Tag: shenanigans

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Heavy Stuff

Muad’Dib ended up staying inside again last night, and he tore up some stuff in the living room. I stepped on a wet spot, but it turned out to be a cup of water someone left in the sunroom. One of the stuffed cows lost an eye, and he completely destroyed the 3D-printed heart gears that I had made. Other than that, it was just some packing material I had saved.

I was a little worried I was going to be late to work, but I had a tailwind and got there just a little after seven. It wasn’t very long before we had to run to the high school because FedEx showed up unannounced to deliver three big, heavy pallets of Chromebooks. Jim took Randy and me over to help move them, but we really didn’t need to be there. The truck driver fussed about making it to the loading dock, and showed up with a bit of an attitude after Maggie had called his supervisor. He did fine, so I don’t know what all of that was about.

I met with Randy and Kyle a little later in the afternoon to talk about some of the new cybersecurity guidelines we have to follow. We had a Tacos 4 Life bar from Genesis for lunch, and it was cool that they actually had the chafing dishes to keep the food warm. After that, they sent everyone home due to some incoming storms.

Randy let me go particularly early since storms were coming from my direction. It never really got bad for us though. It rained heavily for a bit, and we had some thunder and lightning. I hurriedly ran with Muad’Dib just as it started to sprinkle. We saw Dad briefly and then made it home. Summer was there and we went to the Neighborhood Market to pick up a couple things for dinner.

Eaddie got home just as we did, and we went outside to play with Muad’Dib for a bit and listen to the rain. Eaddie had a band thing scheduled, so I drove her to Tech only to find that it had been cancelled because they had no power. We had a good chat during the drive though, and it makes me so happy to hear how emotionally intelligent and smart she is.

When we got back, I sat by the tub with Summer so we could talk for a while. Then she got up and fried some potatoes and onions while I got the grill going with some premade burger patties and corn. It was a good, quick dinner and Muad’Dib sat under the table so calmly to accept scraps. Then everyone went to bed pretty quickly after that.

Naders are comin’!

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Best Doggy Life

Muad’Dib did great in our room last night, and Summer took him out for a potty break in the morning while I tried to sleep in a little bit. We eventually got cleaned up and she walked him, then I rode the Onewheel around the parking lot with him after we got everything out of the hotel and into the car. That was when I ran into Ashante, Julie’s old friend from school. She wanted to meet Muad’Dib, and I told her the story of how I found him. I mentioned that he made the trip from Russellville, and that got the wheels turning on how we knew each other. She remembered going to a pool party and me running around with a “Chucky” doll.

After all of that, we wanted to get lunch before Dad’s matinée show, so I found a dog-friendly restaurant called Red’s Pizzeria just a short walk from the trolly station with EV charging. Summer and I took Muad’Dib over to start charging and waited for my parents to show up. The restaurant was super cute, with basically a counter to place your order, and then a multi-level outdoor patio to sit and eat. Muad’Dib laid down by my side and was super chill the entire time, and the pizza was pretty good.

Back at the convention, the show was good. Dad’s Miser’s Dream went well, and Muad’Dib was much less nervous than the first night when we walked in and sat down right in the middle of a packed house. After the show, we tried to go back to the strip to walk around, but both chargers were occupied and I didn’t feel comfortable going to pay for parking in another place that was a tighter fit. We ended up going back to the chargers and just waiting for one of those two people to come back for their car. Fortunately it didn’t take too long, and it was a nice rest on a bench in the shade with the dog.

By then it was time to get dinner, so we made our way down to Local Flavor Cafe, who also had a porch for dogs. I rode the Onewheel down the hill in case I needed to go park for my parents and act as a faster valet service. They ended up just parking in the bank lane since they were closed, and we had a nice dinner. Our server even brought out a fresh bowl of water for Muad’Dib, who spent most of the time under my chair and got plenty of scraps.

The evening show was really good, but the three of us were exhausted from running around so much. Muad’Dib had the best doggie vacation he’d ever had, and behaved so wonderfully. He rode home perfectly with a quick stop in Ozark, and then he was super excited to see Eaddie when we got home. I let him sleep in Eaddie’s room, and Summer went straight to bed. I was up unexpectedly late, and I just know I’ll pay for it later.

I skipped a roll.

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Hair Combs the Groom

I went to bed late and got up early so I could take Summer to her mammogram this morning. That went way faster than I expected, so we decided to get some breakfast before she went to work. I had to wait a little bit longer after taking my iron pill before we left, so we went home first and then drove separately across town to the new Hardee’s. It was a cute building with not enough parking and a tiny lobby for dining in. I was glad to see familiar faces behind the counter, since those old ladies did a pretty good job of running the old place. We saw a couple people from the school district while we were there, but didn’t really chat much with either.

After we ate, we had to squeeze out of the parking lot and Summer went to work while I went home to change so I could take the dog out for a run. We ran straight over to Ridgewood Brothers and I gave Robert the convex mirror I got from Vine. I didn’t really get much out of it in the garage since I remembered how I used to park without scraping the bottom of my car. It was a beautiful morning, so I decided we’d make the trek across town to see Summer at Superfast. She was super excited to see us, and then we headed back toward home, stopping to see my parents first. Mom gave Muad’Dib a couple Ritz crackers, which was a big turning point for her.

I didn’t have a ton of time to kill after that because Eaddie and I were going to take Muad’Dib to meet Summer at PetSmart for his grooming appointment. They disappeared him into the back, so we didn’t get to watch anything. We went to Walmart to do a little bit of shopping, then went back by to see if they had an ETA. Eaddie left at that point to meet some friends at Old Post, and they hadn’t even started on Muad’Dib yet, so Summer and I went to La Huerta to share some nachos as a bit of a snack.

As we finished up, I got a call from our groomer saying Muad’Dib started freaking out, so she had to stop after shampooing him. She didn’t even get to rinse him off at all, so I was worried about what we’d be bringing back home. We left the restaurant and went home to get a tarp, then traded cars with Eaddie at Old Post before we made it to PetSmart. They didn’t charge me at all, and Muad’Dib was pretty dry by then, but just looked extra fluffy. He didn’t feel gross or soapy, so the tarp wasn’t really necessary.

We took him home to take a break for a little while and let everyone calm down. Julie called and talked to me for a little while, and then we took Muad’Dib to the Liberty dog wash to finish the job ourselves. He didn’t like the wash, but he did reasonably well with both of us there. He did try to nip at me a little bit, but never to harm me, and he was always pretty gentle. Considering it only cost like $15 to do it ourselves, we may not even go back to have him groomed. It just took some extra time brushing him once we got home, and he looked and felt much better.

We let him inside for much longer after that. Eaddie eventually made it back home and we played with him in the living room for a bit. He spent some time exploring the house and sniffed everything. Then he got confused when I played back some video of him on the TV. I still didn’t want him staying inside unsupervised, so I put him out when everyone went to bed. I finally booked a room for the Cavalcade, but it looks like it’ll be mostly rainy. I don’t know if we’ll take Muad’Dib since Eaddie doesn’t want to go, but hopefully we’ll have enough time in the morning to figure everything out.

Booked!

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Conventions

I thought we would go to Comic Con this morning, but Summer wanted to spend the day watching the bands play at the Indiana Historical Society. I got wrapped up in my phone trying to figure out how to record the livestream, so I missed out on walking through the museum, but then we sat through several different bands. Some of them were super good, but others you could tell were getting tired, including ours who played near the end of the day. We took a break for lunch in the cafe downstairs, watched the kids play, then split up again to walk back to the hotel.

By that time it had gotten pretty late. We didn’t realize the vendor floor at Comic Con was closing so soon, but we found Elaine and then walked around for a little bit. I paid $20 for Summer to sit for a photo in a flying, time traveling DeLorean. Then she tried to sneak pictures of Ernie Hudson. We also saw a couple of the Reno 911 guys, Katee Sackhoff, and William Shatner from afar. Katee had the biggest line by far, and I think tonight would have been our best chance to actually visit with any of them, because it was pretty quiet at that time. They’re expecting a real flood of people to show up tomorrow.

As they closed things down, we stopped to see if Elaine wanted to go to dinner with us around the block at Dick’s Last Resort. She had been socializing with DC, Mario, and Erik from the Carrillo Art Studios caricature booth next to her, so we invited them as well. It took them a moment to get packed up, but the three of us walked down and met the three of them at the restaurant.

We got seated reasonably quickly, but service was incredibly slow. It took almost two hours to get our food, but luckily it tasted pretty good, and our server was definitely on the nice side of “rude” to us. It was still a fun experience, at least for me. The other three were anxious to get back to their lodging, and then I offered to run back to get my car so we could drive Elaine up the road to her bed and breakfast.

It was a straight shot to the garage, then an easy drive to the bed and breakfast. As soon as we got back to the hotel, Summer crashed and I wrapped up as quickly as my ADD-riddled brain could handle.

They feed on the attention!

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We’ve Been Conned

We slept in pretty late today as a reward for the long day of travel before. Summer finally made me get up so we could find our way to the opening ceremony. Eaddie got lost trying to find her way back to get us, but luckily we ran into Phoebe in the elevator, who got us to the right place. The ceremony wasn’t really “for” us, but Summer wanted to experience it. It was a huge mob of people, so it was neat to at least see all of them in one place.

After the ceremony, we tried to find our way back to the room, but immediately discovered how easy it was to get lost. I changed so I wouldn’t be overdressed, and we eventually took the car across town for a charge and some late lunch. The place turned out to be a co-working space, and there was a huge room with a bunch of food vendors, and even a barber. We ate at a burger place called The Bull Grill, which was super good. I particularly appreciated that in spite of being very tall burgers, they stayed together perfectly to the very last bite.

We headed back to the room again after that, until we got a text from Eaddie that they were going to the mall down the road. We thought that was our indication to meet them since they had discussed going together, but after a super long walk through a maze of escalators and skywalks, we arrived at the mall just in time to hear the closing announcement.

The kids wound up walking further up the road to eat at a nitrogen ice cream shop, but Summer and I weren’t really interested. We crossed the road and used my old gift card at Steak ‘n Shake instead. I still had money left after they closed our location at home, so Summer got a cherry Diet Coke and I redeemed a free birthday shake.

We decided to take the sidewalk back to the hotel since the weather was so nice, and as we walked past the giant convention center, we encountered a poor girl struggling to roll three giant suitcases down the broken and cracked sidewalk ahead of us. She even had a cane on top of one of them, so we decided to cautiously approach and offer assistance. We eventually learned that her name was Elaine, and she was there to set up a vendor booth for Growing Geeks Clothing at the Comic Con happening this weekend. A security guard refused to let her in and told her she had to go to the opposite side of the building to the registration desk. Fortunately we encountered another guy rolling stuff in a side door he had gotten through, so we helped Elaine get everything inside.

She was so thankful that she wanted to give us her extra exhibitor pass, but I wasn’t sure we would have time. Summer eventually caught up and jumped at the chance to go to the convention, so we ended up getting her to the registration desk, helped her locate and arrange her booth, and even hung a bunch of clothes on hangers for her. It was fun to make a friend, and by the end of it as we were walking out, we decided to go ahead and buy an extra exhibitor pass that she was allowed at the discounted rate of $50. When we got to the registration desk, the girl just handed me a pass for free after having her own long day, so Summer and I would both get to go together.

Not really believing our luck, we made our way back to the room for the night. I called my parents to share the excitement, and then Summer found Spider-Man: No Way Home on the TV, so I got sucked into the rest of that as she fell asleep. I was up too late in a mixture of ADD fog and ruminating about the dogs, but I eventually got there.

Buncha nerds.

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Just Breathe

My blood pressure wasn’t fantastic when I got up this morning, but it was my “normal” high level. Summer left for work after we fed the dogs, and I made myself an egg and cheese biscuit for breakfast again. I followed that with a banana and grilled cheese since I was slightly low on potassium. I started both my 5mg amlodipine and 25mg metoprolol, then tried to relax a bit on the computer before taking a shower.

My numbers kept climbing for a while before they kind of leveled out again. It had me a bit worried, but I eventually felt confident enough to take the dogs out for a ride. I even put Max’s antler from the Grinch on Stilgar, and he didn’t oppose it at all. Muad’Dib kept wanting to bite at it, but I eventually told him “no” enough that he quit altogether. Stilgar wore the headband the entire way to the Ridgewood Brothers to see the crew there.

Everyone came out and was super excited for either the Onewheel or the dogs. Even Robert took a spin on the Onewheel, then promptly wiped out. We hung out for a little while before heading back up the road where we stopped to see Mollie at her house. She came out onto the porch for a bit, but we didn’t stay long before heading home. We made our way through the basin where Stilgar wanted to be an alligator. I put the antler on Muad’Dib, but it was really too big for him, and it kept falling down under his chin. I got it back on Stilgar and we made it to my parents’ house, but they weren’t home.

The dogs got hot dogs and food when we got home, and I spent some time relaxing to keep my blood pressure down. It didn’t seem to help, because the longer I sat, the higher it rose. I decided pretty early that I shouldn’t drive by myself to Conway to see Eaddie’s performance. Then I started to get a lump in my throat, and I called Dad to take me to the clinic when I hit 155/102.

Mom drove them to the house and we headed to the clinic in a fashion that had me stressing out even more. As soon as I got checked in, I sat down and then had a dizzy spell like I did at the self-care fair. Things started to get dark and I thought I might black out, so I told my parents to get someone. It didn’t feel like I was met with as much urgency as I intended, but I pulled out of my spell enough to talk to the ladies that came out. Much like the urgent care clinic, they couldn’t really do anything for me and instead called the paramedics.

The trucks pulled into the lot pretty quickly, but it took them a while to get inside. I had moved into a wheelchair for ease of mobility, and before the guys came in, I started to have another slight dizzy episode without so much blacking out. They came in and took blood sugar, blood pressure, and my oxygen level, and decided they couldn’t do anything more than DoorDash me to the hospital. They did offer to load me up into our own car so I wouldn’t get a bill, but by the time we finished talking, I was good enough to walk again.

We left the clinic, and I had Mom take me to the house to use the restroom and grab my blood pressure cuff. Then we drove to the hospital and sat in the parking lot for a while, testing my blood pressure several times to see that it was going down. Once it got low enough that I felt comfortable leaving, we went to their house for some food.

Mom made me some mango soup while I watched my blood pressure start to rise again. Summer came over after dropping Eaddie off at home, and we ultimately decided it might be best to go to the hospital. The two of us got to the emergency room and checked in. There were several of us in the waiting room, and strangely, they called everyone back at the same time after a mysterious amount of waiting. Summer and I were in a room near the back and waited a while for a young, Vietnamese doctor to come check me out. My blood pressure had continued to drop a bit, and after recounting the last few days to him, his recommendation was to modify my normal medication timing and then follow up with my PCP. He offered to give me more meds and re-run all of the same bloodwork, but indicated that he didn’t really think it was necessary.

We were eventually discharged, and I suppose I earn enough by now that paying the bill didn’t send me into another event. We went home, Summer crawled into bed, and I wrapped up way too slowly for how tired I was.

Solidarity in healthcare providers.

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Fool Me Once… Shame on….Shame on You

It’s been cooling off this week, and I could really tell this morning when it started to sleet on my way to work. It didn’t stick at all, and just melted away instantly, but I was definitely caught off guard by the sound of it hitting everything around me outside.

I’m still recovering from re-imaging my laptop, which meant I had to build a Microsoft Office installation for myself. That and a bit of tinkering with some other things got me through to lunch at Western Sizzlin with the boys. Afterward I packed up and went to the high school to help Mike sort depot boxes. We ended the day with the lift in the band room since we finally got our lamp in.

Autumn went to the gym again, so Summer left work and took Eaddie as well. That left me to go home and clean more in the garage. Nearly forgetting to plan my shenanigans, I pulled out my old TI-99 for deployment at work. Not just the base computer though. Oh, no. I brought out the Expansion System as well. That thing was heavy. I needed some help repairing the video cable though, so I packed up and took it to my parents’ house.

Dad got me sorted with some solder and hot glue. Then he pulled out my tiny old CRT television, and things booted up perfectly. Unfortunately I didn’t have the necessary Microsoft Multiplan 5.25″ floppy, so all I can really do is look at the loading screen, but it’ll serve its purpose. He went with me to the office to help stage everything, but just as we finished setting up, Melinda walked in. It was in the dead of night, so I really thought she was there to stage her own pranks, but she was just there to pick up some things. She’ll be out tomorrow, but I was hoping to land the prank on her the next day. Unfortunately she walked right in and saw it, so it’ll just have to be for fun with the rest of the gang tomorrow.

I dropped Dad back off at home and finally headed home to finish up the last of my plotting. Tomorrow should be fun.

Duuuuuude…..