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Furniture: Assemble!

I got up with Summer this morning instead of sleeping in. Eaddie had to leave early for her Tech Band Member for a Day event, and then I made some coffee for Summer and myself. She had to leave for an employee’s wedding in Tulsa, and she wanted me to stay behind and watch Eaddie’s band performance.

I cleaned up the house a bit and started assembling the new “media console table” that we got for the sunroom. It was cheap, but it fit the space well, and would give us somewhere to put some of the random things that would go in that room.

Eaddie ended up texting to tell me not to go to the game because they only got to play one song at the start, and then another one at the very start of halftime. I actually found the livestream on YouTube and watched it there, and of course it just looked like a big mob of people. They kept talking and playing commercials over some of the other performances, but fortunately they stopped during the segments the kids were playing.

Once I got everything cleaned back up, I took the dogs out for a really long run. We went to my parents’ house, then circled back to see Eaddie while she was changing clothes at the house. Then she and Eli left for a game night with friends, and the dogs and I kept running. We took a backwards route through the basin, then around through some other neighborhoods before circling back. We did 5.4 miles total, with a couple stops to dip in the creek at the basin park. They did really well, but I think I’m just getting lucky with most of my directions training.

Once we got home, I fed them and called Summer to check in. She had stopped to charge before heading home. I forgot we didn’t have tortillas, so I ended up going to Little Caesar’s for some dinner. Then I discovered Summer had been charging for over an hour and I had to show her how to monitor her charge rate. She should have been on the road within just a few minutes, but didn’t know any better.

The girls both ended up getting home around the same time, and I didn’t waste any time getting to bed. The night had dragged on a bit, and I was drained from sleep deprivation. No time to make it up.

We on neon!

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Elon, Take the Wheel

I let the car take the onramp all the way to the offramp this morning, and only had to intervene once when it stupidly tried to pass in the right lane a block before it would have had to turn into the office parking lot. I just don’t get why it does obviously stupid things when it does so well at other times.

Randy wasn’t feeling well and ended up leaving after lunch. Nobody else came around, so I just went to Arby’s by myself and hung out there for the hour. I didn’t get into anything super complicated, and actually spent most of the morning waiting for Randy to show me a couple things, so I’m still feeling a little bit lost a lot of the time.

The morning happened to go by super quickly, so of course the afternoon dragged on. I decided to take the next two days off for recovery, so I headed home and then immediately took the dogs out for a walk. We went backwards this time, and went to the pond first to get a bit muddy. Then we stopped by my parents’ house before going up the hill and through Pinewood before making it home, where we took one more lap around the block before stopping.

Eaddie and Eli ate salad crap that Summer brought home, and I left out of frustration when I found an empty condiment shelf in the refrigerator. I ended up going to KFC to pick up a Famous Bowl, and then I went to the city park to eat at a picnic table. I sat there and enjoyed the weather for a while before going to the old house to check things out. There weren’t any toilets, so I ended up leaving sooner than I expected.

I didn’t want to go home though, so I immediately started Full Self Driving without a destination, just to see where the car would take me. I wondered if it would choose turns, or if it would just keep trying to drive straight as long as it could. It ended up taking a right at the stop sign, which made me think it was going to default to taking me home. It made it all the way across town, but then took the first exit out of the roundabout, which put me back on 12th Street all the way to Glenwood. There, it took its only left turn the entire night, and took me up to 2nd Street. There, it took another right and got through the stops all the way to the traffic light. It tried to proceed through green, but then hit the brakes hard right in the middle of the intersection because it couldn’t see the street. There just happened to be another car coming from the other direction, so the headlights probably didn’t help the matter. I pressed the accelerator to carefully nudge it through the intersection, and it continued on as if nothing had happened.

It ended up at sort of a dead-end, so it took a right and went nearly all the way to Oakland Heights before it took a sudden right to get back over to Detroit. Then we headed north, all the way over the tracks, and then took the first right out of the traffic circle on that side of town. It took me around the Parker Road bend, then all the way up the steep hill to get to Highway 124. We drove by the girls’ old house and ended up on the intersection of 124 and Weir Road. It took me back toward town all the way to Main Street before taking a right and going all the way over the bridge. After we made it through downtown, I finally told it to take me home, and it did. We made it just over 15 miles over the course of 35 minutes with absolutely no interventions, and I really only stopped because the battery was low and still hadn’t recovered from my drive back from work.

Summer was already in bed. Eaddie saw Eli out, I took out the trash. Eventually sleep.

Adventures with Machines

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Bathroom Blitz

I ran behind, but got out of the house early enough that I didn’t have to speed quite so much on the way to work. It was pretty chilly out, but that wouldn’t affect me in the office. Maggie was hungry, so she talked me into trying Panera Bread for breakfast. They had a four sandwich deal that worked out for the two of us and Charles.

It was a fairly leisurely day, but I still feel like I’m not really prioritizing correctly. I spent a lot of time rearranging PRTG again until Kyle came to the office to go out to lunch. He, Maggie, and I went to Eat My Catfish, which tasted good but had pitiful portions. The single catfish fillet I had was basically a quarter of a small fish.

The afternoon got a little bit exciting when the inbound DID numbers quit working, at least a part of the time. Maggie got on the phone with Windstream and IK Electric to see if anyone could see what went wrong. Kyle hung around the office for the rest of the afternoon too, but nobody in our department carried any stress over any of it.

Dad said the restoration people would be coming over the next day to start working on the bathrooms, so I ran home as quickly as I could and took the dogs for a quick run. They were super good, and then Summer got home just as we finished, so we went to the old house to bring the last remaining fish tank to the new house. We got it set up, moved the water and everything. Then I went back again to clean out the rest of both bathrooms. It took me a while, and I was up about two hours later than I wanted to be, but I guess I can nap on the way to work.

Are you ready Steve? Andy? Mick? Alright fellas, let’s go!

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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…

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Silly Dog. Fence Is for Rabbits!

I awoke to another call about our escaped dogs. They happened to be in the same neighborhood, so I got over to them and they ran up to the car. They didn’t even hesitate to jump into the Murano for the ride home, and now I’m thinking they just like riding around in a car. I took them for a walk around the block, but Muad’Dib couldn’t get enough. I was still exhausted though, so I went in and tried going back to sleep for a bit, but never had a good time with it. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast. Eaddie slept in, and I was more than a little jealous.

I tried calling the vet and a couple other places to see if anyone could take both dogs for the duration of our vacation, but the closest thing I could find was our own vet, who could only take one dog. I knew then that I would have to fix the fence issue for real, so I picked up Dad and we went to Harbor Freight for some bold cutters and Lowe’s for some welded wire fencing. They had a few different options, but we went with the fencing for rabbits on account of how much cheaper it was, and I figured it would do the job well enough. It was a little easier to bend than the other stuff, but I think with enough staples it should hold.

After we left Lowe’s, I dropped Dad off so he could take care of some stuff, and I went home to get some containers to bring home some rice for lunch. Then I picked Dad back up and we got the wire fence installed. There were still a couple places that could have used some work, but I think overall we have a pretty good chance of thwarting their next escape plan.

I let Dad take the Murano home and I rode over on the Onewheel to swim. Without any recovery time, my whole body has been aching, and I hate the thought that I’ll struggle at Disney now because of it. I’ve got exactly no time left to recoup.

When I got back home, Eaddie and I tried to clean house and she packed her bags. I had to go back across town to pick up a shirt for Summer and fix the fish feeder, but I forgot to return our unused bolt cutter. I also forgot that we had technically tried to use it to cut a twisted wire that was holding the fence roll together, and noticed a small mark on the tip of the cutters that made it pretty obvious that something had actually been cut.

As soon as I got back to the house and got out of the car, my phone slid out of my lap and onto the driveway where the back glass shattered. Most of the glass was contained, but I was mad all the same. I suppose this is what the insurance is for, but I hated that it happened at such an inconvenient time.

Eaddie and I eventually took the dogs out for another walk while we waited for Summer to come home from work. Then I took a shower and Eaddie brought Noah over to housesit. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens tonight.

haustion

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Raining Sunshine

The dogs chewed their way out again through a new hole, and I only finally saw Stilgar as I was leaving for work. He was up the hill in the neighbor’s backyard, chomping on a dead frog. Luckily he followed the car back to the house, and I put him in the fence again. Dad sent a screenshot of the Nextdoor app where someone had posted some pictures of both of our dogs with a third, which I’ve seen around the neighborhood multiple times. Eaddie and I did some sleuthing and found the house in the background on Google Maps, and she drove around to try and find Muad’dib while I was at work. She never did see him, but Summer came home in the afternoon and found him with the neighbor. I guess he just found his own way back, and she kept him for a playdate until later in the evening.

I did a bit of research into home solar since I had a meeting with Sean from Nivo Solar later in the evening. He didn’t seem super enthusiastic last time, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew we didn’t have prime property for panels, but it’s something I’ve always wanted, and some of the incentives appear to be going away soon.

It was a long day, but I eventually got back to the old house to feed the fish, and then went to Optimum to drop off their modem. I didn’t think to ask for a receipt the first time, so I went back and got one from someone else. The girl that took the modem earlier asked about cellular, but didn’t put up much of a fight. When I got back for the receipt, I made a comment to the guy about how they were always nice there, but I couldn’t bear to do business with Optimum the company any longer. I’ve never seen an employee completely turn on their company so quickly before, and it seems toxic the entire way through.

With that done, I finally made it home to find both dogs. It started sprinkling, without a single cloud above me, and the sun shining bright. Summer got home much earlier than I expected, and then I had my solar meeting to discuss some options ranging from about $14k to $30k. Those numbers matched mine pretty closely, so they seemed okay to me. I also asked about putting solar on the shed out back, which would be possible, but also covered by trees. I’d like to get some additional quotes, but so far they seemed pretty straightforward.

I spent a little more time with the dogs, but the evening flew by and before I knew it, I was late to bed. I reviewed the pet grooming kit I got from Amazon and got an invite to their Vine program, so I’ll have to look into that more tomorrow.

TAXABLE INCOME

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What’s the Deal with Negotiations?

Eaddie left for band camp and said the dogs were out again. I was ready to walk out, and Muad’dib came running back, but Stilgar was nowhere to be found. I had to leave, but Summer eventually found him. Everyone made it back, but I don’t think it took them long to get out again.

McDonald’s has had their bagel deal the past few days, so I had another one for the drive in. I had plenty of time to make some coffee and settle in, but then I saw an email from Harry that he was finally ready to meet with me after I had been trying to pin him down for basically the entire year. I had to update a few numbers before I could see him, but then Kim walked in with the boys and talked to me for a little bit before she had to go turn in some paperwork.

The meeting went more or less how I predicted. He appreciated my Seinfeld references in my agenda, and I held strong with my side of the negotiations. He wanted a signed contract, and I wasn’t willing to sign the contract they offered. He fidgeted as I made my “presentation,” and then we had more of a discussion once I was done. By the end of it all, he thought to suggest a $50,000 salary plus a $10,000 merit-based bonus to get me to sign for one more year. That sounded alright, but I also asked for the autonomy to work from home at my own discretion. He seemed agreeable. Now we’ll just have to wait and see what I’m offered, because he seemed anxious to get something in writing before the first of July.

I missed lunch because my meeting carried on so long. Harry has trouble getting to the brass tacks, and talks in circles quite a bit. Luckily the lunch lady had some pizza and broccoli bagged up, which I assumed she was taking home. Summer was having a rough day, so I talked on the phone with her for a while. Then I wrapped up the day tinkering with the Ubiquiti equipment that Todd had returned. I don’t know how long that rat had that stuff, but they had dirt from his chicken houses all over them. I wasn’t pleased.

I eventually made it back to town and fed the fish before getting home to eat some leftovers and then patch holes in the fence. I screwed some wood into a couple places the dogs had been getting out, and I think we have a fair chance of keeping them inside now. They’re resilient, but hopefully not diggers. If this holds, we’ll have a better chance of starting some real training. Then all we’ll lack is time. While I was out there, I picked up some branches that a couple country bumpkins had cut out of the neighbor’s tree, and Stilgar helped me carry them to the brush pile. At first he was tugging back, but then he actually helped drag them the same direction, and then even went to get one of his own, but only made it about halfway to the pile before giving up.

The tree trimmers stopped to ask if we wanted any limbs removed that were leaning over our house. At $40, I knew they weren’t insured, but they seemed to have been doing an alright job so far. As I watched them work, Nick came home and I formally met the neighbor. Evidently he worked at Two Rivers for a few years before I got there, but had since moved to Lamar. We chatted for quite a while, and then exchanged numbers before going in to find refuge from the mosquitos.

I wrapped up, and Eaddie came to chat with me for a while when she got home. With any luck, we’ll still have two dogs in the back yard in the morning.

Doggy Jail.

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Tank of Least Resistance

I had a massive headache all morning, but Summer saw a post on the Ring app that our dogs were out wandering the neighborhood, so I had to ride around to try and find them. I took several laps around the neighborhood and never caught a glimpse. My feet started hurting really badly, so I came back home and walked to the back yard just to make sure they hadn’t come home. They weren’t back there, but they were in front of the garage when I came back around the house. They must have seen me somewhere and followed me back.

I fried some eggs for French bread sandwiches, and then Summer really wanted to mow. I tried to find how water was getting from the cold to the hot lines, and with Summer’s help, we eventually tracked it down to the master shower mixer. I tried to take a cold shower since we didn’t have a water heater, and it was much colder than I remembered from the other night. I tried a couple times, but just barely managed to get myself wet. Of course Summer had to outdo me and take one herself.

My parents had eggrolls and noodles, so we went over there for a late lunch. When we got back home, I decided that it would probably be best to just stick with a water tank for now. I’ve always wanted to switch to tankless, but the lack of a regulator, need for a larger fuel line for either gas or electric, need for a more substantial vent if we went with gas, and the likelihood of the work being pushed back a week for the actual work to be done convinced me that I just needed to get something done today.

I poked around in the vent to see if I could get it reattached. Dad came over when we couldn’t find where the vent actually left the house, and we found it in the secondary attic. Summer and I went to Lowe’s to try and pick up a replacement water heater, but Dad had to meet us there because there wasn’t a soul in the store that knew a thing about plumbing. We eventually just settled for a couple parts, and headed home.

The girls were able to help me lift the tank high enough that I could wrap straps around it and lift it the rest of the way. It was a super tight fit, but having a 50 gallon tank instead of a 40 gallon tank should let us keep the set temperature a bit lower, or at least keep us from running out so quickly in the winter. Dad came back over to help hook everything up after I got it in place, and I was finally able to take a hot shower before bed.

Sometimes we trade dreams for convenience.

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Seven Trains Later

Both of the dogs were gone this morning, and I found the front gate open. I assumed the neighbor accidentally didn’t close it all the way, so I took the Onewheel around the block and found them not far away, running through the streets. As soon as they saw me, they came running and I just rode home with them right behind. I thought it was a pretty good response, but Muad’dib eventually disappeared again in the afternoon.

I spent the morning cleaning up the creeping vines on the fence, so the gate was much more accessible. Then I trimmed the rose bushes so they weren’t sticking out over the walkway. Our backyard neighbor Josh handed me a bag of homegrown blueberries from their garden and we traded phone numbers. I continued to sweat profusely as the sun got higher, so I came inside for a shower. After the shower, I heard a water leak alarm and found the water heater standing in a pan full of water.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a jumble. Dad came over to take a look at the tank with me, and we started draining it. I warmed up some leftover roast beef for lunch when Summer got home, and then Dad came back over so we could pull the old tank out. We really wanted to go tankless, but the earliest anyone could come even look at it was Monday. We figured we could deal with cold showers for a few days, but needed to replace the washer in the shutoff valve, so we went to Leonard’s for that. Then Dad had to leave for his old friend Dave’s art show.

Ronda and Steven were cooking at their new food truck, so we wanted to go support their soft-open. We took that food back home to eat, and then tried to catch Dad at the art show. He was already gone, but we wandered around the gallery with wide eyes. I told Summer he was good, but I don’t think she believed me when I told her how good.

After that, we went shopping for a couple things at the house, and we also looked for some better dog collars and leashes. Walmart didn’t have what we were looking for, so we went to T.J.Maxx and found a leash and a squeaky toy. Perhaps we should have waited, because Ross actually had a better selection. Five Below had nothing. It was all garbage.

We ran home and I met up with Dad again to try and pick up a super cheap tank heater that was on clearance at Lowe’s, but they couldn’t find it on the floor. We grabbed a plug for the hot water line instead, and sealed that off so we could at least turn on water to the house without it coming out uncontrollably from the wrong pipes. I tried to track down the faulty mixer that was letting cold water back up through the hot lines, but gave up about halfway through the house.

I was exhausted and sticky by the end of the day, but at least cold showers are on the table again, and I can wash my hands after petting the dogs. Hopefully they’ll stick around for a walk in the morning.

When it rains, it leaks some more.

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Lab for One

There was no way I was getting to work on time in the rain this morning. I forgot my routine for summer hours, only barely remembering that we would work four ten-hour days. I resigned myself to picking up some Burger King so I wouldn’t starve for lunch, and made it in about five or ten minutes late. I was by myself all day. It looked like Denice had been in her office at some point, but otherwise I never actually saw her.

I spent the entire day imaging lab computers and updating network equipment. I got nearly all of Jaime’s lab finished, and got rid of most of the boxes that were stacked in front of my desk. Tim called to say they fixed the Pathfinder, so we can go pick it up tomorrow. Becky came in a couple times to get trash and then invited me to have breakfast with them in the mornings in the life sciences classroom.

It was a ghost town by the time I left, which made me wonder when everyone else left. Being completely solo, and working more hours than Kim, I really don’t have a clue when I’m allowed to duck out a little bit early.

When I got to the old house, Dad was there with a guy down the street cutting branches off of the fallen tree. He wanted to get quotes for insurance, and the tree removal alone would have been slightly more than his deductible, so it didn’t seem to make sense to start removal if nothing was seriously broken. He did uncover the air conditioner though, and without any damage, it started up just fine.

The mini fridge fit in Dad’s trunk perfectly, so we took it to the new house after stopping by his house to get the rice dispenser he had already picked up from Bác Vân’s house for me. We should have left the fridge outside to defrost, but we brought it in and left it in the entryway.

Once Eaddie got home, we went to Dardanelle for dinner and ice cream at Bocadillos. The food wasn’t bad, but the service was. The girl just didn’t seem to want to be there at all. We chatted and stuffed ourselves before heading back to town. I thought we’d swing by the store to find Summer, but she was having a very bad day. She wouldn’t be home until late, so we headed home to find water all over the entryway.

I crawled around and cleaned up the water, and set the fridge up in the dining area. I think it’d probably be better in the living room, but I’d want to put something under it to keep it from leaking onto the carpet. Summer eventually made it home and I put her to bed quickly before heading to sleep myself. We were both completely burned out from the day, and needed much rest.

Government wouldn’t do something like that…