Tag: family

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That’s Jefe, Man!

Gary came by my office first thing and asked Kyle and me to go help Jeff at the middle school since he had gotten several new tickets while he was out for jury duty. I got to swing by choir to see Marky Mark, and then fixed a display issue for Beth before going back up the hallway to help some teachers I didn’t know. I wrapped up by fixing a printer for Sara in the office, and then went back to the shop.

I got pretty hungry pretty early, so Gary and I thought we’d leave for lunch a little early. We thought Thomas was gone, but he was actually there and went with us to Sam’s. The gumbo was awesome, and it looked like they had elevated its presentation by quite a bit. Thomas ended up paying, which was a surprise treat.

The afternoon was dark and quiet in my office, and I ended the day at Dwight again. Once I finished up, I stopped by the carwash to see Summer, who was mostly stressed, or a little frazzled from the day. They had a bunch of leftover chicken fried rice from Umami, so I had a plate of that before I picked Eaddie up from robotics.

Eaddie was hungry but didn’t know what she wanted. We thought we’d go by my house to hang out for a bit, but then I mentioned Ridgewood and her eyes lit up. I took her across town and we shared a tray with a small assortment. Robert had the evening off, so it was all new folks running the counter. We got to visit with Grant in the back for a bit though.

We ran back by my house to trade vehicles, and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She wanted me to make her a stiff drink, and then complained about how strong it was. It was an early night to bed for everyone.

It’s the Quitting phase!

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Storm’s a Brewin’

It was set to storm in the afternoon, but I thought I’d have time to get over to Summer’s parents’ house to test their old car battery after an overnight charge. I had a bit of a slow start and ended up bathing before I left her house, and shortly after I got home, the deluge started. I ended up working on getting Eaddie’s new phone set up instead.

Mom and Dad came by Bác Vân’s and wanted to see my refrigerator, so while they were still next door, I took my Google WiFi bridge over to test out whether it would help her signal for her iPad. Mom was there trying to teach her how to do things on the iPad, but I knew how frustrated she would get trying to do too much at once. I ended up having to shoo them along to look at my refrigerator so I could meet Summer at Walmart.

Summer closed the carwash early due to the storms, so we went to Walmart for salad stuff for dinner. We ran into Ryan there, and got to hear about their fourth kid on the way. Then we made our way home for the evening. I still had to port Eaddie’s number to a new Google Fi account, so Nick called me out of frustration with AT&T and had me hold on the line with him. It took a total of two transfers over several minutes, but we finally got it done. Autumn had brought Adam over, but they hid out in her room while we ate.

When Autumn finally took Adam back to the pet store, Eaddie and I started watching The Umbrella Academy. We both felt like there were several inconsistencies and plot holes, but enjoyed the show in spite of them. I found it to be relatively predictable, but entertaining. Elliot Page is teetering on the edge of Uncanny Valley, which is odd considering an android mother and a talking monkey are supporting characters.

We wrapped it up early since it’s back to work for me tomorrow. The kids will be back in school the day after that. I failed to actually apply for any new jobs, so the anxiety I’ve felt all day may not serve me well tomorrow. Time will tell.

Dick Tater Ship

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23 and Me

Mayra called me at one in the morning and wanted to talk about me with her new husband. I was pretty hazy from having just fallen asleep, but it was still a nice surprise for her to reach out. I tried to talk to them quietly from the kitchen since I didn’t really know where else to wander in the house, and then finally made it back to sleep.

The girls were supposed to go help their grandparents with some yard work, and Summer wanted me to meet her over there to try and get their old car running again after rotting in their driveway for several years. We stopped for gas first, then went to my house to get my battery charger. Then she went to hook that up and go to the gym while I cleaned up at home.

When I finally met them, I discovered that my smart battery charger wasn’t doing anything at all. I had a hunch the battery was too dead to register a charge at all, so I went home to get my dumb charger. We got it hooked back up, and then I took Jerry for a ride in the Tesla. He was super excited about it, and it was neat to get to connect with him even if it was just for a couple minutes to ride around the block.

By the time we finished there, the girls were hungry and crying for New China. That place had been on my mind for several days, so I ran home to swap vehicles and then met them there. After we ate, we went back to their house where Eaddie and I watched another couple episodes of The Umbrella Academy. I had to give up before midnight though, to try and get my sleep schedule back in order.

Me Undies

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Lickety Split

I woke up early this morning to meet some of the guys at Taylor’s Grocery down the road. I expected Josh and Aaron, but Aaron was running late. Josh showed up first, but nobody could get a hold of Aaron. Then Clint, Landon, and Johnny showed up, which was a surprise to me. Clint ended up buying everyone breakfast, which seemed to be fairly reasonably priced. I wanted to try a little of everything, and it all tasted exactly like what I would make at home.

Josh left after a while, but then Aaron showed up super late and had breakfast while the rest of us sat around and talked. We were there for just over a couple hours, and then everyone went about their day. I went home to shower, and then came right back up to Summer’s.

Eaddie had Gavin over, and Autumn was getting ready to take them to the movies. Summer decided she wanted to go out for an early dinner, so we stuck around the house for a little bit and then headed to Pasta Grill just before they opened.

There was a crowd of people waiting to get in the locked doors, and by the time we got inside, they said it would be a 20 minute wait without a reservation. We decided to take off, and I took us to La Villa instead. I don’t care for the food as much, but at least they’re not usually as stingy with their inferior bread. I had been suffering some indigestion for a few days, and dreaded eating Italian, but it wasn’t awful.

After we ate, we stopped by the pet store to try and get some face time with Adam’s father and grandmother. He recognized us right away and came over to chat, but she didn’t realize how we were all connected. We talked for a little bit, made a quick walk through the store, and then headed on home, stopping for some ice cream along the way.

I put on The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for us, and then Summer headed to bed to watch more TV. The girls got back home a little after that, and then Eaddie and I watched a little more than one episode of The Umbrella Academy before she got too tired to stay up. Autumn went to Adam’s for the evening, so I waited up to make sure she made it home on time, and then it was off to bed.

Make it better.

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Like a Teen With a Learner’s Permit

I thought I was onto something with Metro by T-Mobile this morning. Eaddie and I left the house a little early so we could get to Clarksville, which showed to have the only retail store within 75 miles. When we got there, it was an old Radio Shack, run by a singular, super old guy. It was neat to see a store like that again after losing our Radio Shack nearly 20 years ago. Having Eaddie along prevented me from browsing around more, but it looked like a neat place that made me nostalgic for the times that Dad and I used to go for parts.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have any of the iPhones we wanted, so we made our way out of town, where I dropped Eaddie off at Gavin’s. Then I headed back toward home and decided to stop at my parents’ house for some food. They still had lots of ham left over from Christmas, so I ate that in front of them. Mom got eyebrows tattooed on, but they were incongruent and misplaced. I don’t know why she bothered, but I disliked them very much.

I continued home to do some laundry until Summer finished up at work. Then she came to get me, and we went back to my parents’ house for some spaghetti. It wasn’t ready as early as I expected, so by the time we finished, it was about time for me to head back to Clarksville to get Eaddie.

Summer dropped me off and went on home for the night, and I ran by the car wash to get some of the grime off of my car from the ice a few days ago. The trip on Enhanced Auto Pilot was absolutely infuriating. There were cars and trucks on the road, but hardly any traffic to be concerned about, and plenty of room for navigating between the lanes. Still, I ran into places where my car wanted to continuously change lanes, back and forth, back to back. There was no one to pass, or anything to avoid. It just kept changing lanes, and nearly made me miss my exit.

It was a fun drive through the curves through the hills, but I had to watch for deer. Once I secured Eaddie, we ran home to change and then headed home for the night. Autumn stayed the night at Hannah’s to dog-sit, though she spent the entire afternoon at the pet store. Otherwise it was a relatively early night to bed.

Who is also, possibly, very drunk.

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Escape Trap Room House

We slept in fairly late today before I got around to some leftovers. I made some tea that turned out to be super weak, but at least I’ll burn through it faster if I actually drink it. I was pretty cold all morning, so I think I’m just more of a seasonal tea drinker. Hot coffee is fine in the summer, but hot tea seems less appealing then.

The girls went to Denny’s with their father, but came back home not feeling so great. Autumn came home fussing that he had gotten rid of a dog he had. After a little while, she left for Adam’s while Summer started on some potatoes and deviled eggs for our late Christmas lunch.

I thought it was a pretty good Christmas day, but I’m sure Dad was probably still tired from three days of travel after a vacation with Julie. She had work to do, and couldn’t make it to lunch on time. Autumn actually did a good job with time and beat us there. Bác Vân and Doug came along after we got there, and eventually Julie showed up after everyone else had already eaten.

Julie brought a package of Oreo houses for the kids to build, but Summer and Eaddie were really the only two that could be talked into participating. Eventually Julie and Dad built a couple. Eaddie and I ate most of hers. I think I would have rather just eaten some regular Oreos.

After we all finished eating, Summer broke out The Scandal, a Puzzle Post escape room game in an envelope. The puzzles were pretty straightforward, and I think just about everyone contributed something. Eaddie’s solutions were probably some of the most impressive, but it took everyone. Overall we didn’t really have to damage anything, so we could easily pass the game along to someone else to play, but it wouldn’t be repeatable for any of us.

We eventually headed home, and the girls pretty much went straight to bed. They were all tired from the belly aches they got from Denny’s, or from staying up too late the night before. Autumn came out of her room at one point and wanted consolation for the anxiety she was feeling over growing up. I genuinely tried to listen and help, but who knows if it’ll make a lasting, useful impression on her.

Last holiday we all played Phaaaeeeese 10!

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Rebut

I couldn’t quite sleep in this morning, and got around to some leftovers. Autumn actually wanted to go to the gym with Summer, so they left and I went home to get some errands started. While I was there, Clint messaged me looking for some old video games to collect. I wasn’t prepared for that, but I offered to meet him at my office so we could catch up a bit.

As soon as I got to the office, I realized I forgot my keys. Clint hopped in and we ran back to my house to get them, and then we went to my office so I could finally submit my disciplinary rebuttal. I hate it, but I tend to agree that I should probably seriously look for new work.

When that was done, we went by Ben’s old house and I rang the doorbell to see if they had a package he had accidentally had delivered there. The wife of the guy that answered the door said she dropped it back off at the post office this morning, but they were closed, so I wasn’t sure if she just dropped it into a box or something.

I dropped Clint off back at his car, and then went home to grab a couple presents before heading back up to Summer’s. She had icing colored and ready for me to help load into bags, and then the kids came out to decorate cookies.

We probably only did about half of the cookies she baked before we got tired of it. I think it was partly because of their age, but also partly because everyone was just feeling super lethargic all day. We got everyone back to the table to play a partial game of Phase 10, and then everyone went to bed when Noah left for the evening.

The computer’s a lot faster at this than you.

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It’s Better Than Diggin’ a Ditch

Summer left early for the ribbon cutting at her new wash. I was sleeping really well after a rough night, and had to get up in time to make it to Summer before the big ceremony. I thought I would be going back to pick up Eaddie, but Autumn decided to bring her down herself. I brought a little PA system for them to use, which was moderately helpful. The girls showed up looking absolutely homeless in the baggiest clothes they owned.

Cindy showed up, which was a great surprise for Summer, and played into her own speech after Paul’s, about how she found a new home, a new family, and a new career after teaching. It was a beautiful, tear-jerking, fist-pumping welcome home speech.

I stuck around to mingle and help with random things after all the important people left, but as the wintery mix quickly blew in, I ran to Orr to get Julie’s car keys before they closed. Evidently Tim was working there now, so I gave him a ride around the block in the miserable weather.

From there, I went home and waited on Summer to get there so we could go back and actually get Julie’s car. We dropped it off at my parents’ house, and then she took me back home while she went to the gym. I was pretty sure that I was down to two ghost shrimp, which was a bit of a surprise after watching them appear perfectly happy. My new JBL Studio 550P came in to replace my prematurely-failed Polk PSW 505. It felt unnecessarily heavy, and then after I got it set up, sounded pretty underwhelming. Hopefully that’s due to settings.

When Summer finished at the gym, she came back to get me and we went to Ridgewood Brothers in the ice for some barbecue. Even with the weather, they really never had much time between customers coming through the line. As Summer and I picked at our huge platter of meats, Kyle came through and took some to-go. It was mildly frustrating, because I’d seen him call in to work due to better weather.

After we ate, we went to visit with Mom for a bit, and I put out some fresh, not-frozen water for the stray cat(s?). The girls had their boyfriends, Noah, his roommate, and his girlfriend over to the house, so we headed home right after that. They were playing cards when we got home, and eventually the visitors filtered off while Summer went to bed. The whole day felt super short, though it was longer than yesterday. I stayed up to see that Adam made it out the door, and then it was off to bed.

This isn’t your home.

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Hit the Gymnasium

I rolled into work a hair early this morning, and everyone was already outside with trucks loaded and ready to go to the middle school. We wasted no time getting started with running like seven new lines all around the gym. I was vaguely over a crew with Jacob, Jeff, and Kyle. We had to get four lines from outside the coaches offices to the switch closet. Greg mostly drove a lift around to run two access points up the opposite wall. We had all hands on deck, so several of us bounced around a lot.

Thomas cut everyone loose as soon as we were done, but I was stuck on a ladder trying to finish up one last wireless access point. We ultimately gave up, and I headed to the carwash to check on Summer. She and I thought we would get lunch, but passed Autumn and Eaddie as they were pulling into the wash. We turned around to give them a tour, and then decided to join them for lunch at CiCi’s.

After we ate, the girls left and Summer and I went to Lowe’s to pick up a bathroom cabinet for the wash. I started putting it together when we got back, but we were actually missing a part out of it all. Jordan and I went back to Lowe’s to try and get the part, but ended up buying a whole new cabinet just to scavenge the part from the box. Then after I finished putting the first one together, I returned the other to Lowe’s.

On my way out, I spotted Zach leaving and ran up from behind to tackle him. I was pretty impressed with my jog until I got back into my car wheezing. I went home to clean up for a bit, and then went to visit with Mom. She didn’t have any trash to take out, so I just hung out on the couch with her until my phone and I were both too tired to carry on.

I stopped by Ridgewood on the way home just to check on the guys. Grant was needing some alone time in the smokehouse, so I chatted with Robert out back and tried to be helpful as he stacked some wood. Those guys are working themselves absolutely ragged, and I wish I could do something to help every time I see them. I didn’t stick around long since it was so late, so I went home to change and headed up to Summer’s for the evening.

Everything hurts, and I’m too old for this.

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Dropped Merch

After not feeling well last night, I slept in today and then left for work a bit early, unrelatedly, so I could pick up some McDonald’s on the way in. They were supposed to have a merch drop with some kind of shirt or beanie, or possibly something else. Unfortunately I never got the notification in the app, and never made it to the store.

Work was pretty boring, as we lead up to break. I went back to McDonald’s again for some fries on my way to Dwight, but never got the link to the secret store for that either. When I got back to the shop, a group of us went to Quiznos for a proper lunch break. I just had a little cup of soup, since I had already eaten so much that morning.

When we got back to work, Gary sent me down the block to set up a computer for a new girl with Child Nutrition. Shane came by with some macarons from Kneading Hands Bakery, which were delicious. Then after work, I hung out with Gary while he upgraded the firewalls.

I went to see Mom when I left, and she had rice soup warming up for dinner. Summer needed to pick up a prescription from Rose Drug, so I offered to grab it quickly since I was already on that side of town. I went back to eat with Mom, and then headed home to change before going up to see the girls.

Autumn was finishing up with baking some cookies. Eaddie had been wanting to play Rocket League, so she got it loaded onto the Switch. She drove in circles a bit, and then had me actually play to show her how the game works. Playing on a new profile had such bad players that it was mostly everyone running into each other as they chased the ball. I didn’t play long on her profile though, because I didn’t want to get her into a rank where she couldn’t compete. I was surprised to see they moved the goals in from the outside walls for the hockey mode. That was neat.

The girls eventually went off to bed, and I wrapped up later than I wanted. Phase 10 still has my attention on the phone, but I managed not to check in on ExoMiner today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, though.

Probably not merch. ಠ_ಠ