6/1/18 More People Sucking In My World?

    If you need something to write, just go out and mingle with society.  I am always mildly impressed at how self absorbed people can be.  First of all, I spent all day in bed today, the last two weeks I have been going out of my way at work, our main tool is down and the only time we can use the other one is at night, so I have been running most of our samples, which is fine, but it leaves me tired.  I slept all day, thinking there was a chance I would be called in, if only to stay ahead of the work, but I guess not paying OT is more important than returning the data in on time???  It is a fine line my superiors run, but I would let me do ALL THE OT I THOUGHT I needed.  Still, no call, which was also fine, I hurt my toe last weekend and it was nice to rest it in bed all day long.
    The only problem with being in bed all day, is I have a growing Javalina in my house, and he is hungry pretty much all the time.  We eat together after school around 4:00pm, yet sometimes by the time I am heading to work at 6:30pm, he will already be in the kitchen setting up his dinner, It is going to be expensive to feed him through high school.
    So we headed to Target, mostly because it is the closest store to the house, not because of the selection, I have noticed a very limited supply of choice in the cookie aisle, for example.  But back to today, we decided on a couple packages of Jack Daniel's flavored ribs and brisket.  I want to like them, but I have yet to really feel like they are delicious.  We got an assortment of other junk food, breakfast stuff for Saturday morning with Wife, and marshmallows because I love eating them .
    Outside, we noticed a group of people gathered on the street where I would be backing into to get out of my parking spot.  I got lucky in that the very first spot closest to the store was open, so I took it.  It can be hard to back out with the Excursion having such a large ass, but at this point, I am used to it.  The pack of idiots seemed more like they were on a cross country trip in which they had all gotten out of the car to stretch, including two or three dogs.  There were a couple teenagers/kids playing with a basketball being spastic and bouncing here and there.  The mom/leader was deaf or she was talking with sign language to about half of them.  I tried getting her attention, but I saw all the hand gestures and she was opening the door, I figured she saw me and my need for her to move her shit.  She scooted forward a whole two feet which did very little to help me, and as I was backing up and determining it was going to be tricky, one of the idiot girls stole the basketball from the dude, and in one motion almost ended up under my SUV.  I stopped and waited, which she popped back into view a second later from below my vehicle's windows.  The mom noticed maybe my vehicle was bigger and she then kept driving forward, but with another of the kids on the hood.  Man, this was a rowdy bunch.  What if I had run over the girl with the basketball?  What if the kid riding on the hood fell and she ran over him?  I was glad to get away from that pack of stupid people.

5/31/18 School's Out For Summer?

    How does the year sneak past us every year?  Man, Javalina is done with another school year, seems like just yesterday we were dragging ass getting him ready to play football even as the school struggled to find his bucket head a helmet that would fit.  We slid through the Thanksgiving Christmas break without too much excitement.  It seemed to be the start of a great new year, personally I was taking two weeks off during the Christmas break, then we lost an uncle suddenly.  That was a tragedy, as he was a good man who did nothing but work and love my aunt and his daughters.
    Javalina stayed busy at school with Band, projects for his Einstein program, and then in the Spring he tried his hand at Track and Field, specifically shot-put and discus.  He was the back-up in discus, but he did very well in shot-put, landing in 7th place out of 30 kids from about ten different schools.  He really just used brute strength as his technique was not developed being that he only practiced 4-5 times before the big meet.
    If he discovered anything this year, it is that he is a very physical boy.  He is one of those that needs to constantly be playing grab-ass with his buddies.  He loves putting his strength on display, even challenging me to arm wrestling from time to time, good thing I have always lifted weights when feeling healthy and free.  Since joining the Chemistry group I don't feel I even have time to pee, if we are being honest, much less find time to go to the gym.  This summer we are supposed to start an exercise regime, Javalina and I at home.  He wants to be the strongest kid in his class and wants to win the shot-put thing next year, plus he wants to be a specimen on the football field, not just one of the fat bodies.
    Boy has been working less than a month and has already accrued something like 90 hours of OT which they do not pay him because he is an intern.  They told him yesterday to go home early and then today he gets to stay home and he'll get paid I guess out of guilt, although it's dumb to expect him to go back and work on Friday after giving him off half of Wednesday and all of Thursday.  He seems to be happy, so I won't mess with him too much, other than him helping with the yard.
    It will be an interesting summer, filled with muscle growth and head butting as I mean to keep my position as alpha as the hierarchy wants to be challenged by the youngest buck.

5/30/18 The Participation Award Generation?

    Javalina came home with the most coveted of useless awards and it was beautiful that he recognized it as such.  Last week, the band program had a concert, fine, we went and I complained it was hot as balls in the gym.  They were going to repeat the procedure on Thursday with another round of get together to present awards for various accomplishments.  Our boy wanted no involvement in this and since I was on my own and had already missed part of Tuesday, I was not going to push to be late on another night at work.
    Friday was pretty quiet at school, the band took three chartered busses to Schlitterbahn and although we kept pushing our saxophone player to go, he kept saying he didn't know the band kids well enough.  What are you gonna do?  Force him to go have fun with kids he doesn't want to or let him do what he wants, in this case go to school all day.  We let it slide, I had written a $64 check to cover the usage of the borrowed baritone saxophone, which we didn't realize was a thing, but again,  what are you gonna do?
    Anyways, today, he finally went to band class, they aren't doing anything anymore, they were told not to bring their backpacks anymore.  The little knucklehead was given a "participation" certificate which he had folded four ways to fit into his pocket.  He tells me "today sucked, look at this bullshit."  He pulls it out and I instinctively start on him with the "why did you fold it , Little Shit, we can't frame it up like that?"  He said "it's a participation award, there's nothing special about it!"  I start laughing, remembering one of Carolla's rants about this is the participation award generation.  Today's kids can't take a good bowel movement without mama and daddy proclaiming "that shit should be bronzed.
    I've been discussing stuff like this with the boys for a long time, so Javalina recognized BS when he saw it.  I am more proud of him for seeing through the façade than him trying to get a reward from us for getting something new to hang on the wall.

5/29/18 What Are The Expectations Of A Man Child?

    All weekend I have been hounding Boy to get his shit together and cut the grass in the backyard.  Honestly, I would just rather do it myself, but I managed to sprain my big toe somehow and it hurts to walk with purpose.  I have been trying to rest my foot all weekend, but that is always a hard stretch.  I believe I hurt it Friday morning while cutting the grass in the morning.
    Boy wants to whine that he is tired when he gets home and he is working full time.  Umm, I'm sorry princess, but I too worked a full week with 12 hour shifts for 5 days, not 8 hour little baby shifts.  I managed to come home and cut the grass, wash your clothes along with everyone elses, clean the kitchen, the pool, and you just managed to have a sleepover all weekend.
    For some reason, Boy had some of his new girlfriend's friends come and spend the night at our house.  I don't mind this at all, but I really felt he should have helped me outwith cutting the grass before people showed up.  Instead, he came home early Friday, great, but just managed to nap.  I did everything I mentioned above after working a full shift, dropping off Javalina and going on 3 hours sleep all day Friday.
    Here's the question, should I still expect Boy to help out around the house?  He has never done much of the heavy lifting.  I don't think he knows how to run the washer or dryer.  He has no idea that dishes have to be washed after we eat on them.  His very nice Ford Edge has been washed about three times, twice by me in the 1.5 years he has been driving it.  I say I still get to pester him since he lives at home and doesn't pay rent, he is a member of the family and should act as such and help.  Or is he a "man" and I should back off and just be content to have him around and let him do as he does?  Wife kept saying "don't embarrass him in front of his friends this weekend as they all stretched out all over the house.  Again, it does not bother me, I just expect him to say "My parents were really cool letting me have all these people over, the least I am going to do is cut the grass, in the back."  Apparently that was too much gratitude to expect from the Brown Turd.
    I honestly thought Monday would be home day.  Everybody seemed to leave the house on Sunday in the afternoon.  I expected him to be home Sunday.  I was being nice and not wanting to wake him up too early, but when Javalina came down, I asked him to check on Boy, mostly to get any dirty clothes in his room, and he tells me he is not in his room.  Even when I want to be nice and let him sleep in, he still managed to screw us over by leaving to the girlfriend's house.  He came back just in time to take a shower and get in bed.  What a life, Turd!

5/28/18 Who's A Good Boy? Hans!

    We had probably the coolest little dog visiting this weekend.  He has been in our house a couple of times and I have yet to hear him bark.  I absolutely hate a whiny dog, a dog that barks for no reason, a dog that pees all over the place, and maybe drops a deuce just to show he cares.  Yes, my mom has a decent dog, Chloe.  I like Chloe, but anytime she is startled, she will bark, anytime she doesn't recognize somebody, she will bark, she likes to save her best pees for after she goes for a walk outside and pee and poop on my carpet.
    The whole time Hans was around he just floated and observed.  When his owner left with Boy and the gang, Hans was comfortable enough to come down around us in the kitchen and just hang out like he had been here forever.  Even though he was comfortable around us, whenever Javalina tried to carry him, he would weirdly spread his front paws apart as if to flatten himself on the floor and make himself heavier, we thought pretty cute for a ten-twelve pound dog.
    The owner was then showing us that he knows some tricks like giving a high five with either paw or stand, stay, or heel.  The loudest he got was when he wanted attention, the dog actually tried to talk or murmur in a gurgle fashion.  The owner said the dog does have a proper larynx or whatever, when around other dogs, he will bark and growl.
    When she first got her, she thought the dog might have actually been an old dog.  Apparently, Pomeranians go thru an "ugly phase" when they loose their thick baby fur and get their adult thick fur.  She also said Hans was never interested in playing with chew toys and shed everywhere like it was fixing to die.
    Anyways, Boy had a couple from Dallas visit over the weekend.  The couple has been here a few times and although they showed up Friday and we had almost forgot Boy had mentioned they were coming, when we saw the dog, Hans and it helped us remember them.  It turned out to be them plus the girlfriend and some other friends.  I always like having people come stay at our house.  The couple is real nice and friendly, which helps.  The guy asked about my leg cut right away which I thought was awful thoughtful and since they got here while Boy was at Sam's getting food, they also got to hear some of Wife's stories about her work after they asked how it was going for her over there.
    I honestly am not a dog fan, but I find this particular one very curious because of it being a small Pomeranian which means it should be a pain in the ass, like a chihuahua, but it has a very cool demeanor.  It even appears to smile when you say "go outside" and he'll go stand by the closest door and just walks outside all cool.  It never whines, barks, or gets all nervous, it just stands around waiting for its master, like a good dog should.

5/27/18 Society Is Breaking Into Two Classes?

    I don't know if the government did it intentionally or if it happened as a by product of a bad idea, but the welfare class is gaining steam and starting to make it seem like we are a world of have and have nots.  Wife was telling me of a couple she knows of in which the male works, has a decent job, the woman does not, has four kids, one of which belongs to the man.  One way or another, the man found out he was possibly paying too much in alimony, so they went before a judge and the judge determined he was overpaying by some thing like $240 a month.  This had started seven months earlier, so the judge also threw in that the gal now owed the male $240 times seven.  This, of course pissed off the woman who whined that this was money she used to feed her four babies.  The judge clarified that this was money for only the one particular child, the father of the other children is responsible for those other kids.  Instead of something like $750, there would only be $500 a month.
    I guess my point is that I hate the side of the population that doesn't work.  I have been working twelve hour shifts going on 22 years, mostly at night.  I get a week off a couple times a year and that is how it is going to be until I quit, retire, or die at work.  Yet this 21% of the population gets to hang out, they get section 8 housing where they might pay a measly $50 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment.  Plus the money from the dummy that impregnated the leach.  These have to be the people I see going swimming in the middle of the week, hanging out in coffee shops with all the time in the world.  I can't even figure how to have lunch with a friend in the middle of the week because I have to stay on my fixed routine or risk not sleeping enough.
    Another friend I know is starting the divorce process and again, he does nothing but work, she makes sure gravity doesn't lift her bed off the ground.  She thinks she is worth $8000 a month and the house, which is paid off.  I say he has a tapeworm in his brain if he agrees to her demands.  No unemployed biotch is worth even $1-2k a month.  The older one is in the middle of high school and the younger one is almost in junior high.
    There is a portion of society which functions as it is supposed to.  The adults work full time jobs, the older kids work part time jobs, and they do the best that they can.  But there is a moocher part of society which doesn't work and seems to stick their tongues out at us as if we are the stupid ones slaving away.  Sometimes I do feel like the subservient class to these ne'er do wells.  They have found a way to exist without breaking a sweat and I don't think that is the American way.
    And yet, the tearing down of America continues.  My main street from my neighborhood has become a series of one low income housing complex to another.  I don't see how we are still the majority.

5/26/18 Finally Walked Into The Ferrarri Dealership?

    I know I can't afford one, Mom.  Worse yet, I am not sure I could squeeze my fat ass into one of these works of art, but I thought Javalina should see these cars up close to appreciate.  They just had their official grand opening recently, and the building looks beautiful, if not a little spartan.  The only decorations on the grey walls were giant images of older Ferraris, mostly in Ferrari Red.  It was funny, I was telling Javalina how most of the time, when you saw a Ferrari on TV, it used to be in this bright cool red color.  And he says "like in all the posters.  Sure enough, 80% of the posters were of red Ferraris.
    Javalina was unimpressed until he saw a white convertible with white leather seats and then he came around.  Still, all the cars had a "Do Not Touch" sign, so I couldn't even push him to sit in any of them.  It was also weird that they only had a total of maybe 10 cars, including the ones outside, the main room and the back room.
    It was cool that they had an old Testarossa in the right color, red, and of course, an oil pan underneath, as I have always read that these cars leak all the time.  Javalina says some of the other cars also had oil pans underneath, but I didn't notice them.  Maybe because it was a Friday afternoon, but there were no other customers and only 1 dude appeared to be a salesman and they had the prerequisite cute girl working the phones and saying hi at the door.
    Honestly, the coolest car in my opinion was the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider in the convertible variety because it had the same sexy lines and curves as the Ferraris, but it was also much more compact, like an older Lotus which were always cool cars. Entry level price for the spider is also around a reasonable $64,000.  I almost had a heart attack on seeing the first Ferrari with its sticker price of over $1 million.  The next one was also over $699,000.
    My only complaint is that the location still requires one to drive through William Cannon in East Austin which is beaner central.  I'm sorry, but us Hispanics don't buy things like Ferraris, we carry a lot of weight in the ass, and everywhere else.  I am sure they prefer the customers weigh closer to 150 pounds which puts me and my baby (Javalina..., even Wife) out.  Maybe Boy could possibly one day drive one.  But they are still some sexy ass cars and it was nice to be able to see so many in one location.  I'll get Javalina out to the BMW dealership next time I get a chance.

5/25/18 Where Do You Draw The Line?

    I know this is a tough one and maybe I overstepped my bounds, but I will not let shit that I disagree with happen on my watch.  I figure me being vocal is the least I can do, what happens after is what we call life and we then react accordingly.  Boy is now dating a strong woman with opinions that are hard to challenge because like most women that are never challenged, they grow up in a bubble in which men are always wrong or ill informed or misguided or generally not as all knowing as the goddess that is woman.  She is, for the most part a sweet and loving person, most of my family already knows her and likes her but twice I've had a disagreement and both times she has come at me with claws at the ready.  This would be hard to handle if I wasn't used to it from my mom, my sister, my wife, my coworkers.  Historically, I love to argue and one can figure the buttons to push to get a response, if you want it.
    Anyway, the reason for our "disagreement" is she posted a picture.  One could call it sexy, cute, slutty, and anything else in between.  My opinion is you don't post stuff like this, unless you want attention.  That is fine, but then why be in a committed relationship, if you "need" the opinion of others telling you how "pretty", "sexy", "empowered", or whatever other nonsense this will accomplish.  She said I have no right to tell her what she does with her body.  I agree, up until you decide you might want to become a future family member, then we start today conducting ourselves with a little more gravitas.  Everyone knows I love a fucking slutty girl, they are my absolute favorite thing in the world, but not for adding to the family.  This position you are basically "interviewing" for right now will lead to my grandkids and the next generation of family.  I expect nothing less than Wife who absolutely places our boys above everything.  She is never concerned with "do my tits look ok?  or should I go get another $300 haircut because the focus should be on me."  We have one goal, and that is to raise awesome kids, and that is what we are doing, you know them, you love them.
    I also said it sounds bad, but when in a relationship, you belong to the other person.  She blew up at this, but I maintain that this is important.  Wife and I have been together 30 years now, so maybe we know what we are talking about.  Take sexy pics, but only share them with the boyfriend.  The rest of the world only cares about how much of a spectacle you are willing to make of yourself, they don't need to see shit.  Sorry, but I guess the wives of my boys are going to be the closest thing I will have to daughters, and oh yes, we will be intrusive.  Your "Tios" have nothing on my skills.  Remember, what they call boujee, I call 1 of my 2 favorite things on the planet, my Mijos.

5/24/18 Less Than A Week For School To End?

    This is the reason Wife and I decided she should take the job in La Pryor.  Even though she is far away during the week, a school year passes by so quickly.  We are about four days away from Javalina having his freedom for a few months.  Boy finished a couple weeks ago and is now fully immersed in his summer internship.  He may be treading water right now, but in a few months, I believe he will be better for it.  He is learning so many new things, sitting in on meetings with people across the world, interacting and contributing.  Wife doesn't get her summers off like she used to, but they do go to a 10hr/day four day week, so she is up here a little more, plus she does get two weeks off and this year they are scheduled for her.  I am not sure she took all her days off last summer, as she kept wanting to save a day here and there and before she knew it, summer was over.
    The biggest plan we have over the summer is going to be to go on a road trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Wife has two uncles up there and her dad wants to go visit one who is sick and is having a hard time traveling down.  I was tempted to stay as it doesn't sound like a fun trip to me, and add the fact that my sister in law is taking two freaking dogs in the van and I'm sure it is going to be awesomely comfortable in there with their smells and barking.  Wife has convinced me to go and then I thought what am I going to do by myself, it would mean I probably didn't take a week off this summer and screw that, I really want a break right about now.
    Javalina is talking about getting ready for football.  He is gun-ho on wanting to start lifting weights.  He actually has, he brought down my curl bar which has like 50 pounds on it and he is using it to do some sort of bench press, but on the floor.  I figured it's not hurting him even if he is not getting the full extension, he is practicing holding weight above him and bringing it down in a controlled fashion.  They had a football meeting yesterday after school and he said he got all pumped up and started goading the other big boys to come at him, ram style (I imagine).  He is such a little shit, he told me a girl wanted to come at him and try to tackle him, he says condescendingly, "she wasn't bad for a girl, but I just stood there and let her do her thing.  I could've lifted her off the ground and really taken her down, but her friend told me to be nice."  I tell you, this boy loves playing grab-ass.

5/23/18 Spring Concert Was HOT?

    My biggest thing about these little concerts is who the hell is in charge?  You gotta think about the people and their comfort levels.  Your stupid ass might be skinnier than normal and sitting in a sauna just requires you a thin shawl but most of the people around you are fat Mexicans.  You want us to sit and pay attention, but all we can think of is "where is the A/C?"
    The lead director got after the sixth graders 2-3 times for moving around and being fidgety, but dammit, in that heat, I couldn't help it myself.  We get to sit in bleachers designed for junior high kids, so they are smaller and more compact, meaning the adults sitting on them are closer than we want to be to one another and thus we can feel each other's heat.
    I still think they have too many bands, the concert band was only 9 students, come on.  They should just be absorbed into the other two bands, which at least have over 30 students each and start sounding like a decent band.  The scheduling worked perfectly as Wife was able to come and attend with me.  She even made dinner for afterwards, and tuna for tomorrow.
    Javalina has improved on the Bari Sax, he tells us he is a "god" when he plays, but we have yet to hear him play by himself.  He will probably have to decide between sports or music in another year.  It sucks, but there aren't enough hours in a day to do everything.  I chose the sax because my ego was stroked before heading to high school.  One of the band directors pulled me aside and said he wanted to see me continue and not give it up because he felt I could be something special.  This is pretty much all it took me, plus the fact that our football teams were always mediocre, at best, winning 2-3 games a year, at that time.
    Javalina is a jock, complete with that need to constantly be playing grab-ass with the other boys.  Damn kid can't keep his hands to himself.  He brings friends over and if he isn't trying to carry them, he is trying to squish them or hug them to lift them off the ground.  That is jock mentality, I never felt a need to be hugging and squeezing on the other guys or rolling around on the ground.
    As far as the concert, it was what it was, I just could not focus on anything but the fact that Stupid did not request the A/C be turned on.  If it was broke, this should have been moved to the cafeteria.  A crowded band hall would have made a better venue.  The A/C was blasting in there, I helped move some drums and it was almost chilly.

5/22/18 Having My Folks Visit?

    Maybe retirement is good for my mom, we just had another very pleasant visit from them.  I was half expecting my sister and her family to join along, but my brother in law was asked to be a godfather for some nephew's communion at church.  I don't normally care whether they come visit or not, but her and my attorney brother were just busting my balls about me having roommates and "we would visit more often if not for all your little tenants."  Well, I got two empty rooms and where y'all at?
    Anyways, after visiting with Boy's friends Friday evening, my parents finally showed up around 10-10:30pm.  It was nice, they had already eaten dinner, we ate some leftovers from the week that I "cooked" for Wife.  Javalina and his sleepover buddies had pizzas and Boy went and had dinner with his friends.  After all the hellos, Mom sat with us and mostly Wife was talking about all the shenanigans that go on around her at her job.  We probably went to bed around midnight.
    Saturday morning I got up at 7:00am, went outside after I had a cup of coffee and started draining the hottub with a small pump.  Usually, I just use a bucket but that leaves me feeling like shit and sore the next few days.  This little pump did all the magical hard work for me.  I just sat inside and waited until the water was all the way down.  I did have to scrub the walls, but that was about 5 minutes worth of work.  I then set the hose to it and just waited for it to fill up.  The morning was so freaking nice, even my folks came out with their coffee to sit and chat while I messed with the dirty algae and dead bugs.
    The afternoon was filled with the usual fare of the mall, bookstore, odd stores here and there.  Then they started.  Everyone decided they wanted to see Avengers, so Boy went and got tickets at Alamo Drafthouse for us.  The movie didn't start until 10:15pm, so we all went home, it was 7:00pm and took a nap.  Wish I could say it was a great movie, but you saw my thoughts on it.
    Sunday started off real nice, it was raining, my folks had said they were staying until Monday, we had no rush to do anything.  I still got up at 8:00am to enjoy a cup of coffee but then  my brother called with a personal emergency and my folks decided it would be best to go and be close by for him, just in case.  All in all, a very nice relaxing weekend.  I took a nap for awhile, we went to Target for some food for the week, and I even got to go towork and do some OT.

5/21/18 Avengers: Infinity War? (spoilers galore!)

    I knew against my better judgment to go watch it, but my mom said it would be worth it because it was funny.  I would rather have BBQ'd but then Javalina started whining like a little shit, so here we go on a Saturday night.  There was nothing really enjoyable about the movie other than the cool scene of making a new hammer for Thor with the real life little person Peter Dinklage being a giant.
    Right off the bat it sucked in the first five minutes they kill Loki while heroically trying to do the right thing, for once.  Then Hulk appears because he is on the ship, attempts to fight Thanos but Thanos kicks the shit out of him and manages to scare Hulk into coming back out the rest of the movie.  They killed all the people from Asgaard that they had saved on that ship in the last Thor movie except Thor and Hulk.  So then what was the point of the Thor movie, just kill his sister?
    Thanos starts collecting the stones about as easily as a bully would take a dollar from any kid.  When he needs to sacrifice a loved one its like he raised Gamora for exactly that purpose because he claimed he loved her but tossed her down the cliff without much remorse.  Dr. Strange acts like a badass who cannot give up his infinity stone, but then does so pretty easily to save Iron Man.
    Then it gets ridiculous, once you can reverse time, movies should cease to be.  For all the efforts of Vision to keep the stone from getting onto Thanos's glove and the supreme sacrifice of the one you love having to kill you,  only to have Thanos reverse time, bring Vision back into existence with the stone intact, he rips it off his head, violently and completes the glove.
    There is a fight, in Wakanda, we just discovered it existed and now two wars on its soil back to back.The alien forces were lizard like creatures.  Fine, they are bad ass looking and hungry for war, but what do they do in their spaceships, with all the technology required to fly safely, but yet land and provide complete mayhem.  They would be dying to destroy the ship from the inside out.  What do they do to relax, play checkers?  Maybe they put on their little reading glasses and play chess hissing "I'm getting too old for this shit."
    The end is just heartbreaking, there is no honor of dying in battle, just an ashy silhouette breaking apart in the wind of half the living beings as Thanos proposed earlier.  It sucked watching half the people fighting disappear, but then also teen Groot, Drax, stupid Star-Lord, and the most painful to watch Spider-Boy.  It hurt to watch him disappear because he is a kid amongst men, he really hasn't lived, and only got involved because he tried to do the right thing.  So how does Thanos celebrate after accomplishing his goal, eliminating half the beings in the universe?  By sitting outside some shitty shack on a stool and just watching out on a pretty scenery.  My brother was pissed he didn't have a cup of tea or coffee, with a little "nothing tastes better than mass genocide in the morning."
    As emotional as I tend to be and movies make me cry like a little bitch, I didn't even react, it falls on the too much killing to care.  Something like that quote I've seen 1 death is an atrocity, 1,000,000 deaths is a headline.  But then my mom and brother start talking about some new super hero chick coming and she will reverse time, at least for the worthy heroes.  I call so much BS because once you can do this, just reverse time every time you don't get your way.  I'm sorry, but like X-Men, I have lost interest, they have disrespected death.  You can't mass kill everyone as a distraction to bring out a new super heroine, that's just shitty and weak writing.  I'm out, at least until they make up for this travesty of a fucking fart show.

5/20/18 And My House Flexed Its Muscle?

    Our house had been down to just the three of us boys during the week and Wife joining us on the weekends.  That means that our 5 bedroom house feels mostly empty, with the two vacated bedrooms and all sorts of living rooms sitting unused.
    Last night was one of those nights that lined up where a bunch of kids showed up.  Javalina is different than Boy in that he will plan a weekend for his friends to come over.  He only does it about once a month and then for one night only, usually on a Friday.  Boy, on the other hand, since Kinder would have all these boys who needed more parenting.  Even in Kinder, I remember a little white boy came over, his parents said we'll see you later, shook our hand and we didn't hear from them until Sunday night.  That was a very "what the F**k?" moment for us.  It didn't change, he had luck, friending boys who were on the verge of parents divorcing or separating.  From about 1st grade through 6th grade another boy we loved as our own was here on any random night.  It continued through high school culminating with one of his friends just moving in his senior year.  Add to this that either my sister in law or my brother have lived with us and one can see why I felt a need for a house with space.
    Anyways, getting back to last night (Friday), Javalina had 5-6 boys spending the night, Boy had his new girlfriend and his friend and younger sister here, and then my parents showed up around 10:00pm.  The house never felt overcrowded and it was awesome to see them or anyone finally jump in the pool.  The boys all decided it would be a good idea to jump in the pool around 9:00pm and they stayed in there for a good while.
    I have been cleaning the pool all week because my folks were coming and my dad will jump in there for one and two, I have asshole neighbors who will call the city on me for having a green pool which is a magnet for mosquitos.  I call bullshit because we have a creek that always looks stagnant and green about 100 yards from the house.  I got up this morning sure I would finish with the hot tub and luckily,found my little pump and used it instead of doin it manually with the bucket.  I just sat with my coffee and started writing this and talking with my folks.  Within a half hour, the hot tub was ready for me to go out and scrub it the last bit.  As I write the last bit here I am keeping an eye on the water rising, it is almost full with new clean water for the first time in a year.  I love sitting in it, but had been hesitating with my cut on  my leg, but it has had a year to heal.

5/19/18 Why Do We Care About Royalty From Other Countries?

    It may not seem like there is a lot of news, but really, there is.  How people can stuff their brains about this marriage coming up between some out of date royalty BS is beyond me.  I hate the way we are fed the news nowadays with the little boxes when you open the computer.  To that, of course, we get a new update on the wedding, like people in the US give two shits.
    I just wonder, why do the people of England still support this "royal family"?  As I understand it, they pay a tax to support the royals.  Meaning, you could be sitting struggling to get by, and you have to come up with a way to pay your share so these jack-offs can live like millionaires in a world apart right down the street.  I just looked it up and found that the average person pays the equivalent of about a postage stamp, 56pence.  Worse than that, it appears that they did a survey and almost 60-70 percent of the people feel like they get their money's worth.
    As I thought about it and discussed it with Wife (I wrote the 1st two paragraphs in the morning, it is now nighttime.), this all ties together, the last few blogs.  In the This Is America video, Gambino references how we get distracted with crap from the important stuff go
ing on.  We had a school shooting just today, another one, here in Texas, near Houston, but let's find out if Meghan Merckle's dad is going to the wedding.  That is more important than the ten people that died today?  Again, like in the video, we are very careful about blaming the deaths on the accessibility of the guns, but rather, let's make that a footnote.  If only the dad had kept the guns locked up.  Are we going to put any blame on the father for buying the guns and leaving them where an idiot could access them?  Probably not.
    Please though, what color dress is she wearing for the wedding?  Surely not white, she has a first marriage, so let's not be cute and wear white.  Oh, but the best friend's kids are all going to be pageboys, that is just so precious... This boy (today's shooter) had affections for the Nazi regime, again, nothing, they have the same rights as any other group?  When can we start saying no.  We kicked your ass in a World War, all that paraphernalia must die out or not exist on American soil.  Same as the stupid south bullshit, y'all lost partner, give it up.
    But great news, the American princess does have royal roots, so yeaih!  That is a difference maker right there.  Plus now we know that Prince Charles is ready and able to walk a non royal down the aisle, what great luck.  Meanwhile, another angry idiot plots for his turn to open fire on another campus.  It won't be the fault of the gun, remember, this time it wasn't an AR-15 type, it was a boring revolver and boring shotgun, but as Gambino said "This Is America."

5/18/18 This Is America?

    This is probably the most interesting and controversial video to come out in a couple years.  It is from Childish Gambino, who sounds like an idiot, but it is Daniel Glover's stage persona.  Daniel has been on the screen for a couple years, notably on Community as a silly sidekick to an eccentric character, but it seems he may be the one with eccentric tendencies if he can keep doing videos like this one.  He also has a big role in the Han Solo movie fixing to come out, as young Lando Calrissien.
    Glover has been interviewed about what the video is about and he refused to break it down, choosing to say it's for the people.  Everyone is free to take what they will from it.  The video starts with a happy island guitar sing songy sound with a lot of high pitched children singing la la la la la la la.  Cut to Gambino's back and slowly turning to the camera snd starting to dance but with a weird twitch in his eye.  He dances up to the man happily playing the guitar but now his head is in a sack and Gambino pulls a gun from his waistband and blows the guys head off.  It is shocking, and the music changes to an ominous bass sound with Gambino chanting "This is America".  The part I noticed and kind of liked is that immediately, the gun gets gently placed in a cloth and gently caressed and taken from  the scene, no attention is paid to the victim.  There is then a group of kids dressed the same who follow the Gambino character as he is saying silly things like "I'm so pretty" "I'm so dope like that."  It takes watching a couple times to notice behind the happy kids dancing mayhem is in full effect in the background.  People committing suicide, riots, police chasing people, even the grim reaper on a white horse.
    He repeats the process, the second time with a church choir singing, he enters dancing and within a few seconds picks up a rifle and takes out the choir yelling "This is America".  Towards the end, he is dancing on a collection of cars which seems nice, but they are all older shittier cars.  I am not sure if the reference is that this is the top for a black man/society, white America's used shit.  But that's what I get.  In the last scene, Gambino is running, and appears to be chased by police.  It seems different from the other times in his youth, he just did what he wanted, now older and looking for peace, this is when the police and authorities notice you and attempt to take you down.
    Even if I am wrong, everyone should see the video, everyone seems to be talking about it.  He is not singing pro violence, but is putting the light to it.  Something has to be done to curb the senseless killings going on.

5/17/18 Boats?

    I know I sound like I've lost it when we are crunched right now financially, but there will be a time when we get better and I still see a boat in our future.  I've been getting a Boating magazine and looking for boats on YouTube and stuff.  I've noticed that they are changing, and pretty fast.  Ten years ago, they were just getting bigger and bigger, there were these houseboats that looked like they were pontoon boats when they were babies, now they are on steroids.  These boats, if we can call them, were a mix between pontoon boat and trailer house.  I loved the idea of having a couple bedrooms, and an A/C so one can sleep on their boat.  Fast forward a few years and these boats don't even seem to be in production no more.  It is hard enough to find used ones from five years ago.
    What seems to be the new thing is a more compact boat.  Instead of 60 or 100 feet in length, these boats are staying in the 30-40 foot range and packing a lot into them.  With bedrooms below, even up to three.  The whole main floor is for entertaining, with a salon (living room), galley (kitchen), even a head (bathroom), so you don't have to go bothering belowdeck.  Instead of the outdated pontoons, some of these new "mini yachts" come with a fiberglass hull to cut through water waves easily.
    The look of the boats is different too.  They are using these large picture windows to show the beauty around you, instead of making the boat 99% fiberglass with just a few tiny windows.  I like this idea for a boat. All of them seem to have a place to hang out in front and in the back plus some are still pushing for the party deck on top (roof), with enough weight holding capacity to allow 17 people and it can be driven from up top.
    Some of these boats may have existed all along, but they are just making it here from overseas, possibly.  Jeaneou, or something like that is a French builder and they are very much working with these limitations of smaller boat, bigger feel.  I know it sounds like a lot but seeing that some of these boats are only $100,000, with two bedrooms and everything else seems like a bargain to me.
    I don't know how we will be financially in the future, but I would really like something like this.  Just an idea while I'm bored and looking.

5/16/18 Passing The Buck Proves You're Not A Leader?

    I am all into this mini drama going on with Wife at work, because the other guy was a good friend of mine for a couple of years back when we were in school.  It is surprising how people will behave in public to attempt to look like they are in control of everything.  After being talked to, he still managed to repeat his bad habit of blaming others for his shortcomings.  I think it is much more honorable to take the blame even when it hurts.  People will see that you are the kind of guy that isn't there to be perfect.  After all, we are human, none of us can say we are perfect.  I have screwed up samples here at work, and it hurts me to report myself, but you do it and you move on.  Worst case, somebody has to call our customer and ask for another sample or in some cases we give them free work, it is not the end of the world.
    A slightly similar thing at the house on a much smaller scale, but I have been telling Boy to clean his room.  I was in there looking around and all our dishes are disappearing, well, the turd is holding them hostage for some reason.  I was in there talking to him, told him to at least get the dishes downstairs, I don't want a bunch of roaches thank to your dirty ass.  He took them down, without bothering to wash them, so I go home and I wash them as I curse him out in my head because I went home in the middle of the night and everyone is asleep.  The next day I said "what the hell, leaving all your freaking dishes for me to wash, that is a dick move?"  He just plainly says "It wasn't me."  I called bullshit.  Nothing pisses me off more than lying.
    Few people are born leaders, but if I could give advice to those wishing to lead from the top:
1.)  Surround yourself with competent people and let them do their thing. 
2.)  Don't lift yourself up by standing on the ones that make you great. 
3.)  Accept your limitations, don't think that because you are the boss, you should only present us with positive feedback.
4.)  Be human.  One of my supervisors was hard to deal with until he relaxed and started sharing about himself and the trouble with his kids, he also had to babysit like I did when not at work.
5.)  Take the blame.  That is what a leader does, he accepts responsibility and then assures you of improvements so such and such will not happen again.

5/15/18 Throwing People Under The Bus?

    Why do some people think this is a good idea, specially nowadays when we are all connected way too closely with phones and email.  I will admit I do it harmlessly, such as if we are late to my folks or my in-laws, sometimes I am just dragging ass or distracted trying to do something else, I don't have a problem saying yeah, "we were waiting for Boy to get out of work."  I mean this is harmless and actually paints the boy as a harder working person than he is.  I would never sell him out and say something ugly like "well, we're waiting on Boy, he was out partying, now he's in bathroom throwing up for the last hour.  We'll be there when we can."  Boy doesn't really drink, so luckily, we don't have these problems.
    How about professionally?  Usually, when a small fixable thing gets by one of us, the other person will catch it and fix it, no problem.  I got busted a couple times when I was starting out, I'd catch a mistake and I would point it out instead of fixing and hiding.  A few confrontations and one learns to play the game a little smarter.  I was told "are you sure you want to continue in this path of throwing people under the bus?"  By being one of the team, there is an added layer of someone watching your back plus this place is like freaking Cuba, us worker bees on the floor don't matter, why help management when they hardly help us?  Our current system seems perfect, and after working with the same people almost twenty years, some of us coworkers carry on like family, much better than trying to claw my way to the top.
    Wife is in a much different fish bowl, she is basically the #2 person on campus, the only way to climb for her would be to replace the superintendent.  She plays it straight and by the book, she knows she is only there for a few years at most, we can't live 200 miles apart indefinitely.  Some of the other people around her are straight up weasels and try to throw anyone under the bus, if they can look good in the process.  This being a small town, it seems like a normal way to operate.  One of Wife's underlings wanted to write up someone for whatever reason, but he used Wife's name as the reason for doing so.  Ooh, Wife heard about it, sat and fumed all weekend as he hid the last two days and avoided her but she caught him and he acted like the weasel that he is.  "No, Miss, it was a miss-understanding."  "What I meant to say was blah blah blah."
    I would hope this Knucklehead learns, but some people are hard headed.  Wife is tenacious and as professional as she is, she can be like a mama bear.  I would hate to see this get physical, because like a real mama bear, Wife has a good 60-80 pounds on the miniature idiot, he might be learning the hard way.

5/14/18 Mother's Day?

    Wife didn't want to go spending money on trinkets this year, so the next best thing is doing what she wants without complaining.  I took care of the front lawn on Friday, and today I woke up Boy at the crack of 10:00am so he could cut the grass in the back.  I was going to help him by following and trimming, but I got distracted with all the boxes and cardboard leftovers in the garage so I never made it to the backyard.  He came back into the garage, grabbed the trimmer, a newly charged battery and back to work without saying too much.  Since I was going to take care of the trimming but I didn't tell him this, I felt a little guilty, but then again, the boy is 24, he can handle an hour's worth of work.  He does very little the rest of the week.
    I finished cutting all the boxes about the time he was done cutting, I went to look around the backyard, always underwhelmed at the boy's efforts, but it is done.  I took out a new hose I bought about 3 months ago and installed it to the faucet in the back.  The hose is part of my efforts to clean up the pool by next week.  I am interested in cleaning the pool because my dad likes very few things, but he has always liked swimming, and especially when he has the pool to himself.  Knowing it will be up near 100 will be reason enough to have the pool clean and shiny as my folks said they are coming.  Knowing they are coming cuts the pain of the dagger my mom fired at me Saturday afternoon.  After getting up and showering, Wife figured we had nothing to do so she asked "what if we drive down to spend the night at your mom's, so you can be there on Mother's Day."  I thought "hmm, it's a long drive, but you'll be doing it, so sure."  But I called my mom and asked what they were doing and she said they were on their way out of town, my dad was taking her shopping for Mother's Day and then dinner. Certainly doesn't sound like dad, but ok.  Mom actually told me "nah, don't come, we'll see you next week."  All I could tell Wife is "See, I rank behind my siblings, my dad, the family dog, then Big Mando."  But that's ok.  We'll celebrate next week, it's fine.
    Anyways, we finished messing around with the backyard and then I took a quick shower and we headed to San Antonio to eat lunch with my in-laws.  They made a traditional Mexican meal with chicken mole, rice and beans.  Then there were two cakes to enjoy for dessert.  It was a pleasant afternoon, the conversation was brisk and light and although I had the option to go nap, I decided against it, since I like hearing the stories about Wife's job and she had a few.  We came back before 9:00pm and Boy and I went and got groceries for the week while Wife and Boy showered and got ready for bed.

5/13/18 Understanding Disney Buying The Star Wars Franchise?

    What is at the core of almost every Disney movie?  I mean yes there has to be some catchy merchandise , but above everything, most storylines have to have dying parents.  Think of almost all the Disney cartoons, Cinderella has a mom that dies at the start or childbirth, The Lion King has the dad dying, The Little Mermaid has no mother figure, and even the newer one like Frozen has both parent's dying.  It is pretty messed up that at the core of our children's most beloved stories, most of the heroes are dealing with the death of a parent or getting by in life not knowing their parents at all, is it any wonder kids act like little shits, thinking they can survive life on their own.
    Anyways, so that is how Disney operates, so in 1977 a little gem of a movie comes out and it gets their interest, "hmm, hero with a dead mother.  Tell us more..."  well, we find in the next ones that the hero comes full circle and kills his father.  Disney starts clapping and screams "bravo" but these are hard times, it was the 80's, so nothing happened.
    Enter the 90's, and we are introduced to a young Anakin Skywalker, born like Jesus with no father or a hell of a roofie, you tell me.  He will very soon abandon his slave mother and go chasing after bigger dreams.  Disney is again interested but they need a little more bloodshed, so in the 2nd movie, with Anakin having enough training and time to ignore his mother, he shows up a few minutes too late to see his mother getting killed by Tusken Raiders.  This is where Disney drools and falls in love.  Anakin kills all the Tusken Raiders, even the women and children.  Believe me, to make those rich guys happy, Anakin will lustfully kill many more children, including all the padawans training under Yoda, just because he could.
    Disney decides to get in the game, buying the franchise for a hefty $4.06 billion and they already know which daddy they are going to start with.  They don't even wait, as soon as their first movie comes out, our favorite hero, Han Solo gets stabbed in the gut by his own son.  That's how Disney does it.  Ain't no good Disney movie like a parentless kid Disney movie.  It is sad that Princess Leia died of natural causes in real life or I am sure Kylo Ren would be coming after her next.  But for $4.06 billion, kid better make me some money.

5/12/18 Beep Beep Goes The Dying Battery?

    It is bad enough I don't sleep well, but yesterday we started getting a double beep about every two minutes from Wife's closet, which is where we have the spider web that is our central nervous system to everything in the house.  The alarm, the outside cameras, the internet, cable, and Wifi are all clustered in the same nest, it is a freaking mess.  To add to it, I was unsure what the beeps meant, although the battery came to mind, but I hate that nothing tells you expressly, yes, it is the battery that needs replacing.  I decided to ignore it yesterday when I got up because I was going to work and I just focus on that during the week.
    Today was my first day off for the weekend, in the morning.  Instead of going to sleep, I decided to cut the grass since the yard needed it and the weather was so nice, with clouds and about 69 degrees, I'd say about perfect.  by the time I finished, the clouds were breaking and you could feel it was going to be another hot day.  I only did the front, that's what the HOA can see and I don't want any letters telling me to cut my lawn.  It took as long as the Rush Moving Pictures Album takes to play from opening the garage to closing it, that album is just perfect, a gift from the gods, if there ever was one.
    While showering, I finally slowed down enough to notice that the shower stall was pretty nasty with the mold and funk growing on the wall.  I told myself "just do the bottom, clean the walls when you wake up in the afternoon."  Before I knew it, I was cleaning the walls, and it felt like I was in there an hour, it looked a lot better afterward.  Since that was clean, I decided to scrub the toilets and round up the trash and dirty clothes.
    All the while, in the shower, I could hear the incessant beep beep every 1-2 minutes.  I told myself, enough, go to bed, deal with the alarm crap when you get up.  I laid down about 11:00am, slept until 2:30pm and I got up to pee, but the beep beep stopped me and I decided I would at least get the battery, which involved running down to get screwdrivers.  The mess of purses and other shit I had to move to find the batteries got my blood going, no more sleep.  I found the battery (1 of them) and ran to the Batteries Plus store.  While installing it, the beep beep kept going and it took looking up where the bulk of the purses were at to see a second place where I had a battery to replace.  This solved it, but it was now time to go pick up Javalina.  I did then we went right back to the battery store, got my second battery and finally solved my beeping problem.
    From this point, I just slept and waited for Wife to get home.  She did, but she let me sleep until 8:00pm, so I feel pretty good right now at 10:00pm.

5/11/18 Not Sure About A Drive-In?

    We actually grew up with the experience of going to a drive-in.  There was one outside of town, about halfway between Crystal City and Carrizo Springs.  It was kind of cool, I still have blurry images of watching  something like Buck Rogers or a Star Trek movie out there.  There was even a row of swings and they sold popcorn and stuff, very much like in the scene from Grease, maybe I made that my thought as I remember it, but there was no cool soundtrack.
    Wife has been bringing up the idea anytime we have kind of a slow weekend.  The biggest hurdle for me is that it is in New Braunfels, the one she keeps looking at.  That just seems a bit far to go and watch a movie outside when we could just as easily ask Boy to get us free tickets and we don't have to pack food for the journey and we can be back home in 5-10 minutes.  There is one in Manchaca, which is around where we live but I believe it only shows older movies and might just be some guy with a blanket and a projector, I kid, but it looks smaller, just from the ads.  The New Braunfels location costs I believe $7 a person and we can bring our own food, so worst case we are looking at $21 (Boy is too cool to join us) plus they show two new movies for the price of one.  They were thinking of Avengers followed by some creepy scary movie, which is helping no one, but I could sleep through the second one, not that I want to see the Avengers get killed as I wrote yesterday.
    If we are going to do it, the time is meow (Super Troopers was showing last week, should have gone)!  Once the summer sets in, no way do I want to sit in 100 degree heat at night, sweating my ass off and fighting mosquitos and other shit.  The nighttime air has been awesome recently, every time I go home for lunch, I want to hang out and enjoy it, but we live as slaves to that thing called a clock.  Shit, we don't even have windows, our lab is actually three walls in from the outside, so there is hardly any chance for me to enjoy natural air, almost anytime during my work week.
    Maybe for that reason alone, I should agree.  We have cool chairs that fold up and are made to go to the park and will hold my heavy ass, Javalina would probably enjoy the change of scenery, as long as we have the right snacks.  Hmm, I seem to be talking myself into agreeing.  I keep being told "don't be lame, like your father, always naysaying, so I should say fine.  It could even be cheaper than Alamo Drafthouse, even with free tickets, it's usually more than $50-$60 bucks.

5/10/18 Heroes Must Die?

    I fucking hate the concept of super heroes dying, even if they are movies and it is all fake.  Most heroes come to us with a given weakness and they'll tease us, like Superman time and time again with kryptonite.  But in the end, good wins, evil sucks it.  Nowadays we got these fucking shitty movies of good guys battling good guys and super super evil guys who can and do actually kill some heroes, but for what purpose?
    I could be wrong but I thought job 1 of these heroes is selling merchandise.  The second job is stimulating the minds of young kids who like to pretend to be heroes, whether Thor, or Iron Man, or even a DC hero, why not?  Nowadays, you're confusing the kids by having people they idolize act "bad".  What happens to the kid that fully commits to be whoever, Aquaman, and then some bad guy from some old random comic book shows up and screws up everything, well, I don't like it.  If indeed Spider-Boy was killed in this last one as I overheard, do we throw away all the Spider-Man shit in my kid's room.  Ooh, does it become a collector's item and some perv will offer to buy our spidey sheets for more than we paid?
    This bullshit happened with the X-Men series, about 10 years ago in the movie where a lot of them died.  Awesome, your stupid asses got lucky Wolverine is most everyone's favorite and then the bullshit with going back in time kept the millions coming in.  Right here is the reason you don't kill the hero, just to make a couple extra bucks today, what about tomorrow?  A friend I was arguing about this suggested that the old heroes dying allows for new characters to come to the front.  They're doing that with Star Wars, you'd rather be Luke or Vader lite, Kylo Ren?  How are boys going to get into the new series if so far there are no new dudes who can field a lightsaber  I know it's a new world but the boys fly the girls to the battle scene and they "wait in the car" like Finn or Poe (who are both great pilots but not jedis) for "Sally" to do the battling like so far only Rey has done.  Way to think it through, I know feminists are standing up and clapping, but as soon as girls sniff make-up and perfume, they are gone.  Boy, at 24, still regularly looks for rare Star Wars shit to buy, money be damned.  You think a 20-something girl is going to spend their money as foolishly.
    Transformers almost ruined my younger boy a few years ago when Optimus Prime was killed, and violently, ripped open in the chest with a huge sword, it sucked, my boy stood up and scrceamed and cried for about 20 minutes until the stupid everspark brought him back.  As a parent, I have to ask, Why?  I'm fine thinking Super-man leaves the planet every once in a while to think, but he can always come back, but if they are definitively killed, what do you do?  I know you clever assholes will reincarnate them, at least the money makers, but I say no.

5/9/18 Neighborhood Creeper?

    I know I can be a bit paranoid, but usually when I leave the house I am good.  Even if it is just Javalina by himself on occasions when Boy has a night class, I tell myself he is ok because we have an alarm and he is on his way to 14 plus he weighs enough to play in the NFL at 240.  Boy would be easier to carry away at almost half his weight.  Still, I look around before I leave, usually our neighborhood is pretty rare of people walking around at that hour.
    Last night before coming in, I could not help but notice a guy that looked suspicious as fuck.  First of all, it was like 91, so nobody was outside just to breath fresh air.  This guy was walking on the opposite side of the street, but he was moving very slow and even walking in circles, like when you are waiting for someone to pick you up, and I thought that, but he was in his late 20's to 30's, I can't fathom somebody picking him up for a play date, but maybe.  If that wasn't suspicious enough, he managed to cross the street to my side, and usually I would jump in my car and go, but I decided to sit there and study him.  He kept doing little circles, but walking towards our house and then past it.  I almost felt like he was checking out the houses, it was uncomfortable to me.  I waited until he was a good 3-4 houses down before putting my car in reverse.  I drove by slowly eyeballing him and he didn't look up, which if it was me, I would have looked up to show I was harmless guy out for a stupid walk in the middle of the day.
    I was already on the phone with Boy, he wasn't home, all I could do was plead to him to hurry his ass, I didn't like this creeper at all.  I left and got as far as Slaughter Lane before deciding to come back, just to be safe.  I figured I'd wait for Boy.  It was only 2-3 minutes, as slow as he was walking to the front of the neighborhood, he should have still been around, but I couldn't see him down the other street or heading to the woods, so maybe he was picked up, I don't know.  I got home and got my hitting rod off the truck in case I had to break a skull.  Boy rounded the corner and got home about the same time I did.  The alarm was still on and I went in the backyard and hit the grill with my stick just to alert the area I was there (figured I'd scare the fucking dogs that don't let me sleep all day with their incessant barking).  All's well that ends well, but I did tell Boy to keep one of his guns close by and if anybody gets in the house, feel free to shoot them.  He got a little interested by that, otherwise, Javalina was none the wiser for me coming back and worrying so much about his husky ass.

5/8/18 State Exams On Kids?

    I know just yesterday I was saying kids suck, and the truth is, it is scary to have kids, you want the best for them and you don't want to see them suffer or even be uncomfortable, but it is that forging in tough situations which makes a kid interesting.  Javalina has been dreading all year the math portion of his test, on the one hand a kid shouldn't be stressing and worried about any given test like their future depends on it, but then I see the other side, it helps define the smarter kids that are interested in really learning.  I don't know, I remember liking the testing procedure, I always did ok, and as they say it separated the cream from the crap.
    I think Texas has the resources to rank higher than it does against all 50 states.  We are not the poorest state, by far.  We should be spending more than say all our surrounding states and so on.  To find out currently we are somewhere around 43rd out of 50 states is embarrassing.  Well, another point of embarrassment is we also rank 44th in amount spent per student, so I guess the people at the top care that much.
    I didn't mean to get into this tough of an item to discuss, it's just today Javalina has some big exam in math and we know he has been worried about his performance.  Everyone has different strengths, and yes, I would like my boys to follow me into the sciences, but I do notice Javalina has the same mouth as my brother, never stops talking and taking little digs at everyone around him.  Maybe instead of a scientist, we have another lawyer on our hands.  That wouldn't be too shabby.
    Either way, good luck Javalina.  You will do fine.

5/7/18 Kids Suck?

    Wife has introduced me to Black-ish and of course instead of picking up where the funny lives, she chooses to introduce me when the couple are going through a rough patch.  I call bullshit on this, she (the wife) has been on some postpartum depression thing since having her fifth kid.  Fifth kid!!  Again, it's a vagina, not a clown car.  Stop having kids at 2-3 and your life will be better.  Studies have shown that there are three things that keep people at the poverty line and a lack of education and an overabundance of kids are two of the three.
    I also have a hard time believing she is experiencing depression.  I know women have a right to feel whatever, but in the show she is a doctor, her husband is an executive, they live in a nice big house, they got a ton of kids that looks like she wanted.  If you got money, healthy kids, and a husband that participates I say cut it out with the depression shenanigans.
    I don't understand why in the show they keep falling apart.  They both seem to be trying to get over the hump of whatever crawled up the relationship's ass.  I know it's a TV show, but it does not seem realistic to me.  I believe it has everything to do with their newborn.  But even then, she is one o fthe lucky few that can take time off from work and be with the baby.  Isn't that what every new mama wishes she had more of?  Time with the newest child?  And also, the husband's parent's live with them, so Grandma is there to lend a helping hand any time, it seems.  From I have seen, she at least talks to them and is mobile, so she should be in a position to help.
    I know I am thinking too much about a fake relationship, but if there weren't a fifth kid, there wouldn't be a need for them to be going through this.  I guess I am trying to prove that having too many kids sucks.  Wife tells me that is not up to me, that different people feel differently.  I know that, and sure, some people love having babies around, but they don't stay babies quite long enough.
    If anything, I appreciate my boys now that they are older.  I like influencing Javalina right now, whether it's with the music he is listening to or his thinking about the world.  I would like to think I have done a pretty good job with Boy who is a very no nonsense kid.  And I just love not having to worry about having that impromptu diaper emergency which might fall on me to clean if they were still young.

5/6/18 Doing Even Less Than Last Week?

    If it is possible, we did even less this week than last week.  We were expecting showers and thunderstorms on Friday, so I didn't want to have plans and do something which would require us getting wet.  Wife was in San Antonio much of the week for trainings and stuff.  This is especially nice on Fridays, because it usually means we see her earlier than normal.  When she leaves La Pryor, even if it is Friday, she seems to think she has to work until 6:00pm.  I don't care during the week, but if you are going to travel up to see us, leave at your regular time, which means be sitting in your car by 4:31pm and be revving the engine pointed north.
    Friday night, we barely managed to go eat at Popeye's after school, in some drizzle, but still.  This is only like the 4th or 5th time we eat there together.  We are venturing out of normal places because we are letting Wife's coupons dictate where we eat.  Thursday, it was at Burger King with the creepy dude staring at us, Friday, it was at Popeye's on William Cannon, and luckily, there was only 1 other customer in there while we ate, but he sat with his back facing us.
    After this, we went home, hung out for a while, then eventually went to the mall, Wife had an ad saying Dillard's was having one of their big sales, and I have been down to about one good short and one good pant for a couple weeks.  I bought about three new shorts, but none of them were in the sales group, oh well, when you're a cow, you take what you can get.  We then walked around a little bit and finally left.  We stopped at HEB to get ham and stuff to make some fat subs.  They turned out pretty freaking good.  I like how Javalina already is a master sandwich maker and even ran his through the panini press to heat his sandwich up.
    We sat and attempted to watch some of our recorded shows which I lasted one 30 min show.  Saturday, I felt like I would be different, I told Wife I didn't want to sleep the day away.  I had got up at 7:00am, tried to sit and drink coffee, but came back to bed by 9:30am, everyone was still asleep.  We then woke up at 1:00pm ate, came back to bed and pretty much stayed there until 8:00pm.  I feel really crappy from sleeping all day, I have been up since 2:00am, writing, looking at Youtube and just generally trying to have a real reason for sleeping all day.  We'll see what happens Sunday, but it'll probably be another lazy day.

5/5/18 CInco De Mayo?

    There is one lengthy joke story I have loved concerning Cinco de Mayo.  It goes something like this:  A little known fact is that in 1912, Hellmann's Mayonnaise factory was manufactured in England.  In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after New York.  This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico.  But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York.  the ship hit an iceberg and sank and the cargo was forever lost.  The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise and were eagerly awaiting it delivery, were disconsolate at the loss.  Their anguish was so great that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day.
    The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5 and is known, of course as Sinko  de Mayo.
Heh Heh, I love this play on words.

Enjoy your Tacos, Tequila, and cervezas.

5/4/18 Burger King Needs Improving?

    Burger King has always had a decent burger but I am not certain it means to be more than 4th or 5th best burger option.  They need to hire some chefs that like food first of all.  Their patty is delicious with that flame broiled thing they do, but that is as far as someone with flavor took it.  The bun is cold and helpless, the cheese is like plastic and cheap, and of course the veggies are always wilted 2nd rate leftovers.

    We don't usually go there, but Wife had a coupon for 4 burgers, 4 fries, and 4 sodas for $12.99.  This sounded pretty good, so after picking up whiny Javalina because it was hot and he was hungry we headed over there.  There were only two or three workers in the back which doesn't seem right for the 5 O' clock rush hour time but I guess they know what they are doing.  After waiting for a couple minutes while two of the employees fought over who got to make the shake for the person in front of us, our order was finally taken.  It came out surprisingly fast, I mean in the time I served myself my soda and walked over to sit down, the lady was coming over with the two trays.

    I'll have to admit the worst part of dining here was a homeless looking dude sitting facing right at our table.  He looked like he might run towards us and cause trouble.  I felt like he was waiting for any sign so he could start arguing with us.  He eventually took a cell phone out or started yelling into his hand.  I could not eat fast enough to get the hell out of there.  Then there is that trail, when you are leaving a place and they follow you out to ask for money or whatever.  I was up and ready to essentially run to the car, but I held the door open for Wife and she stops at the door almost coaxing the scary dude like a puppy.  She said she was aware he was looking at us, so then if she stops at the door to look in her purse I took it as an invitation to the creepy dude like "c'mon Boy, who's a good Boy?  Come, I got treats in my purse, let me find some for you."  Javalina was even more out of it, I mean, come in.

    Other than the scary homeless dude, Burger Kings always look dirty and old, like they are stuck in the late 80's.  All they have inside is tile and bolted down furniture.  Nothing is inviting about the inside of these places.  But I guess when the burgers go for 4 combos for $12.99, you can't expect much.  But then again, all the other fast food places manage to feel friendlier and cleaner and lighter.

    If the bun was warmed somehow, maybe toasted, this burger would be first rate.  The fries were actually ok, so they could rank much higher much faster.

5/3/18 My Parent's Wedding Anniversary?

    I guess we screwed the pooch as they say and we missed another anniversary of my parents.  The only person I can blame here is Wife for making these things bigger than they ever used to be.  Unfortunately for my Mom, she has three boys and a sister who is always trying to outman us in being a professional.  This can be great for having kids that are doing better than ok in life, but it doesn't leave much space for us to be the type that want to celebrate every holiday on the calender.  I'm sure Wife has a tree in her car trunk getting ready to exchange it with her sisters for Arbor Day.
    Wife makes us look bad, because she comes from a family of three sisters and 1 brother.  To top it off, the other two sisters live at home, so they are very involved in each other's business.  It can be annoying at times, especially in the beginning of the year, it seems there is a birthday for someone every weekend.  Wife of course knows all these dates by heart.  I gotta look up and think for a minute just to get my boy's birthdates correctly in my mind.
    I also know it would be fun to celebrate, but to me celebrating is meeting us at least halfway, in San Antonio or even all the way up here in Austin.  There are like 3 restaurants in Crystal, if you include the Pizza Hut, so nobody is going to be getting fancy for some tacos.  A few years ago, we tried organizing something.  I told Wife, take the lead, give everybody a chore and tell them what they are responsible for.  This worked up until my sister got wind that she wasn't in charge and well,,,, we're still waiting for that party to get organized.
    Honestly, Wife and I have never done much in the way of celebrating.  Our anniversary falls on Christmas is all I'm going to say.  Wife will say it was Christmas Eve, I might think it's Christmas Day, but either way, it's not like we get dressed and go out to celebrate.  I'm afraid we are going to fall into the same pattern as my parents.  With two boys, nobody is going to give a crap about remembering those milestones.
    I believe my Mom said "everyone forgot our 47th anniversary, except for Wife, even your dad."  I guess we have about three years to do something right for their 50th, that would be nice.  But I'm sure there will be baseball games and other distractions to go along with this time of year.  So, what say you?  Should anniversaries be made into bigger affairs or is it too much to do about a day you agreed to share the bills with someone else, for better or for worse.

5/2/18 Protect Your ASP?

    YouTube has a great little series called Protect Your ASP, hosted by a husky guy named John.  He shows different scenarios people are caught in and goes through showing us good and bad tactics, for if we are ever in a similar situation.  Being that about 90% of them seem to be from Brazil, the best way to protect yourself is don't ever go to Brazil.  Little joke aside, the bad guys over there seem to have a bad habit of running tandem on a scooter.  It seems to happen all the time, they drive in front of a car and slow it down to a stop, go over aggressively and open the door.  I don't understand why their doors are never locked, it that a US thing?  Only about once or twice has the driver in the car have enough wits about him as to run over the shitty scooter and possibly the bad guy.  Given the situation, if someone presents a gun or knife and is attempting to harm you in your car, the car can be a weapon, either hit them or drive away.  Never open the door, nothing good comes from that.
    Here in the US, the most dangerous places to encounter troublemakers seems to be the corner store/gas station.  Maybe it is because places like these have the cameras, but I have never felt comfortable gassing up, specially with the bums here in Southpark Meadows who can't help themselves but ask for something, a lot of the time.  I'm not going to say every time, but they do like to fish and make conversation, fuck that.
    Watching these videos makes me feel like I should carry a weapon, but then the other side is that they seem to jam a lot on the bad guys when they are needed most.  Is that because like their own lives, they don't really take care of them and they assume it'll work when they pull it out of their assholes, even if they never clean it?  I know Boy takes all our rifles apart every time we go to the shooting range, which really, it has been awhile, but he cleans them meticulously, I mean, better than he does his room.
    I really think people should watch these videos to pick up some safety lessons, such as: Be Aware- when in a sketchy environment, look around for shady characters.  Lock your Doors- There have even been videos showing strangers trying random doors and they usually find an open door.  Lock your house and your car, specially in the big city.  I don't recommend stopping to help people on the side of the road, this especially for women, sorry, but this makes it too easy to get thrown in a stranger's car, for a female, small male.  There is much to learn from these videos.

5/1/18 House Is Looking Bigger?

    Our second roommate is pretty much 99% out of the house.  I got up around 2:00pm yesterday to sounds of the vacuum going strong and when I looked in the room after I had gotten up and picked up my boy from school, I can see she did a pretty good job, room almost looks new.  She still has a desk and bookshelf to get, but that is fine.  With no current roommates, we have two empty rooms and although I like having extra people around for the extra noise and hoopla, I think I could get used to our house being our house.  That really hasn't been the case, since we moved in.  Whether my brother, one of a few of Boy's friends, or these latest string of even girls living here, we have not really had the house to ourselves often.
    My brother was making a big stink about not visiting because we always have tenants and that means they can't have a room to themselves.  I guess he'll dig deeper for a better excuse because although we have now been in this house over ten years, they still only come over about twice a year, and they usually come late and leave early, but hey, the house is now how the family wanted it.  You would figure my sister would be calling any minute, "hey we're going over this weekend."  Ha!  Nobody comes to visit unless my mom comes, first of all.  I think she may still be wiping their colitas because I can't recall any of them coming without my mom.  I mean they are all neighbors, so it is logistically possible.  I kid!
    It was kind of funny  hearing my mother in law say that they too have pretty much always had extra people living with them.  When they moved to Wisconsin, my father in law's brothers both lived with them and they have had other people as well.  I remember a cousin living with them in high school, and as my mother in law says since moving to San Antonio the two other daughters have been with them along with their significant others.
    On the one hand, it does make for a more crowded house, on the other, it can be more interesting as there are more life stories going on and who doesn't like a little drama.  I've thought about getting a smaller house as I have been told to do, but if the median house price is now close to $300,000, I am going to end up with a similar monthly payment, but in a smaller house?  No thanks.  If we're done with guests, the room downstairs will be our dedicated guest room and the extra room upstairs will eventually become a game room and I will figure out a way to move the pool table upstairs.  The model home looked really cool that way, but Javalina  isn't giving his room up any time soon and that was the game room because the room is so wide.  Who knows maybe the roomies call in a while, needing our help, either way, I dig it.