Tag: friends

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Support Class

I got a better amount of sleep last night, so it was only fitting that I would be up late tonight. I was the first one in the office, and we rode it out until lunch time. David and Woody came to talk sales and take us out to lunch at Saltgrass. Maybe I just had my hopes up too high, but I was kind of disappointed in the steak. The quail and Brussels sprouts were delicious. I liked the baked potato soup, but there wasn’t much of it. My ribeye was just very thin and gristly, and apart from the crawfish and shrimp on it to make it “Cajun,” the tomatoes just watered it down. Overall it was a good, large meal though, which was good because it was my only one.

The afternoon went by relatively quickly. I helped someone find a breaker they had thrown using two space heaters on the same wall. Luckily I had just enough charge by the time I left that I could make it home without Supercharging.

Summer was home when I got there, and had to charge up from 5%, so she was pretty nervous coming home. I took the dogs out for a good, long run. We weren’t breaking any records, but we maintained a good clip. We encountered both of my parents driving separately, and chased them down their road to the house. Then we made it home for doggy dinner because I forgot to thaw hot dogs.

As I was trying to process my evening, Mitch called on me for some support. We chatted a little bit, and then I called Robert. We didn’t talk long because he was just starting a movie, but then I ended up talking with Mitch for quite a while after that, just to catch up. I eventually got all of my nightly chores done, and an overstuffed recycle bin to the curb, so hopefully sleep hits fast tonight.

More buffs!

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Cheap Lunch Crew

Eaddie ended up having a quintet practice session in Fort Smith today, so I had the house to myself. Then Zach texted wanting to know if I had to take a personal day to be off during the snow day, and I just had to laugh. I asked him if they had lunch plans, and wasn’t surprised to hear they were probably having Mexican. I ended up meeting them at La Chiquita. Gary was the one that interacted with me the most. Thomas, Greg, and even Zach were mostly just present, but would respond when I talked to them. The thing I missed most was paying less than $10 for lunch. Food in Little Rock is insane, and it’s typical for me to pay nearly twice that, or more.

After we ate, I stopped by the Superfast to see Summer while she was working out in the cold. I thought I’d install my yoke, but it was going to be too involved, and I didn’t want to work on it there in the cold. I figured I’d borrow a hex socket later and do it from home.

I got back to the house and took the dogs out for a run at the peak temperature for the day in the high 20s. We had a good run, and caught Dad at the end of their road. He spun around to get me a heat lamp for the dogs, though Muad’Dib never came out to use it. I don’t know where he was sleeping, but Stilgar has been the only one at the door in the warmth.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning house, and then quite a bit of time consolidating my blood pressure tracker to share with the clinic. I still haven’t heard anything more about seeing a specialist, and I’m hoping it was just a fluke reading after being sick.

Eaddie got home pretty late, followed by Summer. She ran a bath and I warmed up some pizza for her before bed.

Hexed

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Fancypants Fundraiser

I caught up on sleep last night, but we had plans all weekend. Eaddie had her fundraiser event at Co-Create in the evening, so the girls were up and around to take care of some last-minute errands for that. I got up and out with the dogs for a good run since I knew we wouldn’t have time later in the evening. As soon as I got home, we had to start getting ready to go set up.

When we got to the venue, the whole crew was standing outside the front doors because they evidently didn’t unlock as intended. Dan had contacted the owner, but I glanced at the maglock sensor, borrowed Eaddie’s music folder, and bing, bang, boom.

I hadn’t seen the inside, and was disappointed that it wasn’t a maker space, but it did seem like a hip new co-working space. We got things started, rearranged some tables, and then Summer wanted to go print some stuff off at the wash. I thought we had decided against it, and were just going to set out some instrument cases for donations, as though the kids were busking.

After that unnecessary trip, we decided to stop at Panda Express for dinner. I ordered on the app, but the long line churned quickly and it would have been quicker to just order in person. I recognized a couple people as they came through, and talked to Alicia briefly before we got our food. I thought the rice was dry, and Summer almost died from something spicy. I thought it was a good spice level, but she must have gotten some seeds or something.

We got back to Co-Create just after things had started, and we walked around a little bit before finding a place to sit permanently. It was a neat, uncrowded event. Dad showed up and joined us, and we rode it out to the end. There was a little bit of cleanup, but I think it went faster than the setup. Then we snuck out the back door and headed home.

Eaddie went out with her friends, Summer went to bed, and I took a long bath. My Vine evaluation period passed, though it says it will take up to four days for my account to be updated. I guess now I need to slow down on ordering, because my item value will probably go up from here.

Just some light B and E on a Saturday evening.

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Surprise Rest

I woke up this morning to a text from Diana, which reminded me of the plans I knew we had for the day. I jumped up and took a shower, followed by Summer, so we could go visit with her. Eaddie was still asleep, so we left her and made it across town in some leftover drizzle from some rain overnight. Diana was super happy to sit and visit for a while, but still had to get packed and ready to travel back north.

Summer thought she would have to close the Conway wash, but just as we left Diana’s, she got a call that one of her employees wanted to take the shift. I had been considering going with her just so we could have some time together afterward and maybe do some more Christmas shopping, but getting to stay in town with her was even better. We went home to check on Eaddie and fed the dogs. Eaddie wasn’t hungry, so the two of us went to Mulan’s for a late lunch.

After we ate, we stopped by Walmart for some more treats for the dogs. We browsed minimally aside from that before stopping by the old house to clean out the mailbox and poke my head inside to get an idea of what I might be able to move sooner than later. The problem is that I’m still struggling to find time to break down boxes of stuff that I’ve already moved, and I’m just out of room until I do. Seeing the relative minimalism at Jim’s house last night nearly made me consider burning the whole place down. It’s paralysis, and I had forgotten about the stuff Dad already moved into Bác Vân’s shed next door.

We made it home and I struggled a bit to keep my blood pressure down. Eaddie ended up going over to Eli’s for a while, and I soaked in a bath to try and relax. Summer and I talked some more and finally decided that it would be a smart idea to get another car right now, partially due to the incentives and partially in case of a breakdown in one of the older vehicles. Letting her drive her own car was important to me, and having options was important to both of us.

Eaddie came home and talked with us for a while as well, and then I helped her order a Christmas gift. Then we all settled in for bed.

Contractually convoluted

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Reverse Mormons

I snoozed this morning, so I got to work through virtually no traffic about half an hour late. Just as I got parked and charging, Randy, Kyle, Maggie, and her girls all walked out of the office to go to Sam’s to pick up stuff for the Christmas party. It didn’t look like anyone else was really around the building, so I just hopped in Kyle’s Jeep with Randy and went with them.

The store didn’t actually open for about 20 more minutes, so I went with the guys to fill up on some gas before going back to meet the girls. Then we walked through the store, looking like an odd group of reverse-Mormons, and each got an assortment of things we needed for the party. I ended up getting a bunch of salad kits and a case of Member’s Mark hard seltzer.

We got back to the office, and things were quiet. The morning went by pretty quickly, and Jim came to get Randy and me to go to BJ’s for their catfish special. We had a relatively quiet lunch and then went back to the office to kill the rest of the day until the party.

Summer had to work in town, so she just went to Conway and I met her at Target after work. We shopped for her Dirty Santa gift, then headed back to Jim’s house in North Little Rock for the party. I’d been to his house, but never in it, and it was super nice. We eventually got the tour, and he was right. It really was his wife’s “HGTV” moment. They completely rebuilt everything, and it was like a model home. They had a couple fire pits on the large back deck, and plenty of space inside to entertain.

Maggie eventually showed up with pizza, and then we played Left Center Right with dollar bills, and exchanged Dirty Santa gifts. I ended up with a coffee mug, and Summer got a snowglobe. I think only a couple people stole gifts, which kind of spoke to how silly most of them were. In hindsight, I wished I had stolen the Really Loud Librarians game that someone else got.

We eventually had to leave, and made our way to Conway for a quick charge before heading home. Eaddie went to bed as soon as we got there, as did Summer. I wasn’t far behind after such a long day.

Gotta get the kids gambling their lunch money!

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Just Breathe

My blood pressure wasn’t fantastic when I got up this morning, but it was my “normal” high level. Summer left for work after we fed the dogs, and I made myself an egg and cheese biscuit for breakfast again. I followed that with a banana and grilled cheese since I was slightly low on potassium. I started both my 5mg amlodipine and 25mg metoprolol, then tried to relax a bit on the computer before taking a shower.

My numbers kept climbing for a while before they kind of leveled out again. It had me a bit worried, but I eventually felt confident enough to take the dogs out for a ride. I even put Max’s antler from the Grinch on Stilgar, and he didn’t oppose it at all. Muad’Dib kept wanting to bite at it, but I eventually told him “no” enough that he quit altogether. Stilgar wore the headband the entire way to the Ridgewood Brothers to see the crew there.

Everyone came out and was super excited for either the Onewheel or the dogs. Even Robert took a spin on the Onewheel, then promptly wiped out. We hung out for a little while before heading back up the road where we stopped to see Mollie at her house. She came out onto the porch for a bit, but we didn’t stay long before heading home. We made our way through the basin where Stilgar wanted to be an alligator. I put the antler on Muad’Dib, but it was really too big for him, and it kept falling down under his chin. I got it back on Stilgar and we made it to my parents’ house, but they weren’t home.

The dogs got hot dogs and food when we got home, and I spent some time relaxing to keep my blood pressure down. It didn’t seem to help, because the longer I sat, the higher it rose. I decided pretty early that I shouldn’t drive by myself to Conway to see Eaddie’s performance. Then I started to get a lump in my throat, and I called Dad to take me to the clinic when I hit 155/102.

Mom drove them to the house and we headed to the clinic in a fashion that had me stressing out even more. As soon as I got checked in, I sat down and then had a dizzy spell like I did at the self-care fair. Things started to get dark and I thought I might black out, so I told my parents to get someone. It didn’t feel like I was met with as much urgency as I intended, but I pulled out of my spell enough to talk to the ladies that came out. Much like the urgent care clinic, they couldn’t really do anything for me and instead called the paramedics.

The trucks pulled into the lot pretty quickly, but it took them a while to get inside. I had moved into a wheelchair for ease of mobility, and before the guys came in, I started to have another slight dizzy episode without so much blacking out. They came in and took blood sugar, blood pressure, and my oxygen level, and decided they couldn’t do anything more than DoorDash me to the hospital. They did offer to load me up into our own car so I wouldn’t get a bill, but by the time we finished talking, I was good enough to walk again.

We left the clinic, and I had Mom take me to the house to use the restroom and grab my blood pressure cuff. Then we drove to the hospital and sat in the parking lot for a while, testing my blood pressure several times to see that it was going down. Once it got low enough that I felt comfortable leaving, we went to their house for some food.

Mom made me some mango soup while I watched my blood pressure start to rise again. Summer came over after dropping Eaddie off at home, and we ultimately decided it might be best to go to the hospital. The two of us got to the emergency room and checked in. There were several of us in the waiting room, and strangely, they called everyone back at the same time after a mysterious amount of waiting. Summer and I were in a room near the back and waited a while for a young, Vietnamese doctor to come check me out. My blood pressure had continued to drop a bit, and after recounting the last few days to him, his recommendation was to modify my normal medication timing and then follow up with my PCP. He offered to give me more meds and re-run all of the same bloodwork, but indicated that he didn’t really think it was necessary.

We were eventually discharged, and I suppose I earn enough by now that paying the bill didn’t send me into another event. We went home, Summer crawled into bed, and I wrapped up way too slowly for how tired I was.

Solidarity in healthcare providers.

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Hypertensed

I got up this morning and tested my blood pressure at 119/69, which had me hopeful. Summer was going to stay home with me, but ended up going to work for a while. I took the time to shower and relax a bit before I took the dogs out on a run to Walgreens to get my prescriptions filled. They found a persimmon tree along the way, so I fed them a couple that were hanging low enough for me to reach. Maybe we’ll get a tree out of it next year.

I went ahead and took them back around our normal circuit, though they weren’t behaving super well. In addition, Stilgar had eaten my old cat water jug, which angered me. We made it back home after some tugging along, and I continued my research to pick a new primary care physician. I also waited forever for Summer to finish doing work from home so we could pick up my prescriptions.

I started feeling a little hot behind the ears in the afternoon, and noticed that my pressure was climbing again. Sensing my urgency, Summer got up and we went to get my medicine. I continued to feel slightly worse, so we decided to swing by the Conway Regional clinic to see what they were like. There I encountered two familiar faces: Monalisa, who I don’t think I’d seen since my time at Asurion, and Lelan’s friend Cindy. Mona got me set up with new patient paperwork, which frustrated me further. It’s 2024. Get an iPad.

I think if I had known they were open in the evenings at no additional cost, I would have made my decision a lot earlier to go there instead of the local Baptist Health clinic. My only real gripe was about the lady that took me back and did my notes before the nurse practitioner saw me. She kept yapping loudly in my ear as I was trying to calm myself for her to take my blood pressure. It actually increased noticeably in the time I was in the room with her. The practitioner, Crystal, was wonderful. She came in early and gave me half the dosage of clonidine that I received in the ER the night before, and my pressure started coming down. We talked to her for a bit, she wrote me a prescription for some clonidine to take home, and we scheduled a full workup for January so I can get an early start on my high deductible.

We ran back to Walgreens for the additional meds, then ran home to change for the Christmas parade. My heated vest made me feel pretty fluffy, but it worked – at least around the collar. The body elements could have been warmer, but I couldn’t figure out a way to adjust just the neck. We made it across town and found a space in front of a tree where nobody had sat down. I hated to show up late and then get the best seat in the house, but the guy next to us encouraged us. We waited for Eaddie to pass, then crossed the street again to leave. I didn’t much care for interrupting the parade, but there was noone there to stop us, and Summer insisted.

From there, we went by Kroger for some bananas before I took us to Ridgewood for some food. I spotted Grant and chased him around back where he was trimming some brisket. I talked with him for a little bit, and I think we had a good moment to break through some concerns I had. He walked me through the restaurant and I got some food, and then we headed home.

Summer went straight for a bath while I mostly tried to relax. I kept watching my blood pressure since I couldn’t start a new cycle of meds until the next day. I was concerned that only getting half the dosage of amlodipine wouldn’t be enough, but maybe the addition of metoprolol will make up the difference. Time will tell, but for now, I guess I’m carrying three bottles with me.

Just, like, chill out, man.

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Newly Guests

Summer went to Conway for a run this morning, so I got up to take a shower before she got back home. When she did get home, she said she decided to subscribe to the monthly Full Self Driving for me for Christmas. I felt like that was a fair compromise for her wanting to get me something, and me not wanting to receive anything. Even if I don’t commute in the long term, we can always cancel the subscription.

Eaddie got home a little after that, and we all got ready to go to Chris’s house for Thanksgiving. I loaded up the drinks and Summer brought her broccoli salad and some deviled eggs, and we headed up the hill. We arrived at a full house just behind my parents, and I think Julie and Kevin were the last to arrive. The only other people I knew there besides Lelan and Steven were Seth and Danielle.

The inebriated Chris gave a little speech and then we all got to eating. We found the proper dining room table and crowded around that with some other strangers. Julie got into a fight over Disney Adults with the one small, loud-mouthed child that showed up. It was a fine time.

After we ate, Lelan was making rounds and stopped by to talk. I ended up taking her and Kevin for a ride with FSD. Kevin babysat in the driver’s seat, and we rode to the Neighborhood Market and back. As we made our final turn, the car took a left in front of a blind hill and then stopped in the middle of the lane when an oncoming car appeared. Kevin gunned it and we all got out to kiss the ground.

We stayed for a little longer, and then the girls had to get home. I took the dogs for a run before it got dark, and we caught my parents just as they got home. Then I spent the evening sending texts and submitting Vine reviews. My bedtime shifted way too much, so this weekend will be a treat trying to get it turned back around.

Like Thanksgiving in a hotel lobby.

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Bang a Drum

I was surprised to wake up first this morning, but Summer wasn’t far behind. She made some sausage, eggs, and biscuits for us. Eaddie ate with us, then left for church after a while. I sorted some Amazon stuff and did some reviews, but apart from playing with the dogs, things were pretty quiet.

Eli came over after church, but then they wanted to go to a Tech band concert in the afternoon. Summer and I got cleaned up and met them there. I wouldn’t be so opposed to going if I had more free time, but that comes at a premium these days. They’re better than Eaddie’s school band, and I love going when she’s playing, but this just feels like too much extra if I don’t have the time to actually enjoy it. The pieces today were also super long, and though the students played well, I just didn’t care for one super long, super aggressive percussion-focused piece. It was not at all pleasant to hear.

The kids went on doing their own thing, and Summer and I went home to change before going out to Mulan’s for an early dinner. Mollie spotted me getting food and gave me a big hug. She’s back on chemo, and I guess that means she can go out in public again. I invited them over for a quick drink after dinner, but she said they had to get home.

Summer finished up some laundry when we got back to the house, and I took the dogs out for a run in full darkness. They did reasonably well for not being able to see anything. We stopped to see Dad, then made a short run home for hot dogs and dinner. I tried wrapping things up quickly after that. Some of the guys are showing up at five in the morning to start moving the core servers. Randy said I didn’t have to, since that would mean waking up before three in the morning. I have no idea what I’ll be coming in to though.

In the Air

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Hundred Baker Would

Summer had a 5k in Conway this morning, but I stayed home in a warm bed for a little while longer. I checked with Diana to make sure she was home, and then I had Summer pick up an assortment of baked goods from the Blue Barn Bakery in Conway on her way home. We got cleaned up, and then went to visit Diana for nearly a couple hours. She was super chatty, and had a lot to share about music.

After our visit, Summer and I went to Walmart to pick up some things on my shopping list. We ran into Allen, who seemed a little worse for wear. I think I’ll have to check in on him a little more often. On our way out of there, I texted Mom and Dad about coming over to clean up the bún bò Huế. We unloaded the car at home, then walked the dogs to their house.

The dogs did okay, but kept pulling pretty hard for the entire walk. After we ate, Dad let me fly the FPV drone around a little bit as it got dark, and Summer played with the dogs. Then we walked home in the dark and settled in to watch some Agatha All Along. Eaddie was gone all day for a robotics tournament in Conway, but came to visit with me once she got home. Everyone was tired and went to bed pretty early.

Is it even bread?