Tag: friends

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Free Wheeling

Traffic was horribly slow all day today. Things got worse when Kim texted that the internet was down. I didn’t even bother asking if she had done anything to investigate. It looked like a couple switches went down after I tried some upgrades yesterday, and doing more upgrades just caused more rolling outages. In the end, I still had two stubborn switches that wouldn’t respond and had to be power-cycled.

I was pretty burned out after that, but I eventually started tinkering with Modern Driver Management in SCCM. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow, but hopefully it makes things a bit easier. I ended the day with an empty office after Denice left pretty early to go to a ballgame.

After a slow drive home, I fed the fish and brought another end table home. Summer was working on the couch, so I went out on the Onewheel and met another guy around the corner that had an XR. He said he was out riding with his baby, hoping to run into me after seeing me around the neighborhood. We swapped boards for a bit while we chatted, and then I continued toward my parents’ house. I saw Wesley outside for the first time since we moved in, so I stopped to talk to him for quite a while. Long enough, in fact, that my board shut off. I didn’t notice, and when I got back on to leave, it flew right out from under me.

I finally made it to my parents’ house to see Mom, but Dad was on his way out for a church meeting. Mom was eating, so I didn’t stay long before heading home to finish the last burger. Summer worked until she went to bed. Eaddie got home late after watching a concert. I just did my best to wrap up so I could catch up on some sleep.

On a roll.

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OUTAGAS

We all slept in this morning after I initially woke up just before five as Eaddie jokingly suggested as a departure time. We loaded up quickly, and Summer and I went in for some breakfast while Eaddie sat in the car. Then we met Dad at McDonald’s to pick up some steak, egg, and cheese bagels for Julie and Kevin. The kid at the register kept wanting to tell me too much information about his struggle finding the right picture on his employee register, or how he’d eat his Quarter Pounders with leftover gravy from the morning’s breakfast. Eaddie wanted to try one of the bagels, so we split one before we left.

Dad followed us while we kept getting stuck behind slow traffic, but eventually we passed most of it and got ahead of him. We stopped for a restroom break in Ozark, but didn’t need to charge. Eaddie had rehearsal at Tech after we got home. I unpacked and then left on the Onewheel to see Mom, and then ride the bagels over to Julie across town. She suggested I could go find Kevin at the airport, but I ended up a couple blocks over at my friend Kevin’s place.

Kevin hopped on the board and rode a little bit, but then wanted Matthi to try it out. That kid wasn’t afraid of anything, and immediately jumped on with reckless abandon. He got pretty good at it too, and then brought out a RipStik and a classic two-wheeled hoverboard to show me. Kevin and I ended up chatting for quite a while before I left and circled through the old house to feed the fish.

I didn’t quite make it back home before my battery died. I would have made it if I hadn’t circled through the Ridgewood Brothers’ parking lot, and nobody was there anyway. I had to walk most of the way up Honeysuckle, and the Onewheel got heavy fast. I got to the top of the hill and was able to ride it for a few more feet, but then had to walk it from the end of the street back to the house. It was the hardest workout I’ve had with the thing, but it was worth it.

I eventually had a shower after getting all sweaty carrying the Onewheel. Eaddie ate with Eli, so Summer and I had some leftover corned beef. She spent most of the evening like the rest of the weekend, not feeling great. I thought for sure I had seen something about not having school on Monday, but I don’t know where I hallucinated that, because there’s even a lunch menu. I’ll have to take another day off to take the Model 3 back to Tulsa, which makes me a bit sad, but I think it’ll all be worth it in the end.

I could ride you, but I’d have to charge.

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31,680

The girls went to work and school this morning, so I had the morning to myself. I didn’t sleep in super late, but I got plenty of rest before getting up to finish some biscuits and gravy. Then I watched some YouTube before I took a shower and eventually got dressed to go out on the Onewheel.

I rode over to Ridgewood Brothers and saw Grant and Kyler for a bit. Then I started to ride toward the wash before I remembered Summer was out of town. I circled around and headed back toward home, but stopped near Sequoyah when I got a call from Tesla. They’re about ready to buy my car back, and wanted to schedule a drop-off during spring break. I told him we were traveling, and he said he would check on the paperwork dates to make sure we’d be okay.

While I was stopped, I got a text from Dustin asking if I was okay, or if I needed a ride. I continued back toward the house and then split off to see Dad for a moment. Then Summer finally made it back to the wash and I decided to run across town to see her. I stopped at Sonic along the way to try one of their “dirty” sodas. The cream and coconut were most pronounced, and then there was a whole lime thrown in, which was surprisingly subtle.

By the time I made it to the wash, I only had about 20% left. I let one of her employees try it out, and without any experience, he jumped on and just took off around the parking lot. It was pretty impressive. I hung out for a little bit, but Summer was going to be a while, so I took the Onewheel home in her car to charge.

Eaddie was home, but about to leave the house again. I chatted with her for a little bit before she left, and then waited for Summer to finish up at work. She wasn’t hungry and just wanted to go home and take a bath, so I took her to the house and rode the Onewheel back to Ridgewood for a little smokehouse treat. It got cold out, but I kept riding and went back to my parents’ house to pick up a couple drain plugs for the kitchen sink. By the time I made it home for the night, I had ridden about 15 miles, which more than doubled my personal best.

Summer was watching the new Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle until Eaddie made it home. Then we watched a few episodes of the The Office original UK series before the girls headed to bed. I fought my computer for a couple more hours, but eventually settled in.

That’s a lot of revolutions for such a little tire.

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Slippery Dippery

We had some makeup testing today, so I didn’t feel super comfortable changing any more network configurations. I wasn’t super motivated to do anything at all, really. Kim wasn’t particularly useful, and Denice had guests in her closed office all day. I just passed the time. Slowly. With ham rollups for lunch.

I went straight home after work because Summer had dinner going. Eaddie and Eli were watching the new Cinderella movie while Summer barbecued chicken quarters. It was a nice dinner, but the chicken and green beans were both undercooked, and the potato salad was bland. I really don’t think she tries any of the food as she’s cooking, and then just sits down with everyone else at the table to find out for the first time how it tastes.

I put the larger pieces of chicken back on the grill and ate what I could, but I think I was hungrier after I ate than before I started. The kids left, and I went out on the Onewheel for a little while. My parents weren’t home, so I continued around to Ridgewood to see Grant for a minute.

Afterward, I floated through the neighborhood for a new path back home and thought I’d try the Waco Detention Basin Trail, which may not have been a path back at all. It also wasn’t dry. It was dark and completely unlit, and there was a layer of silt that I couldn’t see over the concrete trail. I narrowly escaped going down to the ground, but got a streak of mud up my jeans. I backtracked up to the road and made it home, but then rode over to my parents’ house to borrow a rat trap.

What I thought was a mouse yesterday looked a bit bigger on camera today, so I brought two larger traps home. I set them with some peanut butter, along with the little jar trap, and hoped I could catch something overnight. Summer was working late, but then I upset her with my own airing of grievances as she went to bed. I stayed up and did my load of laundry, periodically stepping out to listen to the rain.

bberry

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Twowheels

Eaddie left early this morning for all-state weekend, and my school had a “winter break,” so kids were out and teachers were only there for parent-teacher conferences. Traffic was thin enough that I had a nearly uninhibited drive in to work, save for the last mile. Kim showed up late, and then disappeared around lunch time. I just kept working on SCCM and never saw her again.

I was pretty hungry when I left work since the cafeteria was closed, so I stopped by McDonald’s in Dardanelle for a Big Mac, then fed my fish, and picked up some fries afterward before stopping by the wash to see Summer. I finished those on the drive home, and then jumped on the Onewheel to get some float time before sundown.

I took some milk back to my parents’ house, then rode around to Gary’s house to chat with him for a minute. As I was leaving, I accidentally knocked my earbuds out of my pocket, and they both popped out of the charging case. I nearly rode over one of them before I noticed, but it seemed like only the case got scratched.

From there, I rode down to Ridgewood, but didn’t see anyone I knew. I circled the building, and then a kid named Kyron(?) chased me down on his Onewheel GT. We stopped and talked for just a few seconds because he wanted to see my board. Then we split off and I headed home.

My head cold got bad pretty quickly from there. I had body aches and a bit of a fever, so I cleaned up some leftovers, made some Theraflu, and went to bed before Summer even made it home.

Okay.

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One Wheel Keeps on Turning

Traffic was bad in Dardanelle this morning, but I was only a couple minutes late to work. Testing went without a hitch. Kim was out of the room a lot, but I was never quite sure what she was doing. I was pretty sure it wasn’t closing a bunch of work orders. Most of my work was pretty immaterial again, because the morning went by quickly, lunch time was loud, and then the afternoon gave way to more conversations about the impossibility of maintaining my department at my rate of pay.

I got permission for Johnny to come visit for a day so I can mentor him on some things. Then Ben called at the end of the day and we chatted for a while on the drive home. I stopped by the old house quickly to grab a couple more things while Summer was home early with Eaddie and had dinner ready. Clay walked by the house and stopped to talk to me some more, but didn’t keep me too long.

I was proud of Summer for creatively making some stir fry out of the tough ribs she baked the other day and some vegetables that I had prepped from our salmon night. Afterward, I went out on the Onewheel and fed the cat, and then decided to ride on down to Ridgewood Brothers to see if Grant was there. I got him and one of the other guys on the Onewheel for a bit, and then he sent me home with some apple crumble that was incredible.

Sensing some dire levels of stress, I got Summer to go back with me for some more dessert, and we got to step to the back of the restaurant and chat for a little bit more. Hopefully we made a meaningful difference. Eaddie spent most of the night in her room, and Summer went to bed as soon as we got back home. I stayed up a while longer, but felt the exhaustion roll in pretty hard.

The morning sun is rising. It’s kissing the day.

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Regionaires

Eaddie left for all-region early this morning. Summer was out of bed super early after a work call, and I woke up pretty early myself, but laid in bed for a little while longer, unable to go back to sleep. I eventually got around and cleaned the kitchen a bit while Summer went to the gym. She didn’t stay long because she had to get Eli’s boutonniere from the flower shop. The kids came over around lunch time but weren’t hungry, and I eventually had a shower and had to drain the basement again.

We picked up my dad for the concert, and made it plenty early for the percussion ensemble before Eaddie’s band. The whole thing was about half an hour behind, so we were worried about the kids having to rush through pictures and dinner before the dance. We dropped Dad off at his house and then the kids met us at home to get ready.

We took a bunch of pictures, and then Eaddie refused to wear her fancy new dress to dinner or the dance, and wore her band dress instead. Once they left for dinner, I finished the eggplant soup. Then Summer and I went home so she could get ready to chaperone the dance. I stayed home and tinkered a bit, but didn’t actually get as much accomplished as I had hoped before everyone got back home.

The kids watched a little bit of TV before Eaddie took Eli home. Summer was already in bed by then, and I eventually wound down around midnight.

If you’re sumping rain, in your neighborhood; who you gonna call?

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It’s Heavier Than You Think

I was early to work again this morning, so I had some time to ease into the day before I had to meet with the music department to help them figure out the audio mixer in the auditorium. I was a little annoyed that Eric was downstairs the entire time to direct the band, when the whole point was to show him how to work the machine. At least Kelsey was there, and had the benefit of a little bit of experience with the mixer.

Other than that, I did a bunch more reading and only a little bit of tinkering with my imaging process. I’m still leaning toward rolling out SCCM, even though they seem to be pushing Intune as the wave of the future.

After work, I grabbed some free gum at Casey’s, fed the fish, and then ran home to change so I could meet Suzanne and Trent at Ridgewood Brothers BBQ. Summer said she was tired and didn’t want to go, and Eaddie didn’t want to go with other people there.

Grant was out back and gave them a quick peek inside one of the smokers, and then we went in to eat. It was great food as always, and then Kevin texted as we finished up. Suzanne and Trent went to the house while I ran to Harbor Freight to meet Kevin. They used a forklift to get the tool chest into the truck, which had me a little bit worried about unloading it.

Trent came out to help once we got there, and then some stranger that was walking through the neighborhood stopped to help as well. He ended up dropping his corner, but fortunately the pallet was super sturdy and took all of the damage. We felt pretty stupid once we got it inside and found a ramp in one of the drawers that would have helped us take it off the pallet.

Kevin didn’t stick around, and Eaddie had left to spend time with friends, so it was just the four of us sipping drinks and playing Uno Flip as we shared stories. Trent made a birthday cake for Suzanne with lemon and blueberries, which was delicious. We had a great time, but they left a bit early to get back home before another big drive tomorrow.

Summer immediately went to bed and I loaded the expensive tool chest with a bunch of Great Value K-Cups of questionable coffee quality.

Pay attention.

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Let’s Table That

We woke up reasonably early today, but it took us a little bit to get started. Summer went to the gym while I messed with things around the house. After she got back, we met Julie and Kevin at my old house to get the dining room table and futon. For some reason I thought he had a short truck bed, but everything fit perfectly and we got it all set up at home.

Eaddie made it home, but then left to spend the day with friends. Summer and I went to Ridgewood Brothers to try their baked potato, and Grant made us some extra special ones. He seemed a little off, so I invited him to the house after work. At first he said he couldn’t, but on the way out he asked if I was off tomorrow, so hopefully he comes around.

After that, we went to Lowe’s to exchange the toilet seat we got yesterday. We compared it with another new one in the box, and it was painfully obvious that the one we got yesterday was a return. From there, we picked up a couple things I forgot from the old house, and then made it home where I spent the rest of the evening casually cleaning, organizing, fixing, and generally trying to stay productive. Summer didn’t feel well, so she did a puzzle and watched TV all evening until bed. My big accomplishment was doing a deep clean on the washing machine, because it was smelling pretty bad. I don’t think the girls had ever cleaned it, so it was very mildewy.

I’m going to make this place into a home, one light bulb at a time.

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Less Than Marvelous

Ben texted that he was too late to meet for breakfast, and I noticed a couple of cars parked outside the Old Mill Bread Bakery & Cafe, so I swung in there to eat instead. The guy was just opening up, and had to leave to take his son to school, so he just left me with another customer in the store. Then Ben called after he realized the sessions didn’t start until 8:30, and met up with me just in time for the guy to make it back. I had a breakfast burrito and a scone with some coffee, but in hindsight I probably should have gotten something on BREAD instead of a premade spinach wrap. The food was good either way, and then we headed to the conference.

I went to a session about budgeting and finance, which I thought would be helpful to start the conversation with my business office and admin team. Hopefully I can come up with a decent proposal, and then use Technology money for a better salary. After that session, I went to Ben’s talk about Burp Suite, which was interesting. I was in a room with a very small number of very smart folk, but I wasn’t sure I had an immediate use for it.

The final session was the closing ceremony. Charlie was in Ben’s session, and he let me have his room key to get into the garage and charge. Then Ben and I sat through the closing remarks and went to the lobby for our bagged lunches. They didn’t have very many left, so we were lucky to get anything to eat at all. I figured he might stick around for a little bit to chat, but he actually ended up sticking around the entire time I was waiting for my movie. We chatted about all kinds of stuff, and then he helped me fix my eSchool student photos, which was awesome.

That left me just enough time to get across town to the IMAX to watch The Marvels. I had a reward for a free hot dog, purchased an ICEE, and sat down in my usual seat. There were only a few people there for the IMAX 3D showing on opening weekend, which I thought would be a good thing just for myself, but for some reason the bunch of old folks just kept talking through the entire movie. It would have been way more distracting if I had been more invested in the movie. I just couldn’t take it seriously at all. It was fine, but it was far from great. The dialog and plot just made it feel like another forced girl team-up movie.

After the show, I finally headed home. I stopped at the old house to check on things and air up my tires. Then I washed my car and headed to the house. Everyone was awake, but nobody heard me come in. Eaddie had left the Murano unlocked, so I made her go out and lock it up. Then I realized she left the back door unlocked, as well as the front door after she went out to lock the car. I don’t know how to correct these habits other than to make her life really annoying by making her go back outside repeatedly in the cold. Summer only got out of bed to use the bathroom while I unpacked and got things put away. I got my acrylic chair mat in, so I cleaned it and set it up under my desk. For one day, it seems like it will hold up alright, but only time will tell.

No appointing here.