Tag: frustration

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The Longest Con

We had a short meeting today, and then I took Thomas to U-Haul to pick up a box truck. Greg and Jacob took a load of carts to swap out for London, and then we had to clean out the kitchen area. At some point, Zach brought the forklift around and I got to load up a bunch of pallets of trash, and then a couple pallets of Chromebooks into the truck bed. I was just happy not to be doing any of the unloading by hand.

As old carts came back, we had to scan for Chromebooks that went back on lease this summer. We found about five more all day, which was five times what we had found so far. Brody said one of the schoolboard members was frying chicken for the high school teacher appreciation lunch, which sounded really good, but I ended up driving a carload of people to CJ’s instead.

Immediately after lunch I felt a little sketchy from the grease, but I made it. We had to scan a bunch of Chromebooks from Center Valley, but most of my time was spent on deployments. I ended up leaving about half an hour late just because I felt like I was making a little progress on Roblox.

I picked Eaddie up at Zane’s, then took her home so she could get ready before a school dance. Then we picked Zane up and I dropped them off at the junior high. They ended up not wanting to stick around because they didn’t have any other friends there, so after cleaning up a bit at home, I picked them up and took them back up to Summer’s to hang out.

Summer grilled some steaks when she and Autumn got home from the gym, so she and I ate while the kids hung out. Autumn didn’t come out much at first, but eventually made a more permanent appearance for the evening. A little later in the evening she came into the bedroom to chat, and for the first time, apologized directly to me for last week. It was pretty obviously all a manipulation though, once she basically started begging to go back to work at Denny’s. It’s looking like it’s going to be a Shit Kid Summer. I think Summer is finally down to hold her nose to the grindstone, so we’ll see how well we can whip her into shape in the short amount of time that we have.

Afterward, the five of us played a game of Uno. It didn’t last forever since we only played through to one winner. Then eventually I had to take Zane home. I took Eaddie along with me, and we stopped at my house afterward so I could get some clothes for the morning. We decided to finish up Moon Knight before heading back up to their house, which was pretty interesting, if not a little on-the-nose after this past week. I’ve had just about enough of Looney Tunes.

…and the forklift you rode in on!

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Just Some Old Fashioned Violence

I was still so out of my mind that I made it in to work super early, and landed on Zach’s couch just in time to break down. I’m holding onto so much anger over this weekend, and everyone is just having to act like everything is fine, while I’m going in to work wondering who’s silently judging me.

After a brief shift of covering the phones while the others were in a meeting, Zach invited me out to the graveyard where he thought I might feel a little more relaxed. It really made the morning go by a lot better and faster. Before I knew it, lunch time had arrived. He drove Gary and me to Taco John’s, where we met both Greg and Brody.

The afternoon was quiet apart from a meeting among our own people outside my office, where they discussed Incident IQ ticket categories. I kept wanting to chime in, but I was clearly not invited. I felt like that really would have been a moment that I would have helpful input.

I picked up Eaddie and Zane after school and dropped him off at his house before Eaddie and I went to Sonic for some dinner. Then we went to my house so I could have a break from reality and enjoy the second episode of Moon Knight. I thought it might jump into things a bit more violently than it did, but it went in an unexpected direction. I’m interested to see what’s next.

On the way up to Summer’s, we picked up some Zaxby’s for her. Then I helped Eaddie with someone else’s homework while Summer did some work in front of the TV. Autumn was in her room most of the night, and was mostly ignored. At least it was incident-free until everyone could sneak off to bed.

You just keep thinking that, you happy little idiot.

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Momma Called the Doctor and the Doctor Said

I took a sick day today, primarily so I could help Summer maintain some semblance of sanity, but also to help shuttle Autumn to a doctor appointment. She came to my house after dropping the girls off at school, and then we waited until time to check her out. It rained heavily all morning, which was fitting for the huffy mood Autumn was in when she came out of class. I dropped them off at Millard-Henry and then just waited in the car, because of course COVID restrictions for one visitor are still in effect.

Aaron messaged me after a while and said I could swing by his office, but I was only there for about five minutes before Summer texted that they were finished. I picked them up at the front door, and Autumn seemed in much better spirits. She wanted to know how there was so much water in the sky for it to rain as heavily as it was, and whether or not we thought she might have dissociative identity disorder. Up until recently we just assumed she was a two-faced sunovabitch, but hopefully a referral for a proper psych evaluation can answer that for us.

After dropping Autumn off, Summer and I were pretty hungry and ended up at Hardee’s for an early lunch. The girl at the counter was so sweet that it practically made my teeth hurt. She hooked us up with a drink cup to share when she realized we didn’t order one with our food. After we ate, we went back to my house for a bit, and Summer was able to nap for a bit while I stayed up for some super sleuthing.

We got to have a sit-down meeting in the afternoon to discuss some options and alternatives for technology, which made us feel mildly better, but Summer and I were still so completely distraught from dealing with this all week. We were both just absolutely burned up with anger, disappointment, and disgust, and bounced between different ideas and timelines for action. We absolutely cannot maintain what we’re doing now, so something is going to have to give very soon.

When school let out, Summer went to the high school to check in on Quiz Bowl, which angered Autumn a bit. I picked up Eaddie and Zane at Oakland, and then dropped him off a couple blocks away at the daycare. Eaddie wanted some Dairy Queen since FBLA was having a fundraiser there. I got her a Blizzard that ended up being poorly-blizzed, and a couple malts for Summer and me.

Back at their house, Summer wanted to have a chat with Autumn. Eaddie was in and out, but mostly just bored that it was happening again, as though it was the Depp vs. Herd defamation lawsuit. Autumn danced around mostly not answering questions, tried to throw some other kid under the bus, and finally admitted some guilt for filing a false report on me. At this point, we still don’t know what reality she’s living in. It certainly feels like it’s just sociopathic tendencies with a constant need for attention. After two hours of that, and then having her walk around the house like nothing was wrong, I was just shaking with anger.

Autumn spent the rest of the night in her room, but Eaddie stuck around and chatted with me some. Summer made it into bed and to sleep. Hopefully I can get some of that action too, because I’m completely exhausted.

“Your hormones are fine; you’re crazy in the head!”

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WOLF!

I hardly slept at all last night from the dread of impending doom looming over me. I made it in to work, but drove rather than rode so that I would have better options in case something came up. We had a relatively short meeting, and then went to the graveyard to hunt for old devices that would have to be returned at the end of their lease this summer. On the subject of an entirely different Summer: she was having a very rough morning as well, so I invited her to come spend the morning with me. She spent some time in the graveyard with us as we continued enrolling devices. Then we went down and she spent some time in my office on her own.

She left around the time we were thinking about lunch. I suggested Sam’s, and commented that it was a little messed up that Zach overrode me for Morellos for my “last meal” before going to the bad jail. I did enjoy my fajitas, but I ate too much, especially for how I was feeling all day.

The afternoon went by quickly as well, as my 3:30 meeting with someone from child services at Summer’s house drew near. Summer texted to let me know she was running behind due to an actual case, but she did eventually show up. I talked to Melinda on the drive over, and then we dove right in.

Autumn had dropped Eaddie off at home, and she was in the living room talking to the case worker for a bit with Summer. Shortly after I arrived, Eaddie went to her room and Licia continued to talk to us about the multiple accusations that had been made. Summer and I were of course furious, but fortunately Licia could tell from her interview with Autumn that this was utter nonsense.

Eventually Autumn was summoned home, but before our visitor left. We confirmed that we could continue with punishment without fear of backlash or repercussions from Autumn. She stuck around as we talked to Autumn to try and produce any evidence of neglect or abuse, and ultimately revoked her technology, automobile, and employment permissions. We were also advised that it would be fine to remove the door from her room as long as she had privacy by way of the bathroom for changing clothes and the like. I haven’t spent as many evenings over there lately anyway, so none of this was of any real concern. Autumn did get slightly aggressive as Summer collected her things, but quickly broke down as she felt her life being ripped away from her. We explained that accusing others of crimes, especially felonies, had real life consequences for everyone involved. Nobody believed anything about any of her stories, though we would still have to meet again with someone from the state police regarding a criminal investigation as a formality.

After the investigator gave us plenty of advice and applauded our swift movement to get Autumn some help with her mental health, she left us and pleaded for Autumn not to wreck anything in the house. It wasn’t a real concern of mine, but I was glad she solidified the fact that Autumn had undeniably lost. Summer removed her door from its hinges, and Autumn either opened up honestly or continued to play us by the way that she broke down. From now on, we are both fully aware of our need to tread cautiously. There’s no going back for her though. If she’s not compliant, we’ll get the state involved for help with holding her accountable.

Eaddie came out of her room groaning of hunger pains, so I took her to Popeye’s for dinner. We just got a box of tenders and came back to the house to eat. Autumn had brought some chicken strips from Denny’s when she came home, so I assume they tasted about as good as her failure to ruin my life. Things calmed down quite a bit for the rest of the evening though. She changed her tune about me a bit, and then watched TV with Summer until I got ready to leave. Summer went to bed and I headed home for the night.

Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe, but this … does put a smile on my face.

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Parenting 301: Intermediate-Advanced Teenage Childhood Development

I rode the Shadow to work this morning since it was still nice out, and I figured it would be good for a ride out to Center Valley. I ended up being commandeered in the afternoon and never made it out that far, though. The morning was actually pretty quiet in the shop because the big three were out walking the new maintenance building on North South Oswego. I don’t know why so many people keep getting that address wrong, but at this point it’s just pure comedy.

I spent the morning doing some laptop repairs for Center Valley, which I’m pretty sure were more repairs than I’ve done all year for Oakland. A group of us went to Arby’s for lunch, and I rode with Thomas and the rest of the gang because I had somehow gotten a curved piece of metal in my back tire. When we got back to the shop after lunch, I managed to pull it out and confirm that it was less deep than the remaining tread on the tire, so all was well.

Zach had a big group of us out in the graveyard enrolling Chromebooks for the rest of the day. I, of course, was an efficiency monster and dominated with four complete carts by the end of the day. Summer left Conway and wanted me to call her, but didn’t answer her phone. Then Eaddie needed a ride home from her father’s restaurant.

I ran home to get a helmet for Eaddie, but as soon as I got there, Summer rang in with some disturbing news. Eaddie and I got on the bike and met her back at my house for a chat. We ended up calling Kevin for a bit of advice, and then we wound up at Chili’s for dinner.

I didn’t even order anything for myself, and instead split a full rack of ribs with Summer. Somehow I still ended up eating the most, long after they had finished. I went home stuffed, and ended up on a Discord call with Mitch for quite a while. He offered what advice and comfort he could, and we shared some laughs about the past. Things have changed a lot since January 9th, 2002, but we’re keeping it real.

AM I BEING DETAINED?!?!?

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Return of the Whirlpool

I got a call from the Lowe’s truck drivers shortly after I woke up this morning, saying they were about 10 minutes away. That nearly got me in a dead-run to get everything cleared out and ready to go. It occurred to me that they are making a lot of assumptions every time they come out, and as a customer, I should be more upset about my experience. They walked the fridge out without having to do any door gymnastics, and even walked it past both of my grills after I moved the deck box. I guess they were less worried about damage coming out than they were going in.

Somehow, I still managed to make it to work on time, stopping at Oakland to take care of a backup battery issue, and then making a quick run through the rest of the work orders I had from the end of the week. It didn’t take terribly long, but did help the morning go by.

Gary was a little stressed with Zach, Greg, and Brody out for the day, and me out of my office first thing. I chatted with him briefly and did my best to ease his worries. We evidently had some more unexpected, sweeping changes that we weren’t informed about, which frustrated us as I had to troubleshoot an issue that we caused. There are a lot of wheels turning, and not all of them are aware of the others, though they’re all connected and affect each other. It makes for a disjointed team.

Lunch came quickly, and I just went home to some leftover Ridgewood barbecue. I ended up eating a bit too much and didn’t have time to go to Lowe’s to see about my refund, so I just went back to Oakland to finish up some stuff. The rest of the afternoon was relatively quiet, and Kyle was the only one I ever saw back in the shop.

As I left for the day, Eaddie called for a ride. I had to drop some things off at Oakland anyway. She was hungry, so we picked up some chicken strips from Dairy Queen for her, and then went back to my house to start Moon Knight. I absolutely hate the accents and how quiet the voices are, because it makes the dialog that much harder to understand. Otherwise it seems like it’s going to be a neat show, and unlike many of the others, they didn’t waste any time getting right into the action.

When we finished the episode, Eaddie rushed me to take her home. In turn, I made her wait in the car while I stopped at Lowe’s to resolve my return. The kid at customer service said it would take a day for them to process the return, but I was concerned about having made part of my purchase with gift cards. He insisted that I would “probably” get a call in the morning, but rather than risk it, I walked to the back to find someone. I never could find an employee that wasn’t busy, but I did find my refrigerator that had been marked down by $450 to be sold as-is. It was almost tempting to re-buy it at that price.

While I was back there, I saw the windowed version of the LG we were looking at. I didn’t love it either. The freezer seemed really small and narrow, and the shelves had nearly no adjustability. I think one shelf in the fridge side had a choice of two levels, but the rest only had the existing molded mount points. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even fit a frozen pizza in the freezer anywhere unless I left an entire shelf out, which would make for one super tall shelf. I may end up spending quite a bit more money for something much nicer by the time this is all over.

Back at the front, I explained that my refrigerator was already on the floor ready to sell, so he called a manager up to process the refund and I was on my way. When we got to the house, Eaddie went to her room to practice her flute, and I went outside to dig out the lawn mower. I probably spent about an hour trying to get the thing started, and eventually did with the help of some starter fluid, but it wouldn’t stay running for long. I’m inclined to think it’s the leftover fuel, but I can’t get any of the girls to run the mower often or long enough to keep that stuff flowing through it.

Summer got home super late. I thought I might stay over, especially since she arrived with some apparent energy left. Ultimately she ate and went straight to bed, so I headed back home. I took another crack at charging the Grom battery after stopping it last night when I heard it sizzling. Hopefully the lower amperage will keep things from exploding.

People actually lived for ages without refrigeration, so maybe I can just make it to Black Friday for a better deal.

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Garth eVader

I tried to sleep as much as possible last night so today wouldn’t drag on. I made it out of the house in time to get Eaddie and meet Dad at the train depot to see Summer cross the finish line for her half marathon at right around two and a half hours. Ben and Sarah were there, and snuck up behind me while we were waiting in line to take Summer’s picture in front of their big inflatable. From there, we split back up because Summer needed a shower and Eaddie wanted to go ride her bike in the nice weather.

Once Summer was cleaned up from her morning race, I got gas and picked her up for a quick bite to eat at Zaxby’s before heading to Fayetteville. That was when I learned that she didn’t actually have any tickets because every purchase she tried to make had fallen through. She was on her phone the whole time trying to arrange for new tickets.

When we finished eating, we picked Eaddie up from her friend’s house and came back to my place. I tried to help Summer pay for some tickets, but it just didn’t work out. I started feeling sketchy about all of the different failed payment attempts, and it was getting late fast. We ultimately decided to just stay home. We let Eaddie go back out on her bike while we watched some TV to relax a while.

Eventually we were hungry enough to have a nice meal. Eaddie still wasn’t hungry, so Summer and I drove across town to see if the boys at Ridgewood Brothers had any scraps left. Grant gave us their last half pound of beef and some banana pudding, and we caught up really briefly as they finished cleaning up. I’m super excited for them to build their new place and get out of the trailer.

After running around town dodging prom-goers, we ultimately ended up at La Villa for some reward pasta for Summer. Then we picked up Eaddie’s bike from her father’s restaurant so they could go out to eat together. Summer and I watched an episode of Middleditch and Schwartz improv, which had me absolutely rolling. Then when Eaddie got home, Summer went to bed and we stayed up late watching Stranger Things.

We nearly finished the season, but Eaddie gave up just before we started the last episode. It’s just as well though, because I’d rather not have to wait for the next season to start. I’ll be curious to see if they really try to make it scary.

Flayed

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Circus Town

I had one of the worst times I’ve ever had getting out of bed this morning. I snoozed for 45 minutes and then crawled straight into a shower, and just barely made it in to Oakland. Mollie was back, certified cancer-free with just some maintenance going forward, so everyone had treats for her in the lounge. I took care of the tickets I had gotten on my day out, and made it to my office.

Gary came back and had some coffee with me since I made some “fancy” stuff that Greg wouldn’t have liked if he were there. I kept relatively busy all morning until Zach showed up and took Thomas and me to Old South for lunch. They were packed, but the food was fair. The service was middling, but I got out cheap too.

The afternoon was super quiet, and I never heard from Lowe’s about the pickup of the refrigerator. Autumn didn’t want to wait for Eaddie to get out of tennis, so she asked me to pick her up. I stopped by my parents’ just briefly to drop off a printout for Dad, and then got Eaddie and her boyfriend. We dropped him off at home and then went to my house to wait for Lowe’s.

It wasn’t until after we moved all of the crap out of the way of the front door that I got a call saying their truck had been broken down for hours and that I would have to go to the store to reschedule for another day. Eaddie and I finished one episode of Stranger Things, I watched one super short episode of Old Enough, and then Summer picked her up.

I should have gone to get some dinner first, but I thought Lowe’s would be quick. I ended up hanging out for nearly an hour waiting for Sergio, who appeared to be the only one in the store that could actually reschedule me. I think I finally got a little bit of sympathy after being exceedingly friendly to everyone that I’ve interacted with at the store. Not like a lot, but I made a joke about us being best friends by the time this is all over, and he smiled and said we were best friends.

On the way home, I stopped at Sonic for a chili cheese coney, all the while laughing at the blue screen of death on their drive-through speaker. Then I grabbed some very mediocre fries from McDonald’s and went home to eat. I was so excited to finish my food that I didn’t even take my backpack off once I got in the house.

After I ate, I excavated the Shadow and took it for a spin around the block just to warm it back up after the winter. It took a little bit of time to get the tires aired up, but tomorrow looks like a good day to ride in to work. There wasn’t much left of the night by then, so I wrapped up as quickly as I could and went to bed.

Everything has been a joke today. Why is life awful?

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Chauffeur

I got up early after very little sleep so I could get breakfast with Summer before she had to go to work. It was super rainy all morning, so I went back up to the room to take a long bath since I didn’t want to go back to sleep. When I loaded up for checkout, they said the elevator had quit working, so I had to take the stairs. I was just glad I didn’t have to go back up three floors since I got everything in one trip.

I went to Splash and loaded up a bucket of cleaner, then took Summer to the Greenbrier lube to drop it off. It was a tiny one-man shop that was down the road from the carwash. We weren’t there long before heading back to Conway to do some shopping for that store.

I decided to take us to the Dave Ward store since I had already spent so long in the other one the night before. Summer picked up what she needed, and I found some salsa on clearance. I tried really hard to convince her that she could find a better chair at an office supply store, but she insisted on getting the crappy, overpriced one from Walmart.

We were both hungry by the time we finished shopping, so we went across town to Chipotle. It was delicious, but I had forgotten how expensive it is. It was just over $30 for both of us, and she didn’t even get a drink. I think next time I’ll ask if they can make me an open-faced burrito, because her bowl appeared to have much more in it, but I love the tortilla.

Back at Splash, I assembled the new chair and tightened bolts on their old ones, which made a huge difference. I stuck around too long and got really tired, but I made it home without incident. Traffic seemed a bit slow, but at least it wasn’t raining heavily by that time. Eaddie called me just as I left Conway and asked if I would pick her up, but she ended up going to her grandmother’s instead.

As soon as I got home, I started a load of laundry. Then I faced the monumental task of cleaning out the refrigerator so they could pick it up the next day. I pulled a bunch of drinks out of the mini fridge and kept as much here as I could, then loaded up my entire trunk with stuff to take to Summer’s house. I went to get Eaddie, but when I got there, she said she was helping with dinner and that Summer was going to get her. Summer didn’t even realize she was there, which lead to compounded aggravation for me. I was already frustrated and hangry last night. Then I had to unload the trunk and move all of that food into Summer’s refrigerator all by myself after letting it thaw out for a drive across town.

I got everything packed into the fridge and waited for Summer to get home super late from Conway. Then I went home and cleaned up all the stuff I had strewn across the kitchen floor. I really wanted to keep some ice, but there’s no real point. Hopefully the new refrigerator won’t take long to arrive, and also won’t fail and leave me needing to contact the dreaded LG warranty support.

What a waste.

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Return to Sender

I made it in to work a little early again today, and was soon asked to cover the phones while the leads had their meeting. The phone didn’t ring a single time, so it was mostly just babysitting for an hour. It was all around pretty uneventful all day. The morning went by quickly, and we found ourselves at Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday. I ate cheaply again, and it felt pretty good.

Sometime in the afternoon, Thomas wandered to the back and set up a video conference with someone about our ticket reporting system. Evidently he’s been asked for data that hasn’t been collected in Web Help Desk, so we’re looking at spending some more money for something a little prettier.

The end of the day dragged on a bit, but eventually I made it home. I got things ready to stay with Summer in Conway, but had to stop at Lowe’s on my way out of town. I scheduled the pickup of the dreadful Whirlpool refrigerator and talked to a couple of guys about our top picks for its replacement. They required payment for the new one up front, and said the refund of the old one had to come back to me in store credit. I opted instead to just wait for the refund before ordering the replacement, so I’ll have to move a bunch of food up to Summer’s place until the new one shows up.

The drive to Conway was quick, without too much traffic. I stopped in Morrilton for some beer, and then hopped onto Discord to chat with Mitch again until I got to Splash. Summer was busy, so I grabbed some popcorn and headed to the hotel to check in.

After unloading, I went across the street to Walmart to kill some time. Easter candy was half off, and I found a few deals on clearance. I had been assuming we would go out for dinner, but Summer got to the hotel super late and just went straight to bed. I considered going home to sleep in my own bed, because I didn’t like the idea of taking off so much unexpectedly for that plus the fridge pickup, but with the promise of lunch in Conway, I decided to stay.

What book are you even reading???