“Chinese”

I tried to go to bed early last night, but woke up after a couple hours with wide eyes and couldn’t fall asleep again for a couple hours. Fortunately that didn’t ruin my morning, and I stuck with a Soylent for breakfast because Summer said she could meet me for lunch on her way back from Little Rock. I took Muad’Dib inside on a leash to keep him from jumping on people, and he didn’t like that a bit. I got in to some stuff in the morning, but still no real resolutions.

When Summer got there, we went to Chopsticks, which I vaguely remembered trying several years ago when I was in town for AT&T. We left Muad’Dib in her car and went in for what wasn’t necessarily the worst Chinese I’ve ever had. The fried fish was pretty good, which I remembered from before. We didn’t take long, and the lunch price felt pretty fair. Summer took Muad’Dib home with her, so I went back to the office alone.

My heart started racing a bit when I got back, so I tried to take it easy. I didn’t feel as bad as yesterday, and I failed to take my blood pressure, but it still didn’t feel great. The afternoon dragged on forever, too. When I finally got out of there, I went straight to the house and took Muad’Dib out for a run.

It wasn’t too hot out, and we had an okay walk. When we got to my parents’ house, Dad and I tried to rehang the gate that fell over, but his drill didn’t have the juice we needed to get the holes drilled. When we got back to the house, we had caught another rat. It was our third one of the year, and may have been one of a couple noisy, squeaky ones. Muad’Dib and I took it out to Washburn Park, where I had released the other two. Then I spent the rest of the night trying to clean up a bit before bed.

Sounds like sailing away to me.

Stay.

I went to bed super early with my feet up, and woke up just before my alarm. That got me out the door without a rush, and we made it to Morrilton before I decided to stop in at Wendy’s for some breakfast for a change. They weren’t in much of a hurry, so I got to work around the same time as usual. I got in and tinkered with PRTG and the PLCs some more, but didn’t really make any meaningful progress.

I actually ate my breakfast slowly throughout the morning since I had such a tall cup of coffee, so we went to lunch really late. It was nice out again, so we went to Taco Bell and shared a box. I was really proud of Muad’Dib for listening when I told him to stay at the table outside. He actually laid down and waited while I went in a couple of times.

When we got back to the office, Shane was there and asked for a laptop and an account, but didn’t have any details. I went upstairs and Teisha at least got me information on the account, and I spent the afternoon trying to wipe a couple of laptops. The whole process was way slower than traditional offline imaging, so I may end up using a flash drive with bootable media in the future if this becomes a habit.

As I sat there, I started to spin a bit as I felt my heart race and my blood pressure rise. I ended up taking a clonidine pretty quickly and rode things out, but I couldn’t really tell why I spiked. Caffeine and sugar? Salty foods? Stress from work? I alerted Teisha just in case, but I leveled off after a while.

Mom was making bún bò Huế for dinner, so we got back to town and waited for Summer to get home, and then I ran over with Muad’Dib while Summer drove. Along with cooler days are earlier sunsets, so Muad’Dib and I had to hurry and get the rest of his run in. He did not hurry. He made me proud with his obedience, and then immediately frustrated me with his whimsy. At some point I stepped in some poop, presumably of his, and may have tracked some into the house, so I cleaned the floors just in case.

Eaddie called just as we were finishing our run, and put me on the phone with Shaana. They wanted to add Eaddie to their family plan since Eli got a new iPad and they were giving Eaddie his old one. Eaddie’s Apple account has always been a frustration because their father had it set up at an AT&T store, and we never actually had any control over the girls’ accounts. I wanted Eaddie to figure out her own account and manage it herself since she was old enough, but she’ll just continue to ride along whoever will take care of her, and that’s a disappointment.

I had an anxiety attack while head-down in some Vine stuff, and then tried to wind down quickly to get as much sleep as the night before.

I don’t know what’s next either, but I have a pocket full of stones and a reckless kind of hope.

f⁻¹(g)

I ended up elevating my legs last night because the swelling in my feet hadn’t been getting any better. It had done wonders by the time I got up. Summer went to the gym and Eaddie went to church. I did Vine reviews all day.

I warmed up some spaghetti for lunch just before Summer got home, and then we went out back to try and find the pendant for the living room fan. I went back in and kept doing reviews while she cleaned up.

Mom was supposed to make bún bò Huế for dinner, but when I checked in the evening, they weren’t ready. Summer and I ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings instead, and sat outside with Muad’Dib. I think the noise got to him, because he was rowdy for a while when we first got there.

Service was inexperienced, and the food wasn’t great. The chicken seemed to be cut in half or thirds from what they used to serve. Overall it just wasn’t worth the visit.

I took Muad’Dib for a run in the cool air when we got home, and he ran well. We visited with Dad, and then made it back to the house for the night.

y

Assemblance

I worked from home today since the guys were supposed to finish work on the ceiling. They did a bit of painting, I pointed out some issues, and they touched up. The total cost increased by about $500 due to some extra construction elements they had to do to raise and level the whole ceiling. They got ceiling fans re-hung, and I immediately noticed a missing pull chain. I looked all over for it under the deck, but didn’t have any luck.

Dad came over to look at some of it with me since he would be over to hand off the second half of the money the next day. Summer got home and started making spaghetti. I took Muad’Dib for a run to the bank to get the money, and we went inside to talk to Aaron for a bit.

When we got back to the house, Dad wanted to go to the other house to uninstall the microwave so they could have the cabinets replaced. I picked him up and we got that taken care of. Eaddie finally got home so we could eat, and then I took Muad’Dib out for another run. While we were out, Summer noticed a hole in the wall, some broken trim near the floor, and I found a broken USB cable from one of my security cameras, so I had to send another email before wining down for bed.

Spaghetti and Squealy Olive Balls

Aweem Away

Summer never got her work stuff out of my trunk, so she asked me to drop it off for her on my way to work. I did that as quickly as I could, then picked up some spicy chicken biscuits from Hardee’s on the way out of town. It was a bit wet out, but I couldn’t tell that we really got any more rain the rest of the day.

I finally got into Brandon’s old Vimeo account to cancel the subscription he forgot to cancel. Then Charles and Matt were saved by my superior/existent network documentation. I had a fairly heavy anxiety attack at some point.

Dad said they should be able to finish the house tomorrow, so I got the okay to leave work early and then work remotely the next day. Summer was supposed to be off early too, but got stuck again. The guys were packing up just as I got home.

Mom said they still had spring rolls, and Julie and Kevin were coming over, so I took Muad’Dib over too. Dad suggested I take a dip in the super cold pool to try and wash off some of the dog before coming inside to eat, but I couldn’t stay in for long. Mom got everyone going and then disappeared to the back of the house, but we had a good visit otherwise.

After dinner, I took Muad’Dib on a surprisingly short and slow walk. I thought he’d run harder with the cooler weather, but he just wanted to lollygag. Summer was in bed, so she wouldn’t get up to inspect the ceiling work with me. I had some wine and crashed a couple hours early.

Seek differing opinions. The fact that they’re haters doesn’t make them wrong.

2 roll or not 2 roll

The clock ticked slowly today, but for no benefit. Summer had to go to work to troubleshoot an equipment outage, which took way longer than she expected. She was going to make breakfast, so I took over and made eggs with RO-TEL. She got home just in time to eat it hot, and Eaddie actually came out to join us after not enjoying her overnight oats.

We were all in limbo for much of the day. We thought we might visit with Diana, but that fell through because she didn’t feel well. Mom mentioned spring rolls yesterday, but we never heard from her. Eaddie had, for the third day, said she had Ceci’s birthday to attend. Eli came over for a while and they eventually left. Summer went to the gym for a while, and I ended up taking a bath because I didn’t feel great myself.

I reached out to my parents to figure out the plan, and discovered that Mom had broken out really badly, so she wanted to avoid us and the dog to see if that was the problem. After some back and forth with poor communication, Summer and I went over and ate on the porch outside with Dad.

There was a threat of some heavier rain, but we just saw sprinkles for a bit. Muad’Dib and I finished our run after dinner, and then settled in early. I did a bit of cleaning, so the girls beat me to bed.

Object Impermanence

Paper Thin

I didn’t sleep very late for how late I got to bed. Summer hit the gym and I started some laundry before getting showered for lunch with the family. Eaddie went to church and came back with Eli, and Muad’Dib and I rode the Onewheel over to my parents’ house while the other three followed behind.

We wanted to try the meat slicer I got for Mom, but Dad took the meat out to thaw, which made it more difficult. We juggled between different cuts of meat as some refroze and others came out of the freezer, but it eventually all got sliced. It seemed like the slicer worked really well for completely frozen meat.

The phở was really good, but Mom thought it was too salty. We all finished eating and I finished slicing all of the extra meat for more phở or spring rolls later. Summer took the kids home and I took Muad’Dib for a pretty short run since it was so warm out. We passed a house with two really surprisingly young kids trying to sell lemonade, but I didn’t have any cash.

I considered going back, but the sun was out and it was hot. I had to finish laundry anyway. Summer did her nails and worked for quite a while, so I just stuck to myself. The girls got hungry again after a while, and I had $10 of Papa Dough to burn, so I ordered a pizza and some cheese sticks, then went to pick it up with Muad’Dib.

He enjoyed the car ride, and then was a good boy and stood outside to wait for me while I got our pizza. Another customer came up and gave him some pets, so it was a worthwhile outing. We got home with the food, ate, and then Eaddie left. I tried spending some time with Summer, but she just put on another cooking competition show.

Understimulated

Big Yikes

Summer made us bacon, eggs, and Cheddar Bay Biscuits for breakfast before she went to the gym. We weren’t really sure when my parents would be ready to leave for Hot Springs, but it was earlier than either of us expected. We got cleaned up and ready to go just about the time they were ready to pick us up, and we were off.

We parked near the Malco and walked down the strip and back, stopping for a few pictures and a walkthrough of the Fordyce Bathhouse museum, and a couple other shops. We only made it about halfway down before turning back and landing at The Porterhouse for dinner.

We all ordered their off-menu specials, but the three of them had the fillet and shrimp, and I had the ribeye with mushroom, onion, and pepper gravy. It was good as always.

There was still time to kill before the show, so we made another loop before coming back to the theater. We arrived a little early, but eventually found our seats and watched a slightly different show than what we had seen previously.

Something seemed off with the pace of his speaking and it was really difficult to understand him, but it was also his last weekend before retirement. I went up on stage with Dad afterward to see him, but we didn’t get the same response of recognition that we had last time. There were a bunch of people hanging around afterward, so we headed on home.

Mom and Dad didn’t want to drive in the dark, so they had me drive slowly back up Highway 7. It was late, so Eaddie was actually asleep, and Summer went straight to bed.

Headstrong to take on anyone.

Chasing the Same High All Night

Felt late.

Wasn’t.

Grabbed a biscuit from Burger King and hit the road.

Quiet and lonely day.

Dad waited for a work crew that never showed.

He called for an update, and Adam said the guys didn’t show up for work.

Suspect miscommunication and shifting blame as an excuse.

Late lunch Baconator with a surprise baked potato kicker.

Summer got home early and wanted to make dinner.

Strange rubber chickens, but ultimately decent meal.

Must be the marinade.

Muad’Dib needed a run and a bath.

Encountered a field of geese, but he was disinterested.

Had a creek bath.

Met a tiny black kid on a tiny kit bike that wanted to try the Onewheel.

Then he wanted to race.

All three of us took off.

Much fun.

Dirty good boy got a bath and came out a fluffy good boy.

Slushy mixer and chunes.

Bed.

Tequila Mocking Bird / I can’t stop drinking about you.

Two Three Four

It started raining last night and kept going all day long. It was a nasty drive to work, but I got out early enough to pick up two chicken biscuits on the way. Unfortunately, the misty air made my drive a little more hands-on than I like. We caught another huge rat, and I ended up taking it all the way to Morrilton with me again. I pulled over a few blocks from the office and let it go, but it ran under my car somewhere to get out of the rain. I just had to hope it didn’t jump up onto the car somewhere.

I got in and asked permission to leave early again, but Dad texted later and said his haircut was rescheduled, so I stayed. I had an anxiety attack pretty early in the day. Later, I wasn’t super hungry for lunch, but I took a break to grab three buns in the form of a Big Mac.

The afternoon dragged on forever, and the rain had mostly stopped by the time I headed home. Summer texted that Eaddie was going to pick up pizza just as I was pulling up to the house. She got back and I had four slices out of the three overkill pizzas she ordered.

Eaddie was up singing all night, practicing for one of her classes. Eli came over to help. I wound down super early.

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