Tag: Tesla

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City Swamp

I didn’t catch our rat last night, but it made another appearance on camera. We ended up having to take Eaddie to Little Rock today for less than an hour of rehearsal, but she was at Tech for the state robotics tournament all morning. Summer and I picked her up around lunch time and headed out of town. We were hungry enough to stop at McDonald’s in Morrilton, and then we made our way to the Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School.

We left Eaddie, and then I took Summer down the road to the Lorance Creek Natural Area where we walked down a trail through a swamp. It was pretty neat, but there were clouds of gnats everywhere. We almost made it back to the car when Eaddie texted that she was done. We picked her up, and she wanted to head straight back home to catch the end of the tournament, so we didn’t get to do any other shopping or adventuring.

Charge was low, so we had to plan a stop somewhere. Fortunately they built a new Supercharger in Conway, so we stopped there for just a few minutes before completing the journey home. We left Eaddie at the coliseum and then the two of us went to Ridgewood for an early dinner. Grant looked to be doing better, and things were kind of slow and steady at the restaurant.

I took the Onewheel around the neighborhood when we got back home. It wasn’t any surprise that Summer didn’t want to get out of the house again, so we settled in to watch some TV for the evening. Eaddie got home late, without a trip to Worlds, and then everyone was off to bed to do it all over again in the morning.

That’s just a lot.

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Buyback’s a Pitch

Summer couldn’t sleep last night and got up early to sit on the couch for a while. I felt pretty bad myself, but went in to work just a few minutes late while she stayed home for the day. I tinkered with SCCM some more, and then put together another Chromebook cart for one of the teachers that didn’t get one earlier in the year.

After work, I went to feed the fish before going home to find Summer in bed. I left on the Onewheel before Eaddie got home with pizza for them, and went to my parents’ house for curry instead. It was dark by the time I left, and I rode to the Neighborhood Market for some more Nyquil and Theraflu. It was a little chilly out, but the moon was bright, and it was a good ride.

Eaddie had a friend over to do homework, and I spent the evening in my office fighting the sickness. I got a buyback quote from Tesla, and 15,000 miles cost me $8,761.61 in depreciation. Unfortunately there’s no apples-to-apples comparison right now, but I’m betting that even when the new Model 3 Performance comes out, I’ll still be able to buy it for less than what I’m getting back on the old one.

Every day I’m stuffy now.

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Rollin Errands

Best I could tell, I wasn’t expected to work today for the “winter break.” I still felt pretty crummy anyway, so I had some breakfast and took a hot, steamy shower to try and clear my sinuses. I had some errands to run, and thought I might make some homemade chili to put over some grilled dogs for dinner.

I tried to go to the DMV to get some kind of receipt for my vehicle sales tax, but forgot it was a national holiday. I still had plenty to do though, so I continued to the car wash to see Summer and clean my car. Then I ran by the Nissan place and talked to Tim about trying to fix the old Pathfinder sitting at the other house.

From there, I dropped in to feed the fish before going down to Clear View to talk to Mike about the crummy tint job they did last year. He agreed to give me a discount on my new car, whenever I eventually get one. By the time I got home from that, Eaddie was home from school. She went to my parents’ house to rake leaves, and I rode my Onewheel over there with Dad’s leaf scoopers.

I took off from there and rode to the Neighborhood Market for stuff to make chili dogs, and dropped all of that off at home before going back to my parents’ house. I saw Mom when she got home from work, and once Dad and Eaddie were finished raking for the day, we headed back home.

Summer made it home much later than she expected, and the chili dogs turned out pretty great. Eaddie thought the chili was missing something, and I kind of agreed, but that seems to be the style of hot dog chili. I guess it won’t hurt to experiment though.

The girls went to bed, and I cleaned up in the kitchen before settling in. Hopefully tomorrow won’t be too taxing.

HAPTIC BUZZZZZZZ

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Quick Cuts

I took Summer’s car to work so she could have mine in town for service. The guy never actually talked to either of us, and just did the work on the car while she was working. One of her employees said the alarm was going off, but I never got a notification, so I don’t know whether that was really true, but hopefully my bolts are there to stay for as long as I have the car.

Otherwise I felt super productive at work today. DIS finally got Cognos going again, and I fixed a bunch of our scheduled tasks and PowerShell scripts. My SCCM client appeared to install correctly, but I wasn’t sure about another part of the setup, and I’ll have to continue that tomorrow.

After work, I decided to head home and grill some steaks for Valentine’s Day with my parents and the girls. I ran home to feed the fish, and then stopped by Kroger and Neighborhood Market for several different cuts of steak and some zucchini, squash, and salad. I probably could have gotten more squash, but we still had a little bit left over. Dad baked some sweet potatoes to go along with it all, and met us at the house a little after Summer got home from work.

It was a quick dinner to throw together on the grill, and Dad got to share about their trip to California while Mom fell asleep on the couch. Eaddie dipped a few leftover strawberries in chocolate, but they didn’t last very long. Once my parents left, Eaddie packed up for her weekend at All-State, and Summer went to bed. I would have gotten there sooner if I hadn’t been distracted by Prune.

Porterhouse, Loin, Strip, Ribeye

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Server-Client Privilege

I took Summer’s car to work today just to be safe, since she would be working on town. Just as I got to work, I got a very apologetic call from Tulsa Tesla to say that they were sending someone out to bolt my car back together tomorrow.

Apart from that, I kept pretty busy working on SCCM all day. I seemed to be having trouble getting the client installed remotely, and I couldn’t tell whether it was a settings issue, or if I was just being impatient. Hopefully I’ll know more tomorrow after it sits overnight.

Kim brought me some leftover lunch trays again, so I ate while she was at duty. The last part of the day dragged on a bit, and then I headed home to feed fish, see Summer at Superfast, grab some tacos, and then head home to eat.

Eaddie was at robotics a little late, so as soon as I finished eating, I headed out on the Onewheel. I forgot to get more dishwasher detergent, so I rode it to the old house to get that. My legs and feet were burning, but it was a load of fun. I stopped by Gary’s on the way back for a break, but he didn’t answer the door. Then I saved myself from wiping out on a crack in the sidewalk. The streets are way better to ride because of the frequent breaks in concrete.

The girls were home when I finally got back, exhausted from my ride. Everyone wound down pretty quickly, and I thought I’d make it to bed really early, but then I watched the first episode of the newest season of The Daily Show since Jon Stewart is back. I’ve missed him as the host, and I think the world needs him for what this election cycle is going to bring.

Carve away.

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The New Tesla Bolt

It was chilly and rainy again today. I thought I might have the day to myself when Kim started to leave in the morning, but then she came back and stayed the day. I was able to focus on my SCCM server and got my SQL database set up, and SCCM installed. I almost finished configuring it, but it was getting late and Summer was making dinner.

I got back into town and parked in the garage at the old house, and I heard a clank of something metal hitting the ground. I searched all around the car, and then finally looked underneath it to find a nearly 6-inch bolt laying on the ground right in the center of my car. I backed out of the garage to pick it up, and called Summer to have her meet me at Superfast. I got into a bay and went down into the pit to find that two bolts were missing, and Summer said it looked like something else broke some plastic around my rear-passenger wheel area. I couldn’t really tell because I was afraid of getting oil all over my nice clothes.

Without a special socket with six lobes to put the bolt back in, we packed up and headed home to eat. Eaddie had Eli over, but they had already eaten while Summer and I were looking at the Model 3. I started a load of laundry and then sat down to eat with Summer while the kids watched Mulan. Then I made a pot of rice pudding with the leftover milk that my parents left behind.

Chevy Model 3?

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Resume Testing

They started interim testing today, which meant I wouldn’t be getting much work done the rest of the week. We started off with a bunch of people coming to the office looking for loaner devices and chargers, and we had to turn them away. I even got a little snippy with Denice when she started mouthing about their inability to manage an effective take-home deployment. It seems like nobody wants to hear the fact that accountability and consistency is paramount. Casey came in and borrowed a couple devices, and though I have no clue what I could have said to offend her, apparently she felt the need to make a complaint that earned me a phone call to “put a smile on that bearded face.”

I found four higher-paying tech jobs on the first page of Indeed, for which I would be more than qualified.

Kim ended up leaving after doing about zero work for the hour she was there, because she had a bunch of people coming to look at her house. It would have been quiet, had it not been for the testing traffic and some students coming by in the afternoon for help. I talked to Denice for a bit after work, and at least then she admitted to being overly-stressed about testing, and I think we left on good terms.

On the way home, just as I was pulling up to the stoplight in Dardanelle, I heard an incredibly loud “kerCHUNK” that sounded like it came from around the rear-passenger wheel. It was loud and violent enough that I swore it shook, or at least vibrated the car. I pulled right over into the gas station parking lot and walked over to the road, where I saw nothing. There was nothing on the dash cam footage, and there was no damage to the car. I couldn’t tell what it was, and I made it back home without further incident, so there’s no telling what happened.

Summer was at a meeting with the Arkansas Tech Career Center, and Eaddie was playing in the pep band for a basketball game, so I went to the old house to feed the fish, then to Walmart to use a coupon for some free Dawn. Then I grabbed some tacos and made it home to eat before taking the Onewheel to my parents’ house to check on the cat.

I took some dry cat food to the neighbor across the street, who reminded me a bit of the librarian at school. Then I rode around for about five miles, practicing some tight turns and deep carves. I felt pretty confident, even with my achy legs and feet. Then I tried riding switch, and my muscle memory was breaking everything. Evidently my riding style is heavily directional, and I got the wobbles almost instantly every time. I kept at it though, and kept switching back and forth mid-ride. I never got any better, and then ended up falling when I tried to do a 180ยบ pivot, and banged up my left elbow. I laid my head back on the street and sighed for a moment before packing it up for the night.

Summer got home shortly after that, followed by Eaddie a little while later. I got a little more sore as the night went on, but was ambitious enough to swap out one of the smoke detectors for a Nest Protect.

All interviews are just for practice until you take the job.

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Mental Health Work

I had some coffee this morning and then got into PRTG again. Maybe I felt like I had been too productively lately, but I just wanted to work on something for me. I think I got it looking pretty good, and even got a little now-playing ribbon for my music. That’s not to say that I didn’t do anything important. I cleared a troublesome log in VMware. That fixed the error, but not the root of the problem. There will be time for that tomorrow.

I stopped by McDonald’s on the way home for some free fries, and loaded up another trunk full of stuff to take to the house. Then I started to go out on the Onewheel when Summer texted that she wanted fried chicken for dinner. She agreed to actually go out instead of just coming straight home, so I made it around the block and headed back home to pick her up across town. I nearly ate a face full of sand at the top of the hill, but was able to hit the ground running as the board tumbled end-for-end behind me. I bruised the bottom of my foot a little bit, but not too bad.

Eaddie was out with friends again, so Summer and I went to Zaxby’s and hung out there for a little while. Then we went to Walmart for some stuff so I could finally make turkey soup. When I dropped her off at the carwash, we found where she had hit something in the road, and it gouged the rocker panel trim on the right side in front of her rear wheel.

We made it home and wound down for the night. Eaddie made it home late and talked to Summer for a while before coming to me with a W-9 from school for some reason. She couldn’t even assemble a sentence as to why she needed it. All I heard was something about “superintendent” and “National History Day.” We didn’t get paid to take the kids on the trip. We hadn’t even been reimbursed like we were promised, and they wanted this form filled out overnight with barely any explanation. It sounded fishy to me.

Needs more maths done.

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Make Life Take the Lemons Back!

I didn’t feel great this morning, and after picking up a Casey’s coffee, I made it to work about 12 minutes late. Otherwise, it was a decent day of learning VMware, with several student interruptions. I was surprised I was able to stay as focused as I did for the entire day, but I still didn’t have a whole lot to show for it by quitting time.

I had the rumblies for most of the late afternoon and all the way home, where I loaded up my trunk with more stuff from the old house. A bird got me while I was parked at work, so I ran by the carwash to hose it down. Then I made it home and quickly unloaded.

Eaddie was hungry and Summer was late getting home from work. I wanted to kill a bit of time until we at least got a response from Summer whether or not she had any opinions on dinner, so I decided to run a couple things over to Dad on the Onewheel. Just as I was hopping the curb out of the driveway, I stumbled and the board sucked up my pant leg. It was really wedged in there, and I had quite a lot of trouble getting free. I felt pretty helpless standing in the road with that heavy thing stuck right at shoe level.

I finally freed myself and jammed my thumb in the process. Then I made it to my parents’ house without further incident. I didn’t stay long since it was already dark. I got home just before Summer did, and she didn’t want to get out. Eaddie wanted to celebrate a good flute lesson, so we went to Cici’s and had a good time.

Summer was on the couch when we got home, so I put on an episode of The Brothers Sun. Afterward, I saw an email from the Tesla service center saying that they agreed to buy my car back. I have mixed feelings, partially because there’s not a current Model 3 Performance for me to repurchase. I’ve got to try and get some documents from my closed loan account anyway, so maybe they’ll have a solution for me that doesn’t involve being without a car for several months. I love my car, but it would be stupid not to get a newer, potentially nicer one for less money. Wouldn’t it?

I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?

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So Long, Dot

We got up early this morning so we could make it to Tulsa early enough to make a day of it. Eaddie didn’t feel great, so she went to school a little late. Summer and I left for my house, then the wash to vacuum out the car. From there, we made it to Ozark to charge and get breakfast at the restaurant inside. It wasn’t bad at all, but I had kind of hoped for better, given my experience at truck stops in the past.

That got us enough juice to get all the way to Tulsa, but we stopped briefly at the Love’s oasis for some energy drinks for ourselves. When we got to downtown Tulsa, we parked right by the Center of the Universe “art piece.” The look on Summer’s face when she finally spoke up enough to hear the echo was priceless. We didn’t stay long though, and went to the nearest supercharger to get some juice before finally just heading straight to the Tesla service center.

I met several new people this time. Blake was working the service counter and contacted the manager, Jess, about my buyback inquiry. He indicated that he had already escalated it internally, and that I should hear something back in a couple weeks. He blamed the weather for the delay in getting the replacement battery pack. After that I met Tam, who introduced himself as a Vietnamese American for some reason after I asked his name. I drove him down the road to try and reproduce the rattle in my passenger door, and of course it really had healed itself. I don’t know if someone heard it and fixed it, if it was changed due to the weather, or maybe someone fixed it on accident somehow. When that was all done, I moved everything over from the loaner and got Summer into the car. She made a comment about my trunk being loud again, so I had Tam check it out while we were there. He didn’t seem to think there were any adjustments they could do, but said they could replace the trunk strut if I wanted to submit for a new service request.

We left after that, and got some dinner at Cheddar’s. I tried their Cajun pasta, which was pretty good. I kind of wished I had stuck with the pot pie though, just because it really is delicious with their croissant crust. Summer really enjoyed her tilapia and shrimp as well. We started home after that, but on a whim I stopped at The Peach Barn after seeing a billboard. Peach ice cream sounded good. They had a cute little store with lots of jarred goods, nuts, fudge, and some other stuff. Then we got a peach sundae, smoothie, and a couple hand pies and fudge to take with us.

The drive home was mostly rainy until we got back to Arkansas. We stopped in Van Buren to charge, and then almost made it home when we got into some heavy traffic with a bunch of trucks, and I took a bunch of gravel to the face a couple of times. I had a few new speckles in the paint, as well as a small surface chip in the windshield, dead center in my vision. Now I’m really hoping the buyback works. If not, I’ll have to raise concerns with the service center due to at least one paint bubble that I think happened due to the freeze while it was in their possession.

We made it home, Summer went to bed, and I pumped the basement out again. Eaddie made it home late after all-region, but went to bed almost immediately after. I was up for a while just wasting time until I went to bed.

Rotten luck.