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Wringing the Air

I slept in while Summer went to her run, and we had a much better day after that. We got up to eat some leftovers, and then I tried to be productive with some of the stuff all over the house. Summer has been excited about the new Masters of the Universe movie, but I learned that she was completely unaware of the old 1987 movie starring Dolf Lundgren. I found it for free on YouTube, so we watched that in the afternoon. Afterward, Summer wanted to take a nap. Eaddie was around for most of the day, but left later on.

I had set up a tiny dehumidifier last night, but it hardly pulled any water out of the air. Today, I uncovered a larger one I had ordered a while back, so I set it up and found it to work much better. Even with all the rain we’ve had lately, the little one barely had a quarter tank of water after 24 hours.

I took a shower late in the day, and then Dad asked for help unloading some things they had picked up at the store. I took Muad’Dib out for his run, but then saw that my parents were already home, so we circled back and got there as quickly as we could.

By the time we got back to the house, I had worked up my appetite. There wasn’t really anything left in the refrigerator, so I used my 50% discount at Domino’s and took the Onewheel out again so Muad’Dib could get some more steps in. Summer and I ate, and then lounged in front of the TV for the rest of the night. Out of nowhere, I had my first anxiety attack, I believe since I started taking my iron supplements again. It was a really short event, but still left me a little dazed. Eaddie showed up with Eli, and they watched a movie while we went to bed.

Good journey. 👋

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Try Again

We got out a little earlier today, with a sack full of goodies to take to work. It had rained overnight, but then rained on us again on the way, but we still made pretty good time. It had calmed down by the time we got there, and I continued tinkering with my Intune policies.

It was pretty early in the day that Teisha came around to let everyone know they were closing at three. I picked a good day to bring my lunch, because I would have felt a little bad leaving for an hour and then leaving work early too. I warmed up my old gas station burger inside the network rack while I bounced back and forth between my office and the maintenance computer I’d been managing.

A while after lunch, Janice came up with a bowl of strawberry shortcake. She said she assumed I would want some from when they had it for David’s birthday while I was out. I often question whether people actually like me there, or whether they think I’m doing a good job, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had a job where anyone did something like this for me.

The afternoon was short, but I ended up staying nearly an hour late trying to reset the maintenance computer again just to test its behavior. We still beat Summer home, even though she was supposed to be off at four. It downpoured on us again on the way home, but that was short lived. We ran to pick up a package for Julie, and then Summer decided she wanted steak for dinner, so we ran Muad’Dib over to stay with Dad and went out to eat.

Check-H was pretty quiet, with mostly empty tables. The food was above average though, and we had some awesome salads and some of the best service we’ve ever had at a restaurant. We filled up, then headed back to get Muad’Dib. Dad had taken him on a little walk, so we had to go fetch some poop down the road before heading home. I let Muad’Dib run again, and he trotted along happily all the way.

Summer and I didn’t really see each other much after that. She did a little work and then went to bed. I was going to lay down with her for a bit, but then she disgusted me with her lack of attention to hygiene when handling dirty things, so I separated myself for the rest of the night.

Bugged

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Just Following Policy

I slept in a little bit today since I could wake up and walk to my office for work. It ended up being one of my most productive days as I tinkered away with Intune policies to manage the browsers for the maintenance shop PC. Eaddie was in bed all day, so it was just Intune, my speakers, Tiny Towns, and me.

I took a break to finish my old nachos from Ridgewood, but otherwise I stayed pretty busy all day. Before I knew it, Summer made it home from work and got ready for Sip + Stretch. I showered after, then had to run to my parents’ house to get Muad’Dib’s collar remote, and then Julie’s house to fetch a package. As soon as we got back to the house, I jumped on the Onewheel and Muad’Dib and I rode toward Point Remove.

As we neared the end of our run on Phoenix, we ran into Mollie and Craig walking down the sidewalk. We stopped for a hug, then continued to an absolutely packed house. There was a wedding party with a ton of people, but we managed to find a small table out back. Muad’Dib behaved perfectly and stayed right by me as we went through, then back to get him a cup of water.

Summer had gone to yoga with an old employee, and they both eventually made it down to join us. It wasn’t long after that when Eaddie showed up, and nervously walked around the outside of the building to avoid all the people. Summer ordered wings and a large charcuterie board, which was basically three giant blocks of cheese. I would be so happy if we never ordered that ever again. The wings were great, but there needed to be more of them for four people.

It eventually died down, and then we headed home. Muad’Dib wasn’t ready to come in though, so I took him for another short run to see Grandpaw. Then we saw the neighbors walking and talked to them for a moment before making it home for the night.

What a waste of skin and teeth!

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Are You In, or Are You Out?

I took the Model Y to work today so Summer could keep the Model 3 in town without burning the battery before our evening trip to Fayetteville. It was frustrating how junky her car is on the inside, but I’ve just had to turn a blind eye to it. It was quiet at the office, so I spent all day fighting the firewall and setting up more restrictive policies for devices in the plant.

I forgot my cheese sandwich, so I had my banana alone for breakfast. My iron left my stomach a bit unsettled all day, but we persevered. I skipped a proper lunch, but picked up a couple order of mozzarella sticks from Sonic and then came back to the office.

I basically completed what I had set out to do, which was get the new maintenance computer ready for deployment. We left close to 3:30 and raced home to get ready for the Coheed and Cambria concert. I swapped cars with Summer at Superfast, then headed home to change. That was when I learned that Eaddie had taken my earplugs some time ago, and left them in her old flute case that was on loan to Jenny. She said I gave them to her for marching season, but that had to be a lie because I had already given her a completely different set of her own. I tried to get her to retrieve them, but she got an attitude to the point that I nearly left her at home.

We dropped Muad’Dib off with Dad for the hour until Summer got off work, and then I chauffeured Eaddie and Eli to Fayetteville. Eaddie started fussing as we came up to Ozark and wanted food. I told her I wouldn’t stop, but then I did anyway. We ate some food at the picnic table outside, then continued to the Ozark Music Hall. I was pretty frustrated that all of the EV spots were taken by gas vehicles, and would have keyed them if my Tesla key wasn’t a plastic card.

The line stretched down the sidewalk, but we made it inside without any trouble. We had plenty of time before the music started, but of course the mob was already at the center of the floor and on up to the stage. We found a winding merch line and I picked up a shirt. The guy was too busy trying to serve the next person, so he didn’t hear me ask for a bag of coffee beans they had, but they were overpriced anyway.

The concert started with an Arkansas band called Little Towns, which were very good, but didn’t really speak to me in that special kind of way. I would have considered their merch if it didn’t have a big razorback on it. They played quite a few songs, and then the set change took a while, but Coheed eventually came out and rocked. It was a good show, but I would have liked to get there as early as I had planned before Eaddie dragged behind.

As they played their last song, Welcome Home, Claudio came out with a double-necked guitar that was tuned incorrectly. They had to stop, adjust, and then restart, but did so with a laugh. It was a good time. Afterward we headed home, having to stop in Ozark to charge again since we couldn’t during the concert. We picked up a ton of food again because the lady said it was all half-off. We shared a couple sandwiches and a bunch of other fried snacks before making it the rest of the way home for bed.

Bye bye, beautiful. Don’t bother to write.

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No Buds

I didn’t sleep great again, but I managed to get up and out to check on my parents before going to work. Dad was out of his chair before Mom was, and sounded much better. We ended up getting to work just a little later than usual. I chatted up front for a little bit, then headed upstairs to find a project.

Summer told me last night that she was taken out of the regional meetings, so she wouldn’t be going to Little Rock any more. That meant she wasn’t meeting me for lunch, so I went to McDonald’s for a $2 order of McNuggets, and then Arby’s for a gyro. We took it back to work to eat, and I started on the nuggets in the parking lot while Muad’Dib wandered about. The wind had been going, but about halfway through it wanted to carry my food off, so we went inside to finish.

The afternoon carried on a bit as I caught up on the Google I/O summit. Quitting time eventually showed up and we headed home, driving with my meats because it was raining too much for autopilot to do it quickly. Summer was playing Torchlight, but I asked if she wanted to check on my parents with me. She got up and we made it over there to talk briefly. Mom got up to warm up some dinner for them, so we left. Terry walked up just as we were leaving, so I pointed him to go on in.

Just as we got to the house, I realized I forgot my eyeglasses at my parents’ house, so I dropped Summer and Muad’Dib off and went back. Terry was just leaving and commented on my car, so I talked him into a joyride. Then I had to find dinner because Summer didn’t want to eat like we had planned. I tried Gary and Grant, but neither answered. I circled around a bit, but still ended up at our planned Cici’s for a $5.99 salad. The salad was great, and I felt like I didn’t stuff myself.

I made it back to the house and took Muad’Dib on an acoustic walk before coming in for the night. I thought to look for my earbuds for our concert the next day, and couldn’t find them anywhere. I’m pretty disciplined about putting things like that in their home, so it was frustrating that they seemed to have disappeared. Even Summer eventually got out of bed to help look, but we couldn’t find them anywhere. I just went to bed, disappointed again.

How did I get here?

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Up in Arms

I felt like I woke up about every thirty minutes last night, but somehow I didn’t feel completely worthless when I got up. We made it out the door a little early, but then I remembered at the last minute that I had a Starbucks deal, so we actually showed up at work just a few minutes later than usual. I was greeted by an office of four other dogs, and I’m pretty sure they’re planning to take over our jobs. I was also greeted by a concerned controller who thought her account may have been compromised based on a bunch of automated emails that were sent from her address.

I traced back the emails, and along with some good old fashioned human memory, discovered they were from an old Traverse report that somehow came back to life after being broken for many months. That was how I learned a little bit more today.

I wasn’t super hungry by lunch, but we went to Sonic and McDonald’s to “build our own combo” out of deals. I ate in the office since it was super windy outside anyway. The afternoon was some birthday cake and then a bit more of the same until quitting time.

We were just approaching the Phoenix bridge when Summer texted that Mom had to take Dad back to the emergency room. He had surgery for his torn rotator cuff first thing in the morning, and he said it was worse than he expected. After he had been home all day, he discovered he wasn’t able to go to the restroom, and also felt nauseous. Mom had called Summer since she was in town while Julie and Kevin were on vacation and I was working out of town. I met Summer and a very groggy Dad in a packed waiting room while Mom was out getting prescriptions filled.

We eventually got him into a room, and then I swapped with Mom so she could go in and I could take Muad’Dib home and change clothes. They let me back as well, after fetching his discharge paperwork and some Jell-O, which he actually wasn’t allowed to eat. We sat for quite a while until Mom kicked us out to find dinner and get cars charging.

Summer and I went to Cici’s for a quick and cheap salad, and I had more pizza than I planned, but this time I really meant it. They had half the restaurant closed up early, but the pizza was somehow still good. Afterward, I took Summer back to her car at the hospital and checked on Mom. She refused anything, so I went to the Neighborhood Market again for some bananas, cheese, coffee, coconut water, and then a bag of bagels for Summer.

I got back to the emergency room and Mom refused everything but the coconut water, so I headed back home to quickly unwind. It wasn’t very long after that when Mom texted that they were headed home, so I raced over to help get Dad out of the car, up the stairs, and into the recliner. Then it was back home and straight to bed.

Don’t shoulder it alone!

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Reedy or Not

I slept in pretty well today, and hoped that would help my recent concerns. Summer and I ate some leftovers and Eaddie left to get ready for Jenny’s recital in the afternoon. The whole day went by pretty quickly, but I tried to stay useful and productive. Summer took some time to get out her old laptop and play Torchlight II, which seemed like a good mental health break.

I got showered and we barely made it out of the house in time to drop Muad’Dib off with Dad before making it to the recital. Eaddie was only playing in one of the songs, but it was a nice, quiet show with just a bunch of the band kids and families. The kids did great, and then afterwards I saw Russ and talked to him for a moment before heading out.

Summer really wanted ice cream, so we went to Las Delicias where she got a cone and I got a mangonada. I didn’t think it was as good as Bocadillos, and I didn’t much care for the atmosphere being dark and loud, so we left and headed back to my parents’ house to get Muad’Dib. We visited there for a while before I really wanted to find dinner.

I wanted to try and find something with a bit more nutrition than the leftover Ridgewood nachos that were in the refrigerator, so we drove across town looking. We turned around at the old Valley Park Center where they had a whole lot of construction finishing up. Then we stopped at Aldi’s to see what aldi fuss was about. It was surprisingly cold and quiet in there, with a pretty limited selection. It didn’t seem worth the drive to me.

I got a box of salad, and we headed home to eat the last of the spaghetti squash casserole that Summer made. Then she cleaned the kitchen while I picked up around the house. She eventually went back to Torchlight and I took Muad’Dib on a run to take some old shirts to Dad before his surgery in the morning.

We wound down a bit more, then I did my best to get to bed on time.

DRINK MORE!

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Browntown and Down

I managed to wake up feeling better this morning, though I didn’t sleep very late. I have no idea what caused my sudden confusion last night. I suppose I had been low on sleep, and I was stuck looking at confusing file paths trying to recover my lost tabs sessions, but I’ve never been so immediately disoriented like that before.

Summer went to the gym while I got around. I took my iron pill again, which may have upset my stomach a bit. Once Summer made it back and we got all showered up, we went to Brown’s to use a couple coupons for lunch. Muad’Dib had to wait in the car since Eaddie left for rehearsal. The restaurant lobby was absolutely packed, but evidently it was just one large party, because they were able to seat us in a fair amount of time once all the others were taken to the back room. We also saw Steven while we were waiting. I guess he just walked over from his food truck to use the restroom. We should really go visit him again.

After we ate, I dropped Summer off at work for a closing shift. Then Muad’Dib and I found Eaddie at home, ready to do some pressure washing. She brought out all the chairs from the back porch while I set up the pressure washer in the driveway. I was full and it was super hot, so I burned out quickly just moving around. She did a great job of cleaning the chairs though, and I even got to wash my car and try some new soap and a new foam cannon. Once everything was cleaned up, I covered them on the back porch so they’ll be clean the next time we want to go out for an impromptu porch sitting.

Summer finished up around six, so Muad’Dib and I went to pick her up. Then I spent way too long trying to clean up the battery in the Murano so we could get it charged. It has always kind of eaten batteries, and both terminals were completely caked in corrosion. I had to clean off the toolbox to get to my sockets, but I couldn’t get the positive terminal off at all because the bolt was stripped or something. I vaguely remembered having trouble in the past, so it could probably just use a new terminal, or at least a new nut and bolt to tighten it.

I came in to take a cool shower for the night, and the girls settled in quickly. I was up later than I really wanted, and didn’t feel great, but it could have been much worse.

Sleep more!

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Mortality is Weird

I felt like I hardly slept at all last night. I just laid in bed feeling like I was awake all night, but my watch and phone insisted that I got a good night’s rest. I didn’t feel groggy when I got up, and we made it to work a little early. I brought along a Soylent for breakfast and my leftover Subway sandwich for lunch in an effort to save money and my health. I felt surprisingly good all day, and kept pretty busy.

Things got pretty quiet upstairs with Janice out. I don’t think anybody said anything to me all morning, and the guys left in the afternoon after I had eaten. I did step outside after lunch to give Muad’Dib some air, and decided to install my headliner to block the sun and try to keep my car a bit cooler in the summer.

Joel reminded me that we had our Traverse call in the afternoon, so I made it upstairs just in time for that. Having my phone muted lately has me missing most of my notifications, but I’ve also got notification fatigue from all the noise coming through. I’ll have to work in finding a balance.

Later in the afternoon, Elizabeth called me down for some help, but she was the only other face I saw the rest of the day until we stopped by Superfast to see Summer when we got back to town. She was just finishing up, and then we came home where I ate some leftover spaghetti squash casserole by myself.

I took Muad’Dib for a run to the Neighborhood Market to drop off some recycling, and he did great. It was probably our best run of the year, and I couldn’t say why. It was nice outside, but not as cold it normally has to be for him to get super excited. He even sat outside the store and waited for me while I deposited the recycling. We trimmed a couple blocks off of our usual path to see my parents, and then Eaddie called for advice on washing her floor mats at the carwash. While I was there, Julie called my parents from the beach, so I popped in to say hi before heading home.

When we made it back to the house, Summer and I finished the Kevin Hart roast before she went to bed. I was still feeling pretty good, but when I went to my office to try and recover my lost tab session, I started to really space out. I felt lost and confused, and I felt like I couldn’t remember things. It was like I knew I had a history of anxiety attacks, but I couldn’t remember what they were like. I was really disoriented for a while, and it was pretty scary because I just didn’t understand what was going on.

I took my blood pressure a couple of times, and it was a little bit high at first, but fine the second time. I slowly came out of the fog, but it was super strange. I don’t know if it was some new health concern, or maybe just the anxiety plus a lack of good sleep, but I just felt lost. I could hear Eaddie coming home and I knew where I was, but it was like my memory of everything was cloudy. All total, I think it took about two hours for me to recover from whatever that was, and then I went to sleep.

Let’s try extra hard to wake up this time.

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Unseasonably Stressed

I tried to relax coming in to work, but we had a staff meeting first thing in the morning. That went okay, and then I brought my stuff downstairs to work with Tammy for a bit. I didn’t feel bad up to that point, but then I had an anxiety attack while I was kneeling next to her at her desk. I was able to quickly log it in my spreadsheet, but I asked later and she said she didn’t notice anything strange about my breathing or anything.

I was a little foggy for a bit after that. I wasn’t super hungry at lunch time, so I grabbed the Soylent I didn’t drink in the morning and carried it outside for a walk to see if I could stir up an appetite. We did a short lap before I decided to grab some Subway, and brought it back to the office to eat.

I managed to get the price sheet updated in HubSpot, though it took me a couple tries because it didn’t properly check all of my import rows. Things got quiet in the afternoon and we wrapped up helping downstairs for a bit before heading home.

As we got close to town, I decided to stop by AT&T to give Kevin a gift I had for him. I chatted with him, which jogged my memory about having anxiety issues due to anemia. I decided to start taking iron again before my next checkup at the clinic, to see if that would help. After he left, I talked to Candice for a little bit before heading home. We just barely beat Summer to the house, and I told her that talking about red meat had me craving a steak, but she wasn’t very hungry.

We ended up going to Ridgeewood Brothers so Muad’Dib could sit outside with us. It was a nice evening for it, and I wish I had felt better, but I didn’t feel awful. We ate, and of course Muad’Dib got some “scraps.” Then I took him for a short run when we got back home.

It was a rush to get in bed after that. With any luck, it’s the lack of sleep and iron getting me down, but something’s got to change. I don’t feel right.

Outside, in the distance, a wildcat did growl.