Tag: work

Uncategorised

SSH IT

Today was the warmest day in a little while, but I was stuck inside trying to fix a broken security certificate. Kim was out for the signing on their new house, which meant I could sit in the dark and actually concentrate on what I was doing. I don’t know if it was just by happenstance, but it did seem like fewer people came through the office. I did still get a few visitors and calls, but otherwise I kept my head in my reading. I chatted with Gary for a while, which was helpful, but in the end I still wasn’t successful. I don’t know what I was missing.

I’d had it by the end of the day, and headed quickly home to bring another carload of stuff to the new house. Once I got everything inside and found a change of clothes, I went out on the Onewheel for just a few minutes of daylight. The ride to my parents’ house had my right foot hurting, but on the way back I think I finally found my stance. I was a bit more wobbly, but I think once I have some muscle memory it will be fine. Unfortunately, I won’t really get a chance to ride again for a little while on account of the cold moving in.

Once I got back, I made a burrito for dinner and then unpacked what I had brought home. Then I spent a little more time messing with the washing machine, but still couldn’t get the pulsator out. I couldn’t tell if the pop I heard was new, or something just shifting the same way as yesterday. I finally settled in and played Oxygen Not Included until the computer locked up again. Storms rolled in later in the evening, and I wished I had checked the murder basement for flooding before it started. I’m sure I’ll need to get the sump going this weekend.

Just keep digging….

Uncategorised

Expiration Month

I was a little slow getting out of the house today, but I made it to work on time after passing a bunch of slow trucks. I also had some trouble getting started on any projects, and just kind of jumped from one unimportant thing to the next for a while. They were serving mac and cheese as an entree for lunch, so I brought a leftover T-bone to chew on as well. I forgot a knife, but I figured it out.

Later in the afternoon, I discovered that the SSL certificate for my VMware expired over the break, so Tomorrow Michael will have to figure that out. I left a little late and picked up my last dresser from the old house to take home. Eaddie and Eli were at the house tooting their horns in the bathroom like a couple of weirdos, so I took a ride to my parents’ house on the Onewheel.

I didn’t stay long, and on the way home I tried some different foot placement to mitigate the foot pain and find a good balance point. I was feeling comfortable enough that I kind of sped over some drainage ditches on the way home, and got a pretty bad wobble that I was able to ride through. Only momentary terror.

The girls ate while Eli and I watched them. Then Eaddie avoided doing homework for the rest of the evening. I played a couple cycles in Oxygen Not Included, and then it was off to bed.

Gotta renew that CompTIA cert too. Ugh.

Uncategorised

DecrepiTech

I had a super bizarro dream last night, in which I was somewhere with some people and also Elon Musk. I was talking to him, and though I was supposed to go do things with the other people, Elon invited me to go to somewhere in Arizona to see or do something. Whatever it was, it was urgent, and he said we had to pack and leave immediately by car. After going back and forth and deciding that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I loaded up for the 19 hour drive, and he handed me a burner flip phone to contact him, since he obviously didn’t give out his real phone number to anyone. Then I questioned whether he had a jet that could get us there faster.

That was the end of the weird, anxiety-ridden dream, and then I got up for work. It wasn’t quite as cold or rainy, but it was really windy for most of the day. I spent a good chunk of it trying to get a couple old, but barely-used laptops ready to give to a teacher that doesn’t have a clue how to use them with her students. As soon as she said she wanted an old, decrepit laptop with admin accounts on Windows, Linux, or MacOS, I had to roll my eyes.

I eventually had to meet with Blake and discussed more of the same, with regard to her needs to fulfill the requirements for a grant. I wish she would just stick with learning how to do the very fundamentals of her job instead of continually biting off more than she can chew.

Kim spent the entire day fretting about whether she would have to pay a deposit on utilities for the new house. I got pretty frustrated that she wouldn’t just shut up and get it done, and every time she called to talk to some poor representative over the phone, I had flashbacks of some of the worst customer interactions I had at the call center.

I left work a little bit late just because I had a hunch on unlocking an iPad that was brought to me quite a while back. I made it back to town quickly to feed the fish and load a trunk load from the old house. Then I went by Taco John’s for a bunch of tacos because Summer was home from work, and Eaddie was bringing someone over to study.

Summer and I finished eating before the girls got there, and then I’m not sure how much school work they completed between all the giggles. I Onewheeled over to my parents’ house in the dark to get some Liquid Wrench, but I wasn’t quite sure how well that would work either. I think the actual point where the parts are fused together may not be connected to the hole where the bolt goes.

After that, Eaddie took her friend home and things wound down pretty quickly. I played a couple days on Oxygen Not Included, and then dawdled until bedtime.

Hang ten?

Uncategorised

Crying Over Spilled Beer

It was cold and rainy all day, and I had to go back to work.

It was awful.

Casey’s has free coffee on Mondays right now, so that helped, but then a hard acceleration out of Dardanelle had me spill a little in the car.

At least it was a loaner.

I got to work pretty early, and things were fairly quiet. I spent a lot more time submitting purchase requests than I expected, and way more time trying to fix some broken PowerShell scripts than should have been necessary. One of them will run manually, but not from the Task Scheduler, and I still don’t know why.

Tomorrow, I’ll have to address a needy and incredibly unprepared teacher that is so far out of her depth, she’s only able to survive by clinging to thermal vents on the sea floor. I cannot believe she is paid more than the minimum teacher salary now.

The place was a ghost town by the time I left at four, and I drove home quickly in the rain. I fed the fish, grabbed my air shim, and headed home to try and pull the pulsator out of the washing machine. Summer made it home early after having dinner with both of the girls, and told me stories about all the ways Autumn is using the people around her, and how Gerald continues to enable her.

What a shit show.

I ate her Sumo leftovers mixed with some of our own from home, and then we watched some Young Sheldon until I spilled a little bit of beer on the carpet. I got the shampooer going and pulled some black water out of the carpet, showing just how important it is to regularly vacuum and mop the home.

Eaddie went to bed so early that I hardly realized she had gone. Then Summer went to bed and had to remind me that I have to do this all over again tomorrow.

1981 McGregor 25 ft sailboat – $5,000

Uncategorised

Three Weeks

I stopped at Casey’s for a free slice of breakfast pizza on the way to work, and it was delicious. I hate how expensive extra toppings are, but I guess if they weren’t, I’d be ordering a whole pizza per week to take to work. It was the last day of school before break, and you could tell there weren’t as many kids there. Several were exempt from tests, and even more checked out in the middle of the day. Kim disappeared for a while in the afternoon, I guess to peruse other peoples’ potlucks. I stayed fairly busy trying to clean up old work orders.

After work, I stopped by Casey’s again for a free Snicker’s before going to the old house to feed the fish. Then I headed home and had just a little bit of time to get changed and earn some tire-rash on the Onewheel before Summer got home. She brought some thin chicken breasts and asparagus for dinner, and then wanted me to come up with dinner. I threw it all in a pan with a bunch of Italianesque seasonings, and it turned out pretty decent for a relatively unfussy meal.

Summer wanted to work on her nails and watch TV in the sunroom, but said the TV wouldn’t load Netflix. I opened up Vudu instead, and we ended up watching the last half of The Martian, followed by the old musical Camelot. I don’t recall ever watching it in its entirety, though I do remember having a VHS tape in my youth. We watched about a third of it before finishing the rest from bed. Then I wrapped up and it was off to sleep.

So we’re just gonna lie about how much we’re working? What could go wrong?!

Uncategorised

Out of Bits

Eaddie found a ride to school today so I didn’t have to drop her off. I got my free vitaminwater from Casey’s and made it to work in time for Kim to fuss about people already looking for me. The frustrating part about that was the fact that she very easily, especially after this many years, could have taken care of the issue. None of it was difficult, but it did require enough ambition to open an application and read a few words.

They had semester tests, so the big ask for the morning was to modify the bell schedule. They extended lunches, which meant I actually missed the boat and barely grabbed some pizza as they were putting everything away. Just as I was going back to my office to eat, Kenny yelled from across the cafeteria that the internet was down.

It wasn’t the internet. It was every single switch, and they were entirely inaccessible. I restarted the UNC service on the controller VM, and eventually walked to the core closet to cycle power on at least five different switches. It made no sense, and only served to frustrate me further.

After work, I fed the fish and brought a couple big speakers to the new house. While I was cleaning them up, I pushed one across the floor and scratched the tile a bit in front of the old refrigerator. Oh well. Summer was working late, and Eaddie was helping at the middle school concert, so I tried to make a dent in some leftovers from before Thanksgiving. Ridiculous.

I spent the rest of the night relaxing to some music and a light show in the living room, in an otherwise dark house until the girls got home.

Floaty

Uncategorised

Cruise Control

Eaddie slowed me down getting out of the house this morning, and then I had to drop her off at the high school on the way to work. Since I was already late and traffic wasn’t helping, I stopped in at Casey’s for a free coffee before making my way into the county. It was quiet all day, and I tried my best to focus on cleaning up my Windows 11 image.

After work, I fed the fish and then beat everyone home. Summer made slow cooker chili in the morning before going to Little Rock, so I stirred it up and waited for her to get home from work. She wasn’t terribly late, but Eaddie was. The two of us ate, and then I put my Govee ambient light strips on the back of the living room TV. The effect was pretty impressive.

Once Eaddie got home, the girls both went to bed pretty early. I watched some TV for a while and just appreciated the ambiance, but then I made it to bed a little bit early as well.

I think this fridge is toast.

Uncategorised

Center for the Farts

I took Summer’s car to work today so she could keep mine in town. Casey’s had a free Reign Storm (ha), so I picked one up on the way to work and just accepted that I’d squeeze in a little bit late. It was more or less pretty quiet, with just a small group of kids doing some makeup testing in our office, followed by the usual lunch shenanigans. I was pretty scattered again, so it was a lot of meaningless accomplishments and nothing of any consequence was fixed.

Summer went home early with a headache, and got some new messages about reduced power and acceleration in my car, so we’ll tow it to Tulsa for a replacement high voltage battery. I guess I should be happy to rewind a year of degradation, but it doesn’t make me feel really great about the longevity of my car. I noticed Summer had a little dent in the back of hers when I got back home, apparently from trying to open the trunk while the garage door was shut. I almost made the same mistake once, so I couldn’t be too mad at her.

I fed the fish and picked up some tacos to take home for us. Then we went to the high school for Eaddie’s Christmas concert. Autumn spotted us as soon as we walked in and came over to our seats to talk at us. It was super awkward, and I imagined it was a little bit like how she still hangs out around the high school where others can’t just walk away from her.

The concert band was pretty bad, but it wasn’t until the symphonic band played that I realized how spoiled I was from listening to Eaddie’s elective concerts. It really is the difference between a group of really passionate, or at least dedicated musicians, and a public school band. There’s simply no comparison.

Eaddie went out with friends afterward, so Summer and I came home so she could go to bed. I was up a while, in part to try and get the old refrigerator running. I’m afraid the compressor may have finally bit the dust, which is frustrating to have happened after we finally got it situated in the laundry room. Oh well.

It’s obviously the product of favoritism, and not at all hard work.

Uncategorised

BMS_a035

I got an error message on the drive to work today, which said my car may not restart. Nothing appeared to be wrong, and I made it to work, but a quick Google indicated it could be anything from the high voltage system to the 12-volt battery. I parked close to the building in case I needed to run an extension cable out to charge something, and set up a service appointment once I got inside.

I really struggled to stay awake today, though I wasn’t particularly low on sleep. I was fairly concerned about my car, and I eventually received a message recommending that I have it towed to the Tulsa service center. I asked whether that would be covered by warranty, and a quick call to the roadside assistance number confirmed that it would be. He also said my car had been on for a really long time and had me restart my screen, though I don’t think that really had anything to do with my problem. I wasn’t even really sure that restarted anything but the screen computer.

Shortly after that, I got a call from the actual tow driver. He would be coming from Broken Arrow and could pick up the car the same evening, but after the reboot, my car wasn’t complaining about anything. Service said I should be fine to drive home as long as I had the range, but that I may have trouble charging. It wasn’t until I got back through Dardanelle that I got the error again, so I was hesitant to stop at Casey’s only to miss out on the freebie of the day. I made it to the old house without further incident, though it wouldn’t start charging the first time I tried. I unplugged and plugged in again, and it successfully started charging.

I had Summer pick me up so we could go to Cici’s for dinner. Then she dropped me back off with the car and I drove home to finish charging. It seems to be fine over short distances, but I figured I’d take her car to work in the morning until we can figure out how everyone will get to school or work after they take my car for service.

I ended up relaxing in a bath until the girls came home. Eaddie needed some energy to study, so I made her a milk-heavy latte and then settled in for bed.

Tough luck

Uncategorised

It’s Heavier Than You Think

I was early to work again this morning, so I had some time to ease into the day before I had to meet with the music department to help them figure out the audio mixer in the auditorium. I was a little annoyed that Eric was downstairs the entire time to direct the band, when the whole point was to show him how to work the machine. At least Kelsey was there, and had the benefit of a little bit of experience with the mixer.

Other than that, I did a bunch more reading and only a little bit of tinkering with my imaging process. I’m still leaning toward rolling out SCCM, even though they seem to be pushing Intune as the wave of the future.

After work, I grabbed some free gum at Casey’s, fed the fish, and then ran home to change so I could meet Suzanne and Trent at Ridgewood Brothers BBQ. Summer said she was tired and didn’t want to go, and Eaddie didn’t want to go with other people there.

Grant was out back and gave them a quick peek inside one of the smokers, and then we went in to eat. It was great food as always, and then Kevin texted as we finished up. Suzanne and Trent went to the house while I ran to Harbor Freight to meet Kevin. They used a forklift to get the tool chest into the truck, which had me a little bit worried about unloading it.

Trent came out to help once we got there, and then some stranger that was walking through the neighborhood stopped to help as well. He ended up dropping his corner, but fortunately the pallet was super sturdy and took all of the damage. We felt pretty stupid once we got it inside and found a ramp in one of the drawers that would have helped us take it off the pallet.

Kevin didn’t stick around, and Eaddie had left to spend time with friends, so it was just the four of us sipping drinks and playing Uno Flip as we shared stories. Trent made a birthday cake for Suzanne with lemon and blueberries, which was delicious. We had a great time, but they left a bit early to get back home before another big drive tomorrow.

Summer immediately went to bed and I loaded the expensive tool chest with a bunch of Great Value K-Cups of questionable coffee quality.

Pay attention.