Tag: family

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Pololoko

Teachers were back on contract today, but they were all stuck in meetings and couldn’t harass us too much yet. This summer felt super short, and I wasn’t ready to go back to full days and polo shirts. I’ve taken more vacations this year than ever before, and I just can’t wait to leave again.

I spent most of the morning at Oakland taking care of a very few things, but mostly babysitting in case they needed help with their iPad project. Nobody ever came to get me, so I guess it went alright. I’m sure it helped that I made them test it first.

Greg and I met Brody at Old South for lunch, where I had a pretty dissatisfying “prime rib” sandwich. It tasted more like overcooked roast beef, and left me hungry all afternoon. The worst part is that I think I’ve tried it before and was equally unhappy with it, but I had forgotten.

I spent the rest of the day at the office just slowly chipping away at duties as they seemed to be rolling in. It was quiet with everyone else out in the buildings, but I can feel the tidal wave coming.

I went home after work until it was time to go to Summer’s for dinner. I took the giant zucchini and chopped it up into large chunks to grill, and Summer made mashed potatoes. Noah came over, and we grilled cheddar jalapeño sausages. Autumn had band practice pretty late, but Noah waited for her to get home before taking off. Then everyone was off to bed pretty quickly.

Bugs…EVERYWHERE!

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Less Taxing

Summer took Autumn to work this morning while Eaddie and I slept in pretty hard. I felt really refreshed when I woke up, and then got to ease into the day. She came back to get Eaddie and went to pick up groceries for dinner with Noah, which ended up getting cancelled.

After Autumn got off, they came to pick me up and we went back-to-school shopping for tax-free weekend. We went to Staples first, where we ran into Jazz, who had a couple quick questions for me. Then we went across the street to the Valley Park Center. TJ Maxx was fun. Ross was about as disappointing as usual. Shoe Carnival was selling things at full price. Rue 21 was where we saw the most excitement. I had gone to move the car while the girls walked across the shopping center. When I got there, I ran into Candace and Ana. Then a few minutes later we spotted Zane Dave from across the room, but Eaddie was being weird and just hid from him.

On the way home we stopped at Walmart for a couple things to go with dinner. Summer prepped some tilapia for fish tacos, so dinner was ready super fast. We ate, and then Summer watched TV while I proofread Autumn’s apology letters to the officers she called last weekend. She ended up going to her grandparents’ house so she could take a stab at proofreading it, and stayed the night.

Trying to prep for school, Eaddie showered early and went to bed too. With both girls off to bed, I wrapped up my evening therapy and went to sleep.

I love pens, but I hate writing.

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Who Knows Why Madmen Do What They Do?

Summer took Autumn to work and Eaddie home late this morning while I got cleaned up. Eaddie said last night that she wanted New China, and I had been craving it earlier in the week, so I took Bác Vân and Doug to meet the girls and my parents for lunch.

After we ate, I came back home and started to doze off, so I broke down and took an hour nap. I woke up a bit groggy, but only because I was still short on sleep. I had to get up to the girls though, so we could meet Noah and his friend Wade at UEC for The Suicide Squad.

I didn’t realize how gory it would be, but maybe I should have. I hadn’t really looked into it much, so everything about it was a fresh surprise with plenty of good twists. The kids enjoyed it. I hated that it was in one of the four smallest theaters, but at least it was for the matinee price. A couple came in with two adolescent boys that sat down in the front area and wouldn’t shut the hell up. It was like a really lame Mystery Science Theater without any jokes.

After the movie, we picked up Autumn and headed to my house for the evening. I had to take Autumn to the high school to pick up her flag while Eaddie went out for a bike ride. Then I started some laundry while we watched a few episodes of House before bed.

A little Xtra

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It’s Also a Noun

I walked out this morning expecting more fair weather, and it felt like I immediately stepped into a bowl of soup. I was instantly wet, and it wasn’t until I looked up that I realized how much it looked like rain. After pushing the bike back into the garage, I rushed in to work through just a few sprinkles down the road.

We didn’t have anything big going on at work, and everyone was still out preparing for the start of the new year. I had to do some remote desktop work for Judy, which was my highest profile job yet. Hopefully I didn’t look too inept, but I did also draw her a picture of a guy standing in a pasture waving a “I ♡ RSD” sign while I waited for the Adobe installer to finish.

Lunch came around pretty quickly, and Gary called for Slim Chickens. I ordered a bigger meal than usual because the past few times I’ve been there, the chicken strips have been kind of puny. They were normal sized today, and boy were they fresh. I burned myself eating, but the chicken and fries were all just perfectly hot out of the fryer.

After lunch, I spent a good portion of the day at the junior high trying to close out a few tickets. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I wanted, but I also just sort of took it upon myself to go do it anyway. I appeared to be the last one out, and went home until Summer invited me out to dinner with Noah after their workout.

I rode the Shadow to La Villa, and we had a good time catching up. He gave me mad respect when he heard the story about our event last weekend, and then we made plans to go watch The Suicide Squad tomorrow. I went back home while Summer went to get the girls from their COVID shot so they could go home and clean up before coming back over to my house for the evening.

Summer wanted to pick up some Dairy Queen on the way over, but said there was a sign saying they were closed until further notice. I had already placed the order in the app though, so then I had to dig for a place to request a refund. Eaddie has wanted to watch House with me since she got back from Wisconsin, so as the other two went to bed, we stayed up for several hours finishing up the last third of season four.

I guess I’ll just have to earn it.

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All Right! All Right!

This whole week has been cooler, so it’s been a different bike every day. Tammy commented on it and asked how many I had, and I had to explain that it’s really a math problem of n-1, where n is the number of motorcycles that I want. Otherwise, it’s that time of year when I don’t really even remember what I worked on. I did have to go to the middle school to scan some Chromebooks because Josh didn’t have a list of serial numbers for me. I’m just now remembering that I never actually got those imported into the library system.

Lunch was a treat, because Gary, Greg, Zach, and I went to Brangus to eat, and the guy that always greets us took care of our meals on our way out. We rummaged for some cash to leave for a tip, and we were all fat and happy. Gary and Greg had to run some food I ordered for Brody over to him at the high school during their handout, and it was a mostly quiet afternoon for me back at the shop.

After work, Julie called as I was just getting home to change. Then Mom called to tell me the same thing – that Bác Vân thought I slapped Julie, even though Julie came over to pick up Dad’s phone from me while we were standing in the driveway talking. We all kind of laughed about it, and as Mom left the call, I continued to retell the whole story to Julie.

It didn’t take long for her to psychoanalyze my actions and start pointing fingers about our childhood, and I just stressed to keep cool for the hour as our conversation degraded into personal attacks about mistakes that I’ve made in my life. I try to live pretty openly, blog and all, and I’ve done what I can to make peace with the past, but I really don’t know what I can do for her to let things go. At some point you have to just move on, but instead we always end up in an argument in which she’s constantly moving the target so that we can never get anywhere. I’ve tried responding, I’ve tried just shutting up, and the whole conversation is designed for me to fail.

I make it a point to surround myself with people that think very differently so that I can learn about their viewpoints and make my own assessments, but there’s never any ground given with Julie. It basically always devolves into something akin to name-calling, where she insists that I’m an arrogant piece of shit that thinks he’s always right, and she’s irrefutable because she only speaks in facts. It’s the most maddening waste of time, but I put up with it because for some reason I think maybe she’ll eventually find whatever the hell she’s looking for.

When she finally gave up screaming at me, I went in to Summer’s house to find that neither of the girls were there. Eaddie was at band late, and their grandmother was slow to pick her up, so Summer just met them at the gym and brought them home to gather their things. Then we went to my parents’ house for shrimp noodle soup and a swim.

The water was pretty cool after Dad used the fountains overnight, so we didn’t stay in the water too late. Eventually we made it home and the girls all went to bed while I aired up some bicycle tires for them.

Not keeping a list is not the same as remembering everything but never writing it down.

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Cool, Sweat!

It almost felt cool outside this morning after so much heat. I took the Grom to work, and we almost immediately went outside to move a truck bed full of Chromebooks to fifth grade. Once we got into that, I couldn’t stop sweating until we made it back and I sat down inside. I had to import those devices into Destiny for student checkout, and then I just had to sporadically help others with things from the office.

Nobody was responsive about lunch, but Josh and Thomas were in the building, so we tried going to Mulan’s. I beat them there and saw a sign that they’re closed on Wednesdays from now on. We made a split second decision to go to Sam’s instead, and I had some gumbo that was probably a better life choice anyway.

I spent some time in the afternoon at Oakland just to see people filter back in and accomplish what I could. Then I went back to the shop to shut everything down and rode to my parents’ house.

Dad was released from the hospital with a relatively clean bill of health, and he was up and around the house helping Mom with some chores. We ate some leftovers and chatted for a bit, but Mom was mostly asleep on the couch. Things were mostly back to normal after such a surprisingly rough day yesterday.

My sinus nonsense has gotten worse over the course of a week or so, and I really felt it in my head and chest by the end of the day. Something also had my left foot in quite a bit of pain all day. I was just going to stay home for the night, but I needed some cuddles.

Autumn was a little upset that she wouldn’t get to sleep with Summer, but I don’t know why she’d want her that close after this weekend. She’s really playing the baby card again, and I’m not falling for it. Eaddie was in her room the entire night talking to her boyfriend, so I was left to medicate and go to sleep.

Today’s problem is brought to you by the letters D, R, and S, and by librarians that don’t understand alphanumeric order.

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Don’t Stress About It

I just barely got around to work this morning, and it was really tempting to take half a day just to sleep in after the long night. It’s been cooler, so I took the R1 to work and made it just in time. Everyone was off doing work orders, so I packed up some things I needed and headed to Oakland to close out what work orders I could.

Just as I was getting to head back to the shop, Julie called and said Dad was at the hospital because he needed CPR after his stress test. Evidently they gave him a shot instead of making him walk on the treadmill, and something didn’t agree with him in a big way.

I ran across town to see him, and though he was awake, he was in pretty rough shape. Julie was still on the way from work, so I stayed there for about an hour as he dry heaved and even looked like he had a seizure after his heart rate dropped during a heaving spell. They didn’t want to let anyone else in, but Julie convinced them to let us swap out. I went back to work just as he was trying to fall asleep, and his heart rate was still falling below 50bpm pretty regularly.

I spent the afternoon at the shop, partially helping Zach move his office into my old office. When it was time to leave, I went home to change and retrieved a package that Bác Vân signed for. Julie came by and got Dad’s phone from me since I forgot it in my pocket when I left.

Once the girls were home, I left to return something to Walmart and then headed up to their house for dinner. Summer had picked up a Little Caesar’s pizza for dinner, but I really wanted a burrito. Naturally I had a bit of both and went to bed with some wicked heartburn on top of the sinus congestion I already had. I decided to go ahead and start Modern Family with Summer, but I think Eaddie will be catching up to us as well.

Never tell me the odds.

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The Return of Reason

Greg wanted a ride from Phil Wright this morning, but changed his mind when they wouldn’t open the door until eight. We went to work instead, and then left there shortly after eight to drop his truck off. I spent the rest of the day tinkering and breaking things, only to get them working well enough again before lunch.

On the way to the dealership in the morning, I noticed The Gunslingin’ Burger was putting signs out for a year anniversary special, so Gary, Brody, Josh, and I went there for lunch. The food was pretty good, but the fact that the $10+ “combo meal” doesn’t come with a drink is still stupid. It has also become painfully obvious that the place is run by people with zero experience running a restaurant, and I think a little experience would go a long way. The recipes are great. It even has certain unique polish and is obviously thoughtfully put together. It just lacks, from what we could tell, a little common sense.

The afternoon went by slowly, being a full day for the first time in weeks. Then I went home for a bit before having to pick up the girls to go get Eaddie from the airport. Summer initially thought the plane landed around 10 in the morning, but it was actually in the evening. On top of that, it was delayed a bit.

We stopped in Conway at Golden Corral for dinner. Autumn ate a frustrating plate of shitzza and macaroni and cheese. I should have expected that, but then I brought up that she should write letters apologizing for wasting the sheriff’s department’s time this weekend, and all I could do was bury the rage deep down inside from her response. She insisted that it wasn’t a waste of time and that she called them for a reason. No lessons have been learned, and I’m spending more and more of my waking hours coming up with more creative punishments and monitoring solutions.

We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half early, so we sat in the car on our phones. Fortunately it was super nice outside, so I just rolled the windows down and kicked back. Autumn managed to get in a bit of a nap in the back seat. When the plane arrived, the airport was shut down enough that Summer couldn’t get a parent pass to meet Eaddie at the gate, so we just waited together at the main exit. We gathered bags and headed straight home.

Eaddie said she didn’t have a great time. I could relate. I’m glad she’s back.

Cruel and unusual. You know, like riding the bus with the peasants.

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Donut Go Gentle Into That Good Night

I woke up early this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I went to Shipley’s to pick up some donuts for Summer after she mentioned them last night. She was roused when I left, and got up to eat once I returned. Then she took Autumn to work and went to the gym while I stayed behind and showered and cleaned up a bit.

Summer came back over after a little while and shopped for eyeglasses while I continued poking around the house. When Autumn was done with work, Summer took her to the gym for a bit. I eventually got out to Walmart to return one of the hairdryers I bought because it felt like a fat guy breathing on the back of my neck. It seriously had no heat or air movement at all. It was worse than the one you get in the Motel 6.

I wandered around looking at clearance a bit and eventually made it up to Summer’s for dinner. We just finished up some leftover salad before coming back to my house for the evening. Autumn went to the bedroom and worked on a puzzle while Summer sat on the couch with me watching YouTube. Then it was off to bed.

Bock!

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DiSLAPpointing

I got up this morning and warmed up some leftovers for breakfast. Summer was watching TV, and Autumn was supposed to be mowing the lawn after putting it off for two weeks since Eaddie’s been gone, plus who knows how much time since it was last mowed. I can’t even really remember what happened first, but I’m pretty sure she did at least go out to get started without too much protest. She had hardly gotten anywhere with it before things quickly escalated though.

At some point, Autumn came back in and just pitched an absolute fit about mowing. We weren’t having any of it, because we had no sympathy for a procrastinator and her woes. Eventually Autumn started back talking enough that I dropped my bowl of food and got in her face. She pulled her best “come at me bro,” and I didn’t waste any time.

After hearing about her blow up at Summer so many times, and even being present for a few, I thought slapping her across her face would feel better. I absolutely lost my shit and got screaming mad in her face. She still didn’t go back outside immediately, but she eventually made it out and the mower started up again.

I should have suspected something when I heard the mower stop, but eventually Summer walked by and said we should get dressed because the cops were on the way. Evidently Autumn phoned an officer from her Explorers program, who either felt compelled or was possibly even required to report the incident. I was already super torn up by the incident, but this just served to add embarrassment to the things I was feeling.

Two deputies from the county sheriff’s office pulled up as Autumn stood out in the sun waiting for them. They laughed when Summer recalled how Autumn argued she wasn’t responsible for keeping the lawn mowed because her name wasn’t on the lease. The visit was short and they recommended, I suspect out of protocol, that we look into filing a FINS petition. Looking into it just briefly, I’m not sure that’s the best path for us. I think we’d be better prepared to tighten our own leash, rather than possibly give up control to any part of the system.

When we all came back inside, Autumn refused to give up her phone and we had to physically wrestle it out of her hands while avoiding all manner of biting, pinching, and scratching. Being the stubborn parent that I am, we of course won the battle and she went back outside to continue mowing after a brief cooldown period.

While she was out continuing to mow, Summer called Nick and tried to explain the situation to him. I chose to open up, possibly in vain, and was basically scolded for laying hands on “one of his girls.” I let him speak his mind and awaited his arrival, of course after finishing up at work and running his necessary errands.

When Autumn finished up in the backyard, she came back in just as normal as could be. She warmed up some food and sat down at the table with us to eat. Everything was just fine, as though nothing had ever happened. She went back out to finish mowing after her break, and eventually Nick showed up and took the lawn mower away from her for a few passes as she came in for some water. We suggested she should go back out and finish herself since it was her responsibility, and she complied.

Once the lawn was done, everyone came in and we sat down for a surprisingly calm chat. I really suspected to have to go on the defence at least to some degree, but his tone seemed to change immediately after I told him that she had put off mowing for two weeks. Autumn expressed at least some regret, and I let Nick say anything he wanted to say. He ended up not taking her home with him because not having her own car to go to work the next day was too much of an inconvenience for him.

Summer went to the gym while Autumn and I had some leftovers for dinner. Then we came back to my house for the evening. Autumn went straight to bed after expressing some desire to watch a movie. When Summer finally made it, we curled up on the couch and watched most of a standup special on Netflix. Then it was off to bed.

I just wanted to make more eggs…