Tag: work

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That’s an A

I wasn’t sure who would be at work today. Maggie stopped in briefly, but left. I eventually saw Charles and Gary separately at different times of the day. I sat in the dark for the entirety of it. Just before lunch, a girl knocked on the door and wanted to know if I could help after she locked herself out of her Prius. I told her I didn’t have any tools to try such a thing, and she said nobody else was capable of Googling a locksmith for her, so I called one for her and then waited with her until he showed up.

After that, I went to Arby’s for some cheap lunch. Then the afternoon dragged until I finally left a bit early. The car was reporting that I would have to charge to make it home, but I pressed on. I stopped to see Summer in Conway, then took the highway to Plumerville before getting back on the interstate. That got me home without any stress.

I felt like my blood pressure was super high, but it wasn’t when I checked it at home. I took the dogs out for a really long run over to Ridgewood Brothers. Robert took another spin on the Onewheel, and then I continued around Kroger and up the bike path to the middle school before heading to my parents’ house. Dad was flying the drone and following us around until we got there. By then I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes, so we headed home for treats.

I warmed up some leftover pizza and cleaned up as much as I could. Eli and the girls were watching some documentary series on Michael Jordan, so I went to my room and wrapped up my own stuff before bed. I should be safe with over 90% of my Vine orders reviewed, so I’m excited to see what the next tier unlocks.

Break couldn’t have come soon enough.

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Pay the Bills

I put the car in the shop to charge at work this morning, and then thought I’d be alone for the day, but Maggie was actually working. I told her about The Kings of Tupelo that Summer watched on Netflix, so she put it on in the morning while we hung out in the dark, quiet office. I was on my own for lunch because she had an appointment, so she left and then I went to retrieve the car.

Earlier in the morning, I got an alert that the car had stopped charging. I saw an Entergy truck outside and figured they were working on installing the new HVAC. I figured I would deal with the garage door with maintenance whenever I got there, but unfortunately nobody was around and they took the ladder they had left in the shop overnight. With no power and no way to reach the release on the garage door, I figured I was stuck. I texted Maggie, who called her friends in maintenance for help. They were already at lunch, so if I wanted out, I would have to get creative. I later learned that the school never started paying for power in that building, so we had basically been stealing power since we took over.

I couldn’t swing a loop of network cable high enough, at least not in the dark. Then I looked around and found a long power distribution bar with a power cable on one end, and was able to stand on top of a pallet jack to just barely hook the power cable over the release lever. With a tug, I had unlocked the door, but that was just the beginning. The spring wasn’t tight enough, so the door was super heavy. I could barely lift it, much less throw it high enough to stay up so I could back the car out. Fortunately, I was able to use the dumb summon feature to back the car out from the app while holding the door up with my other hand. It worked great, and I was off to pick up my Rally’s.

While I was in line for food, I watched the new Superman trailer for the first time. I was absolutely pumped, and I watched it half a dozen more times in the afternoon. I love Superman movies. I never knew much about him in the comics, and I’ve only seen some of the TV shows. I probably need to watch Superman and Lois, because I bet I’d like it, but I absolutely cannot wait for James Gunn’s new movie in the summer.

The afternoon crawled by, and Maggie left for the day when it was time to get her kids from school. I left a few minutes early myself, since I ate lunch at my desk. I got home and had an awesome run with the dogs. We looped through the basin trail twice just to dump some poop, and then went to see Dad before going home. They did four miles at an average of 10.4 miles per hour, and a peak of 20.8. They got hot dogs and food, and then the girls left for their sibling dinner with Mom.

I took care of a bunch more Vine stuff and then tried to settle down for bed pretty quickly, but I had to pay a couple bills myself. I’m ready for Christmas break.

Wrapped

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Margarita Special

Today started out relatively mild but got cold quickly. Kyle and I were the first two in the building after some light rain on the way in. Randy ended up not taking the day off, so he was around for most of the day. I kept going back and forth with Tesla all day to try and work out a better financing deal.

Lunch was the only thing really worth mentioning. We went to Skinny J’s again for their lunch special. They had a chicken bacon ranch quesadilla for seven bucks, and it was super filling. Maggie got some pickle chips and fried pepper jack for the table too.

The afternoon felt a bit slow, and Summer asked me to swap cars with her on the way home, so I had to stop and supercharge a bit just to make sure she’d have enough to get home after a late night with her company Christmas party.

I got to town and ate some $1 McNuggets before taking the dogs for a run. I saw Dustin and his daughter riding bikes through the new neighborhood and stopped to talk to them for a bit before continuing to see Dad. Kyle from Tesla called while I was boarding, and opened up my order so we could add Summer to the application to try and get the best possible rate. The dogs got hot dogs and food when we got home. Then I cleaned up a small bit of leftovers out of the fridge before tinkering with the garage door opener that I wanted to add to the other inside garage door.

The girls both got home super late. Summer went straight to bed, and Eaddie chatted with us for a little bit. I wrapped things up late, but got to bed at a normal time.

Keep that ratio up!

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Don’t Be Salty

I was super tired this morning, and got a slow start because of it. I switched things up a little so I could get out of the house earlier, and got to work a couple minutes early, right behind Randy. He hung around the office for a while today. Maggie was out, so otherwise it was super quiet. Charles was the only one that stopped in at all, and he talked to me for a little while.

I met Randy and Jim at Skinny J’s for lunch, and they had a $6 turkey sandwich that was pretty good. I hate paying for a lunch meat sandwich in a restaurant, but I felt like the price was okay, and all of the food I’ve ever had there has been pretty good. I did my best to avoid any extra salt because my blood pressure had been high all morning. I ended up taking a clonidine to try and get it down a bit.

Randy got fighting mad with some of the other admin, so we worked on the Technology Handbook some more, then had a pretty easy afternoon until we left. Even though we were out a little earlier than usual, I still ran into stupidly slow traffic on the way home. Cars were driving under the speed limit for absolutely no reason, and not allowing people to pass.

I got home in a rush just before Summer got there, and took the dogs out for a run. It was pretty cold, and still wet in places, but they did a good job. We skipped the basin trail in favor of some more neighborhood blocks, stopped to see Dad, then made it home for some hot dogs.

It was only Tuesday and I was already running a pretty bad deficit on sleep, so I did my best to crash early. Eaddie came home and wanted more help ordering for Christmas, and then it was off to bed.

Review all the things!

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Back to Black

Today was pretty rainy and warm. I got to work, and Kyle was oddly the only one there. He hung out for a little while, but then left for his office the rest of the day. Charles brought in a bunch of leftover pizza and cookies from a party that he had over the weekend, so nobody got out for lunch. Otherwise I was with Maggie and Randy all day, except Randy kept having to run to central office to help with random things.

I got a call from a message from Tesla that they would have to change my delivery from Tulsa to Kansas City if I wanted to finance through them, since Oklahoma wouldn’t allow them to sell me the car because laws. Then I got a call from Kyle in Kansas City to say they wouldn’t be able to get a red Model 3 with the white interior before the end of the year, thus disqualifying me from the incentive. He had a red with the black interior, or other paint colors I could choose from, but I told him it had to be red. I decided to think on it a bit and then call him back.

I looked up some more comparison pictures and reviews, then called back to accept the black interior, but he said someone just bought it, so they didn’t have a red car for me at all. I told him to cancel the order, and that there were no hard feelings. Just as I was closing everything down and shaking off the excitement, he called back to say that he felt bad about the other car being sold out from under me that he did some legwork and got approved to transfer a red with black from Texas to Kansas City so I would still qualify. I took the offer, then had to redo my loan application because I was dumb and included our entire mortgage amount in what I reported. For some reason I went lawful-good and thought I had to tell the absolute truth, but Kyle said to just change the amount I pay and see if I get a better offer.

Apart from that, there wasn’t any excitement until quitting time. I left a little early so I could pick up some flowers for Summer, and somewhere after Conway I ran into a torrential downpour. There were a dozen cars pulled over, and at least one Miata-sized car spun out in the median. I got to town safely, picked up some flowers from Walmart, then picked Summer up at the lube and took her to Brangus for our anniversary.

After we finished our undercooked steaks, we ran home to clean up before Eaddie’s Christmas concert. We picked up Dad along the way, then sat through two bands worth of music. My heart was racing the entire time, and I couldn’t ever get it to calm down. On the way out, the cranky old grandparents snubbed Summer while they were visiting with Eaddie. We got out pretty quickly after that because it upset Summer. We had a near-successful summon for the Model Y, dropped Dad off at their house, then went home to wind down and get to bed.

Runaway rollercoaster!

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Reverse Mormons

I snoozed this morning, so I got to work through virtually no traffic about half an hour late. Just as I got parked and charging, Randy, Kyle, Maggie, and her girls all walked out of the office to go to Sam’s to pick up stuff for the Christmas party. It didn’t look like anyone else was really around the building, so I just hopped in Kyle’s Jeep with Randy and went with them.

The store didn’t actually open for about 20 more minutes, so I went with the guys to fill up on some gas before going back to meet the girls. Then we walked through the store, looking like an odd group of reverse-Mormons, and each got an assortment of things we needed for the party. I ended up getting a bunch of salad kits and a case of Member’s Mark hard seltzer.

We got back to the office, and things were quiet. The morning went by pretty quickly, and Jim came to get Randy and me to go to BJ’s for their catfish special. We had a relatively quiet lunch and then went back to the office to kill the rest of the day until the party.

Summer had to work in town, so she just went to Conway and I met her at Target after work. We shopped for her Dirty Santa gift, then headed back to Jim’s house in North Little Rock for the party. I’d been to his house, but never in it, and it was super nice. We eventually got the tour, and he was right. It really was his wife’s “HGTV” moment. They completely rebuilt everything, and it was like a model home. They had a couple fire pits on the large back deck, and plenty of space inside to entertain.

Maggie eventually showed up with pizza, and then we played Left Center Right with dollar bills, and exchanged Dirty Santa gifts. I ended up with a coffee mug, and Summer got a snowglobe. I think only a couple people stole gifts, which kind of spoke to how silly most of them were. In hindsight, I wished I had stolen the Really Loud Librarians game that someone else got.

We eventually had to leave, and made our way to Conway for a quick charge before heading home. Eaddie went to bed as soon as we got there, as did Summer. I wasn’t far behind after such a long day.

Gotta get the kids gambling their lunch money!

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Shop Haul

I actually got plenty of sleep last night, so the drive in today was pretty slow and I still arrived early. I was the first one to the annex by a while, so I eventually drove around the building to see if maybe I’d missed the others. Just as I pulled back to where I started, Randy pulled up and we went inside. Others slowly filled in, and we began scanning devices for discard. It was super cold in the building, especially since they kept a garage door and the side door open. Wind just kept blowing right through the place.

I finally got a call back from the clinic, and we scheduled a follow-up appointment for the next afternoon since they wouldn’t modify my meds over the phone. I loaded up a small box of stuff, and the maintenance crew came in looking like border patrol and moved a bunch of shelves for us. We made our way back to the new shop to unload, and we milled around while the maintenance crew did the heavy lifting. I felt a little bad about it, but that just seemed to be the way there. I did help very minimally, but no one else was really involved at all.

I rode with Randy to meet several others at Cotham’s for lunch. It was loud in there, so Javier and I mostly talked to each other on my end of the table. The hubcap burger is so good that I never want to order anything else.

After lunch, we went back to the office for the rest of the afternoon. My blood pressure had been surprisingly good all day, but I took my meds a couple hours late. I got home with time to take the dogs out before dark, and by the time we got back home, I started to feel a lump in my throat.

Summer was out at her store’s Christmas party, so I unboxed a bunch of Amazon Vine stuff and then did several reviews. Eaddie brought some leftover food home from some new Mexican place in the old Steak ‘n Shake, so I ate that. Eventually everyone made it to bed.

Dry rub barbecue fries?

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💯

Predictably, I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. My mind raced, stuck in a maze. I eventually managed to pass out for a couple hours, but then woke up around 2:30 and decided to measure my blood pressure. I had great numbers, but then my mind started racing again and it shot up, again preventing me from going back to sleep. I moved around a bit, and even tried lying on the couch for a little while, but nothing worked. I finally climbed out of bed a little after three and just started getting ready for work.

My pressure rose the entire time, and the lump in my throat that I finally lost in the middle of the night was back. Luckily it was a slow ride in to work and I managed to avoid some frustration there. I was a few minutes early, but to no effect. Randy came in just after me and we chatted a little bit. Once he left for his executive team meeting, I sat in the dark until Maggie showed up.

My numbers weren’t awful, and I snacked for some of the morning. They still got pretty high by lunch, and then a McRib probably didn’t do much to help me. In fact, I kept skating just above 90mmHg diastolic for most of the afternoon, and the clonidine didn’t seem to have much effect. I had left a message for Crystal’s nurse first thing in the morning, but the only call I received was from someone at Baptist that called after receiving my info from the self-care fair.

Randy decided we could work from seven to 3:30, so I took off and beat most of the most annoying traffic home. Summer got there just after I did, and I took the dogs for a run with a little bit of daylight left. We went through the basin and around the roundabout to my parents’ house and up the hill before coming back home.

Eaddie got home just after I did, but spent some time chauffeuring friends before finally coming back home for the night. Summer sat quietly in the living room, and I ate the lettuce with some Miracle Whip and black pepper, then a banana before going to bed super early.

😓

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Keep It Under 100

I didn’t think I slept great, or for very long last night. I actually woke up before my alarm and decided to get up for work. I didn’t even get through the whole routine, but made it out the door early enough to take it easy going in. I didn’t really have any trouble for the drive in, and I think people were glad to see I was still kicking. I took my blood pressure cuff with me, and checked it several times throughout the day. In spite of taking it super easy all day, it got higher and higher to the point that I had to start taking clonidine around lunch time.

I met Randy and Jim at Jacob’s Wings for lunch, and I don’t think those helped me much. I had forgotten their “boneless wings” were more like sliced chicken strips, but they were good. It was a super quiet lunch, and then I headed back to the office to charge.

The afternoon was quiet too, and I tried to sneak out a little bit early to try and avoid traffic. I could feel the frustration rising, but I never really got a lump in my throat or felt bad at all. I made it home where Summer had been cooking turkey dumplings for dinner. I took the dogs out for a quick run in the dark, and they were pretty great. I almost slipped and died because the basin trail had flooded and left a slick layer of silt on the sidewalk, but I stuck the landing. We made it to visit Dad, then back home in good time.

I was excited at first when Summer and I sat down to eat, but that quickly turned to more frustration. She pulled the meat off of my turkey bones that I was going to use for soup, and didn’t actually cook any of the bones for her dish. That would have made it better than using powdered chicken broth. She also added heavy cream to the broth, as well as my entire container of turkey gravy for some reason. Her mood of course went sour the instant she knew I wasn’t happy about it. Since she was on a hot streak with the food, she also failed to run the correct cycle on the dishwasher.

I ended up leaving the dumplings at the table and pulled out the rotting salad she had forgotten in the fridge instead. I sorted out what was still edible and planned to eat it, but my blood pressure got too high. I took my third clonidine for the day and tried to calm myself down, but just kept upsetting myself further. I really don’t know how to fix any of this. I’m pretty sure living together is killing me.

Eaddie got home super late from something, but Summer couldn’t say what. I just had to separate myself and get to bed as quickly as I could.

I’m used to not having anyone on my side.

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Good Advertising

I ran a little late this morning, but the battery didn’t seem to take as much of a hit. It was reasonably quiet, but things quickly escalated. I didn’t get into anything big. Randy and I met Jim, Kyle, and Maggie at Gadwall’s for lunch, and then I actually continued on with Randy all afternoon while he got gas, then took us to the annex to check for inventory.

Kyle found us there for a bit and we all rooted around a little bit. Randy and I were the last two out and we couldn’t set the alarm, so we went to the “octagon” to talk to Kevin about it. After that, we planned to go to a church that was putting on a self-care fair for the school district.

It had started to drizzle a bit, but we got back to the office where I packed up my things. We all drove separately so we could go straight home after the fair, but I wouldn’t end up making it to the end of that.

We arrived about 15 minutes early and Kyle and I walked in, but were promptly rushed back out. I waited by the door while he went back to his Jeep to vape. When they finally let us in, I tried to stick with Maggie since she had the eye for the swag. I got a couple signatures on my “bingo” card before I ended up at a Baptist Health booth where the lady wanted to give people flu shots, something else, or take their blood pressure. I let her check my blood pressure and joked that we would be going for a high score. I wasn’t wrong.

She panicked at my 185/111 and insisted that I test again, even after I tried to explain it away by having been running around the event with all the other loud people. The second wasn’t any better, but I don’t know if it was any worse. She let me go with a stern look that I should go to the emergency room.

It was only a couple minutes later as I bantered with Randy and some other lady that I suddenly became flush and dizzy, and nearly blacked out. I quickly grabbed an empty seat from another vendor and tried to relax myself. The dizziness came in waves, and I did everything I could to breathe and relax. As soon as I felt able to stand up again, we tried to finish my signature card. I got one more, but then Maggie took it to finish it for me while I sat in another chair in the corner. I called Summer, and then we all left the event.

I sat in the car for a bit to calm myself, and felt confident enough in my ability to babysit the car as it drove me out of the city. I plotted a couple of urgent care clinics in case, and headed toward home. A little ways down the Interstate, I began to get a wave of dizziness again, so I immediately took the Crystal Hill exit and gathered myself at a Shell station. I decided to go straight to the HealthCARE Express to see if they could help.

Though friendly, the urgent care center was not particularly urgent about anything I said. They did check my blood pressure, but then basically told me to start filling out registration paperwork. The girl at the counter called me up to say that it would be about $200 for them to see me, and I tried to confirm whether they could actually treat me, or if they would only try and diagnose me. A doctor or nurse eventually came out and said that he would need to check for organ failure before doing much else, and that they would basically have to refer me to the Walmart pharmacy across the street for treatment.

I took a beat and eventually gathered myself up enough to go on to the next place. I found a Baptist Health urgent care clinic, but the lady at the counter there said that they wouldn’t even be able to address me for at least an hour and a half, and that she could basically only call a paramedic for me. I decided to take my chances and get into Conway rather than wait for a more expensive ride. I wasn’t feeling terrible by then anyway.

I got to the Baptist Health emergency room and checked in after waiting for another older couple. The waiting room was pretty full, but they got me back to take my blood pressure measurement, some blood, and a urine sample pretty quickly. I waited about an hour after that before they called me back to a room. In that waiting period, Julie called for an update.

I waited for a little while before a guy came back to get my insurance information. Then a nurse eventually came back, who asked my ethnicity and then responded that he, too, was Vietnamese. He got me chained to the machine, and from then on it was basically me beating my own high score repeatedly until we got enough medicine in me.

After a couple of hours and a couple quick pop-ins from the ER doctor, neither he nor Jonathan, my Vietnurse seemed terribly concerned about my situation. They asked questions, but reported that all of my labs and EKG were fine. Jonathan didn’t even let the final blood pressure measurement complete its cycle, satisfied enough with the results of the prior test after my pill and subsequent shot.

They cut me loose, I went to Supercharge, and then made it home without incident. I felt pretty good, so I got unloaded, took out the trash, and then came in to chat with Summer. Then I had a brief anxiety attack in the kitchen and wondered if that, too, was blood pressure related. She went to bed, I played with the dogs for a bit, and then I quickly finished up so I could go to sleep myself. If I wake up tomorrow, I guess we’ll figure out a PCP solution. If I don’t, then I guess will someone come erase my browser history?

Back where we started.