MonteGo

I took Eaddie to school this morning and then went home rather aimlessly. It’s been three weeks, and I’ve been feeling the stress of not knowing what will happen. Eventually I got showered, and Summer asked for lunch since they were busy at Superfast. I picked up some corndogs from Sonic and brought them up to her office. Of course she was busy when I got there, so I had to wait around for her to be ready to eat.

When I left there, I went to the revenue office to see what I would need to register the Pathfinder without a title. Their parking lot was absolutely packed, so I went home for a break before trying again. By then, they were completely dead and I was the only one waiting with a number. Apparently the form I found online was wrong, so I got a different form from the girl there, and went back to Superfast to talk to Summer.

Cousin Nick was ready to move on buying the Montego, so I went home to trade vehicles, and then made it up to Summer’s to clean all of her stuff out of the car. I grabbed some Freddy’s on the way, and paid for it again by the end of the evening. We got everything out of the car and found the title, but couldn’t find the other key fob. Hopefully it turns up tomorrow.

Eaddie was in bed super early, so I never really saw her. Autumn passed through a couple times when she wanted something. Summer was exhausted from work, so of course she went to bed as quickly as she could.

I think I’d just rather be on a boat.

Promo Sunday

Autumn wanted to go to a fundraiser pancake breakfast at Stoby’s today, but since I was the only one willing to take her, she decided she’d rather stay home. Summer ended up having a relatively full day planned, so I went home and spent the rest of the day feeling like I was just kind of waiting for something that would never happen.

I’ve been trying not to get too stressed out about my suspension, but it’s unnerving not knowing how the school board will feel. It’s easy to swing my feelings in both directions. On one hand, they’ll want to show solidarity with the superintendent they just hired for the next three years. On the other hand, I feel like I have a pretty reasonable case. Unfortunately I’m not sure how much reason will actually play into what happens, but all I can do is plead my case.

Summer asked me to stop by for dishwasher detergent on the way back, so that got me out of the house and on a bit of a quest. I had a birthday cinnamon roll from McDonald’s in the morning, so I decided to go to Wendy’s for a $1 Dave’s Single for a late lunch. Then I went to Walmart and scoped out some heavy duty rakes before grabbing detergent. On the way back across the store I ran into Sharon and shared my woes with her. She was feeling pretty frustrated by the state of the union as well. Then I grabbed my rake and headed out of the store. My last stop was Freddy’s for a free birthday dessert, but due to some stupid system glitch, I ended up having to use points instead of my free reward. That cost me about six bucks worth of rewards.

I finally made it up to Summer’s, and Autumn had mowed, and Summer had cleaned up inside the house. They had a couple candles going that made me feel a bit nauseous, so I put them out and just tried to stay quiet and calm. Eaddie ended up wanting some help with some homework that she was really just feeling too lazy to figure out herself. She eventually woke herself up enough to complete it though. She came out later playing Autumn’s clarinet, which I dabbled on for a bit as well. Then everyone was off to bed.

Except Eaddie, who came out for a 10 o’clock dinner.

Fired Up

I took the girls to school this morning, and Autumn pitched a fit when I couldn’t explain to her why she wasn’t allowed to have her car back while we were dropping her off at Dwight. I dropped Eaddie off, and then added a couple more details to my work timeline before going outside to try and clean up the back yard.

It was just warm enough for me to be slightly uncomfortable, and the constant bending over to cut down large weeds ended up making me feel a little sick. I’ve been thinking it to myself for a while, but I really need to find the motivation to walk on the treadmill for a bit first thing in the morning. Something just doesn’t feel right any more, and I can’t keep ignoring it.

Bác Vân wasn’t out much, but Doug was outside raking leaves out from the garden they planted around my house. I really didn’t do a whole lot of work, but tried to burn down the whole yard at once. Unfortunately the taller plants weren’t really touched, and the leaves just slowly smoldered across the yard. After a while, he said Bác Vân made lunch, so I changed and went next door for some kind of soup with pasta, rice, pork, shrimp, and at least a dozen different spices. She said she made it every day, but I’d never seen her make it before. In any event, it was pretty good.

By the time we finished eating, I had to get cleaned up to pick Autumn up from school. She said she had to go to the Navy recruiter’s office though, and wanted Robert to take her. I argued against it, but only because I couldn’t trust her motives. I ended up letting her go with him while I mistakenly took a return package to UPS instead of FedEx, then stopped by Walgreens only to learn they couldn’t print a return label. Autumn was still at the high school, so I went to quickly wash my car, and then caught up with them at the recruiter’s office right on time.

I wasn’t expecting a therapy session with a young adult, but that’s what we had. He didn’t strike me as an intellectual so much as a guy that talks to a bunch of shithead kids all day, but I figured he’s the best chance at a career path for Autumn that will more or less keep her out of trouble. As a 27-year-old, his parenting advice seemed to be, “kids are gonna smash.” In the end, I hope I at least gave him some background for the troubles we’ve had with Autumn.

From there, we swapped cars and I took Autumn home. Eaddie went to dinner with Gavin and some friends for his birthday, and then was dropped off at home. Mom called and fussed at me for not coming over to eat fish soup, so I drove across town to eat quickly, and tried to make it back in time to take Eaddie to a Tech jazz band concert. She ended up finding a ride with some friends for that too, so I just tried to wind down.

Summer made it home after opening the Greenbrier wash. Autumn came out for some math homework help, which was actually a nice change. Eventually everyone wandered off to bed, and I just hoped to crash hard after a long day following a night of restlessness.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking…

Fn Keys

I tried to sleep in a bit this morning, but I still couldn’t. I got around to making a burrito for breakfast, and then woke Eaddie up to watch Breaking Bad. She eventually got hungry, so I made her a ham, egg, and cheese bagel. Autumn had an away basketball game, but I couldn’t drop her off until the afternoon.

After I finally got Autumn to the high school, I went home to clean up before taking my keys back to Thomas. Tammy met he at the door with a big hug, and then I sat at her desk super awkwardly while Thomas watched me remove the keys from my KeySmart holder. I took the opportunity that this was a really shitty 40th birthday prank, and then went on my way as he walked me right out the door again. It seemed I wasn’t welcome even to visit.

I saw Zach and Greg pulling back in as I left, but decided not to turn around to chat. I went on to visit with Dad and give him the news. We talked for a while, and then Ben called and we talked on the phone for nearly an hour. It seems I have options, but I just need to make a decision.

Eaddie wanted to make shrimp Alfredo, so I met Summer at Walmart for some groceries. I tracked down Amanda while we were there, but she wasn’t able to chat. Then on the way out we ran into Lenetta and one of her kids, who apparently knew Summer. It was fun to realize those connections for a moment, but frustrating to share my termination after she remembered my last one from Asurion.

When we got home, Eaddie resisted coming out to help, but eventually made minimal effort while I made dinner. I enjoy cooking, but not knowing the recipe by heart and having to scroll up and down between different sections of the site to find volumes and steps was incredibly frustrating. I only loosely followed the recipe anyway, and added mushrooms and broccoli to the mix. It turned out really good, though the garlic bread got burned while I tried to defrost it. I was just doing too much at once, and Eaddie was too busy on her phone.

After dinner, Eaddie and I watched a few more episodes of Breaking Bad until I had to pick up Autumn. I brought her home, and then it was pretty quick to bed since Eaddie had her National History Day project the next day.

I couldn’t even get halfway through the book before they started asking for money.

Shitty Universe

I only slept from about three in the morning until about seven, because Autumn was talking loudly to Summer right outside the bedroom door. I felt incapable of sleeping by the time everyone left for school and work, so I got up and eventually made myself a burrito. I looked for some jobs and chatted with several people. Travis was the only person from work to text me, since we didn’t have each others’ phone numbers already, and it was really nice to hear from him.

I would have liked to be more productive, but I just felt sleepy and groggy all day long. I was definitely too hazy to do anything too cognitive, and my emotions cycled through confidence, frustration, anger, depression, anxiety, and doubt. As the clock ticked on, I finally made it home to shower before having to get the girls from school.

It seemed clear outside, so I took the car for a wash before going to pick up Eaddie at hour-early dismissal. She responded that she had stuff to do for robotics while Autumn was at basketball practice. That nearly messed up Summer’s plan to start teacher conferences as soon as the doors opened.

I ended up getting Summer from Superfast, and then coming right back to the high school to try for conferences. As we pulled through the parking lot, I saw Travis and Sarah walking into the building, so I circled the lot and we happened to see Eaddie. I wasn’t in the mood to fight the stars and their twisted plot, so we took Eaddie to a friend’s house to work on their National History Day project. Then we went to Staples to get her a flip chart before going back to the high school to get Autumn from basketball.

We went back to get Eaddie and took the girls home, and then went to Las Palmas for dinner before going to conferences much later than we originally planned. Those went well, and I shared my news with lots of old coworkers, to a surprising variety of responses. The kids are lined up, but I’ve got more work to do tomorrow. I took Summer back to the Murano at Superfast, went home to trade vehicles myself, and then made it up to their house for the night. I thought I’d crash earlier than I did, but at that point I wouldn’t turn my nose up at going to sleep “on time.”

Collect the facts.

“Pack Your Things” in Nature

I really didn’t expect today to play out the way that it did.

I made it to work a little early this morning, expecting rain, and then not expecting rain. I started to go to the high school to work with Jacob, but stayed at the shop to do those same tickets since it’d be easier there anyway, and Jacob didn’t really need me to hold his hand.

Diane at Crawford messaged me with badge printer trouble again, so I ran across town to take care of that. I was there just long enough for the storm to roll in, but that wasn’t all. Judy emailed Jeff and me that she needed to have a disciplinary meeting with me at 4:30. Everyone knows it’s no good to have a disciplinary meeting after hours. I knew they were terminating me right away.

I got back to the shop and told Zach, and then Tammy, and then Ryan. I felt like they were all as stunned as me, and we all kept going back and forth on whether it really was a termination or a writeup. It just didn’t make sense, but I could play it out either way in my head. I’ve heard of more and more distrust lately, and frankly I think it bit me.

I asked Zach to be my witness, and then asked Greg and Justin since they were there as well. For a moment I thought I’d actually have a group to support me.

Nobody else was around, so Zach and I went to Arby’s for a nauseating lunch, only on account of my anxiety. I was glad I ate though, because not eating would have made the long night even worse. We made it back to the shop, and I tried to be useful until quitting time. Gary and Thomas had been at training all day, but came back in the afternoon.

When it came time for me to walk across the street, I went to say some goodbyes, and Thomas hugged me and said he didn’t know what they were going to do. I figure that was an untruth at best, because I’m pretty sure he’s the only one that raised the flag at Central Office in the first place.

Justin beat me to the office, and we went in to find Judy. She was running all around, and was acting lighthearted enough that I sort of got my hopes up. Jeff was just solemn-faced the entire time though, and we sat down at the table in his office. Judy said not to read too much into the timing of the meeting, which prompted me to ask if they weren’t terminating me. She replied that she didn’t say that either, and I felt yo-yoed around. In the end, she presented me with a page that accused me of purposefully hitting an employee with my vehicle on school property.

I kept it together and took my licks. I think she was trying to help me at least a little bit. We left and I spoke with Justin for just a moment before going back to the shop where Thomas and Gary were talking. I was pretty sure Thomas was shocked to see me badge back in, but I don’t know who else would have disabled it. He offered condolences and help, but I figured it was too late for that. Both Judy and Thomas said it was fine for me to have badge access all night to clean out my office, which seemed very out of the norm. Very little of the afternoon made any sense at all.

I went home and talked to Ben while I waited for Summer to get the kids home. She beat me to Gardner, so I ran back across town and we got to work cleaning out my office. Then Brody called me and we talked while loading the car. It was big stuff first, and we made two trips back to the house. Kevin called me to get the scoop as well, but didn’t have a whole lot to add that I hadn’t already heard. After we unloaded the second time, we went to Chick-fil-A for some dinner. Then I let Summer take the Montego home while I went back for one final load of little stuff that had to be boxed up. I was out until well after midnight, but I got it done.

Once I had my nightly routine finished, I headed up to Summer’s to crash for a few hours until it was time to take the kids to school in the morning.

Seriously, could you have whipped that pen out any faster?

Parenting 401: Teenager Wrangling

Thomas had a meeting with some of our guys right outside my door this morning, so they shut me in. It didn’t seem like anything too serious, so I didn’t really get the whole shutout thing, but it was fine. Afterward I went to Crawford to take care of a couple things before lunch.

I tried to get Dale to come to Taco Tuesday with us, but he said he couldn’t make it. Allen happened to find us there though, and he had a lot to say. The food was pretty good today, which was an improvement over last night.

When we got back, I spent some time with Special Services, but couldn’t actually get their signature pad working for their application. Apparently the documentation specifically calls out that they do not support signature pads, so we had to take the “L.”

The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet, but relatively steady. I cleaned up some old tickets, but I’ve got some more important ones that I really need to wrap up. Most everyone left right at quitting time, so I rushed Tammy out, and then went to my parents’ house to help Dad put the gate back together.

We chatted for a while, and then I finally made it home to swap cars before heading up to Summer’s. She made salmon and Brussel sprouts for dinner, and then Eaddie started on some homework. Autumn was supposed to be at a basketball game, but I caught her driving around to the back side of the high school again and finally convinced Summer to catch her and Adam in the act.

We loaded up, and I dropped Summer off at Autumn’s car. Autumn immediately freaked out, but Adam calmly got out of her car and into the Murano with me so I could take him home. The drive wasn’t too awkwardly quiet, and the conversation with his father was probably a little too easy. At least we didn’t catch them actively doing anything too bad. I told them I understood just wanting to hang out with some peace and quiet to talk, but that if they say they’ll be in a public place for an event, they had better be there.

The girls met us back at home, and we talked to Autumn some more. Who knows if it will do any good, but at least there wasn’t any screaming by the time we got back. All things considered, she seemed to be in fair spirits. By that time, it was off to bed for everyone.

It’s clobberin’ time!

Tank You

I got up this morning and started making some fresh refried beans in the Instant Pot. They turned out a lot spicier than I expected, and I think I need to come up with a new recipe. They’re not bad, but they’re just not what I ever expect when they’re done.

Suzanne texted out of the blue and asked about a fish tank, so I told her she could come and get the 55 gallon from Summer’s. She showed up about two hours later than she said, which pressed the rest of our afternoon. Summer went to the gym and Autumn took Eaddie to Gavin’s for a day hike. I ended up going home to dig out the aquarium hoods and lights for Suzanne to eventually show up.

Summer was summoned to Conway to chat with some girls from work, so I let her take the Model 3 for practice and fuel savings. Then as soon as Suzanne and Trent left, I headed to my parents’ house to help Dad mend his fence.

The fence was in pretty rough shape, but I guess Dad’s just not ready to do much to it. We pieced it back together the best we could, and left the gate for another day. I headed back home, expecting Summer to be back about five hours earlier than she did. I took a shower and just killed time at the house until she got there, and then we got gas on the way to her house before going straight to bed.

No tanks.

Too Stressed Three Me

I went to bed really early, but it was still a really rough night of tossing and turning. I went in to the office and mostly stayed quiet in my room, trying to solve the puzzles they pay me to solve. Tammy sent me to the main office to set up a scanner, and I happened to catch up to Gary on the walk over. He lent a hand, and then chatted with me about the witch hunt on the way back to the shop.

Zach had been out of the office most of the morning, but came back for lunch. He, Gary, and I went to Foodies, which was tasty but extremely slow to present our meals. Zach had never been, so it was a nice change to try something different.

In the afternoon, I finally got around to talking to Thomas about what happened on Monday, and he seemed upset that I didn’t specifically incriminate myself in writing. I just explained to him that I didn’t see any other way out of it, and that this kind of documentation is never going to be used to benefit me. I sent the email, and then worked out the day as productively as I could.

After work, I stopped for a cold and windy car wash before going by Superfast to visit Summer. Then I stopped by her wash to vacuum out my car. I thought I’d go by my parents’ house, but never made it. Instead, I backed up some videos from Sentry Mode on my car and tried to relax at home.

Summer had a meeting at the ATCC that ran a bit late, but I met her up at her house when she finished. We ate some leftovers, and then I had already taken care of most of my nightly tasks, so it was easy to get to bed.

If you’re going to believe every off-the-cuff remark I make, your mother’s got some explaining to do.

Nothing Happened

Gary came by early this morning and told me to go spend the day with Kyle. I actually had quite a bit to do, so this was pretty frustrating to hear. I still barely made it over to the junior high before lunch, because I got stuck trying to get a signature pad working for support services, and then had to run by Crawford to pick up some headphones and, bizarrely, try and help Kevin set up an aim bot for Call of Duty.

When I actually caught up with Kyle, he seemed to be more or less under control. I expected him to have a bunch of nonsense backed up, but it was mostly repairs and he didn’t really need my help with anything. He suggested Quiznos for lunch, but I ended up going back to the shop to pick up a crew for Wendy’s instead.

I went back to the junior high after lunch, but kept having to field high school questions from Jacob. He was clearly frustrated by devices not behaving with SCCM as he expected, but we’ve just been such a revolving door that there’s not much history at the high school after I left the building.

I finally made it back to the office at the end of the day, but then Thomas walked into my dark room and asked me about what happened with Zach after work the other day. I told him I felt terrible, and he seemed sympathetic, but like he was still caught in a position of having to file paperwork. He asked me to email him my side of the story, and I spent the rest of the night fretting over how not to incriminate myself or anyone else. I figure it’s none of anyone’s business what happens after work.

Eaddie had walked to my house to ride her bike, but she was back home by the time I made it there. We left for her house and stopped at Sonic for some cheese sticks along the way. Then I made them burritos for dinner, and drank mine. Autumn came home nonchalantly after an alleged study night at the mall. Eaddie went to bed early for all-state over the next couple days, and Summer was in bed by her usual, early time. I managed to make it to bed over two hours early myself.

Ignorance is bliss.