Tag: parenting

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An M. Night Shyamalan Plot Twist

We had a shortish meeting at work this morning, and then I unboxed a giant iMac that I would have to learn to enroll in our device management system. I didn’t notice until much later, but Josh and Brody basically burned the whole day putting the wrong image on a bunch of flash drives to take to the middle school because Josh didn’t want to image them over the network.

Most of us went to CJ’s for lunch, and when we got back, I helped make the correct flash drives while Josh started some lab computers imaging over the network. Kyle came in and kept me company while I churned out drives. I started to wrap my head around Jamf Apple computer management, but ultimately had to leave it for Monday.

Mark asked me to come by after work, so I ran home to grab my laptop and then went to his office for a little under an hour. Then I picked up the girls to meet my family at Pasta Grill to celebrate Mom’s birthday.

We had a really great time at dinner, and it was nice to see the family actually functioning and smiling. I think everyone was pretty satisfied with their food too. My blackened redfish pasta started out tasting like it was floating in butter, but either it got better or I just got used to it, and I really enjoyed the rest after a while.

When we got home, Summer wanted to talk with Autumn because I had caught her leaving town with Harry without Summer’s permission. What I thought was going to be more or less a disciplinary talk ended up being everyone coming together and spilling their guts all over the place. It was pretty hard for Summer. I’m still not really sure how I feel about some of it, but at least it was a proper airing of the past. I’ve said for a long time that therapy only goes so far, and that eventually the kids would have to come home and talk to us.

Summer and Autumn went to bed immediately after that. I stayed up a little bit longer and tried to finish an episode of House with Eaddie, but even she was tired and ended up just wanting to sleep on the couch.

We’ll never make it through the entire MonsterVerse like this!

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Computer Chores

Today was almost entirely spent taking care of old, stacked-up chores on computers. I finally wiped my work laptop and got it loaded back up to where I needed it. While that was going, I had to poke around on the SCCM server to make some space so I could see if that was the reason I wasn’t able to build a task sequence image yesterday. I took lunch with Zach, Greg, and Gary at Las Palmas where they’ve started charging more if you pay with a card.

After lunch was more of the same, but at least it was quiet. The girls had a ride to karate, so I just went home after work until time to pick them up. Then I cooked some spaghetti noodles for the leftover sauce. The girls all went to bed pretty early, so I spent hours cleaning up email and picking through Autumn’s Disney receipts to calculate what she owes me. She figured a little under $300. I calculated a little over $600. Looks like there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

This is the first time I’ve been outright unable to hear a high frequency sound that I used to hear, and it made me feel old.

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On the Color of Sheep

Julie messaged me just as I was about to go to bed last night, so I went over to her place to try and chat with her and Dad. I was there for a little over an hour before she finally kicked me out, which is to say that it didn’t go well. Then this morning she started in on me again, but followed up later in a group text with a deal that I appreciated, so I’m hoping that’s an indication that it’s not a total loss. I’d really like my sister back.

We had a busy day today. Summer wanted to meet for lunch, so I got ready and met her at Mulan’s. Then we ran to Walmart for a card before picking up the girls to go to Maleea’s birthday party at the skating rink. The girls had a bit of fun, but it seemed like Maleea was starting to grow out of that kind of party. I remember having skating parties all the time in grade school, but not nearly as much into the double digit age.

There was just a little bit of time to kill before we had to get across town for another birthday party, so we went to my house for a bit. Then we took Eaddie to Washburn Park. Amber dropped her kid off and I waved her down so Summer could meet her. We waited for a little while for Jaylinn and Maristella, but gave up and headed on to the bowling alley to wait there.

Even then we had to wait, so eventually we went inside to play a game. The girls took turns bowling for Jaylinn until she got there, then we played one more game. It was a pretty good time, but that place was absolutely packed and hardly anyone had a mask on. The sign out front basically gave everyone a pass on having a health concern that they wouldn’t ask about, so even the staff weren’t wearing masks.

The kids finished their game and spent some time in the arcade while Summer and I waited outside. Then we headed on home for the evening. Summer and I watched a couple episodes of WandaVision to catch her up, and then it was off to bed and to lose an hour for daylight saving time.

It’s been Agatha all along!

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Driven Mad

I must not have slept well last night, because I could barely crawl out of bed this morning. I begrudgingly made it to work and settled in though, and after a while it was fine. I picked at a few things here and there, successfully keeping busy, though possibly not looking so. I did at least feel helpful and accomplished.

Zach and I went to Wendy’s for lunch since the lobby was finally open again. It really shouldn’t have been, because that place was a joke. It took us forever to place our orders, the kid behind the counter seemed super flustered and kept having to run around doing things twice because he wasn’t doing things efficiently, like passing out cups, lids, and straws all separately. The food, though it appeared to be made fresh, was relatively cold when we sat down to eat it. It just wasn’t at all what we’ve come to expect from our favorite burger chain.

After lunch, I rode to the high school to try and help Mike with some stuff. He was super scattered as usual, but we eventually made some progress. I did have to run back to the shop for some parts we discussed before lunch, but at least we got started. I ended up working a bit late after only making enough cable to hook up four computers.

Dad came over after work to meet another guy to quote us on the bathroom remodels. I liked these guys the most out of the four we’ve had come out. They were young and respectful, and were clearly the guys that would be doing the actual work. They took note of what we wanted, and offered useful comments without any extra fluff or ambiguity.

Summer dropped Eaddie off with me so the two of us could go to CiCi’s after everyone left. Autumn went to the gym as a sort of punishment for last night, and Eaddie and I had a nice little date night. We ate and talked for quite a while before riding back home to finish up her last episode of WandaVision. We couldn’t resist watching one more, but now we just have the finale for this weekend.

When we got up to Summer’s, Autumn was working on a school project but wanted to talk about her feelings after realizing she needed some money and permission to go on a band trip. It was a super easy decision for me, but Summer was more empathetic. Maybe I’ve just had too many insincere apologies, but I’m not going to let her jerk us around like that. Everyone shuffled off to bed pretty quickly after that, and I followed suit.

Wolf!

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Beat It

I stopped at Casey’s for a free birthday donut on the way to work, then blared sad music all morning in the dark. Melinda finally said something about the cricket in the office, so we’ll just have to see if she figures it out before she leaves us.

Summer wanted me to go to the doctor with her, so I took the afternoon off. I met her at Fast Glass to drop the Murano off to get the windshield replaced and the front door windows tinted, then we went to BFD for lunch. The asada was super dry and overcooked today, but we had the same server I had the other day and the service was great. Then she dropped me off at home so I could get some laundry done while she went home to clean up.

I must have lost track of time, because she came back to get me and I had to stop in the middle of my laundry to go to the clinic with her. When we got there, they reminded us that no visitors were allowed due to COVID. I should have known better. She went on in, and I waited in the car. At least I remembered my Pixel Buds.

Once she was done, we got gas, drugs, then picked up the girls so she could get them to their karate test. They dropped me off to get the Murano before the shop closed, and it took them a while to get me processed and out the door. I got to their meet in plenty of time to sit with Summer, Mom, and Dad to watch the class get worn down doing basic gym exercises.

Most of the test seemed random and designed solely to exhaust everyone, but they eventually got to some more exciting, non-vocabulary stuff. The best was saved for last though, when they ganged up for three-on-one fights, and then Eaddie’s five-on-one fight to earn her step up on her brown belt.

We all headed home, and I finished my laundry. Autumn evidently had a tantrum and will have to be dealt with later. After tonight, I think we’ve all learned that it is not only perfectly acceptable, but likely necessary to beat our children.

Because I’m bigger, stronger, and most importantly more stubborn than you.

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Libraries Are Loud

It was frosty this morning, but turned out to be a beautiful day. I spent the morning at the high school again, and cleaned up some more random work. Just before lunch, I was in the library jabbering with the girls when our conversation caught the attention of some of the kids in the room. It really got me considering the podcast idea again, but it would be so much work to come up with weekly content. I’d nearly have to mic myself and just go back every day to recover useful content.

I just went home for lunch and ate the leftover Subway sandwich. Then I went to the junior high to get my computer chair. Brody had a couple questions, so I had a look and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there.

The girls walked from the high school to Oakland, so I picked them up on the way across town. I had to get some gas at a much higher price than I had gotten used to paying. Then we went to Summer’s shop to get their karate gear. Both of them were having fits about different things, but we made Autumn go to karate anyway, and then I took Eaddie with me across town so we could have a chance to talk about her feelings.

Things got better pretty quickly after we all sat down to talk together, but they’ll both need to work on addressing things more immediately. Summer bringing home Zaxby’s probably helped their moods too.

I developed a pretty good sinus headache, so I wasn’t worth much after that. At least I had plenty of time to get to bed early.

When the Teachers Are the Bullies

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Widening the Path

Mike and I were sent to the high school all day again today, with an added task of mounting a touch panel that was already prestaged. I feel so much less overwhelmed having someone there to help me sort through all the student devices. For the first time in forever, I feel regularly whelmed.

Nobody went out for lunch, so I just stopped by Burger King to grab a quick bite before going back to the high school. It was another short afternoon, and then I went home until Eaddie asked me to take them to Strikers Bowling Alley for some kind of multi-date. Summer met us there, and after some back and forth on whether or not we would bowl, we ended up leaving the kids for some dinner at Stoby’s.

When I got back home, I had to do some major excavating to clean a path to the bathrooms. Dad was able to schedule a quote with someone for the bathroom remodels, and though I can see progress in all the cleaning I’ve done this year, it would still look like a hoarded mess to a complete stranger.

Yes, this is better.

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On the Subject of Customer Service

I had a few new things come in this morning, so I spent all day working on those. The kids were back, which meant I had to work around the bell schedule again. I also kept getting phone calls instead of work orders, but fortunately it wasn’t anything too serious.

Summer got a lunch break, so I picked her up and we went to Brangus. A big group of the guys were there with Dale, and it hurt my feelers that not one of them said a word to me about it. I knew it was Gary’s birthday, so I guess it was my fault for not finding my way back to the shop before lunch, but a text doesn’t seem like too much trouble if they wanted me there. On the plus side, our waitress was my favorite, and remembered my order.

I spent all afternoon fighting my way around a switch configuration, which really ended up being due to port security and forgetting that there was another network device in line that kept breaking things as I fixed them. I won in the end, except for some lag in how often PaperCut updates printer IPs.

After work, Julie brought me some leftover donuts from work. Then Summer came over and took a bath while I finished up some leftovers. Autumn called for a ride because Nick’s car quit on them on the drive over, so we picked them up.

While the girls were inside watching TV, I called Belkin WeMo support for help with my new light switch that won’t update firmware. The support was surprisingly really great in spite of having to call back when the line went dead the first time. The guy I got the second time could tell I knew my stuff, so we sped through the troubleshooting stuff really quickly and he escalated the issue with an expected callback in a day or two. Best of all, they’re open 24/7, so I really can take care of it when it’s convenient for me.

Once off the phone, I had to play catch-up on a conversation with emotion that the girls were having. We de-escalated pretty easily, and set some expectations. With that, the leash will get just a little bit shorter, and the behavior will have to show marked improvement.

Finally, just before bed, I ordered a new Shorai battery for the Shadow. I had to email the manufacturer this afternoon for the correct part number, and they responded in like an hour. Of course I went back to MotoMummy for the battery, since they’ve always been spectacular on top of having the best price by a long shot. This time we’ll see if they can draw my namesake on the shipping box.

“Like hugging a giant rotisserie chicken.”
Sometimes you just have to take the compliments as they come.

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Talk About Feeling

It was pretty brisk getting home this morning, but I did it. Work was really quiet, and I just spent most of the morning trying to catch myself back up mentally. I took a moment to do my wellness questionnaire, and made an appointment for my wellness visit the same day as Summer’s dentist appointment.

I took a late lunch and brought Summer a Baconator since I knew she could really use a lunch break after returning to work. Then I went by the shop for a little while, but Ben wasn’t there to chat. I went back to the high school to wrap up, and the afternoon went by really quickly.

The girls had karate, so I ran home to change and to take a peek at the Grom to see what kind of damage we were looking at. The handlebars seem a smidge off, and the headlight leans left a bit now. The right handlebar stop seems not to work, but I couldn’t tell why. Hopefully the damage isn’t too bad, but maybe I’ll feel more confident working on a tiny, cheap bike that isn’t also my main ride.

After getting the girls to karate, I went by my parents’ house for some fish soup. They had already eaten, so I just ate on my own. Dad had some comments for me that required some thought, so after eating and heading back home, I decided to go back up to Summer’s for the evening.

The girls were all winding down, but Summer brought them in to chat, and we kind of just made sure everyone was happy. Maybe there are assumed guidelines to the whole step-thing that I don’t adhere to, or maybe it’s a lack of anyone else seeing the interactions of my family in their own home. Maybe they’ve underestimated how long we’ve all been around each other in such close quarters. At the end of the day, the Captain’s got to go with his gut.

No complaints from the crew tonight.

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Two Tired to Ride

Autumn came into the bedroom this morning and almost immediately pitched a fit about wanting to go to their father’s today. We had plans to go out for a bike ride, and she wasn’t about to settle for not getting her way. Summer ended up letting them go for a couple hours anyway, then got up to make breakfast. Eaddie had cooked all but one of the eggs though, so I just made some tiny bacon sandwiches out of some sliced “everything” bread.

Once the girls left, I went home to get the bikes mounted to the car, then showered. I suggested that Summer should talk to Nick about Autumn’s behavior lately, so they ended up getting to my house over an hour later than I was expecting them. The girls were behaving pretty well by then though, so it was a pleasant enough drive up to Washburn Park.

The girls took off without us, so Summer and I caught up to them at the other end. My front tire still had a pretty bad leak, but I made the round. On the way back to the car, I split off from Autumn while Eaddie and Summer picked up the rear. I beat them all back after taking a bit of a break at the pump station.

This little bitty kid came up the hill after us, having beat his family to the car as well. Just before they got there, he climbed up onto the trunk of their car and said he was going to pretend to sleep. He played completely dead while his dad picked him up. Summer said he cracked a smirk when I ratted him out, but I missed it.

After the ride, we went to my parents’ house for dinner. Autumn had a tiny bowl of bún bò Huế to go along with the rest of us, which made me happy. We looked at a couple houses online after seeing the one on Inglewood put up a realtor sign. We couldn’t find its listing though.

When we got back to the house, Summer helped me unload the bikes, then went home with the girls. I put my car on the battery charger, then came in for a quiet evening by myself.

The Natural State