Tag: work

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Friends and Stuff

Gary and I spent all day imaging laptops again. Ben bought lunch for Melinda’s first day, and everyone walked next door to Smackin’ Wings and Things. They had a 20-piece wing special that cost as much as a larger meal, so I just ate that. The Cyclone Fever sauce was a pretty good mix of hot honey mustard and sweet honey barbecue.

In the afternoon, Melissa dispatched someone to check out my air conditioner, so I had to do a bit of juggling to get Dad over to the house, and get Summer to open the garage since my app still doesn’t work with the Android beta. Fortunately I’m not completely crazy and he did find the unit a little low on refrigerant. He said he’d come by again next week to check again, so I’ll have to spend some time there in the afternoons to see if it cools any faster.

Summer took the day off and spent some time with the kids at the Clarksville water park, and then came home to grill steaks and burgers for us. She invited Gary over for dinner, and luckily I got there right as he was turning around to make another pass by her house. We played a couple games of Magic, ate, had a couple beers outside on the fancy new lawn furniture, and then came in to play Stuff Happens with the kids.

Eaddie begged to watch Parks and Rec after Gary left, and after a couple episodes of that everyone headed on to bed.

Better dreams this time.

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Soggy Bottom Boys

I was supposed to meet Gary at the high school this morning, but he texted and said the basement flooded overnight with about an inch of water everywhere. Apparently the big pit they dug next to our building soaked up all the rain water over the past couple days, and of course water seeks the lowest level, and there’s nothing lower than technology. I was almost sad that I missed it, because as luck would have it, I had left my lifejacket there from Zach’s joke last week. Gary said he put it on as he waded around the shop among the dozen or so maintenance and custodian folks that were there to help with the mess.

Missing out on all of that fun, I just continued imaging laptops until Gary got there. Then we continued on until lunch, when we met with Shae for lunch at Colton’s. Vendor lunches are almost always great, except when the Belkin guy is weird. This one was one of our better ones, though I think we’ve only ever actually made one purchase from these guys. I guess a single six-digit piece of equipment is worth a few steaks though. Allen sat at the opposite end of the table with our little buddy intern from Friendship, and Brice got told in the everlasting argument between Cisco and everybody else. I was just happy to see Gary smile.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly again. I accidentally broke my ColdHeat soldering tool trying to solder some 1/4″ plugs to some speaker wire. We got very close to 600 total laptops imaged, so the end is at least visible. I just hope we don’t discover that we’ve missed something silly, but that seems really unlikely. Gary left my office a little early, and then I left a little late after starting another round of laptops. I went straight to my parents’ house to borrow a real soldering iron, and then Autumn called wanting to come swim.

Summer was off soon, so I just had her bring everyone over. All three kids went out to swim while she ate a bit, and then we joined them. The water was really cold after all the rain, but it was warm enough out that it felt fine after you acclimated. When it was time to go, they packed up and left while I waited for Dad to get back home from bible camp. I had him help me hunt down the sailboat hull identification number so I could renew the registration, but I’m pretty sure it broke off and we couldn’t find it anywhere.

Finally back home, I planted a stem of peppermint I pulled from the garden at the high school, and cleaned up for bed.

Dream time!

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Relief Work

I got off to a pretty rough start this morning, throwing an entire brand new bottle of pills all over the kitchen floor. Somehow I miraculously found every last pill and filled the bottle back up. All of this was because I noticed that Walgreens had incorrectly filled my prescription with a lower dosage than what I needed. I wouldn’t have noticed, except the pills were the wrong shape. I can’t wait until I’m old and dumb, and accidentally take the wrong pill that kills me.

I almost went straight to the high school to continue my imaging work, but I went to the shop as usual instead. It was a good thing though, because Gary needed the excuse to get away from the others at the office for a while. I can only imagine the frustration he feels when he tries to do things in a more correct way, but then gets told to just let other people do what they want instead. There’s no telling how much extra work has been created for him because someone else didn’t have the competency they needed to do it without breaking something.

Everyone else stayed at the shop, seemingly unmotivated, while he and I went to the high school to continue imaging. I didn’t particularly need the help, but it definitely helped to pass the time less painfully. It helped that I wore thicker-soled shoes this time too. We took a break for lunch at Arby’s and had enough time after we ate to stop by the house and see the Grom. It was then that we noticed a little bit of road rash on the rear fender indicating it had been stood up at least once. I guess it wasn’t too much of a surprise really, and I plan to get rid of it anyway. I haven’t had much time to look at mods, but I know there must be quite a few.

The afternoon went by just as quickly, and then I stopped into the shop after dropping Gary off. That’s where I learned that all the others combined only enrolled about 200 Chromebooks, while Gary and I finished up about 250 Windows computers with software deployments. That’s just the underpaid, peak efficiency model versus the Jason-lead group, I suppose.

When I left there, I stopped by Superfast to see Summer before going to Walgreens to fix my prescription. Fortunately I didn’t really have to put on my mean face, but I was only one wrong sentence away from doing so. From there I went to Summer’s to start making chicken salads. Autumn stayed with her grandparents, so the remaining three of us watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec before I headed home.

I finished the night cleaning up after the pets, which was long overdue as usual. I’m going to have to find some time pretty soon, no matter the cost.

What’s the deal with Stonehenge?

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1200 Squats

I spent the entire day by myself imaging laptops. Between yesterday’s boot disk creation and today, I’ve completed 150 devices. There are only about 1050 left to go. I didn’t have a terrible time today, but next week is going to be a long week.

Allen was the only one that said anything about lunch, and we were both pretty hungry, so it was KFC or bust. Then it was right back to the grind. The music helps. Having things to rearrange helps too.

After work, I went home for a while and ended up vacuuming out my car so I could install the new WeatherTech floor mats. I got super hot and sweaty, but the job’s done and I’ll feel better about having those nasty children in and out of the car all of the time. I just wish they tucked under the door moulding to keep the crumbs from falling down between them.

I beat Summer and Eaddie home but just waited in the car for them. Then I fried up some chicken for their sandwiches, and Summer went to bed while Eaddie and I watched another episode of Daredevil.

I’m gonna have to get some better knee pads…

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Boot Nuked

I got to pull away from the low priority nonsense that’s been going around so I could deal with the more important stuff. Gary and I spent all day at the high school coming up with a process to create boot disks, breaking only for lunch at Wendy’s with Zach. It wasn’t stressful work, but we weren’t quite at the stage where we churn through hundreds of laptops yet either. At the end of the day, I finished up and then rebooted the computer as usual. Unfortunately I didn’t notice that I had forgotten to take the boot disks out of the USB ports, and the computer immediately booted back up and wiped itself.

After spending so much time making sure we copied all the files Dale saved for me, I wiped it all away in just an instant. I’ll have to pull the hard drive and try to recover some of those files, but I have a feeling that most of them aren’t that important. It’s still a good lesson in keeping important things off of the local machine though. I had been thinking about getting rid of the desktop and going to a docking station setup anyway, so this just kind of forced me along into trying that out sooner than I expected. I was so initially upset by my negligence that I decided to go ahead with rearranging the office. I stayed super late moving things around to how I wanted them, and I’m not even sure how long any of it will stay. At least it’s left in usable shape for tomorrow morning.

Summer left Eaddie with her parents and came to stay the night at my house. I hadn’t planned to eat because it had gotten so late, but then felt so hungry by the time I actually left, so she picked up some Taco Bell for us. I ate some, and then did some quick water changes in all of the tanks just to try and help out my recent negligence. That seems to be a running theme lately.

Are you leaving those here? Are those your own personal speakers??? Can you even hear me??????

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Runaround Blues

Jason had us take a crew of four to Oakland this morning to do what really only two probably should have done. We’ve got pallets worth of higher priority work to do, and we’re doing cleanup crap, and it’s just infuriating as usual. I peeled off with Amanda, which somehow made it less bad. Then she and I ate leftover turkey at the shop while the others went out to eat.

After lunch, I managed to escape and run around with Gary for a bit, mostly to start looking at high school stuff. While we were there, it started to pour down rain, so we stayed longer than originally planned. We explored the PAC some more while trying to find some people there. All we ever heard were ghost whistling and wood cutting, but no people.

Once it cleared up, we went to the junior high and helped Heather with some stuff for the rest of the day. I stopped by the high school on the way home to deliver my refrigerator from the junior high. I think I may have scratched up the front a bit, but it was a gimme anyway. I shouldn’t be too attached.

I went home and got ready to go to Sheri’s father’s visitation at Humphrey. I’d only met the guy a couple times and only in passing, but I at least wanted to stop by to see her for a second. I told her it really felt like I was in line for a buffet that was just taking forever, so I didn’t want to keep her long. There was a good sided group of people there, and it was nice to see them outside of work for a change. Everyone was all smiles, as I think they should be in the best of scenarios.

Becky, Marcia, Miranda, Mollie, and I all went to Ruby Tuesday afterward for dinner and drinks, and we had a grand ol’ time. Our waitress was awesome and took all three coupons I had, and worked her magic to split the discounts across all five tickets. When we left, I dropped Becky off at her car, then had to stop in to see Summer for a minute. She and Eaddie were watching Spider-Verse in bed, and I had a bed of my own at home that still hadn’t been cleared, so I left to do that and get some sleep there for the first time in over a month.

So long, flower man.

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The Princess Is in a Cooler Castle

I had to take an alternate route home this morning due to railroad construction, and then the extra traffic on the way in to work very nearly made me late. I spent all morning with Brice doing the cleanup work orders at Oakland. Allen came by and helped after taking care of something else.

Ben brought smoked turkey for lunch, so I had to run to Neighborhood Market for my side. I brought potato salad and rolls, because I didn’t realize Jason was bringing some kind of cheesy potato salad type dish. Both people in front of me in line paid by cash at the self-checkout, which was stupid and slow. Why do people use money?

The afternoon was more of the same, with the addition of Amanda and Jason for a short while. Summer and Ben stopped by after Mark stood them up for their meeting, but I couldn’t really help them. Ben let us have a working lunch, so most of us left early. I ended up going to the high school to drop off some things first, where I got caught up chatting with Bryan for a minute outside. I didn’t realize higher level administrators had the same number of contract days that we have.

I stayed super late in my new office, hooking up one of my speakers and contemplating a desk move. Then I went home and started water changes in all of the aquariums before having to pick Eaddie up from karate. We went by my parents’ house without any real plan, where we ended up eating some leftovers and doing puzzles. Eaddie was doing them on her phone, while I put together a 3D castle that Dad pulled out of the closet.

We headed back to Summer’s pretty late, and I was so exhausted that I just crashed there. It took my house a frustrating hour to cool down four degrees, and I don’t know if it’s the weather, or if there’s something wrong with the new unit, or if it’s just not designed to be shut off for long periods of time. In any case, I need to spend some more time at home now to take care of all of this stuff. I just feel like I’ve been run over by a school bus.

“And at the end of it all, my only regret is not spending more of my life working for a living.”  –nobody ever

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The Humidity of Our City – Our Ciiiity!

I scarfed down an apple fritter on the way home this morning, and was greeted by another dead A/C unit, presumably full of water again. At least the house had cooled down quite a bit, so I was able to get ready for work without too much additional sweat. I was running a tiny bit ahead, so I proceeded with adding the new shrimp to the kitchen aquarium. Dad showed up just before I left for work so he could house-sit while Dependable replaced my central heating and air. I figured it would be a few hours, but it ended up taking all day long.

Jason decided to take a look at the high school sign with me, which took quite a bit of walking and driving back and forth across the campus. We ended with the assumption that the outlet is bad, or at least giving dirty power that’s causing some issues. Everything else seems to be working correctly. When we got back to the shop, we loaded up with some cable and went to meet Heather at the junior high to pull a couple lines. I thought I had it down to the foot, but I ended up being super short and lost one of the two cables in the ceiling, so we had to finish after lunch.

Allen and Gary wanted to go to Bocadillos for lunch, but didn’t want to wait for me to get back to the shop, so I had to drive myself down to Dardanelle. The food had been better, and the salsa tasted like it had started to turn. To top it all off, I was charged double for my drink, and my mangonada cup was served super messy. I managed to make it home to check on Dad though. Bác Vân brought him lunch, but I felt bad that he had to sit in the hot house all day. I really had no idea it would take that long, and I didn’t leave him anything to keep entertained. I really should have just taken the day off myself.

Back at work, Jason stayed at the shop while Heather and I finished re-running and terminating cables. Then we ended the day with some battery swaps and a cooldown in the office. That’s when the rain finally hit, and it really poured. I wasn’t willing to wait it out, so I ran to the car, splashing through the flooded parking lot, and made my way home.

Baby Bye Bye Bye!

The guys were just finishing up with the equipment and needed to test the thermostat. It was a bit upsetting that they didn’t seem to have a clue how to use the Nest thermostat since Dependable is a registered Nest Pro. I had to set the thermostat up myself after plugging it in to a micro-USB cable to quickly charge it back up after they cut power at the breaker for it last month. They had enough other stuff to finish while we waited for the charge though, and eventually tested everything successfully. It took the house a few hours to cool down from the peak of 89 degrees, and the unit didn’t seem to be very fast at all. The air coming out of the vents was just barely cool, and the outside unit didn’t blow as hot as I expected. I was just happy to have something going though.

When Summer and Eaddie finished what they were doing, they came to pick me up and we went to my parents’ house for some leftover phở. We sat there for a little while before going back for my car. They went home and to sleep while I cleaned up a couple things at the house, and then I joined them for another night.

So much to catch up on now…

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16K Santa

It was a small crew this morning, so Ben sent the four of us to hang some touch panels before an early dismissal. We hung the first at Dwight before inspecting Sequoyah and then taking a lunch. We all agreed on Wendy’s, and then we were going to do work orders afterward. I chose to help Brice finish up at Sequoyah, and then finished the day delivering a speaker to my new office.

After work, I went home to change before heading out to the Clarksville Walmart for some TVs. I got four takers and picked up four ONN 50″ 4K TVs. The whole purpose of the trip was to replace Summer’s bedroom TV. Then my sister wanted one for her spare bedroom. I decided to pick one up for my parents since their TV still won’t play copy-protected sources. Finally, Gary decided to upgrade his smaller TV.

I made my way back home and delivered to Gary, and then my parents. I got Julie’s garage door camera and she let me in to her house while she was on the way home from work. I got the camera set up after a little trouble, and then she gave me a bowl of Blueberry Morning, which I don’t think I’ve had since before I moved out of my parents’ house. She said they stopped either making or carrying it locally, so she picked up a case or so.

You can’t say I never gave back!

Summer went to the gym after work, so I went to her house with the last TV and set it up as a surprise before taking Eaddie to my parents’ house for dinner and a swim. We stopped by the shop where I discarded her old TV before meeting her. Eaddie wasn’t hungry, so she jumped straight to the pool while I ate. When Summer got there, she didn’t want to eat either. I finished and then joined Eaddie for a swim, and Summer eventually came along for just a short while.

Dad got a couple telescopes out, but I think everyone was too tired to stand around looking through them. We ended the evening inside watching My Fair Lady, and headed back to Summer’s for the evening. I put on the rest of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse until Summer passed out.

Everybody knows that the best way to learn is under intense, life-threatening crisis!

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Be Happier, and That’s an Order!

I woke up around 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep for a long time. I felt like I just started to doze off a little bit around the time I had to get up. Ben had his little chat for us and basically told everyone to get along better and stop having poor morale over our pay. I hate that the district’s response to that is that they’ll help us find new employment if we don’t like it.

We loaded the trucks up and took two groups to Oakland to rehang touch panels. I’m pretty sure at least one of the rooms we hung had a newer projector, so it aggravates me that they didn’t even attempt to change the bulb before removing them. I guess I’ve just got to learn to ignore the stupidity at this point, but it’s just so damned aggravating.

Summer was running around with Ben schmoozing local businesses, and invited me out to lunch at Fat Daddy’s. It must be so nice to be appreciated by your employer.

After lunch, I kind of got left behind in the shop, so I spent the whole afternoon just chatting and sifting through Dale’s old Google Drive. It won’t be long before I have to dig right into the 1:1 laptops, and I couldn’t be less excited.

I went home after work and spent a bunch of time cleaning up. I took care of the cat, fish, cleaned up the kayak and put it away, and finally headed up to Summer’s. I beat her and Eaddie home, so I started cleaning up a salad with chicken strips. When they got in, we watched an episode of Parks and Rec, and I watched just a little bit of Into the Spider-Verse while they showered before bed.

Alright, let’s do this one last time.