Not What I Herd

I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. I snoozed for about five minutes, then crawled out of bed for a slow start. We started the day by taking a couple pallets of laptops over to the junior high. It was super humid, but eventually the rain cooled everything off. Gary had everyone pair off to complete random little projects since Zach wasn’t around pretending to have a real plan.

Lunch time came around the time the rain started just pouring down. Gary and I ran to Subway for lunch, and then I spent all afternoon poking at the Windows deployment in SCCM. I stayed super late just because I was getting into things. I moved some office furniture around as I waited on progress bars. Ultimately I made it home for the evening pretty late and started tinkering with things there.

Prime Day has been better than the past, which is both good and bad. It’s nice to have something like this that’s not around the holidays though.

Just be hungry.

Panic! At the Buffet

We had a really small crew today, even with Ben there. Greg and Kyle went around backfilling elementaries with Chromebooks from the middle school while I stayed at the shop. We were interrupted in the late morning by a power outage affecting a long strip down Arkansas Avenue.

Zach ran around swapping batteries and trying to keep the main server room cool. It’s incredible how quickly the temperature could rise in there, and surprising how ineffective our backup cooling solution was. They estimated the power would be out until about 1:30, but it actually came back on while we were all preparing to go to a slightly delayed lunch.

Summer met us at Western Sizzlin, but we had to sit at a different table when we couldn’t all fit around one. Somewhere mid-chicken strip, I had another slight panic attack, but as usual I couldn’t determine a cause or any other effects. I did end up with a pretty bad headache at the front of my head, but I wasn’t sure if my cloudiness after lunch was caused by that or the nap I wanted to take after eating so much.

Shortly after we got back from lunch, I had to go to The UPS Store to scan the 20 devices she had from our original quote request. I was just happy we didn’t really lose as many more as we thought. Central office set hours until 3:30, and then noon on Fridays, so everyone left pretty early. I stayed and solved another wooden block puzzle until Ben was ready to leave. Then I went home to cool down and relax.

Summer went to a band meeting with Autumn, so I got Eaddie from karate. We stopped for a couple half price Sonic Blasts, then headed up to Summer’s place. She and Autumn weren’t long behind us. Summer went to bed pretty early, so Eaddie and I cuddled up late watching House until she decided to go to sleep so she could wake up to mow the lawn in the morning.

Fire the unlucky ones. Nobody needs that kind of energy looming over the workplace.

Tired of the Hunnits

We loaded up the truck this morning and went to the high school to hang a second TV for the art area. With all of us there, we somehow still forgot to get a mount, so I drove back to get one. Then we went to Sequoyah and Oakland to remove a touch panel and SMART board for the painters.

When we got back, Zach was showing Thomas around our new area. The two of them met up with Gary for an early lunch, and Josh took Greg and me to Bocadillos.

The afternoon was mostly spent moving pallets of laptops to the junior high. It was so hot and humid that my heart rate just wouldn’t drop below the mid 90s. Finally we got to leave work a little bit early, but I ended up sticking around with Zach after everyone else left.

When we did leave, I stopped by to find Summer in the pit at her job. I went on home and changed, then met Dad to go shopping in the graveyard before the recyclers come. By the time we finished, I just wanted to swim to cool off. He came out too and showed me his new stand-up paddle board, and then we went in to eat.

Summer and Eaddie were already at the house when I got home, so we watched the new episode of Loki with Summer before she went to bed. Then Eaddie and I watched the first episode of season four of House before going to bed ourselves.

THE QUUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG.

Cool It

I rode the Shadow to work again today since we never got Summer’s car going again. It was super nice in the morning, but heated up quickly. I started off leading a group of four to ship leased laptops, but split Mike off to finish inventory at Oakland while Greg, Josh, and I did the shipping. After a bit of rigmarole, we got everything boxed up and to The UPS Store. Somehow we lost another 20ish devices since we counted last, and I really have no idea how.

Greg, Ben, and I went to Arby’s for lunch to check out their new renovations. Ben was sad they didn’t have the pepperoncini bar. I thought I was the only one that ever used it. Then we spent the afternoon at the shop since we had new hires coming in for badges and account creation.

I went home right after work while Summer was at the gym. Then we went to my parents’ house for dinner before going to her shop to tear the Montego apart again. It took us a couple hours, but eventually we found the hose we missed before. Once she had everything back together, she purred along nicely.

To Hell with the heat.

Duit

Summer took the Murano to work since her car developed a coolant leak. I took the opportunity to ride the Shadow to work, which was nice in thee morning, but got pretty warm in the afternoon. We couldn’t do the IP scheme switchover we had planned, so we took the whole crew to Crawford instead. There, we finished up inventory and hooking computers back up. We had a decent amount of new Panduit to hang, which wasn’t as much of a pain as the organizing of cables.

We tried going to Zaxby’s for lunch, but they were closed “for the time being.” I don’t know if somebody didn’t pay their taxes, or got in trouble with COVID funds. Either way, we all ended up at Slim Chickens instead, which was a lesser substitute.

After lunch, I went back to Crawford with Kyle and Mike. Then we went to Oakland to do inventory until quitting time. I ran by the shop to put my laptop on the charger, then went straight home. Eaddie wanted to go home, so I took her to the shop where Summer was finishing up.

They came back to my house for the evening, picking up Wendy’s along the way. We ended the evening by finishing the third season of House.

Scope this out.

Low Key

I thought I would be sweating my balls off today, but Zach did me a favor and tasked me with some things at my desk. I did get out to help unload a couple trucks, and then move a bunch of Chromebooks, but it was pretty much everyone else that did all the heavy lifting. I spent most of the day alone in the office.

Greg drove the four of us to Brangus for lunch, and I had probably the smallest chicken fried steak I’ve ever seen. It was truly miniscule. I kind of wished I had just gotten the beef spud as usual. The afternoon went by quickly after that, as I tried to finish up sorting through a bunch of my own filing.

I had to run by the junior high to deliver a laptop, and while I was there, Courtney, Sarah, and Hope chatted about all the hooligan tomfoolery that happened throughout the school year. Then we discussed a teacher that insisted a kid use “nuts” instead of “scrotum.” I ended the day there, then stopped by The UPS Store to ship an Amazon return. The kid that helped me got super chatty and just kept asking questions starting with, “what’s a rash guard” and ending with “how do I tell my father that I dropped out of college?” It was probably the most interesting conversation I had all day.

After work, I stopped by the shop to see Summer had already torn into her car. The plugs or coil had caused it to misfire on cylinder two, so she dove right in and fixed the thing. I was super impressed, but I had to run home and change into some shorts because of how much I was sweating. When she finished up, she drove it on home and everything ran great.

Eaddie was sat on the couch with Fortnite, and the floor in her room still wasn’t swept. Autumn mowed a tiny sliver of the lawn, but burned through both batteries doing so. I was super upset, so we made Eaddie sit it out while the three of us picked up some pizza and went to my parents’ house for the first swim of the season.

When we got back home, Summer and I cuddled up for the first episode of Loki, which I thought was just perfect. It did a great job of plucking a singular character out of the universe, putting him into a new one, and completely defeating him in order to rebuild a whole new world. I can’t wait for the next one.

Wolfman’s got REDACTED!

Feltnerds Water-Burger

We continued with inventory this morning, with most of us going to the junior high to split up. I walked the building with Kyle and covered most everything. It even ate into lunch by a few minutes just because we lost rack of time. I ran across town to meet the others at Morelos.

When we got back, Zach had me go to the middle school with him to pack up some sample devices to take to The UPS Store to get a quote. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon at the shop just sort of piddling on things.

A little while after work, I met up with Gary and Mitch again at Whatta-Burger. They beat me there by several minutes, and then it took them a really long time to get our food out to us. It really didn’t make sense that it took so long. We had great conversation though, which was good because we may not have any more for a while again.

When we finished up, I headed up to Summer’s where we watched an episode of Glee before Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I stayed up and watched some House until I was ready to pass out.

Fun résumé is going to be the talk of the town.

#ForTheGraham

We had a pretty small crew this morning, so we all just did our own things until lunch time. Gary made it back to the office, and the two of us went to Colton’s for some steak. Then Gary had us all back at the high school to continue hanging wireless access points for the rest of the day. At the very end of it all, he, Kyle, and I wrapped up by finishing up some inventory in all the out buildings.

I loaded up an armful of old stuff to bring home from my old office, and waited there until dinner time. Mitch came to town and crashed on Gary’s couch for a couple days so he could train on how to manage a mattress store. He evidently doesn’t own a car, so Gary’s having to chauffeur him around. They decided on Daddy’s Smackin’ Wings for dinner, so I met them and Grant there after dropping a few things off at my office.

We had a great time catching up, and waxed poetic about the old days of video games. Robert picked the wrong time to get his tonsils out, so all I could do was send him a picture. Hopefully we’ll have a couple more days to get together before Mitch leaves again.

When I finally got back home for the evening, I spent a while cleaning up email. I constantly feel like I’m forgetting something important these days. I need to pay the bills I have, and then make a real effort to clean up and unsubscribe from unimportant, attention-seeking companies.

Correct.

Divide and Make Busy

My back and neck weren’t much better this morning, but I made it through the day. We ended up taking the entire crew to the high school to split up between replacing access points and updating inventory. I lead two groups of two doing inventory while Gary took a couple with him to replace access points. While we accomplished more rooms, I think we overall felt less accomplished overall, just because we know how futile inventory of that nature tends to be.

Four of us went to Linh’s for lunch, and then it was more of the same in the afternoon, right up until quitting time. Then I stopped by the shop to see Summer, who looked like she had been in an oil slick. I didn’t stay for too long, and headed home to clean up before the girls came over.

I had gotten frustrated with my Pixel 2 XL earlier in the day, and got caught up swapping over to my Galaxy S21 Ultra. Once Autumn and Eaddie showed up, we went to my parents’ house for some stir-fry for dinner. Summer was too tired to get out again, so we brought back some for her, and then it was a relatively early night to bed.

Why did that guy have to go and invent ory in the first place?

Dismount

I made it in relatively early this morning and wound up on a crew at the middle school to help remove a bunch of old displays for painting the walls behind them. I kept feeling like I had other things to be doing, but I suppose I wasn’t much of a team player last year while I was getting things ready at the high school. I had an inkling of anxiety following me around all day, and ended up panting in the hallway at one point because I just wouldn’t snap out of it. Things got pretty fuzzy for a bit, but once it was over, it was over.

Nearly everyone made it to lunch at Las Palmas, which was good. That definitely made me feel better. Then after lunch I stuck around the office. I think everyone is just working off of the assumption that Thomas will be coming back to reclaim his old position from Ben, which doesn’t make me super happy. What will be, will be.

After work, I went by the shop to see Summer for a bit before going home. Then I picked up some Popeye’s on the way up to her place, not knowing the kids wouldn’t be hungry. We ate and chatted, and then watched some House with Eaddie. When Summer was ready to go to bed, we put on Bo Burnham’s new Netflix special, Inside. We didn’t care for it, but like Summer and her marathons, I felt compelled to finish it.

Boat life would be so much simpler.