Tag: frustration

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Nothing Happened

Gary came by early this morning and told me to go spend the day with Kyle. I actually had quite a bit to do, so this was pretty frustrating to hear. I still barely made it over to the junior high before lunch, because I got stuck trying to get a signature pad working for support services, and then had to run by Crawford to pick up some headphones and, bizarrely, try and help Kevin set up an aim bot for Call of Duty.

When I actually caught up with Kyle, he seemed to be more or less under control. I expected him to have a bunch of nonsense backed up, but it was mostly repairs and he didn’t really need my help with anything. He suggested Quiznos for lunch, but I ended up going back to the shop to pick up a crew for Wendy’s instead.

I went back to the junior high after lunch, but kept having to field high school questions from Jacob. He was clearly frustrated by devices not behaving with SCCM as he expected, but we’ve just been such a revolving door that there’s not much history at the high school after I left the building.

I finally made it back to the office at the end of the day, but then Thomas walked into my dark room and asked me about what happened with Zach after work the other day. I told him I felt terrible, and he seemed sympathetic, but like he was still caught in a position of having to file paperwork. He asked me to email him my side of the story, and I spent the rest of the night fretting over how not to incriminate myself or anyone else. I figure it’s none of anyone’s business what happens after work.

Eaddie had walked to my house to ride her bike, but she was back home by the time I made it there. We left for her house and stopped at Sonic for some cheese sticks along the way. Then I made them burritos for dinner, and drank mine. Autumn came home nonchalantly after an alleged study night at the mall. Eaddie went to bed early for all-state over the next couple days, and Summer was in bed by her usual, early time. I managed to make it to bed over two hours early myself.

Ignorance is bliss.

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Caught Between Two Cranks

It was rainy again for most of today, but I spent most of it in my office working on some Adobe troubles. It seemed really quiet otherwise, aside from a couple walks to the Support Services building. We had our usual Taco Tuesday, where a couple of the maintenance guys had beat us there. Then we saw Melinda and Matt come in as we were leaving.

I wasn’t much more successful in the afternoon, and it dragged on a little bit until quitting time. Summer said she should be out of work by five, so I thought we could visit with Mom and possibly take them to dinner. When I got to Superfast, she said she still had some work to do and that Eaddie changed her mind about going to a basketball game.

By the time I made it to Eaddie, she had changed her mind about three times, and then wanted us to take her to New China with Gavin. We were alright with that plan, but then the restaurant was closed and we wound up at Stoby’s.

We eventually made it to my parents’ house, but Mom was dozing on the couch, not feeling well. We made it to my house to trade vehicles, and then up to Summer’s where everyone wound down super fast. Autumn was out late with her boyfriend, and I called her out for parking on the opposite side of the campus during the game. I didn’t want to be up when she made it home, so I wrapped up quickly and hit the hay.

The problem is, we’re much smarter than you.

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Out Came the Sun

I got to work this morning, and the maintenance crew had stuff laid out to tear up the ground around the basement. I thought I’d leave and work from the high school again, but since they weren’t actually doing anything in our office and most everything was dry, I ended up sticking around. I kept reasonably busy, and the time just flew by.

I took Gary, Zach, and Thomas to Wendy’s and tried some new chicken sandwich with a fried mozzarella patty and marinara, and wasn’t super impressed. I kind of just wished I had gotten a burger. Then it was back to the shop where I spent most of the afternoon putting together three pages worth of meeting minutes from Monday.

I ended the day at Crawford to try and clean up a few work orders, but only actually closed one before quitting time. I went to see Summer at Superfast, but then she sent me to Walmart to pick up pork chops, broccoli, and cauliflower. I went home briefly, and then met her at her house where we remembered that the girls actually had a quiz bowl night at Zaxby’s.

Dinner was good, but Summer kept getting irritated at anything I said. Easily the most frustrating part about our relationship is that she often seems incapable of accepting any form of constructive feedback. Eaddie eventually showed up, but disappeared into the bathroom after saying that Autumn would be later. She had to take Adam home, after evidently being gross in the Zaxby’s parking lot. Between that and the mysteriously leaky bottle of Fireball, we just want her gone.

Eaddie and I ended the night with two more episodes of Breaking Bad. The drama has gotten so heavy, but there’s still so far to go. I remember there being a lull at some point, but I don’t think it ever got bad.

F is for Frustration!

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I Forgot My Floaties

There was a line of cars in front of our shop this morning, but I didn’t quite put it together why they were there. Our office had flooded again, in a bad way. Of course my office got the worst of it. Gary sent me off to the high school instead to work with Jacob, though he never actually showed up until near lunch time.

Just as I was getting ready to go back to the shop for lunch I got a text from another Jacob, evidently the primary Tesla mobile service tech for the state. He was on his way to work on the Model 3 in the rain, so I went to the bus shop to see if I could borrow a bay to keep out of the weather. Dale was just leaving, so he let me pull right in. Just a few minutes later, I spotted the little Tesla service van across the field and called to direct him to me.

They were two really young guys in full Tesla rain gear, and they confirmed my issues and got right to work testing the doors repeatedly. They adjusted the door bumpers, then pulled some trim and checked some wires. It took a little bit to warm up to me, but then we got to talking a bit while they worked. Jacob had a broken shoulder from mountain biking, so TA was there from North Carolina to help. Jacob said he was actually from Heber Springs, which surprised the heck out of me for a Tesla tech that covers the whole state. We had a good chat, and a laugh about how bad Enhanced Autopilot is. Then they were on their way.

I went back to the shop for a minute just as the others got back from lunch. They were still pulling tons of water out of the office, since it had been raining all day. There was no end in sight, as we watched the water line drift right back out away from the wall as it seeped up from the ground. I went to KFC to get a bit of lunch and relax, and then headed back to the high school to finish out the day.

Summer wanted to go to Walmart, so I met her there right after work and we picked up a bunch of random stuff. Then I went home to change before going up to her place. That was when I started having trouble charging my car. I spent quite a while digging out my charger and moving it to different outlets. The two most convenient ones were reporting no ground connection, but inside the house, the mobile charger appeared to be fine. I finally got to my third outlet in the garage, and was able to get charging again.

When I got to Summer’s, Eaddie was baking brownies. Summer finished up her TV show and then went to bed since Eaddie wanted to watch Breaking Bad with me. We watched two episodes, which got me to bed a bit later than I wanted, but it was just getting really good. I should probably take some time off tomorrow anyway, to investigate my rogue outlets.

I wander’d off by myself
In the mystical moist night-air
And from time to time
Look’d up in perfect silence
At the stars

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Forced Urgency

I was a couple minutes late to work this morning for some reason, and I walked in to the team talking about going to all of the schools to cut laptop chargers out of the carts so the kids could take them home. It was an unnecessary reaction to a threat of inclement weather because they didn’t have the forethought to make a plan.

I rode with Zach and Travis to Sequoyah, Oakland, and Center Valley where we met with Kyle and Jacob to complete the work. We didn’t actually remove chargers, but we cut zip ties to make it easier for the teachers, who ranged from unfazed to absolutely panicked.

That took most of the morning, and then Thomas took Zach, Greg, and me to Quiznos for lunch. Afterward, we met back up and went over a chat support system that Thomas had implemented in case we could work from home. A little later, Tammy was worried about verifying inventory for some touch panels we received a week or two ago, so Zach and I went to the maintenance warehouse and talked to Chris for a bit, and then counted our touch panels.

School let out a couple hours early, which really wasn’t necessary for the precipitation we had. Instead of having an AMI day with all of the newly liberated devices, administration decided it was best to just call Tuesday an inclement weather day that would have to be made up at the end of the year. It would seem that AMI days should always be used first, since we have them, but I guess not everyone was prepared for that.

I made it home and loaded up to go to Summer’s for the evening. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to burn a sick day for what probably should have been given to us regardless. Summer was feeling much better, and quite chatty. Then I settled in for some Breaking Bad with Eaddie until bedtime.

They have an incredible talent for making things much worse than they have to be.

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Sleepy Sunday

Summer made corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast this morning, and then everyone disappeared to their rooms while Summer either watched TV or fell asleep on the couch. I bounced around a little bit, and broke out my Steam Deck to play a little Don’t Starve for a bit, but it didn’t last long.

Autumn left to go shopping with her grandparents while the rest of us collectively rolled our eyes at their enabling her generally being a shitty human. She’s absolutely insufferable, and we’re all tired of feeling guilty for thinking so.

I cleaned up most of the stuff for spring rolls for the remaining three of us for dinner, and then Eaddie and I watched some more Breaking Bad until bed.

VapoGrease

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You’ve Gotta Be Shirtin Me

I woke up to a call from Thomas this morning, and apparently the robotics tournament was completely offline with a lot of cranky people. I got around and headed home in case he needed a hand, but he said he got things going, so I started some laundry.

I finished all of six loads for a total of 75 shirts washed before I made it back up to Summer’s. I got a few other things cleaned up as well, and then Summer made spring rolls for dinner. They turned out pretty good for her first time, and Eaddie enjoyed them as well. Autumn was gone to a school dance for most of the evening.

As bedtime grew near, Eaddie and I decided to start Breaking Bad as we waited for Autumn to get home. She tried to stay out later after leaving the dance early, and claimed to make it home half an hour late because she fell asleep at Adam’s house. I had no interest in listening to her excuses, but our second episode was nearly done anyway. Then it was off to bed.

Absolute Parasite

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Nailed It

It was relatively quiet at work today, but I kept pretty busy. Jacob was looking for answers for Adobe, but I still had none. After a little while, I ended up running to the high school to pick up some depot kits from him. He had completely rearranged the office in a way that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I guess it kept him out of the line of sight. I would find it aggravating to walk around all of the shelving when trying to image all of the devices.

When lunch time came around, I took Thomas and Zach to Popeye’s, where Greg met up with us. On the way, I noticed my tire pressure was dropping pretty rapidly, but figured I would patch the tire after lunch. I had just finished eating and Greg still had food left when Zach wanted to run back to work to check on a switch that may have been down. I wasn’t convinced that it was, but he pushed the urgency. We stopped for air since I was down under 20PSI, and made it back to the shop.

After getting settled in a bit, I loaded up some stuff and went to Superfast to see if Justin could get me a better deal on patching the tire. He had me park next door, and then I waited in the Superfast lobby for a while before going back to wait in Hindsman’s. The whole ordeal took about an hour, and I was out for about 25 bucks, so it wasn’t too bad. What upset me was the fact that they replaced my factory valve stem cap with a bright silver one, but I didn’t notice until after I got back to work. I called them and then took a trip back to try and find it, but when the guy came out with a handful of generic black ones, I knew it was pointless. I know it seems ridiculous, but I feel like tire shops just love stealing OEM caps. It makes no sense.

I stopped by Dwight after that, and took care of a few work orders, including a months-old one for a new microphone in the saferoom. It took me a bit to figure out what the manual was showing me, but I got the thing paired and working.

Thomas had me deploy some iPad software when I got back to the shop, just in case we send kids home for inclement weather later this week. I don’t really see it, but I guess a bunch of people are panicked and already sending devices home as “practice.” I finally left when it was time to get Eaddie from her PSAT tutoring, and we went home so I could pack for our overnight trip to Little Rock for Summer’s VIP night and subsequent neuropsychologist appointment.

When we got to their house, I spent the evening shopping for hotels with EV chargers. The new wash on Chenal is supposed to have one, so I should be topped off when we leave there, but I’ll still want to keep it topped off overnight for a stress-free trip home.

Seriously, take the cap off, do the work, and put the cap back on. Why are these guys so bad at this?

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But Now We’re Stressed Out

I had some wild dreams last night, ranging from Josh coming back, to literally falling over dead out of my office chair. We had our morning meeting with an assortment of some other cake donuts this time, and then we were told of our temporary assignments for covering the junior high until our new hire starts. It was still ambiguous at the time about whether it was public knowledge that Ryan was coming back, but at least some of us know he’ll be back the first Monday in February.

I was sent to the junior high for the whole day, and would be alternating with Greg on Fridays until Ryan returns and we’re all restructured. I never made it to Dwight yesterday though, so I wanted to stop by on the way across town to wrap up a couple things. They were also bothering Greg about their intercoms, but that turned out to be a weird, easy fix.

The junior high was pretty chill, but was primarily student device repairs. It seemed to be very, very dysfunctional, and there was clearly no accountability with the students. I troubleshot what was in the library, but never spent any time in the office. Ronda was there by herself, aside from all the random foot traffic, so it was nice to catch up with her again.

Zach and Greg went to lunch a little early, and I met them at IHOP for a surprisingly quick lunch. It wasn’t cheap, but it was also a ton of food. It was there that I learned that at least Greg knew Ryan was coming back, but I don’t know if they’ve discussed a restructure with him yet. I presume not, and Gary’s out all next week.

I finished up the day at the junior high, taking a break to avoid a tornado drill. Instead of sticking around for that, I ran to Sonic for a couple drinks, and then finished the day closing out some classroom tickets. At the end of the day, I went back to the shop to clean up. As everyone else filtered out, I dropped by Thomas’s office to talk about my own headspace.

We had a good talk, and I got him to tell me that he’d like for me to stay, which was more than I could get from anyone else. In fact, everyone else told me that he’d never say it, so I felt pretty good about it. I hated getting so sappy about it, but I had clearly been stressing all night over it. Clarksville would be a great raise, but I just wasn’t sure it was worth the cost.

I went home for quite a while until Summer got home late. Then we tried and failed to get discount gas before going to Brangus for dinner. We ate and paid too much, and then went back for gas before making our way home. The girls had All-Region Clinic until late, but they got home a little while after we did. Then it was off to bed.

When our momma sang us to sleep, but now we’re stressed out.

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Wasted Time and Money

The girls wanted to go dress shopping this morning, so I was left to fend for myself. I felt mildly better, but my low-grade fever stuck around all day. I wanted to get out of the house to do anything at all, but I could never get anyone to go with me. The girls left for Clarksville after they got back from shopping, so it was just Summer and me sitting around the house all day.

I chatted with Brandie for a while about buying a house, and she eventually called to try and better explain the virtues of having a realtor on our side. It just sounded like another money sink to me. The seller of the house we’re interested in appeared to cheap out on her realtor, and it’s all the more tempting to try and communicate directly with her after doing a little Facebook stalking.

Summer at least accomplished putting things in the girls’ scrap books, but my entire day was slowly and frustratingly burned. I paid bills and just got more and more frustrated by the idea of buying a home. If I didn’t have such a reliance on electricity to sleep, I feel like I’d be way further along on a boat life.

We ended the short and worthless day early with some Monopoly on Stadia, followed by a couple episodes of Modern Family.

Boar