7/1/16 Eleventh Hour Reprieve For Chubs?

    We are in the midst of some big changes in Casa Gallegos.  The last block that needs to fall into place is what we are going to do with Chubs.  Boy had uncharacteristically offered up his services while we were on vacation in Florida.  I love that boy, but if ever someone sang the "Me Me Me, It's All About Me" song, it is this boy.  We understand because he was an only child for 10 years, so when he started offering himself up, whoa, I didn't even know how to process.  First of all, it made me look like a jerk not wanting Chubs home with me.  My position was that it is great that you want your younger brother to not miss out on this opportunity with the Einstein program, but what happens when you want to hang out with your friends, or you have a late lab and I have to get to work?  Of course discussing this amongst my family was a stupid endeavor because they all seemed consigned to the idea that I just want to run around free.  That is kind of naïve thinking.  First of all, I never miss work, maybe one day a year when I am really sick.  I work a 12 hour shift, you try that and try to find time to do anything else but sleep.
    I will still have to keep the house clean, grass cut, pool cleaned (or risk my pain in the ass neighbor report me to the city), bills kept up to date, hopefully find time to work out to lose weight which everyone wants me to do, but I am never given time to do it.
    I was trying to put away the clothes from our trip.  Wife has been washing everything that came back dirty, but there are piles and baskets and suitcases all over our room with loads of clothes.  While doing this, my brother called me, he didn't know I was home, but he got a call from Cedar Creek in Bastrop for a job as a truancy officer.  Since he was not expecting an interview, I mean it's all he's been doing in his free time is applying for jobs, but still.  Anyways, he needed decent clothes to interview in, luckily we are like brothers or something, he is able to wear my clothes.  Even better, if he gets this job, he will be more stable and truly working a mon-fri gig which would line up with Chubs, thus making it easier for us to consider leaving Chubs up in Austin.  Boy's Florida Fever is gone, now he is trying to backpedal and not be forced to stay home and commute to school, but I tell him too bad.  You wanted to open your big mouth and make me look bad in front of my peeps, now unfortunately I am going to call you on your BS and make you lay in the bed you so beautifully screamed to be allowed to create and make.
    He was fighting the idea like Hansel and Grettal fought when they were being forced in the oven, but last week he was so nonchalant setting up the logs to the fire he is now going to climb into.  News flash little Boy, I would rather have all of us under one roof, your best bet was to stay quiet, but since you wanted to be a hero, carry that case of kryptonite for Daddy, and dammit, clean your bathroom.

6/30/16 Decision's Made, Now What?

    Wife has now officially made her decision and all exit lanes have been closed off.  All we can do now, is follow through, or maintain as is, but that is no longer good enough.  While we were leaving for vacation, she got the call from the small town next to our hometown to come and be a Director of Federal Funds.  Another person had been chosen for the position or so she had been told by the Superintendent.  TEA got wind and said no, that person did not have the credentials, so Wife was the next candidate on the list.  She was called but kept them waiting while another job she interviewed decided on who to choose.  Again, she came in second, I don't think the chosen candidate is the best choice, but that is their problem now.  We had discussed it, and she was tempted to take that job even at a lower pay so she could stay and work here in Austin.
    What will this job mean to us?  It means a very healthy raise or she would not have bothered taking it.  It means that after a couple years, she will be able to list on her resume that she is a Director, and thus, those types of jobs will be what she will be looking for.  It also means a great opportunity for her to work at a higher level, really leave her mark on a program.  I know she will do well, she has always overachieved.
    How about us?  As it is, I have been on nights over twenty years.  We only sleep together during the weekends right now, so that won't change.  We already go a couple days where we might only see each other for a half hour during my dinner break, so it should not be that hard.  We are still trying to figure out the best option for Chubs.  He was to start a very demanding program next year, I was still hesitant on him doing that, this might save him from it.  My opinion has always been kids have a sweet spot for learning, you cannot force them to kick it into high gear and study at an extreme level for more than a couple years.  If you start pushing too hard in 6th grade, maybe by the time they hit 9th or 10th grade, they may decide they are done.  I could be wrong, but once school is thought of as a chore and not a privilege, it becomes that much harder.  Boy wanted to be a hero and move back home to watch Chubs, but he has three nights where he has classes in the evenings, which makes me wonder why is schedule so shitty, he is an upperclassman.  I do not want to rely on my brother who just moved in with us, because it would not be fair to make him be momma, when he has his own life to live.
    Chubs may end up in Crystal City, but it was good enough for me and my siblings, we all got to college.  Plus I know it would only be a couple years, at most.

6/29/16 Vacation Options For Next Year?

    I was having second thoughts about our vacation next year.  We have gotten to the point that we no longer areappreciating everything the Mouse provides.  The Disney parks are good but surely there must be something else that qualifies as a good family vacation destination.
    My dad quickly throws in an idea like Las Vegas, he likes plating the slot machines, but forgets little ones are not really allowed on the casino floors.  There could be a combo Louisiana trip filled with a couple of afternoon casino visits for dad, maybe an airboat ride for the kids, complete with gator demonstrations, then a run through the french quarter, but my mom gets the heebee jeebees with New Orleans.  She is sure there is evil and possibly vampires in the dark there.  I just think she has read too many Ann Rice novels.
    My brother suggested California, he went a couple years ago.  But his solution revolves around flying, saying that even though, it is roughly the same distance to California as Florida, the mountains and desert slow you down even more.  He did a quick look up and for plane tickets, 4 nights in a Disney resort and tickets to threeparks, it would be like $3500.  That is already steep, plus I want to vacation for a week, not four days.  My mom wants to throw in destinations like the grand canyon, and the painted desert, which would mean driving.
    I like the idea of our next family vacation to be on a cruise ship.  It seems really cool to all be on board, no rush, someone else is doing the driving, having multiple pools on board to swim in, maybe even miniature golf and even some ice skating on the boat.  Then there are the trip excursions while on the stops at the various cities.  My mom again is a little wary, she remembers the many stories of people getting sick on different boats and the boat that floated in the gulf without power a couple years ago.
    My mom had suggested going towards Washington DC and getting a view at the government landmarks, such as the White House, and maybe even driving to New York.  I hesitate doing this because there is very little chance of seeing girls in itty bitty outfits in places where professionals hang out. 
    So here we are, oceans are filled with flesh eating diseases, Disney felt stale, It's hot so I would prefer an indoor destination, or one with a lot of wetting opprtunities.  I would love to rent like a hoseboat and experience that, but I know the lame asses would rather call me an idiot than spend money to spend time on a boat.  Essentially, this is a first world problem, meaning not a problem at all.  We will figure out what to do by getting together a couple times and yelling our ideas to get our opinions heard.  May the best idea come out on top.

6/28/16 New Chapter, New Start?

    I like to think that after being gone for a week or so, we come back to a new chapter in our life.  Maybe nothing changes, but if life was Legend of Zelda or Mario Bros., this is where we would start every time we were killed, a little further along in life.  Being with family for that long certainly was an opportunity to recharge with some pure Gallegos Family spirit, good or bad.  I have to say good or bad, because some of the crap that my brother and even my sister spout hits my ears like fingernails on a chalkboard.  I won't embarrass anyone, but there is some small town thinking amongst all that brain power.
    In the vein of starting anew, I took everything out of the Excursion and even got up early Monday to go outside and clean it.  I doused the carpet with Febreze, then vacuumed it, Armor All'd the plastic parts, and added leather lotion to the seats.  If anything, it got the smell of funky human out of it.  I was going to follow it up with a wash, but noticed my truck was even dirtier.  My plan was to go eat at Fuddrucker's and get my truck washed in the afternoon, but Wife suggested going to Mod Pizza, and I do like that place.  Chubs still has some money from the trip and asked to stop at Game Stop to buy a new video game, I said fine, but the rest of your money is getting put away.
    It is a slow process to get back to normal, specially when I come right back to work, and Wife had one more summer school activity.  She says she needs to go to work a couple more days to finish stuff, which will prolong the putting away of everything until probably the weekend.  By the time we got back home from lunch, it was time for me to shower and get ready to go to work.
    Work was weird, I had switched to days the week before I left on vacation, then got up early all week while on vacation, now I suddenly have to be flipped over and stay up all night.  I can tell I am getting older because it is not as easy as it used to be.  I'll get there.  This vacation will last me probably until the Christmas break, maybe I'll take a week off, maybe just a couple days.
    We have been talking about the rest of the summer, my in-laws are already on the coast with their RVs, my folks seem ready to go this weekend, and before we had pizza, we stopped at Crestview to find out how much it would be to install a hitch which I already own to my truck.  I need new rails which the parts guy said would be $193.  I also want the electrical connections inside the truck bed, and that is $95.  What made me choke was the install.  The guy said it would take 4 hours to install rails and hitch, then 1 hour for electrical adapter, at a cool $120/hr.  So $600 in service fees and $300 in parts for a hitch I already own.  Fucking awesome!!

6/27/16 Home Sweet Home?

    It is sure nice to get back home after going somewhere.  The second day driving back home started a little rough.  We told my folks we were not going to rush back.  There were only less than seven hours to go and check out time was noon.  We got up for some complimentary breakfast around 10am, then went back to the room and showered and what not.  I like to time myself to be out the door with just a few minutes to check out.  So far, so good.
    By the time we came down to the lobby, my folks were sitting there waiting for us.  I had a bunch of stuff still to pack, even though I had come down earlier and brought down the big luggage.  Wife checked us out and my folks followed us into the Excursion which still does fabulous work on the highway after 12 years.  We were doing so well, chit chatting, killing mile after mile, when my mom got a call from the hotel.  Turns out, she forgot her camera when she sat down in the lobby, it got away from her.  For a couple minutes she discussed with the receptionist sending it to her by mail, but I knew we would have to go back for it.  I pulled over right as we were to get on the 18 mile bridge and headed back.  Mom said not to, but really, what could I do.  I would have been a dick to just say tough, there was no rush other than being tired and wanting to get home.  I thought it had only been about 10-15 minutes, but we were already 45 miles down the road.  Going back, set us back about 1.5 hours, instead of getting back to Austin at 7-ish, we got back closer to 9:00pm.
    I drove two hours, but only covered about thirty miles before giving up the driver's seat, then Wife drove about three hours.  After my nap, I drove the rest of the way, from Baytown East of Houston to the house.  We discussed stopping to eat, but really I just wanted to get home.  We got some snacks to tide us over at the Baytown Buc-ee's and we were on our way.  There was a strange "bum" there.  I caught his staring at me which I thought weird.  He pointed at my Wife trying to hand me the keys and he laughed at my shirt.  He kept walking while Wife and the boys got off and stretched while I pumped gas.  As soon as I was left alone the guy came back and told me his song and dance about needing $27 for a car part.  I rolled my eyes when I saw him coming back, I knew there was something to him initially talking to me.  My line is I do not carry cash, I pay with my credit card, sorry.
    It felt great to get home and unload everything from the Excursion.  Wife talked about getting dinner, but I was in no mood to go anywhere, plus Boy was ready to leave for his apartment within minutes of getting home, saying he was working on campus the next day.

6/26/16 Chasing The Sun?

    We were finally done with our vacation Saturday morning, and everyone was in a rush to leave Florida post haste.  We are always in the back, I don't like rushing out and possibly forgetting stuff.  There was a huge amount of stuff in the kitchen.  My brother and his family washed their hands of any responsibility, they were flying and did not have extra space nor permission to stow any 12 pack of sodas in their luggage.  His brother in law and girlfriend disappeared early as well, and they were guests, who didn't bother messing with stuff in the fridge, so they weren't going to clean it.  My sister I don't believe does any cleaning period.  It was left to us and my folks.  Everyone cleaned out their rooms, but we had not only our luggage, and new bags of souvenirs, but also about 4 12 packs of sodas, a case of waters, almost 3 six packs of alcoholic beverages.  I force fed myself a lunchable and told my boys to eat some of the other ones.  One way or another, we made everything fit along with us and we headed this way. 
    It feels funny starting out in the morning, and watching the sun take off and disappear slowly in front of you.  I drove the first hour, but quickly felt tired.  Luckily, Wife was ready to take over.  She drove about three or four hours, I slept like a log.  By the time I woke up, we were done with IH-75 and were on IH-10 headed West.  I drove the next 4-5 hours until we reached our hotel for the night. 
    I love the scenery and the boys don't hardly complain as long as they have snacks and power to their games and phones.  New Orleans has really come back strong.  A couple years ago, large chunks of the city still looked abandoned, I'm glad it is thriving.
    We always seem to loose too much time, although we barely stopped to rest.  It was supposed to take less than 10 hours to reach Gonzalez, but we got there about 9:30pm, we had left the house around 11:00am, and we gained back an hour due to crossing time zones.
    The Springfield Suites were nice, my folks really liked them.  We ended up walking to Wings and Lube or something like that.  The food was not as good as it should have been.  My burger was way too bloody, my mom thought her wings were old, but we ate.  I could have written a blog there, but I was super tired.

6/25/16 Hollywood Studios, Last Park

    We almost did not even bother with Hollywood Studios, by Friday we were all exhausted.  The only saving grace is that the park itself is rather small, for us.  We don't really dig roller coasters and none of us are thrill seekers looking to ride that elevator that just drops.  I told everyone we were not leaving the house until after noon.  We slept until we woke comfortably, then I got up, drank some coffee, and started getting the boys up.  My mom, not able to help herself, even after I told her I was not going to rush out the door, was still rushing me so that we could all go eat Golden Corral before heading to the park.  I said no, you all go, there is no way I am pigging out again and then going to a park, it was miserable enough in Magic Kingdom. 
    Once we got past that, it was nice.  We left half an hour later, got to the park five minutes after my brother who had left hours earlier, but managed to get lost.  We headed one way only to be stopped by a Star Wars presentation.  They were playing clips from the movies, then a character would come out and act something out, it was kind of cool, but it was in the middle of all this concrete with no shade at all.  It felt intensely hot.  As soon as it finished, we headed to the Toy Story ride which is easy enough to get to, but most of the left side is closed off and blocked off as they are changing some of the shows or rides.  We had to double back, but we caught up with the rest of the family, the ride was great, with the Fast Pass.  We came out of that and watched Walt Disney's trip down memory lane, shows his beginnings, there is even footage and a small show.  It was actually interesting, he started out poor, and used Mickey Mouse, originally named Mortimer Mouse to launch his empire.
    We found a Star Wars shop, Chubs bought a phone case for his phone with the Star Wars symbol and his name molded into the plastic, pretty nice.  We then had a decent hamburger meal, rode the Star Wars ride and honestly, started making our way out.  We hit all the shopping stores on the way out and made it home earlier than most nights.  Mom still wanted to do some last minute shopping and I don't like to say no, after we had eaten at Outback, but the souvenir shops outside the Disney shops are pretty shitty.  Everything has that fake look to it.  We hung out, let my mom get a few things, then I freaked out, knowing she spent more than $100, considering everything in those stores looks like it's been there awhile.
    We got back home, did a little cleaning, and packed most our stuff away that night.

6/24/16. EPCOT, Too Big To Fail! (Written days later, no internet)

    I am getting a gross feeling in the pit of my stomach, is Disney not bringing in enough money?  Parking is up to $20 a car which seems excessive, and then to find the monorail broke.  They own acre upon acre of land, I'm sure they control local politics so any taxes they pay is favorable to them.  Ticket prices keep going up, we paid something like $1500 for the 4 day tickets for the four of us.  I don't mind paying the money, but they really need to do work on their rides to keep them up. 

    We had a Fast Pass for Food and The Land, not that I wanted to ride it, but figured it was a start.  It was down, so on to the next ride.  Sailing is in the same building, but it already had a 50 min wait time.  We went out and Wife said how about the Nemo ride.  It said 30 minutes, figuring we hadn't done anything yet, we all agreed.  Big mistake.  It is intended for three year olds or thereabouts, and it took about an hour to get through.  The only fun thing was showing my sister and her hubby all my funny memes and jokes from Pinterest.  As soon as the ride was over, Boy was whispering in my ear about needing to get going.  My sister and her husband are cool, but they move about as fast as molasses with their two kids.  Everything takes a long time, after every ride, they have to get their bearings like it's the first time they walk on concrete.  We finally hit the eject button and set about going through the different countries just us four.  Boy was in a rush, for whatever reason, but we skipped Canada, which I kind of enjoy.  We rushed through everything, took a quick lunch in France, including a little dessert, which was good.

    Boy finally slowed his roll in Japan, got whatever his overlords had ordered from him, packed everything into his backpack, and finally started acting human again.  We slowed down in the Italy section, I wanted a new cologne, we got one, although I let Boy choose it, it seemed OK.  Our family caught up with us about this point.  We also had talked about drinking a beer from every country.  I had the grapefruit beer from Germany, which is the only beer I call yummy.  We had a Limoncello from Italy, and then a Dirty Elephant at the Africa section.  That was pretty good, frozen Coca-Cola with rum.  My final beer was in Norway, and I did not really like it, but my brother loves that beer, he chugged the twenty ounces in a matter of seconds.

    Mexico's ride was down, we were now done with the celebration of all the way around the world.  My folks talked about leaving, we went back to where we started only to find that whole section closed at 7:00pm, not 9:00pm.  It pissed me off because that is where we were going to get our poster sized photo.  We then walked over to the Dinosaur ride, it was closed too.

    There were too many rides down for mechanical problems.  It was or should be embarrassing to Disney.

6/23/16 She Has No More Space In Her Thong? (written days later, no internet in rental house)

    I love our down days while on vacation.  If we screwed something up this time around it was scheduling too many park trips and only one day with no plans.  Because we were traveling with my family and they hadn't come in a few years, we decided to go to all the parks.  This sounds great in theory, but we are all pretty exhausted and even my brother said this is not a vacation, it feels like work, rushing to get through everything.
    When we started planning, I told Wife when you ladies start planning, add in a few down days.  I wanted to come up for 10 days, I am not sure why this did not happen.  I love my peeps, but the only way I am coming again on vacation with them is if they commit to more days.  One solid week does not feel like enough.
    Anyways, today (Wednesday) was quite laid back.  I got up around 10:30am, showered and sat around.  My goal was to head out and go to the mall and then downtown Disney.  Because Wife needs structure, she started suggesting a Brazillian Dinner and soon got everybody excited.  We had a late lunch, early dinner at 5:30pm.  The restaurant from the outside looked like a big mistake, but inside was decorated much nicer.  We ate our share, then headed to Downtown Disney.
    Downtown Disney has changed quite a bit.  My sister said it looked too preppy and rich, i liked the new stores and even the new garages.  The stores seem very much like shopping at the Domain or as my brother said like shopping at the outside mall at La Cantera in SA.
    Because the internet is still down and I am doing this on my phone, it will be short.  But the title is a quote we heard a hot chick yell at her friend.  I love overhearing shenanigans like that.

6/22/16 Magic Kingdom Is Still Magical?

    (Internet was down last night, could not post, this is happening through phone).  Yesterday was off to a weird start.  I had told my family I was not going to rush going to the parks.  While we were getting up at a leisurely pace, we found out the monorail was out of order.  There was a huge line for the ferryboats.  While Wife got dressed, she got an email from a job she applied and interviewed a couple weeks ago.  She has until Friday to accept the job, and she shouldlk know by Friday if she is going to be offered that job.
    We also had to wait on ferryboats, which made us waste another hour before getting into the park.  By the time we got in, it was almost 1:00pm, and my brother had scheduled a fancy meal with Winnie the Pooh and several other characters. The meal was lackluster, but we gave it a go.  It was hard afterwards though, with our bellies full and the kids wanting to go get on rides. 
    We headed to Tomorrowland and got into the Monster's Inc laugh factory.  It was pretty good, i napped pretty easily on the bench seating provided.  This was then followed by Stitch's ride.  The rest of the day was good other than feeling like an overstuffed cow.  The best part was having Boy set us up with Fast Passes.  He did it somehow through his phone online.  We were able to skip the line for Haunted Mansion, then since we were in the area, did It's A Small World, the teacups for the kids, and a carousel.  At this point, we did another Fast Pass of Buzz Lightyear's ride, then over to Fantasyland.  We rode Little Mermaid ride, then walked all the way over to Pirates of the Caribean, but it was down.  Since we had a fast pass for it, they said we could transfer it to other rides, we chose the River Ride, for a dopey ride, it had the longest line, up to a 2 hour wait.  We got on in 15 minutes or so, then ended the night with a parade and fireworks. 
    This park is always good, it feels large, and the changing themes in the different areas keeps it fresh.  They just added Fairyland, and I don't think they are done adding to it.

6/21/16 Universal Studios Did Not Impress?

    Today was our second day and we have now figured we can't all hang out together at the parks.  We are all as Wife says selfish, or as my mom says too headstrong to hang out together.  I am willing to go with the flow, provided you don't force me to get up at the crack of dawn to be the first person at the park.  If we are going to be out late the night before, I feel it is smarter to sleep in than to again wake up super early the next day and push on. 
My brother who has been pushing us to get to the parks real early has cut out early for the second time.  They left a couple hours before closing but stopped at the Rock Hard Café to drink a little bit and have dinner, I guess.  We stayed until closing, trying to get as much out of the park as we could.  Chubs made me promise him that we would do a second round in the Simpsons ride and we did.  It is still probably the best ride in the park.
    We got there around 11am, everyone has been pushing me to get going earlier, but why?  My brother is not interested in staying until close, my dad is falling apart with pains in his hip when he walks too much.  My boys are certainly not interested in wasting time with picture taking with the characters.  Man, some people are holding conversations with the characters like they really starred as the characters on TV or the movies somehow. 
    Our first thing to do was eating.  We all ate in the "food court" upstairs in the city walk.  I ate a Burger King double whopper, Wife and the boys ate Panda Express, and the rest of my peeps ate between that and a Mexican looking thing.  While people went to the bathroom after, Boy and I went looking at the Oakleys sunglasses in Billabong, he finally chose a pair after everyone had started moving towards the entrance.
    Terminator was our first ride, followed by ET, then the Simpsons Ride and the Men In Black.  As you listen to the rides, they are all getting old.  Terminator is very cheesy, probably done in the 80s, ET is equally cheesy, and at one point the ride may have been top notch, it is probably time to replace it.  Simpsons ride was cool, it replaced the Back To The Future ride about a decade ago.  The Men In Black ride is cool, but it needs newer partners.  The whole section for the Harry Potter world is very cool, we were in there about two hours.
    There were problems with the Mummy ride, which the boys let me know sucked, the Transformer ride stopped working right as my brother was about to board it, the Minion ride had an over hour wait, even up to closing time.  The Shrek ride was ok, if not a little too much of a kid ride.
    There was much unnecessary drama between my sister, and my brother, and even unwillingly myself.  My mom says we are all trying to push the group to do what we want to do, and that is taking away from the fun.  I just want to be efficient.  When Curious George came out randomly outside the ET ride I said look, Wife quickly ran Chubs over to take a pic.  My sister and brother did not react to me, they stayed there until they counted to 20, then decided to move in for a picture.  This allowed twenty other kids to line up before my sibling's kids.
    The park was fun, overall, I just wish people listened to me, but since they don't, I told mom I am not dancing to y'all's beat if nobody is going to listen to my request.  We'll see how park #3 goes.

6/20/16 Animal Kingdom Is Getting Better?

    Our first stop at the Disney parks this year was Animal Kingdom.  It has been advertising newer later hours.  They used to close at 6:00pm which seems early, but it was so the animals would not be so stressed.  Their new hours are until 10:00pm, with an evening show related to the new Jungle Book movie.  We hung out until about 8:00-8:30pm before everyone started complaining they were tired and we couldn't think of what else to do as that park is kind of weak.
    We got kind of a slow start thanks to my sister doing a timeshare to get reduced prices on her Disney tickets.  We had done this in the past, so we knew the routine, it was even at a timeshare place we stayed, Westgate Estates, at a reduced price for one time, with my folks, with us committed to listening to a timeshare sales pitch.  We got up around 8:30am, enjoyed some coffee and some sweetbreads, then casually showered, being ready within minutes of my sister coming back and then being ready to rock and roll. 
    When we got to the park, the weather was awesome, to me.  It looked like rain, with heavy dark clouds covering the sun, and we kept thinking about pulling out our ponchos, but it barely drizzled.  My dad kept bringing up the Bug's Life show under the big Tree of Life, so we headed in that direction.  It was a short five minute wait and we were in.  This was followed by walking into the "Asia" part of the park.  We went through the bat area but for the second time in two years, the bats were not there.  We then saw a tiger display with one tiger.  They keep the tigers isolated except when they are in heat.  We then walked through a bird sanctuary, and it had a bunch of birds, but nobody really cares about birds.  After this, my sister wanted to see the Nemo show which she had not seen in other years.
    We were all a little disappointed or tired, because all of us fell asleep throughout that particular show.  Boy managed to get us Fast Pass tickets to the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride around 4:00pm.  We then ate near the Dinosaur area.  Kind of ridiculous, over $13 bucks for a burger, but oh well, we are on vacation.  By the time we finished eating, it was about time to make the walk across the park to the Africa section for the Safari ride.  It took a while to get across the park, specially with dad's bad hip.  It was totally worth the walk, it had started drizzling by the time we were under the roof system to the ride, and it was a full downpour by the time we jumped in the safari buggies.  We saw all the animals in the savanna, the lady explaining that most animals get more active when it rains as they are cooler.
    We headed back to Dino area, stopping along the way for pictures with Mickey and Minnie, and other characters.  Right before we all said goodbye, we all decided one more ride and we jumped on the Dino ride buried deep in the back of the park.  It was very intense, but not scary as my sister said.  We did buy a picture for this ride, we will get it ordered online.
    We had already decided on eating at Red Lobster when my sister suggested the Rainforest Café.  It was the worst part of the day.  Noisy, sub par food, but it fed us and kept us going all the way home.

6/19/16 Home, For A Week?

    I am still not sure I prefer to break up the trip by stopping halfway to Florida, but here we are.  Last night was rough, getting to our hotel by almost midnight, then checking out by 8:00am.  I still had to write a blog, shower, and unwind, and find enough hours to sleep.  I managed to fall asleep by 2:00am, then waking up twice between 3:00 and 4:00am to pee.  6:30am came too fast, but Wife jumped up and showered, followed by the boys, then I finally got up close to 7:30.  My mom and dad are traveling with us in our car and just before I jumped in the shower, my mom was already gently rushing me.  I knew I had to get up, even though I could have easily slept until noon.
    We went through the tunnel in Mobile, Alabama, and we were on our way, for 8 minutes.  I wanted to get about 2 hours of road, but my mom was having none of that, saying she had to eat before we did anything.  We found a McDonald's and ate about 8:30am.  We were ready to hit the road, and we finally managed to get some road.  Maybe because I didn't sleep enough, after a couple hours, I told Wife to drive, and she did the next 2.5-3 hours.  I slept good, waking up in time for our next pit stop at Busy Bee gas station.  We found it by chance last year and Wife loved it.  It has a Dunkin Donuts, and a Burger King inside, they sell all sorts of knickknacks, and they even have fireworks for sale inside the store like if you're buying Doritos.  It felt weird because I was asleep, but everyone decided it was lunch time and we ate burgers there.  When we finally got going, storms were brewing.  We drove through some pretty hard rains, my sister, yelled at me through my mom's phone to pull over.  I laughed maniacally because nobody tells Big Mando what to do.  I kept driving when about half the people on the road were pulling over, I always find this much more dangerous than to keep moving.  If you keep moving, you are in control of your surroundings by slowing down or speeding up, you can determine who is right next to you.  When you are stopped, you are at the mercy of everyone passing, and it only takes one idiot not paying attention to hit your side or rear end you.  I kept driving slowly and the weather sort of passed.
    We got to the house around 7:00pm, and it was a mad fight for who got what room, but I think it worked out.  We got the master down, sorry but we initiated the idea of coming, we reserved the house, and we did all the communicating with the owner of the property.  My sister liked the idea of the master bath, but said the room upstairs she chose was ok.  Then my brother liked the room downstairs because of fears that his soon might fall down the stairs, but again gave up rather easily when he noticed his kid was not brain dead.
    The last thing to do was get some food and the only place I know that sells groceries is Publix.  Luckily, there was a Papa John's pizza next to the Publix and the ladies chose that for dinner.  We got some stuff at Publix for breakfast and snacks for the parks.  It has now been two long days, I feel pretty raw right now, I am hoping to sleep more than normal, but knowing my folks, they will wake me at the crack of dawn to appease the other siblings.

6/18/16 On The Road Again?

    We took off a little late on our way to Florida because Wife got called for a second interview for a job opportunity.  They wanted to catch her before we left and Friday was their only chance.  She had her meeting at 9:15am, so it allowed me a chance to sleep in a little bit.  I then got up right before 9:00am and loaded the large luggage, cleaned the pool, refilled the chlorine dispenser, and shocked it.  In the process, I showed my brother the routine and hopefully he is capable of running the pump at least once next week so the water doesn't turn green and open the chance for my loving neighbor to call the city on us again.  While I was out, I replaced a couple of fence pickets that had fallen and I had been meaning to replace.
    By the time I came in and started enjoying my cup of coffee, Wife came in around 10:45am and started busting balls to get us going.  I pooped, and showered and we were ready to roll.  It was nice my brother is staying at our house, as he can keep an eye on things.  We finally got going, and promptly got slowed down by congested traffic on I-35.  Eventually, we got to Bastrop, and we stopped at their Buc-ee's for drinks and snacks.  I was kind of wondering in the back of my head when I would get sleepy and let Wife drive.  I felt fine, so I kept driving through Houston.  Man, people suck at driving.  There was one accident after another and it was only 2:00pm or so, when we got to Katy.  We made it to Baytown and happily found another Buc-ee's.  I got a nice surprise as the toilets say occupied in red and vacant in green.  I opened a door and there was a brain dead dude, lost in thought, taking a dump.  I said "come on man, lock the door." 
    We kept on moving, slowly losing the sun, but gaining a couple peeps.  My brother's brother in law and his girlfriend were only a couple miles in front of us, so we decided to stop at a gas station and then travel together.  We were going to meet them and my sister and her family, but Wife's interview at the last minute threw everybody for a loop.  My sister arrived a couple hours earlier than us to the hotel, we kept on chugging along at our slow pace.  Our slow pace being 80-85mph all through Texas and Louisiana.  Mississippi kind of scared me with its posted signs of 70 and "strictly enforced" so I cruised at 70-75, but it is only about an hour's drive to get through it. 
    We are currently staying in the same hotel we stayed last year.  It feels nice to be out of the Excursion and spread out in an air conditioned room.  I hate that we have to take everything off the car, but that is what shitty people that don't have a problem breaking into cars has done.  I write this quickly, I want to jump in bed and close my eyes.  I feel pretty proud of myself that I was able to do the whole drive without relying on Wife.  It is mostly a pride thing, she can drive as well as I do, but I don't care for the one liners of being a puss and a lightweight when I get sleepy and hand the keys over.

6/17/16 Switching Jobs, How Often?

    Wife is in the process of interviewing for a new job.  I don't know if she will get it, but we have the discussion all the time of her needing something new.  When I think about it, I chuckle because although she has been in Bastrop ten years doing her current job, I have been doing mine for twenty years and I never think "I need a new job to challenge me".  She used to work at ACC and when she left we were having the same discussion that she needed something better.  She kept getting new managers and of course everyone promised to be better than the last one.  It is starting to feel like deja vu all over again.  She had a new manager this past year, and she is fixing to get a new one.  There are new faces already and their biggest contribution is moving people around.  Seriously!!
    I'm sorry, but if the best you can do is logistics, get your ass to the warehouse and move shit around on a forklift until you tire yourself out.  When she started there ten years ago, she had an office, then she shared the office, then she was moved to a cubicle, then to a smaller cubicle, then all the brown people were swept together and sat in an alcove together, and the newest move is to a still smaller desk space, with no walls.  If they would continue and just remove all her floor space and let her work from home, that would be great.
    She is looking in the private sector, but she is finding that they are expecting to pay much less.  That is not really logical.  You expect the people to work year round, through the summer, no Christmas break, no Spring Break, and no week off for Thanksgiving, and you would then like to pay 20-40% less than they can make in the school districts.  The only candidates you are going to have in that scenario is child molesters who can't work around kids applying for your low paying jobs.  If you want creative types and you want to steal them from the education sector, pay a real salary, otherwise, keep employing the same people with the same dim witted ideas.  I know Wife can make a difference anywhere she joins, she brings energy and isn't afraid to employ ideas that are not standard.  But she is not a moron who is going to leave a place that gives her three months off right now to take a lower paying job that requires her to be in the office year round.
    The ball is in your court Non-profit, to paraphrase the Black Eyed Peas, Wife will take you into 3008, currently you are working in 2000 and late.  Join the modern world and the modern times, I guarantee it.

6/16/16 I'm Too Nice?

    I have been called too nice by two separate people within a 24 hour time period.  This is probably true, even if I work at giving the image of being a hard ass all the time, specially with my two dum-dums.  I cannot function in the way my family wants me to, they insist I should circle the wagon and just worry about my blood related family.  This might be easier to do, but it would leave me feeling cold blooded in certain situations.
    For example, with our friends, Wife has noticed them sort of pulling away, not calling back when we text, getting back days later, Girlie giving excuses like her mom's phone doesn't work, but what?  Mama can't pick up phone from her end and call Wife and ask "how have things been going?"  or "Why haven't we gotten together lately?"  I just keep assuming people are busy, which pisses Wife off a lot!  She says if they can't reciprocate and call once in a while, I need to stop trying to force them to come over.  I am not forcing anybody to come over, but I do admit I text them a lot more than they text us.  If I had a hundred other friends I interacted with, I might have moved on, but as it stands, we are running thin on friends that come over and visit.
    The other example of me being a spazzy nice guy was with Ford's Service Center.  Yesterday I called three separate times trying to find out about my vehicle that I dropped off Friday afternoon and just put the phone on speaker and waited 10 minutes before hanging up, nobody answered.  It bothered me, but not to the point of fighting and cussing people out, my coworker was livid expecting me to start bitching.  I went in there today during lunch, and the lady started telling me updates as soon as I opened the door to her little bay area.  I was quiet and just stared at her.  She was apologetic, I told her "you could've saved me the drive down here if you just picked up the phone."  She promised it would be fixed by the end of the day, and it was.  I got her direct line and she called me and I returned her call and I was polite on the phone.
    There is no gain in yelling at somebody you are expecting to help you out.  They could "lose my keys", or they "might need a part that needs to be ordered from another country", or a million other ways to ruin my day.  I really just want my vehicle in as good a condition as I can have it in for our trip.  I'll check the tires tomorrow at Discount Tire, if they say I need tires, then I will get tires.  One of my fears is being stranded on the side of the road, more so in another state, and now with the gators getting a taste for human, even scarier.
    I should also replace the wiper blades since I looked at the weather forecast and it should rain on us.  All week, we are expecting 40-60 percent chance of showers.  I like that, as it tends to clear out the parks a bit, and if it rains just right, it will cool off the day and leave it much more tolerable.

6/15/16 Science Is Like A Religion?

    My jaw about dropped the other day.  My brother and I were discussing the tragedy in Orlando, and he was explaining to me the all or nothing agenda of the Islamic extremists as he understands it from his influences listening to too much AM radio.  He might have a point, I don't know, but I thought it a good time to inject my opinion that if we all just got real and stopped defending fairy tales of which we have no proof, the world might be a better place.
    I said something like if we were all atheists, we wouldn't waste so much energy on these beliefs in ghosts and spirits.  Maybe more people could contribute to the sciences.  After all, I said confidently, it is through science we came up with the modern combustion engine, medicines to fight polio and many other diseases.  Science has brought us out of the caves and into the modern world we live in.  You can't argue about the contributions science has given the world, it has made us who we are, good or bad.
    As if he was born a contrarian, he turned the table on our discussion and said science is just another form of religion.  Uh, no, I said.  Science doesn't run on faith, everything "science" is backed up by repeatability, and proof.  He then brought up Isaac Newton, saying he was one of the great scientists and yet he was heavily involved in the church.  Not knowing Newton's personal life off the top of my head, my only defense to that is it was the 1600s or 1700s.  If you didn't believe, there was a good chance of you getting your head chopped off.  Believe me, if a church representative came to the door, sword in hand and asked "do you believe in a higher power?"  Hell yes I do.  There is believing in your ideas and there is preservation of the self.
    I told him it is awesome to hold your opinion, Mom got you immunized before you could utter a word.  You can say you don't believe in science and therefore modern medicine, but there you are, all protected from measles, rubella, and twenty or thirty other things that normally would have killed or maimed you before the age of ten. 
    How can I have a conversation with somebody when they can so easily spit at what I trust in the most?  He also spun off bringing up the work being done at the supercollider, saying they are just making stuff up, ummm, Dr. so and so himself has said he doesn't blah blah.  Maybe one person working there has a negative opinion, but once the truly smart people determined there are electrons and neutrons and protons, it must follow that they are composed of even smaller things.  You might not agree with quarks and leptons, but if they can back it up, then repeat the work in another super collider, and new things come from it, what do you gain by negating the work?  Those nuclear bombs that ended WWII (I know, they could've kept fighting hand to hand and eventually won too), were designed straight out of pure science, and as we saw later, repeated by the Russians and other countries with enough smart people.

6/14/16 Working Days Is Not For Me?

    I am a genius, I suggested to my supervisor that I wanted to come to days the week before we go to Florida so my internal clock would start flipping over.  It might be good next week, but I am miserable right now.  I went to bed last night around midnight, then kept getting up to pee because I drank tea and soda all afternoon while BBQ'ing.  I had set the alarm for 6:00am, and then sat on the edge of the bed debating whether to get up or sleep another four hours.  Basically, I can come in anytime, I just have to be here 12.5 hours.  I was about dressed by 6:50am, then my stomach grumbled.  Nothing happened when I sat, so I went downstairs for some cereal, and then I figured I should run the pool pump to keep pool clean.  I was able to muster a kid sized poop, I figured better than nothing, then I went to work, getting there by 8:00am.
    Traffic was a real pain in the ass, I never deal with any going to work at 5:00pm.  People are heading out of town and I am heading in.  I was playing it cool, trying to listen to the radio, but several idiots cut in front of me in very aggressive fashion.  Still, I got to work in one piece, and had some coffee with my counterpart on days.  It is now three weeks we don't really have work to do.
    I hung out until about 9:30am, then in the lab found another coworker, everyone I see asks how I have been and my family, so I have to slow down and fill them in.  I made it over to the chemistry section around 10:00am and got with our chemist to discuss some work I am going to be doing with him.  It sounds interesting, working with one of the diseases making headlines and possibly helping with early detection and treatment.  Being over in the chemistry lab makes me feel like I should be over there being a chemist, but I have done imaging so long I feel it is too late to switch.  If I can manage, I will learn the techniques over there, to possibly be a back up at night in the near future.
    I went home for lunch and it was nice and quiet, for once in a long while.  I love my boys, but they tend to hover when I am trying to look at porn.  Boy is in San Marcos though through at least Tuesday night, and Chubs is participating with Wife in their summer school activities since I am not home to babysit him.  My brother just moved in last week, but he is working, training on days for work at Walmart.  Wife works up until Thursday, then we leave for vacation.  Coming back, she will have one or two more activities to complete her summer responsibilities.
    I look forward to going back to nights and being but an idea, nay one of the elves that would make the shoe cobbler shine by producing magical shoes while the rest of the world sleeps.  That is where I have done my best work for almost 20 years.  I guess this idea did work, it is 10:00pm and we are already upstairs and about ready for bed.  Wife and I were asleep by 11:00pm, if this holds up, I should fare well next week.

6/13/16 T-Minus One Week To Departure?

    Today (Saturday) was supposed to be a relaxing day without any agenda, just hang out with the family and take it easy.  As usual, once the afternoon came around, we ran one errand into another until we ran out of day.  Things are getting done, and that is the important thing.  I dropped off our Excursion at Ford on Friday, it is getting a couple small things done, including an oil change for the long road trip.  Friday we also checked our clothes for the trip and Chubs has about 6 new outfits, Wife has 6-7 new outfits, I had three new shirts and two new shorts, and Boy had 3 new shirts and a couple pants.  He is acting like a Shit, saying we go to Florida all the time, he is not excited.  I, of course, want to kick him because we look forward to this all year and he acts like it is a chore and not a treat.  Wife even throws her hands up in the air and says we should just live him here, instead of taking him and living with his bad attitude.  If he acts like he did a couple spring breaks ago, this will be the last time I take him by "force".
    Back to today, we left the house and headed to Best Buy.  Chubs had a birthday party to go to, so we bought his friend a video game, and I owed him a card to buy some stuff online from earlier in the week.  After this, we spun around the parking lot, not sure where we were going to eat.  As I decided to go eat pizza in Buda, Chubs remembered Zaxby's by Cabela's and Boy said he preferred that.  I went along because it is very good too.  We then went into Cabela's looking for rain gear, I saw online that we will be between 40 and 60 percent showers all week while in the Disney parks.  We didn't really find what we need plus my stomach needed to remove its contents and quickly, so we scampered home, post haste.
    After this, I sort of took a quick 30 min nap while Wife and Chubs fiddled on the computer.  They then caught me asleep and told me it was now time to take Chubs to his party.  We dropped him off, driving through some horrible traffic on the freeway.  After this, we spent about an hour and a half at Academy.  I got a few more shirts to bring my tally to 6 and I also got me a new flashlight and new Camelback to carry water and space for other snacks and stuff.  We argued for a minute about this, because I already had one, but I like buying new things when we go on trips, it is part of the fun for me.  Boy threw in some new shirts, still complaining as he always does.
    We followed this by going back and picking up Chubs from his party at Jumpoline.  It was a small-ish party and we got offered cake and pizza.  I am not rude, so I ate.  We left after awhile, headed to the movies, but none of us really liked the movies playing, so we made a switch and just went for dinner.  We drove around while someone or other said no to whatever was being suggested, a sign we weren't really hungry, I guess.  We settled on Dan's burgers where we have been eating lately after my friend suggested it one day after school.  We finished the night by coming back home and starting the packing process for our trip, since we now all have most of our clothing. 

6/12/16 Cabin In The Woods Is The Best Slasher Movie I Ever Saw? (movie)

    I have never liked the slasher type movie.  I always consider them entertainment for low IQ people, I mean who enjoys the idea of paying $7-10 for a movie only to be scared and creepy images to be implanted in your head?  There seems to be no value for mankind in those movies.  Take a Star Wars movie and you have heroes to cheer for, or to cry for when they sacrifice themselves, or a Lord Of The Rings where man has to search for his inner strength and abolish evil or lose everything.  There is something worth fighting and dying, but a freaking Friday the 13th movie?  Poor Jason, his mother abused him, now he is going to kill and  kill and kill.  When you think you stopped him, no he kills some more.  For what purpose?  Ughhh, I stopped watching, looking for a purpose in high school, even though Wife kind of liked them, just saying.
    Cabin In The Woods starts as a typical summer slasher movie.  Round up a good looking group of 18 year olds, hopefully some boobs fly around on screen before they are killed.  Put them in an isolated location, so nobody can hear them scream.  They even got an old scary guy foreshadowing their demise when they stop for gas at what appears like an abandoned gas station.  One of the kids has an uncle who lends them the cabin, when they are choosing rooms, they notice it a little creepy, when one of the bedrooms is found to have a see through mirror.  We are teased with one of the girls having to check out her boobs, she lifts her shirt and the quiet creepier guy has to decide whether he will enjoy the view or be a good guy.  He pusses out and acts like a good guy, stopping her from undressing completely.  At this point, we don't know if one of the kids is the killer or what is going to happen.  There is some horseplay in the lake by the cabin, then they are all inside as it gets dark and they start playing truth or dare.  Probably the best scene for me is the slutty girl making out in the truth or dare game with a wolf face hung on the wall.  At this point, we keep changing between the kids and a couple guys the appear to be working for NASA or something very secure and secret.  Those men start getting more involved and somehow what they are doing is affecting the kids, they pop open a basement door, and the teens can't help themselves.  They dare one to go down and before you know it, they are all down there.  They don't know it, but this has sealed their fate, whatever items they mess with, will determine how they will die.  The guys in the secret NASA building take bets kind of coldly as to which scenario will win, one of the main guys keeps wishing for Mermen, the other says "they make a hell of a mess though".  The teens end up reading a diary and it is about a farm girl who was abused and kill by her family and this is who shows up to kill them.
    This all makes the typical slasher movie different, the kids get picked off in similar fashion, when they decide they are going to stay together, the guys in control spray pheromones and testosterone to different people to make them braver or whatever they need to happen.  When it looks like they have succeeded and killed the necessary teens and they are celebrating, they get a call that the "stoner" survived and is trying to find the others.  Because he smokes so much weed, the pheromones don't work on him, so he is a loose canon.  He finds an elevator and the girl and they are now in the "NASA" building where the guys work.  They need to be killed and it is at this point that it starts making sense why.  The five teens are chosen almost randomly as sacrifice to the gods who happen to be real.  They are kept in a slumber underground and as long as they sacrifice the five archetypes yearly, the gods stay appeased.  By surviving, the stoner ruins everything and now all of security is on "kill on site" mode, but they end up in a small control room which allows the different "monsters" to be moved and released into the hallway in front of them.  Security guys keep showing up and they instantly get killed by different monsters.  They stoner and the virgin make their way to the main control room and everyone is being attacked by out of control monsters.  In a bit of irony, the guy that always roots and bets on the merman gets attacked and killed by the merman, a giant plume of blood shoots out a blowhole through the back of the merman to show the mess he makes.
    Eventually, the two teens make their way to a lower level and the director, played by Sigourney Weaver comes out and explains about the gods and that the virgin must kill the stoner to save the world.  She almost does it, but she can't kill her friend.  Sigourney is taken out by one last random monster and the two teens sit on some stairs waiting for the end of the world.  In the final scene, the camera pans out and we see a huge palm of one of the gods coming up from somewhere underground to commence with the ending of the world, as per the agreement with them.
    Great story idea, because the deaths were not just to kill teens, but to actually save mankind.  This makes their deaths heroic.  Using the monsters as entertainment for us, well, if they have to die, let them believe they have some control over how, even if they don't know they are choosing. 

6/11/16 I Need A Hobby?

     Today was a rare day in which I don't work, Wife has a field trip and she took Chubs.  Boy is around but too busy for me.  If I had that kayak, I might have headed to the river by myself, but I don't, so I am left here at home, folding clothes, and doing little chores, such as changing out burned light bulbs and replacing batteries on remotes.  My life is lame.
    I already took Excursion to the Ford dealership.  The pump that shoots water to wiper blades is not pumping, and we have a long trip in about a week.  We also need an oil change.  Driving there was fun, what with the ROT Rally in effect.  Nothing I love more than loud motorcycles and the gentlemen that embrace their two wheeled stallions.  I am glad they stay mostly downtown, I hate any group in bunches.
    As far as hobbies, I'd like to do some woodwork, but it requires tools.  I'd like a kayak, but they are expensive, at least $1000 for one that will carry my fat ass.  Wife says I should sweep, clean the toilets, scrub the showers.  She must have me confused with Cinderella, I don't do stuff like that, usually. 
    I could go hit golf balls, hmm, sun is going down and they are open kind of late.  This would shut Wife up who says I don't use my stuff, it just sits in the garage.  Like a cheap ass set of golf clubs is going to break the bank.  I thought Boy was going to hang with his friend, but his friend suddenly left.  It would be good if I also took my brother and we all spent a little time outside.
    I wrote the first half in the afternoon, this is being written at 12:30am, after midnight.  Not much happened today.  I worked in the garage on a project I've been messing with, helped Boy with his project, cutting his wooden weapon for his next comic con.  I made a couple runs to Home Depot to buy bulbs, and hinges to fix an old cabinet.  The rest of the afternoon was spent waiting on clothes to wash and dry so I could fold them and put them away.  This has been my main chore for the last few months, I think it's pretty good.
    Wife came in around 10:00pm, she called saying she was hungry, and she suggested we meet somewhere for dinner.  We went to IHOP, and it was a little packed by the time we got done eating.  Wife was a little aggravated and she was trying to talk to Boy, but it was coming across as too aggressive.  Her point is that maybe Boy would be better off commuting from our house.  His grades this past semester were not spectacular.  She feels that being home, he might focus on his homework better.  This came about because he admitted to not signing a contract for the start of the semester for a new apartment.  We veered away from that discussion, Boy barely joins us for dinner and stuff, I don't want to start big discussions where he feels like we are attacking him.
    They did have new pancake flavors, which is good for a restaurant with a name like International House Of Pancakes.  I ordered the pineapple upside down cake flavor and Wife ordered the banana macadamia nut flavor.  Boy ordered some strawberry shortcake ones, but they looked like standard strawberry stuff.

6/10/16 How Much Time Does It Take You To Do What You Do Everyday?

    We have not been busy at work.  I am almost at the point of worrying, next week I am even going to train on a different toolset that is currently swamped with work.  I did get a "cute" email from my supervisor more so as a response for my cheeky response to her "what are you doing?" the first night our tool went down last week.  I maintain I am an honest and straightforward guy.  She asked what are you doing?, I am not going to fabricate busy work, I've been here almost twenty years and I am a good employee, if tool breaks it is not my fault or responsibility to get it fixed.  I said not much, drinking coffee, writing my daily blog, walking laps for exercise, texting a couple friends.  She was not amused by my answer, and then assigned me what felt like busy work, but that is fine.
    Today, I came in to her email of "in one of your blogs can you talk about why I constantly have to remind you for hours on FIB jobs?"  I laughed, thought it was mildly clever and on point.  The truth is because I am on nights, I do a lot of the routine stuff and if it took three hours to do customer A's samples last month, it will probably take three hours to do customer A's sample this week.  We are already pretty efficient and all of us have been doing what we do for at least ten years, there aren't many new tricks to improve throughput, plus like I said, there hasn't been much work, so no reason to work in a frenzy.  I get her snippiness, specially when the customer wants the time allotted to close out said job, but in this example, sample was one I've done at least 50 times.  They take about three hours.  I might drag a little ass, or I might get distracted doing one of my many other side things I do, but the work on the sample still amounts to the same.
    So I have my marching orders, I will keep track of time spent on each sample.  Most customers pay by number of samples done in a month, but I guess, a customer could have set it up as charging by the hour.  A question I ask myself is "do I charge the full time?"  If I stop to go make coffee, or stop to go to the bathroom and then get caught up having a discussion or helping Redbull figure out what he is looking at, is all that time billable to the sample?  Probably not, but if I don't make coffee, I might fall asleep and then the sample would take even longer. 
    A couple years ago I started training in chemistry, another group we have here, and then we got busy in my section, TEM.  Before I knew it, I was back to normal and we went back to needing to work OT to keep up.  I am hoping magic strikes twice and by the time I am trained in GCMS, it will be time to come back home to TEM.

TEM images: (pulled from Google, I don't want to get in trouble ours is proprietary)  But we look at super tiny layers of materials.




Compare reality on wafers vs what engineers draw up, again very tiny structures.

6/9/16 I See The Signs?

    Until recently, I ignored the little signs, I told myself nonsense, keep it together.  I can't anymore, I might as well tell you all.  I am discovering I am living in an artificial world.  This thought clicked in my mind after I saw the Truman Show with Jim Carrey, wife said I was being silly, but ever since, I notice small things that shouldn't be there.  My hip, for instance sometimes does a grinding electrical noise when I am alone.  I don't have any electronics in me, that I am aware of, but if I am in a very quiet room, I will hear this whirring sound coming from my left side, near the hip area.
    A couple years ago, we were in Corpus, just on a random weekend vacation in our RV.  I noticed what I would've said was a lightning bug walking on the ground, but it stayed lit green for at least half an hour as I followed its path.  I am assuming it was looking for a place to hide, but it was glowing green the whole time, there was no way it could hide.  Eventually, it made its way into the wood structure we were sitting under.  I don't want to be so bold as to say this was a camera that broke and I happened to see it, but I could believe that easier than a lot of other scenarios.
    Another giant example is that whoever is in charge has swapped out Wife.  Now that I can see the truth, I think I have been given a few robotic wives over the years.  This last one just happens to be way bitchier than the last ones.  This one has a tick, she starts scolding me, I say "OK, you're right", then she has to repeat herself about three more times.  She seems to be doing it with the boys, so it is some sort of tick.  I figure she'll be taken in some night while I am at work and the repeat function will be repaired.  Other than that, Wife 1.0 used to at least appear to be heating up my food when I'd get home for lunch, Wife 2.0 doesn't even get up just says your food is in the fridge.  I guess it goes with the territory.  I used to work a bunch of OT, not so much now, Wife 2.0 probably sees me as a lazy bag of skin.
    You know, this does make sense, I've always called Boy my robot boy because he lacks empathy, just kind of exists without much in the way of emotions.  The powers that be then overcorrected because Chubs is all emotions, he needs like twenty hugs a day. 
    Best I can figure is I am in the middle of a play, do I keep acting dumb, go about my day, or do I stop going along with everything and demand to see the audience, demand a raise or am I acting for my life?  Hmm, maybe just the fact that I have caught on means they are coming for me.  Ack, I should've saved this for after the Florida trip.  Even if I am going with a bunch of robots, I do like the Disney parks.

6/8/16 The Last Man On Earth? (Show)

    I started watching this show on Hulu after Wife passed at the house when it started last year.  I thought the premise was interesting.  The show started out on the first episode in Tucson, Arizona following the life of Phil Miller after supposedly most of the world's population is eliminated by a virus.  He is a man starting to go apart at the seams.  His survival strategy has been to raid the nearby stores for food and rations and survive in a drunken stupor.  His best friends are a bunch of balls he drew faces on, in a nod to Castaway and "Wilson".  They are kept at the local bar where he goes to get away from his problems and discuss things.
    After an episode or two, he meets Carol, right as he is about to commit suicide.  They quickly get together, but they aren't crazy about each other.  They are opposites, but Carol insists on "marriage" to repopulate the planet, and marriage so their children won't be bastards.  Eventually, more and more people keep showing up.  The best thing Phil ever did was spray paint all over the country "Alive in Tucson", which the other survivors see and gradually make their way there.
    The show could be better, there are some really surreal ideas kicked around, but they tend to cut the tension by having Phil constantly act like a buffoon.  With each woman that shows up, he has a chance to have sex with them, but he overplays his hand and manages to ruin things before they start.  Because he insists on being so over the top, at a certain point he is kicked out of the group.  This about ends the first season, which leaves him and Carol who feels pity for him and sees that he is not a bad guy, just a little rough around the edges, cruising the country, looking for a better place to live.
    Meanwhile, it turns out, Phil's brother is also alive, but he is on the international space station.  The show keeps going back to him, mostly at the end of the episodes storyline, but in the second season he takes the risk of deploying the evacuation module and he survives crash landing back to earth.  He sees a sign "Alive in Tucson" on a freeway sign, and he heads that way, as that is where he is from, not knowing his brother is still alive.
    Most of the second season is done in one big mansion in Malibu, California, where they are all living together including their cow and even a bull they discover in the second season.  They are slowly getting better at living in their isolated condition, but their is no doctor and a simple case of appendicitis takes one of the cast members out prematurely.
    I like the idea of the show, how they are surviving, and I would almost prefer if it was a little more serious, as it is, the most annoying scenes is when the main character overacts and vomits all over scenes with stupidity that could instill tears and drama.

6/7/16 Trust And The Modern Cellphone?

    I keep hearing about couples we know and how they behave with one another.  I am not sure if it is insecurity or people are just naturally annoying, but I know some friends of ours, when they are not together are constantly texting each other to make sure the other person isn't cheating or god forbid, worse.  Relationships like this put undue strain on their marriage.  If either person is going to cheat, they can do it and be talking on the phone like it's no big deal.  I have a friend who is just good looking and slick, he gets all the girls naked.  Told me it was funny, jealous boyfriends/husbands will call and the wife is there trying to be a good wife, naked flirting quietly.  He continues his shenanigans while she takes down lists of stuff to get at the store, holding her breath under control as he explores her here and there.
    I totally believe we are animals at our core and we can get all this schooling and consider ourselves scholars and study all this religion and get filled with guilt and shame, but the second a decent looking member of the opposite sex even thinks of flirting with us, we go right back to animals.
    I take the cues from my folks.  They didn't play these stupid games, my mom was pretty busy with us four kids growing up, my dad was a truck driver who would be gone most of the week.  There weren't cell phones twenty years ago, not that my dad has figured out how they work.  He still has a flip phone he carries, it is not a "smart" phone.  I might get a call from him once or twice a year.  He is not a talker, in any sense of the word.
    During the day, Wife works in a school district.  Unless she has some information I need, I don't really concern myself with what she is up to.  We have a good relationship, there is no reason to be poking holes in my own shit by constantly looking for the bad or expecting drama from Wife.  I call her my Turtle, because she never wants material things.  I believe gals dig purses, I offer her purses and or tell her to get shoes all the time, and it's always the same thing.  No, they are too expensive, I just got a purse awhile ago.  Plus she goes back and uses the cheapest cloth one she has, even though I only buy her nice leather ones.
    As much as I like having a cellphone, I believe they are too much for certain people.  I don't want to know what Wife ate for lunch, I don't want to know if she had a bowel movement after lunch.  I'll ask when I see her "How was your day?"  She can bore me with the details when we are in the car together on the weekends.  Just kidding, but sometimes she can go on and on when we are together. 

6/6/16 Summer Is Off And Running?

    Wife just officially finished her school year on Friday.  She has about two weeks of Summer school activities and then we're off on vacation.  My brother will be watching the house and he marches around at night with a katana and a revolver in his shorts, listening to George Nori waiting for the world to end (warning!).  Anyways, after that, we have Fourth of July the week we come back and we will be having some sort of fireworks celebration somewhere.
    Slowing it down week to week, I was telling Wife we should buy some quality sleeping bags, if anything, the boys can use them when we go in our RV.  She had kind of agreed, but in her infinite quest to be a cheap-o, her dad said he had some vintage Vietnam War sleeping bags, and she thought they would work for her sleep over adventure tomorrow night.  She is taking about twenty kids to Corpus Christi and they are spending the night at the Texas State Aquarium.  They are supposedly setting up their sleeping bags in the shark viewing rooms they can view the sharks and other large fish all night.  The next day in the morning, they will go out on a boat and dredge up sea bottom and see what grows down there.  It is supposed to introduce some of the kids hopefully to marine biology and some of the options for careers if they pursue higher education degrees.
    While Wife and Chubs are busy with that, Boy is in San Marcos being a mentor for entering freshman on campus for a professor he started working for last semester.  I noticed while washing clothes he brings home on the weekends there would be a dress shirt and even a tie, I am guessing he is dressing up for his responsible days, which is awesome.  He does mentoring on Monday and Tuesday, then comes home and is available for work at Alamo Drafthouse Wednesday through Sunday.  He even talked to his supervisor and he is now a trainer for incoming servers, which I think came with a dollar raise. 
    I will be doing my work thing, which I am thinking of going in early this week, around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and then even earlier next week to allow myself to come to days slowly, that way I won't want to sleep all morning in Florida.  My sister and her hubby are saying we are starting the days super early which scares me a little bit.  I would rather get there when the morning rush has gone in, I think it would be dumb to spend even an hour in line before going in to the parks.
    I don't want to go into the rest of the summer but June is pretty much already planned out, day to day.  My Mom called just today, my brother just got a new job back up here, so he moves in with us again tomorrow.  He had gotten a job out in the oil fields, but everything slowed down and about died.  He applied all over down there, he wasn't sure about wanting to come back here, but nobody seemed to be hiring and whatever jobs come open were quickly applied by every person not working.  The biggest change here for my brother is that he will be using the guest room downstairs.  Chubs took his old room, it is a big room, and even though I wanted it for my room, Chubs took it over and won't let it go.  The guest room downstairs is smaller, but he does have the bathroom he insisted on using right next door.  I promised Chubs a new toilet in the other bathroom upstairs.  It has one of those small toilets and he has a hard time fitting his big ole butt on the tiny seat.

6/5/16 Boy Got His Way, Sort Of?

    First, a tale of incompetence.  We dropped off Boy's Jeep for some simple repairs on Wednesday afternoon.  At the same time, Boy started pulling me into the idea of getting him a new Jeep, this time with 4x4 and lifted and all the bells and whistles.  The nicest one out on the lot had a price tag of $33,000.  I thought this was pricey, but between Boy coughing up $200 and the $379 a month that we currently pay for his Jeep plus maybe $3000 from Wife's savings and we get a good amount for his Jeep.... well, yesterday, Friday, three days later we still didn't know the actual price of any of the Jeeps.  They are not clearly labeled, like at Ford.  The sales guy just said oh no, the lift kit and tires alone are going to make the price go up like $10,000.  But no definite quote.  Well, I also wanted to know the status of our Jeep, and it turns out, they never did anything to it.  Even though the sales guy said he couldn't appraise the Jeep Wednesday night because the technicians already had it up on the lift, and it was up there until we showed up the next day at the same time, almost 24 hours later, they did nothing to it.  I guess the appraisal was done, while we were there.  Our sales guy, who we told we would be there at three, was busy with another customer.  We went over to Ford and looked around for 30-40 minutes, then headed back.  Sales guy had told us come back tomorrow, he would have all the numbers ready.  Nope, he needed the appraisal, then he needed to talk to his manager, this took a long time, we told him it was fine, we would be back Friday, again at three.  We show up, and again, he is with another customer, we never saw him this time.  Talked to service, they never looked at our Jeep, the sales guy kept the keys in his pocket.  Three days waiting for prices, never got a quote, three days waiting for service, didn't even manage to change the oil.  All this after Wife said not this place, when we bought the Jeep, they did so poorly with our Chrysler 300.
    We go over to Ford, in the meantime while Jeep was in service at Chrysler, within five minutes, we were offered water bottles, all the vehicles are clearly marked with actual giant price tags on the windows, and I will admit I am a big Ford fan, always have been.  I've had 6 Ford trucks, the Excursion, an Expedition, and Wife has been planning her next vehicle to be a Ford.  We just don't have issues with them.  The Excursion is now 12 years old and we are taking it to Florida in two weeks, we trust it that much.
    Anyways, Boy was dreaming with a new Jeep in the near $40,000 range, reality, if we could make it happen was going to be something closer to $20,000.  There were a couple of Escapes with the Certified Pre Owned program where they throw in a 100,000 mile warranty and 7 year coverage.  This can be better than warranty on a new car.  Boy, of course, does not like Escapes, they are the smallest SUV in Ford lineup.  He wanted an Edge, all of a sudden it his dream as a little boy growing up on the East side to one day drive an Edge.  The first one I noticed had AWD, which made it seem cool, like his Jeep, but he was not crazy about the teal, dull greenish color.  Then he found a white Limited Edge, which means loaded from sunroof to fancy brown leather seats and navigation screen on dashboard, identical to my trucks.  That one was $24,500 almost too expensive, but we test drove it.  It was a nice drive, but Wife said the leather looked stressed, like it might start coming apart at the seams, it had like 45,000 miles, and no extended warranty, unless we paid for one.  Then like Moses parting the Red Sea, and helping his people, an Edge I had not seen suddenly was right in front of me.  It had just shown up while we test drove the white Edge.  I liked this one, it did not have a price tag, and only a couple pics on the website (they don't do the 30+ pics until the vehicle has been there a couple days).  This Edge had only 10,000 miles, was a 2014, had the certified pre owned warranty that I wanted, and even the tires looked fairly new, plus the best part, the price was $20,999.  Doesn't seem like much, but it is $4000 cheaper than the one he liked, plus warranty is included, and won't need tires for a couple years.  Winner winner, chicken dinner. 
    We were of course upside down on his Jeep, but just getting it off our hands was a big sigh of relief.  Not only did it have the things needing repairs, I barely fit in it, the seatbelts were tight.  Wife could barely drive it, the pedals don't extend forward and she would drive with the steering wheel on her.  Add to that every pothole or bump in the road shivered through your spine.  I drive big trucks and they never feel this bad, initially one of the big springs was broken, but even after this was repaired, it was very unforgiving.  Never again will I venture out of the Ford family, maybe I'll try a Jaguar for the wife in our later years, but no more Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep.  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, and I am never your customer again.

6/4/16 Boy's Dreams Are Sucking Me In?

    Boy gave Wife a laundry list of things wrong with his Jeep a couple days ago.  I thought it odd, going from no problems to five or six issues almost overnight.  First of all, the wiper blade motor on the passenger side went out, and with all the rain we've been having, we can't ignore this one.  Then going with the rain motif, he decides now to tell us that the Jeep leaks a lot where the roof panels meet each other.  I am sure it is just the seal needing to be replaced, but still, it is another thing to fix.  He has been complaining that when he hits his brakes sometimes he slides around, implying to him that the brakes are going out.  I think it is just normal sliding by a light vehicle on sleek wet roads.  Then he thinks it would be a good time to get new tires installed.  We took it in to the dealership, as I don't want to be responsible for doing something and then the Jeep failing on the road.  While we have the Jeep in the shop, we walked the lot and Boy got excited at the idea of getting a new Jeep.  My first reaction would be to look at the used vehicles, but I think Boy had a plan all along.  He got me looking at the lifted newer nicer Jeeps and starts babbling that he could pay $300 in the summer and about $200 the rest of the year.
    I currently pay $379 a month for his Jeep, and the only reason I was entertaining his thoughts are because I wanted to buy him a new Jeep initially but they were out of reach financially.  When we found his, it was a 2008 in 2013 and it was not 4x4.  It is a 4-door model, and the top does come off, but I have yet to see him do this.  So we decided on a Jeep, got a sales guy, and asked what the price was.  I absolutely hate that none of the vehicles have a price on them.  The Jeep we liked had the window sticker and it said $33,000.  But then we go inside and the sales guy says yeah, that's the price of the Jeep, but it doesn't include the lift kit, and the tires, which is going to add $8000-$10,000.  I said "well sorry for wasting your time, but that is going to put us way outside our window.  He said hold on, let me ask my manager.  Big alpha male comes over, explains to me that MOPAR lift kits are $9000 plus installation, but that is only way a Jeep can be lifted and still remain under warranty.  I said great, but I can do the math in my head and it'll be too much.  He says "what was your price point?  Where would you be comfortable?"  Going with what Boy said, I said price has to be under $600.  He very confidently says "If I can do under $600, do we have a deal?"  I had to say hold on, I need to discuss this with Wife.  He said "ok, but I am here to move metal.  Let me know when you are ready."
    While discussing it with Wife, who calmly said "as long as our payment doesn't change, do whatever."  This is where Boy started backpedaling, saying uhhh, maybe I can pay $150-$200.  "What do you spend your money on?"  I asked impatiently.  He said he spends about $200 a month on board games and other entertainment games like video games and comic books.  Today, he admits he really wants a new Jeep, but doesn't want to be involved paying for anything.  I said it doesn't work that way, Boy.  He is now actively lookin for a Ford Edge or a Ford Escape.  We found examples of this at Ford for around $22000.  This makes him happy, as he thinks he wont have to pay anything.

6/3/16 Tick Tock Says The Clock?

    Time waits for no man.  I dare not say that time is our enemy, considering we just saw Through The Looking Glass and time was discussed from a different perspective.  We are all given the same amount of time on any given day.  We are all humans, so it is understood if some days we just choose to stay in bed all day.  This can be good and even rewarding when done once in a while.
    To really seize the day, to become one of those fellas that get mentioned in books with leather skins though, we must get out of bed and conquer the world.  Twenty four hours will pass for me like any other day, I get up in the afternoon, pick up my son, eat, then go to work.  Tomorrow though, Chubs ends a long six year stretch of time in his first place of formal education outside of his house.  He may never see some of those faces he has been used to seeing and even taken for granted.  Some will continue to the next school and they may form the next layer of friendships which may last a year or a lifetime.  Wife continues as well, maybe she returns to her current place of employment, maybe she finally finds a new place where she is not treated like a brown employee who should be pushing a broom.  She interviewed again last week, and I feel for her, everyone comments on how over the top her abilities are to redefine a job description, her clever ways to make something out of nothing, to provide for the less fortunate, and even make them feel like equals in a world that has already decided they are disposable characters from a story gone bad.  But to what end, she still remains employed in a place she can't find a decent promotion. and still, tick tock...
    Boy continues his march in higher education.  He was challenged more this year than he has been.  I remember those years as being the best when I was in college and I seem to block out the hours spent by myself studying, as I only remember the good times, it is the time spent studying that changes you from a kid to an adult.  It takes much discipline to force yourself to stay locked in when everybody else in the world seems to be having a party.  My mom, jumping into defense mode a couple weeks ago, when I stated an English degree is way easier to get than a chemistry degree seemed to make me sound like a monster.  Her defense was because my sister got an English degree, which I am proud of her as she just used that degree as a stepping stone to end up a principal.  My cousin is also pursuing this degree and I also wish him well, but they did not have to power through four different calculus courses, and a ton of other science courses with labs.  I know Boy is suffering through a similar path as me in Engineering, and I love him regardless, but the fact that he wants to be like Daddy fills me with so much pride.  Silently, through twenty one years of growth, he is becoming his father, in temperament and drive.
    Summer is upon us, soon it will be so hot we won't want to venture outside.  I know we will burn through a bunch of twenty four hour days like so many stoners and losers where nothing seems to get accomplished, but summer is a time to let the brain rest and reset for another season of growth and learning.  That is all I want from my boys, to continue learning and growing both mentally, spiritually, even physically.  At any point, you don't have to be the best, but I should always see that you are doing something to lead you just a little further down the line.  Tick tock says the clock, all I want from you two is to rock.

6/2/16 Parents, You Are Sucking At Your Job?

    What the hell is going on with parents today?  Just on the news today, we have that kid that got in the gorilla exhibit in the Cincinnati Zoo.  Word is that Mama had her head up her ass on her phone while boy wonder kept saying he was going to get in and swim with the gorilla.  We have turned into a world of "pussies", sometimes the best thing is a swift whack on the ass and behavior is corrected.  If Chubs started "I'm gonna swim with the gorillas!"  It would be followed by "don't be an Idiot, that thing will eat your face and maybe shit on you when he's done."  Followed by a spank to know that I am not kidding.  Then I would explain that gorillas weigh like 800 pounds, they are all muscle, there is nothing sweet and fun about them and life is not a freaking cartoon.  Keep your hand wringing to yourself, all of the above is better than "Be calm" as the idiot kid sits inches from the gorilla and thus ending the poor innocent gorilla's life.  This freaking kid better grow up and be something more than a meth head, since they had to kill an endangered gorilla for his 10 cent ass.
    Next story in line is one about a kid knocking over a Disney Lego statue worth over $15,000 in a museum.  Make the kid's family pay something.  When we go to a museum or any "fancy" place I give my usual "don't give me a reason to smack you, do we run inside?" Chubs "no".  "Do we act like animals or give people reason to think we don't know how to behave?" Chubs "no"  Alright, then hold my hand and let's see what we can learn here.  There is usually one or two "touch it so I can kick you right square in the ass!"  And no, I am not abusive, but I am also not going to pay thousands of dollars for something my kid broke.
    The third story is a little different.  It involves a 20 year old Muslim convert who is accused of joining the Islamic State in Syria.  "Jihadi Jack", as he is known, is believed to be the first white Briton to join the terrorist group.  The parents are being charged with providing money to fund terrorist activities, fucking awesome.  These parents probably meant well, kid is probably starving over there, but he had no business going over in the first place.  I would hate to let my kid go to even France if he said he was going to study, but a trip to anywhere in the middle east, "what the fuck for, Mijo?"  I will be honest and say some of those middle eastern women are beautiful, maybe he married a fox, but if she is covered up all the time in a burka, who cares, marry an ugly chick.  The hard lesson may be paid by the parents here if they end up facing jail time, but a message needs to be sent out to stop this moronic activity.  These parents should have said no more often, this kid thinks in his head that he is going to change the world, that he matters.  Sorry Dumb Dumb, all you've been doing is starving in a country that doesn't provide the world much, other than headaches and large beards.
    It's not that I believe in abusing your kids, but your kids are what you are giving the world.  If you provide more welfare recipients, you have kind of failed.  If your kids end up in positions to help other people, maybe learn a discipline that helps the less fortunate, you might have made the world a better place.  Self absorbed full sized assholes usually create miniature bite sized douchebags, that is just how the world works.  If I say spank your child, I mean just make sure you are not creating a monster other people will have a hard time dealing with.  Make them accountable for their actions.

6/1/16 Shitty Speed Limits?

    Going down to my hometown Friday(written last weekend), I got sleepy, so I didn't pay much attention until we were about ten miles out of town, when I woke up.  Sunday, coming back, I saw the official speed limit and I could not believe what I was seeing.  All I can figure is they set it up that low as a speed trap because it is a poor shitty town and that is one of the few ways they can add money, by fining speeders. 
    I am sure that leaving Crystal City, the speed limit changed to 70.  Ahh, like being in the big city.  Somewhere about 10-20 miles from Dilley though, the speed limit changed back to 60.  It was 55 back in the 80's.  In almost 40 years, best you geniuses can do is increase the speed limit 5 miles per hour?  My truck flies at 80 miles per hour on the highway, why would it be better to go that slow?  There is a big prison on that road, is it in case we see a prisoner, he can run and jump in the back of a moving truck.  60 feels like we are crawling.  It is really painful when you have been cruising at 70-75, and then have to slow down that much.
    A truck had passed me, it came out of nowhere, accelerated past me, and I said good, he'll keep moving along faster than me, but after a while, I noticed he was just kind of coasting in front of me.  I got pissed and passed him.  This is when I noticed the slow speed limit.  Now I was having to slow down and I understood why the dude had not kept going full speed ahead.  I tried giving him the lane to pass me, but they are in the process of re-paving the road and it was an ugly drop-off from the newer thicker asphalt to the lower older material on the shoulder.
    Up here in Austin I don't really worry about what speed I am going, even coming in Sunday night, I was cruising along at 80, when we saw a cop car parked on the side of the freeway.  I thought "shit! shit! shit!", but he did not move, maybe it was just a decoy car.  This was very different from our experience in Crystal City sometime a year ago.  Wife was driving and as soon as we entered the city limits, she was pulled over by a city cop.  Wife was maybe going 35 in a 30, and the cop mentioned something like that.  He looked us over and just gave us a warning.  My mom said they had started hiring cops from out of town and they were very aggressive.  They were stopping everybody all the time for any minor reason, I guess if they saw something worthwhile, like a little alcohol or drugs, then they'd really get excited.
    It really bugs me when there are places where the speed limit is 75, and we can haul ass, like on I-37, going to Corpus Christi, even in Wife's VW bug, I've gone as fast as 90 and the car handles it well.  My truck and even the Excursion have all seen 90 on the highway, cars are made much better than they were 30 years ago.  The people in charge need to give up on the notion of making an extra buck this way.  What has now happened is that I will no longer go down to Dilley heading to Crystal City.  I will take the alternate way which goes through La Pryor.  The road is newer, was already completely repaved, and leads to the same place.  It is a little more isolated for a little while longer, but again, these newer vehicles hardly ever break down.