Tag: work

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Ring That Bell

Today was a bit wet, but I never actually encountered any rain myself. I stopped by the shop first thing to return the furniture dollies. Ben said our talent pool wasn’t looking all that great, and asked if I had any friends that wanted to work with us, so I tried to get Josh to apply. He apparently just got a new job, which opened up when Justin left to work at Dover.

I spent all morning running around, trying to take care of the 10 or so work orders that I had gotten since I left on Thursday. Since stopping my morning Amlodipine, I’ve had to monitor my blood pressure again. It was actually a little bit low all day.

I took a quick break to run to McDonald’s for some discount lunch, and caught the mail lady just as I got back home with my food. Of course she didn’t ring my bell again, and instead just threw my letter in the back of her car. I wanted to really get on to her for not even trying to do her job, but she was such a miniscule little woman. She wasn’t friendly at all, but for some reason I still felt bad being upset at her.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly as people kept wandering into my office. I got stuck trying to fix one problem late in the afternoon, and didn’t ever get to many of my other work orders. I guess there’s always tomorrow.

Summer had already dropped the girls off at my house by the time I got home, so I just picked Autumn up and took her to an Explorer’s meeting. Then I went to my parents’ house for some dinner. They were at Kroger for hours, so I helped them bring in groceries before we ate. Julie called, and we had a conversation with emotions over speaker phone as she tried to organize our Disney trip.

By the time I got back home, it was pretty late and I was exhausted. Summer had taken Eaddie to pick up Autumn, and they all arrived home shortly after I did. I wrapped up my evening routine, and it was off to a relatively early bedtime.

Why don’t you just get to the point already?

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Exit Stage Lift

The Murano nearly didn’t start this morning in the cold, so I knew I’d have to take it in to have the battery checked again. I went on in to work and started the day by hunting down a lamp and the lift to repair the projector in the large band room. Then I piddled on a few different things until lunch. The girls wanted to ride their bikes to the park to do their school work, but ended up just getting lunch and taking it to Summer and then coming back home because it was so cool out.

I ran to Tropical Smoothie for lunch, then had to go to the post office to grab a letter that my mail lady made zero attempt to actually deliver. I stopped by the house to check on the girls, and got some pictures of my old life preservers for Daniel to see if they were “old and dirty” enough to fit in a play they’re doing. When I got back to work, I had a bit more running around to do in the afternoon before wrapping everything up for a long weekend.

Summer got off work right around the time I did, so she took the girls to karate so I could get the Murano to AutoZone. This college kid came out to test the battery, and basically just couldn’t help me because it was reading good at like 85% capacity. The alternator worked, predictably, because after the car runs for a few minutes, the battery has enough juice to crank again for a few hours.

Summer had me run by the shop to get her battery tester so we could test it in the morning after a cold night. Then I went home to clean up before getting the girls home from karate. I made a salad for dinner, then laid on the couch with Summer until bedtime.

“I’ll let the manager know.”
“Sure, buddy.”

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Batman in the Middle

Today was another really quiet day at work. I got down to around 15 work orders, so I really need to be putting some time into some of my older, harder, more complicated ones. I took a break for lunch and came home to make a burrito. I rode the bike back to work, and the afternoon was mostly more of the same. I got a lot of steps in, running around to collect and redistribute microphones.

After work, I came home and waited for the girls to get here. Then we ate a mix of leftovers before Eaddie and I ran to Sonic for half price Blasts. When we got back, I put on The Dark Knight for the evening. I think this was my third watch, and I finally put all of it together in my head. I don’t know why I found it so confusing before, but it just felt so disjointed for some reason. It was a long movie with a lot of plot points, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad.

See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.

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Mic Hunt

I stopped by the multipurpose facility first thing this morning to sign back in to a couple of phones. Then I headed on up to my office to play work all day. Evidently it was Prime day, but I’ve never had much luck getting any decent deals. They did have Summer’s Fitbit Versa 2 on sale for the same price I paid last year, but there are two newer models out now, and company reviews haven’t been looking so great. I want to replace the watch she smashed in the bike crash, but I also want to see if anything better will come out.

Lunch actually sounded good around lunch time, so I placed an order at Wendy’s for their Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger. Right about that time, Zach invited me to lunch, so I told him he was too late and went to pick up my food. I really only ordered it because I thought they were open for dine-in, but when I got there, the entire seating area was blocked off. I ended taking my food back to the shop to eat, and then visited with the folks there for a bit afterward.

The afternoon was quiet, so I fired off an email to the high school staff to try and collect unused microphones. I only had a few people respond, even though almost nobody uses those microphones. At the end of the day, it only matters if I can’t get enough to equip the classrooms with the impaired kid anyway.

Summer left work early and took the kids to karate, so I took the extra time to go back to the Neighborhood Market for some more peaches. Then I went to my parents’ house for some fish soup for dinner. I ended up leaving when my sinuses sealed off, and went home to try and be a tiny bit productive before bed. Time weirdly seemed to slow down instead of speed up, but I still couldn’t get much inertia going.

I’d say it’s that time of year, but it always is.

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🍑

Summer took Eaddie to the gym this morning while I got ready for work. Then they picked up Autumn and left just as I was leaving for work. It was a beautiful day out, so I knew I’d be coming home for the bike at lunch time.

I got to sit with a teacher for a while first thing, and actually helped him create some filters and learn how to take advantage of some of Gmail’s more advanced features. It felt really good to make such a difference for him, but sometimes I still don’t understand how more people don’t already know about these things, or take the time to figure them out themselves.

The day went by pretty quickly from there. I ended up taking a late lunch and ate the beef stew Julie gave me the other day. I still felt a little off from the morning, but I pulled myself together and rode back in to work. Overall it was a really quiet day, and I didn’t hear much from anyone else, though I guess that’s pretty typical these days.

After work, I changed clothes and went to get the girls for dinner. We stopped at the Neighborhood Market for some super cheap peaches. I got two big bags for just over three bucks. Then we went to my parents’ house for some more chow mein. Summer met us there as soon as she could get out of work. Then we all went home separately.

I had to run next door to help Bác Vân with a DVD when I got home. Then I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up my email and getting ready for bed.

It looks like a butt.

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Dibs

We found out during our morning meeting that Heather resigned at like 7:30 this morning. I immediately called dibs on the junior high campus, about 30% joking. I kind of like my new office, but I miss so much about the junior high. Moving back, I would miss my mile drive to work. There are so many tradeoffs that there’s no real winning for me unless I get an official pay raise.

I stuck around the shop all morning just picking at what work orders and emails I could do remotely. Gary upgraded SCCM, which I thought was going to be much more involved, but it was literally an in-app auto update. I kind of mistakenly suggested Daddy’s Smackin’ Wings for lunch, and five of us ended up walking across the street there for lunch.

The afternoon was quiet, even with taking a trip to the high school to take care of a couple things. I had to get back at the end of the school day to help swap a touch panel at the junior high. We had four people for that though, so I ended up leaving to visit with the library for a minute. Allen let me drive his car back to the shop, which was awesome. I would’ve liked to get on the gas a little more, but I wanted to be respectful of how he drives.

I stopped to visit Summer on the way home, and ended up hanging out there a bit longer than I intended. She was having a pretty exhausting day, and I know she’s ready to be over this week of bad luck. The weekend couldn’t get here fast enough for her.

I spent much of the early evening chatting with Sprint to figure out why my bill went up 26% on a line that I don’t even use. I’ve basically been an idiot for three years and continued to overpay just to keep the first cell phone number I ever had. Autumn went to spend the weekend with her father, so Eaddie came over with Summer for the evening and they watched some TV while I threw together a quick, late dinner before bed.

“…as you are not only a customer but a family member as well.”
– Ella L, Sprint Chat Rep

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Trump Town

I got a bit sidetracked today, but that’s not out of the ordinary. I still felt alright about what I accomplished, but it also kind of feels like there’s never any way out. Summer took the girls to work with her, but none of them would respond to me all morning, so I took a late lunch and went home to eat a burrito by myself.

After lunch, I discovered that Summer had lost her phone. I was mostly concerned that someone had stolen it, and tracked it down to a specific house just south of Scottsville. It took me a while to get an answer out of anyone, but Summer realized she dropped it in a customer’s car and just didn’t feel the urgency of getting it back.

When I left work, I dropped by the shop to see them, then rode on up through Dover to retrieve it. It was a really nice ride, apart from all the bugs. Trump flags were out in full force, and someone had placed a hay bale on top of another and painted it to look like old Donnie. It was actually kind of cute. The “neighborhood” was actually really cute, and I was surprised at how many houses were out there along that road. Luckily I found an old lady outside, and I guess it was her family across the street that had the phone.

With that relief, I headed back to town and delivered Summer’s phone to her at Planet Fitness. Then I met them all at my parents’ house after the girls finished karate. Mom made chow mein, and we even got Autumn to eat some. We didn’t stick around too long since Summer was exhausted from her chaotic week. At least she managed to get her stitches out today. Next week has got to be better.

That’s 2020 for you.

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Kinder Class

This morning was super quiet at the high school, but Zach asked Josh and me to help deploy laptops at Oakland after lunch. I met them at the shop for lunch, and since Linhs was closed, we went to Smackin’ Wings and Things for the first time in months. The menu looked a bit more finished, but I couldn’t decide what to eat, so I had the waitress surprise me. She did well, with some wings and one of their fry dishes.

After lunch, Ben and Kyle joined us for the deployment party at Oakland. I really didn’t do that many myself, because I kept getting stuck fixing dumb things, or helping others. It was incredibly humid wearing my mask the whole time too, which made it pretty miserable. It was fun getting to see a lot of those people again though, and I had forgotten how much fun it is to walk into a chaotic kindergarten room with kids running and screaming everywhere. Tracy’s room is always a hoot anyway, and she had stories as usual.

We finished up right around the time that school let out, and went back to the shop. Zach got permission for us to leave work early, but I ended up sticking around and chatting with Ben until closer to quitting time. Then I ran by Sonic for a drink on the way to see Summer and Eaddie at the shop.

They wanted to come over and ride bikes, so I came home and cleaned up a bit first. Then when they got there, Summer took Autumn to get some food and face wash while I took Eaddie on a bike ride. It got dark fast, so we didn’t get to stay out very long. We all got back home at almost exactly the same time, so the girls came in and watched The Simpsons while I caught up on some email. Then it was off to bed.

They never quite know what to do when the strange adult starts copying their crying.

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Talk About Feeling

It was pretty brisk getting home this morning, but I did it. Work was really quiet, and I just spent most of the morning trying to catch myself back up mentally. I took a moment to do my wellness questionnaire, and made an appointment for my wellness visit the same day as Summer’s dentist appointment.

I took a late lunch and brought Summer a Baconator since I knew she could really use a lunch break after returning to work. Then I went by the shop for a little while, but Ben wasn’t there to chat. I went back to the high school to wrap up, and the afternoon went by really quickly.

The girls had karate, so I ran home to change and to take a peek at the Grom to see what kind of damage we were looking at. The handlebars seem a smidge off, and the headlight leans left a bit now. The right handlebar stop seems not to work, but I couldn’t tell why. Hopefully the damage isn’t too bad, but maybe I’ll feel more confident working on a tiny, cheap bike that isn’t also my main ride.

After getting the girls to karate, I went by my parents’ house for some fish soup. They had already eaten, so I just ate on my own. Dad had some comments for me that required some thought, so after eating and heading back home, I decided to go back up to Summer’s for the evening.

The girls were all winding down, but Summer brought them in to chat, and we kind of just made sure everyone was happy. Maybe there are assumed guidelines to the whole step-thing that I don’t adhere to, or maybe it’s a lack of anyone else seeing the interactions of my family in their own home. Maybe they’ve underestimated how long we’ve all been around each other in such close quarters. At the end of the day, the Captain’s got to go with his gut.

No complaints from the crew tonight.

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Maybe It Wasn’t Jason

We had to meet at the shop this morning for a brief training meeting and then project work. The project work ended up being mostly already done though, so there was just a touch panel install in the afternoon. I ended up sticking around the shop all day anyway, so Ben and I could tinker with some of Impero’s broken features.

A group of us went to Fat Daddy’s in London for lunch, and it was some of the worst barbecue I’d ever had from them. I decided to get the brisket sandwich, and they forgot my slaw on the sandwich. I didn’t bother going back up, but then the brisket itself was dry and tough. Maybe I’m just spoiled now, or maybe the quality of the beef suffered due to the pandemic. I think I’m spoiled.

We stopped by the Ridgewood Brothers on the way back into town and chatted with Robert and Felix for a little bit just to complain on the way back to work. I wish they would hurry up and start service on Fridays so we could get some decent barbecue for group lunches.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly. I still mingled around the shop, partly waiting for our project at the end of the school day. Melinda had me go upstairs with her to fetch a couple stacks of boxes, and Josh called wondering where I was. He had the truck and trailer all loaded up and ready for the job, and I was making him late.

Evidently Zach and Greg were already there, but we didn’t realize they brought everything for the job already. Everything Josh brought was just extra, and they already had the old SMART touch panel down and the Newline up. We finished the wiring and tidied up a bit, and then we were out of there.

I wrapped up the day chatting with Ben for a while, then headed home just long enough to change before getting Autumn from therapy and taking her home. I cleaned up some leftovers there while we waited for Summer to get home from the gym. Then Noah called and needed a ride up. I didn’t even realize he was coming over this weekend, but everyone got along pretty well all night, so it really was a treat.

We got gas on the way back to my house, and then Summer pretty well passed out as soon as we got there. We tried setting up something for the kids to do, but nobody could settle on anything. I got Slender running for a bit and played through a round of it. Autumn went to bed before he got me, and afterward I crashed and left Noah and Eaddie up for some late night television.

Maybe we’re just bad at projects.