Tag: work

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Tutti Flutti

My blood pressure started off better today, but by the afternoon it had gone right back to where it always is. It’s a little bit frustrating because I can’t tell any difference in how I feel at all.

We didn’t have a team meeting or any group projects today due to testing, so I started the day with a Paradise donut someone had brought in to the office at Oakland. Then I was made to run across town for a non-issue and piddled around there until lunch time. Zach, Jason, Brice, and I went to Brick Oven and actually made it back to work in time, which was a true Christmas miracle.

After lunch, I ran around with Zach to try and help fix some doors at the middle school before heading back to the junior high to wrap up my day. When I finally left, I went straight to my parents’ house to wait for Mom and have dinner. On the way, I called and talked to Julie for a bit about her flute because Eaddie’s been having trouble with hers. She said Mom and Dad still had her original one at the house, and that we could try it out. Summer dropped Autumn off at her parents’ house and then came over with Eaddie. It took some coaxing, but she eventually played the flute a bit and found that it was more or less in pretty good condition. It could use a good polish, but otherwise it played well.

When Mom finally got home, we all had some spaghetti. I made Summer a big bowl so she could carb up for her race tomorrow, and then we shared a big bowl of peach cobbler before heading out. Summer went to get Autumn and take her home while Eaddie and I headed back to my house for a bit. On the way, I remembered to stop by Oakland to pick up some raspberry plants that Tammy had brought for me. It was late and dark, so I was worried about leaving the rest there, so I brought them all back to my parents’ house for Dad to put in a vase until they could be planted.

Back at my house, Eaddie watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec on her own to catch up while I cleaned up and got ready to go back to their house. I wanted to try and get breakfast with the girls in the morning while Summer was at her race, but Summer said something about a fire at the Hardee’s on that side of town. We have other options though.

Summer was already in bed when we got there. Eaddie practiced the flute a bit more before bed, and I played a couple of quick, dominating games of Overwatch with Clint, Johnny, Jack, and Aaron before I passed out myself.

Oh yeah, I feel the burn.

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More Carrots Than Sticks

Somehow I got suckered into checking a cart full of Chromebooks for settings the classroom full of kids had changed. I asked the teacher to make sure the kids weren’t doing this in the future, and she asked me to tell them so myself. I guess I’m a teacher now. Where do I sign up for appreciation week?

I spent most of the day at the junior high for a change, and kept moderately busy. I wanted to try Whatta-Burger for lunch, and I think Dale agreed, but there was a huge line when I got there. Brice kind of pushed to go somewhere else, so I offered Wendy’s and met him there. I’m still not sure where Dale ended up going. There was a pretty good line at Wendy’s too, and it probably moved just about as fast, but I know for a fact that Whatta-Burger wouldn’t have been worth the wait. A strawberry shake probably would have improved my mood a bit though.

Evidently we had some kind of internet trouble near the end of the day, so I ended up having to kill quite a bit of time until Autumn finished with color guard. Summer took a sick day and met with Kelsey for some insurance advice before picking up Eaddie for karate. It was my job to get Autumn there, and then take them both home at the end of the day.

I ran home and worked on the aquariums a little bit, got the girls, and headed up to their house for dinner. Summer’s rice cooker quit working, so she stir fried some dry ramen noodles with the chicken and vegetables instead. It turned out really awesome, but could have used some peppers for heat. I managed to cook the half-soaked rice in a regular pot over the stove, and it turned out alright too, which I accepted as a great success.

Autumn was a jerk about dinner and very nearly turned things very dark, but through quiet persistence we defeated her ugly attitude. Eaddie watched an episode of Parks and Recreation with Summer and me, and then I headed home for the evening.

And it wasn’t my intention to be filthy rich.

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Just a Splash of Kool-Aid

I tried to take today pretty easy since I’ve been over-monitoring my blood pressure the past couple days. Luckily this time of year it’s easy to do that, but I’m not looking forward to a hot summer. We all went out to Brangus for lunch so Ben could treat Heather for administrative professionals day. I told her I didn’t need an artificial holiday to remind me how much we love her. Besides, I thought the day was for actual administrators, which also doesn’t include sysadmins.

Allen provided a cellphone photograph of a CD for Gary to whitelist the software. I don’t think I have to explain to anyone else that this is not how that works.

After work, I ran home and did some water changes before dressing up for dinner. Then I made my way to Summer’s in the rain to pick up everyone. One of the guys from her new company wanted to take us all out for dinner at Brangus so we could meet his family and get to know a little more about what she’s getting in to. They’re definitely coming in swinging, and it makes sense that there’s so much money in what they’re doing because it’s more about a service than a product. I’m excited for her, and I hope it works out as well as she believes. There’s always more money in sales, no matter what field you’re in.

Back home, Summer went to bed sick, and I played a couple rounds of Overwatch with Clint and Johnny before bed.

The puns will practically write themselves.

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HIGH SCORE

I tried taking it kind of easy today, but it didn’t seem to help. I’m close to executing a strict Soylent diet. I wanted to ride the bike today, but was too afraid of how I might handle my medication. One of the first things I encountered this morning was a SMART board that a substitute had written on with a dry erase marker. It did not erase. Technology is hard, and I had a headache for pretty much the rest of the day.

Allen ended up taking me to Pizza Hut for lunch, where I was going to use a free P’zone coupon, but we both ended up getting the buffet and I took the P’zone to Summer. Gary and I chatted for quite a while after lunch about various work things, and then I had to go to the junior high for esports practice. I had Chrystal check my blood pressure first, since I had taken my first pill at lunch. To our surprise, I got a new high score of 190/110. I’m definitely dying.

I went to my parents’ house after work for bún bò Huế, which ended up taking longer to prepare than I expected. I tried to relax there as much as I could, and then ended up going home for an early bedtime.

I’m gonna be so mad if I die before “Endgame.”

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Roller Coaster! Of Blooooooood. (say what?)

The Catapult Health Clinic was at the middle school today, and I had my visit scheduled first thing in the morning. They seemed to be running a little slow, so it took me a few minutes to get in, but it wasn’t any worse than going to my doctor’s office. The difference is that they had me do all the paperwork right there with them while they sampled my blood. That’s about the time that shit got cray.

My first blood pressure reading was 188/122. I’ve never paid particular attention to those goals, so for me it was business as usual. The second reading was 170/111, which was more than 10 points off of the first reading, so I got a third at 186/127. That’s when a different nurse came over with an alarmed look on his face. He called the first girl back over and asked what they should do, and she replied that the video chat nurse would probably just talk to me about it. After a brief wait to go behind the video chat curtain, a nurse practitioner video chatted with me and brought up a warning/disclaimer to call my doctor immediately.

I went to Oakland to do some work and told the girls about my experience, so Leslie took my blood pressure again at 183/114. Nearly an hour later, I had relaxed it down to 174/114. I was less concerned, but already coerced into calling my doctor. I could have gone in right at lunch time, but I was already hangry at that point, so I scheduled a visit for 2 in the afternoon and went with a big group to lunch at Western Sizzlin where I had an incredibly unhealthy salad. It could have been better.

After lunch, the doctor visit went relatively well. They had renovated most of the building, and pretty well removed my old doctor’s name and replaced pretty much every comfort of familiarity. I hated watching the reel of healthcare advertisements in the lobby. At least everything else looked cleaner and less dingy than before. The first nurse got my blood pressure at 160/90 in both arms and said it wasn’t that bad, and blamed the high numbers on the auto-cuffs we had used all morning. A short wait later, the ARNP came in and basically said the same, but then followed that she was prescribing some low dosage blood pressure medication. I’ve officially made it to the stage in life where I’m kept artificially alive. Also, I have ringworm.

I went straight back to the junior high after my visit was over, and had Chrystal take my blood pressure again. She had a manual cuff like the doctor’s office, and came up with 182/110, which served only to confuse me more. Convinced that Death was following me around, I continued on with the rest of my day. Summer left to go to the gym, and I took the girls to Walgreens to pick up my prescriptions before going to my parents’ house for dinner.

My parents seemed not to be too concerned with me getting medication, and leftovers were good. All I had left to do was research my new drugs.

Until I got home.

Bulk item pickup day apparently didn’t include tires or televisions, so both were left in my front lawn. The CRT TV chassis appeared to be split open, so of course it fell completely apart as soon as I touched it. The glass immediately shattered, half on the grass and half on my driveway. I would have preferred to sweep it off of only the driveway, but that would have left me feeling less defeated. My new, concerned neighbor laughed at my response that I was okay, but contemplating life.

We’ll try again tomorrow.

Blood pressure’s like a roller coaster baby, baby. I’m gonna die.

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Tiny Dancers

Jason didn’t have any projects again for us this week, so after a long, chatty meeting, I went to Oakland to visit for a while before lunch. When I got back to the shop, Jason had me go to central office to run a short line with for him. As we left, several people commented things like, “did you get it fixed?” Jason responded that we had to come back with a tone generator to find a line he had lost, and I added, “why do things in one visit when two will do?” Cindy came back with, “well Jason’s already been here twice already!”

Zach had offered up Western Sizzlin, Stoby’s, or Fat Daddy’s in London as choices for lunch, and because the people I work with have boring, predictable taste, we went to Fat Daddy’s. I tried to slyly load up with Gary, Zach, and Heather, but Gary misstepped and ended up with Heather and Brice while Zach and I drove together and everyone else went with Jason. At least they had expanded their menu to more closely resemble the one downtown, so I got a barbecue burrito. It didn’t seem quite as good as I remembered it, and the menu was misleading in its description of ingredients. That place frustrates me near endlessly.

After lunch, I spent some time at the junior high and visited with Ronda. I had to tell her about the plans for next year, and we discussed getting together over the summer. I think a group vacation could be lots of fun.

When I got home from work, I played enough Overwatch to get another loot box before Summer got here. Then I went to check out the dance at Oakland for a little bit. It was a pretty cool setup they had going on, and most everyone seemed to be having quite a bit of fun. I spent some time backstage with Michael as he played DJ on his iPad.

I didn’t stay super long though, since I was tired from working sickly all week long. I headed back home and warmed up some freezer burned dinner that I had gotten from Zach, and then Summer and I watched Battlestar Galactica until bedtime. I noticed the guys were online, but they were in their last game of Overwatch. They agreed to play one more with me before bed.

The devil you know…

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Good Gollie

It rained pretty much all day long. The storm must have knocked out my power for a brief moment in the night, because I woke up at one point and all the living room lights and TV were on. I stopped by Oakland briefly in the morning to take care of something, and then went on to spend most of the day at the junior high cleaning up old computers. Of course the storm affected some things there as well, so everything in my office was off, and I had at least three projectors fail to come on in the morning. Luckily they all came back up after being unplugged for a few minutes.

Brice and I met Allen and Jason at Morellos because neither of them could hear me offer to drive everyone in one vehicle. It was Zach’s birthday, but I couldn’t convince him to come with us. Those that did go were just as lively and fun as ever.

After lunch, the junior high office staff was making rounds handing out ice cream sundaes, and after hearing about so many resignations it started to feel like an emergency morale booster. Matt had even made a comment about me leaving earlier in the morning, but as far as I know he doesn’t know anything about that yet. I hope everyone understands that it’s not my choice.

Summer started feeling sick in the afternoon, so I went to the Spices food truck to get some noodles for her while the girls went to karate and then dinner with their father. While I was waiting on that, Mollie texted and said she had read the blog about me moving to the high school next year. It always surprises me a little bit when I find out someone has read any of this. I hope it can serve to be at least a little bit entertaining, since I typically only end up using it for fact-checking myself. I’ll have to talk to all of my friends that I’ve made over the past couple years soon to let them know what’s happening. It’s going to be so overwhelming to make the switch.

When I got to Summer’s, she was curled up on the couch staring at nothing on the TV. She loved the shrimp fried noodles, but she slowly dragged down little by little while we watched Parks and Rec until the girls got home and I put her to bed. I was pleasantly surprised to see several of the esports kids in voice chat on Discord trying to organize some games. It’ll be much easier with a larger pool of high schoolers, and it will be interesting to see how the different age groups interact with one another.

Back home, I cleaned up and then got in a little Overwatch time for some event loot boxes. I had been needing some game time for a while. It was too bad that nobody else was around for that, but I couldn’t bring myself to queue LoL with the kids just yet.

Can’t let the kids know their coach is a filthy casual.

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Baader Meinhof Adapter

I was so incredibly tired this morning that work got me into a bit of a cold sweat. I jumped right into things, trying to track down a buzzing sound in the Oakland A/V setup. Jamming to some sweet classics, the lunch ladies came out dancing. I’m told there’s a video of me being unwillingly pulled into that somewhere. The preschool kids got a kick out of Baby Shark during breakfast. Fortunately I was able to fix the buzz with a ground loop isolator. Coincidentally, I ended up needing another one in a different classroom as well, but it didn’t seem to help as much there.

There was a call for Chick-fil-A, but I lead a larger group of people to the far superior Zaxby’s instead. Poor Zach had his order cancelled on the back end and ended up waiting forever to get his salad. Everyone gave me their toast. I ran out of time before food.

The afternoon was slow and I felt pretty crummy. I did replace a Chromebook screen after Ronda and I interrupted Jessica’s class by popping bubble wrap. I stayed late to take Autumn home after color guard practice, and we stopped by Little Caesar’s to get dinner on the way home. I appreciate when companies go out of their way to support and employ people with disabilities, but I wish they’d keep the blind guy away from the cut station.

After dinner, we finished I Am Legend, then finally watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec Tommy’s Place. From there, I headed home for the evening, but spent most of it steam cleaning carpet stains. Split’s been throwing up a bunch lately, and I’m just sick of it. He’s about to go on a strict diet. I probably should too.

Summer’s resignation was posted in an email out to everyone today, so I guess it won’t be much longer before my changes are made known.

It’s going to be an interesting summer.

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The Existential Review: Year 3

I had my yearly review scheduled for this afternoon, so I spent the morning doing what I could around my buildings. I took a break for lunch and met Dale, Brice, and Summer at Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday. We ended up getting way too much food because of a coupon, but somehow I managed. Getting over being sick again has me regularly hungry, but I was hoping it would help me cut back.

My review went well after lunch. I sat down with Ben ahead of schedule just to get things started, and we chatted for quite a while. It’s looking hopeful for an esports stipend, and everyone seems to be on board with what I’ve presented. I’m just hoping I can keep it from feeling as life-sucking as last week when the kids were super rowdy for no reason. I think that will get better as the teams get more serious though. Dale’s retirement is set, so it’s looking like I’ll be moved to the high school now, which leaves me to clean up and move offices. I’ll lose a window, gain a ton of room and storage, and be left with the best-documented procedures on campus. Hopefully I’ll be able to retain enough free time to keep learning things I want to learn, and also have time out for esports in the afternoons. Time will tell. I’ll miss my friends the most.

Nearing the end of the school day, I dropped by Oakland to move their copy machines for kindergarten registration, then made my way to the junior high for esports. We had several new faces today, which meant spreading to the second lab for the first time. We were really only short by one computer, but several of my quieter players chose to move over immediately when I offered the space, which made it a bit easier to manage everyone else. Unfortunately that lab hadn’t been updated automatically, so we wasted several minutes doing that before anyone could play. It was nice to get to talk to a few of them in that time though, since normally I’m just having to sit back and watch over the entire lab of everyone at once.

After work, I ran home and messed with the aquariums a bit, and experimented with some alternative CO2 dosing by filling some glass bottles with carbonated water and floating them upside down in the tanks. I’ll probably have to try again some morning rather than so late at night, but again I’m hopeful that it will provide noticeable growth improvement. That put me a little behind getting the girls from karate, but they seemed to have other things going on anyway. From there we went to their house for leftover chicken in the form of nachos. They were pretty good, but felt like they missed a binding agent like cheese dip. They just kind of fell apart too much, and missed the flavor of the dip.

My head cold cocktail seems to have worked fairly well the past couple days, so I went for a third night to combat the snottiness.

Welcome to your life. There’s no turning back.

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Custom Cocktail Cures

After doubling up on Benadryl last night, my head seemed a bit more clear when I woke up. I’m hoping I’ve found a combination of medicine that I can take to quickly rid myself of the congestion that normally plagues me for months at a time.

When I got to work, Zach gave me an ice chest full of frozen food he wanted to clear out of his freezer. There was something about a church food bank that always has leftover frozen goods that nobody ever wants to take because it requires more effort to keep. There was a surprising mix of better frozen meals, junk food, and microwavable breakfast sandwiches. I managed to fit it all into my freezer, and it’ll be nice to have something easy to warm up on weekends when the kids are over.

I didn’t get a whole lot done today because I still wasn’t feeling great. I spent a few hours fighting with the intercom system at Oakland, picked up some soup for lunch by myself in my office, and then spent the rest of the afternoon there just picking at things to clean up. The day went by pretty quickly though, and it didn’t seem like too long before it was quitting time.

Summer talked to Matt, and made it official that she’ll be taking the job at the shop. I guess I knew she was leaning that way, but she never really talked to me any more about it. I was hugely disappointed that she didn’t at least try to negotiate a better starting rate. Every time I bring it up, it’s like a deer in headlights and I don’t know what else I can do to help without just pushing her away. This stuff is really important to me, and I feel like it should be important to her too. I completely understand being shy or lacking confidence to have that conversation, but at the end of the day, money not earned is money lost, and that directly impacts the family. At some point, something’s gotta snap into gear where you just get shit done. The weirdest thing is that she’s very much that way in many other aspects of her life, so I don’t understand why this should have been any different. This should have been an easy win.

I volunteered to wait for Autumn and then take the girls to pick up Noah before heading home. The kids all sat around playing their various electronics while I started a load of laundry and confirmed that my kitchen aquarium water was toxic. From that point, I knew I had to jump right into a water change tonight.

We loaded up and headed to Summer’s where the house was filled with the aroma of simmered, shredded chicken breasts. I’d always read about shredded chicken out of a crock pot, but I’ve never actually tried it. The chicken came out way mushier than I expected, but I didn’t know all the variables to correct it for next time. It tasted good though, and made plenty for leftover nachos tomorrow after the barbecue sandwiches today. She scored a key lime pie for dessert, and then I had to head back home to tend to my own chores.

The bettas and snails all seemed to look a little better after a massive water change, but I’ll have to keep doing more relatively soon to make sure the chemistry balances out. I also need to go get some potting soil and sandblasting media to properly plant and cycle another tank or two in order to move things around to where I want them. It’s a shame we’re only given so much time for all the different things we enjoy.

Guaifenesin Diphenhydramine Phenylephrine