Final Test

Full Self Driving took me all the way from the onramp to the office this morning, with only one intervention when it wanted to move into the passing lane in front of a car, but wouldn’t take the shot when the person coming up behind me in that lane flashed their lights to let me merge over. Apart from that, it was hands in my lap the whole way, with only a few directed lane changes by signaling.

I really just tinkered all day again, since I was waiting for Randy to get me some instructions on how to reach our servers that had been migrated to Hyper-V. There were a couple techs in and out of the office pretty much all day, so things were always relatively fresh, though I was still just stuck in my corner doing my own thing.

Summer was in town for a meeting of her own, so she came to the office and then we drove separately to Red Lobster for lunch. I tried their unlimited salad and chowder, but only had time for one salad and two chowders. Our server was kind, but acted like the chowder was somehow being “prepared” in a way that took more time than ladling it out of a crock pot. There is no possible way that endless shrimp is what caused them to go bankrupt, because I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get more than two refills in a visit. They were always so incredibly slow, no matter which restaurant we visited.

The afternoon was mostly dull as I spent my time pausing sensors in PRTG in preparation for our trial license to expire. I didn’t want to be forced to pause 100 free sensors at a time until I managed to find the 100 I was most interested in seeing. Randy, still fresh off of his vacation, was fairly over being at work, so he shooed us out a couple minutes early.

Summer made it home early for Eaddie’s marching assessment, so I stopped by McDonald’s and Arby’s for a couple of deals for dinner. Then I ran the dogs quickly before dark, and Dad came over to get me to go see the band.

Autumn had found Summer and sat next to her, and immediately moved over to talk to me once I was seated. She made a big show about how she wanted to apologize in a blanket statement for “everything” she had done to me, and expressed how it had been weighing on her all this time since we kicked her out of the house. I just told her I wanted her to work hard to be successful, but she was content being an absolute parasite and claiming success in the way of “all As in nursing classes.”

Eye-roll.

No lessons have been learned, and she’s still only apologizing for selfish reasons to make herself feel better. I’ll believe it when she’s not trying to weasel her way out of caring for her two elderly “roommates” that are paying her nearly half of my salary just to carry on existing.

The bands did great, and we squeaked out as soon as UCA finished their set at the end. I could have done without, but Dad drove. I went home with Summer since she drove herself, and then we went to bed as quickly as we could make it.

It’s always Green Hill Zone.

High Schooled

I don’t know how the cops manage to single out particular vehicles for traffic stops in the morning. We nearly had a dead stop after Conway this morning because someone got pulled over. I got in and started messing with SCCM, but then Kyle called for some help replacing a switch at the high school.

I made it across town and it wasn’t too bad. He really only needed me as an extra set of hands, so I pulled a flatbed cart with the switch chassis across the campus. We looked for some rack screws to mount the old temporary switch, but instead just set it on top of another shelf. After sitting around and waiting for Kyle to investigate his issue for a while, he discovered that the problem lied in a configuration change that he made, so we moved everything back to the production switch.

At that point, I was late for lunch with no plans or lunch buddies. I tried texting Ben to see if he wanted to meet, but he responded after I had already made it across town to Arby’s. I ate my roast beef and then went into the Walmart for a few minute to investigate their clearance section. I found a couple things for the girls, grabbed some apple cider, and headed back to the office.

Instead of getting back into SCCM, most of my afternoon was occupied with more PRTG, since it was evident that it has been correctly identifying failures for Kyle before he has been aware. Hopefully making those maps highly visible for everyone will make them all more aware of their systems.

The drive home was a little slower because the Model Y’s range had diminished for some reason. I don’t know if it was the temperature, but I barely made it home with 5%. I stopped by the old house to check on the fish, and Dad had been by to move some of my stuff into the shed next door. Once I finally made it home, I took the dogs out for a pretty quick run. They were super good, and I kept trying to teach them directions.

Near the end of the run, they both had to poop at the exact same time with absolutely no warning, so I got that cleaned up and we made it home. They both got their own hot dogs for being so good, and then Summer and I watched some WandaVision before bed.

In a real magic act, everything is fake.

Too Familiar

We got up early to head to Tulsa this morning, and drove straight to the service center in one go. It wasn’t unbearable after driving so much, but I still don’t favor it. Life on the highway is boring. We got to the Tesla service center without any issues on one charge, checked in, and got a loaner to find something else to do in town.

We went to Michael’s and walked around, then walked next door to Kohl’s. We didn’t really find much, aside from a table of Mickey Mouse Farberware cookware. I sent some pictures to Julie, and then we left to find something to eat. I wanted something unique, which landed us at Oh-K Dog in the Woodland Hills Mall. They had Korean rice hotdogs with potatoes and stuff fried on the outside, and they were incredible. Summer and I each had one, and then went back for seconds. The price felt reasonable, which probably says more about my acclimation to inflation than it does about the value proposition of a hot dog fried in rice batter.

After we ate, we walked the mall in absolute awe of a functioning relic of our past. Only two or three shops were closed, and those appeared to be for renovations and not just due to a collapse in popularity. There were several stores with no customers at all, but it was also the middle of a Monday afternoon.

From there, we actually got a message that they were done fixing Summer’s Model Y, but we still wanted to find something else to do. We ended up finding a Cinemark nearby and went to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in D-BOX seats. Summer was surprised, but enjoyed the rumble motion seats. I thought it was a treat, but it would have been overpriced if it hadn’t also had a very large screen. Theaters in large cities astound me, but it’s not worth the people.

I didn’t think the movie was bad, but I just wasn’t interested in that world. I wasn’t nostalgic about it, so I could have easily gone without it, but at least it wasn’t boring. After the movie and a successful summoning of the car to the front door of the theater, we headed back to Tesla to get our car back. I had to drive the Model 3 Performance before we left though, and it really did seem to have a little more pickup than my old car. When we got back, I asked about a Model S Plaid, and the guy had to go ride along with us. We found an empty dead-end road and he let me do a full launch, and it was spectacular. If prices keep falling, I may have to hold out for one of those.

Once we were done there, we headed toward home with the hope we could make it without charging. I decided to stop in Van Buren for a restroom break anyway, and then got to Ozark where I decided to stop for some Taco Bell before it got too late. Eaddie beat us home from working the concession stand again, and I did my best to wind down quickly. She was still full of energy though, and ended up taking the dogs out for a late walk while Summer and I went to bed.

Just give me some stalks, man.

Mr. Pool

I had a headache last night that was bad enough that I woke up feeling sick in the middle of the night. I took some Tylenol, and then had to take some more when I woke up this morning. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast, and the hash just smelled like dog food to me. I made a sandwich with the egg she scrambled for me, and then applied for a bunch more jobs online.

We spent a good amount of time out with the dogs on the porch since it rained in the morning and Summer couldn’t do any yard work. I took a shower, but it didn’t really help my head at all. Summer and I eventually went to the Neighborhood Market to find some dinner, and we picked up some stuff for salads with a couple rotisserie chickens. On the way out, we ran into Zach and his family, but we didn’t chat long.

Back at the house, I pulled the bones out of the chicken while Summer took a bath. Eventually everyone sat down to eat, and then Summer and I continued our X-Men movies with the first Deadpool. Noah came over late and ate before bed. My Männkitchen Pepper Cannon was delivered, along with my very first Amazon Vine product. It was a pretty slick looking storage bin that attached under the Model Y screen. It went together much better than I expected, so I’ll be excited to see if it rattles or anything on the drive to work tomorrow.

Time to volunteer some more time, I suppose.

Stick-on Shade

Summer went to the gym this morning and then came home to shower before going to work. I had gotten around a little bit, and once Summer left, I tried to get someone from the EEOC on the phone. The wait time ended up being longer than I could stay on the phone though, because I had to get home and cleaned up before taking Summer’s car to River Valley Tinting and Glass to get the windows tinted.

I waited in the near-silent lobby for over an hour while they did the job. I had high expectations after trying two other places in town with the Murano and then the Model 3. I was told this place had a plotter to cut the vinyl, which would make the corners perfect. When it was all done, the left window looked to be stuck on a little lower than the right side, but they both looked good. There were a couple bubbles on the driver side as well, but not as much on the passenger side.

Once I got back home, I put together a slightly more concise timeline to try and explain to another firm, but my first pick was a girl that claimed to be a “switchboard” that could only take my information, but couldn’t tell me whether I would get a call back or not. The second place I tried also said they never worked with employees, and would only work in defense of the employer in my type of case. For better or worse, the first place I called was still ready to get started if I would only pay them nearly two months’ salary.

Just as I was becoming the most frustrated, Dad rang my doorbell and I went outside to see him. Apparently Mom, Lelan, and Julie were all coming over to try and sort their outfits for Randall’s wedding. It seemed to be quite an ordeal for the girls to find something suitable to wear. It was all a bit too stressful for me to consider.

Summer picked me up when she got back to town so we could go to the high school for a PSAT meeting for Eaddie. Michael was outside the Crimson Room when we got there, and told us it would mostly be the same information we already had. We decided to leave, assuming Eaddie was already at home. Summer dropped me back off at home so I could continue to visit with family.

As soon as she got home, Summer called to say that Eaddie wasn’t there, and that she had left her phone in her room. Evidently she was still at the high school in her study group, which I thought was being led by the same people hosting the meeting we didn’t attend. By the time I made it back to the high school, Eaddie had already started walking toward my house, and was spitting mad that we left without her.

I took her back to my house to cool down while I visited some more. After a little while, I took her on home and shared some of my leftover pasta with her. Autumn was excited to share some “tea” with me, that turned out being a critical accident that happened at the school. Evidently Gary had taken a hard fall at the arts center and broke several bones. I was upset that she considered this “tea” that she selfishly wanted to share with me herself, instead of letting me know that my friend was badly injured.

Everyone made it to bed, and Michael ended up calling me late so I could catch him up on all of my drama. He was surprised, and shared the same sentiment I had gotten pretty much everywhere else. All that’s left is to start a GoFundMe for lawyer’s fees.

Seriously, why is it so hard to find someone to provide some counsel with vigor?

Sassy Blue

I set an alarm for this morning, and we got up early for our trip to Kansas City. The girls went to school and I took a shower so we could head to the bank for a cashier’s check. Centennial Bank couldn’t connect through Plaid, so we had to do it the old fashioned way. The lady that helped us got excited when we told her it was for a car, so she came out to see mine as we left.

Summer drove us all the way to Joplin while I worked on my hearing rebuttal, and we stopped at the Undercliff Bar and Grill just in time for lunch. I had seen online that they had a Tesla charger, so I asked our server for permission to charge. She wasn’t sure it was for guests, but she was quick to call the owner to verify and I got us charging. She was super friendly, it was a really neat restaurant, and the food was great.

Summer insisted that she could continue driving to our next stop in Nevada for a supercharge. We wandered through the Casey’s for a while until we had plenty to get into Kansas City. Then I drove us the rest of the way. We arrived really early, but I talked to a couple people that were able to get my car charged, and then started our delivery process early. It took a while, but we finally got to inspect the vehicle. Unfortunately we found a couple paint defects, and the touchup paint they applied looked pretty awful, but they notated the account so we could take it to a local body shop.

We parked my car at the back of the lot and got Summer’s floor mats installed. Then she drove us to Ikea to wander through the store. We shared a plate of Swedish Meatballs and picked up a package of cookies on the way out. Then I drove us to a Red Robin near our hotel. It was in a beautiful shopping area that was built up to look like an old downtown square. It would have been neat to spend an evening out there, but we were both exhausted and ready for bed.

I got us to the hotel, and the girl at the front desk was slammed with check-ins. They were booked solid, and it seemed like there were people out everywhere. It’s a shame we won’t have much time to explore tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to at least seeing our movie.

I’ve acclimated, and it’s loud again!

YSOBLUE

Today was Ryan’s first day back, so Zach and Gary were buzzing with that for most of the day. I spent the first part of the morning stressing over what I might rile up in our CPPC meeting, but when we finally met, I didn’t even have to do any talking on account of everyone else being so outspoken. The only one point of contention that I will simply never understand was that nobody seemed to think you should get a day of leave refunded if the school closes while you were out. That just made no sense to me at all. School was closed. How do they possibly justify that your leave still has to be docked.

That nearly got us to lunch, and a big group of us went to La Chiquita. That was a no-frills table full of fajitas, and a surprising amount of leftover cheese dip. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon fighting a software update deployment. I think I finally sorted it out, but I felt bad because I had completely missed it from a work order from several days ago.

At the end of the day, Zach went out to the front of the building with me to help replace a panel on the road sign. I had to call support and finagle some firewall settings, but we got it done without too much fuss. Then I headed home to change before going by Superfast to check on Summer. She was just about to head out, so I continued on to my parents’ house for dinner.

Mom made mango soup, so Dad got that warmed up for us. I didn’t stay for too long though, because the arts center was hosting a percussion ensemble concert that Summer wanted to see. I met all of them there, and a bunch of Eaddie’s friends came to sit with us while Autumn and Adam were off in the back somewhere. The concert was surprisingly long, with a surprising age range of students, but they did a good job.

I went home and discovered that my car charger had gotten loose enough that my car stopped charging last night. I fixed that and headed up to Summer’s for the evening, where everyone was pretty much heading straight to bed. Summer and I crunched some numbers and felt confident enough to cover a car payment, so she ordered a Model Y in the app, which I thought was a worse experience than doing it on the website. She didn’t even get a little hedgehog meme. Oh well.

Gotta act rich to be rich. First thing’s first: Make a bunch of money.