Tag: work

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The Begrudging Return

It rained most of the day today, but I spent almost all of it inside. I still don’t feel properly rested after all of that vacationing, but what else could I do? I caught up on a bunch of email and dabbled with a few things that were still left over. Jacob called me a couple times, concerned about the Windows upgrade process at the junior high. It went predictably poorly, but progress was still made.

There wasn’t a group for lunch today, so I took the opportunity to go home and clean up some leftovers. The steak, potato, and vegetables from Porterhouse actually reheated pretty well. I felt pretty bougie, apart from sitting in a computer chair and using a ceiling fan box as a dining table. All of the rearranging has left me without any usable space, and it feels like the opposite of progress most days.

I went to Oakland for a little while after lunch, and took care of several things there. Then I finished the day at the shop before making it back to Oakland to drop off a couple laptops and pick up Eaddie. We came home and watched a couple episodes of Stranger Things until Summer got home from Conway. I fed them some leftovers, then cleaned up a few more myself after they left.

It’s nearly tax time, and I’ve done nothing. I also have a lot I’d like to do around the house before it gets hot. Time just keeps on flying by. I feel like crap most of the day because of all the coughing, so all I want to do is sleep.

I just need less stuff everywhere.

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It’s a Gas Gas Gas

I took today off so Summer and I could go to Hot Springs for an oil marketers expo. I picked up breakfast on the way out of town, then headed straight to the convention center. Summer was originally expecting something pretty big over the course of a couple days, but as we discovered the schedule and eventually showed up, we found it to be a pretty said affair. It was pretty obviously geared toward convenience store owners with lots of food and drink vendors. Summer was really happy to find someone that had Clearly Canadian drinks available, and we got some Chester’s Chicken for a free lunch, but that was it. We could have been finished in about 15 minutes.

When we decided to leave, we had to kill quite a bit of time until we could check into the hotel. We decided to go across town to a small theater behind the mall to watch The Lost City. I expected it to be a really horrible theater, and the lobby didn’t seem like much, but the theater room itself wasn’t bad. They had nice recliners with tables, and a pretty big ultrawide screen. The problem was the resolution. They just had the movie stretched across the ultrawide format, which made everything really fat on the screen. The projector was also pretty dim, so the picture came out really dark and washed out. The movie was good though, and we had a good time.

After the movie, we checked into the hotel and got settled in. Then we walked down a block and went to The Porterhouse for dinner. We decided to get “The Porterhouse for Two,” which ended up being the equivalent of two porterhouse steaks, two lambchops, and a stuffed portabella mushroom. Between that, some fried zucchini and calamari for an appetizer, and a tiramisu for dessert, we were pretty stuffed. We walked back to the hotel and settled in for the night really early to watch The Office in bed.

Hi, I’m date Mike. Nice to meet me. How do you like your eggs in the morning? ;)

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What’s Up, My Neighbor

Thomas, Gary, and Kelsea were out for training again today, so it was really quiet downstairs. I thought I’d get out more than I did, but ended up just churning through more flash drives. Gary asked us to take a look at some of his work orders, but I think I’m the only one that did anything at all, and even that was after they got back.

Zach really wanted La Chiquita, so he, Greg, Brody, and I went there for lunch. The fajitas were good, but a little too much. I always feel like I get either too much or too little there. I can never find a happy middle.

It rained pretty much all day, but started coming down a bit harder as we finished lunch. We made it back to the shop and I continued with more of the same until Dale and Neletta showed up to visit. I eventually made it upstairs to deliver a couple laptops. Then Tammy and I were the last two out at the end of the day.

My head was hurting quite a bit at the end of the day again, so I stayed in for the night. I got a few things ready for the next couple days, spilled a bunch of popcorn oil everywhere, and just barely managed to stay awake long enough to make it to bed after all the cold medicine.

Now you can mouse anywhere!

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Brassers

I continued to churn out flash drives today, as though that was my sole purpose in life. Predictably, Jacob was immediately concerned that they would quickly be lost due to their diminutive size. I continued on until lunch, when Gary, Greg, Thomas, and I went to Taco John’s since Taco Tuesday can be both cheap and healthy. I was neither, as I took the rare opportunity to order an actual combo meal instead of squeaking by with three tacos.

After lunch, I spent some time at Oakland and took care of a few things before ending back up at the shop to finish the day. Things got really quiet at the end of the day, and I think I was the last one out. I went home until Eaddie needed me to pick her up from the robotics camp at the high school.

We went to McDonald’s for another Mario Kart Happy Meal, and met Summer back at my house. Earlier in the day, I had gotten a call from Lowe’s that our refrigerator would be pushed back yet another week. Summer wanted to look at our options, but after spending some time shopping, it looked like most everything of interest would be about the same timeframe.

Summer surprised me first thing in the morning, saying she purchased tickets for us to see a group called Dallas Brass at the Center for the Arts. I looked them up and was okay with the idea, but once the show actually started, I thoroughly enjoyed the event. It was a nice, quiet concert compared to the full school bands that we’re used to hearing. They went on for a very entertaining two hours, and even played some pieces with the Tech and high school bands.

After the show, Summer dropped me off back at home and I rushed to sleep. I was up all night again last night, but hopefully tonight I’ll sleep straight through since I drugged up.

Still not cool.

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Quiet Return

I slept straight through the night for the first time in over a week, and felt so much better for it. I made it in to work a couple minutes early, and things were really quiet. Gary came through my office a couple times and had me start making updated flash drives for the high school and junior high, because apparently they are expecting to push some testing up to the start of next week. This is a problem, since hardly any students have updated their devices to the required version of Windows.

Nobody went out for lunch since they’re all doing a weight loss challenge, so I took the opportunity to have a Soylent for the first time in a really long time. I felt pretty good about it, though I did snack a little bit on things I had in my desk as well.

At some point, Gary needed help at Central Office, so we walked a replacement monitor over for Justin, then helped Cindy with her broken printer up front. The rest of the afternoon was super quiet as I continued to fight my slowly-failing laptop.

After work, I went by Superfast for an oil change. They were really busy, but had the staff to keep things rolling, so I waited. Then I went home until Summer was done with work and the gym, and took a bunch of salad stuff over to their house for dinner.

Autumn was asleep the entire time I was there. Summer and Eaddie ate with me though. I just air fried the chicken strips, so they came out kind of dry, but they weren’t bad. I just hated to have to melt the ice before getting to fry them. After we ate, I headed home and got to bed as quickly as I could, still tired from a long week.

I can’t decide whether I’m happy or upset that my news feed didn’t think I’d be interested in Will Smith today.

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But He’s the Happy One

I got up extra early this morning for our introduction to the new superintendent at the arts center. They advertised “light grab and go breakfast options,” but I kind of expected more than scones and mini muffins. In hindsight, I should have grabbed a handful of the prepackaged breakfast bars for later. As expected, as soon as I stepped through the front door, I was assaulted by people with issues signing into their school accounts on their phones. I ended up changing the Google Form to allow anyone to enter their own data.

The speech was only about half an hour, and was more of a “this is where I’m from” than anything else. We did have a confusing activity with M&Ms that would have been more suited for crowds of complete strangers, but evidently we should have just been happy that we were allowed to have food in the auditorium. We did have a hilarious moment where the superintendent actually walked right up behind us and asked us questions. At least her mic wasn’t live, so I just awkwardly drew aggro away from Gary, the non-participant, to make jokes and give her my own silly answer.

After that was over, we made our way to the shop and eased into some work. Surprisingly, I think Kyle and Kelsea were the only two that didn’t go. Josh was off for the day anyway. We eventually made it to lunch time, and even Jacob showed up for the first time ever. That may have just been because he didn’t have his own vehicle and had to ride with Brody though.

The afternoon went by relatively quickly. We had some time to visit and argue with Tammy about procedures. Sara came downstairs to finally clean out her junk from the storage room. Then I took Gary home before going home myself.

Ben surprised me with a phone call just to chat. I don’t know if he was just really curious about the new superintendent, or if he just wanted to kill time on his commute home. We had a good conversation though, so it was a nice surprise. I didn’t get up to much else for the rest of the evening. I felt pretty weak in the chest from all of the coughing and blowing of phlegm, so I doped up again and went to bed.

I like turtles!

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Coughee and Donuts

I just barely made it in to work this morning, and though I thought I’d feel better pretty quickly, that really was not the case. Fortunately nobody was up to much. Thomas wouldn’t be there Friday, so he brought donuts today and everyone chatted in the shop for a while before splitting up. Kyle’s birthday would happen over spring break, so Tammy made brownies for him today.

Zach, Gary, Josh, and I went to Wendy’s for a quick lunch, and the food was actually pretty mediocre. It wasn’t bad, but I’ve had so much better from there. Summer came by to see me after her expo was over, on her way to Cabot. Most everyone in the shop started a weight loss competition today that I didn’t opt into because it was never clear whether there was a buy-in, but mostly because I was not committed to a time limit for what will have to be a lifetime of change.

Dad said they wanted to grill burgers after work, so I went straight over there and got things started for dinner. We ate, then discussed the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its many, confusing timelines. When I made it home, I doped up on some NyQuil and waited for it to knock me out again.

Birds sing when the drugs hit.

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Half the Gurgle

Last night was really rough at Summer’s with my head cold, so I ended up taking the morning off from work so I could try and sleep in at home. I couldn’t really fall asleep for a few hours, but I got up much more rested after a while, had some leftovers, then went in to work.

Brody got back from lunch just as I was coming in, and came right into my office so I could help with his Visual Studio issue. I don’t know how we’re expected to maintain the “babysitting” functionality of our student devices if we’re also forced to allow them to execute whatever files they want.

Eaddie forgot her phone at home this morning and also needed a ride home from Oakland, so I ended the day there to replace a video cable. Then we went to my house to watch an episode of Stranger Things. When Brody finished at the gym, he met me at Lowe’s to try and buy a fridge, but we were told they no longer did a military discount on large appliances. He went along his way while I redeemed over $1000 in gift cards toward the purchase. At least I got a price match to a cheaper store.

When I got back to the house, Eaddie had fallen asleep on the couch and had her hoodie completely covering her head. I poked her a little bit, then let her nap while I went to my room. When she finally got up, I convinced her to finish the episode with me, and then I tried to get Autumn to take her home. Autumn ended up working an hour later at work though, so I took Eaddie home and took the opportunity to lie down with Summer for a bit.

I took some medicine and decided to go back home to avoid another night of gurgling condensation in my CPAP. At least the sore throat is gone now.

Fuck that, get money.

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Honorable Mention

I developed a nasty sinus issue last night that kept me up until I remembered how soothing it could be to have hot water in my CPAP. For hours, I had struggled with a scratchy throat, unable to sleep for more than an hour or so, and finally I found rest.

I chugged some orange juice before I went to work, then sipped on piping hot green tea all day. Evidently the meeting that occurred right outside my door was a surprise to our department. Jeff and Terry were there with the guys trying to sell us Avigilon again, and based on what I heard, I didn’t hear a lot of kickback from my guys. I couldn’t tell if that’s because they had already said what they wanted to say and were at the point that they felt defeated, or if nobody wanted to rock the boat. I told them afterward that we should have developed hand signals so I could bust out of my office and make a super disparaging remark.

It was Brody’s birthday, and surprisingly he picked Linhs for lunch. Just as we got there, Zach got a call that several pallets of Chromebooks had just arrived at the shop. He took my car back with Greg, and the rest of us sat down to eat, ordering their food for their return.

After lunch, Tammy had made a Butterfinger cake, so of course Thomas was super excited to eat that. I had some more tea, went to Oakland to take care of a few things before school let out, and then spent a pretty relaxing end of the day in the front of the office.

Summer came over after she got back to town from Cabot, and we got changed to go to Eaddie’s National Honor Society induction ceremony. After a scan of the crowd, I discovered that we were basically sat directly across from my greatest nightmare, so I was on edge the entire time. Then, as it often is, alphabetical-order spoiled what fun I was having.

I thought I was keeping it together for the most part, but then they dismissed in the most chaotic way. Everyone started walking down to the floor of the arena, and just feet away from where we were heading, I froze. I couldn’t breathe, and I just had to exit as quickly as possible. I felt absolutely horrible for it, because I wanted to be there for Eaddie in her moment of accomplishment. All the love and support in the world didn’t mean a thing if I couldn’t even bear to exist in that moment. I was a wreck for hours after that.

Autumn took Eaddie out to get food and then went home while Summer and I went back to my house for a bit. I had a tentative plan to go to Lowe’s with Brody, but ended up postponing it for his birthday’s sake. I ended up taking Summer to Brangus for dinner, and robotically ate way too much.

When we got back to her place, Eaddie was melting more Perler beads. Autumn was getting ready for bed, and Summer didn’t waste any time crawling under her own covers. I finished up what I always do, and it was time to pass out.

And the waves crashing around me, the sand slips out to sea.

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RSD Cribs

I dressed up a bit for work today just in case the new superintendent came back to meet everyone. I worked sporadically on a few different things, but nothing that made me feel too accomplished. Just before lunch time, the tech sent by Dell to replace a motherboard for me arrived. That didn’t take long at all, though I cut out a couple minutes before he finished since it was lunch time.

Zach took Gary, Thomas, and me to Las Palmas, and evidently the name “Used Chips” is old enough that Thomas remembered it. The food was good, but I always feel a little iffy when I pay there. They’re big fans of cash.

The afternoon was relatively quiet. I did get to shake the hand of our new boss, making her the first one I’ve ever officially met. She said she liked my office, and Thomas was there to witness it, so I guess that’s a win. I really should have left my hackertyper window open just to see if I could get a reaction from Thomas, but I chickened out.

After work, I ran through Casey’s for a free birthday cookie, and then I thought I’d try to fix Bác Vân’s sewing machine. Evidently she had been out shopping for a remedy to an allergic reaction she had to something, so I never caught them. Eventually I loaded up with some food and headed up to Summer’s.

Autumn was at work, and Eaddie did a bit of homework while Summer made alfredo pasta to go with the last of the chicken we rescued from the Great Melt of 2022. It felt good to clean up those leftovers, but it was all pretty dissatisfying to eat. I’m just glad it’s over.

We had some leftovers that needed to be refrigerated, so I decided to take it home with me. I’ve still got to make time to figure out the refrigerator situation, and I’m not sure tomorrow will be any better. I sure would like to save a couple hundred bucks though.

We’re utilizing machine learning algorithms via remote desktop protocol on the neural network to compile scripts on the mainframe to prevent cyber attacks from threats to our students and faculty.