Tag: friends

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Picnicin

There weren’t any projects to be done today, and I got called to Oakland first thing, so I just spent all day there working on a printer issue. They were having their field day, which seemed like lots of fun, but I didn’t really make it outside to see what they had going on. I did eat a lot of popcorn though.

Brice called for Brangus for lunch, and then Dale ended up buying for all seven of us with his bonus employee of the year check. I was pretty proud of eating only half of my smaller-than-usual spud, which is starting to sound pretty good right about now.

Jason let us leave early, but Zach, Gary, and I sat around chatting for a while after, and ended up leaving around the regular time. I headed home and waited for the girls to come over so we could go to the spring picnic at the marina.

We stopped by the Neighborhood Market to grab some snacks along the way, and then headed out to the park. It was a pretty small turnout for as loud as they had the music cranked up. The weather was pretty nice though. The skies were clear, there was a bit of a breeze at first, and it didn’t really feel hot until I got moving around a bit. I ran into three people that I knew in the band alone. I didn’t even recognize Dylan for his huge beard and all the weight he had lost. Nathan looked about the same as I last saw him at AT&T. I actually didn’t really know David, but he was a friend of Julie’s evidently. Aaron was there grilling hot dogs for Arvest.

We stuck pretty close to Ronda and Steven most of the evening. The girls wandered off and kind of did their own thing for a while. I took the opportunity to jump up and take a bunch of photos that seemed really good on my phone, but looking at them on a computer screen left me a little disappointed. All of the official funsquad members were content wandering around on their phones recording poor vertical videos, or streaming live to the internet. I had to try and show them up by getting into the action a little bit, and even took a few photos from behind the band. I got at least one pretty decent picture of Mark up on stage playing with the band too.

After that wound down, we came back to my house for a bit to clean up, and then went to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie stayed up and watched several episodes of Parks and Rec with us until Summer was ready to pass out.

Would have been a nice evening to sail.

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Friar Cluck

Summer started off super early to get the car show going. I got out as quickly as I could, feeling much better after sleep. I had to go by her place to get some cakes she forgot, then made it in at least before it started.

I didn’t feel confident in running more than one deep fryer because of the lack of outlets, but I managed with just one pretty well. The show had a great turnout, and people seemed to have a really good time. Nick sold out of pulled pork peculiarly fast, but we had chicken strips for days. I just kept churning them through the fry baskets, using the timer on my Pebble to keep them going. While I was there, I had a few esports kids come in to play, but they were just left to their own devices since I was busy elsewhere.

Dad came by to check it out and hung out with the Model T guys for most of the day. I pulled him away for just a bit to climb up to the roof for some photos. The trees were a bit in the way, but I got a decent panorama out of the deal.

I was absolutely beat by the time we got everything wrapped up, but I had to go to my parents’ to clean up their fryer, and then to the shop to drop off the borrowed extension cords. Somehow Summer had the energy for some gym time. I went home to clean up just a little bit, then made my way to her place to pick her up for the Magic: The Gathering open house. Travis met us there, but John and Melissa had something else going on. We ended up wishing we had brought the kids, but they were tired and moody anyway.

We played a couple games, first for Summer to watch and learn, and then again with all three of us in a free-for-all. Summer won that game, and seemed to really enjoy it, so I’m sure we’ll be back for the next open house. One of the esports kids that didn’t show up to the car show today was there learning how to DM a game of D&D, which I thought was pretty neat. They really did a lot with a small amount of space.

Once Travis had had enough, we headed home and I fried up some rice and egg for dinner. We watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec, and then crashed.

Oh, oh, it’s Magic!

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Taking Things Without Asking

Heather came to the junior high early this morning, and I tried to show her around a bit while we picked up some more computers that were going out for auction. Matt came along and said they were probably going to move technology out of my office and into a closet so James and his people could have the space, which got me really riled up. It was at that point that I decided it was okay to go gut a teacher’s classroom of student devices without asking.

I forgot my medication yesterday, but was back on it today. A big group of us met at Old South for a very slow lunch. I tried the taco salad with their Old South dressing, which seemed like it was all mayonnaise and garlic powder. The waitress even had a little spiel about how she couldn’t tell me all the ingredients because then it would be “everybody’s” dressing, and that it would ward off vampires, boyfriends, etc. It was a little surreal getting all of that considering how busy they were. The taco salad was good though, even with the weird mayo dressing. I felt like it was more taco than salad, but I’d never complain about it because then they would just give less meat.

After lunch, I had to go to Oakland to help with a National Board video conversion. Erica stopped me cold in my tracks and said Ben told them he was moving me to the high school. It was a bad day for everyone.

When school let out, I went back to the shop to chat with Ben until we went to Alene’s retirement shindig. They really do it up big for those at the top of the food chain. Dale gets his party in the library. I imagine mine will be in a bathroom somewhere, assuming I don’t die from it first.

When I got home, I started some laundry and then tried out Breath of the Wild in 3D. The pictures on the TV were way too diverged, and I think it gave me a pretty good, lingering headache. For a bit I thought it might even be the blood pressure, but I went by Oakland to check, and it wasn’t any worse than usual. I stopped by the shop to get the blood pressure cuff from Jason’s office so I could watch it over the weekend, then went to my parents’ to borrow the deep fryers for the car show. There, I found out that Alene was actually the travel agent for my parents’ honeymoon. If I hadn’t been born two years later, I might have been concerned that I owed the woman my life.

On the way home, I stopped by the shop again for some extension cords because I forgot them the first time. Then it was home for the evening to try and relax and sleep before the big day tomorrow.

Space Cadet.

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Planted Fitness

Summer had her RussVegas Half Marathon this morning. I had delusions of getting the girls out early enough to eat breakfast and cheer her on, but we weren’t up in time for West Main Donuts, and Hardee’s evidently closed due to a fire. We ended up getting some Burger King to go and made it downtown, parked, and walked toward the finish line just in time to meet Summer at the last turn toward the finish. She didn’t see us and I didn’t have my camera up to take a picture, but she looked to be in significantly better shape than pretty much any other run I’ve seen her participate in.

We walked toward Old Bank and sat at a table just outside for a while to eat our breakfast. I ran inside for a moment to say hello to Ryan and told him we were going to come in for a Quiz Bowl watch party for the high school team on AETN. Nobody around him had heard anything about it, but eventually we meandered in and ultimately filled up a room with maybe 50 people. The girls picked mostly a bunch of snack food to eat, and I had some “street tacos” that were good, but not what I would consider deserving of the “street” title. I’m only just remembering that I forgot my leftover cheese dip on the table when we left.

Summer took Autumn back home, and Eaddie and I went to my house so I could clean up a bit. Evidently the litter box took off on its own and left wet litter, so I had to spend most of my time cleaning up after that. She watched TV until I was ready to go, and we went back to their house so I could swap Eaddie for Autumn. I had to take her to her grandparents’ house to mow the lawn, and then I went to my parents’ house and helped Dad plant the baby raspberry bushes. I really hope they make it, but I also secretly wish they were blackberries.

It started to rain a bit, and Autumn finished with her mowing. I went to get her, then Noah, and we went to Lowe’s to scope out the promotion they were running. You could basically get free money to use in store today only by texting a word to their promotion number. I had everyone and then some try for me, but I never found anyone with more than $5. Autumn and Noah were pretty restless and agitated that I kept them there as long as I did, so we grabbed some snacks for (mostly) free and went back to their house.

Some of us were getting hungry, so I made a game plan and loaded everyone up. We went to my house so I could measure the toilet seat. Then I tried unnecessarily to switch Noah’s phone service to a different device so I could get his coupon code. I didn’t realize he was able to get the response but unable to view the web page, so in the end I just had him forward the text to me. Then we went back with all five codes and picked up a new toilet seat and four bags of Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics™ All Purpose Container Mix, which I’m hoping is their new name for Miracle-Gro Organic Potting Mix. I wanted to use it to plant my aquariums and also not murder my fish. Time will tell.

We finally made it out of the store just a little bit before closing time, and went to my parents’ house for dinner. Autumn ate boring ham and steamed rice, and the rest of us had bún bò Huế. After dinner, I tried to troubleshoot my parents’ first generation Chromecast. It would show video during the boot process, but then go to a black screen after the “G” logo. The online support just had me submit a feedback report, so we’ll see what happens.

With the whole troupe exhausted, we headed back to their house for the evening. I couldn’t resist a huge glass of water before bed, but I think tomorrow will have to be mostly dry to make it through Endgame.

Peaches come from a can! They were put there by a man in a factory downtown.

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More Carrots Than Sticks

Somehow I got suckered into checking a cart full of Chromebooks for settings the classroom full of kids had changed. I asked the teacher to make sure the kids weren’t doing this in the future, and she asked me to tell them so myself. I guess I’m a teacher now. Where do I sign up for appreciation week?

I spent most of the day at the junior high for a change, and kept moderately busy. I wanted to try Whatta-Burger for lunch, and I think Dale agreed, but there was a huge line when I got there. Brice kind of pushed to go somewhere else, so I offered Wendy’s and met him there. I’m still not sure where Dale ended up going. There was a pretty good line at Wendy’s too, and it probably moved just about as fast, but I know for a fact that Whatta-Burger wouldn’t have been worth the wait. A strawberry shake probably would have improved my mood a bit though.

Evidently we had some kind of internet trouble near the end of the day, so I ended up having to kill quite a bit of time until Autumn finished with color guard. Summer took a sick day and met with Kelsey for some insurance advice before picking up Eaddie for karate. It was my job to get Autumn there, and then take them both home at the end of the day.

I ran home and worked on the aquariums a little bit, got the girls, and headed up to their house for dinner. Summer’s rice cooker quit working, so she stir fried some dry ramen noodles with the chicken and vegetables instead. It turned out really awesome, but could have used some peppers for heat. I managed to cook the half-soaked rice in a regular pot over the stove, and it turned out alright too, which I accepted as a great success.

Autumn was a jerk about dinner and very nearly turned things very dark, but through quiet persistence we defeated her ugly attitude. Eaddie watched an episode of Parks and Recreation with Summer and me, and then I headed home for the evening.

And it wasn’t my intention to be filthy rich.

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Roller Coaster! Of Blooooooood. (say what?)

The Catapult Health Clinic was at the middle school today, and I had my visit scheduled first thing in the morning. They seemed to be running a little slow, so it took me a few minutes to get in, but it wasn’t any worse than going to my doctor’s office. The difference is that they had me do all the paperwork right there with them while they sampled my blood. That’s about the time that shit got cray.

My first blood pressure reading was 188/122. I’ve never paid particular attention to those goals, so for me it was business as usual. The second reading was 170/111, which was more than 10 points off of the first reading, so I got a third at 186/127. That’s when a different nurse came over with an alarmed look on his face. He called the first girl back over and asked what they should do, and she replied that the video chat nurse would probably just talk to me about it. After a brief wait to go behind the video chat curtain, a nurse practitioner video chatted with me and brought up a warning/disclaimer to call my doctor immediately.

I went to Oakland to do some work and told the girls about my experience, so Leslie took my blood pressure again at 183/114. Nearly an hour later, I had relaxed it down to 174/114. I was less concerned, but already coerced into calling my doctor. I could have gone in right at lunch time, but I was already hangry at that point, so I scheduled a visit for 2 in the afternoon and went with a big group to lunch at Western Sizzlin where I had an incredibly unhealthy salad. It could have been better.

After lunch, the doctor visit went relatively well. They had renovated most of the building, and pretty well removed my old doctor’s name and replaced pretty much every comfort of familiarity. I hated watching the reel of healthcare advertisements in the lobby. At least everything else looked cleaner and less dingy than before. The first nurse got my blood pressure at 160/90 in both arms and said it wasn’t that bad, and blamed the high numbers on the auto-cuffs we had used all morning. A short wait later, the ARNP came in and basically said the same, but then followed that she was prescribing some low dosage blood pressure medication. I’ve officially made it to the stage in life where I’m kept artificially alive. Also, I have ringworm.

I went straight back to the junior high after my visit was over, and had Chrystal take my blood pressure again. She had a manual cuff like the doctor’s office, and came up with 182/110, which served only to confuse me more. Convinced that Death was following me around, I continued on with the rest of my day. Summer left to go to the gym, and I took the girls to Walgreens to pick up my prescriptions before going to my parents’ house for dinner.

My parents seemed not to be too concerned with me getting medication, and leftovers were good. All I had left to do was research my new drugs.

Until I got home.

Bulk item pickup day apparently didn’t include tires or televisions, so both were left in my front lawn. The CRT TV chassis appeared to be split open, so of course it fell completely apart as soon as I touched it. The glass immediately shattered, half on the grass and half on my driveway. I would have preferred to sweep it off of only the driveway, but that would have left me feeling less defeated. My new, concerned neighbor laughed at my response that I was okay, but contemplating life.

We’ll try again tomorrow.

Blood pressure’s like a roller coaster baby, baby. I’m gonna die.

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Good Gollie

It rained pretty much all day long. The storm must have knocked out my power for a brief moment in the night, because I woke up at one point and all the living room lights and TV were on. I stopped by Oakland briefly in the morning to take care of something, and then went on to spend most of the day at the junior high cleaning up old computers. Of course the storm affected some things there as well, so everything in my office was off, and I had at least three projectors fail to come on in the morning. Luckily they all came back up after being unplugged for a few minutes.

Brice and I met Allen and Jason at Morellos because neither of them could hear me offer to drive everyone in one vehicle. It was Zach’s birthday, but I couldn’t convince him to come with us. Those that did go were just as lively and fun as ever.

After lunch, the junior high office staff was making rounds handing out ice cream sundaes, and after hearing about so many resignations it started to feel like an emergency morale booster. Matt had even made a comment about me leaving earlier in the morning, but as far as I know he doesn’t know anything about that yet. I hope everyone understands that it’s not my choice.

Summer started feeling sick in the afternoon, so I went to the Spices food truck to get some noodles for her while the girls went to karate and then dinner with their father. While I was waiting on that, Mollie texted and said she had read the blog about me moving to the high school next year. It always surprises me a little bit when I find out someone has read any of this. I hope it can serve to be at least a little bit entertaining, since I typically only end up using it for fact-checking myself. I’ll have to talk to all of my friends that I’ve made over the past couple years soon to let them know what’s happening. It’s going to be so overwhelming to make the switch.

When I got to Summer’s, she was curled up on the couch staring at nothing on the TV. She loved the shrimp fried noodles, but she slowly dragged down little by little while we watched Parks and Rec until the girls got home and I put her to bed. I was pleasantly surprised to see several of the esports kids in voice chat on Discord trying to organize some games. It’ll be much easier with a larger pool of high schoolers, and it will be interesting to see how the different age groups interact with one another.

Back home, I cleaned up and then got in a little Overwatch time for some event loot boxes. I had been needing some game time for a while. It was too bad that nobody else was around for that, but I couldn’t bring myself to queue LoL with the kids just yet.

Can’t let the kids know their coach is a filthy casual.

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Self Promoting

Gary and I chatted for a while this morning, reminiscing about the days of olde. I missed not getting to see Mitch when he came to town. He said they all went to Robert and Grant’s barbecue truck to see what they had, and that it was the best barbecue he had ever had. It got me thinking and wondering, and even made me a little sad to think back to that earlier time.

Dad texted Mom and me asking for a ride home from St. Mary’s after they had doped him up and told him not to drive. I got him home and then went to the junior high for a bit before lunch. Allen was really craving chicken, so we went to KFC for lunch, and then I went back to the shop to talk with Gary some more about how to block the kids from accessing porn on the school devices. Those kids are so crafty about it, and some of the things they do are pretty creative. I guess I just can’t imagine them living in today’s world without access to that kind of thing everywhere else, and it makes me wonder why they’d do it at school.

Eventually I made it back to the junior high for esports. Rachel and Josh came by to get a few quote from some kids and take some more pictures. Josh even staged a little artistic photo as well with a mix of someone’s Razer headphones, a VicTsing mouse, and my Monoprice mechanical keyboard. At the end of the day, I accidentally remotely restarted three computers that were being used to play a winning game, and I felt really bad for causing the team to lose an otherwise winning match. They gave me some grief over it, but they seemed to brush it all off in the end since it was really time to go anyway.

I went home for a bit to clean up, and then went to Summer’s for the evening. She prepped some more veggies and I made another awesome pizza since the girls went out with their dad. Then I spent the rest of the night playing some Overwatch with Johnny, Jack, Aaron, and Clint. It was nice to have so many people on, and I was surprised at how late they all stayed on. Must’ve been kismet.

The Executive Director of Esports, Game Master, and Emperor Supreme does not 1v1 a bruh!
The Executive Director of Esports, Game Master, and Emperor Supreme sends his Legions to dispatch his opponents!

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Grey Skies

It was cloudy and a bit rainy all morning. The girls got up and we had leftover smoked pork sandwiches that Ben made for the potluck. Then they went home to clean up and go about their day while I readied to say goodbye to my friend.

Grey seemed to go downhill just over the course of the day, so I felt like I made the right call. I scooped her up off the top of the couch by the window and set her in the carrier. She sort of half stood up, and at one point even got out a little bit of a meow, but that was it. I took her to Tanner Veterinary Clinic for one last time. They had me do the paperwork up front so I could just walk out at the end. I did alright until I looked over at their little LED candle they light for when someone’s saying goodbye to a pet.

They got her weight, and she stood up a bit for that, and then we went to a room in the back. It was all pretty quick from there. I put her up on the table and she walked around a little bit. They gave her a sedative that knocked her out in just a few minutes, but left me in there for 15 to make sure she was solidly out. I just kept petting her, wondering what a cat might dream about that’s lived indoors all her life. Finally they came back in, shaved a spot on her leg, and for some reason wiped it down with alcohol. It took one shot to stop the breathing, and then another just to be sure her heart stopped. She was resilient and stubborn to the end. I didn’t bother to take any more time, having had a few weeks to make my peace.

I headed home and had a couple beers with Split Lip, the last living bit of a life I had so long ago. Things are different now. More convoluted and often difficult. But also simpler and easier. Better. We’ve all grown and changed, or at least our view of the world has expanded. In the end, the best we can do is try to pass on what we’ve learned along our way.

Amanda met me at Ruby Tuesday for a birthday dinner. I got to use my free garden bar birthday coupon. I only ate about half what I normally do since I waited for her to get her food first. We caught each other up on work things mostly. Lots of complaining about working for the government. A little gossip about old work friends. Nothing of any consequence. The true highlight was when our waitress looked at my phone for just a few seconds and memorized my coupon code. It had to be mnemonics. She’s definitely missing a calling somewhere in industrial espionage or something.

From dinner, I headed straight over to get the girls and head up to Zach and Sara’s. Bryan, Daspri, and Gary beat us there and had already chowed down on the burgers and dogs. Hungry for some meat, I had a burger myself hoping the others would follow. Of course they did not, so I ate alone during our game of Sequence. We did that until it was no longer fun, and then switched to Unstable Unicorns. That dragged on a bit as well, just for the number of people we had. We only made it through one game, and then Bryan and Daspri rounded up their girls and headed home. We stuck around to try out a few bombs in Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. It seemed to be a pretty good hit once we got rolling, but I think the game would really shine as a team building game at work. We ended the night with a round of Mario Kart so I could assert my dominance. Zach nearly beat me, but nearly is not enough.

We ran home, stopping for gas, because tomorrow it’s off to take a hike. Somehow we really managed to cram a lot into this spring break.

You’re 5,000 candles in the wind!

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Skate, Rattle, and Roll

I came home this morning and got to work digging out an aquarium to clean up for my new fishy friends. I didn’t spend any time scrubbing glass the way that I usually do because I kind of assume I’ll be tearing this one down sooner than later, but I have to have a place to put these creatures. It took me all afternoon to get everything going, but I think it looks alright.

The girls went to get a gift for Maleea’s birthday, and then went to the park while I did my thing. I was only just getting into the shower when they came over from the park. Once I was ready, we headed to Skate Station where I could just barely keep my head up. I don’t know if I didn’t sleep very well, or long enough, or if I was just tired from messing with the aquarium all afternoon, but I was absolutely beat. The girls skated for a little bit, but I just couldn’t get myself up to do it.

After the party, we went to Walmart so I could pick up another aquarium thermometer, some light bulbs, and Summer wanted some vegetables to eat. Then we went to their house so the girls could get clothes, and I packed the fish up to bring them home. It took me a while to get them situated once we got there, and I still didn’t even get them into the tank. I’ll have to acclimate them slowly tomorrow, but apparently Uncle Giao is coming to visit again, so I really don’t know what the day is going to look like.

Autumn crashed on the couch, Summer went to bed with Grey, and Eaddie sat up watching Supergirl and begging for food to eat.

Most experts say that histamine isn’t the major cause of a runny nose when you have a cold.