Tag: work

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Clever Hat

It was a little frosty this morning, but overall a little bit warmer and less uncomfortable to be outside. I got to work and really enjoyed my eternally hot cup of coffee, and fixed a printer issue for Brody, who was out with COVID. The rest of the morning was a bit of rummaging for things to do until lunch, when Gary, Zach, Thomas, and I went to CJ’s.

After lunch, I spent some time at Oakland. There, kids had been dropping like flies to quarantine. COVID numbers have just progressively gotten worse, until they changed their quarantine procedures to reduce the number of days out. That brought our numbers down low enough that we didn’t have to shut down any schools. I still think we’d benefit from going to a year-round calendar though.

After work, I went home to change and then went to my parents’ house for some phở. We talked a little more about our next vacation planning, shared our opinions on reunions and nostalgia, and pondered the nature of the Matrix.

On the way home, I called a very drowsy Summer for a bit before bed. Then I wound down pretty quickly.

You see, no one can be told what the Matrix is…

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y5

The tendons behind my knees hurt all day, which I guess was from spending some time on the treadmill the other day. I got around, ate some food, and then just kept eating more food all day. Around the time I tried to get around to doing something, Thomas called and wanted me to run to the arena to investigate a wireless issue they were having.

They were hosting a wrestling tournament, and though the stands weren’t exactly packed, there were people all over the floor. I walked around the perimeter of the arena and found that any time I got out onto the floor, I wasn’t able to connect to the internet. I told Adrian we’d be sure to get it fixed before we start hosting “real” sporting events, and then left since they had already come up with some hotspots as a workaround.

The day crawled on for the most part. I was just lazy again and couldn’t get into much of anything. I probably would have felt better if I had just played a game or watched something on TV, but I didn’t really even do that much.

Mom had spring rolls for dinner, so I went over there a little early and brought her heated mug and Dad’s camera grip strap that I got him. I think Mom was pleased with the mug after she actually tried it. It seems to heat a lot more, and faster than mine, but it feels much cheaper. I prefer the build quality of the Ember, but I think hers may actually last longer too, especially with the included lid.

Julie came over and we ate. Then she tinkled on the piano for a while and I showed Dad some FPV drone videos as inspiration for where to blow his retirement. Eventually I made it home, called Summer for a bit, and crawled into bed.

These damned captions!

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Run For Your Life

I slept the best that I’ve slept for at least a month last night, and woke up mere seconds before my alarm went off, ready to face the day. I had plenty of time to get to work a couple minutes early and prepared myself a perfect cup of coffee for our meeting. Brody was told to come on down to the shop in spite of his masked status, so I just tried to keep my distance, and wore my mask any time we had to cross paths. Fortunately I was still able to help him over the phone after he left, because that’s what I did most of the day.

A group of us went to Quiznos for lunch, and I think they gave me a sandwich that was larger than they should have for my sandwich and soup combo. The chicken tortilla soup was awesome, but I dropped the last half of it in the floor on accident because we were trying to eat around a table that was simply too small for five of us.

I finally finished up my CPPC meeting minutes draft after staying half an hour late, and then headed home to get another package that had been intercepted by either Bác Vân or Doug. It’s really more annoying than anything, but I guess I’ll appreciate it more if I ever have something irreplaceable stolen.

I don’t think Autumn went to school, and instead was supposed to get a COVID test done because she said she hadn’t been feeling well the last couple of days. Summer got home late, but said Autumn was “ok,” which I thought meant she had a negative test. When I got to their house, I had gotten no more than two spoonfuls of soup into my mouth when Autumn said something about still being sick but not knowing what it was.

After wrestling with her in the bedroom, I knew I had to drop everything to wash up. Autumn is by far the least hygienic of any of the kids, so even when she’s not sick, touching her usually warrants a handwash. She’s embarrassingly disgusting almost all of the time, but this time I was literally afraid for my life. I still remember COVID. Nobody around me seems to be taking it at all seriously, and I just assume I’ll be the one to pay for it.

I ran out the door for home, shaking and crying out of some emotion or another. I had the worst fever of my entire life when I got COVID last year. The pneumonia had me down for weeks afterward, and I still have panic attacks that appear to just be a normal part of my life now. It’s uncontrollable and terrifying, but I deal with it well because of how self aware I am. Maybe that gives off a vibe that I’m not worried about it, but I’m actually always scared.

I shook it off the best I could when I got home. When I finally got settled in, I put on Don’t Look Up to get my mind off of things. As soon as the movie was over, it was straight to the bottle, though.

Maybe this isn’t working.

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That’s a WAP

Thomas was out with pink eye today, so Gary and Zach split the group up to run some more outdoor wireless access points. Since that left Tammy alone downstairs, they told me to stick around, which I was happy to do.

When they got back, Gary, Zach, and I went to McAlister’s for lunch. I thought I had a BOGO soup in a bread bowl, but the coupon was really just for a free bread bowl upgrade. It was way too much bread and not nearly enough soup.

On the way back to the shop, we stopped by my house so I could get a package, but either Bác Vân or Doug had already taken it next door. I retrieved it, but never had a chance to open it because I was sent to the junior high with Josh and Kyle to run two more WAP lines.

The network lines were relatively easy, but it was still frustrating how much standing around there was. It’s like unless there’s a very specific instruction given, there was no ambition to get anything done. We managed to get both lines run with enough time to get to the middle school just before school let out. There, we had to locate a live line that was already in place, and see if it could be made to run outside. We didn’t have the equipment to actually move the drop, but at least the line was hot.

The guys sent about half of everyone home early. I went back to my office to work on my CPPC minutes, but even after staying late I didn’t get it finished. I’d really like to call out the huge increase in pay for at least one administrator. It really wasn’t until that happened that I had to admit that you never truly destroy the “establishment.” You simply replace it.

After work, I went home and started on a few loads of laundry. My work shirts were long overdue, and a couple days of climbing around in the ceiling gave me just the push I needed to get it done.

I’ll do it for half.

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Outernet

I was sleeping really deeply this morning, or perhaps really lightly. In either case, I barely crawled out of bed after seriously contemplating calling in sick. I squeaked into work and had just enough time to get settled and review some of the CPPC meeting notes before I had to walk across the street.

Judy brought donuts, and it was a pretty productive meeting. We voted on some new policies and a modification to the new salary schedule to be implemented this summer. As we wrapped up, I took a couple donuts back to the office for later. It was about lunch time, so after a little bit of poking around, Zach, Gary, and I went to Sam’s.

I tried the Sam’s Special with fried shrimp, which was pretty unimpressive. It wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t nearly as good as anything else I’ve ever had there. Gary’s gyro looked pretty good though. Zach gave me a couple chicken strips to supplement my baby shrimp, so I was happy.

After lunch, Kyle and I went to run cable at Crawford and Oakland, while Greg and Zach drilled holes on the outside of the building to mount a couple wireless access points. That took us the rest of the day, and I was pretty tired afterward. Eaddie was at Oakland, so I took her with me to drop Kyle off, and then we went to my house to change.

When we got to their house, I started to assemble a ham bone soup in the Instant Pot. Summer picked up celery and onion for me, but I had the rest of what I needed here. I mixed a half cup of every kind of bean I could find here, and the soup turned out pretty good. I wish I could have left it to depressurize naturally, because I think the beans would have been fully cooked then, but it wasn’t bad.

Autumn went to some church event, and then came home complaining about not feeling well. She told Summer she wants to get tested, which infuriates me. I almost hope I die from COVID so she’ll feel some kind of remorse for going out and socializing like an idiot.

I don’t really want to die from it, though…

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Kicked Out With Love

I was a hair late into work today, but it was a pretty quiet day anyway. I poked at a few things in my office until some people showed up in the shop for a meeting. Rather than lock myself in, I went to Oakland to catch up on some work orders until lunch time.

When I got back to the shop, Zach said they were going to Linhs. Five of us piled into my car and we had a pretty good lunch. I went light with a bánh mì, but was left hungry for the afternoon.

After lunch, I called SuddenLink and got my bill lowered more easily than I’ve ever done before. The girl didn’t even try to haggle me or sell me anything new. It was incredible. Then I left to get my windshield chip patched at FastGlass. They didn’t need an appointment or anything, but they also didn’t seem to do a very good job on the patch. It was still very visible, and the outside still seemed to have some of that sandy/powdery glass feel to it. Hopefully it holds up.

I ended the day at Oakland to count Chromebook carts. It took me longer than I thought it would because there were still so many people working late. I finished though, and went home to change before picking up some Subway and taking it up to Summer’s for the evening.

I helped Eaddie with a little bit of homework. Autumn stuck to herself for the most part. Summer did work stuff most of the evening, so I played Don’t Starve in the living room until bed.

Donut tempt me!

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Back to Pants

It was freezy this morning, and my ice scraper was insufficient to remove all of the ice from my windshield. I’ll need to get the chip filled sooner than later so it doesn’t crack the whole windshield.

I ran way behind this morning, but still somehow managed to squeeze in the door on time. I got settled with all the new goodies I brought from home, poured myself some coffee that stayed hot all day long thanks to the Ember mug Summer got me, and then spent all day tucked away in my office.

Evidently it flooded during all of the rain last week, and though most of the stuff in my office was safe, I did have one casualty. The esports poster that Jessica and Ronda made of my newspaper article got wet, because the lamination was trimmed too close to the poster board, which wicked water up into the middle of the poster. Hopefully it will dry out without looking gross.

I had to update a bunch more Chromebooks for Oakland, but never delivered them. Zach, Gary, and Thomas came back to fetch me for La Chiquita for lunch, where Greg met us. Then the afternoon was relatively quiet until quitting time. I left and went by the shop to find Summer in the pit. She was stuck there, so I went home for a bit until she got off.

The girls already ate, so I went by Wind Taste to get some lo mein for Summer, then went to their house for the evening. I developed a bit of a headache and spent most of the evening with some earbuds in. Summer went to bed early, and I finished up on the computer. As I was getting ready to go to bed, Eaddie came out and chatted with me for about an hour and a half before I ran her off to shower and go to sleep.

Two is better than one when less is more.

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Last Tighten

Julie called me as I was trying to get to bed last night. We’ve been more or less on the same page about Dad’s retirement, but she keeps wanting to talk in circles about her frustrations, and it stresses me out. Maybe this year we finally made some headway with our parents though.

Summer and I got up early this morning and headed straight to the new lube in Maumelle. She had a coffee, but that was it. I wasn’t really hurting for breakfast after yesterday. We put together one of the toolboxes together, and then raced on the next two. It was pretty close considering we were sharing tools, and I felt like I held my own. Matt came through to check on things I guess, but didn’t stay long or really do anything to help.

We made it through all but the last large toolbox, and decided to get some lunch. I was already exhausted and needed a break, so we ended up driving into Little Rock to find a Chinese buffet. I was hoping we might see something different, and maybe if I had gotten some raw food to be grilled, it would have been better. It wasn’t bad, but the food was inconsistently fresh or old, dry, and cold. In any case, I still ate way too much.

After lunch, we went back to Maumelle to finish the last toolbox. The trick was to leave the nuts loose enough that the metal could wiggle and flex enough to get the rest of the bolts through the holes. When we finished, we cleaned up our trash and then headed right back home.

Summer insisted I stop for new windshield wipers, so we went to Superfast for those, then went to my house to bring in a package. We decided to stay there for the night, though she had to run home for some things. While she was gone, I unburied the treadmill so she could run a while when she got back.

I was sore and stiff all night, so I just laid on the couch with Summer after she got out of the shower. I got up a couple times to make her something to drink, but it was still an early night to bed.

Lots of rain makes for a nice, quiet new year’s eve.

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You’ve Got to Build Bypasses!

We got up early this morning and headed to Cabot, stopping just outside of Conway at a Sonic for breakfast on the road. Summer met up with the managers of that new location to deploy tools and set up anything they could. I left them pretty early to go to Walmart across the street.

I wandered around the store just checking things out at first. Then I circled back through to pick up a few things. I found some Fruity Pebble flavored Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup, a Zelda Game & Watch, and some slap bracelets. When I left there, I stopped by the Goodwill in the adjacent shopping center, but they had absolutely nothing even remotely interesting to me.

Back at the shop, it appeared to be an extremely slow day, and not at all a full day of work worthy of the drive out there. It was lunch time, so we tried to go to Chef Candace, but the doors were locked. We ended up going across the street to Deer Creek Fire & Stone. Our server said it was her first day, but appeared old enough that I didn’t really believe she had never waited a table before. Service was slow, but the food was alright. I was most disappointed that she said the pot pies, which were on the lunch specials menu, “weren’t ready yet.”

After we ate, we went back to the shop and put together a few more things. I helped hang a couple charging banks in the back room, and then helped assemble the desk for the office. When we finished, we headed toward Bryant to pick up my order from Target, but went through the car wash in Benton first.

We walked all around Target, picking up some Christmas clearance before going back to the front to pick up my order. They actually had two of the Tron: Legacy vinyls, and I got both. Then we headed to Little Rock for dinner. Traffic was heavy, but not unmanageable. We were welcomed home at the Star of India, and had an incredible meal. The food came out quickly, but otherwise the service was very slow. A couple of boys circled around the place like buzzards and made sure my water was never more than an inch below the brim. We really could have just split what I ordered, but instead we just left with a bunch of leftovers.

It was straight to bed once we made it home. The girls were still in Clarksville, and Summer was sore from her day. Evidently she’s got to work in Maumelle tomorrow.

You no touch plate!

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How the Grinch Stole Chromebooks

I made it through McDonald’s and Casey’s for my freebies again this morning. Then I rolled into work a few minutes early, where we sat around the shop chatting for about an hour. Thomas started to split us into groups to see who could go home at nine, but I wanted to finish swapping Chromebooks at Oakland, so I left.

I was alone in the building most of the time, but as I made my way back to the front of the building, I saw Librado and Brittany coming through with their vacuums. I finished up pretty close to noon, stopped back by the shop to drop off the old Chromebooks, and then went to see Summer at Superfast for a couple minutes.

When I got home, I spent some time picking up and filing old paperwork. Eventually Autumn dropped Eaddie off so we could go practice riding or driving, but all she wanted to do by then was ride her bicycle. I let her take off, and then I spent the rest of the daylight putting together one of the storage cabinets I got the other day.

Eaddie got back as the sun was setting and wanted me to take her to her grandparents’ house for the night. On the way, I mentioned wanting to try The Crackhouse food truck on 4th Street. We stopped in long enough to learn they couldn’t take credit at the time, then ran home for some cash. When we got back, I ordered a variety platter, burger, and shrimp plate.

By then, it was too late for Eaddie to be of much use at her grandparents’ place, so we went home to eat with Summer. The food was really good, but super overpriced. The crab was small and difficult to extract, but the shrimp was great. Eaddie really wanted to stay the night at my house, but we ended up staying put for the night. She and Autumn spent some time together in Autumn’s room while Summer went straight to bed. I was pretty exhausted myself, so I went to bed early too.

Give me a break, give me a break!