Tag: work

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Cartagain Weather

Thomas was out this morning, so Gary lead the team meeting with an intro for everyone to our new ticket system. The highlight of the morning was Brody calling out that Gary likely had more important tickets to work on than building out an unnecessary new system. Zach split everyone up for projects, but the big one for the day was cleaning up all the old carts we got from Bentonville so the group we hired can come wire up all the new chargers.

I went upstairs with Gary to troubleshoot a printer issue in the computer lab, but he had to bail early for a meeting. I came out of nowhere with an unexpected fix involving the shared account they were using in the lab, and made my way downstairs to help with the carts.

Brody suggested Mulan’s for lunch after much debate, so he took took Zach, Gary, and Josh. I rode the Shadow to work, so I rode separately through some pretty stupid traffic. I took a different approach to my plating, with most of my rice being in the sushi. I still ate a lot, but I wasn’t completely miserable by the time we left.

I spent most of the afternoon working in my office until everyone came back to the shop to rest from their own work. I was the last one out, and decided to swing by Oakland to see if Eaddie needed a ride. She and Zane were walking to her father’s restaurant to eat, so I got gas and headed home until she needed a ride.

Summer was headed home from Conway about the time Eaddie and I started watching an episode of Stranger Things. Then they left to get ready for a 5k that Summer registered the girls for. Eaddie was worried about homework and stayed home, but Autumn ran. I ended up meeting Summer at the finish line, and we were proud to see her finish strong.

I came home to try and rest up for a super long day tomorrow, but had trouble getting to bed. Hopefully I don’t drag tomorrow night, because I already feel like a bad boyfriend for not wanting to go.

Friends take work. You’re not going to spontaneously summon a crowd.

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Return to Sender

I made it in to work a little early again today, and was soon asked to cover the phones while the leads had their meeting. The phone didn’t ring a single time, so it was mostly just babysitting for an hour. It was all around pretty uneventful all day. The morning went by quickly, and we found ourselves at Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday. I ate cheaply again, and it felt pretty good.

Sometime in the afternoon, Thomas wandered to the back and set up a video conference with someone about our ticket reporting system. Evidently he’s been asked for data that hasn’t been collected in Web Help Desk, so we’re looking at spending some more money for something a little prettier.

The end of the day dragged on a bit, but eventually I made it home. I got things ready to stay with Summer in Conway, but had to stop at Lowe’s on my way out of town. I scheduled the pickup of the dreadful Whirlpool refrigerator and talked to a couple of guys about our top picks for its replacement. They required payment for the new one up front, and said the refund of the old one had to come back to me in store credit. I opted instead to just wait for the refund before ordering the replacement, so I’ll have to move a bunch of food up to Summer’s place until the new one shows up.

The drive to Conway was quick, without too much traffic. I stopped in Morrilton for some beer, and then hopped onto Discord to chat with Mitch again until I got to Splash. Summer was busy, so I grabbed some popcorn and headed to the hotel to check in.

After unloading, I went across the street to Walmart to kill some time. Easter candy was half off, and I found a few deals on clearance. I had been assuming we would go out for dinner, but Summer got to the hotel super late and just went straight to bed. I considered going home to sleep in my own bed, because I didn’t like the idea of taking off so much unexpectedly for that plus the fridge pickup, but with the promise of lunch in Conway, I decided to stay.

What book are you even reading???

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We Got to Move These Refrigerators

I made it in a couple minutes early today, and relatively quickly got called to build some tech tubs with some Chromebooks to take upstairs to the stage for the virtual kids’ testing. It took us a couple hours at least to get everything together and then for me to help with some updates upstairs, so lunch time was there before I knew it. It was Zach’s birthday, but he brought leftovers, so I ended up picking Summer up to go to Arby’s.

When I got back, I had to work on an updated deployment for Brody, which took up the rest of the afternoon. We’re having to juggle between “safety and security” and being able to test students, and at the end of the day, the job is only difficult because there are no stakes. There is no punishment for bad behavior. We’re forced to use technology to babysit instead of educate.

At one point, I took a break to Duo call Mitch for his birthday. He seemed to be doing well, and was excited to get to chat with Gary and me. I ended up calling him again later in the evening as well, just to catch up some more.

Immediately after work, I met Summer at my house to move my old refrigerator outside. Then her workmate Justin came over to help us lift it into the truck. I had to run to CrossFit to borrow it from Brody for about an hour, and we managed to get the refrigerator delivered to Summer’s house. She and Justin had to go to an after-hours meeting for work, so I went back home to clean up all of the refrigerator parts.

While I was cleaning, I called Mitch, and then managed to get Discord working well enough to talk to both him and Blake for a while. Blake just got his CCNA recently, so I was super proud of him for that. I was surprised how good the audio quality was over the phone app, and it was awesome getting to surprise both of them with the call.

As soon as Summer was done with her meeting, I met her at Lowe’s to try and lay hands on one of the two models of refrigerator that I wanted in exchange for the Whirlpool that I hate. It took forever to get any help, but eventually we did from a guy that Summer actually knew from another old coworker. We didn’t actually get an order placed, but hopefully I’ll get a call tomorrow along with an opportunity to see one of these things in person.

We headed back up to their house to put the shelving back into the refrigerator, and I had a chat to try and reach through to Autumn about her attitude. I tried giving my position some context to see if I could get her attention long enough to accept a lesson in good faith. Parents just want their kids to grow up healthy, wise, and strong.

Now look at them yo-yos. That’s the way you do it.

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PD, so TV

We started this morning with a long meeting since the kids were out and nobody had anything pressing to tend to. Thomas decided he would buy lunch so we could order takeout and eat back at the shop, and someone else suggested Taco Villa. I called the order in a little early, and it all worked out perfectly.

Sometime in the afternoon, I went to Crawford to meet up with Kyle, who was trying to fix a classroom microphone issue. It ended up being a physically broken microphone, so we’d have to wait for one to be ordered. The rest of the afternoon went by very quietly until Thomas sent us home about half an hour early.

I went home, but didn’t have a whole lot of extra motivation there either. Eventually Summer made it home and summoned me up the hill. She was already in bed. Autumn was at work, and Eaddie laid on the couch watching TV all night. I wasn’t particularly tired, but being there made me bored and restless, so I went to bed.

Better not mess with my movie-going experience, or they’ll catch more than hands.

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That’s Mister Karen to You

I went to Oakland first thing again this morning because they were screening kids for GT. Oddly, they did the screening in the worst, most disruptive corner possible, but I suppose they did what they set out to do. It all felt a little silly to me. Dana had the only kids that needed my help, so my time there was short.

Back at the office, most everyone else was out doing their own thing. It must be quiet everywhere, because I didn’t get any calls from anyone. Gary showed me a fix for something I had been working on, and I deployed that.

After some thought last night, I decided to call Lowe’s to try and return our new refrigerator. There are just too many poor design decisions that I couldn’t make peace with, so I didn’t want to be stuck with it for the next decade. The first girl I talked to seemed pretty receptive and told me she would have the store contact me to arrange for a pickup. Then the assistant store manager called to let me know he had no power to override the 48-hour return window. I attempted to escalate, and almost immediately got a call back from the store manager, who told me the same but in many more words. I called the corporate number back and escalated there, which lead to me talking to an older lady that indicated it shouldn’t be a problem for the store to override the policy. I guess we’ll give them 24 hours to make it right before I really go Karen.

Otherwise there wasn’t a whole lot of anything going on. Nobody left for lunch, so I just had a Soylent between a couple of apples and a bag of chips, and powered on through the day. Autumn wanted me to pick Eaddie up after tennis practice, so I hung out at the high school watching them for a bit. Summer made it back to town a little earlier, so I made dinner plans with her at Brown’s to use my birthday coupon.

After eating way too much, I came home and almost immediately laid down in bed and very nearly started to nap. I felt better for it, but then had recurring cramps in my calves and shins. Since they happened all at once, there wasn’t any direction I could turn or bend my legs to stretch them out, so I just writhed in pain until it went away every time. Hopefully that’s not a look into my future sleep tonight.

Life should be Gooder.

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Strange Design

I went to Oakland first thing again this morning to take care of a couple things. Luckily it didn’t really start raining until after I got to the shop, so I missed the torrential downpour until lunch time. It was quiet downstairs because Gary was locked away doing some training in his office.

Greg, Gary, and I met Zach at La Chiquita for lunch, and witnessed some pretty spectacular lightning strikes along the ride. The rain calmed down a bit by the time we got there, and fortunately the storm never got super bad right over us. We made it back to work without incident, but the rest of the afternoon was a challenge in staying awake.

When I finally left for home, Eaddie texted and wanted a ride, so I picked her up at Oakland. We went to my house and started the third season of Stranger Things. After one episode, we went to Burger King so she could get a chicken sandwich, because when I think of chicken, I think of Burger King. My Big Bacon King was too much. We watched one more episode before Summer got back home and picked Eaddie up.

I spent the rest of the night cleaning up my old refrigerator. The right half of it looks pretty nice now, but my arm was too tired to continue with the other half. I also did a little exploring on the new fridge, and discovered the reason for the warm water out of the dispenser. For some reason, the water line travels outside of the refrigerator nearly the entire way. It goes up and into the fridge for the water filter, then comes back out and down to another hole where it goes back into the refrigerator for a cold water reservoir line. After that, it comes back out of the fridge again so it can be routed under and around to the door. This must have made perfect sense to someone who didn’t have to deal with a refrigerator that was powered on, otherwise they would have noticed the heat from the compressor warming the water back up before it gets to your cup.

From that moment on, I went to bed dreaming of trying to perform a return outside the measly 48-hour window at Lowe’s. Maybe someone will pity us for being put out for two additional weeks and scheduling our spring break vacation and one additional weekend around what we thought were going to be deliveries.

Everyone knows backlights are superior. Idiots.

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Panel Envy

I started at Oakland first thing this morning so I could set their printers back up after kindergarten registration night. Paul had already moved them, so my job was easy. While I was there, my first new kindergarten hallway projector went out. It won’t be long before the rest go out, and I’m not excited about hanging the oversized touch panels in their place.

I continued on to the shop to work until lunch time. We met Dale for Taco Tuesday about half an hour early, which didn’t make a huge difference in our day. It was good catching up again, and we even saw Brice come in just as we were about to leave.

Josh volunteered to help me hang the touch panel in the afternoon, so Greg helped me load the truck up before he showed up. We had a little less trouble overall than I expected, even though the install didn’t go quite as I had planned. We ended up having to go back to the shop for some parts because the old wiring had to be pulled out. Fortunately Josh was able to use the old lines to pull the new ones, and we hung the obnoxiously heavy, oversized touch panel while the kids were out of the room.

When I got back, Gary called and asked for some help at Central Office, so I walked across the street with some parts, and then ended up having to climb up into the ceiling to do some work that he couldn’t accomplish with his broken arm. Fortunately that went alright, and the rest of the day was cake.

I went by Superfast after work to see Summer and fill up on coolant. Then we came back to my house to chat for a bit about her promotion at work. She’ll be traveling more, but I still think she needs to make a bigger play for bigger pay. After she left, I finished moving stuff out of the old refrigerator, and tomorrow I’ll be able to clean it up properly for the move to her house.

And then Sam sung.

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Two Cool for School

Just as I was about to walk out the door this morning, I got a call from the Lowe’s delivery Hispanics saying they would be at my house in 30 to 45 minutes. It took them a little longer than that, but it gave me plenty of time to clear a path since Summer didn’t show up until they were waddling the thing through the front door. The whole process went through without incident, though they wouldn’t hook up my water line for me, so I just had to leave my unstoppable, dripping line hanging over a bucket until I could look at it after work. Summer went back to work, and I quickly wiped down the inside surfaces before going to work myself.

It was quiet downstairs, but Jacob came into my office as soon as I got there and needed help stopping his junior high kids from downloading Roblox from the Microsoft Store. I got that figured out, but accidentally broke the calculator and other Windows apps in the process.

I kind of worked through lunch, though most everyone ate there anyway, which made me feel a little guilty for not actually taking time off for showing up late. I brought the leftover breakfast sandwich and snacked on apples throughout the afternoon. I figure I still had days worth of comp time that I never cashed in anyway, so it’ll all come out in the wash.

I had to go by Oakland a couple of times, but otherwise it really was quiet. I ended the day there, and took Eaddie home with me at quitting time. She didn’t stay long though, because she wanted to go to a dinner gathering with the tennis team. Summer picked her up and left me to finish setting up the new refrigerator. Dad came to the rescue with some parts to help me hook up the water line, since I couldn’t get it to quit leaking.

Doug came knocking on the door a little while later and wanted me to come next door to work on Bác Vân’s sewing machine. I had concerns about how much time it would take, and I wasn’t wrong. In the end, I got the new gear in place, but couldn’t get the timing right so the needle would pick up the bobbin on the downswing. I might be able to figure it out with some research time, but she seemed to be in enough of a rush to get a professional on the task.

I ended the night moving some food around, and got the freezer and the door of the refrigerator loaded up. The main body of the refrigerator is mostly full of junk, so that will take some sorting tomorrow. For now, I just hope it keeps everything properly frozen. Then as soon as it stops raining this week, we’ll get the old fridge up to Summer’s house.

Here’s hoping for heavy sleep.

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Winter 4.0

I made it in to work early again today, and it was COLD! The wind never really let up, so it felt like winter was coming again. We had a longish, quiet meeting over donuts before people wandered off. I had to do some rearranging with my CPPC minutes because Janie waited until after I sent the final draft to remind me about the update we got for employees that were hired in with a step cap.

Otherwise it was pretty quiet until lunch time. Kyle went with us for the first time in a little while. Thomas left before lunch and said he had a doctor’s appointment, but then we ran into him with two of his sons at Brangus. He ended up paying for all of our meals on their way out, which was a big surprise. It is nice that he’s so generous so often, but I hope he doesn’t feel obligated.

The afternoon was quiet too. I went to Oakland at the end of the day to take care of a pesky vacation auto responder. Mollie was actually there in person to work, so everyone in the office was super excited. I didn’t stick around too long to chat because school was about to let out and I needed to disappear for that.

Everyone eventually filtered out at the end of the day, but Tammy was left behind waiting for time to meet up with some friends. I stayed to keep her company for a bit, and then went to my parents’ house to visit with them. Eaddie had an all-region band event that kept her late, so I had some spaghetti with my parents until time to pick her up.

On the way home, we stopped at Sonic for a couple shakes. Then we finished the second season of Stranger Things. Summer stopped in at the end of her day, but Eaddie said she wanted to stay the night with me. After the last episode, she changed her mind though, and we went up to their house for the night.

What else?

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Virtually Unbusy

At last, I made it to work a bit early. I probably slept for about nine hours last night, but still awoke begrudgingly to my alarm. Greg drew the short straw and got the lion’s share of the Brody calls all day, which left me to do a bit of cleanup on some old tasks I had been neglecting.

I convinced Gary, Zach, and Greg to let me drive them to La Huerta instead of La Chiquita for lunch, which was a treat for me. Greg complained about still being hungry after his meal, and Gary didn’t even take a swing when I tried to flirt with the cashier, who had her opposite arm in a sling, on his behalf. Otherwise I thought it was a super fast and tasty lunch.

When we got back, Gary wanted to show Greg and me his process for upgrading VMware on four of our physical servers. That took the rest of the afternoon until eventually Zach and Thomas came to the back and we had a relaxing sendoff for the day.

Just after I got home, Summer asked me to get Eaddie from tennis practice at the high school. Her phone was allegedly delivered, but after trying five neighbors, she was unable to locate a package and came over to my house empty handed. Eaddie had to work a band event, so Summer took her to that while I chatted with Fi support to report the missing package.

I spent the rest of the night cleaning up in the kitchen, and then looking around on Zillow for anything new. I thought about it some more today, and felt like maybe building a workshop/garage out back would be a better first step so I could have somewhere to offload some things before doing the rest of the renovation. With Summer’s loans nearly paid off and both of us fighting for better pay, more of this feels within reach than ever.

It won’t cost much. Just your voice.