Tag: frustration

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On Leash

I rode the Onewheel around the block this morning and found the dogs playing in someone’s garden on the corner of Ridgewood. They ran after me full-speed when they saw me, and heard me blowing the dog whistle I got from Dad. They ran all the way home, and though they hesitated to go back into the gate, they laid down on the porch like they might just rest a while. Unfortunately they were gone again by the time I left for work, and I didn’t see them as I drove away.

Shortly after I got to work, I got a notification from the same girl that posted about them on Nextdoor, and she said they were seen on Tanglewood. I sent the girls after them, and I guess they had some help from at least one neighbor who straight-up carried Muad’Dib over to Summer. Stilgar had to be fetched from the end of the road, and for some reason Summer thought it would be best to load him into the Model Y instead of just have him follow her home in the rain.

I did a bunch of Disney planning and took care of some things I’d been needing to do. Keith found me an old pallet that I could take home to mend the fence, and I eventually left that ghost town. I fed the fish and then went home to clean up. Julie called to settle a bet with Kevin, and my blog came to her rescue. I told Kevin I would have erased his name for half the price of losing the bet. Maybe now Julie understands the value I get from journaling everything.

Eaddie was out with friends, so I asked Summer if she wanted to go try the pork steaks at Ridgewood Brothers. As we were leaving, we noticed she had another crack spreading up her windshield from a pretty big impact spot in the bottom-right, so we added that to her air conditioning service appointment. Grant was at the restaurant running a full crew for a mostly empty dining room. The pork steak was good, but I don’t think ours were glazed properly when they were served. If they were, then we still needed more because they were pretty dry. Of course they were huge, thick cuts of lean meat that had been smoked and then finished on a grill. They weren’t overly tough or difficult to eat, but they would have been great with a cup of glaze for dipping.

When we got back home, we decided to take the dogs out for a walk to my parents’ house. It went pretty well until we got there and I let Stilgar off of his leash. Summer just dropped Muad’Dib’s, and he took off after a cat under the porch. I got angry and she tried to just leave me there alone, which made me even angrier. I got her to come back and help, and she saw Muad’Dib gnawing on something under the porch. We were worried it was the cat, but we were pretty sure it was just the leash. When they finally came back out, I hosed a bunch of mud off of the leash and gave them some water before we headed back home.

She went to the bedroom after that, and I took care of some things before eventually getting to bed myself. I’m constantly sleep deprived, angry, frustrated, depressed, and just about any other negative emotion there is. I’m hoping a vacation will help, but I’m already stressed about traveling, and worried about what the dogs will get into while we’re gone. Summer informing me that she’s paying Noah to come house-sit while we’re gone only made me feel worse about the situation, and angry that she didn’t consult me first. Telling me that she was going to “set some ground rules” was not the consolation she thought it might be.

I’ll have them longer.

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Nobody Asked You Patrice!

I caught the dogs in the act of digging under the fence this morning, and in spite of being in trouble, they were super excited to see me. I gave them some pets and treats with the hopes that they would stick around, and tried to cover up their start of a new hole, but they got out again while I was in the shower. As I was walking out the door, a new neighbor stopped to let us know. Summer woke up and got the front door just as I was discovering they weren’t in the back yard. Luckily we were able to get them back inside without too much trouble, but they were pretty high-energy.

There was no time for breakfast, and traffic was stupid. I got to work a little over 10 minutes late, but again, the place was mostly a ghost town. I submitted my vacation request form, though technically my contract will be over by then, and they don’t have to hire me again. I’m playing this one by ear. I ended up in Blake’s office and chatted with him for a while, and then a guy came in with three big bags of sweet corn for the school. I eventually got some for the office, and then took some home at the end of the day.

Other than that, my big human interaction was when Troy stopped by and actually sat down and chatted with me a little bit. I thought that was kind of neat, but I’m sure he mostly just needed a break from the heat. I eventually headed home and fed the fish.

I got to the house just as Summer was finishing up dinner. She thought it would be a good idea to cut up the leftover dried chicken and form patties with egg and bread crumbs. They were even dryer than the chicken was by itself, and it made no sense at all. I rolled the grill out and cooked some corn while I played with the dogs for a while. It sprinkled with a little thunder in the distance, and the dogs stuck around on the porch. It was really nice that we didn’t have to hunt for them at all today.

I wish they were trained well enough to take to work.

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Fencing Duel

The dogs were out again, but just in the front yard a couple doors down. They came home quickly and easily, but I lost sight of Muad’dib and thought he got right back out. This time they had moved some pretty large concrete blocks, so we’re just going to have to find a way to repair the fence properly. I went back out to try and find him, and Summer had to go to work for a bit. I went in to make some coffee and have a little bit of food, and when she got back home, she decided she wanted to do some yard work in the middle of the afternoon. I had to ride to my parents’ house for some string trimmer line, but then the cap on her trimmer shattered and the reel wouldn’t stay in. Muad’dib ended up coming out from under the porch later, so he must have just been hiding from the sun for a while.

Eaddie’s afternoon plans were cancelled, so we all got cleaned up and decided to go do some shopping for swimsuits and dog stuff. We shared some food at Zaxby’s first for a late lunch, and then went to Walmart, JCPenney, T.J.Maxx, and Ross. I just happened to see a 100-foot bundle of rope for like eight bucks and decided to buy that to make a couple leashes myself. I may start the Salty Dogs Pet Company after all.

By that time, we were ready to get home, so we stopped by the old house to feed the fish and then picked up some Domino’s for dinner. We had the bright idea to try and walk the dogs to my parents’ house where we would eat, but of course they weren’t in the yard when we got back. Fortunately they were just at the other end of the road talking to those neighbors, but Stilgar was the only one that would willingly run home. He was soaked from head to tail. Muad’dib had no interest in following me home, but eventually ran to the girls.

We loaded the food into the Pathfinder and the girls started to walk the dogs over, but just barely made it to the end of the street before we decided to put them in the truck. The dogs did super well for that really being their first group walk. Only Stilgar had walked with me in the past, and he does spectacularly.

Dad was home by the time we got there, and we ended up eating outside in the mosquitoey dark. The dogs sat quietly watching us eat, which made me really suspect that I’d stolen somebody’s dogs. There’s no way we’re that lucky to have found dogs that are just naturally that well behaved. We eventually went back home so we could patch the fence again, and then I brushed the dogs with the new grooming kit I got from Amazon. Both the rake and the brush I tried worked perfectly, which was also a surprise since I got the cheapest set I could find.

The girls went to bed pretty quickly. I stayed up with the dogs for a bit, and went back out again when they started barking along with the neighbors’ dogs, but then it was off to bed so I could get up early and smoke some ribs.

Salty dog and frog clip strip!

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Puppy Wrangler

I woke up pretty early, and the dogs were out in the front yard, so I brought them back in and found where they had dug a big hole and broken a part of the fence to get through. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do, but I put some stuff in front of it and went back inside and finished up some leftovers and laid down for a little longer. Eaddie eventually got up and went to meet some friends that would eventually be coming over to the house.

I eventually had to get cleaned up so I could meet with a guy from Nivo Solar. Summer came home early and was making a cheesecake when he showed up in the afternoon. I went outside to talk with him for a bit, and as I suspected, our roofline would be sub-optimal for a solar installation. I really didn’t want panels on the roof though, just because of the structure issues we’ve already had, plus the possibility of having to move panels around if the roof ever needed repairs. He scheduled another meeting for Monday since he was going to have to rework the design of the array.

I went to my parents’ house later in the evening for dinner since Eaddie and her friends had gone out to eat and Summer wasn’t hungry. The dogs spent most of the afternoon next door with our neighbor Suzanne, since she was out working in the yard. They came back when I called once, though Stilgar needed some help squeezing his belly under the fence. They got out another time or two, and at one point got stuck in the void between us and our back-yard neighbors. I rode the Onewheel around to Ridgewood to bring them back home, but they got distracted by Nick and Jessica’s dogs as they were walking the neighborhood. Summer came out with a leash to help me, but by that time Jessica had already turned around to help me walk them back a little ways toward the house.

The night seemed to drag on a bit, and I was exhausted. I should have gone to sleep early, but instead I ended up trying to clean up our clogged printer some more. I’d love to sleep, but there’s just too much to do.

Maybe some day I’ll get to take a morning walk with these dummies.

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Playbreak

I slept fairly hard last night, and woke up to the girls talking about the escaped dogs again. I took the Onewheel, but found Stilgar two houses down, coming out of a storm drain. He came over, and then walked off into the neighbor’s yard and laid down in their inflatable kiddie pool. I didn’t notice at first, but Muad’dib was inside their fence playing with two of their big dogs. After I took Stilgar home, he got out on his own and followed me home as well. They just wanted to get out and play and explore.

I got back in and made a couple bagels for Eaddie and myself, and then I hooked up an old printer and started messing with it. It would confidently print blank pages all day long, so I figure the print heads were just completely clogged. We had to get Eaddie to band camp though, so we drove separately and printed a form at Superfast before meeting with Eaddie at Tech to check her in.

Summer wanted La Huerta for lunch, so we ate and then headed back home so she could do some work. I was absolutely exhausted and kept dozing off on the couch while I waited for her. Then she made a comment about soaking in the tub, which upset me because I had told her we would go to see Dad for Father’s Day when she was done. She said she was waiting on me, but I was the one doing absolutely nothing while waiting on her. I was tired, but it still felt like another day wasted because she couldn’t get her priorities right.

We eventually made it to my parents’ house, and Mom was prepping bánh xèo. Dad was outside finishing some mowing and then took a swim. Summer knew I wanted to swim as well, but hadn’t considered the fact that she lost her swimsuit and has refused to find another one. We ended up just waiting for Mom to finish making dinner, but then Summer had to go to work for an after-hours team meeting just before we started eating.

Dad eventually took me home after dinner, and Stilgar was in the front yard. He ran up to us, but I didn’t see Muad’dib right away. Dad went home and I got on the Onewheel with a leash to try and find him. I should have put Stilgar away first, but I thought he’d stick with me for a short ride. I didn’t figure Muad’dib had gotten far, and then I saw him across the street fussing at that neighbor’s dogs. He came to me and I got the collar and leash on him, but then he freaked out and started choking himself out as he jumped and yelped. He held a grudge against me the rest of the evening. I ended up taking the collar off of him thinking he’d behave better and just follow me home, but after choking himself, he didn’t want anything to do with me. The neighbor ended up coming out with a handful of treats to help me lure him home, and it was still a struggle.

I rode back to my parents’ house just before dark to borrow a staple gun so I could try and seal our gate for good. It was dark when I got home, but Summer pulled in right after me and was able to come out to help. Eaddie came home from band camp since she wasn’t staying on campus, and played with the dogs for a while. Summer was obviously the first to bed, and I eventually made it just before midnight.

The dogs have more friends than we do.

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Tank of Least Resistance

I had a massive headache all morning, but Summer saw a post on the Ring app that our dogs were out wandering the neighborhood, so I had to ride around to try and find them. I took several laps around the neighborhood and never caught a glimpse. My feet started hurting really badly, so I came back home and walked to the back yard just to make sure they hadn’t come home. They weren’t back there, but they were in front of the garage when I came back around the house. They must have seen me somewhere and followed me back.

I fried some eggs for French bread sandwiches, and then Summer really wanted to mow. I tried to find how water was getting from the cold to the hot lines, and with Summer’s help, we eventually tracked it down to the master shower mixer. I tried to take a cold shower since we didn’t have a water heater, and it was much colder than I remembered from the other night. I tried a couple times, but just barely managed to get myself wet. Of course Summer had to outdo me and take one herself.

My parents had eggrolls and noodles, so we went over there for a late lunch. When we got back home, I decided that it would probably be best to just stick with a water tank for now. I’ve always wanted to switch to tankless, but the lack of a regulator, need for a larger fuel line for either gas or electric, need for a more substantial vent if we went with gas, and the likelihood of the work being pushed back a week for the actual work to be done convinced me that I just needed to get something done today.

I poked around in the vent to see if I could get it reattached. Dad came over when we couldn’t find where the vent actually left the house, and we found it in the secondary attic. Summer and I went to Lowe’s to try and pick up a replacement water heater, but Dad had to meet us there because there wasn’t a soul in the store that knew a thing about plumbing. We eventually just settled for a couple parts, and headed home.

The girls were able to help me lift the tank high enough that I could wrap straps around it and lift it the rest of the way. It was a super tight fit, but having a 50 gallon tank instead of a 40 gallon tank should let us keep the set temperature a bit lower, or at least keep us from running out so quickly in the winter. Dad came back over to help hook everything up after I got it in place, and I was finally able to take a hot shower before bed.

Sometimes we trade dreams for convenience.

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Seven Trains Later

Both of the dogs were gone this morning, and I found the front gate open. I assumed the neighbor accidentally didn’t close it all the way, so I took the Onewheel around the block and found them not far away, running through the streets. As soon as they saw me, they came running and I just rode home with them right behind. I thought it was a pretty good response, but Muad’dib eventually disappeared again in the afternoon.

I spent the morning cleaning up the creeping vines on the fence, so the gate was much more accessible. Then I trimmed the rose bushes so they weren’t sticking out over the walkway. Our backyard neighbor Josh handed me a bag of homegrown blueberries from their garden and we traded phone numbers. I continued to sweat profusely as the sun got higher, so I came inside for a shower. After the shower, I heard a water leak alarm and found the water heater standing in a pan full of water.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a jumble. Dad came over to take a look at the tank with me, and we started draining it. I warmed up some leftover roast beef for lunch when Summer got home, and then Dad came back over so we could pull the old tank out. We really wanted to go tankless, but the earliest anyone could come even look at it was Monday. We figured we could deal with cold showers for a few days, but needed to replace the washer in the shutoff valve, so we went to Leonard’s for that. Then Dad had to leave for his old friend Dave’s art show.

Ronda and Steven were cooking at their new food truck, so we wanted to go support their soft-open. We took that food back home to eat, and then tried to catch Dad at the art show. He was already gone, but we wandered around the gallery with wide eyes. I told Summer he was good, but I don’t think she believed me when I told her how good.

After that, we went shopping for a couple things at the house, and we also looked for some better dog collars and leashes. Walmart didn’t have what we were looking for, so we went to T.J.Maxx and found a leash and a squeaky toy. Perhaps we should have waited, because Ross actually had a better selection. Five Below had nothing. It was all garbage.

We ran home and I met up with Dad again to try and pick up a super cheap tank heater that was on clearance at Lowe’s, but they couldn’t find it on the floor. We grabbed a plug for the hot water line instead, and sealed that off so we could at least turn on water to the house without it coming out uncontrollably from the wrong pipes. I tried to track down the faulty mixer that was letting cold water back up through the hot lines, but gave up about halfway through the house.

I was exhausted and sticky by the end of the day, but at least cold showers are on the table again, and I can wash my hands after petting the dogs. Hopefully they’ll stick around for a walk in the morning.

When it rains, it leaks some more.

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Doggone

I was about 30 minutes early for work today. Then I saw Stilgar walking down the street about a block away from the house. Muad’dib was right around the corner, so I tried to wrangle him first. I got him into the trunk of the Murano, but he was in the front seat the moment I got back into the car. Of course he ran out as soon as I stopped for Stilgar, so I decided to run back home to get the Pathfinder for ease of transport. As luck would have it, they were wandering back toward the house, so they saw me as soon as I approached the end of our street, and then ran after me as I backed the car all the way back into our driveway.

I got them through the gate, but then Muad’dib was sitting there staring at me in the garage when I walked back out from washing my hands, so I walked him through the house and out the back door. I knew he’d be right back out, but I had to get to work. I stopped for gas and had trouble at the pump, but I eventually made it to work about 15 minutes late.

It was a quiet, lonely day, and in the afternoon I discovered that two pieces of equipment were missing. One was the Ubiquiti USG-Pro-4 from either my office, or possibly from when I left it in the server room. I looked everywhere for it, sure that I had left it somewhere. Then I realized the cloud key, or whatever it was, which had been mounted in the core rack was also missing. I looked back at some pictures and saw that it wasn’t there when Ben came down last week, and my security camera only goes back a couple weeks past that. Hopefully I can find who took it.

I headed home late, fed the fish, and eventually made it home where Summer had dinner ready. Dried chicken. It really was awful, and I don’t know why she cooks it that way every single time. I couldn’t even finish my bowl.

The girls never found Chani all day, so I feared the worse. They said they looked under the deck, but they didn’t look hard enough. I actually got on my hands and knees, and found her dead under the lowest part of the porch. She was covered in flies, and must have died the night before, or at least early in the day. I had no idea what could cause her to take such a sudden turn, because just two days ago she was happy and playful. Then yesterday they said she was feeling a little bad, and by the end of the night she would barely move. I could just barely reach her, so I asked Summer to go borrow a shovel from Dad while I got gloves to fetch her. Of course she hadn’t even gotten shoes on before I was ready to move Chani, so I had to go get the shovel myself or otherwise move her twice.

When I got back and ready to dig, Summer wanted to be outside playing with Stilgar while I was trying to dig a hole, which just made me even more mad. Muad’dib kept going to the neighbor’s yard, and Stilgar ran out when she came to return him. Then I had to chase them down as they ran after people walking up and down the street.

I finally got the hole dug, and carrying Chani across the yard wasn’t as unnerving as I had feared. I’ve always been a bit squeamish about dead things, but she was a good dog and deserved to be handled sweetly. I placed her the best I could, then covered her up. I milled about afterward, kicking dirt off my shoes and doing other chores like taking the trash to the curb. I took another look at Stilgar’s belly, and I’m pretty sure what I thought was a peepee was really just an outie of a belly button. I guess we have more on the way.

Eventually I came inside and sat under a cold shower for a while. The dogs were out of food, so Eaddie went to the store to get some more. She came back with a 46-pound bag, so I guess we’re in it for a little while.

Holes are hard to dig, no matter the size of the dog.

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Depeared

The dogs were still here this morning, but Chani wasn’t feeling well and was hiding under the rose bush when I left for work. Eaddie came out throughout the day to try and pamper her, but I think whatever has her feeling bad will just have to run its course. Stilgar was pretty lethargic when I first picked them up, so I’m assuming they all just got sick at some point. We made sure to pour out any stagnant water, so we’ll see what happens.

It was another quiet day at work, and I mapped out all of my switches. I’m still trying to plan new VLANs, so it may be a little while before I’m ready to assign static IPs. I guess I could at least assign the ones that connect my core to DHCP, but I just don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Dad wanted help cutting down the Bradford pear tree at the old house, so I went straight home after fighting through the bunch of idiots on the bridge. One crash involving airbags, plus like six cars blocking the intersection was just too much stupidity for one day.

I checked on the dogs, and Muad’dib was returned to our back yard by the neighbor just after I came back inside to wash up. I thought I’d take one of them with us to cut down the tree, but after getting both of the boys into the truck, they mauled me in the driver’s seat and I just had to put them back in the yard. I picked up Dad and we made relatively short work of the tree. Evidently we got a new gas meter as a result of all the utility work in the area. Mom was home when we got back, and they decided that Dad would come to Arby’s with me for their 5 for $5 deal. We got our food and then I dropped Dad back off at home before I finally caught up with the girls.

They were back from their hair appointments, and Summer and I ate while Eaddie brought Chani inside to see if some cool quiet would help. She wouldn’t take any food, and would only stick her chin in some water before eventually going back outside. After Eaddie ate, the neighbor came over again with Muad’dib and I talked to her for a bit. None of us were sure who was responsible for the fence, but I’m not sure either of us care enough to do more than patch it for now.

I spent some time with the dogs, vented at Summer, watered some plants, and eventually went to bed.

Maybe baby pineapple?

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The Three Houndini

The dogs left again sometime between being fast asleep on the porch at three in the morning, and when I got up for work at five. Eaddie went out to look for them while I was in the shower, but didn’t have any luck. I made it to work a little bit early, but not nearly as early as I wanted. The morning went by pretty quickly, though I kept wanting to fall asleep. I hardly saw anyone all day, which was both good and bad.

Summer had dinner going, so I fed the fish and made it home. Neither she nor Eaddie ever saw the dogs, but I looked down and back up, and they were all three sitting on the porch. I had to assume they were in the neighbor’s yard.

Eli was with us all evening for sloppy joes, and then drove Eaddie to meet us at the dog wash again. Stilgar had stuff all over him, and I couldn’t tell what. On top of crusty stuff, he was full of stickers from the yard that wouldn’t come out. At least he smelled a bit better when we were done. The neighbor brought Muad’dib and Chani out of her back yard again when we got back, and Chani seemed a little more sluggish than before. She’s been pretty quiet, but it seemed worse. I’m sure they’ve been passing something around, or possibly getting sick from stagnant water.

I rode the Onewheel to my parents’ house to try and sew up some pants, but Dad didn’t have any grey thread and I just headed back home for the night. I wound down quickly so I could actually get to bed by ten.

Unrested