Tag: work

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Lowering the Standards

I stopped by Casey’s this morning to grab my free slice of pizza before it expired. Then it was a solo day at the high school, all day long. I put on some tunes and crunched through over 100 laptops with higher levels of damage, and pulled out the small handful that would need to be repaired, and boxed up the rest that just had heavier cosmetic damage so they could be shipped back to Lenovo.

Nobody reached out about lunch, so I worked straight through with half a Soylent. That’s something I’ve been wanting to get back into, but haven’t had the opportunity either because of social eating, or because Autumn was with me.

At the end of the day, I stopped by central office to sign my contract, then visited the shop to see what everyone else had been up to all day. There was a huge pile of iPads in the floor, so I guess that was my answer.

On the way out, I stopped by Casey’s again for a free cookie, then by Summer’s shop to see her. She would be leaving soon for the gym, so I headed home to change before meeting her back at my parents’ house for dinner.

Mom made phở out of some leftover beef from spring rolls and frozen broth. Then I took a bunch of plants to Bác Vân’s house before heading to Summer’s for the evening.

The girls were finally back home, and Summer said she was hoodwinked about Autumn going skydiving. I guess I wasn’t really surprised to hear of the 18-year age requirement, but I hadn’t considered it before. The girls must have all been pretty tired, because they all disappeared to their rooms pretty quickly. I took the opportunity to get to bed a bit early myself.

103 down; ??? to go!

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Aw, Shucks!

Gary called us all to the shop this morning in Ben’s absence, and arranged for the whole crew to unbox student laptops at the high school. For some reason Zach kept wanting to just hand-load the laptops onto the trucks instead of getting maintenance to use the forklift, but thankfully in the end we had it done right. Chris drove the forklift over and kept talking about how much of a real man he was for being able to load the pallets for us.

We ended up sitting right inside the back doors to shuck boxes, since we had to take the trash back out anyway. Then we wheeled carts full of laptops into my office and under the cubbies.

Most of us went to La Chiquita for a super fast lunch. We were all pretty tired and drenched in sweat already from the humidity, but lunch was a good break. Afterward was finishing up more of the same, and then Gary and Josh stayed to help finish up a couple mini pallets that were already rolled up to my office.

When we left, Autumn and I stopped by Casey’s for the freebie of the day, and then I dropped her off at her house before going home to change. Ronda called and said that they were driving through Searcy and saw Michael on the side of the road. They hydroplaned and totaled their car, and the cops were already on the scene to help. I finally got a hold of him to confirm everyone was okay and that someone was on the way to pick them up.

After chilling out a bit at home, I went to my parents’ house for a dip in the pool. Then I finished up the last of the eggplant soup before heading up to Summer’s for the evening. We caught an episode of Master of None before bed since the girls were both off in their rooms.

Sweat dreams are made of these…

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Movers of Things

Autumn chose to come to work with me yet again, so we met what was left of the crew at the shop this morning. Everyone but the newbies had taken the day off, so I met Ben, Greg, and Josh at the high school to load laptops into the trailer. They hauled everything out so quickly that I actually lost count, and ended up shorting them by one box of 20 laptops, so I’ll probably have Heather come pick those up later. I’m done doing all of this extra work for no good reason or appreciation.

The guys were meeting some old coworkers from Service Plus at Linh, so I convinced Autumn to try it out, and we picked up Ben from the shop. After lunch, we went back to the shop to pick up a bunch of old model laptops that were pulled from the junior high and took them to the high school. We stopped for some happy hour drinks from Sonic along the way, and though my Red Bull Summer Edition Slush was good, I did not necessarily feel like it gave me wings.

The afternoon was much more relaxed, and we eventually started sifting through laptops we had set aside with what I considered to be heavier damage. Fortunately most of those are actually just cosmetic damage that we can ship back to Lenovo without any additional service.

We ran back by the shop after work so I could sign my contract for the next school year, but everyone had already left the auditorium. I had mentioned the Bargain Barn to Autumn earlier, so we decided to stop in to see what they were about. Allen told me about them and mentioned that they had good snacks. I had no idea. It just seemed like a normal little thrift shop from the front, but then we walked through a door in the back of the room and it was like walking into some kind of slumlord Willy Wonka shop. We picked up a couple things, including a giant tin of butter cookies to take to Summer. Then we went home until dinner.

Since Eaddie was staying with her grandparents another night, Autumn and I decided to go to Cici’s for dinner to try and catch the Corona again. They had plastic wrap all around the front of the buffet so they could serve you cafeteria-style. It was pretty empty, but the drive-through looked busy. All the pizza on the bar was pretty dry and gross from the lack of traffic, so I asked them to make me one with everything. It was absolutely Zen.

When we left, Autumn wanted to go Bowling, but somehow I convinced her to go shop with me at Lowe’s instead. We wandered around for a bit just chatting along until I stumbled upon a big 48-inch Kobalt garage cabinet that had been marked down to half price due to some damage. I figure with just a very little bit of work, I could get the thing back into nearly new condition.

I spoke to a manager, took Autumn back to my house, then went to Allen’s to borrow his truck. The trip back into Lowe’s was a little more chaotic just because of how busy they were, but eventually I got someone to help me check out and load the cabinet into the truck. I only had to adjust it once, just because the cabinet door wouldn’t lock shut, and the wall-mount straps on the back were blowing around and hitting the glass.

Autumn helped me unload the cabinet and I walked it into the garage, then I went back to Allen’s and chatted with him and Charlotte for a few minutes. Eventually I made it back home, and I watched some random stuff on TV with Autumn until Summer got home from her late night bowling teambuilder. Then I put on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 until everyone got bored, and we went to bed.

Come with me
And you’ll be
In a world of out-of-date confections.

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The Hired Help

Autumn came with me to work again today, and again outworked and outperformed the paid help. Heather was exactly as late as usual, which makes me wonder why she can’t just set her alarm ten minutes earlier.

We started off walking down to the storage area under the cafeteria and found some waxed chicken boxes we could use to haul the laptops to the junior high. Then we went back upstairs and finished imaging everything we had. Once we had the last of the laptops on the benches, I sent Heather to go track down the older 20GA models so we could ship those back. I did not hear from her again, other than to tell us to which room we should deliver her laptops tomorrow in her absence.

Autumn and I went to Chick-fil-A and picked up lunch, then went to eat with Summer. Afterwards, we stopped by the shop to see if we could intercept Heather or anyone else. Gary and the newbies were in the breakroom having lunch, so Autumn and I went back to the high school and retrieved the boxes from the dungeon.

I built a spreadsheet to compare what serial numbers Lenovo expects to receive back while Autumn folded boxes. Then the two of us started my third inspection cycle of all 1,015 laptops while we packed them into the boxes for transfer to the junior high, ensuring that they would receive the best of the best of these gross, teenager-used devices.

When we left, I dropped her off at Old Post Park for an Explorers meeting and ran home to clean up. I decided to pick her back up on the bike, so I got the pressure washer out to blow the cobwebs off of the R1. She had never ridden before, but reacted much more calmly than ever before when I had suggested she try to ride with me in the past.

We went by the shop to meet up with Summer and Eaddie, but they were inside waiting for a tow truck that would deliver a vehicle that had seized up after dropping all of its oil when it left. I noticed the streak of oil in the road, but I thought it was just a wet spot from someone leaving after everything had been cleaned at closing time.

Eaddie was picked up by her grandparents, and the rest of us went back home. Summer, having had a pretty bad day, sent me to Wendy’s for a bag of Baconators. Then I took Autumn home to clean up and get some fresh clothes before coming home for the night. Of course, around that time I realized I had forgotten to do my own load of laundry I needed for the next day, so it was a bit of a late night for me.

Bye bye, birdie.

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Bring Your Daughter to Work Day

Autumn wanted to go to work with me today, so I let her come help with the laptop processing. She ended up being a huge help, and even spent less time griping about the work than Heather. Having her there filled the little gaps where Heather and I were previously tripping over each other. The downside to that improved efficiency was that there was basically no downtime at all. We were basically moving the entire day, so we pretty much finished sorting all the laptops out.

Ben texted that they were heading to Bocadillos for lunch, so I took Autumn there instead of Chick-fil-A where she had been asking to go all morning. We’ll probably end up there tomorrow to make up for it. I wasn’t even hungry, but ate anyway and ended up regretting it. I really kind of preferred just working straight through lunch.

At the end of the day, Ben stopped by to see our progress and chat for a bit. The logistics of getting 875 laptops to the junior high are still a bit daunting, and there are a lot of options on how to handle which laptops will be returned for the lease. At least I can take comfort in knowing I still have some time left to file the warranty claims.

Autumn and I headed to my house to change, then went to Walmart to pick up some stuff for dinner. She made both teriyaki and Buffalo sauces for some chicken and rice. I helped a bit, and made some broccoli to green things up a bit.

When Summer got home from the gym, we ate and then packed up to head to my house for the evening. We had to stop by her parents’ house first to meet her sister and niece. Eaddie decided to bail on us and stayed the night there, so Autumn came back with us and we watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

What do we say to one more episode?
“Not today.”

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Squatsville

Today was day two of the great laptop imaging race of 2020. We found our stride a bit quicker this time, and got up to around 600 laptops done. I also discovered that the warranty is good until the middle of August for most of our laptops, which was a tremendous relief.

After work, I went home to decompress for just a little bit before meeting the girls at my parents’ house for dinner. Autumn and I went out for a short swim before dinner while Mom finished the eggplant soup. Eaddie and I ate soup, and Summer and Autumn had some leftovers instead.

Eventually we made it up to Summer’s for the evening. I got a massive cramp in the front of my right thigh, which seemed like a really weird place to cramp. I figured it was from the two days worth of squats moving laptops around. I still prefer that to the hundred depot laptop claims I’ll have to file.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or more!

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Unhelpful

Evidently I forgot to change the pickup time on my breakfast pizza this morning, so by the time I got to Casey’s, they had given up on me and put my pizza in the warmer. The guy pulled all the slices out and boxed them up for me, but was going to short me a slice they had sold to someone else. I’m sure it was inadvertent, but I called him out on it and he gave me another slice of something else.

Heather got to the high school a bit late, and we did our best to find a groove with inspecting and re-imaging all of the old laptops. I’m not sure she really understood what kind of damage I was trying to call out, but that may have been my fault for poorly explaining the different things I’ve seen.

Lunch time snuck up on me, and she left for about an hour and a half, then returned with lunch to eat there. I just worked straight through and found a good groove. By myself, I was better able to find the bottleneck in our process. There were still things I wanted to change in the process, but I gave up on some of them for time and sanity’s sake.

I stayed a couple hours late just trying to finish up the fourth bin of laptops, then headed to my parents’ house for dinner. They got home just before I did, and Mom made up some shrimp soup. I was pretty beat from doing squats all day to lift and drop laptops, so I was pretty lame until we ate dinner, and then I headed home for the night.

Zach was already at my house when I got home, and had the Fiero up on jack stands. As I bounced around the house cleaning up, he pulled the fuel filter and verified that it wasn’t clogged. He said his next suspect was the fuel pump itself, but he wasn’t quite sure how best to tackle that project. The city code prevents me from just leaving it up on stands, which feels really stupid if it’s not in the grass.

As the sun went down, he put the car back down and I decompressed with just a little bit of Overwatch before bed.

I still think maybe Thanos was on to something.

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Rinse and Repeat

I spent most of the morning duplicating flash drives for next week’s imaging party. Heather will be with me then since they’re going to be her laptops next year, but today it was just me by myself finishing up what I started at the beginning of the week.

Gary and I ran by Wendy’s for some lunch, and I had some trouble with the app. There was no line at all, so I just ended up ordering off of the menu for about four times what I would have paid for my promotion through the app. Then I spent all afternoon shopping for more flash drives.

After work, I stopped by the shop to see Summer since she seemed busy all day. She had a lot going on, so we chatted for a little bit before I headed home to meet Zach. He eventually came over after interviewing at the shop, and started working on the Fiero again. We got some brake fluid into the clutch reservoir, and I was able to get the car in and out of gear. The starter worked, but the fuel pump never made a sound.

Zach’s father and grandfather came over to look at it for a little bit as well, and then they all left for dinner. When Summer finally got home after her long day, I went to Zaxby’s to pick up some dinner. I heard a pretty loud wreck from the end of the block, but it was too dark to really see anything.

I wrapped up the evening with some Overwatch with Johnny and Aaron. The kids are gone all weekend, so tomorrow is my chance to clean up at home.

Bite off more than you can chew; What can you do?
DARE TO BE STUPID

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The Breakthrough

I finally did it. I made a successful imaging task sequence. What’s more, the problem-step was early enough that I could fix it in one of my later sequences to quickly skip back through all the other additions I made.

Allen came back to the shop for lunch and wanted Bocadillos again, so I let him and Gary talk me into going for the third day in a row. It worked out in our favor though, because one of the school board members was having lunch there and decided to surprise us by sneakily going up and paying for our meals.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on into the evening copying flash drives and tinkering with the group policy setting that’s causing some weird issues with the Start Menu. It all comes down to what should be an unnecessary shortcut for staff that can’t seem to use the search function successfully.

I had to stop by the high school to pick up more flash drives before getting waxed out tomorrow, and then I went home to relax for a while. I got a surprise gift in the mail from Jennifer all the way from New Mexico to put up next to Becky’s other paintings. Then I tried to play some Overwatch, which lead to a lot more troubleshooting an issue with my display drivers to fix a flickering screen.

Eventually I made it up to Summer’s where I caught an episode of The Punisher with Eaddie before bed.

It wasn’t even procrastination so much as poor timing.

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Step Back

I still didn’t really get anywhere today in my imaging process. Time is running out, and I’m getting pressure from the custodians, of all people, to get my work done.

Summer came to see me, and then we went to Bocadillos for lunch. It was obvious the bosses weren’t around today, and the change to Latin music was pretty funny after the pop party we attended yesterday. I’m guessing the Christian music will come back around tomorrow.

I worked late, and then Summer brought me one of their boomboxes to loan to the high school for their drive-through retirement party for Bruce. I headed on home and waited for her to bring the girls over from her parents’ house after mowing the lawn.

Autumn wanted to go to Dollar Tree for something, but forgot what when we got there, so I bought a guilt-trip scrub brush. Then they wanted Subway, so we picked up one of the worst bags of food I’ve ever gotten from a Subway before. The sandwich I got for Summer and myself looked like it had been cut an additional time or something, and I would have probably had better luck eating my half with a fork.

Eaddie and I wrapped up the night with an episode of The Punisher, and then it was off to sleep.

We’ll get ’em tomorrow, buddy.