Tag: work

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I Don’t Have the Time or the Crayons

Today was the last Friday before school starts, and a Friday the 13th at that. I jumped right back into my report scripting in Cognos, at least between calls and nags to help other people. Thomas came in to prod me into finishing the job, but at the end of the day I wasn’t even sure what else he had for me to do. I think Bryan got aggravated that I couldn’t stop everything and fix his issue, but it wasn’t just a simple fix at all, and I was busy trying to get rostering done for a math curriculum program used across nearly the entire district.

Evidently Shane from Howard came down and took the Big Three to lunch but they didn’t invite anyone else. Kyle happened to be in the shop with me, so the two of us went to The Gunslingin’ Burger again for their anniversary deal. I had a Cajun burger that had fried shrimp and rice on it, and I don’t think I loved it. The lady also brought out a plate with like four onion rings on it, but when I commented on how paltry that was, she ran to the back and had them fry up some more without any hesitation. At least the service is good, especially for a place that is more or less fast-food.

I still didn’t make it to Oakland in the afternoon, but things did at least kind of calm down for me while some people were coming through the front of the office for badges and accounts. I did my part quietly in the background and never had to interact with anyone, which was kind of perfect for today.

I worked a bit late again but made it home just before Eaddie made it back from a bike ride. While she was there, I cleaned some more hair algae out of my shrimp tank and found one of my missing snails in the sump area. I moved it back to the front, so hopefully it can keep that area a bit cleaner. Now I just need to find the little baby one, if it’s still alive.

Summer came home not long after that, and we went to Nonna Bella’s for dinner since the girls were going to their friends’ house for the evening. That place was way bigger inside than I imagined, and they actually had a really nice atmosphere. The staff reminded me of a cleaner version of the folks that run the burger joint. They were very proud to be a family-run business, and the service and food were both pretty good. Summer’s pasta seemed a bit too reasonably priced until it came out with imitation crab instead of real crab meat. The pizza I ordered was pretty awesome, but it was on the higher end of the cost spectrum. Overall I think it will be a decent date night establishment.

Summer went straight to bed when we got home, on account of her 5k in the morning. I got into some daydreaming about business cards and letterpress printing again, but had to shut myself down on account of how absolutely unnecessary that is for my present life.

Priorities are a struggle.

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All Your Base

I woke up feeling quite refreshed after a long night of sleep, which helped keep me sharp throughout the day. Gary showed me the insides of our Cognos reporting, and we spent all day trying to import some data into other applications the staff want to use. I’m not sure how useful reporting in Cognos will be outside of the district, but I do think it’s something that I’ll enjoy tinkering with.

Being stuck on my newfound “engineering” tasks kept me out of any other buildings, which is bad for this time of the year. School starts next week, and I still haven’t made it out to hook up some staff devices. Priorities are priorities though, and evidently we’ve taken on a lot more responsibilities this year in spite of losing most of the eSchool stuff.

Gary, Greg, Brody, and I went to Linh’s for lunch, and I had to eat my phở with a fork because our server never got back around to us while we were eating. I picked up a tin of cookies on the way out, and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing around in Cognos by myself. I was successful with most of my first assignment, but I’ve still got some work to figure out tomorrow since we don’t name our courses the way they want them for Agile Mind.

I finished up a bit late, then went home to change. I was pretty mentally exhausted, so I didn’t get up to much. I eventually made some tuna for dinner, and then vegged on YouTube until bedtime.

Elementary, my dear Watson.

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A Real Jokester

I struggled to get out of bed an hour early today for the back-to-school breakfast. I’m pretty sure I was the first from our department there, but Greg walked in right behind me. We both expected them to be enforcing masks after the board meeting last night, but hardly a soul was masked. We got our food, which was probably the best I’ve had for the occasion, and found a seat right in front with Summer and Justin. The casserole was so good I had to go back for more, but it was okay because they didn’t have any other events or big raffles like previous years.

After breakfast, we headed over to the arts center for some quick training. Without Ben’s cyber security training, we just heard from a couple suits and then listened to Judy talk about FMLA before our OSHA training. I liked that guy the best just because he seemed like a cool, old guy.

We got back to the shop a bit before lunch, and they sent out the first draft of the proposed classified salary schedule. That, of course, sent everyone through the roof when they learned that our pay was lowered both at the base, and then significantly at the cap. I divulged that I had gotten a big raise, likely unintentionally, and was making more than Zach for the school year.

I was still full from breakfast, so I only ordered some chips and a shake when a group of us went to Slim Chickens for lunch. That left me pretty salty and dehydrated for an afternoon of crunching numbers, and then trying to find out why we were short so many new laptops for junior high students. It was just one clusterfuck after another, all day long.

After work, I went straight home and immediately had to start fighting sleep. My gut never quite recovered from the food from the day, but at least I was able to go to bed early.

Let the output reflect the input.

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Ain’t No Party Like an Expo Party

I’ve been spending most of my days helping others, which has felt good until I look back at my own work orders that have yet to be completed. Summer tried to hand out coupons at the certified back-to-school event, but they didn’t have a breakfast like we are tomorrow, presumably because there was a concern about them spreading COVID. No such worries about classified, though. She came by to see my new office when she finished, and then we met for lunch at The Gunslingin’ Burger.

After lunch, I spent the afternoon with Brody at the high school, primarily trying to get Jazz’s printer and desktop working. It took a painfully long time to find the network line for the printer because the tone generator was just too sensitive and would start playing music as soon as you’d walk up to the racks. Eventually I prevailed, both with the printer and imaging the desktop.

After work, I went home to change and then met Summer at the Boys & Girls club for the preview party. We thought I would need a ticket to get in, but nobody was checking for them. At one point my parents came in with tickets they were given at the door, so it really was just a sort of soft-open. We wandered around and got a bit of schwag and some food. My old coworker Stacey was there with Legends and gave us both a big gift bag full of junk.

When my parents showed up, I took the opportunity to leave since I wasn’t all that excited to be there anyway. I thought it would be less standing in a booth and more of an actual preview party for those involved. We went to La Huerta for dinner, and then I made it home just after Summer did.

I ran back out to Slim Chickens to get some dinner for the girls, and then we came back for an early night to bed. I’ve got a super-spreader breakfast to attend in the morning before work, so I’ll need my beauty rest.

‘Cause an expo party don’t start!

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Pololoko

Teachers were back on contract today, but they were all stuck in meetings and couldn’t harass us too much yet. This summer felt super short, and I wasn’t ready to go back to full days and polo shirts. I’ve taken more vacations this year than ever before, and I just can’t wait to leave again.

I spent most of the morning at Oakland taking care of a very few things, but mostly babysitting in case they needed help with their iPad project. Nobody ever came to get me, so I guess it went alright. I’m sure it helped that I made them test it first.

Greg and I met Brody at Old South for lunch, where I had a pretty dissatisfying “prime rib” sandwich. It tasted more like overcooked roast beef, and left me hungry all afternoon. The worst part is that I think I’ve tried it before and was equally unhappy with it, but I had forgotten.

I spent the rest of the day at the office just slowly chipping away at duties as they seemed to be rolling in. It was quiet with everyone else out in the buildings, but I can feel the tidal wave coming.

I went home after work until it was time to go to Summer’s for dinner. I took the giant zucchini and chopped it up into large chunks to grill, and Summer made mashed potatoes. Noah came over, and we grilled cheddar jalapeño sausages. Autumn had band practice pretty late, but Noah waited for her to get home before taking off. Then everyone was off to bed pretty quickly.

Bugs…EVERYWHERE!

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It’s Also a Noun

I walked out this morning expecting more fair weather, and it felt like I immediately stepped into a bowl of soup. I was instantly wet, and it wasn’t until I looked up that I realized how much it looked like rain. After pushing the bike back into the garage, I rushed in to work through just a few sprinkles down the road.

We didn’t have anything big going on at work, and everyone was still out preparing for the start of the new year. I had to do some remote desktop work for Judy, which was my highest profile job yet. Hopefully I didn’t look too inept, but I did also draw her a picture of a guy standing in a pasture waving a “I ♡ RSD” sign while I waited for the Adobe installer to finish.

Lunch came around pretty quickly, and Gary called for Slim Chickens. I ordered a bigger meal than usual because the past few times I’ve been there, the chicken strips have been kind of puny. They were normal sized today, and boy were they fresh. I burned myself eating, but the chicken and fries were all just perfectly hot out of the fryer.

After lunch, I spent a good portion of the day at the junior high trying to close out a few tickets. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I wanted, but I also just sort of took it upon myself to go do it anyway. I appeared to be the last one out, and went home until Summer invited me out to dinner with Noah after their workout.

I rode the Shadow to La Villa, and we had a good time catching up. He gave me mad respect when he heard the story about our event last weekend, and then we made plans to go watch The Suicide Squad tomorrow. I went back home while Summer went to get the girls from their COVID shot so they could go home and clean up before coming back over to my house for the evening.

Summer wanted to pick up some Dairy Queen on the way over, but said there was a sign saying they were closed until further notice. I had already placed the order in the app though, so then I had to dig for a place to request a refund. Eaddie has wanted to watch House with me since she got back from Wisconsin, so as the other two went to bed, we stayed up for several hours finishing up the last third of season four.

I guess I’ll just have to earn it.

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All Right! All Right!

This whole week has been cooler, so it’s been a different bike every day. Tammy commented on it and asked how many I had, and I had to explain that it’s really a math problem of n-1, where n is the number of motorcycles that I want. Otherwise, it’s that time of year when I don’t really even remember what I worked on. I did have to go to the middle school to scan some Chromebooks because Josh didn’t have a list of serial numbers for me. I’m just now remembering that I never actually got those imported into the library system.

Lunch was a treat, because Gary, Greg, Zach, and I went to Brangus to eat, and the guy that always greets us took care of our meals on our way out. We rummaged for some cash to leave for a tip, and we were all fat and happy. Gary and Greg had to run some food I ordered for Brody over to him at the high school during their handout, and it was a mostly quiet afternoon for me back at the shop.

After work, Julie called as I was just getting home to change. Then Mom called to tell me the same thing – that Bác Vân thought I slapped Julie, even though Julie came over to pick up Dad’s phone from me while we were standing in the driveway talking. We all kind of laughed about it, and as Mom left the call, I continued to retell the whole story to Julie.

It didn’t take long for her to psychoanalyze my actions and start pointing fingers about our childhood, and I just stressed to keep cool for the hour as our conversation degraded into personal attacks about mistakes that I’ve made in my life. I try to live pretty openly, blog and all, and I’ve done what I can to make peace with the past, but I really don’t know what I can do for her to let things go. At some point you have to just move on, but instead we always end up in an argument in which she’s constantly moving the target so that we can never get anywhere. I’ve tried responding, I’ve tried just shutting up, and the whole conversation is designed for me to fail.

I make it a point to surround myself with people that think very differently so that I can learn about their viewpoints and make my own assessments, but there’s never any ground given with Julie. It basically always devolves into something akin to name-calling, where she insists that I’m an arrogant piece of shit that thinks he’s always right, and she’s irrefutable because she only speaks in facts. It’s the most maddening waste of time, but I put up with it because for some reason I think maybe she’ll eventually find whatever the hell she’s looking for.

When she finally gave up screaming at me, I went in to Summer’s house to find that neither of the girls were there. Eaddie was at band late, and their grandmother was slow to pick her up, so Summer just met them at the gym and brought them home to gather their things. Then we went to my parents’ house for shrimp noodle soup and a swim.

The water was pretty cool after Dad used the fountains overnight, so we didn’t stay in the water too late. Eventually we made it home and the girls all went to bed while I aired up some bicycle tires for them.

Not keeping a list is not the same as remembering everything but never writing it down.

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Cool, Sweat!

It almost felt cool outside this morning after so much heat. I took the Grom to work, and we almost immediately went outside to move a truck bed full of Chromebooks to fifth grade. Once we got into that, I couldn’t stop sweating until we made it back and I sat down inside. I had to import those devices into Destiny for student checkout, and then I just had to sporadically help others with things from the office.

Nobody was responsive about lunch, but Josh and Thomas were in the building, so we tried going to Mulan’s. I beat them there and saw a sign that they’re closed on Wednesdays from now on. We made a split second decision to go to Sam’s instead, and I had some gumbo that was probably a better life choice anyway.

I spent some time in the afternoon at Oakland just to see people filter back in and accomplish what I could. Then I went back to the shop to shut everything down and rode to my parents’ house.

Dad was released from the hospital with a relatively clean bill of health, and he was up and around the house helping Mom with some chores. We ate some leftovers and chatted for a bit, but Mom was mostly asleep on the couch. Things were mostly back to normal after such a surprisingly rough day yesterday.

My sinus nonsense has gotten worse over the course of a week or so, and I really felt it in my head and chest by the end of the day. Something also had my left foot in quite a bit of pain all day. I was just going to stay home for the night, but I needed some cuddles.

Autumn was a little upset that she wouldn’t get to sleep with Summer, but I don’t know why she’d want her that close after this weekend. She’s really playing the baby card again, and I’m not falling for it. Eaddie was in her room the entire night talking to her boyfriend, so I was left to medicate and go to sleep.

Today’s problem is brought to you by the letters D, R, and S, and by librarians that don’t understand alphanumeric order.

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Don’t Stress About It

I just barely got around to work this morning, and it was really tempting to take half a day just to sleep in after the long night. It’s been cooler, so I took the R1 to work and made it just in time. Everyone was off doing work orders, so I packed up some things I needed and headed to Oakland to close out what work orders I could.

Just as I was getting to head back to the shop, Julie called and said Dad was at the hospital because he needed CPR after his stress test. Evidently they gave him a shot instead of making him walk on the treadmill, and something didn’t agree with him in a big way.

I ran across town to see him, and though he was awake, he was in pretty rough shape. Julie was still on the way from work, so I stayed there for about an hour as he dry heaved and even looked like he had a seizure after his heart rate dropped during a heaving spell. They didn’t want to let anyone else in, but Julie convinced them to let us swap out. I went back to work just as he was trying to fall asleep, and his heart rate was still falling below 50bpm pretty regularly.

I spent the afternoon at the shop, partially helping Zach move his office into my old office. When it was time to leave, I went home to change and retrieved a package that Bác Vân signed for. Julie came by and got Dad’s phone from me since I forgot it in my pocket when I left.

Once the girls were home, I left to return something to Walmart and then headed up to their house for dinner. Summer had picked up a Little Caesar’s pizza for dinner, but I really wanted a burrito. Naturally I had a bit of both and went to bed with some wicked heartburn on top of the sinus congestion I already had. I decided to go ahead and start Modern Family with Summer, but I think Eaddie will be catching up to us as well.

Never tell me the odds.

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The Return of Reason

Greg wanted a ride from Phil Wright this morning, but changed his mind when they wouldn’t open the door until eight. We went to work instead, and then left there shortly after eight to drop his truck off. I spent the rest of the day tinkering and breaking things, only to get them working well enough again before lunch.

On the way to the dealership in the morning, I noticed The Gunslingin’ Burger was putting signs out for a year anniversary special, so Gary, Brody, Josh, and I went there for lunch. The food was pretty good, but the fact that the $10+ “combo meal” doesn’t come with a drink is still stupid. It has also become painfully obvious that the place is run by people with zero experience running a restaurant, and I think a little experience would go a long way. The recipes are great. It even has certain unique polish and is obviously thoughtfully put together. It just lacks, from what we could tell, a little common sense.

The afternoon went by slowly, being a full day for the first time in weeks. Then I went home for a bit before having to pick up the girls to go get Eaddie from the airport. Summer initially thought the plane landed around 10 in the morning, but it was actually in the evening. On top of that, it was delayed a bit.

We stopped in Conway at Golden Corral for dinner. Autumn ate a frustrating plate of shitzza and macaroni and cheese. I should have expected that, but then I brought up that she should write letters apologizing for wasting the sheriff’s department’s time this weekend, and all I could do was bury the rage deep down inside from her response. She insisted that it wasn’t a waste of time and that she called them for a reason. No lessons have been learned, and I’m spending more and more of my waking hours coming up with more creative punishments and monitoring solutions.

We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half early, so we sat in the car on our phones. Fortunately it was super nice outside, so I just rolled the windows down and kicked back. Autumn managed to get in a bit of a nap in the back seat. When the plane arrived, the airport was shut down enough that Summer couldn’t get a parent pass to meet Eaddie at the gate, so we just waited together at the main exit. We gathered bags and headed straight home.

Eaddie said she didn’t have a great time. I could relate. I’m glad she’s back.

Cruel and unusual. You know, like riding the bus with the peasants.