I hadn't been listening much to Adam Carolla lately, but he is still great and has such good insight. On his last podcast I listened to for a few minutes, he was going on about change. He mentioned how change is the biggest challenge to most people. People would rather endure a crappy life with a known asshole and be treated less than human, than to be alone while they go through that period of change and find a new someone. He mentioned about that time how the phrase goes "when God closes a door, he opens a window," and if only the person would wait a bit, they would be much happier with the change coming. Asking contemplatively , "does it ever work out, going back to what you know, the same old person you broke up with? Hardly ever.
He then went on to describe Ice Cube (the actor) growing up in the rough parts of LA, but (Mr. and Mrs. Cube, a little joke) wanted their boy going to a better school, so he was bussed in and out of the ghetto daily. Is this what made Ice Cube the standout person he became, starting with his rap career and turning it into acting and everything else he has done? Essentially, Ice Cube is a product of two worlds, he grew up street tough because of his neighborhood, but his parents also sent him to a better school to give him an advantage which he used. This is the part I liked the most as he was breaking it down. We are now in a time of change, kids are going to be learning through online classes, could we take this farther and maybe instead of getting the same shitty teachers from the proverbial hood, could students be lined up with better educators online? Would this necessarily cost more, if a class lecture on fractions or cellular division is recorded and taught as a master class for all, wouldn't that possibly be cheaper in the long run? I know that not all classes can be taught with a lecture only, there has to be a chance for students to interact, but this is where if we accept change, then some things can be done differently.
Wife mentioned something in passing about testing that I thought interesting. They have cancelled some of those STAAR tests or whatever the acronym is now since the students are not getting the proper class time, so the recommendation from above is to just teach. I think this can be a great opportunity for the teachers that complain about teaching "to the tests", well, this is your chance to make the teaching your own and do what you do without the constraints of teaching so the kid can do well on whatever tests are coming.
I am experiencing my own change, we only have to stay at work until we finish whatever work is there for the day. Last week I was home before 1:00am on three of the four nights. I was almost able to sleep like normal, at night, and then be up during the day. I say wow, what a difference. I think this is why I had so much more energy to work on my backyard, getting my patio cleaned up, hanging the lattice I had bought about a year ago, and even draining and cleaning the hot tub. I know this is not permanent but it should last possibly into the summer, which I am hoping can carry me into getting some projects done, get me moving around more. So far, other than the fear of dying from the dreaded disease, I am loving this new world we are living in.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Monday, March 30, 2020
3/30/20 Eating During Corona?
Man, I know most of you are normal families, you get to eat together in the evening, everyone is together at some point during the day. For me, it has been a new and much welcomed silver lining in this scary time we are going through. Wife is home at least for about the next month, Javalina is home because all schools are closed, my mom says probably through the end of this school year, and because Boy lost his job when he did, I don't foresee him getting hired during this downturn, which as long as he is cool and not trying to get ahead of himself (ie, get married or have a kid) I don't mind having home with his Sweetie. Basically, I just explained the long way that everyone here is stuck at home, and I kind of like it.
What I like the most is the getting together to eat. Wife is here and making meals daily, usually with a late brunch consisting of some eggs with sausage or bacon or some other warm cooked meal which is awesome. In the evening, Boy and Sweetie have been taking turns with Wife on the cooking dinner. Last night, Boy and Sweetie made chicken in a sauce with red bell peppers and quinoa on the side with fried rolls. I had been complaining because they seem to want every meal to be some sort of Asian inspired meal, so most of the meals have just a tiny amount of meat. I mean their stuff is good, but sometimes Daddy just wants a big ole hunk of steak, not the steak cut into slivers and what would be one steak for me turned into enough for 4 people, Boooo!
Then we had Whataburger Saturday night. Javalina and I love eating there, normally we eat there once a week, but we hadn't eaten there in probably three weeks. I wanted burgers on Saturday and we have patties but they were frozen, so we went out looking for places that would be open. We got lucky or so we thought when for once, there wasn't a long line at our local Whataburger so we ordered burgers for all of us. First off, Javalina and I eat for less than $20. Ordering for Boy and GF plus us put the tab over $50, for fast food takeout. Then they got the order all sorts of wrong, we wanted mayo, got mustard, Wife wanted fries, got onion rings, I said no pickles, they all had pickles, wife hates diet coke, she got diet coke. We won't be doing that again, plus that food does not travel well at all, the burgers got soggy from their own warmth and the skinny fries get cold.
I think I will stick to home cooking, even when Wife just makes sandwiches/subs, she uses those big buns and cuts them in half and toasts them, then we get an assortment of ham, turkey and cheese or whatever we got in the fridge. It all seems better than $50 takeout. I don't usually cook but even I made breakfast last week, I made pancakes which are very easy with the right powder that we just add water. Javalina participates by washing the dishes most nights, so it has been a real family time and I love it.
What I like the most is the getting together to eat. Wife is here and making meals daily, usually with a late brunch consisting of some eggs with sausage or bacon or some other warm cooked meal which is awesome. In the evening, Boy and Sweetie have been taking turns with Wife on the cooking dinner. Last night, Boy and Sweetie made chicken in a sauce with red bell peppers and quinoa on the side with fried rolls. I had been complaining because they seem to want every meal to be some sort of Asian inspired meal, so most of the meals have just a tiny amount of meat. I mean their stuff is good, but sometimes Daddy just wants a big ole hunk of steak, not the steak cut into slivers and what would be one steak for me turned into enough for 4 people, Boooo!
Then we had Whataburger Saturday night. Javalina and I love eating there, normally we eat there once a week, but we hadn't eaten there in probably three weeks. I wanted burgers on Saturday and we have patties but they were frozen, so we went out looking for places that would be open. We got lucky or so we thought when for once, there wasn't a long line at our local Whataburger so we ordered burgers for all of us. First off, Javalina and I eat for less than $20. Ordering for Boy and GF plus us put the tab over $50, for fast food takeout. Then they got the order all sorts of wrong, we wanted mayo, got mustard, Wife wanted fries, got onion rings, I said no pickles, they all had pickles, wife hates diet coke, she got diet coke. We won't be doing that again, plus that food does not travel well at all, the burgers got soggy from their own warmth and the skinny fries get cold.
I think I will stick to home cooking, even when Wife just makes sandwiches/subs, she uses those big buns and cuts them in half and toasts them, then we get an assortment of ham, turkey and cheese or whatever we got in the fridge. It all seems better than $50 takeout. I don't usually cook but even I made breakfast last week, I made pancakes which are very easy with the right powder that we just add water. Javalina participates by washing the dishes most nights, so it has been a real family time and I love it.
Sunday, March 29, 2020
3/29/20 Good Productive Day?
Some days you just feel brand new and you hit all those chores you have been ignoring. I woke up like that this morning. I woke up early, wrote my blog for the day and kept doing a bunch of little nothing jobs that added together make a pretty good difference. This all started with one of my pantry doors loosing the locking mechanism at the top of the door that keeps it closed. I had changed it once before, so I knew what it entailed. There is a big metal ball the size of a marble up there with a spring that pushes up on it. The old one lost whatever kept it as a unit, but I was able to find a replacement at Lowe's and this morning I finally brought out my ladder and jumped up there and poof, job one done.
I then decided I would replace the blinds on the door leading out, they got chewed up by Girlie's dog a couple months earlier. They were good enough to replace it, but I had not hung the new on, it was just sitting there in its new box. This was the morning for it, Right before Wife started her online class sitting right here where I am. It is a good thing I have hung many blinds already, this one went up in less than ten minutes. While I was laying on my stomach, like a great walrus screwing in the bottom part, I noticed how freaking filthy the door and its glass were. I took a bunch of Bounty towels and soaked them in water and took to wiping the door. It was loaded with dog hair and all sorts of splashes and splotches from the trash can which sits right next to it. I used a little Clorox spray and by the time I was done, the door was looking real good with a new blind and clean glass which again showed the light blue reflection of tint I put on a few years ago.
The next project I am still not sure of (if I like it) but I had bought lattice in 4ft by 8ft sheets. They had been sitting in the middle of the patio which ruined the usage of the patio for almost a year, it seemed. I hung them just by literally putting a screw through them and the upper frame of the patio. It worked, they stayed up the rest of the day. The idea for this is to cut the attack of the sun in the afternoons, the sun goes down behind our house and the patio is not usable until the sun is completely below the tree lines (other houses in the community have done this, Wife says the HOA will still complain). While we were out there, we had another 4-5 picket fences that needed re-hanging (fence is getting old and I need to hang a new one), which I did with Javalina's help. I had already told Boy to get ready so he could help me install a new nightlight to light up the whole backyard in case we ever here creepy crawlies making noise back there.
I would have preferred to do the work on the light myself, but with my bad knee, I just did not want to climb an iffy ladder and stand up there for too long (light is a good ten feet off the ground). Boy works with electricity all the time, so he knows what to do to not hurt himself. I loved that while we were finishing the fence, he brought out the ladder, and even turned off the power to the circuit. It took him about 5 minutes to do the work, then we tested it, and yup, it works. We just tested it at night, and the light is pretty great, the whole backyard is lit up (writing this at 2:00am Saturday night/Sunday morning).
I then decided I would replace the blinds on the door leading out, they got chewed up by Girlie's dog a couple months earlier. They were good enough to replace it, but I had not hung the new on, it was just sitting there in its new box. This was the morning for it, Right before Wife started her online class sitting right here where I am. It is a good thing I have hung many blinds already, this one went up in less than ten minutes. While I was laying on my stomach, like a great walrus screwing in the bottom part, I noticed how freaking filthy the door and its glass were. I took a bunch of Bounty towels and soaked them in water and took to wiping the door. It was loaded with dog hair and all sorts of splashes and splotches from the trash can which sits right next to it. I used a little Clorox spray and by the time I was done, the door was looking real good with a new blind and clean glass which again showed the light blue reflection of tint I put on a few years ago.
The next project I am still not sure of (if I like it) but I had bought lattice in 4ft by 8ft sheets. They had been sitting in the middle of the patio which ruined the usage of the patio for almost a year, it seemed. I hung them just by literally putting a screw through them and the upper frame of the patio. It worked, they stayed up the rest of the day. The idea for this is to cut the attack of the sun in the afternoons, the sun goes down behind our house and the patio is not usable until the sun is completely below the tree lines (other houses in the community have done this, Wife says the HOA will still complain). While we were out there, we had another 4-5 picket fences that needed re-hanging (fence is getting old and I need to hang a new one), which I did with Javalina's help. I had already told Boy to get ready so he could help me install a new nightlight to light up the whole backyard in case we ever here creepy crawlies making noise back there.
I would have preferred to do the work on the light myself, but with my bad knee, I just did not want to climb an iffy ladder and stand up there for too long (light is a good ten feet off the ground). Boy works with electricity all the time, so he knows what to do to not hurt himself. I loved that while we were finishing the fence, he brought out the ladder, and even turned off the power to the circuit. It took him about 5 minutes to do the work, then we tested it, and yup, it works. We just tested it at night, and the light is pretty great, the whole backyard is lit up (writing this at 2:00am Saturday night/Sunday morning).
Saturday, March 28, 2020
3/28/20 Dave? (TV show)
This has to be my new favorite show on TV. The show is based on Dave Burd, who goes by Lil Dicky on his You tube videos. The timeline is probably a few years before he starts taking off and getting famous. He has made a video or two, and the videos show he has skills, but for as much skill as he has, he is also very neurotic and from his constant conversations, obsessed with his small penis. He claims his small penis is from a couple of botched surgeries when he was a baby, but the weird part is he freely discusses it with everyone from strangers to his parents.
Aside from his penis, there is a girlfriend that is way too attractive for him, a couple of black guys that like him, are almost in the business (of being rappers), but not quite. The guy that mixes the music for him is also very talented but has not had a big hit to define him, and then there is "Gata" who used to run with a couple of other rap groups but got kicked off the groups and then found out he was bipolar. He was a hype man, but he would get so amped up and fired up that he couldn't bring himself down after the show, we saw in the last episode. He ends up having to take medicine to control himself, so after losing two good jobs to this, he decides to medicate himself before performing with Lil Dicky and of course, the hype man is sitting on the sofa almost comatose. Right as they are all on the verge of fighting and falling apart, Gata tells them he is bipolar and they end up opening up and pretty much saying how much love and respect they have for each other, totally not what you expect from a rap group. They are all decent people trying to do the right thing and they all believe in Lil Dicky to become as good as he thinks he is.
Honestly, I was expecting every week to showcase a song from youtube and make a show around it, or something like that, but he has only rapped in the first episode. He was taunted by some bigger rappers with a "shit or get off the pot" and he goes on for a few minutes. The second episode has him getting ready to do a show for a kid from the elementary school that the girlfriend works at, but the kid died. His parents come up to him and beg him to sing a song at his memorial, so he spends the episode trying to come up with something clever to say about a 10 year old he never met. The third episode is the one where he is obsessed with his penis and we see him making the room dark and everything perfect so the GF doesn't see him nude directly.
Most episodes have that feel good feeling at the end of "just be yourself, if the people around you do love you, they will accept you, no matter what." I think it is a funny clever show that fits in with today's climate. Even the characters are constantly checking their phones like we do in real life.
Aside from his penis, there is a girlfriend that is way too attractive for him, a couple of black guys that like him, are almost in the business (of being rappers), but not quite. The guy that mixes the music for him is also very talented but has not had a big hit to define him, and then there is "Gata" who used to run with a couple of other rap groups but got kicked off the groups and then found out he was bipolar. He was a hype man, but he would get so amped up and fired up that he couldn't bring himself down after the show, we saw in the last episode. He ends up having to take medicine to control himself, so after losing two good jobs to this, he decides to medicate himself before performing with Lil Dicky and of course, the hype man is sitting on the sofa almost comatose. Right as they are all on the verge of fighting and falling apart, Gata tells them he is bipolar and they end up opening up and pretty much saying how much love and respect they have for each other, totally not what you expect from a rap group. They are all decent people trying to do the right thing and they all believe in Lil Dicky to become as good as he thinks he is.
Honestly, I was expecting every week to showcase a song from youtube and make a show around it, or something like that, but he has only rapped in the first episode. He was taunted by some bigger rappers with a "shit or get off the pot" and he goes on for a few minutes. The second episode has him getting ready to do a show for a kid from the elementary school that the girlfriend works at, but the kid died. His parents come up to him and beg him to sing a song at his memorial, so he spends the episode trying to come up with something clever to say about a 10 year old he never met. The third episode is the one where he is obsessed with his penis and we see him making the room dark and everything perfect so the GF doesn't see him nude directly.
Most episodes have that feel good feeling at the end of "just be yourself, if the people around you do love you, they will accept you, no matter what." I think it is a funny clever show that fits in with today's climate. Even the characters are constantly checking their phones like we do in real life.
Friday, March 27, 2020
3/27/20 Little Rule To Use For My Advantage?
I always like to think myself the underdog who gets screwed in every deal, but last night our big boss put out a corona virus memo that had a few new rules we were probably going to learn to live by. I liked the one that said we can go home if there is no work in our department. Usually, when we don't have work, and that only happens about once a month or so, usually after the big holidays our customers are just slow to get into their routines. Lately, though, it feels like we might be getting the best of the workload. It has become unusual to have a lot of work every night of the week. Maybe on Monday and Tuesday we have to dig ourselves out of a handful of jobs that get submitted at the end of the week and over the weekend, but usually by Wednesday and Thursday, it is down to enough work to stay busy through our shift.
Last night I walked into three jobs that had already been prepped, I only had to run them on the analysis tool, which the eight samples took like two and a half hours. I don't usually read my email at the start of the shift, and when I have a little bit of work, I end up messing around watching YouTube videos or running over and getting coffee, making calls, or sometimes just even hanging out and conversing with the cleaning crew. I was actually hoping to see about this need for a note from our managers to travel to and from work, according to Facebook, the cops might stop you going back and forth on the road, to see if you have business out and about. This sure sounds like being under martial law or some police state nightmare, but I get it. Too many stupid people are still running around trying to live life as normal and this is not the time for that.
I did not find anything mentioning the note, but the note about being able to go home shined "like a diamond" as that stupid song says (I know diamonds don't shine, they reflect). At once, I quit screwing around and started on my work, it was Boy's birthday and I would have liked to stay home and celebrate and eat turkey and the trimmings with them, specially since we aren't getting together with family on the weekend, like we usually do. I didn't want to ask our manager directly, but I didn't have many options so I sent her a text before 10:00pm. I was already halfway done with my work, so time was running out. She responded thirty minutes later and said yes, we can go home and get paid, but that is doubtful to happen, there is always work. I told her not in our section. There was a job I would have done listed on our workload, but it wasn't physically there. There were also two other jobs, but I haven't learned how to prep them, so they don't fall on me.
After a little back and forth, she said fine, go home, just leave a passdown. I couldn't believe it was that easy. I only hope we can do this more than once. Shoot, I'll run both tools in the room if it means I can leave early. Now that I have the rules figured out, I won't be asking every time. Sometimes all we can do is find our silver linings.
Last night I walked into three jobs that had already been prepped, I only had to run them on the analysis tool, which the eight samples took like two and a half hours. I don't usually read my email at the start of the shift, and when I have a little bit of work, I end up messing around watching YouTube videos or running over and getting coffee, making calls, or sometimes just even hanging out and conversing with the cleaning crew. I was actually hoping to see about this need for a note from our managers to travel to and from work, according to Facebook, the cops might stop you going back and forth on the road, to see if you have business out and about. This sure sounds like being under martial law or some police state nightmare, but I get it. Too many stupid people are still running around trying to live life as normal and this is not the time for that.
I did not find anything mentioning the note, but the note about being able to go home shined "like a diamond" as that stupid song says (I know diamonds don't shine, they reflect). At once, I quit screwing around and started on my work, it was Boy's birthday and I would have liked to stay home and celebrate and eat turkey and the trimmings with them, specially since we aren't getting together with family on the weekend, like we usually do. I didn't want to ask our manager directly, but I didn't have many options so I sent her a text before 10:00pm. I was already halfway done with my work, so time was running out. She responded thirty minutes later and said yes, we can go home and get paid, but that is doubtful to happen, there is always work. I told her not in our section. There was a job I would have done listed on our workload, but it wasn't physically there. There were also two other jobs, but I haven't learned how to prep them, so they don't fall on me.
After a little back and forth, she said fine, go home, just leave a passdown. I couldn't believe it was that easy. I only hope we can do this more than once. Shoot, I'll run both tools in the room if it means I can leave early. Now that I have the rules figured out, I won't be asking every time. Sometimes all we can do is find our silver linings.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
3/26/20 No Rest For This Fat Boy?
As I said, it was really awesome hanging out at the house with my boys and wife all last week. For the first time in a long time, we ate at the dinner table together almost every night. Well, all good things come to an end and by Monday of this week, I was due back at work by around 8:00pm. Wife and my mom both texted and called at about the same moment when they heard the governor say that come Tuesday he was going to place us under a "shelter in place order". I got a little excited at the thought of being forced to stay home another week or two by force.
I figured well, maybe I'll have to go work Monday night, just to keep myself honest. I then called our director so I would get the info from the top and she was so quick, it left me spinning. She said we are a manufacturing facility and because of that, we are exempt from shutting down. We are to keep working as normal. It hurt a little bit, but I get it. I had built it in my head that I would get the same time off that my peeps have. We are pretty much prepared to live a week to a week and a half isolated in our house, now that we have our new deep freezer.
Later, once I was at work, I managed to talk to one coworker and she said that we are pretty much going to follow what Cypress is doing. Cypress is the big fab that used to be Spansion. Unless they change their rules, we will continue to work. I guess if corona shows up in the clean room, then they will re-evaluate. She said something about the big fab companies all complaining to the governor about not shutting down, these would be Cypress (old AMD), Samsung and Freescale (old Motorola). I guess this is a good time for them, as they all tend to cycle up and down as far as running at capacity.
I don't get it though, as far as calling us essential manufacturing. We don't make anything helpful in fighting the virus, we are simply trying to make money, I guess we do support other companies that could be doing the Lord's work. Either way, I always work alone at night and add to that, I am wearing gloves and we are supposed to wipe everything down with alcohol and wipes, so I feel like my work area is not going to make me sick. My biggest worry is going to the bathroom because everyone uses it and we are not gloved up at that point.
Still, if I can help it, I will try not to hang out where the masses hang out, that means no coffee, and I guess if I finish all my work, I might get out of there before the dayshift shows up, although I guess I should go in a little earlier to do that. I am so glad I only work four days one week and three days the following.
I figured well, maybe I'll have to go work Monday night, just to keep myself honest. I then called our director so I would get the info from the top and she was so quick, it left me spinning. She said we are a manufacturing facility and because of that, we are exempt from shutting down. We are to keep working as normal. It hurt a little bit, but I get it. I had built it in my head that I would get the same time off that my peeps have. We are pretty much prepared to live a week to a week and a half isolated in our house, now that we have our new deep freezer.
Later, once I was at work, I managed to talk to one coworker and she said that we are pretty much going to follow what Cypress is doing. Cypress is the big fab that used to be Spansion. Unless they change their rules, we will continue to work. I guess if corona shows up in the clean room, then they will re-evaluate. She said something about the big fab companies all complaining to the governor about not shutting down, these would be Cypress (old AMD), Samsung and Freescale (old Motorola). I guess this is a good time for them, as they all tend to cycle up and down as far as running at capacity.
I don't get it though, as far as calling us essential manufacturing. We don't make anything helpful in fighting the virus, we are simply trying to make money, I guess we do support other companies that could be doing the Lord's work. Either way, I always work alone at night and add to that, I am wearing gloves and we are supposed to wipe everything down with alcohol and wipes, so I feel like my work area is not going to make me sick. My biggest worry is going to the bathroom because everyone uses it and we are not gloved up at that point.
Still, if I can help it, I will try not to hang out where the masses hang out, that means no coffee, and I guess if I finish all my work, I might get out of there before the dayshift shows up, although I guess I should go in a little earlier to do that. I am so glad I only work four days one week and three days the following.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
3/25/20 Is Corona Good For The Earth?
Is there anything good about the Corona virus? I like the idea that the earth is getting a chance to heal itself a little bit. Like the computers said in the Matrix, we are more like a virus on the earth just consuming until we destroy and then we move on. Nothing has ever made us slow down like we have in the last week, it is scary and yet good, I think. For some time, I was feeling like we are on this ride that has no stop, it just constantly moves aggressively forward and to try and get off or slow it down is unamerican, so we do as the Jones next door do and continue running.
This past week, for the first time in our history, our leaders themselves are saying "stop! Stay home." This is actually a great thing, I believe. For the first time in a few years, Wife has been home now two weeks, and we are all forced to be together under one roof. We are joining together to eat dinner, maybe a little late for some of you, but it has been really good here. Javalina has been real understanding and doesn't want to leave the house unless we offer to get some sort of food for him. Boy leaves a little too much for comfort, but he is going to the same places I have been going, Target, HEB, Sams.
I've seen little cartoons where the earth is a little cartoon and it is turning greener because we are not all driving around like we always do. You can tell too, Monday when Wife was headed to work and had to return because her service engine light came on, she was surprised that she was never caught in heavy traffic even as she returned to Austin at 8:00am. When we have driven here to Cabela's in Buda or the Target in San Marcos, I also haven't noticed heavy traffic and believe me, here in Austin the highway is always loaded with way too many people. So I can believe the earth is getting a breather too and not as many pollutants are getting fed into the atmosphere.
The nightlife has also been turned off, essentially, with all the bars and restaurants forced to close and no crowds larger than 10-15 allowed to gather. I do worry about all those people not making money, that has to be hard, but again, it is forcing people to stay home, they have less options to go out and "hang out."
If this continues through the end of the year, the housing sector could be affected, less houses being made means less trees being removed and thus more oxygen in the atmosphere. The airline industry is almost at a standstill, along with all those giant cruise ships. All of these are simply huge machines that burn hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel and when that is not happening it has to be good for the earth, although that is the opposite for us humans as all those machines not moving mean hundreds of thousands of people are not doing their jobs.
I don't want a permanent change, at some point we need to get back to business and past this virus, but for now, I have really enjoyed the time off and being together at home.
This past week, for the first time in our history, our leaders themselves are saying "stop! Stay home." This is actually a great thing, I believe. For the first time in a few years, Wife has been home now two weeks, and we are all forced to be together under one roof. We are joining together to eat dinner, maybe a little late for some of you, but it has been really good here. Javalina has been real understanding and doesn't want to leave the house unless we offer to get some sort of food for him. Boy leaves a little too much for comfort, but he is going to the same places I have been going, Target, HEB, Sams.
I've seen little cartoons where the earth is a little cartoon and it is turning greener because we are not all driving around like we always do. You can tell too, Monday when Wife was headed to work and had to return because her service engine light came on, she was surprised that she was never caught in heavy traffic even as she returned to Austin at 8:00am. When we have driven here to Cabela's in Buda or the Target in San Marcos, I also haven't noticed heavy traffic and believe me, here in Austin the highway is always loaded with way too many people. So I can believe the earth is getting a breather too and not as many pollutants are getting fed into the atmosphere.
The nightlife has also been turned off, essentially, with all the bars and restaurants forced to close and no crowds larger than 10-15 allowed to gather. I do worry about all those people not making money, that has to be hard, but again, it is forcing people to stay home, they have less options to go out and "hang out."
If this continues through the end of the year, the housing sector could be affected, less houses being made means less trees being removed and thus more oxygen in the atmosphere. The airline industry is almost at a standstill, along with all those giant cruise ships. All of these are simply huge machines that burn hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel and when that is not happening it has to be good for the earth, although that is the opposite for us humans as all those machines not moving mean hundreds of thousands of people are not doing their jobs.
I don't want a permanent change, at some point we need to get back to business and past this virus, but for now, I have really enjoyed the time off and being together at home.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
3/24/20 Celebrating Boy's Birthday In The Age Of Corona?
This feels a little strange, usually we get together with family, even if it is on the weekend before or after the actual birthday. This year, with corona looming all around, we are being told we can't congregate in groups larger than 10. Shit, most Mexican families have that many people living under one roof at any time, what do you do then? Wife said she heard that if we go to the store (here in Austin), we must stay 6 feet apart from anyone else. That is just starting to get more and more drastic. Well at least we can still say happy birthday, Mijo. Wife already bought some mixes to make a cake and a pie for tonight so at least it can seem like a celebration of sorts.
I really have no idea when we will be seeing my folks, my mom is taking the advice seriously of self-quarantining for the sake of my dad. Wife says pretty much the same thing is happening on her side of the family. My father in law is actually a couple years older than my dad, which I think puts him closer to 80 than 70 at this point (I don't know exact numbers). Wife said yesterday that over on her side of the family, they haven't let grandpa even leave the house and he is the kind that likes to stay busy running little errands and going to the Goodwill and pawn shops looking for "treasure."
Boy is turning 26 today which is a big one. At the start of the year, he had a brand new high paying job and he was fixing to be set up with medical insurance better than what we had. Fast forward a month, he was basically laid off, and now that he comes up on his 26th birthday, he has no insurance. If he can stay healthy it will be fine for awhile, but I worry about him more than Javalina. Boy had that typhus thing two years ago which the medication given to him, stripped him of his own immunity, then he came down with mono last year and that also kicked his ass. The disease is most dangerous to people like him, with compromised immunity systems, so I really do worry about our Little Nemo (he had the little fin on one side).
If we can look on a silver lining, he only has one class this semester and no job to take him out of the house. The job he had exposed him to a lot of people from out of the country, mostly China, so I am glad, for that reason, that he no longer has the job. Although, thinking long term, everything might be idled down and that will just prevent him from getting hired quicker than normal. There are rumors we might go under martial law and be forced to stay home, no one will be working for a few weeks, I am not sure how we even get past that huge blockade, much less survive and keep our houses and cars with no income coming in.
Oh well, we have to remain positive, nothing was ever solved by going to the dark side and thinking like the world is ending. Even if it were, we must still fight to make the best of what may come.
I really have no idea when we will be seeing my folks, my mom is taking the advice seriously of self-quarantining for the sake of my dad. Wife says pretty much the same thing is happening on her side of the family. My father in law is actually a couple years older than my dad, which I think puts him closer to 80 than 70 at this point (I don't know exact numbers). Wife said yesterday that over on her side of the family, they haven't let grandpa even leave the house and he is the kind that likes to stay busy running little errands and going to the Goodwill and pawn shops looking for "treasure."
Boy is turning 26 today which is a big one. At the start of the year, he had a brand new high paying job and he was fixing to be set up with medical insurance better than what we had. Fast forward a month, he was basically laid off, and now that he comes up on his 26th birthday, he has no insurance. If he can stay healthy it will be fine for awhile, but I worry about him more than Javalina. Boy had that typhus thing two years ago which the medication given to him, stripped him of his own immunity, then he came down with mono last year and that also kicked his ass. The disease is most dangerous to people like him, with compromised immunity systems, so I really do worry about our Little Nemo (he had the little fin on one side).
If we can look on a silver lining, he only has one class this semester and no job to take him out of the house. The job he had exposed him to a lot of people from out of the country, mostly China, so I am glad, for that reason, that he no longer has the job. Although, thinking long term, everything might be idled down and that will just prevent him from getting hired quicker than normal. There are rumors we might go under martial law and be forced to stay home, no one will be working for a few weeks, I am not sure how we even get past that huge blockade, much less survive and keep our houses and cars with no income coming in.
Oh well, we have to remain positive, nothing was ever solved by going to the dark side and thinking like the world is ending. Even if it were, we must still fight to make the best of what may come.
Monday, March 23, 2020
3/23/20 Instant Family? (movie)
I am not sure why, but I had been wanting to see this movie ever since I saw the commercials for it. It stars Mark Wahlberg and a cast of mostly unknowns, to me. He and his wife end up talking themselves into wanting kids after having life way too easy for way too long. We then get to see the ins and outs of what it takes to adopt kids from foster care. I liked the line he tells his wife that "people that foster kids are really special, they volunteer when it's not even a holiday. We don't even volunteer on a holiday." I even chuckle at people who volunteer, I hate the idea of doing something for nothing, but that is neither here nor there.
The movie takes a little while to develop, Tom Segura comes out as a brother in law and has some funny lines. The two ladies running the foster care agency also are funny in a traditional straight/goofy partnership. After they go through the program and get certified, we finally see the kids that will change their lives. I am assuming the movie was trying to "keep it real" by showing a range of couples trying to adopt, including gay, ultra religious, the single power mom, and then some regular couples. It must have taken a lot to carefully write this with humor because the whole foster care and adoption systems seems like such a harrowing process. There were equal parts laughter and tearing up al through the movie
I remember growing up my mom saying she would probably be a foster parent as she got older and we all moved out. Of course, that idea was cut at the head by my brother and sister who really don't even like sharing "their" mother with us. I guess they keep her plenty busy because they set up camp right next door, one lives next door and the other lives behind her, so mom always at least has the grandkids around.
Once the kids show up in the movie, we see some real drama and pain as we have to understand what the poor kids go through. The boy has a trash bag full of teddy bears which the new mom thinks is cute until the older sister explains they get a new bear each time they go to court, innocent kids shouldn't see a courtroom, much less have bags filled with reminders of how many times they go. Eventually, after the new parents have made a lot of headway with the kids, they have to meet with the real mom who the older girl has been waiting and hoping to come and save them. The girl doesn't have the knowledge that once a person becomes a junkie, their drug of choice is more important than the "love" of some kids. The junkie mom does what junkies do and in the end, the new parents put themselves out on the edge and reach out and "save" the kids.
I have thought about fostering kids at times, we always seem to have the house full of kids and I enjoy the energy and enthusiasm they bring, but the flip side of the coin as the movie showed, is the kids bring baggage from their previous lives and I don't think I want to handle that. This movie did a great job of showing the importance of people stepping up and participating, mixed with the complexity of one minute everything seems great and the next the kids lives are in free fall.
The movie takes a little while to develop, Tom Segura comes out as a brother in law and has some funny lines. The two ladies running the foster care agency also are funny in a traditional straight/goofy partnership. After they go through the program and get certified, we finally see the kids that will change their lives. I am assuming the movie was trying to "keep it real" by showing a range of couples trying to adopt, including gay, ultra religious, the single power mom, and then some regular couples. It must have taken a lot to carefully write this with humor because the whole foster care and adoption systems seems like such a harrowing process. There were equal parts laughter and tearing up al through the movie
I remember growing up my mom saying she would probably be a foster parent as she got older and we all moved out. Of course, that idea was cut at the head by my brother and sister who really don't even like sharing "their" mother with us. I guess they keep her plenty busy because they set up camp right next door, one lives next door and the other lives behind her, so mom always at least has the grandkids around.
Once the kids show up in the movie, we see some real drama and pain as we have to understand what the poor kids go through. The boy has a trash bag full of teddy bears which the new mom thinks is cute until the older sister explains they get a new bear each time they go to court, innocent kids shouldn't see a courtroom, much less have bags filled with reminders of how many times they go. Eventually, after the new parents have made a lot of headway with the kids, they have to meet with the real mom who the older girl has been waiting and hoping to come and save them. The girl doesn't have the knowledge that once a person becomes a junkie, their drug of choice is more important than the "love" of some kids. The junkie mom does what junkies do and in the end, the new parents put themselves out on the edge and reach out and "save" the kids.
I have thought about fostering kids at times, we always seem to have the house full of kids and I enjoy the energy and enthusiasm they bring, but the flip side of the coin as the movie showed, is the kids bring baggage from their previous lives and I don't think I want to handle that. This movie did a great job of showing the importance of people stepping up and participating, mixed with the complexity of one minute everything seems great and the next the kids lives are in free fall.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
3/22/20 Got Lucky On My Second Try?
Things don't usually bounce our way, but I feel I got lucky Saturday morning. I had got it in my head that I wanted a shotgun for home defense and once I get a thought, it doesn't easily go away. To add to the consternation, I thought we had at least the shotgun my father in law gave Boy a couple years ago. Boy then let me know that no, he had lent it to his cousin a while back, when? I have no idea, he must have taken the gun to him when I wasn't looking, not that I pay that much attention. Normally, I wouldn't care, but with my mom's histrionics, she keeps making me think that the sky is indeed falling. We should be protected, and now!
With that baggage in my back pocket, and a week off, I have been looking and trying to decide on a home defense weapon. We will get the shotgun back from my nephew, eventually, but in an apocalyptic world which we are sure to see, shortly, according to some, I want a gun for every person in my household. I decided I wanted a .410 shotgun because of the smaller size and compact nature. Make no mistake, with it having the capability to shoot slugs, it can be a formidable arsenal of death. But mostly, if a gun is ever shot in the house in a defensive action, I like the chances of minimal injury for my boys from accidental crossfire. With pellets, better the power of the .410 than a 12 or 20 gauge.
I finally found a shorter shotgun, the shockwave (which somehow ATF does not consider a shotgun, but whatever) and Academy showed it had one online. I decided to not even bother Wife or Javalina, they are just horrible at waiting for things. I headed there alone and got in line. They were supposed to open at 9:00am and I got there at 9:10am, but the line was already an hour long. I looked at the guns showing and it was enough to make me leave because the display is pitiful. There were maybe 12 handguns in cases that usually have up to 40 and the rifle holders behind them barely had any. Still, I hung in there, when it was my turn, I awkwardly asked for the gun I had seen online was still there (I am such a noob, I prefer Boy be with me, but he was asleep). The guy casually looked where it should be and said he hadn't seen one in over a month. I said thank you and left to pay for some ammo for one of the other guns. The guy then showed up in a jog and said he had found one, though it was put in the wrong place. He then joked that he thought about it for a second because he has wanted that gun for his wife, but felt guilty that I had asked for it.
It takes a nice hour of filling out paperwork and waiting around to get the process all done, which feels like a long time (as I am remembering a commercial last night that it is too easy to buy new guns), about half the people were getting "delayed" which I guess ATF or whoever looks through the background checks needs more time to look over their history. I got through with no problems and was back home before noon. I then went to another Academy with Wife and bought 3 boxes of ammo apiece. They are limiting the purchasing of ammo to three boxes at a time, but I will get a few hundred rounds little by little. I now need to find a place open to go and test the gun out, but at least I have what I wanted now.
With that baggage in my back pocket, and a week off, I have been looking and trying to decide on a home defense weapon. We will get the shotgun back from my nephew, eventually, but in an apocalyptic world which we are sure to see, shortly, according to some, I want a gun for every person in my household. I decided I wanted a .410 shotgun because of the smaller size and compact nature. Make no mistake, with it having the capability to shoot slugs, it can be a formidable arsenal of death. But mostly, if a gun is ever shot in the house in a defensive action, I like the chances of minimal injury for my boys from accidental crossfire. With pellets, better the power of the .410 than a 12 or 20 gauge.
I finally found a shorter shotgun, the shockwave (which somehow ATF does not consider a shotgun, but whatever) and Academy showed it had one online. I decided to not even bother Wife or Javalina, they are just horrible at waiting for things. I headed there alone and got in line. They were supposed to open at 9:00am and I got there at 9:10am, but the line was already an hour long. I looked at the guns showing and it was enough to make me leave because the display is pitiful. There were maybe 12 handguns in cases that usually have up to 40 and the rifle holders behind them barely had any. Still, I hung in there, when it was my turn, I awkwardly asked for the gun I had seen online was still there (I am such a noob, I prefer Boy be with me, but he was asleep). The guy casually looked where it should be and said he hadn't seen one in over a month. I said thank you and left to pay for some ammo for one of the other guns. The guy then showed up in a jog and said he had found one, though it was put in the wrong place. He then joked that he thought about it for a second because he has wanted that gun for his wife, but felt guilty that I had asked for it.
It takes a nice hour of filling out paperwork and waiting around to get the process all done, which feels like a long time (as I am remembering a commercial last night that it is too easy to buy new guns), about half the people were getting "delayed" which I guess ATF or whoever looks through the background checks needs more time to look over their history. I got through with no problems and was back home before noon. I then went to another Academy with Wife and bought 3 boxes of ammo apiece. They are limiting the purchasing of ammo to three boxes at a time, but I will get a few hundred rounds little by little. I now need to find a place open to go and test the gun out, but at least I have what I wanted now.
Saturday, March 21, 2020
3/21/20 Wild Wild West?
I feel like we have been thrown onto this raft and the raft is just flowing in a mad river down the line. I didn't want to spend money on a freezer, but I found myself buying an expensive big one. Ok, you say "you're stupid, Mando, you are over reacting." But, what if they do enforce some sort of martial law and we can't leave the house? What if the gov't tells the stores they must close their doors for a couple weeks if their employees start becoming sick? I must first worry about the safety and well being of my boys, make sure they have food to eat, I can always make up the money and cost later. Anyone can say "they won't close the stores!" But a couple weeks ago no one would have guessed they were going to extend spring break for at least three weeks.
So the next thing once you have stocked yourself and made yourself a fat mark, you must have the means to protect your little love nest and that is where the trip to Cabela's came in. I know we have a number of rifles and assorted guns, but I have always wanted a smaller .410 shotgun. It is technically a shotgun, which will shoot ammo with pellets, or slugs. It being the smaller of the shotguns makes for a shotgun with hardly any kick back and hopefully, if wee ever have to discharge it in the house, we won't be left deaf by the noise. I was trying to have the discussion with Boy who takes care of all our guns, but he is so squirrelly. It took him a minute to divulge that the 12 gauge shotgun I thought we had is over with his cousin. Last I remember, my father in law gave the shotgun and a 30-30 rifle to Boy who has always had a love for guns. I am not sure if we are getting the shotgun back or not, but it sure made me feel like I might need to just consider buying two shotguns.
I hate being so judgmental, but standing in line to talk to the gun salesmen I couldn't help but notice that about half the people looked like responsible adults with jobs and responsibilities and the other half was tattooed from neck to fingertips and looking like they had no business even being in the gun section of a store. I have the good fortune of having Boy who knows enough to answer my stupid questions, when he s not being condescending, but some of these people were asking and saying stupid stuff while purchasing guns. One guy quietly asked me why are there so many different guns with different barrel lengths? I said I wasn't sure but generally the longer the barrel, the more accurate the gun is.
The biggest problem was that too many people have had the same thought and so the store was really bare of anything I might actually like to purchase. Boy then looked to get more ammo for the guns we already have and said there wasn't any ammo in the common sizes, which is what our guns come in. I am not giving up on this idea, although I won't be taking Wife with me next time. I showed all the patience of a sloth crossing the street for her when we needed to get a new car and encouraging her that I didn't care about the price, I wanted her to feel safe, a couple days ago, she sat there like a two year old needing a nap and attacking me not to spend too much and not to buy this and that and these people are stupid. She did not make it a pleasant experience.
So the next thing once you have stocked yourself and made yourself a fat mark, you must have the means to protect your little love nest and that is where the trip to Cabela's came in. I know we have a number of rifles and assorted guns, but I have always wanted a smaller .410 shotgun. It is technically a shotgun, which will shoot ammo with pellets, or slugs. It being the smaller of the shotguns makes for a shotgun with hardly any kick back and hopefully, if wee ever have to discharge it in the house, we won't be left deaf by the noise. I was trying to have the discussion with Boy who takes care of all our guns, but he is so squirrelly. It took him a minute to divulge that the 12 gauge shotgun I thought we had is over with his cousin. Last I remember, my father in law gave the shotgun and a 30-30 rifle to Boy who has always had a love for guns. I am not sure if we are getting the shotgun back or not, but it sure made me feel like I might need to just consider buying two shotguns.
I hate being so judgmental, but standing in line to talk to the gun salesmen I couldn't help but notice that about half the people looked like responsible adults with jobs and responsibilities and the other half was tattooed from neck to fingertips and looking like they had no business even being in the gun section of a store. I have the good fortune of having Boy who knows enough to answer my stupid questions, when he s not being condescending, but some of these people were asking and saying stupid stuff while purchasing guns. One guy quietly asked me why are there so many different guns with different barrel lengths? I said I wasn't sure but generally the longer the barrel, the more accurate the gun is.
The biggest problem was that too many people have had the same thought and so the store was really bare of anything I might actually like to purchase. Boy then looked to get more ammo for the guns we already have and said there wasn't any ammo in the common sizes, which is what our guns come in. I am not giving up on this idea, although I won't be taking Wife with me next time. I showed all the patience of a sloth crossing the street for her when we needed to get a new car and encouraging her that I didn't care about the price, I wanted her to feel safe, a couple days ago, she sat there like a two year old needing a nap and attacking me not to spend too much and not to buy this and that and these people are stupid. She did not make it a pleasant experience.
Friday, March 20, 2020
3/20/20 Another Day In The Era Of Corona?
We bought our secret defense against a possible martial law situation, the upright freezer, now it wastime to fill it up. I guess, like everything else, it won't be that easy. First of all, there were no Red Baron pizzas in the freezers at HEB. We ended up buying a mix of different brands, I figured we should give some of these fancy looking new brands a try. But I guess, I should start at the beginning.
Wife woke up unusually early and came down to check on me. I went up to bed with her, but woke right before 6:00am and decided I felt good enough to write my blog yesterday morning. About the time I was getting done is when I could hear stomping around upstairs, which told me she was either coming down or going to the bathroom. She came down to check on me. I guess as a mother, she feels she can tell me to go to bed and get more sleep. I find it interesting because I never tell her what to do, yet she has no problem telling me it's time to come to bed, but I digress. We talked for a bit at 7:00am but I know she has been saying that HEB opens now at 8:00am, so I told her it was too early to try and go shopping. She went bac to bed, but came back down at 9:30am, ready to go look for TP and meat.
We decided to go to the HEB in Kyle. It is a bigger store and I thought we might get lucky and find TP, which we did not. I mean, we kind of did, they are selling single rolls for $1, instead of the packs of 4 and everyone has a limit of 2. We got the 2, I mean it's something. We also got way too much of everything, including 2 gallons of milk. Javalina has started drinking it by the quart, literally, with his protein shakes. We are finally noticing him getting a little taller, he says he is up to 5'9", so he needs to continue what he is doing. I would have wanted to get a lot more meat, but then Wife noticed a sign saying we could only take 4 packages of beef, 2 packages of chicken, so there is still a lot of room to fill, but I think we are off to a good start. We also went through the frozen foods section and got a big box of pepperoni hot pockets, and other foods like that that the boys will cook on their own. We are even trying to freeze some bread to see if it will last longer and not turn moldy.
All in all, it was probably the most food we have bought in one trip, Wife said it was like $450. We even have multiple cakes and Wife made one on her own, an upside down pineapple cake which was great. The one thing that was different was that because we are not allowed to congregate in buildings with too many people, we had to stand in line before we started shopping. It wasn't too bad, maybe because we went so early, but maybe we were in line for 10 minutes or so. By the time we came out, the line looked a lot thicker and moving slow. We got home, put away everything and then I got another idea, to go buy ammo and maybe another gun to protect what is mine.
Wife woke up unusually early and came down to check on me. I went up to bed with her, but woke right before 6:00am and decided I felt good enough to write my blog yesterday morning. About the time I was getting done is when I could hear stomping around upstairs, which told me she was either coming down or going to the bathroom. She came down to check on me. I guess as a mother, she feels she can tell me to go to bed and get more sleep. I find it interesting because I never tell her what to do, yet she has no problem telling me it's time to come to bed, but I digress. We talked for a bit at 7:00am but I know she has been saying that HEB opens now at 8:00am, so I told her it was too early to try and go shopping. She went bac to bed, but came back down at 9:30am, ready to go look for TP and meat.
We decided to go to the HEB in Kyle. It is a bigger store and I thought we might get lucky and find TP, which we did not. I mean, we kind of did, they are selling single rolls for $1, instead of the packs of 4 and everyone has a limit of 2. We got the 2, I mean it's something. We also got way too much of everything, including 2 gallons of milk. Javalina has started drinking it by the quart, literally, with his protein shakes. We are finally noticing him getting a little taller, he says he is up to 5'9", so he needs to continue what he is doing. I would have wanted to get a lot more meat, but then Wife noticed a sign saying we could only take 4 packages of beef, 2 packages of chicken, so there is still a lot of room to fill, but I think we are off to a good start. We also went through the frozen foods section and got a big box of pepperoni hot pockets, and other foods like that that the boys will cook on their own. We are even trying to freeze some bread to see if it will last longer and not turn moldy.
All in all, it was probably the most food we have bought in one trip, Wife said it was like $450. We even have multiple cakes and Wife made one on her own, an upside down pineapple cake which was great. The one thing that was different was that because we are not allowed to congregate in buildings with too many people, we had to stand in line before we started shopping. It wasn't too bad, maybe because we went so early, but maybe we were in line for 10 minutes or so. By the time we came out, the line looked a lot thicker and moving slow. We got home, put away everything and then I got another idea, to go buy ammo and maybe another gun to protect what is mine.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
3/19/20 Finally Found A Freaking Fridge?
I had been wanting to buy a freezer for awhile, they just always seem like something only paranoid people have, or maybe hunters who keep hunks of deer frozen after they kill them in the fall. I mean with all the stores all around, why do we need to deep freeze pieces of cow when we can just go five minutes away and buy fresh newly killed dead animal for consumption? Well, this virus just changed the game and how we tackle life. Nothing before had for one, suspended school, or shut down airline companies, we must behave accordingly now. There has been rumors that the national guard may be enacted to shut us down and really stop us from doing commerce, I mean that is basically stopping capitalism, our way of life. So, the only way to stay ahead of the rumors of an even a week of shutdown is to have food in place for our household in our house.
This is when it finally makes sense to invest in a freezer, even if we are playing a little into the paranoia at least it sets us so we don't look like we have our thumbs up our asses. Let's just go out and get one, that is what we do, right? Well, not when you're the last one to decide to do this. We went to Lowe's first, we have a credit card there, but no. They were sold out of all the smaller ones, but we could order the bigger stand up units and wait about a month for delivery. Sam's was out of the ones we had seen a couple weeks ago. Home Depot had the same story Lowe's did, we could order one and wait a few weeks. Target doesn't really do freezers. Best Buy had one large unit they could deliver by this Friday which sounded promising. While waiting for one of the employees to come help, another customer told us they had come from Conn's and they had a floor unit for sale but it was dented, the price was a firm $399. Since the freezer was going to cost over $700, I told the guy I wanted to go check out another place and we would be back.
We got lucky at Conn's, the district manager had just OK'd the selling of their floor units or we could wait again about a month. They had the dented one, a much longer unit for $799, and two stand up units for $699 and $799. He said the $799 had just been put on the floor a couple days ago, so we took that one. It was hard picking out a place to put it, the garage would have been best, but there is just so much clutter I couldn't figure where without spending a couple hours cleaning. For now, Wife kind of decided to just put it where the punching bag has been, not great, but it's not like the weights in the living room look cute.
My one worry was that the only way for me to carry it home was by laying it down in the Excursion, the manager said it would be fine as long as it wasn't for too long. I told him we were right behind there about 5 minutes away. He said it would be fine, just stand it up as quickly as possible and leave it alone for about half an hour before plugging it in. We did, and last I checked last night, it already felt uncomfortably cold. I guess the next step is for us to go buy cow pieces and chicken pieces and fish chunks and pork bellies. All the stuff that makes us say yum.
This is when it finally makes sense to invest in a freezer, even if we are playing a little into the paranoia at least it sets us so we don't look like we have our thumbs up our asses. Let's just go out and get one, that is what we do, right? Well, not when you're the last one to decide to do this. We went to Lowe's first, we have a credit card there, but no. They were sold out of all the smaller ones, but we could order the bigger stand up units and wait about a month for delivery. Sam's was out of the ones we had seen a couple weeks ago. Home Depot had the same story Lowe's did, we could order one and wait a few weeks. Target doesn't really do freezers. Best Buy had one large unit they could deliver by this Friday which sounded promising. While waiting for one of the employees to come help, another customer told us they had come from Conn's and they had a floor unit for sale but it was dented, the price was a firm $399. Since the freezer was going to cost over $700, I told the guy I wanted to go check out another place and we would be back.
We got lucky at Conn's, the district manager had just OK'd the selling of their floor units or we could wait again about a month. They had the dented one, a much longer unit for $799, and two stand up units for $699 and $799. He said the $799 had just been put on the floor a couple days ago, so we took that one. It was hard picking out a place to put it, the garage would have been best, but there is just so much clutter I couldn't figure where without spending a couple hours cleaning. For now, Wife kind of decided to just put it where the punching bag has been, not great, but it's not like the weights in the living room look cute.
My one worry was that the only way for me to carry it home was by laying it down in the Excursion, the manager said it would be fine as long as it wasn't for too long. I told him we were right behind there about 5 minutes away. He said it would be fine, just stand it up as quickly as possible and leave it alone for about half an hour before plugging it in. We did, and last I checked last night, it already felt uncomfortably cold. I guess the next step is for us to go buy cow pieces and chicken pieces and fish chunks and pork bellies. All the stuff that makes us say yum.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
3/18/20 We Bought A New Ride? (2 of 2)
I was not a big fan of the Kia Soul, initially. The plan was she was going to get a cheap one, some were going for as low as $13,999. She would then run this car for about 3-4 years while she worked out of town in La Pryor. If she put 200,000 miles on it, it wouldn't matter because the car was super cheap. But then she found the one loaded with leather and panoramic sun roof and A/C in the seats and even a steering wheel that warmed up and she found her car. This cheap car was something like $26,999, almost double what our plan was, but she had clearly made her choice once she saw it. We had just got Boy his Edge a couple months before so now we had two car payments totaling almost $1000. That was sine I figured, Boy will finish college and I will be able to get a vehicle, I still had the Excursion and the old white F-250 to drive.
Anyways, the Soul grew on me, it was tiny and a little hard to get into, but it was also convenient in that it fit anywhere. It was never a problem finding a parking spot. I just wish it would have lasted a couple more months to get us past these attempts at refinancing, but this is life. Last year, Wife noticed the Telluride from Kia even before I did and she had already decided what her next car would be. I did not want to like it more than the Ford lineup, but it really is a good looking vehicle. On top of that, when I wanted to push for the new Ford Explorer with the 400HP blah blah blah, Car and Driver (the magazine) tested them and a few other SUVs and the Telluride came in 1st while the Explorer came in 4th, which makes it hard to defend it.
The biggest problem had been getting our hands on a good looking one. We went in there a few months ago when they first came out and they couldn't get any. Then they would only have 1-2 and they were usually black, which I feel there are too many black vehicles on the road. When we showed up yesterday with Wife's newest service engine light, there was a truck there just delivering something like 16 brand new Tellurides or they had a few and the total on the lot in the morning was 16. I was like a kid in the candy store looking at all of them, the manager even said if I could please wait on going inside them, the keys and all other stuff hadn't been accounted for and they needed to check off everything before they were released to the dealership. I said fine, but I found the nicest one I could with the moss colored body (sort of a dull green) and the leather inside was some sort of mocha, way different than the either black or light cream that was in all other examples. Add the black 20" rims, panoramic sun roof, AWD, A/C in the seats and all the other options and I knew which one we were taking. Wife just wanted AWD and the HID lights.
We knew we were going to get shafted on the trade and we did, but at least we hung in for one round and increased the valuation from $6,000 to $9,500, when we owed $12,000. Yes, we are paying like $900 a month now, but we got rid of a problem vehicle, and at least we didn't settle for whatever car, Wife is driving what she wanted. I can't imagine we will be paying for Boy's Edge in 3-6 months, he has to get another job soon, so we will be fine. BTW, by the end of the day, I only saw like 3 of those Tellurides left on the lot, from the 16 in the morning. They go fast.
Anyways, the Soul grew on me, it was tiny and a little hard to get into, but it was also convenient in that it fit anywhere. It was never a problem finding a parking spot. I just wish it would have lasted a couple more months to get us past these attempts at refinancing, but this is life. Last year, Wife noticed the Telluride from Kia even before I did and she had already decided what her next car would be. I did not want to like it more than the Ford lineup, but it really is a good looking vehicle. On top of that, when I wanted to push for the new Ford Explorer with the 400HP blah blah blah, Car and Driver (the magazine) tested them and a few other SUVs and the Telluride came in 1st while the Explorer came in 4th, which makes it hard to defend it.
The biggest problem had been getting our hands on a good looking one. We went in there a few months ago when they first came out and they couldn't get any. Then they would only have 1-2 and they were usually black, which I feel there are too many black vehicles on the road. When we showed up yesterday with Wife's newest service engine light, there was a truck there just delivering something like 16 brand new Tellurides or they had a few and the total on the lot in the morning was 16. I was like a kid in the candy store looking at all of them, the manager even said if I could please wait on going inside them, the keys and all other stuff hadn't been accounted for and they needed to check off everything before they were released to the dealership. I said fine, but I found the nicest one I could with the moss colored body (sort of a dull green) and the leather inside was some sort of mocha, way different than the either black or light cream that was in all other examples. Add the black 20" rims, panoramic sun roof, AWD, A/C in the seats and all the other options and I knew which one we were taking. Wife just wanted AWD and the HID lights.
We knew we were going to get shafted on the trade and we did, but at least we hung in for one round and increased the valuation from $6,000 to $9,500, when we owed $12,000. Yes, we are paying like $900 a month now, but we got rid of a problem vehicle, and at least we didn't settle for whatever car, Wife is driving what she wanted. I can't imagine we will be paying for Boy's Edge in 3-6 months, he has to get another job soon, so we will be fine. BTW, by the end of the day, I only saw like 3 of those Tellurides left on the lot, from the 16 in the morning. They go fast.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
3/17/20 We Bought A New Ride? (1 of 2)
We waited and waited as long as we could, but whether we get to refinance or not, we needed to get a new car. About a month ago, Wife's car kind of burnt up its oil or that is what we were told. It was not clearly explained to us in any clear fashion how an engine would do that, but believe me, it was our fault. So, in wanting to get things moving along, we agreed to their suggestion of installing a new "used" motor so we could keep the car running. The idea cost us $5800 or so, and for a minute or two I thought "hmm, we might be ok." After Wife ran down to La Pryor for a week and back and there were no problems, I said to myself "we dodged a bullet, the car might be alright." Then we had spring break for Wife last week and she came up and once she parked the car, we did not move it all week, thinking the less we drive it, the better.
Well, this morning she went back to work but only made it halfway there. I was downstairs when she left at 5:00am, but felt a disturbance in the force (I am a jedi after all). I went upstairs to check on my phone and to put away the clothes I washed throughout the night only to see my phone flashing like it was in a panic around 7:00am. I picked it up to call Wife but she called me back just then. She said she was at a gas station and the service engine light came on. I asked her what she was going to do and she said she was already headed back. She got back by 8:30am and we both headed straight to Kia. The poor guy who was with us through the engine replacement was already helping Wife in the service bay when I got there. He had already plugged the computer to it and determined it was probably just a loose wire and not a real problem. That is exactly what I didn't want to hear. I think it is better to have a definite bad "alternator" or other engine component than "well, the service engine light went away, so we're good now." How long before the intermittent problem comes back? What if it's another sign the engine is about to "burn up"? I lost complete faith in the poor car, and with Wife running around in isolated places so much, can we take the risk of just accepting the car back and saying "Oh, thank you for not charging us, this time."
We have been toying with the idea of a new car for some time and if not for us trying to refinance, I think ew would have already done it. Of course, the truth is I was going to get a new car for me once Boy started paying for his own bills and vehicle, but I realize the Excursion is still running strong, so I can wait, if need be. I was still stuck on bringing Wife back over to Ford, I know not everyone likes the brand, but it has never led me astray. The vehicles I have had have all been solid and reliable. Still, I was not getting that vibe from Wife like she was in agreement with me. As much as I would like to make that decision, I remember her making a big stink about me choosing all our other vehicles since we have been married. When we got married, she came in driving an old Pathfinder, which I never liked because it had a removable roof, but she would not let me remove it. As soon as we were able to, I went and chose an F-150 for her, not very girlie, but she was working a job where she carried a lot of materials to the schools and to presentations, so the truck was not a horrible idea. I had leased a truck and the plan was I would return mine and take hers after a year and she would get another new vehicle. After this, we got a black Expedition with the small area in the back, she drove that for two years, then we got the Excursion, which I wanted one before they stopped selling them and she drove that for two years, followed by the PT Cruiser, which I decided I wanted a convertible and she wanted something smaller. That did not last long once the brakes started whining all the time. We then got the Chrysler 300, loaded and bad ass, which she drove for a few years until she got it to 150,000 miles and then the transmission problems started. She then drove the VW bug for a little while and then she decided she liked the Kia Soul and she would pick out the one she did. That gets us to the present. con't.
Monday, March 16, 2020
3/16/20 Corona Madness?
Well, Corona might be the real deal that swine flu only dreamed of. Spring breaks are getting extended all over (except for Wife, because that would help us) the state. Javalina got Friday off, add to that he was at his track meet on Thursday and left with us around 2:00pm and he is on an extended spring break too.
I got out Friday morning and decided to be the good parent and stop at Target to see what kind of food and supplies I could find. I bought a good $200 worth of "snacks" as I was told by Wife later, Still, I grabbed a couple cases of water, Gatorades and other stuff I thought would be eaten in a few days. There was no toilet paper, no hand sanitizer, soups, or much meats or chicken to stock up on. I then went home and put everything away. I managed to sleep 4-5 hours, then got up with Wife to go shopping correctly for food that will last us a few weeks. We didn't have much luck, we then tried another Target for toilet paper and again, nada.
As the day progressed, it just seems like the world is getting smaller. Javalina had a thought of going to Fiesta Texas, thinking not a lot of people will be there, but just as we said "no, Crazy!" Wife looked up their hours and saw that Friday was the last day they would be open until sometime in April. Same thing with Sea World. It seems everyone is playing it safe, so the best thing to do is go home.
If anything, we are going to get a lot of sleep and rest in. I spent most of the rest of Friday in a daze of napping and eating. Pretty much this continued into Saturday. Wife finally stayed up late, we attempted to watch a show on Netflix, but I slept through most of it. Wife hung in there until 3:30am or so. I thought since I had slept most of the evening Friday and thru most of the show, I would be able to get up at 8:00am and start my day early. I wrote half a blog and fell asleep at the kitchen table with half a cup of coffee next to me. I finally went and just laid down in our guest room downstairs. I don't like that Wife needs a completely blacked out room and everything turned off. I turned the TV on to HGTV and fell asleep. I didn't wake until almost 2:00pm and Wife was midway through making breakfast.
I then talked to my mom and she suggested that we don't go down there because she is trying to quarantine my dad since he is the family "weakest link". I thought that was a bit of a stretch but I had a feeling we were going to get there. It doesn't help that cases are now reported here in Austin and in San Marcos, so it is all around us now. My dad is only concerned with going to his little illegal casinos, so who knows how good a quarantine he is being kept in.
I got out Friday morning and decided to be the good parent and stop at Target to see what kind of food and supplies I could find. I bought a good $200 worth of "snacks" as I was told by Wife later, Still, I grabbed a couple cases of water, Gatorades and other stuff I thought would be eaten in a few days. There was no toilet paper, no hand sanitizer, soups, or much meats or chicken to stock up on. I then went home and put everything away. I managed to sleep 4-5 hours, then got up with Wife to go shopping correctly for food that will last us a few weeks. We didn't have much luck, we then tried another Target for toilet paper and again, nada.
As the day progressed, it just seems like the world is getting smaller. Javalina had a thought of going to Fiesta Texas, thinking not a lot of people will be there, but just as we said "no, Crazy!" Wife looked up their hours and saw that Friday was the last day they would be open until sometime in April. Same thing with Sea World. It seems everyone is playing it safe, so the best thing to do is go home.
If anything, we are going to get a lot of sleep and rest in. I spent most of the rest of Friday in a daze of napping and eating. Pretty much this continued into Saturday. Wife finally stayed up late, we attempted to watch a show on Netflix, but I slept through most of it. Wife hung in there until 3:30am or so. I thought since I had slept most of the evening Friday and thru most of the show, I would be able to get up at 8:00am and start my day early. I wrote half a blog and fell asleep at the kitchen table with half a cup of coffee next to me. I finally went and just laid down in our guest room downstairs. I don't like that Wife needs a completely blacked out room and everything turned off. I turned the TV on to HGTV and fell asleep. I didn't wake until almost 2:00pm and Wife was midway through making breakfast.
I then talked to my mom and she suggested that we don't go down there because she is trying to quarantine my dad since he is the family "weakest link". I thought that was a bit of a stretch but I had a feeling we were going to get there. It doesn't help that cases are now reported here in Austin and in San Marcos, so it is all around us now. My dad is only concerned with going to his little illegal casinos, so who knows how good a quarantine he is being kept in.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
3/15/20 Wow, 5 Minutes Of TV Was Too Much?
Wow, has regular TV programming turned to shit in a hurry. I don't even like to turn it on unless I am watching something specific. Wife, because she is an old dinosaur who can't work differently still needs the murmur of the television in the background. I prefer to watch anything on YouTube, to me that is part of the real world.
The world and reality are not even supported in regular programming. Wife had the TV on the Big Bang Theory, which I do like, but some stuff is ridiculous. In the episode Howard has gotten a used 3D printer and made lifelike replicas of himself and Bernadette (his way too hot wife) which she likes and is oohing and awing until he says he bought a 3D printer for $2500 each with Raj. She starts talking to him like he is a child who used his mama's credit card to get the printer. He is a full grown adult man who in reality (the show's reality) has a decent job as a researcher at Caltech (which is equivalent to MIT) and has been in space, yet the woman knows better. Who gives a shit if he blows a little steam and goes full nerd and buys a 3D printer? It's just more of this agenda programming where a man couldn't possibly get through life without a woman putting him in his place, constantly. Then the stupid episode goes to commercial and its some piece of shit movie advertising where Tiffany Hadish (I do like her, but come on) is telling his son that he needs to introduce his woman as a "Queen" to everyone. Of course, next scene he is doing just that, but it's a white girl, so she didn't mean that (black girl can't be saying that a white girl is a queen, we should just know that, which dopey Tracey Morgan enters the scene and calls the white girl a snow bunny or some other racist shit). The entitlement here is bordering on some serious stupid shit. Nobody is a queen, unless you actually run some shit, like a CEO.
The next day Wife proves to me, inadvertently, she wasn't even paying attention to the crap coming out of the TV, but that didn't mean it wasn't worth arguing about. My point is simple, I like it quiet or maybe some music of my choosing when I have to go to work. I don't want to get thoughts I don't need in my head, such as the above. Wife says I shouldn't take everything so seriously and she wasn't even listening to the TV, it was just on. That is the problem, I do take things seriously, specially when I have just 5-10 minutes to relax before I have to get moving to my next thing before I go to work. Then she will say that I wasn't doing anything important on my laptop, but I had paid our bills in the morning, so I was double checking that I hadn't made any mistakes, I was also answering back a couple of questions to the guys handling our refinancing, so I don't know where I was being wasteful of my time. Anyways, there went my wasted effort of playing some George Strait while we drove to look for supplies for the Armageddon that we are facing down the barrel thanks to this stupid virus.
The world and reality are not even supported in regular programming. Wife had the TV on the Big Bang Theory, which I do like, but some stuff is ridiculous. In the episode Howard has gotten a used 3D printer and made lifelike replicas of himself and Bernadette (his way too hot wife) which she likes and is oohing and awing until he says he bought a 3D printer for $2500 each with Raj. She starts talking to him like he is a child who used his mama's credit card to get the printer. He is a full grown adult man who in reality (the show's reality) has a decent job as a researcher at Caltech (which is equivalent to MIT) and has been in space, yet the woman knows better. Who gives a shit if he blows a little steam and goes full nerd and buys a 3D printer? It's just more of this agenda programming where a man couldn't possibly get through life without a woman putting him in his place, constantly. Then the stupid episode goes to commercial and its some piece of shit movie advertising where Tiffany Hadish (I do like her, but come on) is telling his son that he needs to introduce his woman as a "Queen" to everyone. Of course, next scene he is doing just that, but it's a white girl, so she didn't mean that (black girl can't be saying that a white girl is a queen, we should just know that, which dopey Tracey Morgan enters the scene and calls the white girl a snow bunny or some other racist shit). The entitlement here is bordering on some serious stupid shit. Nobody is a queen, unless you actually run some shit, like a CEO.
The next day Wife proves to me, inadvertently, she wasn't even paying attention to the crap coming out of the TV, but that didn't mean it wasn't worth arguing about. My point is simple, I like it quiet or maybe some music of my choosing when I have to go to work. I don't want to get thoughts I don't need in my head, such as the above. Wife says I shouldn't take everything so seriously and she wasn't even listening to the TV, it was just on. That is the problem, I do take things seriously, specially when I have just 5-10 minutes to relax before I have to get moving to my next thing before I go to work. Then she will say that I wasn't doing anything important on my laptop, but I had paid our bills in the morning, so I was double checking that I hadn't made any mistakes, I was also answering back a couple of questions to the guys handling our refinancing, so I don't know where I was being wasteful of my time. Anyways, there went my wasted effort of playing some George Strait while we drove to look for supplies for the Armageddon that we are facing down the barrel thanks to this stupid virus.
Saturday, March 14, 2020
3/14/20 Track And Field Meet On A Thursday? (2 of 2)
A couple of the throwers on Javalina's teams have been getting friendly with us, mostly because parents suck and don't show up to support their kids. One of them has been his buddy since he started playing football in 7th grade. We often give this kid a ride home, he seems nice, but our boy insists on keeping them at arms length. He tells us not to do what we do and invite them to the house or to eat with us. It seems weird, but oh well. Awhile back, he said he was joking around with one of the girls on track and he managed to piss her off. Javalina said something like "oh shit, she's gonna kill me." One of these new boys said "that's alright, Your dad would take me as a replacement son, we have a connection." I just take this kind of stuff as the boys we meet always like us because we get involved and show them attention and I did end up feeding them after the 2nd track meet.
I thought that was a cool sidenote. But back to the discus event which was the only thing Javalina got to participate on. There were a ton of boys throwing, so many they cut the groups into two. Javalina and one of his buddies was in the first group and right next to each other. Our son is finally improving. He didn't even want to throw the discus, he just did it because there was an open spot last year. He says that as he spends more time doing it, he feels like he is getting it more. From a standing position, he threw a decent 75ft. He had four throws and after getting the good spot, he decided to try the full spin motion and I noticed right away that the boy has two left feet. He seemed clumsy, threw about 20feet and almost fell over. From playing music, I know I have rhythm, but Wife has never had it. I think this is what makes her hate dancing. The same thing happened on his last throw, he was almost tripping as he spun the two times. I think a good start would be spinning in place and keeping perspective of where you are at.
But these are things for him to work on. He outthrew his buddy, which was the first time he did that, so I like the slow gains he is having. We pretty much left after he threw and the 2nd group of kids was starting. I felt bad that we didn't stay for his other friend, but it was already after 1:00pm and I am at work right now writing this (just after midnight), so I needed to go home and sleep as much as possible. Of course, getting home, I still needed to do some paperwork for the refinance stuff, but I got in bed around 2:00pm. My body, especially my legs just ached and shook. I got up to work at 7;30pm. I am just going thru the motions and doing the absolute minimum tonight. I start my Spring Break in the morning (Friday), so I am not trying to be a hero right now.
I thought that was a cool sidenote. But back to the discus event which was the only thing Javalina got to participate on. There were a ton of boys throwing, so many they cut the groups into two. Javalina and one of his buddies was in the first group and right next to each other. Our son is finally improving. He didn't even want to throw the discus, he just did it because there was an open spot last year. He says that as he spends more time doing it, he feels like he is getting it more. From a standing position, he threw a decent 75ft. He had four throws and after getting the good spot, he decided to try the full spin motion and I noticed right away that the boy has two left feet. He seemed clumsy, threw about 20feet and almost fell over. From playing music, I know I have rhythm, but Wife has never had it. I think this is what makes her hate dancing. The same thing happened on his last throw, he was almost tripping as he spun the two times. I think a good start would be spinning in place and keeping perspective of where you are at.
But these are things for him to work on. He outthrew his buddy, which was the first time he did that, so I like the slow gains he is having. We pretty much left after he threw and the 2nd group of kids was starting. I felt bad that we didn't stay for his other friend, but it was already after 1:00pm and I am at work right now writing this (just after midnight), so I needed to go home and sleep as much as possible. Of course, getting home, I still needed to do some paperwork for the refinance stuff, but I got in bed around 2:00pm. My body, especially my legs just ached and shook. I got up to work at 7;30pm. I am just going thru the motions and doing the absolute minimum tonight. I start my Spring Break in the morning (Friday), so I am not trying to be a hero right now.
Friday, March 13, 2020
3/13/20 Track And Field Meet On A Thursday? (1 of 2)
Why can't life just be easy? I can handle the track and field meets on the weekends, even if Wife is busy with her classes, but no, they decide to throw one in during the middle of the week. I was hoping he would throw first and be done early, but no. That would be too easy. First of all, he had no idea whether he was supposed to show up at school or at the track meet. He made some calls and a couple of his goofy friends told him to show up at the stadium, Burger Stadium is kind of their home stadium, which is at least the closest of places to have a big meet like this was.
He was a little upset on Tuesday and Wednesday when the coaches said they would be putting in ringers. I hate this, but apparently there were some extra juniors that the coaches put on the JV squad to help the team win. I get the idea of winning, but I don't like that my kid shows up and works hard at it only to get booted out of the way for naturally bigger, more experienced boys. Wife and I were looking at the clumsier looking one with hate and he goes and releases the shotput on the wrong foot and barely threw 20 feet. Wife and I were like "what the fuck??? This idiot doesn't even know what he is doing." I guess it was just a warm-up throw because his next throw was clearly impressive and near the 40ft line. That shut us up. There was another husky kid throwing for our team and the same thing, he about threw 40ft warming up. Mijo is just not there, yet. He can throw maybe 32ft as his best, but I haven't seen anything farther, yet. We sat and watched most of the JV throwers, there was a good shady place for us to sit. Since I had worked the night before, I just leaned back and before I knew it, I slept for an hour. Wife woke me to tell me our boy was leaving to go to the discus ring on the other side of the football field.
It was kind of a mess. There were people working to keep some order, and I get that. The high jump, pole vault and other jumping things were in a fenced area and we were told to keep to the left of that. But the discus ring was on the right of this area. We decided it would be best to go get the Excursion and park along the fence right next to the discus ring as a few other parents had done. We then had to go threw and finish watching the JV girls followed by the Varsity girls discus throws to finally get to the JV boys around 12:30pm. It got a little rough when the sun got high enough to go around the Excursion and beat down on us. Luckily, I found an umbrella in the back and Wife's chair has a built-in shade which she can draw up.
He was a little upset on Tuesday and Wednesday when the coaches said they would be putting in ringers. I hate this, but apparently there were some extra juniors that the coaches put on the JV squad to help the team win. I get the idea of winning, but I don't like that my kid shows up and works hard at it only to get booted out of the way for naturally bigger, more experienced boys. Wife and I were looking at the clumsier looking one with hate and he goes and releases the shotput on the wrong foot and barely threw 20 feet. Wife and I were like "what the fuck??? This idiot doesn't even know what he is doing." I guess it was just a warm-up throw because his next throw was clearly impressive and near the 40ft line. That shut us up. There was another husky kid throwing for our team and the same thing, he about threw 40ft warming up. Mijo is just not there, yet. He can throw maybe 32ft as his best, but I haven't seen anything farther, yet. We sat and watched most of the JV throwers, there was a good shady place for us to sit. Since I had worked the night before, I just leaned back and before I knew it, I slept for an hour. Wife woke me to tell me our boy was leaving to go to the discus ring on the other side of the football field.
It was kind of a mess. There were people working to keep some order, and I get that. The high jump, pole vault and other jumping things were in a fenced area and we were told to keep to the left of that. But the discus ring was on the right of this area. We decided it would be best to go get the Excursion and park along the fence right next to the discus ring as a few other parents had done. We then had to go threw and finish watching the JV girls followed by the Varsity girls discus throws to finally get to the JV boys around 12:30pm. It got a little rough when the sun got high enough to go around the Excursion and beat down on us. Luckily, I found an umbrella in the back and Wife's chair has a built-in shade which she can draw up.
Thursday, March 12, 2020
3/12/20 Bad Knee Healing?
I think my knees are finally getting better. About a month ago, I don't know what happened but my right knee went bad. I think it was on one of those situations where I ran over to show Javalina something on the computer and dropped to my knees thinking I would catch myself on the bed, but the bed in the guest room is lower than the one in our room, so I landed full weight on my knees on the ground. This did not immediately get the pain going, but when I woke the next day, I could hardly step on my right leg.
For about a month, I felt all sorts of weird ghost pains. It would hurt if I tucked it too far in under the chair if I was sitting at the table. It would hurt if it started going left or right at the knee. I had to be real careful how I laid down or the pain would make me get up. I started using my left knee more when I needed to use my knees to get up or anything requiring their participation.
I thought I was getting pretty good last week, then I decided to help trim the grass as Javalina cut it. We did this on Friday before Wife got home and I was then barely able to walk the rest of the weekend. For a while, I was even worried I had pushed it too far and this time I would need a doctor visit. Luckily, Wife came with plans of being lazy, so we haven't run around much and the rest has been good for me.
Sometimes I get up and walk and don't feel anything wrong with my right knee. What is curious is that now the pain seems to be more on the left knee which didn't even hurt in the beginning. I just have to wait it out I guess, but it is little things like this preventing me from starting a legitimate dieting plan. I can't really think of dieting if I can't walk for exercise.
Last week I thought the pain was about gone and then I got a cramp on my right calf muscle and that cramp stayed their for about a week. I only started not feeling the muscle all tight in the last couple of days, so that just added to the bad leg feeling. I got one more night of work then I am off for a week for Spring Break. I want to get excited like when I was a kid or at least when we used to go do stuff, but the best we can do nowadays is follow Wife to Crystal. She goes back to work next week, so I told her we would go down so I could hang out with my people for a few days. Unless my plans get changed by that nasty virus which is making people do all sorts of weird shit.
For about a month, I felt all sorts of weird ghost pains. It would hurt if I tucked it too far in under the chair if I was sitting at the table. It would hurt if it started going left or right at the knee. I had to be real careful how I laid down or the pain would make me get up. I started using my left knee more when I needed to use my knees to get up or anything requiring their participation.
I thought I was getting pretty good last week, then I decided to help trim the grass as Javalina cut it. We did this on Friday before Wife got home and I was then barely able to walk the rest of the weekend. For a while, I was even worried I had pushed it too far and this time I would need a doctor visit. Luckily, Wife came with plans of being lazy, so we haven't run around much and the rest has been good for me.
Sometimes I get up and walk and don't feel anything wrong with my right knee. What is curious is that now the pain seems to be more on the left knee which didn't even hurt in the beginning. I just have to wait it out I guess, but it is little things like this preventing me from starting a legitimate dieting plan. I can't really think of dieting if I can't walk for exercise.
Last week I thought the pain was about gone and then I got a cramp on my right calf muscle and that cramp stayed their for about a week. I only started not feeling the muscle all tight in the last couple of days, so that just added to the bad leg feeling. I got one more night of work then I am off for a week for Spring Break. I want to get excited like when I was a kid or at least when we used to go do stuff, but the best we can do nowadays is follow Wife to Crystal. She goes back to work next week, so I told her we would go down so I could hang out with my people for a few days. Unless my plans get changed by that nasty virus which is making people do all sorts of weird shit.
3/11/20 House Bitch?
I would rather live in a house of lighthearted laughter and joy, than one of serious "respect me because I am the elder!" With Boy it was never a problem, he respected me, we would joke, but there was never much disrespect. Javalina, on the other hand, has a problem with his limits. He likes to call me house bitch because I am always hurt or hurting. This doesn't bother me as much as I have to wonder what goes on in his head that he thinks this is ok.
Mom always says I was too hard on Boy, I would beat his ass if I thought he deserved it. I don't really recall this, except for a few times which were done more for dramatic effect than to actually punish him. I always remember the one time in his room, with his best friend and me coming in with my size thirteen chancla (sandal) and I was going to spank his ass and his friend was rolling on the ground laughing. That was probably the last time, but even then, I don't recall hitting him, just flailing the sandal more to scare him. Bad or not, Boy grew up on the straight and narrow, even with a couple of knuckleheaded friends, I never worried about him drinking or getting high behind my back.
So, back to Javalina, Boy was always small, even today, he might weigh 150-160 pounds, I can't really unleash on him, I'm 400+ pounds, I would break him. Javalina seems to want me to give him a beating, to test me. He tells me stories of how his friends would absolutely get beat by their stepfathers or whoever is banging mama, that is just a hard life. I will admit, I was in my 20's with Boy and I did not know what I was doing other than trying my best. I had to really get Javalina's attention this weekend after a lot of back and forth by both of them. I asked him "If I really get going and decide to beat your ass, like a drunken fool, could you stop me? The answer is NO, Little One. You have this fantasy that you're Mr. Muscles but you weigh half what I weigh, I am still an elephant to you being a hippo. I let your mom be the disciplinarian not because she is better at kicking ass, but because I love you and don't want to hurt you. Y'all seem to think Mama is the scary one, but that is only because I am too much for either you or your brother so I let your mom lead the charge.
I don't know why he doesn't get it, every time he has tried his pushing exercises, he goes until I get tired and then I push him around to the point of making him dance with me like a rag doll. I don't know, maybe I should have spanked him more growing up?
Mom always says I was too hard on Boy, I would beat his ass if I thought he deserved it. I don't really recall this, except for a few times which were done more for dramatic effect than to actually punish him. I always remember the one time in his room, with his best friend and me coming in with my size thirteen chancla (sandal) and I was going to spank his ass and his friend was rolling on the ground laughing. That was probably the last time, but even then, I don't recall hitting him, just flailing the sandal more to scare him. Bad or not, Boy grew up on the straight and narrow, even with a couple of knuckleheaded friends, I never worried about him drinking or getting high behind my back.
So, back to Javalina, Boy was always small, even today, he might weigh 150-160 pounds, I can't really unleash on him, I'm 400+ pounds, I would break him. Javalina seems to want me to give him a beating, to test me. He tells me stories of how his friends would absolutely get beat by their stepfathers or whoever is banging mama, that is just a hard life. I will admit, I was in my 20's with Boy and I did not know what I was doing other than trying my best. I had to really get Javalina's attention this weekend after a lot of back and forth by both of them. I asked him "If I really get going and decide to beat your ass, like a drunken fool, could you stop me? The answer is NO, Little One. You have this fantasy that you're Mr. Muscles but you weigh half what I weigh, I am still an elephant to you being a hippo. I let your mom be the disciplinarian not because she is better at kicking ass, but because I love you and don't want to hurt you. Y'all seem to think Mama is the scary one, but that is only because I am too much for either you or your brother so I let your mom lead the charge.
I don't know why he doesn't get it, every time he has tried his pushing exercises, he goes until I get tired and then I push him around to the point of making him dance with me like a rag doll. I don't know, maybe I should have spanked him more growing up?
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
3/10/20 I Hate Paperwork?
I am coming on 50 years and I can't believe we still have to do bullshit paperwork all the time. This stupid places all know our SSN, our birthdays, where we work, basically what we do with 90% of our time. How come when it comes time to fill out paperwork anywhere, all of a sudden, everyone turns into a young Helen Keller. If I even think boat, Google starts showing me boats, sea life, stores that sell boats. But if I want to do anything that benefits me, shit, I have to drag out all the paperwork I have ever sent a dime to and run it manually via a scanner back to them so they can judge me, like they didn't know I bought a Coke Zero three weeks ago at Home Depot on a Thursday at 4:00pm.
I usually ignore all forms of paper crap until I am dying, but Friday I took the boys to the dentist and one of the hygienists was being cute about it being my turn to get my teeth cleaned. Of course, I respond to this with a "you're right, Cutiepie. I should be doing a better job of taking care of me." I went and gave them my info up front only to find out I don't exist in whatever card I have been carrying, at least to the dentist part of it. So now what? I am wanting to get my teeth looked at, it has been a few years, probably when I got knocked off the Aetna coverage for the dentist. I remember I was going routinely then they called that they were updating their machines or whatever at the last dentist place I went to. I never got a reminder call, so I was like a resident in Rudolph's Land of Misfit Toys and nobody would play with my teeth again. Being that it always just seems like a nuisance to go in on a Wednesday when you would rather be doing something else, I too let it slip. But here we are, somebody outside of my house, has asked about my teeth, and I like to provide a better answer than a shrug, America's answer for everything mundane.
I got up at 5:30am today to pee, btw, I slept on the chair again in our room and managed another 3.5 hour stretch, which I love. Anyways, I went through all our paperwork and thought I had hit the motherload when the Aetna letter addressed to me said to fill out the online part for the rest of my benefits, only to find that I was still void of coverage for my teeth. I looked at my works website thingy and I might have another lead, but it seems I am going to have to dig deep into my paperwork collection to find some sort of card, I am not sure what to do. I'll probably call my boss to see who our coverage is with and save me some time, if I can remember all this later.
After about an hour of going back and forth, I have actually figured out and gotten my dental plan card. I can now take information to the dentist office where my boys go and get myself into the rotation. I might have a cavity or two, serves me well for all the sweets I eat, but at least I didn't just waste my time here. I mean this should all still be much easier than this, but at least it all worked out without me having to pick up the phone and call 10 different places.
I usually ignore all forms of paper crap until I am dying, but Friday I took the boys to the dentist and one of the hygienists was being cute about it being my turn to get my teeth cleaned. Of course, I respond to this with a "you're right, Cutiepie. I should be doing a better job of taking care of me." I went and gave them my info up front only to find out I don't exist in whatever card I have been carrying, at least to the dentist part of it. So now what? I am wanting to get my teeth looked at, it has been a few years, probably when I got knocked off the Aetna coverage for the dentist. I remember I was going routinely then they called that they were updating their machines or whatever at the last dentist place I went to. I never got a reminder call, so I was like a resident in Rudolph's Land of Misfit Toys and nobody would play with my teeth again. Being that it always just seems like a nuisance to go in on a Wednesday when you would rather be doing something else, I too let it slip. But here we are, somebody outside of my house, has asked about my teeth, and I like to provide a better answer than a shrug, America's answer for everything mundane.
I got up at 5:30am today to pee, btw, I slept on the chair again in our room and managed another 3.5 hour stretch, which I love. Anyways, I went through all our paperwork and thought I had hit the motherload when the Aetna letter addressed to me said to fill out the online part for the rest of my benefits, only to find that I was still void of coverage for my teeth. I looked at my works website thingy and I might have another lead, but it seems I am going to have to dig deep into my paperwork collection to find some sort of card, I am not sure what to do. I'll probably call my boss to see who our coverage is with and save me some time, if I can remember all this later.
After about an hour of going back and forth, I have actually figured out and gotten my dental plan card. I can now take information to the dentist office where my boys go and get myself into the rotation. I might have a cavity or two, serves me well for all the sweets I eat, but at least I didn't just waste my time here. I mean this should all still be much easier than this, but at least it all worked out without me having to pick up the phone and call 10 different places.
Monday, March 9, 2020
3/9/20 Are You Trying To Piss Me Off?
Boy has been unemployed now for about a month. I know this is not easy on him, but it isn't easy on us either. We try to give him advice and he seems to chuckle at us with some condescending bull that his successful friends know a thing or two more than us because they do programming or coding or whatever his job will be. At first I could be insulted by this and a lesser person might even think the best course here is to be the mama/papa bird and peck him the fuck out of my nest if he is not going to be a bird of my feather and flock together. I just keep telling myself this is my idiot child and he has always worked hard and tried his best, he is just in a hard place right now, so I must be even bigger than him and offer the other cheek as he slaps me disrespectfully as I keep a roof over his head.
Luckily, he had managed to save himself a few thousand bucks, so at this moment I am not supporting some of the stupid activities he is doing, but I am giving him a roof over his head, which he accounts as $0, I am paying for his SUV, at $457, which he keeps trying to sell to me somehow. I am also paying his gas credit card at another $120-170 a month and of course his car insurance. All parents do this, so why should I think I am doing anything special (he seems to give off), plus on top of this, he had Sweetie move in. This doesn't bother me at all and it bothers me a ton. When they decided this, he was sort of threatening us that he was going to move out with her. We said no, not until you have a degree you can lean on, but he was on his way with a full time job paying him somewhere close to what we make, so we ok'd the move. He is still being dense and saying the degree is not the end all be all which just makes me shake my head as he sits there unemployed. His coworkers jumped from his company to others most likely because they were degree'd, not that he is capable of listening to this line of logic.
What bothers me about Sweetie moving in, is that they are now a team, but I can't treat them like a team, unless he feels like including her. I can't tell her anything, she is not my daughter, but I get to have her living under my roof and I must be respectful. Its like getting all the responsibilities of another kid, but none of the joys of saying look at my new baby boy/girl. Sorry, but if I get a bee in my bonnet, I should have a right to say "you are an idiot and you are an idiot and you are an idiot..." but no, now everyone is an individual and everyone has feelings, blechh.
The pisser here is that both "idiots" are always cold, I mean most of the time we might have windows open to let the cool breeze in during the cooler months, they are running a heater in his room, fine, I can respect that, if they are cold, make yourselves warmer. Friday, I see a freaking window A/C unit on his window as Javalina and I are outside like assholes cutting the grass. He stayed inside, he was going to clean the room where he has decided to make the mess that is not in his room, yet he never makes progress. I need to know what prompted this A/C and he says "sometimes it is hot in our room." We have lived here since 2007 and NEVER had I heard him complain, but now it is so hot he has to get additional machines to cool his room. Never mind it makes our house look "white trashy" from the greenbelt with a stupid unit hanging out his window akin to those balls guys were hanging off the back of pickup trucks a few years ago..
This is probably me just being pissy because I am trying to help him by not charging him rent, wanting him to focus on classes, when he is down to taking one class this semester, that asshole company was going to pay him to work full time and he was going to work his last few classes around his work schedule. Now he has no job, dropped one of his classes, so just goes to class once a week. If he was showing restraint I would be fine, but then the little shit brings home an A/C for his room like he is fixing to start paying the light bill? What the fuck?
Luckily, he had managed to save himself a few thousand bucks, so at this moment I am not supporting some of the stupid activities he is doing, but I am giving him a roof over his head, which he accounts as $0, I am paying for his SUV, at $457, which he keeps trying to sell to me somehow. I am also paying his gas credit card at another $120-170 a month and of course his car insurance. All parents do this, so why should I think I am doing anything special (he seems to give off), plus on top of this, he had Sweetie move in. This doesn't bother me at all and it bothers me a ton. When they decided this, he was sort of threatening us that he was going to move out with her. We said no, not until you have a degree you can lean on, but he was on his way with a full time job paying him somewhere close to what we make, so we ok'd the move. He is still being dense and saying the degree is not the end all be all which just makes me shake my head as he sits there unemployed. His coworkers jumped from his company to others most likely because they were degree'd, not that he is capable of listening to this line of logic.
What bothers me about Sweetie moving in, is that they are now a team, but I can't treat them like a team, unless he feels like including her. I can't tell her anything, she is not my daughter, but I get to have her living under my roof and I must be respectful. Its like getting all the responsibilities of another kid, but none of the joys of saying look at my new baby boy/girl. Sorry, but if I get a bee in my bonnet, I should have a right to say "you are an idiot and you are an idiot and you are an idiot..." but no, now everyone is an individual and everyone has feelings, blechh.
The pisser here is that both "idiots" are always cold, I mean most of the time we might have windows open to let the cool breeze in during the cooler months, they are running a heater in his room, fine, I can respect that, if they are cold, make yourselves warmer. Friday, I see a freaking window A/C unit on his window as Javalina and I are outside like assholes cutting the grass. He stayed inside, he was going to clean the room where he has decided to make the mess that is not in his room, yet he never makes progress. I need to know what prompted this A/C and he says "sometimes it is hot in our room." We have lived here since 2007 and NEVER had I heard him complain, but now it is so hot he has to get additional machines to cool his room. Never mind it makes our house look "white trashy" from the greenbelt with a stupid unit hanging out his window akin to those balls guys were hanging off the back of pickup trucks a few years ago..
This is probably me just being pissy because I am trying to help him by not charging him rent, wanting him to focus on classes, when he is down to taking one class this semester, that asshole company was going to pay him to work full time and he was going to work his last few classes around his work schedule. Now he has no job, dropped one of his classes, so just goes to class once a week. If he was showing restraint I would be fine, but then the little shit brings home an A/C for his room like he is fixing to start paying the light bill? What the fuck?
Sunday, March 8, 2020
3/8/20 Daylight Savings Time Snuck In On Us?
Usually, there isn't anything interesting going on and the news outlets get to focus on this stupid little time change game we have decided to punish ourselves with for no reason. This year, though, people are scared out of their minds with the coronavirus that the media forgot to make their usual big deal about it. We went to bed last night not thinking or hearing about it and everything was fine. We both fell asleep on one of our big chairs in our bedroom but Wife woe and moved to the bed before me. I was pleasantly surprised to wake up at 2:20am, having slept probably 3-3.5 hours, awesome when I barely sleep 1-2 hours at a time as I am up peeing all night. I then got the idea to sit and watch TV/sleep some more and maybe see if I would go another 3 hours before waking to pee. I turned on the TV and it felt weird when on HGTV they were giving infomercials. I know they have programming until 3:00am, I watch all the time. I changed the channel and realized that the clock on the TV was an hour ahead, hmm.
I looked on FB, for all the busy bodies who like to repeat useless information, but nobody had any info on the time change, it's like people forgot about it, and nobody needs it, but here we are, my stove in the kitchen says 7:27am, but the laptop says 8:27am. Thanks farmers, the whole 2-3% of America that does this for a living still making this a thing. Anyways, I did manage to fall asleep on the chair for another round and woke at 5:50am. Another 3.5 hour block of sleep, I should be sleeping in a sitting position. To check if it was the night, I laid down in the bed after I went pp and woke at 6:55am needing to pee again. Technically, it was fixing to be 8:00am, so I got up. I do enjoy getting up when the house is quiet and write or even just get on the computer without any sense of urgency.
This should be a good week, Wife is off and so far so good. Friday we took Javalina and his friends out to eat at Chicken Express. We were going to go to Chili's, but it was packed, so we headed to Kyle instead. We had a little burp of an incident at Target. The boys took off to get snacks and separated from us and ended up in the toy section. An employee gave them a little crap for "kicking" a ball which just as my son was denying another of the little idiots kicked it right by my son's head. The employee saw me talking to them and asked if I was a parent to any of them and I said yeah. He ratted them out in a hurry and I had to act like the mean father telling them to go back and clean whatever mess they had made. To lighten the mood after, I talked tough and told them to walk by holding on to each others hands and one of them to hold the basket for a couple minutes. They were not being malicious or disrespectful, they just caught being silly and a little stupid.
Saturday was even better as we just laid around the house most of the day. We didn't go out until 7:00pm and only because Javalina had to go to Hobby Lobby to buy supplies for a diorama. We came back home and ate all sorts of leftovers from the week. I had made spaghetti, there were two uncooked chicken breasts which Wife cooked and added to some veggies Boy and Sweetie had made and there was a bucket of chicken enchiladas. We ate and cleaned out the fridge pretty good which sent us to bed early.
I looked on FB, for all the busy bodies who like to repeat useless information, but nobody had any info on the time change, it's like people forgot about it, and nobody needs it, but here we are, my stove in the kitchen says 7:27am, but the laptop says 8:27am. Thanks farmers, the whole 2-3% of America that does this for a living still making this a thing. Anyways, I did manage to fall asleep on the chair for another round and woke at 5:50am. Another 3.5 hour block of sleep, I should be sleeping in a sitting position. To check if it was the night, I laid down in the bed after I went pp and woke at 6:55am needing to pee again. Technically, it was fixing to be 8:00am, so I got up. I do enjoy getting up when the house is quiet and write or even just get on the computer without any sense of urgency.
This should be a good week, Wife is off and so far so good. Friday we took Javalina and his friends out to eat at Chicken Express. We were going to go to Chili's, but it was packed, so we headed to Kyle instead. We had a little burp of an incident at Target. The boys took off to get snacks and separated from us and ended up in the toy section. An employee gave them a little crap for "kicking" a ball which just as my son was denying another of the little idiots kicked it right by my son's head. The employee saw me talking to them and asked if I was a parent to any of them and I said yeah. He ratted them out in a hurry and I had to act like the mean father telling them to go back and clean whatever mess they had made. To lighten the mood after, I talked tough and told them to walk by holding on to each others hands and one of them to hold the basket for a couple minutes. They were not being malicious or disrespectful, they just caught being silly and a little stupid.
Saturday was even better as we just laid around the house most of the day. We didn't go out until 7:00pm and only because Javalina had to go to Hobby Lobby to buy supplies for a diorama. We came back home and ate all sorts of leftovers from the week. I had made spaghetti, there were two uncooked chicken breasts which Wife cooked and added to some veggies Boy and Sweetie had made and there was a bucket of chicken enchiladas. We ate and cleaned out the fridge pretty good which sent us to bed early.
Saturday, March 7, 2020
3/7/20 Change Of Plans, Let's Hide?
Unless one is to become a bubble boy, like the one played by John Travolta in 1976, or Jake Gyllenhaal more recently in 2001 (both referenced the same case), you can't really hide from this new Coronavirus. You can delay meeting it, but if it is a new virus, it is just a matter of time. My folks were going to come, then my mom said she hurt her knee so they wouldn't be able to, then she changed her mind and said it would be nice to get out of town and go to Austin, but then she called last night that "they" had decided not to come because more specifically, my brother was worried about contracting the coronavirus.
I certainly do not want to contract it, but I also feel that if it kills less than 3% of patients that contract it, it means that 97% of people are surviving it. Like it or not, it is spreading. It is now in 28 states, as of this morning, so we are not going to stop its infestation into all 50 states. We are all connected to each other. Like that Kevin Bacon 6 degrees of separation. We can all probably do a 6 person degree of separation to China, or some other highly infested area.
One good thing about Boy being furloughed, he was constantly being introduced to Chinese people at his work. They would come in as representatives from other companies for various reasons. This would be a good place to say he picked up the disease, luckily, that was shut down.
So, on to my bro-bro. He is a teacher in a small town next to our hometown, that means every little kid is a tentacle reaching out into the world. Yes, most are little brown small town beaners, but it only takes one to have an uncle from Houston who picked up a friend from the airport who happened to walk next to someone who was on a plane flying in from China to any part of the US. That was only 4 parts of separation to get to a person from China. My mom loves to work for free at the elementary there in our hometown, some call it volunteering, and that opens her up to sharing the same air as maybe two hundred other little souls. My sister is in the main office now, in charge of the principals, so she is exposed to the leader of every school and they talk to all the teachers. My dad is hanging out in the little illegal casinos and yes, it is mostly locals, but it only takes one visitor from some exotic place to destroy the natural floral and fauna. Then there's Wife who lives and breathes there during the week. She is literally all over the state, at conferences, schools, and then here in Austin.
What I'm saying Bro, is you can run but you can't hide. You can't wait out the virus, like it will go away. 100,000 people with the virus in the world is about as many people fit in the Longhorn stadium, which is not a lot of people, in the big picture. Where are you going to hide when the number is 1 million? 10 million? 100 million? You gotta live. We live in the country with the best doctors and the best medicines, I'll take my chances and live.
I certainly do not want to contract it, but I also feel that if it kills less than 3% of patients that contract it, it means that 97% of people are surviving it. Like it or not, it is spreading. It is now in 28 states, as of this morning, so we are not going to stop its infestation into all 50 states. We are all connected to each other. Like that Kevin Bacon 6 degrees of separation. We can all probably do a 6 person degree of separation to China, or some other highly infested area.
One good thing about Boy being furloughed, he was constantly being introduced to Chinese people at his work. They would come in as representatives from other companies for various reasons. This would be a good place to say he picked up the disease, luckily, that was shut down.
So, on to my bro-bro. He is a teacher in a small town next to our hometown, that means every little kid is a tentacle reaching out into the world. Yes, most are little brown small town beaners, but it only takes one to have an uncle from Houston who picked up a friend from the airport who happened to walk next to someone who was on a plane flying in from China to any part of the US. That was only 4 parts of separation to get to a person from China. My mom loves to work for free at the elementary there in our hometown, some call it volunteering, and that opens her up to sharing the same air as maybe two hundred other little souls. My sister is in the main office now, in charge of the principals, so she is exposed to the leader of every school and they talk to all the teachers. My dad is hanging out in the little illegal casinos and yes, it is mostly locals, but it only takes one visitor from some exotic place to destroy the natural floral and fauna. Then there's Wife who lives and breathes there during the week. She is literally all over the state, at conferences, schools, and then here in Austin.
What I'm saying Bro, is you can run but you can't hide. You can't wait out the virus, like it will go away. 100,000 people with the virus in the world is about as many people fit in the Longhorn stadium, which is not a lot of people, in the big picture. Where are you going to hide when the number is 1 million? 10 million? 100 million? You gotta live. We live in the country with the best doctors and the best medicines, I'll take my chances and live.
Friday, March 6, 2020
3/6/20 Short Week Of Work?
I usually love a short work week, it is the reason I stay on my twelve hour shift, that gives me the short week every other week. This one though did not seem restful, for some reason. I think we have just been barely treating the house like our house and more like a hotel room. There was almost no counter space as of last night in the kitchen. The boys constantly suck at the very minimal amount of chores that they have. When I say minimal, I mean I expect Boy at 25 years of age, to take out the trashcans to the street on Sunday night and back behind the fence on Monday, sometime before bedtime. I also expect Javalina to take out the trash to the trashcans once or twice a week and then help clean out on the weekends when we throw away all the extra crap in the fridge that didn't get eaten.
I slept until I had to go pick up Javalina at 6:00pm, on our way home, he talked me into eating at Whataburger, he didn't want the spaghetti I had planned on making. We got home before 7:00pm and I wanted to go lay down in the guest room downstairs, it's where we have been hanging out the last few weeks. He beat me to the bed, so I sat on the loveseat and we kind of watched the Office for awhile. He woke me around 8:50pm, I guess that burger just knocked me out. At this point, I drank a Starbucks Frappuccino and I don't know if this helped but then I wasn't drowsy or sleepy until after 4:00am. At 9:00pm, Javalina was interested in the spaghetti, so I made it. We were eating right around 10:00pm, which is late, but oh well. At this point, I started to unclutter the kitchen, and wash some loads. It took until almost 2:00am, but I got the kitchen mostly cleared up, finishing the table this morning. A lot of it is just mail, we have had a lot of it, mostly junk from companies interested in helping us refinance.
I even managed to iron about half of Javalina's shirts last night while I watched some HGTV, knowing I have to do it weekly, I felt like I did more than half last night. As I sit here writing this, at least the kitchen looks clean and normal. I have to get Javalina and Boy to cut the grass this weekend. They have been avoiding it and getting away with it because Javalina had track meets the last two weekends. I am going to send Boy out there today to do the back. When Javalina gets here in the afternoon, he can do the front. We are one week away from Spring Break and the last thing I want to do then is house work like that. If we get it done this week, next week, we can focus on something else.
At this point (9:30am, Friday), I am just going to go and nap. I have to take both boys to the dentist at 2:00pm, so that will be my afternoon. I can still sleep for another 3.5-4 hours before I have to leave the house.
I slept until I had to go pick up Javalina at 6:00pm, on our way home, he talked me into eating at Whataburger, he didn't want the spaghetti I had planned on making. We got home before 7:00pm and I wanted to go lay down in the guest room downstairs, it's where we have been hanging out the last few weeks. He beat me to the bed, so I sat on the loveseat and we kind of watched the Office for awhile. He woke me around 8:50pm, I guess that burger just knocked me out. At this point, I drank a Starbucks Frappuccino and I don't know if this helped but then I wasn't drowsy or sleepy until after 4:00am. At 9:00pm, Javalina was interested in the spaghetti, so I made it. We were eating right around 10:00pm, which is late, but oh well. At this point, I started to unclutter the kitchen, and wash some loads. It took until almost 2:00am, but I got the kitchen mostly cleared up, finishing the table this morning. A lot of it is just mail, we have had a lot of it, mostly junk from companies interested in helping us refinance.
I even managed to iron about half of Javalina's shirts last night while I watched some HGTV, knowing I have to do it weekly, I felt like I did more than half last night. As I sit here writing this, at least the kitchen looks clean and normal. I have to get Javalina and Boy to cut the grass this weekend. They have been avoiding it and getting away with it because Javalina had track meets the last two weekends. I am going to send Boy out there today to do the back. When Javalina gets here in the afternoon, he can do the front. We are one week away from Spring Break and the last thing I want to do then is house work like that. If we get it done this week, next week, we can focus on something else.
At this point (9:30am, Friday), I am just going to go and nap. I have to take both boys to the dentist at 2:00pm, so that will be my afternoon. I can still sleep for another 3.5-4 hours before I have to leave the house.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
3/5/20 The Virus?
My mom asked me about my opinion about this coronavirus and I honestly have not bothered reading or getting excited about it. I think a lot of it is the media needing something to talk about, so they go overboard and scare people needlessly. Remember Swine Flu? Avian Flu? smallpox? SARS? Anthrax? At one time or another, one of these was surely going to be an outbreak and we were all going to suffer or die, yet as soon as the summer rolled around and the news agencies got new stories to talk about, you know the Kardashians went to the beach or whatever stupid shit they cover nowadays, everyone forgets the thing that was going to kill us.
In reality, the common flu still has the most kills, it is a silent killer and takes out the most people, usually very young or very old. This sucks because basically taking it easy and resting and staying hydrated can get you over the worst of it, many people still refuse to take it seriously.
It is being reported just today, that Covid-19 has about a 3.4% death rate, while the flu is below 1%. The flu affects a lot more people, so even with a less than 1% chance of dying, it will still kill more. I think the number, 3.4% is larger in part because the virus has mostly been doing its work in China and the government kind of gets in the way of people reaching out to the medical resources. As much as people bitch and moan about the quality of care here, I think we will do better with the spread of this nasty disease. I have faith in the ability of our doctors and nurses to keep people alive and strong enough to give us the time to heal and get stronger.
Another article states the mortality rate at around 2%, but even this being high, the most susceptible people to die are the very young and the very old, who both can struggle to properly care for themselves. In the majority of people, it will present like the flu with an upper respiratory infection for a couple of days. Some rest and liquids should keep most people healthy enough to survive.
My wife and my mom think it a good idea to corral supplies at home, but to what end? Wife was telling me to go buy bags of beans and rice and as much water as I can carry. That sounds pretty stupid, this isn't WWIII, even if my conspiracist brother wants to believe it. Shit, even when we had warnings of mad cow, we never stopped eating cows, we just shrugged and carried on. That is what we do, we shrug partly because we're too dumb, we know it's never that bad, and if we wait long enough, something else will come along for us to worry about.
In reality, the common flu still has the most kills, it is a silent killer and takes out the most people, usually very young or very old. This sucks because basically taking it easy and resting and staying hydrated can get you over the worst of it, many people still refuse to take it seriously.
It is being reported just today, that Covid-19 has about a 3.4% death rate, while the flu is below 1%. The flu affects a lot more people, so even with a less than 1% chance of dying, it will still kill more. I think the number, 3.4% is larger in part because the virus has mostly been doing its work in China and the government kind of gets in the way of people reaching out to the medical resources. As much as people bitch and moan about the quality of care here, I think we will do better with the spread of this nasty disease. I have faith in the ability of our doctors and nurses to keep people alive and strong enough to give us the time to heal and get stronger.
Another article states the mortality rate at around 2%, but even this being high, the most susceptible people to die are the very young and the very old, who both can struggle to properly care for themselves. In the majority of people, it will present like the flu with an upper respiratory infection for a couple of days. Some rest and liquids should keep most people healthy enough to survive.
My wife and my mom think it a good idea to corral supplies at home, but to what end? Wife was telling me to go buy bags of beans and rice and as much water as I can carry. That sounds pretty stupid, this isn't WWIII, even if my conspiracist brother wants to believe it. Shit, even when we had warnings of mad cow, we never stopped eating cows, we just shrugged and carried on. That is what we do, we shrug partly because we're too dumb, we know it's never that bad, and if we wait long enough, something else will come along for us to worry about.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
3/4/20 Hard To Believe Spring Break Is Coming?
Wife works this week and then she is off for a week of Spring Break. Javalina has school this week and next week, then he gets Spring Break. I am taking the week off with him, and the plan right now is for us to go down with Wife to visit my folks while she works. Of course, Wife will be off for her spring break and we will be here at home, but considering how much she runs around for work, she is only too happy to be in her home.
I thought about taking two weeks off from work so I can hang with her for a week and then hang with Javalina for a week, but it seems like being off from work too much. I already decided I was going to take two weeks off in the summer, even if we go nowhere, so I didn't want to push it and seem greedy.
So far, Javalina has had two track meets, but I believe they are going to take a break since they don't have one this weekend and next week would be the start of the area spring breaks. I am hoping for slightly warmer weather when the season picks up again. The last two meets have started in really colder weather than I like.
I still remember when we had the RVs and we would try to plan a week in Corpus only to find the weather still too cold to do outdoor stuff. Even then, I wish we could line up another RV and plan trips like we used to. Even Boy says he misses having the RV, that it was fun to go on trips like that. Wife isn't opposed to getting another one, it would just have to be something that fits in our budget. Maybe after we finish with the idea of refinancing and Wife gets a job back where she can live with us.
Once we get done with the two weeks of Spring Break, since they are not aligned, it will be pretty much April and we will be looking at the end of the school year, I mean there is Easter in there somewhere, but that is another couple of days off which only makes the end of the school year seem closer.
I thought about taking two weeks off from work so I can hang with her for a week and then hang with Javalina for a week, but it seems like being off from work too much. I already decided I was going to take two weeks off in the summer, even if we go nowhere, so I didn't want to push it and seem greedy.
So far, Javalina has had two track meets, but I believe they are going to take a break since they don't have one this weekend and next week would be the start of the area spring breaks. I am hoping for slightly warmer weather when the season picks up again. The last two meets have started in really colder weather than I like.
I still remember when we had the RVs and we would try to plan a week in Corpus only to find the weather still too cold to do outdoor stuff. Even then, I wish we could line up another RV and plan trips like we used to. Even Boy says he misses having the RV, that it was fun to go on trips like that. Wife isn't opposed to getting another one, it would just have to be something that fits in our budget. Maybe after we finish with the idea of refinancing and Wife gets a job back where she can live with us.
Once we get done with the two weeks of Spring Break, since they are not aligned, it will be pretty much April and we will be looking at the end of the school year, I mean there is Easter in there somewhere, but that is another couple of days off which only makes the end of the school year seem closer.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
3/3/20 Oh Yeah, Our House Was Appraised Again?
I think this borders on criminal, not that anyone gives two shits, but while refinancing, everyone who you might want to refinance gets their very own appraisal. We tried going through Loan Depot, they have our loan blah blah blah, we paid them $500 so they would get a third party appraisal firm to come and value our house. Nevermind that the county taxes had a set price of $426,000. Zillow had a price of something crazy like $480,000. If anybody wants this house for $480,000, write me a check, I'll take it.
The first valuation came in at $425,000. $1000 less than what the county said, so whatever. It laid down the groundwork for us to possibly borrow 80% of that or $340,000. That seemed like plenty to pay the mortgage $289,000 plus maybe $30k in credit debt, they insisted on the solar panels, which is where we fell apart. If this had been done quickly, I might have even folded and gone their way, I really want to convert to a fifteen year mortgage, but really, it took them 5 months to get from saying yes we can do this thing and you are our customer and we will treat you right, to well, it is your money, but we will tell you what you can do with it.
Since they dragged their feet for so long, they had to pull another credit check and I guess that alerted other mortgage companies and while getting out of Academy two weeks ago, I accidentally picked up the phone and was bombarded by a quick talking sales person who again told me everything I wanted to hear, so here we are again, going through a second round attempt at refinancing. This time, they are willing to give me $750 cash for going with them, it is supposed to pay for the appraisal and a little WAM money, but I know it will all just get folded in and mixed and lost amongst the other hundreds of thousands of dollars. Apart from the $750, they also mentioned that the interest rates have been falling down for the last 4-5 months, so it was good that I failed to sign with Loan Depot. They said they could give me the same deal but for $200 less a month on my mortgage, and my interest rate would be like 2.75%.
The first time our house was appraised I was a nervous wreck, I cleaned for a week ahead of them coming, and tried decluttering as much as I could. This time around, after hearing so many "it doesn't matter", and having only like a day and a half advance warning, I did not get a chance to clean. Wife happened to be here the night before and she cleaned a little, but nothing like we did the first time.
I guess we will see if they are being truthful or lying when we see the new valuation. But really, shouldn't one be good for like a year? You get one done from some third party company and you can fish that around to the mortgage companies. Paying $500 to every company you talk to just sounds like a setup to getting scammed.
The first valuation came in at $425,000. $1000 less than what the county said, so whatever. It laid down the groundwork for us to possibly borrow 80% of that or $340,000. That seemed like plenty to pay the mortgage $289,000 plus maybe $30k in credit debt, they insisted on the solar panels, which is where we fell apart. If this had been done quickly, I might have even folded and gone their way, I really want to convert to a fifteen year mortgage, but really, it took them 5 months to get from saying yes we can do this thing and you are our customer and we will treat you right, to well, it is your money, but we will tell you what you can do with it.
Since they dragged their feet for so long, they had to pull another credit check and I guess that alerted other mortgage companies and while getting out of Academy two weeks ago, I accidentally picked up the phone and was bombarded by a quick talking sales person who again told me everything I wanted to hear, so here we are again, going through a second round attempt at refinancing. This time, they are willing to give me $750 cash for going with them, it is supposed to pay for the appraisal and a little WAM money, but I know it will all just get folded in and mixed and lost amongst the other hundreds of thousands of dollars. Apart from the $750, they also mentioned that the interest rates have been falling down for the last 4-5 months, so it was good that I failed to sign with Loan Depot. They said they could give me the same deal but for $200 less a month on my mortgage, and my interest rate would be like 2.75%.
The first time our house was appraised I was a nervous wreck, I cleaned for a week ahead of them coming, and tried decluttering as much as I could. This time around, after hearing so many "it doesn't matter", and having only like a day and a half advance warning, I did not get a chance to clean. Wife happened to be here the night before and she cleaned a little, but nothing like we did the first time.
I guess we will see if they are being truthful or lying when we see the new valuation. But really, shouldn't one be good for like a year? You get one done from some third party company and you can fish that around to the mortgage companies. Paying $500 to every company you talk to just sounds like a setup to getting scammed.
Monday, March 2, 2020
3/2/20 Trying To Rest, But Here's Some Guilt For You To Eat?
The last few weekends were jam packed. If we go back three weekends, my folks were here and I do enjoy having them here, it always means we run around to the mall and to eat and all the other fun stuff you would do if you were visiting a large city. They left Sunday and kind of early, I had one of my first band rehearsals. That came and went, along with the stress of meeting new people and doing a whole new thing, for me, at least. Practice ended, I realized I could still read music, but I needed to practice some of the harder sections. During the week, nothing much changes, with work and having to pick up Javalina after school. The only big difference is that Track and Field started and he loves the shotput. He knows it is a mental game of strength and technique, he is trying to master it since 7th grade.
Two weekends ago he had his first official track meet in Dripping Springs. It was cold and the wind was biting, but they went on with it. Even as spectators, after being out in the elements for 4-5 hours, all we wanted was to get inside and get comfortable with a nap. Even Javalina is beat and wants nothing to do with hanging with friends or anything, he just likes to decompress in his room quietly. As it was, Sunday that weekend was my first concert, so that was a stressful event, I had to buy new clothes to look respectable, I even decided to wear a tie. The concert went off about as well as it could have, I really wish my folks would have attended, but I know it is a good drive and at least my in-laws came, so I still had a pew full of people cheering for me.
This Saturday again was another Track And Field Meet, this time at St. Andrew's School, some private school with again another beautiful campus. During the week, we had to go up and down emotionally with Javalina as he saw new sophomores and juniors practicing with them, he being a freshman was sure he was going to get bumped off either discus or shotput or worse, both. By Thursday, he got even better news than he could expect, his coaches told him not to worry about that, and the varsity guys basically moved him from back-up discus thrower to starter. They told another kid to go kick rocks. They said they preferred working with Javalina because he was always there and he had the right attitude and worked hard in the gym.
I was able to get Boy to go with me, it was nice. It is in situations like these that we can actually talk and joke around without him running off to his room or his GF. We were out there from 9:00am until almost 2:00pm by the time they were done with shotput and then discus. Wife was busy all day with a couple college courses she is taking, so she was gone all day. We had already planned and talked about just getting some food and staying in Sunday and not leaving the house. Wife was smart enough to stop on her way home after class and got stuff for dinner Saturday and meat for BBQ on Sunday.
When I finally think "ahhhh" a nice quiet day to relax, my mom calls me out on FB about spending more time with my folks, they won't be around forever, kind of a morbid message considering I see her as strong as a moose who still goes and works at the school, for free. Yeah, my dad is starting to look like the Crypt Keeper a little bit, but he himself doesn't seem to like anything at times. I thought it was a bit unfair, considering we had just seen them three weekends ago, she is already planning to come visit next week and I had told her we were going down for at least 4 days on Spring Break. I love my folks but Javalina has tournaments we aren't going to miss, Boy is on his own schedule and we at least see him by being home, at least while he lives with us.
Two weekends ago he had his first official track meet in Dripping Springs. It was cold and the wind was biting, but they went on with it. Even as spectators, after being out in the elements for 4-5 hours, all we wanted was to get inside and get comfortable with a nap. Even Javalina is beat and wants nothing to do with hanging with friends or anything, he just likes to decompress in his room quietly. As it was, Sunday that weekend was my first concert, so that was a stressful event, I had to buy new clothes to look respectable, I even decided to wear a tie. The concert went off about as well as it could have, I really wish my folks would have attended, but I know it is a good drive and at least my in-laws came, so I still had a pew full of people cheering for me.
This Saturday again was another Track And Field Meet, this time at St. Andrew's School, some private school with again another beautiful campus. During the week, we had to go up and down emotionally with Javalina as he saw new sophomores and juniors practicing with them, he being a freshman was sure he was going to get bumped off either discus or shotput or worse, both. By Thursday, he got even better news than he could expect, his coaches told him not to worry about that, and the varsity guys basically moved him from back-up discus thrower to starter. They told another kid to go kick rocks. They said they preferred working with Javalina because he was always there and he had the right attitude and worked hard in the gym.
I was able to get Boy to go with me, it was nice. It is in situations like these that we can actually talk and joke around without him running off to his room or his GF. We were out there from 9:00am until almost 2:00pm by the time they were done with shotput and then discus. Wife was busy all day with a couple college courses she is taking, so she was gone all day. We had already planned and talked about just getting some food and staying in Sunday and not leaving the house. Wife was smart enough to stop on her way home after class and got stuff for dinner Saturday and meat for BBQ on Sunday.
When I finally think "ahhhh" a nice quiet day to relax, my mom calls me out on FB about spending more time with my folks, they won't be around forever, kind of a morbid message considering I see her as strong as a moose who still goes and works at the school, for free. Yeah, my dad is starting to look like the Crypt Keeper a little bit, but he himself doesn't seem to like anything at times. I thought it was a bit unfair, considering we had just seen them three weekends ago, she is already planning to come visit next week and I had told her we were going down for at least 4 days on Spring Break. I love my folks but Javalina has tournaments we aren't going to miss, Boy is on his own schedule and we at least see him by being home, at least while he lives with us.
Sunday, March 1, 2020
3/1/20 Different Child, Similar Stories From Friends?
It wasn't that long ago that we had Boy and his school friends here. I remember their good days and some of their bad days, when they would get angry and down realizing they did not have the support maybe they saw our son did. I would honestly go out of my way for these boys, if they needed some clothes, if they stayed with us for a long weekend, we would listen to them, whatever it took so they would feel like they mattered and they too were important.
I can't say we were a positive in any of their lives, but only one and just in the last few months has popped out a kid. To me, that defines a life a little out of control, shoot, it happened to us with Boy, but we made it work. On the flip side, I think having Boy a little before we were ready is why we are still not where I want to be financially, but we will get there.
So now that Javalina is approaching that age where him and his friends aren't little boys but starting to become young men, he is starting to hear similar trending stories. One of his friends from kinder is wanting distance saying he "wants a girlfriend and to stop hanging out with the gang all the time." I can understand wanting a GF, we all want someone who will care about us personally, who wants to see the best version of ourselves come to life, but it does worry me that at the same time he wants to sever the connection to the group he has known since they started going to school. This upsets my son, because he cares about his friends and knows that this one is going through a rough patch. He is being raised by Grandma, mom and dad are not around. His older sister struggles to get him necessities like earlier he was running around in an old jacket. I offered to buy him one, but he felt weird taking a "handout". Eventually, I bought him a couple hoodies and just gave them to him at home, saying here I already bought them, Javalina says he was wearing them regularly afterwards.
Yesterday, I spent a few hours with another set of Javalina's friends, the jock ones. He likes to compartmentalize. His oldest friends come over and spend the night once a month or so. These, he had never even brought over. He feels weird that we have so much and some of them don't have even a room of their own. I always remind him, like we would tell Boy "well, you don't have shit, we do. You are as poor as any of your friends, you're just lucky to live under our roof."
It was funny, sort of, to hear them busting his balls, like wow, you have your own room and bed, I have to share my bed... I don't even get a bed, I sleep in a box... I am pretty sure that was sarcasm. Even as simply taking them out to eat, we couldn't choose a place because the two boys I brought along hardly ever eat out. One of them said "I ate at Bill Miller like 4 years ago." I told him we eat there like twice a week, Javalina loves it.
I really wish parents were better, but the reality is that like in everything, people generally suck. Selfish assholes that abandon their kids, decide to start other families and ignore the first set of kids. These poor kids did nothing wrong, but they get to still exist trying to fit in.
I can't say we were a positive in any of their lives, but only one and just in the last few months has popped out a kid. To me, that defines a life a little out of control, shoot, it happened to us with Boy, but we made it work. On the flip side, I think having Boy a little before we were ready is why we are still not where I want to be financially, but we will get there.
So now that Javalina is approaching that age where him and his friends aren't little boys but starting to become young men, he is starting to hear similar trending stories. One of his friends from kinder is wanting distance saying he "wants a girlfriend and to stop hanging out with the gang all the time." I can understand wanting a GF, we all want someone who will care about us personally, who wants to see the best version of ourselves come to life, but it does worry me that at the same time he wants to sever the connection to the group he has known since they started going to school. This upsets my son, because he cares about his friends and knows that this one is going through a rough patch. He is being raised by Grandma, mom and dad are not around. His older sister struggles to get him necessities like earlier he was running around in an old jacket. I offered to buy him one, but he felt weird taking a "handout". Eventually, I bought him a couple hoodies and just gave them to him at home, saying here I already bought them, Javalina says he was wearing them regularly afterwards.
Yesterday, I spent a few hours with another set of Javalina's friends, the jock ones. He likes to compartmentalize. His oldest friends come over and spend the night once a month or so. These, he had never even brought over. He feels weird that we have so much and some of them don't have even a room of their own. I always remind him, like we would tell Boy "well, you don't have shit, we do. You are as poor as any of your friends, you're just lucky to live under our roof."
It was funny, sort of, to hear them busting his balls, like wow, you have your own room and bed, I have to share my bed... I don't even get a bed, I sleep in a box... I am pretty sure that was sarcasm. Even as simply taking them out to eat, we couldn't choose a place because the two boys I brought along hardly ever eat out. One of them said "I ate at Bill Miller like 4 years ago." I told him we eat there like twice a week, Javalina loves it.
I really wish parents were better, but the reality is that like in everything, people generally suck. Selfish assholes that abandon their kids, decide to start other families and ignore the first set of kids. These poor kids did nothing wrong, but they get to still exist trying to fit in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)