Libraries Are Loud

It was frosty this morning, but turned out to be a beautiful day. I spent the morning at the high school again, and cleaned up some more random work. Just before lunch, I was in the library jabbering with the girls when our conversation caught the attention of some of the kids in the room. It really got me considering the podcast idea again, but it would be so much work to come up with weekly content. I’d nearly have to mic myself and just go back every day to recover useful content.

I just went home for lunch and ate the leftover Subway sandwich. Then I went to the junior high to get my computer chair. Brody had a couple questions, so I had a look and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there.

The girls walked from the high school to Oakland, so I picked them up on the way across town. I had to get some gas at a much higher price than I had gotten used to paying. Then we went to Summer’s shop to get their karate gear. Both of them were having fits about different things, but we made Autumn go to karate anyway, and then I took Eaddie with me across town so we could have a chance to talk about her feelings.

Things got better pretty quickly after we all sat down to talk together, but they’ll both need to work on addressing things more immediately. Summer bringing home Zaxby’s probably helped their moods too.

I developed a pretty good sinus headache, so I wasn’t worth much after that. At least I had plenty of time to get to bed early.

When the Teachers Are the Bullies

What Are You Syncing About?

I had to get up extra early this morning to get the girls to school. I decided to take Eaddie in first, since we usually drop Autumn off first, and I needed to end up at the high school anyway. Autumn didn’t appreciate it, and Eaddie dawdled getting out the door, but hopefully having the tables turned will teach both of them to be more considerate and thoughtful in the future.

The office was super cold all morning, stuck at around 64 degrees. I could never tell that the thermostat kicked on, and I’m convinced it’s actually just a thermometer they installed to mock me. I spent all morning and into lunch just working on getting some software loaded for some digital electronics kids. I really hate those HP laptops we got, but I never would have seen that coming when we chose them in the first place.

I ran home and ate the leftover nachos for lunch, then went back to the shop for the afternoon. I did a few work orders remotely for the junior high and middle school, and tinkered with Web Help Desk a bit to see if it would benefit me to set myself as a manager over the other secondary techs. It was a pretty quiet afternoon otherwise. I stayed a bit late just messing with things in my office, then had to run to the high school to get Eaddie’s karate bag that Autumn forgot in the library. I still don’t understand why Autumn did think to bring Eaddie’s stuff with her to the high school, but left her own stuff at home.

After dropping off their gear, I went to my parents’ house and hung out for a little while. Dad had the stereo slides from vacation out, so I looked at those before dinner. Then we worked on the fish soup some more. Eventually I headed home for the evening and bounced around the house picking at various things. I had to sync my text messages with Google Fi again, which wreaked havoc on my notifications. With any luck, my phone won’t be dead when I wake up in the morning.

Am I really just doing all of this, only to wipe my phone and have to do it all over again?

New Digs

I went to the high school first thing this morning, but quickly realized that Mike wasn’t coming in again. Evidently he’s decided to get tested, so the next day or so will be an exercise in the “filling in” portion of my job. I felt mildly accomplished after spending too much time remembering how to configure switches, and then I took a break to pick up some Subway.

Summer was at the house after prepping a slow cooker roast, so I brought lunch and we ate there. Then I went back to work at the shop for the rest of the afternoon. I tinkered a bit in my new office while some slower processes churned away. I’ll enjoy being there more, but the soundproofing at the high school was unparallelled. I’ll miss the big tunes.

After work, I made it home just before the girls got there, and then Summer took Eaddie out for a bike ride. I had Autumn drive me to Walgreens in her new car, and then dropped her off for her night class. When I got back home, I finished digging out an old side table I’ve had in the garage forever, and used some furniture polish to bring it back to life.

We ate when the girls got back from their ride, and then I picked Autumn back up. We eventually got around to watching an episode of WandaVision, but Summer shut us down on watching any more for the night. Everyone’s getting up extra early tomorrow, so it’s off to bed early.

Needs more portraits.

I Sea Potential

We had a pretty lengthy meeting first thing this morning to cover some more processes and network structure. I felt great about my own understanding. Once that was over, we moved a bunch of tech tubs out of the shop and into the graveyard. Then I spent the rest of the morning trying to figure out the best way to run power to my desk since there’s no power outlet on that side of the room. Hopefully I won’t be drawing too much current through the single extension cord I have running across the floor.

Most of us went to Sam’s for lunch, and though the food was as good as ever, our server seemed a little off somehow. She wasn’t bad, but she just felt somehow clumsy. I got my food last, and after seeing my receipt, I was pretty sure I got the wrong side items. Everything I’ve had there is delicious though, so it really didn’t even matter to me what I got.

After lunch, I went to the high school to do some more work. Ben had a meeting with three of the computer lab aides and wanted me to stop by for a meet and greet. Then he came back to the office with me for a little while.

The girls went with their father after school, and Summer was feeling under the weather. She eventually came over as I milled around the house looking for things to set up in my new office. The night seemed to drag on forever, and I couldn’t ever really focus on anything, which made it worse. At least I was able to piece together a custom Linktree-style landing page with rotating filler text. I feel smartish.

This place needs more nautical decor.

Mooving Day

Mike was out today, but I still spent all morning at the high school, trying to get some software to work. I picked Summer up for lunch at Western Sizzlin, then ran home to bring in a FedEx delivery. It was my McDonald’s chkndrop, which consisted of an overbuilt, square-shaped shoebox type container, a seven inch vinyl record, a gold colored metal gift card, and a hoodie.

I spent most of the afternoon at the shop, and claimed a new office space next to Ben. I really wanted his old office, but evidently it still floods, so I took the office next to him instead. The desks weren’t ideal for me, but I’ll make it work.

When I got home, Dad was already there with a guy to check out my bathrooms for a remodel. He seemed the most gruff of the three guys we’ve had out, so at that rate, I’d be afraid to see what scruffy kind of fellow he’d find next. His ballpark figure came in quite a bit lower than the first guys, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about that yet.

The night went by slowly at first, and then sped by as it came time to wind down for bed. Hopefully I wake up more rested tomorrow.

I should have moved into the Murder Basement.

I’m Not Your Bud, Guy!

I took the Shadow to work today since it was supposed to be at least a little bit nice out. I spent all day at the high school with Mike, and we closed out a few things. The work there was definitely more difficult than the screw turning I’d been doing at the junior high. I’ll have more to do tomorrow as well, and then lots of claims to finish before the end of the summer.

I met several of the guys at Bocadillos for lunch, and the service was extra good today. Then I finished up at the high school before running home to get the car so I could take the girls to karate.

Summer had their gear, so we stopped by the shop to get that first. Then I dropped them off and went to my parents’ house to visit for a little while. Summer had a long day at work and didn’t want to get back out, so I took the girls home, and it was an early night to bed.

The moon, you say?

More Work?

This morning started out pretty cold, but the afternoon got up around 70. I spent all day with Brody again, and we just about finished up everything at the junior high. We both tore down some student devices all the way to the motherboards, and even that was easier than I thought, so we have loads of parts to make good laptops now.

Zach wanted to go to Quiznos for lunch. I tried to convince the crew to go somewhere else, but Brody left the office to go straight to Quiznos, and by the time Zach, Gary, and I got there, he had already taken his food back to the junior high.

After work, I went by Summer’s shop again until she closed, then went to Zaxby’s to pick up a quick dinner. Then I finally took my car in for a wash before settling in for the night.

Help! Help! I’m being repressed!

Orientation Days

It was back to work today after another super long break. With all the new blood coming in, Ben went over our new team structure, and I’ll be stepping back from the buildings in favor of more systems stuff, which is good. Hopefully we can offload more of the actual device repairs to the lab aides to free us up for other things.

I spent all day with Brody at the junior high, where we closed a few tickets and then stripped down a few laptops. We took a long lunch break at Linh’s with some of the worst service we’ve ever had, because the new guy was having to train an even newer girl. She just hasn’t been able to keep servers there for anything, and it’s suffering a lot because of it.

After work, I stopped by the shop to see Summer, then ran home to clean up before heading to their house. Zach took Autumn to her Explorers meeting and brought Eaddie dinner, so Summer and I just ate some leftover spaghetti. Then I picked Autumn up and we all settled in for the night.

I should invest in submarines with all this diving.

NERF THIS!

Melinda was dropped off a bit early this morning, so I just barely made it there in time to get into place. Ben showed up late, so I ended up waiting for him outside, and then came in once everyone was in the shop area. They had a short meeting, and then I had Zach and Gary shoot the disc launchers at her. They sort of chased her into the hallway, where I was waiting in my trench coat with my battery powered dart Gatling gun.

The assault was short lived, and we spent way more time hunting down the projectiles than we did shooting them. I really do think it would be more fun to have just a single shooter and a pocket full of darts. Who knows what we’ve escalated now though.

They didn’t have any projects for me, so I spent all day at the junior high trying to get anything at all prepped. They’re still waiting on laptops for so many teachers, and Matt has been super high strung about it. He did at least start enforcing some record keeping, so they know how many kids keep losing or breaking things.

Five of us went to Sam’s for lunch, and when Greg ordered the gumbo, I knew I had to try it. She brought out a good sized bowl full of gumbo, along with another bowl full of rice. It was less than half the price of my usual order, and super delicious. Did I miss out on the fried, fishy goodness? Yes, but the gumbo was piping hot and full of flavor.

The afternoon creeped along, and I ultimately only got one device deployed all day long. It was pretty dumb, especially since after all that fuss, Matt didn’t even make the teacher give up the student device she was using. She even had an entire laptop cart full of unused devices that she had to keep in the room to meet the class requirements, even though the kids will never use them.

I worked a little late, then picked up Autumn on the way home. We went to my house for a little while, then ran through Walmart on the way to her house. She said they didn’t have anything to eat at home and wanted to make taco salads, so we spent about 20 times what I was expecting to spend when we walked into the store. It took us a while, but we eventually made it up the hill just behind Summer and Eaddie.

Autumn got to cooking, and I left to deliver a big piece of pork to Dad for smoking tomorrow. I dawdled a bit on the way back, angry about being duped into buying dinner while they truthfully had a refrigerator packed to the brim with food. I stopped at Lowe’s to hunt down a couple deals, then got gas before going back. When I walked in, Autumn fussed about being tired, but the food was done. We had to press her to finish even prepping the vegetables correctly, because they looked like they had been sliced by a three year old.

After dinner, Autumn went to bed and Eaddie stayed on the couch while we watched Cobra Kai. We made it all the way through to the last episode, which we’ll probably finish tomorrow. I really hope the next season makes it out soon.

Kobra Kai Karate?

More Phones, More Problems

I went to the high school again first thing this morning and did a bit of work while just generally being available for Mike to ask questions. It wasn’t long though, before I got an urgent work order from the junior high regarding some trouble in their cafeteria. I headed across town and got them going pretty easily, and even got a cookie for my troubles.

The library seemed a little terse today with their new duties, and I don’t really know what they have to be upset about. I guess it’s just resistance to change, which is common anyway. I went to lunch pretty late since I was on a roll on closing out work orders. I just grabbed a free Whopper and some onion rings, then ate at home.

I went back to the high school for a little while after lunch, but then had to meet Kyle and Greg for a touch panel swap at Sequoyah. Gary had already helped Kyle load up the truck by the time I got there, so we just met Greg at the school as the buses were loading. The SMART E70 came down without too much trouble, and it was about the best time I’ve ever had removing one.

The girls were staying in, so I left work a little late after chatting with Ben for a little while, then went to my parents’ house for dinner. I needed to pick up some batteries for my Nerf gun, so I went to Walmart and wandered through the aisles for a little while before coming home for the evening.

Summer’s phone died on her earlier in the day, so she had to file a warranty claim. My new Galaxy S21 Ultra was supposed to be here tomorrow, but now the shipping information says it’s delayed without any additional information. Hopefully it arrives early next week so I can get it set up in time for the trip.

Okay, so what do you need.. besides a miracle?
Nerf. Lots of Nerf.