Tag: work

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Find Time to Chill

Thomas came into my office this morning to say that he, Kelsea, and Gary would be in Plumerville for some Cognos training, and to be on alert in case the new superintendent needed any technology help. I didn’t really expect to hear from anyone, so it wasn’t a big deal. Greg mentioned needing to run some cable at the central office, but wanted Zach to find someone else for that.

It was pretty quiet with everyone out, so I mostly stuck around the office to babysit Tammy. I did have one pretty animated guy come in for an account creation, but otherwise it was business as usual. Zach and Josh showed up for lunch, and we went to Zaxby’s where I saw Aaron’s dad for the first time in a little while.

Shortly after we got back from lunch, Thomas messaged us to run upstairs and help with an unspecified technology issue. When I got there, the air seemed tense and they really didn’t seem like they wanted me there. They said she was busy, and wanted to know if I could be reached later. I didn’t really see the point in them calling us for help and then turning the help away, but maybe she figured out how to set her MacBook’s sleep settings on her own.

A little while later, we got a truckload of Newline touch panels in. We went with the next size up, so these were pretty unnecessarily heavy. I’ll say it again – I’m all for removing technology from schools. Educators primarily use it to babysit, and rely too much on it for classroom management. It just gets in the way of teaching.

I ran to Oakland at the end of the day to collect some backup battery inventory information, and then just happened to realize that Eaddie needed a ride home since Autumn went straight to work after school again. We went to my house and started the second season of Stranger Things. It seemed to jump right into things, but I couldn’t really tell where things were going to go from there.

Summer came over as soon as she got back from Cabot, and we went to La Huerta for dinner. Then I headed back home to decide on a refrigerator. I narrowed it down to a side-by-side with water and ice in the door. I wasn’t thrilled with the ice capacity, but that seems to be how it is on most of those things these days. Now comes the time to manipulate discount methods.

Keep hustlin’, not bustlin’.

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Sweet and Sour

Today was cold and a little drizzly again. The junior high had some trouble with testing, which we tracked down to another policy that was still launching Chrome on startup. The conflicts we have to deal with and ultimately support are sometimes very ridiculous.

I finally sent out my Saint Patrick’s Day themed email, but only received one response compared to the slew of them I got last month. It was pretty quiet downstairs the rest of the morning. I rode with Brody in his new truck to Taco John’s for lunch and had some better tasting, yet less filled and more broken tacos.

Kelsea brought me a lemon birthday cake after lunch, which Thomas was super anxious to eat. I don’t know if he’s just got a super sweet tooth, or if he just likes being enthusiastic about home baked goods. I ran to Kroger for some plates, and we made quick work of it.

At some point in the afternoon, a big group of people came through that I believe were from Ritter. The holy trinity brought them all to the back to chat right outside my office, but didn’t shut me in. I had to stop myself from having too much coffee before quitting time. Then I went straight home and did some more refrigerator research. I don’t know where the time went, but my evening disappeared fast.

Realtors should be required to pass a class on photographic composition.

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A Little Strange

Gary called me just as I was walking out the door this morning to ask for a ride to work. Evidently Zach had his new truck in the shop for an issue with his backup camera, so I was the next best thing. We skated in a few minutes late because of it, and evidently the storms had some things down when we got there. It wasn’t too long before they had it figured out and we were all up and running, but then Brody had some trouble with testing that almost needed assistance. I ended up being able to do some remote updates that I think helped, because he called us off the case.

I spent a large part of the day working on CPPC stuff, but also made time to create a software deployment. Lunch time came around quicker than I realized, and Gary, Thomas and I started for Linhs. Zach pulled back into the parking lot as we were leaving, so I circled around to get him.

After lunch, Linda wanted to come chat with me, so I had her meet me in my office. She was upset, as many are, about some of the perceived hiring practices in the district. I tried to ease her mind the best I could, but ultimately I told her that every job has a leader that can ultimately make whatever call they want. There’s no law about fairness, and it’s not uncommon for employees to develop a feeling of entitlement over a long period of time with a company.

Even quitting time arrived quicker than I expected. Amber texted me that Eaddie didn’t have her phone but needed a ride home. Then Eaddie emailed me and said she thought she left it on the bus. I called over to the Transportation office and found it, then picked her up. Autumn had to work right after school, so Eaddie and I went to Burger King at her request. We had a really good conversation that went all over the place, and then we went up the hill so she could change and shower for the evening.

We headed back to my house with the expectation that we would start the second season of Stranger Things, but she ended up in her room studying all night. I watched a recap of the whole first season that got me stoked enough to rewatch the last episode of the first season. Then Autumn called and wanted to stay home, so I had her pick up Eaddie and we all went to bed.

So you think superficially going through the motions would make you feel better?

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We-Haul

I had to get up extra early this morning so we could get to U-Haul to pick up a couple box trucks. I rode with Thomas, and Brody rode with Zach for the trip up to Bentonville. The trucks were both super shaky, but I think Thomas and I still had the better truck. Brody said theirs was constantly downshifting, and they were worried the transmission was going out.

We made it to Bentonville without incident, and were immediately met by a large crew of people that seemed all too happy to see Thomas again after such a short time. They made quick work of loading just under 60 laptop carts into the two box trucks. Ryan was there to meet us as well, with an epic red beard.

Thomas rode with some of the others, but Zach, Brody, and I rode with Ryan across town. We were going to try and eat at some chili burger place, but they evidently only had one booth available and we weren’t sure our huge crew would fit. Instead, we ended up at Gusano’s. The service was super slow, but there were a whole lot of us. Zach and I split a wrap and a pizza together so we could try both.

After a super long lunch, we headed back to the trucks and hit the road home. The ride felt smoother to me, but Thomas wasn’t sure. It’s possible I was just anxious to get home. Our crew was waiting outside for us, and unloaded both trucks pretty quickly. Dustin came through to pick up a scrap laptop for a play, and then I went downstairs to see Tammy as everyone else left. She brought me some banana bread for my birthday, but I think the rest of the crew ate the other half.

I headed home and waited for Summer to get off work. Then we went downtown to see Suzanne’s booth at the art walk. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot going on, which was probably less good for her than for me. It was quiet enough that I wasn’t too bothered. We also ran into a handful of other ladies from the schools as we made it around the block.

Once we got back to the house, Summer went home with some leftovers, and I pretty well crashed. I hadn’t felt super since the late afternoon, and it just sort of got worse as the evening carried on.

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Not Cool

Summer discovered her refrigerator had quit working this morning, and evidently it had been warming for quite some time because everything in the freezer had already completely thawed out. I picked Gary up for work, did a little research for an appliance repair person, then headed up to her place to move any good food to my house.

The whole process took about an hour and a half, and I managed to fit everything we saved into my refrigerator. Then I headed back in to work. As I was walking in, Gary was walking out to go to Central Office to look at Judy’s new office. Evidently the new superintendent wanted to take Judy’s current office because it was bigger and wasn’t visible directly from the front door. We did that, replaced a printer for Cindy, and then went back to the office until lunch time.

I guess Gary was really craving pizza, because he chose CiCi’s after finding out that Pizza Hut no longer had a buffet or salad bar. Thomas even joined us, because he thought it was hilarious that Brody wasn’t there to join us. As soon as we got seated, I took a picture and sent it to the group chat. It probably wasn’t five minutes later, and up walked Brody. He was looking at trucks, but bailed as soon as he saw us there.

After lunch, I tried to focus on the CPPC minutes. It was pretty quiet downstairs, so I managed to get it sent by the end of the day. I dropped Gary off at home, then went home to change before going up to Summer’s for dinner. She cooked the big bag of chicken that we decided to keep, and made a big chicken and rice casserole out of it. The girls had karate, but ate when they got home.

I spent most of my time trying to troubleshoot the refrigerator. I cleaned out a nest of mice, but couldn’t really get to the two dead ones I found. The fans all seemed to be working, but the compressor was just cycling on for about five seconds every minute and a half. It was definitely not cooling, so it’ll be up to the pros tomorrow.

Just relax.

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Swell

My left foot and leg felt a little swollen yesterday evening and even last night whenever I’d stir from sleep. It never really got any better all day, so I was moderately concerned. I assume it’s from toying with my blood pressure medication, so I’ll need to schedule an appointment and decide whether I want a new primary care physician soon.

I made it out of the house early so I could pick Gary up for work. Then Justin came down to let me bounce some ideas off of him before our CPPC meeting. That was entertaining, as I did a bunch more talking again. Even Karen had more on her agenda than anyone realized. I had to compromise on the changes I wanted to make, but was ultimately satisfied enough with where we left it. For the life of me, though, I could not understand why so many people wanted to defend the notion that they should just do whatever their supervisor says, when they clearly had the option to maintain some level of control over their situations. People are dumb.

Brody and I were the only two to go to lunch, so I thought we might try CiCi’s, but he was really craving Venezia’s. The service was a little slow and the bread was super flat for some reason, but everything else was good. I didn’t even get into an argument with anyone about why my flavor preferences were incorrect.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon bouncing between different projects and trying to organize my thoughts for the meeting minutes. I had to drop Gary off back at home, and I thought I was going to have to get Eaddie since Autumn had her first evening working at Denny’s. Summer was home with a bum eye though, and decided to pick her up for me. They ended up stopping by though, since I brought them a couple leftover cupcakes.

The remainder of the evening was laundry, laundry, laundry, a mile on the treadmill, and not enough time tinkering to actually make any sense of my new RGB software. Maybe someday.

Draw Focus

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Not Rushin’

It was another pretty relaxed day at the shop all day. The Trifecta were holed up in the office for most of the morning. I worked on some CPPC stuff and tinkered a bit. At one point, Kevin brought someone down for a badge and made it back to see my office. Greg and I went across the street to try and move some computers, but ended up not getting to talk to anyone for instructions.

Five of us went to Taco John’s, and I had the fish tacos. They were pretty good, but the crispy tacos were stale, and I left hungry. Shane brought some cupcakes by, courtesy of Howard, so that helped at the end of the day.

I went home for a little bit after work, until Summer picked me up for Eaddie’s concert. They had three bands, so the concert started half an hour earlier. She thought it started a whole hour earlier though, so we ended up waiting in the lobby for a while before the doors opened.

I had some trouble peeling the camera protector off of the back of my phone, so I didn’t get the pictures or video that I wanted at the concert. I finally got it all off once I got home, but then I spent way too much time tinkering on the computer, and didn’t get ready for bed until late. At least I had my RGB working better than before.

Gotta travel casually while all of this is going on.

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Bee Team

I had forgotten about my ice scraper being broken, and had to try and use the bristles of the brush side to sweep away the heavy frost this morning. It went about as well as you would expect. Fortunately I didn’t really lose too much time waiting for it to defrost.

I had forgotten about testing at Oakland this morning, so as soon as I got settled, I packed up to babysit them for about an hour. Of course nothing happened that was even remotely related to us, but everyone felt better for my being there, and it helped me split up my day.

There wasn’t much going on at the shop when I got back. I killed some time until lunch, when Zach, Gary, Thomas, and I went to Morelos. Evidently Greg is the sole reason we haven’t gone there, which is unfortunate, because they’re far superior to La Chiquita.

The afternoon was really slow. I ran home to get a package, thinking it was Summer’s new phone. To my surprise, it was a Mariah Carey beanie from a McDonald’s promotion before Christmas. I had forgotten all about it, and was pretty disappointed. If I had just waited until the end of the day, I would have been much happier about finally receiving it.

Zach, Gary, and eventually Thomas all came back to the shop at the end of the day and just chilled until quitting time. I went home and started some laundry until Summer and Eaddie came to pick me up for Autumn’s band concert. The auditorium was mostly empty, and super cold. It really felt like they were just barely keeping the lights on. It reminded me a lot of the theater experience at the movies right after they re-opened from COVID.

I finished laundry when I got back home. Then I tinkered a bit more on the computer before going to sleep.

Stalled

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Cheesin Crackas

We got to start an hour late today because of the little ice that remained. I took my cheese, crackers, and salami in to work, but Brody and Zach were the only two that really ate any. Greg tried one, and the girls came and had a couple later, but it wasn’t until the end of the day that they really got popular.

Brody and I went along with Zach and Greg to hang a TV in Dwight’s saferoom. I discovered a photo opportunity with a little trampoline, since we had to hang the TV so high. Greg and Brody just kept playing basketball, but we got the job done.

It was nearly lunch time by the time we got back. We sat around a bit, and then Greg and I decided to chase after Brody to Umami, since it was just the three of us going to lunch for the day. I was surprised at how many people they could pack in there now, but the service was super slow. We didn’t even get our order in for the first half hour. When the food finally arrived, I wasn’t at all impressed with any of the flavors of either the food or the sauces they gave me. I saw Josh walk in and snapped a candid photo to send to the group chat, which turned out to be the highlight of my lunch hour.

When we got back to the shop, Zach had everyone go outside to move some stuff in the graveyard again. We cleaned out the kitchen area and put a bunch of stuff on shelves. As we finished, Brody and Jacob mentioned that they had never seen the murder-basement, so I took them across campus to see that. It was even grosser with all the ice and water.

From then, we didn’t have a whole lot longer until our hour-early quitting time. Ben texted that he was at the arts center helping set up for a church gig, so I went over there and made a cable for them. I thought we’d get more time to visit, but he spent most of his time actually working to get things set up. I spent more time talking to Dustin than anyone else. They did seem to really enjoy the cheese and crackers there, and ate nearly half of what was left.

I went by the shop to see Summer on the way home from there. She was just finishing up and wanted to go to the gym, so I was charged with taking the girls home. They were packed and waiting for her when I arrived, so I didn’t even have a moment to breathe before they started fussing for me to take them home. I got some gas on the way, and then warmed up some old leftover shrimp and salmon to clean out their fridge until Summer got home.

The girls kept busy all night, so Summer and I watched some Modern Family until she was ready for bed. I tried not to stay up too late past that, but still ended up losing a fair amount of time hunting for the perfect phone case/mount/charger combination.

It’ll take just a Moment to find a case with Peak Design for this new phone.

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Odd Man In

I showered late last night so I could sleep in a bit and still get my car de-iced this morning. I let it run for about half an hour before I could chip all of the ice off, and then made it in to work. The roads weren’t bad, and I expected at least a few people to show up, but not one other soul was there. I just sat in the dark by myself for a while with some hot Earl Grey and milk.

After a while, I got up to check the weather outside. Justin and the rest of the maintenance crew were there working, so I thought I’d try and catch them huddled together for warmth in their warehouse. The joke was on me though, because they were actually at Sequoyah working on something. I penguin-waddled around a while until I got a text back from Justin that they were headed to the performing arts center to unload a truck that showed up in spite of the ice weather.

It had started to thunder-sleet again, so they decided they were going home when they got back. I followed suit and finished up downstairs, then went to see Summer at Superfast. She had just left though, so I tracked her down at Walmart where we picked up some things for dinner.

I found a couple pork butt roasts on sale, so I started up the smoker and got them going as quickly as I could. The girls eventually came over for the evening, as I struggled to get the grill up to temperature to fully cook the pork. It also seemed like my Meater thermometer was reading low on the ambient temperature, but in any case, the meat spent far too many hours on the grill as I continued to shovel charcoal in. I ended up finishing the roasts in the oven, and completed the meal with baked potatoes and grilled asparagus.

The girls sat around and watched TV until they could eat. The meat was predictably dry and tough, but had a pretty good taste. Everything was pretty salty though, so I’ll have to watch that in the future. I’m sure it won’t be so hard to do when it’s not literally freezing outside. At least I got a nice smoke ring and flavor out of it.

We get an hour late start in the morning, and I’ll take advantage of it with how sore I am from running around all afternoon. It’s also time to bring some smoked cheese and crackers in. I haven’t had any with crackers, and I’m excited about the sausage slices I found.

I’ve got to clean… everything.