RAID, the Enemy

I got to try out the autopark feature on my car this morning, for the first time since I bought it, and it didn’t even include reverse summon, or even summon for that matter. After that, I spent nearly the entire day trying to image one of the new computers for a computer lab. I had new Rapid Storage Technology drivers and everything, but it still seemed to be a problem after the Operating system deployment was completed. I did get one machine done, and I sent Kim to replace it in the lab while I worked on two more. All the while, Denice had people in and out of her office all day, which had me playing the doorman.

I left work a bit late and went home to feed the fish. I didn’t get much else from there, and headed straight home to find Summer working in front of the TV. We eventually went to my parents’ house for meatloaf for dinner. When we got home, I went out on the Onewheel for a couple laps around the block before coming in for the evening. I stopped briefly to talk to the Sign Hub family as they walked the neighborhood as well. Eaddie got home late after watching some bands, and watched most of Tron: : Legacy before everyone was off to bed.

Chaos. Good news.

Asshole Pickups

I had a terrible time crawling out of bed this morning. I must have been in an incredibly deep sleep, because it took me nearly an hour to wake up. It was bad enough that I wonder if snoozing for a few more minutes might have helped. I made it to work, but Kim wasn’t there the entire morning. She showed up for duty and then was around in the afternoon, but she didn’t really have anything to say about where she was, other than looking for one of the boys’ lost backpack all over town.

It took me a little while to get focused, but eventually I hammered out a couple of software deployments. I should be able to try imaging one of the new computer lab machines by tomorrow morning. At least it’s quieter in the side room when the air handler above our office starts shaking and buffeting the air pressure against our heads.

It only took a couple miles to find my first asshole on the way home from work. Some guy in a big, red pickup ran up behind me at the end of our two-lane stretch of road and passed about eight of us, including a full logging truck, on a double-yellow on a blind curve/hill with oncoming traffic. It I had better signal out in the county, I would have called 911 to report it, but I didn’t trust my call would be comprehensible.

I fed the fish and grabbed a handful of stuff before going to the wash to see Summer. They were busy, so I just washed my car and went home to wait for her. On the way home, I saw another truck cut off two people downtown. Then he took a turn in front of oncoming traffic as the second light turned green. I’d have given anything to be a stealth cop today.

Once Summer got home, we went to my parents’ house for some bánh tôm chiên khoai lang, which is just a more difficult way to say and spell, “fried shrimp cake with sweet potato.” Eaddie came over to eat as well, once she was done with some band concert event.

We weren’t home for ten minutes after eating before Summer had to go back to work to help clean the lube. She said someone called in, and I just couldn’t comprehend why someone in her position would feel like she had to go in to cover it.

Little DNS, little code, little vCard

First Post!

The basement flooded again overnight, but I didn’t have time to get out to drain it. I forgot my coffee creamer again, so that was also a bust. I spent much of the morning reading about Act 754, and what it meant for my own record keeping. I pushed the request for the app back on the teacher that requested it, and surprisingly she got a response from the vendor right away. No other district had an agreement yet, so I got to be the first.

Later, we finally deployed the one computer I’ve managed to image, and closed four duplicated work orders in the process. We also tried to tone out a lost line, but didn’t have any luck with that. For some reason, whoever ran the lines in the agri building duplicated a couple lines in two different rooms, and we could trace it back to the switch closet, but couldn’t narrow it down to a particular port or cable.

I left a little late after going back out to the agri building to check on Jennifer and Blake, but he was gone and she had already given up since the vendor shipped her upgrade to the wrong state. It was either that, or they just gave her the wrong tracking number.

The drive home started out stupid with FOUR drivers hogging the passing lane, but I eventually got a chance to blow by them at the end of the strip. I made it home to feed the fish and grab a couple things, and then went to the new house. Eaddie was at a band fund raiser at Freddy’s, and Summer was finishing up some stuff for work. The two of us went to my parents’ house for some egg rolls after Dad offered.

The remainder of the night went by pretty quickly. Eaddie got home and went to her room to do homework, and I did my best to get to sleep earlier.

Finished!

Floody Bools

I still don’t know where I got the notion that we didn’t have school today, but sure enough, things were back in action. I spent most of the morning worried about scheduling the return of my car, but Summer ultimately said she likely wouldn’t be able to take a day off during the week. I carried on working while it stormed with a little bit of thunder, and a whole lot of the air unit rattling on the roof. It got so bad that it started creating a buffeting pressure shift in the air, which made our heads hurt.

I took the last steak bagel to work for lunch, since I wasn’t at all excited about “cheesy pull-aparts” as a meal. I don’t think Kim did anything at all, and I mostly fought a weird sync issue in GCDS all day. By quitting time, I wasn’t in any mood to accomplish anything else, so I headed home.

The rain had mostly stopped while I went to the old house to feed the fish and pick up a few things. Then I stopped at Superfast to see Summer, where she cleaned the office in her diesel-soaked clothes. Eaddie was gone when I got home, so I cleaned up some leftovers. Then I started some laundry when Summer got home. We eventually settled down to watch some Modern Family, but then I had to drain the basement when it was time for bed.

It’s upsetting how much water gets into the basement, and how quickly it gets there. It wasn’t full yesterday, and after one solid day of rain, we had a few inches. The large animal trap also had rat poop under it, and no bait, so somebody got in and back out again without tripping the trap. I was pretty sure the bait was still there when I caught the last rat, so either the same one is back, or we have more.

Why is there so much groundwater on a hill?

Just Take a Lunch Break

Eaddie got up this morning to go hiking with some friends. Summer and I got around a little slower than that, and made our way to her bank to figure out if there was any damage done by the scammer. We ended up leaving her account in a limited state, and we’ll just have to watch it for a week or so. Afterwards she started complaining of hunger, but she also didn’t split the leftover pizza with me like I offered back at home, so I took her to Walmart instead.

I returned the garbage disposal cover we bought because it was too large, and then I kind of dawdled across the entire store with her to see if I could work up an appetite. We left with just a couple things and went to the old house to load up anything we could fit into her car.

Just after I fed the fish and started to get things moving, Dad called with a weak voice and wanted me to come help after he had apparently passed out from doing some yard work. I told him to call 911, and we raced across town as quickly as we could through traffic. We beat the ambulance by a mile, and by then he was laying in the living room floor with his feet propped up on the couch.

Summer went out back to put out the fire Dad had been tending, and the paramedics leisurely arrived without any observable urgency. There were three of them, and Summer recognized one of them as a former student. Dad stubbornly crawled toward the stretcher they had in the doorway, and they carted him off as Terry walked over from next door.

We had enough time to run home for a garage door opener and still got to the hospital before they had him in the system. Julie showed up shortly after we did, and then Mom arrived shortly after that. Once they had him in the system, Mom and Julie went back to see him. Then Julie came out and traded spots with me for a moment. Tesla called while I was back there, and didn’t seem to understand my inability to formally request leave to return my car, but tentatively set up an appointment to return Tres on the Tuesday after break. Then Summer and I left to get Eaddie and go out for dinner.

We went up to La Huerta, and Summer and I split some fajitas after some confusion. I don’t know if they just stopped doing the Especial La Huerta for two, but we seem to have that problem every time we order that now. I guess we should review the menu. Otherwise the food was okay, and then I took the girls home before taking the Onewheel over to my parents’ house to check on things.

While I was there, Julie called and asked me to pick up some clothes for Dad to wear out of the hospital. Dad was alert enough to let me in remotely, and I rode home to get my car to go to the hospital. Julie left to get some sleep before work, and then Mom left after a little while, and then I took Dad home.

The girls were in bed by the time I made it home, and somehow I lost a couple hours somewhere along the line. I really thought I’d make it to bed before midnight, but it just didn’t happen.

Flush

Steam Bath

Summer said she saw the rat on top of her car when she left for the dentist this morning. I thought I felt it watching me as I opened the door to feed it last night, and I was surprised it didn’t escape earlier. Without knowing where it went, I left the garage door open for a couple hours with the hopes it would leave on its own.

I had some cereal, but then the girls got hungry and I ordered some pizzas from Domino’s for an early lunch. Summer left for work in the early afternoon, and Eaddie left to hang out with Eli, so I decided to take a hot bubble bath after being cold all night. I played Don’t Touch Anything on the Steam Deck and got half a dozen or so of the different endings.

I eventually got around to leaving the house, and took the Onewheel for a long ride to the Neighborhood Market to drop off recycling, and then to the old house to feed the fish. I plugged in to charge a bit while I aired up the R1 tires and took it for a ride to the carwash. The front brake lever was super squishy, so I’ll need to bleed that line before I take it out for any lengthy rides. I’m super late for an oil change anyway, so I might as well tear it down and do that myself too.

While I was at the wash, Summer said she got a call from the bank that her account had been compromised. The more she talked about it, the more it sounded like a scam call, which upset her even more. I took the bike back home and rode the Onewheel back to my parents’ house before sunset, and Mom made me a bánh xèo for dinner.

After I ate, I rode on back to the Neighborhood Market and got behind a smokey truck that seemed intent on leaving me in clouds of black soot. I picked up a bag of oranges and dropped it off back at home, and then made a couple more loops around the neighborhood before parking it for the night.

Eaddie was out late, and Summer kept dawdling at work, so I had to call both of them home. When Summer got home, I had her reset a bunch of passwords to try and mitigate any other account shenanigans, and tomorrow we’ll visit the bank.

Just throw your phone away.

Missing Innaction

Kim decided pretty early in the day that she just wasn’t into it, and went to the elementary for nearly the entire day. I saw her briefly for lunch, and then just before she left for the day. The cafeteria made a ton of peach “pie” that I would have called a crumble, so I took a big container home. Everyone seemed pretty ready for spring break.

I fed the fish and brought a couple more small things home, and Summer had dinner going again. Eaddie was out and talkative, and we had a nice pork chop dinner. It looked like storms were incoming, so I went out on the Onewheel for a pretty aggressive carve session around the block. By the time I made it back home, my left foot was aching pretty badly. I took some trash out and then ran by my parents’ house to see them just briefly.

On the way back home, I had my arms up as I leaned in and out of some curves in the road, and a guy came down the driveway at the end of the house, mimicking me with his arms. I stopped to chat and let him give it a whirl. He said he used to skateboard, so he picked it up really quickly. Then his little girl tried it out, and she did pretty well too, while he held on to her.

I made it back home and felt sticky from the humidity. Eaddie and I sat on the porch to chat for a little bit as the rain slowly came in. Then the girls went to bed while I dawdled for a while, enjoying the thought of a week away from work.

Let’s get goofy!

Burn Up and Burn Out

I slept in until Eaddie started getting ready for school. Even after that, I laid in bed for a while longer. I felt a little bit better, but still had a fever for most of the day. I got around and warmed up some chicken strips to eat with the leftover gravy. The gravy was starting to turn, and the chicken took longer to warm up than I expected, but eventually I got it all in me.

My cough had worsened a bit, but the aches and chills subsided. I mostly laid around in bed all day, but eventually took a shower with some Vicks and then took the Onewheel to Walgreens to pick up an online order of more chicken strips. I prefer the raw ones, but these have been conveniently on sale.

Eaddie got home just as I was leaving, and when I got back from Walgreens, she asked how long I would be there. Evidently my existence in my home was bothering her as she practiced flute.

Summer ended up having to close the shop for one of her employees, so I took her some Burger King and talked with her for a bit before heading back home. I was still hungry from just being sick the past day, so I stopped and got a fish sandwich from Arby’s. Eaddie had asked to go study with friends, so I laid around the house alone until Summer got home.

I still had a little bit of a fever, so I called in to work again for another day. No sense in bringing that to work with me, and Kim didn’t have any problem texting me with questions she should have been able to answer on her own. At least I should be over this by spring break.

He said what?

City Swamp

I didn’t catch our rat last night, but it made another appearance on camera. We ended up having to take Eaddie to Little Rock today for less than an hour of rehearsal, but she was at Tech for the state robotics tournament all morning. Summer and I picked her up around lunch time and headed out of town. We were hungry enough to stop at McDonald’s in Morrilton, and then we made our way to the Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School.

We left Eaddie, and then I took Summer down the road to the Lorance Creek Natural Area where we walked down a trail through a swamp. It was pretty neat, but there were clouds of gnats everywhere. We almost made it back to the car when Eaddie texted that she was done. We picked her up, and she wanted to head straight back home to catch the end of the tournament, so we didn’t get to do any other shopping or adventuring.

Charge was low, so we had to plan a stop somewhere. Fortunately they built a new Supercharger in Conway, so we stopped there for just a few minutes before completing the journey home. We left Eaddie at the coliseum and then the two of us went to Ridgewood for an early dinner. Grant looked to be doing better, and things were kind of slow and steady at the restaurant.

I took the Onewheel around the neighborhood when we got back home. It wasn’t any surprise that Summer didn’t want to get out of the house again, so we settled in to watch some TV for the evening. Eaddie got home late, without a trip to Worlds, and then everyone was off to bed to do it all over again in the morning.

That’s just a lot.

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