Tag: parenting

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Fluid Loss

I woke up super early on Saturday so I could get home to shower before taking Eaddie and a couple of her classmates to Conway for National History Day. We barely got everything loaded up into the car because it was so wide, but we managed. I dropped the girls off at the UCA College of Business building and then left to find some breakfast. I ended up at McDonald’s for a cheap breakfast sandwich and coffee, and then started toward Little Rock to see Gary. He had three hours of physical therapy though, which meant I had to kill about half of my morning before I could actually see him.

I ended up going to Walmart, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Target, and Home Depot before Gary finally texted that he was all done. For all the walking around and shopping I had done, I really only picked up a couple packages of nuts for him as a snack, and then a really nice feeling pen flashlight as a cheeky gift. I also found a cover for the Masterbuilt Gravity 800 that was on clearance, so I picked it up figuring that I might just flip it on eBay since I already have a cover for mine.

I made my way across town to the rehab clinic where they moved Gary, and visited with him for a couple hours. He thought he was ready to pass out pretty early, but by the time I got there he said he was feeling alright. It’ll be another couple weeks before he can go into surgery to reconstruct his knee, but they already worked on his elbow. Eventually I was ready for a late lunch, and headed back toward Conway to eat before I had to get the girls.

I decided on Long John Silvers since I could actually get it fresh and eat there. The entire hour I was in the restaurant, I only saw a couple other people show up. The employees always outnumbered me, and none of them looked super excited to be there. The food was super good though, and tasted really fresh. Some guy rolled in on a knee scooter with a bum, or possibly missing leg, and sat at a table next to be in a fully open restaurant. He kept trying to sell me a couple deep well sockets that he said were his only possessions.

Eaddie finally texted me that they were done just as I was leaving the restaurant, which was a relief since she had somehow turned on airplane mode a few hours earlier, and I wasn’t able to see her location. I got the girls home, and by that time had started to feel a little sick to the stomach, but I had no clue what I was about to experience.

I took a bath after not feeling so great, but then once I tried to go to bed, I had trouble sleeping and had to get up about every hour to go to the bathroom again. During one of my earlier visits, I felt an inkling that throwing up might help me feel better, and I probably lost about a gallon of fluids that way. Overnight, I had lost about six pounds.

Summer let me lay around in bed all day, and went to Walmart to get a bunch of Pedialyte and Gatorade. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I felt well enough to make some rice and egg. I finished watching Nope and then fell asleep again for a while. Summer had spent the day resting on the couch, and Eaddie had left for most of the day to watch a band concert and then help her grandmother with some gardening. Joshua texted to prompt me to schedule an interview, so I booked that for Thursday to make sure I’ll be completely over whatever killed my weekend. Summer was in bed by the time Eaddie made it back home, and then everyone was off to sleep again.

Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!

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Restless Exhaustion

Autumn woke me up with a start this morning and asked me to take Eaddie to school because they slept in and were running late. I would have declined if I had known she just wanted to leave five minutes earlier so she could still make the McDonald’s drive-through before going to school. We ended up arriving right after her, and I was angry. I was sleeping so heavily when she got me up, and I didn’t feel like I could go back to sleep once I got home.

I laid around for a bit until I started to feel really hungry, and I got out to pick up a McGriddle myself. I noticed Kevin’s truck outside AT&T on the way, so I drove around and ate my breakfast in the parking lot and then went in to find him. He was busy for a bit, so I talked with the other Kevin for a bit, which gave me a chance to catch up a bit with both of them. Hope eventually found her way out and saw me too. When I told Kevin I was looking for work, he turned me on to a friend of his that was looking for someone, but the job wouldn’t pay quite as much as what I was making. He figured some income was better than no income though.

After a little while they were still dead, so Kevin wanted to drive the Model 3 again. We drove out toward Pottsville, and then up Old Cove Road to return the back way. By the time we got back, they were pretty busy and I decided to head on home.

I fired off another message, this time to Mark’s winning counsel. Hopefully I hear back from literally anyone, but it seems like nobody’s hurting for work enough to talk to me so far. I feel confident enough in my own case, but would still prefer someone with a little more skin in the game.

When lunch time rolled around, I went back out and picked up a burger and some cheese sticks from Sonic for two bucks. I was annoyed when I made it home and realized there was no marinara, but I made it work. The burger was too saucy anyway, so I guess that made up for it.

It had been cool all morning, so I decided I really wanted Summer to come over and sit quietly by a fire with me for a while. The stress of not working or having any real schedule was still getting to me, and I just wanted some quiet time to relax with her. I started a fire and then took a shower, but then I had to get Eaddie from school since Autumn was running around getting her nails done for prom.

Summer had arrived home from work just as we got home, so I got her charging and then we went right out to the fire. Eaddie left on her bicycle and we never saw her again. Summer brought some smoked sausages to cook, and even Bác Vân decided she’d eat one. Autumn came over to eat before eventually leaving to pick up Eaddie and take her home. Summer and I wound down by the fire, and got everything put away after it got dark. We saw a couple little toads hopping around, but the bugs started to come out as well. Once we got inside, it was pretty quick to sleep for her. I was still exhausted as well, so I didn’t dawdle.

Just apply more.

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Two Broke Dudes

I woke up before Summer this morning and couldn’t really get back to sleep, so I just laid in bed until everyone left, and then got around to some leftovers for breakfast. Then I made sure I had all the information I needed and headed home to try and find some alternative firms that might be interested in what I have to say. I stopped by Superfast on the way home just to see Summer, and return her wallet that I found in the Murano. Then I dug right into telling my story in another, slightly different way. I only got one person on the phone, and then just decided to submit online forms for the rest of them. I still felt it was pretty disheartening not to get an answer right away, but it felt better than getting hounded for money.

Gary eventually got back in touch with me, and said that I could come by the Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock to see him. He seemed to be in relatively good spirits, but I still didn’t even know what actually happened. I made plans to go see him, but Summer reminded me that the band had a fundraiser at Freddy’s after school.

I met the girls for dinner, but Summer wasn’t in the mood to socialize after having her character attacked by a customer at work. I hung out adjacent to the girls while she went home for the evening, until I finally made the call to leave for Little Rock. I talked to Melinda about possibly going with me if she finished preparing for her grandfather’s funeral, so I dawdled a bit on the way out of town. I went home to clean up, then went to the car wash to get the big chunks off of my windshield. Then I went by Summer’s to get my Steam Deck on the way out. Melinda decided not to go at the last second, but then called me to get an update on all of my drama while I was driving.

We talked from about Pottsville all the way to the hospital, which helped pass the time. I kind of hoped she might have a little more helpful insight, but I think we were already on the same page. I let her go, and continued to drive around the parking lot, just guessing where I needed to enter the building. Fortunately I guessed correctly, and found my way up to see Gary.

He was on the phone when I walked into his room, which actually made me feel a bit better. He was fully alert, but with metal rods holding his leg together. He broke his left elbow, and his right knee, tibia, and fibula. Overall I was impressed with his apparent outlook. He was trying to take it easy on the pain meds, even as the nurse offered more. I tried to help him get readjusted a little bit, but I don’t think there was much we could do. Hopefully the swelling around the knee will let up soon so he can get somewhere a little more comfortable.

I didn’t stay too long. We caught up a bit, and then I wanted to let him try and get some sleep between his hourly checkups. Zach chatted at me briefly on my drive home, so maybe he can go back down with me later in the week. I stopped for another car wash just as I got home, and then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Everyone was asleep, so I finished up and went to bed myself.

That’s not even a real bone.

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Elec Man

I took Eaddie to school this morning and made it home to have a bowl of cereal before the electrician showed up. John and two of his henchmen showed up and got right to work, running some conduit up the side of the house and into the attic. I was a little worried about how it might all turn out, but overall I was quite pleased. I did have to climb into the attic once to pass along some tape, but outside of that, we didn’t spot any termite damage, and the Wall Connector powered right up. Dad showed up near the end to check things out, and once the guys were done, he wanted to take me to the airport to see the plane that he and Julie just bought.

I let him drive the Model 3, and we made it about halfway there before he realized he had forgotten the trash bag he needed to clean out the plane. We finally made it to the airport though, and drove past a really fancy jet to get to the hanger.

We stopped in to talk to the guy in the hanger next door, and he came around to chat with us some more while we cleaned just a little bit of trash out of the plane. I got Julie to come out, but she wasn’t in any condition to socialize. As she ran us off, she introduced us to her new boyfriend, Kevin, who would be joining us for Mom’s birthday dinner.

I got back home and put the garage back together, possibly better than it was before. By then I was pretty hungry, so I ran to Taco John’s for a snack and went by Superfast to visit with Summer. She was busy though, and put me to work filling her washer fluid drums. After that I went home and showered so we could go to Pasta Grill for dinner.

Summer had to work right up to dinner time, so I met her at Superfast and she drove us to the restaurant. Julie and Kevin were already there, and of course Mom and Dad were several minutes late. It was a fair time visiting, and most of the food was okay. I ordered the Grill Pasta, which was incredibly heavy. I was disappointed in the portion size, and then it was so saucy that it felt like eating forks of butter. I ended up taking well over half of it home.

When the girls got home from hanging out with their friends, Autumn came into the bedroom to tell us all of Eaddie’s drama, which had me rolling my eyes. Summer called Eaddie into the room so she could tell us herself, and we talked for a little bit. Then after Eaddie cooled off in her room for a while and I watched some TV with Summer, Eaddie came out to the kitchen table and chatted with me for quite a while longer. She felt good about how she responded to her classmates, and laughed at how accurately I described her friendships.

Now if only I could be as successful.

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The Trouble with Shower Arguments

I slept pretty hard this morning, but fortunately I didn’t sleep as late as I thought I did. I got around and picked at a few leftovers, mostly to clean up some old, rotting fruit that Summer bought. I put Fat Lizzy outside, halfway in the sun, and he actually got a bit active. I think it ate one of the crane flies I put in the cage, and appeared to have pooped on top of the moss, so that made me feel better.

Eventually I packed up and headed out, stopping by to see Dad as he was working out in the yard. He stopped to try and hunt some worms for the lizard, but didn’t find any, so I headed on home to release it. After that, I spent a bit of time just trying to organize myself some more. After cleaning up some more food for lunch, I took a shower, and my afternoon just buzzed by.

Eaddie wanted to come over after school and ride her bike, and I had to get ready for Autumn’s basketball banquet. Summer brought her over and parked the Model Y in the garage to charge for a couple days, and then we went to the high school.

We were super early, which made me feel even more like a fraud. Once people started coming in, I kept finding people I knew. I spotted Cecil, who I don’t think I’d actually spoken to since high school. Then I saw Leslie there for her son. Jeremy actually came up and shook my hand, which wasn’t too awkward after they decided to fire me last week. Ben and his wife came in and sat next to us in the very back, but I could never figure out who they were there to support. It was neat to chat with him again, since we hadn’t kept up after Asurion.

Dinner was pretty good, and we wrapped things up about an hour earlier than we expected, so we headed back to my house where I waited for Eaddie to return on her bike while the girls went home. Eaddie asked if we could pick her up with the bike rack, but I declined.

Several hours later, Eaddie still hadn’t shown up. Evidently she was dragged around town by Maristella’s mother, and they just never brought her and the bike back to me. Eaddie finally called again and asked me to pick her up, so I had to figure out how to remove the hitch cover from the Model Y. That was a pain in the ass until I remembered that I had some trim removal tools. That helped a bit, but it was still more difficult than it should have been.

As I got ready to leave the house, I remembered that the actual straps to hold the bike to the rack were all in the Murano, which Summer drove home. I grabbed some Velcro, and just hoped it wouldn’t tear anything up. I loaded Eaddie’s bike up before she even came outside, and then she sat in the car while I tried to fasten everything in place. We made it home to disassemble everything again, and then we took the Model 3 up to her house.

Everyone was locked up and in bed, so Summer had to groggily come out to let us in. I was still feeling pretty aggravated over the whole evening, so it was just a bit of catching up online and then off to bed for me.

The other guy’s never as smart as you.

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Leaky Rail

I slept like a rock last night, and woke up a little bit late. When I finally got up, I noticed Eaddie’s phone reporting its location south of town, out in the woods. I tried to ask Autumn and Summer if she was leaving on a trip or something, but the longer she was out in the middle of nowhere, the more I suspected her phone was stolen. Summer ended up calling the school to learn that she was, in fact, on a field trip for her outdoors education class, but not before I texted Kevin to see if he thought the cops might help me recover a stolen phone.

After that, I headed home and wanted to try and track down a water leak in the roof of the Murano somewhere. Dad ended up coming by to help, but we couldn’t find anything around the sunroof as was suggested to me. It didn’t look like there were drain holes anywhere near that. After slowly pouring a couple gallons of water on the car, we did finally find where the roof rack was leaking in the back. We couldn’t get the front to leak, but I guess it’s likely to be the same problem. We couldn’t snap the cover off to try and remove the rack though, so I’ll have to get some softer pry tools or end up taking the thing to the dealership.

When we finished messing with that, Dad was hungry for a burger, so he took us to Hardee’s where we chatted for a bit. Then he dropped me back off at the house. I poked around a bit more and was about to take a shower when Eaddie called and wanted to know if she could come over for some help with homework.

Autumn dropped her off, but before we could get into anything, Brody called to hear the story of how they fired me. We chatted for quite a while, and then I found Eaddie to help with her science work. She started getting hungry, and Summer came by to trade vehicles since her battery was low, so Eaddie and I took a break to pick up some Popeye’s.

After we ate, she looked at her homework for a little bit more, and then had me take her home for a little bit before dropping her off at Tech for a trombone concert. She was only there for about an hour and then I picked her up. She finished her homework while everyone else was asleep. I was pretty tired myself, so I didn’t wait around too long to go to bed.

Increase productivity.

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Witchy Woman

I slept way better last night, no thanks to the constant snoring that Autumn did all night long. It aggravated all of us to the point that even Eaddie woke up and yelled at her to flip over, which helped for a bit. I wanted to sleep in a bit since we didn’t plan for breakfast, but that didn’t happen. I got up and showered while the girls packed everything up, and then they loaded into the car like we were leaving, but I went to check on Mom to see if they had plans.

We ended up going to the clubhouse to play some more games until Dad finished at the convention. Then we went downtown to try and find a seat at the Local Flavor Cafe. There was very clearly a group of people outside waiting, so we went to La Familia for some Tex-Mex instead.

The food was great as always, but the already-bitchy Autumn just got worse when I called her out for ordering three bean burritos for $20 when most of the rest of us shared fajita platters for a buck less. We made it back for the matinée show, and then we headed straight home after that.

Summer hadn’t been feeling the best over the past day or two, and it just got worse as we drove home without a word, listening to a new playlist maker I tested out on YouTube Music. Once we got there, the girls unloaded and Autumn started some laundry while Eaddie played the flute for literally hours. Summer put on the first Iron Man, and then went to bed. I laid with her for a little while, but still had to finish my evening routine before going to sleep myself.

Who’s got time for that?

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Ungrounded

Summer took the girls to school this morning, so I just went home after stopping by Tropical Smoothie for a free birthday smoothie. From there, I didn’t even sit down before breaking right into my power outlets. I started pulling outlets one-by-one to see how the lines ran through the walls and attic. Dad eventually made it over to help, and we ended up drilling out a part of the cabinet in the spare bedroom so we could pull the outlet that had been buried behind it.

The grounding issue appeared to be all the way back at the panel, but after tinkering long enough, we at least got my two bad outlets working again. We just left the cabinet outlet out, and wire-nutted the cables instead. We even got the three-way light switch working correctly after having never worked for as long as they’ve owned the house.

We got things working again just as it was time for me to get Autumn from school. I ran her home after waiting patiently for a train to pass. Then I continued putting outlet covers back together until Eaddie called for a ride home. Dad had left his phone, so I had Mom come to get it on her way home from work. He ended up coming back anyway, so we saw them in passing. Then once the outlets were all back together, Eaddie and I headed up to their house.

Autumn went out to mow the back yard, and Summer made it home shortly after we arrived. I was completely beat from being up and down all day. I made some spaghetti for dinner, and then Summer and I watched a Taylor Tomlinson special on Netflix before she went to bed. Autumn came out in the middle of that and begged for permission to drive again, and we decided her recent good behavior was probably about the best we could get. Once Summer was in bed, I finally took my shower for the day and made it to bed as quickly as I could.

Let’s get our shit together.

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Fired Up

I took the girls to school this morning, and Autumn pitched a fit when I couldn’t explain to her why she wasn’t allowed to have her car back while we were dropping her off at Dwight. I dropped Eaddie off, and then added a couple more details to my work timeline before going outside to try and clean up the back yard.

It was just warm enough for me to be slightly uncomfortable, and the constant bending over to cut down large weeds ended up making me feel a little sick. I’ve been thinking it to myself for a while, but I really need to find the motivation to walk on the treadmill for a bit first thing in the morning. Something just doesn’t feel right any more, and I can’t keep ignoring it.

Bác Vân wasn’t out much, but Doug was outside raking leaves out from the garden they planted around my house. I really didn’t do a whole lot of work, but tried to burn down the whole yard at once. Unfortunately the taller plants weren’t really touched, and the leaves just slowly smoldered across the yard. After a while, he said Bác Vân made lunch, so I changed and went next door for some kind of soup with pasta, rice, pork, shrimp, and at least a dozen different spices. She said she made it every day, but I’d never seen her make it before. In any event, it was pretty good.

By the time we finished eating, I had to get cleaned up to pick Autumn up from school. She said she had to go to the Navy recruiter’s office though, and wanted Robert to take her. I argued against it, but only because I couldn’t trust her motives. I ended up letting her go with him while I mistakenly took a return package to UPS instead of FedEx, then stopped by Walgreens only to learn they couldn’t print a return label. Autumn was still at the high school, so I went to quickly wash my car, and then caught up with them at the recruiter’s office right on time.

I wasn’t expecting a therapy session with a young adult, but that’s what we had. He didn’t strike me as an intellectual so much as a guy that talks to a bunch of shithead kids all day, but I figured he’s the best chance at a career path for Autumn that will more or less keep her out of trouble. As a 27-year-old, his parenting advice seemed to be, “kids are gonna smash.” In the end, I hope I at least gave him some background for the troubles we’ve had with Autumn.

From there, we swapped cars and I took Autumn home. Eaddie went to dinner with Gavin and some friends for his birthday, and then was dropped off at home. Mom called and fussed at me for not coming over to eat fish soup, so I drove across town to eat quickly, and tried to make it back in time to take Eaddie to a Tech jazz band concert. She ended up finding a ride with some friends for that too, so I just tried to wind down.

Summer made it home after opening the Greenbrier wash. Autumn came out for some math homework help, which was actually a nice change. Eventually everyone wandered off to bed, and I just hoped to crash hard after a long day following a night of restlessness.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking…

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Downhill Climb

I had a few messages for my birthday today, as well as a couple of phone calls. We didn’t have any plans, and I got a pretty slow start to the morning. I think the large dinner last night made things a little worse, but I eventually got around. Eaddie had a recital at the high school, and then wanted to immediately leave for Tech to watch their symphonic wind ensemble perform.

Eaddie wasn’t fully prepared for her recital, which was out of the ordinary for her. Afterward, her instructor announced my birthday and had everyone in the room quickly sing Happy Birthday. It would have been so much more embarrassing at a slower tempo, but she kept it fast.

The Tech concert was really great. There were several solos, with two pieces that showcased the oboe and then the marimba players. The final piece was done in the dark with a video to accompany the music, and it was really incredible. I’m excited to hear Eaddie perform at that level after she leaves high school.

After the concert, we dropped Eaddie off and went to Walmart for dinner. We decided spaghetti would be relatively quick, easy, and delicious. I ran into Janie on our way to check out the clearance section, and I told her all about my suspension. She seemed to have a lot of frustration with a lot of the administration herself.

Summer took me to my house to get the Montego, and we met up back at her house to cook dinner. I wasn’t feeling well after a day without any food or hydration. I took a minute to recover, and then helped with dinner. She baked a chocolate cake, and since Autumn was finally home, we had her run to the store for some frosting and ice cream. She didn’t eat, but Eaddie at least came out for food.

Unconventional, but what did I expect?