Tag: work

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So Long, and Thanks for All the Carbs

Today was Josh’s last day, so we had a bit of a long meeting to socialize before everyone split off. Once that happened, Kyle asked me for help on a one-person job. I had my own things to tend to, so he okayed delaying that until Monday when the kids are out. I actually did a fair job of keeping busy for the rest of the morning, even finishing up some things at Dwight before making it back for lunch.

Just as I got back to the shop, Tammy was walking out to pick up Pasta Grill for lunch. I rode along with her, and then the whole crew got together to eat. Travis missed out on account of some unexplained intercom issues at Oakland, but made it back for some leftovers after everyone else had split off.

The remainder of the workday just creeped by. I went across the street for some ice and talked to Kayla for a little bit, but otherwise it seemed like several of us were just riding out the clock. I ended up taking the leftovers home, but there was hardly enough for a couple people left.

I went home and tended to the shrimp for a bit, and eventually made it up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie wanted to watch TV, so after she finished baking brownies and Summer ate some food, we watched one episode of Umbrella Academy. Then everyone was off to bed, because the girls had all-region in the morning. Summer hadn’t felt well all afternoon, so she went straight to bed. I still had heartburn and indigestion from lunch, so I struggled to settle down for the evening. I burned so much time tending to frosty survivors on my phone.

Of course I overpaid.

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Savory Pie

Today was one of my busier days at work. Josh is on his way out this week, so Greg has been taking care of the junior high. I’m a little surprised nobody has asked more of me, but I’ve had enough random questions come through to keep me busy. I actually didn’t get out of the office until lunch, when several of us went to Quiznos. I spent quite a bit of time at Dwight in the afternoon, up until the end of the school day.

After work, I went home for just a little bit until Eaddie was done at Robotics. Summer made it home early and surprised us with dinner, which was a shepherd’s pie after our conversation about my unusual preference for sweet breads and savory pies.

Autumn was actually at the dinner table working on homework when Eaddie and I arrived. Then Eaddie worked on homework after we ate. It was a quiet evening after that, and I did my best to keep a reasonable bedtime.

Ground will be the death of me.

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Uncountability

The junior high started actual testing this morning, and of course it was a cluster just as it always is. Instead of holding students accountable for bringing charged devices to school, they just sent any kid with any inkling of a problem to the library. It wasn’t as many kids as yesterday, but it was still a lot, just sitting around and socializing instead of doing their tests. Josh was there with me to help Jacob, but we weren’t needed for very long. I stopped by Dwight on my way back to the office, but that was a short visit.

It was quiet in the office until we left for lunch. I was thinking Arby’s, but I was mildly disappointed by the spicy roast beef. It was a quick lunch, so we made it back to the office a little bit early.

I decided to take care of the road sign, but I had to run to the high school to borrow Jacob’s Allen wrench. Then I walked around the building with an eight foot ladder and called tech support from the top of it. Swapping panels for troubleshooting was relatively easy, and we’ll have a replacement part on the way.

After work, I went by Oakland to give Sheri her laptop back. She paid me double what we agreed, but I didn’t notice until after she wandered off on a phone call. I took Stephen for a quick ride down the road, and he was super excited for that. Then I continued home to start some laundry.

Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for the evening, but everyone was in their rooms. I finished up a bit slower than I wanted, but made it to bed at a reasonable time.

Reasonablish

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LGBTQIAPSATNMSQT

Gary sent me to the junior high first thing today to help Jacob with some pre-test-testing. I hadn’t realized that this was one of the testing platforms that would be affected by GoGuardian, so I had to push a Group Policy update at the last minute, and then of course we had loads of students that didn’t have software installed, or hadn’t received the policy update yet. It was nice to get to chill out in the library, but it also reminded me of all the things I didn’t like about being over there.

I made it back to the shop just in time to pick up half of the crew that was going to La Chiquita for lunch. I parked next to a Plaid Model X, which is a car that always surprises me by how small and short it is for an SUV. After lunch, I made it over to Dwight for a bit, and then took Ian for a ride around the block. Then I mostly hid out for the rest of the afternoon.

Karen sent out the CPPC Minutes, and I received a few comments about how boring they were in comparison. Maybe next month’s superintendent will appreciate having a personality, but for now I guess I’ll either lay low or move along.

I had to get Eaddie from her private lessons after work. She also had a meeting in the evening about her PSAT score, so I took her home to eat before we picked up Summer at Superfast to go to the high school. They’re offering multiple opportunities for tutoring so she will have the best chance of earning a National Merit Scholarship.

Once the meeting was over and I dropped the girls off at their car, I went to the car wash to clean mine. Then I took the long way home to dry it off before parking and taking the Montego up to the girls. They were mostly wound down, and I never once saw Autumn out of her room. I just did my best to get to bed on time.

I seriously cannot possibly care any more.

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I Heard a Rumor

Today went by fairly quickly compared to the rest of the week, which was technically short, but felt really long. We had a pretty chill meeting in the morning, and then I sat in the dark for most of the morning until lunch time. Several of us went to Freddy’s and ate in relative quiet until we got back to the office.

Greg helped me look at the Gardner sign after lunch, and then I spent the end of the school day at Dwight. Karen said her lunch with Ginni went well, and that she admitted after some thought that the school newsletter was focused primarily on certified staff. I keep feeling like I could have a much better one-on-one relationship with her than our public interactions ever go. In any case, I finally made it back to the shop for a collaborative Net+ practice test with Greg, Gary, and Thomas to end the day.

I went by my parents’ house after work to drop off some paperwork, but had to run home to change so I could make it up to Summer’s for dinner. She made a pork chop dinner and we all sat down to eat together for the first time in quite a while. Then Eaddie and I spent the rest of the evening watching The Umbrella Academy until bedtime.

Resourceless.

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That’s Jefe, Man!

Gary came by my office first thing and asked Kyle and me to go help Jeff at the middle school since he had gotten several new tickets while he was out for jury duty. I got to swing by choir to see Marky Mark, and then fixed a display issue for Beth before going back up the hallway to help some teachers I didn’t know. I wrapped up by fixing a printer for Sara in the office, and then went back to the shop.

I got pretty hungry pretty early, so Gary and I thought we’d leave for lunch a little early. We thought Thomas was gone, but he was actually there and went with us to Sam’s. The gumbo was awesome, and it looked like they had elevated its presentation by quite a bit. Thomas ended up paying, which was a surprise treat.

The afternoon was dark and quiet in my office, and I ended the day at Dwight again. Once I finished up, I stopped by the carwash to see Summer, who was mostly stressed, or a little frazzled from the day. They had a bunch of leftover chicken fried rice from Umami, so I had a plate of that before I picked Eaddie up from robotics.

Eaddie was hungry but didn’t know what she wanted. We thought we’d go by my house to hang out for a bit, but then I mentioned Ridgewood and her eyes lit up. I took her across town and we shared a tray with a small assortment. Robert had the evening off, so it was all new folks running the counter. We got to visit with Grant in the back for a bit though.

We ran back by my house to trade vehicles, and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She wanted me to make her a stiff drink, and then complained about how strong it was. It was an early night to bed for everyone.

It’s the Quitting phase!

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Surrounded by Imbeciles

I was relatively calm this morning, for all the anxiety I had leading up to today. Maybe I was distracted by the fact that my car didn’t recognize me when I was ready to leave the house, and I had to use my physical key card to get to work. Two more work orders came in for the same issue I diagnosed at Dwight yesterday afternoon, so I ran a power supply over there first thing. Then I grabbed some donuts for our CPPC meeting and killed a few minutes with the folks at the Transportation office. I gave Frankie a ride down the block, and then I was told that I was officiating the meeting.

I was actually a little annoyed that Karen told me she had asked Janie to do it, because I figured as the only other elected officer on the committee, it should naturally fall to me. Then I was annoyed when Janie said she hadn’t heard anything of the sort, and that I was supposed to do it. We got things kicked off though, and sped through most of the meeting until we got to the part about the newsletter. Of course Ginni and Jeff walked in super late, and she acted completely ignorant about why I was even mentioning the idea. If I had been better at thinking on my feet, I would have used her own tactic against her and pointedly ask if she had specific questions about what was written on the agenda. I would give anything to shut the idiots up, and have the more intelligent folks in the room say anything at all, but that’s just not how it works there, and I’m sick of it.

It was tough to get motivated the rest of the day. I started to skip lunch until Gary showed up to find a food buddy. He took me to Wendy’s and we ate in relatively awkward quiet. Then after a while I ran to the maintenance office with him just to get out of the basement for a bit.

After work, I stopped by Ridgewood Brothers to see what the guys were up to. I guess one of their friends/fans had brought a turkey leg for everyone to try, so they offered me a bite of that. Then I gave like five of those guys rides up the road in the Tesla. One of the guys on the first trip to PDQ for some drinks just kept going on about it, and it was fun to give them that thrill. The second time, I let Kyler take it for a spin, and then I headed on home.

Eaddie stuck with Autumn after school, so I went home and stared at shrimp for a bit. I had a drink and spent some time cleaning out some of the last remnants of threadlike algae out of the tank until Eaddie called, screaming at Autumn in the background, asking me to pick her up from the gym. I got her home, and then hid in the bedroom when Autumn finally got home. Eaddie poked her head out a couple of times for food, so I munched with her for a little bit, and then resumed hiding until Summer came home and quickly went to bed. I perused jobs for a bit, and found some high-paying ones that I seem to be relatively overqualified for, so as soon as I can find some of that ambition, I’ll probably end up applying.

This entire place is the lowest common denominator.

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Dig In

It was eerie pulling in to a mostly empty parking lot today, but as I was confirming what I already knew, Gary pulled in right beside me and we walked in together. Someone beat us into the office, but the lights were on while some of the inside doors were still closed and locked, which was weird. We sort of met in the shop for a minute to see if there were any projects, but then I was left to myself for most of the day.

I got into a support chat with Adobe for a couple hours because none of us were able to approve a student’s request for software. It’s worked in the past, but support insists that we shouldn’t be able to approve the requests due to our licensing type.

That got us right to lunch, and a big group of us went to Taco John’s where I had a really light lunch. Then I spent some time getting our agenda sent out for our meeting in the morning. At one point, Gary had me run some stuff to Greg and Josh at the high school, but they didn’t need my help beyond that.

I ended the day at Dwight to check on a laptop that they suspected may have received some liquid damage. Many pipes had burst in the freezing weather over the break, and many rooms and buildings were flooded and ruined. Eaddie needed me to pick her up from her flute lesson after work, so I just waited for her in the driveway.

On the way home, we stopped by Summer’s parents’ house to check on the charging battery. Connecting the terminal immediately started the alarm system, so I disconnected it again after a quick honk. I hooked up my smart charger to finish it off, and we continued to my house so I could change.

When we got to Summer’s, I picked at some leftovers, and then Eaddie and I finished the first season of The Umbrella Academy. The visual effects were kind of goofy all season long, but I chalked it up to the art style. In a word, I found the whole season to be predictable.

Target Acquired

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Rebut

I couldn’t quite sleep in this morning, and got around to some leftovers. Autumn actually wanted to go to the gym with Summer, so they left and I went home to get some errands started. While I was there, Clint messaged me looking for some old video games to collect. I wasn’t prepared for that, but I offered to meet him at my office so we could catch up a bit.

As soon as I got to the office, I realized I forgot my keys. Clint hopped in and we ran back to my house to get them, and then we went to my office so I could finally submit my disciplinary rebuttal. I hate it, but I tend to agree that I should probably seriously look for new work.

When that was done, we went by Ben’s old house and I rang the doorbell to see if they had a package he had accidentally had delivered there. The wife of the guy that answered the door said she dropped it back off at the post office this morning, but they were closed, so I wasn’t sure if she just dropped it into a box or something.

I dropped Clint off back at his car, and then went home to grab a couple presents before heading back up to Summer’s. She had icing colored and ready for me to help load into bags, and then the kids came out to decorate cookies.

We probably only did about half of the cookies she baked before we got tired of it. I think it was partly because of their age, but also partly because everyone was just feeling super lethargic all day. We got everyone back to the table to play a partial game of Phase 10, and then everyone went to bed when Noah left for the evening.

The computer’s a lot faster at this than you.

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Cold, Cold Heart

Summer and I left the house this morning and stopped by Superfast and the wash to check on things. It was brutally cold, and the office at the wash didn’t have any heat. It was actually warmer in the wash than it was in the office. One of the gates had broken off, and I tried to help reattach it, but we had trouble in the frigid air.

When we finally finished checking in for work stuff, we went to Walmart for cookie materials. Then Summer dropped me off at home while she went about her day. Sheri texted me shortly after, and wanted to meet up at Oakland so I could diagnose her laptop. I tinkered a bit there, but then took it home to try and pull parts until it would POST. It never did, so I’ll have to get an adapter to try and recover data for her instead.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon rewriting my write-up rebuttal, and felt pretty good about my timeline. I just know it’s painting an even larger target on my back, but my facts were straightforward and well documented. I’d been writing it with the assumption that it would just go into my file without anyone reading it, but it’ll be interesting to see if it’s actually ever reviewed.

Eventually I got showered up and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Dad and Julie had their return flight delayed by yet another day. Summer baked cookies all day so we could decorate them tomorrow. Noah came over late when he finished up at work, and he and Eaddie stayed up late watching a horror movie. I kept trying to fall asleep early, but had to get up to finish blogging. I read my rebuttal to Eaddie, and she said it was the most professional burn she’d ever heard, so at least I’ve got that going for me.

#4word