Grand.

I got out of the house super early today just in case traffic was awful. There were tons of trees down along the way to work, and the house across from the school had like three trees blown right over. Of course I actually beat everyone to work, but Kim was right behind me to let me into the office. The day went by super fast, but ham and cheese wraps didn’t sound at all appetizing. I ended up taking James to the Junction Cafe for lunch, to needlessly build a little more rapport. I’m just too nice.

The afternoon went by quickly as well, and Kim and James both left at 3:30, which still shocks me. I don’t think he’s worked eight hours yet. I stuck around to get my hours, because I ain’t no cheater. I headed straight home, and Summer had veggies, potatoes, and sausage in the oven. Eaddie had Eli over, and it didn’t take long for me to get generally irritated.

Stilgar chewed the water hose apart, so I spanked him with it. It didn’t stick, because he was right back on it after I went inside. I wasn’t in the mood for company, and there was food rotting in the fridge, so I didn’t eat any of the new food. Summer wound down early, and I took the dogs for a walk to my parents’ house as the sun set. We got home with the last little bit of twilight, and then Dad wanted to come over to update his new DJI FPV drone. Their cable has been out for a few days, and I don’t know if there’s an ETA for repair.

We eventually got the drone updated, and the Roomba suddenly wasn’t fussy about being on my account, so I left it alone. Dad went home, and I wound down as quickly as I could.

It’s complex.

No, but Maybe

I forgot to grab a banana for work this morning, so I started off hungry. It was pretty quiet, but I still had plenty of time to vent about the surrounding idiocy. I was a bit more helpful today, and it seemed like James was getting into a little bit of a groove. I still don’t know if he’ll stick around, but I guess he is making more than I was. I could see him leaving for Russellville, since he evidently lives just a few blocks away from us.

I did get a call from Grace Manufacturing, which was a bit of a surprise. They turned me down for the job I interviewed for, but liked me well enough to call back because one of their IT guys is retiring in a few months. I laughed a bit that they were actually able to get ahead of that and train someone before he leaves, unlike schools where they just play catch-up forever. I’ll get to have a real interview next week, so I feel like I have a pretty good chance of getting an offer from them. Tomorrow, I’ll have my call with Moodle too, so I really need to study up for that one in the morning.

I was the last one out of the office again, this time messing around with SCCM. I should just leave it, but I also don’t want to make it seem like I didn’t actually have it working. I need to be able to image at least one computer to prove it works before I go.

After work, I took care of the fish and made it home to eat some of the leftover tacos Dad brought over. Then I was pretty quick to take the dogs out for a run. We got to the end of my parents’ street when my Onewheel just died. Luckily I was coming up to a stop, so I just tipped forward and stumbled off of it, but all the lights went out and I could never get it to wake up again. I ended up carrying it, a water bottle, and two bags of poop, all while trying to keep the dogs from pulling me over all the way to their house.

Dad got the DJI FPV drone in, and unboxed it before he had to go water the plants. I had Summer bring my swimsuit over so I could cool off, and we played with the dogs by the pool. Stilgar really wanted in, so I splashed him a bunch to cool him off. Then Summer took everything else home so I could walk the dogs back. It was a struggle, but we made it through the humidity of the evening.

Eaddie got home a little after I did, and spent some time talking to Summer while I wound down for the night. Muad’Dib really doesn’t seem to like the Ol’ Roy that we’ve gotten for them, so I guess I’ll have to keep buying something better.

Pay the bills!

Experience Depreciation

I got up extra early today so I could try and beat the new guy to work, but that failed for multiple reasons. I stopped at Taco John’s for breakfast, which ate up all of that extra time, but he also showed up a full hour early. Todd had already given him the tour, and as I would learn later, Samuel had actually given him a tour the week before last, while I was still there. In fact, Samuel was the one that called him the week that Blake told me they weren’t going to keep me, and told him they were looking for a new Tech Coordinator. The entire thing has been super shady, and it just made my day worse and worse until the end.

I walked around with him again and we visited all of the switch closets in the high school and elementary. We didn’t bother going anywhere else, and I probably won’t, except maybe Plainview to see if there’s anything out there that I want for myself. Maybe I could get lucky and find some rails.

We had several waves of kids come in for password resets, but otherwise it was relatively quiet. I had to keep telling him that I wished him the best of luck in spite of how crappy they’ve been to me, but secretly I just hope he gets the same and leaves them in a short amount of time. It’s just not fair that I invested all of that time and effort to fix so many major problems, and he gets to come in and ride the calm seas at a higher rate of pay with two fewer years of school experience.

I was the last one out of the office, and I had already relinquished my keys, but luckily Keith was there and I could borrow his to lock the office. I headed toward home and fed the fish, and got gas at Casey’s. Summer was making a baked spaghetti with pink sauce when I got home, and I just held her for a bit before I got changed and went out to sit with the dogs.

Summer called Eaddie home for dinner, and the three of us ate. Julie called because she saw a Cybertruck in town and thought it might actually be me. Then I went out for a run with the dogs. They did super well, ran hard, had some mostly solid poops, and for the most part weren’t too bad about getting distracted until the very end. It got dark fast, so we only stopped at my parents’ house long enough to say, “hello.”

I wound down pretty quickly, and everyone was off to bed. It was an awful, emotional, maddening day of being the better person, and the frustration of living by an unmatched code of integrity just made me incredibly sad.

And either I’m right and justice is never served, or I’m wrong and I go to Hell anyway.

Collared Greens

Summer was up early doing some work, and I ended up sleeping in later than I wanted. I eventually got up and made some more eggs for breakfast, and even cleaned up some leftover stir fried beef. It was rainy all morning, but it eventually dried up enough to go out with the dogs.

Eaddie wanted to take my car to drive around with her friends because it was nicer than her Pathfinder, and we ended up having a big family discussion after she didn’t like my answer. That threw all of us off for the rest of the day.

I took a really late shower and then took the dogs out for a walk. We took a new path up and around Inglewood this time, and on the way home I couldn’t break their focus off of a nearby squirrel. I’ve got to do something to fix that behavior, because Stilgar is just able to throw around too much weight.

They were about out of food when I got back with them, so I got Summer up and we went to Walmart to look around a bit. We got more food, and a couple cowhide sticks for them to chew on, with the hopes that they’d stop chewing on important things. Eaddie spotted us while we were there, but we didn’t actually see her. She was out super late, and we ended up going to bed before we ever saw her again.

Interesting days ahead…

Big Ask

Breakfast was better this morning, but Kim was by all accounts worse. She disappeared often, and left at some point to drive to another town to retrieve her wallet from her husband’s unlocked truck where he parked at work. Fortunately it was mostly quiet for me. The afternoon dragged horribly after we got our hibachi food truck for lunch.

I got a call from Grace Manufacturing to do a same-day phone interview, so I took that at the end of the day after everyone had left. I thought it went alright, but I had the feeling they weren’t looking to pay anywhere near my asking price, and it’s not at all in the technology field either.

I eventually made it to the old house to grab some things and feed the fish. Then I headed home for some peace for a while before Summer got home and I left with the dogs. I took their water bottle along this time, and it really seemed to help pace them. We stopped at my parents’ house, and then went through the basin again. We ran across several others walking dogs, so we had to take some breaks and then ended up on the divided street before circling through the neighborhood again to get home.

Noah was back for some reason. Then Eaddie got home late, and I was upset at the state of her room. Summer failed to take the evening off for our concert tomorrow, and Eaddie still doesn’t want to go next week, and it has me wondering why I plan anything with them at all.

Good boys, anyway.

Foaming

I got to work a little bit early this morning, but breakfast was already pretty picked-through, and definitely not as good as yesterday. It was quieter today though, I think because teachers were stuck in the auditorium for a large part of the day. I used my time to try and clean up some things before I got, but it’s getting harder to keep my spirits amicable.

Lunch wasn’t great either. I remembered the Junction Cafe having pretty awful chicken strips, and I was right. I don’t know how they got them so flat or dried out, but at least there was some food left over from yesterday.

I got the fish fed once I got back into town, and then headed home and played with the dogs. Then I took them out for a long run to my parents’ house for some water, and then the long way through the new neighborhood and the basin area. Stilgar was pulling and huffing pretty hard, and started to foam at the mouth quite a bit. I was a bit worried, but we tried stopping by some sprinklers along the way, and he managed to keep going. I gave him a good misting from the hose once we got back to the house, since he’s not allowed a bath for the time being.

I was pretty hot myself, so I rode back to my parents’ house for a quick swim before coming back home. Eaddie suddenly said she didn’t want to go to see Five Finger Death Punch next week even though I triple-checked with her before I submitted payment, so I really want to make her go anyway. It’ll be a lesson in maintaining a working calendar for her schedule.

Besides, we’ve got to start practicing now if we’re going to survive another Trump presidency.

Lobby Hobbies

Summer and I woke up way early today so we could get to Tulsa for her service appointment. We stopped in Ozark to charge and I got a little snack for breakfast, and I managed to squeak up to the service center just before our appointment at nine. They didn’t have a loaner for us, but instead offered to let us take test drives in two hour increments.

We ended up hanging out in the lobby until lunch. There were a bunch of people there, but we were there the longest by far. They had a Cybertruck that we could climb around in, but nobody could drive it. We watched as several people stopped to look at it. I kind of liked it, but Summer made a face.

I found an Indian buffet for lunch, so we borrowed a brand new Model 3 that had ten miles on the odometer, and drove across town to eat. The food was really good, but I wished there was more meat. They love their bones, which was annoying but flavorful. We headed straight back to the service center after that.

They got the windshield replaced, but it wasn’t until about 4:00 that they asked for details about the air conditioner, which was the original reason for the warranty claim. They couldn’t find anything wrong, and of course the car had been inside all day, so it wasn’t hot enough to reproduce the failure. They did recharge the refrigerant, and said it was something like 38 grams low, so maybe that will make some difference.

We finally headed home, charged in Ozark, and then Summer finished the last leg of the trip. Eaddie and Eli were at the house and rearranging her room. Summer went to bed, and I responded to a couple requests for interviews, which felt very reassuring. We’ll get this ball rolling eventually.

1.9% is tempting, but let’s find work first!

Rogue Tech

It was kind of a weird and quiet day at work, feeling like I’m caught in limbo with zero oversight and literally no administration present. I’ve been a little bit concerned, or at least cautious after being told that people might have tried to throw me under the bus somehow, but I’m really working on my own terms right now. I could potentially even rack up a bunch of overtime and they would be stuck paying for it. I did see where Samuel had logged in to some of our systems, and given the lack of trust I have for Todd, I don’t really know what to think. I’d left his accounts active just because I wasn’t sure if I was sticking around, but he really has no business in my stuff while I’m there.

I’ve sent a steady flow of applications out, and gotten a few automatic rejection letters. I think only one of them was from a place I was excited about, but there haven’t been too many exciting places either. Other than that, my biggest accomplishment was getting my USG-Pro-4 to successfully re-adopt to my network. Now I’ve just got to figure out how the heck to configure the VLANs for it again without breaking everything else in the process.

Summer made shredded chicken tacos for dinner, so I fed the fish and stopped by the Neighborhood Market again for some slaw mix. It wasn’t really necessary because I think I was the main person to eat any of it. The kids were being numbskulls, so I stepped out with the dogs and a beer while they ate. After I came in to eat, they went out to walk the dogs. Noah disappeared to the guest room after Summer upset him when she pressed him to apply for jobs making more than minimum wage. We’re not running a charity, but she hasn’t told him that to his face.

When Eaddie and Eli got back from walking the dogs, they said Muad’Dib still had some energy, so I took him for a run on the Onewheel to my parents’ house. I picked up some baking dishes from them, and then took a long route back. By then the dogs were pretty tuckered out and quiet for the rest of the night. I wrapped up as quickly as I could, and then it was off to bed.

I’d walk with my people, if I could find them.

Conspiratorial

I ran a little late to work, but who cares? Muad’Dib lost his collar, but I couldn’t crawl under the deck to get it until I got home from work.

I kept pretty busy, and even ran down to the elementary building a couple of times. Jill came through and was about as helpful as usual. Todd passed through and was uncharacteristically quiet. Becky stopped in and behaved cryptically, suggesting that I had been thrown under the bus somehow. I don’t even know what they could have against me, but given the lack of response I’ve had during my entire time there, and the behavior I had already witnessed, I’m not going to fight to stay for the same rate of pay. I made my stand clear to everyone, for better or worse.

I must have fifty applications out in the wild by now, and Indeed makes it so easy to apply to a dozen more every day. There have been a few that got me properly excited, but still the vast majority have been remote. I’ll need to clean up my office space for that to work.

I left a little late after fighting my USG-Pro-4 again. Summer chopped the leftover rotisserie chicken up with some fruit and stuff, and wanted me to pick up some more lettuce. I fed the fish and then ran through the Neighborhood Market on the way home. Eli was there to eat with us, and then we sent him and Eaddie out to walk the dogs. Evidently they ran into Noah on the way out, so they all went together.

I followed up with some more applications, and pressed Noah to apply for a custodial position at the school. I’d do anything to get him out of here.

Appreciation in lieu of compensation, but sometimes not even that.

Last Minute Nonsense

As if yesterday’s news wasn’t enough, we got a message from the Tulsa Tesla service center just as we were ready to walk out the door that they wouldn’t have a loaner vehicle available for us, and also likely wouldn’t be able to complete the repair in a day. Rather than drive separately, we decided to reschedule. Fortunately they were able to get us in next Friday instead of the app’s first available date in September.

Since our day was completely foiled, I took the dogs out for a run and then Summer and I went to Little Rock for Deadpool so we could have Saturday for other things. We stopped at a pretty impressive Kroger Marketplace when we got to town, and I had to laugh that Walmart got into groceries with their “Marketplace” stores, and Kroger got into “everything else” with their “Marketplace” stores.

I picked up some cough medicine and we found a few snacks, and then we headed to a Mexican restaurant up the road called Los Cabos. The food was good, and though we were both completely satisfied with our portions, they did seem smaller than what we typically see in town. I was also hoping the food would be somehow different, but it really was just like everywhere else. The only thing that stood out was the salsa that tasted like pizza sauce.

We finally headed toward the theater with a lot of time to kill, so we walked through Home Goods before driving around the shopping center. We saw a Cybertruck in person, and I thought it was fairly impressive looking. We quickly walked the area, but without much of interest, I decided to kill our final hour at an upscale flea market called Painted Tree Boutiques. Summer enjoyed browsing what I considered to be overpriced stay-at-home mom junk. I mostly gawked at the price tags.

We made it back to the theater with just enough time to settle in, and the 3D showing of Deadpool & Wolverine wasn’t very busy. I appreciated still being able to find good seats, and the 3D was actually really well done. So well, in fact, that I wonder how it’ll look in 2D, because a few of the scenes were pretty specifically shot for 3D. Summer struggled with some of the ultraviolence, but otherwise we found it to be a great fanservice movie. I think it really might have the momentum needed to shift Marvel’s recent struggles.

After the movie, we headed straight home and I played with some more Amazon Vine stuff that had come in before heading to bed.

Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill.