrow. When we got back, I started watching NOPE on a complete whim, but didn’t get very far before we had to go to the depot for the 5k Glow Run.

We arrived at the depot a little early, but didn’t have a whole lot to do. Cindy walked by us and stopped long enough for me to give her a hug. She has always been so friendly, and was always so encouraging about the work I did on the CPPC. I couldn’t help but feel a little like I let her down, but that’s why I have to fight.

Once they started lining up for the race, I had to leave to get away from the loudspeakers. I headed home to swap cars, and then took Summer’s to the carwash before coming back to pick them up. Of course Summer and Eaddie had already finished for a little while, but we had to wait for Autumn to finish well below average.

The girls showered once we got back to the house, and I did my best to get to bed early so I could take a bunch of kids to Conway in the morning.

If you’re going to be rebellious for rebellion’s sake, then I recommend you continue being a complete twat.

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Stick-on Shade

Summer went to the gym this morning and then came home to shower before going to work. I had gotten around a little bit, and once Summer left, I tried to get someone from the EEOC on the phone. The wait time ended up being longer than I could stay on the phone though, because I had to get home and cleaned up before taking Summer’s car to River Valley Tinting and Glass to get the windows tinted.

I waited in the near-silent lobby for over an hour while they did the job. I had high expectations after trying two other places in town with the Murano and then the Model 3. I was told this place had a plotter to cut the vinyl, which would make the corners perfect. When it was all done, the left window looked to be stuck on a little lower than the right side, but they both looked good. There were a couple bubbles on the driver side as well, but not as much on the passenger side.

Once I got back home, I put together a slightly more concise timeline to try and explain to another firm, but my first pick was a girl that claimed to be a “switchboard” that could only take my information, but couldn’t tell me whether I would get a call back or not. The second place I tried also said they never worked with employees, and would only work in defense of the employer in my type of case. For better or worse, the first place I called was still ready to get started if I would only pay them nearly two months’ salary.

Just as I was becoming the most frustrated, Dad rang my doorbell and I went outside to see him. Apparently Mom, Lelan, and Julie were all coming over to try and sort their outfits for Randall’s wedding. It seemed to be quite an ordeal for the girls to find something suitable to wear. It was all a bit too stressful for me to consider.

Summer picked me up when she got back to town so we could go to the high school for a PSAT meeting for Eaddie. Michael was outside the Crimson Room when we got there, and told us it would mostly be the same information we already had. We decided to leave, assuming Eaddie was already at home. Summer dropped me back off at home so I could continue to visit with family.

As soon as she got home, Summer called to say that Eaddie wasn’t there, and that she had left her phone in her room. Evidently she was still at the high school in her study group, which I thought was being led by the same people hosting the meeting we didn’t attend. By the time I made it back to the high school, Eaddie had already started walking toward my house, and was spitting mad that we left without her.

I took her back to my house to cool down while I visited some more. After a little while, I took her on home and shared some of my leftover pasta with her. Autumn was excited to share some “tea” with me, that turned out being a critical accident that happened at the school. Evidently Gary had taken a hard fall at the arts center and broke several bones. I was upset that she considered this “tea” that she selfishly wanted to share with me herself, instead of letting me know that my friend was badly injured.

Everyone made it to bed, and Michael ended up calling me late so I could catch him up on all of my drama. He was surprised, and shared the same sentiment I had gotten pretty much everywhere else. All that’s left is to start a GoFundMe for lawyer’s fees.

Seriously, why is it so hard to find someone to provide some counsel with vigor?

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Taxing Company

I picked at some more leftovers for breakfast this morning until Summer left for the gym. Autumn came out of her cave to gripe about having to do her taxes, and blamed us for not doing them sooner, but couldn’t find any record of her taxes from last year. In the end, she did them all herself anyway, and didn’t bother to have me check over them, so I don’t know why she even bothered bitching about it.

I eventually headed home to do my own taxes. I got up a couple times in the middle of it, and cleaned up the laundry room a bit to see if I had forgotten any paperwork in there. In the end, I just assumed my checking bank didn’t send a 1099-INT because they paid me less than $10 in interest last year. All in all, I was pretty happy with owing about $300 in federal taxes and getting back around $80 from the state. I don’t know how I could cut it any closer without overcorrecting by a larger margin.

Autumn had gone to the coffee shop and the mall to do “homework” for a while, and Eaddie went to rehearse her National History Day project at a classmate’s house. She finished up just as I did, so I picked her up and then picked up Summer to go to my parents’ house for some lemongrass pork chops.

Dad was finishing up on the grill just as we got there, and Mom said she invited Bác Vân and Julie over as well, so the three of us made our bowls and ate quickly to try and make room. It didn’t take long at all for the dining room to fill up, but the girls finished their food quickly and went to the living room. I joined them as soon as I finished, but even with her new boyfriend in tow, Julie’s loud conversation quickly triggered some anxiety in Summer and we decided to leave.

The girls wanted Dairy Queen, so we stopped there on the way home. Summer had some trouble with her app, but clearing the cache fixed that and we got our order in just after the drive-through filled up. We still got in and out relatively quickly though, and made it home with our extra-melty ice cream. Our Dairy Queen is the worst about selling ice cream soup.

Autumn made some ramen when we got home, and then all three of the girls went to bed pretty soon after that. I had a couple bites of ice cream that walked me right up to the edge of lactose intolerance, but made it to bed without any trouble.

How incredibly annoying.

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Elec Man

I took Eaddie to school this morning and made it home to have a bowl of cereal before the electrician showed up. John and two of his henchmen showed up and got right to work, running some conduit up the side of the house and into the attic. I was a little worried about how it might all turn out, but overall I was quite pleased. I did have to climb into the attic once to pass along some tape, but outside of that, we didn’t spot any termite damage, and the Wall Connector powered right up. Dad showed up near the end to check things out, and once the guys were done, he wanted to take me to the airport to see the plane that he and Julie just bought.

I let him drive the Model 3, and we made it about halfway there before he realized he had forgotten the trash bag he needed to clean out the plane. We finally made it to the airport though, and drove past a really fancy jet to get to the hanger.

We stopped in to talk to the guy in the hanger next door, and he came around to chat with us some more while we cleaned just a little bit of trash out of the plane. I got Julie to come out, but she wasn’t in any condition to socialize. As she ran us off, she introduced us to her new boyfriend, Kevin, who would be joining us for Mom’s birthday dinner.

I got back home and put the garage back together, possibly better than it was before. By then I was pretty hungry, so I ran to Taco John’s for a snack and went by Superfast to visit with Summer. She was busy though, and put me to work filling her washer fluid drums. After that I went home and showered so we could go to Pasta Grill for dinner.

Summer had to work right up to dinner time, so I met her at Superfast and she drove us to the restaurant. Julie and Kevin were already there, and of course Mom and Dad were several minutes late. It was a fair time visiting, and most of the food was okay. I ordered the Grill Pasta, which was incredibly heavy. I was disappointed in the portion size, and then it was so saucy that it felt like eating forks of butter. I ended up taking well over half of it home.

When the girls got home from hanging out with their friends, Autumn came into the bedroom to tell us all of Eaddie’s drama, which had me rolling my eyes. Summer called Eaddie into the room so she could tell us herself, and we talked for a little bit. Then after Eaddie cooled off in her room for a while and I watched some TV with Summer, Eaddie came out to the kitchen table and chatted with me for quite a while longer. She felt good about how she responded to her classmates, and laughed at how accurately I described her friendships.

Now if only I could be as successful.

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Cheapest Wash in Town

I got up and munched on some of the Mexican sweet bread this morning for breakfast. I didn’t much care for it, but I woke up hungry. I put on a Kelsey Cook comedy special on YouTube, which ended up being a little raunchier than I expected. Then Summer wanted to go to the gym, so I left to get cleaned up myself.

Before going home, I stopped by the carwash to get the bug guts off of my car. It was nice and cool outside, and quiet for being relatively early in the day. Then I went home and had some cereal around lunch time. I eventually took a nice, hot shower and made it back up to Summer’s in her Model Y so we could go wash it and stop by to visit with my parents.

While we washed her car, she spotted a couple chips in the paint. I still don’t know that it’s worth getting white and just wrapping the whole car, but it sure is annoying that the paint is so thin. It really seems like there’s just no clear coat at all. When we got to my parents’ house, Dad came out to check out her car since he hadn’t seen it yet. They weren’t doing anything for Easter, so we left there and went to Walmart to get stuff for sloppy joes.

Autumn was home by the time we got back, so she helped out a little bit with dinner. Eaddie started mowing the lawn, and then came in to eat when the food was done. She was excited by a robin that kept following her mowed path to pick up bugs. She finished the lawn after dinner, and it was a pretty quiet night after that. Summer and I watched Master Chef for a while, and then it was off to bed.

Don’t fall for the false confidence.

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6º

I got up when everyone left this morning, and made myself some fried rice out of some leftover egg yolks from a cake that Summer baked. Then I went home and got showered before my Tesla service appointment. Jacob came over a little before 11, and we kind of laughed at the fact that they sent him out for basically nothing since they denied any fault in my autopilot complaints. After that, we stood around talking about motorcycles for a while. He made a comment about the Grom, and it turned out he knew Chase from the group of guys that gets together to stunt ride.

Dad came over just as we were finishing up, and we went next door to work on Bác Vân’s patio door. We kept fighting getting it out from the inside when we should have just started from the outside. The fixed glass door was actually way easier to remove, so even though we had to lift more things, it was way less trouble than going out the wrong direction. The rollers didn’t seem to be in awful shape, but they were a part of a bracket that ran the width of the door.

We went to Lowe’s first to try and find some replacement rollers, but they didn’t have any. We saw Manuel on the way out, and he tried to help even in plain clothes, but he didn’t think they had the whole bracket, so we headed to Leonard’s. They had just the wheels, but they bolted on and we weren’t sure that would work with the bracket we had. In the end, we knew we were missing a screw to lower the rollers on one side, so Dad picked up a replacement and we headed back. I spotted Allen on his old Kawasaki on the way back, and it looked like he was enjoying the ride.

The replacement screw ended up not fitting, but after going through a couple drawers and several cookie tins of random screws, we actually found the original! I just had a feeling about it, and luck was on our side. We got the door back together and it was marginally better, but then the locking mechanism kept falling down. We went back to Leonard’s and picked up a new one, but then we had to Dremel the opening a bit in order for the latch to fit.

The project snowballed on us quite a bit, and we could still fix it better, but that was enough for one day. We put everything back together, Bác Vân forced some money on me, and some shrimp and rice on Dad. Then he went home and I waited for Summer to come get the paperwork to request a new title for the Pathfinder.

Autumn dropped Eaddie off to go ride her bike, and then Summer got her paperwork for the DMV. I waited around, exhausted, for Eaddie to finish, and then I took her home. It wasn’t long after that she wanted to go to the mall to do homework with some friends. I dropped her off, and then remembered I left my valve stem caps off for my appointment. I ran home to get them, and then headed back up to Summer’s.

Julie called me about another Entergy job I asked her about, and we ended up talking for quite a while, even as I had to pick Eaddie back up. It seems that no matter what happens next, it won’t happen fast. I’m fortunate to have savings, but we had plans for all that money I was making. Hopefully my hearing next week will keep that flowing at least for a little longer.

There’s gotta be a better way. I just haven’t started looking for it yet.