Tag: work

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You Get a Raise! You Get a Raise! Everybody Gets a Raise!

I had my meeting with Judy this morning, along with Zach and Thomas. Pending board approval, we’ll both be promoted to the Network Tech title. Zach was uncharacteristically quiet through the whole event, and I would have thought he’d do a better job of showing some appreciation or excitement, especially with the news that his would be retroactive to the start of July. Oh well.

Lunch was light with just a couple spring rolls from Linh’s. Then I went to Oakland for the afternoon to try and knock out as much as I could. I still didn’t get the bulk out like I wanted, but I made a little progress before taking off at the end of the school day.

I was the last one out at work, and went home to change before going to Walmart to pick up the last couple of things we needed for dinner. Then I ran up to Summer’s to get the Instant Pot going for chicken tacos. Summer wanted me to get Eaddie to karate, so I was rushing through the whole prep only to have her leave work to take Eaddie herself.

Dinner was finished right as they got home, so at least that much was perfect. The tacos were pretty good, but I had to limit myself to four. All I wanted to do was continue eating them, but even four was too much. Hopefully I’ll feel a little lighter tomorrow for it.

Well, actually, that’s all. Just the two. Nobody else gets a raise.

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Good News Everyone!

We actually had a bit of a team meeting this morning, which was nice to break up how busy it’s been. I picked at a few different things to close out some old work orders, but didn’t make it to Oakland like I really had kind of intended. Most of the others went around to other buildings to clean out the tech offices that had accumulated a bunch of old crap. When they got back, everyone else came out to help unload the truck and trailer.

By then it was lunch time and someone made the call to go to Sam’s. Almost everyone went, and Thomas ended up buying. To make things even better, Brody only ate about half of his food before giving me the rest to take home, so I have plenty of fish for the weekend.

The afternoon went by pretty quietly as well. Thomas came and sat in my office for a few minutes after work to chat, and Judy emailed to say she had good news. We’ll have a meeting with her next week to see what that means. All in all, I think it was a pretty good work week.

I went by the shop to see Summer on the way home. Autumn was there too, but left when I did to go get gas. I went home to change and thought I was going to pick up Eaddie, but Summer ended up getting her after work. I came up to their house for the evening, but Summer didn’t get her mashed potatoes and coleslaw from KFC, so I drove her back to get them.

Everyone just kind of picked at the food before going off to do their own things. Summer crashed early in preparation for her long drive and obstacle run at Conquer the Gauntlet tomorrow. Eaddie and I stayed up until about midnight watching House until she fell asleep in my lap. With nothing else to do, I finally made it to bed myself.

Three day weekends are best when surrounded by four day weeks.

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Filed Under Completed

I made it in to work several minutes early today and just kind of eased into things. I knew I wanted to actually take action with a lot of work, but I still had a bit of trouble finding where to really chip into it all. I poked around a few different things at first, then went to Oakland to tend to Aimee and her fussy preschool cohorts. The girl that quit evidently stripped a bunch of stuff out when she left, and even took the USB cable for the touch panel.

I ended up leaving for lunch about 15 minutes late and met Gary and Zach at Arby’s. I tried their new Prime Rib Cheesesteak, which was loaded up a bit more than I expected, but was overly chewy and gooey. I actually found myself wishing it had less cheese on it. Summer had me drop some food off for her on the way back to work, and I continued to dig into the Print Nightmare exploit patch that we had to work around in order to resolve print issues for everyone.

Ultimately I fixed that issue and closed a whole bunch of work orders, so I felt pretty good by the end of the day. I left a little bit late and went to my parents’ house to deliver a patio table cover that I ordered for them. I ate a little turkey roll for dinner just to keep things really light, and then helped Dad move the oven out and into the trunk of his car so he could return it.

From there, I headed home to clean up a bit. The laundry room and kitchen had gotten a bit out of control, so I took care of that and then filed a bunch of paperwork. I even took the time to finally make folder labels with a proper label printer, so everything looks really nice now.

File the rest of that under “To Be Filed.”

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You’ve Gotta Fight for Your Right

I’ve been so worked up for most of this month over my employment contract, and it finally worked itself up into a head today. Maybe I was just feeling a dark cloud over my own head today, or maybe something really was up, but I’ve just felt really off for the past couple days. I spent the first couple quiet hours in my office before going to Oakland to try and fix some things. Then I made it back to the shop around lunch time and chatted with Kyle outside for a bit.

I ended up not doing anything, and just finished up the last quarter of my Soylent instead. I started working on an email to Judy to see if she could chat with me about my contract, and she actually had some free time to schedule with me. I went across the street and expressed my feelings, concerns, and did my best to make sure she understood I wasn’t trying to rock the boat, but that I felt like I had earned the contract I signed. She did a good job of playing it pretty neutral, but asked some good questions and took enough notes to make me feel like she really did want to help me personally if she could.

After my meeting, I went back to the shop for the rest of the day. Kyle and Greg came into my office for some help, which pretty well burned up any usable time I had left. I wrapped up what I could as everyone filtered out, and then stopped by to chat with Thomas on my own way out. He appreciated that I wanted to keep him in the loop, and I could tell we really agreed on a lot of the things we’ve seen, so hopefully this all works out well in the end.

I went straight to SuperFast to catch up with Summer, and then had to leave to return the canopy that I couldn’t get back to the Ridgewood Brothers yesterday. Then I went to my parents’ house for some surprisingly tough corned beef for dinner. After we ate, Dad and I tried taking his old oven out to swap it with the new one. We had gotten most everything in place to slide in before I had to pick Eaddie up from karate.

Once I had Eaddie, we stopped by her grandparents’ house so she could pick up some things she didn’t take into karate. Then we went back to my parents’ house to finish installing the new oven. Unfortunately once we had it placed, we realized how much space was left around the outside of it. We really needed to buy a size or two up from what Julie got, so we pulled everything back out and stuck the old one back in as quickly as we could.

I had to get Eaddie home so she could do homework, but first I wanted to get my laptop from work, then go home to change. Summer helped her with the homework while I tried yelling at Autumn to keep her from falling asleep. Evidently the hospital wants her a bit sleep deprived so she’ll be super relaxed or even doze off during her EEG tomorrow. I stayed up later than I wanted, but just kept feeling like I was forgetting something all night long.

I don’t know why they can’t write better descriptions for jean sizing. Maybe I’ll just start wearing jeggings instead.

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Another Long Week

This morning already started out pretty rough, and I don’t expect things to get better for a while. I suppose it could be worse, and at least I enjoy what I do, and it provides above-average flexibility. Things stayed pretty quiet most of the morning, with everyone still struggling to keep their work order counts from growing any further. As with the past couple weeks, this morning went by really fast. For the first time in a while, nobody was interested in going out to eat, so I just went to SuperFast a little late to have a couple hot dogs with Summer during their Paint the Town Green and Gold celebration.

After we ate, I stopped by my house for a few minutes before continuing to Oakland. I wasn’t really there to close mass tickets, but instead spent some time troubleshooting a widespread print issue we’ve seen. I didn’t really get any results, unfortunately, so I’ll likely still be working on it some more tomorrow. I fussed a little about how much I’m doing, and Gary kind of snapped back that they could put someone else in my position, but there really isn’t anyone to place there that won’t need months of training just to be a little bit helpful. I think he sometimes forgets that he makes $11 grand more than what they want to pay me, and $8,000 more than what they “accidentally” signed my contract for this year.

Still, I was the last one to leave the office for the day. I did what I could, and at least for the time being, it’ll all still be there for me tomorrow. I went home to change, then went to the shop to pick up the canopy Summer borrowed from the Brothers, Ridgewood. The gate was locked when I arrived to return it, so I continued on to my parents’ house to pick at some leftovers for dinner.

I received a refurbished Dyson fan today, and though it’s far from the worst condition that I’ve ever seen in a refurb, it wasn’t at all good. Paint was rubbed off in several places, and the thing was filthy with the exception of a new filter. There was heavy dust and black, oily smudges all over the thing. I fired an email off to the manufacturer, and hopefully they’ll do something about it, otherwise it may just be returned.

As with most things here, the more you dig, the angrier you’ll be.

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Chained

Within the first couple hours of falling asleep last night, I pinched a nerve in my back that stuck with me the rest of the night and then all day long. I trundled into work for a bit of a meeting that wasn’t much of a meeting. From then on, I was pretty well stuck in my office all day. Everyone disappeared in the morning while I worked on a little bit of everything.

Gary came back to work a little later in the morning, saying he thought he had COVID, but felt back to normal now. For whatever reason, he never could arrange a test with the school nurses, so he just came back to work and stayed to himself all day. People filtered back in for lunch, and the six of us that weren’t Gary went to La Chiquita for some of the best food and service I’ve ever had there. I tried the omelet, which was more of just an egg scramble, and though it didn’t seem very Mexican aside from the rice and beans, I did enjoy it. It was also cheap and filling.

After lunch, we had a little bit of a meeting to cover the flow of data from the state systems, which is something we have to cover from time to time on account of how we never keep employees for very long. Then a group was sent to the junior high to hang some TVs. I stayed behind and did some stuff remotely until it was quitting time.

I ran home to change, and then met Summer and Eaddie at Old South for Dad’s birthday. He and Mom came along shortly, and then Julie showed up once we were seated. From what I could tell, most of the food seemed overcooked and dry, but I enjoyed the taste of my Louisiana redfish in spite of it. I suppose I was expected to get moisture from the liquified butter they brought me.

On the way home, I stopped by Walmart for a bike chain that Eaddie ultimately didn’t use. She decided to ride in the car with Summer to watch part of Autumn’s football game instead of riding her bike. I stayed home to decompress, and then made some ice cream when they returned with milk and cream. We watched a couple episodes of House until Autumn came home, and then everyone went to sleep.

That’s a paddlin’.

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Hot Town, Summer in the High School

Gary was out for a second day in a row, leaving me to poke around all the sync issues we’ve adopted this year. Thomas helped me a bit with one, but I feel like it’s the same thing every day. Discover a new product we use, and then figure out who the heck is supposed to know what to do with it.

Greg wanted Fat Daddy’s since he had to do some work in London, so Zach drove four of us out there to meet him. I had one of the better meals I’ve had there, but it was still just mediocre barbecue. On the drive out, Thomas told us about some of the insane offers they’ve had on their old house, and it’s just nuts how the housing market has exploded up there.

We had an interview in the afternoon, so I just locked myself up in my office until they were done. After a while, I went to the high school to help Brody with some stuff. That was the most frustrating part of my day, because we still didn’t fix the issue. It was also super hot everywhere we went because the air conditioner was out. They had little portable units everywhere with vents going up into the ceiling, but it barely kept the place sufferable. Then we ended the day unable to get into an office out at Votech because we didn’t have a key to their door.

I went home for a bit before going to my parents’ house. I wasn’t very hungry, but I loaded up on some veg-heavy spring rolls. Then I sat outside for a bit while Mom and Dad watered her plants. When I got back home, I was pretty tired but still tried to pick up a little bit before settling in to bed. I hit up the work group text to check on Thomas’s final offer for the house, and it was even better than the one he talked about during lunch. How I just need to talk him into investing it in Doge.

Did somebody say, “moon?”

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The Brains of This Outfit

I barely got a wink last night, but that was probably also the only reason it wasn’t too hard to get out of bed when my alarm went off. I made it in to work a few minutes early and got settled in. Gary was out sick, so I kept up with things in the office. Greg came back after receiving a negative COVID test, but his daughter never actually tested. I decided to run to Oakland for a bit to close out some tickets before making it back for lunch.

Zach really wanted CJ’s, which nobody else was really excited for, except Thomas. At least we got Zach to drive the five of us up there. I got plenty full and stuck around the office for the rest of the afternoon. Things got really quiet downstairs after Thomas and Zach went to the middle school to do some training. Tammy and I left just after quitting time and I headed home for the night.

Still full from lunch, I didn’t even make it to my parents’ house for more rolls. I just cleaned up a bit, both online and in one of the bedrooms. I even listed a single item on eBay – a TV remote for which I’ve never owned the TV. This is a gruelling process. Josue chatted me up later in the evening, starting the conversation with a picture of an old HP Touchpad I got him years ago. I still have a brand new one sealed in the shipping box under my desk. Evidently they’re still going for quite a bit on eBay. Who knows why.

eBay: where everything has value for some reason

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Track Your Time

I walked in to work this morning and immediately fielded two phone calls, which prompted me to create the Super Brody Tracker. Zach had joked that we should write tally marks every time he calls, so instead I built a spreadsheet for hilarity’s sake.

It was otherwise a pretty scattered morning, but I felt good about it. I closed some things, and helped with plenty of others. Summer wanted to join us for lunch, so five of us met her at Stoby’s. They were surprisingly busy and slow, and my burger was less good than usual, but the fries never disappoint.

After lunch, I got some slightly good news about my employment ordeal, but I’m still waiting for further instruction and to plead my case with anyone of consequence. Without any other drivers in my day, I continued on doing all of the things until quitting time.

I ran home to change, and almost immediately had to leave to get Eaddie’s karate gear out of Autumn’s car at the high school. Eaddie had gone to do homework with Maristella, so I had to then pick her up from their house before dropping her off at karate. From there, I met Summer at my parents’ house for spring rolls.

After we ate, I helped clean up and went outside for a little bit, then went on up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie spent the evening doing math homework while Summer went to bed. Autumn got home and pretty well went straight to bed herself. I wasn’t very tired after such long, good sleep last night, but I did my best not to stay up too late.

There’s no payback like no payback.

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Drowmn

I slept fairly well last night, but not enough. It made for a late start to the day, which had me worried in light of recent events, but it didn’t matter once I got rolling anyway. I spent the morning in my office being super scattered and struggling to accomplish anything of consequence. It reminded me of those giant jawbreakers that were popular when I was growing up. I think I still have mine somewhere, less than half eaten – or licked. I just have to pick one tiny thing and close it, then do the same to another, until eventually things calm down again.

Zach and Gary almost left me behind for lunch, but then came back to get me. We met Brody at Bocadillos for one of the cheapest lunch specials around. I went with three tacos and felt satisfied without overstuffing myself. When we got back to work, I loaded up and went to Oakland for the afternoon.

It was so hot and humid that I felt like I was drowning inside of my mask. The little face cup in my mask just kept condensing my breath, which dripped all over my mouth and made me miserable. I got as much done as I could, and made it back to the office late enough that even Thomas was leaving. I stayed long enough to close out my work orders, then went home for the night.

Eaddie had walked home from school, but left with Autumn shortly after I got there. I didn’t get up to much, but made some ramen for a light dinner, then went to bed really early.

And the spies came out of the water.