Tag: frustration

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Crabby

I woke up early to try and beat the pups before they got out, but I was still too late. I wandered around outside a bit and then saw them right outside the gate. The neighbor said they had been in their front yard all morning, so I shuffled them back inside. They were out of food, so I got dressed and went to the Neighborhood Market for some more. I picked up some breakfast sausage as well, and made myself some eggs and a bagel to go with it. Summer wasn’t ready to eat when she finally woke up, so I just took a shower and got ready to meet my parents for their trip to Fort Smith.

The first order of business was to drop off some mint at the Midland Market Oriental food store. Then we dropped Mom off for a nail appointment and then I went with Dad to the magic club meeting. They had a show-and-tell with their assorted magic wands and canes, and the disappearing cane stole the show. I ended up holding Larry’s phone so Patrick could see things in a video call. Mom finished up, and we were eventually the first ones to leave so we could get her.

Our next stop was Red Lobster where I could finally get the crab and lobster I had dreamed of all week long. The restaurant was pretty empty for being dinner time, but the food was great. It really makes me sad that they’re doing so poorly, because I’ve always loved eating there.

Afterward we went to a couple Oriental food stores, but Truong Son was closed and we ended up back at Midland for what we needed. It was a super short trip though, and then we headed home.

Eaddie and Eli were out front with the dogs, who all had bright, new collars of blue, red, and pink. I was pretty frustrated, because Summer and I had just talked about how we needed to have a family conversation about the dogs when I got back, and here they were making purchases without me. On top of that, I found that Muad’dib and Stilgar both had choke collars, which was absolutely not what I wanted for them. Chani’s was too big, and I later found her with her with the collar strapped between her jaw and the back of her teeth so she couldn’t close her mouth.

I made Eaddie clean her room and then tried cleaning up some random things myself. I finished up some of Allen’s wine as the girls wrapped up their evenings, and eventually got to bed.

Half thoughts and half naughts.

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Dreg Lobster

I woke up really early a few times this morning and saw the dogs were still outside, but the girls were fast asleep. I had hoped they would eventually wake up and take the dogs to the Liberty dog wash like they promised after not taking them last night, but it just never happened. The last time I woke up and was ready to stay awake, the girls still hadn’t budged and the dogs were gone. I made a quick circle around the block, and even ran back by the garage sale, but didn’t see them. I came back home because it started sprinkling and just fumed over half-finished tasks.

Summer wanted to come home from work on Friday and work in the yard, but the fence wasn’t repaired. The girls wanted to bathe the dogs outside and left the hose and a bunch of flea and tick shampoo sitting out on the ground in the sun. More soap and some rubber gloves were up on the deck, but the gloves had been torn up, along with the foam handle on the hose sprayer. If I hadn’t made Eaddie take care of it before she went to bed, she would have still had suitcases in her floor from her band trip. I was sick of it.

I sat on the porch until Summer finally came out, and I lit her up for it all. She took the Pathfinder around the block and ended up finding the dogs just as I took the Onewheel back out again between raindrops. She got them home but wanted to take them straight to the wash with Eaddie, so I loaded up and drove separately to meet them. She really wanted to get a leash so we could obey the rules of the wash, so I stopped by my parents’ house and got an old choke collar and some rope from Dad.

The wash would only start with a $10 payment for 10 minutes, but you could add five more minutes for $4. Since we only got one dog out of the car at a time, we just started three different sessions. Muad’dib was the first to go, and the most upset by the whole process. He also hated the leash, but would behave fine without it, so we eventually got him finished and back into the car. When we took Chani, someone had peed on the tarp, so we threw a towel in to soak it up before it got onto the upholstery. By the time we finally got Stilgar, someone had pooped as well, and it wasn’t at all solid.

We had occupied the only working bath out of the two in the room for just over thirty minutes while it rained outside. Another guy came in and talked to us while we worked, and then wanted to show off his giant dog as we left. Once we got the dogs back inside the fence, we cleaned up the car and the tarp, and made sure they had plenty of food. Nobody was permanently emotionally scarred by the bathing, and I pulled a few more ticks before we went inside to clean up ourselves.

We left for Little Rock about three hours later than I wanted, so we’d be late for lunch. Eaddie was feeling sick from lack of food, so we stopped at the Morrilton Drive Inn, which had new owners and was now called Nooner’s Diner. We had some fried pickles and mushrooms, which didn’t seem like a good idea for an upset stomach, but it got us on the road again. It wasn’t anywhere near a typical meal time by the time we got to Red Lobster, so I wasn’t completely confident we would actually get to go back for a second meal, but I still ordered something other than what I really wanted. I figured the crab pasta would be filling enough to get us through some shopping. I hated it. At least the girls liked their food.

I expressed some pretty strong feelings when Eaddie said Autumn had texted her asking to trade vehicles so she could have the Pathfinder, so Summer held a grudge against me for most of the rest of the day. I just can’t abide terrible people, and that whole family is rotten in spite of any good deeds in the past. There’s no one-time-saves-all in my Book.

After we ate, the girls wanted to stop at Ross, but then didn’t want to actually shop for anything, so we left and went to Shoe Carnival. They didn’t have a whole lot that interested me, and what they did have was too expensive. I finally found a pair on clearance that I thought would suit my needs, and after coupons I only paid $10.

Next up was Old Navy, where Eaddie actually got excited to try on some clothes. I was feeling so parched that I couldn’t wait to find a fountain, so I bought a $3.50 Dasani, but I would have let myself die of thirst if I had known the price before I cracked the top.

I took us to Kohl’s after that, and it seemed like about half the store was a clearance section for the ladies, so Eaddie looked everywhere and tried on a bunch of things again. At least they had a bottle filler, and I drank several more full bottles while I waited.

Finally, I took us to Baskin-Robbins for some ice cream. I was pretty disappointed in the portions for the price, but it was tasty. I couldn’t convince the girls to go to Red Lobster again, so we headed home where the puppies were all still waiting for us. Eaddie and I played with them for a bit, and all of their fur felt way better after their bath in the morning. Hopefully the ticks fall away and everyone will be happy. The girls went to bed pretty quickly, but of course I still had chores.

Maybe we just need a morning walk.

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Bad Spartacus

I got to work a little early today and was greeted in the parking lot by three puppies. One had bright blue eyes, save for one little pie slice of brown, so obviously he was Muad’dib. Chani was smaller and darker. Stilgar, though; Stilgar was scruffy. Someone mentioned that they were likely dumped there at the school, which was upsetting. They would occasionally try to come into the building, so they hung around the back doors all day.

I went in and cleaned up a little more. Then I took screenshots of the configuration for one of the switches I haven’t been able to reach in preparation for Ben’s visit. I had a plan. He arrived a little late for lunch, so we immediately left for the Junction Cafe where we had a couple burgers. His with brisket looked way better than mine with shrimp. It was odd. Not bad, but less than half the size of his.

After we ate, we headed back to the office and got his little computer to put on our network. He never got it fully working, but then as I was trying to configure switches, the second core switch restarted and then broke everything downstream. Hours later, we came to the conclusion that they were basically all screaming that they had the same IP address, and were unable to reach DHCP. Due to the arrangement of the core switch and those leading to the servers that hosted DHCP, they wouldn’t talk again until I finally pulled every last fiber connection out of the aggregation switches and left nothing but the core and a link from it to the servers.

We brought everything back online and then left. The dogs were still outside, and I was torn. I love the idea of having a well-trained dog for a pet, but I just don’t want animals around holding us back. On the other hand, people were leaving, and the dogs hadn’t moved all day. I sent one last picture to Summer, and she said (perhaps jokingly) to bring them home. I couldn’t ever get more than two into the Model Y at once just because they kept jumping out, so I decided not to risk any damage to her car.

I drove home, ate a couple slices of pizza, and changed before taking the Pathfinder back to the school. I had to stop at Casey’s for some gas, and then made it without incident. They weren’t there. I walked around the back dock area where they had been all day, and they weren’t anywhere to be seen. Then I figured I should check by the fieldhouse just to make sure they hadn’t followed where people were gathered. That was when I saw one of them out in the grass. Usul. Then another. Stilgar. I struggled to get them into the trunk where I had laid out a tarp. Chani was nowhere to be found. I called for her, but nothing. I finally gave up and drove back to the building to wash my hands for the drive home. That was when she came running up to the car, from who-knows where. She resisted, but we finally got everyone loaded up.

The drive home was reasonably quiet. They were super active at first, but they settled down within just a couple miles, and by the time we got through Ola, they were all laying down in the back. Someone did something to cause a couple yelps, but otherwise they were completely silent. I got home and pulled into the driveway right behind Summer as she got home from work. Eaddie and Eli were inside already. As Summer approached, I opened the hatch for the big reveal. Everyone hopped down gently on their own, and then followed me obediently into the back yard. Maybe it was thirst or hunger, but they really were perfectly behaved.

I took the kids to Walmart while Summer played with the dogs on the porch. They needed some lunch supplies, and we got some dog food and treats. I decided to pick up a few groceries as well, and then we headed home. The dogs got really physically rowdy when the food came out, so that was a challenge. I ended up just making three piles on the ground for them to eat. Then they each gently took a treat and I left them to entertain the kids so I could go inside, cool off, and dry out.

Twice today, I asked myself how I got into this mess. I guess it could be messier.

Good dog.

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unPlugins

I must have been determined to have a bad day today. I woke up groggy, but at least I didn’t keep trying to fall back asleep. I still ran behind though, and traffic over the Dardanelle bridge was down to one lane, so I was about 10 minutes late. Nobody noticed, because even the principals were there in basketball shorts. That’s just what we’re working with out there in the county.

I stumbled upon a strange issue with accessing my virtual machines, which led me to believe there was a networking issue somewhere. I spent a while in the core closet, then gave up for a while and came back to the office where I had a cup of cereal. After I cleaned my cup, I accidentally tapped the edge of my watch against the bottom of the mug, so now there’s a tiny little chip, and though it’s not terribly noticeable, I’ll know it’s there forever.

I missed lunch because it looked like only three kids were there. Surely there were more, but I just heard no noise anywhere. I ended up having a bowl of ramen with some frozen peppers. Later in the afternoon I discovered my server problem was two loose power cables in the back of the management switch. Half of the switch was just not powered on at all.

At the end of the day, I decided to call Optimum to try and cancel service. They immediately offered service for $40 per month. One hold session later, I was also offered three months free. Finally I was put on hold to be transferred to an employee that could actually cancel my plan, and the call was dropped.

I headed home and found southbound traffic backed up from the 2nd Street light in Dardanelle, over the bridge, and all the way up past Atwood’s in Russellville. Lucky for me, I commute the stupid direction and live in the more expensive area. I fed the fish and then headed home where Summer was making a meatloaf for dinner.

I called Optimum again, waited on hold for half an hour, and finally got someone to cancel my service. The meatloaf had to go back in for some additional time, but we eventually had dinner. Then we watched Everything Everywhere All at Once. Summer seemed entertained, but it was weird. I really enjoyed it, but then it was time to rush to bed.

I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.

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Pint of Alements

I woke up feeling pretty rough, with a worse throat and somehow a dry tongue. Summer wasn’t feeling well either, but we were both hungry, so I got up and made some eggs with bagels for breakfast. Afterward, Summer said the bedroom fan was being super noisy, so I looked again and saw that it had walked across the ceiling a bit. I climbed up onto the bed and found that one of the two mounting screws had come out. There were two holes that were both completely stripped out.

Around that time, Dad wanted to borrow my pick set to extract a gasket. He rode a bicycle over and got them, and then I rode the Onewheel over to their house to find a larger screw from his jars of screws. That made quick work of the fan, but the other side didn’t look to be in great shape either. It’ll probably be a good idea to replace that screw too.

Summer had been thinking about going to Conway for the day since she had to get some work stuff from there before Monday. By the time I had a shower and was ready to do anything, she had become aimless, which frustrated me. I ended up taking her to the old house to pick up some more stuff in the Pathfinder. We took three trips, but never at capacity. We had room on the porch for the outdoor chairs though, and also picked up a couple UPS batteries. On our last trip, I replaced the thermostat so I could ship the old one back in exchange for the replacement I got.

We were hungry for an early dinner by then, so we went to Stoby’s for one of the worst meals we’d ever had there. My burger was dry to the point that it was burnt, and so incredibly salty and dry that it was just hard to choke down. Summer’s pasta was watered down and lacked its usual creaminess. I kind of wanted some possum pie, but I was afraid to try it after that meal.

We were both feeling pretty rough by the time we got home. I still had a massive headache, which I figured was likely from blood pressure. I took some medicine for that, started some laundry, and came out to watch a movie. Unfortunately X-Men: Days of Future Past was no longer on Disney+, so I ended up playing The King’s Man since I loved the first two in the series and had never seen this one. I didn’t think it was nearly as good as the other two, but it had some really good moments.

I guess I’ll try to get up and be the motivator tomorrow.

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Spring Server Room Cleaning

I took some cereal to work for breakfast, which actually worked out really well out of my coffee mug. I also brought my Onewheel so I could run quickly back and forth between my office and the server room. I took a couple trips worth of trash out to the dumpster, swept the floors, and then spent all afternoon troubleshooting one of my distribution switches that wouldn’t show up in the controller.

Summer was feeling better enough to get out of the house and have dinner ready for us, but wanted me to stop by the store on the way home. I ran to the old house to feed the fish first, and then went to Walmart. It’s been so long since I’ve been in the main store, and I love to shop. I hate feeling like I never make time for anything I enjoy any more.

Eaddie had Eli and her friend Autumn over for dinner, and I guess they couldn’t wait for me to get home. I got frustrated by that, and by the fact that Summer didn’t just have the kids go to the store so I could come straight home. By the time I got there, I had a pretty good tension headache going, and I just wanted some internal peace.

Denice emailed me to say that their internet at the house went out. I thought everything came back up after I worked on it, but I guess their point-to-point radio connected to the wrong upstream point or something. I messed with it a bit and got them working again.

We all ate and the kids eventually left. Then I took the Model Y out for a wash so I could take it to my interview at Bitec in the morning. Summer had a bag of some stinky clothes in the trunk, so I emptied all of her crap out of the car before coming in to go to bed.

It’s the same crap that was in there six months ago.

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The Very Hangry Cowterpillar

I woke up late today with an optical migraine and a headache. So much for not flipping my sleep schedule this weekend. At least it’s a three-day break. The girls had been up a while, and Eaddie planned to go to her father’s for a couple days. I was pretty hungry, so I had a leftover brat before cleaning up the kitchen. Dad was ready to uncover the pool, so the three of us hopped into the Pathfinder for a ride around the block. The pool water looked clean enough to swim in, and had probably the least amount of dead stuff in it that I’d ever seen before.

Eaddie eventually left for Clarksville, and Summer and I spent the rest of the day at home. I took care of my plants and took a shower. As dinner time approached, I struggled to come up with something to eat. Summer kept asking me how to fill out the form on the back of the title for the Pathfinder, and I got frustrated to the point that I just had to leave. I ended up at Wendy’s where I sat in peace with my Baconator and peach tea.

When I got back home, we watched X-Men: The Last Stand. I stopped partway through to make some popcorn that turned out tasting kind of stale. Then Summer went to bed while I got stuck spinning my wheels.

Dooooom

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No Son, You Failed Yourself

I got in a little bit early today, but it didn’t really help. Wave after wave of kids and teachers came in to talk to me, and only me, to check out or return devices. Jace was there with Kim again, and was being loud until I finally had to yell at him myself to stop making unnecessary noise. It was just impossible to do any work, and nobody else was really helping. I knew she had a long lunch duty, and I could have given her simple instructions on how to check devices in, but we just didn’t really have a plan going into it, and I wasn’t really backed up an unreasonable amount. It was just frustrating that I was roped to my desk all day.

By the end of the day, we only had one kid with anger issues, and were left with just over 70 students that either owed money or still had to return their device. That was a better number than last year, but still more than one grade level of students.

I headed home afterward and got stuck in slow traffic for the last leg of the trip. I fed the fish and thought I’d get back out on the Onewheel, but then it started to look like rain. I had Summer cook up the rest of the Brussels sprouts she bought the other day, and I grilled some brats as the weather sirens went off. Eaddie got super nervous about some cloud rotation, so the girls hid in the bathroom for a bit while I started eating. The sirens went off a couple times, but we never saw anything too bad on our side of town.

After dinner, everyone ended up in bed pretty quickly. The storm blew through super fast, so it didn’t even rain the rest of the night. I got things mostly cleaned up and put away, and then I was off to bed.

I just carried the grading pen a while.

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X-Day

Summer had to work this morning. I tried not to sleep too late, but Eaddie beat me to the shower. Then she disappeared to go to a friend’s party while I was in the shower. Summer came home excited about getting full self driving in her car, and wanted to go out to eat. The driving really had improved and seemed more assertive when taking off, and less afraid of cars crossing the street or turning in front of you.

We went to Mulan’s for lunch and then walked through the Lowe’s garden center, completely forgetting that I had reserved a free flower for Mother’s Day. We wanted to go grocery shopping to get steaks and potatoes for the family, but Summer started to feel a little sick and we ended up going straight home.

She had been talking about watching the X-Men movies after Mom watched the Wolverine origin movie the other day, so we watched the very first movie. Then I made her go out and mow as it started to get dark, and I cleaned up the kitchen in preparation for company.

Eaddie got home really late, so she’ll be spending all Sunday cleaning her room. That means I’ll have to sneak into the laundry room if I want to wash any of my own clothes. Today was a relative bust as far as I was concerned, and afternoon coffee had me up into the wee hours just doing nothing.

Stupid thermostat.

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Logic Puzzles

They must be training someone new at McDonald’s, because I was late to work again because it took way too long to get through the line. My reward was not having to wait in line for a 7 Brew Sweet & Salty that the school had “catered” in big, pre-brewed dispensers. I forgot about the donuts in the office, and then I had to figure out the gym sound system on wheels so they could have graduation rehearsal. Barry nearly had a heart attack when I insinuated that I may not be available the next evening for graduation.

In the end, whoever rolled the thing out there didn’t plug it in all the way. It took a real IT genius to figure that one out. I got the sound running, but there were still adjustments to be made and speakers to be balanced. For the time being, they were happy with what they had. My price keeps going up when I see how much I’m overcompensating for the ignorance of others. The bar is just too low.

I had some leftover barbecue for lunch and then ducked out early so I could be there for at least part of graduation. TCW was supposed to come run fiber into the house anyway, so I made it home just in time to meet Tony.

It didn’t take long for me to realize he just wanted a super easy install. Evidently they already trenched the fiber to the side of the house, and it was his job to get it inside. He kept wanting to go around the outside of the house, or poke the fiber through a hole in the vents that go under the house. His drill bit ended up being too short to make it through a layer of brick, followed by cinder block. Dad had stopped by for some silicone to fix his rain gauge, and I ended up having him crawl under the house to try and drill outward so we could meet him halfway. Tony called another kid for backup, but he didn’t have a longer bit either. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after Dad started drilling that the kid even attempted to drill a new hole, and then immediately quit because he didn’t want to deface the brick trying to get into the mortar joint.

We ended up not getting new internet, and we’ll wait for them to come back with a proper sized bit. Leonard’s had 24-inch bits available all day long, but I guess they weren’t authorized to make that purchase. It’ll help them in the future, and I couldn’t believe they didn’t have one in the first place.

After the guys from TCW left, I got a call from Bitec to schedule an interview over a video call. I was a little surprised how quickly they called, and couldn’t even remember the details of the job listing. Looking back, it wasn’t very detailed at all, and seemed like a bunch of generic IT-related stuff, but at more than twice my current salary.

Dad pedaled home, and eventually Summer got home herself. Eaddie was out all night for band awards, but we didn’t go. I had been wound up enough all day, and then aggravated a blood vessel in my foot, so I sat down on the couch for a while. I eventually moved to the computer, and then bed.

Things are harder when you’re an idiot.