Keyless Entry

My shower kept swinging between scalding and cold water for some reason. I would make incredibly tiny adjustments and wait for a while, and eventually the temperature would shift suddenly. I managed to get through it though, and went to the old house to finish getting ready for work. I was just early enough to stop for a McMuffin, but when I got to work I realized I forgot my keys at home.

It was a reasonably quiet day, and I actually got to accomplish a couple things. I’m still falling behind in work orders, but maybe I’ll catch up by Christmas. Near the end of the day, the superintendent came into my office to borrow the Newline display cart. They were having an ASBA meeting with school board members around the area, and I kind of wanted to stick around to see if anyone from Russellville would show up, or if they were too good for that.

Summer wanted me to stop by and see her at Splash when I got back to town, so I did that briefly, and then went to Arby’s a couple of times to get all of my order. I took food to Summer and then went home to eat and charge for a while.

Eventually I started loading up some things to take to the new house, and then started picking up a little bit when I got there. Summer wasn’t long behind me, and then Eaddie got home from helping at a football game shortly after that. The microwave quit working on Eaddie, so I’ll probably have to check out some replacement switches for it pretty soon. I guess I can do that at the same time I’m fixing the refrigerator.

Inthinuation

Zero Productivity

I was early to work today, but that was about as good as it got. I pretty quickly got sucked into doing other peoples’ jobs. The one task I set out to do for myself ended up breaking a switch again, so I had to factory reset it. Fortunately that didn’t take down the entire network like what happened on Monday.

People keep calling or stopping in, which is throwing off my flow too. At least Denice wasn’t there for most of the day, but being cramped in half as much space has also made things more frustrating. I’ve just been having a bad time overall.

I tried watching the Pixel launch event, but struggled with that too. I ended up ordering a new phone and watch since my S21 Ultra has been on the struggle bus for a while now with its battery. I guess two and a half years is about the best I can hope for these days.

I thought I might sneak out a little early, but somehow still ended up a little late instead. The stupid kids hit my car with a basketball again, and it infuriates me that the teacher just sits there rocking in his chair the whole time. There’s still no damage, but I don’t want any more scuffs or dents. They just don’t respect peoples things.

Summer made dinner, so I ran home to change, stopped at my parents’ house for some moving boxes and eggs, and then made it to the new house for dinner. Afterward, I tried showing Summer how to load the dishwasher better, took care of my plants outside, cleaned up in the bathroom, and tried removing some more screws from the stupid extra cabinets in the laundry room. I still have one super stubborn screw to get out of one side, and then possibly more on the other side before we can take that thing out. Once we do, we should have plenty more room for the spare refrigerator.

Down the review rabbit hole.

Could Should

I went home for my shower this morning and let my car charge for a bit. I was early for work, but then ran into directed traffic at the Scenic 7 junction, so I just showed up on time. I wasn’t too worried about the aftermath of yesterday’s snafu, but we did have a couple wireless shots that went down. Luckily a power cycle fixed those issues, but in reality, at least one of those should be a fiber run anyway. I don’t really know what else I even got into. I rearranged my desk a little bit more because it was super cramped where I was sitting. The front of that office simply isn’t big enough, and I’m mad about it. I’m trying to give them a fair shake, and Denice has been nice enough for what it’s worth.

Lunch was mid with a side of chips, but at least it was filling. I went home a little bit late just because I was busy catching up on a bunch of crap. It’s so hard to juggle everything I have to do, and by the time we’ll be slow enough for me to actually accomplish things, I don’t think I’ll care enough.

I spent a little time at home before meeting Julie and Kevin at my parents’ house to cover the pool. I hated to see it go, but this is just the way of our summers. Underutilized and undervalued. Afterward, we all sat down to eat some leftovers, and then I left to wash my car and then meet Eaddie at my house to try and dispose of an old mattress that wasn’t picked up for bulk pickup week. Unfortunately it wouldn’t fit into the Murano, so we left it in the garage as not to get wet in the eventual rain.

I finally made it to the new house late, and Summer was in a quiet mood. I tinkered for just a short bit, and then it was off to bed.

Cold Shold

Consoling

After being late yesterday, I was actually really early today. I backtracked to Wendy’s for breakfast this time, and still made it to work several minutes early. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to get any work done, all to focus on moving things out of my office and into the front office with Kim. I started by moving some things around in our storage room, and I think I might have a reasonable plan for how to make the storage more easily accessible.

I skipped out on lunch because ham and cheese wraps sounded awful. I survived on coffee and lemonade and stayed an hour late until I got almost everything out. There was still one set of cabinets with some toner in them, but I don’t even know what they went to, so I figured that can be a problem for Monday.

We decided to keep the television console, so I queued Kevin up again. I thought he was going to be later than he was, so I started to go get some food. He texted me just as I left the house, so I turned around and went to the new house to pick up my straps. As soon as I got there, I realized the girls never took them out of the Murano after they unloaded, so I had to go back to the high school to get them while Eaddie was at a football game. I met Kevin at his place since I was already right by him, and we took his truck to get the console.

The power was already shut off, so we were working in the pitch black. Somehow we managed to get it loaded onto the truck, and I grabbed the lawn mower as well. There were still a few small things to get that Summer didn’t grab, but I figured that would wait until the next day. We got the console and mower to the new house, and then Kevin took me back to my car.

I finally stopped at Arby’s for some dinner, just as it approached bedtime. I’ve been a constant state of exhaustion, and the Big Game Burger I got was kind of a disappointment. Summer was up and mentioned a centipede in the bathroom, but all she did was cover it with a towel and surround it with shoes, hoping it wouldn’t get away. Then she got confused about what kind of bug it was. In fact, it was a centipede, and we were lucky it didn’t crawl away. I dispatched it and then took a shower, taking time to clean a whole bunch of gunk out of the crevices while I was in there. Of course water went everywhere outside of the shower while I did that, so I had to suck that up with the Bissell too. It was super nasty.

Frustrated yet again, I struggled to get to bed for the night. It wasn’t entirely fair, nor was it entirely unfounded. It feels like another week gone by, and not much closer to feeling like home.

It’s just not my year.

You Don’t Have to Go Home

Somehow I lost track of time this morning after staying at the new house, so I was 15 minutes late to work today. I didn’t really accomplish anything again, because I was preoccupied with moving stuff out of my office. I still can’t believe they’re just fine with cutting my space in half. It would be a résumé-generating event if I hadn’t just updated it already.

Overall the day went by pretty quickly, especially the morning. There’s still a lot to move tomorrow, and if nothing else gets done, oh well. I messaged Kevin on the way home to see if he would be up for helping me move the last of the big stuff from Summer’s old house, and he said he could later in the evening.

I stopped at Casey’s for some free M&Ms before going home for a little while to charge. Then I stopped by my parents’ house for some phở for dinner before going to the new house to find Summer ready to settle in for the night. I motivated her to go to the old house with me so we could prep for Kevin, and Eaddie went to a Tech band concert.

We finally got Summer’s bed apart after taking out way more screws than were required. I honestly don’t even know if we’ll be able to put it back together properly. It’s going to be well and truly rigged at this point. The whole thing was really just supposed to slide apart.

Kevin showed up and helped me take two loads to the new house. We got the washer, dryer, and bed the first trip. Then Summer stayed home while Kevin and I got the deep freeze, kitchen table, and a couple other random things. Summer will have to go back for a little more, but unless we decide we want to bring a couple more cabinets home, we’re done. I just wish she had listed them for free so they could go somewhere useful.

After Kevin left, I hopped in to try the shower to get some of the sweat off of me, and I’m pretty sure it took a couple layers of skin. It felt like I was drowning the entire time, and there was no way to adjust the water pressure down. It was so high-pressure that it was difficult to change the spray pattern.

Eaddie and I chatted for a little bit while I did my stuff on the computer, and then I did my best to squeak into bed by midnight.

But you can’t stay here.

Eviction Notice

I had a fairly rough night and morning, and woke up hungry, so I stopped at McDonald’s for an Egg McMuffin. The first thing I did at work was assemble another Chromebook cart for our own use, so I could give the one we were using to the library for checkout devices. It wasn’t much later that I received an email from the assistant superintendent that the superintendent’s wife would be needing my office next week, and that I needed to get things moved.

The front of the office looks better now, but there simply won’t be enough room there for everything we have to spread out at different times of the year. Time will tell, I suppose. We had a plate of mushy “tater tot casserole” for lunch, and some guys came to install more security cameras without anyone’s knowledge.

I left a little bit late and ran to the new house to meet John so he could quote me on another Wall Connector install. He suggested we might want to update the panel as well, so we may be looking at around $2,500 for that, plus another $1,500 for the charger. We don’t have time to dawdle, but we also still have to get the last of Summer’s stuff moved, and some drywall guys in to fix the ceiling. Nevermind actually having furniture.

After he left, I cleaned up a little bit outside and sprayed some bug killer after I found a huge trial of ants leading up the deck and across the side of the house. They were on a mission to get somewhere, and I wasn’t going to have it.

Once Summer got home, I replaced her shower head, and then spent the rest of the night feeling incredibly uncomfortable in the dining room. I just didn’t want to be there.

There’s no place like home.

Regrounding

I slept reasonably well last night in the new house, but it was still a hassle to go home in the morning. I was reasonably early for work, and the cafeteria lunch menu didn’t sound very appealing for most of the week, so I stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast. Nothing remarkable happened at work, and things were mostly pretty quiet. I still kind of feel like a temporary guest there most of the time, and I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.

The electrician finally made it out to the house, so I had Summer meet him there to test charging. The breaker never tripped, but evidently he tightened some ground wires while he was there. I’ll have to get my tools from the new house to see if that fixed the floating ground issue I had elsewhere in the house.

After work, I met Summer at the high school for parent-teacher conferences. The atmosphere there seemed to be about what I expected with the current regime. I’d love to take a survey to see if anyone has anything nice to say.

When we finished, I got tacos and went home. Summer didn’t want to get back out to help me with bulk item pickup after she got to the new house, so I just ended up staying home for the night.

Disapproval Ratings

New Digs, Who Dis

I very nearly called in to work today because I was still in so much pain from moving yesterday. Even driving in to work was a struggle, but I felt better after some coffee at my desk. Kim wasn’t much use to anyone today, and she wasn’t ashamed about it. She didn’t feel the need to be there if the kids weren’t, but there were still work orders that could have been closed.

Todd said Harry called him over the weekend with some trouble with his PlayStation and the internet. Since the school pays for the superintendent’s house and internet, I guess that’s my job. It really seemed like we had a rogue DHCP server somewhere after the trouble I had last week, but I didn’t have much luck finding it. I spent all day learning about that stuff, but still didn’t feel accomplished in anything.

I was pretty hungry by quitting time, so I ran home and finished my hot wings. Then Mom and Dad came over to look at my drippy refrigerator water line. We went next door briefly so Mom could look through Bác Vân’s stuff, and then we met the girls at Morelos for dinner.

The serving sizes were awesome, but the food was super salty. We ate, and then I went with the girls to the car wash, and then Walmart for a shower curtain for Eaddie. When we left there, we stopped by the old house to get a couple of things, and then they dropped me back at my house to get a couple more things.

I met them at the new house and tried to get a few things done before bed. Summer helped me move the grills around outside, I fixed the refrigerator shelving and messed with the shower in the master bath. Then I realized I didn’t have a laptop to take care of the blog. Summer had hers in the car, so I made do.

Floor bed

House Toad

As I was heading out the door, I noticed a little toad stuck in a sticky bug trap. I don’t have a clue how he got into the house in the first place. I get them in the garage occasionally, but this little guy was inside the laundry room. I got him out with some vegetable oil spray, and hopefully he’ll survive after I put him back outside.

Committed to showing up late to work, I stopped at Taco John’s for some breakfast to eat along the way. It was quiet in the office again, and I wasn’t having much luck staying focused. The big exciting thing of the day was when a security camera stole the IP of my virtualization server. Every day it’s something new. Fortunately I was able to track down the switch port of the camera, and shutting that down resolved my issue. I’ll wait until somebody complains to do anything more with the camera.

I skipped lunch because the “sloppy joes” didn’t look very sloppy or edible. Johnny called for some help with GoGuardian, and I tried to point him in a direction. It was tough not to just leave early, but I made it to the end of the day.

I changed and picked up some Hardee’s for a quick bite with Summer before getting into carpets again. She had been moving stuff for most of the day, so she was already tired. Our new Optimum router came in, so I got the internet going, and then I finished shampooing the rest of the master bedroom. Hopefully it’ll be dry enough to move some things in this weekend.

It was pretty late when I got up to Summer’s house. Eaddie stayed at the new house since her bed was cleared off again. The old house is feeling pretty empty except for a bunch of big stuff we need to move. I originally wanted to rent a box truck, but now I’m not sure it will be much help on account of how steep the new driveway is.

STROKE! STROKE! STROKE! STROKE!

Let’s Review

I was a shut-in at work again today, stuck in my seat, trying to figure out why I couldn’t adopt our gateway router. Out of nowhere, I got a call from someone at the Department of Information Systems about a support ticket they still had open from January. He indicated our link protocol was still dropping, and wanted to know if we noticed anything. I shared how broken things have been, and welcomed the help.

I also got a call from Jay, the Executive Sales Director at TCW, regarding the review I left them last night. He apologized and offered to refund the money, and even offered a free month of service if I wanted to give them a shot. I felt much better after that conversation, and after hearing that they could offer synchronous gigabit service for the same price I got from Optimum, I’ll really consider switching. Being a smaller company, I think their terms were just a little half-baked, but Jay indicated that I’d be welcome to talk to the engineering team, and that they could work with me on just about anything I needed.

After work, I went home to charge for just a little bit before going to the new house. I took the housewarming gift to The UPS Store for return, stopped at Wendy’s for a quick bite, and then got to work on carpets again. All total, I’ve finished about two thirds of the master bedroom, so I should be able to completely finish it tomorrow, in time to move some furniture this weekend. I’m less worried about the living room since we don’t know what furniture we’re moving in yet, plus we still have ceiling drywall work to be done.

I eventually made it up to Summer’s, just before Eaddie did. She came and sat with me for a bit when she got home, and shared some fight videos from school. I know they had a pretty rough class coming up, so I guess they’re here now.

Rereview