Tag: work

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Waiting…

It’s been raining all week, and it’s made me really sluggish in the mornings. It doesn’t help that I’ve been working nonstop for what feels like forever. I miss the early days of COVID when the days were shorter, and we spent most of them at home.

I went by the shop this morning to turn in Autumn’s time sheets. I brought my life jacket, because they said the basement and the server room both flooded yesterday, and that it was way worse than ever before. Evidently we lost about $15,000 worth of equipment. There was still (again?) about an inch of water in the shop today, and both custodians and maintenance were there helping to clean it up.

Eventually I made it to the high school and just churned out work orders as quickly as I could. I think I actually got down below 40 by the end of the day. I did take a lunch break to run home and check on Split, because I left him outside all day while I was at work. I felt pretty bad about it near the end of the day, especially when it just kept raining late in the afternoon. I brought him inside all soggy and boney, and I just knew how close to the end we were.

Summer came over after a while with some salad, and we ate that with some cold chicken I got the other day. Then she went to get the girls and I stayed with the cat. We watched Waiting, mostly because I remembered watching it when it came out, and that was the year he was born. It wasn’t really as sentimental as I thought it would be. I guess cats don’t really care about movies. At least, not when they’re starving to death and it’s a movie about servers at a restaurant.

Well, we are under a flood watch...

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Triple Chicken

I slept in just a little bit today so I could stay up with the cat and try to get him in to the vet. When I did finally call, they couldn’t get him in until Thursday for a morning drop-off, so I spent the rest of my morning running around town looking for something he might eat.

I stopped by Casey’s first, to redeem a free slice of breakfast pizza before it expired. I didn’t want to sit in my car in front of the gas station and eat, so I just stopped at the park on the way to Walmart. It rained pretty much the whole time I was out, but I got an arm full of stuff, including three kinds of chicken.

When I got back to the house, I started boiling a chicken breast while I tried to feed Split some fried chicken. He ate a nibble of breading, but refused anything else I put in front of him. I waited around for a bit longer, then left for work in the afternoon.

It was a quick and fairly productive day, but I still feel like I’m drowning. I just need to choose a project and finish it so I can move on to the next thing. Everyone’s begging for attention though, and I hate having to put people off until later.

After work, I got the girls to karate. Then I went to my parents’ house and waited for Summer and Eaddie to get there for some mango soup. Julie showed up to eat too, and started looking at timeshare stuff.

The girls stayed with their grandparents, so Summer came back home with me. She showered and went to bed while I cleaned more carpet. Even a fresh can of tuna didn’t do anything for the cat, but he’s still walking.

Imagine vacationing, but like…forever. That’s how sailboats be.

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That Which Does Not Kill You Only Postpones the Inevitable

I slept so well last night and just wanted to stay in bed. I’ve grown so weary over the past month, and things aren’t looking up yet. I hid in my office for most of the day and got some things done. Some of those things would have been more satisfying if I hadn’t been so exhausted and hungry. I skipped lunch just to cut down a bit while chipping away at the Great Wall of Work Orders.

At the end of the day, I came home to a huge mess of cat and had to start cleaning that up. He refused to eat anything, so I’m calling it. I’m taking off tomorrow morning to take him to the vet. It’s tragic that his mind is all there, but I can’t get him to consume calories.

I met the girls at my parents’ house for pork spaghetti, then came home to finish cleaning. Tomorrow is going to be rough.

Back from whence we came.

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Resume Work

I got up this morning and made some banana nut muffins for breakfast. I only set off the fire alarm once, because I left a drip pan full of oil in the oven at a higher than normal temperature. The muffins came out alright, though probably a bit dry for as large as they were.

Summer left to get the girls home, and I worked on my résumé and cleaned up after the cat some more. I really need to get him to the vet early this week, so I may take off early tomorrow. It feels premature to just put him down, but I doubt they’ll have any magic cure to make him eat something.

I eventually made it up to Summer’s for dinner, where I grilled some old pork chops I had in the freezer along with some fresh asparagus. Summer fried some potatoes and onions, which were the star of the show. The pork chops were too freezer burned, dry, and tough to be any good.

The girls wanted to finish our game of Phase 10 after dinner. Then Eaddie wanted to watch an episode of Glee before I left for the evening. Back home, I filled out an application for an IT job at the Dover school district. They pay more than we do, and if I were to get a step bump to where I think I should be, it would be a pretty significant pay raise. All I have to do is click the submit button.

Objective: Employment
Qualifications: Modest
Experience: Varied

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Welcome to Back to School

I went by the shop first thing this morning so Ben could help me move a whole truck bed full of parts for the old leased Lenovos to the junior high. We didn’t actually get out of the shop until a while after 9, but the loading of the truck was pretty straightforward. We did get stopped in the hallway by a chatty Karen, but I think we still made good time.

We met up with Jessica and Ronda at the junior high to deliver all the stuff. Then we spent a little time reassuring Jessica again that everything is just awful, and that’s normal. It was okay though, because it was lunch time.

I left Ben at the shop and took a late lunch to get some Burger King for the girls. I dropped Summer’s off at the shop, then went to eat at home where the girls were up in the living room. Autumn was fully into TikTok while Eaddie was very focused on schoolwork. I told Autumn in no uncertain terms that she needed to put more energy into something productive, and that if her grades weren’t good, she would have absolutely nothing to defend herself.

I went back to work and pondered a few things but didn’t get a whole lot closed out. I really wanted to get Autumn’s timesheets done so she could get paid, so that rounded out my day.

I played a little Overwatch at home until Summer got there, then we went to my parents’ house for some leftovers. Eventually we made it back home for a quite night without the girls. Summer spent most of it on the phone, so I read the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh. I couldn’t remember the last time I picked up a book. I probably won’t finish this one either.

Tut-tut, it looks like rain!

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The Boys Are Back in Town

For the first time in over a week, I went straight to the high school this morning. My first job was to deliver a box of hotspots they had been screaming about for days. Al said some parent was blowing them up on Facebook about not getting her free internet from the school. I told him to snap back at her that she must have internet if she’s on Facebook. I think he appreciated the irony.

It was overall a pretty relaxing day. I caught up on a few things, but didn’t wear myself out trying to get to everything. I still have plenty of rooms to visit in the near future. Lenovo shipped me three huge boxes of parts, so I ended up taking a late lunch. I just picked up some Burger King to eat at home so I could check on the cat. Autumn was still there, but Summer picked her up before I left for work again.

I went back to the shop in the afternoon just to see some people again. That ended up being an adventure in charging cart deliveries with Ben. Then I wrapped up the day back at the high school.

After work, I went by the house for a little while until Summer got home from work. Then I went up the hill for a dynamite spaghetti dinner that Autumn threw together. Then we played most of a game of Phase 10 before I headed back home.

The cat still seems to be eating pretty steadily, but he’s still really loose. At least he’s enjoying getting outside more, and I’m not going quite as crazy cleaning up after him.

Should I stay or should I go now?

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The Suits

I went to the shop this morning to find that Gary had returned to work. He survived the Coronavirus, and all he got were the dadgum antibodies for that crap, man.

I went straight to hotspots again, and spent literally the entire day doing nothing but that. Bryan was there for a little while asking me things and kind of trying to pawn some of that work off on me, but then even he had to leave to visit with other people for the rest of the day. I soldiered on through the day, stopping only to eat some old, wilted fruit that was left in the fridge. In two separate instances, Mark and then Danny stopped by the office to check in. I think they were there looking for Bryan, but in finding only me, just thanked me for washing my hands.

After work, I had to get the girls to band and karate, and then I stopped by my parents’ house for some leftover shrimp soup. We recapped the Master Plan again, and then I went home to clean more carpet. The girls eventually showed up, and we had to have another heart-to-heart with Autumn about who gets to make the decision on whether she’ll be attending school in-person, and why we were doing so solely to make her miserable.

With step one of the Master Plan underway, it won’t be long before I’ll finally be able to harness their misery and turn it into a magical elixir that will let me defy the effects of aging.

And your little dog, too.

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First Day of “School”

Today was slow to start and slower to finish. I didn’t even bother going to the high school. There was enough randomness to sort through that I just stayed in Melinda’s seat all day. Jason came downstairs to help us out since there wasn’t really anything for him to do pertaining to an auditorium, so I got him going with imaging more laptops. Heather was out running around some more, doing who knows what.

I actually got a little annoyed that Ben went through my work orders and just reassigned a bunch of them to close, because it was all stuff that I had purposefully left open for some sort of action later. Him closing them would serve nothing more than to reduce my numbers on work I had already at least partially done. It didn’t really help with the stress of my work load either, because I’m still having to ignore things that I genuinely want to prioritize.

By the time lunch time had come and gone, Bryan decided he wanted to take a break, so he, Jason, and I all went to Morelos. It was cool getting out with someone new for a change, especially getting to know Jason a little better. He didn’t have much to gripe about, which seemed about right when you actually compare our jobs and our compensation.

After lunch was a bit more scattered for me, and probably not as productive as it could have been. It did put me in a good place to wrap up with hotspots tomorrow though, and then I’ll be left with figuring out how to get around the high school to start closing my own work orders.

I went home to change, but forgot to finish my Lenovo claims during the day, so I had to run back by the shop to get my laptop. Then I grabbed a free cinnamon roll from Casey’s on the way up to Summer’s. I spent most of my time there wrapping up my claims for work. I didn’t really get to spend any quality time with anyone.

On the way home, I had to stop by Walmart for some more cat food. Then it was an early evening to bed.

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Can You Print Me Now?

I woke up about half an hour before my alarm went off and couldn’t fall back asleep because my mind was just racing. I didn’t really know what to expect for the day, but the rest of the week had been pretty awful. Ben wanted me to prioritize hotspots, so I started at the shop doing those. I actually found a bit of a groove and got quite a few done before I had to head to the high school for another call with PaperCut support.

I stopped by Casey’s for a free slice on the way, then made it to the high school with plenty of time to set up for the call. It was a pretty quick call, and the solution was simple enough. I just had to go to the settings for every single network printer in the district to stop rendering devices on the client computer, and disable bidirectional support.

Afterward, I went through and closed all the print-related work orders I had been sitting on. Then I wrapped a couple other things up and headed back to the shop. I had a wild hare to clean out the fridge since everyone had basically been snapped out of existence last week, so I shared pictures of all the gross moldy food, and ate Allen’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The afternoon was frustrating because I had several hotspots that wouldn’t get the enrollment command. I got close to the number of required devices, but at the end of the day I was short. I was almost glad it was sort of a failure, though it really wasn’t.

I headed on home and started cleaning up house before everyone got home. The girls went out to eat with their father, so Summer brought Zalads from Zaxby’s for us. The girls arrived with Noah after he got off work, and they sat around while he ate. Then we eventually played some Cards Against Humanity, because we are bad parents.

Finally, another win for the week – Split actually ate nearly a whole can of cat food. Classic pate. He’s never really loved that stuff, so this is the first one I’ve even tried. Who knows if he’ll like it tomorrow, but hopefully this will help.

Technically, it does cover your face.

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Michael and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Today was easily the roughest day I’ve ever had at a job. My hair dryer blew up on me yesterday, so I went to the high school with wet hair to try and work on as much as I could possibly accomplish. It wasn’t long before I was sent to the shop to help Bedo with hotspots. All the while, I had people begging me to tend to their problems. Nothing was working. Everything was broken. I was the only person that could fix any of it.

I tried to pick at a couple of my oldest work orders just to accomplish anything at all, but I’m sure that just made others even more upset with me for not picking their issues. I just couldn’t win with anyone. Even Luke got my number and had to text me, on top of an email he already sent me, on top of the work orders I had already received, on top of the in-person harassment I’d already received.

The hotspots weren’t cooperating either, and any time I got into anything at the shop, I’d get called away by someone else needing something. It truly felt like I was just the sole face of the department. When I finally felt like I had a win helping Bryan with something, even my own team aggressively shot me down with hostility.

I finally left, late again, and utterly defeated. The girls had activities, so I had to pick them up. Autumn went to band, and Eaddie went to karate. Then I had to pick Eaddie up because Summer’s work meeting ran late.

The girls were going to stay the night, but ended up going home instead. I drank my dinner and cleaned more carpet. Zero wins today.

I think I’ll move to Australia.