Lessons Fought

Eaddie called me a little after midnight, which of course startled us both. I tried to answer, but then she walked around the corner toward the bedroom and said she needed help. Summer jumped up too, but I dressed and followed her outside to investigate. Eli was sitting in the Pathfinder in the driveway right behind my car, and had gotten stuck on the ice slope.

We couldn’t even walk on the ice because it was so slick, so I got a couple containers for the kids to shuttle water back and forth. Eaddie was minimally helpful, and sassed me any time I told her to do anything. Summer eventually came out with my axe and started whaling on the ice to break it up. After a couple hours, we finally got free and climbed out of the driveway. I mentioned Eaddie’s attitude to Summer, and she decided to address it right away before the kids left. Of course Eaddie started crying in frustration, which broke Summer down. I meant for it to be discussed later, but apparently Eaddie had previously expressed wanting to be called out on the spot. They left and Summer and I struggled to go back to sleep.

As tired as I was in the morning, we made it to work for a long day. Rhonda said Muad’Dib had peed on Teddy’s bed in their office, which surprised me since he’s usually right around me. I tried to stay focused, but had a pretty bad anxiety attack in the morning. We got mozzarella sticks from Sonic, then a box from Taco Bell since it actually felt reasonably nice outside. Some old jackass parked crooked next to me, but luckily I could Summon my car out of the spot and load Muad’Dib back in when we left.

The afternoon dragged on a bit, and then we headed home. Janice gave me some money for gift cards from Old South and Brown’s, but the latter would be closed until the next day. The girls were at the house when we got there, but things seemed quiet. Summer bathed and I left to pick up some food. Eaddie denied hunger, but I knew she would eat, so I picked up a bunch of wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, and then a plate from Panda Express. Buffalo Wild Wings was terribly slow, and the boneless wings were terribly small, and of course Panda Express had boxed up my order half an hour before I finally got there.

We all sat down to eat, which was nice, but then Summer quietly summoned me to the bedroom for a talk. I think we both knew Eaddie was really upset that Summer had reversed her decision to get out by the end of the week, but I guess they talked about it and it had them both very bothered. I went to talk to Eaddie about it myself, and I felt like we had a pretty good conversation. Of course I won’t know how she really feels, but hopefully she and Summer can revisit later, and I’m sure we’ll be fine if we can all agree to focus our energy in a positive way.

Eaddie left to practice at Witherspoon, and I rushed to bed without much of a catch-up session with Summer. The less energy we have to spend on catching up for things like this, the better.

Beat the keys out of it.

All or Nothing

Friday was good until it got bad enough to become good again. I stayed pretty busy at work, but struggled in the afternoon as the girls went looking for houses. I stopped by PetSmart when we got back to town, because I needed something to interrupt how I was feeling, and I got Muad’Dib a bunch of treats. Mark needed some computer help as well, so I stopped to see him for a bit too. When I got home, I managed to sit down and talk with Summer for a long while, and eventually we were able to agree that they would slow down long enough to breathe and catch back up from all the recent heaviness. We’ll give it three months without any more of that added stress, and focus on some therapy and heavy communication to see if we can maintain some momentum with our positive change. Eaddie came around and I took them to Waffle House for a late dinner, and we had a good time.

Eaddie was gone all Saturday, so I took Summer to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. They were depressingly slow compared to Old South, and after eating our food, we figured out why. We went back to PetSmart to use another coupon for some food, and then briefly stepped into T.J. Maxx before making it back to the house. We cleaned up a bit and stayed busy most of the afternoon until we decided to go to New China for dinner. I wanted to stop to see my parents on the way back, and Summer nervously went along. Mom had a surprising amount to say, and Summer came home upset for a while, but we talked a little more before bed and then woke up with clearer thoughts.

Summer got some Spam and I made breakfast sandwiches for the three of us. Eaddie left and Summer went to the gym, and I cleaned up the kitchen. Later on, we walked to Walgreens with Muad’Dib to try and get Summer’s prescription, but they were closed. I eventually warmed up some spaghetti for dinner, and at some point the day before we had started watching Wonderman, so we continued that in the evening until bed.

Document the process and build a roadmap to success.

Wear

Summer got up to go to work this morning so they could start cleaning up the properties. I was worried she would get stuck in the driveway, but she actually got out just fine. I tried to get things warmed up a little bit in the house, and then started working from home. Eaddie was up and wanted tuna for brunch, so I made a whopping three cans of that for pitas. I eventually got cleaned up, and I thought Summer was going to pick up some groceries so I could make a split pea soup, but that didn’t happen.

By the time she got home, Summer just wanted to bathe and watch TV. I made some rice to go with the leftover chicken and vegetables, and warmed up the spaghetti for the girls. They watched Storm Chasers for a bit, and then I followed Summer to the bedroom where she watched Jungle Cruise. Afterward I tried talking with her some more, but she just started getting really negative again, and I couldn’t break her out of it.

I went to my office for a while to wrap up the evening, and had an anxiety attack just as I was getting ready to go to bed.

because an echo is always followed by silence.

Fire and Ice

It was a little harder to get up this morning, and I just wanted to stay in bed a little longer. Summer took Muad’Dib out into the snow again, and I made some breakfast for us, which ended up being our only meal for the day. I fried some potatoes, shallots, and garlic with any spices that spoke to me from the cabinet. I fried the eggs before I remembered there was bacon, so that was a little late. everything was really good though.

Summer sat cross stitching again for nearly the entire day. I had trouble keeping a roaring fire going for her, and bounced around trying to clean up some more. I had an anxiety attack sometime in the afternoon, but otherwise I just tried to keep things a little lighter than they have been.

Eaddie never came home again, so Summer didn’t make her tomato soup. I went outside and tried to use my show thrower, but the ice was a bit too hard for it to work super well. It wasn’t bad, but I also wasn’t dressed for the work.

We ended the evening with a big bowl of popcorn and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. Things seemed better by the end of it, but all I can do is continue to put in the work to clean up what we have.

Fire Poker

Shop Chop

I really wanted to stop for breakfast this morning, but we got out late after I couldn’t find Muad’Dib’s collar. I later learned that Eaddie took it off of him in the night because he kept shaking with it on, and I guess it bothered her. We squeezed in and I got right to work on email signatures. I spent a lot of time formatting and organizing staff photos, but CodeTwo made it as easy as possible. I didn’t love working in Affinity for photo editing, but I’m sure it’d be great with some experience.

When lunch time came around, I queued up a few places depending on the weather. It ended up being pretty cold and windy, so we went to Wendy’s for a burger that was twice the price for something easily twice as good. I had an anxiety attack right in the middle of it, but it came and went without too much of a daze afterward.

The afternoon was more of the same, to the point that my mouse hand ached from all the repetition. I finally sent an email to the sales folks with instructions on how to remove their own device-set signatures, and then got everyone that was still in the office fixed up before I left.

When we got to the house, the kids were in the living room while Summer was having a bath. I took Muad’Dib for a walk, and he seems to know that we always go straight to my parents’ house when I’m on foot. Mom was in the middle of making bánh u̕ớt, so we stayed for dinner before walking back to the house. He took me down Ridgewood this time, and then we laid down with Summer as she fell asleep to WandaVision.

I still had to enable my work email signatures, and Jon apparently didn’t like the photo that was in the favorites folder, so I had to edit that as well. It didn’t take too long, and then I went to bed early.

Affinity for carpal tunnel.

Mortality

I got out a hair earlier this morning and considered stopping at Hardee’s, but just headed straight to work instead. I felt a little bit odd for much of the day, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I begrudgingly tinkered with Intune and the Android tablets and phone I had, and made minimal progress. All roads continued to lead back to certificate-based authentication.

We took a break to go to Sonic for lunch, and a guy in a stall next to the picnic tables chatted with me about Muad’Dib. He was a good boy who got lots of tots. The Smasher was actually pretty good, too.

The afternoon crept by, and I felt worse and then better until quitting time. I had brought my Onewheel to ship for RMA service, so I asked Summer if she wanted to walk with us in the evening instead. She started her vericose vein procedure in the afternoon, and needed to walk on it a bit. By the time we got to the house, she had dinner about ready, so we ate instead.

Eaddie sat down to eat with us and it was a good meal. Eli showed up a little later for some, but then went home for second dinner. I had stopped by the Neighborhood Market on the way home to try and return some poor quality beef jerky, but was turned away because I was outside the return window, so I called the number on the packaging instead. It took a little while, but a nice lady said she would send a giftcard to reimburse me. Then I moved to the couch across from Summer and put on Ricky Gervais’s new special on Netflix. I didn’t think it was terribly funny, but watched it through before moving on to some MKBHD before bed.

The meatbags are failing.

²

It was damp out today, and slightly drizzly, but not too gross. There was a truck off the side of the road going the other direciton just as we got to Morrilton, and we could see traffic backed up from there. Things were quiet for me, and I tried to replicate my focus from yesterday. I did fairly well, but everything I was doing led me back to square one. I just need to decide whether to spin up a new DC and go hybrid, or pay for more cloud services.

When lunch came around, we went to McDonald’s for a McRib. After waiting a while, they came out and said they weren’t selling it any more, and offered to make me something else. I forgot how pitiful the McCrispy was, and got that. It tasted fine, but was just a small, sad sandwich. I ended up redeeming points for some McNuggets before I left.

A little while later, I had an anxiety attack at work. I wish I had a better way to track this along with some vitals from my peripherals, and I’m surprised there isn’t an app for that. The rest of the afternoon went by kind of slowly, and I was alone upstairs for much of it.

The ride home was quiet and fast. My parents were making egg rolls again, so I ran over with Muad’Dib. Summer was already in the shower when we got to the house, so she met us over there when she was done. Julie and Kevin showed up, and I got a little spun up as we were starting to put food together. I felt like my heart was racing and I felt a little dazed, but I think Julie’s aggressive loudness just had my blood pressure up, so I just had to relax and let it pass.

We all actually sat together and ate together for once, which was nice. Muad’Dib did a wonderful job sitting in the laundry room, and we had a good run back to the house afterward. My heartrate was about the same as it was during my episode and I felt fine, so I’m sticking with blood pressure with a side of dehydration since I was a little bit shy on my water quota.

Eaddie and Eli were at the house watching Breaking Bad when we got there, so Summer went to bed while I wrapped up fairly early myself. I think the sleep helps, though the afternoon anxiety attack and evening daze had me a bit puzzled.

1

Tracking Dog

I watched Muad’Dib’s Fi collar pretty closely this morning while Eaddie and friends took him along to Sam’s Throne for a hike. I went to work mostly excited for lunch at Ortega’s even if it would be by myself, since Summer wouldn’t have time to stop on her way back from Little Rock. I stayed fairly busy again, but still didn’t have anything material to show for it. I did learn a bit about the applications and services we use, which will help.

When lunch finally came around, I found a new starter combo that I really liked. Getting a chalupa and a tostada first gave me a crispy meat and bean “hamburger” with lots of guacamole and sour cream that could be eaten with whatever else I got. The chicken was great today too.

The afternoon came and went, and I walked out just a couple minutes late. Muad’Dib was outside when I got to the house, so I let him in and we went out front to check the mail. He got a wild look in his eyes and took off in circles, barely able to keep enough traction to keep from running into the car. I changed clothes and we walked out just as Summer got there, and ran to Walgreens for a prescription.

I had an anxiety attack on the way back home that made me feel super tired for the next couple hours, but we managed to go back through our entire usual route, saw my parents, and then got back to the house so I could give him a bath. It was probably the longest bath I’ve ever given him, and I pulled out a ton of fur. He still smelled like corn chips though, so I may call the vet later just to see what they say about it. He did great for the bath though, even though he didn’t love it. He just sat there and let me run back and forth for supplies, timers, and even blow drying.

Summer was asleep by the time we finished. I wrapped up quickly and went to sleep.

Fizzle

Worst Best Case Scenario

I felt pretty awful all day. It was rainy, and I thought food might help, so we picked up some Burger King and shared the hash rounds on the drive in. I didn’t eat the biscuit until nearly lunch time, so then I took a really late lunch. I felt overwhelmed with new projects most of the day, and I just couldn’t finish any one of them.

Things were quiet by quitting time, and it was a relaxing drive home. We walked in and found a bunch of standing water in the laundry room, and I feared the worst. There was no time to waste though, so I turned off the water lines to the washing machine, changed clothes, and took Muad’Dib on a run.

When we got back to the house, I had to take a little break until Summer got home. Then I started excavating the laundry room. It kept looking dry under the washer, so I went the other direction and finally found the source. We had kept some spring water from Hot Springs, and rats chewed into the bags, causing them to leak all over everything. Now I’ve got to find where they’re getting in and patch that, plus I still have to replace the garbage disposal.

I took a break and played some Don’t Starve on my phone in the dark living room by myself. I died, and finally decided to try it on the Steam Deck again for the next round. It was getting late, so I laid with Muad’Dib and Summer in bed for a little while before getting up and getting ready for bed myself.

488

No Resolutions

I had a tough time getting up for work this morning and got out of the house late, but still made it in without any trouble. The old server must have died from a power issue or something, because Heaven caught me right off the bat with an internet issue. I just need to get them off of the old domain controller.

The rest of the day was fairly focused on cleaning up the user directory for the menial task of unified email signatures. Organization on the front end would have made this a two click fix, but that is not the way of things. I had an anxiety attack somewhere along the way and contemplated tracking dates and times for those.

I had sort of been planning to go to Arby’s sometime this week, and today seemed as good a day as any. They were packed, but I found a table to eat. Joel came by in the afternoon to tell me they were cutting everyone loose at 2:30.

Eaddie was making Oreo balls with Eli when we got back to the house. Summer came home and took a bath while I took Muad’Dib on a run. I wanted to take him to PetSmart, but by the time Summer got ready and we made it to the store, they were closing up for the night. We went to Point Remove instead, and played cards over some pizza.

The kids were gone to a party when we got back to the house. I gave Muad’Dib a good bath before we went to see my parents. Mom was asleep the whole time, but we had some sparkling wine with Dad. We visited for a short while before going back to the house where the kids finished the series finale of Stranger Things. Summer went to bed and I finished the essentials.

Perpetuity