Together We Can Take the Long Way Home

Eaddie beat us all up and into the shower this morning, which was great. We all managed to get ready and left right at checkout time. The kids actually left a little before us so they could get lunch downtown. I thought my parents had already left, so we headed toward Rogers for lunch, but then discovered they were still back at the hotel. Summer and I got to the Supercharger and walked around with Muad’Dib for 20 minutes or so, then put him back in the car and walked to Việt Buffet.

My parents arrived with perfect timing just shortly after we walked up, and we had a great lunch. I’m worried they won’t last long because of how many people were on staff and how empty the restaurant was, but all of the food was great. It’s a long drive even for a day trip, and there’s not much else up there to do that we can’t find closer.

Mom and Dad left a little before us, and then we still had to walk back to the car, but we got home just behind them. I took Muad’Dib on a run since we hadn’t been through the neighborhood in a couple months, and I could tell he was tired from an adventurous weekend. We visited my parents briefly, then made it home to unpack and clean up.

Eaddie had a sorority thing in the evening, so took a moment to decompress, and then I had to load up my loudspeakers to take to work for the upcoming picnic. I’m excited to actually get to use them properly, especially with all the new accessories I’ve been picking up.

Summer passed out early, and even Eaddie got home and went to bed before I finally got there. It was a fun and exhausting weekend, but man, what a year.

Better than watching Geller bending silver spoons

Makin’ Our Way Downtown

Summer and I got out for breakfast alone this morning because the kids didn’t want to get up. We drove across town to a place called The Squatch, where we had a breakfast burrito, biscuits and gravy, and avocado toast. The toast was probably the best of them. None of it was bad, but none of it was great either. It was a cute place though.

Afterward, we made our way back to the hotel and I ran around with Muad’Dib a bit. Evidently there was some kind of a footrace going on across the street, because we saw a few runners and could hear the commotion. We eventually got everyone out to go downtown and walk around, dropping the Model 3 off to charge at the top of the hill before taking Eli’s truck to park down the hill. I mostly stayed out of the shops with Muad’Dib, but it was really nice outside. As lunchtime approached, we ended up eating at New Delhi Cafe where they had a fusion of Indian and American. Eli and I split a burger and a curry chicken wrap. Eaddie had some butter chicken, and Summer had a huge fillet of fried fish and chips. Everything was really good, but I think the fish was probably my favorite bite.

We made it back for the afternoon show, which was much better than the last. We all had a good time before going back to the room to rest a bit. I ran around with Muad’Dib some more, and the others spent some time at the clubhouse playing mini golf and pool.

Dinner time eventually came around and the four of us met my parents, Uncle Rick, and Ginny at Red’s Pizzeria. Their four-generation sourdough pizza crust was great, and then we picked up my car on the way back for the evening show.

Everyone had a great time, but even Muad’Dib was exhausted by the end of it. We made it back to the room and started settling down for bed. Of course the Harry Potter marathon was finishing up, so I had trouble as my eyes kept wandering over to the TV, but I finally got to bed after midnight.

fifteen

Cavalcade of Home Movies

Summer worked this morning, so I slept in a little while before having a quick breakfast. Summer made it home and cleaned up, and then I gave Muad’Dib a bath. Eli came over, and eventually left with Eaddie for Eureka Springs ahead of us. Summer and I finally got things packed up and left, stopping in Ozark for some food and a Supercharge.

We got to the Inn of the Ozarks with enough time to check in and decompress a bit before dinner. I needed to charge, so we dropped my car off at the trolley stop and had Eli pick us up to meet my parents, Uncle Rick, and Ginny at La Familia for dinner. Muad’Dib had to sit on the porch and wait for us, but he did great.

After dinner, we got back just in time for the evening tribute show. There were more people in the audience than I had ever seen, which was a shame because the tribute show was less magic and more of a talk-show style tribute with a surprising amount of home movies on a projector. It seemed like half the audience left halfway through that.

I rode around the parking lot with Muad’Dib before finally making it back to the room for the evening. The first couple Harry Potter movies played before everyone started to pass out.

It’s knot juggling.

Wheely Bad Service

I took a toasted pork chop sandwich for breakfast, and a heated lunch box with some chicken, sweet potato, and broccoli for lunch today. In spite of all the frustration, I was excited to get my Onewheel back in the morning. Teisha called when it showed up, and I loaded it into the car. The entire day was spent at the office wrapping up some of my understanding of Autopilot, so now I’m ready to actually build out some stuff around that and properly manage our devices.

My heated lunch box worked perfectly, and my meal was piping hot. Afterward, we took a break for some cake for Janice’s birthday. The afternoon went by fairly quickly after that, and we made our way home through heavy traffic.

Summer was in the tub, and Eaddie was leaving to play pickleball at Old Post, so I decided to take Muad’Dib out there to ride around. We never did find the kids, but we had a good time making a big loop around the park before coming back to the house.

As for the Onewheel; Future Motion did their usual shit job. It started with insufficient packaging because they didn’t replace the top egg carton inside the retail package, which I absolutely shipped to them. The Onewheel itself was completely covered in some kind of dust or powder that just blew off, so it had clearly been sitting out somewhere for a while. They replaced my Maghandle for some reason, and gave me a super shitty torn-up one with a really bad rubber grip. The plastics on the bottom corners also had huge chunks hanging off like they had curbed it multiple times. They rode it hard for 27 miles, which I’m not surprised wasn’t enough for them to reproduce my motor disengage issue. They did give me someone else’s used TFL valve stem cap though.

When we got back to the house, Summer and I ate some more leftovers. I saw another possum on camera under the house, so I had to investigate that. I have no idea how they’re getting in, because I walked the entire perimeter of the house and couldn’t find any holes apart from the small one at the top of the house under the eave of the roof.

Summer went to bed and Eaddie got home early and disappeared into her room. That left me to my own chores for the night before an even earlier bedtime than when I actually have to work the next day.

#FFM

Walk and Roll

I didn’t sleep great last night, but I think it was mostly the dog’s fault. We made it to work, but I had trouble focusing as well as I have the past few days, so I switched gears and looked at some other company portal stuff. Between that and a couple phone calls, I managed to stay fairly busy. I was put in Vine jail for my lack of reviews, so that’s finally caught up with me. Between that and taxes, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

I went back and forth several times with Clifford from Future Motion, and they insist it’s completely my fault for my footing that is causing the motor to cut out on my board. I feel like I’ve tested every possibility of that, but it doesn’t sound like they’re going to do anything else for me, and at this point the board has been out of my possession for over 100 days since I bought the damn thing.

I brought my pastrami sandwich from Ridgewood for lunch, along with a little bowl of some Hawaiian Bros since the sandwich looked pretty small. The sandwich was great, but I could have done with some more of it. Afterward, I walked Muad’Dib outside and found a roll of material out next to the dumpster, and had the idea to take a closeup photo of it for a background image to use in the company portal.

Muad’Dib got rowdy and wouldn’t listen when we came back in, so he got a spanking. Then the afternoon dragged on for a bit since we never actually left. I had just been thinking about how I hadn’t had an anxiety attack in a little while, and then one snuck up on me out of nowhere. That put me in a little bit of a daze for a while. I ended up losing track of time by a lot, so we left late and got home nearly half an hour later than usual.

Summer was home and just out of the shower, so we walked to my parents’ house for spring rolls. Julie and kevin showed up just after us, and we all sat down to eat. The kids were invited, but couldn’t make it. It started to get a little darker by the time we left, so we walked straight home and got ready for bed.

Believe it or not, straight to jail.

Spur of Thought

I really planned to have a Soylent this morning, but then I got super hungry just as I was getting into Morrilton again, so we stopped at Wendy’s for a small breakfast. Muad’Dib was super distracted and didn’t want to come inside, which left me shivering in the wind. We finally got inside and I continued tinkering with Intune.

Summer finished with her meeting early and wanted to meet for lunch, but I didn’t want to eat too early, so I had her meet me at the office. She came in to see Maple, but she was being shy all day and wouldn’t even come to me for a treat. We went to Ortega’s and had a really good lunch, and then I had her go by Ridgewood on the way home so I could try their pastrami special.

Earlier in the morning, I finally emailed Future Motion for an update on my Onewheel. It took them all day to respond that after thorough testing, they found nothing seriously wrong with it. That was exactly what I knew they would say, and I probably should have just disputed the charge with Discover Card first instead of talking to them again. They’re such an incredibly shitty company.

I finished the slow afternoon, completely forgetting about therapy until right at 4:30, so we raced out the door and made it just in time to wait another five minutes. I felt like our session was really good this time, but I didn’t realize how depressed Summer was really feeling. All I can really do is try to keep communicating with her, but doing happy little things is never going to be enough to turn this around for good.

When we got home, she put the cabbage in the slow cooker with the corned beef she started in the morning, and then we waited to eat. Once we did, dinner was great. Then her birthday present arrived and we set up our pair of BedJets for some temperature controlled air in the beds. Hopefully this keeps us comfortable and try, since she has a habit of feeling cold and then sweating all over the place.

What do you call a cow who tells dad jokes? Corney beef!

No Review; No Wheel

I got up half an hour early so I could get to work before 7:30, expecting a quarterly review with Shane and Joel. That seemed odd, but I wasn’t going to question it. We grabbed a burrito at Hardee’s and made our way in. Joel seemed confused, and then explained the true purpose of the call, which was for Shane’s guys, and for me to be on standby. I hopped on a call with both of them just to catch up with Shain, and then did my own thing the rest of the day.

It was blistering cold when we stepped out for a late lunch. The wind was howling and it felt like an incredibly sunny winter day. We grabbed our Monday cheese sticks, then went to Wendy’s for an ironic cup of chili and a frosty. I let Muad’Dib run up the road on the way back, and then the afternoon didn’t drag by terribly on account of our late lunch.

When we got back to the house, Summer had been there a little while not feeling well. I made rice and ate dinner alone, and got upset with her for refusing to eat anything more than her biscuit breakfast and a small cup of plain steamed rice. I emphasized that she consistently feels bad because she doesn’t take care of herself, and then distanced myself for the rest of the evening.

I had also been sitting around waiting to hear back from Future Motion long enough that I decided it was time to post my support timeline on Reddit. I got a ton of feedback – much more than I expected for such a wall of text. I had some good input, and a ton of bashing the company. I ended the night with a conversation with Discover Card to see if I could dispute the charges and get my money back that way. Surprisingly, it sounds like they may be able to help. I suppose I’ll reach back out to Future Motion, but it’s at the point now that it may just be best to cut my $900 loss and try to get a refund for the original purchase.

Don’t press your luck.

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.

Horse Humpin, Wing Stoppin, Dog Shoppin Day

I made myself a fancy capuccino today before realizing the milk was curdled, so I threw that out and then had a cup of black instead. The girls got up and watched TV, and I cleaned up around the house. I cooked my turkey beans some more and added a block of frozen broth from before. That helped quite a bit, and though we didn’t actually plan to have a meal of it yet, Summer and I shared a small cup because it was tasty. Sometime in the afternoon, a deep squat exercise machine I scored on Vine showed up, and I put it together for Summer. She actually seemed pleased with it, so I put it together for her.

Later in the evening, she wanted to go to Walmart. Eaddie had left, so we took Muad’Dib along for the ride. We went by the wash first so she could print something. Then we went to the newly opened Wingstop to check things out. They were barely more than a food truck in a sliver of a storefront next to McAlister’s. Completely cashless, and basically just pumping out mobile orders. We ate there, and it was pretty good, but very salty. I still think Zaxby’s is the best in town.

Muad’Dib had been in the car for a little while by then, so we took him to PetSmart to walk around and pick up some treats. Then we went to Walmart so Summer could get some cross stitch thread. Finally we got back to the house and I took Muad’Dib out for a run.

My parents had gone to Fort Smith, but were on the way back. I thought we’d circle around a bit and meet up with them, but my board died just as we made a loop, so I limped it home and boxed it up to ship back to Futuremotion for like the fourth time. I sat on the couch with Summer and flipped through some YouTube until she got up for bed. Eaddie came home late, and they chatted for a little bit as I got ready for bed myself.

Not half bad.

Muck Pot

Summer wanted Mulan’s all night, so she woke up wanting to be the first ones in line when they opened. I woke up feeling pretty terrible, so I did not make that timeline. She ended up going to the gym, and I finally felt well enough to go in the afternoon.

Eaddie stayed home with Muad’Dib since she had a friend coming over to get one of her keyboards. We made it to Mulan’s and they were quite busy, especially considering it was a late lunch. The food all looked horribly dry and gross though. Everything was overcooked and oversauced. Anything that wasn’t sauced was dry and chewy. For a while now, I’ve gotten less and less impressed by their food, to the point that I really only like their soup and desserts now.

By the end of it, we both felt a little off from the food. We headed back to the house, stopping first to get the carpet cleaner from my parents’ house. Eli had come over to watch more Breaking Bad, and Summer sat out there with them. I just spent the day alone and bored until I realized how late it had gotten and took Muad’Dib for a run.

We saw my parents again, then continued back to the house in the dark. I got Eaddie’s other keyboard stand assembled and set up in her room for the Casio CT-6000 she rescued from rotting in her grandparents’ house. Otherwise it was more bored alone time until bed.

August we’ll see.