Tag: work

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Upper Elementary, My Dear

We met at the shop for projects this morning, since teachers had a professional development day. I was sent with Josh the Wanderer and Travis the New to the intermediate school, so we could swap out docking stations for teachers that were still hanging on to old Lenovo Thinkpads from the high school. It was long and tedious work, but was broken up with some leftover breakfast in the teachers’ workroom.

Josh kept getting sidetracked while Travis and I split up and deployed docks all morning. We had a touch panel install as well, but it ended up being a faulty panel that had to be replaced again. While we were in the building, Josh found another projector out as well, so that had to be swapped in the afternoon.

I loaded Thomas, Zach, and Gary into the Model 3 for lunch at Arby’s, and it noticeably hampered my launch acceleration. I think it remains that Tammy has been the most excited about the new car. I was still full from breakfast, so I just got some Loaded Diablo Fries, which were barely hot at all. Zach and Gary had the Diablo sandwiches, but reported the same.

The afternoon dragged as well, and we didn’t get to leave early as we had hoped last week. I felt hot, sweaty, and gross all day, so I was excited to go home. I started a load of laundry while Summer headed home from Conway. Eaddie was still with her friends and would be out trick-or-treating all evening.

As it got late, I went to my parents’ house to hang out with them until Eaddie was done. They had a few kids come through while I was there, and apparently I had missed Eaddie and her friends by a little bit. She wasn’t ready to go home until an hour after we all expected, and I wasn’t thrilled to be out so late. I picked her up a little before 10 and we took Autopilot home down Skyline. It made it all the way to the end of the mountain and then bailed on the sharp 90º curve at the end. We swapped vehicles, and then it was home for bed.

Who’s driving this thing, anyway?

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Poison Gas. Invisible.

We had a pretty long meeting this morning, and I got to go over SCCM and Active Directory with Travis. After that, Gary had me set up a couple little switches for use in the bus yard, but we waited until after lunch to actually deploy them. He had a short meeting right at lunch time, so we waited for him to finish around noon. Then Zach and Greg drove separately to Freddy’s so they could get some stuff from Walmart afterward.

When Gary and I got back to the shop, we loaded everything up and went out to the bus shop to deploy a new distribution switch. We ran into a little bit of trouble there, so Gary had to jump back in to fix the configuration before we could go out to the smaller switches at the towers. Zach dropped Greg off a little while later so we could troubleshoot the fiber run. Greg re-terminated a couple lines until we got what we thought would be a passable signal.

That just about got us to quitting time. I spent a little time up front with the ladies before leaving for the weekend. Instead of going home, I decided to swing by AT&T to show off my car to Kevin. I let him drive us around the block, and he was absolutely blown away with a grin from ear to ear. Then I went inside to chat with him, Hope, and Nicole for a while until Summer got back into town.

Summer drove past me as I was leaving, and we met at my house to park Tres. She wanted steak, so we went to Western Sizzlin for the weekend steak and shrimp on the bar. I thought I did pretty well of not overstuffing myself, but then I had one plate too many. We went to her house and watched Blast from the Past until the girls got home from a play. Then it was off to bed early.

That’s a pretty wide range of reactions.

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All Weather Days

I guess it was cold enough this morning that regenerative braking wasn’t working like I expected. I may have also gotten an update that made the car use real brakes to simulate it. In either case, stopping was a little jarring first thing in the morning.

Otherwise it was another day of almost no motivation. Gary was back, but he and Zach disappeared as soon as I got there. It wasn’t long before Tammy ran around the shop asking where they went, and it seemed like just about everyone was sick of her being in their business. I know she meant well, but like them, I don’t understand why she thinks any of it matters. I guess she’s just bored.

I took Gary and Zach to Slim Chickens for lunch and was disappointed in my sandwich size and portion of chips. At least the lemonade was good, and I got a free shake for doing their survey and voicing the same complaints as always. Then I took Greg with me to Dwight to look at their sound system again.

My all-weather floor mats arrived in the afternoon, so I went home right after work and vacuumed my floors before installing them. I prefer the look of the clean carpet, but the rubber mats will keep rainwater and such out of the fabric. About the time I finished with that, I had to get Eaddie from robotics because Autumn had gotten permission to go to the game to allegedly help with concessions.

Summer arrived home shortly after we did and made a quick bagged stir fry meal. I was still hungry and kept snacking on other things. Eaddie got her homework done, and Autumn made it home late, after the game. I did well not to stay up too late myself. Fortunately we’ve found another weekend right around the corner, but I think I’m about ready for Thanksgiving.

Why, oh why didn’t I buy back in at .05?

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The Good Witch

Tammy decided she would take a ride to get donuts this morning, and she continued to be the person in the office that is the most excited about my car. The rest of the day was super quiet. I went to Oakland for a bit to try and figure out how to make Incident IQ better. I showed Mollie some tricks in the system, and she said she would try to come up with some suggestions.

Back at the shop, I gave Melissa a ride around the block. Then lunch time came around, and Zach and I were the only two around to go. We ended up at Morellos, and a bus drove by with about three kids hanging out the back windows, screaming about the Tesla. I think the red was a good choice.

The afternoon dragged on, even after Melinda showed up in a red cape with a giant basket full of candy. She sat in the back and talked with Zach and me for a while, and then finally took her pumpkin and Jesus mugs with her. On the way out, Tammy brought up my new toy again, so I had to take Melinda around the block as well.

When quitting time finally arrived, everyone was ready to get out of there. I went home and immediately started some laundry. While that was going, I tinkered with the car some more to try and figure out Wi-Fi. Some of the features just aren’t very intuitive, but they’re easy to remember once you realize how to access them.

Once laundry was done, I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. I had to argue with Eaddie for a moment about some math homework, but in the end I was right as usual. Then it was quickly off to bed.

Why waste lucrative drugs on candy? That just doesn’t make sense.

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It Accels at That

Tres didn’t quite make it to my charge limit overnight, but had plenty for the day. When I got to the office, the parking lot was mostly empty. I could tell that Kelsea and Kyle were there, and I eventually found Travis in the shop, but otherwise it was a ghost town. Tammy walked in several minutes late and immediately came back to ask me if I bought a new car, and then insisted that I was fooling her.

Zach eventually showed up with Greg, apparently after picking him up at the Toyota dealership. They didn’t say much, but I eventually convinced Zach to go to London with me to investigate a gym sound system. We went to Dwight on the way back into town, and then got to the shop just in time for lunch.

Zach took Greg and me to Taco John’s, where we saw Allen waiting in the parking lot. We spotted Wesley inside, who was finishing up his own lunch, but came to visit with us while we ate. It was a pretty quick lunch, but nobody was in a big rush to get back. We dropped Greg back off at the dealership first, and then I ended up going to the high school with Kelsea to reset a door controller. She just wanted to ride in the car, but we ended up walking around the high school a bit to chat with folks.

Kyle came back to the shop at the end of the day and just sat on my couch to talk about how little he had to do for the day. It appeared to me that he only had nothing to do because I was still closing out his old work orders from the beginning of October.

When quitting time came around, I went to my parents’ house to see if Dad wanted to go for a drive. He took us around Skyline and back home, getting to experience full Sport Mode acceleration. Mom got home from work just as we pulled back into the driveway, and decided to try it out herself. She didn’t drive nearly as far, but somehow we convinced her to floor it briefly as well. I think they were impressed, and I know that I was.

Summer asked me to pick up Eaddie after her robotics practice, and she seemed pretty immediately moody. We had to meet her grandparents at Walmart because she forgot her flute and other accessories in her car when they took her to the orthodontist. After that, we took the car home to charge, I changed, and we headed up to their house for the evening.

The girls were in their rooms all evening. Summer showed up after the gym, and we picked at leftovers. Then I tried to get to bed before it got too late.

I just want the music to work reliably!

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Stuffed Crabby

I woke up feeling quite a bit better this morning, after struggling with a full belly all night. There was just too much good food all day long. I got everything packed up and ready to go, but struggled to get out before 8:30, so I ended up skipping the first session. I figured they should have been recorded anyway, so I should get access to those copies.

I came down for the second session, and Gary and Greg were both just sitting in the atrium. The session I wanted to attend was actually held out there, since the guy had too much trouble keeping warm in the designated room yesterday. I didn’t think it was bad, but I think he may have been stuck under an air vent at the front of the room.

After that session, we decided to skip out on the keynote and lunch. I forgot that they usually have drawings for prizes, otherwise I might have protested a bit. We stopped in Conway so Gary could get an oil change and a carwash. While we waited for a quick detail, I took us back across town to Chipotle. I don’t think Greg was too impressed after the sticker shock, but Gary and I enjoyed it. When we got back to Splash, Summer convinced me to wait 15 minutes for her to get off work and ride back with her.

Nearly an hour later, we finally left and ran into some really heavy traffic due to a wreck right on the interstate. We made it home though, and Summer went to the gym while I went down into the shop to see how the week went. One of our new guys started that morning, and I just briefly met him on our way out for the day.

I went home to unpack, and then struggled with Summer to communicate that we should move some money around for Monday. I ended up meeting her at Centennial to try and withdraw cash, but they said they didn’t have that much to hand out. Frustrated with my explanations of what we needed, she snapped that she would just get a cashier’s check for seven bucks. I took that to Arvest, and was back out the door in mere seconds.

From there, I went home and shuffled things around in the garage for a bit. Autumn had senior night, and Summer wanted me to come record them walking onto the field. Somehow, Autumn convinced those in charge to let her have three people with her on the field. I was glad that Summer got to be a part of it, but it seemed like Autumn was only paying attention to her grandparents while they were out there.

As we left, I ducked out in a hurry and went home to continue cleaning out the garage. There’s still a lot of work to do, but at least I’ll be able to fit a car in there again. The girls went to IHOP after the game, so Summer was already in bed and not at all talkative when I got there. I waited up for the girls, and then went to bed once they got home.

You’re Not Getting It.

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I Ate ACOT

I woke up at a usual time this morning since I didn’t have to do a lot to get ready, and headed to the shop to meet Gary and Greg. Gary drove us to Little Rock for ACOT, and I just sat in the back and played Into the Breach the whole way. I did learn, though, that apparently his cruise control will keep his lane and slow down to a complete stop for him without intervention. I really didn’t think any other vehicles did that for an extended period of time.

Once we got to the Embassy, we stole some breakfast before finding sessions to join. Greg and I stuck together for a couple, but otherwise we all bounced between different things that seemed interesting at the time. I was overall relatively happy with the ones I picked, though there was one pretty rough one lead by a guy who reminded me a bit of Allen.

They had snack foods all throughout the day, so by the time lunch rolled around, I really wasn’t that hungry. I still ate too much though, and continued to eat too much in the afternoon. Shane hosted a huge dinner for like three or more districts at The Butcher Shop, so the three of us walked down the hill for that.

While we waited to be seated, some old, belligerent guy started yelling at one of the bartenders. Gary offered to kick his ass, to which JOSH(!!!) responded with affirmation. Afterward we all had a laugh about it, and learned that the guy was just an asshole regular that was like that twice a week. When we finally got seated, we very nearly took up the whole center of the restaurant, though we were split into three or so large groups of tables. Gary didn’t even sit with Greg and me, but we enjoyed chatting with the gang from Farmington. I went for a high score of roughly $80, and heard that the food alone was a bit over $2,000 for everyone.

I kept ribbing Greg every time I made the Farmington crew laugh, and he kept poking back that he was going to play the theme from Rocky as I made the climb back up the hill. When we actually left, the Farmington guys drove by slowly in their van, blasting the song. By the time we made it up to the hotel, I was completely tuckered out – not just from the relatively short uphill walk, but from the day in general. I hadn’t had a stellar night of sleep the night before, so I just stayed in, took a quick shower, and went to bed.

The ACOT 10 is no joke.

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Call off the APB!

For some reason I thought today might be kind of quiet, but I was pretty instantly commandeered to help Gary write up some documentation for one of our recurring tasks to renew security certificates. It was neat to be able to apply one of the very few things I learned yesterday, and I felt good about expressing what I had learned. Greg was actually at work, and had to go fix my intercom at Oakland after Thomas came back to the shop, hurriedly looking for answers.

We left for lunch just a little bit early and went to Brangus, where we were quickly surrounded by Mark and a handful of other highly political figures. Our host actually joked about it as we left, and I suggested that he seated them around us on purpose.

I went to Oakland in the afternoon for a bit, after Sheri contacted me with worry about her work orders yesterday, and then Thomas came back to the shop first thing this morning. I closed out what I could, but will have more when I return. That is the way of life.

After work, I ran home to start packing for the conference. Then I went to my parents’ house for bún bò Huế. They were in the driveway about to leave for more tomatoes, but immediately came back inside to eat when I mentioned that I was in a little bit of a rush. We ate, talked about our game plan for the weekend, and then I went back home to start a load of laundry.

I don’t really know where the time went, but It was nearly midnight before I got to Summer’s for the evening. At least all of my chores were done, and hopefully everything I needed was packed.

High anxiety.

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Network-

I only woke up about 15 minutes earlier than usual, since I did all my prep work the night before. I didn’t love it, but it got the job done, and got me to Little Rock a little after 7:30, which gave me just enough time to settle in before finding the classroom. Greg called to tell me he was coming in late, but that he would be there since they couldn’t get a refund for his ticket. He said he felt better, so hopefully I don’t catch whatever he had.

Mike Meyers was a bit of a celebrity in the field, and I think he probably acted more that way than anybody else let on. I was only just aware of his existence in the space, but Ben wanted to come have his book autographed. When I saw that he was giving us copies of his new book, I jumped at the chance to have it signed for myself, and got a selfie with him as well.

The class itself was rather a disappointment. I had hoped it would be an intense workshop to try and cover as much material as possible, but instead it ended up almost being more of a roundtable. It would have been a nice way to decompress and chat further about things you learned in a formal class, but in and of itself, I don’t think Greg or I learned anything at all. It was almost more of a pep talk to psyche us up for the test itself.

Greg and I had lunch at the hotel, which was quite a bit smaller than I expected, but still better than the “barely a step above cafeteria food” I had documented from previous years. Half of the bar was a salad, and the other half had mostly run out of food by the time we got there. They had some chicken, and Greg found some pork when we went back for seconds. The staff were fussing that it seemed like there were more people than they were told, and we missed out on dessert as well. Ben picked up Tacos 4 Life, but I declined his offer to pick up some for us, remembering a less than stellar experience from before.

The afternoon went by relatively quickly, but with not much more productivity. By then, the hotel had managed to bring out cookies, and did a fair job of keeping the drink fridges stocked. We got through the day, but Greg mostly scoffed and rolled his eyes at the fossil that couldn’t remember his ports or acronyms. I was a bit more forgiving and could see the struggle with fitting so much historical knowledge into an eight hour course. I tried to reel the conversations back in to the test material periodically, but I don’t know how much that helped.

I made the trip back home without incident, but confirmed how much I hate traffic between Conway and Little Rock. I just don’t know how people do it. My entire life would be so much more stressful if I had to do that every day. I miss the old days of getting a hotel room the night before a day like that. I got gas, went home to unload, and then went to my parents’ house to visit for a bit.

Julie was there to talk to Dad about their trip to Disney. They warmed up some fish sticks for sandwiches, and Mom shattered one of her prized bowls full of boiled carrots and butter, slicing her hand open a bit. I didn’t really get to talk about my delivery day plans, but suffice to say that I wasn’t thrilled with the way support responded. I went ahead and made the appointment, but apparently even that can change, so if we stay the night, I’ll have to get a room that allows for refunds in the event of a reschedule.

When I left my parents’ house, I went to the high school and got some of that fancy pellet ice from the breakroom, and then went out to the stadium to watch the marching assessment with Summer. We stuck around longer and colder than I expected, and then ran out to the cars to beat the crowd out. The girls eventually made it home after the event, and everyone was off to bed in a hurry.

0/10, especially with that weird, bland rice.

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Never Gonna Finish

It was pretty cold out this morning, plus I had an armful of stuff I wanted to take with me, so I drove to work. I was really hoping I could spend the day studying Net+, but Greg and Josh were both out with the flu, so I spent the entire day doing things for either Greg, or Kyle later in the afternoon.

Thomas drove Zach, Gary, and me to Freddy’s for lunch, which was kind of a surprising choice. I always kind of thought he just tolerated that place. Evidently Jason’s daughter was the one that took our orders, but I didn’t recognize her on account of not really knowing her. Gary just said something about Jason’s car not being totaled when he saw it in the parking lot as we were leaving.

Zach and I went to Support Services to rearrange some stuff in the afternoon, and then ran around town picking up touch panels and tools to hang for Kyle at Dwight. My rooms at Oakland were finished over a month ago, so I was surprised to learn that his weren’t. That took us the rest of the day, so we just barely had time to clean up when we got back to the shop. I had made my Hawaiian coffee in the morning, and was upset that Tammy threw it out at the end of the day in spite of me specifically asking her not to. I only had one cup in the morning, so I guess if I want more, we’ll have to go back.

I went home after work and immediately started getting things ready to go to Little Rock alone the next morning. I think I just psyched myself out over traveling so early in the morning, but I hate that Greg can’t go with me. At least Ben will swing by for lunch, but I would have really liked someone I could talk to about the material afterward.

I finished up much later than I wanted, then got gas and headed up to Summer’s for the night. Hopefully I’m prepared enough, but it won’t be for a lack of trying.

Mike Meyers before Halloween? Seems a little on-the-nose.