Tag: work

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Carpet Diem

I finally finished up what should have been a pretty short and easy project today. I probably could have just worked around the issues much quicker, but I feel like the experience gained was worth more. Hopefully.

We had an issue with Apple computers stealing existing hostnames from our directory, and nobody could figure out why, nor did anyone want to put the effort into retooling our management system. Zach was finally tasked with figuring the crap out, so now I know we’re in trouble.

Several of us went to La Chiquita for lunch, where I had a light, and what I felt was overpriced tamale plate. I used to really not like tamales, but they’re a sometimes-food for me now. After lunch I went by Oakland for a bit, and brought back a list of serial numbers for iPads that were misbehaving.

After work, I went straight to my parents’ house for some eggplant soup. Then I headed home to clean some carpet. My new carpet cleaner is great for quick jobs, but not so great for big ones. The waste tank is just too tiny, and I feel like I empty it two to three times for every clean water tank. I also kept pulling up dirty water, even after two hours on a 3′ x 4′ area. I ended the night with the decision to soak that area and a little farther down with some off-brand oxi-cleaner to see if I fare any better tomorrow.

Just comment-out some lines and call it your own!

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Mini Reunion

It was an odd and quiet day at work today. I heard a lot from Brody as usual, but not so much from anyone else. He’s been putting some work into learning his way around some of the Apple stuff, and was shocked to learn that doing so makes him the leading expert now.

I ended up taking a late lunch break and picking up a couple sandwiches from Subway, then surprised Summer at work. We ate quickly, and then it was back to work. It wasn’t until the end of the day that Gary came around to my office and chatted for a bit about this weekend’s class reunion. He seemed to think I should have just come out, but also understood why I didn’t. Fortunately he and a few of the people I actually did care about were getting together at Taco Villa for dinner, so he invited me out for that.

Most everyone was there by the time I pulled up. Robert and Grant were talking to Mike, and Gary and Jon showed up right after I did. The building was packed as usual, but we squeezed in and got our orders placed. Then Gary and I just carried food outside for everyone so we weren’t using up all the oxygen in the place.

I mostly sat and listened, but I was glad the others had a chance to catch up. It was a proper boys night out, and I got to hear stories about Jon being a shithead. That was most of the stories. Grant did show us their building design, and hopefully the bank will sign off so they can break ground soon.

We didn’t stay terribly late, and I went home for the night. I had to scrounge up enough packaging to ship off an old TV remote I sold on eBay. I honestly never thought it would sell, but here we are. It wasn’t worth much, but it’ll pay for lunch… or half of lunch.

Keep it short. It’ll be less awkward.

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Alumna Foil

I rolled into work a little late again today. I guess it’s that time of year that I need to set my alarm about five minutes earlier. We had a brief meeting to go over some things for the newbies, and then Thomas showed us his requirements for the three new tech levels, assuming they will be written into policy this year.

The morning went by relatively quickly as I struggled to make things work the way I wanted. When lunch time came around, multiple people reached out to me about lunch, but then it seemed like we were splitting into two groups because the Service Plus guys were going to have a little reunion. For whatever reason, everyone kept waiting for the holy trinity to leave, which ended up making Gary yell at us for standing around. It’s been nothing but mixed signals, and I’m over it.

We ended up driving in four groups to Brangus, but Greg and Josh didn’t make it in time to eat with their old coworkers. We didn’t even sit in the same room because I was the one that requested the table and nobody would tell me how many people we actually had coming. We ended up removing a table, and then bringing it back when Josh and his wife and baby showed up. By the time it was all said and done, there were nine of us there to eat.

Lunch ran long because we left about half an hour late. When we got back, Zach kind of got on to me about not skipping out on the group lunch to go help Jacob hang a touch panel at the junior high. It wouldn’t have mattered, except that Central Office called to tell us to go home at three. I ended up just loading up a truck and bringing it to Jacob by myself in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a huge rush to begin with.

I made it back to the shop just before three, and tried to finish up some weekly paperwork before going home. That’s about the time the lights went out and Thomas, for the first time that I’ve ever seen since he started in July, came through the shop and shut everything down. Normally office lights, shop lights, TVs, and everything are all left on as everyone goes home and I’m the one that goes through the effort to save a buck.

With him hollering at me to leave since there was nobody left to turn paperwork into, I went home and waited for the girls to show up. I picked up a few things to make some room, and then Summer and Eaddie eventually showed up after the homecoming parade. Summer wasn’t there long though, and got called in to work to look at something. Eaddie was hungry and wanted me to take her out for some pasta, but I made her wait for Summer to get back.

When Summer finally got back, we tried going to Venezia’s and had to bypass a stopped train. Failing that, we went across town to Pasta Grill. They had a mob of people waiting outside, so we took the overpass back to Venezia’s to see if they were any better. The parking lot was full and Summer decided she needed to get to the football game, so Eaddie hopped in my car. We thought we’d try waiting for Summer to be done at Autumn’s game, but got stuck at the train again going back to my house for about 35 minutes.

Summer made it to the game to watch Autumn present the flag for JROTC, and after committing to wait for the train to leave, Eaddie and I made it back to the house. When Summer got back, we tried going to Pasta Grill again. I found a parking space that was labeled as a tow zone for non banking customers, but the bank was closed and I thought I’d take a chance. As we walked across the street though, we saw there was still a mob of people waiting to get in. I didn’t want to deal with any of that homecoming nonsense, and the girls were too hungry to wait any longer anyway, so we left.

At the end of the day, CiCi’s had it. It was my speed of people, with no dresses or six-inch spike heels, or really anybody I didn’t want to see. The food was good, and we even got a whole custom spinach alfredo with mushrooms pizza delivered to the table after nobody else in the restaurant would claim it. The biggest problem we had was carrying out everything we had eaten.

They closed up a couple hours earlier than their posted hours, which I thought was super weird for a Friday night. We headed back home and split right up. Eaddie went to her room to watch a movie. Summer went to bed. I stayed up, but for no real reason since Eaddie didn’t want to watch TV with me until her movie was over. Autumn eventually made it home from the game, and everyone went to sleep.

From everything to nothing.

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Hung Like a Bicycle

Again, it didn’t rain today. It didn’t even really look like rain most of the day, but it got humid in the evening. I didn’t get enough sleep, so it was a bit rough getting in to work. Once there, I just dove right back into my project.

Brody called for Bocadillos for lunch, so four of us made the trip to meet him down in Dardanelle. Evidently they have all-you-can-eat enchiladas on Thursdays, so we’ll have to go sometime for those and some dessert.

The afternoon was relatively quiet, but still mostly unsuccessful. I just haven’t had any luck this week. When I left work, I stopped by the shop to see Summer for a little while. She was actually in the office for a change. She showed me her cleaned up stock, and then I headed home.

I finally drilled some holes in the wall for a single bike mount. With my luck, one of my five screw holes hit a nail, so the load-bearing mount only has two of the three screws in. It creaks a bit too much for my comfort when you swing the bike around. On top of that, somehow my perfectly level screw holes lead to a slightly slanted mount. The mountain bikes are so heavy that I’m not entirely sure I trust those mounts, especially if someone eventually parks next to them. I guess some time with a bike up on the wall will comfort me.

And the walls kept tumbling down…

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Mmmm… hungry.

It was supposed to rain today, but I don’t think it ever actually did. It would have been a fine day to ride again, but I was happier to get my four return packages shipped off anyway. I kept trying to figure out a way to deploy a C++ compiler for Ethan’s classes, but no matter what I do it doesn’t seem to like something about our setup.

A group of us went to Quiznos for lunch, and the whole time we were there I just kept thinking about how the food is always just okay, but always feels like it’s missing a whole lot of something. I very seldom leave satisfied, and I was left hungry for the entire rest of the day. I think I’ve only ever had one sandwich there that I really enjoyed. Next time I’m going to go all-in with the vegetables to see if they look at me like I’m crazy. Subway never flinches.

After lunch, I ran to Oakland for a bit to try and fix an issue. Then it was back to the shop for a relatively slow moving afternoon. Even with that, I still can’t help but feel like time is just flying by this year. I still can’t get a grip. I feel like I’m constantly losing time.

After work, I went by to see Summer at work. While I was there, I printed a return label that I forgot to print at work, and then dropped off my last package at Walgreens for return by FedEx. Then it was home to try and pull focus on some more junk.

I got sidetracked a bit in the garage, but cleaned up one tiny box. I guess it had to be done at some point anyway. We may try to host something tiny for Halloween, so I’ve got a lot more to do in a month’s time.

I have hunger.

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If It Doesn’t Fit, It Ships!

Today was relatively quiet for me. I spent most of the day helping others with things they didn’t know how to do, which can be fun. When lunch time came around, Summer wanted to go to New China. I went to meet her, but discovered they are closed on Tuesdays now, so we went next door to La Huerta instead. They had a pretty good lunch special for three tacos, and our service was awesome. It was plenty to fill up without feeling overstuffed.

After lunch, I went to Oakland for a while to take care of some things. Then I went to the high school to help Brody for a bit. As I pulled into the high school, I saw that they had a helicopter in the parking lot with a group of people around it. I didn’t stare too hard, so I couldn’t really tell what it was from, but seeing aircraft in unexpected places is always fun.

I spent the last part of the day working on some things for myself in my office. I made it home a bit late and tried to keep busy cleaning up. I loaded some recycling into the car for tomorrow, and packaged up a whole bunch of returns to take to the post office. I ordered so many pairs of jeans from Old Navy, only to decide that I have no business wearing anything without some level of elasticity. With my size, my bits flex and squish into different shapes depending on how I’m moving around. It doesn’t help that I’ve always worn my pants too high, so they fit around my belly that really does most of the shifting. Things that fit when standing don’t fit when sitting. The flex also makes mounting motorcycles way easier, so there’s just no reason to ever go back to stiff pants.

I ended the evening scheduling a bunch of Microsoft virtual training courses for the free certification exam vouchers afterward. I’m sure it will be just as awful as that sounds. I fully expect them all to be sales pitches.

Imagine my surprise, the certifications are a trap.

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License to Deploy

The folks at PLTW have been a bit slow to respond, so I was happy to come in to a new license file today that ultimately resolved the issues I was having. It didn’t unwaste the time I burned on it last week, but at least I could close the ticket.

Lunch time came and went pretty quickly. I was just going to go home for a break a bit late since I never heard from anyone else, but on the way out Zach asked me out, so we went to Mulan’s together. He still wouldn’t tell me the big secret, but I didn’t really figure he would.

After lunch was much more relaxed since my big project was out of the way. I ended the day at Oakland running a quick HDMI cable through the ceiling and banging my head against a SMART board. I finally just gave up on that one and left.

I stopped by to see Summer at the shop, but they were pretty busy for a moment and I didn’t really get to talk to her. They were slow both times we drove by during lunch, and apparently they had only just broken the trend. I fought her bathroom door for a bit because it was wedging into the doorframe, but I didn’t have much luck.

Finally I went home to finish up some laundry and decompress for the evening. I even tried to treat myself to eight full hours of sleep.

Still better than the live action movie.

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Can Michael Go Home Now?

It was another cold ride in to work this morning. We had a brief team meeting, where Thomas updated us on some procedures including timesheets. We all hate them, nobody looks at them, and as far as I know, we don’t even send them anywhere. I’ll almost prefer to have a timeclock system over a superficial policy over a technicality.

From then on, we didn’t have much else going on. The morning went by super fast, and then almost all of us ended up at Western Sizzlin for lunch. Kyle got a baked potato for like three bucks, which was genius, because he got the full potato bar with it for hardly any money. I’ll have to remember that trick.

When we got back to the shop, Kelsea was outside trying to change her tire because it was “10 PSI” low and kept slowly leaking. We tried to convince her to just drive it to a gas station to get some air, but she insisted on changing it instead so she could drive to Conway to have it fixed under warranty. I ran home to get my impact wrench and a floor jack, but by the time I got back the guys had already changed it using the emergency tool kit. Not only that, but there was a tow truck there to pick up her car, so I doubly didn’t understand why she insisted on changing the tire there. It all seemed very dramatic, and evidently I wasn’t the only one that thought she had gone a bit nuts.

The rest of the afternoon was quiet until everyone filtered out a bit early. I stayed a bit late as I finished up some things, then went home to change before meeting Summer at Walmart for some guacamole ingredients. I chopped everything up, she mashed it all together, and then we were off to John and Melissa’s.

We were the first to arrive, then Veronica actually showed up, and finally Travis arrived with the pizza. We ate and chatted around the table. No games made it out, as we just reminisced about the old days, and caught up with Veronica’s adventures. Johnny periodically came out to ask if we were all leaving yet, and for the longest time we weren’t. Until we did.

It was really good to see Travis in good spirits, and it really reminded me more of our time working together when he was a much higher functioning human being, contributing to society instead of hiding out at home with his mother. I had a great time catching up.

How do you make a dead baby float?

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My Yellow Walkie-Talkie

It was quite cool out this morning, to the point that the sweat on my forehead got icy cold on the ride in to work. I scooted in a bit late, but nobody seemed to notice I was there at all. It was a quiet day, and I just did my thing and stuck to myself. I made it to Oakland three times in total to finish up various things. I never took a lunch and just ate a handful of peanuts instead.

When I made it home for the day, I tried to keep busy. It’s been hard finding any accomplishment around here for a while, and it takes no time at all for anything I do to be undone. When I finally settled in for the night, I was spooked by something that sounded like just a second of radio chatter or something. I legitimately thought my old clock radio had gone off somehow, but I couldn’t imagine how or why.

Must be that ghost season is nearly upon us.

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Bussin’

I was surprised this morning by being thrown into a conference call with one of the transportation guys for a sales pitch. He ended up being a little bit late, so I chatted motorcycles with the two sales guys until he showed up. The meeting lasted nearly to lunch, and then a group of us went to La Chiquita.

After lunch, I stopped by to see Summer for just a brief moment since she was in the pit, and then spent some time at Oakland just closing out tickets. I had to get back to the shop in time to help with a touch panel install at Sequoyah.

The install was a bit of a cluster because Kyle, Brody, and I kept tripping over each other. When we weren’t doing that, we were forgetting half of the things we needed in order to make the setup work. On top of that, the library was just sweltering for some reason, and I just dripped sweat the entire time. That just wore me out, in spite of it being such a mild day.

When I left, I stopped by the shop again to see Summer, then went home to mostly veg out. My neighbor did come over to ask for some of the wood in my backyard, which I was happy to offer as long as he didn’t take from the stacks that Summer or I made. Most of what was left were big logs though, and he seemed disappointed that he’d have to put some work into getting it chopped up and usable.

After that, I aired up just about every tire I have because the cooler temperatures has mealt lower air pressure. Then I came inside and sat around all evening, just feeling a bit aimless without much energy. My next big project is going to be organizing a bunch of returns of clothes I’ve been trying out over the past couple weeks.

Who needs anemones?