Tag: work

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Depeared

The dogs were still here this morning, but Chani wasn’t feeling well and was hiding under the rose bush when I left for work. Eaddie came out throughout the day to try and pamper her, but I think whatever has her feeling bad will just have to run its course. Stilgar was pretty lethargic when I first picked them up, so I’m assuming they all just got sick at some point. We made sure to pour out any stagnant water, so we’ll see what happens.

It was another quiet day at work, and I mapped out all of my switches. I’m still trying to plan new VLANs, so it may be a little while before I’m ready to assign static IPs. I guess I could at least assign the ones that connect my core to DHCP, but I just don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Dad wanted help cutting down the Bradford pear tree at the old house, so I went straight home after fighting through the bunch of idiots on the bridge. One crash involving airbags, plus like six cars blocking the intersection was just too much stupidity for one day.

I checked on the dogs, and Muad’dib was returned to our back yard by the neighbor just after I came back inside to wash up. I thought I’d take one of them with us to cut down the tree, but after getting both of the boys into the truck, they mauled me in the driver’s seat and I just had to put them back in the yard. I picked up Dad and we made relatively short work of the tree. Evidently we got a new gas meter as a result of all the utility work in the area. Mom was home when we got back, and they decided that Dad would come to Arby’s with me for their 5 for $5 deal. We got our food and then I dropped Dad back off at home before I finally caught up with the girls.

They were back from their hair appointments, and Summer and I ate while Eaddie brought Chani inside to see if some cool quiet would help. She wouldn’t take any food, and would only stick her chin in some water before eventually going back outside. After Eaddie ate, the neighbor came over again with Muad’dib and I talked to her for a bit. None of us were sure who was responsible for the fence, but I’m not sure either of us care enough to do more than patch it for now.

I spent some time with the dogs, vented at Summer, watered some plants, and eventually went to bed.

Maybe baby pineapple?

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The Three Houndini

The dogs left again sometime between being fast asleep on the porch at three in the morning, and when I got up for work at five. Eaddie went out to look for them while I was in the shower, but didn’t have any luck. I made it to work a little bit early, but not nearly as early as I wanted. The morning went by pretty quickly, though I kept wanting to fall asleep. I hardly saw anyone all day, which was both good and bad.

Summer had dinner going, so I fed the fish and made it home. Neither she nor Eaddie ever saw the dogs, but I looked down and back up, and they were all three sitting on the porch. I had to assume they were in the neighbor’s yard.

Eli was with us all evening for sloppy joes, and then drove Eaddie to meet us at the dog wash again. Stilgar had stuff all over him, and I couldn’t tell what. On top of crusty stuff, he was full of stickers from the yard that wouldn’t come out. At least he smelled a bit better when we were done. The neighbor brought Muad’dib and Chani out of her back yard again when we got back, and Chani seemed a little more sluggish than before. She’s been pretty quiet, but it seemed worse. I’m sure they’ve been passing something around, or possibly getting sick from stagnant water.

I rode the Onewheel to my parents’ house to try and sew up some pants, but Dad didn’t have any grey thread and I just headed back home for the night. I wound down quickly so I could actually get to bed by ten.

Unrested

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Bad Spartacus

I got to work a little early today and was greeted in the parking lot by three puppies. One had bright blue eyes, save for one little pie slice of brown, so obviously he was Muad’dib. Chani was smaller and darker. Stilgar, though; Stilgar was scruffy. Someone mentioned that they were likely dumped there at the school, which was upsetting. They would occasionally try to come into the building, so they hung around the back doors all day.

I went in and cleaned up a little more. Then I took screenshots of the configuration for one of the switches I haven’t been able to reach in preparation for Ben’s visit. I had a plan. He arrived a little late for lunch, so we immediately left for the Junction Cafe where we had a couple burgers. His with brisket looked way better than mine with shrimp. It was odd. Not bad, but less than half the size of his.

After we ate, we headed back to the office and got his little computer to put on our network. He never got it fully working, but then as I was trying to configure switches, the second core switch restarted and then broke everything downstream. Hours later, we came to the conclusion that they were basically all screaming that they had the same IP address, and were unable to reach DHCP. Due to the arrangement of the core switch and those leading to the servers that hosted DHCP, they wouldn’t talk again until I finally pulled every last fiber connection out of the aggregation switches and left nothing but the core and a link from it to the servers.

We brought everything back online and then left. The dogs were still outside, and I was torn. I love the idea of having a well-trained dog for a pet, but I just don’t want animals around holding us back. On the other hand, people were leaving, and the dogs hadn’t moved all day. I sent one last picture to Summer, and she said (perhaps jokingly) to bring them home. I couldn’t ever get more than two into the Model Y at once just because they kept jumping out, so I decided not to risk any damage to her car.

I drove home, ate a couple slices of pizza, and changed before taking the Pathfinder back to the school. I had to stop at Casey’s for some gas, and then made it without incident. They weren’t there. I walked around the back dock area where they had been all day, and they weren’t anywhere to be seen. Then I figured I should check by the fieldhouse just to make sure they hadn’t followed where people were gathered. That was when I saw one of them out in the grass. Usul. Then another. Stilgar. I struggled to get them into the trunk where I had laid out a tarp. Chani was nowhere to be found. I called for her, but nothing. I finally gave up and drove back to the building to wash my hands for the drive home. That was when she came running up to the car, from who-knows where. She resisted, but we finally got everyone loaded up.

The drive home was reasonably quiet. They were super active at first, but they settled down within just a couple miles, and by the time we got through Ola, they were all laying down in the back. Someone did something to cause a couple yelps, but otherwise they were completely silent. I got home and pulled into the driveway right behind Summer as she got home from work. Eaddie and Eli were inside already. As Summer approached, I opened the hatch for the big reveal. Everyone hopped down gently on their own, and then followed me obediently into the back yard. Maybe it was thirst or hunger, but they really were perfectly behaved.

I took the kids to Walmart while Summer played with the dogs on the porch. They needed some lunch supplies, and we got some dog food and treats. I decided to pick up a few groceries as well, and then we headed home. The dogs got really physically rowdy when the food came out, so that was a challenge. I ended up just making three piles on the ground for them to eat. Then they each gently took a treat and I left them to entertain the kids so I could go inside, cool off, and dry out.

Twice today, I asked myself how I got into this mess. I guess it could be messier.

Good dog.

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Ground Beef Week

I was super groggy again this morning after taking nighttime medicine. I knew better, but I just felt so gross last night. I did manage to make it to work on time, since the traffic hasn’t been bad now that school is out. It was another quiet day all to myself, and I spent nearly all of it cleaning the office. I figured out a stupid imaging problem I had, because I had disabled a step in the task sequence that was causing trouble previously. That allowed me to set up a “guest” workstation for new teacher setup and the like.

The cafeteria has been on a hamburger meat kick, with burritos on Monday, tacos on Tuesday, and Frito chili pies today. I doubt we’re having actual hamburgers tomorrow, because I’ll bet that’s too much work for the small number of people they’re feeding.

Ben called at the end of the day to check in and confirm he’d be coming to visit tomorrow. We chatted for a little bit as I packed up to head home. The girls were hungry, so I picked up some Domino’s after I fed the fish. Just as we sat down to eat, someone knocked on the door wanting to sell us a security system. Summer struggled to turn him away, and now I’ll be worried he’ll rob us.

After dinner, Eaddie and I watched an episode of Better Call Saul before bed. She was struggling with a head cold as well, so I guess it’s just going around.

S’all good, man.

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Summer School Burnout

It was only the second day of summer school, and I was over it. I think we only had under a dozen kids in for the summer, so the motion-sensing lights are off in the hallways for most of the day. I did manage to get some lunch this time since Becky prompted me around 11:30. That helped, but the afternoon still dragged on.

I was reasonably accomplished with some tasks of lesser importance. I took out some trash and just tinkered all day. There’s really a long list of apps I need to compile to comply with new laws, but that just doesn’t sound fun.

I ended up staying late so I could take Friday off. There’s no way they’ll need me then anyway, so there’s no sense in working five days. The drive home was pretty quiet, and southbound traffic was backed up once again. I couldn’t imagine having to wait that long to get back into Dardanelle, but there’s just no better way.

After feeding the fish, I was going to go see Summer, but there was a wreck blocking my intersection and I just went home instead. I rode the Onewheel to my parents’ house and ate some leftovers with them. Then I ran home to get a little jar of cat food to give to Dad. On the way back to their house, a couple kids stopped to ask about the Onewheel, and I let one of them try it. He didn’t stay on long at all before jumping off.

Once Summer got off, we dropped the Model Y off at the high school for Eaddie. She wouldn’t be home until super late, so rather than wake up and bring her home, we figured she’ll have her phone and can get home herself. Once we got back home, I doped up to try and sleep through my congestion, and it was off to bed.

They don’t know what they’ve got.

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unPlugins

I must have been determined to have a bad day today. I woke up groggy, but at least I didn’t keep trying to fall back asleep. I still ran behind though, and traffic over the Dardanelle bridge was down to one lane, so I was about 10 minutes late. Nobody noticed, because even the principals were there in basketball shorts. That’s just what we’re working with out there in the county.

I stumbled upon a strange issue with accessing my virtual machines, which led me to believe there was a networking issue somewhere. I spent a while in the core closet, then gave up for a while and came back to the office where I had a cup of cereal. After I cleaned my cup, I accidentally tapped the edge of my watch against the bottom of the mug, so now there’s a tiny little chip, and though it’s not terribly noticeable, I’ll know it’s there forever.

I missed lunch because it looked like only three kids were there. Surely there were more, but I just heard no noise anywhere. I ended up having a bowl of ramen with some frozen peppers. Later in the afternoon I discovered my server problem was two loose power cables in the back of the management switch. Half of the switch was just not powered on at all.

At the end of the day, I decided to call Optimum to try and cancel service. They immediately offered service for $40 per month. One hold session later, I was also offered three months free. Finally I was put on hold to be transferred to an employee that could actually cancel my plan, and the call was dropped.

I headed home and found southbound traffic backed up from the 2nd Street light in Dardanelle, over the bridge, and all the way up past Atwood’s in Russellville. Lucky for me, I commute the stupid direction and live in the more expensive area. I fed the fish and then headed home where Summer was making a meatloaf for dinner.

I called Optimum again, waited on hold for half an hour, and finally got someone to cancel my service. The meatloaf had to go back in for some additional time, but we eventually had dinner. Then we watched Everything Everywhere All at Once. Summer seemed entertained, but it was weird. I really enjoyed it, but then it was time to rush to bed.

I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.

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Boys Club Movies

Summer still had to go to Conway to pick up stuff for work, so we decided to rush there to catch a movie as well. I got tickets for IF, as well as a couple coupons for Kohl’s and Shoe Carnival, and we were off. I let her drive so I could plot the most efficient course along the way, and we ended up at Kohl’s first. They didn’t have anything that I really wanted, so I picked up another bath mat instead.

We had some time left on the Shoe Carnival coupon, but not so much time before the movie, so I got us to Splash first. Summer ran in to do her thing, and then we got to the theater with plenty of time for snacks. I got irritated by the lady that jumped ahead of us in line so she could order for her seven hundred million people, and then found them in the same auditorium as us, but fortunately their kids were quiet.

The trailers didn’t really give away any important plot details, so the first part of the movie was a bit of fresh story, and I wasn’t really sure where it was going. I found the reveals to be predictable, but otherwise it was a fun, sweet, feel-good movie. We really enjoyed it.

Dad started grilling pork chops as we were driving home, and we made it to their house just in time to set the table. Julie and Kevin came over a little later, but just visited and then took food to go. Julie misread my response to her vacation offer the other day, so we won’t be going to the beach on Labor Day, but I also didn’t get the new job I was anticipating, so it’s just as well.

Summer really wanted to get home to finish up some yard work, so we got home with a little bit of daylight left. I got some more laundry done, and before I knew it, I was two hours late to bed.

Oh, to be a star.

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The Hunt Continues

It was pouring down rain this morning, and I really struggled to wake up. I just didn’t get nearly enough sleep, and I rolled into work a bit late. Still, nobody should have cared, and I had my timecard for the week filled up. Denice showed up for a little while, and I left the office to rewire the library cart that was an absolute wreck. I left work around lunch time, and there were only a couple other cars left.

I fed the fish and then stopped by the wash to see Summer. She took her car and I took the Pathfinder home and got Eaddie so we could go to New China for lunch. I got a call from Joel at Bitec letting me know that they went with one of their other candidates, so now I have no prospects for the time being.

After we ate, we came back home and Summer and I both got super sleepy. She napped for a while, and I dozed off watching some YouTube, so I gave up and snoozed a bit on the couch. I slowly felt more and more sick in the throat from either sinus drainage or possibly from snoring, though I don’t remember falling asleep that hard.

Eventually Eaddie got to a point where she wanted to watch Better Call Saul, so we watched one episode before she had to finish packing for her band trip. Summer helped her with that, and then we all went to get Eli and drop them off at the high school.

Once we got home for the night, Summer went to bed. I applied for a remote job that looked pretty good, and was ready to pass out myself.

A sense of humor, you say?

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I Found the Problem

I took the Onewheel to work again today so I could ride down the hallway to scan Chromebooks into inventory and lock up carts. We only had one room that was still missing a device, so I emailed Josh as the principal and Blake as my own direct report to find out whether he actually received an end-of-year checklist from the teacher. His response was a shocking and curt “it doesn’t matter,” which I think was his way of saying that it wasn’t any of my business. I shot back my own reply as professionally as I could, and we went back and forth for a bit before I ultimately walked into Blake’s office, who hadn’t actually read any of it by then. Possibly even more shocking was his reaction that it was just “his personality” and that I should see some of the emails he gets from him. In the end, there probably won’t really be a resolution, but at least I have my paperwork in order. It becomes more clear every day that their problems are absolutely systemic.

Becky invited me to the FACS kitchen for lunch where they had some slow cooker chili and some boiled hot dogs. It was an awesome lunch in its own right, but doubly so when compared to the old ramen I had stowed in my desk drawer.

I worked until my laptop died, and then decided not to work too late since I should probably be on-site the next day anyway. I don’t know if anyone else will be there for very long, but I figure I’ll be able to slip out pretty early. I chatted with Gary for a bit just before then, and we decided we’d meet up at Ridgewood Brothers for dinner.

I ran home to feed the fish first, and then I was going to see Summer at work, but in that moment she texted to say that she was already home. I spotted a plate-sized turtle walking along the road, seemingly unable to hop the curb, so I turned around to give him a lift into the grass before finally making it to the house where Eli and the girls were sitting in the living room watching gymnastics.

I changed clothes and met Gary at the restaurant where he was already chatting with Robert. He had a whole lot to say, and it was clear those guys just needed a break. I wish they’d just accept the free conversation with Summer about how to grow some positivity in their staff. She struggles too, but I think she could bring them some wisdom and experience. We eventually got in to eat, and then Grant showed up to close shop as Robert was leaving. He seemed to be doing a bit better, but they’re both just so tired.

We chatted for quite a while and then I headed back home to find them in the same spots watching the same gymnastics. I went outside to clean up a server I brought over from the old house, and then came in to hang out for a while. I forgot that I had to do some laundry, so I didn’t get it started until late, but I eventually made it to bed.

He’s right there.

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Biscuit Bitec Boat Check Boot

I considered working a partial day today, but my headache from last night carried over and I figured I had days to burn. I got Summer up so we could grab some Hardee’s for breakfast, but by the time we both got there and got the food, I was worried about making it to Morrilton in time. Summer took her chicken biscuit and I ate mine on the drive.

The interstate was more boring than a drive through the county, but speed and distance work out to about the same commute, minus stupid Dardanelle and school traffic. I arrived with enough time to spend a few minutes in the holding area before I met with Joel and David.

The interview itself was much more conversational than I expected. I anticipated at least some questions, but I think it really was just getting to know each other and getting a feel for culture fit. Everyone there seemed pretty relaxed, and the few interactions I saw seemed really pleasant. It’s almost odd to me coming into a place with people that know some of the stuff that I do, especially when it’s not really their primary job function. We talked a bit more about future plans, and then I got to take a short tour of the plant. Overall I thought it went pretty well.

When I got back to town, I stopped to see Summer at the wash, and she still looked pretty sick. I headed home and she left work a little later. When Eaddie was done with school stuff, we checked her out early so we could go to the DMV and register the Pathfinder. While we were there, I remembered that I had my boat registration at home, which couldn’t be done online. I raced to get it so we could take care of everything in one trip, but then realized I needed a picture of the hull identification tag. This was strange to me since last time they made me get a new one because they wouldn’t accept the original 4-digit tag. I called Dad and had him take some pictures for me, though I was just able to find my old pictures at almost exactly the same moment. Ultimately, I was told that they actually reverted that rule and could have accepted the old ID if we hadn’t already gotten a new one.

The girls were hungry after that, so we ran by the bank and then stopped at Foodie’s for a late lunch or early dinner. I was super disappointed in my burger, which looked awesome in the picture. The girls liked their gyros alright, but Eaddie thought her lamb was too tender and we ended up splitting our meals in half and swapping.

We were going to go shopping for snacks for Eaddie’s trip, but decided to just go home and start packing her stuff instead. We already had a bunch of snacks stockpiled anyway, so we figured she could pick from that first. I rode the Onewheel to see my parents, but they weren’t home, so I came back and waited for Eaddie to finish so we could go clean up the Pathfinder.

We went to the wash and did a quick detail of everything inside. Then we used the cleaner and some elbow grease to get some of the sap off of the hood and front bumper. The car was nearly unrecognizable afterward. I think Eaddie was the most surprised, and she actually got excited about it for the first time. From there, we ran by the old house to pick up some stuff, and then by my parents’ house to see if she left her swimsuit there last season.

We eventually made it back home and got settled in for the night. It was a long, and mostly sticky/humid day, and the bed had been calling my name for some time.

That seems like an awful lot of money split that many ways. Somebody’s getting rich.