Tag: pets

I took Split into the vet this morning, tears in my eyes, expecting never to see him again. They met me in the parking lot and shuttled him away with the hopeful demeanor that veterinarians have, and I sobbed off toward the shop for work.

They were still mopping up water from the flooding, but for the most part everyone was back to work. I chatted for a little while, then went on to the high school to see what I could accomplish.

I worked a little into lunch, then left in a hurry to make my interview in Dover. I ran home first to change into some nicer pants and shoes, then made the 15 minute drive out of town to try and find their technology office. Excitedly, it’s on a bit of a hill in the old middle school building, so flooding shouldn’t be such a regular occurance.

I felt like the interview went really well. Josh, the superintendent, was there, along with Toby, one of the techs, and of course Sandy, the technology coordinator. They all seemed pretty friendly, and I was probably a little too relaxed, but it was nice to do an interview and not be so uptight. Not needing a job really does wonders for the nerves.

Afterward, I went back to the shop to update everyone. Then ran home to change again before going back to the high school. The vet called in the middle of all of that, and let me know that Split’s bloodwork came back showing signs of normal kidney function and blood sugar, so all we were really looking at was an enlarged thyroid. The stupid cat’s got too many hormones. Or a tumor. Who’s to say? The point was, I would get to continue shampooing carpet until he either quits making messes, or I give up and kill him myself.

After work, I stopped by the vet to get him, along with some meds and a can of special, bland food, to help him “reset” his tastes. I really don’t understand how that’s going to work, but he did at least eat about a quarter of the can of food when we got home. I watched him for a little while, then went to get Eaddie from karate.

When we got up to their house, I snacked a bit until Summer got home, and then she grilled some brats for the girls while I ate some leftover pork chop. I dare say it was better leftover and reheated. It didn’t even really taste freezer burned any more.

I didn’t stick around too long before leaving for Walmart to pick up some plain yogurt to give Split some gut bacteria. It was awful. It’s no wonder he didn’t want to eat it. Of course I also had to clean the carpet again, because that’s still my life. It’s inescapable. This damned cat is going to live forever.

I would say that my biggest weakness is that I never have a good answer for this question during interviews.

I slept in just a little bit today so I could stay up with the cat and try to get him in to the vet. When I did finally call, they couldn’t get him in until Thursday for a morning drop-off, so I spent the rest of my morning running around town looking for something he might eat.

I stopped by Casey’s first, to redeem a free slice of breakfast pizza before it expired. I didn’t want to sit in my car in front of the gas station and eat, so I just stopped at the park on the way to Walmart. It rained pretty much the whole time I was out, but I got an arm full of stuff, including three kinds of chicken.

When I got back to the house, I started boiling a chicken breast while I tried to feed Split some fried chicken. He ate a nibble of breading, but refused anything else I put in front of him. I waited around for a bit longer, then left for work in the afternoon.

It was a quick and fairly productive day, but I still feel like I’m drowning. I just need to choose a project and finish it so I can move on to the next thing. Everyone’s begging for attention though, and I hate having to put people off until later.

After work, I got the girls to karate. Then I went to my parents’ house and waited for Summer and Eaddie to get there for some mango soup. Julie showed up to eat too, and started looking at timeshare stuff.

The girls stayed with their grandparents, so Summer came back home with me. She showered and went to bed while I cleaned more carpet. Even a fresh can of tuna didn’t do anything for the cat, but he’s still walking.

Imagine vacationing, but like…forever. That’s how sailboats be.

I woke up about half an hour before my alarm went off and couldn’t fall back asleep because my mind was just racing. I didn’t really know what to expect for the day, but the rest of the week had been pretty awful. Ben wanted me to prioritize hotspots, so I started at the shop doing those. I actually found a bit of a groove and got quite a few done before I had to head to the high school for another call with PaperCut support.

I stopped by Casey’s for a free slice on the way, then made it to the high school with plenty of time to set up for the call. It was a pretty quick call, and the solution was simple enough. I just had to go to the settings for every single network printer in the district to stop rendering devices on the client computer, and disable bidirectional support.

Afterward, I went through and closed all the print-related work orders I had been sitting on. Then I wrapped a couple other things up and headed back to the shop. I had a wild hare to clean out the fridge since everyone had basically been snapped out of existence last week, so I shared pictures of all the gross moldy food, and ate Allen’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The afternoon was frustrating because I had several hotspots that wouldn’t get the enrollment command. I got close to the number of required devices, but at the end of the day I was short. I was almost glad it was sort of a failure, though it really wasn’t.

I headed on home and started cleaning up house before everyone got home. The girls went out to eat with their father, so Summer brought Zalads from Zaxby’s for us. The girls arrived with Noah after he got off work, and they sat around while he ate. Then we eventually played some Cards Against Humanity, because we are bad parents.

Finally, another win for the week – Split actually ate nearly a whole can of cat food. Classic pate. He’s never really loved that stuff, so this is the first one I’ve even tried. Who knows if he’ll like it tomorrow, but hopefully this will help.

Technically, it does cover your face.

I slept much better last night, but Summer didn’t. I sent her to work with a bottle of caffeinated water, which is a thing that apparently exists. Then I was off to see what they day had in store for me.

I spent the whole day to myself at the high school, but still felt only slowly productive. It was cool to see the group text come to life so much, since eight of them were quarantined but supposed to be working from home. Even Allen chimed in a couple times.

Summer was having a rough day, so I took a late lunch to get the girls and took them to Morelos. Three of us had the taco salad that was on sale, and they were delicious. I originally felt like they looked really small, but the girls only ate about half, and I was pretty stuffed after finishing mine anyway.

Summer took the girls home afterward, and I finished my day up fighting a growing PaperCut issue. I didn’t really get anywhere with it, but it definitely seemed to be getting worse over time. That will probably be my big project for tomorrow, since it seems to be district-wide.

After work, I went to get the girls and deliver them to band and karate. Then I spent some time with Split while cleaning up a little bit. Summer got Eaddie after karate and brought her over until Autumn finished. Then they all headed home for the evening, and I spent the rest of my night with a gravy-filled cat.

What an inconvenient time to start dying.

Today was our “last” day to collect laptops from high school students. We had over 200 returned, but we have even more than that still out in circulation. They’ll just have to collect them in the office though, because I’m not hunting them all down.

At least it was overcast and breezy in the morning, so it didn’t feel bad. We were busier than we had been all week, but still pretty slow. Lunchtime arrived quicker than any of us expected, and it wasn’t long before some rain arrived as well. I didn’t even really get a chance to eat until we had to pack everything up and move into the entryway at the Center for the Arts. I just stayed inside from that point on, and continued to inspect and scan laptops as they were brought in.

Ben came by near the end of the day to relieve Gary and Zach, and then helped me pack up at the end of the day. I made sure to remove the laptop pickup slide from the sign, and snuck in a quick The Office reference for Memorial Day. I went home for a little while before Autumn called for a ride from physical therapy.

Once I got Autumn, we went up to their house and munched on some leftovers until Summer got home with Noah. Then the kids wanted me to take them to the store for snacks, so we loaded up and went to Walmart. It was pretty busy there, and we ended up shutting the place down.

When we got back to the house, I laid around with the bunny for a bit while Summer watched TV, and one by one, everyone else crashed as well. Poor Eaddie was left as the last one up as always.

All the troops. Both sides.