Tag: work

Uncategorised

Smokey Smoke Chickie Chick

One of the school board members set up in front of the building to cook lunch for the staff today, so after bouncing from Oakland to the junior high, I ended up back at Oakland for lunch. Then I wasted most of the afternoon fighting with a couple of iPads and Jamf, which wasn’t fun or educational.

After work, I went home for a while before heading to Summer’s for the evening. It’s starting to get way colder at night, and I find myself wishing again that it didn’t happen so quickly.

Mount St. Helens is about to blow up, and it’s gonna be a fine, swell day.

Uncategorised

Always Be Closing

I finally got Oakland’s sign completely functional this morning. It probably took me better than a full day’s worth of time to get it going, but it felt good to figure it out by myself, and I learned stuff in the process.

Dale and I met for a Taco Tuesday lunch, and then I ran home to get my new Sticker Mule custom stickers. They didn’t quite live up to the quality that I was expecting because the edges were clearly cut on a vinyl printer/cutter, but I assumed they weren’t truly die-cut from the beginning anyway. They were cheap, and it was neat to see the process. It really makes me want to tool up and buy an industrial plotter myself, but I know it would end up just being a bunch of dickbutts in the end, and I’d be out the money without any real desire to be an Etsy entrepreneur.

I rode back to the junior high and spent the afternoon closing miscellaneous work orders, finally trying to make some headway on the 30 I’ve been floating all year. I’ve got more bigger projects that I need to complete as well without work orders, but I’ll just have to figure out how to juggle it all.

After work, I went home for a while until it was time to pick the girls up from karate, and then we went to their house for the evening. Summer grilled some awesome pork chops along with a fresh cucumber avocado salad that we ate with chips.

It’s hard trying to become a sticker person.

Uncategorised

One Man’s Job is Another Man’s Work

I finally received the replacement sign computer for Oakland today from Vantage LED. Right out of the box, the standard power cable was completely dead. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a dead one before, yet somehow I wasn’t surprised to find one from them. The computer wasn’t set up for our specifications, and they told me it wouldn’t keep a configuration unless it could verify functionality first, which means I’ll have to plug it into the sign and run another monitor out there to use as a display to change the settings before plugging it into the sign. It’s the most janky setup I can imagine, and the invoice listed the device at $2,000. The video cable was invoiced at $75. Total bullshit.

I eventually made my way through McDonald’s and Wendy’s for a drive-through mix-n-match lunch, then got a few things done at the junior high. Then Jason called and wanted me to help Allen run a USB extender across a room. Evidently he was too busy, and me with over twice as many work orders as the next highest tech made the most sense. I didn’t mind the work, but the logic there just makes me shake my head.

After work, I came home and made some popcorn with the new popping oil we got at Sam’s. It was pretty good, but it’s still missing that buttery goodness I’m looking for. Once the girls got home, I ran through Chick-fil-A and Wendy’s for another mix-n-match cheapo dinner, filled up on some gas, and went to visit with them before bed. Team Lift first thing in the morning.

The internet made me this way.

Uncategorised

They See Me Enrollin’

Gary and I spent all morning enrolling Chromebooks for CBI classrooms. Then after an overpriced lunch at CJ’s, Amanda and I delivered most of them to the junior high. Zach joined us to install a touch panel at Sequoyah, and that pretty much made the work day. I pulled some more scrap out of the auditorium, but all the good stuff has really already been scrapped, and it still upsets me. I guess I just should have asked sooner.

I went home for a while after work to clean up, and then picked Eaddie up from an after school event. Summer made a big spaghetti dinner in preparation for her Conquer the Gauntlet run tomorrow. Autumn wasn’t having any of it, so some words had to be said. I’m nervous about getting everyone up and around in the morning, particularly because it didn’t seem like anyone showered before bed. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.

Go to sleep doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Uncategorised

That Time I Trolled the Police

I parked in my usual space at Oakland this morning. Unthreatened by unwarranted police force, I couldn’t resist the temptation. I had too many people and too much logic and too much of the law on my side. I had just walked into the office after doing some work when Erica said Sheri was on the phone with him. I didn’t find out until later that he had pulled up behind me and was calling from just outside the building, but Sheri told him to leave me alone because she needed more help dealing with actual real life dangers like speeding and cell phone usage down the street in front of the school. Justice is.. well.. I didn’t go to jail. So, whatever, Beyette.

Zach and I went to Morelos to get some fajitas for lunch. I was super hungry and made a happy plate. Then I spent all afternoon mostly catching up with people at the junior high. I told Kevin about my victory in the morning, and he pulled me into his office to ask what time my confrontation happened the day before. He already had the cameras pulled up for that campus and day, and wanted to see the guy’s stupid face when he tried to intimidate me. It went downhill from “not a fan” pretty fast.

When it was time to leave, I took Eaddie to my parents’ house for some mango soup. I told her it was one of my favorite soups that Mom makes, and she said I say that every time. I asked if I had ever lead her astray, and she sheepishly shook her head and grinned.

Summer went to the football game to see Autumn perform at halftime, and Eaddie and I went back to my house to pick up some things for tomorrow before heading back to their house. This week has gone by fast, and I’m ready to have some time at home. Those cats just can’t keep the place tidy. I don’t know what their deal is.

It’s pretty bad when your own brothers in blue don’t have your back.

Uncategorised

The Day Before I Almost Got Arrested

I started the day off at Oakland, working on a handful of things. The moment that stands out, though, was when I was helping Sheri with some technical issues she was having in a testing room. Erica came by and tapped on the glass and pointed at me, so I came out and was greeted by a uniformed police officer. He informed me that I was parked in a no-parking zone. I corrected him that it was a no-unloading-zone. He said I could finish what I was doing in the testing room before moving my vehicle, so I offered to walk him outside to confirm. He tried getting all tough-guy and said we could do things the hard way if I wanted. He asked to see my ID, but I insisted we should go outside to look first.

When we got outside, John was already there and started telling the officer that maintenance and I park in that area all the time because we are employees that travel and may have to unload equipment or otherwise access areas that are not normally accessed by the public. When we got to my car, I pointed at each word on the sign as I read them aloud slowly. He pointed at the ground behind my vehicle where the old parking spaces had been painted over and re-marked with NO PARKING. I guess he missed the bright yellow school bus that was parked squarely on top of a painted NO PARKING area. He said he was checking all of the schools after complaints about people parking “suspiciously.” Outside of the building I didn’t want to push my luck, so I gave up my ID when he asked again, and then moved to a parking space so he would leave.

Back inside, Mollie said she would make me my own parking space. I insisted it would have to be in the front lawn by the tree, or somewhere else conspicuous and obviously not a parking area. She said that wouldn’t be a problem. After a quick run through Wendy’s for lunch, I ended up at the junior high and told Kevin about my harassment. He knew almost immediately who I was talking to and indicated that he wasn’t a fan of the guy’s attitude either. He even went as far as to tell me I should hang a “TECHNOLOGY PARKING ONLY” sign on top of the no-unloading-zone sign when I park there tomorrow, because he would be on duty again. I think the real problem was that he came into the building without a visitor badge. Office staff should really be trained to take IDs from everyone, even if they’re dressed up like cops. We’ve got to be vigilant with these predators and sexual offenders.

After work, I ran home to tend to the ailing betta. It looked worse off and seemed even less active, but I’ll keep doing what I can. I moved him to a small betta cup with just a little bit of water in it so he wouldn’t have to swim so high to get to the surface for air, but his eyes are clouded over and I’m not sure he’ll eat anything. I’ll feel a lot better if I can get him to eat something.

Summer beat me to my parents’ house for dinner, but they weren’t home anyway. They arrived shortly after I did, and we had dinner and played some more arcade games and foosball. The kids all ate pretty well, and then Summer had to get them home for homework and bedtime. I filled up on gas on the way, and it was pretty much straight to bed since Summer’s neck was out again.

Julie messaged the family late with her own troubles, and I guess all I can really do is hope for the best. Sometimes you’ve just got to make your own fortune.

I’ll give you one guess which one of us has more authority inside this building right now.

Uncategorised

Fishing for Help

I spent all morning back and forth between Oakland and the shop, and only had a few answers to show for it. I’ve got so many work orders to close all at once when these long jobs are finished. Ronda was going to go to lunch with us for $5 salads at Ruby Tuesday, but she ended up meeting Steven instead when our lunch hours didn’t quite mesh. I didn’t make it back to the shop in time to drive, so I met Jason and Allen there.

Most of the afternoon was spent waiting for a fix for PaperCut, and then an hour or so was spent on the phone with the VantageLED folks. The first half hour call I made ended up with me in a queue where I went from the first person in line to being the second person in line, and then I heard someone rattle a phone and hang up on me. The second call got me the resolution I needed, but still no answer for why my emails to tech support never garnered a response. They say there are notes that we were referred to an electrician, but that is both false and an incorrect diagnosis for the problem I’m experiencing.

The fix for PaperCut ended up being an update to the embedded printer software, and then I went to my parents’ house for a bit before deciding to go to the junior high to pick up Jessica’s dying betta. It looked dreadful, and Ronda felt like it was going to die overnight, so I decided to take it home to try and nurse it back to health. I hope it works, selfishly as an I-told-you-so moment. I wish I could impart some empathy and a willingness to properly care for fish, but I guess it’s just too small of a creature for her to care about.

When the girls got out of karate, Summer brought them to my parents’ house and we had most of a Christmas dinner. We didn’t stick around too long though, because the kids had work to do, and I had a fish tank to clean. I guess I’ve done all I can for now. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.

Thank you for holding. All our agents are busy helping more important customers right now.

Uncategorised

Time Trials

Ben had us in the conference room first thing this morning to talk about PaperCut and testing rules. He got breakfast, which helped quite a bit. Then we actually got to do some group work for me!

I think Dale, Zach, and I set a new record for the fastest truck loading, delivery, removal, and mounting to replace a SMART board. It helped that we only had to drive to Oakland, but it helped even more that everyone on board was there to work. After the first one, we went to the arena to fix a board in a switch closet that had started to sag away from the wall.

Lunch was a big group of us at Western Sizzlin, and then Gary joined the three of us to hang a second touch panel at Oakland. That was all the group work I had to be a part of, so I spent the rest of the afternoon at Oakland before heading home.

I played Overwatch most of the evening to get the wins I needed for some special loot, and then I had to call SiriusXM when I realized they had charged me for another month of service after I specifically asked them not to! It was mostly painless, but I set myself up for having to call again in under a month. I really hate that company.

I made another quick call to Discover to find out the department I needed was closed. Then I went to get some gas and headed to Summer’s for the evening.

Hog Wild Wednesdays are back!

Uncategorised

Hangin Around

I could have had most of the day for work orders. We were supposed to hang one of my touch panels in the afternoon. Instead, I volunteered to help Zach and Jason hang some security cameras at London. They had lost an extension cord somehow, so we first had to run to Lowe’s to buy a new one. At least I got to pick it out this time, and I chose an auto-retracting one that can mount to the wall or ceiling. It ended up being about the same $100 that we would have paid for one with a manual reel anyway. When we finally got to the school, Zach started putting cameras together, and Jason sort of apologized but mostly excused himself for sitting on a bench with a bum knee.

We worked through the first half of lunch and then headed to the junior high for chili dogs. The others finished pretty quickly and were ready to head back to the shop for some reason, so I wrapped up and we went back. Then they sat around the shop until it was time to go to the middle school to hang two of Allen’s TVs for him. Of course he took the day off so he could have a four day weekend.

I was supposed to work on some network configurations with Gary in the afternoon, but he wasn’t up to it, and I ended up just sitting there to run out the clock. Back at home, I felt my head cold slowly get worse through the night. Summer came over and we watched a few more episodes of The Office before I had to take a shot of Nyquil and head to bed.

Well, it looks like there’s going to be a clean-up on aisle five.

Uncategorised

Tired Again

I’ve spent every morning this week waking up so tired that I don’t know why anyone would ever want to be retired. At least I felt like I got a lot accomplished at work. I’m still getting a lot of work orders coming in, and I still have projects ahead of me that I need to finish sooner than later, but I feel like I’m learning things at a faster pace.

I spent the morning at Oakland before Ronda and I went to Long John Silver’s for lunch with my BoGo coupon, then I spent the afternoon at the junior high. Tomorrow may be kind of rough with projects, depending on who all decides not to show up. I’ll never understand the mindset of the people on my team when they say they can take an extra day off to make it a longer weekend. That’s literally always the case.

After work, I went to my parents’ house and met up with my newly retired father. It’s probably not even possible for me to retire from a job after 43 years now. I guess I could from the school, but I’d like to make enough money to do more than eat by then. Summer and Eaddie came over and had curry with us when they got out of their respective athletic activities. Finally it was back home for an earlier bedtime.

I should have taken tomorrow off so I could have a four day weekend…