Tag: frustration

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Pain of Glass

This week mellowed out quickly, but that may be from my own intentional ignoring of work orders. Chromebook carts are done, so we enrolled a bunch more devices to shuffle with the elementary. The internet went goofy for a while, but of course I didn’t have the tools in place to explain why. It was just bad for some reason.

I had a video call with a couple of guys from the Department of Information Systems to upgrade our VPN service. That went poorly enough that we’ll have to troubleshoot another time. Fortunately, I don’t know of anyone that actually uses that VPN service. It’s possible that somebody does, but I’ll just have to find out who when it stops working.

Fast Glass called to say that Summer’s windshield didn’t come in. I asked about mine, she said she would call me right back, and of course I never heard another word. That reminded me to go and leave a bad review for River Valley Tinting and Glass after they scratched the window trim on the Model Y back in April.

I made it home a little late and hung out to charge for a while. Julie called to update me on the Entergy job, which is to say that operations are just slower than expected, and that no news is still good news. Then I took the car in for a much-needed wash before I made it up to Summer’s. I had her start baking the casserole from weeks ago so we could try and clean it up. Eaddie came home and went straight to homework, and eventually everyone went to bed.

The scope has changed.

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Like Cici’s, but Good

We got up a little bit early this morning and I took a shower so we could take a trip to Greenbrier and Conway. We stopped in Conway for Summer’s backpack first, and then she had to do inventory at the Greenbrier lube. Eaddie and I helped count things so we could finish faster. Then I entered most of it into the computer until I started having trouble deciphering Summer’s notations. Once we finished that, we headed back to Conway and went to Larry’s Pizza, which was incredible. I thought it was reasonably priced, and they had a great variety. The “pizza parade” where they walked fresh pies around the restaurant was really neat, but if you missed that, I think whatever was left would go to the bar.

After eating too much of some really great pizza, we went to Target. Eaddie tried on some swim suits, but we didn’t end up buying anything. I ran into Danielle and her parents, and she fussed about the school district and having her department gutted. I had to kind of giggle inside a little bit because I think most people thought they were overstaffed and overpaid anyway.

Next we hit up TJ Maxx and Kohl’s, but still didn’t buy anything. Summer’s car was struggling to run the air conditioner, so I had to send another service message to get an update. I hate that there’s no way to guarantee a mobile service appointment, and they’re slow to switch it from a local appointment. It’s also never clear if we have to drop the car off for multiple days, or if we can wait in the lobby, since it’s such a long drive.

By the time we finished shopping, it was time to run across town for our movie. We originally wanted to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, but the fact that it was no longer in XD upset me. We decided to watch Blue Beetle instead, which didn’t really impress us much until the final act. It was alright, but it just wasn’t great. At least the graphics weren’t as bad as The Flash.

We made it back home and Noah came over to visit for a while. The new house had been delisted on Zillow, and for some reason some old pictures from the previous owner started showing up, so we got to see it with some different furniture in it. The kids left to go eat, Summer went to bed, and I wrapped up reasonably quickly.

You should know by now.

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Remotely Fun

I let myself sleep in a little bit today since I worked from home. I jumped right into it when I got up, which felt pretty nice. Kim seemed to be getting hammered with all kinds of requests, so I felt bad, but she’ll have to learn to ignore the noise if she wants to make any progress. It’s going to be a Jason-level job to get her on task.

About an hour and a half into it, I got a rather demanding email from Harry regarding a testing software deployment. Then he scolded me and set expectations because I hadn’t been approved to work off-site. I responded politely and apologetically, but called out the teacher’s failings of requesting a lab deployment with three days notice in the middle of the first week of school, all without providing a resource for the software itself. I also called out the very poor state of the infrastructure I was charged with fixing, and the fact that I had been misled during my interview about the tools that I would have available to me. Even if it was out of ignorance, the fact remains that my job is difficult because of their poor history with my department.

I headed on home to get ready for the closing on our new house. By the time I got there, Harry had responded positively, so I felt he was more than fair, and handled the situation appropriately. I took my shower and then ran back to get the girls so we could get to Pope County Title for signing.

Alisha was there with Sarah from the bank, who was sitting in for Missy, our loan officer who we have still never actually met. It wasn’t long before we were taken back to sign what we were told was a relatively short stack of papers. I think the only thing we could have done better was pay for the house in full instead of taking out a loan, and if we ever buy another home, that certainly feels possible now. The signing didn’t really take that long, and then we had to go get a cashier’s check from Centennial. My transfer from Discover to Arvest hadn’t been delivered yet, but Sarah said she could run a cashier’s check over to the title company as soon as they did get it.

After we ran the check back and I signed a couple additional, forgotten documents about pest control, the three of us went to see the Ridgewood Brothers for lunch. We ate a ton of food and got to see both Grant and Robert, as well as Kyler, who was just leaving to go on vacation.

I took the girls back to their house and then went to mine so I could finish working out the day. Kim seemed super overrun, but I couldn’t really quantify what she had actually accomplished. I worked on a few different things mostly to get organized, and then pruned what work orders I could. Google Remote Desktop worked intermittently, and I couldn’t tell if it was an issue with the computer or the internet at the school, but most of what I was doing didn’t require that anyway.

Later in the evening I headed back up to the girls, where Summer watched TV until she went to bed and watched more TV. Eaddie hung out with me for most of the evening, looking at eyeglasses online or going through old Google Classrooms that her old teachers had failed to archive appropriately. It astounds me that we allow technology illiterate people to attempt to educate the youth of a society that is ever-reliant on technology. You wouldn’t let a mechanic work on your car if they had only ever raised horses.

I stayed up super late just combing through houseware deals. I wanted to get out to do some shopping, but I didn’t expect anyone else to be up for that. It seems like a good time to start finding some seasonal deals, though.

Things were so much simpler back in the day when we just gave people smallpox blankets and took their land.

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Too Many Things

The crack slowly creeped past the center of my windshield throughout the course of the day. I stopped at Burger King for breakfast, ate mine in the car, and then gave Kim my spare biscuit when I got there. I didn’t really look at work orders at all today, and tried to get carts loaded instead. I loaded four, but then didn’t even finish wiring one more because it didn’t have any cable management. I just kept chugging along as Kim was in and out at random, working about how a paraprofessional would.

The roofers finally came by to fix my roof, but had trouble understanding my English through the doorbell. Luckily Dad came over and got them sorted, and now I have a (hopefully) waterproof roof again. I ended the day by enrolling about as many Chromebooks as I think she’s done all week. I hoped I was mistaken, but I probably wasn’t. Then I raced home to stop by my parents’ house and prompt them for our final walkthrough at the new house.

Summer and Eaddie met Alisha there first, and Julie and Kevin showed up just before we did. Mom didn’t have much nice to say, but I didn’t expect her to. She doesn’t look for the same things in a lodging as I do. Julie kept repeating that we should paint, and I struggled to get my point across that no matter how many times she said it, we wouldn’t just magically find more money to do it while it’s convenient.

As soon as we left, we had to go to the high school for Eaddie’s open house. We went through the main office so I could say hi to Erica, and then I lost the girls when I stopped at the library to see Amber. I spoke with Jazz for a bit while I was looking for them, and then caught up briefly with Ethan right before I finally ran into them in the hall again. I joined them as they finished visiting the last of her classes, and then we headed on home.

Melissa had called earlier in the day to prompt me for the closing process tomorrow. For some reason I assumed that after all the money I was paying them, and all the information they were able to obtain about my assets at other institutions, they could do some magic bank bullshit and just get the required funds themselves, but evidently they want a cashier’s check. Of course that wouldn’t be possible with my savings account, so I had to come up with a way to get access to a whole bunch of money. I finally realized that a transfer of $15,000 or less from Discover to Arvest would only take one day to deliver, so I rolled the dice and we’ll see what happens by noon tomorrow. If we don’t close, we don’t close. The only thing I hate more than lawyers are banks.

I picked up some Taco John’s on the way to Summer’s, and then tried to relax in the quiet dark of the bedroom after I finished eating. Hopefully I’ll be super productive working from home in the morning before closing time.

Last call!

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Floating the River

The teachers didn’t show up until later today because they had open house in the evening, which meant there was no breakfast to be had. I had a Red Bull to pep myself up, and after a little while I had to meet Blake and Courtney to teach her how to edit the website. I didn’t really have much to say about that, but tried to point them in a direction of posting to the website first, and social media second.

I think Kim worked on carts for a little bit, but I spent the rest of the morning messing with something else. Then we had Ridgewood Brothers for lunch, which was awesome because they didn’t just have pork. They brought brisket and turkey, as well as some potato salad, baked beans, and an assortment of desserts. It really was too much, but it was awesome.

Kim and I eventually made it down to the elementary to try and close out some work orders, but herding her around was a little like trying to herd a cat. Anything would catch her attention. At one point, she was literally playing with a basket of toys in the counselor’s office. Then I learned that the open wireless network wasn’t even split off to its own VLAN. Everything is exposed, and I’ve got teachers fussing because their work orders haven’t been addressed yet.

I ended up staying quite late to pen an email that I didn’t even send because Ben called on his way home. We chatted for a little while, and then I set up some remote software so I could work from home. It just didn’t seem worthwhile to go in on Friday when nobody else would be there.

I charged up and dawdled around at home for a while before making it up to Summer’s. She was supposed to get a new air conditioner, but evidently that didn’t happen. The house was cool from all the rain, though Summer kept complaining about being hot. I never even saw Eaddie until she came out of her room super late to find some food. I felt pretty cranky, so I avoided sleep for a couple hours before going to bed.

Elective Idiocy

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Cartesian Planes

This morning was rainy again, but I was early enough for a calm ride to work. Breakfast was more or less leftovers today, and I fussed with the task scheduler for a while before giving up to make carts with Kim. I think I nearly caught up to her other work so far, but the built-in clips in the carts ate up my fingers. It was helpful to lift the carts up off of the ground though, so I could scoot in closer to reach all the way through while I sat on the floor.

We ate lunch a little early to beat the line of teachers. They brought fajitas from some Mexican place that were pretty decent. Then I left pretty close to four and charged up at home for a while. Ben called to catch up on work stuff a little bit, and then Becky returned my birthday call and we caught up for the first time since around Christmas.

When I got to Summer’s, I remembered to look at her windshield that took a rock yesterday. The small smashed spot had split right up the middle of the windshield, which meant it would have to be replaced. She said she and Justin actually saw the rock, which was really large and came from the left, with no vehicles except for across the median of the interstate. Of course she forgot that she could honk the horn to save dashcam footage, so there’s no chance of ever knowing what actually happened. I started the claim online and then let her take the call to schedule the windshield replacement. Two Tesla windshields within six months of buying the cars seems like it can’t be a coincidence.

I tried to wind down quickly because I kept falling asleep on the couch, but then I had to look at home insurance stuff again. Eaddie got home from her friend’s house late, and then I wrapped up quickly for bed.

Update those profiles!

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Croc Code Dial Rock

It was pouring down rain on my way to work again, but I was plenty early to grab some breakfast. They had a variety of meat and cheese biscuits or “crescents,” which were super good. Kim actually made it in before me, and finally got started on wiring some carts without me. I felt a little bad, like I wasn’t a leader, but they aren’t really paying me to be one, and I haven’t even gotten the impression they want me to be.

I spent virtually all day long trying to fix the Clever sync. I was finally successful after nearly half a day and rebuilding the script from “scratch,” or at least from the repository. Then I spent the afternoon doing the same for the eSchool uploader, so students would have their email addresses attached to their accounts.

We grabbed some pretty sorry “chicken strips” for lunch and ate in the office while we kept working. Then I tried to slip out a little early but kept hearing people outside. When I finally left, it was nice and clear outside and I made my way home quickly.

Summer said she had dinner ready, so I charged a little bit and then headed up to her house for the evening. She re-boiled the boiled chicken in some cream of mushroom soup with some new vegetables, which made it taste better over a bowl of rice, but would have been better still if she had just baked the damn thing. She’s made a chicken and broccoli casserole dozens of times before, so I don’t know where she got the idea to boil it all in a pot. At least it tasted alright, and then I put the leftovers together in a baking dish for later.

I played 20 Minutes Till Dawn for a bit, and then did some research on insurance and escrow for the house, I’d been tired all week, so fortunately I made it to bed “on time.”

There’s got to be a 12 step program for this.

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The Crocodile in the Room

I switched back to five day weeks today, just because I assumed I was supposed to. I took the opportunity to sleep in just a few short minutes, but then still had to get to work before eight. I didn’t have enough time to stop for coffee, but luckily they had breakfast for us with some coffee and an assortment of other drinks as well. I ate in the cafeteria by myself with my laptop, though I could have just as easily taken it to my office. Then I took my things to the auditorium where I ended up having to loan my laptop to the superintendent and anyone else that wanted to present, because the ancient laptop they had for the stage was just a piece of junk.

I was on stage to help for just a bit, and then spent the rest of his speech in the sound booth upstairs. I came down afterward and spent some time in my office through lunch, when they brought an assortment of Subway sandwiches. They weren’t bad, especially for free.

Blake came and prompted me after lunch so I could go present after him. I don’t know if anyone really expected me to have a presentation ready, but I did my best to put one together in a very short period of time. I thought I could go into it confidently, but of course I started melting as soon as I was on the spot. It actually went reasonably well, with teachers nodding in approval as I called the district out for their lack of accountability when handling students with devices. I tried to signal that administration would have our backs in the future, specifically so it would be solely on them if the failings continued into my watch.

The afternoon was a bit more loose, and Kim disappeared for a while. I’ve been disappointed that she’s just been waiting for me to start wiring carts, but it’s on me for not leading by example already. There’s just so much that she can’t do, and yet she’s waiting for me to help with the things she should be able to do.

I still left a little late, but not much over a full day. I went home and fixed my garage door sensor, which broke off of the wall when I manually opened the door yesterday. Luckily I found the two sharp screws in the driveway and under my tire, not having punctured anything. As soon as that was back together, I headed up to Summer’s where she and Eaddie had dinner waiting.

Summer has been trying to use up some of the food we’ve had in the freezer for a long time, and this time she boiled a bunch of chicken thighs for tacos. I tried to be positive, but was immediately disgusted by the sight and the taste of it all. I had two tacos and then tried to stop, but gave in to one more after feeling angry and hungry. After all of the cooking shows, the best she could do was boil chicken, and then throw out the liquid that would have actually made decent broth. I took a moment to cool down, and then talked to her about it afterward. I appreciated the gesture, but grew tired of the spectacular failures.

Later on, Eaddie and I went to Freddy’s to pick up some free custard for National Frozen Custard Day. I was a little skittish at first to place three free orders, but of course none of the minimum wage employees cared enough to even acknowledge our arrival. We scooped up our custards from the freezer and left.

I ate two bites and put the rest away, deathly afraid of what the dairy would do to my insides. The girls wound down quickly, and then we were all off to bed.

…with gently smiling jaws!

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Too Much Milling About

I got up with the girls this morning, but then napped for a little bit longer before going home to shower. I planned to take some Ridgewood Brothers BBQ to the mill as a gesture of goodwill since I still hadn’t actually accepted their job offer yet. Gary didn’t answer my call, but then responded to my text to say that they ended up filling the position earlier this week. I was pretty upset, but it wasn’t much of a surprise after all the time I had wasted since the original offer. Part of me thinks I should have just left the school without any qualms, since I had no evidence that the superintendent was actually putting forth any effort to increase my pay. Maybe he has, but he’s certainly not any good at communicating his intent.

Around that time, Eaddie finished at band practice. I told her I was free for lunch, so she came to pick me up and we went to Ridgewood ourselves. She made me get the two meat plate because she wanted a bite of some ribs, so I wasn’t quite as satisfied with my meal as I usually am. Then we went back to my house to get my car, but ended up leaving it there to stay on the charger.

As we left, I noticed she had things strewn all around the car, and my lip balm had been tipped up on its side, leaking out all over the place. Fortunately there was a removable rubber tray and it wasn’t terribly difficult to clean up. I was mostly upset that my lip balm was wasted all because the girls couldn’t pay attention to what the hell they were doing in my car.

When we got back to the house, I sat and played 20 Minutes Till Dawn on my phone. I brought my little 8BitDo controller, which made the game a lot more playable. Summer eventually made it home, but didn’t want to get back out. Eaddie and I went back to Ridgewood to try their pork belly pops and some brickle bars. We were in and out, but then got stopped by a train for several minutes as it went back and forth in front of us.

We loved the porksicles, and the desserts were great too. Then I laid in Summer’s lap while she watched TV, and played more of my new game until bedtime.

I like to think I would have been less happy there anyway.

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Three Early Five Me

Julie finally fell asleep last night after screaming at me for an hour about how early she had to get up. I showered at night so I could just jump out of bed at 3:15, giving me 45 minutes to do any last-minute packing, and then we were off to the airport. There wasn’t really any traffic because of how early it was, and we ended up waiting at the gate for a couple hours before boarding. The trip back to Fayetteville was even faster than the trip up, at about an hour and 15 minutes.

We got to the car and headed toward home, stopping at a Sam’s Club and then a Vietnamese place called TyPHOon for lunch. The phở was pretty good, but the bánh mì was really lean on filling. From there, we made it to Ozark so Dad could take over driving from Julie. I just played my Steam Deck the entire way.

Once home, I unpacked and decompressed for just a little while before heading up to Summer’s. Eaddie has been driving herself around in the Murano, so I guess I’ll be taking the Model 3 up there overnight now. I should be able to charge up fast enough in the morning while I shower, to keep up with my usage throughout the day.

Summer made a turkey breast in the slow cooker, along with mashed potatoes and broccoli salad. I ended up taking over the gravy, which turned out super salty from saving all of the drippings. I kept trying to fall asleep after that, so I popped an iron pill and went to bed early.

Oh, man.