I couldn't help but laugh yesterday as Wife was telling me about her day. She was here for a conference and that meant Little Miss I Know was driving in her little car trying to do too much as usual. On her way out of the parking garage, an officer on a bike stopped her and should have given her a ticket but gave her a warning. I mean we all know the new law that we aren't supposed to have our phones in our hands while driving. I mean I know because Miss Know It All doesn't go a day without telling me that I am not supposed to have my hands on my phone, not that I do, normally. I might pick it up to dial her so she can remind me not to pick up my phone. It is never ending with her is what I am saying, yet when the world turns and it is her that was caught with the phone in her hand, well....
I asked her if she didn't start explaining to the officer how you know all this and how often you tell me over and over? She had no answer, just shook her head in a no fashion, kind of defeated. She said then he must have gotten confused because he saw her badge for La Pryor ISD and gave her a break for being from out of town. "and you didn't correct him? You're so good at it." She said yeah, "I told him my address on my license was old, I have been working in La Pryor for a couple years now. He then proceeded to explain about blocking the box at an intersection with lights. I had to stop eating and exclaim "you explained it to him, right?! I mean how many times have you given me a lecture on that? Come on, this was your big chance to put an officer in his place and tell him I know, I know." Surprisingly, she said she took it like a big girl and let him wax poetically and sat there like a dopey out of towner scared by the rushing traffic and crazy street bums.
I only make fun because ughh... She loves her boys only slightly more than telling me when I am doing something wrong and she gets a chance at every intersection to tell me how I am going to get in the box if I don't stop and I better not be playing with my phone while driving. I haven't gotten a ticket since I was going to UT, like in 1993. She has gotten a couple along with a couple of warnings, yet because she is woman, let her roar. Ha, I laugh, even more so that it didn't cost us money, just a little embarrassment for her.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
1/31/18 Boxing, Sport or Abuse?
This probably won't go farther than this blog and as soon as my Mom and Wife see it I will surely get served a big crockpot of poop, but I like the idea of Javalina joining a boxing group. He has shown an interest and honestly he is intimidating me, but I don't like getting hit. I told him I would spar with him, if he wore the inflatable sock 'em bop 'em gloves and I wore the real boxing gloves and he still hit me so hard he punctured one of the arms.
I don't really want him fighting in a boxing atmosphere, but the training they do is one of the best, most boxers look like badass athletes, all built and with low resting heart rates. I want to get into the training with him, but my idea is hitting the punching bag and jumping rope, if I even walk through the living room it's "come on Dad, let's fight for a bit." I am just constantly saying "don't hit me in the face." "This ain't no Kylo Ren moment, you love your dad." He still got me just right the other day and I didn't quite see stars, but he hit me in the jaw with a sock'em bop 'em glove on the jaw and it totally straightened me out and my whole body followed that punch up and to the left.
I want to see if he really has something or if it is just me that is hesitant to want to hit him back. I mean, best case scenario, I knock him out, I'm a bully, worst case, he knocks me out, which I would never live down. I just thank DD that keeps getting in there mostly because he enjoys moving around with him and he doesn't mind a punch or two. He has worked as a bouncer, so I guess once you get used to getting hit, it's not a big deal?
Austin is a big city so there must be places that do this kind of training, although it seems it is easier to get him into a martial arts class, which could be good to build balance for football season and so he can start the season in better shape. He is stretching right before our eyes because he does not look like the "Chubs" that he was a year ago even if he technically weighs a couple more pounds than he did at the start of the year.
Wife lives today, maybe I can look around now that she'll be gone for a couple days. It was nice having her here, I like knowing my boys are being fed better than panini sandwiches when I am at work. We're supposed to have breakfast today before she leaves, we'll see.
I don't really want him fighting in a boxing atmosphere, but the training they do is one of the best, most boxers look like badass athletes, all built and with low resting heart rates. I want to get into the training with him, but my idea is hitting the punching bag and jumping rope, if I even walk through the living room it's "come on Dad, let's fight for a bit." I am just constantly saying "don't hit me in the face." "This ain't no Kylo Ren moment, you love your dad." He still got me just right the other day and I didn't quite see stars, but he hit me in the jaw with a sock'em bop 'em glove on the jaw and it totally straightened me out and my whole body followed that punch up and to the left.
I want to see if he really has something or if it is just me that is hesitant to want to hit him back. I mean, best case scenario, I knock him out, I'm a bully, worst case, he knocks me out, which I would never live down. I just thank DD that keeps getting in there mostly because he enjoys moving around with him and he doesn't mind a punch or two. He has worked as a bouncer, so I guess once you get used to getting hit, it's not a big deal?
Austin is a big city so there must be places that do this kind of training, although it seems it is easier to get him into a martial arts class, which could be good to build balance for football season and so he can start the season in better shape. He is stretching right before our eyes because he does not look like the "Chubs" that he was a year ago even if he technically weighs a couple more pounds than he did at the start of the year.
Wife lives today, maybe I can look around now that she'll be gone for a couple days. It was nice having her here, I like knowing my boys are being fed better than panini sandwiches when I am at work. We're supposed to have breakfast today before she leaves, we'll see.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
1/30/18 New Roomie?
After Girlie moved out, I wasn't sure what was going to happen to that room. I had started moving the workout stuff in there, and Javalina was looking forward to having the weights where he could get to them, easier. Right after Christmas though, Boy's closest girlfriend called Wife and asked if we could help a friend of hers out. The friend was getting to a point where she was not getting along with her folks and it was suggested she go find a place to stay. She has been over to the house as one of Boy's friends when they play their big dungeons and dragons type games on Friday nights, so she was new to us, but not entirely.
I am always looking for a couple extra bucks and Wife and I said sure, but the rent was going to be the same as what DD pays, $500 a month. Right after we had the discussion, we found out about the funeral for my uncle and we left for a few days. I hadn't heard anything from the girl, although we had talked to her and told her our expectations. Basically, no strange guys coming into my house, which she is not that type of girl. She is basically another Boy, spends all her time playing different video games, so they are all getting along great at the moment. I almost thought it had all fallen apart though, but she started moving in about the day we got back from the funeral.
It's been about three weeks and so far so good. She starts working alongside Boy today, she also works at Alamo Drafhouse where Boy works, she just doesn't know her hours which will probably be moving around. She said she has worked there prior so she knows what is required.
Originally, she had asked if she could stay for a couple months, but as far as I am concerned, she can stay for a year or two, I haven't noticed any weird quirks, she is awesome at cleaning bathrooms. She attacked the 2nd bath upstairs, we told her Javalina and Boy do not use it, so if she can keep it clean, it can be her personal bathroom, which she liked. I swear that the tub and walls look new now, I want to figure out a way to get her to clean the one downstairs, as the three boys are taking aim at it, if you know what I mean, leaving it all stinky and making Wife complain like only she can. I don't know how long she will stay, but so far so good. I was just talking about having to sweep and mop the kitchen on Friday so it looks nice when Wife arrives and she took it upon herself to sweep while I loaded the washer. Shoot, the boys have never been that useful. It sure is nice to have some help plus $1000 extra a month is pretty cool too.
I am always looking for a couple extra bucks and Wife and I said sure, but the rent was going to be the same as what DD pays, $500 a month. Right after we had the discussion, we found out about the funeral for my uncle and we left for a few days. I hadn't heard anything from the girl, although we had talked to her and told her our expectations. Basically, no strange guys coming into my house, which she is not that type of girl. She is basically another Boy, spends all her time playing different video games, so they are all getting along great at the moment. I almost thought it had all fallen apart though, but she started moving in about the day we got back from the funeral.
It's been about three weeks and so far so good. She starts working alongside Boy today, she also works at Alamo Drafhouse where Boy works, she just doesn't know her hours which will probably be moving around. She said she has worked there prior so she knows what is required.
Originally, she had asked if she could stay for a couple months, but as far as I am concerned, she can stay for a year or two, I haven't noticed any weird quirks, she is awesome at cleaning bathrooms. She attacked the 2nd bath upstairs, we told her Javalina and Boy do not use it, so if she can keep it clean, it can be her personal bathroom, which she liked. I swear that the tub and walls look new now, I want to figure out a way to get her to clean the one downstairs, as the three boys are taking aim at it, if you know what I mean, leaving it all stinky and making Wife complain like only she can. I don't know how long she will stay, but so far so good. I was just talking about having to sweep and mop the kitchen on Friday so it looks nice when Wife arrives and she took it upon herself to sweep while I loaded the washer. Shoot, the boys have never been that useful. It sure is nice to have some help plus $1000 extra a month is pretty cool too.
Monday, January 29, 2018
1/29/18 Almost Got Suckered By Pups?
Wife is here for a conference this week, so instead of the boys surviving on paninis and cold cuts, we went to HEB to get some stuff for real food. We got some quick stuff to grill some burgers and hot dogs for tonight and then spaghetti tomorrow. On the way out, I was impressed we kept it under $100, walking in a quick manner because we had eaten lunch and poop was coming.
We had to slow down when we passed an older minivan with 5 fat puppies in the back. Some Mexican lady was selling black Labrador puppies and they were pretty cute. All of them were identical and fat little bodies. If we still did impulsive buys and we had the $250 on us we probably would have brought one home with us. Javalina was even offering his Christmas money to make it happen. I thought about going back, but the thought of another permanent member who poops in my house and I might have to clean it up does not excite me.
Our discussion then turned to asking my son who last year really wanted a beagle or would have taken a dachshund if he was going to be responsible for cleaning and feeding the pup before we decided it was a bad idea. I don't want to be responsible for another critter, and I know with Wife living three hours away, I would be the chief shit picker upper. I do like the idea of a pup, they are cute and entertaining watching them grow up, but Labradors grow up to be big dogs and then it seems our life would be centered around taking care of it.
I grew up with dogs in our home at all times, but it was something my mom was into. I don't think she minded keeping up with them. We had a couple dogs the size this Labradors will probably get to but we kept them outside, they never came in. It wasn't until I was out of the house that my mom started experimenting with inside dogs. The last twenty years she has had only dogs she keeps inside and they may be cute, but that means they come visit when they come visit. She used to have a horrible Chihuahua that did nothing but bark and attack. We couldn't hug my mom without the stupid dog spazzing out. My mom and sister may have loved it, but the rest of us weren't too upset when it passed away.
Wife also had a bunch of dogs growing up. They had a 3 legged german shepherd they named Nuni when we met, and Nuni means Junior, so my parents and most of my family called me Nuni. The first time I went over, and they called the dog I was like how do they know my house name already? They also had a horrible dog that always came after me that my father in law picked up at a random store in San Antonio. It was already grown and the owners couldn't keep up with it, so they gave it to him, which sucked for about 7-10 years. I would have to announce myself, they would hide the dog in a bedroom and it would whimper and whine trying to get out to harass me. Eventually, they put it outside, but I never liked it.
Those are my experiences with dogs, they are cool to have, if you don't have to constantly clean up after them. If you are the cleaner, then it will always be your responsibility to run around looking for landmines not getting stepped on. If we end up getting a dog, it will probably be a smaller type, the Labrador is a good family dog, but it is also a big dog, I mean the pups were already about as big as my mom's Winnie dog now that it is full size.
We had to slow down when we passed an older minivan with 5 fat puppies in the back. Some Mexican lady was selling black Labrador puppies and they were pretty cute. All of them were identical and fat little bodies. If we still did impulsive buys and we had the $250 on us we probably would have brought one home with us. Javalina was even offering his Christmas money to make it happen. I thought about going back, but the thought of another permanent member who poops in my house and I might have to clean it up does not excite me.
Our discussion then turned to asking my son who last year really wanted a beagle or would have taken a dachshund if he was going to be responsible for cleaning and feeding the pup before we decided it was a bad idea. I don't want to be responsible for another critter, and I know with Wife living three hours away, I would be the chief shit picker upper. I do like the idea of a pup, they are cute and entertaining watching them grow up, but Labradors grow up to be big dogs and then it seems our life would be centered around taking care of it.
I grew up with dogs in our home at all times, but it was something my mom was into. I don't think she minded keeping up with them. We had a couple dogs the size this Labradors will probably get to but we kept them outside, they never came in. It wasn't until I was out of the house that my mom started experimenting with inside dogs. The last twenty years she has had only dogs she keeps inside and they may be cute, but that means they come visit when they come visit. She used to have a horrible Chihuahua that did nothing but bark and attack. We couldn't hug my mom without the stupid dog spazzing out. My mom and sister may have loved it, but the rest of us weren't too upset when it passed away.
Wife also had a bunch of dogs growing up. They had a 3 legged german shepherd they named Nuni when we met, and Nuni means Junior, so my parents and most of my family called me Nuni. The first time I went over, and they called the dog I was like how do they know my house name already? They also had a horrible dog that always came after me that my father in law picked up at a random store in San Antonio. It was already grown and the owners couldn't keep up with it, so they gave it to him, which sucked for about 7-10 years. I would have to announce myself, they would hide the dog in a bedroom and it would whimper and whine trying to get out to harass me. Eventually, they put it outside, but I never liked it.
Those are my experiences with dogs, they are cool to have, if you don't have to constantly clean up after them. If you are the cleaner, then it will always be your responsibility to run around looking for landmines not getting stepped on. If we end up getting a dog, it will probably be a smaller type, the Labrador is a good family dog, but it is also a big dog, I mean the pups were already about as big as my mom's Winnie dog now that it is full size.
Saturday, January 27, 2018
1/28/18 Too Many All-You-Can-Eat Attempts?
I don't usually dig the buffet places but today we ended up at two places with no limits on eating. The first was in the morning, Javalina had a band event at Applebee's. They are going to Schlitterbahn sometime in the spring and this was a breakfast buffet, all you can eat pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage. The whole deal was for $10 a person, not bad if you like to hog down. Our boy did not even want to go, he was sure he was going to be volunteered for waiter services.
He was not called to help, so we were able to eat like a family, even Boy joined us. The cost was a little steep at $10 a head, we paid $40 at the door. They had a bunch of volunteers, one to serve the bacon, one to serve the sausage, one to bring water, one to bring coffee, one to bring orange juice, it was almost distracting so many kids I had to swim through to get to the food.
It was the nicest day for napping and lounging so we came back home and did just that. Javalina is reading 12 Years A Slave in school, so he sat with Wife to watch it while I took a nap from about 11:00am to 1:30 or so. He kept trying to escape since today is his relaxing day, but Wife would not let him. Eventually, it ended and Wife napped for about an hour. We both got up around 4:00pm and got ready to go eat Salt Lick which we had talked about doing the night before. We usually get there late, but we were early and it was not super crowded like it usually is, so we waited only about 25minutes. Actually, Javalina said we checked in at 6:05pm and they called us right at 6:30pm. We ate almost three full plates of their delicious buffet before slowing down. We were able to get a fourth plate brought out to us, but we brought all that home, and some from the third round as we just spread the meat on our plates to get the girl to bring us more meat.
We got out of there by 7:30pm and Wife suggested going to Central Market for a little dessert, which I never would say no to even if I was sleepy. I slept from one place to the other, but got up and got some nice coffee bread and Wife got cupcakes for all of us. Javalina was good, only grabbing a lame candy, which he got only because last time he whipped me good on the shoulder and was planning on doing it again.
We made a final stop at CVS so Wife could buy some nail clippers for the big boy to cut his nails. We were home around 10:00pm and went right on back to doing what we do best, nothing.
He was not called to help, so we were able to eat like a family, even Boy joined us. The cost was a little steep at $10 a head, we paid $40 at the door. They had a bunch of volunteers, one to serve the bacon, one to serve the sausage, one to bring water, one to bring coffee, one to bring orange juice, it was almost distracting so many kids I had to swim through to get to the food.
It was the nicest day for napping and lounging so we came back home and did just that. Javalina is reading 12 Years A Slave in school, so he sat with Wife to watch it while I took a nap from about 11:00am to 1:30 or so. He kept trying to escape since today is his relaxing day, but Wife would not let him. Eventually, it ended and Wife napped for about an hour. We both got up around 4:00pm and got ready to go eat Salt Lick which we had talked about doing the night before. We usually get there late, but we were early and it was not super crowded like it usually is, so we waited only about 25minutes. Actually, Javalina said we checked in at 6:05pm and they called us right at 6:30pm. We ate almost three full plates of their delicious buffet before slowing down. We were able to get a fourth plate brought out to us, but we brought all that home, and some from the third round as we just spread the meat on our plates to get the girl to bring us more meat.
We got out of there by 7:30pm and Wife suggested going to Central Market for a little dessert, which I never would say no to even if I was sleepy. I slept from one place to the other, but got up and got some nice coffee bread and Wife got cupcakes for all of us. Javalina was good, only grabbing a lame candy, which he got only because last time he whipped me good on the shoulder and was planning on doing it again.
We made a final stop at CVS so Wife could buy some nail clippers for the big boy to cut his nails. We were home around 10:00pm and went right on back to doing what we do best, nothing.
1/27/18 Freeze Frame?
I will readily admit I don't know anything about art. I have never understood why people would hang photos, I mean portraits, of a bowl of fruit. How do we determine what is good art? Who is the ultimate know it all who can tell us yes, that would look good on your walls? Maybe my expert will turn out to be Boy. He has been telling us about his adventures downtown and the various art museums he has been to. There is one that caters specifically to Star Wars and that whole world. There is another he was talking about focused on the Marvel world.
I don't know that I am ready to buy full poster size portraits to fill the remaining space on my walls, but I have bought a few smaller pieces when we've gone to Disney World. We now have about 7 images ranging from Cinderella to the scary people stretched in the entrance to the Haunted Mansion recreated with Mickey, Goofy and other Disney characters. I've had them in their paper frames which are thick cardboard that protect them from getting folded or wrinkled. The same goes for the 8x10 photos of Javalina and his teammates. I had not done anything to them, other than keep them out so they wouldn't get lost in a drawer or closet.
In the last few months, Boy has started framing his "art" and the images look so much better I have to admit. I liked it enough that I have now gone and framed Javalinas images and would have hung them butI couldn't find my proper hooks and screws to do it. I know Wife would just use a tack, but I like to know they won't possibly fall and break later. I got lucky yesterday, all frames at Hobby Lobby were on sale, so my prints from Disney are all 14x18 and the frame I decided was black and was on sale at a reasonable price of $12.50. Now I have to find the proper space to put all these images on the wall. We have huge empty wall space right now that sits empty. It is the second floor wall in the foyer (entrance) which we would need a ladder to get up that high. I don't know that I want my fat ass on a dinky ladder to hang a couple of posters, I'll probably use Boy or DD to make this happen, if Wife insists.
I did decide that if we go with movie posters, I want the original looks of the posters and only one per world. Such as Star Wars gets one, so does Lord Of The Rings because I truly enjoyed those movies. After that, I would have to think about it. Maybe Indiana Jones, or the American Pie saga, although that one is kinda goofy. I feel like we almost need a Godfather poster, although I never did fall in love with that crew. Maybe a Pulp Fiction for the work of Tarantino, Wife said a Pixar poster, probably Toy Story.
I don't know, this goes with the upgrading of our house, and first for me in order of importance as I have mentioned before is hardwood flooring, but the prints/photos/art whatever you want to call them look a lot more mature in frames
I don't know that I am ready to buy full poster size portraits to fill the remaining space on my walls, but I have bought a few smaller pieces when we've gone to Disney World. We now have about 7 images ranging from Cinderella to the scary people stretched in the entrance to the Haunted Mansion recreated with Mickey, Goofy and other Disney characters. I've had them in their paper frames which are thick cardboard that protect them from getting folded or wrinkled. The same goes for the 8x10 photos of Javalina and his teammates. I had not done anything to them, other than keep them out so they wouldn't get lost in a drawer or closet.
In the last few months, Boy has started framing his "art" and the images look so much better I have to admit. I liked it enough that I have now gone and framed Javalinas images and would have hung them butI couldn't find my proper hooks and screws to do it. I know Wife would just use a tack, but I like to know they won't possibly fall and break later. I got lucky yesterday, all frames at Hobby Lobby were on sale, so my prints from Disney are all 14x18 and the frame I decided was black and was on sale at a reasonable price of $12.50. Now I have to find the proper space to put all these images on the wall. We have huge empty wall space right now that sits empty. It is the second floor wall in the foyer (entrance) which we would need a ladder to get up that high. I don't know that I want my fat ass on a dinky ladder to hang a couple of posters, I'll probably use Boy or DD to make this happen, if Wife insists.
I did decide that if we go with movie posters, I want the original looks of the posters and only one per world. Such as Star Wars gets one, so does Lord Of The Rings because I truly enjoyed those movies. After that, I would have to think about it. Maybe Indiana Jones, or the American Pie saga, although that one is kinda goofy. I feel like we almost need a Godfather poster, although I never did fall in love with that crew. Maybe a Pulp Fiction for the work of Tarantino, Wife said a Pixar poster, probably Toy Story.
I don't know, this goes with the upgrading of our house, and first for me in order of importance as I have mentioned before is hardwood flooring, but the prints/photos/art whatever you want to call them look a lot more mature in frames
Friday, January 26, 2018
1/26/18 Wife's Conference?
I hardly talked to Wife last night, which is rare, we usually talk when she is on her way to one place or another. She was in a conference and me just asking if she was having fun got me dragged into her world as she gave me a horrible recap of stuff happening every day that I don't want to hear about. The conference she was at was dealing with emergency situations at school campuses, which now has to include not just storms and tornadoes, but assholes with guns who are unhappy because their mommas didn't love them enough.
There was a specific group led by a man who lost her daughter in one of these gun situations at a school in Colorado, right after Columbine leading the training, and he described his ordeal of losing a child this way. He formed a group that has so far trained hundreds of schools and they go around providing information to anyone interested. Wife of course eats this up with a big spoon and she wants me to get into it, so she is describing it in detail until she knows I am crying over here. It is sad, to think of your own child in a campus with idiots out to do harm and prepared to die. I always wish they test the first bullets on their heads, kids are innocent and are easy targets in a school because they herd like animals. I had to tell Wife to stop, how many stories of kids sending gying messages to their parents do you think I want to hear?
About the only thing that makes sense is to arm a select group of the facuty, those capable/comfortable yielding a firearm, but then you run the chance of Johnny Idiot getting his hands on one of these guns on campus and accidentally shooting a fellow student. Given that there have been over 200 school shootings since the Sandy Hook Massacre, things need to change, otherwise gunmen will keep thinking schools are a good place to leave their mark. If I knew there might be resistance waiting for me, I might have second thoughts about heading to a school to kill. Right now, they know they have the upper hand, cops show up after a few minutes after they are notified. They don't rush into a school, rather they hope that talking it out can resolve the issue.
The next best thing a school can do is defense, and that starts with heavy doors that lock instantly when needed and a place in each classroom that is shielded from view through all windows. Once gunmen are in the campus, all kids and faculty can do is stay out of their way, so that means hiding in their rooms until the trouble is defused.
I then asked Wife, does this mean your school is going to look into doors that lock and are bullet proof, because if you're not then this is a downer. I wanted Wife to get certified to carry since she is alone a lot of the time. Maybe this conference will be the nudge to get her to decide to carry some hot lead in her purse.
There was a specific group led by a man who lost her daughter in one of these gun situations at a school in Colorado, right after Columbine leading the training, and he described his ordeal of losing a child this way. He formed a group that has so far trained hundreds of schools and they go around providing information to anyone interested. Wife of course eats this up with a big spoon and she wants me to get into it, so she is describing it in detail until she knows I am crying over here. It is sad, to think of your own child in a campus with idiots out to do harm and prepared to die. I always wish they test the first bullets on their heads, kids are innocent and are easy targets in a school because they herd like animals. I had to tell Wife to stop, how many stories of kids sending gying messages to their parents do you think I want to hear?
About the only thing that makes sense is to arm a select group of the facuty, those capable/comfortable yielding a firearm, but then you run the chance of Johnny Idiot getting his hands on one of these guns on campus and accidentally shooting a fellow student. Given that there have been over 200 school shootings since the Sandy Hook Massacre, things need to change, otherwise gunmen will keep thinking schools are a good place to leave their mark. If I knew there might be resistance waiting for me, I might have second thoughts about heading to a school to kill. Right now, they know they have the upper hand, cops show up after a few minutes after they are notified. They don't rush into a school, rather they hope that talking it out can resolve the issue.
The next best thing a school can do is defense, and that starts with heavy doors that lock instantly when needed and a place in each classroom that is shielded from view through all windows. Once gunmen are in the campus, all kids and faculty can do is stay out of their way, so that means hiding in their rooms until the trouble is defused.
I then asked Wife, does this mean your school is going to look into doors that lock and are bullet proof, because if you're not then this is a downer. I wanted Wife to get certified to carry since she is alone a lot of the time. Maybe this conference will be the nudge to get her to decide to carry some hot lead in her purse.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
1/25/18 Normal Weekend?
It will be nice to have a regular long weekend, it feels like it's been over a month since I had one. Between the Christmas break and the freeze and everything else that has happened, it probably has been that long. I am hoping Wife can break free from her conference early, but she's the kind of nut that if they are going to be released early, she'll ask questions to make sure they stay there the full time. She told me she was somewhere between San Marcos and San Antonio, I am not 100% sure where she is. I actually got worried and started thinking the worst last night. She called before 6:00pm last night as I was leaving for work. All I got was a message, I guess she's so important she can't talk to us mouthbreathers when she is with the rest of her administrators. I figured two hours to get to San Antonio, then another half hour to unpack, run to bathroom, but no call around 8:30pm. Before I knew it, it was almost 10:00pm, so I broke protocol, even if she grounded me for it, I called her before I was supposed to, and nothing. She usually can't help posting a cartoon on Snapchat, but I found nothing on any of the media things.
I went to the bathroom, thinking maybe I should go home and see what's up, but by the time I made it back, she finally called. She said something about waiting for something and they left later than she thought, blah blah blah. Once I heard she was ok, then fine, go back to playing important person, I just need to know you're ok once in a while, specially while traveling.
It should be a nice weekend, it has still been just a tad chilly for me all week, but it's one of those weekends I would love to go to the Salt Lick and hang out with some brisket. Now that I think about it, Wife wanted to just grill some meat here at the house, so we shall probably feast on some cow this weekend, already sounds better. As busy as we have been, I wouldn't mind a night of OT, but what I hear is that they are barely able to pay us, so thinking about splurging on extra money for anyone of us is probably not going to happen. It sucks that I have never worked harder than I have these last few months, and yet, the company is still just barely eeking out enough for us to stay afloat. It got late on me, so I am cutting this one short. Have a good weekend everyone.
I went to the bathroom, thinking maybe I should go home and see what's up, but by the time I made it back, she finally called. She said something about waiting for something and they left later than she thought, blah blah blah. Once I heard she was ok, then fine, go back to playing important person, I just need to know you're ok once in a while, specially while traveling.
It should be a nice weekend, it has still been just a tad chilly for me all week, but it's one of those weekends I would love to go to the Salt Lick and hang out with some brisket. Now that I think about it, Wife wanted to just grill some meat here at the house, so we shall probably feast on some cow this weekend, already sounds better. As busy as we have been, I wouldn't mind a night of OT, but what I hear is that they are barely able to pay us, so thinking about splurging on extra money for anyone of us is probably not going to happen. It sucks that I have never worked harder than I have these last few months, and yet, the company is still just barely eeking out enough for us to stay afloat. It got late on me, so I am cutting this one short. Have a good weekend everyone.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
1/24/18 Bright (Netflix Movie)
This movie is what I had been looking for last week. I wanted something like Lord Of The Rings I was telling Wife, and this is about as different and close as you can get. Will Smith comes out as the human assigned to be partners with an orc. In this world, humans live alongside orcs, elves, fairies are a nuisance, like big bees as one is unceremoniously taken out with a broom in the first few minutes. Will Smith, aka Daryl Ward is just coming back on duty after getting shot by an orc. His partner is the first orc accepted into the academy, so it is a big deal for society to have him accepted, but none of the human officers trusts him, including Daryl. He kind of blames him for letting the orc that shot him get away after it happened. The orc is in a tough spot where he really is and wants to be a good cop even if the orcs look down on him. Eventually, they are back to normal, doing normal cop stuff, until they come upon a house where "magic is being done and they find an elf and a wand. Only "brights" can yield wands which most of them are elves, but there are like one in a million humans who are also brights and can thus yield a magic wand too. If a "non-bright" human touches a wand, they explode and turn to dust along with anybody in their vicinity, but that is the only way to find out if you are a bright.
Several evil elves are trying to bring back the dark lord to restore magic to its proper place, humans have decided it is better to let it become folklore and not let it be seen out in the world. The neighborhood is full of typical Mexican gangbangers and upon hearing about the wand, everyone wants it. It is up to Daryl and his Orc sidekick to keep it out of the bad guy's hands. There is a lot of action and even a little magic to boot. What I heard after asking around is that this might possibly become a show on TV, most likely without Will Smith, although he does tend to make things better.
I love this idea of orcs and humans living in the same place. The movie is not subtle about the relations between humans and orcs, relating somewhat to how it seems to be between the races where that kind of stuff is really bad. I liked the off the cuff comment when an orc "escapes" by jumping 13 feet in the air, that orcs are not basketball players, they do not possess those type of skills. Low to the ground and strong, that is why you find them mostly in the NFL on the offensive and defensive lines. It just gave it a sense of realness to it, like it was so. I would love to see this turned into a show on TV, I guess we shall see.
Several evil elves are trying to bring back the dark lord to restore magic to its proper place, humans have decided it is better to let it become folklore and not let it be seen out in the world. The neighborhood is full of typical Mexican gangbangers and upon hearing about the wand, everyone wants it. It is up to Daryl and his Orc sidekick to keep it out of the bad guy's hands. There is a lot of action and even a little magic to boot. What I heard after asking around is that this might possibly become a show on TV, most likely without Will Smith, although he does tend to make things better.
I love this idea of orcs and humans living in the same place. The movie is not subtle about the relations between humans and orcs, relating somewhat to how it seems to be between the races where that kind of stuff is really bad. I liked the off the cuff comment when an orc "escapes" by jumping 13 feet in the air, that orcs are not basketball players, they do not possess those type of skills. Low to the ground and strong, that is why you find them mostly in the NFL on the offensive and defensive lines. It just gave it a sense of realness to it, like it was so. I would love to see this turned into a show on TV, I guess we shall see.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
1/23/18 The Bad Batch (Netflix Movie)
I thought everything Netflix did was great. This was a clunker of a movie, decent idea, but not a very good carry through. The Bad Batch has a few things going against it. First, there is very little given. We don't know why the people are here, other than they are Bad Batch People. The story picks up with some random girl gets dropped off at a fence and given nothing for protection from the sun or the people. The next thing we see is she is being "hunted" by a couple and they capture her and in the next few scenes they cut her arm first and then her leg. These are cannibals, living off other weaker humans. There are a couple of scenes where huge bodybuilder types are lifting weights. Sorry, but this is not believable, as weight training takes real effort and to look like those guys, some steroids, but we get the idea. They eat a lot of humans to keep up with their protein needs.
I just read the overview and it actually has some big stars, Keanu Reeves comes out as a DJ with too much power who is slowly building a den of baby making mamas for himself. Jim Carrey also comes out, he must be the guy with the store basket walking around the desert who saves the girl, he doesn't talk much, but shows up when needed. Giovanni Ribisi is another big name that meanders in a scene that offers nothing. The head cannibal is the new Aquaman, Jason Momoa, who is full of muscle, but short of dialogue. Most of the movie lacks some communication, nobody is saying anything, it's like they are just waiting to die or something.
It does seem a little cringy when it starts looking like a romance is fixing to brew between the girl whose arm and leg were taken for a snack and the head cannibal, Aquaman. His daughter is taken, by the amputee girl when she accidentally runs into the daughter and her mom in a junkyard. She kills the mom, takes the girl, then losses her at a party. There is stupidity that makes no sense all around. Now that I see so many good names of actors, I want to think I missed something, but no, the movie just isn't very good.
There is no explanation of anything outside of what they are going through. We don't know why Texas was chosen as this desert place, why most of the people are in for, or if there is a way out. All these people are just misfits and tossed into this bad place.
I just read the overview and it actually has some big stars, Keanu Reeves comes out as a DJ with too much power who is slowly building a den of baby making mamas for himself. Jim Carrey also comes out, he must be the guy with the store basket walking around the desert who saves the girl, he doesn't talk much, but shows up when needed. Giovanni Ribisi is another big name that meanders in a scene that offers nothing. The head cannibal is the new Aquaman, Jason Momoa, who is full of muscle, but short of dialogue. Most of the movie lacks some communication, nobody is saying anything, it's like they are just waiting to die or something.
It does seem a little cringy when it starts looking like a romance is fixing to brew between the girl whose arm and leg were taken for a snack and the head cannibal, Aquaman. His daughter is taken, by the amputee girl when she accidentally runs into the daughter and her mom in a junkyard. She kills the mom, takes the girl, then losses her at a party. There is stupidity that makes no sense all around. Now that I see so many good names of actors, I want to think I missed something, but no, the movie just isn't very good.
There is no explanation of anything outside of what they are going through. We don't know why Texas was chosen as this desert place, why most of the people are in for, or if there is a way out. All these people are just misfits and tossed into this bad place.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
1/22/18 Disappointing Boat Show?
I hate to admit that the boat show was a huge waste of time. Like wow, the prices on the boats were bordering on ridiculous. We walked over to the convention center from a parking garage because downtown Austin sucks now and if you dare venture down there, expect to pay to park. We knew that going in, so it wasn't the worst part of the day. Wife was kind of excited to stop and eat chicken at Gus's World Famous Chicken which I was willing to do since we had already gone and paid for the parking and it was along our walking route to the convention center.
The price to get in was no help, charging $10 for adults and $6 for children. Wife is good at staring people down saying her baby is still 12 to save $4, even if she has to shave his beard and tell him to look young. Anyways, we were in right after and the first set of boats was a line of about 8 pontoon boats, which Wife says is the kind of boat we should get. The prices varied from $55,000 to $104,000, for pontoon boats. This set the shock factor at ugh for the rest of the day. There was then a dealer with a few center console fishing boats, which I like how they look. Again, from $54,000 to like $159,000. Where are the cheap boats already? Another dealer had a huge display of beautiful boats, but they are all the kind you Wakeboard with and I do not like that they all tend to be set up with the propeller directly under the boat, you can't get into shallow water with those, and they tend to start in the $70,000 range.
There was a corner of the show dedicated to hot tubs and I had only seen them online, but they had the swimming hottubs and they look cool as can be. I really like this idea and am considering getting rid of the pool and burying the large hottub in the hole, then surrounding it with a deck of some kind. These giant hottubs were on sale between $25,000 and $34,000.
The Scarab boat line caught my eyes and there was a midsized one for about $40,000. They have been around a long time so they know what they are doing, still, when $40,000 starts sounding cheap, maybe you are in the wrong venue. I do like the idea of a couple jetskis, they would be less than $20,000 for two or thereabouts. I wouldn't have to pay for storage, they would fit in the garage, but Wife doesn't like that idea.
The other half of the floor was dedicated to RVs. We looked at them, but they were all tow behind types. If we get another one, I would like one we could drive, again, those prices are way out there. We hadn't been in a few years, so it was nice to go and make a day of it, but if those prices don't come down, I don't see how regular people are going to get into boating. More and more , it appears to be a game for the stinky rich.
The price to get in was no help, charging $10 for adults and $6 for children. Wife is good at staring people down saying her baby is still 12 to save $4, even if she has to shave his beard and tell him to look young. Anyways, we were in right after and the first set of boats was a line of about 8 pontoon boats, which Wife says is the kind of boat we should get. The prices varied from $55,000 to $104,000, for pontoon boats. This set the shock factor at ugh for the rest of the day. There was then a dealer with a few center console fishing boats, which I like how they look. Again, from $54,000 to like $159,000. Where are the cheap boats already? Another dealer had a huge display of beautiful boats, but they are all the kind you Wakeboard with and I do not like that they all tend to be set up with the propeller directly under the boat, you can't get into shallow water with those, and they tend to start in the $70,000 range.
There was a corner of the show dedicated to hot tubs and I had only seen them online, but they had the swimming hottubs and they look cool as can be. I really like this idea and am considering getting rid of the pool and burying the large hottub in the hole, then surrounding it with a deck of some kind. These giant hottubs were on sale between $25,000 and $34,000.
The Scarab boat line caught my eyes and there was a midsized one for about $40,000. They have been around a long time so they know what they are doing, still, when $40,000 starts sounding cheap, maybe you are in the wrong venue. I do like the idea of a couple jetskis, they would be less than $20,000 for two or thereabouts. I wouldn't have to pay for storage, they would fit in the garage, but Wife doesn't like that idea.
The other half of the floor was dedicated to RVs. We looked at them, but they were all tow behind types. If we get another one, I would like one we could drive, again, those prices are way out there. We hadn't been in a few years, so it was nice to go and make a day of it, but if those prices don't come down, I don't see how regular people are going to get into boating. More and more , it appears to be a game for the stinky rich.
1/21/18 Mando The Investor?
One day I am going to hug Monster Drink Guy, his conversations both piss me off and intrigue me. He has a way of being annoying but always having a good point. He came in Friday morning asking what I had planned for the weekend, I told him I was going to the boat show, I don't have a dime to my name but as soon as I free up some money, I want to look at getting another boat. He winced like everybody else, said he had a boat once, it's fun, you go around the lake "wheeee", then what? I said that's it, it's simple and fun, maybe do a little fishing, chill with people you like, family. He said "oh yeah, you got a boat, everybody wants to join you, but nobody wants to pay for anything." I said "yeah, I've had a boat before, I know how it works."
He said take your money and invest it. I said "First, I don't know how to invest it, Second, I don't have money to invest, I said I am just going to look at the pretty boats." This is where it gets similar to talking to my brother, he says "just stop using your credit cards and pay for everything cash, man." Yeah, "great advice, let me get out of debt first, then we can talk about that." He continued poking, "even if you don't have money, you should start small and invest. I said simply "how?" He said "you had Fidelity or whatever through AMD or Spansion, they still exist, they'll invest for you." Honestly, a light came on in my head, I had not had that thought before. I went to Scottrade a few months ago and converted all my old stocks to cash and sold them. That could have been the beginning of my investment life.
I then came home and tried telling Wife about this, to which she spun off talking about bitcoin. I gave her a sharp "Focus!" I'm not talking about BS you have to solve math problems to get (I don't know how bitcoin works, but it sounds bogus). I mean the good old stock market, where you pick stocks and see how they do. I can start with a couple hundred dollars and see what happens. She is already an expert because somehow or other she ended up with $5 of a bitcoin stock through a credit card offer and she sounded like a parrot who only knows "bitcoin" "bitcoin" "bitcoin". That pretty much ended the conversation last night, we were headed to see Star Wars and we haven't had a chance to talk much, all of Boy's friends were here in the kitchen with us when she got here and then we rushed off to Pei Wei because she had a coupon for BOGO free plate. Story of our lives, we ran to get the plates, they took a little too long, we took them to the movies, left them in the car, saw Star Wars, got home and microwaved it into a mediocre dinner at 1:30am. But she got to use her BOGO free coupon.
Maybe we can discuss this like adults today, if she mentions bitcoin, she is getting a finger in the butthole to reboot her, I am not discussing shit I don't understand, I read it lost 213billion dollars this week. That is more than most companies are worth and this thing just exists online. Maybe I should just stick to buying gold if I have extra money.
He said take your money and invest it. I said "First, I don't know how to invest it, Second, I don't have money to invest, I said I am just going to look at the pretty boats." This is where it gets similar to talking to my brother, he says "just stop using your credit cards and pay for everything cash, man." Yeah, "great advice, let me get out of debt first, then we can talk about that." He continued poking, "even if you don't have money, you should start small and invest. I said simply "how?" He said "you had Fidelity or whatever through AMD or Spansion, they still exist, they'll invest for you." Honestly, a light came on in my head, I had not had that thought before. I went to Scottrade a few months ago and converted all my old stocks to cash and sold them. That could have been the beginning of my investment life.
I then came home and tried telling Wife about this, to which she spun off talking about bitcoin. I gave her a sharp "Focus!" I'm not talking about BS you have to solve math problems to get (I don't know how bitcoin works, but it sounds bogus). I mean the good old stock market, where you pick stocks and see how they do. I can start with a couple hundred dollars and see what happens. She is already an expert because somehow or other she ended up with $5 of a bitcoin stock through a credit card offer and she sounded like a parrot who only knows "bitcoin" "bitcoin" "bitcoin". That pretty much ended the conversation last night, we were headed to see Star Wars and we haven't had a chance to talk much, all of Boy's friends were here in the kitchen with us when she got here and then we rushed off to Pei Wei because she had a coupon for BOGO free plate. Story of our lives, we ran to get the plates, they took a little too long, we took them to the movies, left them in the car, saw Star Wars, got home and microwaved it into a mediocre dinner at 1:30am. But she got to use her BOGO free coupon.
Maybe we can discuss this like adults today, if she mentions bitcoin, she is getting a finger in the butthole to reboot her, I am not discussing shit I don't understand, I read it lost 213billion dollars this week. That is more than most companies are worth and this thing just exists online. Maybe I should just stick to buying gold if I have extra money.
Saturday, January 20, 2018
1/20/18 Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Movie)
We just got out of seeing the latest Star Wars movie and it was good visually, but storywise, it is getting old. If I even understood it correctly, the story starts upon the discovery of the rebel base. The empire is set on destroying them, but of course they get tricked and the good guys escape, except they didn't this time. The empire has figured out how to track the ships through hyperspace, so they can't just jump and flee like they always did before.
Meanwhile, there is a new Master in the Sith community, Lord Snoke. He doesn't look too good and doesn't even get off his ass to fight, but he can move things around pretty easily. These guys are always in charge of the latest weaponry ad the biggest ships, yet they always want to battle that one person who can fight with a lightsaber. He gets his of course, then Kylo Ren and Rey get involved in another battle that pits them against some pretty good foes. For a second it looks like they may emerge out of this on the same side, but you know life and the way these movies work.
There is also a long arc that shows Rey and Luke talking. She wants him to show her the ways of the force, Luke is afraid, he started training Kylo Ren and felt him going to the darkside. He blames himself, and with good reason, he kind of fucked up. After awhile, she gives up and leaves. Chewbacca is mostly there for visual effect, and piloting the Millenium Falcon, not that there was too much going on this time with it.
The saddest part was knowing Carrie Fisher died in real life so we expected her storyline to abruptly stop, but she was there until pretty much the end. Her survival at one critical point was almost comical, but I guess she needed to stick around until the end of the movie. Luke eventually gets involved again and the scene is very touching when him and Leia meet again on screen, along with the Wookie, and even the two robots C3PO and R2D2.
I don't want to give too much of the story out, but it was mostly fewer and fewer rebels trying to survive and get away to fight another day from the Imperial Forces. The fighting scene on the red planet is stunningly beautiful as their fighter ships have to drag a part along the ground which exposes the red mineral underneath the salt on top. The diamond foxes or whatever they are look and sound very cool as well. They were not as cute as the little "brown penguins" or whatever Chewie ends up saving.
There was even a scene in a casino which was very nice and expensive looking, along with some racing of some horse looking thing. The movie was all over the place, but still entertaining. I did not enjoy the last movie that didn't have any Jedis in it. You need them to keep the mystique in there, I don't know though. By the time the movie was over, there were very few Rebels left. They all fit in the Millenium Falcon, so only a handful from the 400 or so in the three space ships at the start of the movie.
Meanwhile, there is a new Master in the Sith community, Lord Snoke. He doesn't look too good and doesn't even get off his ass to fight, but he can move things around pretty easily. These guys are always in charge of the latest weaponry ad the biggest ships, yet they always want to battle that one person who can fight with a lightsaber. He gets his of course, then Kylo Ren and Rey get involved in another battle that pits them against some pretty good foes. For a second it looks like they may emerge out of this on the same side, but you know life and the way these movies work.
There is also a long arc that shows Rey and Luke talking. She wants him to show her the ways of the force, Luke is afraid, he started training Kylo Ren and felt him going to the darkside. He blames himself, and with good reason, he kind of fucked up. After awhile, she gives up and leaves. Chewbacca is mostly there for visual effect, and piloting the Millenium Falcon, not that there was too much going on this time with it.
The saddest part was knowing Carrie Fisher died in real life so we expected her storyline to abruptly stop, but she was there until pretty much the end. Her survival at one critical point was almost comical, but I guess she needed to stick around until the end of the movie. Luke eventually gets involved again and the scene is very touching when him and Leia meet again on screen, along with the Wookie, and even the two robots C3PO and R2D2.
I don't want to give too much of the story out, but it was mostly fewer and fewer rebels trying to survive and get away to fight another day from the Imperial Forces. The fighting scene on the red planet is stunningly beautiful as their fighter ships have to drag a part along the ground which exposes the red mineral underneath the salt on top. The diamond foxes or whatever they are look and sound very cool as well. They were not as cute as the little "brown penguins" or whatever Chewie ends up saving.
There was even a scene in a casino which was very nice and expensive looking, along with some racing of some horse looking thing. The movie was all over the place, but still entertaining. I did not enjoy the last movie that didn't have any Jedis in it. You need them to keep the mystique in there, I don't know though. By the time the movie was over, there were very few Rebels left. They all fit in the Millenium Falcon, so only a handful from the 400 or so in the three space ships at the start of the movie.
Friday, January 19, 2018
1/19/18 Could It Be?
I want to hate everything he says, it usually comes out in an offensive way to someone, yet, I kind of agree with a lot of what he says. He is a manipulator of words, which I am not sure the public gets. I am talking about our healthy McDonald's eating at 71 Chief. How come when he mentions Shithole countries, we know which ones he is talking about? We say the same thing in our private conversations. You couldn't give me a free trip to Haiti or most of Africa, fuck that. The general people might be ok, but they have poor governments, they can't handle their mosquitos which spread a lot of diseases, not for me.
I have always been a liberal, thinking we all deserve the same access to certain things a society has, like medicine. I assumed that meant that the government would step up and instead of pissing billions on wars, maybe they could cover some of our peeps, it didn't work out that way, those of us with insurance saw our rates fly up to help the poor and it continues. Um, it's been nice knowing you poor, time to carry your own weight, it's easy, stop having so many goddammed kids is step 1.
His manipulating still bothers me. Kaepernick was not kneeling out of disrespect to the flag, but just about everyone who was disgusted by this, saw it that way, as Trump made it about that. Kaepernick was trying to speak up about police abuse, particularly in black communities. This one is hard to take a side because whenever I have been stopped, I act like the policeman is in charge and I give him my full attention. We see on Cops how a lot of other ethnicities react to the cops, they run, they argue, they want to fight, they disagree, they act poorly a lot of the time. I am always hoping for the tazer once the perp gets mouthy, come on, it's funny when they stiffen and fall over after they have been talking shit or running away. I always want to side with the officer, he is doing his job, even if there are a few bad apples, for the most part, officers keep our society working.
I like that Trump speaks like a man even if it gets him in trouble for a second. His "grab them by the p**sy was classic, it shouldn't have been made available to the public. We all have lines like that, when we are being guys.
Now I see my check is a little bigger, not sure if this was because of the new tax rules or a mistake by payroll, but if Trump had anything to do with it, I might drink a Diet Coke in his honor.
I have always been a liberal, thinking we all deserve the same access to certain things a society has, like medicine. I assumed that meant that the government would step up and instead of pissing billions on wars, maybe they could cover some of our peeps, it didn't work out that way, those of us with insurance saw our rates fly up to help the poor and it continues. Um, it's been nice knowing you poor, time to carry your own weight, it's easy, stop having so many goddammed kids is step 1.
His manipulating still bothers me. Kaepernick was not kneeling out of disrespect to the flag, but just about everyone who was disgusted by this, saw it that way, as Trump made it about that. Kaepernick was trying to speak up about police abuse, particularly in black communities. This one is hard to take a side because whenever I have been stopped, I act like the policeman is in charge and I give him my full attention. We see on Cops how a lot of other ethnicities react to the cops, they run, they argue, they want to fight, they disagree, they act poorly a lot of the time. I am always hoping for the tazer once the perp gets mouthy, come on, it's funny when they stiffen and fall over after they have been talking shit or running away. I always want to side with the officer, he is doing his job, even if there are a few bad apples, for the most part, officers keep our society working.
I like that Trump speaks like a man even if it gets him in trouble for a second. His "grab them by the p**sy was classic, it shouldn't have been made available to the public. We all have lines like that, when we are being guys.
Now I see my check is a little bigger, not sure if this was because of the new tax rules or a mistake by payroll, but if Trump had anything to do with it, I might drink a Diet Coke in his honor.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
1/18/18 Back To Normal?
I always like it when the house goes back to normal and everyone is doing what they are supposed to. Boy started school yesterday and Javalina had a late start, but he did go to school, even with the temperature hovering around 19 deg. I love the Christmas break and everyone being together at the house. It was awesome with Wife home for two weeks and I took the two weeks off for the first time to sit around and do nothing.
After a while though, I am looking at Boy like "Ummm, when you going back to school?" when I get up to drop off and pick up the younger brother and this bum is sleeping in, Wife is back in La Pryor, and even DD is busy working at his job. It seems nice that college students get about five weeks off between Fall and Spring semesters, but after awhile... He did start out very responsibly working forty plus hours at Alamo, but once the holidays are over, people just don't go to the movies in the morning. He slid down to two or three hours a day, then not at all it seemed the last week.
But there he was today, complaining like the rest of us that it was cold outside and he couldn't find some jacket, so he wore a different one that is not as comfortable. He did say he moved his schedule around and his classes are now all on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I quickly said, "good, go work at Alamo on Tuesday and Thursday, no sleeping all day." He did not respond, so he'll act like he didn't hear me next time I ask him why are you in bed all comfy?
As long as he doesn't ask me for money, we are ok on how much he works. He actually bought me dinner a couple times last semester which was a pleasant surprise every time he offered. He wouldn't do the full combo with fries, just the burger, but still. Javalina was saying he was interested in doing track and field, specifically the shotput and discus. Wife did both actually in high school, so that is cool. I just hope the meets are on the weekend, it sucks having to juggle my work weeks to attend all his events, but I do like him being a team player.
I am such a lame ass, it won't be long before I am writing that it is time for the boys to come home for the summer, I hardly see them. I am planning on going to the boat show this weekend, and I would love a new boat, but we can't afford one right now. Still, the dream is always there, and maybe in a year or two, we can make it happen. I only add this because I see other families come together on their boats, not sure if it would work with my gaggle of nerds, but I can hope.
After a while though, I am looking at Boy like "Ummm, when you going back to school?" when I get up to drop off and pick up the younger brother and this bum is sleeping in, Wife is back in La Pryor, and even DD is busy working at his job. It seems nice that college students get about five weeks off between Fall and Spring semesters, but after awhile... He did start out very responsibly working forty plus hours at Alamo, but once the holidays are over, people just don't go to the movies in the morning. He slid down to two or three hours a day, then not at all it seemed the last week.
But there he was today, complaining like the rest of us that it was cold outside and he couldn't find some jacket, so he wore a different one that is not as comfortable. He did say he moved his schedule around and his classes are now all on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I quickly said, "good, go work at Alamo on Tuesday and Thursday, no sleeping all day." He did not respond, so he'll act like he didn't hear me next time I ask him why are you in bed all comfy?
As long as he doesn't ask me for money, we are ok on how much he works. He actually bought me dinner a couple times last semester which was a pleasant surprise every time he offered. He wouldn't do the full combo with fries, just the burger, but still. Javalina was saying he was interested in doing track and field, specifically the shotput and discus. Wife did both actually in high school, so that is cool. I just hope the meets are on the weekend, it sucks having to juggle my work weeks to attend all his events, but I do like him being a team player.
I am such a lame ass, it won't be long before I am writing that it is time for the boys to come home for the summer, I hardly see them. I am planning on going to the boat show this weekend, and I would love a new boat, but we can't afford one right now. Still, the dream is always there, and maybe in a year or two, we can make it happen. I only add this because I see other families come together on their boats, not sure if it would work with my gaggle of nerds, but I can hope.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
1/17/18 Snow Day?
Over the last few years, it seems that if it is cold and there is some precipitation forecast, there will be a weather day. Tuesday (yesterday) was one of those days. It was awesome for Javalina because he had already got Monday off for MLK and it was supposed to be Boy's first day back to Texas State, so they were both pretty excited. I went to work last night, expecting the freezing to start in the morning, but by the time I was trying to leave work, at 6:20am but there was already good accumulation of ice on the north facing side of the vehicle.I had to grab the door from the very bottom and pullhard to get the ice to give way and break. I also sat there and waited for the windows to react to the heater and defrost for about 30 min. Impatient as I am, I grabbed an old CD case and used the edge like an ice scraper to remove the thick sheet of ice on the front windshield. Norah Jones's Greatest Hits will no longer be protected, but I got to leave a little earlier.
After getting home and feeling like I won the lottery because I didn't slip and crash on the icy roads and I just had all this free time in the morning, I started up the computer in the kitchen, made me some toast and sat with some Hawaiian Punch to wash it all down. After I got bored on the computer, I prepped a pork butt in the slow cooker. I kind of like the slow cooker in that it makes me look like a good cook without me doing much more than tossing in a hunk of meat with some jar of sauce. After this, it was close to 10:00am and I wanted to get in bed, mostly so I could wake up to snow and ice everywhere. That did not happen. The doorbell woke me around 11:00, with a delivery for Boy, as usual. I was then able to sleep until 2:30pm which is as long as I sleep in a stretch nowadays, so that was a good stretch. I checked on the boys and outside and was disappointed to not see more to match the hoopla of a snow day, then I went back to bed.
Javalina finally woke me with some old fashioned whining of being hungry. I did not want to get up, I had already made up my mind I was going to stay home unless they called that they needed me. I was able to avoid him for another hour but by 5:30pm both him and Wife on the phone were wanting me to be up. I came down to check on my pork butt and it must have just turned off, as I had set it for 8 hours. I stuck a fork in the biggest piece and just trying to lift it, it fell apart which I take as a good sign. I poked at the rest of it until it all broke apart and heated up some corn tortillas in the meantime. We bought a bunch of oranges this weekend, so I cut one to eat while I heated tortillas, Javalina cut one and ate it as his side with his tacos. Eventually, Boy and DD came down to eat and everybody ate until they filled up. I was very lucky to then stay behind and wash the dishes stacked in the sink.
I almost decided to go to work, but Wife said TxDOT was saying parts of I-35 were still closed and there were many accidents still all over the place. I finally decided this is why we get PTO hours and why risk an accident. It is nice to be home when not expected, I only wish Wife was not as high strung and had stayed behind, but nope. She sensed that children were in trouble 3 hours away in a small town called LaPryor and took off on a mission to save them from illiteracy. Too bad school over there was cancelled too and instead of hanging with us, she got to hang out with my family.
After getting home and feeling like I won the lottery because I didn't slip and crash on the icy roads and I just had all this free time in the morning, I started up the computer in the kitchen, made me some toast and sat with some Hawaiian Punch to wash it all down. After I got bored on the computer, I prepped a pork butt in the slow cooker. I kind of like the slow cooker in that it makes me look like a good cook without me doing much more than tossing in a hunk of meat with some jar of sauce. After this, it was close to 10:00am and I wanted to get in bed, mostly so I could wake up to snow and ice everywhere. That did not happen. The doorbell woke me around 11:00, with a delivery for Boy, as usual. I was then able to sleep until 2:30pm which is as long as I sleep in a stretch nowadays, so that was a good stretch. I checked on the boys and outside and was disappointed to not see more to match the hoopla of a snow day, then I went back to bed.
Javalina finally woke me with some old fashioned whining of being hungry. I did not want to get up, I had already made up my mind I was going to stay home unless they called that they needed me. I was able to avoid him for another hour but by 5:30pm both him and Wife on the phone were wanting me to be up. I came down to check on my pork butt and it must have just turned off, as I had set it for 8 hours. I stuck a fork in the biggest piece and just trying to lift it, it fell apart which I take as a good sign. I poked at the rest of it until it all broke apart and heated up some corn tortillas in the meantime. We bought a bunch of oranges this weekend, so I cut one to eat while I heated tortillas, Javalina cut one and ate it as his side with his tacos. Eventually, Boy and DD came down to eat and everybody ate until they filled up. I was very lucky to then stay behind and wash the dishes stacked in the sink.
I almost decided to go to work, but Wife said TxDOT was saying parts of I-35 were still closed and there were many accidents still all over the place. I finally decided this is why we get PTO hours and why risk an accident. It is nice to be home when not expected, I only wish Wife was not as high strung and had stayed behind, but nope. She sensed that children were in trouble 3 hours away in a small town called LaPryor and took off on a mission to save them from illiteracy. Too bad school over there was cancelled too and instead of hanging with us, she got to hang out with my family.
1/16/18 Creating A Monster?
Perhaps my cute chubby little Javalina is going to run amok. Santa bought him a punching bag and assorted boxing paraphernalia and he is into it. He is waiting on me to put the gloves on and dance with him throwing punches to the punching mitts and coaching him when punching the heavy bag. I keep reminding him to wear the gloves they are for his protection, I don't want him running his knuckles on the bag which is quite hard when punched bare knuckle style.
Helping me with my little beast of burden is Dirty Dog who loves this type of crap. Honestly, I am an artsy fartsy type of dude, Boy never required me throwing down with him or going head to head. He was always a thinker, a solver of problems. Javalina believes in using the hammer to solve his problems. DD is perfect in that he doesn't mind coaching more than I know and putting on gloves and taking punches boxing style, I personally don't like getting hit. He has a huge advantage in that he is about 6ft 2in and has much longer arms, but that doesn't stop my lil Hammy from talking so much Sh*t, man. I did get him headgear to wear and that is the first thing he wants to put on so there will be contact, I mean he is demanding "Hit me!" and "I am not going down like a little b*tch!"
I find it quite interesting because it just goes to show that personality is not taught. I am perfectly suited for Boy's temperament, he keeps to himself, I check in with him at his door when I am at work, only requires a hug here and there, much like a cactus. Javalina loves constant interaction, we went to Central Market and he was playing around with his boxing shenanigans and he swung at me and connected with my chin. It was an immediate "oh Dad, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I just muttered "the hell Knucklehead?" as I stepped back to prevent from falling he said "I gave him a look like I was going to punch him." We had been goofing around, so I let it slide as I told him "yeah, I always want to kick your ass, you're a shitty teen now." All this of course with lots of love as Wife pushes the basket trying to keep us in line.
I came home for lunch and I said hi to DD which got him out of his room and since Javalina has a snow day he came down to see what he could eat while I was eating and upon seeing DD started talking shit and DD went and got his gloves (I'm not sure if he went and bought gloves or if he had them) but within minutes they were at it, using the living room as the boxing ring. I just keep reminding DD not to break Javalina, Mama might get pissed, and he says I know, but even I understand if he gives him a got sock as my animal keeps the mouth going at a faster rate than his gloves. I think he is becoming my brother in that he doesn't shut up, just has a constant dialogue going.
Holding the punching mitts for him for a few minutes shows me he has some oomph to him. He hits hard and he likes it. He is certainly a different guy than he was before getting involved in football. I believe that initiated all this love of contact. I might need to look to sign him up at a gym now, if he keeps it up, some cardio work and he could really become a specimen, specially if he keeps stretching. He already is wearing a size 13 shoe, and just turned 13.
Helping me with my little beast of burden is Dirty Dog who loves this type of crap. Honestly, I am an artsy fartsy type of dude, Boy never required me throwing down with him or going head to head. He was always a thinker, a solver of problems. Javalina believes in using the hammer to solve his problems. DD is perfect in that he doesn't mind coaching more than I know and putting on gloves and taking punches boxing style, I personally don't like getting hit. He has a huge advantage in that he is about 6ft 2in and has much longer arms, but that doesn't stop my lil Hammy from talking so much Sh*t, man. I did get him headgear to wear and that is the first thing he wants to put on so there will be contact, I mean he is demanding "Hit me!" and "I am not going down like a little b*tch!"
I find it quite interesting because it just goes to show that personality is not taught. I am perfectly suited for Boy's temperament, he keeps to himself, I check in with him at his door when I am at work, only requires a hug here and there, much like a cactus. Javalina loves constant interaction, we went to Central Market and he was playing around with his boxing shenanigans and he swung at me and connected with my chin. It was an immediate "oh Dad, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I just muttered "the hell Knucklehead?" as I stepped back to prevent from falling he said "I gave him a look like I was going to punch him." We had been goofing around, so I let it slide as I told him "yeah, I always want to kick your ass, you're a shitty teen now." All this of course with lots of love as Wife pushes the basket trying to keep us in line.
I came home for lunch and I said hi to DD which got him out of his room and since Javalina has a snow day he came down to see what he could eat while I was eating and upon seeing DD started talking shit and DD went and got his gloves (I'm not sure if he went and bought gloves or if he had them) but within minutes they were at it, using the living room as the boxing ring. I just keep reminding DD not to break Javalina, Mama might get pissed, and he says I know, but even I understand if he gives him a got sock as my animal keeps the mouth going at a faster rate than his gloves. I think he is becoming my brother in that he doesn't shut up, just has a constant dialogue going.
Holding the punching mitts for him for a few minutes shows me he has some oomph to him. He hits hard and he likes it. He is certainly a different guy than he was before getting involved in football. I believe that initiated all this love of contact. I might need to look to sign him up at a gym now, if he keeps it up, some cardio work and he could really become a specimen, specially if he keeps stretching. He already is wearing a size 13 shoe, and just turned 13.
Monday, January 15, 2018
1/15/18 Life Insurance?
I hate talking and thinking about our demise, but none of us live forever. After the funeral in the family last week, we were left with things to discuss, such as life insurance. How much is enough? My brother who is doing ok financially likes to tell us that everyone should have at least a million dollar plan, in case something happens to the main bread winner. He has set up his household where he is the only one working, which I would never agree to do.
After mulling over the idea and then having Wife start her little song and dance, I looked at what we got. I always pick out the best plan from my perspective of being lazy. It seems this year we could sign up for a life insurance of $100,000 if I kick the bucket this year, twice if I am traveling for work, so here's hoping I bite the bullet on a forced trip for work somewhere I didn't want to go. There is also an additional $25,000 that the company pays for to show they care. I would do more insurance but because of my weight, they want to give me a physical before they approve and at 400 pounds I'd rather not be told "hey, you're too fat to insure."
I did look at insurance plans outside of work, such as through State Farm, but they can be expensive. It is all a scam designed to make them win, unless you die early. The insured person still loses, but I guess my kids could turn lemons into lemonade??? I looked at a $830,000 plan which the tutorial within said is what they would need to exist without me. A term life plan which will last for twenty years pays out if you die within the twenty years. We then have an option to continue after at a higher rate. This one wasn't bad at $202 a month, but if doesn't do much if you live past the twenty years, signing for a longer period after wards is not going to be cheap. Permanent life insurance for the same $830,000 is something like $1600 a month. That is a ridiculous amount, I am sorry. This plan says you can keep paying until age 100 and terms do not change, but at that rate, it only takes about 42 years to get to $830,000. I know I would never save that much, if I had $300,000 sitting in my bank account I would certainly use some to buy some waterfront land. This may seem stupid, but land is pretty much the only thing they are not making more of and it is not hard to believe Wife could sell my land for cash, when the time came, as everyone is sure of, I will be the first to croak.
I might still consider this idea or as they told me, do a bunch of smaller $50,000 to $100,000 premiums that don't require a physical, that way they stay cheaper, and I don't get the doctor telling me things I already know.
After mulling over the idea and then having Wife start her little song and dance, I looked at what we got. I always pick out the best plan from my perspective of being lazy. It seems this year we could sign up for a life insurance of $100,000 if I kick the bucket this year, twice if I am traveling for work, so here's hoping I bite the bullet on a forced trip for work somewhere I didn't want to go. There is also an additional $25,000 that the company pays for to show they care. I would do more insurance but because of my weight, they want to give me a physical before they approve and at 400 pounds I'd rather not be told "hey, you're too fat to insure."
I did look at insurance plans outside of work, such as through State Farm, but they can be expensive. It is all a scam designed to make them win, unless you die early. The insured person still loses, but I guess my kids could turn lemons into lemonade??? I looked at a $830,000 plan which the tutorial within said is what they would need to exist without me. A term life plan which will last for twenty years pays out if you die within the twenty years. We then have an option to continue after at a higher rate. This one wasn't bad at $202 a month, but if doesn't do much if you live past the twenty years, signing for a longer period after wards is not going to be cheap. Permanent life insurance for the same $830,000 is something like $1600 a month. That is a ridiculous amount, I am sorry. This plan says you can keep paying until age 100 and terms do not change, but at that rate, it only takes about 42 years to get to $830,000. I know I would never save that much, if I had $300,000 sitting in my bank account I would certainly use some to buy some waterfront land. This may seem stupid, but land is pretty much the only thing they are not making more of and it is not hard to believe Wife could sell my land for cash, when the time came, as everyone is sure of, I will be the first to croak.
I might still consider this idea or as they told me, do a bunch of smaller $50,000 to $100,000 premiums that don't require a physical, that way they stay cheaper, and I don't get the doctor telling me things I already know.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
1/14/18 First World Problems?
I had a hard time finding something to get at Best Buy today with the money my mom and brother gave me for this Christmas. Today was a slow and lazy day. We got up around noon, ate breakfast, Wife made some delicious egg, potato, and sausage in one skillet and beans and chorizo in another pan. They both met in tacos that were almost too fat to carry up to my mouth. While all that cooked, we had discussed cleaning up the house from all our Christmas stuff for once. We had gone and bought some extra bins last night for this purpose, so it went fairly fast.
We've been moving a bunch of stuff back and forth and we finally put everything back in the closets, leaving the house looking a lot more organized. While we were at it, I also managed to fix the vacuum, which Wife was ready to buy a new one. We had cleaned the filters and washed out the trash compartment and couldn't figure out why the suction wasn't there. I finally took the hose off and stuck the broom stick through which allowed me to discover that there was a dense clump of hair, plastic, and even some zip ties. I love that Boy leaves me little problems like this to fix. Once I took care of that, Javalina vacuumed where the Christmas tree was and the house looked fresher instantly.
After eating and moving all these boxes and bins, oh yeah, Wife had me change all the lights in the bathroom. Half the lightbulbs were bad and all the glass fixtures were super dusty, so that took another while, but I eventually washed all the fixtures and installed new bulbs and wow, the bath looked new again. After this, I took a two hour nap, because we didn't have anything better to do. I got up at 7:00pm, refreshed and ready to go out and do something. Wife saw a huge sale Best Buy was having and I had two gift certificates for the store, so away we went.
Speaking of First World Problems, I could not find anything in the store to get for myself that wasn't in the thousands of dollars. We walked from the TV's to stereos, Javalina kept trying to get me to buy him stuff, but I said no! This time was for me he had gotten plenty last time we came for his birthday. I thought about cameras, but our phones do this, I thought of an MP3, but our phones carry music too. I like the idea of Bluetooth lightbulbs and making the house more automated, but I don't trust the technology yet. I would love to walk in the house, say A/C set to 65 in the summer, Ozzy classics in the house stereo, but there are too many people living at home and then the light bill would kill me.
I settled on wireless earphones from Bose, they seem to be really good. They have noise reducing capabilities and a 6 hour battery, not great for my 12 hour shift, but I like the idea since Boy took my first set of wireless headphones, then Javalina took them from him. I don't need them back, I saw his dirty ass cleaning wax off the other day, no thanks. I had a really nice set hanging by the bedpost I only used with my laptop at night while I do what I am doing right now (it is exactly 4:52am at this moment), but one of them took them. I have a pair at work that I leave there, not perfect, but pretty good. I really wanted the Bose over the ears fancy silver set which was $350, but that was a little too steep even with the gift certificates. Oh well, I think it was a sign that last night I couldn't find the cheap ones I've been using with my laptop. So far, these are pretty good, I couldn't test them at the store, nor would I want to since they sink into your ears pretty good.
We've been moving a bunch of stuff back and forth and we finally put everything back in the closets, leaving the house looking a lot more organized. While we were at it, I also managed to fix the vacuum, which Wife was ready to buy a new one. We had cleaned the filters and washed out the trash compartment and couldn't figure out why the suction wasn't there. I finally took the hose off and stuck the broom stick through which allowed me to discover that there was a dense clump of hair, plastic, and even some zip ties. I love that Boy leaves me little problems like this to fix. Once I took care of that, Javalina vacuumed where the Christmas tree was and the house looked fresher instantly.
After eating and moving all these boxes and bins, oh yeah, Wife had me change all the lights in the bathroom. Half the lightbulbs were bad and all the glass fixtures were super dusty, so that took another while, but I eventually washed all the fixtures and installed new bulbs and wow, the bath looked new again. After this, I took a two hour nap, because we didn't have anything better to do. I got up at 7:00pm, refreshed and ready to go out and do something. Wife saw a huge sale Best Buy was having and I had two gift certificates for the store, so away we went.
Speaking of First World Problems, I could not find anything in the store to get for myself that wasn't in the thousands of dollars. We walked from the TV's to stereos, Javalina kept trying to get me to buy him stuff, but I said no! This time was for me he had gotten plenty last time we came for his birthday. I thought about cameras, but our phones do this, I thought of an MP3, but our phones carry music too. I like the idea of Bluetooth lightbulbs and making the house more automated, but I don't trust the technology yet. I would love to walk in the house, say A/C set to 65 in the summer, Ozzy classics in the house stereo, but there are too many people living at home and then the light bill would kill me.
I settled on wireless earphones from Bose, they seem to be really good. They have noise reducing capabilities and a 6 hour battery, not great for my 12 hour shift, but I like the idea since Boy took my first set of wireless headphones, then Javalina took them from him. I don't need them back, I saw his dirty ass cleaning wax off the other day, no thanks. I had a really nice set hanging by the bedpost I only used with my laptop at night while I do what I am doing right now (it is exactly 4:52am at this moment), but one of them took them. I have a pair at work that I leave there, not perfect, but pretty good. I really wanted the Bose over the ears fancy silver set which was $350, but that was a little too steep even with the gift certificates. Oh well, I think it was a sign that last night I couldn't find the cheap ones I've been using with my laptop. So far, these are pretty good, I couldn't test them at the store, nor would I want to since they sink into your ears pretty good.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
1/13/18 Too Easy?
Today's kids have it way too easy compared to us growing up. I know it's cliché and our parents said the same thing about us, but I just mean in relativistic shallow terms. We were driving around looking to try a new Panera Bread, I had not tried it out before and it was good but not the kind of place where you are going to fill up. Anyways, Wife and I have both been obsessing over the "oldies" Boneyard station playing nothing but Ozzy Ozbourne, Metallica, and other heavy metal giants of the day. It struck me as funny, the DJ between the music acts like they are still in the era the music was from, so he states that he is going to run home and get on the TV and try to catch his favorite videos.
I remember spending summers like this. When MTV was new, I would waste hours watching it, hoping a song I liked would play. I remember really enjoying the ZZ Top songs with the Eliminator car and the goofy guy always winning with the help from the guys but as the nerdy girl was transformed into a hot chick you can almost see more than the law would allow as she sits with her legs up in the dressing room. See? I just saw the video, I just had to sit through an extra 30 seconds of some commercial before the video played, but all it took was opening a new window and typing ZZ TOP Legs and You Tube knows what I want.
Nowadays, anything someone wants to view is at your fingertips. Shit, with our magical cell phones as long as their is Wi-Fi, anywhere is a good place to catch up on videos. For awhile, I was convinced nobody was making videos, but they just moved to better locations. Why let a TV station determine your air play when You Tube lets the people decide how many times they want to see you and then You Tube pays you directly. I have seen numbers like $2000 per 1 million views. Some videos, like Taylor Swift's have over a billion views, like her or hate her, that is a lot of money, if she is collecting at that rate.
I guess we all benefit from a faster internet, but it seems the kids are the ones always on it. I was almost taken aback by Javalina while we were setting up to eat Pizza for dinner. He said he was watching on You Tube an explanation of Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno. I looked at it just now and in cheap cartoon format, somebody has taken a classic story and made it funny and relatable. That Javalina would sit and listen to it tells you where his head is. He asked for a copy of the book so he could read it and that just makes me pretty happy. Maybe Wife has a reason to worry about society at large becoming dumber because all they do is stare at their phones, but at least this time Javalina surprised us with his choice of reading material after "wasting" time on his phone.
I remember spending summers like this. When MTV was new, I would waste hours watching it, hoping a song I liked would play. I remember really enjoying the ZZ Top songs with the Eliminator car and the goofy guy always winning with the help from the guys but as the nerdy girl was transformed into a hot chick you can almost see more than the law would allow as she sits with her legs up in the dressing room. See? I just saw the video, I just had to sit through an extra 30 seconds of some commercial before the video played, but all it took was opening a new window and typing ZZ TOP Legs and You Tube knows what I want.
Nowadays, anything someone wants to view is at your fingertips. Shit, with our magical cell phones as long as their is Wi-Fi, anywhere is a good place to catch up on videos. For awhile, I was convinced nobody was making videos, but they just moved to better locations. Why let a TV station determine your air play when You Tube lets the people decide how many times they want to see you and then You Tube pays you directly. I have seen numbers like $2000 per 1 million views. Some videos, like Taylor Swift's have over a billion views, like her or hate her, that is a lot of money, if she is collecting at that rate.
I guess we all benefit from a faster internet, but it seems the kids are the ones always on it. I was almost taken aback by Javalina while we were setting up to eat Pizza for dinner. He said he was watching on You Tube an explanation of Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno. I looked at it just now and in cheap cartoon format, somebody has taken a classic story and made it funny and relatable. That Javalina would sit and listen to it tells you where his head is. He asked for a copy of the book so he could read it and that just makes me pretty happy. Maybe Wife has a reason to worry about society at large becoming dumber because all they do is stare at their phones, but at least this time Javalina surprised us with his choice of reading material after "wasting" time on his phone.
Friday, January 12, 2018
1/12/18 Mighty Mortar Man? (Poem)
Last night, I was driving back to work listening to Boneyard and they were explaining Rooster from Alice In Chains is an homage to the writers dad and his time in the Vietnam war, his nickname was Rooster because his hair would always stand up in the middle. I used to find it an annoying song, but the explanation made it an instant classic, now that I know. With lines like "yeah, they come to snuff the Rooster..., but he ain't gonna die! (Yeah!) It is a powerful and emotional song. This is my attempt at doing the same.
Mighty Mortar Man
Dad has always told us the basics about his time in the service overseas
A true man keeping the monsters of reality away, we didn't deserve to see.
Before we came, mother said he was still fighting those images at night,
Saigon hadn't left him, the yellow man still occupied his line of sight
It would take years and many cold beers to make them disappear
So many we still see as plain old alcoholics on the street, some of them still count it as therapy.
My Mighty Mortar Man went off to fight in another land
to conquer for the old white men as they had planned
He came back not to the music of a marching band
but the disdain of a public for the war had gotten out of hand
When you are a man you don't question an order
you trust that if you give them your life they will keep you contained within a safe border.
But when it comes time to open up the night
nothing like a storm of US made and delivered mortars in flight
Dad talks about dropping so many you could see bodies running in the lit up darkness
He says he felt bad, but in war you do what you do, to take credit for a kill would be heartless.
My Mighty Mortar Man went off to fight in another land
to conquer for the old white men as they had planned
He came back not to the music of a marching band
but the disdain of a public for the war had gotten out of hand
Now that he is old, we see him as goofy, nagging, and a little bit of a pain
but never forget it is men like this that the US entrusted for us to gain
I can see in his eyes, a champion of virtue, a man of few words
can you represent your kin when war comes calling for herds
can you raise the quality of life for your kids, so they won't have to?
My Mighty Mortar Man went off to fight in another land
to conquer for the old white men as they had planned
He came back not to the music of a marching band
but the disdain of a public for the war had gotten out of hand
Thursday, January 11, 2018
1/11/18 New Year's Resolutions?
My brother was cracking wise about "idiots" who make resolutions at the start of the new year. I don't share his negative view on this, as I believe the new year is the perfect time to start new routines and make subtle changes that can lead to a healthier lifestyle. Yes, most of us quit a few weeks to a few months of doing this, but it is still good to try. What is the alternative, decide "nah, I'm too fat I might as well keep doing what I've been doing?" I have had luck from time to time to get on a weight loss regimen and keep off the weight for some time.
The first one was in my second year at college, I simply did not eat all day while at school, and I started lifting weights and playing basketball. Playing basketball was probably the biggest reason for the weight loss, with all its running, but lifting weights made me feel good about myself. I've always been a fat boy and basically sift everywhere, but after lifting weights for a few months, I started developing chest and arm muscles, which was great for the psyche. I carried this for a few years until I got married and started working. Working at the warehouse allowed me to stay slimmer, but I worked too many hours to find time to lift. At this point, I had also started biking and that was great for the heart and endurance, but again, work gets in the way of all the fun activities.
Lately, as in the last few years, we got a gym at work, but every time I swear I am going to get serious, something happens. I cut my leg, my partner hurt his shoulder, I hurt my elbow. Well, brother dear, I have let my body rest for a good year while I healed my leg and then the elbow. Now that I started work this week, I have started walking again and have been to the gym all three nights so far. Since the year just started, we are a little slow, so I am taking full advantage. I don't know If I'll be doing it hard in a month or found a new distraction to avoid applying myself, but I know I need to do something. Every time I look at the scale after a few months of doing nothing finds me on the bad side of 400 pounds. I do not want to be talking about 450 next year, that will surely give me problems I can't come back from.
So, sorry bro, but for my own health, I have to believe in New Year's Resolutions. I know it sounds cheesy and pretty much every one does the same thing in saying they want to lose weight and they are going to eat better. I've gotten a salad pretty much everywhere I have eaten since Sunday. That has to be an improvement over the burger and side of fries I would normally get. We'll see, if I can have it my way, I would like to be down around 350 for the summer, I don't know if we are going to Florida this summer, but I would love to go.
The first one was in my second year at college, I simply did not eat all day while at school, and I started lifting weights and playing basketball. Playing basketball was probably the biggest reason for the weight loss, with all its running, but lifting weights made me feel good about myself. I've always been a fat boy and basically sift everywhere, but after lifting weights for a few months, I started developing chest and arm muscles, which was great for the psyche. I carried this for a few years until I got married and started working. Working at the warehouse allowed me to stay slimmer, but I worked too many hours to find time to lift. At this point, I had also started biking and that was great for the heart and endurance, but again, work gets in the way of all the fun activities.
Lately, as in the last few years, we got a gym at work, but every time I swear I am going to get serious, something happens. I cut my leg, my partner hurt his shoulder, I hurt my elbow. Well, brother dear, I have let my body rest for a good year while I healed my leg and then the elbow. Now that I started work this week, I have started walking again and have been to the gym all three nights so far. Since the year just started, we are a little slow, so I am taking full advantage. I don't know If I'll be doing it hard in a month or found a new distraction to avoid applying myself, but I know I need to do something. Every time I look at the scale after a few months of doing nothing finds me on the bad side of 400 pounds. I do not want to be talking about 450 next year, that will surely give me problems I can't come back from.
So, sorry bro, but for my own health, I have to believe in New Year's Resolutions. I know it sounds cheesy and pretty much every one does the same thing in saying they want to lose weight and they are going to eat better. I've gotten a salad pretty much everywhere I have eaten since Sunday. That has to be an improvement over the burger and side of fries I would normally get. We'll see, if I can have it my way, I would like to be down around 350 for the summer, I don't know if we are going to Florida this summer, but I would love to go.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
1/10/18 Why Do We Protect GIrls So Much?
I ended up with my family for a few days last week for a funeral and I have already discussed all that, something that irked me was the blatant difference in how we treat the boys in the family versus the girl, and lucky or not, we only have one girl in the new generation, so far. My boys have always taken pot shots from different family members and I wouldn't have it any other way, it makes them develop a tougher outer skin plus they can pick up on the insults and learn from them.
My brother, ever the judge, jury, and executioner of all things cool, in his eyes, saw Javalina in warm-ups at the wake and did one of those record scratching back ups, called him over with a disapproving look and lectured him on wearing tight clothing, it isn't done by men, if he lived in Crystal he might run the risk of getting his ass kicked over it, and he looks sloppy as fuck. I was helping my dad fix the toilet before we went to the wake, a lot of stuff doesn't seem to get done because my dad has bad shoulders and my brothers are useless when it comes to doing manual things so he escaped my eyes. My brother says what he says, half jokingly, half serious, I agreed he looked like a slob, but my aunt wanted all of us wearing Cowboys jerseys for my uncle, and I guess my boy thought he could get away with the warm-ups since the jerseys were so long. Anyways, Javalina just shrugged said the appropriate "I knows" and bit his tongue. Later in the car, he said I could have said this and that about my brother (he's got issues right now) and I laughed and said do it. All's fair if they are going to dress you down.
That was but a tiny example of my brother poking fun and playing around. When we were leaving Saturday, his daughter was sitting there and I know better than to crack even one joke at her expense, first of all, my mom about jumped over the table to put her hand in my mouth when I said my nieces name to get her attention. "Junior, leave her alone, she is a girl!" this was yelled at me. I said "relax", I looked at her and simply said "Girl, you are 13-14 years old and I am not sure you even have a tongue, do you talk?" I got a couple of stupid smiles which my family would eat up, "oh mija, you're so pretty, blah blah blah..." I don't give a shit about that, I want to know if the hamster upstairs is alive or stinking up the place. My neighbor's daughter was the same way, her mom would answer everything for her, I don't think that allows one to develop, how interesting are you if you answer everything with a smile?
I am sure I will get a lecture from my mom, sorry mom, not about the niece, I am talking bigger picture. Boys have an advantage right in this as part of growing up. Because we don't worry about hurting a boys feelings, we include them in conversations at an earlier age. By including them, they understand nuance better, they don't get butthurt as easily as a comparable female. I don't understand why they would protect her from me, that just seemed stupid. Was I going to call her a whore or something? No, we were joking around, everyone was laughing, I can be crass, but I know generally you don't share "dick" jokes with girls, they don't appreciate or get them. Boys do.
My brother, ever the judge, jury, and executioner of all things cool, in his eyes, saw Javalina in warm-ups at the wake and did one of those record scratching back ups, called him over with a disapproving look and lectured him on wearing tight clothing, it isn't done by men, if he lived in Crystal he might run the risk of getting his ass kicked over it, and he looks sloppy as fuck. I was helping my dad fix the toilet before we went to the wake, a lot of stuff doesn't seem to get done because my dad has bad shoulders and my brothers are useless when it comes to doing manual things so he escaped my eyes. My brother says what he says, half jokingly, half serious, I agreed he looked like a slob, but my aunt wanted all of us wearing Cowboys jerseys for my uncle, and I guess my boy thought he could get away with the warm-ups since the jerseys were so long. Anyways, Javalina just shrugged said the appropriate "I knows" and bit his tongue. Later in the car, he said I could have said this and that about my brother (he's got issues right now) and I laughed and said do it. All's fair if they are going to dress you down.
That was but a tiny example of my brother poking fun and playing around. When we were leaving Saturday, his daughter was sitting there and I know better than to crack even one joke at her expense, first of all, my mom about jumped over the table to put her hand in my mouth when I said my nieces name to get her attention. "Junior, leave her alone, she is a girl!" this was yelled at me. I said "relax", I looked at her and simply said "Girl, you are 13-14 years old and I am not sure you even have a tongue, do you talk?" I got a couple of stupid smiles which my family would eat up, "oh mija, you're so pretty, blah blah blah..." I don't give a shit about that, I want to know if the hamster upstairs is alive or stinking up the place. My neighbor's daughter was the same way, her mom would answer everything for her, I don't think that allows one to develop, how interesting are you if you answer everything with a smile?
I am sure I will get a lecture from my mom, sorry mom, not about the niece, I am talking bigger picture. Boys have an advantage right in this as part of growing up. Because we don't worry about hurting a boys feelings, we include them in conversations at an earlier age. By including them, they understand nuance better, they don't get butthurt as easily as a comparable female. I don't understand why they would protect her from me, that just seemed stupid. Was I going to call her a whore or something? No, we were joking around, everyone was laughing, I can be crass, but I know generally you don't share "dick" jokes with girls, they don't appreciate or get them. Boys do.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
1/9/18 Starting New Habits?
I like Jason's Deli well enough, but I feel a salad shouldn't cost over $10, so we don't go too often. I decided to give it a try, Javalina and I went after school, both of us ordered salads with water and it came out to $17 and change. I think that is ok. Bill Miller is usually $15 and change for the tenders and fries with their delicious iced tea for the two of us. Some things have got to give and the tea and sodas sounds like an easy one. I am back over 400 pounds and with just having gone to a funeral for my uncle that was too young, I need to stop farting around. While we were down there I overheard my other uncle who has always been our family giant at 6ft 5in, he said he weighed as much as 495, but he has been dieting and is down to 315. He says mainly he eats one meal a day. I am kicking this idea around, but I think I'll keep the option of a bowl of cereal at night when I go home.
I was telling Javalina we are going to try and stay away from all the greasy foods we eat. We can do a burger a week, maybe, but not every day. He says he was fine with eating a salad a couple times a week, so he is on board. I then managed to go to the gym here at work since we didn't have any real work. What I really want to do is start walking again. That kid that mops needs to go away or I need to figure out his schedule and walk around him. I managed to walk two miles today and I need to grow from that. I hate getting winded just getting in the car or doing other simple BS like that. At this point, Santa bought a punching bag and gloves to Javalina and I talked Wife into letting me set it up in the living room. She didn't like the idea but she is only in town for two days and it's not like we entertain anyone nowadays. If we can get on there a couple times a week and break a sweat that would be great. Santa also got him a leather jump rope. Jump rope seems like a little girls thing but all boxers seem to do it as part of their routine and you don't see many fat boxers. Surprisingly, Javalina can already jump rope getting up to 50 on the first few tries and he says at school he can get to 100. That is great, I told him I want to work up to doing it by minutes not counts. I also keep talking to that little knucklehead about biking, he is close to getting it, but needs a little further push. I might buy stupid training wheels, they might do the trick. I know it would do us good and then we could go exploring the old places I used to bike at. I feel like I am finally done raising little boys, Javalina is inching up, already taller than mama, he ain't no man yet, but he will do as my cross-training partner.
I was telling Javalina we are going to try and stay away from all the greasy foods we eat. We can do a burger a week, maybe, but not every day. He says he was fine with eating a salad a couple times a week, so he is on board. I then managed to go to the gym here at work since we didn't have any real work. What I really want to do is start walking again. That kid that mops needs to go away or I need to figure out his schedule and walk around him. I managed to walk two miles today and I need to grow from that. I hate getting winded just getting in the car or doing other simple BS like that. At this point, Santa bought a punching bag and gloves to Javalina and I talked Wife into letting me set it up in the living room. She didn't like the idea but she is only in town for two days and it's not like we entertain anyone nowadays. If we can get on there a couple times a week and break a sweat that would be great. Santa also got him a leather jump rope. Jump rope seems like a little girls thing but all boxers seem to do it as part of their routine and you don't see many fat boxers. Surprisingly, Javalina can already jump rope getting up to 50 on the first few tries and he says at school he can get to 100. That is great, I told him I want to work up to doing it by minutes not counts. I also keep talking to that little knucklehead about biking, he is close to getting it, but needs a little further push. I might buy stupid training wheels, they might do the trick. I know it would do us good and then we could go exploring the old places I used to bike at. I feel like I am finally done raising little boys, Javalina is inching up, already taller than mama, he ain't no man yet, but he will do as my cross-training partner.
Monday, January 8, 2018
1/8/18 Two Weeks Off?
I just finished two weeks off and I can't say I feel brand new or that I have had any new revelations from so much rest. The first week I did nothing but the minimum amount of existing. We slid past Christmas and all the last minute shopping and food getting then we went home and stayed there, sleeping until it hurt, getting up for a little leftover eating and back to sleeping and lounging for a good five days. I can honestly say this was the first time I did this and it was going great, selfishly waiting for my folks to come visit me. I am not a total monster, I did plan on visiting them the first week between Christmas and New Year's but there was a little family drama so mom said she would come up and visit us. I love my boys, they are happy to be home and play video games and such, or if we decide to go eat, they are ok with that. I rarely hear them whine about not liking what they are doing. That being said, we went the whole first week without going to a restaurant which is very rare for us. I was so out of it that by the time I looked up the Longhorns bowl game to try and catch it, I had already missed it by a day. We spent all our waking time watching our recorded shows on TV or going to the movies which Boy has us completely spoiled at the Alamo Drafthouse.
The second week of our vacation started and once we were past New Year's Eve I figured I would spend the next week in the same warm-ups debating whether to shower or not for the day. It was glorious, then tragedy struck. First, it was the call that my uncle had been taken to the hospital which was ominous with no other knowledge of what had happened. It was right in the middle of those super cold days, so we couldn't just up and leave down there and risk an accident of our own that night. A few hours later my Mom called and just her calling after 10:00pm which she never does, I knew it wasn't going to be a good phone call. She let us know that my uncle had passed away earlier. What can you say on the phone to make the person feel better. She has called me like that with other family members and I feel bad, but Fred was from the inner circle, one of the few I always saw when I went down. My mom is very close with two of her sisters and her brother and this was the husband of one of those sisters who is always around. I have already recounted the events of arriving and experiencing the funeral, which left us tired and worn out, like we didn't spend the whole first 8-9 days being bums.
Such is life, we live with the ups and downs. I know I will carry this close to the heart and still feel that overwhelming feeling to tear up, but work will beat that out of me. Work has a way of taking up all our free time and making itself a priority in our lives. As much as I don't want to forget ole Fred, the distraction of work will help keep me moving and focusing on other more immediate emergencies. I feel like I need a couple more days to rest from the last couple of days. Too bad the next break is probably on Spring Break in March. Two weeks was not enough, this time.
The second week of our vacation started and once we were past New Year's Eve I figured I would spend the next week in the same warm-ups debating whether to shower or not for the day. It was glorious, then tragedy struck. First, it was the call that my uncle had been taken to the hospital which was ominous with no other knowledge of what had happened. It was right in the middle of those super cold days, so we couldn't just up and leave down there and risk an accident of our own that night. A few hours later my Mom called and just her calling after 10:00pm which she never does, I knew it wasn't going to be a good phone call. She let us know that my uncle had passed away earlier. What can you say on the phone to make the person feel better. She has called me like that with other family members and I feel bad, but Fred was from the inner circle, one of the few I always saw when I went down. My mom is very close with two of her sisters and her brother and this was the husband of one of those sisters who is always around. I have already recounted the events of arriving and experiencing the funeral, which left us tired and worn out, like we didn't spend the whole first 8-9 days being bums.
Such is life, we live with the ups and downs. I know I will carry this close to the heart and still feel that overwhelming feeling to tear up, but work will beat that out of me. Work has a way of taking up all our free time and making itself a priority in our lives. As much as I don't want to forget ole Fred, the distraction of work will help keep me moving and focusing on other more immediate emergencies. I feel like I need a couple more days to rest from the last couple of days. Too bad the next break is probably on Spring Break in March. Two weeks was not enough, this time.
Sunday, January 7, 2018
1/7/18 Funerals and Goodbyes?
The last two days were extremely trying on our family, I am only grateful that we have such a big group to support on each other. Our uncle that passed away we could argue was too young, we could argue he was too good a man, too loving, too generous, he was the strength and spirit of so many. He had children from a first marriage who we have met and known throughout the years, they lived in the small cities around Crystal City, so it was not often that they got together with us.
I was thinking of the 7 stages of grief and it will be awhile before we all get through them, but I am still shocked it happened. Had it been a few years back when he was very big, I would have understood, but he had in the last 2-3 years lost a lot of weight, what is the point of losing so much weight to be "healthier" only to suffer from a life taking event like a stroke? I personally felt a lot of guilt because I chose not to go down and visit with my family, it would at least have given me one last chance to see him and interact with him, he always enjoyed the banter created there at the house. I don't think I ever saw him in a bad mood, unlike most of us Gallegos types that get ornery and ugly the second we feel crossed. I would be a better person if I could just ride the waves of life like he did instead of insisting on fighting every little thing I don't agree with.
Constantly arguing over the existence of a god, I can't help but feel anger that a god would allow something like this to happen. We lose a good man to the grim reaper, meanwhile idiots that kill people, do a few months in jail and get to walk out like it's nothing. I think depression is the hardest in the group to get past. I don't want to feel depressed for my uncle. He lived his life his way and the death was so fast, I don't think he suffered too much. I do get depressed thinking it is just a matter of time before we loose another family member. Even if we all lived to 120 years old, it still seems like not enough time. I guess this is what makes life so valuable, spend it wisely for you don't know how long you have left. The upward turn will take a while for my aunt to come to terms with. She had become so dependent on my uncle for too many things. I know she is stronger than she knows, it may take some time, but she will find a way and a purpose to go on.
Reconstruction and working through is the second to last step and it will be awhile before my aunt gets there, it is possible. One of my uncles was telling her to maybe get a dog for companionship, this way she has someone dependent on her, it gives her a little structure and someone to "talk" to. She had not been working due to problems with her knees, she may find that the best course is to correct this to make her mobile again. Finally, there will be acceptance in due time. Because we are all human and we all eventually succumb to the grim reaper, we must accept our limitations. This is the best case for holding on to religion. It has built in hope that we will meet again in a holy life, and for this reason I hope my beliefs are wrong. Again, we don't know how much time anyone has, we should always be trying to make the best of the time we are given together.
I was thinking of the 7 stages of grief and it will be awhile before we all get through them, but I am still shocked it happened. Had it been a few years back when he was very big, I would have understood, but he had in the last 2-3 years lost a lot of weight, what is the point of losing so much weight to be "healthier" only to suffer from a life taking event like a stroke? I personally felt a lot of guilt because I chose not to go down and visit with my family, it would at least have given me one last chance to see him and interact with him, he always enjoyed the banter created there at the house. I don't think I ever saw him in a bad mood, unlike most of us Gallegos types that get ornery and ugly the second we feel crossed. I would be a better person if I could just ride the waves of life like he did instead of insisting on fighting every little thing I don't agree with.
Constantly arguing over the existence of a god, I can't help but feel anger that a god would allow something like this to happen. We lose a good man to the grim reaper, meanwhile idiots that kill people, do a few months in jail and get to walk out like it's nothing. I think depression is the hardest in the group to get past. I don't want to feel depressed for my uncle. He lived his life his way and the death was so fast, I don't think he suffered too much. I do get depressed thinking it is just a matter of time before we loose another family member. Even if we all lived to 120 years old, it still seems like not enough time. I guess this is what makes life so valuable, spend it wisely for you don't know how long you have left. The upward turn will take a while for my aunt to come to terms with. She had become so dependent on my uncle for too many things. I know she is stronger than she knows, it may take some time, but she will find a way and a purpose to go on.
Reconstruction and working through is the second to last step and it will be awhile before my aunt gets there, it is possible. One of my uncles was telling her to maybe get a dog for companionship, this way she has someone dependent on her, it gives her a little structure and someone to "talk" to. She had not been working due to problems with her knees, she may find that the best course is to correct this to make her mobile again. Finally, there will be acceptance in due time. Because we are all human and we all eventually succumb to the grim reaper, we must accept our limitations. This is the best case for holding on to religion. It has built in hope that we will meet again in a holy life, and for this reason I hope my beliefs are wrong. Again, we don't know how much time anyone has, we should always be trying to make the best of the time we are given together.
Friday, January 5, 2018
1/6/18 Still Thinking About Our Future?
Still intrigued by Wife's conversation from Monday, I say that part of advancing science means we need fewer and fewer skilled people to take care of the masses. I saw it in the fabs making our microchips from when I started in 1995 to twenty years later where almost everything was automated. I cannot imagine needing tons of people to run the fabs of the future. A handful of engineers and a handful of technicians to keep the robots happy and running should be enough. This has to be translating in other industries as robots gradually do the work of man. Because of this, again, fewer skilled humans will be necessary as we move further into the future.
I say we are still relying on the same 20% of the population that goes on to college and gets further educated. The number may be more but it isn't much more than that. I realize that real ingenuity and life changers don't necessarily need college. These people that change our lives for the better or worse see things differently, they didn't need to mature in an educational environment. I don't know that the Henry Fords, or the Bill Gates's, or even a Richard Branson would have gained much from the learning that happens at a university.
I am talking about the working man of the future, the one who will keep the robots running to keep them making cars, or other technical doodads. Work and learning can be focused on to what kind of job one will be employed at. Maybe trucks with products drive themselves to large warehouse destinations outside of towns, and then smaller manned vehicles deliver within a city, this would require a certain amount of people still being able to drive, even when they tell us automated cars are right around the corner.
I am talking about the working man of the future, the one who will keep the robots running to keep them making cars, or other technical doodads. Work and learning can be focused on to what kind of job one will be employed at. Maybe trucks with products drive themselves to large warehouse destinations outside of towns, and then smaller manned vehicles deliver within a city, this would require a certain amount of people still being able to drive, even when they tell us automated cars are right around the corner.
We may get to a society which ironically makes newer gadgets for a society that won't be able to afford them. But then what? Maybe at that point the robots become customers. A buddy at work keeps telling me capitalism doesn't work because it relies on a pyramid scheme type of a few at the top profiting from a huge ignorant base. I don't see that changing, as long as the products keep selling at a price any Joe can afford, our economy will continue. Some people may not like our capitalist ways, but I don't think another system would have allowed so much growth so fast.
We went from discovering flight in 1903 to flying turbojets in 1939, that is crazy, but maybe that was the push of a wartime effort. We have just seemed to accomplish everything quickly. The big IBM mainframes started in 1952, to the smartphone in the late 1990s. Who can compete? Communism went bankrupt trying to keep up the arms race, nobody else has even made it to the moon.
We went from discovering flight in 1903 to flying turbojets in 1939, that is crazy, but maybe that was the push of a wartime effort. We have just seemed to accomplish everything quickly. The big IBM mainframes started in 1952, to the smartphone in the late 1990s. Who can compete? Communism went bankrupt trying to keep up the arms race, nobody else has even made it to the moon.
1/5/18 Mourning?
My uncle passed away a couple days ago. In a perfect world we would have left that night and headed home (but the weather was unseasonably cold and therefore dangerous), my Mom's side of the family has always been very tight knit, specially mom and her two sisters that lived in town along with my mom's brother. I don't remember going more than a few days when we wouldn't see either aunt and back then my grandmother. My uncle came into the picture about the same time Wife did, I believe I even heard 1987, which is the year I started dating Wife. Fred was a part of our lives for a solid thirty years, infusing himself immediately, but he was always the type of guy you can't help but like. He never had any agendas, he loved his Cowboys in the Fall, the Spurs in the Winter, and he probably tolerated the Longhorns because two of his nephews graduated from that school. He was proud of us and loved being a part of our lives as much as we loved him for being a good and caring husband and uncle.
So how do you mourn? We have been incredibly lucky as we have not lost close family members often. I didn't know if you walk in crying, I have felt it churning up a couple times but subsides after a while. My aunt was sitting there by the door, so there wasn't much time to figure what to do other than go with the flow. I dared not bring up the topic, as she seemed to be smiling and joking and glad to see us, I figured it would come up organically. After a few minutes, she said something which sent her in that direction and whether you're made of steel or not, hearing a person cry out for a loved one cuts through all your defenses and tears will flow. There is nothing more honest than the crying for a deceased loved one, knowing that for all their attempts and actions the person cannot come back. It is a helpless feeling and it would be the worst feeling but the crying eventually subsides. With loved ones all around, we can focus not on the dark, the sadness, but in the joy the person brought us. We all know that as much as we love one another, we all have an expiration date. Nobody escapes when it is their time, whether we coldly believe our bodies fail us, or God calls us home.
It was beautiful imagery my other aunt comforting her sister saying that now my Grandma had her Fred (who she always loved like a son) to dance cumbias with and watch down on us. After a while, the room eased a bit and we could joke around a bit until another wave came through, another fond and simple memory about something he used to do. It is definitely easier to get through times like these with a big group of loved ones. I know the next few days are going to be hard on us, I feel bad that I don't live here to contribute more, but I feel this is a good wake up call. My brother will no doubt bust balls and say I am full of shit, but I guess only time will tell if we can do as we say. There is a certain "aaah" to being home, it had been at least 6-8 months since I had been down to visit. As the family is getting older, I feel like I should be around more. Who knows, I saw a piece of land which would work perfectly if it is as good as it looks online for my retreat that I've been wanting to buy. Maybe getting away in Austin means coming home in Crystal City.
So how do you mourn? We have been incredibly lucky as we have not lost close family members often. I didn't know if you walk in crying, I have felt it churning up a couple times but subsides after a while. My aunt was sitting there by the door, so there wasn't much time to figure what to do other than go with the flow. I dared not bring up the topic, as she seemed to be smiling and joking and glad to see us, I figured it would come up organically. After a few minutes, she said something which sent her in that direction and whether you're made of steel or not, hearing a person cry out for a loved one cuts through all your defenses and tears will flow. There is nothing more honest than the crying for a deceased loved one, knowing that for all their attempts and actions the person cannot come back. It is a helpless feeling and it would be the worst feeling but the crying eventually subsides. With loved ones all around, we can focus not on the dark, the sadness, but in the joy the person brought us. We all know that as much as we love one another, we all have an expiration date. Nobody escapes when it is their time, whether we coldly believe our bodies fail us, or God calls us home.
It was beautiful imagery my other aunt comforting her sister saying that now my Grandma had her Fred (who she always loved like a son) to dance cumbias with and watch down on us. After a while, the room eased a bit and we could joke around a bit until another wave came through, another fond and simple memory about something he used to do. It is definitely easier to get through times like these with a big group of loved ones. I know the next few days are going to be hard on us, I feel bad that I don't live here to contribute more, but I feel this is a good wake up call. My brother will no doubt bust balls and say I am full of shit, but I guess only time will tell if we can do as we say. There is a certain "aaah" to being home, it had been at least 6-8 months since I had been down to visit. As the family is getting older, I feel like I should be around more. Who knows, I saw a piece of land which would work perfectly if it is as good as it looks online for my retreat that I've been wanting to buy. Maybe getting away in Austin means coming home in Crystal City.
Thursday, January 4, 2018
1/4/18 Who Will Be Our Leaders?
Wife started a conversation with me earlier tonight (Monday) about how she feels overwhelmed by the lethargy in today's kids. She was reading an article talking about the future perhaps in 30-40 years our phones/laptops will be sort of empathic and treat us according to how we are feeling. I don't think we are that far from this future, they already target ads based on what we are looking at. I've noticed the more I look at boat videos, the more often the commercials I see in the little squares are for different boat manufacturers. You can't tell me everyone cares to see boat commercials, that must be something catered to me based on my viewing choices.
Perhaps we will have some blood pressure sensors or mood meters installed under our skin and our phones will communicate with these, maybe deciding it would be better to play some classical music in the background instead of some energetic Metallica, that could be easy enough. I say if it goes that far, maybe we have pheromone or enzyme boosters to be controlled via the internet and bring us out of a funk or just generally make us feel better.
Wife sees everything through a school format and she worries the kids spend too much time on their phones. Maybe we do need to dumb down society. Maybe it would be ok for people to say LOL and BRB instead of writing the words down. My mom used to teach shorthand as a class when she was a typing teacher before she became a counselor. I remember it looked like chicken scratch to me, but those in the know understood it well and were probably considered to have an advantage for business school or whatever it was applied to. Why do we look down at the shorthand that has developed for communicating in a text world? I think it is pretty clever and because most of us have to communicate through text, it is a language most of us understand. I use an occasion LOL when I write e-mails to my managers, even the smily face emoticons show up if you do colon parenthesis :) on some e-mail formats.
Wife may be upset at our children for not keeping up with the classics, such as the writings of Shakespeare and even Homer, but their works keep getting used as backgrounds for movies and even songs. I think every generation will always be aware of Romeo and Juliet, I just saw my third installment of King Arthur which may have not been written by a specific literary great, but his story is of importance in the development of England, much like Odysseus was a central character in Greek mythology. There is something about sitting with a book and reading a story page by page, specially with an older book that might even have a smell to it, is it the same feeling reading through an electronic device? If it is, then it all becomes a slippery slope when it is converted to speech and the book is now being real aloud. How far is that from it being performed aloud?
I have always thought it is about 20% of any given class that goes on to college, I would never expect more than that to want to have a full grasp on all the potential opportunities to learn. Not that I would think that college is required to succeed, those things are different, but ask any grown up for the capital of a neighboring state and I bet you get an IDK and if they care they might look it up, but probably not. I don't worry as much as Wife about the future of our children, I know my two boys are doing ok, and that is what I am responsible to get educated, new year, new Mando.
Perhaps we will have some blood pressure sensors or mood meters installed under our skin and our phones will communicate with these, maybe deciding it would be better to play some classical music in the background instead of some energetic Metallica, that could be easy enough. I say if it goes that far, maybe we have pheromone or enzyme boosters to be controlled via the internet and bring us out of a funk or just generally make us feel better.
Wife sees everything through a school format and she worries the kids spend too much time on their phones. Maybe we do need to dumb down society. Maybe it would be ok for people to say LOL and BRB instead of writing the words down. My mom used to teach shorthand as a class when she was a typing teacher before she became a counselor. I remember it looked like chicken scratch to me, but those in the know understood it well and were probably considered to have an advantage for business school or whatever it was applied to. Why do we look down at the shorthand that has developed for communicating in a text world? I think it is pretty clever and because most of us have to communicate through text, it is a language most of us understand. I use an occasion LOL when I write e-mails to my managers, even the smily face emoticons show up if you do colon parenthesis :) on some e-mail formats.
Wife may be upset at our children for not keeping up with the classics, such as the writings of Shakespeare and even Homer, but their works keep getting used as backgrounds for movies and even songs. I think every generation will always be aware of Romeo and Juliet, I just saw my third installment of King Arthur which may have not been written by a specific literary great, but his story is of importance in the development of England, much like Odysseus was a central character in Greek mythology. There is something about sitting with a book and reading a story page by page, specially with an older book that might even have a smell to it, is it the same feeling reading through an electronic device? If it is, then it all becomes a slippery slope when it is converted to speech and the book is now being real aloud. How far is that from it being performed aloud?
I have always thought it is about 20% of any given class that goes on to college, I would never expect more than that to want to have a full grasp on all the potential opportunities to learn. Not that I would think that college is required to succeed, those things are different, but ask any grown up for the capital of a neighboring state and I bet you get an IDK and if they care they might look it up, but probably not. I don't worry as much as Wife about the future of our children, I know my two boys are doing ok, and that is what I am responsible to get educated, new year, new Mando.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
1/3/18 A Fragile Life?
Nobody knows how long they are going to live. The next breath we take could be our last, shoot a poisonous bug could be creeping toward you while in bed and kill you accidentally, you could be in a car crash in the morning doing the same route you have been doing for twenty years. It is for this reason we need to make well and tell those we love that we love them all the time. We never know when the last time we will see someone is. My selfish goal this Christmas break was to stay home and not go anywhere. I half heartedly attempted to go visit my mom's house last week, but they were fumbling with the days and thinking about coming up to visit us, as a lazy man, I said great.
Tonight, my luck ran out, I always take for granted that people will be there when I want to see them. My mom called that an uncle I really like passed out at work and was rushed to the hospital. I thought it was simply from a diabetic complication as he has been fighting it for awhile, an hour later mom called to say he had passed. There is nothing more final than those words, no arguing "well, can they do this or can they try that?" Passed away means we are in a new chapter of life, one in which the person no longer is around. He was a good man, a kind man, from the time he and my aunt met, his only goal seemed to see to her happiness and his daughters. I haven't met many nicer humans than him.
He spent a good 10-15 years driving a semi truck with my dad on the highway all over the United States. I know he was a patient man because my dad, I love him, but he can be ornery. I never heard Fred say one bad thing about Dad and I can't figure how or why. One weekend here and I am tempted to give him a quick kick in the ass, hopefully to reboot his old ass like an old computer constantly complaining about nonsense, like the distance of a restaurant to our house, and my poor uncle spent years driving with him.
One summer I was showing off a gold chain on a vacation I had bought at Zales. It would have been something I would not have considered, but my mother in law got great discounts. He looked at it, said it was the same style ("Figaro chain") as his bracelet and said here, they'll match. He gave me his bracelet on the spot, I thought was odd at the moment, but he was that kind of guy, a good man who liked seeing people happy. I always felt weird about this, but it made me more generous, I rarely thought about giving to others, it just isn't something that comes naturally to me.
I am sorry we did not take one more trip last week, it would have been nice to hug you one more time and talk for a bit. Perhaps if we learn from everything, this is the shove I need to visit family more often, as I don't have a real excuse when we compare things against the strongest words I hate to hear "loved one" has passed away. Thanks for everything and love you Fred, goodbye.
Tonight, my luck ran out, I always take for granted that people will be there when I want to see them. My mom called that an uncle I really like passed out at work and was rushed to the hospital. I thought it was simply from a diabetic complication as he has been fighting it for awhile, an hour later mom called to say he had passed. There is nothing more final than those words, no arguing "well, can they do this or can they try that?" Passed away means we are in a new chapter of life, one in which the person no longer is around. He was a good man, a kind man, from the time he and my aunt met, his only goal seemed to see to her happiness and his daughters. I haven't met many nicer humans than him.
He spent a good 10-15 years driving a semi truck with my dad on the highway all over the United States. I know he was a patient man because my dad, I love him, but he can be ornery. I never heard Fred say one bad thing about Dad and I can't figure how or why. One weekend here and I am tempted to give him a quick kick in the ass, hopefully to reboot his old ass like an old computer constantly complaining about nonsense, like the distance of a restaurant to our house, and my poor uncle spent years driving with him.
One summer I was showing off a gold chain on a vacation I had bought at Zales. It would have been something I would not have considered, but my mother in law got great discounts. He looked at it, said it was the same style ("Figaro chain") as his bracelet and said here, they'll match. He gave me his bracelet on the spot, I thought was odd at the moment, but he was that kind of guy, a good man who liked seeing people happy. I always felt weird about this, but it made me more generous, I rarely thought about giving to others, it just isn't something that comes naturally to me.
I am sorry we did not take one more trip last week, it would have been nice to hug you one more time and talk for a bit. Perhaps if we learn from everything, this is the shove I need to visit family more often, as I don't have a real excuse when we compare things against the strongest words I hate to hear "loved one" has passed away. Thanks for everything and love you Fred, goodbye.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
1/2/18 What To Change? (Poem)
What To Change?
Nothing. I have a perfect life
I have a perfect wife.
My boys worship me like a god
together we make the perfect squad.
Wife says I am an Adonis in bed
I might have been born only to be bred.
At my job they say I'm a beast
I look at the work and it becomes ceased.
All that I do It's like I am gifted
when I am around everyone's spirits, lifted.
It is said that my stamina is staggering
give me an hour of sleep and all day long I be mastering.
Or maybe I'm really full o shit
when I look in the mirror I want to spit.
My boys think I'm alright
as long as they don't have to hang with me in daylight.
An Adonis? Why am I joking
without my weekly shots I barely be poking.
Maybe I've been doing my job for 20 plus years
after last years pay cut, I know my managers don't give me many cheers.
When Wife gets home she spends an hour cleaning
that tells me my skills at doing housework are still in the stages of weaning
Most of you know I need sleep all the time
something I will work on now that my leg is in its prime.
In reality, Wife and I co-exist quite well
when I am in a funk, she always gets me out of my shell
my boys are my greatest contribution to this life of mine
each year makes them better, think of them as fine wine.
I won't lie, I need my shots to make my junk work better
who cares? I know my limits, now let me put it where it gets wetter.
Give me another twenty years on the job and I'll be happy
I do honest work and I am fast and snappy.
housework is just that and I will always do my part
but it's just moving a broom around, it is not actually art.
I'll try to lose some weight, that has to be the reason for my tiredness
if that doesn't do then call me a fat-ass, show me your rudeness.
Monday, January 1, 2018
1/1/18 Ending The Year On Fumes?
I am glad 2017 is gone, it has easily been my most trying year. I started with a cut from August of 2016 that would not heal and close. It took a skin graft, a minor surgery, taking three weeks off from work, not going to the coast all year, and tons of patience. The wound finally closed up in the start of the summer, which was great, but it was suggested to maybe wait until the fall to get in the hot tub. It is now December 31 as of me writing this, and I still don't see me getting in the hot tub. The skin is closed, but it is a weird dark purplish color all around the injury, it being so low on my legs doesn't help. Apparently, I have been checked about 3-4 times for diabetes and I haven't shown that I have it, I do have slow movement of blood in my extremities from my gargantuan size. I need to just put my head down and start exercising, but every time I try and start, something happens. When I restarted going to the gym, I think was too aggressive with the dumbbell curls and I gave myself a bit of tennis elbow which only slowed my progress again.
By far the worst thing this year personally, was going back to work after those three miserable weeks of bedrest and finding out we had a layoff and a reduction in pay. Three people were laid off from a group already under twenty and the rest of us took various cuts in pay. I was screwed the hardest for reasons I still don't understand. Not only was I given a fifteen percent pay cut because I had "volunteered" to go help chemistry since they were claiming they were so busy people were working insane amounts of overtime and everyone was burned out from it. I took notice of this and thought it would be great to be in that position, but management used it to say that industry wide engineers get paid more than chemists and since you are now a chemist, we are adjusting your pay accordingly. While I was curled up on the floor from that kick to the balls, they both climbed up on the top rope and did a flying kick to my wallet and just randomly decided that the night shift would now only pay 5% extra instead of the 15% it has always paid. Altogether, I lost 25% of my salary while others I talked to lost 5% to 15%, talk about fair. This had a cascading effect of we either lose the house or I give up my truck. I decided to sell my truck to Carmax, luckily, I walked away with like $3400 which helped me pay off the RV and maybe another small bill. This cut $1100 from my expenses and then we had a couple of roommates which added more income coming in which helped a lot.
Girlie has moved on to her own apartment in a confusing "I have to be a grown up now!" moment. I could only wish her well, I didn't like the way she behaved on the way out, so I wished her well and have cut ties with all of them. You can only do so much for people before it feels not only like helping them but hurting yourself in the process. If this is how appreciation is shown, I say thanks, I was already down, so it's not like I lost much. It was time, so I think it was good, I can focus on just helping my two boys now.
Wife was tempted by what seemed like an excellent job opportunity, when she first applied, it was going to pay her in the $110-$120s in the spring, but by the time they interviewed it was brought down to the $70s, still that was in the range of her current pay. When she found out she had the job and received the packet of what she would be getting, she found out it was going to require her to automatically put 16% of her money into retirement and 401k accounts. This would have been great if I hadn't just had my huge pay cut. She had to turn down the job after flirting with them for almost 5-6 months. She has yet to talk to a person in that organization that is happy working there, so maybe she did the right thing.
As bad as things are, they were not devastating. If I had been laid off, I might have been forced to move down to Crystal, since Wife is working down there and that would completely suck my soul from within, and this has NOTHING to do with y'all MOM! I love you all, but I belong in a big city. There is a chance I could have looked and found work in the refineries in Corpus Christi, Wife and I still think if we retire, it would be nice to head to the coast.
My leg did eventually heal and luckily for as long as it took, I didn't lose any functionality, and the injury never really hurt, so how lucky is that? Wife is still learning her role and I think she needs to learn not to jump on all the little fires, she is more important than that. When an idiot parent shows up at closing time and you have a three hour drive ahead of you, don't entertain the fools that let Mija out of the house in slutty shorts. You can't override a principal decision, just tell them to come back at the proper time the next day and talk to the principal. She will learn these small things, valuing her time, much like all her superiors have always done, then she will be ready to move up and be a real leader. Leaders don't put out fires, they have firemen who know how to handle those fires. In due time, she will get her chance, hopefully, sooner rather than later, she can head back. People that know she has left want her back on their teams, so I think it is a matter of time before she gets back home and with the pay she deserves. I hope my company can continue and improve a bit. If Wife does well, I am fine, even with the pay cut, I still make a decent nickel, but Wife will probably pass me at some point.
Like I said, it was bad, but we didn't lose the house, I still have my Excursion, Boy should be graduating in a couple more semesters, he just passed a class that was kicking his ass all semester, he has to be running out of classes to take if he keeps signing up for 15-18 hours. I would like to see him get to where he pays for his vehicle, but I am being patient. Javalina was slouching a bit right before the Christmas break, but Wife caught on, shook that boy hard to remind him who he was, and he spent the last two weeks at morning and after school tutoring to get himself back into the A's and B's he needs for the Einstein Jr Program. It was nice to see her whip him into shape from so far away. I always tell him "it's up to you, you fail, they kick you out of Einstein, you end up in another school, or possibly back in Crystal City." I am not going to give myself headaches, but Wife will. All in all, it was a challenging year, we look forward to climbing back up from a hard spot. Chemistry could still get a couple more customers and I could find myself in the middle of an overtime storm which I am ready for. I have been trained and I like what we do. So, much like the planet we love so much, let's keep doing our little dance and see of we can get back here in about 365 days. Happy New Year!
By far the worst thing this year personally, was going back to work after those three miserable weeks of bedrest and finding out we had a layoff and a reduction in pay. Three people were laid off from a group already under twenty and the rest of us took various cuts in pay. I was screwed the hardest for reasons I still don't understand. Not only was I given a fifteen percent pay cut because I had "volunteered" to go help chemistry since they were claiming they were so busy people were working insane amounts of overtime and everyone was burned out from it. I took notice of this and thought it would be great to be in that position, but management used it to say that industry wide engineers get paid more than chemists and since you are now a chemist, we are adjusting your pay accordingly. While I was curled up on the floor from that kick to the balls, they both climbed up on the top rope and did a flying kick to my wallet and just randomly decided that the night shift would now only pay 5% extra instead of the 15% it has always paid. Altogether, I lost 25% of my salary while others I talked to lost 5% to 15%, talk about fair. This had a cascading effect of we either lose the house or I give up my truck. I decided to sell my truck to Carmax, luckily, I walked away with like $3400 which helped me pay off the RV and maybe another small bill. This cut $1100 from my expenses and then we had a couple of roommates which added more income coming in which helped a lot.
Girlie has moved on to her own apartment in a confusing "I have to be a grown up now!" moment. I could only wish her well, I didn't like the way she behaved on the way out, so I wished her well and have cut ties with all of them. You can only do so much for people before it feels not only like helping them but hurting yourself in the process. If this is how appreciation is shown, I say thanks, I was already down, so it's not like I lost much. It was time, so I think it was good, I can focus on just helping my two boys now.
Wife was tempted by what seemed like an excellent job opportunity, when she first applied, it was going to pay her in the $110-$120s in the spring, but by the time they interviewed it was brought down to the $70s, still that was in the range of her current pay. When she found out she had the job and received the packet of what she would be getting, she found out it was going to require her to automatically put 16% of her money into retirement and 401k accounts. This would have been great if I hadn't just had my huge pay cut. She had to turn down the job after flirting with them for almost 5-6 months. She has yet to talk to a person in that organization that is happy working there, so maybe she did the right thing.
As bad as things are, they were not devastating. If I had been laid off, I might have been forced to move down to Crystal, since Wife is working down there and that would completely suck my soul from within, and this has NOTHING to do with y'all MOM! I love you all, but I belong in a big city. There is a chance I could have looked and found work in the refineries in Corpus Christi, Wife and I still think if we retire, it would be nice to head to the coast.
My leg did eventually heal and luckily for as long as it took, I didn't lose any functionality, and the injury never really hurt, so how lucky is that? Wife is still learning her role and I think she needs to learn not to jump on all the little fires, she is more important than that. When an idiot parent shows up at closing time and you have a three hour drive ahead of you, don't entertain the fools that let Mija out of the house in slutty shorts. You can't override a principal decision, just tell them to come back at the proper time the next day and talk to the principal. She will learn these small things, valuing her time, much like all her superiors have always done, then she will be ready to move up and be a real leader. Leaders don't put out fires, they have firemen who know how to handle those fires. In due time, she will get her chance, hopefully, sooner rather than later, she can head back. People that know she has left want her back on their teams, so I think it is a matter of time before she gets back home and with the pay she deserves. I hope my company can continue and improve a bit. If Wife does well, I am fine, even with the pay cut, I still make a decent nickel, but Wife will probably pass me at some point.
Like I said, it was bad, but we didn't lose the house, I still have my Excursion, Boy should be graduating in a couple more semesters, he just passed a class that was kicking his ass all semester, he has to be running out of classes to take if he keeps signing up for 15-18 hours. I would like to see him get to where he pays for his vehicle, but I am being patient. Javalina was slouching a bit right before the Christmas break, but Wife caught on, shook that boy hard to remind him who he was, and he spent the last two weeks at morning and after school tutoring to get himself back into the A's and B's he needs for the Einstein Jr Program. It was nice to see her whip him into shape from so far away. I always tell him "it's up to you, you fail, they kick you out of Einstein, you end up in another school, or possibly back in Crystal City." I am not going to give myself headaches, but Wife will. All in all, it was a challenging year, we look forward to climbing back up from a hard spot. Chemistry could still get a couple more customers and I could find myself in the middle of an overtime storm which I am ready for. I have been trained and I like what we do. So, much like the planet we love so much, let's keep doing our little dance and see of we can get back here in about 365 days. Happy New Year!
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