Look at the Stars

I thought I’d make it to work a bit early today, but the onramp was closed again, followed by nearly stop-and-go traffic from Conway all the way to Little Rock. I still made it before anyone else of importance, so none of it mattered. I spent the whole day doing Vine reviews again, so once they post, I should be up over 70% from what I can tell.

We had a lunch-and-learn with Howard and a vendor at American Pie Pizza, and I ate way too much. It was a strange mix of chips, cheese dip, salsa, wings, and pizza, but it was pretty good. The pizza was mostly cold by the time we got to it, but it was also free.

The afternoon was more of the same, but went by quickly until quitting time. We were supposed to meet with Diana about the house again, so I tried to stop by Blue Barn Bakery. I assumed the door was only a back door, so I didn’t try turning the handle and left empty handed, but then Summer texted just as I got home to say that she was feeling chest and throat pain. I texted Diana to let her know we probably shouldn’t meet if Summer was sick, and we decided to reschedule for another time.

Power had been out for most of the afternoon, so all I could do was take Muad’Dib out for a run. Summer made it home and rested all evening while we ran. It was super nice out, but the entire neighborhood was lit up with the sound of generators on every block. I brushed Muad’Dib out while we were at the basin trail, and then we visited Dad before making it home. I reviewed my final tax forms and got those paid, and eventually made it to bed pretty late since Eaddie wasn’t home until nearly midnight for state concert assessment.

And all the things that you do

Draining Circles

I was pretty hungry as I got into North Little Rock this morning, so I decided to stop by the donut shop for an assortment. Randy was out all morning and there wasn’t really anything else going on, so I did a bit more research on my taxes, and then spent most of the day pumping out Vine reviews to get my percentage back up. I’ve been seriously slacking, so I’ve got a lot of ground to cover to keep this thing going.

The morning went by super fast, and I took a late lunch to grab a Minecraft Big Mac meal from McDonald’s. Then the afternoon was more of the same quiet until quitting time. Julie called to chat for a while on the drive home, and then Summer was hungry when I finally got back into town, so the two of us went to La Huerta to share some nachos and then sat at home and talked for quite a while.

I took Muad’Dib out for a run just before it got dark, and I think he may have reached a high speed the way he was tearing through the yards on our downhill run. My parents got tickets ahead to see The Chosen, so we continued on through our route to get home. It was a quick evening to get everyone settled down, and then I spent the remainder of the night finalizing my taxes. I’ll review the actual forms tomorrow to check for errors, but I think they’re probably done well enough. I guess there’s always the chance that Ol’ Donnie will axe the IRS, so it may not matter anyway.

Remove yourself.

Chasing Goblins

I woke up to a rainstorm and practically had to push the car through the rain to get to work because Full Self Driving didn’t want to go over about 60. Traffic after Conway slowed down to the 40s, so I showed up plenty late. Randy was the only one there, and he only walked in just before me. A few others trickled in, but most didn’t stick around long.

I ended up sitting in on a quick call with Kyle and Maggie, but that was mostly just receiving a proposal from a vendor that Randy didn’t want to attend. I was just happy my microphone worked this time. Then I sat in with Maggie and Randy when the Acer rep came to talk to us in person. He tried name dropping Russellville as a client, but I confirmed with Gary that they hadn’t bought any Acer stuff. I don’t know if he was just lying or mistaken.

We didn’t get out for lunch because Robin cooked pork chops and baked potatoes for us. You really couldn’t beat it for five bucks. We’ve been eating great every couple of weeks out there. Then I poked around with the KMS server a bit more in the afternoon. I left work early so I could go home and vote, but I had to stop at the old house first. Then went and stood in line at the election headquarters. They were churning people through there pretty quickly, so I was in and out in no time. Then I headed straight home to see Summer before the trick-or-treaters started coming around.

We had some leftover burritos, and then as soon as we got our first group of kids, I took the dogs out for a run on the Onewheel. They must have smelled it in the air, because they took off running like crazy. There were people all down the road, and we flew by without too much trouble. They did want to sniff at people at first, but overall they did pretty great. We stopped by to see Dad, but their street was dark.

From there, we went around the block to Promenade Circle, and that place was packed. There were cars parked on both sides of the road around the whole block, and you couldn’t get farther than about ten feet away from people in any direction. We rolled on through and went around the main circle once before going out to the basin trail. There was nobody out there, so we continued around Vancouver and then came back up by my parents’ house for some water before taking the long way home.

Summer kept handing out candy for a little longer, but then we put everything away and got ready for bed. Eaddie was out all night with Eli at a Tech band concert. I saw her come in, and then went to bed.

It’s like a candy festival of light!

I DEMAND A REFUND

Kim was out today, and Denice wasn’t in the office for the first part of the morning, so I made myself some coffee and tried to concentrate on my Modern Driver Management in SCCM. Somehow, the server stopped responding to PXE requests, and then started working again after lunch, just as suddenly as it had quit.

The drive home was pretty fast, but that didn’t stop a jackass truck from passing me at over 70mph, and then end up parked in front of me once we got into Dardanelle. I’m sick to death of those idiots kicking road grit in my face and gaining nothing for it.

I was racing against the potential of rain, so I went straight home where the girls were just getting back with dinner. I went to my office and started working on taxes, determined to file on time. It took a trip back to the old house to find some paperwork, and then doing some math to make up for forms I didn’t have, but by the end of it all, I felt pretty confident in what I filed for both of us. Summer didn’t even add any of her interest accounts, so I was that far ahead already.

Sick of it.

A Bit of the Old Ultraviolence

It rained all day today, which made it feel pretty bitterly cold. I spent most of the morning troubleshooting my recently-deployed software while Mike chatted at me. The day went by relatively quickly, and it felt a little eerily quiet, likely because I’m not actually getting any ticket emails assigned directly to me any more.

When we left for lunch, I ran by Burger King and McDonald’s for a Whopper and fries, then stuffed myself at home. Suzanne came by to visit in the afternoon and inspected Frankie, my office succulent. Hopefully he pulls out of the dry spell he found himself in while I was gone. While she was there, she showed us that, evidently the rest of the nation had fallen into chaos with riots in the streets.

Autumn didn’t go to school today, so it was just Eaddie and me all evening. We went home after work to change, then to my parents’ house for dinner. Summer eventually made it home after yet another long day, so we picked her up a cup of chili and some fries on the way home. I called Bác Vân at the hospital to check in on her, and then it was an early night to bed.

WHAT DO WE WANT?
A rational and informed discussion of the issues and exploration of possible workable solutions!
WHEN DO WE WANT IT!?!?!
As soon as reasonably feasible!

Witches Get Stitches

My days are very quiet right now. It was cold and rainy all day, but luckily I think my thermostat actually works to some degree. I cranked the temperature up to like 75, and it actually got up to 68 or so. I’ve always just assumed it was a wall mounted placebo, but maybe it will surprise me.

I came home for lunch and made a mess of a burrito, but at least I cleaned up the last of the ingredients. I didn’t accomplish a whole lot in the afternoon either, since I was still fighting SMART Notebook downgrades. Summer had to run home to check on Autumn because she sliced her hand open while slicing some bread. We decided it would probably be alright if she just wrapped it up though.

After work, I went to the Election Commission Headquarters and voted for the first time in my life. Driving up, it looked like there was a crowd that I didn’t want to suffer, but once I walked in, it was about as painless as I could imagine. Old people that volunteer for stuff like that are always so nice, and I guess they don’t let the senile ones help, so it was a good experience. They were all so happy I was there. I even got a free stylus and a sticker, so I guess that was worth the price of admission right there.

On the way up to her house, I stopped to see Summer for a bit. Then I continued up to get the girls. We went to Little Caesar’s for dinner, since I didn’t want to bother dragging Summer’s meal prep stuff across town in the rain. They were doing something at the church on that side of town that had traffic backed all the way back to the train tracks, and around the corner on Parkway. It just aggravated me that they would even let that happen.

When Summer finally got home from the gym, Autumn undressed her cut again and they decided to go to MedExpress for some stitches. Unfortunately they didn’t take ARKids, so they ended up at the emergency room for four hours again. I figure at this rate, they’re going to start remembering Summer by name before the end of the year.

Is the ballot box supposed to make that grinding sound when I feed my paper into it?