Here we are again, the end of another year. This one has not been bad overall, even if the start gave us a good scare. The start of the year had my dad in the hospital for a few days, which luckily, he recovered nicely enough. This gave him the big scare enough that he finally gave up smoking. I still see young idiots smoking (last night, one at Academy) and can't help but think "Stupid, it is costing you like $7-$8 a pack to slowly kill your lungs. You are a genius." But anyways, Dad is still around, I wouldn't say kicking, but still being a pain in the butt with my mom. My mom has been much stronger, which is good, someone needs to be in charge over there.
We finally celebrated the big quince for my niece a couple weeks later, still in January. It was a real touching moment to see Dad recuperated and able to go out there and dance a bit with her, we were all glad for the moment to happen. That night is a highpoint for us, all the family dressed up and celebrating together, even my dad's brother who has been having his own medical problems was there helping his son cater the event.
The Spring was more normal, Javalina went out for the track team and it was great to see him throw the shot put, less so the discus, and then less so the running. Let's face it, Mijo is a beautiful athlete, strong as they come, but he is not a runner, and he has been working on it, but you can't expect a lineman at 220 pounds to line up with kids weighing 100 pounds less and he keep up, it isn't fair. It was still fun going out there and watching him compete. Boy also got serious about their business endeavors and they were running both of his 3D printers non-stop for a while. They actually have made enough to invest in a third 3D printer that also does laser etching and cuts metal for future projects they have in mind.
There was the graduation of a cousin in May, which was cool for the family. We had a nice day and the family all got together in San Antonio to celebrate with him. I actually got a bit tipsy, had a great time and all I remember is Wife driving me home.
Javalina started high school which kind of scared me a bit. My worries are that he would be bullied or made to feel less than by some idiot. From what I hear daily though is that he is just fine. He has plenty of friends with the football players and he spends his days rough housing with them and I think that is enough for other kids to not want to get in their way, believe me, the boy hits like a ton of bricks, and he can be annoying when he comes at you, so I no longer worry about him being bullied but that he may be a bit of a bully. He swears to me that he only bullies those that need it.
I have had a couple of scares that led me to the E/R. Both times they have been dumb, but I should still do something about my weight which is worrisome for everyone. All I can say is I am planning on starting another round of Atkins diet when the new year starts, once we get rid of all the holiday sweets.
Wife continues to be the same ball buster she has always been. She comes on hard, specially with Javalina, because he is kind of lazy when we leave him to his own devices. She is taking some classes which I hope will lead to some better opportunities for her down the road.
Boy was offered an engineer job with the company he started interning for a couple years ago. I did wish he would have graduated before, but they are willing to work with him and allow him to finish while paying him a handsome salary on par with ours. He will be just fine, plus we have given him permission to let Sweetie move in, so they aren't so antsy to move out to an apartment. Our goal is to give them a chance to finish school, save money, and make sure they are really compatible before embarking on a life together.
I guess looking back through my blogs, 2019 wasn't that bad a year. I can only hope 2020 is on par or slightly better, I guess we shall see.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 30, 2019
12/30/19 TIme Has Slowed Down Somehow?
We are in the 2nd of our 2 weeks off and after surviving through Christmas, a visit to Crystal City, and some explosive diarrhea, things seem pretty relaxed now. I am writing this on Monday evening, I guess it is technically still the 30th for another half hour or so.
We started talking about going fishing sometime this week, but everything just moves at a slow weird time right now. For starters, last night, I got up at 5:00am to go to the bathroom and came out of my room to look around if the boys were asleep, but no, they were both still awake. Javalina was dinking around on his phone and Boy and Sweetie were in his room with the TV quite loud. Knowing this, I can't then expect anybody to want to wake up when I do, at 8:00am to do anything productive or fun. When Javalina finally came down for brunch, at around 1:00pm, I was messing around with a new but old fishing rod I had bought about three years ago that I never took out of the package. It is a baitcaster and by far, the easiest type of rod and reel combos to learn on. I set it up and put a weight on it, then went outside with Javalina and we tossed it towards the fence a couple of times to give him an idea of what to expect.
Wife was cooking leftover Christmas ham with some leftover beans and eggs, so he then also suggested to go out and throw the frisbees in the greenbelt. I suggested we go out into the open area away from all the houses as I remember being able to rip the frisbee a respectable distance. He threw one first and he tossed it like he was afraid to hurt the plastic. I set up and thought of the days back then throwing majestically from the top of a hill and watching the disc float for seconds before coming down. Instead, I gave it my all, lost my balance spinning and before I knew it, I lost my balance and fell backwards, kind of tumbling and rolling down onto my ass and landing on my back. I was actually laughing, embarrassed and moist, the ground was damp but soft. The fall only hurt my ego and that damn disc flew at best 40 yards, I remember being able to throw at least 100 yards, ok, at least 80 yards, this was just embarrassing. We threw a handful of times at the trees imitating what a basket looks like, then we went back inside.
When Javalina asked if I would spot him lifting weights, I said yes, and then I took my turn. I can't just become this fat cartoon who can't do anything, I need to get some muscles working again. After bench pressing and some curls, I went to take a shower, I had wanted to run out to a fishing spot close by, but the day is short. I have been needing to cut my hair, not wanting to start the new year all bushy, and then I thought we can't fish without our fishing licenses. All we managed to do was I cut my hair, and we went and bought our fishing licenses good for the next year, good today through 12/31/2020.
At least all the BS is out of the way. We have fishing rods, hooks, lures, and our licenses. If we choose to go tomorrow for a couple hours, we just need to throw some sodas and water bottles in a cooler and grab our stuff and load it in the car and go. I am hoping this becomes a thing.
We started talking about going fishing sometime this week, but everything just moves at a slow weird time right now. For starters, last night, I got up at 5:00am to go to the bathroom and came out of my room to look around if the boys were asleep, but no, they were both still awake. Javalina was dinking around on his phone and Boy and Sweetie were in his room with the TV quite loud. Knowing this, I can't then expect anybody to want to wake up when I do, at 8:00am to do anything productive or fun. When Javalina finally came down for brunch, at around 1:00pm, I was messing around with a new but old fishing rod I had bought about three years ago that I never took out of the package. It is a baitcaster and by far, the easiest type of rod and reel combos to learn on. I set it up and put a weight on it, then went outside with Javalina and we tossed it towards the fence a couple of times to give him an idea of what to expect.
Wife was cooking leftover Christmas ham with some leftover beans and eggs, so he then also suggested to go out and throw the frisbees in the greenbelt. I suggested we go out into the open area away from all the houses as I remember being able to rip the frisbee a respectable distance. He threw one first and he tossed it like he was afraid to hurt the plastic. I set up and thought of the days back then throwing majestically from the top of a hill and watching the disc float for seconds before coming down. Instead, I gave it my all, lost my balance spinning and before I knew it, I lost my balance and fell backwards, kind of tumbling and rolling down onto my ass and landing on my back. I was actually laughing, embarrassed and moist, the ground was damp but soft. The fall only hurt my ego and that damn disc flew at best 40 yards, I remember being able to throw at least 100 yards, ok, at least 80 yards, this was just embarrassing. We threw a handful of times at the trees imitating what a basket looks like, then we went back inside.
When Javalina asked if I would spot him lifting weights, I said yes, and then I took my turn. I can't just become this fat cartoon who can't do anything, I need to get some muscles working again. After bench pressing and some curls, I went to take a shower, I had wanted to run out to a fishing spot close by, but the day is short. I have been needing to cut my hair, not wanting to start the new year all bushy, and then I thought we can't fish without our fishing licenses. All we managed to do was I cut my hair, and we went and bought our fishing licenses good for the next year, good today through 12/31/2020.
At least all the BS is out of the way. We have fishing rods, hooks, lures, and our licenses. If we choose to go tomorrow for a couple hours, we just need to throw some sodas and water bottles in a cooler and grab our stuff and load it in the car and go. I am hoping this becomes a thing.
12/29/19 The Mandalorian?
Disney finally did something right with the Star Wars franchise. I am not happy with what has happened to the main storyline, if that is what we call it. I know that in this day and age women and men are supposed to be seen as equals, but come on... Grown men are 2-3 times bigger than women, we go and do the shitty jobs that need to get done, constantly. Yes, there is always one exception, in a crew of 20-30 men, there will be a woman in there, that doesn't mean we are all capable of doing the same thing. Yet this Rey kid comes out of nowhere and she is our hero? I guess there are no men to call on, we'll just sit on our fucking testosterone sacks and clap for our heroine to get the job done.
At least in the Mandalorian, they have gone with a man as the lead, I'm surprised it isn't a chick, but then the chick would be taking care of a baby and that is too close to what society doesn't want to see, I guess. The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter and the timeline sits between five years after Return of the Jedi and 25 years before The Force Awakens. Mando, as he is called, is just trying to make a living as a bounty hunter in the likeness of Boba Fett. He seems to work alone, but has contacts everywhere, meaning he has in the past been one to help and be a team player. He is a dedicated hunter, all his efforts go to making him a better warrior. He spends most of his earnings pursuing better and better armament. His goal, I believe, is to have his whole armor made of Beskar steel, which comes in handy again and again as he gets shot on occasion.
His life takes a turn as he signs up for a mission to bring back a baby for a huge reward. His humanity gets the better of him when he is about to leave but sees the baby being put through tests and being experimented on. He saves the baby and from then on, they form a bond. The baby feels safe around Mando, and he is doing everything in his power to keep the baby safe. He tries living it on a remote world where the people are kind of primitive, but even there, another bounty hunter has already tried (and failed) to murder baby Yoda. It is not exactly Yoda, it can't be, the original Yoda passed away at 800+ years old.
The little tyke has already shown that he understands and can use the force. The best moments on the show have been when Mando is in grave danger and the baby starts waving his hands and stuff starts to happen, magically. The season is a short 8 episodes, but at least we get a 2nd season, per Wikipedia sometime in the coming year.
At least in the Mandalorian, they have gone with a man as the lead, I'm surprised it isn't a chick, but then the chick would be taking care of a baby and that is too close to what society doesn't want to see, I guess. The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter and the timeline sits between five years after Return of the Jedi and 25 years before The Force Awakens. Mando, as he is called, is just trying to make a living as a bounty hunter in the likeness of Boba Fett. He seems to work alone, but has contacts everywhere, meaning he has in the past been one to help and be a team player. He is a dedicated hunter, all his efforts go to making him a better warrior. He spends most of his earnings pursuing better and better armament. His goal, I believe, is to have his whole armor made of Beskar steel, which comes in handy again and again as he gets shot on occasion.
His life takes a turn as he signs up for a mission to bring back a baby for a huge reward. His humanity gets the better of him when he is about to leave but sees the baby being put through tests and being experimented on. He saves the baby and from then on, they form a bond. The baby feels safe around Mando, and he is doing everything in his power to keep the baby safe. He tries living it on a remote world where the people are kind of primitive, but even there, another bounty hunter has already tried (and failed) to murder baby Yoda. It is not exactly Yoda, it can't be, the original Yoda passed away at 800+ years old.
The little tyke has already shown that he understands and can use the force. The best moments on the show have been when Mando is in grave danger and the baby starts waving his hands and stuff starts to happen, magically. The season is a short 8 episodes, but at least we get a 2nd season, per Wikipedia sometime in the coming year.
Saturday, December 28, 2019
12/28/19 How Did I Get Sick?
I don't get it, I didn't do anything different than the boys or Wife and yet, here I am, feeling crappy and my stomach feels like I got punched in my sleep. We went to Crystal City to visit my folks, my younger brother was complaining of some bug or something, but he stayed in his room the ~12 hours we were there. I also think I could have pushed my stomach too far. My mom made homemade beans for breakfast and I ate four tacos, normally, I try to hold up at 3, but they were good and the tortillas were a little on the small side. If we ate around noon, we didn't leave until 3:00pm or so. The beans never seemed to get going in my stomach like I was going to have a lot of gas built up. I thought it would be col to get a queer on the way out, which is ice cream and icy soda from the dairy. I thought it was a bad idea to put milk in there for a three hour trip, but it is one of those things we always eat when we go down there.
I stayed awake until a little past La Pryor and then I was out. I woke up with a tight belly, but I am always scared to just fart, in case there is poop in the mix. Luckily, Wife is always talking about some add at one of the Ford dealerships on the highway which says $199 down and $199 a month can get you a car. I knew there was a catch, and the catch is that they are talking about shitty cars I wouldn't want to drive. We looked at most of their cars, but dam! How do they expect to sell when they leave the MSRP and nobody pays that price. A truck should not cost $75,000 and neither should an Expedition cost $72,000. This just turned me off, even their Explorers were in the $60,000+ pricing, so there was nothing for us to look at. I saw Wife head to the potty and I said "well, I might as well..." I hate blowing up a strange toilet, but I needed to get rid of all this internal pressure that had built up. I felt so much better after unleashing the dogs there, I just found a side door and made a hasty get away.
Getting home though, the pain was right back. I ran to my potty, did my business and showered and thought a nap would help, but upon waking up, I actually felt cold. I wrapped myself in a blanket and Wife gave me a chicken noodle soup. I went right back to bed, but even now, it is 11:30am the next morning and I still feel like crap. My lower back got tired of being in bed, so I got up, but I still feel my stomach brewing, I know I am going to have to go to the potty in a bit and release some pressure.
I stayed awake until a little past La Pryor and then I was out. I woke up with a tight belly, but I am always scared to just fart, in case there is poop in the mix. Luckily, Wife is always talking about some add at one of the Ford dealerships on the highway which says $199 down and $199 a month can get you a car. I knew there was a catch, and the catch is that they are talking about shitty cars I wouldn't want to drive. We looked at most of their cars, but dam! How do they expect to sell when they leave the MSRP and nobody pays that price. A truck should not cost $75,000 and neither should an Expedition cost $72,000. This just turned me off, even their Explorers were in the $60,000+ pricing, so there was nothing for us to look at. I saw Wife head to the potty and I said "well, I might as well..." I hate blowing up a strange toilet, but I needed to get rid of all this internal pressure that had built up. I felt so much better after unleashing the dogs there, I just found a side door and made a hasty get away.
Getting home though, the pain was right back. I ran to my potty, did my business and showered and thought a nap would help, but upon waking up, I actually felt cold. I wrapped myself in a blanket and Wife gave me a chicken noodle soup. I went right back to bed, but even now, it is 11:30am the next morning and I still feel like crap. My lower back got tired of being in bed, so I got up, but I still feel my stomach brewing, I know I am going to have to go to the potty in a bit and release some pressure.
Friday, December 27, 2019
12/27/19 On The Road, Again?
Everything was going super duper this holiday break, my folks even said they were going to visit for like 5 days, from the 26th through the 30th. I thought this was the bees knees because it would save me from going down to Crystal City, which I know I don't visit enough, but all I worry about is seeing my folks and if they come to Austin, well, I am good. But then my dad goes and throws his back out. There was something about the lines in the washer getting messed up and the old man and his muscles went and tried to move the washer to fix whatever problem. Well, it might have been a simple pulled/strained muscle but he was also told a couple months ago that his kidneys are working at 34% because of some of the medications he has been taking. Because the pain is in the same general area for either problem, they decided to forego the trip to Austin and take him to the doctor.
I want to be selfish and get mad about this, but I have to act like Mr. Understanding, which is great when I call while we are on the road and I ask my mom what did the doctor say? All I got from my mom was crickets and then the run around answer that your father has not been home all day, guess where he went to? The only place the old man goes voluntarily for his own amusement is the little illegal casinos. All I can say at this point is "that's nice."
At this point, I have to mention my mom's bit of lunacy when she talks to me. Everything was going well on Dec 24th, we were doing some last minute shopping, no big deal, I had called to see how my dad was. My mom put dad on the phone and he was playing sad little victim, with the I am in pain, but I want to wait until after Christmas Day, I don't want to be a burden and ruin anyone's fun. I barely started doing the math that if he was going to the doctor on the 26th, they were probably not coming up to Austin, the next second my dad hands the phone over to my mom and I get the "chinetas" or one of those mexican words followed by "I really wish you cared enough to come and visit, we can't always go and see you. I was attacked like I didn't care and I never come visit, when as far as 10 seconds before, I still thought they were going to come visit willingly. I told my mom to chill I am barely processing that dad can't come, we will go down tomorrow, that is fine, we don't have anything going on.
Boy did say he has plans for Friday night and Sweetie couldn't come, so I figured he would only be good for about a day or overnight. It was good though, we got here about 5:30-6:00 pm and sat and talked and exchanged gifts and ate all night calmly and pretty good. My sister is in McAllen visiting the hubby and my other brother is visiting an old friend, so it was nice and quiet with just us in the house and one of my aunts.
I want to be selfish and get mad about this, but I have to act like Mr. Understanding, which is great when I call while we are on the road and I ask my mom what did the doctor say? All I got from my mom was crickets and then the run around answer that your father has not been home all day, guess where he went to? The only place the old man goes voluntarily for his own amusement is the little illegal casinos. All I can say at this point is "that's nice."
At this point, I have to mention my mom's bit of lunacy when she talks to me. Everything was going well on Dec 24th, we were doing some last minute shopping, no big deal, I had called to see how my dad was. My mom put dad on the phone and he was playing sad little victim, with the I am in pain, but I want to wait until after Christmas Day, I don't want to be a burden and ruin anyone's fun. I barely started doing the math that if he was going to the doctor on the 26th, they were probably not coming up to Austin, the next second my dad hands the phone over to my mom and I get the "chinetas" or one of those mexican words followed by "I really wish you cared enough to come and visit, we can't always go and see you. I was attacked like I didn't care and I never come visit, when as far as 10 seconds before, I still thought they were going to come visit willingly. I told my mom to chill I am barely processing that dad can't come, we will go down tomorrow, that is fine, we don't have anything going on.
Boy did say he has plans for Friday night and Sweetie couldn't come, so I figured he would only be good for about a day or overnight. It was good though, we got here about 5:30-6:00 pm and sat and talked and exchanged gifts and ate all night calmly and pretty good. My sister is in McAllen visiting the hubby and my other brother is visiting an old friend, so it was nice and quiet with just us in the house and one of my aunts.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
12/26/19 Christmas Eve Was Kind Of A Bummer?
I can't say this Christmas Eve was great, maybe restful and peaceful, at best. Javalina spent the day sleeping and throwing up after overexerting himself when he went out for a run the day before. It made no sense, he went out running, didn't eat anything, but then he felt nauseas and he threw up. We had left him while we went for a couple last minute gifts, then came to get him to go eat and he did not look well. The day before he drank some questionable milk and I got kind of mad at him if he had done it again, asking him how "dumb are you? It is one thing to risk it with milk 1 day past expiration but 2 or 3 and you are asking for it." He swears he didn't but something took him out hard.
Boy had made plans to spend Christmas Eve at the girlfriend's house with her family, so they left about sundown and didn't come back until about 1:30am. They teased me that they would be running around in two and four seater ATVs, but the uncle did not take them, so that did not happen. They were still at a party as we saw on Snapchat, there were over 20-30 people over there.
We did some last minute shopping, managed to go to Cabela's for some fishing gear, Javalina and I have been talking about getting into it but starting out slowly on a pier or from the edge of a river or lake. I bought a pack of hooks and some plastic worms and weights and silver spoons which mimic minnows fluttering by.
I did not mind being home by ourselves. We cooked a ham and even though I fell asleep around 6:30pm, we had eaten some Chick-Fil-A's before coming home, so I was fed and nap ready. I finally woke up around 10:00pm, and Wife and I finally ate some of that ham on sandwiches, which is the best way to eat it. The slices were super thick and the ham was delicious. I felt so fat, but I told Wife I was going to go stretch out on the bed in the guest room and went right back to sleep. We were kind of watching the John Wick marathon, so I kept waking up to bad guys getting killed all evening.
Boy finally made it home after 1:00am and Wife said she was tired, we should prep for Santa so tat we can go upstairs and to bed. It took me awhile to wake up fully to engage, but eventually we got the Santa delivery all set up in the living room. At that point, we had nothing to do but go to bed. Of course, Javalina started coming down after Wife went upstairs saying he was feeling much better and looking for something to eat. I suggested a little ham, but wash your hands before you start touching everything. I got up early, as usual, but the rest of the family didn't get up until after 9:00am to open up the Santa gifts.
Boy had made plans to spend Christmas Eve at the girlfriend's house with her family, so they left about sundown and didn't come back until about 1:30am. They teased me that they would be running around in two and four seater ATVs, but the uncle did not take them, so that did not happen. They were still at a party as we saw on Snapchat, there were over 20-30 people over there.
We did some last minute shopping, managed to go to Cabela's for some fishing gear, Javalina and I have been talking about getting into it but starting out slowly on a pier or from the edge of a river or lake. I bought a pack of hooks and some plastic worms and weights and silver spoons which mimic minnows fluttering by.
I did not mind being home by ourselves. We cooked a ham and even though I fell asleep around 6:30pm, we had eaten some Chick-Fil-A's before coming home, so I was fed and nap ready. I finally woke up around 10:00pm, and Wife and I finally ate some of that ham on sandwiches, which is the best way to eat it. The slices were super thick and the ham was delicious. I felt so fat, but I told Wife I was going to go stretch out on the bed in the guest room and went right back to sleep. We were kind of watching the John Wick marathon, so I kept waking up to bad guys getting killed all evening.
Boy finally made it home after 1:00am and Wife said she was tired, we should prep for Santa so tat we can go upstairs and to bed. It took me awhile to wake up fully to engage, but eventually we got the Santa delivery all set up in the living room. At that point, we had nothing to do but go to bed. Of course, Javalina started coming down after Wife went upstairs saying he was feeling much better and looking for something to eat. I suggested a little ham, but wash your hands before you start touching everything. I got up early, as usual, but the rest of the family didn't get up until after 9:00am to open up the Santa gifts.
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
12/25/19 Shopping For Everyone Else?
I had the thought, funny to me, it must be a real swift kick to the balls of ole Jesus to see us stupid humans celebrating his existence and sacrifice by coming together on his supposed birthday and going apeshit buying all this unnecessary crap just to say "I love you." Does anyone really think Jesus would say bless you my child for buying your kid video games where you do nothing but kill, kill, kill? I am sure he would just give you a pat on the back after hearing you spent $50-90k on a Lexus SUV in their annual December to Remember because there is no more important person to give to in this season of caring than yourself or your spouse who has been suffering driving their old Lexus for 2-3 years.
Of course we did as all the other Americans do and spent until it hurt. I don't see the point of giving shitty gifts once a year, but the consequence of opting out of this carousel ride is more painful than just participating and then moving on. I love my nephews and niece, but their parents do very well, us giving them a dinky toy or video game does very little, I am more than sure that by the end of the day they won't even know where the game is. My niece already has a bank account that daddy feeds, even giving her $100 gift card for makeup is just an "oh, thanks."
We were at the mall and I was trying to find matching sweaters and pants of those Nike or Under Armour outfits for the boys. The cheaper ones were $45 for the jacket and $45 for the pants. I found a set for two of my nephews then Wife came around and gave me a flat no! I realized $90 is a little steep, but then what? We ended up getting them video games at $30-$40 a piece. It could add up if we had done $90 per almost 10 nephews on both sides. It makes sense to spend more on the bigger ones, my niece got a gift over $100 but with makeup it still seems like not much. Wife's older nephew we simply contributed $100 for his welder that he is trying to buy at like $700-$800. The younger nephews all got gifts in the $30-$40 range.
Boy easily got to $1000 between his Amazon list and some shoes I had been wanting to buy him, a couple of shirts so he looks nice starting his new job title when he goes back and Javalina is getting there. He always seems to have a harder time asking for stuff, I told him to go crazy at Best Buy and he brought me back a basket with like 10 games and a couple other things. We owe him the newest console when it comes out here in a while to get him up to Boy's spending limit.
Wife and I agreed on no gift exchanges for us, we are trying to dig ourselves out of debt. I will just be happy to be home and have Wife cooking and providing some cool meals. We stopped and bought a ham for Christmas Eve and a brisket for cooking on Christmas Day, so I am set, unless perchance there is a pair of jetskis in the garage... come on Santa!!!
Of course we did as all the other Americans do and spent until it hurt. I don't see the point of giving shitty gifts once a year, but the consequence of opting out of this carousel ride is more painful than just participating and then moving on. I love my nephews and niece, but their parents do very well, us giving them a dinky toy or video game does very little, I am more than sure that by the end of the day they won't even know where the game is. My niece already has a bank account that daddy feeds, even giving her $100 gift card for makeup is just an "oh, thanks."
We were at the mall and I was trying to find matching sweaters and pants of those Nike or Under Armour outfits for the boys. The cheaper ones were $45 for the jacket and $45 for the pants. I found a set for two of my nephews then Wife came around and gave me a flat no! I realized $90 is a little steep, but then what? We ended up getting them video games at $30-$40 a piece. It could add up if we had done $90 per almost 10 nephews on both sides. It makes sense to spend more on the bigger ones, my niece got a gift over $100 but with makeup it still seems like not much. Wife's older nephew we simply contributed $100 for his welder that he is trying to buy at like $700-$800. The younger nephews all got gifts in the $30-$40 range.
Boy easily got to $1000 between his Amazon list and some shoes I had been wanting to buy him, a couple of shirts so he looks nice starting his new job title when he goes back and Javalina is getting there. He always seems to have a harder time asking for stuff, I told him to go crazy at Best Buy and he brought me back a basket with like 10 games and a couple other things. We owe him the newest console when it comes out here in a while to get him up to Boy's spending limit.
Wife and I agreed on no gift exchanges for us, we are trying to dig ourselves out of debt. I will just be happy to be home and have Wife cooking and providing some cool meals. We stopped and bought a ham for Christmas Eve and a brisket for cooking on Christmas Day, so I am set, unless perchance there is a pair of jetskis in the garage... come on Santa!!!
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
12/24/19 You See A Packed Mall, I See Trouble For The Behemoth? (Part 2)
So, with no Rolex watches to sell, what does the mall currently offer? It does have the one leg of the mall that went ultra high end, but that is only one leg, with Nordstrom's, Williams-Sonoma, and other high end ladies wear. In the rest of the mall, however, I hate to see those junky stores that sell crap that should be selling at flea markets taking hold. Just walking by, I saw a cheap knock-off toy store selling plastic crap, one of those flea market stores that sell literally junk like a canoe adorned with a Kiss emblem on the whole bottom, or those 80's egg shaped chairs (and the stuff looks used). Then there was the store selling wooden junk but with NFL logos, and the fact that the whole anchor store where Sears was is still empty over two floors is a little depressing, to me.
We spent about half an hour to an hour talking with our sales lady there at Ben Bridge and she was telling us after I mentioned that I was worried about the mall and I do not want to see it go the way Highland Mall did and she nodded in agreement. She said she moved down here from Florida and was able to transfer from a job over there working at a couple of stores, one that doesn't exist anymore and the other a Helzberg Jewelers or something, back in 1993. She had friends who were already working over there and that at the time it was just the cooler mall to be at. It had a lot going for it. I do remember it was a very cool mall, Dillard's was on 3-4 levels, there was a Disney store, a huge food court, and Barton did not have a food court back in the 90's. I don't know why or how it happened, but in the last few years, it just got taken over by black teens.
I don't want to say they were harassing the people shopping, but it is a little disconcerting to try and walk with your family and it is like a high school with kids upon kids not doing anything but maybe enjoying the air conditioning. I can still picture it, every railing and free space where one could sit would taken up by black kids, I do not remember there being white or Hispanic kids in there. Add to that, every other store seemed to be a tennis shoe store and I can see why the flag was waved and people stopped coming there to shop.
There was also a Northcross Mall that was already going downhill and most of the stores were closed by the time we started going to it, but it had an ice rink and that was literally too cool. It would make the small food court feel cooler, so it was nice in the summer to go there. They also had a huge sporting goods store which I remember had like a hill to try snow skis on, and an archery range, and a room to hit tennis balls. It too went under, but maybe just because it was older and smaller.
As a consequence of Rolex moving out of the mall, my sales lady said she would give my contact info to one of the sales people over at the Domain. She was just mentioning the sales people and mentioned the name of the sales lady who I bought my first Rolex from who I am glad is still around. It is hard to forget a name like Princess (who names their kid that?), but they all remember me buying my watch because who writes on the back of their expensive watch "show me your tits?"
We spent about half an hour to an hour talking with our sales lady there at Ben Bridge and she was telling us after I mentioned that I was worried about the mall and I do not want to see it go the way Highland Mall did and she nodded in agreement. She said she moved down here from Florida and was able to transfer from a job over there working at a couple of stores, one that doesn't exist anymore and the other a Helzberg Jewelers or something, back in 1993. She had friends who were already working over there and that at the time it was just the cooler mall to be at. It had a lot going for it. I do remember it was a very cool mall, Dillard's was on 3-4 levels, there was a Disney store, a huge food court, and Barton did not have a food court back in the 90's. I don't know why or how it happened, but in the last few years, it just got taken over by black teens.
I don't want to say they were harassing the people shopping, but it is a little disconcerting to try and walk with your family and it is like a high school with kids upon kids not doing anything but maybe enjoying the air conditioning. I can still picture it, every railing and free space where one could sit would taken up by black kids, I do not remember there being white or Hispanic kids in there. Add to that, every other store seemed to be a tennis shoe store and I can see why the flag was waved and people stopped coming there to shop.
There was also a Northcross Mall that was already going downhill and most of the stores were closed by the time we started going to it, but it had an ice rink and that was literally too cool. It would make the small food court feel cooler, so it was nice in the summer to go there. They also had a huge sporting goods store which I remember had like a hill to try snow skis on, and an archery range, and a room to hit tennis balls. It too went under, but maybe just because it was older and smaller.
As a consequence of Rolex moving out of the mall, my sales lady said she would give my contact info to one of the sales people over at the Domain. She was just mentioning the sales people and mentioned the name of the sales lady who I bought my first Rolex from who I am glad is still around. It is hard to forget a name like Princess (who names their kid that?), but they all remember me buying my watch because who writes on the back of their expensive watch "show me your tits?"
Monday, December 23, 2019
12/23/19 You See A Packed Mall, I See Trouble For The Behemoth? (part 1)
We finally went back to the mall yesterday, for about three maybe four hours. That in itself is a sign that the mall isn't what it used to be. There was a time when I proudly would say we went to the mall once a week, whether to walk or to look for something. Nowadays, it just seems like a hassle, there aren't that many interesting stores left there for us to see something you can't find somewhere else.
The four of us were finally together, it would have been fine to have Sweetie along, but she was working. I had been promising Boy some new boots for a while now, if only because the ones he wears most days are starting to look a little worn. This is wat we used to get out the door together, even then, he had his Christmas list and we spent about 30 minutes going over the items and we refined the 20 items worth over $20,000, to a manageable $500. That plus the boots and a couple shirts and I say Merry Christmas, Mijo. Amazon saved us from running around to Radio Shack, Fry's, and any other electronic store looking for specific geeky stuff that on Amazon is just a click away.
As far as the boots, we had eaten at Torchy's Tacos a couple months ago and there happens to be a Red Wings store next door. I loved the idea of buying some of these boots, but I would never wear them. Boy is the one who prefers to wear boots like those daily. Still, I agreed with him, as a whole, they look great, but individually, they are missing something, he didn't really like any of them, so we headed to the mall. Along with an agenda of getting some new shoes, he was also needing to do some maintenance on his watches, both needed batteries and actually both need to add some links because Mijo is getting chubs. Another sign Mijo is getting chubbier is at Dillard's he was just randomly getting Medium shirts like he always does, then Wife told him to try one on. He said "fine!" and attempted to do it there without going into a dressing room and it closed, but he looked like a sausage. Large was a much more comfortable look on him, although he did not like it.
Back to Ben Bridge, we waited a long time but finally our regular sales lady showed up from her break and promptly attended to us. she took Boy's watches and made the proper notes to fix them. While we were there, Boy and I discussed looking at other watches since the one I want for him has just not come in. The sales lady then gave us the bad news, as of Jan 1, 2020, their store will no longer be a Rolex seller, and we will have to go to the Domain if we want to buy one, not that one buys one every year. Without Rolex though, Ben Bridge doesn't have anything special really and thus I don't see anything else special in the mall. Yes, they will continue to sell other brands, but others don't have the same zing. I just see another brick falling off in the weakening of America's malls.
The four of us were finally together, it would have been fine to have Sweetie along, but she was working. I had been promising Boy some new boots for a while now, if only because the ones he wears most days are starting to look a little worn. This is wat we used to get out the door together, even then, he had his Christmas list and we spent about 30 minutes going over the items and we refined the 20 items worth over $20,000, to a manageable $500. That plus the boots and a couple shirts and I say Merry Christmas, Mijo. Amazon saved us from running around to Radio Shack, Fry's, and any other electronic store looking for specific geeky stuff that on Amazon is just a click away.
As far as the boots, we had eaten at Torchy's Tacos a couple months ago and there happens to be a Red Wings store next door. I loved the idea of buying some of these boots, but I would never wear them. Boy is the one who prefers to wear boots like those daily. Still, I agreed with him, as a whole, they look great, but individually, they are missing something, he didn't really like any of them, so we headed to the mall. Along with an agenda of getting some new shoes, he was also needing to do some maintenance on his watches, both needed batteries and actually both need to add some links because Mijo is getting chubs. Another sign Mijo is getting chubbier is at Dillard's he was just randomly getting Medium shirts like he always does, then Wife told him to try one on. He said "fine!" and attempted to do it there without going into a dressing room and it closed, but he looked like a sausage. Large was a much more comfortable look on him, although he did not like it.
Back to Ben Bridge, we waited a long time but finally our regular sales lady showed up from her break and promptly attended to us. she took Boy's watches and made the proper notes to fix them. While we were there, Boy and I discussed looking at other watches since the one I want for him has just not come in. The sales lady then gave us the bad news, as of Jan 1, 2020, their store will no longer be a Rolex seller, and we will have to go to the Domain if we want to buy one, not that one buys one every year. Without Rolex though, Ben Bridge doesn't have anything special really and thus I don't see anything else special in the mall. Yes, they will continue to sell other brands, but others don't have the same zing. I just see another brick falling off in the weakening of America's malls.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
12/22/19 Taking A Giant Step For Boy?
I do believe Boy is starting the transition to adulthood, at least I am happy they listened to us, for now. Awhile back, Wife and I had the discussion about Boy being serious with Sweetie and it was inevitable that Boy would need to take the next step in life, living with her. I had been adamant that I did not want them to rush into this. I really want this done right, and if they are going to be together it should be for the right reasons and not convenience or "rent is cheaper if we split it."
Rather than going there, we both thought it would be better if they lived here for a year or so, they both need a little more time to finish their respective schooling, even as Boy already has a good paying job starting here in January. The plusses are pretty easy to see. We offered them the guest room upstairs for Boy to move all his extra stuff and set up his 3D printers. He now has two huge closets to store clothes and extra boxes of stuff. During the week, it is like it their house as I am gone in the evening and Javalina is old enough to keep to himself. The only thing I am outright making him pay right now is his car, gas card, and some credit debt he charged on my cards, all this totals $800 a month, I am thinking of adding another $200 for Sweetie to move in, nobody should ride life for free. I don't have to go out and see how expensive things are, I saw DD leave and end up in Buda paying like $1,200and then Girlie and her BF are in Kyle paying like $1700 for a 3 bedroom. Paying essentially $200 and being here in town, in a quiet, safe community is unheard of.
So Boy finally asked me during the week what I thought about her possibly moving in. I said "your mom and I already had discussed this and that would be fine." I then had a chat with her about my expectations, basically my only rule is stay busy "I don't like people who don't have a plan. I don't want to wake up every day and see you here just waiting for Boy," I said this because the semester ended a week ago and they are just kind of hanging out which is fine during the holidays, but not year round. Then I added like Girlie, you can have as many girlfriends visit, that doesn't bother, but guys can fuck off, unless Boy is here. In my experience, guys have an agenda and no good can come from hanging out with a guy alone. If you need to do that, do it outside of this house, nothing to do with trusting you or not, but guys are after only one thing whether you believe it or not.
I like this young lady more and more. She can argue and defend herself, she is very sensitive with Boy (who apparently needs that soft touch, who knew?), my initial concerns that her emotions were a little sacharin-y seem to be real. If she determines you're having a bad day, well, you need a hug, who does that? At first the baby noises or weird noises they make to each other came across as BS to me, but a year in and they do it all the time, like repeating "hi!" "Hi!", "miss you", "miss you" if they take 2-3 steps apart from each other. I want to smack both of them on the back of the head, cause it sounds like a tick, but I guess that is part of their charm. If these little "ticks" are genuine, then I like her that much more. We are not an expressive family, my side of the family, and although Wife claims to always be much more loving than us, she starts out the day with a hearty No!, then she might listen and act human.
Sweetie said she was not going to move in until Boy's room was cleaned up. They took everything out of the closet yesterday, and had everything in small piles all over his room. I love it is she can get that Boy living a cleaner more organized life, let's just give them some space and see what happens.
Rather than going there, we both thought it would be better if they lived here for a year or so, they both need a little more time to finish their respective schooling, even as Boy already has a good paying job starting here in January. The plusses are pretty easy to see. We offered them the guest room upstairs for Boy to move all his extra stuff and set up his 3D printers. He now has two huge closets to store clothes and extra boxes of stuff. During the week, it is like it their house as I am gone in the evening and Javalina is old enough to keep to himself. The only thing I am outright making him pay right now is his car, gas card, and some credit debt he charged on my cards, all this totals $800 a month, I am thinking of adding another $200 for Sweetie to move in, nobody should ride life for free. I don't have to go out and see how expensive things are, I saw DD leave and end up in Buda paying like $1,200and then Girlie and her BF are in Kyle paying like $1700 for a 3 bedroom. Paying essentially $200 and being here in town, in a quiet, safe community is unheard of.
So Boy finally asked me during the week what I thought about her possibly moving in. I said "your mom and I already had discussed this and that would be fine." I then had a chat with her about my expectations, basically my only rule is stay busy "I don't like people who don't have a plan. I don't want to wake up every day and see you here just waiting for Boy," I said this because the semester ended a week ago and they are just kind of hanging out which is fine during the holidays, but not year round. Then I added like Girlie, you can have as many girlfriends visit, that doesn't bother, but guys can fuck off, unless Boy is here. In my experience, guys have an agenda and no good can come from hanging out with a guy alone. If you need to do that, do it outside of this house, nothing to do with trusting you or not, but guys are after only one thing whether you believe it or not.
I like this young lady more and more. She can argue and defend herself, she is very sensitive with Boy (who apparently needs that soft touch, who knew?), my initial concerns that her emotions were a little sacharin-y seem to be real. If she determines you're having a bad day, well, you need a hug, who does that? At first the baby noises or weird noises they make to each other came across as BS to me, but a year in and they do it all the time, like repeating "hi!" "Hi!", "miss you", "miss you" if they take 2-3 steps apart from each other. I want to smack both of them on the back of the head, cause it sounds like a tick, but I guess that is part of their charm. If these little "ticks" are genuine, then I like her that much more. We are not an expressive family, my side of the family, and although Wife claims to always be much more loving than us, she starts out the day with a hearty No!, then she might listen and act human.
Sweetie said she was not going to move in until Boy's room was cleaned up. They took everything out of the closet yesterday, and had everything in small piles all over his room. I love it is she can get that Boy living a cleaner more organized life, let's just give them some space and see what happens.
12/21/19 Woe is Me, Or Waah?
Wife was gone most of the day yesterday with her family and tat was fine, but at some point in the middle of the day after spending most of the early part cleaning, we got hungry and offered to take us to eat at Zaxby's. It was time for a salad and I love their cobb salad with pieces of chicken tenders cut on top. We were having a fine lunch then I asked where we should go next. Boy and Sweetie have been tearing up his bedroom, I mean giving it the cleaning it has never gotten, so they wanted to go directly back home. I have been doing nothing but working and sleeping the last few weeks. It is the 21st and we haven't even started Christmas shopping yet.
I got a thought in my head a few days ago. I had seen some "dirt bikes" at Sam's, which are really cheap knock-offs for $500, but in my head (or if it was me), it would be too cool to have a pair for me and a friend to run around the woods and greenbelt behind the house. This of course grew, instead of these "cheap" bikes, maybe go to Woods Fun Center and see how much "real" Yamaha dirt bikes cost and maybe get a pair for Christmas. This is as far as I got yesterday before I was chanked and spit on and left for dead by my "loved ones".
First of all, Javalina NEVER wants to do anything out of the ordinary, so his first response was NO!, I just want to go home. Boy was kind of neutral, then I said maybe we can convince Sweetie that riding on a jetski could be fun (Boy had said at one point that she is scared of the water because she can't swim). Then surprise, she responds "No, Dude, I am so over those, my uncles have some and I've been on them a bunch of times." I tried to save the trip by saying "well, they also have motorcycles and all sorts of toys that I like to think about owning." She nonchalantly retorted back "I've done all that (turns to Boy and says "BTW, do you want my uncle to bring the 2seater or the 4seater ATV to the Christmas party?").
Other than feeling like a child, what can I do? I just sit there and say "well, I guess you've done everything so we should just go home and keep cleaning." This is when I turn the conversation into a one person self deprecating play and left her pretty defenseless because I am using her phrasing to insult me.
I'm not impressed by your efforts, Fat man. You want to go see these toys that I have already ridden on so much I am bored to even think about doing it anymore, yawn." This is how I started recounting the story, which made her a little uncomfortable insisting "that is not what I said." But, I say "that is what I heard and understood as I lay here stabbed with your cold shank in my ribs." I continued the rest of the afternoon, adding stuff like "I realize I am a loser, I can't even manage a dirt bike, meanwhile you got choices between 2 seaters and 4 seaters plus acres upon acres to run around in." Boy said something like just leave him alone once he goes on and on, he won't stop.
I gave it one more spin when Wife got home and I was retelling her. She knows how I make myself a martyr in these scenarios and after I was poor little me this and poor little me that, Wife was wow, you look so sad. I said "I know, the only thing that will get me out of this funk is a new boat." She just brushed me off and asked "what about Christmas gifts boys, we haven't gotten anything, to which I exclaimed one last time "let's just get a family boat for Christmas." But nobody in this family is on my side.
I got a thought in my head a few days ago. I had seen some "dirt bikes" at Sam's, which are really cheap knock-offs for $500, but in my head (or if it was me), it would be too cool to have a pair for me and a friend to run around the woods and greenbelt behind the house. This of course grew, instead of these "cheap" bikes, maybe go to Woods Fun Center and see how much "real" Yamaha dirt bikes cost and maybe get a pair for Christmas. This is as far as I got yesterday before I was chanked and spit on and left for dead by my "loved ones".
First of all, Javalina NEVER wants to do anything out of the ordinary, so his first response was NO!, I just want to go home. Boy was kind of neutral, then I said maybe we can convince Sweetie that riding on a jetski could be fun (Boy had said at one point that she is scared of the water because she can't swim). Then surprise, she responds "No, Dude, I am so over those, my uncles have some and I've been on them a bunch of times." I tried to save the trip by saying "well, they also have motorcycles and all sorts of toys that I like to think about owning." She nonchalantly retorted back "I've done all that (turns to Boy and says "BTW, do you want my uncle to bring the 2seater or the 4seater ATV to the Christmas party?").
Other than feeling like a child, what can I do? I just sit there and say "well, I guess you've done everything so we should just go home and keep cleaning." This is when I turn the conversation into a one person self deprecating play and left her pretty defenseless because I am using her phrasing to insult me.
I'm not impressed by your efforts, Fat man. You want to go see these toys that I have already ridden on so much I am bored to even think about doing it anymore, yawn." This is how I started recounting the story, which made her a little uncomfortable insisting "that is not what I said." But, I say "that is what I heard and understood as I lay here stabbed with your cold shank in my ribs." I continued the rest of the afternoon, adding stuff like "I realize I am a loser, I can't even manage a dirt bike, meanwhile you got choices between 2 seaters and 4 seaters plus acres upon acres to run around in." Boy said something like just leave him alone once he goes on and on, he won't stop.
I gave it one more spin when Wife got home and I was retelling her. She knows how I make myself a martyr in these scenarios and after I was poor little me this and poor little me that, Wife was wow, you look so sad. I said "I know, the only thing that will get me out of this funk is a new boat." She just brushed me off and asked "what about Christmas gifts boys, we haven't gotten anything, to which I exclaimed one last time "let's just get a family boat for Christmas." But nobody in this family is on my side.
Friday, December 20, 2019
12/20/19 Fresh Eyes Might Be Helpful?
I was talking with Sweetie a couple days ago about Boy and she revealed to me that I am way too aggressive in the way I talk to him, which might be a reason he holds back. I was dumbfounded by this, because it is probably true that I am aggressive and I want to get straight to the point, I am also willing to do what ever for my two boys, pretty much I exist to try and give them everything. I don't feel I am that bad now, but I guess I have to live down my past, which even my mom says I was very overbearing, specially on Boy.
It is funny that she says that, because she tells me she learned to parent with me because I was her older son. I had the tighter curfews, I got away with less, I felt I always had to be a team player and help around the house. My siblings? None of them grew up very helpful around the house, so I think it is normal to try harder on the first born, maybe be stricter until you realize you can let them have more leeway.
Up until a couple days ago, I had not figured there was a problem between Boy and us, I just thought he was a little weird and distant, but I guess the GF let me know I have been hard to approach at times. She did say I have been changing a lot this past year, she says I am not so much a pain in the ass so much as compared to a few years ago.
I cannot change the past, I know and Boy should too, that everything I do is basically because I am always in a rush to get to work, or I am tired from working too much. I don't have an ounce of hate in my body for hardly anyone, specially the two of them. As much as we consider ourselves experts of our own children, sometimes it takes an outsider to help you see a little differently. My mom was just telling me that having Wife their has helped her to understand me better, and maybe in the same way, Sweetie can be that portal to seeing into Boy and finally understanding what makes him tick.
I asked Javalina if he thought I was overly aggressive with him or if I was hard to talk to and in true Javalina spirit, he said "No, dad, but we are different. I am a football player, I have coaches yelling at us all the time, my friends communicate by hitting. Brother has been raised like my niece always getting told you're beautiful, you're special." Maybe he was being a little sarcastic, but he also gets to experience me after going through the growth I had learning from Boy which means I am a gentler and nicer dad. I am just glad we still have time before Boy moves out to his own place, Sweetie may just turn out to be even more perfect for the role which she is doing than we realized, if she can bring us closer to Boy.
It is funny that she says that, because she tells me she learned to parent with me because I was her older son. I had the tighter curfews, I got away with less, I felt I always had to be a team player and help around the house. My siblings? None of them grew up very helpful around the house, so I think it is normal to try harder on the first born, maybe be stricter until you realize you can let them have more leeway.
Up until a couple days ago, I had not figured there was a problem between Boy and us, I just thought he was a little weird and distant, but I guess the GF let me know I have been hard to approach at times. She did say I have been changing a lot this past year, she says I am not so much a pain in the ass so much as compared to a few years ago.
I cannot change the past, I know and Boy should too, that everything I do is basically because I am always in a rush to get to work, or I am tired from working too much. I don't have an ounce of hate in my body for hardly anyone, specially the two of them. As much as we consider ourselves experts of our own children, sometimes it takes an outsider to help you see a little differently. My mom was just telling me that having Wife their has helped her to understand me better, and maybe in the same way, Sweetie can be that portal to seeing into Boy and finally understanding what makes him tick.
I asked Javalina if he thought I was overly aggressive with him or if I was hard to talk to and in true Javalina spirit, he said "No, dad, but we are different. I am a football player, I have coaches yelling at us all the time, my friends communicate by hitting. Brother has been raised like my niece always getting told you're beautiful, you're special." Maybe he was being a little sarcastic, but he also gets to experience me after going through the growth I had learning from Boy which means I am a gentler and nicer dad. I am just glad we still have time before Boy moves out to his own place, Sweetie may just turn out to be even more perfect for the role which she is doing than we realized, if she can bring us closer to Boy.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
12/19/19 Always A Pain In The Ass Before The Dawn?
They say it is always darkest before the dawn and I get it. Starting this week, I was 4 days from two weeks off from work. It seems easy enough, but no. Javalina has mid terms or whatever they are calling tests at this point. Normally, it shouldn't bother me, but they have had early release all week, meaning I have to get up from my already crappy sleep routine and go pick him up at 1:00pm every day. The only good thing I can say right now is that it is Wednesday night and I only have to do it one more time.
To add just a little more flair to an already shitty week, one of our tools at work lost its controlling computer and they installed a very old one. As a consequence, we are having to run this tool manually. Normally, it is set up, we leave it alone and it gets our samples ready for us. Now, we have to stay close and prompt each step by hand, or the samples sit there. It could not have been more perfect. One of my coworkers stayed late to do all the manual processing for a large 15 wafer job (most jobs are 3-5 wafers), she then set up the next part that is mostly automated and told me I shouldn't have to deal with it and by morning we will be that much ahead. I thought great, then she left after she saw it start ok. Well, the tool lost its mind and had to be restarted, I have been running it a couple wafers at a time, babysitting it along, as I didn't want to, not my coworkers fault, just one of those shitty situations of being alone at night.
Wife came in tonight to pick up some Christmas gifts that Amazon said would be here by now (they didn't make it, of course), but Wife picked up food for us. Normally Boy and Sweetie take care of their hunger needs, but tonight thinking I had a gyro waiting for me, I got home to find an empty package. I ate an oatmeal pie for dinner, thanks boys. This past weekend went by so fast with Wife gone all day Saturday and my brother visiting that we never went to the store, so we really have nothing to eat at the house.
I know I am being dramatic, but I feel like in those silly movies where the plane is coming in for a landing and parts are just falling off but the plane continues, I just want to crash land, survive and start relaxing with my peeps. At this point, the engine has fallen, the windows are gone, and we are just coasting on momentum. If we can get to the break, I feel we can recuperate for another round in the spring.
To add just a little more flair to an already shitty week, one of our tools at work lost its controlling computer and they installed a very old one. As a consequence, we are having to run this tool manually. Normally, it is set up, we leave it alone and it gets our samples ready for us. Now, we have to stay close and prompt each step by hand, or the samples sit there. It could not have been more perfect. One of my coworkers stayed late to do all the manual processing for a large 15 wafer job (most jobs are 3-5 wafers), she then set up the next part that is mostly automated and told me I shouldn't have to deal with it and by morning we will be that much ahead. I thought great, then she left after she saw it start ok. Well, the tool lost its mind and had to be restarted, I have been running it a couple wafers at a time, babysitting it along, as I didn't want to, not my coworkers fault, just one of those shitty situations of being alone at night.
Wife came in tonight to pick up some Christmas gifts that Amazon said would be here by now (they didn't make it, of course), but Wife picked up food for us. Normally Boy and Sweetie take care of their hunger needs, but tonight thinking I had a gyro waiting for me, I got home to find an empty package. I ate an oatmeal pie for dinner, thanks boys. This past weekend went by so fast with Wife gone all day Saturday and my brother visiting that we never went to the store, so we really have nothing to eat at the house.
I know I am being dramatic, but I feel like in those silly movies where the plane is coming in for a landing and parts are just falling off but the plane continues, I just want to crash land, survive and start relaxing with my peeps. At this point, the engine has fallen, the windows are gone, and we are just coasting on momentum. If we can get to the break, I feel we can recuperate for another round in the spring.
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
12/18/19 Boy Test Drove A Tesla?
If there is one thing Boy loves, it is gadgets and technology. He is a full on nerd, and I mean that with the greatest of respects. As soon as he heard of this new Tesla truck coming out as soon as next year, I guess he threw in his $100 to hold a place in line for him. He didn't discuss that with us, not that he has to, but I would have told him that was a waste of money. He did get something for the money but I think it's more of the drug dealer providing a free sample to get himself another life time customer. Boy was invited to go test drive a Tesla on Saturday to consider buying one before the trucks come out in a year or two, as they suggest.
Boy and Sweetie got dressed fancy enough to consider it like a date night, she in a dress, he in slacks and a long sleeve shirt, to match the clientele at the Domain. When they got there, he said a representative didn't even bother riding with them. One of the employees threw Boy his employee badge (as Boy described it) and this opened up the demo cars. He said he test drove the Tesla 3 and the Tesla Y. Both are in the below $50k values, which is a lot of money, but everything seems to be getting crazy expensive nowadays. Compare to the Tesla X, the larger SUV starting at $90k, and these seem cheap, by comparison.
He was blown away by everything, from the giant tablet in the middle of the dash, to the acceleration that the cars have. He said there is no lag, they found a road that was somewhat empty and he floored it. In a matter of seconds he said they were going 80, he backed off right away. He is barely going to start working with a professional salary starting in January, so he really needs to plan this a little better, but it is something he could do within a few months.
My biggest concern is what would happen to the SUV we got him? We have made all but 2-3 of the payments for the last three years, I would hate to see it traded at a loss or he walk away with $1000 or so once it gets paid off. I know everyone says I am a scammer, but I would think it fair to find the value of the edge, via Carmax or even having the SUV taken in to get appraised for a trade in and then have me pay for the profit above the payoff amount and I keep the vehicle along with the payments.
Javalina instantly got excited at the thought of the Edge being his vehicle in a year or so when he can start driving. If it does become our vehicle, I am buying it a contract at H2O Wash to get it washed weekly because it is such a nice looking vehicle, if only Boy would keep it clean.
Boy and Sweetie got dressed fancy enough to consider it like a date night, she in a dress, he in slacks and a long sleeve shirt, to match the clientele at the Domain. When they got there, he said a representative didn't even bother riding with them. One of the employees threw Boy his employee badge (as Boy described it) and this opened up the demo cars. He said he test drove the Tesla 3 and the Tesla Y. Both are in the below $50k values, which is a lot of money, but everything seems to be getting crazy expensive nowadays. Compare to the Tesla X, the larger SUV starting at $90k, and these seem cheap, by comparison.
He was blown away by everything, from the giant tablet in the middle of the dash, to the acceleration that the cars have. He said there is no lag, they found a road that was somewhat empty and he floored it. In a matter of seconds he said they were going 80, he backed off right away. He is barely going to start working with a professional salary starting in January, so he really needs to plan this a little better, but it is something he could do within a few months.
My biggest concern is what would happen to the SUV we got him? We have made all but 2-3 of the payments for the last three years, I would hate to see it traded at a loss or he walk away with $1000 or so once it gets paid off. I know everyone says I am a scammer, but I would think it fair to find the value of the edge, via Carmax or even having the SUV taken in to get appraised for a trade in and then have me pay for the profit above the payoff amount and I keep the vehicle along with the payments.
Javalina instantly got excited at the thought of the Edge being his vehicle in a year or so when he can start driving. If it does become our vehicle, I am buying it a contract at H2O Wash to get it washed weekly because it is such a nice looking vehicle, if only Boy would keep it clean.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
12/17/19 House Coming Back To Normal?
At this moment I keep asking myself why I let others in? We are just about done putting the pieces back where they go, as they used to be before we let Girlie move in. I have been too accommodating and I need to stop. The guest room upstairs was meant to be Boy's lab/work area and I thought it easy to relocate him downstairs. The guest room downstairs is a lot smaller, now I can see that they have room to grow, maybe add another machine. Everything was crammed in the smaller room, now he has room to grow.
Javalina was affected too. His closet has been the dumping ground for all the Halloween nick nacks and that has been more or less fine, but now that he is getting bigger and wearing different clothes, he needs more space to keep his clothes organized. I need to take the rest of the stuff that doesn't belong in his closet and take it over to the guest room closet upstairs.
All this is a slow process, I was also able to move some of the bins I had stuffed in my closet and some that I had hid in the new cabinets we put in our room. As a result, I have an empty level to keep my overflow clothes, like warmups and bulky shirts hid and folded up.
I work differently than Wife. She has been pestering me to steam clean the house, now that the dog is gone. I prefer to work one room at a time. I was hoping to do more this weekend, but that did not happen. We managed to clean up the room, move stuff back in, Boy and his friend moved their equipment back upstairs. I organized the guest room downstairs, making things look normal, more or less. I also had to clean the landing upstairs, move a big chair into our room and make room for it, sending a night stand downstairs to make the room, and then set up the Christmas tree.
Wife has been heavily distracted, I am not even sure what she has/has not noticed going on. She may think I am just sleeping the days away and that may be partly true, but I do make it a point that if I don't do something during the day, I try and do it at nighttime.
I will say that I thought her recommendation to steam clean was silly and a waste of time actually did a world of difference on the carpet where the renters were. That carpet looks half its age now. At some point this coming year, if I can help it, I am ripping it out and going with some wood of some type, but that is going to be in baby steps, much like the way I like to clean.
Javalina was affected too. His closet has been the dumping ground for all the Halloween nick nacks and that has been more or less fine, but now that he is getting bigger and wearing different clothes, he needs more space to keep his clothes organized. I need to take the rest of the stuff that doesn't belong in his closet and take it over to the guest room closet upstairs.
All this is a slow process, I was also able to move some of the bins I had stuffed in my closet and some that I had hid in the new cabinets we put in our room. As a result, I have an empty level to keep my overflow clothes, like warmups and bulky shirts hid and folded up.
I work differently than Wife. She has been pestering me to steam clean the house, now that the dog is gone. I prefer to work one room at a time. I was hoping to do more this weekend, but that did not happen. We managed to clean up the room, move stuff back in, Boy and his friend moved their equipment back upstairs. I organized the guest room downstairs, making things look normal, more or less. I also had to clean the landing upstairs, move a big chair into our room and make room for it, sending a night stand downstairs to make the room, and then set up the Christmas tree.
Wife has been heavily distracted, I am not even sure what she has/has not noticed going on. She may think I am just sleeping the days away and that may be partly true, but I do make it a point that if I don't do something during the day, I try and do it at nighttime.
I will say that I thought her recommendation to steam clean was silly and a waste of time actually did a world of difference on the carpet where the renters were. That carpet looks half its age now. At some point this coming year, if I can help it, I am ripping it out and going with some wood of some type, but that is going to be in baby steps, much like the way I like to clean.
Monday, December 16, 2019
12/16/19 An Evening With My Bro? (Part 2)
I thought that was part of the problem, there were too many vendors selling crap not necessarily associated with the Trail of Lights. There should have been a station or two selling shirts and stuff with the 2019 Trail of Lights mentioned somewhere, but all I saw was this generic trailers and tent set-ups selling the same Chinese crap you would find anywhere, goofy glasses, cheapy hats themed in like Pikachu or other kid friendly characters. my nephew walked out with a recorder (plastic saxophone) and the one wit the different sizes of woods that sound off different pitches. This was enough to keep him happy as we walked along.
Along the trail, there were several cutoff points where you could enter areas where food trucks were selling their wares and man, were they packed. I have to say last night was nearly a perfect night weather wise, we got there as the truck read 65 and slowly falling. It was nice with a light sweater, but even without, amongst all the people, it would have been alright. We didn't want to get in line, I thought my brother was kind of in a rush the way they were walking, but Boy and Sweetie decided to get some corn stuff, so Javalina and I got a bag of kettle corn and it was perfect, we hit the line right as it was empty and they had cocoa for him and I got a Sprite. We then walked a little more and I saw a S'more station. My brother bought the little bag for $5 which came with two marshmallows, four graham cracker "breads" and two small Hershey's, enough to make two S'mores. My brother was trying to walk off, I am not sure if he had noticed the fire pits or just wanted to get on with walking, but Javalina was being weird and then he said he had never made a s'more, which I told him if he never had that I suck, so we got two packs and got to burning marshmallows. This finally made me drop my guard and just enjoy what we were doing. I told Javalina there is no wrong or right way, some people like a burning marshmallow and some only like to melt it, figure out wat you like and eat them, it's a delicious mess. I saw that they had a water station to wash our hands and faces after, so that helped.
The rest of the way was mostly my brother complaining that he was dying and him checking on me if I was alright, I was fine, just slowing down to enjoy the sights a bit. It would have been much better if Wife had attended, but she was busy being the boss at her 1st Annual BBQ cook-off, which she said went really well. That is all I got out of her, se was already asleep and exhausted from having gotten up at 3:00am to be at the location in La Pryor by 4:00am. Sweetie took a couple of pictures of me with my boys, so that was cool.
My brother seemed relieved when we made it out of the fenced park area and started heading to the car, joking with Javalina to carry him. We had to take our sweaters off when we got to the Excursion because we were so warm from walking, but by then the temp was in the 50s. We stopped and ate at Longhorn Steakhouse, where we all enjoyed a delicious steak or two, I argued that my steak was not a sirloin and I had ordered it medium well but it was dry and plain as hamburger, plus even both my boys laughed at my baby steak, so the waited got me a second steak, probably to shut me up.
We got home probably by 11:00pm, the temperature was dropping into the 40s and walking into the house from the car, actually felt chilly, I guess our bodies had cooled off at the restaurant. It was a fun night, overall. My brother needs to chill and enjoy the goofy activities he chooses to do, I told him to remember that "these are the good old days." He just kept walking like he was aiming for the finish line, which makes me think "what is the point if you can't have fun?"
Along the trail, there were several cutoff points where you could enter areas where food trucks were selling their wares and man, were they packed. I have to say last night was nearly a perfect night weather wise, we got there as the truck read 65 and slowly falling. It was nice with a light sweater, but even without, amongst all the people, it would have been alright. We didn't want to get in line, I thought my brother was kind of in a rush the way they were walking, but Boy and Sweetie decided to get some corn stuff, so Javalina and I got a bag of kettle corn and it was perfect, we hit the line right as it was empty and they had cocoa for him and I got a Sprite. We then walked a little more and I saw a S'more station. My brother bought the little bag for $5 which came with two marshmallows, four graham cracker "breads" and two small Hershey's, enough to make two S'mores. My brother was trying to walk off, I am not sure if he had noticed the fire pits or just wanted to get on with walking, but Javalina was being weird and then he said he had never made a s'more, which I told him if he never had that I suck, so we got two packs and got to burning marshmallows. This finally made me drop my guard and just enjoy what we were doing. I told Javalina there is no wrong or right way, some people like a burning marshmallow and some only like to melt it, figure out wat you like and eat them, it's a delicious mess. I saw that they had a water station to wash our hands and faces after, so that helped.
The rest of the way was mostly my brother complaining that he was dying and him checking on me if I was alright, I was fine, just slowing down to enjoy the sights a bit. It would have been much better if Wife had attended, but she was busy being the boss at her 1st Annual BBQ cook-off, which she said went really well. That is all I got out of her, se was already asleep and exhausted from having gotten up at 3:00am to be at the location in La Pryor by 4:00am. Sweetie took a couple of pictures of me with my boys, so that was cool.
My brother seemed relieved when we made it out of the fenced park area and started heading to the car, joking with Javalina to carry him. We had to take our sweaters off when we got to the Excursion because we were so warm from walking, but by then the temp was in the 50s. We stopped and ate at Longhorn Steakhouse, where we all enjoyed a delicious steak or two, I argued that my steak was not a sirloin and I had ordered it medium well but it was dry and plain as hamburger, plus even both my boys laughed at my baby steak, so the waited got me a second steak, probably to shut me up.
We got home probably by 11:00pm, the temperature was dropping into the 40s and walking into the house from the car, actually felt chilly, I guess our bodies had cooled off at the restaurant. It was a fun night, overall. My brother needs to chill and enjoy the goofy activities he chooses to do, I told him to remember that "these are the good old days." He just kept walking like he was aiming for the finish line, which makes me think "what is the point if you can't have fun?"
Sunday, December 15, 2019
12/15/19 An Evening With My Bro? (Part 1)
My brother came into town last night to go to the Trail of Lights here in Austin. We had not attended in maybe ten years and it has changed a bit. It used to be the big tree of lights on one side of the road on a big open field and then a walk on a road to see displays set up by local business, such as HEB being the main sponsor, or Samsung sponsoring a display of the Peanuts characters in Christmas gear for free. At some point, you could buy a hot cocoa if the night was especially cold and I remember a pit where they would burn these huge trunks of wood I guess all weekend to get warm as you walked through on colder nights.
Fast forward 10 years and everything is still there, but put the thought "How can we make money here?" Nowadays, there is a gate and they charge $5 to get in. We had to buy a parking permit for $15, or we would have had to park at either Burger center and buy $7 park and ride tickets, or as my brother did, he bought $20 a person zip tickets, which gave him access to a heated lounge and earlier entrance. There was even a VIP/presidential ticket for $85 where you would get parking right by the entrance to the walking part. After walking from where we did, this seemed like a good value.
I love my brother, we grew up very close, and I have always enjoyed hearing him ramble on about anything, and last night he was entertaining on how out of shape he is. Javalina has to come out and talk a little about football and then promptly tried to challenge him to arm wrestle. My brother in his gifted way of painting a picture said "no thanks, I don't want to start 2020 with an injured bicep." Then he added "all I do with these hands is eat, and swipe credit cards and sign my name. I sneezed the other day and thought I broke a rib and you want to try to rip my arm off, no thanks." This was all at the house before we left.
The self deprecation continued all the way in the park, while walking, he kept asking "why did we get ourselves into this?" I am not in much better shape than he, but I understand you have to walk in these events, so onward I kept pressing. I had told him that story where the nurse practitioner thought I would be dead by last weekend and every time we got a little separated, he came back thinking I was in pain and had given up. I was trying to walk in a way to keep the group together. He was interested in finishing the walk, Boy and Sweetie were the perfect little couple slowing down to take pictures at every display and Javalina was just hungry.
The first big decision was whether we were going to go walk under the big tree of lights or head directly to the trail? I suggested going under the tree, which my brother already thought was just additional walking, just to punish him. I tried telling him that the whole fun of the tree is you're supposed to twirl around and dance with your loved ones, but it seemed to go over his head. His concern was to find stuff to buy his son who was looking for a souvenir store STAT!
Saturday, December 14, 2019
12/14/19 Friday Sans Wife Sucked?
Wife is fixing to get up right now to head to La Pryor for their 1st annual BBQ cook-off (I am writing this at ~3:00am). This was her idea, so she has to be present to get the ball rolling. We discussed it, whether we should go down and be there with her, meaning at my mom's (I am not going to go be in the way when she is being the boss), but she said she would prefer to come up directly after the competition, even if she gets here late. Coming to her house helps her unwind, I think.
My brother then called that he was coming up with his wife and kids to go see the Trail of Lights on Saturday. I like the idea of them coming, but it seems weird for them only to come on Saturday and Sunday, still, I figure it'll be nice to see my bro. I honestly think it's more of a statement, like see, now that you got rid of your renters, we are here to visit. He did ask before he committed to coming if they were gone.
As far as Friday, I was off Thursday night and trying to flip over doesn't work well for me. I tried sleeping at 11pm, but after I kept waking every hour, I said screw it and got up to do some projects around 3:30am, like change out the Halloween lights for the Christmas lights on the stair rails. I also put up the Christmas tree itself, which was still in the box. I eventually ran out of steam and went to bed around 9:00am. I slept until 1:00pm and woke up feeling great. I had some coffee and chatted with Sweetie who had stayed here while Boy went to work.
At 5:00pm, I picked up Javalina and we went to Lowe's. I was going to get a large cabinet to help Boy stay more clean and maybe organized, but Javalina talked me down to a small wall mount unit which was also less than half the cost. I thought this was a pretty good idea considering we already have a twin to that cabinet in the garage. We then had a pretty good dinner at Plucker's mostly because the boy could not go any further without eating. I like wings and I can eat a nuch of them, but paying for them always seems weird, like 10 of them sounds like a lot, but it's not really more meat than a big breast, yet ordering 5 is not going to fill anyone up, so we do eat wings but it always seems like a splurge because they do not fill me up, yet cost a bunch.
Afterwards, we were already close to Bee Caves, so I kept going to go to Dick's even though it was scary dark by 7:30pm. I wanted to go look at kettlebells, Javalina said they have been using them in gym, and I like to own anything being used to be able to repeat the activities at home, if we want to. We went from kettlebells to just dumbbells and we discussed the ones we are missing. I have 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, but none of the mid ones, so we bought 25s and 35s to have a more complete set. Javalina then talked me into buying some stuff for his friend who he has taken under his wing and is training him. I thought the night turned out alright, what he saved me in spending for Boy I ended up spending at Dick's for him and his buddy, so I think the night was pretty even.
We were back home by 9:00pm and that all was fun enough, but knowing Wife would not be arriving until today still seems shitty (fell asleep, finishing this at noon-ish, Saturday). I took my afternoon nap, got up at 10:30pm but still felt like there was no reason to be up, so slept some more until 12:30am. By then Boy had most of his lab moved back up to the room being used by my renters. I promised Boy I wouldn't do that again, so IF someone else stays with us, it will be in the downstairs room, which I then got up at 2:00am and tried cleaning up behind Boy and his pals. I ended up sitting down to watch some show on TV at 7:00am and fell asleep until almost 11:00am.
I can function fine without Wife, but it all just seems like work without her around. It is so much nicer to be doing stuff with a partner around. At least I have Javalina who enjoys eating out with me, for now.
*sans- french for without, but it is used more and more in modern English.
My brother then called that he was coming up with his wife and kids to go see the Trail of Lights on Saturday. I like the idea of them coming, but it seems weird for them only to come on Saturday and Sunday, still, I figure it'll be nice to see my bro. I honestly think it's more of a statement, like see, now that you got rid of your renters, we are here to visit. He did ask before he committed to coming if they were gone.
As far as Friday, I was off Thursday night and trying to flip over doesn't work well for me. I tried sleeping at 11pm, but after I kept waking every hour, I said screw it and got up to do some projects around 3:30am, like change out the Halloween lights for the Christmas lights on the stair rails. I also put up the Christmas tree itself, which was still in the box. I eventually ran out of steam and went to bed around 9:00am. I slept until 1:00pm and woke up feeling great. I had some coffee and chatted with Sweetie who had stayed here while Boy went to work.
At 5:00pm, I picked up Javalina and we went to Lowe's. I was going to get a large cabinet to help Boy stay more clean and maybe organized, but Javalina talked me down to a small wall mount unit which was also less than half the cost. I thought this was a pretty good idea considering we already have a twin to that cabinet in the garage. We then had a pretty good dinner at Plucker's mostly because the boy could not go any further without eating. I like wings and I can eat a nuch of them, but paying for them always seems weird, like 10 of them sounds like a lot, but it's not really more meat than a big breast, yet ordering 5 is not going to fill anyone up, so we do eat wings but it always seems like a splurge because they do not fill me up, yet cost a bunch.
Afterwards, we were already close to Bee Caves, so I kept going to go to Dick's even though it was scary dark by 7:30pm. I wanted to go look at kettlebells, Javalina said they have been using them in gym, and I like to own anything being used to be able to repeat the activities at home, if we want to. We went from kettlebells to just dumbbells and we discussed the ones we are missing. I have 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, but none of the mid ones, so we bought 25s and 35s to have a more complete set. Javalina then talked me into buying some stuff for his friend who he has taken under his wing and is training him. I thought the night turned out alright, what he saved me in spending for Boy I ended up spending at Dick's for him and his buddy, so I think the night was pretty even.
We were back home by 9:00pm and that all was fun enough, but knowing Wife would not be arriving until today still seems shitty (fell asleep, finishing this at noon-ish, Saturday). I took my afternoon nap, got up at 10:30pm but still felt like there was no reason to be up, so slept some more until 12:30am. By then Boy had most of his lab moved back up to the room being used by my renters. I promised Boy I wouldn't do that again, so IF someone else stays with us, it will be in the downstairs room, which I then got up at 2:00am and tried cleaning up behind Boy and his pals. I ended up sitting down to watch some show on TV at 7:00am and fell asleep until almost 11:00am.
I can function fine without Wife, but it all just seems like work without her around. It is so much nicer to be doing stuff with a partner around. At least I have Javalina who enjoys eating out with me, for now.
*sans- french for without, but it is used more and more in modern English.
Friday, December 13, 2019
12/13/19 Christmas Is Missing Something?
I don't know if it is because our boys are now basically grown now, but there is no sign of Christmas cheer at our house. Maybe it's because we had to remove the renters first, but for now, the house still has Halloween lights on the stair rails. I told Wife I would try and put up the tree in the next few days since I am supposed to be off for the next four nights.
When Girlie and the BF moved in, I was forced to take all the holiday bins out of that room and move them around. Most of the stuff ended up in Javalina's closet which means to get to the Christmas stuff means I have to remove all the Halloween stuff and that just sounds like a lot of work. I plan on moving most everything back to that closet, even as I have plans to put a door from our bedroom into that closet and make it my gadget room, I want a big safe and I want to install it in there, so I can keep some guns of my own. Right now, I am not even sure where Boy keeps our guns, he is the head of all that. He cleans them and keeps up with them, but at some point, I want my own handguns and shotguns and stuff, but I would prefer a big heavy safe to keep them in.
I don't know about all that, I do have a lot of projects in my head to make the house more user friendly, I would like to connect all the rooms with secret doors in the closets too, in case someone ever breaks in, we can move around to get to our guns, or at least to have options. I digress...
I should have Thursday and Friday and most of Saturday to get the house in the holiday spirit. Wife has a BBQ event in La Pryor so she won't even be coming up until Saturday evening. My brother is supposed to be coming up with his family to go to the Trail of Lights, which he invited me, but I feel weird going to it without Wife as it is a family event. Again, Idk.
All I can say is right now, we have a very minimal effort of yard decorations, a couple of inflatable penguins, a Merry Christmas light up sign, and some Peanuts characters waving or something. We have bought a couple of gifts, for 2-3 people, we really need to get going, but then my sister says she doesn't want to exchange gifts, I am not even sure who to buy gifts for. My brother says I don't give gifts anyway, so I could just not buy gifts and save some money and be the a-hole I already am in their mind's eye. I don't know, it'll all workout in the end, it always does.
When Girlie and the BF moved in, I was forced to take all the holiday bins out of that room and move them around. Most of the stuff ended up in Javalina's closet which means to get to the Christmas stuff means I have to remove all the Halloween stuff and that just sounds like a lot of work. I plan on moving most everything back to that closet, even as I have plans to put a door from our bedroom into that closet and make it my gadget room, I want a big safe and I want to install it in there, so I can keep some guns of my own. Right now, I am not even sure where Boy keeps our guns, he is the head of all that. He cleans them and keeps up with them, but at some point, I want my own handguns and shotguns and stuff, but I would prefer a big heavy safe to keep them in.
I don't know about all that, I do have a lot of projects in my head to make the house more user friendly, I would like to connect all the rooms with secret doors in the closets too, in case someone ever breaks in, we can move around to get to our guns, or at least to have options. I digress...
I should have Thursday and Friday and most of Saturday to get the house in the holiday spirit. Wife has a BBQ event in La Pryor so she won't even be coming up until Saturday evening. My brother is supposed to be coming up with his family to go to the Trail of Lights, which he invited me, but I feel weird going to it without Wife as it is a family event. Again, Idk.
All I can say is right now, we have a very minimal effort of yard decorations, a couple of inflatable penguins, a Merry Christmas light up sign, and some Peanuts characters waving or something. We have bought a couple of gifts, for 2-3 people, we really need to get going, but then my sister says she doesn't want to exchange gifts, I am not even sure who to buy gifts for. My brother says I don't give gifts anyway, so I could just not buy gifts and save some money and be the a-hole I already am in their mind's eye. I don't know, it'll all workout in the end, it always does.
Thursday, December 12, 2019
12/12/19 Girlie And The BF Are Gone?
They are finally completely out. What started out as a month or two adventure, turned into something like 8-9 months. In the end, I still maintain they weren't that bad, it's just hard to have other "adults" around. One would expect because they are wanting to be treated like adults that they would help in cleaning the house without us pestering them to do so. After two months and liking the additional income, I let them bring his dog over, not really realizing that the dog would be indoors full time. In my head, he said husky mix, I thought well that sounds like a big dog, he'll be outside most of the time. Nope. The dog was inside the house 99% of the time, except when he would go out to pee/poop real quickly. Because of this and the constant shedding, the BF said he would vacuum at least once a week. We never saw him do it, then when we asked it was always "I just did it last night, or I just did it awhile ago." Hmmm.
Then there was the attention on the dog, he never seemed to take it out for walks. Girlie said he used to take him jogging daily and he was always out with the dog, but that must have been before they started dating, because she didn't hide the fact that she was not a big fan of the dog, like her saying "I don't want the dog in my car." Umm, it is mostly because of you that I accepted the dog in my house, "I hadn't had a dog in my house before, other than my mom's or Hans (but Hans is the king of dogs)."
I also expected them to be more a part of the family, she always liked to be thought of as the daughter we never had, but with the BF around, they even ate their meals up in their room. I don't like this one bit, but when Boy has a table full of dirty plates and Styrofoam take out containers all over, how can I argue that we don't allow that? Boy has a mini fridge in his room, and so did they, so even on a whole weekend, with them being there, we might still only seem them 10-15 minutes in a week.
Somewhere inside I feel good for helping them when they needed it, but this has to be the last time. I will not let the dog back in, it was really a great dog, but no, we never wanted that and I did regret having said yes to it. I might accept her back, IF she is still in school and for some reason they break up. Saying that, though, I am not impressed with the way she left. There was no thank you for letting us stay, or other blah blah blah. The BF did say that we are going to get some sort of packages from Amazon in the mail as gifts to thank us for letting them stay. That sounds nice, so we shall see.
I didn't mind him so much, but as a guy to guy, I hate telling people what to do and not knowing what to expect. The few times I told him to do this or that, he was quick to do it, but should I be telling him to vacuum like he said he would? or take out your trash all the way to the can outside, not to the can in the kitchen so my son can handle it? It is bad enough keeping up with my two boys and the trash and shit they generate without having to be responsible for two other "kids" who seem to exist solely to chill.
Then there was the attention on the dog, he never seemed to take it out for walks. Girlie said he used to take him jogging daily and he was always out with the dog, but that must have been before they started dating, because she didn't hide the fact that she was not a big fan of the dog, like her saying "I don't want the dog in my car." Umm, it is mostly because of you that I accepted the dog in my house, "I hadn't had a dog in my house before, other than my mom's or Hans (but Hans is the king of dogs)."
I also expected them to be more a part of the family, she always liked to be thought of as the daughter we never had, but with the BF around, they even ate their meals up in their room. I don't like this one bit, but when Boy has a table full of dirty plates and Styrofoam take out containers all over, how can I argue that we don't allow that? Boy has a mini fridge in his room, and so did they, so even on a whole weekend, with them being there, we might still only seem them 10-15 minutes in a week.
Somewhere inside I feel good for helping them when they needed it, but this has to be the last time. I will not let the dog back in, it was really a great dog, but no, we never wanted that and I did regret having said yes to it. I might accept her back, IF she is still in school and for some reason they break up. Saying that, though, I am not impressed with the way she left. There was no thank you for letting us stay, or other blah blah blah. The BF did say that we are going to get some sort of packages from Amazon in the mail as gifts to thank us for letting them stay. That sounds nice, so we shall see.
I didn't mind him so much, but as a guy to guy, I hate telling people what to do and not knowing what to expect. The few times I told him to do this or that, he was quick to do it, but should I be telling him to vacuum like he said he would? or take out your trash all the way to the can outside, not to the can in the kitchen so my son can handle it? It is bad enough keeping up with my two boys and the trash and shit they generate without having to be responsible for two other "kids" who seem to exist solely to chill.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
12/11/19 The Real Ones Rock?
It was funny hearing it come from Wife first, that is the only reason I even opened my mouth. While we were eating on Saturday, with Boy, Sweetie, and Javalina at Cheddar's, Wife was celebrating being done with her second semester of classes, as she had just turned in her last paper. The discussion turned to Boy and his project. He was mad at the girl working on their team to which he said he really wanted to yell at her to just cut the shit a couple of times, she didn't really participate doing the work, so she was trying to make herself more important by trying to fine tune and make things better. She wasn't successful and eventually burnt the robot and the processor up.
We then discussed another project we went and heard and the pretty girl which was 5ft tall and 100lbs was talking about coming up with new ways to install support structures for solar and wind combos. We asked what was the deal, the challenge and she said "well right now, someone has to manually carry up 50 pound panels up and we need to make a way to do that easier." Wife said something about using winches and their whole team seemed to never have heard the word before. I said "you just hire beefy guys and get it done, that just sounds like men's work." I know that isn't anyone's favorite way to say it, but heavy outside work gets done by men.
I didn't want to say it because Sweetie is kind of a feminist and it almost sounds like I am fucking with her, but I just like to say things bluntly and I told Boy that girl had no business trying to be an engineer, not everybody is cutout for it. Then Wife said something like "you can always tell who is doing the work on a project and who is there to look good." I have to agree, and add that real nerds/engineers are just a little different. I hung out with a whole group of nerdy scientist types at UT that I met first because they were Hispanic and we talked Spanish, but then we were in some the same classes. These girls/women were bad-asses at getting shit done. They were not the put on some make-up and look pretty for the boys, they were the "get out of my way, I can do it better than you" types, much like Wife is. Wife has always told me if we broke up, I would end up with some vacuous pretty type blah blah blah. But no, I love her type, the real ones that know something and can be even more nerdy than me. These are a rare type of woman but they are out there. Shit, if Wife had to, she would mount solar panels, at 50 pounds apiece, she would find a way to get them up there faster than a lazy dude, at the very least.
Boy is also the real deal. Since high school when he was working on the rocket teams, it was common for him to put in the crazy hours, campus was basically across the street and he would stay there super late. At one point, he had a key to the school because he was there more than the teacher. It didn't surprise me that he was there until 3:00am trying to fix things last minute. I believe him when he said it was working and doing what it was supposed to prior to Dummy messing things up.
We then discussed another project we went and heard and the pretty girl which was 5ft tall and 100lbs was talking about coming up with new ways to install support structures for solar and wind combos. We asked what was the deal, the challenge and she said "well right now, someone has to manually carry up 50 pound panels up and we need to make a way to do that easier." Wife said something about using winches and their whole team seemed to never have heard the word before. I said "you just hire beefy guys and get it done, that just sounds like men's work." I know that isn't anyone's favorite way to say it, but heavy outside work gets done by men.
I didn't want to say it because Sweetie is kind of a feminist and it almost sounds like I am fucking with her, but I just like to say things bluntly and I told Boy that girl had no business trying to be an engineer, not everybody is cutout for it. Then Wife said something like "you can always tell who is doing the work on a project and who is there to look good." I have to agree, and add that real nerds/engineers are just a little different. I hung out with a whole group of nerdy scientist types at UT that I met first because they were Hispanic and we talked Spanish, but then we were in some the same classes. These girls/women were bad-asses at getting shit done. They were not the put on some make-up and look pretty for the boys, they were the "get out of my way, I can do it better than you" types, much like Wife is. Wife has always told me if we broke up, I would end up with some vacuous pretty type blah blah blah. But no, I love her type, the real ones that know something and can be even more nerdy than me. These are a rare type of woman but they are out there. Shit, if Wife had to, she would mount solar panels, at 50 pounds apiece, she would find a way to get them up there faster than a lazy dude, at the very least.
Boy is also the real deal. Since high school when he was working on the rocket teams, it was common for him to put in the crazy hours, campus was basically across the street and he would stay there super late. At one point, he had a key to the school because he was there more than the teacher. It didn't surprise me that he was there until 3:00am trying to fix things last minute. I believe him when he said it was working and doing what it was supposed to prior to Dummy messing things up.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
12/10/19 Friday Was A Rare Day? (part 2)
I got a little worried, it was now 1:00pm and again I had not slept at all, but here I was fixing to take a quick shower so I could go see Mijo's project, even though he did not invite us. We jumped in Wife's car and Sweetie directed us to what building. I slept hard on the way up there and even though it was only a 30 minute nap, it would fuel me for a few more hours. Sweetie had us park by the front door to the building and she then took the car and parked it a couple blocks away in a garage. I was glad for that, save me some walking.
This engineering building is something else. About 5 stories tall, demonstration rooms all over the place and then all the students in their Sunday best, it was an impressive site. We got a pamphlet with the room number where Boy would be and we headed up to the 4th or 5th floor. Every room up there on that floor was filled with 3-5 displays of kids and their research. Boy explained that he was a little upset because the girl on the team had fried the circuit boards by ramping up the voltage to 30V.
Boy is very strange in that he doesn't like to share what is going on, specially if it is bad news. We only found out he was at this event because of the girlfriend saying something. The night before, Thursday, I had assumed he had spent the night at Sweetie's house, but the truth was that he was on campus until like 3:00am trying to do last minute fixes on their presentation robot. He said it was working well enough, the girl on the team decided the robot was being jerky and she read somewhere that ramping up the voltage would make it move smoother. She did it without asking the team and when she ramped up the voltage to 30v, she fried the specialized processor and another circuit board.
Boy's part of the project, for the last two years has been to get the software/hardware to recognize the different things that go into a burger, be they lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, so that one day robots can do this type of labor. Real world application, I find it kind of scary, because where are the low skilled workers going to find work when McDonald's and other burger places start using robots and thus reducing the number of humans necessary to run a kitchen?
As we walked through, all the projects are kind of designed to make life easier for humans, but at some point, the humans aren't going to really be needed, it seems. Cars that drive themselves, robotic tools to take care of crops, more efficient solar and wind power machines. You have a world with an increasing population, meanwhile the smarter people are working on ways to reduce the number of employees with automation, how are the lower half of society going to get by? I can see a world, and not that far away where the robots are doing most of the work, what are the humans going to be doing? This makes me nervous, I hate humans that aren't busy on their own. All I do during the week is work, I expect people around me to be doing the same.
Boy's project hit some setbacks, but we told him to be strong and as an engineer you just keep going, what would be the next step to keep the project going? Discuss that, show the code you wrote, if the professor is into that, so he sees the amount of work you put into it. Just because something doesn't work at exhibition time, does not make it a failure. He was upset at the time of the show, but he felt better later in the day, when he got home. He was just glad it was over.
This engineering building is something else. About 5 stories tall, demonstration rooms all over the place and then all the students in their Sunday best, it was an impressive site. We got a pamphlet with the room number where Boy would be and we headed up to the 4th or 5th floor. Every room up there on that floor was filled with 3-5 displays of kids and their research. Boy explained that he was a little upset because the girl on the team had fried the circuit boards by ramping up the voltage to 30V.
Boy is very strange in that he doesn't like to share what is going on, specially if it is bad news. We only found out he was at this event because of the girlfriend saying something. The night before, Thursday, I had assumed he had spent the night at Sweetie's house, but the truth was that he was on campus until like 3:00am trying to do last minute fixes on their presentation robot. He said it was working well enough, the girl on the team decided the robot was being jerky and she read somewhere that ramping up the voltage would make it move smoother. She did it without asking the team and when she ramped up the voltage to 30v, she fried the specialized processor and another circuit board.
Boy's part of the project, for the last two years has been to get the software/hardware to recognize the different things that go into a burger, be they lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, so that one day robots can do this type of labor. Real world application, I find it kind of scary, because where are the low skilled workers going to find work when McDonald's and other burger places start using robots and thus reducing the number of humans necessary to run a kitchen?
As we walked through, all the projects are kind of designed to make life easier for humans, but at some point, the humans aren't going to really be needed, it seems. Cars that drive themselves, robotic tools to take care of crops, more efficient solar and wind power machines. You have a world with an increasing population, meanwhile the smarter people are working on ways to reduce the number of employees with automation, how are the lower half of society going to get by? I can see a world, and not that far away where the robots are doing most of the work, what are the humans going to be doing? This makes me nervous, I hate humans that aren't busy on their own. All I do during the week is work, I expect people around me to be doing the same.
Boy's project hit some setbacks, but we told him to be strong and as an engineer you just keep going, what would be the next step to keep the project going? Discuss that, show the code you wrote, if the professor is into that, so he sees the amount of work you put into it. Just because something doesn't work at exhibition time, does not make it a failure. He was upset at the time of the show, but he felt better later in the day, when he got home. He was just glad it was over.
Monday, December 9, 2019
12/9/19 Friday Was A Rare Day? (Part 1)
After all that big scare, and even though I was up until 3:00pm, I still went to work at night on about four hours sleep. The night drug on and I'm not sure it was a very productive night, but I do what I can. In the morning, Wife wanted to go eat breakfast tacos at Bill Miller. I got home around 8:30, maybe closer to 9:00am. We went to have our tacos which is always nice when we can eat together and not be in a rush. After we got done, I thought we were going home, but she had eyeballed a Jeep at the VW dealership and wanted to know how much it was. I do love looking at stuff, so we headed over there.
A kid came out and said the Jeep was close to $40,000, it was a 2019 and had hardly any miles. I said "ehh, that is too much." We then a saw a little Toyota truck that was 4x4, it looked perfect for Javalina, kind of husky and compact and in a baby blue flat color that Toyota has been using lately. It was $36,000. I really liked it, but again that was too much. Then I saw a Chevy Colorado, which is a midsized truck, but he said it was a Z2, which I guess means like Lariat to Ford because it was loaded, according to the guy. It was sharp and impressive, with fat tires and lifted just a little bit. We test drove this one, thinking after he said the price was $32,000, if they could knock a little more off the price, we could maybe go for it. He brought back paperwork and it had a spreadsheet, and even with $3000, we would be looking at a payment well over $650 or so. That is way more than I want to spend on a Used vehicle, much less for an inexperienced driver.
I then did a double take on the Fiat 500 sitting out there. It was $15,999. We went to see it and I was surprised to see it was loaded, including the ignition by remote, leather seats, all black, including the rims, heated seats and steering wheel. It was really nice and drove better than expected. What impressed me most was that Wife and I both fit in the front without touching elbows and I had to scoot the seat forward to reach the pedals. Their prices may be just a little too ridiculous, because even at this price point and with $3000 down, we were still looking at 60 months at around $340. We left figuring we can play hardball since we have nothing to lose, we didn't go in there looking for a Fiat.
We finally got home and Sweetie was there. She came down and was chit chatting with Wife for a while then I told her about my day before that I was almost dead. She then mentioned Boy's demonstration day at the university. All the engineering students were displaying the projects they have been working on.
A kid came out and said the Jeep was close to $40,000, it was a 2019 and had hardly any miles. I said "ehh, that is too much." We then a saw a little Toyota truck that was 4x4, it looked perfect for Javalina, kind of husky and compact and in a baby blue flat color that Toyota has been using lately. It was $36,000. I really liked it, but again that was too much. Then I saw a Chevy Colorado, which is a midsized truck, but he said it was a Z2, which I guess means like Lariat to Ford because it was loaded, according to the guy. It was sharp and impressive, with fat tires and lifted just a little bit. We test drove this one, thinking after he said the price was $32,000, if they could knock a little more off the price, we could maybe go for it. He brought back paperwork and it had a spreadsheet, and even with $3000, we would be looking at a payment well over $650 or so. That is way more than I want to spend on a Used vehicle, much less for an inexperienced driver.
I then did a double take on the Fiat 500 sitting out there. It was $15,999. We went to see it and I was surprised to see it was loaded, including the ignition by remote, leather seats, all black, including the rims, heated seats and steering wheel. It was really nice and drove better than expected. What impressed me most was that Wife and I both fit in the front without touching elbows and I had to scoot the seat forward to reach the pedals. Their prices may be just a little too ridiculous, because even at this price point and with $3000 down, we were still looking at 60 months at around $340. We left figuring we can play hardball since we have nothing to lose, we didn't go in there looking for a Fiat.
We finally got home and Sweetie was there. She came down and was chit chatting with Wife for a while then I told her about my day before that I was almost dead. She then mentioned Boy's demonstration day at the university. All the engineering students were displaying the projects they have been working on.
Sunday, December 8, 2019
12/8/19 Third Time's The Charm? (part 3)
At least there was an elevator to get me down to the ground. I would have really sounded like a patient needing some new lungs if I had to actually walk from where I was parked. Once on the ground it was about a football field's length to the entrance. It was all uphill, so yeah, I was a little out of breath. It was so nice, at 11:00am or so, there were only 4-5 people waiting to be treated. I think because I have insurance, they treat me like royalty. This is the second time I go in which I am walked in immediately. I checked in, the lady gave me a mouth guard thingy, like I'm Michael Jackson, and I hate it as soon as I put it on. I asked to go to the bathroom, a little worried I might have to poop there in the waiting room, but I am way past my time to be home. I just peed and released a couple of little farts, hoping they wouldn't be heard.
I came out and they were already looking for me. They plugged me in to an actual EKG machine and the nurse or tech looking at the thing asks very bluntly "why are you here?" "Uh, the nurse practitioner said my heart is beating erratically from 43 beats to 78 beats a minute, and my oxygen saturation is low." " She also told me I would probably be dead by the weekend if I ignore this." I mean she was adamant that I even needed an ambulance to get here, I kept telling her I felt fine." The tech said it looks normal. She then unplugged me and took my vitals. Within a minute or two, I had a room, she told me to call my Wife and whoever else that I would be in EB12. I asked her if I would be long or if I could still make work tonight. She said "no, you'll be here awhile doing some tests." I wouldn't plan on working.
In the room, I was plugged into another EKG machine and my arm was checked for blood pressure and my finger had another measuring device. The doctor came in and said "I remember you, with the hole in your leg." "Yeah," and we talked about that for a minute. The doctor spent a couple minutes looking at the EKG machine and determined I have PVC, Premature Ventricular Contraction, an irregular heartbeat. He said it was fairly common and nothing to worry about. He also mentioned that the little machine the nurse practitioner is using sees a very small view of the big picture, so something like an irregular heartbeat looks like erratic heartbeats, there's a limit to what she can see, but what I see, looks ok. He said I needed to consider doing a sleep study to get a cpap machine so I can breath better in my sleep.
He then said "we will release you in a couple minutes." I just had to make sure "I'm not spending the night here?" He laughed and said "no, there is nothing else for us to do to you. I called my mom and dad who were just about getting to the outskirts of Crystal City. I told her to turn back, if they wanted, I was being released to go home and everything was alright. Never one to pass up an opportunity, my dad got on the speaker phone to tell me "loose weight, you are super fat." "Yeah dad, I know." Wife was already nearing San Antonio, I told her it was all a false alarm, she thought about heading back, but I convinced her to take a couple days off, when she said she still had like 11 days of Personal Time. I got a little angry at this "chingado Woman! You can't take a couple days off after my big scare and you have technically more days off than what you get in a year? Wow." She said "fine, I'll stay home tonight, but I might go back to work Friday morning." I said "nah, you're staying and spending time with your sick baby who has strep and monitor me so I don't die this weekend as the NP said."
I came out and they were already looking for me. They plugged me in to an actual EKG machine and the nurse or tech looking at the thing asks very bluntly "why are you here?" "Uh, the nurse practitioner said my heart is beating erratically from 43 beats to 78 beats a minute, and my oxygen saturation is low." " She also told me I would probably be dead by the weekend if I ignore this." I mean she was adamant that I even needed an ambulance to get here, I kept telling her I felt fine." The tech said it looks normal. She then unplugged me and took my vitals. Within a minute or two, I had a room, she told me to call my Wife and whoever else that I would be in EB12. I asked her if I would be long or if I could still make work tonight. She said "no, you'll be here awhile doing some tests." I wouldn't plan on working.
In the room, I was plugged into another EKG machine and my arm was checked for blood pressure and my finger had another measuring device. The doctor came in and said "I remember you, with the hole in your leg." "Yeah," and we talked about that for a minute. The doctor spent a couple minutes looking at the EKG machine and determined I have PVC, Premature Ventricular Contraction, an irregular heartbeat. He said it was fairly common and nothing to worry about. He also mentioned that the little machine the nurse practitioner is using sees a very small view of the big picture, so something like an irregular heartbeat looks like erratic heartbeats, there's a limit to what she can see, but what I see, looks ok. He said I needed to consider doing a sleep study to get a cpap machine so I can breath better in my sleep.
He then said "we will release you in a couple minutes." I just had to make sure "I'm not spending the night here?" He laughed and said "no, there is nothing else for us to do to you. I called my mom and dad who were just about getting to the outskirts of Crystal City. I told her to turn back, if they wanted, I was being released to go home and everything was alright. Never one to pass up an opportunity, my dad got on the speaker phone to tell me "loose weight, you are super fat." "Yeah dad, I know." Wife was already nearing San Antonio, I told her it was all a false alarm, she thought about heading back, but I convinced her to take a couple days off, when she said she still had like 11 days of Personal Time. I got a little angry at this "chingado Woman! You can't take a couple days off after my big scare and you have technically more days off than what you get in a year? Wow." She said "fine, I'll stay home tonight, but I might go back to work Friday morning." I said "nah, you're staying and spending time with your sick baby who has strep and monitor me so I don't die this weekend as the NP said."
Saturday, December 7, 2019
12/7/19 Third Time's The Charm? (Part 2)
People can never wrap their head around the tired I am talking about. I function probably at 80% most of the time. I barely sleep like 6 hours a day during the work week, then I try and catch up on my sleep on the weekends. It could be that my heart and lungs aren't working properly, but according to her $20 toy machine on my pinky finger, my heart rhythm was fluctuation between 43 beats a minute and 78 beats a minute, which to her indicated that I was fixing to live that horizontal life.
This is about where she started mentioning I might be better going to the emergency room. I said "really?" "can't I just get my strep test done and I get my pills" "I have to go work tonight." By this point she said she was calling for a council with a consulting physician. She described me as a Hispanic, 48, 5'10, 420 pounds with a suspect heart. Damn, where's the part where you say "but has a heart of gold, nicest man this side of the Mississippi. Just the facts, Sir. What was the yes man on the phone going to say "oh, 420 pounds, sounds healthy, send him home? I was fucked from the get go. By now she is debating with herself whether to call an ambulance rather than risk me driving and dying along the way. I still was saying "I am fine, sure I'm super fat, but I feel as good as always."
Well, I am going to trust you'll get there safely, but I don't like it. Wife texted at this point asking me how it was going. I just said the truth, "well, the nurse practitioner says I'm probably dying this weekend." Maybe you want to head up here, I am being sent to the emergency room. She's talking about cracking me open and I'll pretty much be in the hospital all weekend. This almost got me tearing up, but I held it back because I feel fine I kept telling myself. I called my mom as this lady was like "yeah, prepare yourself, this will be a journey." "I am trying to save your life." The strep test was negative, by the way.
My brother calls me on the way to the hospital that my mom broke down crying and he was worried too. I said I don't think it is that serious, but she seems pretty sure I am fucked up. I guess I will find out in a bit. It was hard talking to Boy and telling him I might be going under the knife, but bring me a charger when and if you come and visit me. My phone is dying too. He got dressed and said he would head to the hospital. So here I am, at the hospital and no place to park. The parking lot is a freaking mess. It is so bad they are offering free parking in the garage where the doctors park. I went all the way to the roof of that thing before I found a spot. I parked and decided to call Javalina, I had promised him breakfast tacos and now I wasn't even going to be going home. He was barely awake, I mean he is sick with the strep, which is what got all this started.
This is about where she started mentioning I might be better going to the emergency room. I said "really?" "can't I just get my strep test done and I get my pills" "I have to go work tonight." By this point she said she was calling for a council with a consulting physician. She described me as a Hispanic, 48, 5'10, 420 pounds with a suspect heart. Damn, where's the part where you say "but has a heart of gold, nicest man this side of the Mississippi. Just the facts, Sir. What was the yes man on the phone going to say "oh, 420 pounds, sounds healthy, send him home? I was fucked from the get go. By now she is debating with herself whether to call an ambulance rather than risk me driving and dying along the way. I still was saying "I am fine, sure I'm super fat, but I feel as good as always."
Well, I am going to trust you'll get there safely, but I don't like it. Wife texted at this point asking me how it was going. I just said the truth, "well, the nurse practitioner says I'm probably dying this weekend." Maybe you want to head up here, I am being sent to the emergency room. She's talking about cracking me open and I'll pretty much be in the hospital all weekend. This almost got me tearing up, but I held it back because I feel fine I kept telling myself. I called my mom as this lady was like "yeah, prepare yourself, this will be a journey." "I am trying to save your life." The strep test was negative, by the way.
My brother calls me on the way to the hospital that my mom broke down crying and he was worried too. I said I don't think it is that serious, but she seems pretty sure I am fucked up. I guess I will find out in a bit. It was hard talking to Boy and telling him I might be going under the knife, but bring me a charger when and if you come and visit me. My phone is dying too. He got dressed and said he would head to the hospital. So here I am, at the hospital and no place to park. The parking lot is a freaking mess. It is so bad they are offering free parking in the garage where the doctors park. I went all the way to the roof of that thing before I found a spot. I parked and decided to call Javalina, I had promised him breakfast tacos and now I wasn't even going to be going home. He was barely awake, I mean he is sick with the strep, which is what got all this started.
Friday, December 6, 2019
12/6/19 Third Time's The Charm? (part1)
I really have to stand up and applaud the nurse practitioner that saw me yesterday. Not since the great Bambino, Babe Ruth himself, pointing with his bat indicating where his homerun was headed, have I seen such bravado and self confidence in one person. I went in, again, only because my throat/neck is hurting but I was diagnosed with a sprained/strained muscle. That was fine until I took in Javalina and he tested positive for strep throat. Instead of just saying, well, you're a loving family, I am sure you have hugged and/or kissed your son in the last few days and I understand strep is very contagious, here I will give you a prescription too. No!, we can't do that, come back tomorrow so I can see you as a patient. (You understand why I loose my shit sometimes. Life should be easier and flexible, come on!!!)
I shrug and say sure, I'll come in. Better yet, she says, I will put you in the system for 8:40am, you will be my first person after my morning meeting. Great! I will be here by 8:30am. There was no other mention of what to do, we hung out for another hour while my son got his meds, then we left. I went to work all night, show up in the morning and although my name is first, I have no way to change my presence, the computer says I am not there. I try logging in, but I don't have the code which she should have given me. She comes out at 9:00am from her meeting and goes to skip me. I said, "no, no, no! You entered me as the first person, it is not my fault I didn't have the code." She says "you were supposed to log in." I said "yeah, but then I would have been below these other three people, you told me I would be first." All she can muster is a lame "well, she has been fasting, she will be quick." Twenty minutes later, she opens the door and I am a foot away from her, she just gave in, come on in, I'll move stuff around on the computer. The dummy then says "the computer and that code was the reason for the meeting, people complain of exactly what you are going through." If that isn't dumb shit, I don't know what is. If I was one of those quiet pussies, I would still be sitting there waiting to be called on. It only got worse from there.
How is it going? she asked. I said ok, other than I have been up since yesterday around 4:00pm. "Oh, well, no worries, I'll have you on your way in a moment." she said confidently. Then the problems started. She put that little oxygen measuring device on my pinkie on the right hand. It was reading in the 80s, she declared it must be broken. She pulled out another one. This time she put it on my left hand and I got a reading of 97, cool, she almost moved on, but then she came back and started playing with her two devices, placing them on my two hands and reversing them. She started worrying. I told her "yeah, for about the last 3-4 years, I have had a problem with that oxygen reading always reading low. Apparently, the little device also reads your heart rhythm, reads your astrological sign and if you concentrate really hard, grants you one wish. Based on the little bumps on the bottom she starts with the "I am not liking these readings my friend, this could be serious." I still say "ehh, I am fine, I just need sleep right now." I say, nonchalantly. So now she adds fatigued to the list. I say I'm not really fatigued, although I do feel sleepy throughout the day when I shouldn't.
I shrug and say sure, I'll come in. Better yet, she says, I will put you in the system for 8:40am, you will be my first person after my morning meeting. Great! I will be here by 8:30am. There was no other mention of what to do, we hung out for another hour while my son got his meds, then we left. I went to work all night, show up in the morning and although my name is first, I have no way to change my presence, the computer says I am not there. I try logging in, but I don't have the code which she should have given me. She comes out at 9:00am from her meeting and goes to skip me. I said, "no, no, no! You entered me as the first person, it is not my fault I didn't have the code." She says "you were supposed to log in." I said "yeah, but then I would have been below these other three people, you told me I would be first." All she can muster is a lame "well, she has been fasting, she will be quick." Twenty minutes later, she opens the door and I am a foot away from her, she just gave in, come on in, I'll move stuff around on the computer. The dummy then says "the computer and that code was the reason for the meeting, people complain of exactly what you are going through." If that isn't dumb shit, I don't know what is. If I was one of those quiet pussies, I would still be sitting there waiting to be called on. It only got worse from there.
How is it going? she asked. I said ok, other than I have been up since yesterday around 4:00pm. "Oh, well, no worries, I'll have you on your way in a moment." she said confidently. Then the problems started. She put that little oxygen measuring device on my pinkie on the right hand. It was reading in the 80s, she declared it must be broken. She pulled out another one. This time she put it on my left hand and I got a reading of 97, cool, she almost moved on, but then she came back and started playing with her two devices, placing them on my two hands and reversing them. She started worrying. I told her "yeah, for about the last 3-4 years, I have had a problem with that oxygen reading always reading low. Apparently, the little device also reads your heart rhythm, reads your astrological sign and if you concentrate really hard, grants you one wish. Based on the little bumps on the bottom she starts with the "I am not liking these readings my friend, this could be serious." I still say "ehh, I am fine, I just need sleep right now." I say, nonchalantly. So now she adds fatigued to the list. I say I'm not really fatigued, although I do feel sleepy throughout the day when I shouldn't.
Thursday, December 5, 2019
12/5/19 Minute Clinic, Round Two?
Like my dad says (in Spanish), "a veces chingas y a veces te chingan." Loosely "sometimes you fuck and sometimes you get fucked.) I mean he said it about selling us the VW bug with so many little problems, but still. I can laugh now. I like that saying and I can say it fit in that I went in on Monday, not really wanting to but I went around 1:00pm. There was nobody there, I waited about a minute before going in to see the nurse practitioner. The thing is, he wasn't very thorough, he just came to the conclusion that it was in the muscle itself. According to him, I had sprained it somehow and the best course for remedy is to alternate between ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
That sounded fair and correct, except Javalina started complaining that his throat hurt. I ignored it the first day, but the pain was even more pronounced Tuesday morning to the point of him calling me and asking if he could go to the doctor. He doesn't try to miss school, so I didn't think he was trying to get out of going, but then he goes and texts me "if I feel bad, I'll text you to come get me." I find this to be worse than just missing because then I have to be some sort of aware if and when he calls me. I tried to keep an ear on the phone, but if I am asleep I can't promise anything. Some days are restless and I wake every 1-2 hours to pee and toss and turn but this week with my own pains in the neck, I have been sleeping deep and with little disturbances. Yesterday, I only woke at noon and then right at 3:50pm, which is when I saw his message from 2:30pm to go and get him. School gets out at 4:30, so I figured I would go and get him as quickly as possible to the 4:30pm time, but it is just horrible with almost 2,000 kids letting out at once.
We got over to the CVS as quickly as possible, but of course, this would be one of those times when I was about out of gas, so we stopped to get about $30, because payday is the next day and I had a few bills that if they went in we might be down to a very few bucks without moving money around. Anyways, we get to the clinic and there is a 1.5hr wait, which we take as a cue to go eat at the nearby Whataburger. We get back and still waited about an hour. Then we had to wait for the amoxicillin, then I had to rush home, by then it was 8:00pm and I was running late to work. BTW, the nurse practitioner that saw him quickly decided to do a strep test and yes, he was positive, which leads me to think it is what I have. So, as a bonus prize, I get to go back a third time today, because even though I was there, she couldn't see me nor give me the same medicine my son was getting.
The reference to a veces chingas…. is that when I went in there Monday, there was no one else there and I was in and out in half an hour, probably. Yesterday, we got there before 5:00pm and didn't get the prescription from the pharmacist until after 8:00pm. It was just a shit show with all these people and their sick kids, plus costing me 3 hours of time when they call themselves Minute Clinic.
That sounded fair and correct, except Javalina started complaining that his throat hurt. I ignored it the first day, but the pain was even more pronounced Tuesday morning to the point of him calling me and asking if he could go to the doctor. He doesn't try to miss school, so I didn't think he was trying to get out of going, but then he goes and texts me "if I feel bad, I'll text you to come get me." I find this to be worse than just missing because then I have to be some sort of aware if and when he calls me. I tried to keep an ear on the phone, but if I am asleep I can't promise anything. Some days are restless and I wake every 1-2 hours to pee and toss and turn but this week with my own pains in the neck, I have been sleeping deep and with little disturbances. Yesterday, I only woke at noon and then right at 3:50pm, which is when I saw his message from 2:30pm to go and get him. School gets out at 4:30, so I figured I would go and get him as quickly as possible to the 4:30pm time, but it is just horrible with almost 2,000 kids letting out at once.
We got over to the CVS as quickly as possible, but of course, this would be one of those times when I was about out of gas, so we stopped to get about $30, because payday is the next day and I had a few bills that if they went in we might be down to a very few bucks without moving money around. Anyways, we get to the clinic and there is a 1.5hr wait, which we take as a cue to go eat at the nearby Whataburger. We get back and still waited about an hour. Then we had to wait for the amoxicillin, then I had to rush home, by then it was 8:00pm and I was running late to work. BTW, the nurse practitioner that saw him quickly decided to do a strep test and yes, he was positive, which leads me to think it is what I have. So, as a bonus prize, I get to go back a third time today, because even though I was there, she couldn't see me nor give me the same medicine my son was getting.
The reference to a veces chingas…. is that when I went in there Monday, there was no one else there and I was in and out in half an hour, probably. Yesterday, we got there before 5:00pm and didn't get the prescription from the pharmacist until after 8:00pm. It was just a shit show with all these people and their sick kids, plus costing me 3 hours of time when they call themselves Minute Clinic.
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
12/4/19 Starting To Feel Empty, Maybe?
I like the idea of a big house and then filling it with loved ones. As a result, I pushed and I pushed a lot way past Wife's comfort level, to get us in this house. It was touch and go for awhile. At one point, I thought we might even lose the house in 2008, when I went through a period of furlough, but in the end, so far, it has always worked out well enough.
We have had all sorts of people staying with us, and it has been mostly good times, from the friend of Boy back in high school, to his other friends who just always seemed to be here every weekend. Then we've had my brother, Girlie, Dirty Dog, and now even Sweetie seems to be living here at least half of the week, even if it is on the downlow. I would prefer they do it right and get married first, but I also don't want them rushing off and doing something stupid like getting married before they get their respective degrees. Boy is even doing that backwards, so who knows? As I mentioned, the place where he has been interning has offered him a salary even though he still needs another class or two. He will be making a salary that sounds crazy a couple years ago for a brand new graduate, but he says most of his friends with similar degrees are making even more, so I guess his pay is just ok.
My worry is that he may think he is all grown up now and try to head on out and make it on his own. He occasionally goes and sleeps at Sweetie's family's house and that alone makes the house feel a lot emptier. Add in the fact that Girlie and the BF along with Moro (their dog) are moving out tomorrow and our big almost 4000 sq ft house will be for only Javalina and I during the week. This is why I never minded Girlie moving in, we have 2 empty guest rooms and if Boy decides to forge his own way, we will essentially have 3 empty bedrooms.
My sister and brother have both whined that they would not come and visit until my tenants moved out and now that they are about to, they are whining to my mom that she better not come visit us during the Christmas break. So why should I worry about emptying the house of other people I have relationships with, if my own family still won't come and visit?
Wife said the daughter of one of her coworkers wanted to move to Austin with a girlfriend, and Wife was toying with me and the idea of a couple of brand new legal teens (+18) moving in. Like Joe Walsh sings "Life's Been Good To Me..." I doubt this will come to pass, but oh man, isn't the thought of brand new young un's running around the house just give the whole manor a new vibe. As Patrice O'Neal described, I'm too old to do anything about it but sit back and enjoy watching them trying on tennis shoes and what not. This crazy life just goes round and round and just when you think it's gonna suck, life takes an unexpected twist, so I'll just hang on for awhile.
We have had all sorts of people staying with us, and it has been mostly good times, from the friend of Boy back in high school, to his other friends who just always seemed to be here every weekend. Then we've had my brother, Girlie, Dirty Dog, and now even Sweetie seems to be living here at least half of the week, even if it is on the downlow. I would prefer they do it right and get married first, but I also don't want them rushing off and doing something stupid like getting married before they get their respective degrees. Boy is even doing that backwards, so who knows? As I mentioned, the place where he has been interning has offered him a salary even though he still needs another class or two. He will be making a salary that sounds crazy a couple years ago for a brand new graduate, but he says most of his friends with similar degrees are making even more, so I guess his pay is just ok.
My worry is that he may think he is all grown up now and try to head on out and make it on his own. He occasionally goes and sleeps at Sweetie's family's house and that alone makes the house feel a lot emptier. Add in the fact that Girlie and the BF along with Moro (their dog) are moving out tomorrow and our big almost 4000 sq ft house will be for only Javalina and I during the week. This is why I never minded Girlie moving in, we have 2 empty guest rooms and if Boy decides to forge his own way, we will essentially have 3 empty bedrooms.
My sister and brother have both whined that they would not come and visit until my tenants moved out and now that they are about to, they are whining to my mom that she better not come visit us during the Christmas break. So why should I worry about emptying the house of other people I have relationships with, if my own family still won't come and visit?
Wife said the daughter of one of her coworkers wanted to move to Austin with a girlfriend, and Wife was toying with me and the idea of a couple of brand new legal teens (+18) moving in. Like Joe Walsh sings "Life's Been Good To Me..." I doubt this will come to pass, but oh man, isn't the thought of brand new young un's running around the house just give the whole manor a new vibe. As Patrice O'Neal described, I'm too old to do anything about it but sit back and enjoy watching them trying on tennis shoes and what not. This crazy life just goes round and round and just when you think it's gonna suck, life takes an unexpected twist, so I'll just hang on for awhile.
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
12/3/19 Aspirin and Ibuprofen Shouldn't Be This Good?
Yesterday I mentioned my neck pain and going to the Minute Clinic at CVS. The nurse practitioner said it wasn't an ear infection or anything in my throat, like strep. He said it was probably the left muscle on the front of my neck that I hurt some way or other. More than likely, it was all the sleeping I did. I about slept in every room of the house, from the kitchen table to the living room, to the toilet, if I'm going to be honest. I think I have been catching up with my rest, but this pain was not helping.
Like magic, I took acetaminophen, aspirin, which I don't put much faith in, and within an hour most of my pain was numbed down and feeling like I could live with it. When the "doc" asked me where my pain was at the clinic I told him it was probably at around a 6-7. I wasn't dying, but it was enough to get me to go to the clinic. After a round of both aspirin and ibuprofen I was able to be at work and not really think about my neck, most of the night.
I've been trying to keep it up, like we have told the boys, stay ahead of the pain and just take the pills before anything starts hurting. I took some before I came into work, then as I was fixing to drive home for lunch, I had a bottle of each and I popped another 3 aspirin before lunch and 4 ibuprofens before coming back to work. This was around 3:00am and as soon as I finish writing this, I am headed to my Excursion and taking another round of aspirin.
I know that both will take care of a headache, but this pain seemed much more serious, yet the combo seems potent enough. I am taking 4 ibuprofen because at 200mg, I need a little more because of my size. I know aspirin can cause other problems, so I am not trying to abuse it, which is why I am only taking three of those at a time. I also know I need to wait at least an hour or two between taking the different meds. I'll keep posting on this, while the pain continues, later.
Like magic, I took acetaminophen, aspirin, which I don't put much faith in, and within an hour most of my pain was numbed down and feeling like I could live with it. When the "doc" asked me where my pain was at the clinic I told him it was probably at around a 6-7. I wasn't dying, but it was enough to get me to go to the clinic. After a round of both aspirin and ibuprofen I was able to be at work and not really think about my neck, most of the night.
I've been trying to keep it up, like we have told the boys, stay ahead of the pain and just take the pills before anything starts hurting. I took some before I came into work, then as I was fixing to drive home for lunch, I had a bottle of each and I popped another 3 aspirin before lunch and 4 ibuprofens before coming back to work. This was around 3:00am and as soon as I finish writing this, I am headed to my Excursion and taking another round of aspirin.
I know that both will take care of a headache, but this pain seemed much more serious, yet the combo seems potent enough. I am taking 4 ibuprofen because at 200mg, I need a little more because of my size. I know aspirin can cause other problems, so I am not trying to abuse it, which is why I am only taking three of those at a time. I also know I need to wait at least an hour or two between taking the different meds. I'll keep posting on this, while the pain continues, later.
Monday, December 2, 2019
12/2/19 Downtime Should Not Equal Sicktime?
I freaking hate taking time off and getting sick, it just sucks. This past week was in the process of being one of the most relaxing yet productive times off ever. Then my neck decided to be an asshole. I hadn't been off for a full week since 4th of July week, so I was really looking forward to getting away from the same old repetitive crap. I was out one night before they were asking for help for the coming week. I offered my services to do a night of OT, IF they didn't bamboozle me by trying to convert one of my vacation days into a work day. In other words, I want to see my check get fatter, I didn't come up with the idea of this unlimited PTO, I just have to live with it.
So, by the end of the week (which I was supposed to be off), I had 36 hours PTO, 16 hours holiday time and 12 hours and 9 hours OT. If I am paid correctly, it'll be my biggest check in a couple years, plus I worked Sunday night too, and that time (another 9 hours) starts my next paycheck nice and healthy.
The problem here is my neck that all of a sudden felt like I had hurt it somehow. My initial guess was that I slept wrong, and that is quite possible since it is about all I did on the days I was not working. I'd get up, eat with Wife a lunch and then back to napping while she watched some of her lame shows. I am most energetic at night, so about the time she would come to bed (around 3:00am), is when I would feel like I should be getting up and then I would stay up until around 10:00am. This went on all week, even on Thanksgiving, when I stayed awake while we ate, then slept all afternoon at my in-laws, until almost 8:00pm, when we started getting ready to come back.
Well, my neck did not get better after being in pain Saturday and Sunday, I went to the Minute Clinic, hoping they would tell me I had an ear infection or even a little strep, but nothing. Ususally, when my folks come visit, they bring a little bug of some kind from my nephews, they seem to be a sickly bunch, but so far, not this time. The nurse practitioner agreed that it was just a sore neck muscle and suggested I apply heat and cold and keep taking ibuprofen and acetaminophen. He said this could take up to 6 weeks to go away, which sounds horrible because sometimes it really hurts. The pain does fluctuate from nothing to full on trying to make me cry mode.
So, by the end of the week (which I was supposed to be off), I had 36 hours PTO, 16 hours holiday time and 12 hours and 9 hours OT. If I am paid correctly, it'll be my biggest check in a couple years, plus I worked Sunday night too, and that time (another 9 hours) starts my next paycheck nice and healthy.
The problem here is my neck that all of a sudden felt like I had hurt it somehow. My initial guess was that I slept wrong, and that is quite possible since it is about all I did on the days I was not working. I'd get up, eat with Wife a lunch and then back to napping while she watched some of her lame shows. I am most energetic at night, so about the time she would come to bed (around 3:00am), is when I would feel like I should be getting up and then I would stay up until around 10:00am. This went on all week, even on Thanksgiving, when I stayed awake while we ate, then slept all afternoon at my in-laws, until almost 8:00pm, when we started getting ready to come back.
Well, my neck did not get better after being in pain Saturday and Sunday, I went to the Minute Clinic, hoping they would tell me I had an ear infection or even a little strep, but nothing. Ususally, when my folks come visit, they bring a little bug of some kind from my nephews, they seem to be a sickly bunch, but so far, not this time. The nurse practitioner agreed that it was just a sore neck muscle and suggested I apply heat and cold and keep taking ibuprofen and acetaminophen. He said this could take up to 6 weeks to go away, which sounds horrible because sometimes it really hurts. The pain does fluctuate from nothing to full on trying to make me cry mode.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
12/1/19 Roku Rocks?
We just bought our third Roku and they are turning out to be a great little $50 investment. We are finding programming we didn't know existed and unlike cable television, it is not loaded with stupid commercials and infomercials. I can't imagine cable television will be around in another five years.
Conservatives wanted to control the FCC and made it wrong for the free showing of a boob or a vagina, much less a dangling penis, well, what do they got now? I hope they are happy with the world they have created for themselves. I am finding myself floating to the right because the liberal agenda is lost, but this is one of those where I side with them. I don't want to hear that the government needs to oversee what we see and block all possibilities of nudity while because they fear the NRA, somebody getting shot up can still be considered normal viewing in the middle of the day.
Anyways, I don't feel like standing on a soapbox and supporting my views, I will just gladly enjoy watching most of what I watch on the Roku. For those who still don't have one, it is about the size of an old stick of gum and plugs directly into one of the HDMI ports on the television. It then also has a power supply wire that gets plugged into an outlet. It will take a few minutes to set-up. You need to have Wi-fi and know your current password, and then it goes and downloads the latest updates to say Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and now the Disney channel. We are paying for all these, we have Netflix and Hulu, Boy has Prime Video through Amazon and the Disney channel, which he got free as a promotion from Verizon phone, I think. It probably does add up to own a bunch of these services, but cable by itself is probably costing us close to $120 a month. I am unsure, but our bundle for cable, internet and house phone has slowly rolled past $200, much like Time Warner cable did when we got rid of it and we never went back. It is simply nostalgia keeping us tied to cable. Tonight, we bought a new Roku because the one in our room never did work quite right and I got tired of messing with it. The new one seemed to download new channels, some are free and one of them, seemed like regular cable with a schedule showing what was playing but by title, like comedy, drama, scary, and so on. I thought it was cable programming for awhile.
During the week, when Wife is in La Pryor working, we don't even turn on the cable box or the TVs, I spend any free time on YouTube on my laptop. The boys have "smart TVs" and download Netflix and Hulu and stuff, they removed the cable boxes from their rooms a couple years ago. We keep getting the offer to switch to Google fiber which is supposed to be faster than the internet we have, this might be the year we let it happen. I was holding on to my house number because it is still the first and only number I have had for our home, and I got it in 1991, but we haven't had a phone plugged into any wall outlets in like two years, we got tired of solicitors, and the freaking state troopers asking for money all the time. You get one chance on my cell phone, first I don't pick up from other states and if I do and you ask for shit, you get blocked.
It was funny, on that random channel we watched a movie we have seen before, but it was free, so there were commercials every now and then. We noticed the commercials were different, like Trojan condoms was every other commercial, and the commercials seemed more aggressively pointed at the consumer, like "buy it so you can be the BEST!!" They just seemed a little different.
Conservatives wanted to control the FCC and made it wrong for the free showing of a boob or a vagina, much less a dangling penis, well, what do they got now? I hope they are happy with the world they have created for themselves. I am finding myself floating to the right because the liberal agenda is lost, but this is one of those where I side with them. I don't want to hear that the government needs to oversee what we see and block all possibilities of nudity while because they fear the NRA, somebody getting shot up can still be considered normal viewing in the middle of the day.
Anyways, I don't feel like standing on a soapbox and supporting my views, I will just gladly enjoy watching most of what I watch on the Roku. For those who still don't have one, it is about the size of an old stick of gum and plugs directly into one of the HDMI ports on the television. It then also has a power supply wire that gets plugged into an outlet. It will take a few minutes to set-up. You need to have Wi-fi and know your current password, and then it goes and downloads the latest updates to say Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and now the Disney channel. We are paying for all these, we have Netflix and Hulu, Boy has Prime Video through Amazon and the Disney channel, which he got free as a promotion from Verizon phone, I think. It probably does add up to own a bunch of these services, but cable by itself is probably costing us close to $120 a month. I am unsure, but our bundle for cable, internet and house phone has slowly rolled past $200, much like Time Warner cable did when we got rid of it and we never went back. It is simply nostalgia keeping us tied to cable. Tonight, we bought a new Roku because the one in our room never did work quite right and I got tired of messing with it. The new one seemed to download new channels, some are free and one of them, seemed like regular cable with a schedule showing what was playing but by title, like comedy, drama, scary, and so on. I thought it was cable programming for awhile.
During the week, when Wife is in La Pryor working, we don't even turn on the cable box or the TVs, I spend any free time on YouTube on my laptop. The boys have "smart TVs" and download Netflix and Hulu and stuff, they removed the cable boxes from their rooms a couple years ago. We keep getting the offer to switch to Google fiber which is supposed to be faster than the internet we have, this might be the year we let it happen. I was holding on to my house number because it is still the first and only number I have had for our home, and I got it in 1991, but we haven't had a phone plugged into any wall outlets in like two years, we got tired of solicitors, and the freaking state troopers asking for money all the time. You get one chance on my cell phone, first I don't pick up from other states and if I do and you ask for shit, you get blocked.
It was funny, on that random channel we watched a movie we have seen before, but it was free, so there were commercials every now and then. We noticed the commercials were different, like Trojan condoms was every other commercial, and the commercials seemed more aggressively pointed at the consumer, like "buy it so you can be the BEST!!" They just seemed a little different.
11/30/19 Flooring Getting Closer To Reality?
After being lazy most of the day (this was written Tuesday), Wife included, we got up and attempted to leave the house late in the day. I told Wife I was simply going to Home Depot for more AA batteries and she was welcomed to join me. We had eaten her breakfast, watched 2 of the 3 Star Wars: Mandalorian episodes, then napped until 5:00pm. I just get antsy if we don't do anything. Still, coming down and having to wait for everybody, we invited Javalina and he has to make a big production of getting dressed, I dove onto the mattress in the living room and fell asleep for another 20 minutes (that bed is so perfect, I get it why nobody puts mattresses in their living rooms as furniture).
After realizing we were just going to Lowe's and we were planning on picking up some pizzas on the way back, Javalina and Boy both decided not to join us. This was fine since they just tend to get bored and then they want to rush me. We got there and I wanted to go look at the flooring options, I am a bit OCD once I get my mind on something it is all I focus on. Wife wanted to walk like a happy couple through the Christmas stuff, and I reluctantly rolled my eyes, but figured we had plenty of time to just walk at a slow pace. We both discussed and liked the idea of replacing the tile in the showers, tile is horrible the way the edges get all gooky and dark, we are just not good at cleaning them. There are some products out there we will consider after we lay down some flooring.
Eventually, we got to the flooring and we did the same dance where Wife wants some cheap shit and I want something from the real hardwood or at least I'll settle on the engineered stuff if the real material is thick enough. We ended up in the Pergo section and I was pointing out styles I liked. I really like the acacia style, but I will take a hickory or other different wood, not oak, it seems to be too the standard for everyone and is a little "boring" for me. One if the choices I apparently liked was .88 cents a square foot while the ones around it were all $3.79 a square foot. Wife noticed that and said let's take that one right now, I will run home and get the Excursion while you get it down and go pay for it. Suddenly, it got real and I didn't want it because it was too cheap but that is not a good reason alone. She called a guy and he said it was cheaper because they were doing away with it. I was kind of glad they were out of it. He said the store in Kyle had a bunch of boxes of it, but it was not on sale. Knowing it would have been a steal made me want it, but it still seemed wrong and way too cheap.
It gave me an idea though. Lumber Liquidaters has a section of wall where they display all the small leftover batches they sell at discounted prices and if Wife is game, we might be able to pick up enough to do the two rooms up front at heavily discounted prices. We might get lucky, one of the plusses of living in a big city, I guess. We really do have to get up earlier though. Before the guy could tell us if they had the flooring in stock, they were already announcing that the store would be closing in ten minutes. I didn't even get a chance to walk through the tools and throw something in the basket, just because.
After realizing we were just going to Lowe's and we were planning on picking up some pizzas on the way back, Javalina and Boy both decided not to join us. This was fine since they just tend to get bored and then they want to rush me. We got there and I wanted to go look at the flooring options, I am a bit OCD once I get my mind on something it is all I focus on. Wife wanted to walk like a happy couple through the Christmas stuff, and I reluctantly rolled my eyes, but figured we had plenty of time to just walk at a slow pace. We both discussed and liked the idea of replacing the tile in the showers, tile is horrible the way the edges get all gooky and dark, we are just not good at cleaning them. There are some products out there we will consider after we lay down some flooring.
Eventually, we got to the flooring and we did the same dance where Wife wants some cheap shit and I want something from the real hardwood or at least I'll settle on the engineered stuff if the real material is thick enough. We ended up in the Pergo section and I was pointing out styles I liked. I really like the acacia style, but I will take a hickory or other different wood, not oak, it seems to be too the standard for everyone and is a little "boring" for me. One if the choices I apparently liked was .88 cents a square foot while the ones around it were all $3.79 a square foot. Wife noticed that and said let's take that one right now, I will run home and get the Excursion while you get it down and go pay for it. Suddenly, it got real and I didn't want it because it was too cheap but that is not a good reason alone. She called a guy and he said it was cheaper because they were doing away with it. I was kind of glad they were out of it. He said the store in Kyle had a bunch of boxes of it, but it was not on sale. Knowing it would have been a steal made me want it, but it still seemed wrong and way too cheap.
It gave me an idea though. Lumber Liquidaters has a section of wall where they display all the small leftover batches they sell at discounted prices and if Wife is game, we might be able to pick up enough to do the two rooms up front at heavily discounted prices. We might get lucky, one of the plusses of living in a big city, I guess. We really do have to get up earlier though. Before the guy could tell us if they had the flooring in stock, they were already announcing that the store would be closing in ten minutes. I didn't even get a chance to walk through the tools and throw something in the basket, just because.
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