Tag: television

Uncategorised

Gone Finishing

Today was our last day of “summer hours,” and I was so excited to “sleep in” for half an hour to make it in to work by eight. Gary brought Shipley’s donuts instead of our usual, and they tasted very different from our usual. They were good, but I think I like the traditional ones better. I don’t know what they’re doing to their dough, but it just has a different taste and texture, and they’re glazed hot, which seems to melt most of the glaze off.

We sent Kyle to the junior high to finish up the imaging. Tammy was out, so I stayed in the shop to watch the phone that never rang. Gary took Zach and Greg to move some equipment around in a rack first thing, and then I think they spent the rest of the morning at the shop. Greg came back and chatted with me a little bit while I looked at CompTIA Net+ practice tests.

Greg insisted that we were supposed to go home at 11:30, so the other two followed him out. Kyle and I both independently worked until the dictated noon time, but he just left straight from the junior high. Gary ended up coming back with some lunch because he wasn’t sure anyone cleaned up the coffee pot. I had already taken care of it, so I just sat in the breakroom with him while he ate.

I went straight up to Summer’s to pick up Eaddie so we could watch the last episode of Stranger Things. I didn’t realize Autumn would be home, so I relented and invited her along too. Evidently Eaddie told her it was just going to be the two of us, so Autumn pitched a fit before I got there, and then refused to come with us. On the drive home, Eaddie mentioned that Rick really had contacted her for her Social Security number, and said that it was so he could put her in his will. That seemed very sketchy to me, especially as she described him as doing well with his new girlfriend. She seemed to acknowledge that it was weird for him to be so vague about what he was doing, so hopefully nothing comes of that. It’ll still have to be a parent talk soon though.

The season finale was pretty awesome, but I kind of felt like it was longer than it needed to be. Some of the scenes dragged on, and I thought they could have built the story about the main ‘tagonists a bit better. It just felt a little shallow, when otherwise it’s been an excellent show. As soon as we finished, Eaddie rushed me to take her home and wouldn’t even finish the credits because she said Summer told her to clean her room.

We made it back up to their house and Autumn was still lumped in front of the TV watching mindless YouTube videos. Summer eventually made it home, but then took Autumn to the gym while I made her a fresh salad, and fried some cod fillets to make sandwiches for Eaddie and myself. I felt a little bad not having anything explicitly for Autumn, but she didn’t set out any new food, and I cleaned up all of the leftovers in the fridge. She just didn’t want what little was left.

After we ate, Autumn was in a pretty good mood and wanted to play Monopoly, so Summer and I joined her. It was a comparatively fast game, and I went out early to help Autumn secure the win. Then everyone was off to bed.

You sank my battleship!

Uncategorised

Sitting

I was surprised that I woke up at 7:30 this morning after going to sleep around three. I walked around a bit, but then went back to bed for a couple more hours before getting up and taking a shower. When I finished, I got Eaddie up and we ended up watching the last episode of Stranger Things from the beginning. Summer left work early, so we headed up to their house after our episode was done, and cleaned up some leftovers for lunch or an early dinner.

Hannah wanted someone to dog and housesit for a night, so Summer took both girls across town to do that. When she got back, she spent the entire night in front of one of the TVs. I burned an old frozen peach pie in the microwave, and then made another mostly edible one in the toaster oven. Then we wound down for an early bedtime.

Running up that hill with no problems.

Uncategorised

Sangwiches

It was too hot to go to work without air conditioning today, so I drove in. Most of the guys were sent to do inventory at another building, so I stuck around to image more computers for the new high school lab. It wasn’t too long before the eSCO guys showed up to haul off some garbage, so Thomas, Zach, and I went outside to help load them up. I got super hot and had to pace myself, so by the end of it I was dripping wet with sweat.

The crew showed back up around lunch time, and five of us went to Slim Chickens. I tried their buffalo chicken sandwich, which was good, if not small. Then I did everyone’s receipt surveys to get them all a bunch of free brownies. I got lucky spinning the wheel, and got a strawberry cheesecake jar dessert.

Somehow we convinced Thomas to call it an early day, so shortly after we got back from lunch, we started drawing numbers. After about half of the crew was gone, it was down to Greg, Jacob, and me. Our numbers were all really close together, and mine was in the middle, which meant both of them had way better odds of going home. Thomas kept asking if we wanted to change our numbers, but I refused. When it came time to draw, the random number generator rolled my exact number, so I beat the other two out.

I headed home and wanted to swim, but Eaddie didn’t want to get out of the house. I fought sleep for a little while, and eventually made it up to Summer’s after picking up some Wendy’s for Eaddie. I made a leftover burger while I was up there, and then Eaddie and I came back to my house for a late night of Stranger Things.

We watched two episodes before she started fussing about being hungry again, so we left the house to find something quick to eat. Everything was closed at 10, so we ended up at the McDonald’s drive-through with a bunch of teenage hooligans. It took way too long, but we got a burger for Eaddie and headed back home to try and finish the season.

We got a little over halfway through the last episode before Eaddie and I were both ready to fall asleep, so I tucked her in and we both crashed after a long day.

Too Frosty.

Uncategorised

and Friends

I hardly slept last night. It was hot and humid all day. There were a couple projects going on, but Gary just had me take care of some work orders that had come to him over his long weekend. It was just more time rubbing shoulders with people I don’t normally see, which was fine by me. There wasn’t actually anything difficult, so though it was an active day, it was still really relaxed. I did learn that two of our Mac users were basically only using Apple computers because that’s what they were given, but that they prefer Windows. It is absolutely Jeff’s doing, and I can’t stand it when people make ignorant and irresponsible decisions like that.

I didn’t take a lunch, and had half a Soylent instead. It was just as well, because near the end of the hour, we had a truck with four pallets of Chromebooks arrive. Luckily I had easy access to the forklift, and though Chris said it wasn’t running well, I didn’t have any trouble with it. Once the guys got back from lunch, Zach pulled the truck around and I loaded them up for delivery to the middle school. That meant I had to babysit the second pair of pallets until they came back for them, but Thomas came back from lunch and kept me company.

The afternoon was more of the same until it was time to go. I was hungry by then, so I went home to change, dropped a package off at Walgreens and picked up a Nitro Pepsi, and headed up to Summer’s. The nitrogenated vanilla Pepsi was smooth and creamy, but felt more flat than anything else. I don’t think I’d recommend it. Since it didn’t have any spike to it, I had the can down by the time I made it up the hill.

Noah was there, and watching Stranger Things with Eaddie. I offered to warm up some dinner for them, but they didn’t want any. I made myself a barbecue sandwich and ate, then sat down to watch TV with them. Eaddie asked me at least half a dozen times if I was staying, and then specifically said she didn’t want me to, so I went home, cleaned some algae out of my nano aquarium, watched the episode they started without me, and then went to bed after a Duo call with Summer.

and Godzooooky.

Uncategorised

The Boot

Today was super quiet in the office. Zach sent a group to run some cable at the junior high, but they were stripped out in front of the cafeteria. I was left to figure out the duplicate boot image issue in SCCM, which I was already sort of onto anyway. I just put on some music and knocked it out super fast. Then I went to Oakland to take care of an old ticket there.

I didn’t even realize it was lunch time, and I missed the text from Brody that they were at Brick Oven. He ordered a pizza for me, and I met them there. Then it was a super chill afternoon with some more tinkering with the boot image to try and trim it down and make it faster.

I actually ended up staying a bit late before heading home to Eaddie, who was dropped off earlier in the day so she could go ride her bike. We ate some leftover pizza and watched the first two episodes of Stranger Things, which were way more horror than the previous seasons.

We headed up to their house once Summer and Autumn were home from Conway, and it was a pretty quick evening to bed for everyone. Evidently Eaddie and Zane had a mutual breakup, and she seemed completely unphased by it. I tried talking with Autumn on her way to bed, and then I wrapped up my own chores before going to sleep.

Time to start cramming for my wellness test.

Uncategorised

Side Quests

I wanted to get up a little early today so I could spend some time time cleaning up around the house and yard. Summer ended up having to go in to work for a while, which only partially derailed my plans. Eaddie also didn’t want to get up or come with me. I ended up sticking around their house for a while, and found a whole bunch of leftovers to clean up, including the Indian food we had a few weeks ago. Dad wanted to try and uncover the pool, so I just planned to go over there a bit after noon when Mom got off work.

After we uncovered the pool, I continued home to start some laundry and get cleaned up myself. Summer brought Eaddie over after the gym and showers, and the three of us went to my parents’ house for egg roll salads. Though it threatened thunderstorms all day, we didn’t really see any rain until later in the evening.

I thought we would at least watch a movie when we got back to my house, but Eaddie just wanted to go to bed. Summer and I watched several episodes of Modern Family, and eventually went to sleep ourselves.

Zero tasks completed.

Uncategorised

Another Beautiful Day Burned

I woke up around 7:30 this morning after only four and a half hours of sleep. I should have just gone back to bed, but I foolishly thought Eaddie would get out of bed to go for a hike with my dad. Summer took Autumn to the gym and then dropped her off at the Quiz Bowl car wash before going to work. I eventually did get Eaddie up, but she was super cranky and just wanted to work on some homework.

I spent the entire day dragging along, knowing how nice it felt outside. I could have gone to sleep at any point and would have felt better for it, but instead I forced myself to stay awake and just barely dozed off in front of the TV for about an hour.

When Eaddie finally got the house cleaned up, showered, and was ready to go, we headed to my house for the evening. By then, Summer was nearly off work, but Eaddie was hangry and needed a snack, so we stopped by McDonald’s for some McNuggets. When we got to my house, we watched the second episode of What If…? before Summer got there with some corn dogs, cheese sticks, and ice cream.

Once I got Summer in and out of the shower, we crashed a bit early. Tomorrow will be busy enough.

Absolutely delusional…

Uncategorised

Normlish

We had a team meeting this morning to go over expectations for our reviews. The tool we’ve always used in my time there has always been pretty poor, but we’re using it to self evaluate, and then compare notes with Thomas. Then he’s inviting us to evaluate him using those same metrics. I spent quite a while just reformatting a digital copy of the stupid form, since it wasn’t a proper fillable form in Adobe. By the time I got around to anything else, it was nearly lunch time.

Four of the guys up front started heading for the door about 10 minutes early, but Gary remembered that I existed, and Thomas drove us all to La Chiquita. I was disappointed by the fajita portions compared to other places, but the food was still good, and it filled me up after a basket of chips.

I worked on some stuff for a little bit back at my office after lunch, but then went to Oakland to wrap up a bunch of stuff there. I left just as school was letting out, and came back to Thomas, Zach, and Kelsea on another conference call with Incident IQ. It was otherwise a very quiet afternoon until I left.

It looked like Eaddie had gone to her father’s restaurant, so I stopped there to try and pick her up. After a couple phone calls, I discovered she had actually just walked to Casey’s and then back to Zane’s house. I picked her up and we went to my house and watched two more episodes of Moon Knight. I liked the last one we watched as things got a little mental.

Summer came by after her workout and then picking Autumn up from her parents’ house. We chatted for a little bit before they left, and then I spent the better part of the night doing further investigations. I really think if we just eliminate the internet from Autumn’s life, she’ll behave much better on the whole. A young mind has to be exercised to grow. All she does is consume, and it’s thrown her into a desperate need for constant attention.

But here I am, writing about my day on a public forum for people to read.

Uncategorised

Just Some Old Fashioned Violence

I was still so out of my mind that I made it in to work super early, and landed on Zach’s couch just in time to break down. I’m holding onto so much anger over this weekend, and everyone is just having to act like everything is fine, while I’m going in to work wondering who’s silently judging me.

After a brief shift of covering the phones while the others were in a meeting, Zach invited me out to the graveyard where he thought I might feel a little more relaxed. It really made the morning go by a lot better and faster. Before I knew it, lunch time had arrived. He drove Gary and me to Taco John’s, where we met both Greg and Brody.

The afternoon was quiet apart from a meeting among our own people outside my office, where they discussed Incident IQ ticket categories. I kept wanting to chime in, but I was clearly not invited. I felt like that really would have been a moment that I would have helpful input.

I picked up Eaddie and Zane after school and dropped him off at his house before Eaddie and I went to Sonic for some dinner. Then we went to my house so I could have a break from reality and enjoy the second episode of Moon Knight. I thought it might jump into things a bit more violently than it did, but it went in an unexpected direction. I’m interested to see what’s next.

On the way up to Summer’s, we picked up some Zaxby’s for her. Then I helped Eaddie with someone else’s homework while Summer did some work in front of the TV. Autumn was in her room most of the night, and was mostly ignored. At least it was incident-free until everyone could sneak off to bed.

You just keep thinking that, you happy little idiot.

Uncategorised

Return of the Whirlpool

I got a call from the Lowe’s truck drivers shortly after I woke up this morning, saying they were about 10 minutes away. That nearly got me in a dead-run to get everything cleared out and ready to go. It occurred to me that they are making a lot of assumptions every time they come out, and as a customer, I should be more upset about my experience. They walked the fridge out without having to do any door gymnastics, and even walked it past both of my grills after I moved the deck box. I guess they were less worried about damage coming out than they were going in.

Somehow, I still managed to make it to work on time, stopping at Oakland to take care of a backup battery issue, and then making a quick run through the rest of the work orders I had from the end of the week. It didn’t take terribly long, but did help the morning go by.

Gary was a little stressed with Zach, Greg, and Brody out for the day, and me out of my office first thing. I chatted with him briefly and did my best to ease his worries. We evidently had some more unexpected, sweeping changes that we weren’t informed about, which frustrated us as I had to troubleshoot an issue that we caused. There are a lot of wheels turning, and not all of them are aware of the others, though they’re all connected and affect each other. It makes for a disjointed team.

Lunch came quickly, and I just went home to some leftover Ridgewood barbecue. I ended up eating a bit too much and didn’t have time to go to Lowe’s to see about my refund, so I just went back to Oakland to finish up some stuff. The rest of the afternoon was relatively quiet, and Kyle was the only one I ever saw back in the shop.

As I left for the day, Eaddie called for a ride. I had to drop some things off at Oakland anyway. She was hungry, so we picked up some chicken strips from Dairy Queen for her, and then went back to my house to start Moon Knight. I absolutely hate the accents and how quiet the voices are, because it makes the dialog that much harder to understand. Otherwise it seems like it’s going to be a neat show, and unlike many of the others, they didn’t waste any time getting right into the action.

When we finished the episode, Eaddie rushed me to take her home. In turn, I made her wait in the car while I stopped at Lowe’s to resolve my return. The kid at customer service said it would take a day for them to process the return, but I was concerned about having made part of my purchase with gift cards. He insisted that I would “probably” get a call in the morning, but rather than risk it, I walked to the back to find someone. I never could find an employee that wasn’t busy, but I did find my refrigerator that had been marked down by $450 to be sold as-is. It was almost tempting to re-buy it at that price.

While I was back there, I saw the windowed version of the LG we were looking at. I didn’t love it either. The freezer seemed really small and narrow, and the shelves had nearly no adjustability. I think one shelf in the fridge side had a choice of two levels, but the rest only had the existing molded mount points. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even fit a frozen pizza in the freezer anywhere unless I left an entire shelf out, which would make for one super tall shelf. I may end up spending quite a bit more money for something much nicer by the time this is all over.

Back at the front, I explained that my refrigerator was already on the floor ready to sell, so he called a manager up to process the refund and I was on my way. When we got to the house, Eaddie went to her room to practice her flute, and I went outside to dig out the lawn mower. I probably spent about an hour trying to get the thing started, and eventually did with the help of some starter fluid, but it wouldn’t stay running for long. I’m inclined to think it’s the leftover fuel, but I can’t get any of the girls to run the mower often or long enough to keep that stuff flowing through it.

Summer got home super late. I thought I might stay over, especially since she arrived with some apparent energy left. Ultimately she ate and went straight to bed, so I headed back home. I took another crack at charging the Grom battery after stopping it last night when I heard it sizzling. Hopefully the lower amperage will keep things from exploding.

People actually lived for ages without refrigeration, so maybe I can just make it to Black Friday for a better deal.