Tag: family

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High Schoolers

Summer and Eaddie went to the Cyclone Extravaganza 5k this morning. Autumn was supposed to go, but talked her way out of it and watched TV all morning until I left. I went home to shower, and then the girls were going to come over, but that never happened. Eaddie and Autumn ended up going out together, so I went to get some barbecue from the Ridgewood Brothers. I contemplated a large platter, but I ended up spending nearly as much on just a couple of sandwiches and some sides.

The girls were actually still at home when I got there. Summer and I ate, they left, and then the two of us went to do a little shopping. I was surprised how busy it was, and it was super hot outside. We started at Walmart, but didn’t really pick up much. She really wanted to go to TJ Maxx. We were both feeling pretty dehydrated, so we stopped at PDQ for some drinks before going to PetSmart. They had some tiny shrimp there, but I didn’t feel great about paying five bucks a pop. Summer continued to decline with a headache, so we went back to my house and she fell asleep until we had to go see the girls perform at eight.

We took the Shadow to the high school so it would be easier to find a place to park. They made us pay to get in, and I wished we had just gone in the side gate instead. It didn’t seem to matter to anyone else going in or out, and there were multiple gates open with only one collecting money. The girls got to go out onto the field for individual introductions, which took forever. We watched them perform, got them some concession water, and then headed back home.

I put Prey on, and was surprised that Summer stuck around to watch it. I thought it was a decent movie. The girls decided they didn’t want to come over, which was no surprise to me. Summer let them go home, so we finished the movie and went to bed.

How colorful.

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Is It Bussin? Is It…?

I spent the entire day working on that stupid computer for the bus shop, and I still didn’t finish the job. Dale didn’t have backups of any of the installation media, and of course none of the manufacturers supported any of that stuff any longer. I was actually surprised at how much help I did receive. I received a call back within minutes from one of them, but I suppose we actually pay them for fuel. The other tried to be helpful, but I could never figure out how to import the old data into the new installation.

Zach and Greg were busy pulling cable out there, so I never heard anything about lunch. Both Tammy and Kelsea made noises about going out to eat, but Kelsea didn’t have her debit card and Tammy said she would eat there. I had just started on a Soylent when she came around the corner beckoning me to go to Brangus with them. Evidently Tammy folded and decided she was going to pay for Kelsea.

When we got to Brangus, they noticed Thomas’s truck in the parking lot. We sat right by them just as they got up to leave. I let peer pressure get to me, and we all three ordered the hamburger, which didn’t impress me much. The burger patty was small, but thick, and it was overall messy and just barely adequate. Tammy was going to have all of us rung up together, so I jumped up to pay first because chivalry isn’t dead.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly after taking a late lunch, but I still never had a chance to get out much. I talked to Thomas about it a bit on my way out, and I think he’s going to investigate whether we need to bite the bullet and upgrade some of their equipment.

I went home just briefly to package up an Echo to trade in to Amazon, and then dropped it off at UPS on the way to New China. Noah wanted to have his birthday dinner a day early, so everyone met there separately. I thought after a disappointing lunch I would be hungry, but I still felt slightly ill from Western Sizzlin the other day. I ate anyway, but mixed it up from my usual routine a bit. Afterward, I had to get some gas in the Murano since Summer had been driving it to Conway and Little Rock all week.

Noah came back to the house to spend some time with the girls, but Autumn just immediately started watching YouTube, and Eaddie had homework. I felt a little bad for him in the same way that I feel bad for myself when I’m here. He hung out for a bit longer while Summer took a shower, and then I wound down pretty quickly after he left.

Too tired for games. Depressing.

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IncuBust

I switched it up this morning with the Grom, and rolled right into Oakland without issue. It sure seems like they’ve got the start time down pat. I didn’t have a whole lot to address there, but what I did work on was a little slow to finish. I made it back to the shop, where things were relatively quiet again. Gary seemed to be in a foul mood, so when lunch time came around, it was just Zach and me headed to Taco John’s. We ran into Wesley as he was finishing up his meal. They forgot mine completely, so Zach was done eating his by the time I walked back to the counter and had them make mine.

The afternoon was busy with more systems stuff, but I felt good figuring out three Clever issues. I was probably alone in my feeling like I had some time to breathe, but I just kept rocking out in my room until quitting time. Gary called me upstairs to help align a projector that neither he nor Zach could figure out. Then I finished up at Oakland by swapping out a docking station with one that Jacob brought me.

I rode home and waited for Summer to finish up at the gym, and then met her at Western Sizzlin for dinner. They were pretty quiet, and it seemed like the bar was nearing closing time. I left overstuffed, but Summer wanted to run to Walmart on the way home. We wandered around there for a little bit, and then I headed on up to the house while she stopped at Dollar General to try and locate a nail repair kit that she couldn’t find at Walmart.

The girls got home shortly after we did, and then their father called to break the news to them that his mother had passed. Autumn seemed to be a bit of a rollercoaster the rest of the night, half wanting to start bawling, and half unaffected. She, as always, just seems to have trouble both expressing and controlling emotions. Eaddie was quiet, but I checked on her before bed, and she seemed to be doing alright.

It was just as well that the Incubus concert was postponed. Things would be different if we didn’t live two hours away and have to make it back for school the next morning. I still couldn’t decide on our next show, because I only kind of enjoy some of the songs that any of the artists play, but it would be neat to see any of them in concert. I guess that’s what I get for listening to so many different kinds of music.

…but what KIND of punch was it?

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Do Some Pilot Shit!

I slept in a little this morning and then finished up some leftovers for breakfast. Autumn had some trouble mowing because of the dew, and came back inside spitting-mad with frustration, and she wouldn’t just shut up and cool down for a bit, instead choosing to try and fight us over it. We didn’t engage, and eventually she went back to normal and finished the job. Eaddie didn’t really come out of her room all day because she was finishing up her painting, and I’m about ready for her to be over that phase, because we never see her.

Summer took Autumn to retrieve some clothes from the storage unit, and I went home to shower after talking Summer into a matinee with me. I made it back to pick her up as quickly as I could, and we made it just in time to catch the trailers. The center speech channel was coming through super muffled though, and the only other couple in the theater decided to get a refund. The manager on duty didn’t seem to have a clue how to fix it, so she just had us come back for the three o’clock show in the recliners.

We ran home for an hour, and I moved the water hoses around while Summer did some more chores inside. Then we headed back to the theater for the show. There were quite a few more people there, but we had decent seats in the front. A cut in the screen kept bothering me, and it just made me wish we’d get a nice Dolby cinema. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, but I wouldn’t have missed much if I hadn’t seen the original earlier this year.

Dad said he tested positive for COVID today, so we stopped by Walgreens for some supplies for them. Then we ran by my house briefly before heading back up to the girls. Summer took Eaddie to play tennis while Autumn and I went to Walmart for some extras for dinner. I grilled some chicken breasts with pineapple, and prepped some lettuce, tomato, onion, and avocado for sandwiches. The sandwiches turned out really great, but the grilled banana I made for dessert just tasted like warm banana with a tough, dry skin. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really worth the effort.

The girls went to bed early for their first day of school in the morning. I wound down as quickly as I could. Hopefully it won’t get too crazy this week. I feel underprepared.

Talk to me, Goose!

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It’s All About That Cold Hard Cash, Hon

We got up, and Summer was in a little bit of a funk. She accidentally locked her keys in her car at Travis’s last night, so we had to go see Autumn at the car wash fund raiser at Burger King to get her spare key fob. We thought we might get breakfast, but both their grill and their fryer were down. Instead, we went to Hardee’s for what would have been a superior breakfast anyway. Then she dropped me off at my house so I could clean up while she went to the gym.

Summer wanted to go to a movie, but we didn’t quite make our matinee. She also wanted to make dinner, so we decided not to go to a later show. When she picked me up, we went to pick up her car. I let her take mine home while I went to trade hers for Autumn’s, since we thought Eaddie would practice driving to go play tennis with Summer.

When I got back up to their house, Summer and I dug through her Mint account and added a few other accounts to that so we could get a better picture of her financial situation. She was happy to see that, after all of her retirement investments, she was actually in the black. While we were doing that, I noticed some hummingbirds dogfighting outside, so I was super excited that they found our feeder. I’ll have to put my other one up at my house, and I wished I had bought more of them when they were on sale.

After a while, Summer and I went to Walmart for dinner supplies. She let me run through clearance as well, and I picked up a couple packages of dive fins, since I think Dad’s may have worn out a bit. We got some chicken and a bunch of zucchini, peppers, and broccoli to stir-fry. I thought it would be really good with rice, but Summer really wanted mashed potatoes.

As soon as we got home, I started prepping vegetables while she started cooking the chicken. The food didn’t take very long to cook, and I had to smile when Eaddie came out to eat and said it looked like it would go really well with rice. We ate and cleaned up while Autumn laid around on the couch, sunburned from spending all day at the fundraiser carwash without any sunscreen. I won’t feel sorry for her when it’s time to mow the lawn in the morning, because she should know better by now, especially when they had sunscreen for them at the event.

Eaddie never made it out to play tennis. Summer ended up showering and put on Baywatch, which I had never seen. It didn’t seem to take itself very seriously. Eventually I made it to bed as well.

Yes, I’m back in black!

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Good Old-Fashioned Ultraviolence

I woke up a little late this morning and got the sense that the girls were in a bit of a panic to get the cats out of the house. Evidently Summer got a formal eviction warning letter, and she counted only two days left to have them gone. Since nobody actually addressed me about it, and since I had already expressed my own frustration about the situation, I just did my best to help out with breakfast so they could finish what needed to be done.

After we ate the kielbasa and veggies with eggs, they went to Dollar General for some cat food before taking everything up to Noah’s house, and I went home to shower. I got incredibly frustrated with always being made the villain, and Suzanne said I was “cold, cold like the wind” for being so unsympathetic, but I likened it to God sending people to Hell for eternity because they worked on a Sunday. People show up in droves to worship that guy, but I’m the fucking bad guy here for reminding them that they’re not allowed to have pets.

I had a couple drinks and a shower to relax, and then Summer wanted just the two of us to go to the movies to see Bullet Train. I thought I was the only one that was really excited to see it, but I don’t think she really knew what to expect. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it reminded me a lot of Kill Bill, without being quite so vulgar, but with some classic ultraviolence. All of the characters were great, and I really liked the cinematography.

After the movie, I tried talking to Summer about my feelings on the way home and I blew up for a bit that she kept saying I wasn’t being comforting or supportive. I knew it was hard to watch her kids hurting, but she enabled them by buying all of the cat supplies instead of shutting the whole thing down early, and I needed her to understand that it was okay to take the loss. She didn’t have to try and lessen the blow, and it was okay to just have a bad day and accept that every single one of us did something wrong.

When we got back to the house, Eaddie was still very upset. I learned that they just took the cats outside Noah’s house, so Sweetums got into a fight with his dog and immediately ran up a tree. I don’t even know how big of a tree it was, or if she’ll be able to get down on her own, but even Eaddie knew that she didn’t have any time to associate Noah or his house with anything good. I’ll be astounded if she doesn’t get picked off by a predator overnight, but I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do. I wasn’t present to do the thinking for all four of them, so if it’s two dead cats, it’s two dead cats.

I tried to coax Eaddie out of the house for some fish soup with my parents, but she didn’t want to leave. Autumn wanted to go to her father’s for some reason, so the lawn still didn’t get mowed over the last two weeks that we’ve been asking. I just have to assume I’ll be the bad guy again next weekend when it still hasn’t been done.

I went to eat and visited with my parents for a little while before heading home. Bác Vân called while I was on the way and asked me to come over for a bit. I helped with her iPad for a bit, then went home to do some laundry before bed.

L

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Nothin to Taco’bout

I slept super hard last night and woke up last, but not too late. Summer had to go to work for a bit and then went to the gym, so I went home for a while. I cleaned up, but didn’t get around to a whole lot.

Summer decided she wanted to try something new for dinner and needed me to pick up an extra tomato on the way back up to her place. While I was at Walmart, I picked up an ice cream cake for Eaddie since that’s all she wanted for her birthday and nobody ever delivered. The taco casserole was great, and I made mine into a big salad that didn’t feel heavy.

After we ate, Summer wanted to watch a movie and we settled on Red Notice. Eaddie got up and left pretty early into it, but Autumn watched it with us. I was underwhelmed by it, possibly because of how much I usually like Ryan Reynolds and The Rock movies. It just felt really slow in comparison to their others. The twist was good, but not completely unexpected.

Summer went to bed watching TV, so it was a really early night to bed for everyone.

I love lamp, but not as much as they love lamp.

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Gotta Live It Big Time

I had a couple projects I had to work on in my office today, so I didn’t get out at all. I was a little worried about getting devices into Destiny for the middle school, but I worked it out. I felt pretty accomplished with everything I got done. A big group of us went to Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday, and then I wrapped everything up in the afternoon.

When I left work, I ran home to change, got gas, and then picked the girls up to head toward Rogers for the Big Time Rush concert. We stopped at the truck stop in Ozark to have dinner in their little deli, and then we made the rest of the trip as quickly as we could. Traffic wasn’t nearly as bad getting in or out as I expected, especially with how packed the place seemed.

The girls absolutely loved the concert, and I think Summer danced more than either of the other two. I was given camera duty “because I have the zoom,” so I got a bunch of video. Spencer Sutherland opened for the group, and I thought he was pretty good. When Big Time Rush came out on their scaffolding, all I could think about was the knee damage from all the jumping around. The highlight for me was a nearly unused men’s restroom.

We split as soon as the encore was over, and though we missed out on some last minute screaming that may have been solely from the guys removing their shirts, we got to the car and out of the parking garage with relative ease. Then we hopped on the interstate and we were on a mostly-empty road home. I was absolutely astounded that we got out of there that quickly. The girls all crashed as soon as we got in, so I finished up my chores and went to sleep as quickly as I could.

Worldwide? Worldwide.

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Basic Shrimp

I slept in a bit today before Summer got up and went to the gym. I tinkered a bit and discovered that my computer’s subwoofer wasn’t powering up, so I took the amplifier board out of the back to take to Dad. The girls were back in town from their father’s, but Eaddie had gone to a friend’s house. Autumn was at home and looked like she hadn’t showered all weekend. I picked Summer up and grabbed my aquarium water test kit, and then we went to Walmart before going back to my house to test my shrimp tank water.

After confirming my tank as shrimp-ready, we went to get Autumn and then Eaddie to go to my parents’ house for spring rolls. Dad smoked a pork loin all day, and the rolls were great. After we ate, Summer brought up the Big Time Rush concert, which got Eaddie super excited. Summer decided to buy tickets for the four of us, but then Autumn changed her mind and said she didn’t want to go because she had to do her karate test in a couple weeks and she didn’t want to miss class. I had to explain to everyone that the argument wasn’t at all about what we were actually arguing about, and that no amount of reason or logic would change her mind.

We eventually made it back up to their house, and Eaddie was still bouncing around with excitement. The other two wound down for bed pretty quickly, as I struggled to feel tired myself.

Where the deer and the antelope play?

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Had a Bed Day Again

Summer and I hardly left the bedroom today. We laid around all morning until she went to the gym. Even after we got showered for the day, we went back to bed and just napped or watched TV in bed. We eventually decided to just head to my parents’ house to see if they were ready to go, and pulled up just as they were leaving the house.

We met at New China and ate too much. They were really busy, and service was pretty slow. I wanted to go to PetSmart afterward, but we decided to just go straight home instead. There, we watched more TV in bed until I surprisingly felt sleepy enough to call it a night.

You wouldn’t understand.