Tag: work

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7 to 11

It wasn’t miserably hot today, so I took the Shadow to work. I got to work on my own projects again, which mainly consisted of testing imaging in the morning, along with applying OS updates. It made for a really quiet day by myself.

Gary and Greg came back and said they were going to Johnny’s for lunch, so I opted out. Rather than spend money on something I dislike, I cleaned some junk that people had forgotten in the fridge, and chewed on ice all afternoon. I don’t know what’s been driving that craving, but I just can’t seem to get enough.

The afternoon was more of the same, and I eventually turned into a flash drive manufacturer. Aside from that, Thomas turned on a scrap netbook that I brought back to the shop that had Windows 7 on it, and I pulled out an old desktop that would run Windows 11 since my laptop frustrated me the entire day.

After work, I went home to change before going to dinner at my parents’ house. I thought the girls were coming over to eat and swim as well, but they didn’t. I rode the bike over, ate, sat around for a little while, and then rode up to see the girls for a little bit before returning home for the evening.

I remember microwave popcorn being better than that.

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Dentology

I knew I had to take the girls to the orthodontist this afternoon, but I nearly spaced and took the bike to work this morning. I caught myself on the way out and took the Murano instead, but it wouldn’t have been a bad day for a ride. We had a short meeting, and then I was mostly left alone to do my own thing. Gary had me update SCCM, which was a relatively easy, but long process that took me all morning to complete.

The guys went to Taco John’s and invited me along, but I was on the fence anyway, and then traffic didn’t allow me into the right lane to make the turn, so I headed on up to Summer’s instead. The girls were up but sedentary. I warmed up some leftover Mexican chicken casserole for lunch, and then we left for Dr. K’s.

When we got there, the doors were locked for lunch time, so we waited under the shade of a nearby bushy tree. It seemed a little silly to see so many people waiting outside the door in the heat, but I guess they’ve gotta eat too. Autumn filled out some paperwork while Eaddie went back. Then she wanted me to go back with her for the consult. Autumn really wants braces, but Invisalign is about 400 bucks cheaper. Evidently they don’t have insurance to cover anything, so I don’t know why Summer’s trying so hard to spend money on the kid that’s giving us so much trouble.

After the girls finished, we went to my house so I could change out of my work jeans into some shorts, then headed back up to their house until Eaddie’s flute lesson. They watched Stranger Things for a little while, and I baked the Surfer Boy branded pizza we got for them. Then Autumn took a nap while Eaddie painted. When it was time to leave again, Autumn pitched an absolute fit about being woken up, and was super bitchy for about two hours.

We dropped Eaddie off for her lesson and then went to my parents’ house for half an hour. Eaddie finished up after about 45 minutes, and I took them straight to karate. They had both started to get moody, so I decided to go in to watch them for the hour. They begrudgingly worked out together, and flailed their limbs around loosely the entire time. On the way home, Autumn wanted to get some sour cream for barbecue nachos, but then went straight to the Takis and Dr. Pepper. I didn’t have the energy to fight her there, so I got the corn chips we really needed, and we continued home.

It was a little late, but I wanted to eat a little bit for dinner. Then I had to threaten to take her snacks before Autumn made herself the tiniest plate of smoked pork and shredded cheese I had ever seen. She didn’t even open the sour cream she begged for. After she ate, I made her clean the kitchen while Eaddie cleaned her room. Then I killed time until Summer got home super late. She went straight to bed, and I played Puzzle Quest on my phone all night.

…but I’m a creep…

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and Friends

I hardly slept last night. It was hot and humid all day. There were a couple projects going on, but Gary just had me take care of some work orders that had come to him over his long weekend. It was just more time rubbing shoulders with people I don’t normally see, which was fine by me. There wasn’t actually anything difficult, so though it was an active day, it was still really relaxed. I did learn that two of our Mac users were basically only using Apple computers because that’s what they were given, but that they prefer Windows. It is absolutely Jeff’s doing, and I can’t stand it when people make ignorant and irresponsible decisions like that.

I didn’t take a lunch, and had half a Soylent instead. It was just as well, because near the end of the hour, we had a truck with four pallets of Chromebooks arrive. Luckily I had easy access to the forklift, and though Chris said it wasn’t running well, I didn’t have any trouble with it. Once the guys got back from lunch, Zach pulled the truck around and I loaded them up for delivery to the middle school. That meant I had to babysit the second pair of pallets until they came back for them, but Thomas came back from lunch and kept me company.

The afternoon was more of the same until it was time to go. I was hungry by then, so I went home to change, dropped a package off at Walgreens and picked up a Nitro Pepsi, and headed up to Summer’s. The nitrogenated vanilla Pepsi was smooth and creamy, but felt more flat than anything else. I don’t think I’d recommend it. Since it didn’t have any spike to it, I had the can down by the time I made it up the hill.

Noah was there, and watching Stranger Things with Eaddie. I offered to warm up some dinner for them, but they didn’t want any. I made myself a barbecue sandwich and ate, then sat down to watch TV with them. Eaddie asked me at least half a dozen times if I was staying, and then specifically said she didn’t want me to, so I went home, cleaned some algae out of my nano aquarium, watched the episode they started without me, and then went to bed after a Duo call with Summer.

and Godzooooky.

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Just for Kicks

I got up and made some fancy bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits from leftovers this morning. Then I went home to clean up and pack a bunch of camp chairs for Summer’s company picnic in Little Rock. We left early so we could spend a little extra time there. I got us last-minute tickets to see Jurassic World: Dominion at the IMAX, but the kids weren’t super excited for it. They argued that they hadn’t seen any of the others, but we actually saw the last one at an IMAX in Illinois.

We stopped in Conway first for some lunch because they were hungry. We tried going to Raising Cain’s, but that place was absolutely packed without an open seat in the house. From there, we drove across the street to Chipotle. Eaddie seemed most confused by their ordering process for some reason, but we made it through. Summer and I just split a burrito.

The last stretch of the drive was uneventful, and we made it to the theater and through the concessions line just in time to catch the trailers. They were super busy, and I didn’t realize it was opening weekend. I was pretty annoyed by all the chatter and noise around us, but the speakers were cranked up so high that you couldn’t hear much else. I was a bit disappointed in the movie myself, but I think all of them after the first one were kind of campy. The girls enjoyed it though, and it clearly wasn’t an issue that they hadn’t seen all of the prior films.

After the movie, we had just enough time to make it across to North Little Rock for the Splash company picnic at the Lakewood Properties park. It was nice and windy there, and the tree cover made the heat and humidity bearable. We found a box turtle, and Autumn immediately pulled it out of its hiding spot and carried it around the park while Summer and Eaddie played cornhole. I brought a biplane kite and put it together, but nobody else was really interested in that.

The girls got food, but I was still stuffed from lunch. I didn’t even eat any popcorn during the movie. Afterward, Eaddie said she wanted to fly the kite, but then didn’t follow me out into the opening. She and Summer took off in the opposite direction, leaving me standing there alone on the hill. My aggravations grew when I found them alone at some swings, way away from everyone else. I was happy to make an appearance with Summer, but it was hot and they kept leaving me alone. I felt like we were only there because she had to make an appearance as a part of the management team, but then she wasn’t even mingling.

Fortunately, they started a big kickball game going, which drew everyone together. I was surprised that Eaddie didn’t play, but Autumn did. I was proud of her for jumping in though. I sat at the top of the bleachers because I was sweating enough just sitting there. After a while, Eaddie came up and wanted to get a snowcone, so we walked back up the hill for that. I was sat weird on the bleachers, and also super dehydrated from the heat, so my legs cramped up immediately.

I didn’t even make it back down the hill by the time the game was over, so the girls came back up and played a little basketball before we headed home. On the way out, we took pans of smoked pork, potato salad, and coleslaw for later. The drive home was quiet and felt a little tense, as Summer had been quiet all day. We made it home, I played Tetris to get everything into the refrigerator, and the usual suspects made it to bed. I got there eventually.

It’s always work if you’re a leader.

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How to Tell if You’re in a Cult

A bunch of water had collected in the trunk of my car this morning, and sloshed around on my way to work. Fortunately it didn’t damage my headliner, or seemingly get on it at all. I couldn’t tell where it was actually coming in though, so I guess I’ll have to pour water on it with a hose.

Jacob and I continued with inventory today, which made the day go by quickly, if nothing else. He didn’t want to reset iPads, and I didn’t want to do inventory, so we just split up this time, and I slowly went room to room with earbuds in. We made it back to the shop just a bit before lunch, and Tammy started talking about everyone having to clean out their work spaces to create more separation between our work life and home life. I was absolutely triggered at the thought of having to take all of my shit home, so I was riled up the rest of the day.

Nobody had any idea what to eat, so I suggested Chick O’Fish, since it was something new. When we got there, the menu TVs weren’t quite working right. I hate that places are starting to use more animated menus that flip to a different screen while I’m reading them. The next thing I noticed was that they appeared to have the same menu as Sam’s Southern Eatery, down to Sam’s Special. That’s when one of the girls behind the counter piped up and said that they were identical, with the same owners and everything. What made even less sense was that they were also trying to have table service in that tiny building, rather than let people order from the counter. That would have made it much easier.

After lunch, Jacob and I finished at Oakland. We got done about an hour before quitting time and made it back to the shop, but then Thomas cut us loose. I went home and tried to investigate my leaky car, but got nowhere. I fought sleep for a while, and cleaned up a couple aquarium hoods before Summer told me we no longer had a buyer for the 55 gallon tank.

Eventually I headed up to their house for the evening. I stopped at McDonald’s to spend some expiring rewards points on some fries, got gas, and then made it up in time for everyone to already be in their bedrooms. I was concerned about the water in the succulent pots, so I repotted everything and then wound down for bed.

Somebody drank all of the Kool-Aid…

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Incident ID-10T

We had a brief meeting this morning, in which Thomas told us that the entire district was going to be implementing weird new management strategies, and that our department was going to start by putting Greg in charge for the day. I immediately asked who was fired first, and what we had to do to go home early. Unfortunately neither of those things happened.

The task I was given was actually completed yesterday, so I went with Jacob to look at the junior high scoreboard instead. The main problem was a breaker that was shut off, but then we needed the lift to get up to one of the scoreboards, so we had to come back in the afternoon. They had stripped most of the floors, so we wandered around the building to find our way into the office, where I helped Janie with some stuff before we headed back to the shop.

Thomas also asked us to clean up some Chromebooks to donate to the Russ Bus, so we did that until lunch time. Then we made Brody make good on his promise to buy us CiCi’s for lunch after winning at Cornhole. Only Greg, Thomas, and I were in for that, and it cost more than he expected, but it was still a good time. When we got back to the shop, I went with Jacob back to the junior high to get up on the lift. We were able to restore power to the other scoreboard, but then both controllers quit working.

We spent the last part of the day working on inventory at Oakland. I got super frustrated with Incident IQ and its insistence on clicking absolutely everywhere. It is not shortcut friendly at all, and is basically made for dummies to touch things, and I absolutely hate it. I’ve not been this frustrated with software in a very long time.

Gary called me near the end of the day and asked me to be his DD to Domino’s so we could get some pizzas for Kelsea. I wasn’t made aware until late, but apparently her father-in-law passed away earlier in the week, and he wanted to make sure the family was eating. I picked him up after work, we went to see Neal at Domino’s, and then made it out to Pottsville to deliver the food.

Nobody was home at first, so we waited out in the yard for her to show up. Then we chatted for a while before making it back to town. I dropped Gary off and went home to change before noticing that Mom had texted about dinner. They were frying sweet potato and shrimp fritters, so the girls met me over there for dinner.

The back yard was deafeningly loud with tree frogs, and I even spotted several of them huddled together near the roof on the side of the house. I helped fry the last of the stuff before finishing up and heading home for the evening. There’s been a toad stuck in the garage somewhere, and I put some water and a light out for him, but I fear he’ll perish soon because Summer didn’t shoo him out when she saw him a couple days ago. Hopefully I’ll find him tomorrow.

You are the true Lord of the Dance, no matter what those idiots at work say.

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Exhail

I had a pulmonary function test this morning at Millard Henry, so I made it home early to get ready. A huge storm blew through pretty quickly, and I could hear hail pinging the rooftop. It had died down to a light rain by the time I had to drive across town. I was in and out of the clinic relatively quickly. I didn’t have the greatest confidence in the nurse that helped me, due to the way she kept making excuses for the apparatus. I did three puffs, and then another three after a couple shots of albuterol, and she said the results looked normal.

I stopped by to kill some time with Dad before having to go to work, but forgot he was heading out with his friend Dave to an old classmate’s celebration of life event. I started to go home, but then decided to go up to Summer’s to pick up my medication that I forgot to take with me in the morning.

When I got there, Eaddie was painting while Autumn slept on the couch. The power had gone out a few hours earlier, so I thought I might take them to my house for the day. They thought they might ride bikes, but I told them it was going to rain the entire day. After a little while, the power came back on, so I left them there to go to work.

I met up with the guys at Arby’s because I wanted to try their wagyu burger. It was pretty good, but I don’t think I’d ever actually go to Arby’s to order it again. I like too much of their regular menu to be bothered by ordering something they’re not known for. I still prefer a hot, fresh, Wendy’s burger to just about any other in town.

When I got to the shop, Gary had me image a couple laptops, and then walk across to Transportation to install Adobe on a couple computers. The laptops were done by the time I made it back, so I delivered them to Oakland before coming back to the shop for a group showing of how we were expected to take inventory the rest of the week. When we finished there, Gary wanted to take everyone to a building to show us live, so we went to the Oakland library where several things weren’t actually in the inventory system.

We filtered out a little early, and I headed home for the evening and started some laundry. A couple kids that had been by a few days ago showed back up and rang my doorbell again. I assumed they wanted to mow my lawn, but instead they asked about my Pontiac. The oldest one didn’t look like he was even close to driving age, but he said he would get his permit next year and wanted to buy it. I couldn’t help but laugh, and told him it would be a very poor choice for a first car for a multitude of reasons.

I poked around the rest of the evening, and tried not to go to bed too late. One of the things I poked around with was the succulent in the bathroom window. I cut it pretty low to the base with the hope that it would branch out, and then pulled a couple leaves off to see if they would sprout. It was just getting too tall and boring with its singular trunk.

What the hell do June showers bring?

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Facebook Medical Supplies

I slept in a little bit today since I took the morning off for my wellness exam. The girls stayed home since Summer was working in town. I went in for my visit, forgetting that I had filled out my medical form with my preferred first name of Captain Michael of HMSV Manatee. Keely came in wanting to know the story behind it, and we shared a few laughs. We decided to schedule a pulmonary test to make sure my lungs are back up to snuff after COVID, and then I got stuck in both arms looking for enough fluids to get my required bloodwork.

I was pretty hungry when I left, so I went by Superfast to see if Summer wanted to get lunch. She needed to run some errands anyway, so she took me to Harbor Freight, Walmart, and then Western Sizzlin to eat. When I made it to the shop, Gary was the only one there, and he was on his way out. They were shorthanded, so I was the only one in the shop all afternoon.

After a little bit of tinkering, Gary asked me to run over to the new maintenance building with a hotspot, since those guys already started moving computers before we even had internet run to the building. When I got there, they still didn’t even have all of the power run either. I ended up having to bring Chris’s computer back to the shop. I got it going, and then Gary showed up after letting everyone else leave a bit early. We worked out the day, and then I headed home.

Summer said we had an interview with someone from the state police right after work, so I ran home to change and then headed up. There was a wreck holding up traffic along the way, so I was a bit late, but I didn’t really miss anything. The girls were hanging out in the living room, and it was clear with the way Summer was talking that she was just closing things up. We shared some more stories, and then she left, saying the case should be completely closed within a couple days.

Summer left for the gym, and the girls wanted to hang out for a girl’s night, but I never left. They were watching Stranger Things and had Summer come back with some pizza, along with my blood pressure medication. Summer and Autumn went to bed first. Eaddie stayed up doing her paint-by-number, and I tried not to stay up too late.

Teenage girl drama

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The Boot

Today was super quiet in the office. Zach sent a group to run some cable at the junior high, but they were stripped out in front of the cafeteria. I was left to figure out the duplicate boot image issue in SCCM, which I was already sort of onto anyway. I just put on some music and knocked it out super fast. Then I went to Oakland to take care of an old ticket there.

I didn’t even realize it was lunch time, and I missed the text from Brody that they were at Brick Oven. He ordered a pizza for me, and I met them there. Then it was a super chill afternoon with some more tinkering with the boot image to try and trim it down and make it faster.

I actually ended up staying a bit late before heading home to Eaddie, who was dropped off earlier in the day so she could go ride her bike. We ate some leftover pizza and watched the first two episodes of Stranger Things, which were way more horror than the previous seasons.

We headed up to their house once Summer and Autumn were home from Conway, and it was a pretty quick evening to bed for everyone. Evidently Eaddie and Zane had a mutual breakup, and she seemed completely unphased by it. I tried talking with Autumn on her way to bed, and then I wrapped up my own chores before going to sleep.

Time to start cramming for my wellness test.

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Middle Expectation

We were down a couple people this morning, so Thomas ended up coming to the middle school along with everyone that was there, and we pulled out three computer labs worth of cable, and two labs worth of computers that hadn’t already been taken. It was an easier job in the ceiling without insulation, but the tiles themselves were made of insulation and got me feeling itchy for the rest of the day.

Brody and I went to Cunningham to get paid for the scrap, and then we all took a late lunch at Wendy’s, where Zach’s kids were evidently already eating with their grandfather. We didn’t stay long, and made it back to the shop where we split up to work on different things. I was left to myself for the afternoon, so my biggest accomplishment was imaging a computer for Amy, and then walking it over to her at central office at the end of the day.

When I left work, I went by Superfast to see Summer because she had to close up there since the usual keyholders weren’t there. I went on home for a little while, and then picked up some Popeye’s on the way up to her house once she was home. We were eating when I got a call from Eric, inviting me to his land tomorrow to release Autumn’s neglected turtle.

It was a quiet night from then on, as Summer wound down in front of the TV. I laid down with her on the couch for a while until we made it to bed for the night.

Cramping my style…