Tag: work

Uncategorised

Long Days

I took the Shadow in today, and it felt much cooler than yesterday. I really need to get some service scheduled for at least two of the bikes. I spent most of the day helping Jacob with some imaging issues. I felt like I never really got to concentrate on any one thing, and just jumped around all day.

Taco Tuesday was a light meal, and I got most everyone’s receipts, so I need to start eating there on other days to redeem my points. It’s been especially lucrative lately because I’ve been earning double points for some promotion.

The afternoon seemed to drag on forever. Zach even came into my office to try and kill about an hour. It looked like the others got some walkout time, but I left pretty close to quitting time after chatting with Tammy on the way out. I rode home and cleaned up a little bit before going to my parents’ house to help finish up the shrimp noodle soup.

When I got back home, I watched an episode of She-Hulk while I did a load of laundry. Then I struggled with some phlegm and generally feeling pretty wired when it was time to go to bed.

Points, please!

Uncategorised

Lawyer Show!

I took the R1 today, and made it to work pretty early. There wasn’t a whole lot going on that early, but I had stuff to pick at. Summer made an appointment to see a nurse about her headaches and numbness in her left side, and wanted me to go along with her. She picked me up from work a little before lunch time, and we went to the Millard-Henry Clinic. I was surprised by how quickly we got in, but unimpressed by our visit. Her nurse seemed to just be reading things off of UpToDate, which kind of sounded like WebMD behind a paywall. She asked a few questions, but it really seemed like she was taking a guided program to diagnose the issue.

In the end, we got some prescriptions called in, but then didn’t actually receive the new ones when we stopped by Rose Drug as we left. Summer decided she would just go back later, and instead we went to Stoby’s for lunch. A couple guys came in after us and seemed a bit rude in the way they spoke to our server. They were definitely not there to chit-chat, and ignored common courtesy to start immediately in on their orders. Summer and I finished up pretty quickly, and then went by her house to get her laptop. She decided she wanted to spend the day with me in my office, working from my couch.

I had to go to Oakland for a few things, but finished them up relatively quickly. Then I came back to the shop for a bit before having to wrap things up and go to the high school for our CPPC training. Summer took off and I ran upstairs to deliver some laptops, and then it was off to the new board room at the high school. I arrived early enough to avoid the traffic, and passed a bunch of administrators as they were leaving their own meeting. As I walked in, Ginni immediately called me out with a big smile and asked rhetorically if I was Autumn’s dad. I quipped back that it was only voluntary, and we went back and forth for a moment before I found a seat.

The training was short, and I think the administrators learned more than I did. The lawyer basically reiterated a bunch of the points I made last year, so at least now they’ll be less likely to break the law. It wasn’t a complete waste of time, but I still think we ultimately just need a committee of more rounded, learned individuals.

I rode back to the shop to finish out the day, but didn’t get into anything else. I made it home a little late and waited for Summer and Eaddie to come over. Then we went to my parents’ house for shrimp noodle soup. Autumn decided to go to the kid’s funeral with some of her friends, which annoyed Summer after Autumn went back and forth on how much any of that affected her. The soup was great, and then Dad made a pear cake that we thought was awesome.

The girls dropped me off back at home for the night since it was so late, and I didn’t want to have to get gas just to make it up to their house. My house was hot, which gave me a bit of a headache, so I didn’t get up to anything. Instead, I watched one more episode of She-Hulk and then went to bed.

Breaking all the walls.

Uncategorised

Now That’s Chocolate Gravy!

The middle school sent us sausage, biscuits, and gravy this morning. It was a good thing that only like half of us were there though, because there wouldn’t have been enough for everyone to eat as much as some of the guys did. Since there were so few of us, Zach made the comment that he would just eat the leftovers for lunch to save some money.

We had a really long meeting, and nobody was in the mood to get up to a whole lot today. Evidently one of the seniors committed suicide last night, but I only really heard anything about it third-hand. I got around to the Transportation office to check out a phone, but mostly stuck around the office. Everyone ended up coming back to the shop to eat leftovers for lunch, but there weren’t enough biscuits or sausage to go around. I finished up the sausage with some gravy and a couple chocolate donuts. It warmed up surprisingly nicely, since the donuts basically acted like fried biscuits. The chocolate just added a little bit of sweetness to the spicy sausage and gravy. Greg was working on a MacBook while everyone else ate though, and ended up having to pick up something for lunch.

I went to Oakland for a bit of the afternoon, and rerouted some cable for a phone line. Fortunately Paul was around to drill some holes for me, so all I have to do is go back on Monday to re-terminate the cable and plug it back into the phone. Then I finished up the afternoon at the shop, hoping in vein to be released a little early.

I went home for a little bit and messed with the rotisserie set I got for my new grill. It was definitely missing the specific parts that I needed, though it had the roasting spits for both the larger and smaller versions of the grill. I sent a message to Masterbuilt, so we’ll see what they say. Summer said she was bringing me something special for dinner, so I eventually headed up to her house as she got back into town. On the way, there was a pretty big wreck on the north side of the bridge, so there were a ton of cops there to direct traffic. The westbound offramp was backed up onto the interstate, but luckily Summer was able to make it through town to get home.

She brought me some Long John Silver’s that ended up being pretty poor in quality, though it still brought back the oily flavor that made me nostalgic. She got some Popeye’s for herself, but they accidentally made the order twice and let her have both. After we ate, she really wanted to watch Something’s Gotta Give. It seemed like a love story for old people, so I wasn’t super entertained by it. Then she went to bed and I waited up for the kids to get back from a travel football game super late.

Experience America!

Uncategorised

We Don’t Care About the Kids

I was already on my way in to the office before I decided to divert off to Oakland to tell Mollie happy birthday. Things have quieted down a lot since the start of school, which honestly seems kind of early. I didn’t stay long since I didn’t have any work there, but more came in later.

It was quiet in the office, but Tammy asked me to watch the phones while she and Thomas had a little training meeting. It wasn’t much later that I got a call from Cheslea, Danielle, and Elizabeth, freaking out about some Chromebooks that weren’t working for the testing they were trying to administer. I shared a brilliant plan to just borrow some from the library, and I never heard from them again.

Lunch time came up super fast, and we actually left late. I rode alone since I had to go to the high school afterward. Melissa was ahead of me at Quiznos, so I talked to her for a second before ordering. Gary, Zach, and Thomas showed up right behind me and we ate, and then I left early to make it to the high school.

Autumn invited me to come talk to her education technology class, so I came in early to talk to Matt a bit before the kids came in. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and evidently he really wasn’t either. It was a good conversation with everyone though, and I had some fun. I think I probably came off a bit more like a rant than I really wanted, but I also wasn’t surprised. I was a little surprised by how many questions there were about my job specifically though, since the class seems to be more focused around how to use technology as a teacher.

I saw Eaddie in the hall on my way out, and she had me stop to say hello to her friend. Then I went to Oakland to take care of the few things that had popped up since the morning. There, I got to chat with Danielle and Elizabeth for a bit as they were finishing up their day. Then it was back to the shop to ride out the remainder of the afternoon.

After work, I went to Walgreens to pick up some contact solution that I ordered online at a discount. Then I stopped by to chat with Grant and a prospective new employee named Kyler. I didn’t stick around too long, but Grant gave me the remnants of some other brand of rub to try. Then I went by to see Dad for just a moment before I learned that the girls were about done with school and wanted food.

I ran home to change, and then met the girls at CiCi’s for dinner. They had been bickering a bit before I got there, but had settled down by then. We ate, and then Eaddie just kept wanting to lay down on the table, so I let Autumn take them on home while I finished up. It was quiet when I got to the house, and we waited for Summer to get home late. Autumn came out first and wanted to “tell her side of the story,” but then got upset when we called her out for exactly the same thing we always have to point out to her. Then after she went to bed, Eaddie came out and vented to us about exactly the same things we’ve had to deal with for years. And with that, everyone was off to bed.

Dry and loose!

Uncategorised

Breadcrumbs

I took the Grom in today to complete the set. It wasn’t quite as chilly first thing this morning, but it was still nice all day long. It’s too bad I don’t feel like I’m getting to enjoy the weather at all. I went to Oakland first so I could complete a couple things. Then I went on in to the shop where I spent most of the day digging through scripts and following the flow of information to find where things were breaking.

It really was super uneventful aside from leaving the office to install some software for some folks at Support Services. When I got back to the shop, Thomas took Zach, Gary, and me to Morelos for lunch. It was really good, and I’m still confused as to why Greg hates that place so much. We used to go all the time.

The afternoon dragged on forever, and was just more of the same. When I left, I went home to change and then stopped by Walmart to pick up some “fresh” parmesan for Summer’s meal. She was home making some bowtie pasta with chicken, cheese, and spinach. It was awesome, and everyone but Autumn really loved it. If only we could have nuggetized it somehow.

Eaddie was really talkative for most of the night, but after dinner everyone was pretty quick to go to their rooms. I tried not to stay up too late since my cough has been wearing me out at night.

Loads better than cooking it in a cheese wheel.

Uncategorised

That’s a Big “If”

I sprung a leak on a blood blister this morning that I thought would never quit bleeding out, so I was really late getting in to work. I started the day at Oakland to take care of some work orders that had been accumulating, and then rode on in to the office. It was pretty quiet since I spent most of the morning away from my office and nobody had a chance yet to come to me with anything.

I rode to Taco John’s to meet the others for lunch, and had too many potatoes. I always think a medium isn’t enough, but then feel too full with a large. Since I rode alone, I stopped back by Oakland on the way back to the office and found that I didn’t have the cable I needed to finish something. I got sidetracked by the PowerShell Istation stuff before I made it back, but I had a clever thought for an if statement that ended up turning a dozen lines of code into just a couple.

I left even later than I started because I wanted to make sure Istation would be fully functional for the next day. Then I ran home to change before heading straight up to Summer’s for dinner. She had forgotten the kids had marching band practice until pretty late, so instead of making her pasta, we went to Mulan’s for dinner.

After we ate, I took her to my house to help me clean up the packaging from my new grill so I could once again move off of the beaten path in my garage. I’ve got so much work to do before I can even begin to look at installing a charging solution, and as usual I’m having trouble deciding where to start.

We made it back to the house just before the girls got home, and then it was a quiet night until bedtime. My head cold finally developed into a cough primarily from a tickled throat, so I’ve only got about a month left of feeling like this.

Sniiiiiiiiiffffffff, HACK!

Uncategorised

Home Cooked

It’s getting colder now, and it’s fully dark when I wake up. My CPAP humidifier has been gurgling overnight, and it doesn’t help me sleep any better while I’m sick. I still managed to make it out the door a couple minutes early today, and got a bit of a chill on the way in on the Shadow. My whole day carried on relatively busily between various phone calls and urgent cries for help.

I met Summer at Superfast for lunch, and we ate the bánh mì that Mom made us yesterday. She was dressed up to work in the office there, so we just hung out in the office while we ate. Then I went back to work and had to beckon Josh to come to the office to eat the apple pie that Tammy made for his birthday.

The afternoon was oddly both busy and quiet. There wasn’t much activity in person, but I got several calls from Brody the rest of the day. I figured that Eaddie and I would go to my parents’ house for eggplant soup, but she wouldn’t respond to my text. She finally called when I got home and said she forgot about her private lesson, but by then she was done. Autumn dropped her off at my house and then carried on toward home. Summer didn’t want to go, so it was just the two of us.

Eaddie was thinking she didn’t like the eggplant soup or the tofu so much, but once we got there, she remembered that she actually loved all of it, and she kept going on about how much she liked soups. Dad was fasting, and Mom got home from work a bit late and didn’t eat until after we were done and gone.

On the way to the house, I took Eaddie through Sonic for a churro shake, and it was pretty awesome. It took them about five minutes to fry the churro, and they brought food out to two cars behind us while we waited. Back at the house, Summer was finishing up some work stuff, and then it was a pretty quick night to bed for everyone. I think it just felt a lot later than it really was, but I was exhausted from all the coughing anyway.

Whoop, whoop….

Uncategorised

S’putum Up!

Last night was a really rough night for my head cold, and marked the real transition into my chest. I managed to deal with it alright at work through a bunch of hot coffee and tea. We had a brief meeting this morning with the group, and then I was surprised with a meeting of my own with Thomas and Gary to discuss options for fixing Istation. We kind of just got more of what we already knew, but I guess that was what we got for not having a resolution on our own yet.

I picked at a few various other things throughout the morning, but then skipped Fat Daddy’s with the group. I went up to Summer’s instead, and just ate half of my leftover tuna sandwich from Subway in the peace and quiet. The afternoon didn’t have any surprises, and we wrapped up the week pretty quietly.

Summer’s been talking about wanting to see the Eagles, so I picked up a couple tickets and planned a weekend for that when I got home. She wanted to go to the football game to see the girls perform and see Autumn get her quiz bowl state championship ring. I ran trough McDonald’s and Wendy’s for some quick dinner before meeting her at halftime. Then I took the Shadow back home before heading up to her place for the night.

I stopped by Taco Bell for her on the way, and was in the drive-through for about 20 minutes. I was sure she wasn’t going to get any edible food out of it, but she said it was good. The girls got home super late, so Summer was already in bed. I doped up on amphetamines and sat up with Eaddie for a bit until she got up to take a shower. Then it was off to bed.

There’s plenty of room at the Wyndham Riverfront!

Uncategorised

Fresh Ain’t Cheap

I felt a bit bloated all day since I didn’t follow my usual routine. Fortunately it never got any worse than that, aside from my head cold working into my chest. There were a few people out for the day, so it was really quiet in the shop. I just slowly chipped away at the pile of old work orders I had, and tried to avoid accumulating new ones.

Zach suggested Subway for lunch, so the two of us drove over and met Gary and Greg there. I placed my order online and didn’t actually get it until after they were almost done eating their own food, but that was fine because I paid less with a BOGO sandwich deal.

The afternoon was quiet as well. I tried to spend a little time at Oakland, but got called away abruptly when a family came up to the virtual academy office with hotspot trouble. I spent some time working on that and ended up swapping the kid’s laptop, and then finished the day in the basement.

When I got home, I found the missing home for the extra screw we had last night. It went to a corner of one of the heat shields on the side of the grill. Unfortunately the rotisserie attachment I bought was missing a couple parts, so I’ll have to see what I can do about that. I hung out at home for a little longer, then went up to Summer’s for the evening. I helped Eaddie with like one math problem, and then everyone was quickly off to bed.

Can’t wait for the preseason!

Uncategorised

Cog no sEnce

As soon as I walked into my office this morning, I got called over to Oakland, because they didn’t test the sound system in the room they wanted to use before they invited a guest speaker. I took care of that and a couple other things quickly, and then went back to the shop to dig into my Cognos reports. That’s all I did for the rest of the day.

Gary took Zach, Thomas, and me to Zaxby’s for lunch, where we met Brody and then had a surprise visit from Wesley. He told us that Cindy planned to retire at the end of the month, which was a bit of a surprise to me at least.

The afternoon was quiet and slow. Dad wanted to borrow my electric mower when his wouldn’t work. Then Eaddie wanted me to get her after school, but decided to walk to the house instead. When I got home after work, she wanted to go home immediately, so I dropped her off and then came back home where Dad had beaten me to return the mower.

I was chomping at the bit to get my new grill assembled and out of the way, so Dad helped me with that. It took us quite a bit longer than I originally expected, and we were surrounded by a cloud of mosquitos the entire time, but it felt good to have that done. We came up with an extra screw somehow though, so I’ll have to go back over the instructions later to make sure we didn’t miss anything. I’m super excited to cook on it though.

I was completely drenched in sweat by the end of that, so I decided to take a shower and then ran a hot straightening brush through my hair really slowly to try and burn off anything that might have taken up residence up there. I was super sore and exhausted after all the bending around the grill, so I doped up and wrapped up my evening as quickly as I could.

It’s teppanyaki time!