Tag: Tesla

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Drain It Again

I woke up around four to swap chargers and then had trouble getting back to sleep. We both met our charge limits, though. It was another quiet day at work. Summer had a meeting in Little Rock, so we met for lunch and I let our usual server pick my plate. Summer barely touched her food, so I ate the rest of it instead of ordering more myself.

The afternoon was a bit more productive until quitting time. About halfway home, there was a semi wreck being cleaned up, and then traffic was backed up going the other direction for miles. We got home without incident though, and I charged a bit while I waited for Summer to get home.

I had a bunch of Vine stuff to sort through. Summer was hurting when she arrived, so I ran her a bath and then had to start draining the basement again while I took Muad’Dib out for a run. He was very slow in spite of how nice it felt outside.

We visited my parents for a bit and helped Mom pull her water hose while Dad got Muad’Dib some leftovers. Then we made it back to the house and the water was still going. I waited for it to finish, then cleaned that up, had a salad, and raced for bed.

it over

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Sad Grad

Summer got up early for Run Like Yell in Dardanelle. I originally said I would go, but she insisted that I didn’t have to, and I didn’t sleep great. Of course I couldn’t really sleep after she left, so I got up and made myself a croissant sandwich. I burned the bread and set off the alarms, and then Eaddie got up and left to play at graduation. After that, I repotted a plant and watered the rest. Summer showered, then I followed suit before we left to meet the girls at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Muad’Dib did reasonably well there, and we stuffed ourselves with junk food again. Autumn fussed about not being able to eat much, and then about her relationship, so the conversation started going in circles a bit. I tried not to be too involved, but it really served as a reminder of the past drama we always had to endure. Eaddie showed up late after rehearsal, ate a bit, and then I think she left with Autumn while Summer and I took Muad’Dib to stay with my parents.

It didn’t take Muad’Dib long to break out of the back yard, and then Summer kept calling at him to go back, which of course drew him to jump on my car. I yelled about it, so she got quite for a while. We made it to graduation nearly an hour early and found seats in the second row. It wasn’t terribly long after everything finally started that I got an alert that Muad’Dib had left his safe zone.

I panicked and got up to call Dad, who didn’t answer. Mom answered, but didn’t have a clue where he was. I couldn’t tell if Dad had taken him out for a walk or if he had left to look for him. I also couldn’t send a screenshot of the GPS location because my phone got hot and started acting jittery. I got most of the way back to the car when the location finally updated to show Muad’Dib back near my parents’ house, but Dad still wasn’t answering. I waited a while and eventually felt good enough to go back inside.

We watched Autumn walk, and Summer kept yelling at other people she recognized. I kept feeling like she needed to go back to education if she wanted to feel happy about that kind of stuff again, but we’ve also gotten used to bigger paychecks.

They finally wrapped things up and we met the girls outside in the sun. I got pretty warm and was annoyed that we kept having to wander around looking for kids that were doing their own family things, and hadn’t asked to meet anywhere in particular. We got some pictures, but Summer wanted specific group shots. I ended up sitting in the car for some of that. When the girls all finally caught up with one another, she called me to drive over to them. Then Autumn started fussing about Adam some more. I said my peace and then wandered off to chase my car, which was driving around on “Smart” Summon in an annoying pattern without crossing parking lines.

I finally got Summer into the car, and the kids allegedly left to go meet up with Noah. I dropped Summer off at home so she could rest before going to a team meeting at work, and then took the Onewheel to retrieve Muad’Dib. We sat inside for a little while, then Mom came out to look at her plants. We helped a very little bit before riding back home. Summer called just as we got there because Autumn wanted to tell me I helped motivate her to break up with Adam. I just told her to keep pushing herself to be better and do the right thing.

Summer eventually made it home and we watched a YouTube video about digging for supercritical geothermal. Then she went to bed and I followed for just a little bit before going off to do my own thing. I was up later than I wanted to be, and had an anxiety attack at one point while playing on my phone. Eaddie eventually made it home near midnight, and then I went to bed as well.

Late night drops!

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Flower Farm

We got up early today and basically had to drag Eaddie out of the house so we could make it up to Fayetteville in time to get everything done. Eli showed up at the house early, and I don’t know why she took so long, but we eventually made it out. I let Muad’Dib run to my parents’ house, and we tied him up to spend the day with Dad.

We made it to Alma for a short charge while we snacked on some cold chicken from Harp’s. Then we headed straight to the Rivercrest Orchard tulip festival. There were a ton of cars and people there, and it was even more “official” looking than I expected. It looked like they didn’t allow pets because they had food crops like strawberries growing as well.

You could pay per stem if you wanted to pick flowers, or they had several activities that were mostly free all around the property. We walked through the fields that smelled great, rode a little tractor train, and then a train on rails. I picked us up a couple loaded pretzels that were okay, but dressed more like pizza, so that was weird. I probably wouldn’t do it again.

They all seemed to really enjoyed it, but I think next time we’ll try another location. Getting out was tough, because presumably somebody gridlocked the place trying to get in and out. Cars were stuck in a complete standstill, unable to come in or out. Finally some employees showed up to try and clear the mess, and we were able to leave.

We went to charge in Rogers, and roamed a PetCo for a bit until that was done. Then we went to Viet Buffet for a late lunch. They were super slow and ran really lean on the food, but everything was still really good. They didn’t have any of the sausage I liked anywhere, but they had a few new things to try.

From there, we had two more stops for food to take home. Eli’s dad wanted some Pollo Campero, which was in the nearby Walmart. They must have taken a page out of Popeye’s playbook, because they were completely out of chicken and said it would take an hour for them to make a 20-piece order, so we left without. Next up was Hawaiian Bros. after griping at Eaddie for eating mine twice in a row. I don’t even know that it was worth it the last two times, but I’ve just been so upset that I haven’t gotten to eat my own food that I keep going back for more.

Finally we headed home, with a quick stop in Ozark to finish the trip. We picked up Muad’Dib after his day with Dad, and then the kids had to leave for their band thing. Summer didn’t feel great, so she was pretty lame the rest of the night. Eli spotted a jumping spider on my car right as we got back, so I captured it and tried to figure out how to raise it in captivity, but didn’t make much real progress with it. Hopefully tomorrow I can come up with something a little better for it.

let’s put a smile on that face

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Short Sunday

The time shift didn’t do much for us today. I tried not to sleep in too much so I could go to sleep in the evening. Summer got up to some coffee and I ate my leftover chicken strip, and then the brisket with the beans and chips from our trip. With the refrigerator mostly empty, I wanted to go shopping and cook a nice dinner.

Summer went to the gym with Eaddie and I got ready for a late start to the day. When they got back, Eaddie showered and left, and then Summer decided she wanted Chinese. All planning out the window, we eventually went to New China where they appeared to still have a steady stream of Hispanics coming in from church services throughout the day. The food was hot and fresh, and I managed to fill up on a few different kinds of broccoli.

After that, we wanted to take Muad’Dib for a walk around Bona Dea. Summer immediately had to stop at the trailhead, so I walked around the short ring with Muad’Dib, and then Summer just wanted to go on home. With her not feeling well, Muad’Dib and I just laid in bed to rest for a bit. I felt like I could take a nap, but didn’t actually fall asleep.

Dad wanted us to bring the Model Y over so their neighbor could check it out. He seemed to have done enough research that I don’t know why they didn’t just go test drive one at the factory, but I talked to him for a little while about it, then gave him a quick test ride. Muad’Dib had run over ahead of me, so I let him run back home as well. Then he and Summer went to bed pretty early. Eaddie was home for a moment, but left. I tried to pay our toll fees from our trip, but failed, so I’ll try again during the week.

Fine, I’ll do it myself.

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Smash and Grab and Go

We weren’t in a huge hurry to get out this morning, so we felt pretty well rested. Summer and I got up to take Muad’Dib out and get some breakfast, and we spotted three or four vehicles on the other side of the building that had shattered windows. It was probably foolish of us to think we were the first ones to discover this, because the front desk already seemed stressed when we went in to report it.

We ate, then went back upstairs to clean up and pack. Timing was just about perfect to get out for the eleven o’clock checkout time. While we were still in the area, I wanted to use my birthday reward for $10 off at Hawaiian Bros, so we stopped in Allen to get some food to take home. Then we decided to stop at Buc-ee’s in Melissa to charge for a long haul to Henryetta.

While we were at Buc-ee’s, we ran into some guys charging that evidently recognized us from the trip down. They were headed back up as well, and just recognized Muad’Dib while we had him out. We also saw a couple of Tesla company cars with roof-mounted cameras or lidar. I went in to grab some snacks, and then we made the long trek to our next stop at a QT station.

We ran into the other guys at the charger one last time, and then Eaddie and I walked across the street to eat at the Taco Bueno while Summer and Eli kept Muad’Dib and ate their leftover Hawaiian Bros. That worked out pretty well, and then Summer drove us to Alma. I let them all get ice cream at Braum’s before going to charge across the street. Then Muad’Dib and I walked back over and had just enough time to use the restroom before going back to get the car.

Eaddie had left her car at Witherspoon, so when we finally made it home, we dropped the kids off and unloaded their stuff. Summer and I reset the dog seat protector, then made it home to clean up before bed.

Flies again!

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Hope Dangles on a String

Summer had a race in Clarksville this morning, but declined the suggestion that we could all get up early to go with her, then continue to the greater Fayetteville area immediately after. She wanted to come home to shower first.

I am right, I swear I’m right. Swear I knew it all along.

We had plenty of time to get around, so I watered my plants before jumping into the shower. Once everyone was ready, we headed out and picked Eli up before hitting the road. We stopped at Dodge’s in Clarksville for some hot wings, and ran into Autumn just as we were leaving.

Scars are souvenirs you never lose. The past is never far.

We made it all the way to Lowell to charge. There was a queue before we could plug in, but there were only a couple of cars ahead of us and it went pretty quickly. I had never experienced that before, but it wasn’t bad at all.

And I’d give up forever to touch you.

I had previously texted Shawna and actually got a response that she wouldn’t be joining us for the concert. I planned to transfer the ticket to her, but I couldn’t do that until closer to the event, and even then she didn’t want it. Brandon was able to join us, so we planned to meet him for dinner.

I’ve got my defenses when it comes to your intentions for me.

Once charging was done, we went to Goodwill to kill a few minutes. We ended up grabbing a telescope stand for Dad, and then headed to Chuy’s to meet Brandon. There was a relatively short wait, and then service was pretty sparse, but the food was good.

My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me.

After dinner, we walked to the amphitheater with plenty of time to find seats on the packed lawn. I skipped the merch until after Dashboard Confessional. They did a great show, followed by a wonderful, much larger show by the Goo Goo Dolls. All I could do was think about how the evening was supposed to go.

I’m not the one who broke you. I’m not the one you should fear.

Brandon took off a little bit early. We left at the very end and got on the interstate without any fuss. We probably didn’t have to stop, but the car routed us to Ozark for a quick charge before making it home. I gave Muad’Dib a quick vacuum and washed his feet, and then they were all off to bed.

I wanna wake up where you are.

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This Ain’t It, Chief

I had a Soylent this morning when I got to work, and I think it really did help settle my stomach after the last few days. Joel said we could talk about HubSpot after I got settled in, so I went upstairs for a while. He eventually stopped by and we went down to the conference room to chat. I still really can’t tell what my day-to-day is going to look like, but it feels less based on specific projects, and more about just being ambitious enough to find things to improve. I could be way off base, but I haven’t really been given any other direction yet. I joked that it didn’t seem like this was an IT job, but I think it’ll be good for me. It feels like I’m moving in the right direction.

A little while later I went to MethDonald’s for lunch. The drive-through was packed, but even more people were standing angrily around the counter when I went inside. I had already placed my order online, but the app crashed and I couldn’t see the number. I eventually went to the counter myself, and a nice lady went back to make it fresh. All the while I watched as the druggies and teen mothers with barely any clothes paced back and forth, coming in and out the doors, to and from the counter.

My food was great, and the app ended up refunding me later in the day because it thought I never picked up my food. I made it back to the office and re-racked some stuff upstairs. Teisha came up and said they were shutting down at three, and luckily someone came to get me later because I had lost track of the time.

When I got back to town, I stopped to see Summer to see if I could finally install my yoke. I ran home to get the parts and tools, cleaned up the laundry room a bit in the process, and got back out there just before closing time. I had the process down, but the new connectors for the scroll wheels didn’t seem to have clips to release, so I ended up having to drive Summer’s car back home after they were closed so I could get needle nose pliers. I made it back, and Summer got angry because they hadn’t properly cleaned the pit. I finally got my old wheel loose, all the components moved to the yoke, and after a little bit of back and forth, got the yoke properly installed.

Summer headed home, exhausted and filthy. She sent me to Zaxby’s for dinner, and it took them over 20 minutes to cook our food. I had already planned to stop at KFC for some coleslaw, and they weren’t much better. That restaurant has gone downhill so far that it should just about be condemned. I listened as a young drive-through attendant yelled at a customer through the speaker. Then, who I presume was the manager, went to the window and yelled at him some more. He demanded his card back, then peeled out away from the building. Meanwhile, I appeared to be joined in the lobby by the special education class of 1975. I miss the glory days of going there for the lunch buffet with Allen and whoever else would join us.

I finally got home, and Summer had let Muad’Dib back inside without cleaning him. The frustration and disappointment and depression of the whole situationship washed over me, and he and I immediately left for a walk around the block.Of course I didn’t have a waste bag, so he pooped and I had to pick it up with a napkin I had in my pocket. We got home and I put him out back for the night, then unloaded my car before going to cool off in the bedroom. Summer came back to find me after a while, and fell to the floor in her own bout of frustration. I left her to go eat some cold chicken, then cleaned everything up and came back to put her to bed for her race in the morning. We laid down to talk for a little bit, but I’m really at a loss. Things are bad, but the fact that things are bad is making things worse.

Too much attention.

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Big, Bad Waffle

I hardly got any sleep again last night because I stayed up too late writing reviews, and then when I finally laid down in bed, my mind was racing. I eventually passed out and woke up to a bright orange sun peeking over the horizon beyond the lake. I didn’t take much time to enjoy that before taking a shower so I could meet the guys for breakfast.

I met Randy, Kyle, and Jim at Phil’s Family Restaurant across town, and it was a cute little restaurant in an old house. I ordered their waffle special, and it was a ton of food. The waffle was awful though, and had a rubbery pancake texture like it was just pressed into a waffle maker after it had already been cooked as a pancake. It wasn’t crispy on the outside at all, and they charged me an additional $1.29 for a tiny cup of peanut butter. The servings on the eggs and hashbrowns were enormous though. It said it came with two eggs, but there had to be at least four scrambled on my plate.

I think Randy was the only one that had anything scheduled today. I was pretty sure I told Maggie I wanted another class in the afternoon, but I didn’t get anything. Jim disappeared, and I don’t know if Randy took Kyle to sneak into another class, but I ended up heading back to my room by myself, but I stopped at Proglide Car Wash first because I was long overdue.

I ended up signing up for an unlimited plan because they had a $10 special for their best wash. When I got around to the entry, I saw that they had a guide that I was worried about hitting, so I stopped and talked to one of the employees. He insisted they had never had any trouble with Teslas, so I took the chance. I wasn’t super excited when the two of them then got some soapy sponges out to try and scrub off the worst parts. I’ve had bug guts with grit in them, and I didn’t want them to scratch my paint. I let it happen though, and made it through the wash without incident. I stopped to vacuum my car, checked the rims and paint, and then went back around for a second wash to get some more of the bird poop that it couldn’t remove the first time. The guy cleaned it off by hand, and then I finally made it back to the hotel.

I worked all day on Vine reviews to try and get my ratio up, and I’m still showing only 80% reviewed for some reason. I can’t seem to figure out how they’re calculating their number. Beverly Hills Cop II was on, so I watched most of that, followed by some of Beverly Hills Cop. That seemed counterintuitive, but what do I know? A storm started to roll in, and I watched part of the new RoboCop remake. Eventually I met Randy and Kyle downstairs and took them downtown to meet Todd at The Rooftop Bar for the ProMAS social.

The food and drinks, and the outdoor restaurant atmosphere was more my speed, even if our server appeared to be the only one serving the entire restaurant, but the guys wanted to move on to the Howard social across town. We went straight to H2O HAWG, the usual biker bar that Woody rents out. We were followed by Sam, the Jessieville coordinator that we had met at the previous place, and we chatted among a small crowd. Kyle, Sam, and I played some darts, and I won a Yeti mug in a drawing at the end of the night.

We got back to the hotel and it was a slow wind down for me. I tried to crunch some more numbers, but I could just never make it work out. Hopefully it all comes together in a couple of days though.

Wing and a Prayer

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On Second Thought

If I had known we would all end up at the high school, I would have gone straight there in the morning. Instead, we sat around the office for about an hour and then all individually drove over to help Jim move all of his Chromebooks from the library to a holding room. We expected rain, so we couldn’t take them to the shop like we originally planned.

After a bit of sorting and looking for damage, we were done and sitting around. Jim started imaging more of his laptops while everyone else left, so I just sat in the library and worked on the FortiAuthenticator stuff until lunch time. While we were waiting to go, Cheri called with an offer from Tesla. Then Teisha called with an offer from Bitec.

We thought we had a group for lunch since we waited for Kyle, but it ended up just being Jim and myself. He drove us to Mr. Cajun’s Kitchen and I tried their blackened catfish over red beans and rice. I thought it was way too expensive, but it tasted good. After that, I just stayed in the library until quitting time.

The drive home was a bit anxious. I stopped in Blackwell and again in Atkins for a slush since the Casey’s in town always seems to turn their slushy machine off when they have a free deal day. Summer was having a bath when I got home, but then she had to go to Morrilton to check on a truck that was leaking oil after service. I rode with her while the kids took Muad’Dib to the art walk downtown.

Summer was able to tighten the drain plug without any trouble, and we made it back home for some light leftovers. She did some work and we eventually wound down kind of late, considering she had a Conquer the Gauntlet race in the morning in Springfield, Missouri. I may have caught something from handling all the Chromebooks, because I felt a sinus infection creeping in all evening.

I thought by now, you would understand sonder!

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Along for the Ride

I picked Dad up this morning and we headed to Tulsa, stopping in Van Buren for a charge and some breakfast pizza. We got there about half an hour early and checked in, but they didn’t offer a loaner, and the demo vehicle I requested wasn’t available until later in the afternoon. Dad and I waited in the lobby for hours and waited for the estimated completion time of 1:30, which turned into 2:45. I ended up asking for any demo vehicle at all, and we got a Model 3 to take to the 50’s Diner for lunch.

I had a Monte Cristo and Dad got a burger. The onion rings were different and better than I expected as thin, small rings with only a light batter. As we were finishing, I got a call asking to come back and demonstrate the passenger seat popping for the tech, even though I had showed Blake, the service advisor, when we checked in.

The popping had quit, but the seat controls had phantom actions that weren’t intended. When moving straight back, the backrest would recline a bit intermittently. The tech said he couldn’t do anything more about it until they released a new firmware for the controls, which didn’t make any sense to me. We also couldn’t get a confirmation that they would cover the paint issue, so we ended up waiting until the car was finished around five o’clock.

We did get to demo the new Model Y Juniper, and it was quite nice. It did feel tighter and more refined than Summer’s. We also got to demo a Cybertruck, and Dad even drove that one. We only took it around the block, but I liked it well enough. If I wanted a larger vehicle, I would totally drive one.

They finally finished around five, and Mykel confirmed that they would cover the paint issue under warranty. They also said the air conditioner was overfilled by about 200 grams of refrigerant. Hopefully fixing that will make it cool better.

We headed home, and the car did great both ways. We didn’t even have to stop to charge on the way home, so I took Dad home and then went home to find some leftovers and a drink before bed.

I told you once, you fooled me twice.