unPlugins

I must have been determined to have a bad day today. I woke up groggy, but at least I didn’t keep trying to fall back asleep. I still ran behind though, and traffic over the Dardanelle bridge was down to one lane, so I was about 10 minutes late. Nobody noticed, because even the principals were there in basketball shorts. That’s just what we’re working with out there in the county.

I stumbled upon a strange issue with accessing my virtual machines, which led me to believe there was a networking issue somewhere. I spent a while in the core closet, then gave up for a while and came back to the office where I had a cup of cereal. After I cleaned my cup, I accidentally tapped the edge of my watch against the bottom of the mug, so now there’s a tiny little chip, and though it’s not terribly noticeable, I’ll know it’s there forever.

I missed lunch because it looked like only three kids were there. Surely there were more, but I just heard no noise anywhere. I ended up having a bowl of ramen with some frozen peppers. Later in the afternoon I discovered my server problem was two loose power cables in the back of the management switch. Half of the switch was just not powered on at all.

At the end of the day, I decided to call Optimum to try and cancel service. They immediately offered service for $40 per month. One hold session later, I was also offered three months free. Finally I was put on hold to be transferred to an employee that could actually cancel my plan, and the call was dropped.

I headed home and found southbound traffic backed up from the 2nd Street light in Dardanelle, over the bridge, and all the way up past Atwood’s in Russellville. Lucky for me, I commute the stupid direction and live in the more expensive area. I fed the fish and then headed home where Summer was making a meatloaf for dinner.

I called Optimum again, waited on hold for half an hour, and finally got someone to cancel my service. The meatloaf had to go back in for some additional time, but we eventually had dinner. Then we watched Everything Everywhere All at Once. Summer seemed entertained, but it was weird. I really enjoyed it, but then it was time to rush to bed.

I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.

Boys Club Movies

Summer still had to go to Conway to pick up stuff for work, so we decided to rush there to catch a movie as well. I got tickets for IF, as well as a couple coupons for Kohl’s and Shoe Carnival, and we were off. I let her drive so I could plot the most efficient course along the way, and we ended up at Kohl’s first. They didn’t have anything that I really wanted, so I picked up another bath mat instead.

We had some time left on the Shoe Carnival coupon, but not so much time before the movie, so I got us to Splash first. Summer ran in to do her thing, and then we got to the theater with plenty of time for snacks. I got irritated by the lady that jumped ahead of us in line so she could order for her seven hundred million people, and then found them in the same auditorium as us, but fortunately their kids were quiet.

The trailers didn’t really give away any important plot details, so the first part of the movie was a bit of fresh story, and I wasn’t really sure where it was going. I found the reveals to be predictable, but otherwise it was a fun, sweet, feel-good movie. We really enjoyed it.

Dad started grilling pork chops as we were driving home, and we made it to their house just in time to set the table. Julie and Kevin came over a little later, but just visited and then took food to go. Julie misread my response to her vacation offer the other day, so we won’t be going to the beach on Labor Day, but I also didn’t get the new job I was anticipating, so it’s just as well.

Summer really wanted to get home to finish up some yard work, so we got home with a little bit of daylight left. I got some more laundry done, and before I knew it, I was two hours late to bed.

Oh, to be a star.

Pint of Alements

I woke up feeling pretty rough, with a worse throat and somehow a dry tongue. Summer wasn’t feeling well either, but we were both hungry, so I got up and made some eggs with bagels for breakfast. Afterward, Summer said the bedroom fan was being super noisy, so I looked again and saw that it had walked across the ceiling a bit. I climbed up onto the bed and found that one of the two mounting screws had come out. There were two holes that were both completely stripped out.

Around that time, Dad wanted to borrow my pick set to extract a gasket. He rode a bicycle over and got them, and then I rode the Onewheel over to their house to find a larger screw from his jars of screws. That made quick work of the fan, but the other side didn’t look to be in great shape either. It’ll probably be a good idea to replace that screw too.

Summer had been thinking about going to Conway for the day since she had to get some work stuff from there before Monday. By the time I had a shower and was ready to do anything, she had become aimless, which frustrated me. I ended up taking her to the old house to pick up some more stuff in the Pathfinder. We took three trips, but never at capacity. We had room on the porch for the outdoor chairs though, and also picked up a couple UPS batteries. On our last trip, I replaced the thermostat so I could ship the old one back in exchange for the replacement I got.

We were hungry for an early dinner by then, so we went to Stoby’s for one of the worst meals we’d ever had there. My burger was dry to the point that it was burnt, and so incredibly salty and dry that it was just hard to choke down. Summer’s pasta was watered down and lacked its usual creaminess. I kind of wanted some possum pie, but I was afraid to try it after that meal.

We were both feeling pretty rough by the time we got home. I still had a massive headache, which I figured was likely from blood pressure. I took some medicine for that, started some laundry, and came out to watch a movie. Unfortunately X-Men: Days of Future Past was no longer on Disney+, so I ended up playing The King’s Man since I loved the first two in the series and had never seen this one. I didn’t think it was nearly as good as the other two, but it had some really good moments.

I guess I’ll try to get up and be the motivator tomorrow.

Bummerial Day Weekend

I forgot to disable my alarm for the morning, so I was a little startled by that, but I didn’t want to sleep too late anyway. Summer was feeling much worse again and wanted to go to the urgent care clinic. We drove downtown but ended up turning around so I could just give her some medicine at home. I loaded her up on DayQuil and vitamins, and warmed up some chicken strips, mashed potatoes, and gravy for lunch. Then I made her sit outside in the sun for a little bit instead of being cooped up inside all weekend.

We didn’t really do anything else all day. I took a shower and picked up a couple pizzas for an early dinner, and then we watched The Wolverine, or as I called it, “Wolverine Goes to Japan.” The whole movie felt kind of meaningless to me.

Eaddie eventually came home and brought Eli over for the evening. They sat in the dining room and made Lego flowers and crochet for a while. I wanted to get outside for a bit, but it just didn’t happen.

What a depressing weekend.

The Very Hangry Cowterpillar

I woke up late today with an optical migraine and a headache. So much for not flipping my sleep schedule this weekend. At least it’s a three-day break. The girls had been up a while, and Eaddie planned to go to her father’s for a couple days. I was pretty hungry, so I had a leftover brat before cleaning up the kitchen. Dad was ready to uncover the pool, so the three of us hopped into the Pathfinder for a ride around the block. The pool water looked clean enough to swim in, and had probably the least amount of dead stuff in it that I’d ever seen before.

Eaddie eventually left for Clarksville, and Summer and I spent the rest of the day at home. I took care of my plants and took a shower. As dinner time approached, I struggled to come up with something to eat. Summer kept asking me how to fill out the form on the back of the title for the Pathfinder, and I got frustrated to the point that I just had to leave. I ended up at Wendy’s where I sat in peace with my Baconator and peach tea.

When I got back home, we watched X-Men: The Last Stand. I stopped partway through to make some popcorn that turned out tasting kind of stale. Then Summer went to bed while I got stuck spinning my wheels.

Dooooom

Apparent Heat

I woke up early and thought I’d stay up, but ended up sleeping hard for a few more hours. Eaddie had to go play in the band for graduation, and Summer went out to mow while I ate and showered. Afterward I went outside to find her, but the humidity and heat just made me feel sick. I wanted to get on the roof to clean out the gutters, but it just didn’t happen. Summer was sapped as well, and wanted to watch the second X-Men movie.

We came inside and I assembled the Chia herb garden that Dad gave me. Then we settled in to watch X2. By the time we finished that, Summer was ready for bed. I dawdled for a while, but after Eaddie made it home, I eventually went to sleep.

Back before post-credits scenes…

The Stumble Guy

Summer decided she needed to go terminate some folks in Greenbrier today, so we thought we’d make a day of it. I got cleaned up and left Eaddie home since she had some work to do. I got us to the wash, and we only barely escaped being sideswiped once. Summer would be a while, so I had to kill some time. My first stop was McDonald’s, but I couldn’t get anything there because they said they were struck by lightning and had a couple fires in the kitchen. I offered to help if the problem taking orders was with their computer system, but the “owner wouldn’t let them use the fire extinguisher,” so they wouldn’t let me help either.

I drove around the parking lot and found Dollar Tree, and I managed to spend enough time there that Summer was ready to go just as I checked out. I picked her up and we headed to Conway where we tried to eat at Los 3 Potrillos. They had a 20 minute wait to be seated, so we left there and headed downtown where by complete luck we stumbled into Toad Suck Daze. We ate at a place called Salsa’s that was super good.

After we ate, we walked around downtown to see what was there. It seemed like it was mostly vendors, but then we found a bunch of carnival rides. Just as we decided we were finished, we ran into Ernie while he was taking a smoke break from hanging out at the renaissance festival tent.

We eventually made it out of downtown and headed to Kohl’s for some shopping. Summer wanted to look for some shoes, but was misguided by the purposefully difficult pricing there, so we stopped into Shoe Carnival and got her a couple pairs. By then it was time to make it across town for our movie. As we pulled into the parking lot, I thought we’d have a moment to stop at Bargain Hunt again, but we ran out of time quickly and the checkout line was long, so we ran out of there and made it to the movie.

Without a doubt, we thought The Fall Guy was an awesome flick. It was paced well, and we had a good time the entire time. Afterward, we headed straight home and settled in pretty quickly.

What is a Toad Suck, anyway?

Ungentlemanly

Aches and pains slowly dissipated today, but I think getting up and moving around had as much to do with it as anything. I’d been wanting to see The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, so I convinced the girls to take a trip to Conway to see it. Summer went to the gym and then took care of something at work, and Eaddie went to a bake sale while I showered and got ready. By the time we got out and into Conway, I was pretty hungry for some lunch. I took us to Bulgogi for some overpriced ramen, which was tasty. Then we killed some time shopping until the movie. We went to Big Lots, Hobby Lobby, and then a junk store by the theater.

As soon as we got into our auditorium for the movie, Eaddie accidentally spilled our Coke because they gave us a really flimsy, crumply cup. Luckily it didn’t seem to get absolutely everywhere, and I just had to go wash my hands. The girls survived with only a little splash damage. We all enjoyed the movie pretty well, but I was a bit surprised by the way the screentime was split between the actors. It was a good movie, but I guess it was just how they filmed things happening in different places.

I wasn’t done in Conway after the movie, and I took the girls hostage for a night of walking down the strip mall from Kohl’s all the way down to Target. I think they shopped a little more than they would admit, and even stopped to hula hoop at Shoe Carnival for a moment. The weather and the atmosphere outside just reminded me of the summer after high school, and it made me long for a simpler time.

We pretty well closed down the shopping center, and then headed home. The girls went to bed while I chased down ants in the kitchen. I put out a whole bunch of Terro around the stove, and they absolutely swarmed to it. Hopefully they’ll be gone by morning, but I already had to give them a refill once.

BLUE M3?

Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good

Summer really wanted to go to the movies today, so we got up and ready to go to Conway for the day. Eaddie wanted to stay home, so we ran the mouse trap by for Dad to fix up and then headed out of town. We went to China Town to eat first. Then I really wanted to go to Sam’s to see if they had anything worth buying a membership for. Failing that, we circled back to Home Depot and picked up a whole bunch of planters on sale for my parents and ourselves.

We got to the theater with plenty of time to load up on popcorn. The auditorium itself was pretty small and I was frustrated by the number of people that were literally just talking through the entire movie. Summer had decided on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which I didn’t think was bad, but neither of us felt super strongly about it.

Once we got back into town, I rode some planters over to my parents’ house, and then came back home to test some placements around the front entryway and the back deck. Summer got cold outside, so we came in and watched The Marvels since she had never seen it. Eaddie was out a little late, but came home just as the movie was finishing up. It wasn’t too long before everyone was off to sleep.

Puppies. Love them or kill them?

Modern Driver Jackery

Eaddie wanted to drive to school today, so I bundled up and took the Shadow to work. Things were quiet for a change, so I mostly just tinkered with Modern Driver Management all day. I never got it working quite right, but at least I didn’t permanently break my task sequence.

After work, I fed the fish and made it home. Summer was working on the couch again, so I took the Onewheel out for a hard ride around the neighborhood. Then I stopped by my parents’ house for a few minutes before heading on home for the night.

Summer said she wanted nachos, and I had been thinking about Taco Villa all evening, so I ran across town to bring some home. After we ate, we settled in and watched A Quiet Place Part 2 before bed. Eaddie was out late with friends, but we saw her briefly before she went to bed herself.

Enunciate.