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Traction

I felt pretty accomplished at work today. I started off with another error when trying to disable a whole OU of Chromebooks, which led me to learning about time servers, and best practices for domain controllers. It’s mornings like today that really make me want to stick around in education, because it really is like being the king of the sandbox.

Summer had some leftover stir fried noodles in the refrigerator when I left the house, so I took them for lunch over the next couple of days. Between that and crunching on ice all afternoon, I felt pretty good. Blake came into my office and then called Josh in to talk about Chromebook carts for the middle school. I’m pretty sure we’ll have enough carts at the Plainview campus, so we shouldn’t have to spend any more money on that. The hard part will be unburying them and cleaning them up for use after they’ve rotted for years at the abandoned school.

I left work a little late, but made it home quickly to start some laundry and try and make it to my parents’ house for some phở before I had to meet Alisha at the Sherwood house. Summer had just gotten home and wasn’t in the mood to eat, and Eaddie had New China with her father for lunch. Julie was running late after getting caught up at the airport, so the target just kept moving. In the end, I got laundry about halfway done before leaving. I got to my parents house just in time to see everyone sitting down to eat, and then left to meet at the house.

The girls were late, and then Alisha was even later, but we had enough time to look the place over again briefly. All the lights were out, so it kind of gave me a feel for how I’d normally live in it. The real trick was to get my car into the garage without scraping the ground. The dip in the driveway to keep rain from coming into the garage was pretty severe, so I really just barely made it. I didn’t try to back in since there was too much stuff against the walls anyway, but that might help. I was pretty sure that if I had eaten before we got there, the car would have sat low enough to scrape.

The girls took the Model Y to my house to charge, and I went to my parents’ house to eat. Then I had to get back home to finish my laundry so I could get up to Summer’s house to sleep. The evening flew by pretty quickly, but I felt like I got stuff done.

Just a little kiss on the chin.

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Oo-De-lally, Oo-De-lally

Even after getting to bed near three in the morning, I was wide awake before nine. I’m dead all week, and then fine all weekend. I got up and sent a text to Alisha to try and schedule a time to look at the house on Sherwood. They added some pictures of the kitchen, and we were interested enough to have a closer look.

I had a burger for brunch and then went home to clean up before. Then I went back for the girls before meeting my dad and Alisha at the house. Dad went to the house next door at first, which happened to be Kevin’s and his parents’ old house. Alisha’s kids were there running all around the place, but they weren’t too bad. We really liked the quirky layout of the house. The garage was a little small, and the whole lot itself was pretty tiny, but that just meant there was less to mow.

Everything was pretty soggy after the heavy rains, but even before that, the shop out back had a pretty extensive water leak. The ceiling and the floor were both really bad, and particularly squishy in a few places. They had it set up like a little apartment though, and if it were a little larger with a powered garage door, it would have been exactly what I wanted for the motorcycles. Dad also spotted some rotting wood on the fascia and soffit, but it may have been from before the roof was replaced.

We went by my parents’ house for a few minutes after we finished at the house, and then we continued back to Summer’s to start cooking some ribs. I started my smoker tube and got the ribs seasoned to slow smoke, and then Summer left for the gym. Eaddie hung out with me in the dining room after Vicky dropped off some snacks for her. I baked potatoes for dinner, and then we ate a little while after Summer got home.

Sometime after Summer went to bed, Aunt Beth started texting about Autumn, saying they were trying to get her into college, and scolding her for dropping her health insurance because they would have to pay for it. Summer got incredibly frustrated but wouldn’t respond, so I ended up doing it for her. Not one person in that family knows a damn thing about being a parent, and it shows in every single one of the kids they collected. The entire thing is a hot, dysfunctional mess, and we don’t want anything to do with it.

Golly, what a day!

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Director? I Hardly Know Her!

I was exhausted this morning, but I made it to work just before the bell rang. Today was the first day I really let people just fetch me out of my office, which was annoying, but Kim wasn’t reliably available, or possibly yet capable of fixing some of the issues. I got a pat on the back from the superintendent as he walked down the hall, so I guess that meant the school board approved of hiring me.

When I got back to the office for a while, I dug around at a couple things, but what took the most time was finishing up the Jamf purchase. It was my first purchase order, and they wanted even more paperwork filed after I submitted the PO. I had a break for a cafeteria burger in the middle of that, and then I was one of the last few people out of the building.

Traffic back home was slow and stupid, but I think it was mostly due to the bridge construction. I reviewed an email from Alisha when I got home, and made some refinements to our next home offers. Then I headed up to Summer’s house for the evening.

Eaddie was playing her instruments while Summer bathed. Autumn was gone to Adam’s house for a while, so I warmed up some leftovers for everyone. Then I laid in bed with Summer for a bit. Everyone went to sleep pretty early, and I was exhausted myself, so I managed to get down by midnight.

So much for eating light.

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Accepting Rejection

I was happy enough with the response I got this morning, along with the general excitement expressed in the offer, that I’ll start at Two Rivers on Monday. Unfortunately we ended up offending the sellers of the Ouita house with our offer enough that they outright rejected our offer, along with the verbal one they received. I talked with Alisha some more, and the seller’s agent finally talked them into negotiating some.

Summer worked from home, so I took a shower and she took us to Mulan’s for lunch. I ate way too much and then had to go home so Dad could come help me fix my leaky faucet. That project snowballed on us, and it took one trip to Leonard’s to fix the leak at the knob, but then the shutoff valves wouldn’t close enough to stop the water and we had to shut it off at the curb. Of course the box was completely full of water from all the rain. I tried blowing it out with my leaf blower, and all that muddy water ended up in my face. We took another trip to Leonard’s and got some washers for the shutoff valves, but using the impact to remove the caps may have caused them to leak somewhere else. There’s still a small drip at the shutoff valve now.

I took another shower to clean off the mud, and then I had to go get Eaddie and a friend of hers from robotics. We dropped her off a couple blocks from my house, and then I took Eaddie home until we had to go back to the high school for their band participation awards.

The house lights stayed on the whole evening, and then having the directors read out every single activity that each individual senior had done in their entire school career was just the start to how ridiculous the night would be. After they finished the seniors, they called every single junior and sophomore onto the stage to collect their participation trophies. We almost left early because Summer thought they were going to call eighth and seventh graders up as well, but they didn’t.

The girls went out with friends, so Summer and I came home and watched a couple episodes of Modern Family. The girls eventually made it home and I added some flavor and correctly-sized vegetables to the pico de gallo that Autumn basically blended yesterday. I got a little sidetracked after that, but tried not to stay up too late.

How can I be so tired and so restless?

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The Clown Who Juggles

I woke up to an unexpected notification for a hard credit inquiry, which got me heated. I was under the impression that the pre-qualification for a mortgage loan would only be a soft inquiry, so having two banks check had me in a panic. That may have been premature though, as I later read that if they fall within a certain timeframe, only one will count against me for the actual loan we take.

From then, I continued to be bombarded with new information. I got two interviews scheduled for the next two days, and I very nearly had to go pick up Gary from Little Rock. Fortunately his parents warmed up to the idea of getting him themselves, because then Summer needed to take some supplies to Fort Smith in the afternoon.

I made it home to get cleaned up before Autumn’s military signing luncheon, all while communicating with loan officers. Then while we were at the luncheon in the Black Box, Alisha texted to let me know there was another verbal offer on the table, which got me in a rush to complete our loan application. The lunch itself was some pretty decent barbecue for free. The national anthem was played by a singular, laughably bad trumpet player. I got the feeling he should have been significantly better, but he must have gotten choked. It did feel very fitting to be as bad as it was for Autumn, who happened to also have zero support from the Navy. She ended up inviting the librarian and getting her boyfriend out of class to come sit at our table.

On the way out, Jeff stopped to talk to me and ask how things were going. I wished I had recorded the conversation just to have a record of him saying how gut-wrenching it was to watch them terminate me. We immediately went to get Summer’s car and load it up with a big box of towels from the wash, and then we were off to Fort Smith.

I spent the entire drive going back and forth with Alisha, and responding to the loan officers. We have no idea what the other offer is, or if ours will be laughed off. It’s difficult to keep from doing too much with buyers’ anxiety, especially now that our credit has been hit. We weren’t in a rush to purchase a house, but we liked this one enough to go through the paperwork. If it doesn’t work out, I don’t know if this will screw our credit for the next time, if we don’t find a place soon enough.

We made it to Fort Smith by way of Highway 22. It aggravated Summer to drive so slowly, but the whole roundtrip was only about 20 minutes slower than the interstate, but 10 miles shorter. That’s assuming we wouldn’t have hit traffic in the construction zones on the interstate. On top of that, we saved quite a bit of battery power going so much slower. She ended up talking to their quirky shift lead Viking for a while, so by the time we made it back home it was too late for her to go back to Superfast to close the shop. We stopped to get Eaddie, and then we got her car on the fast charger before they headed home.

I took my car to the wash for a thorough cleaning, then stopped by Casey’s for a couple drinks before making it up to Summer’s for the evening. I cleaned up some Popeyes they brought home, Autumn left for a multi-hour signing and awards event at the high school, and I took a call from Donna, who had questions as a challenger in the school board election. I got some possibly-useful information from her on who might be able to help my case. I don’t know if she got anything useful from me. I certainly don’t have any time to go out campaigning, and I’ll be lucky if I remember to go out to vote in the morning.

Eaddie and I wrapped up the evening with El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. I thought it was a decent, if not unnecessary sendoff for Jesse. It did run a bit long, and brought in some unnecessary new characters, but it was an okay story. I think Better Call Saul will probably be better.

Seriously, a kazoo would have been better.

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Surpies!

I had to force some productivity this morning, and finally got loan applications done for Arvest and Centennial. Not having work yet has me worried that we won’t get approved, but it won’t be the end of the world. After that was done, Summer went to the gym and I did an online personality test for a prospective employer. It would be a long commute, but at least it would get some money flowing. At this point, it may not suit me to be so picky.

With all of that out of the way, I made it home to shower so I could head back to Little Rock for Blake’s surprise birthday party. As soon as I turned onto the onramp, I realized traffic was at a standstill. Luckily I had only barely turned, so I had enough room to back up and turn around. I took Highway 64 to Atkins, and from there traffic had gotten up to around 60 or 70. When I got into Little Rock, I got a little bit lost trying to take the Cantrell exit and wound up going through some really cute neighborhoods. Once I got back onto the main strip, I saw some pretty wicked tornado damage.

I arrived at Damgoode Pies fairly early and wasn’t sure I’d know anyone there, so I waited in the car for a while before going in. To my surprise, we had most of the building occupied for the party. There were a ton of people there, and I didn’t know a single one. Luckily Mitch showed up with an old bartending buddy of his, and he and his girlfriend joined me at my crowded table. Robert and Karen showed up shortly after that and sat at another table in the middle of the dining room. Then Mitch hid in the restroom until Blake and his girlfriend showed up.

It was an awesome surprise, and Blake spent most of the evening just floating from table to table. It definitely blew his mind. My “Underdog Stuffie” was pretty delicious, with a crispy double crust and thick bite of cheese inside. Robert spotted it and wanted to trade a slice for their Supreme, which was also pretty good. I mostly sat in awkward silence while everyone else socialized, and as people started to filter out, I convinced Mitch to go to the hospital with me to see Gary.

It rained a bit, but it wasn’t too bad. The drive to the hospital was surprisingly short, and it was a good surprise for Gary as well. Mitch had some other socializing that he wanted to do, so we didn’t stay super long before I had to take him back to Daniel’s place. Then I headed straight home in the black of the night.

It was a long and boring drive, but I made it home without incident. I dropped my car off to charge, and then it was off to Summer’s where everyone was fast asleep. I tried not to stay up too late, and made it to bed shortly after Midnight.

Prettygoode Pies

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Juggling Procrastinator

Autumn woke me up this morning to ask me to take Eaddie to school because Eaddie didn’t want to get out of bed. I refused and went to wake Eaddie up myself. I couldn’t get back to sleep after that, so I got up and poked around on the computer once they were gone. I started drafting an email to my first and only interested law firm, but still wasn’t ready to hit “send” until I had more to ask. I nibbled on a little bit of leftover ham, and then left to take a box of stuff to Summer at Superfast.

When I got home, I started a load of laundry since I was out of socks. Then I bounced around a bit before taking a shower. I needed to email the lawyer, find a job, and apply for a home loan. All of this was terrible timing. Summer had a follow-up appointment at Millard Henry, so she picked me up for that and we arrived a bit late. Her blood pressure was high again, but the doctor didn’t seem concerned, or helpful.

After that, we stopped by Arvest to see if Aaron or Melissa were there so we could talk about getting a home loan. I didn’t even see Aaron when we walked in, but then another girl pointed him out to me. He came out to see Summer’s Model Y, and then we traded phone numbers for the first time ever in our years of friendship, so he could pass it along to Melissa, their loan officer and Josh’s aunt.

From there, we went by Centennial to see what they might have to say. Their loan officer was in another office, so we left my phone number and then ran back across town so I could pick up a magnet print from Walgreens. As we got there, I got a call from Melissa with some reasonably helpful information. I still don’t know if we can get the loan while I’m looking for work, but at least we know what to do to get started. While I was on the phone with her, Haley from Centennial tried to call me. I ran in for my photo, and then called her back as we ran through Rose Drug for Summer’s medication. That call was a lot shorter and not as helpful, but at least we have a direction.

Our next stop was Walmart for some groceries. Summer wanted to make a shrimp and broccoli Alfredo for dinner. I suggested going a step further with some tomatoes and spinach, so at that point I was in charge of dinner. We got in and out reasonably quickly, and then I started cooking when we got to the house. Autumn was outside cursing at the lawn mower because Eaddie left it in the rain and it got water in the system. She eventually got most of the front lawn mowed though, and then showered and immediately left for her grandparents’ house.

The remaining three of us enjoyed a disappointingly soupy dinner, and then Summer and I watched the new John Mulaney special on Netflix. Eaddie went to her room early for the night, and we never saw her again. After the comedy special, Summer went to bed and I laid with her briefly before getting up to wrap up my own chores.

Tomorrow’s goal: Finish any task.