Summer was super hectic, the days just bled together. But it felt like we got things done. Fall has arrived and it feels like we are just standing around poking our noses, wondering why we haven't caused a nose bleed.
Every day seems just busy enough, without accomplishing much. I had a dentist appointment yesterday, I forgot about it. I then had to stop in, apologize, schedule a new day, and ta-dah, here we were today. Same place, more time gone. I had my dentist visit today and got my teeth cleaned. That is great, yesterday after missing the dentist, we got home after Chubs and I ate Chick-Fil-A. I thought I was a little early, time to maybe start putting up some Halloween lights, I went around the side of the house to bring the trash cans in from the street. I then had to walk by the pool and I could not ignore it. Water has been slowly turning green again. If ever I had an albatross hanging around my neck, DAMN!!!! do I hate that thing. I wouldn't mind messing around with it, but the sun goes down behind our house, so to do anything in the afternoon means you will be standing in the sun on hot concrete with the two story brick house reflecting back even more heat. I tried being quick, but of course, nothing is. By the time I catch the Chlorine floating dispenser, prime the pump, and do the same to the Hot tub, never mind also shocking them, my shirt is soaked in sweat, even with the temp now in the friendly 90s.
Of course, I was down to my last container of shock, so I stopped and bought more before getting to work. I never even got to touch the Halloween stuff, but I got to work, did my thing, and re-shocked the pool in the morning at 6:30am, at least the sun didn't beat the crap out of me. Today, I was surprised that the green color in the water is mostly gone, so at least my shitty neighbors won't be ratting me out again to the city.
Wife was starting the Halloween decorations, maybe she has more time than me. I'm sure she'll have a meet the teacher for Chubs or something else to stop her before she gets too far.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
9/29/15 One House To Room Them All?
It's on like Donkey Kong. My side of the family will take a stab at creating some magic moments in the land of the Mouse (Mr. Mickey to you). First, all the important peeps had to agree that they wanted to go. Now that we got past that point, Wife started the discussion of "are we staying together or is everyone finding their own place"? We all kept saying we like the idea of all of us under one roof, after all if my in-laws can do it, so can we.
The burden of getting the house has fallen on Wife, but she is good at stuff like this. I said to the group, fine, we'll get the place, but we get first dibs on the room of our choice. That means we get the true master bedroom with the king bed. Everybody just sort of grumbled, but if we are going to spend extra time looking and choosing and making it easy, we should get first dibs. Middle brother needs a king bed too, as well as my sister for hubby and her two boys. My parents would like a king, but they said they could fit in a queen, then my younger brother needs at least a full, followed by my boys, at least two twins or two full beds for them. My niece kind of wants a room, but only if grandma will sleep in there with her, we'll see.
Another necessity is a private pool, we love the idea of having our own and not having to go to a community area to use a pool, if we even decide to use one. The rest is pretty standard, most of the homes we have looked at have game rooms in the garage, fully stocked kitchens, living rooms with good sized TVs, oh and WiFi. WiFi is almost more important than cable, we all need to be online for good chunks of time.
Wife quickly got a list of 7 bedroom homes, ranging in price from $1300-$2000. We are all putting our votes in, and hopefully, she will be calling and reserving in the next day or two. The plan I think is to go to three Disney parks and one Universal, maybe both since everyone is a freaking nerd and they'll want to see the Harry Potter additions. I am happy that we'll be going as a family, it's been a few years since we all went together.
The burden of getting the house has fallen on Wife, but she is good at stuff like this. I said to the group, fine, we'll get the place, but we get first dibs on the room of our choice. That means we get the true master bedroom with the king bed. Everybody just sort of grumbled, but if we are going to spend extra time looking and choosing and making it easy, we should get first dibs. Middle brother needs a king bed too, as well as my sister for hubby and her two boys. My parents would like a king, but they said they could fit in a queen, then my younger brother needs at least a full, followed by my boys, at least two twins or two full beds for them. My niece kind of wants a room, but only if grandma will sleep in there with her, we'll see.
Another necessity is a private pool, we love the idea of having our own and not having to go to a community area to use a pool, if we even decide to use one. The rest is pretty standard, most of the homes we have looked at have game rooms in the garage, fully stocked kitchens, living rooms with good sized TVs, oh and WiFi. WiFi is almost more important than cable, we all need to be online for good chunks of time.
Wife quickly got a list of 7 bedroom homes, ranging in price from $1300-$2000. We are all putting our votes in, and hopefully, she will be calling and reserving in the next day or two. The plan I think is to go to three Disney parks and one Universal, maybe both since everyone is a freaking nerd and they'll want to see the Harry Potter additions. I am happy that we'll be going as a family, it's been a few years since we all went together.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
9/28/15 Quickie Vacation Was Good For The Soul?
Going home was actually very relaxing. I always stress over running into people from my youth, not because I hate talking to them, but because I forget names, I feel like I might call Peter, Rudy or Juan, Jose. Going to the PeeWee football game, I was sure someone would be saying hi, remember me?
Since that didn't happen, I was just with family, which is how I prefer it. After the game and dinner we stayed up a little late, just normal fun and teasing. We drank coffee and ate pan dulce (mexican pastries) as we talked of our upcoming family trip next summer to Florida and the parks. We have all decided to stay in a house together, no gift exchanges during christmas, to save some additional money for the trip. Only the young'uns are to receive gifts.
I could go more often, Mom insists I don't go because I don't like being down there, but the truth is that we work a lot. This year, there have been only two weekends when I didn't work either Friday or Sunday night. Add to that also Wife works several weekends doing all sorts of activities from taking random kids to college fairs to going to meetings at night to provide homeless parents insight and information to make their lives better.
Sleeping down there was not much different than sleeping over here. We ate late, I had two huge quart sized glasses of iced tea and followed that with a coke at the restaurant. Then two cups of coffee, and the beans on the nachos did not help. I woke up almost every hour to pee and fart until about 6am. I finally managed to sleep ok, but I could hear people, my niece brought her dog over around 7:30am, so people were up that early even though I tried sleeping until 11am.
We ate a very tradidtional breakfast which I looked forward to. I love barbacoa tacos on a sunday morning. Even better with a slice of avocado. A cup of coffee made it perfect. Nothing more to do after that awesome breakfast but go and take a nap. I napped for awhile, then woke, saw a quarter of the Cowboys game with my dad yelling at the TV "ah que bola de pendejos", sounds about right for my dad cheering for his teams if they aren't winning. I managed to nap another hour before finally getting up, showering and getting going. Not bad. We were in Crystal City for about 24 hours, but I got the monkey and my mom off my back. She can't say we never go to Crystal for awhile.
Since that didn't happen, I was just with family, which is how I prefer it. After the game and dinner we stayed up a little late, just normal fun and teasing. We drank coffee and ate pan dulce (mexican pastries) as we talked of our upcoming family trip next summer to Florida and the parks. We have all decided to stay in a house together, no gift exchanges during christmas, to save some additional money for the trip. Only the young'uns are to receive gifts.
I could go more often, Mom insists I don't go because I don't like being down there, but the truth is that we work a lot. This year, there have been only two weekends when I didn't work either Friday or Sunday night. Add to that also Wife works several weekends doing all sorts of activities from taking random kids to college fairs to going to meetings at night to provide homeless parents insight and information to make their lives better.
Sleeping down there was not much different than sleeping over here. We ate late, I had two huge quart sized glasses of iced tea and followed that with a coke at the restaurant. Then two cups of coffee, and the beans on the nachos did not help. I woke up almost every hour to pee and fart until about 6am. I finally managed to sleep ok, but I could hear people, my niece brought her dog over around 7:30am, so people were up that early even though I tried sleeping until 11am.
We ate a very tradidtional breakfast which I looked forward to. I love barbacoa tacos on a sunday morning. Even better with a slice of avocado. A cup of coffee made it perfect. Nothing more to do after that awesome breakfast but go and take a nap. I napped for awhile, then woke, saw a quarter of the Cowboys game with my dad yelling at the TV "ah que bola de pendejos", sounds about right for my dad cheering for his teams if they aren't winning. I managed to nap another hour before finally getting up, showering and getting going. Not bad. We were in Crystal City for about 24 hours, but I got the monkey and my mom off my back. She can't say we never go to Crystal for awhile.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
9/27/15 Stupid People Are Stupid?
I promised my sister we would come watch her kid play Pee-Wee Football a month ago. Being a man of my word, we came down this weekend to see wht they were up to. Originally, they were scheduled to play at 11:30am, so I was going to work and have Wife drive us down while I slept in the truck. Yesterday, my sister texted that their playing time had been moved to 6:30pm. This was perfect, as I was now able to sleep mostly a normal 6 hours or so.
We got going right at 1:30, with plenty of time to make the 6:30 time slot. The road was fine except for one traffic slow down. We got here with a little more than an hour to spare, and Mom spared no time showing me the home improvements they have completed. Starting with a metal roof, painting the outsie of the house, pouring some white rock/clay mix to have a lane to backyard to park their RV. They have even managed to replace the cover on the hot tub I gave them many years ago.
We got to the game probably 15 minutes before the game was scheduled to start. We ran into my aunt there and went and sat over with the parent's of my brother in law. It was warm-ish when we got there, but by the time the game got going, the wind had turned and it even felt cool. It did manage to drizzle, but it was not enough to stop the game.
The one thing that bothered me was the brain dead people sitting all around us. Football is a sport of collisions and hard hits. There were several moments where the tackles were hard enough to leave the kid on his back for a few moments, instead of silence, these neanderthals were clapping in the stands. There was one particular nasty penalty where a kid was taken down with a face mask. That is where the person being tackled is grabbed by the facemask and brought to the ground, this act is usually a fifteen yard penalty because it is really frowned upon. I think if it is done on purpose, the kid should be ejected from the game. People in the stands actually got excited over the tackle and clapping, yelling yeah!! What if it was your kid, Stupid? What if he was injured by the takedown?
I was really enjoying the game other than this. The kids were all cute tiny versions of the real thing. There were even tiny cheerleaders for each team. I don't know that we will make another game, but this one was totally enjoyable and worthwhile. We finished the night at a local mexican food place. The food was ehh, service was ehh, it was warm-ish, but we had a good time.
We got going right at 1:30, with plenty of time to make the 6:30 time slot. The road was fine except for one traffic slow down. We got here with a little more than an hour to spare, and Mom spared no time showing me the home improvements they have completed. Starting with a metal roof, painting the outsie of the house, pouring some white rock/clay mix to have a lane to backyard to park their RV. They have even managed to replace the cover on the hot tub I gave them many years ago.
We got to the game probably 15 minutes before the game was scheduled to start. We ran into my aunt there and went and sat over with the parent's of my brother in law. It was warm-ish when we got there, but by the time the game got going, the wind had turned and it even felt cool. It did manage to drizzle, but it was not enough to stop the game.
The one thing that bothered me was the brain dead people sitting all around us. Football is a sport of collisions and hard hits. There were several moments where the tackles were hard enough to leave the kid on his back for a few moments, instead of silence, these neanderthals were clapping in the stands. There was one particular nasty penalty where a kid was taken down with a face mask. That is where the person being tackled is grabbed by the facemask and brought to the ground, this act is usually a fifteen yard penalty because it is really frowned upon. I think if it is done on purpose, the kid should be ejected from the game. People in the stands actually got excited over the tackle and clapping, yelling yeah!! What if it was your kid, Stupid? What if he was injured by the takedown?
I was really enjoying the game other than this. The kids were all cute tiny versions of the real thing. There were even tiny cheerleaders for each team. I don't know that we will make another game, but this one was totally enjoyable and worthwhile. We finished the night at a local mexican food place. The food was ehh, service was ehh, it was warm-ish, but we had a good time.
9/26/15 How Good Is Your Word?
We are going to my hometown this weekend. We were going to leave Friday afternoon, but I was offered OT, and I don't say no to that. The main reason we are going is to see our nephew play football. He is on a pee wee league team, but they are playing tackle football and my Brother-in-law is coaching the team. Another reason we are going is that it has been over a year since we have gone and everyone thinks I kinda suck at this point. I swear either Wife or myself work most weekends, and then my folks were retired and enjoyed coming up to the big city of Austin, so even though we might not go down there, I still see my folks once a month or so.
Since we last went down last easter, I believe, my folks have put a new roof on their house, painted the outside, and the road we live on has been torn apart to where it was undrivable for awhile. My brother has bought two new vehicles, which is part of what stuck in my butt and pushed me to go out and get a new truck as well.
My justification for not going is that I see my folks once a month, they like coming to Austin, we go out to dinner, they get their mall fix. Not to be rude or ugly, but going to Crystal means we're going to sit at my mom's house until it is time to go. There are no places to go and check out, unless you count the Walmart in the next city.
I am hoping to at least see the UT game when we arrive, followed by my nephew's game at 6:30pm. It might not work to BBQ with the game being that late, but maybe they'll want to rally Sunday and grill something in the afternoon before we head back. If I can get some BBQ and pan dulce I guess the trip will be ok.
Going though means we don't see Boy since he comes to Austin on the weekends to work. We usually have been able to have dinner Saturday and/or Sunday while he is here, that won't happen this weekend. It's ok, he already planned to have a steak dinner with his friends, he just needs me to pay his portion. Aren't I lucky?
Since we last went down last easter, I believe, my folks have put a new roof on their house, painted the outside, and the road we live on has been torn apart to where it was undrivable for awhile. My brother has bought two new vehicles, which is part of what stuck in my butt and pushed me to go out and get a new truck as well.
My justification for not going is that I see my folks once a month, they like coming to Austin, we go out to dinner, they get their mall fix. Not to be rude or ugly, but going to Crystal means we're going to sit at my mom's house until it is time to go. There are no places to go and check out, unless you count the Walmart in the next city.
I am hoping to at least see the UT game when we arrive, followed by my nephew's game at 6:30pm. It might not work to BBQ with the game being that late, but maybe they'll want to rally Sunday and grill something in the afternoon before we head back. If I can get some BBQ and pan dulce I guess the trip will be ok.
Going though means we don't see Boy since he comes to Austin on the weekends to work. We usually have been able to have dinner Saturday and/or Sunday while he is here, that won't happen this weekend. It's ok, he already planned to have a steak dinner with his friends, he just needs me to pay his portion. Aren't I lucky?
Friday, September 25, 2015
9/25/15 Cheating On My Big House?
This past weekend, we went for a short drive Sunday. Wife had worked Saturday finishing all her certifications (finally) to drive the bus on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we finally had some freedom on Sunday. She keeps mentioning this "Easton Park", which is to be a huge new community where William Cannon currently ends on the east side by Mckinney Falls State Park.
This community will have over 5000 new homes, retail space amounting to over 2,000,000 square feet (Southpark Meadows has 1,500,000 square feet for comparison), four pool areas, and even a man made lazy river, I assume like at Schlitterbahn. The realtor we talked to said it would be the Circle C of the east. Houses are going to go from $200,000s to well over $800,000s.
It was slightly disappointing as it had been awhile since we ventured out in that direction and although a lot of the roads are printed, none of the houses are started yet. There were a few model homes next door for a KB home community, but the realtor said they are not part of this Easton Park community, so even if we bought with them, we would not have access to their amenities, such as the pools.
I hate to admit that I really loved the model homes. When we were looking for our current house, we were coming from a 1300 square foot home and I wanted space. Our current home has almost 4000 square feet, and for a while it was perfect. When my brother lived with us and paid rent, Boy lived in his room, and Chubs also had a room. Nowadays, our house feels empty most of the time. Boy is in an apartment in San Marcos during the week, my brother went back home, it's just Chubs in his room, and Wife in ours during the week. I am thinking we need to readjust our home needs.
As the realtor was saying, priorities have changed, they are not just building large boxes as homes. Smaller rooms are being used in the bedrooms and more emphasis is going to the rooms where the action happens, more storage options as well. The kitchens were beautiful, with these large islands and jumbo chunks of granite or stone. There were double or triple the amount of cupboards and drawers to put stuff away. The back yards were tiny, but I have never enjoyed caring for the yard, and I will not get another pool. Hot tub yes, pool never again.
So here we are, again. The prospect of moving is still far in the distance, but I do know that I loved some of these model homes. Maybe a house with 4 bedrooms, master down, with a view of downtown, three car garage. We'll see, if I can convert dream to reality.
This community will have over 5000 new homes, retail space amounting to over 2,000,000 square feet (Southpark Meadows has 1,500,000 square feet for comparison), four pool areas, and even a man made lazy river, I assume like at Schlitterbahn. The realtor we talked to said it would be the Circle C of the east. Houses are going to go from $200,000s to well over $800,000s.
It was slightly disappointing as it had been awhile since we ventured out in that direction and although a lot of the roads are printed, none of the houses are started yet. There were a few model homes next door for a KB home community, but the realtor said they are not part of this Easton Park community, so even if we bought with them, we would not have access to their amenities, such as the pools.
I hate to admit that I really loved the model homes. When we were looking for our current house, we were coming from a 1300 square foot home and I wanted space. Our current home has almost 4000 square feet, and for a while it was perfect. When my brother lived with us and paid rent, Boy lived in his room, and Chubs also had a room. Nowadays, our house feels empty most of the time. Boy is in an apartment in San Marcos during the week, my brother went back home, it's just Chubs in his room, and Wife in ours during the week. I am thinking we need to readjust our home needs.
As the realtor was saying, priorities have changed, they are not just building large boxes as homes. Smaller rooms are being used in the bedrooms and more emphasis is going to the rooms where the action happens, more storage options as well. The kitchens were beautiful, with these large islands and jumbo chunks of granite or stone. There were double or triple the amount of cupboards and drawers to put stuff away. The back yards were tiny, but I have never enjoyed caring for the yard, and I will not get another pool. Hot tub yes, pool never again.
So here we are, again. The prospect of moving is still far in the distance, but I do know that I loved some of these model homes. Maybe a house with 4 bedrooms, master down, with a view of downtown, three car garage. We'll see, if I can convert dream to reality.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
9/24/15 Me Bite You Long Time?
I went to the dentist today, mostly because there was one next door to the Dunking Donuts by the house. While Wife got a box, I went and got myself an appointment a couple weeks ago. Dunking Donuts took forever to open and on their first day selling donuts, they already tasted old and stale, what is up with that? Anyways, the appointment went well, but I didn't like having to do 10 x-rays. Knowing they can cause cancer, it just seemed excessive. I closed my eyes, that should protect me enough, I guess.
Looking through my x-rays, doctor and hygienist both determined I got long healthy teeth, should last me a lifetime. That's good, unless they know I'm getting hit by a bus next week, then not so good. They then poked and prodded, my gum line, a test to see how far the tartar build up has affected things. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt in some spots. I wanted to cry like a little girl, but then I looked in the mirror and realized I am a man. Since it has been a couple years that I've gotten a cleaning, I have a special first cleaning, it's even going to cost me some cash, but I should be good after it.
All this work is not cheap. The cost for this visit and the one next week to do the actual cleaning will be in the $1700 vicinity. Thank goodness for insurance, the only thing I am paying is $161, still a lot, but way less than it could have been.
I noticed these people seem happy to be at their job. I'm not sure if they are following the lead of their dentist, but all the people I interacted with were sharp, smiling, and seemed to know what they were doing. It has to be related to the fact that they only see people to make them better, most people waiting are getting teeth cleaned, so there is no negativity in the air or the nitrous oxide gas is leaking. I have noticed this at other dentist offices, such as where Boy got his braces, everyone there was good at chatting and seemed like happy people on TV. Go to a doctor's office, full of sick people, and the energy can be quite different.
Looking through my x-rays, doctor and hygienist both determined I got long healthy teeth, should last me a lifetime. That's good, unless they know I'm getting hit by a bus next week, then not so good. They then poked and prodded, my gum line, a test to see how far the tartar build up has affected things. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt in some spots. I wanted to cry like a little girl, but then I looked in the mirror and realized I am a man. Since it has been a couple years that I've gotten a cleaning, I have a special first cleaning, it's even going to cost me some cash, but I should be good after it.
All this work is not cheap. The cost for this visit and the one next week to do the actual cleaning will be in the $1700 vicinity. Thank goodness for insurance, the only thing I am paying is $161, still a lot, but way less than it could have been.
I noticed these people seem happy to be at their job. I'm not sure if they are following the lead of their dentist, but all the people I interacted with were sharp, smiling, and seemed to know what they were doing. It has to be related to the fact that they only see people to make them better, most people waiting are getting teeth cleaned, so there is no negativity in the air or the nitrous oxide gas is leaking. I have noticed this at other dentist offices, such as where Boy got his braces, everyone there was good at chatting and seemed like happy people on TV. Go to a doctor's office, full of sick people, and the energy can be quite different.
9/23/15 Who Is Picking Up The Tab?
I might finally start becoming conservative, the thought sucks. But those peeps are obsessed with the future of our country and who is going to pay for everything. It just started dawning on me, I know more unemployables than people making real salaries. I don't see the grouping as it was explained to me five or ten years ago. There's a hundred people working for each unemployed person, the workers essentially are carrying that person. In reality, it feels like maybe there's two or three people for each unemployed person. I only know a handful of those peeps even making more than $100k.
What is going on? Welfare should be a band aid, not a life choice. When Wife and I got married, I was fresh out of school, she still had a couple years to go. Boy was a welfare baby, we had food stamps, right when they were starting with the Lone Star card. I was embarrassed to use the card, but it was free food when we had no choice. We had the reduced childcare and we were on our way. In a year or two, my salary about doubled when I went from operator to engineer and before we knew it, all the social services fell off. I still remember going to the daycare and instead of the reduced $50 or so, now they wanted $300 or $400. I took Boy home with me and I was then watching him myself when Wife was at school and I was supposed to be asleep because I was working nights. We lived in the same apartment I had lived in with my roommates while going to UT. We finally moved into our first house right at the same time I got the promotion and went to night shift.
Instead of stories like mine, I see more and more section 8 apartments or reduced rent apartments. Wife is familiar with those programs because she works with the homeless population, and although I believe there should be some aid, it shouldn't go on indefinitely. I watched some disturbing videos on YouTube where mothers were screaming at the cameras "who is gonna fix this? Who is going to feed my kids and put a roof over their heads?" Ummm, they are your kids, it should be your job. I don't care how religious or "old school" you are, nobody needs more than two or three kids. More kids equal more problems. That stupid notion that more kids bring more happiness is ridiculous, unless one can provide for all those kids, you are setting yourself up for failure.
What is going on? Welfare should be a band aid, not a life choice. When Wife and I got married, I was fresh out of school, she still had a couple years to go. Boy was a welfare baby, we had food stamps, right when they were starting with the Lone Star card. I was embarrassed to use the card, but it was free food when we had no choice. We had the reduced childcare and we were on our way. In a year or two, my salary about doubled when I went from operator to engineer and before we knew it, all the social services fell off. I still remember going to the daycare and instead of the reduced $50 or so, now they wanted $300 or $400. I took Boy home with me and I was then watching him myself when Wife was at school and I was supposed to be asleep because I was working nights. We lived in the same apartment I had lived in with my roommates while going to UT. We finally moved into our first house right at the same time I got the promotion and went to night shift.
Instead of stories like mine, I see more and more section 8 apartments or reduced rent apartments. Wife is familiar with those programs because she works with the homeless population, and although I believe there should be some aid, it shouldn't go on indefinitely. I watched some disturbing videos on YouTube where mothers were screaming at the cameras "who is gonna fix this? Who is going to feed my kids and put a roof over their heads?" Ummm, they are your kids, it should be your job. I don't care how religious or "old school" you are, nobody needs more than two or three kids. More kids equal more problems. That stupid notion that more kids bring more happiness is ridiculous, unless one can provide for all those kids, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
9/22/15 How Do You Make Friends As A Grownup?
This is a question Wife and I mull over once in a while. Work seems like the obvious place to make friends since we have that in common, but Wife's coworkers work in Bastrop and that is a bit of a distance to come over. Most of my coworkers are quite older than me, so I am not sure if that is an issue, I also am kind of a perv when I get drunk, so I prefer to keep my work and home life separate.
We had perfect neighbors in our first home, but now that we moved, we find ourselves surrounded by conservatives and older people. The best luck we had was when Boy joined football and suddenly we had all sorts of boys hanging out and with them came the assortment of single mamas prevalent in today's society. I especially loved that. Come on, I'd rather mingle with the female part of the couple. Whenever there was a husband, he would be short of a vocabulary and focused on whatever football game played on TV. Do people really watch games with that much intensity? I was watching the Longhorns this weekend, but HGTV was also having some great episodes of living by the ocean and how much those houses can cost. That was a little more interesting to me. Anyway, Boy graduated and slowly all those mamas either moved on with new dudes, or the kids just stopped coming around. I guess we were only conditionally friends with the parents if the kids were involved. We haven't changed in any way we can tell.
I have one guy friend who seems to just have gotten off that old shift of working every Friday and every other Saturday, so maybe we can start hanging out more. Girlie has been my buddy the last few years but if anything, I am more of a mentor to her, not that she listens. Our old neighbor insists on wanting to hang out, but when we do, it isn't like it was before.
So is there a book where you can order more friends? Does something like CL (craigslist) work? There is a section there for "platonic" friends. IDK, but we don't even bother sitting in hot tub anymore. When it's just Wife and I, we'd rather watch TV in bed. I am hoping it's just the humidity and heat keeping us from using the hot tub, guess we'll see how this fall plays out.
We had perfect neighbors in our first home, but now that we moved, we find ourselves surrounded by conservatives and older people. The best luck we had was when Boy joined football and suddenly we had all sorts of boys hanging out and with them came the assortment of single mamas prevalent in today's society. I especially loved that. Come on, I'd rather mingle with the female part of the couple. Whenever there was a husband, he would be short of a vocabulary and focused on whatever football game played on TV. Do people really watch games with that much intensity? I was watching the Longhorns this weekend, but HGTV was also having some great episodes of living by the ocean and how much those houses can cost. That was a little more interesting to me. Anyway, Boy graduated and slowly all those mamas either moved on with new dudes, or the kids just stopped coming around. I guess we were only conditionally friends with the parents if the kids were involved. We haven't changed in any way we can tell.
I have one guy friend who seems to just have gotten off that old shift of working every Friday and every other Saturday, so maybe we can start hanging out more. Girlie has been my buddy the last few years but if anything, I am more of a mentor to her, not that she listens. Our old neighbor insists on wanting to hang out, but when we do, it isn't like it was before.
So is there a book where you can order more friends? Does something like CL (craigslist) work? There is a section there for "platonic" friends. IDK, but we don't even bother sitting in hot tub anymore. When it's just Wife and I, we'd rather watch TV in bed. I am hoping it's just the humidity and heat keeping us from using the hot tub, guess we'll see how this fall plays out.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
9/21/15 I Didn't Know I Was A Tyrant?
I have been called a jerk and an asshole many times. I don't like it, but I also don't like people with glazed looks in their eyes. I don't like people with low IQs, they slow everybody else down. Given all that, Wife and I were having a splendid little Friday evening meal this weekend and we were talking about some of her friends. I like to joke that I could have picked any of a number of them and given her the prime life we now share, but it was her aggressive nature that hooked me.
I mentioned how is so and so doing, she said she was going through a divorce, I said something like well that wouldn't have happened under my regime, you don't walk away from all this, I like to say jokingly. Wife was quick, nap earlier must have helped, she said ha, she couldn't stand you, she thought you were a tyrant, always screaming and losing your shit if you didn't get your way.
What? (as I started to scream and lose my shit...) (j/k) I laughed at the allegation, I wasn't that bad. Once or twice, maybe. No, you just don't remember, Wife said. She then took me down memory lane, filling in Chubs on some of my tantrums, fit in perfectly as he has started his pre-teen run of getting mad for no reason.
Apparently, earlier in our marriage, my sister-in-law felt the same way. She once asked Wife "why do you stay with him?" with tears in her eyes. Wife looked at her with a "what are you talking about?" look. He was loud, but we weren't even fighting or arguing. She lived with us for awhile. I love my sister-in-law, but she is not one for verbally sparring, I kind of like picking at an issue until we see it my way, usually.
In my defense, I hide nothing. If I am happy, you know, if I am pissed, you know. We clear the air quickly and thus, nothing festers. I sleep with a clear conscience, people in my house know how I feel 24/7. I am not an angry person. I am generally happy. I live in my giant house, drive my giant vehicles, I have two good boys who do well in school, Wife is an excellent partner. We go on vacations as we like and choose. I've gotten fatter than I like, but that is part of the good life and eating out too much.
I am glad the weak girls from our past thought I was a tyrant, I would have devoured them and really been a monster without my big girl here who has always known how to keep me in control. It was going to take a strong gal to keep up with me, and sometimes I do need to back off, but Wife is my perfect partner.
I mentioned how is so and so doing, she said she was going through a divorce, I said something like well that wouldn't have happened under my regime, you don't walk away from all this, I like to say jokingly. Wife was quick, nap earlier must have helped, she said ha, she couldn't stand you, she thought you were a tyrant, always screaming and losing your shit if you didn't get your way.
What? (as I started to scream and lose my shit...) (j/k) I laughed at the allegation, I wasn't that bad. Once or twice, maybe. No, you just don't remember, Wife said. She then took me down memory lane, filling in Chubs on some of my tantrums, fit in perfectly as he has started his pre-teen run of getting mad for no reason.
Apparently, earlier in our marriage, my sister-in-law felt the same way. She once asked Wife "why do you stay with him?" with tears in her eyes. Wife looked at her with a "what are you talking about?" look. He was loud, but we weren't even fighting or arguing. She lived with us for awhile. I love my sister-in-law, but she is not one for verbally sparring, I kind of like picking at an issue until we see it my way, usually.
In my defense, I hide nothing. If I am happy, you know, if I am pissed, you know. We clear the air quickly and thus, nothing festers. I sleep with a clear conscience, people in my house know how I feel 24/7. I am not an angry person. I am generally happy. I live in my giant house, drive my giant vehicles, I have two good boys who do well in school, Wife is an excellent partner. We go on vacations as we like and choose. I've gotten fatter than I like, but that is part of the good life and eating out too much.
I am glad the weak girls from our past thought I was a tyrant, I would have devoured them and really been a monster without my big girl here who has always known how to keep me in control. It was going to take a strong gal to keep up with me, and sometimes I do need to back off, but Wife is my perfect partner.
9/20/15 Are We That Simple?
I am reading a very interesting book the last few weeks, The Lucifer Principle. It breaks everything down from complex societies to our cellular composition and explains how similar systems are throughout nature. The name made me hesitate and even ask why Boy was interested in the book, but so far, there is nothing goofy about religion either way. The title is sort of misleading, the book just seems to be a textbook for a sociology class, but done in a very interesting way.
The current chapter I read had to do with groups of ants. In a colony of ants, all ants can be any type of ant. If you are fed some food, you will grow up bigger and stronger and become a guard ant, if you are fed another food, you will become a worker ant, smaller but strong enough to carry huge loads on your back. Still another rare type of food and an ant may be destined to become a queen one day, capable of reproducing to keep the colony going. The blueprints for either ant are instilled in all the ant's DNA, and in great circumstances, such as disease or if the queen is killed by marauders, a worker ant can start producing eggs to save the colony.
The chapter actually is about hatred and how it comes about due to frustration. One of the most frustrating aspects of life is wasted potential. It then goes on to describe a man who had come back after serving in the military. He was slightly rundown looking, failed at farming, failed at real estate, and was kept employed by his father in his store. When the civil war broke out, he volunteered to serve, less than two years later, he was promoted to major general. Ulysses S. Grant eventually became President.
These two broad ideas are brought together by claiming it is the social organism that determines the role each of us will play. Any one of us is capable of being master or slave, a beggar, or a king. We will probably live only one role and thus carry with us a slight burden of resentment at not achieving more.
This hatred can poison a community or a colony. It is a masterful leader who can take this hatred and take the superorganism and lead it around by the nose. I am mixing up the chapter around, but it was a fascinating read. It goes deeper into taking ant colonies, picking out the lazy ants, and the super busy ants, forming two separate colonies, and in the lazy ants, some become more motivated and as well in the super busy ants, some become more lethargic. It seems to say all must be represented. This is then compared to campers who when a group of new individuals are put together, four main types of personalities emerge: leader, bully, joker, and nerd. Take a grouping of all leaders or all bullies, and they will then break down into the same: leader, bully, joker, and nerd.
The chapter was only seven pages, yet I could not put the book down. There is a lot more in there, backing his thoughts and allegations, I'm just aiming at the large bullet points.
The current chapter I read had to do with groups of ants. In a colony of ants, all ants can be any type of ant. If you are fed some food, you will grow up bigger and stronger and become a guard ant, if you are fed another food, you will become a worker ant, smaller but strong enough to carry huge loads on your back. Still another rare type of food and an ant may be destined to become a queen one day, capable of reproducing to keep the colony going. The blueprints for either ant are instilled in all the ant's DNA, and in great circumstances, such as disease or if the queen is killed by marauders, a worker ant can start producing eggs to save the colony.
The chapter actually is about hatred and how it comes about due to frustration. One of the most frustrating aspects of life is wasted potential. It then goes on to describe a man who had come back after serving in the military. He was slightly rundown looking, failed at farming, failed at real estate, and was kept employed by his father in his store. When the civil war broke out, he volunteered to serve, less than two years later, he was promoted to major general. Ulysses S. Grant eventually became President.
These two broad ideas are brought together by claiming it is the social organism that determines the role each of us will play. Any one of us is capable of being master or slave, a beggar, or a king. We will probably live only one role and thus carry with us a slight burden of resentment at not achieving more.
This hatred can poison a community or a colony. It is a masterful leader who can take this hatred and take the superorganism and lead it around by the nose. I am mixing up the chapter around, but it was a fascinating read. It goes deeper into taking ant colonies, picking out the lazy ants, and the super busy ants, forming two separate colonies, and in the lazy ants, some become more motivated and as well in the super busy ants, some become more lethargic. It seems to say all must be represented. This is then compared to campers who when a group of new individuals are put together, four main types of personalities emerge: leader, bully, joker, and nerd. Take a grouping of all leaders or all bullies, and they will then break down into the same: leader, bully, joker, and nerd.
The chapter was only seven pages, yet I could not put the book down. There is a lot more in there, backing his thoughts and allegations, I'm just aiming at the large bullet points.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
9/19/15 Actual Three Day Weekend?
I was surprised to find myself going into this weekend without any OT. We got especially busy on Wednesday and Thursday, so much so that I hardly even got sleepy as I have been doing lately. Shoot, I only watched two episodes of House, when sometimes I sneak in seven or eight shows a shift.
Seriously though, I think I need to focus on resting. I always feel run down, so this weekend, I want nothing more than to charge the old batteries. I think we are off to a good start. Yesterday, I picked up Chubs from school, ran over to show off my new truck to Girlie, while Wife was at work, came home about the same time as Wife, then we both took a nap. We didn't discuss it, it was more of a I laid down while she was in the bathroom, then she laid down while I was supposed to go pee, but the bed was too inviting. Before we knew it, we had both slept about an hour. This was fine, I thought of going to Best Buy because Chubs has been wanting a new game. We walked around Best Buy until it got dark, we were there awhile. I bought like five music CDs, a charger to carry in my truck for our phones, and the game for Chubs.
We then took off, almost headed to Carraba's for dinner, but I decided it was too far up north, I didn't want to make a fifty minute drive for some pasta. We settled on Mandola's, one of our newer favorite places to eat. We order a couple things and then we share them. They have some garlic fries which are delicious with some weird green dipping sauce. Then we ordered a pizza with a lemon vinaigrette sauce, no red sauce, spinach leaves, strips of cheese, it is very mild, and delicious. This with their Friday special fettucine alfredo with scampi, which somehow translates to shrimp in a glaze sauce. I could not believe how good that glaze sauce was. I finished it by moping it up with the table bread. Part of the reason for eating here is they have a variety of deserts, but they seemed to be out of most.
We then headed off to Whole Foods, figuring we would have some luck finding better desert options. I got a pumpkin loaf bread, some raspberry scone type of biscuits, and Wife got some cupcakes. We headed home, I laid down to watch TV, but was out in a matter of minutes. Great Friday!!!
Seriously though, I think I need to focus on resting. I always feel run down, so this weekend, I want nothing more than to charge the old batteries. I think we are off to a good start. Yesterday, I picked up Chubs from school, ran over to show off my new truck to Girlie, while Wife was at work, came home about the same time as Wife, then we both took a nap. We didn't discuss it, it was more of a I laid down while she was in the bathroom, then she laid down while I was supposed to go pee, but the bed was too inviting. Before we knew it, we had both slept about an hour. This was fine, I thought of going to Best Buy because Chubs has been wanting a new game. We walked around Best Buy until it got dark, we were there awhile. I bought like five music CDs, a charger to carry in my truck for our phones, and the game for Chubs.
We then took off, almost headed to Carraba's for dinner, but I decided it was too far up north, I didn't want to make a fifty minute drive for some pasta. We settled on Mandola's, one of our newer favorite places to eat. We order a couple things and then we share them. They have some garlic fries which are delicious with some weird green dipping sauce. Then we ordered a pizza with a lemon vinaigrette sauce, no red sauce, spinach leaves, strips of cheese, it is very mild, and delicious. This with their Friday special fettucine alfredo with scampi, which somehow translates to shrimp in a glaze sauce. I could not believe how good that glaze sauce was. I finished it by moping it up with the table bread. Part of the reason for eating here is they have a variety of deserts, but they seemed to be out of most.
We then headed off to Whole Foods, figuring we would have some luck finding better desert options. I got a pumpkin loaf bread, some raspberry scone type of biscuits, and Wife got some cupcakes. We headed home, I laid down to watch TV, but was out in a matter of minutes. Great Friday!!!
Friday, September 18, 2015
9/18/15 Third Truck's The Ticket?
I have now purchased three F-250 trucks. You can say I have a type. They have gradually been getting nicer, this one has to be the apex though. I cannot imagine a nicer truck.
My first F-250 I bought after we had bought our boat and I was contemplating buying an RV. I considered myself lucky to find the 1999 white one at the time. The super cab format was newish with its suicide doors facing the opposite direction, but there was a full bench the width of the truck. We had many fun times with that truck. I remember heading to the lake with our neighbors, before Chubs. The three of us sitting in the front, Boy was 7 or 8, and our neighbors sitting in the backseat, all five could fit. We were now officially "outdoorsy".
My most embarrassing time happened on that truck though. Most of our family had gotten together at the beach, which rarely happens nowadays, but we were having a great time, until it got time to leave. I had the new big truck and I wanted to get going back to the hotel, beating everyone, cause why not I was in my 20's and dumb that way. I got in the truck and started swaying forward and back, I couldn't move because we were all parked close to each other, and my Dad had blocked me. By the time I was clear, I had made a hole on my one spinning tire. We tried jumping on it, forward, reverse. Nothing helped. Eventually, a tiny Toyota 4x4 came by and pulled me out. I never felt smaller. I swore that day, I would not buy another truck without 4x4. My family still makes fun of me over that.
My second F-250 was more of an experiment and a rash decision. I had been talking to my folks about buying the 99 F-250 from them and after saying they would, they drove it up. I had sold it to my Dad while he was still working, we were hardly using it, and they needed a vehicle he could leave at the yard in Laredo while he was a truck driver, where he was gone all week. Upon arriving in Austin, in the three hours on the road, my brother and sister talked them out of selling it to me, and they agreed even though they didn't use it anymore, and they now had two newer vehicles. This pissed me off like I have rarely ever gotten at my parents, there was no clear reason why to "screw me over" other than my brother and sister said so. They didn't want the truck. I left the house upset, and came home with a 2008 F-250 King Ranch. This was in 2010. It had about 50,000 miles, but it looked new. I loved that truck, but ended up trading it in when Boy would not drive it when it was time to get him a vehicle. At this point, my folks finally sold me the 99 F-250, after it sat on their yard for a couple years rusting.
I never could get into driving it again though. Once I tasted the nice life in that King Ranch, I needed a new one. A few months ago, I sold it the 99 to my father in law, he is loving it. I am sure it's because he has always driven Chevy, and finally tasted the power of Ford.
After selling the old house, Wife kept repeating the phrase "we need a truck to tow our RV." It finally got to me, but I told her, I'm not buying a half ass excuse for a truck. If I buy one, it will be loaded. Man, all I can say is it has options I didn't know existed.
My first F-250 I bought after we had bought our boat and I was contemplating buying an RV. I considered myself lucky to find the 1999 white one at the time. The super cab format was newish with its suicide doors facing the opposite direction, but there was a full bench the width of the truck. We had many fun times with that truck. I remember heading to the lake with our neighbors, before Chubs. The three of us sitting in the front, Boy was 7 or 8, and our neighbors sitting in the backseat, all five could fit. We were now officially "outdoorsy".
My most embarrassing time happened on that truck though. Most of our family had gotten together at the beach, which rarely happens nowadays, but we were having a great time, until it got time to leave. I had the new big truck and I wanted to get going back to the hotel, beating everyone, cause why not I was in my 20's and dumb that way. I got in the truck and started swaying forward and back, I couldn't move because we were all parked close to each other, and my Dad had blocked me. By the time I was clear, I had made a hole on my one spinning tire. We tried jumping on it, forward, reverse. Nothing helped. Eventually, a tiny Toyota 4x4 came by and pulled me out. I never felt smaller. I swore that day, I would not buy another truck without 4x4. My family still makes fun of me over that.
My second F-250 was more of an experiment and a rash decision. I had been talking to my folks about buying the 99 F-250 from them and after saying they would, they drove it up. I had sold it to my Dad while he was still working, we were hardly using it, and they needed a vehicle he could leave at the yard in Laredo while he was a truck driver, where he was gone all week. Upon arriving in Austin, in the three hours on the road, my brother and sister talked them out of selling it to me, and they agreed even though they didn't use it anymore, and they now had two newer vehicles. This pissed me off like I have rarely ever gotten at my parents, there was no clear reason why to "screw me over" other than my brother and sister said so. They didn't want the truck. I left the house upset, and came home with a 2008 F-250 King Ranch. This was in 2010. It had about 50,000 miles, but it looked new. I loved that truck, but ended up trading it in when Boy would not drive it when it was time to get him a vehicle. At this point, my folks finally sold me the 99 F-250, after it sat on their yard for a couple years rusting.
I never could get into driving it again though. Once I tasted the nice life in that King Ranch, I needed a new one. A few months ago, I sold it the 99 to my father in law, he is loving it. I am sure it's because he has always driven Chevy, and finally tasted the power of Ford.
After selling the old house, Wife kept repeating the phrase "we need a truck to tow our RV." It finally got to me, but I told her, I'm not buying a half ass excuse for a truck. If I buy one, it will be loaded. Man, all I can say is it has options I didn't know existed.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
9/17/15 My Middle Brother? (poem)
I have a middle brother
who happens to be a father
he loves taking a joke farther
in this family than any other
He can get under the skin of our baby sister
he's got some skills, some would say they are sinister
for she'll be whining and crying
yet he doesn't look like he is even trying.
He's got a girlie daughter, who used to say he was a liar
truth is she wasn't that far off, for employment he is a lawyer.
He claims their baby is a handful, screaming "Hello my Baby, hello my darling!"
All we see is a handsome Boy who occasionally burps "croak", there's never any quarreling.
My brother is a good son, he loves his mother
so much so that he bought the house next door, they live next to each other.
He drives over 200 miles a day
but living in a small town is what makes him gay.
They come and visit now and then, but they don't like the big city life
He's happy, he won't move, unless he is told to some day, by his wife.
They have a great time together, they love to go see baseball games and concerts
We try to get them out to the beach or to the lake, but we can't make them converts
I don't care what they are into, as long as he's happy
Hey, I heard he got one of those purse dogs, I'll bet he's yappy
Happy Birthday my brother, I Love You, let's end this one sappy.
(you wanted funny?) Ay, pues tell Wifey to call you Big Pappy.
(sad?) If there's no cake tonight, it'll be crappy.
(dirty?) I can get some go-go dancers, but they heads gonna be nappy!
(gross?) I know this old lady who will let you hit it, but it's gonna be flappy!
Happy Birthday Bro!!!! :)
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
9/16/15 Should We Back Off?
Wife is in the middle of more classes these two weekends. She finally got her CDL to drive the bus, but for her final act to prove that she can follow rules, she needs to do twenty hours of training with someone from the state. She was in class eight hours Saturday, from 8am to 5pm and Monday she was back at it, going to a session from 6pm to 10pm. This coming weekend, she has a final session of eight more hours, again from 8am to 5pm. Being that she has already been driving the kids back and forth a couple weeks, these classes seem pointless. She says it is a lot of review of stuff she had already seen in the course to get the license.
As if that is not enough distraction, she also has to go to Bastrop and present something or other Wednesday night, from stuff she takes care of with one of her other hats. I think this is for the homeless kids, which she is responsible for from an administrator point of view. There is also the little discussion of who is going to watch Chubs as she has two conferences in October she has to attend, and then one in December. We can't count on Boy to be at the ready because he lives in his apartment during the week, so we might end up calling my brother. Someone has to be in the house with Chubs when I am at work.
I have also been quietly putting in extra hours pretty much every week. I am not complaining, my checks have all been healthy with extra pay, but I feel this is contributing to my feeling run down all the time. Not to mention my falling asleep, every free chance I get. To add another thing, Fox is coming to install the new A/C, which means more disturbed sleep. What does one do once they get used to making 50% extra in each check? I love my big fat checks, Wife tends to stay quiet about Chubs and I daily eating somewhere after school.
Things finally look like they may be paying off, on Wife's side. I saw how much she'll be making and it is pretty close to where I thought she would be. She's still not bringing home the bacon like Daddy over here, but at least her Baco's finally got bigger. Her raise alone is pretty much going to be paying for my truck, so cool beans on that.
As if that is not enough distraction, she also has to go to Bastrop and present something or other Wednesday night, from stuff she takes care of with one of her other hats. I think this is for the homeless kids, which she is responsible for from an administrator point of view. There is also the little discussion of who is going to watch Chubs as she has two conferences in October she has to attend, and then one in December. We can't count on Boy to be at the ready because he lives in his apartment during the week, so we might end up calling my brother. Someone has to be in the house with Chubs when I am at work.
I have also been quietly putting in extra hours pretty much every week. I am not complaining, my checks have all been healthy with extra pay, but I feel this is contributing to my feeling run down all the time. Not to mention my falling asleep, every free chance I get. To add another thing, Fox is coming to install the new A/C, which means more disturbed sleep. What does one do once they get used to making 50% extra in each check? I love my big fat checks, Wife tends to stay quiet about Chubs and I daily eating somewhere after school.
Things finally look like they may be paying off, on Wife's side. I saw how much she'll be making and it is pretty close to where I thought she would be. She's still not bringing home the bacon like Daddy over here, but at least her Baco's finally got bigger. Her raise alone is pretty much going to be paying for my truck, so cool beans on that.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
9/15/15 That Ford Is Mine?
We started the day late again. Finally got caught up on my sleep, nothing to do today but grill and watch some football, I thought. Wife comes down and I joke about wasting the day seeing more trucks, Wife says "let's do it!!" I take quick shower debating in my head that we shouldn't do this. I know we don't need a Lariat truck, but it's the only way I am taking a trck, it has to be loaded.
The only thing I know I can do without is the diesel engine, which I owned a diesel truck and every time I gassed it, it would worry me. What if I put the wrong fuel in there? It was stressful, what if Wife takes it and she puts wrong fuel in it? Plus, I never saw any gains from the diesel engine. My Excursion has a gas engine and gives me about 12mpg, the diesel truck I had for three years averaged 12mpg, as well. The part that sucked was that diesel always cost about .50 cents more per gallon.
Last night, we had been at Maxwell Ford which is here about five miles from the house, but they only had 10-20 F250s. I asked about gas engines and the guy could only find me one F250 but it was not the Lariat, King Ranch, or Platinum edition which are the ones with the leather and all the extras. We looked at the used, and they only had one, but it was lifted so high, my eyes were level with the box in the back. No way Wife would be able to climb int it without a ladder, she just said "get away from that."
This morning I got up thinking, it sucks, it's Sunday, we can't look anywhere. Then I remembered there are a few dealerships closed on Saturday and open Sunday. Covert Ford in Hutto is one of these places and they must have had over 100 F250s, they were like ants out in their lot. All around the building, I had not seen so many of them in one location. We got a sales lady, but this one looked like she belonged, not like a grandma who was subbing for her grandson, like the night before at Maxwell.
I cut to the chase, told her the truck I had seen, described it along with a couple others in her office. She got a couple keys and off we went to find them. We test drove a beautiful dark blue truck which was lifted just a little bit, but did not have a sunroof, otherwise perfect and loaded. This was a 2016, so did not have all the sales discounts. We then looked at a silver truck with black leather interior. It looked very nice and shiny, but somehow looked shorter than the previous truck. Wife said "test drive it if you like it, it is not as tall, you'll feel it on highway." Immediately, it didn't feel like my truck. I chose not to drive it. At this point, she showed us an F-150, why not, I only told Wife a million times I wanted an F250, but she was "well, they're all the same..." I said thank you, but no. This was all foreplay, I asked where is the 2015 black one from the internet, she said I found it, it's over there. As soon as we walked towards it, it was alright, where do I sign in my head.
It had every option I could think of, I could say I am not a big fan of the tan leather seating, but I also know I complain with the black leather interior of Wife's bug. Maybe the tan will grow on me. It did not have Rhino liner, which is that rubbery material which protects the bed from scratches, so I left it there for them to take care of. They said the Rhino people come to their lot every Wednesday and do it there.
This truck is lifted taller than the King Ranch we had before, it has remote start, cooling and heating in the front seats, sunroof, navigation, rear view camera, plus we got extended warranty to 100,000 miles for bumper to bumper protection, covers any problems. I am very excited and might even join Wife on one of her trips just to have an excuse to drive this thing long distance.
The only thing I know I can do without is the diesel engine, which I owned a diesel truck and every time I gassed it, it would worry me. What if I put the wrong fuel in there? It was stressful, what if Wife takes it and she puts wrong fuel in it? Plus, I never saw any gains from the diesel engine. My Excursion has a gas engine and gives me about 12mpg, the diesel truck I had for three years averaged 12mpg, as well. The part that sucked was that diesel always cost about .50 cents more per gallon.
Last night, we had been at Maxwell Ford which is here about five miles from the house, but they only had 10-20 F250s. I asked about gas engines and the guy could only find me one F250 but it was not the Lariat, King Ranch, or Platinum edition which are the ones with the leather and all the extras. We looked at the used, and they only had one, but it was lifted so high, my eyes were level with the box in the back. No way Wife would be able to climb int it without a ladder, she just said "get away from that."
This morning I got up thinking, it sucks, it's Sunday, we can't look anywhere. Then I remembered there are a few dealerships closed on Saturday and open Sunday. Covert Ford in Hutto is one of these places and they must have had over 100 F250s, they were like ants out in their lot. All around the building, I had not seen so many of them in one location. We got a sales lady, but this one looked like she belonged, not like a grandma who was subbing for her grandson, like the night before at Maxwell.
I cut to the chase, told her the truck I had seen, described it along with a couple others in her office. She got a couple keys and off we went to find them. We test drove a beautiful dark blue truck which was lifted just a little bit, but did not have a sunroof, otherwise perfect and loaded. This was a 2016, so did not have all the sales discounts. We then looked at a silver truck with black leather interior. It looked very nice and shiny, but somehow looked shorter than the previous truck. Wife said "test drive it if you like it, it is not as tall, you'll feel it on highway." Immediately, it didn't feel like my truck. I chose not to drive it. At this point, she showed us an F-150, why not, I only told Wife a million times I wanted an F250, but she was "well, they're all the same..." I said thank you, but no. This was all foreplay, I asked where is the 2015 black one from the internet, she said I found it, it's over there. As soon as we walked towards it, it was alright, where do I sign in my head.
It had every option I could think of, I could say I am not a big fan of the tan leather seating, but I also know I complain with the black leather interior of Wife's bug. Maybe the tan will grow on me. It did not have Rhino liner, which is that rubbery material which protects the bed from scratches, so I left it there for them to take care of. They said the Rhino people come to their lot every Wednesday and do it there.
This truck is lifted taller than the King Ranch we had before, it has remote start, cooling and heating in the front seats, sunroof, navigation, rear view camera, plus we got extended warranty to 100,000 miles for bumper to bumper protection, covers any problems. I am very excited and might even join Wife on one of her trips just to have an excuse to drive this thing long distance.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
9/14/15 Test Driving Some Fords?
Picking up here from the yesterday, I woke and showered before the UT/Rice game, thinking "I'm gonna show Wife some cars online that I like." This'll be a good way of watching game and distracting myself just a bit, if the Longhorns happen to suck again. Wife was surprisingly ready to go see the cars live, I tried the "they close at 6:00pm" routine, she was sure 9:00pm, we were on website, correct time was 8:00pm. Off we went at 6:45pm. We talked about using some of that money in our savings to use as down payment, so now we were ready, with our checkbook in hand.
Upon arriving, we parked in the front of Maxwell Ford, which appears to be undergoing a facelift/upgrade of some kind. I know they just send random employees out, but I want to buy my car from a dude who knows and talks cars. There was an older lady in a Ford shirt, I am not buying a car from grandma, sorry. I know that makes me sound like a dick, but I ask a bunch of questions and I expect my guy to know stuff off the top of his head. I told Wife "walk fast, let's shake grandma." I took off to the front where the cars are under the blue canopy, then told Wife "come on, ass in gear, the cars are in the back." Of course, now we were back in the middle of hundreds of cars with no "dude", but they always find you.
They sent the perfect guy, a husky guy who understood my needs. I wanted to test drive the Taurus SHO, because it's kind of a hotrod hidden as a family sedan. While we were looking, Wife was still "I don't want a car, I want an SUV." Then we walked past a hybrid Fusion which I wasn't familar with because it isn't that good looking, but 44mpg did catch both our eyes. This then became the car she wanted to test drive. We test drove it, and man, cars have only gotten nicer and lower to the ground. I bumped my head getting in, no big deal, once in, I was more or less fine. Except I couldn't find anything intuitively. I couldn't figure out the telescoping steering wheel, the controls to move the mirrors, meanwhile the guy turns on the greatest thing cars have introduced in the last twenty years, A/C directly for the ass. Oh wow, after driving a couple miles, I felt a sensation of cold air in the seat where the bottom and back meet. He explained how the fan blows air between the butt and lower back, that is just genius. I didn't know what to think of the car. It had a four cylinder engine and the electric engine, I guess. It hauled ass when I floored it, there was no hesitation.
My head tells me a big car should have a big V8, but these new engines are kicking ass and saving a ton on gas. The Taurus was next and it only had a V6, but he said that was their racing platform engine, it was the same engine as on the Raptors and the newest Mustangs. This car was beautiful, black with black interior leather and suede everywhere, and even black rims to complete the package, I remember when Ford was nothing but Crown Victorias and other long ugly land sharks. The Taurus is a sexy big car. Of course, I start talking price and the reason I even contemplate driving it is that with all the rebates, it is on sale for roughly $35000. The guy says it is rare to get all the rebates, but Ill see what I can do. See? If you can post a sales price of $35000, you should be able to let the car go at $35000. I wanted to hear price come down actually to $32000, then we could get serious, plus I noticed their financing is currently up to 0% for 72 months. Of couse, Mr. Destroyer of Dreams says it is either or, not both. If we want 72 months at 0%, the car has a sales price of like $45000 before rebates. I call Bullshit!!!
I have said I am not opposed to buying used, specially with all the great incentives they offer, like the certified used, which gives the buyer a warranty to make you feel comfortable about your purchase. By the time we got to the used car lot, it was after 8:00pm and they were technically closed. We liked a couple cars, but I feel we ultimately will just end up buying a truck, I hate hitting my head on all these low entry height cars.
We then ended the night with a nice steak dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse, just delicious, and at 5:00am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I still don't know the score to the UT game, I should watch it, but I feel it will bite me in the ass, if Wife gets up and needs to go somewhere.
Upon arriving, we parked in the front of Maxwell Ford, which appears to be undergoing a facelift/upgrade of some kind. I know they just send random employees out, but I want to buy my car from a dude who knows and talks cars. There was an older lady in a Ford shirt, I am not buying a car from grandma, sorry. I know that makes me sound like a dick, but I ask a bunch of questions and I expect my guy to know stuff off the top of his head. I told Wife "walk fast, let's shake grandma." I took off to the front where the cars are under the blue canopy, then told Wife "come on, ass in gear, the cars are in the back." Of course, now we were back in the middle of hundreds of cars with no "dude", but they always find you.
They sent the perfect guy, a husky guy who understood my needs. I wanted to test drive the Taurus SHO, because it's kind of a hotrod hidden as a family sedan. While we were looking, Wife was still "I don't want a car, I want an SUV." Then we walked past a hybrid Fusion which I wasn't familar with because it isn't that good looking, but 44mpg did catch both our eyes. This then became the car she wanted to test drive. We test drove it, and man, cars have only gotten nicer and lower to the ground. I bumped my head getting in, no big deal, once in, I was more or less fine. Except I couldn't find anything intuitively. I couldn't figure out the telescoping steering wheel, the controls to move the mirrors, meanwhile the guy turns on the greatest thing cars have introduced in the last twenty years, A/C directly for the ass. Oh wow, after driving a couple miles, I felt a sensation of cold air in the seat where the bottom and back meet. He explained how the fan blows air between the butt and lower back, that is just genius. I didn't know what to think of the car. It had a four cylinder engine and the electric engine, I guess. It hauled ass when I floored it, there was no hesitation.
My head tells me a big car should have a big V8, but these new engines are kicking ass and saving a ton on gas. The Taurus was next and it only had a V6, but he said that was their racing platform engine, it was the same engine as on the Raptors and the newest Mustangs. This car was beautiful, black with black interior leather and suede everywhere, and even black rims to complete the package, I remember when Ford was nothing but Crown Victorias and other long ugly land sharks. The Taurus is a sexy big car. Of course, I start talking price and the reason I even contemplate driving it is that with all the rebates, it is on sale for roughly $35000. The guy says it is rare to get all the rebates, but Ill see what I can do. See? If you can post a sales price of $35000, you should be able to let the car go at $35000. I wanted to hear price come down actually to $32000, then we could get serious, plus I noticed their financing is currently up to 0% for 72 months. Of couse, Mr. Destroyer of Dreams says it is either or, not both. If we want 72 months at 0%, the car has a sales price of like $45000 before rebates. I call Bullshit!!!
I have said I am not opposed to buying used, specially with all the great incentives they offer, like the certified used, which gives the buyer a warranty to make you feel comfortable about your purchase. By the time we got to the used car lot, it was after 8:00pm and they were technically closed. We liked a couple cars, but I feel we ultimately will just end up buying a truck, I hate hitting my head on all these low entry height cars.
We then ended the night with a nice steak dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse, just delicious, and at 5:00am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I still don't know the score to the UT game, I should watch it, but I feel it will bite me in the ass, if Wife gets up and needs to go somewhere.
9/13/15 Rough Saturday Morning?
I got up today thinking I wasn't going anywhere, I'm just going to watch the Longhorns make up for last week's embarrassment. I worked Friday night, actually went in later than normal, so I didn't get out until after 7:00am. I then had the genius thought of stopping at HEB before going home, getting my BBQ supplies, so there would be no rush in the hot afternoon when I got up. This would have worked out perfectly if not for this being real life.
Last night, the upstairs A/C unit was pumping almost warm air, it would not get lower than 79. I discussed it with Wife, during my lunch break, she was going to be gone all day Saturday, but of course, my miniature genius looked up Fox services and left them an e-mail explaining the A/C situation. She texted me she did this, but then she went to bed, she then left house before or right at 7:00am.
I must have come home after 8:00am, she was already calling and explaining Fox might be coming, she would let me know. I said "great, let me sleep, I'll deal with it later." Of course she's like a little bulldog, another call and another text and another text. By the time I get in bed, Fox calls me that they will be at the house in 30 min. "Awesome!" I think sarcastically, the house is cold downstairs, I want to be comfortable in bed, normally I am asleep by 6:30-7:00am. It is now after 9:00am, Wife is in bus heaven, learning about busses or driving busses, what ever those crazy kids do for fun on a Saturday afternoon.
Anyways, I am with the Fox technician guy until past noon. Upstairs unit was a relatively easy fix, some capacitor thing, shows me the part all swollen and looking bad. Plus some freon and service call, around $480. Of course I get "you didn't show him coupon thing I sent you?" this from Wife when she gets home, kind of disappointed I didn't save us $20. "No!" I was paying the guy at noon, maybe I was a little out of it, "sorry, I forgot to show him my list of coupons I keep on my phone."
The question with the coupon thing was around 5:00pm when her class let out, I was asleep, but theoretically trying to get up, so I coul get stuff ready for BBQ before the game. I finally get up, shower, and come downstairs, just as Wife walks in the door, after I explain to her about the A/C, and how other unit is going to cost us even more to fix, oh yeah, I'll whine about that later this week. She of course managed to talk me out of BBQ and instead we spent the afternoon test driving a couple cars. I will explain that in tomorrow's blog.
Last night, the upstairs A/C unit was pumping almost warm air, it would not get lower than 79. I discussed it with Wife, during my lunch break, she was going to be gone all day Saturday, but of course, my miniature genius looked up Fox services and left them an e-mail explaining the A/C situation. She texted me she did this, but then she went to bed, she then left house before or right at 7:00am.
I must have come home after 8:00am, she was already calling and explaining Fox might be coming, she would let me know. I said "great, let me sleep, I'll deal with it later." Of course she's like a little bulldog, another call and another text and another text. By the time I get in bed, Fox calls me that they will be at the house in 30 min. "Awesome!" I think sarcastically, the house is cold downstairs, I want to be comfortable in bed, normally I am asleep by 6:30-7:00am. It is now after 9:00am, Wife is in bus heaven, learning about busses or driving busses, what ever those crazy kids do for fun on a Saturday afternoon.
Anyways, I am with the Fox technician guy until past noon. Upstairs unit was a relatively easy fix, some capacitor thing, shows me the part all swollen and looking bad. Plus some freon and service call, around $480. Of course I get "you didn't show him coupon thing I sent you?" this from Wife when she gets home, kind of disappointed I didn't save us $20. "No!" I was paying the guy at noon, maybe I was a little out of it, "sorry, I forgot to show him my list of coupons I keep on my phone."
The question with the coupon thing was around 5:00pm when her class let out, I was asleep, but theoretically trying to get up, so I coul get stuff ready for BBQ before the game. I finally get up, shower, and come downstairs, just as Wife walks in the door, after I explain to her about the A/C, and how other unit is going to cost us even more to fix, oh yeah, I'll whine about that later this week. She of course managed to talk me out of BBQ and instead we spent the afternoon test driving a couple cars. I will explain that in tomorrow's blog.
Friday, September 11, 2015
9/12/15 Fix Or Fire?
I love my Excursion. Anybody who says it's a gas hog can line up for a fart in the right nostril. It has never given me any problems... until now. It stalled on me for the second time in about a two month span. I don't know if I'm getting bad gas, I tend to use Diamond Shamrock, or the Walmart by the house. I know people will say negative things about the Walmart gas, but I've been using it for about eight years now.
The first time it stalled, I had just gotten home and was about to turn it off, I was creeping in as close to the house as possible without hitting it or the basketball goal in the driveway. It just turned off, only the radio kept playing. My thought was maybe a bad/dirty fuel filter, I had it changed out last week when we did an oil change. Tonight, I was at the light, before I turn to my street, and actually I was creeping it past some crap I had noticed on road in morning before it just shut off on me. This time the radio turned off, followed by all the service lights coming on, the A/C stalled for a second, then it came back on. Both speedometer and tachometer were at zero. I tried turning it on, but I guess it was still on. I then turned key off, waited a second, and then tried again, it turned on and I left, nervous as heck to the house.
Now I gotta decide, were those flukes or is that a sign of things to come? Can Ford fix it, if I take it in? Am I better off starting with a newer used vehicle, I wanted to wait until next Spring to get another F-250?
I know fixing it could be $100 to $3000. Then it should be good, I was not planning on getting rid of it since I had not had any problems, but it is now more than 11 years old. Can't say I haven't gotten my money's worth out of it. It has taken us to Florida about six-seven times, and everywhere else. I don't like that it is my only vehicle to drive, since I sold my trucks. That's the rub, I should have never just gone truck free. We live in Texas, I'm surprised I haven't been fined for being a man in Texas without a truck. I will fix this as quickly as I can.
The first time it stalled, I had just gotten home and was about to turn it off, I was creeping in as close to the house as possible without hitting it or the basketball goal in the driveway. It just turned off, only the radio kept playing. My thought was maybe a bad/dirty fuel filter, I had it changed out last week when we did an oil change. Tonight, I was at the light, before I turn to my street, and actually I was creeping it past some crap I had noticed on road in morning before it just shut off on me. This time the radio turned off, followed by all the service lights coming on, the A/C stalled for a second, then it came back on. Both speedometer and tachometer were at zero. I tried turning it on, but I guess it was still on. I then turned key off, waited a second, and then tried again, it turned on and I left, nervous as heck to the house.
Now I gotta decide, were those flukes or is that a sign of things to come? Can Ford fix it, if I take it in? Am I better off starting with a newer used vehicle, I wanted to wait until next Spring to get another F-250?
I know fixing it could be $100 to $3000. Then it should be good, I was not planning on getting rid of it since I had not had any problems, but it is now more than 11 years old. Can't say I haven't gotten my money's worth out of it. It has taken us to Florida about six-seven times, and everywhere else. I don't like that it is my only vehicle to drive, since I sold my trucks. That's the rub, I should have never just gone truck free. We live in Texas, I'm surprised I haven't been fined for being a man in Texas without a truck. I will fix this as quickly as I can.
9/11/15 Never Forget?
Another anniversary to the tragedy, now fourteen years ago. I asked Chubs yesterday to tell me about 9/11. He had a concept of it. He said some bad guys stole some planes and they were trying to do bad things, Wife mentioned crashing into buildings and he said oh yeah, but he was having a hard time finding how the good guys stopped them. I reminded him there were four planes and the good guys did manage to stop one of the jets from being used as a weapon, but they still crashed into an open field and sadly, everyone on all four planes died as well as many people in those two towers and the pentagon.
Now that the smoke has cleared, we have been in Iraq and Afghanistan over ten years. We earn the reputation of bully because we go into a country and never leave. I don't know people from the middle east, I am neither pro nor against, maybe Saddam had to go, but he kept His people in check. Not much was made of the 19 attackers on our jets being from Saudi Arabia, but I guess they are our friends.
Well, we toppled Saddam Hussein, and his many statues, and we even finally got Osama Bin Laden who started this whole thing because we are a corrupt nation, and funny enough, they find pornos in the house where he was killed. That is an awesome factoid, I'm sure he never looked at the naked pics, just used the magazines as toilet paper, what do we know.
Did we change anything? The people over there still hate America, except for those that come over here, they suddenly love the USA. Maybe it has been a good training ground. We've improved from the Jeep to the Humvee to an even newer MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected). Of course they look as badass as they sound. There is now a whole new generation of soldier trained in fighting within a city, for when that skill set is required.
I guess in the end, Osama taught us a lesson, which escapes me, then we taught him a lesson, which also escapes me. A whole bunch of innocent people died for these lessons, but I guess that's war.
Now that the smoke has cleared, we have been in Iraq and Afghanistan over ten years. We earn the reputation of bully because we go into a country and never leave. I don't know people from the middle east, I am neither pro nor against, maybe Saddam had to go, but he kept His people in check. Not much was made of the 19 attackers on our jets being from Saudi Arabia, but I guess they are our friends.
Well, we toppled Saddam Hussein, and his many statues, and we even finally got Osama Bin Laden who started this whole thing because we are a corrupt nation, and funny enough, they find pornos in the house where he was killed. That is an awesome factoid, I'm sure he never looked at the naked pics, just used the magazines as toilet paper, what do we know.
Did we change anything? The people over there still hate America, except for those that come over here, they suddenly love the USA. Maybe it has been a good training ground. We've improved from the Jeep to the Humvee to an even newer MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected). Of course they look as badass as they sound. There is now a whole new generation of soldier trained in fighting within a city, for when that skill set is required.
I guess in the end, Osama taught us a lesson, which escapes me, then we taught him a lesson, which also escapes me. A whole bunch of innocent people died for these lessons, but I guess that's war.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
9/10/15 Back To Work? (poem)
There was an old woman who had by choice retired
but soon found her patience had expired
her cranky old spouse was daily inspired
to go to the casinos where his money was desired.
A new principal in town did much admire
the old lady whom he quickly would hire.
Waiting on the school board council to declare
yes, your knowledge and skills you may share.
Off to the mall to buy some new things to wear
I am a professional and good new clothes show I care.
Babysitting of the grandchildren done for now
Grandma is in the system, keeping an eye she did vow.
A thought to wonder, what will hubby do all day?
Will he finally get his way and just play play play?
I say put the old fart to work, make him drive a bus,
wouldn't last too long, once the kids start to hear him cuss.
Work and socializing are good for the soul
moving around might even keep your body whole.
I am glad you are facing this new challenge today
I really hope it's not just for the pay.
A bit of old school knowledge, might help these new leaders of today
After all, this old lady did mold me out of clay
and as far as I can tell I turned out OK.
Love you, Mom. Good Luck!!
Grandma is in the system, keeping an eye she did vow.
A thought to wonder, what will hubby do all day?
Will he finally get his way and just play play play?
I say put the old fart to work, make him drive a bus,
wouldn't last too long, once the kids start to hear him cuss.
Work and socializing are good for the soul
moving around might even keep your body whole.
I am glad you are facing this new challenge today
I really hope it's not just for the pay.
A bit of old school knowledge, might help these new leaders of today
After all, this old lady did mold me out of clay
and as far as I can tell I turned out OK.
Love you, Mom. Good Luck!!
9/9/15 I Like Being Alone?
For the first half of the year, I had a kind of coworker here with me on nights. We share our lab space with our founding company, a little strange but it does work. Point being, I have been on nights for 18 of my 19 years, and for the last about four years was pretty much on my own.
Then they threw in this guy. He is actually alright, strung a little tight, but I'd like to believe I have given him cues to get along better with the people here on days. He seems to be getting along with more and more people, so maybe my advice has worked out. I, on the other hand, prefer my alone time. I am writing this at roughly 3:30am and nobody is around to distract me.
Not only did I have to tolerate the guy on my shift, we also just went through the summer, which means my kids had no good reason to be on any schedule. Don't get me wrong, I love my boys, and my wife, but I do need a little solitary confinement, once in a while.
I think it is healthy to lay on the bed, and read a book for leisure, even watch a bad movie by yourself. Where do your original thoughts come from if every moment is spent with somebody else by your side? This too, of course, is necessary for a person to be well rounded, but I don't think people spend enough time alone. Boy is usually in his room alone, but he has the computer on and will even be live chatting with a friend. Chubs, though, does like alone time. He has discovered Youtube and he spends hours looking at videos about video games he plays, or music. I am always surprised when he starts singing along with the radio, like he knows the lyrics. Wife sets herself up right next to me, no matter what we are doing. Saturday, when the Longhorns were being kicked around she actually seemed interested: "why are they doing so badly?", "why do you think they suck?" These are questions that require thought if you want an honest answer or a quick they suck because they suck. I am thinking Swoopes got in because they were hoping he was a Vince Young type, he looks the part, at 6'5" and 240lbs. An offensive line with two freshmen is also going to have a hard time.
I don't mind explaining this, but I am also sure Wife doesn't care that much about how well the Longhorns are doing. If anything, I am happy to have my alone time at night at work. I don't worry so much about writing these things, knowing I have until 6:00am before I see anybody on site.
Then they threw in this guy. He is actually alright, strung a little tight, but I'd like to believe I have given him cues to get along better with the people here on days. He seems to be getting along with more and more people, so maybe my advice has worked out. I, on the other hand, prefer my alone time. I am writing this at roughly 3:30am and nobody is around to distract me.
Not only did I have to tolerate the guy on my shift, we also just went through the summer, which means my kids had no good reason to be on any schedule. Don't get me wrong, I love my boys, and my wife, but I do need a little solitary confinement, once in a while.
I think it is healthy to lay on the bed, and read a book for leisure, even watch a bad movie by yourself. Where do your original thoughts come from if every moment is spent with somebody else by your side? This too, of course, is necessary for a person to be well rounded, but I don't think people spend enough time alone. Boy is usually in his room alone, but he has the computer on and will even be live chatting with a friend. Chubs, though, does like alone time. He has discovered Youtube and he spends hours looking at videos about video games he plays, or music. I am always surprised when he starts singing along with the radio, like he knows the lyrics. Wife sets herself up right next to me, no matter what we are doing. Saturday, when the Longhorns were being kicked around she actually seemed interested: "why are they doing so badly?", "why do you think they suck?" These are questions that require thought if you want an honest answer or a quick they suck because they suck. I am thinking Swoopes got in because they were hoping he was a Vince Young type, he looks the part, at 6'5" and 240lbs. An offensive line with two freshmen is also going to have a hard time.
I don't mind explaining this, but I am also sure Wife doesn't care that much about how well the Longhorns are doing. If anything, I am happy to have my alone time at night at work. I don't worry so much about writing these things, knowing I have until 6:00am before I see anybody on site.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
9/8/15 Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons?
So we went to Schlitterbahn and had our fair share of fun and excitement. All week long I was thinking I didn't want to go, then when we were in the water just going around and around the lazy rivers, I think "why don't we do this every weekend?" The water was very calming.
After we were done, and I was trying to rush on out of there, thinking the Longhorns were going to impress (they didn't), my phone had some missed texts from my supervisor. She wanted me to come in to work Saturday if possible but definitely Sunday to do HOT work for a customer. When a job is designated HOT, we usually get paid at twice our normal rates, which allows management to let us go in, because they are usually paying us time and a half. Anyways, thinking I was going to work Sunday didn't change too much at that point. We bought some cooked meat at Cooper's BBQ and headed home. The game sucked, for lack of a better description and I was asleep on the sofa by 10pm. Wife must have watched a little more TV and then drug me upstairs to bed around midnight. I am always tired, but of course, once I nap for two hours, well, I am going to have a hard time staying asleep. I woke up, wrote my blog for Sunday night, did a little husband and wife stuff, then stayed up looking at cars online until about 5am.
Sunday, I got up around 1pm, ate some fruit, looked at naked girls online, then took another two hour nap before coming in to work around 4:00pm. The work was stuff I had done before, so it was no big deal. I saw my workout partner in one of the lab rooms, he had also been called to come in. We got caught up on our weekends, then I started on my work. By the time I finally had my samples in the tool and had coated them to be able to use them properly, my supervisor called again. The customer changed their mind, their stuff was no longer HOT, they could wait until later in the week to get their results, so she said, go ahead and work on something else, since you are already there, but plan on taking a day off during your regular workdays. I told her I would rather go home now since Wife had just started grilling. She apologized a couple times, I said no problem, and I still went home by 6:30pm and enjoyed a relaxing Sunday night, again, asleep by 10:30pm.
Not that I had a point here, but there was no point to getting upset, I make tons of extra money from the OT, and I did tell her if customer changed their mind again, I was still available. I like to think I am very flexible, if there's money to be made, I can be at work 70-80 hours a week, if there isn't, I can just as easily be home.
After we were done, and I was trying to rush on out of there, thinking the Longhorns were going to impress (they didn't), my phone had some missed texts from my supervisor. She wanted me to come in to work Saturday if possible but definitely Sunday to do HOT work for a customer. When a job is designated HOT, we usually get paid at twice our normal rates, which allows management to let us go in, because they are usually paying us time and a half. Anyways, thinking I was going to work Sunday didn't change too much at that point. We bought some cooked meat at Cooper's BBQ and headed home. The game sucked, for lack of a better description and I was asleep on the sofa by 10pm. Wife must have watched a little more TV and then drug me upstairs to bed around midnight. I am always tired, but of course, once I nap for two hours, well, I am going to have a hard time staying asleep. I woke up, wrote my blog for Sunday night, did a little husband and wife stuff, then stayed up looking at cars online until about 5am.
Sunday, I got up around 1pm, ate some fruit, looked at naked girls online, then took another two hour nap before coming in to work around 4:00pm. The work was stuff I had done before, so it was no big deal. I saw my workout partner in one of the lab rooms, he had also been called to come in. We got caught up on our weekends, then I started on my work. By the time I finally had my samples in the tool and had coated them to be able to use them properly, my supervisor called again. The customer changed their mind, their stuff was no longer HOT, they could wait until later in the week to get their results, so she said, go ahead and work on something else, since you are already there, but plan on taking a day off during your regular workdays. I told her I would rather go home now since Wife had just started grilling. She apologized a couple times, I said no problem, and I still went home by 6:30pm and enjoyed a relaxing Sunday night, again, asleep by 10:30pm.
Not that I had a point here, but there was no point to getting upset, I make tons of extra money from the OT, and I did tell her if customer changed their mind again, I was still available. I like to think I am very flexible, if there's money to be made, I can be at work 70-80 hours a week, if there isn't, I can just as easily be home.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
9/7/15 Labor Day (poem)
Labor Day Is a holiday celebrated by all
mostly, we suck cause we spend it in the mall.
It is a holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September
it honors the American Labor Movement and its contributions, please remember.
In high society, Labor Day is the last day of the year to wear white,
not to worry my busy mexicans, you all is alright.
Even though it is a vacation from work,
it does end up being a busy day for shopping, so retail employees just smirk.
This holiday has been around since the 1880s,
all I notice is that mattresses go on sale, mateys.
President Grover Cleveland signed it into law
after the Pullman Strike left citizens dead at the hands of the military and feelings were raw.
In sports, the holiday marks the beginning of the NFL and college football seasons
who needs a better excuse to sit around all day than those two reasons?
Labor Day marks the first of a few three day weekends from school
It is getting cooler, so probably also the last chance to get in a pool.
We are in September, means decorating the house with some goblins and ghosts
we love Halloween, sometimes we can be a bit grandiose.
We can at last start looking at the weather, maybe for our first cold front
I know, the first few ones Old Man Winter is not howling but barely lets out a grunt.
I've gotten my $700 light bill, so any excuse to turn off the a/c
the August bill always makes me cry and take a knee.
Happy Labor Day to everyone I know
this might be the year we finally get some snow!
Saturday, September 5, 2015
9/6/15 Schlitterbahn Was Nice?
I didn't really feel like going anywhere today. The only real reason we did was because we had been telling Chubs we would go to Schlitterbahn. We bought the season tickets at the end of last season so we managed to go a handful of times last year, but this summer was so hectic, we hadn't managed to go and time was running out.
The main goal for going was to meet up with our friends who moved out of state a couple years ago. Surprisingly, we found their family a few seconds after gooing in the park, they had sent half the family like at 10am so they could get good tables in a good place. I worked last night, but did get out at 5am so I could sleep a good amount. Wife tried getting me up at noon, but I fought the good fight until almost 2pm, at which point she said she was going to gas up car and buy some sodas, and a bag of ice. I finally got up, ran downstairs, ate some fruit, and a piece of pan dulce (old family recipe to insure a quick poop) with a glass of water. After doing my business and showering, we got going. I told Wife to drive, again, I am still battling this fatigue thing, but again, when do I rest?
Wife got us there in no time, and after circling the parking lot a couple times, we got lucky and found a good spot, even under a shady tree. We always rent a locker, it costs about $10, but it gives piece of mind when it comes to valuables. I can leave my towels and snacks on any table, but I don't trust my wallet and phone walking off on their own. They do give you back $2, when you return the key.
Our routine is to go round and round the circular wave pool and the lazy river on tubes. Ocasionally, we'll do the small slides, but Chubs didn't want to do them today. We did manage to all end up hungry at the same time, and eventually we saw our friends at the tables they had reserved. We ate our sandwich stuff, they were much more prepared, even had tuna fish in ice. We are not that adventurous. We stick to ham and bologna when we eat sandwiches out of the house. Chubs even got me to buy him some of that ice cream of the future "dippin' dots", at a ridiculous price of $5.99 for the small.
After awhile, we went our separate ways, we headed to the lazy river to chill. Even though I didn't want to go, once in the water, I can't think of a more relaxed place to be. It did rain earlier in the day, and while we were at the park, it got quite cloudy, although I didn't see rain.
We were out of the park by 6:15pm, Chubs changed in the car and we stopped for some Cooper's BBQ. By then, my supervisor called and asked if I could go in to work tonight or tomorrow. I said I would go in tomorrow, only because I was excited to see the Longhorns start their game night. That game was such a disappointment, after waiting all summer to see some football.
The main goal for going was to meet up with our friends who moved out of state a couple years ago. Surprisingly, we found their family a few seconds after gooing in the park, they had sent half the family like at 10am so they could get good tables in a good place. I worked last night, but did get out at 5am so I could sleep a good amount. Wife tried getting me up at noon, but I fought the good fight until almost 2pm, at which point she said she was going to gas up car and buy some sodas, and a bag of ice. I finally got up, ran downstairs, ate some fruit, and a piece of pan dulce (old family recipe to insure a quick poop) with a glass of water. After doing my business and showering, we got going. I told Wife to drive, again, I am still battling this fatigue thing, but again, when do I rest?
Wife got us there in no time, and after circling the parking lot a couple times, we got lucky and found a good spot, even under a shady tree. We always rent a locker, it costs about $10, but it gives piece of mind when it comes to valuables. I can leave my towels and snacks on any table, but I don't trust my wallet and phone walking off on their own. They do give you back $2, when you return the key.
Our routine is to go round and round the circular wave pool and the lazy river on tubes. Ocasionally, we'll do the small slides, but Chubs didn't want to do them today. We did manage to all end up hungry at the same time, and eventually we saw our friends at the tables they had reserved. We ate our sandwich stuff, they were much more prepared, even had tuna fish in ice. We are not that adventurous. We stick to ham and bologna when we eat sandwiches out of the house. Chubs even got me to buy him some of that ice cream of the future "dippin' dots", at a ridiculous price of $5.99 for the small.
After awhile, we went our separate ways, we headed to the lazy river to chill. Even though I didn't want to go, once in the water, I can't think of a more relaxed place to be. It did rain earlier in the day, and while we were at the park, it got quite cloudy, although I didn't see rain.
We were out of the park by 6:15pm, Chubs changed in the car and we stopped for some Cooper's BBQ. By then, my supervisor called and asked if I could go in to work tonight or tomorrow. I said I would go in tomorrow, only because I was excited to see the Longhorns start their game night. That game was such a disappointment, after waiting all summer to see some football.
Friday, September 4, 2015
9/5/15 Sextra Special? (book)
Boy has now gotten in the habit of giving me books for my birthday. I think I like this, see if he continues the tradition. This year, he gave me this book I just read, Sextra Special, which is a collection of old corny jokes. The other book was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne. One because I am a pervert, and the boy knows what I like, and the other because there are few things better looking than a bookshelf full of leather bound books. I have bought a few myself and while the world converts to digital and tablets and such, I still prefer old smelly paper books.
Sextra Special was published in 1953, so that gives the reader an indication of the times these jokes were used. A lot of them are just dated by the fact that the man in power is taking advantage of his position. There are plenty of jokes with doctors and their needing to examing young females, funny. Then there are word play jokes, some aren't too bad, like this one:
She: "Do you think of me whenever you're away Darling?
He: "Yes ,sweet, I always bare you in mind.
Cheesy and lame. Yet, still has the naked theme. There was a cartoon with a young seemingly attractive young blonde sitting in a tub on a phone, the caption reads:
"S'funny, Mr. Bennett, but I always thinkof you when I'm in hot water!"
I guess that's a double entendre, if Mr. Bennett is her lawyer, sshe must get in trouble a lot, though.
There were a lot of jokes that were very subtle, such as:
"Did you hear about the girl that was so thin, that when she swallowed
the olive, three guys left town?"
I had to think about it, "oh yeah, that's how you avoided being the father, you left town..."
I am much more used to jokes today, I like a good "that's what she said." I love a picture with an obvious double entendre, such as the pool balls sitting in the triangle thingy and a "nice rack!" or even a male deer with a huge antler set-up, that also gets a "nice rack!"
I guess our dirty jokes today still target the hotties we fantasize about, but no one is walking around with "oh yes, Mr Gallegos... you're so funny", it's more like "what you looking at, I have mace." Maybe that's why the HR departments are all so big in the big companies, all the cartoons showed the older fatter men, basically taking advantage in every way, of the younger secretary type.
Anyways, the book is good, as a historical source. I can't qualify all the jokes as funny, but there were some that made me chuckle. Thanks Boy.
Sextra Special was published in 1953, so that gives the reader an indication of the times these jokes were used. A lot of them are just dated by the fact that the man in power is taking advantage of his position. There are plenty of jokes with doctors and their needing to examing young females, funny. Then there are word play jokes, some aren't too bad, like this one:
She: "Do you think of me whenever you're away Darling?
He: "Yes ,sweet, I always bare you in mind.
Cheesy and lame. Yet, still has the naked theme. There was a cartoon with a young seemingly attractive young blonde sitting in a tub on a phone, the caption reads:
"S'funny, Mr. Bennett, but I always thinkof you when I'm in hot water!"
I guess that's a double entendre, if Mr. Bennett is her lawyer, sshe must get in trouble a lot, though.
There were a lot of jokes that were very subtle, such as:
"Did you hear about the girl that was so thin, that when she swallowed
the olive, three guys left town?"
I had to think about it, "oh yeah, that's how you avoided being the father, you left town..."
I am much more used to jokes today, I like a good "that's what she said." I love a picture with an obvious double entendre, such as the pool balls sitting in the triangle thingy and a "nice rack!" or even a male deer with a huge antler set-up, that also gets a "nice rack!"
I guess our dirty jokes today still target the hotties we fantasize about, but no one is walking around with "oh yes, Mr Gallegos... you're so funny", it's more like "what you looking at, I have mace." Maybe that's why the HR departments are all so big in the big companies, all the cartoons showed the older fatter men, basically taking advantage in every way, of the younger secretary type.
Anyways, the book is good, as a historical source. I can't qualify all the jokes as funny, but there were some that made me chuckle. Thanks Boy.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
9/4/15 Busy September?
It seems to be quiet, but those duck feet underwater never stop moving (ehh, The Replacements). Every time I talk to my Dad, he asks about OT. It feels like it has slowed down, but I did work 72 hours last week. So, are things slower? I am not complaining, at least last weekend was nice and quiet. We almost went to Rockport one last time, we even packed, but then I was offered OT, so I said no. All week long, I had been telling Wife, I just want to take it easy, then Thursday night she gets all excited about going because her brother called. When he called, I said sure, it was looking like I was even going to go home early Thursday night, but then the work came in and suddenly OT was offered. Y'all know, I am a whore when it comes to money. Rare is the dollar I leave on the table.
Chubs is in his new room and everyone that sees it, says it looks like an adults room, good enough for them. His old room is still "under construction". Today, I took down the last of his posters and transferred them to his room. The floor has been cleaned of any and all toys, my stuff is slowly taking over. I started with the black out curtains because I like to control the mood and lighting. This was followed by mounting TV on wall, adding a stereo, making room for my massage table, of course. Even if it only serves as an ironing board, 99% of the time.
We are going to wait on a new vehicle until we refinance our house. But we are looking and even test driving every now and then. Wife wants me to get a new truck first, I want her to get her little SUV first, awww, que cute.
This weekend is Labor Day and our friends who left the state are coming back for a few days. They called us a while back and invited us to go with them to Schlitterbahn. We do have tickets, so we said we'd go. But it is also the first game of the football season for the Longhorns and against Notre Dame, it should be exciting. I love night games, this one starts at 6:30pm, so we should about be coming back from Schlitterbahn, by then.
Other than that, things are quiet, Boy is back in his apartment, Chubs signed up to be with the Leadership Group, next week should be his first week helping with the crossing guard duties. Wife has taken to driving the bus like a champ. Soon, the Halloween stuff comes out.
Chubs is in his new room and everyone that sees it, says it looks like an adults room, good enough for them. His old room is still "under construction". Today, I took down the last of his posters and transferred them to his room. The floor has been cleaned of any and all toys, my stuff is slowly taking over. I started with the black out curtains because I like to control the mood and lighting. This was followed by mounting TV on wall, adding a stereo, making room for my massage table, of course. Even if it only serves as an ironing board, 99% of the time.
We are going to wait on a new vehicle until we refinance our house. But we are looking and even test driving every now and then. Wife wants me to get a new truck first, I want her to get her little SUV first, awww, que cute.
This weekend is Labor Day and our friends who left the state are coming back for a few days. They called us a while back and invited us to go with them to Schlitterbahn. We do have tickets, so we said we'd go. But it is also the first game of the football season for the Longhorns and against Notre Dame, it should be exciting. I love night games, this one starts at 6:30pm, so we should about be coming back from Schlitterbahn, by then.
Other than that, things are quiet, Boy is back in his apartment, Chubs signed up to be with the Leadership Group, next week should be his first week helping with the crossing guard duties. Wife has taken to driving the bus like a champ. Soon, the Halloween stuff comes out.
9/3/15 Narcos, Making Netflix Like HBO?
Netflix repeatedly is putting out great content. Narcos is a show just released August 28th. The first night I saw four episodes back to back and only stopped because it was end of my shift. The season consists of ten episodes and is retold through the eyes of one of the DEA agents sent to Colombia to track the Medellin Cartel. Murphy starts out working the streets in Florida, but gets re-assigned to Colombia after a drug bust goes bad and his partner is killed. His partner Pena has been in Colombia much longer and is fluent in Spanish, Murphy initially is at a disadvantage, but picks up quickly that the way to get respect from these tough guys is to be a tough guy also.
Most of the camera time is spent on the "bad" guy, Pablo Escobar. He is a conflicting figure because on the one hand, you see him as a family man. He truly loves his boy, constantly holding him tenderly, being goofy playing soccer with the boy, letting his mother be a presence in his life, and seemingly loving his wife and daughter, providing all the comforts one could ask for. But, on the other hand, he manipulates, doesn't skip a beat jumping on other women, and killing people if he even thinks they might be thinking of crossing him.
The story of cocaine starts out in Peru, and according to the show, makes its way to Colombia via a survivor from Peru with the apt name, Cucaracha. He survives a death squad and brings his expertise to a young Pablo Escobar, who at the time, was starting out moving Marijuana and electronics. Cocaine opened the floodgates of money to pour in from Miami. The show shows him making so much money, at a certain point, he just starts burying it. The voiceover mentions that in 1989, Escobar was making $60 million a day.
His problems start, when he decides he wants to be a politician. He has aspirations to be the president of his country, but the rich people that control things, do not accept him and even call him out as a "narco traficante." He, of course, goes to war, essentially with his country, it seems like. At one point, he even manages to take down a commercial jet, which is when other drug traffickers start thinking he has gone too far.
Luis Guzman was the only recognizable face I saw in the whole cast, and he plays a really scary drug dealer, not hesitating at all to kill, even those on his side. At one point, kills a dog that fails to sniff the drugs on a boat, as Escobar is joking that the drugs are infused in with the fiberglass of the boat, not in the boat, but on the boat.
It was violent, but I thought a very good story. There was no conclusion, the season ended with Escobar running into the woods, from the prison he had built to house him. I am not sure if it will come back for another season, but I enjoyed this show.
Most of the camera time is spent on the "bad" guy, Pablo Escobar. He is a conflicting figure because on the one hand, you see him as a family man. He truly loves his boy, constantly holding him tenderly, being goofy playing soccer with the boy, letting his mother be a presence in his life, and seemingly loving his wife and daughter, providing all the comforts one could ask for. But, on the other hand, he manipulates, doesn't skip a beat jumping on other women, and killing people if he even thinks they might be thinking of crossing him.
The story of cocaine starts out in Peru, and according to the show, makes its way to Colombia via a survivor from Peru with the apt name, Cucaracha. He survives a death squad and brings his expertise to a young Pablo Escobar, who at the time, was starting out moving Marijuana and electronics. Cocaine opened the floodgates of money to pour in from Miami. The show shows him making so much money, at a certain point, he just starts burying it. The voiceover mentions that in 1989, Escobar was making $60 million a day.
His problems start, when he decides he wants to be a politician. He has aspirations to be the president of his country, but the rich people that control things, do not accept him and even call him out as a "narco traficante." He, of course, goes to war, essentially with his country, it seems like. At one point, he even manages to take down a commercial jet, which is when other drug traffickers start thinking he has gone too far.
Luis Guzman was the only recognizable face I saw in the whole cast, and he plays a really scary drug dealer, not hesitating at all to kill, even those on his side. At one point, kills a dog that fails to sniff the drugs on a boat, as Escobar is joking that the drugs are infused in with the fiberglass of the boat, not in the boat, but on the boat.
It was violent, but I thought a very good story. There was no conclusion, the season ended with Escobar running into the woods, from the prison he had built to house him. I am not sure if it will come back for another season, but I enjoyed this show.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
9/2/15 Favorite Is Defined By Your Options?
I came in to work and my coworker from day-shift offered me cookies. I am a weak weak man, of course, I said yes. I had just a few minutes before brewed a new pot of coffee, so I poured some coffee and got ready for my sugar rush.
I ate a couple before realizing what we were eating. I asked her, this is the last of your Girl Scout Cookies, isn't it? She said yes, although she said she had one more box of Thin Mints in her freezer. A few months ago she was selling the cookies, for her granddaughter. I bought a few boxes, I love those Caramel Delights, and the Lemon flavored ones. When she was selling, she had this and that. I told her, surprise me, just don't bring me those nasty Shortbread ones. Fast forward to the end of the season, and guess which ones are just plain yummy. Given that there is no choice, it is Shortbreads or nothing, they suddenly are the tastiest treat in town. I ate almost half a box, before I finished my first cup of coffee. If there were any other cookie choice, I would have been a snob and said feed the Shortbreads to the squirrels outside, BUT, now, screw you, squirrel!
How about when we open a new bag of potato chips. Isn't it grand to look inside and find that perfect round chip and just shove the whole thing in your mouth? RRRRuuffffllleess have rrridges!!! MMMMmm, is there a better treat? But we work through the bag and the pieces get smaller. Pretty soon we're dipping our fingers with potato chip crumbs, and then the ceremonial dumping of the bag into our mouths as we finish the dust. What happened to that first bite, crunching like we wear a monocle and talk with an english accent? The last few bites reveal our true animal, we're just raccoons trying to finish the bag.
Same thing happens in my underwear drawer, I start out the week with my newest undies, black and fitting as they should. I move to the grey, just as good. Even though I own ten pair of good ones, eventually, at the end of the week, I am left choosing between the threadbare ones that spend all their last days shoved in my ass crack, or the super short loose ones, that allow my gonads freedoms they should not experience.
You tell yourself, never again, but a few days later, there we are, making the same decisions. Part of life, I guess. It can't be all Caramel Delights 24/7, that would become both best and worst cookie, if that is all we had. We need to eat the chip dust to honor the whole potato, not just the parts that got lucky and settled on top, in the air lock. Wear that shitty underwear, so your sack remembers how good it has it, the rest of the week. We must have the good with the bad, it is how we appreciate life.
I ate a couple before realizing what we were eating. I asked her, this is the last of your Girl Scout Cookies, isn't it? She said yes, although she said she had one more box of Thin Mints in her freezer. A few months ago she was selling the cookies, for her granddaughter. I bought a few boxes, I love those Caramel Delights, and the Lemon flavored ones. When she was selling, she had this and that. I told her, surprise me, just don't bring me those nasty Shortbread ones. Fast forward to the end of the season, and guess which ones are just plain yummy. Given that there is no choice, it is Shortbreads or nothing, they suddenly are the tastiest treat in town. I ate almost half a box, before I finished my first cup of coffee. If there were any other cookie choice, I would have been a snob and said feed the Shortbreads to the squirrels outside, BUT, now, screw you, squirrel!
How about when we open a new bag of potato chips. Isn't it grand to look inside and find that perfect round chip and just shove the whole thing in your mouth? RRRRuuffffllleess have rrridges!!! MMMMmm, is there a better treat? But we work through the bag and the pieces get smaller. Pretty soon we're dipping our fingers with potato chip crumbs, and then the ceremonial dumping of the bag into our mouths as we finish the dust. What happened to that first bite, crunching like we wear a monocle and talk with an english accent? The last few bites reveal our true animal, we're just raccoons trying to finish the bag.
Same thing happens in my underwear drawer, I start out the week with my newest undies, black and fitting as they should. I move to the grey, just as good. Even though I own ten pair of good ones, eventually, at the end of the week, I am left choosing between the threadbare ones that spend all their last days shoved in my ass crack, or the super short loose ones, that allow my gonads freedoms they should not experience.
You tell yourself, never again, but a few days later, there we are, making the same decisions. Part of life, I guess. It can't be all Caramel Delights 24/7, that would become both best and worst cookie, if that is all we had. We need to eat the chip dust to honor the whole potato, not just the parts that got lucky and settled on top, in the air lock. Wear that shitty underwear, so your sack remembers how good it has it, the rest of the week. We must have the good with the bad, it is how we appreciate life.
9/1/15 Test Driving Fiats?
We were at the mall, Saturday evening with no real purpose, other than to walk around. Below the food court, in the big open area, where Santa is usually set up, they had some Fiat cars. Only one was open, I thought ehh, big deal. We got close anyway and asked about the SUV one. A chick and a dude were quick to say that those cars were closed, but if we went outside, they had all their cars there, set up for quick test drives. For our time, we would get a $10 gift card each. She gave Wife a lanyard with a "credit card", she promised the registration would be quick. It actually was. We slid our driver's license through a scanner thingy and all our info was uploaded quickly.
Wife test drove the SUV, which is small but very much a sexy little SUV. I test drove the 500 Cabrio. Honestly, it is too small for us, we are both jumbo sized and Chubs is already half way there. I liked the convertible part though. The guy who came with me noted that a fully loaded Cabrio "lounge" would fall around $23,000. I thought cute, but too small.
Wife's car's theoretical price would also fall into the below $23,000 price point. I have to guess Fiat is aiming at the young, new car buyers starting out. The last two cars we have bought new cost twice that much, but I am not sure we want to do that again.
I had settled on the idea of buying a "certified" car for Wife next year. That is Ford's thing with near new cars with low miles. She wants an SUV, so we are either going to get an Escape if it will be solely for her running back and forth. An Explorer, if we get real serious and trade in my Excursion, I love that thing, but it is 11 years old. We would still have the extra seating capacity plus way better gas mileage than the Excursion. Possibly an Edge, I like them, but they still seat only 4-5. I love the Flex, but Wife hasn't come around. They are square, small, but will seat seven.
I'm not sure where the Fiat fixes into our plans. The SUV was a looker, I guess we can consider it as much as a new VW Beetle, which Wife keeps saying no, but I still enjoy. I also would like a big ole Taurus SHO, but Wife says "no cars". I liked their way of bringing the cars to where the people are, plus $10....
Wife test drove the SUV, which is small but very much a sexy little SUV. I test drove the 500 Cabrio. Honestly, it is too small for us, we are both jumbo sized and Chubs is already half way there. I liked the convertible part though. The guy who came with me noted that a fully loaded Cabrio "lounge" would fall around $23,000. I thought cute, but too small.
Wife's car's theoretical price would also fall into the below $23,000 price point. I have to guess Fiat is aiming at the young, new car buyers starting out. The last two cars we have bought new cost twice that much, but I am not sure we want to do that again.
I had settled on the idea of buying a "certified" car for Wife next year. That is Ford's thing with near new cars with low miles. She wants an SUV, so we are either going to get an Escape if it will be solely for her running back and forth. An Explorer, if we get real serious and trade in my Excursion, I love that thing, but it is 11 years old. We would still have the extra seating capacity plus way better gas mileage than the Excursion. Possibly an Edge, I like them, but they still seat only 4-5. I love the Flex, but Wife hasn't come around. They are square, small, but will seat seven.
I'm not sure where the Fiat fixes into our plans. The SUV was a looker, I guess we can consider it as much as a new VW Beetle, which Wife keeps saying no, but I still enjoy. I also would like a big ole Taurus SHO, but Wife says "no cars". I liked their way of bringing the cars to where the people are, plus $10....
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