7/31/20 It Should Be Free?

    I don't understand how people can be so stupid, or naive, or what they are thinking anymore.  I was watching just random entries on Instagram, which I go through once or twice a day, I like looking at sexy girls, no harm no foul.  Not all pictures are of that though, and sometimes people like to interject scary or serious pictures to change it up a bit.  That is fine, if I don't care for it, I just scroll to the next one.  This pic of an oil well platform out in the middle of the ocean being hit by waves as tall as the platform, waves must have been peaking at 40 or 50 feet.  The video was surreal and the platform appears to be floating and somehow bobbing up and down.  I looked at it for 2-3 cycles and then I wanted to see what the comments said.  I just wasn't sure if it was real or fake. 
    I thought I have heard of platforms like this that float, but still sit high above the water, although I don't know if that is the case here or just a theoretical design.  Anyways, let's suppose it is real for the sake of this conversation, there are people bobbing up and down a good 20-30 feet with this thing, truly something spectacular to survive through, I can only hope.  Then the comments get to where they always get to.  "The earth provides us the oil for free, why do these corporations make us pay for it, all they do is take it for free."  Clearly, there is a disconnect with Johnny here.  Does he not understand the pure majesty and engineering of this rig alone to withstand what Mother Nature is dishing out, for the sake of sucking that oil out from the ground.  Assholes making comments like that have never worked a hard job in their lives or they are children.  There seems to be no appreciation for the efforts that some companies go through to provide us with the things that make our lives so easy.  This oil is being pumped out of the ground under an ocean maybe hundreds of feet deep, maybe more.  No one is getting to it without some real good knowledge of what they are doing and risking men's lives for the chance.
    Last night, when I was filling up my Excursion for the 1000th time leaning against the door waiting, my thought doesn't go to complaining about the cost, at $1.69, it is about as cheap as it has ever been.  Awhile back, we were paying near $4.00 a gallon and I still wasn't complaining.  I am sure those companies Exxon and Shell and all make a pretty penny but I never think "hmm, how am I going to get some crude oil from under the ocean and process it just right so I can drive around?"  You guys can do all that for $1.69?  Thanks.  Fuck with the shitty attitudes of people who don't even carry their own weight.  Driving is not a right, if you think gas is too expensive, drive a bike, preferably not on the road, because the way I see it, your shitty bike doesn't pay for the taxes that built the roads we drive on.
    Anyways, I think this is just an extension now that I am hating these soft ass liberals who would rather be socialists.  How was I on their side, I hate these type of people?  Always wanting the other person to make them complete.  If only the rich would pay for their blank, they would be better off.  Fuck that, make your own way, like the rest of us adults did.

7/30/20 Should We Buy A New RV?

    It looks like as much as Wife tried to find a job in the Austin area, she will have to do another year in La Pryor.  She had been staying with my folks and that was working out well enough, but now with Covid-19 and my mom's fears that my dad will accidentally be exposed and possibly suffer the most (he is the weakest member of the immediate family, if he was a gazelle, I would only be able to say he was a gazelle, the lions would have feasted on old ass meat (JK, but not really)).  Still, we're human and my mom wants to keep him around as long as possible, even if he is a pain in the ass, sometimes.
    Well, a few times that I thought would be good times to go visit since February, my mom has outright told us no.  She feels we take too many risks by letting people come and visit, letting DD live with us, Sweetie working at HEB, Javalina seeing his friends, and on and on.  That being said, and I totally understand and agree.  I don't want to be responsible for getting my dad sick, so for now, Wife has just been driving back and forth to work.  It is almost tolerable because they are getting out at 2:00pm and she gets here around 5:00pm, but she still has to get up at 4:00am to get going by 5:00am.
    Today, we both came to the conclusion that in the light of Covid-19, she might need a better solution to live in and that is when it occurred to me that maybe we should just get another RV.  One that can be towed with an SUV, a travel trailer, not a 5th wheel which requires a truck.  Wife wasn't being difficult with her instant "No!", so that tells me we got something to do this weekend.  We can go look at a couple of different RVs.  I know that one we could drive is not in the budget, but that would be the dream.  I looked at a couple of tiny ones but they just aren't practical, what is she going to do, get home and sit at the kitchen table all evening, then lie in the bed, two feet away?  That sounds like a prescription to go insane.  If we do this, I think we need at least some chairs or a sofa and a separate bedroom.  Eventually, this would be something we would use to vacation and I am sure Javalina would like to take some friends, so we are back to looking at units that have the kid's room in the back.

7/29/20 Too Good To Be True?

    I am the first to say, "If something looks to good to be true, it probably is."  Yet, I can't help but fantasize over the "find" I saw this weekend.  Anyone who follows me knows I am obsessed with the idea of buying a boat.  I can't honestly decide what would be the perfect boat for me as I want a boat for all occasions, whether I want to fish, or spend the night on it, or just enjoy like we used to, an afternoon running around swimming and having sandwiches in a nice quiet cove.
    This weekend for some reason Wife mentioned Craigslist and I haven't been on that site in months, so I opened it up to see if anything had changed and I saw the listing for boats.  I guess my preference would be something with a cabin in case of bad weather, maybe for spending the night once in a while.  This means it is easy to scan the boats and just focus on the bigger ones that don't have the crazy prices in the plus $100,000 range.  After going in about 200 boats deep in the boats section, I came across a speed boat which was advertised for $1400.  I laughed to myself "wouldn't that be nice..."  I showed it to Wife and surprisingly, she said "go ahead, contact them."  I said "it has to be a scam, the tires on the trailer alone are worth more than $1400", but Wife persisted "what if the wife got the boat in a divorce and just wants the ex to suffer?"  "Ok", I thought, it doesn't hurt to inquire.  I told the lady (it turned out) that I was interested if this was a real ad.  Nothing happened for a couple days as I figured.
    Today I found an email from the lady.  She said she did get a divorce from a cheating husband who left her with 2 kids and she is having to move in with her folks, so she got the boat in the divorce and just wants to get rid of it.  She said if I am still interested, $1400 will take it, it is not a typo.  I still feel it is a trap, but I told her if she can wait until Friday we can go look at it and I will gladly buy it for that price.  I figure I can do the transaction at a bank with a notary, and I would like the boat looked over by a boat mechanic of some kind.  I will not get excited quite yet, but if it is real, this is more boat than I bargained for.
    DD is willing to go in half with me and that is nice, but at this price and the fear of an ex husband looking for me wanting his property, I may just buy it and use it as a trade in to get something newer.  This boat screams "I am an Attention Whore!"  Bright yellow and orange flames, 30foot long and 400HP.  I know it is tacky as hell but I also know I can be tacky as hell too.

7/28/20 Accepting What You Have As Good?

    It took me a long time to accept my life as I saw it developing once I knew I was married and having to pivot away from a life of thinking for myself.  I didn't grow up with aspirations of being anything in particular, I have pretty much accepted the day as it comes and don't like to think about the future but I remember sometime in high school when we all have to decide what we are going to do with our lives.  In high school, I loved band more than anything, other than you know, but nobody wants to see a fat pornstar.  According to Wife, she just assumed I would study music and become some sort of band director.  I might have thought that for a day or two, but I really am driven by the idea of making money and having more that the guy next door.  This made it easy to choose pre-med as a course of study.  When I had to choose an actual degree plan, I went with chemistry because I thought that is something I know nothing about and this will strengthen my background on it and at some point I'll switch over to an easier degree plan like Biology (I don't know why that would be easier).  Chemistry had its challenges, but it never overwhelmed me, so I stuck with it.
    I was devastated when I didn't get into medical school, not because I really wanted to be a doctor, I think I would have been fine at it, but what hurt is that I wouldn't make the big bucks they made.  I floundered for a couple years, worked at the warehouse driving a forklift and unloading trucks and then working with a classmate of mine in the LCRA chemistry lab.  I could have stayed there and followed the path but my friend would always be above me and I couldn't really dig that.  Eventually I found my way into the semiconductor world, totally by accident and that seemed to fit me.
    I guess I am reflecting on this because my mom sent me a text today of a guy from back home that became a doctor and according to my mom quite successful out in the Corpus Christi area but he got Covid-19 and passed away.  On top of that, he had moved his mom in to live with him and apparently, she sick too, and my mom sent another text tonight that she had passed away as well.  My condolences to the family this has to be truly devastating to the survivors, and I hate to make it about me, but had I made it into med school, this could have been my outcome.  It is not guaranteed that where I work or live won't eventually get me infected, but being a health care worker in today's climate means you are living and breathing in a war zone.  Maybe I won't ever have the riches of a doctor, but I am happy with what we have been able to do, I don't really live a stressful life, I am off plenty and I get to see my boys daily, so life is good.

7/27/20 An Audit At Work?

    I finally got the honor of being chosen to be the person acting as the tip of the spear, if you will, on an audit.  I have been able to avoid it for almost 25 years, but I guess everyone gets it eventually.  I was notified about two weeks ago by our director when she sent me something like 25 Powerpoints, to which I jokingly responded that I was a little too busy enjoying my time off due to Covid-19 and my days were too filled with Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Go.  She did not appreciate my attempt at humor, coming back with a "We are paying you, aren't we?"  I quickly fell in line, some people don't have a sense of humor.
    I tried my best and made a plan to go over one or two of those Powerpoints a day, but man, there isn't anything more boring than reading instructions to a job I've been doing all my life.  I honestly read one, which covered our electronic pipettes, they give you a measured amount of liquid into your container.  This one was over how we check their accuracy, we send them off to get calibrated once a year, but do another internal check every six months.  We actually have a guy assigned to take care of stuff like this, so me reading it made little sense.  I ended up taking a nap and that pretty much happened every time I tried reading a new Powerpoint.
    When I went back to work I felt better after asking around and nobody had really read any of the Powerpoints, so I wasn't the only one.  My trainer put me at ease saying they aren't going to ask you stuff you don't know, more than likely it will just have to do with what we do every day.  This took the stress of it away, but I still went and skimmed about 20 of the Powerpoints this past weekend, early in the morning when everyone was asleep and late at night when Wife went up to the bedroom.  I was trying not to let it ruin my weekend, but it still did.  I was worried I would have to regurgitate straight information from a random Powerpoint, but in the end, it went pretty much as my trainer said it would.  She said she was chosen the last time to do the audit, but also mentioned that it is different every time.
    I was told to show up at 4:00pm, which I arrived probably by 3:30pm today.  I broke out some pants which I keep for special occasions and a nice Polo style shirt, so I wouldn't look like a Dummy.  It took quite a while for the auditor to show up but she was quite nice and not scary at all.  She basically asked me to go through the procedure of starting a job from the beginning and taking her through the process.  It couldn't have been better, this is all I do, so I felt very comfortable explaining the process even with the Director and my Supervisor hanging out in the background along with my trainer.  I went through most of the whole process, taking almost an hour to get through everything, and in the end I passed it off to my trainer because I only do so much.  Even my Supervisor got involved towards the end as she wanted very specific data on the condition of the tool and the qualification procedure of our scales and other stuff I just don't do.
    After the lady left, our Supervisor said we did great and to relax and take a deep breath.  I am glad it is over even if it didn't turn out to be as bad as I was building it up in my head.

7/26/20 Long Distance Relationships Can Work?

    We just watched Kissing Booth and then Wife chose to watch Kissing Booth 2, I thought the first one was a bit cliche.  What I got from it is when the guy goes off to college, Harvard of course, she has to stay behind and continue in high school by herself because she is a grade younger.  This got me thinking, Wife and I had that relationship and it worked for us.  I think it was good in that Wife kept her identity and was allowed to continue being herself without becoming one of those couples with a stupid mixed name like Mancky or Vindo, where it is cute to make a new name out of the combination and both people stop being interesting and just exist to please each other.  Instead, Wife was vice president of her class and drum major the last two years while I was away.  I think those things helped define who she has become, a genuine ballbuster and someone who is used to being up front making decisions and never being wrong, at least in her head (I kid).  I don't know that I would have liked her being all that and not being available for me at my beck and call.  I was quite needy back then and I expected that as my girlfriend she be My Girlfriend first.
    I thought it was good for me to go through college by myself as well.  There were times I would have maybe enjoyed having her around, but in the moment I loved the freedom I experienced living with the guys, starving on tuna and cereal, going to the gym daily or playing basketball with my roommates or other friends.  The time I was in college allowed me to grow and realize I wasn't helpless and I could be just as well with or without a person to entertain.  That being said, Wife has always been a good sport and goes along with my interests, for the most part.
    Now that we are adults, this independence is still something that comes in handy.  It is what allowed the transition for her to work three hours away and be gone all week easy.  Even with me saying that, we are starting our fifth year and if it were up to me, it would be nice to get back to normal.  Having her here the last few months with the Covid-19 scare has kind of reminded me how convenient it is to live as a couple.
    I try to do my part, keep the yard and the pool clean, wash clothes and change the bedsheets, but she does pretty much everything else from feeding us and making us sit as a family, to involving the boys in doing their share.  That last part takes a special knack, I can tell them over and over and it seems to fall on deaf ears or I get Javalina's "Tomorrow".  Wife tells them and it must be in her tone or the genetic fear of the chancla, but the boys seem to fall in line much easier with her in charge. 
     I can't complain, my life is good.  Having Wife around just makes it gooder.

7/25/20 Why Not The National Guard?

    I keep hearing that it is illegal to take care of these a-holes acting like empowered children with the National Guard because we can't use the military against our own civilians on US soil, but then the very first sentence I read on Wikipedia (which is not the best source, just the quickest) as:  The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law (10 U.S.C. §§ 251–255; prior to 2016, 10 U.S.C. §§ 331–335; amended 2006, 2007) that empowers the President of the United States to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection and rebellion.  This sounds like the military or the National Guard are exactly the right tool for the job.  If these people were peacefully protesting and there was no damage to property going on in all these separate cities, I would still lean towards giving them leeway and letting them get their point across.  The truth of the matter is these groups are not really interested in helping black lives as their banner reads.  Day after day, it seems more black people are getting killed in the name of this Black Lives Matter slogan than before.  In CHAZ/CHAD, which was supposed to be like a street party, 4-5 black people got shot before being broke down, in Chicago, anywhere from 60-100 black people are getting shot every week I believe for the last two months.  The numbers are similar in New York.  Portland has had "protestors" out every night for two months now, and each night they attempt to burn the federal courthouse.
    This people have screamed and cried for the United States to come to its knees, to turn over its capitalist ways and become more like Venezuela or Cuba and become a socialist nation, to defund the police, and attempt to destroy the monuments to the great men that made this country.  If I had it my way, I would be picking up groups of these idiots and delivering them to the great and prosperous nations they love so much.  Trade a handful of Cubans for a handful of these idiots, give them on a 1 to 1 basis to Venezuela, people there wish and pray they could become American citizens.  The worst offenders should be taken overseas to China and North Korea, let them enjoy what they call a really fair economy, fucking idiots.
    I am personally tired of the disrespect and hate we get to hear from these useless citizens on an almost daily basis.  Stand up and become police officers if you claim you would use a tazer instead of your gun against an idiot high on drugs coming at you with a knife.  All you entitled white hundred pound girls, join the police force and show us how you can talk down a person intent on taking someone else's property and attempting to flee.  If he is coming at you, running like a madman, attempt to stop him by shooting him in the leg instead of on the chest.  Then when we bury the majority of y'all, at least we can proudly say "they died doing what they protested, they believed in protecting the bad guys doing crimes to get ahead in life.  This citizen gave all he/she had so that scumbag X could get away without having his feelings hurt."  You are all full of shit, police officers really do one of the hardest jobs in the land, they have to in an instant determine who is a good citizen trying to get through their day and who is trash and needs to get their attention.  For all your talk, I don't think you could do it any better if you really tried.

7/24/20 Dude, Where Is My Bronco?

    Alright, so Ford made a lot of freaking noise, finally about the new Bronco.  I have seen reviews and pictures and videos of it running up and down hills and rocks.  The thing is beautiful, if you think the Jeep Wrangler idea of a car is beautiful.  There is a 2-door and a 4-door variation, there are about 5-6 different trim levels and so many options, such as the Sasquatch package, which adds 35 inch tires and stuff to go climbing hills and stuff.  The prices I saw were starting at around $28,999 for the cheapest 2-door variant and more than $65,000 for a fully loaded 1st edition, of which they are only making like 3500.
    Now the reality, where is it?  Wife said she was sure she saw a billboard going to San Antonio advertising that they were in at Jordan Ford.  This actually got me excited because when I looked at the Maxwell Ford website it said you could order yours today.  If anything, I was hoping they would have one in the showroom to see the live dimensions and maybe even sit in one.  I had to argue with Wife to go over to the dealership, she hates that I can very happily just walk around and look at all the different trucks and SUVs.  After throwing enough of a tantrum and guilt she said "Fine!  Go to Ford but just to look at the Bronco, not anything else."  I was all happy, drove over there in rush hour only to be told they won't arrive until maybe November at the earliest.  There is also a Bronco Sport and the guy at Ford there said those are going to come out earliest in the Spring next year.  So what are we to do in the meantime?  We can look all we want but I don't think they exist yet.  It sucks because I remember them saying they would be out in the Spring of this year.  Maybe Corona has something to do with the delay, maybe not.
    At least the pictures and reviews have all been positive.  It seems Ford has done everything right, by keeping the look of the old Bronco of yesterday and filling it with today's technology.  I like the idea of a large screen in the center of the console and not much else but A/C vents, looks very clean.  I also like the removable hardtops which when removed leaves the whole area above the seats open.  There is no bar in the middle like on the Jeep Wrangler which is the only competitor out there for it.
    I am not sure if I would really like one, the minimalist in me likes the idea that it is a compact vehicle that would fit much easier in any parking lot compared to the Excursion.  The real world me still figures if I am going to pay $50,000 or more for my next vehicle it might as well be a big ole F-250, which is always my go to vehicle when I think of what I would drive if life didn't constrain me.  As the guy at Ford said, the Bronco will not have any incentives or sale prices any time soon, the trucks will, as they have been around a long time.  Plus, the trucks are proven and reliable.  It will be awhile before we know what kind of bugs are in the Bronco.  It is a super cool looking vehicle though.

7/23/20 Return To Work?

    I ended up being out of work for a month due to the concerns of Covid-19.  I was officially out of work from June 18 until July 20.  This seems ridiculous to me now, but in the moment I felt like I was doing the right thing.  I was sure in the beginning of this that I would just be out for two weeks and I was kind of bummed that because I went into quarantine one week before Wife was scheduled to take her time off, we would be off schedule on our time off.  After I talked to the site nurse, she told me I had to wait until the infected person was healthy again with no signs of fever or other symptoms for three days straight.  At this point, I was to count another fourteen days, to be safe.
    Anyways, I thought I would just love being off, but it was a mixed bag of emotions.  Yes, I did enjoy the lazy feeling of not having to rush off to work for those weeks.  But then, I felt guilty that I wasn't being a team player and I was letting my coworkers basically carry my ass in my absence.  I never like the feeling of other people doing more than me.  I feel like if I do more, no one can call me lazy or say I take advantage of my company.  Since I had never been out this long and half of the time did coincide with Wife's vacation and it was the timeframe I had scheduled to be off (we would have been in Florida for two weeks with extended family if not for Covid-19), it really was a decent time off.  We were able to enjoy time in the pool in the backyard, I went for a couple bike rides with Javalina to kind of test how my knees would do (they are getting better, I could go longer if not for the heat), and of course we watched a bunch of movies and series on Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.  Hell, I went crazy and even paid for a couple movies to watch them even if they weren't available.
    Returning to work this week was great.  I would have preferred to have gone back to a short week, but then I would have had to accept less pay, it's complicated, but still, the week went by fast.  Monday through Wednesday night was easy, Wife had to go to sleep early, so by the time I came home, she would be asleep, so no reason for me to rush.  Thursday night was the only one I was really wanting to rush and get home.  It is the last night of the week for me and Wife had come in a little early to do an interview to hopefully get her butt back home and stop the madness of traveling back and forth to La Pryor.
    Maybe my body has had ample time to recharge while being off or maybe losing some weight has helped me, but I noticed that after sleeping for about 8 hours and getting up, I wasn't sleepy on my way to work or while loafing around the house before work.  I don't have time to be sleepy at work, as I don't even sit down nowadays.  I bust through the work on both tools to get whatever is there done.  Covid-19 has given us a golden ticket and I am fully enjoying its benefits, since we have to work in this minefield that could produce death.  Other than that, I am feeling positive and like an honest member of society being back at work.  I don't know how jackals that don't work regularly can feel good about themselves without contributing to society.

7/22/20 What Do You Do?

    I am always a little uneasy when other people/technicians come and do work around my house.  I always feel like I should be the man doing the work, so I should at least be out there and suffer and sweat as much as the guy doing the work.  This past week, I had three different guys come to the house.  The first was the A/C guy that I called and he explained to me everything in a nutshell about the Heat Recovery Unit that started the whole mess when it developed a leak.  I guess, if anything, I pick up a couple of tidbits of information.  I did not have any idea what the box he labeled Heat Recovery Unit did, but he explained it and it made sense.  The only problem was that since it did not have anything to do with the A/C systems, he was not allowed to work on the unit per his license and bonding.  He suggested I call a plumber.  Guy number two was from Reliant and he was a nice guy, other than the raping on the price, which is something set by the company, not him.  He fixed the leak and in doing so, fixed it so I wouldn't know any better and figure I would need a new water heater.  I don't know if it was intentional or accidental, but he forgot to turn the power switch back to on and considering the water heater had been drained of water to do the work he did, he might have meant to wait around until it filled to switch it back on or tell me to do it, but neither of those things happened.
    At night, I noticed we barely had lukewarm water at best, I told Wife "well maybe the tank was drained and it takes it all night to heat the water back up."  By the morning, the Hot water was the same temperature as the Cold.  It was Sunday, and considering the unit was 13-14 years old, I figured we were better off buying a new one.  We got all that done at Lowe's, and Tuesday I got another guy at the house.  This one worked in the garage and although I was outside with him, he was in that closet with the water heater and the man was soaked in sweat.  I ended up giving him three Gatorades, he was a husky older guy and the sweat made me feel bad for him.  He was the one who said, "oh yeah, you have no heat because the power switch is off."  I figured I had already paid for the heater and him to be there and our unit was old, so I told him "oh well, let's put the new one in anyway."  He was talking me through what he did and again was generally friendly too.  I liked this guy, he came out the gate telling me how much they paid him, he had been moved to dispatcher but recently put back on a truck where his hourly rate went from $20 something to $30 something, so I told him that was great.  At one point he joked "I am getting too old for this..."  I kind of joked back "well, they always have a spot in the office for you as dispatcher."  He laughed and kind of nodded as he continued working in that small ass water heater closet.
    I know most people would just go inside and not bother talking with these guys, but I feel weird doing that.  I feel I learned a thing or two, so I don't see it as a waste of time and at least for now, I think our house is good again.  I know the A/C units are next, I am at least hoping it isn't until next year that we will have to replace at least one unit.  Those things run hard all summer.  That is hopefully, another problem for another day.

7/21/20 Javalina Met With His Friends?

    I really did not want to allow this, but we let Javalina go out and meet his friends at Zilker park.  On the one hand, I am fearful of him getting infected by his friends or the other idiots out on the park.  On the other hand, the poor boy has been stuck in the house with just us as company since Spring Break.  Wife and I tried to get them to get together here and swim in the pool, but either he didn't want them here or they didn't want to come over.  He never really asks to go out, so it makes it harder to keep him "locked up" constantly.  He is at an age when socializing is important, so we caved.
    He packed a backpack with water bottles, a towel, extra clothes, a portable charger for his phone and mosquito repellant, per Mama.  He promised to leave his mask on and we saw his friends who were wearing masks when we dropped him off.  It had been a long time since we had gone to Zilker, so we drove by earlier in the week and that did not help Wife feel better.  Wife finds it suspicious that grown men hang out at the park on park benches just sitting there.  Javalina assured us he would kick their asses if they approached him or one of his friends.  "Uh, settle down Beavis, you're a big boy but if they pull a knife or something else, you will be screwed" is about all I could muster.  I just told them not to go to the isolated places and stay where the masses are.
    Another thing that we still find surprising is that people are stupid, still not wearing masks.  We drove down Barton Springs Road and there were tons of people eating and hanging out.  Nobody appeared to be wearing masks and the restaurants looked pretty full to me.  After seeing this, we can't help but think that Corona is not going anywhere anytime soon.
    Well, after picking up our son, he said all the right things.  They got in the water for a bit, but it was cold that they didn't last long.  One of the boys had his GF with him and every time she tried taking the mask off, he said they all yelled at her to put it back on.  This sounded good to me.  He also said they rode the city bus, for free, over to the nearby McDonald's and then they played mini golf at the Peter Pan Mini Golf place next door.  I just hope we don't get any surprise coughs or symptoms in the next few days.  If he does, it will be the last time he sees his friends until there is a vaccine.
    He is going to be a busy guy this week.  Wife signed him up for a class in Cyber Security.  It is a basic course but it will be Monday through Friday, so lazy dude will have to get up before 10:00am and stay awake until around 3:00pm.  Right now, he is getting the computer ready.  His class will be online as a Zoom class.  Wife does these all the time, and so have the boys.  I have yet to do anything like that, so I don't know if it is better or worse than being live in a classroom.

7/20/20 Cascading Problems Continue?

    Well, we lost the Heat Recovery Unit which was feeding hot water to the water heater yesterday.  After deciding to save a buck and not get it fixed, but instead going a short route and bypassing it to save $2000, we now have to get a new water heater.  There was a leak by the air conditioners yesterday, which I noticed while we cut the grass and Boy made me really look at the systems.  I was sure it was the moisture taken out of the house which normally wets the yard around the A/C units in the summer.  Upon further inspection, it was actually a lot of water and it was coming from a box on the wall I was not even sure what it was supposed to do.
    I called an A/C guy, he explained what it is and how it works but he said a plumber needed to do the work due to licensing and bonding and stuff.  I then called a plumber, he was a nice guy I chit chatted with him the whole time, he explained why he was doing what he was doing, which I like to learn when I can.  The raping at the end was rough, he did about 15 minutes of work and charged us $536, with a $50 discount for being a first time customer.  Oh well, what are you going to do?
    At night, Wife complained that we didn't have heat to shower.  I told her maybe it's because the heater was drained and it'll take it overnight to heat back up.  We showered in lukewarm water, at best, good thing it is the middle of summer and it isn't cold.  Today (Sunday), in the morning, I came downstairs to look at the ice maker, another problem that arose, but I noticed that we had no warm water in the kitchen faucet.  Javalina showered and so did Wife and both complained about not having hot water.  At this point, I was sure the ice maker just got confused because the water was shut off.  I took everything out of the freezer and put it into our bigger stand up freezer so I could really focus on the problem without worrying of the food and ice.  I cleaned the floor with the vacuum and a wet towel to pick up all the dirt and dust under there.  In the middle of this, we ran to drop off Javalina to visit with his friends.  When we got back, I went to open the freezer and the door about fell off.  I am not sure if Boy did this, he was helping me.  This allowed me to get to the ice maker up close and remove it from the wall.  I found the inlet hose plugged with frozen ice which I poked at with a screw driver and it broke up.  I assume the ice maker is now fixed, water filled the tray, just waiting to hear the sound of the ice falling out and making noise.
    While dropping off Javalina, we stopped at Lowe's to look at the water heaters.  The process really sucks.  I wanted a tankless heater, they didn't have any electric versions in stock and the guy tells me they do not have anything to do with installing them.  This dissuaded me, I don't want to spend the day tomorrow looking for a plumber to install it.  I chose a 50 gallon electric version, which they had plenty in stock.  The heater itself is only $419.  The install however, the guy originally said "about $1600, plus the heater itself."  I was shocked and pissed, but what can you do?  I asked him if he could get me a credit extension, and they did.  I just bought a new dryer which we haven't even gotten the statement to pay and I have only had the card about a year.  They increased my limit way too much, but it allows me to do what I have to.  Once I got that in order, I told the guy there to ring it all up.  Turns out the install was only $969 plus the unit at $419 and taxes, the overall cost was $1400 and change.  After hearing the first numbers, this sounded cheap.  The placards in the store say 24 hour install if ordered M-F before noon, so I am hoping it will be installed tomorrow or Tuesday, the latest.

7/19/20 I Should Have Stayed In Bed?

    Man, you try to do the right thing sometimes, and life just bends you over and gives it to you hard.  I had been telling Javalina to cut the grass all week and of course he kept giving us his favorite phrase, "Tomorrow".  I know it is an old reference but this boy is just like little orphan Annie, "tomorrow, tomorrow, he'll do it, tomorrow, it's only a day away."  Any who, I got up with a head of steam and decided I would at least cut the front yard before I came in and woke him.  I got up at 8:00am and waited until 9:00am to get started.  I was not expecting his royal highness to even come out of his room, but Boy walked Sweetie out as she headed off to work and I told him to go wake his brother and both of them to get their asses out and help me.  Javalina was out within 4-5 minutes, it took me coming into the house and yelling at Boy to come out.  He doesn't like the yard, so why should he have to cut it.  I told him that was "stupid, nobody likes the fucking yard, we just have to maintain it."  He cracked back that he didn't want to and I yelled at him some more, something along the lines of "you live here for free, fucking help, it'll take 20minutes if we all do our part.  We have two lawn mowers and a trimmer, so there are no excuses of not knowing how to help.
    Just as I was feeling good about finishing the yard, Boy made me really look at the A/C units and there was a water leak by them.  I assumed the watery mess was the moisture pulled out of the house, but apparently, we have a heat exchanger which helps the water heater heat the water by using the heat pulled out of the house.  I decided to be proactive and called an A/C company, Arrow.  The guy was very professional and seemed very knowledgeable about my system, but said he was not licensed to do the repair.  This still cost me $89, and the leak remained.  Wife was probably still asleep while all this was going on.
    The A/C guy told me to call a plumber, they would be able to fix this.  I simply went through Google and the first number I got was Reliant Plumbing and they told me they could be here within a couple hours.  The Google rating was around 4.8, so good enough for me.  The guy then texted within 20 minutes of making the appointment that he was on his way.  This just gave me enough time to clean a path to the water heater, I had a bunch of stuff in the garage against that wall. blocking the door to its closet.  The plumber guy was knowledgeable, but said he wouldn't have the broken part until Monday or later.  The A/C guy said I could bypass the unit as it was just meant to add efficiency to the water heater,  The quick way of just soldering in a U in the water coming out and going back into the wall was quoted at $536, including a $50 discount for being a first time customer.  If I wanted it fixed with the leaking part repaired, it would be $2150 or thereabouts and I would have to wait for the part to come in.  I chose the quick way, and he did the work.  All things considered, it was a very quick repair, from identifying of the problem to getting a solution in place.  The only part that hurt was paying $89 to the A/C guy and then $536 to the plumber.  Oh well, it's only money.

7/18/20 A Possible Solution For The Pool Leak?

    What can't Youtube help you with?  There is a video pretty much of anything that one might need help with.  Yesterday, I started thinking about the pool leak our pool has had for the last few years.  It bothers me enough that I don't always keep up with the pool as it is an inferior pool, in my eyes, but also I don't want to spend what I know would be more than a $1000 to have someone come and find the leak and dig up my yard and destroy the concrete.  The water leaks down to where the pool is 10-12 inches below where it used to be filled to.  This messes up the feel.  Walking in, instead of standing in 3 and 1/2 feet of water, up around the belly, it is still below around the thighs.  The deepest part normally would come up to my shoulders, which feels perfect for me for standing around without the fear that it is so deep that kids could accidentally drown.  The deepest part is small as it rises up quickly, so I never worried the boys or their friends would get in trouble and tire of swimming or cramp up or something like that.  With the leak, the water is barely nipple high, so to float, I have to bend my knees which feels goofy.
    I found a video where the pool technician is using a dye with a syringe to squirt a tiny amount at a time and seeing if the dye is sucked out into a crack.  It was cool to see that next to a pump inlet where there was a suspected crack, the dye was going straight to around the edge of the pipe in the video.  I had tried dye, but I was using food coloring and just using the bottles and trying to squirt it at the places I suspected.  I never noticed it getting sucked away, but I have had my suspicions of where the leak was.  Since I noticed the technician basically had what looked like a syringe, I wanted to get something like that.  I found an old squirter to feed babies medicine while we were cleaning the kitchen, but it did not work.  As soon as I put it in the water, the dye started running out of the container.  I was thinking about where to get a syringe and I remembered I had a bunch of used ones from when I was getting testosterone shots (I need to go back, btw).  This was what I needed.  Very quickly, when squirting a tiny amount right near the pool inlet, I saw the trail of blue disappear into a crack.
    Now that I know where to attack, the best way is to break up the concrete, I guess.  DD works in construction and very confidently told me he had all the equipment to cut a hole in the concrete.  He mentioned a hammer drill, drilling a bunch of holes around where we want to break it, then using a chisel and stuff.  I told him cool, I will start with my hammer drill tomorrow (this was Thursday night), he laughed, your battery powered hammer drill is cute, I have a real one, it'll do it quicker.  I have no problem when someone offers to do the hard manual labor for me and for free.  The plan is to break thru the concrete, if I can't easily repair the inlet jet, I will just cap the line behind under the concrete, patch the hole where it comes into the pool with hardening clay and hopefully get a few more solid years of use from this pool.  As Wife said, this pool is nearing twenty years, which is what got me thinking, we'll just give it this last attempt or I am going to get rid of it and install a new concrete pool.

7/17/20 Finally Ventured Out?

    We have honestly been as good as a citizen can be, for the last five months.  We have only been going to HEB and Target to get groceries and even that we try and get a full basket at a time.  This seems like a lot when we are spending $300-$600 each visit, but we have not eaten out since then.  Yes, we have picked up Bill Miller through the drive thru a handful of times, Javalina insists drinking water only from a Bill Miller plastic cup.  We go back about every 3-4 weeks so he gets a meal with tenders and a new glass.  There has also been about 1-2 Chick-Fil-A visits using the drive thru, we have not had a restaurant meal since corona started being a thing (maybe Spring Break time in March).  I do go to Home Depot and Lowe's once in a while, such as to replace our dryer a month ago or to buy stuff to do projects around the house, at one point I fixed holes in the fence and bought screws and new pickets for the fence, but this are quickie 20 minute trips by myself.
    Yesterday, we went out and walked IKEA for the first time in maybe six months.  I had bought black out curtains to separate the kitchen and family room two half wall openings but decided I needed another set of those curtains to also be able to block the light coming from the passage between the two rooms.  It was nice to get out and "shop", it used to be my favorite thing to do, I love looking at stuff, I have no shame, I am a material Capitalist pig and love the idea of commerce.  Anyways, Wife got a bunch of photo frames for all the photos we have been finding, such as Javalina's school pictures that were all resting on top of the fridge.  Afterwards, it was almost 5:00pm, so I drove over to Bass Pro Shops, I am always dreaming of getting another boat, so we looked around.  I have almost convinced myself that a small boat would be better, nobody hangs out with us anymore and a smaller boat would fit in the garage and of course, be cheaper.  We are still tossing that back and forth.
    Another reason I wanted to go out was that I wanted to get a new receiver for the family room.  Since we bought the new projector in the fall, I have wanted to upgrade things, and Boy let me borrow one of his PS4's so we could have Netflix, Hulu and all those other options to watch on the big screen.  The connections weren't great because my old receiver is about 15 years old and did not have any HDMI ports.  The one I bought does and makes connections much easier.  I thought the price of the receiver was fair with all the connections and ability to grow, it can even be connected thru bluetooth to our phones.
    I know none of the things I got were necessities, but fuck, I am tired of being locked up at home.  This were just a few quick things we got to make our "prison" more palatable.  I was glad that it is now mandatory for everyone to be wearing masks and like at IKEA, there were several stations with hand sanitizer which I squirted on my hands even as I wore gloves.  It is only the morning, but I can already tell, the curtains to finish darkening the family room are going to be great.  Also, I am keeping the old receiver because the speakers outside by the pool are connected to it and I can have that on and be outside, or the boys could entertain their friends while movies can be enjoyed and listened to inside on the new receiver, so overall I call it a win/win.

7/16/20 Some Promising Solutions For Covid-19?

    It always seems darkest before the dawn, and hopefully this is another example of this, what with states like Florida, Texas, and California, the three coolest states with fun to be had outdoors experiencing 20% of the world's new cases currently.  It is an impossible task to get the virus under control now, too many people have it and we are just not disciplined enough to do the right thing.  Shit, we did the right thing and the virus still came to our house via Boy's GF and her work at the grocery store.
    Luckily, I have been reading of some promising solutions and work being done in fighting the virus.  First of all, I notice that even though we have more cases than ever, the mortality rate has dropped off, there are currently 3432 deaths and 282,365 people actively infected.  This gives us a death rate of 1.2% which compares very favorably against the rest of the world.  Globally, there have been 580,038 deaths and 13,382,020 people infected.  This gives a death rate of 4.3% which is worse.  In the beginning, I remember seeing rates as high as 6 and 7% death rates.  OF course, 0% would be ideal, but in any given year, many people do die of just regular old influenza, the common cold.  In 2018 (the latest year with data), some 34,200 people died of the flu from CDC data, again mostly were elderly.
    This was supposed to be promising, sorry.  I read a small company out of New York announced today that they are ready to start human trials on their vaccine which according to one of the company founders, the vaccine has the highest number of antibodies, it readily neutralizes the virus cells, and the platform being used for this vaccine is safe and 98%effective in the elderly population, so it seems to be a solid contender.  Along with this company, Moderna, which has just finished a human trial and is ready to start a final human trial before it is ready to be introduced to the population.  There is even another company, Astrazeneca, which is the frontrunner and about to publish their data next week.
    A vaccine helps those who have not had the virus, I don't know that it helps those already infected and in a hospital.  In the US, the FDA has created a new task force CTAP (Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program) and they have already worked on looking at and evaluating over 510 drug treatment programs.  This is where medicines like Remdisivir and Dexamethasone which are medicines developed and normally used for other infections, being used to help seriously ill people fight the effects of the virus.  Enoxaparin, which has not really made the news, but is effective in breaking up clots which the body has been known to form post virus attack.  Unfortunately, they have had to deal with undoing the damage whether intentional or not by the president when he mentioned drinking bleach or injecting it, or standing in front of UV sources.  Both of these do kill the virus and we use them to clean surfaces at home in the form of bleach and disinfectants and UV light is used in medical facilities to sterilize equipment but they will readily also kill human tissue and cells, so it is a horrible idea to expose your body to them.  Finally, silver has also had to be mentioned as it has been sold by people that take advantage of naive people by the likes of Infowars host Alex Jones and that old televangelist, Jim Baker.  It does not do anything positive to the corona virus and it could harm the person ingesting it.  I like the simple solutions and one that I see on the list is simply laying the patient in the prone position, laying a patient on their belly, has been found to open up the lungs.  Wife told me that they had done this to a young girl from back home and I thought "what does that matter?", but I see now that it has a purpose.  This simple act has prevented many patients from not even needing to be put on ventilators.
    I appreciate the efforts taken by the medical field.  They are put in the very dangerous role of standing in front of and facing the virus head on.  They do not get to hide like the bulk of us at home.  Many have even gotten sick and even died from being exposed in their work environment.  Wife and I were talking about the fear of getting sick and not only surviving but what the cost of hospitalization might be as some of these medicines sound like they may be costly.  My take is that if we get that bad and they can keep us alive, the cost doesn't matter so much.  I would prefer to survive, I kind of want to be around for a while longer.

7/15/20 Upcoming Problems With Covid-19?

    I don't know which way things are going to line up with, but if companies and schools really care, they are going to have to cough up some cash.  Wife and I were discussing how things are going to work for her new school year and how I will proceed once I go back.  My company has basically been very supportive of me having a Covid-19 case here in the house.  We were lucky in that we kept it isolated to just the GF of my son and nobody else got it.  My son was tested the same day she was and again last week with us.  My worry is what happens if after being out for a month, as I basically have been, it happens again.  Wife could come home and get infected somewhere, I could get infected going to HEB, it is bound to happen if this lifestyle continues, or if my high schooler goes back to school, most everybody with kids is going to get infected.  Kids constantly touch and hug and boys as I see them are constantly playing grab-ass with each other, like monkeys establishing who is the alpha, at least my little gorilla is, I always see him after school.
    My point is, what happens if I get sick myself next time or another member of the family tests positive, will my company support me being gone another month or longer if I end up hospitalized?  About a year ago, we went to what they call unlimited vacation time.  Technically, it is not like we can run out (we are not supposed to abuse it), but being out for two months even if it is mandated by the law and the site nurse is enforcing it, feels weird to me.  I only hope this doesn't happen again, but Boy's GF started her job again today at HEB and all the news sites insist this virus can attack you even after you have had it.
    Wife's work rules as they were discussing them are simply, you can be out, but you better have the days to cover the time.  That sounds unfair, teachers get about ten days off per school year, if they have to be out while they find out if they are positive and then two weeks after they feel better, at a minimum (if they don't get seriously sick), they will run out of sick days in one infection.  With students acting like students, it is pretty much guaranteed all teachers and administrators will be exposed by the time Christmas vacation rolls around, masks can only do so much.  My take, I told Wife is that if a person can work, even if they test positive, they will work.  The choice between feeding their family or worrying about someone else getting sick is not enough incentive to keep most people home.
    I was very tempted to keep my mouth shut and just keep working, I was one week away from my two week vacation anyway.  But, I didn't want to be the dick that got the sickness going amongst my co-workers, thinking I was going to end up sick after my son slept with her at least two nights before she went to the doctor.  I still don't understand how some people end up very sick, some die, and some don't even show any response.  This is a very confusing pandemic.  I appreciate my company backing me and just telling me to play it safe and stay home, I have just felt some guilt because luckily, I have remained healthy.

7/14/20 Of Course, A Chest Tattoo?

    Not that I keep up with actors, but Wife just told me Shia Labeouf is playing a character in a new gang movie and for the role, the idiot went and got a chest tattoo.  I mean now he is basically one of us, Hispanics all have chest tattoos and prison records.  I am just guessing but Wilmer Valderrama must have been busy or this would have been his role.  This is perfect, in the current time where the woke white celebrities are refusing roles that were meant for black actors after they have made hundreds of thousands of dollars.  I am sure the money was not returned, only the role.  This is BS, the money is the important part, donate what you shitty apologetic actors made in those roles and then maybe we can believe you are really ashamed.
    The director or whatever made sure we knew the character being portrayed was in fact a white person, so Shia is not doing anything wrong.  I don't really give two shits about the role in a movie I won't watch, but I hate when Hispanics and our culture, which even if his character is white, he grew up amongst are portrayed as nothing more than drug dealers and bad asses.  I am sure that if it benefits him, once the checks have cleared and his profits are safe, Shia himself will apologize for bringing a negative image for the people of central LA or wherever the movie was done.
    As far as the chest tattoo goes, which I just saw, looks a lot like some Mexican woman with a sombrero.  The claim is that it is his mother hugging a clown, either way, it looks like standard work you would find on any tough Vato in prison.  I normally don't care about social injustices, but since it keeps getting blown up our asses with all this BLM stuff, this is the same thing for us brown folk.  The director can say what he wants, but come on, put a Hispanic in the lead, which is why I mention Wilmer (FEZ from 70's show), they are about the same age.  I would say they are interchangeable other than the skin color, Wilmer is a good looking brown kid from that age group.
    Maybe it is even more insulting, the character is a tax collector, so obviously Mexicans can't be trusted with money and who better than a good Jewish boy to do the heavy lifting with the calculator.  I personally don't have anything against Jewish people, as Carolla has always said, they are family centric, they focus on their kids doing well in school, and rarely never are seen getting in trouble with the law.  I love good people, I just don't care for this idea for a movie.  We don't need it now, in this era of people chanting "defund the police" BS.  This just emboldens the bad element in society to rise up and do what they do.
    I hate that the fucks in Hollywood make movies like Scarface or Godfather and other drug movies where the people bringing drugs to the US are lionized and young people then aspire to be like them.  You want to get involved in this whole BLM, make movies showing successful normal people.  Stop glorifying gangsters and the bully lifestyle.  What do I know?

7/13/20 Diet Update?

    I am getting tired of writing about commies and violence on the streets so I guess I will give an update on my dieting efforts.  I have been able to lose about 22 pounds so far.  I weighed myself this morning and was back down to 410.  At my heaviest, I saw 432 on the scale.  It is both a good start to reaching my goal and at the same time not enough to go around rewarding myself or patting myself on the back.  I have been here before, but the big difference this time is that Wife has finally bought in and agreed to join me.  I guess Javalina didn't want to get left behind as he said he would also join in, which makes it easier because we are all eating the same thing, but also more expensive because eating Atkins or keto or whatever you want to call it is a lot more expensive.
    The hardest thing for me to let go was the sweets.  I can sit around and eat a whole cake in an afternoon if I am left to my own devices, or sometimes I would go buy mexican pastries "pan dulce" and since nobody else in the house likes it, I would sit and eat 3-4 pieces at a time.  We had a "candy bowl " on the island but instead we had been filling it with pastries like Little Debbie snack cakes and or oatmeal cream pies and I would start my mornings with a cup of coffee and at least 3 of those things.  I am happy to say, the bowl has had the same handful of pastries left in there now for at least a month.  Nobody else in the house really eats junk food like that.  I am proud of myself that like on Father's Day even after I told Boy not to, he went and bought a couple of cakes at Whole Foods.  I was good enough to not tear into them and although it sounds bad, we threw away more than 3/4 of both cakes, he and Sweetie may have had a slice.  Normally, I would have finished the rest.  Same thing is going on with a peach cobbler he and Sweetie made a couple days ago.  About 3/4 of it is still in the pan.  I had a fork full and it is very good, but I can't break down and eat it.
    Wife's biggest weakness is pastas.  She loves stuff like spaghetti, noodles, lasagna and that was hard for her to get past.  Since we are doing it together, it makes it easier because she can't say "well I cooked regular food for you and it is just easier to eat that."  There have been days she longs for certain things, but we just end up fighting thru the cravings.  Finding the Breyer's low carb ice cream in vanilla and chocolate has been really key because I am able to just about end every night with a little cup (I have a specific little cup I use), and I am not trying to eat a whole bowl at a time now.  This helps hit the sweet craving I get and is usually my reward for getting through the day.
    I have only been able to get out on the bicycle twice, the second time being this past Sunday, but we did go a lot further than the first time.  I chose not to do it today because the temperature was up near 107 and I just think that is ridiculous and asking for trouble.  It should be around 10 degrees cooler tomorrow, so hopefully, Javalina and I can go in the late afternoon.  I am really doing that to strengthen my legs as they feel weak after my knee problems.  I won't bring up the diet again until I lose another 15-20 pounds.  It might be going slower, but I don't mind the changes to our diets right now, I feel as though I am helping keep the diabetes away by not drowning in sugar every day.

7/12/20 Poked In The Brain For Covid-19?

    Well, we finally went for our first Covid-19 test, as a family, just to be sure.  Boy's GF has gotten past her symptoms, and Wife is scheduled to start going back to work next week, so we tried to find a place to test on Sunday night last week and this was the earliest we could schedule, which fell on Friday the 10th at 12:30 in the afternoon.  It is not that I am goading the virus to attack us, but after hearing how contagious it is and having a person in the house with it, I don't get how even Boy who slept with her before she knew she was contagious, did not test positive.  None of us have had any real symptoms. I mean I have had a runny nose most mornings, but I am always like that, or I would worry more.  She was real good about staying in the room the whole two weeks she was sick, it actually made us nervous when she came out Monday, but here we are.
    I had been dreading the idea of going out to the testing, not because of the test itself, but seeing the news and people were waiting in their cars in lines that went around blocks and taking up to an hour or longer.  In preparation, I told Wife she would absolutely have to drive.  I get sleepy if I sit idle too long, I have been better, but certain times of the day, it still happens.  It was a surprise to get there and not even see a single car in line.  For a second I even thought we had gone to the wrong place.  This quickly went away because they did have big signs everywhere that the line forms here.  Seeing this, we figured we had to get off.  This kind of sucked because the place is off Rundberg Lane and that part of town is ghetto as hell.  There was an open lot next to the clinic and there were tents there like it was a state park with people moving around and acting like there was lake or something.  There were also about 15-20 people in front of the building just loitering it looked like to me.  Luckily, those people had nothing to do with the testing.
    Walking into the test building it got real really quick.  Everyone inside was dressed in hazmat suits, like in the movies covered from head to toe.  They only let us walk in one at a time and first they took my info, which we had registered online on Sunday.  Next we walked into another room with maybe four stations.  I went to the first one, it all went by so quick, though.  First, blow your nose on a tissue, to clean it, then I was told to look at the ceiling and the tester had a foot long "Q-tip" and it felt like he used most of it to go up my right nostril.  He went in and fished around, spinning it with his fingers for 10 seconds.  I got up, agitated and my right eye was teary from being poked, I did whine and make noises but did not actually cry.  It felt like the poke reached up into my eyeball, it was so aggressive.  After that, a different person gave me a couple squirts of a soapy solution for my hands and I was sent out a back door and outside.  One of the nurses asked Javalina, in a funny old black lady accent "was that your daddy?"  Javalina answered "yes, probably."  "Mm-mm, (shaking her head), big man like that crying, what a shame."  I thought it was funny, how Javalina retold it.
    Wife and Javalina had the response after being poked.  Boy, who never reacts like a human (there's a reason we call him robot boy), just said it was ok.  Either he is too cool for school, or he is a jerk who refuses to share with us.  Either way, it took me about 20 minutes for the irritation to go away, same with Javalina.  It took Wife twice as long for her to stop feeling like they had poked her.  The nurse or whatever they were did tell her she has tiny nostrils, I know I have big nostrils, I can see way in there.  Anyways, that was that.  They told us it should be 2-3 days, it is the quick test, but it is taking 5-7 days in most cases to get results back.

7/11/20 Live In The Now?

    I stopped listening to Adam Carolla daily after overdosing on Podcasts a couple years ago, I was trying to keep up with 6-7 different daily ones and it was too much.  I still enjoy hearing what he has to say, I just can't seem to find the time to listen to him.  A couple days ago, while attempting to start weightlifting, I put on my earphones and listened to about half a podcast, some go on for over two hours, so it is as much as I could listen to before Wife came downstairs and started trying to communicate.  You can't wear earphones and talk with people at the same time.  But I liked the message he was trying to put out.  He had been talking about Hamilton which is the reason I chose that particular Podcast and about the backlash that the founding fathers did not do more about slavery.
    I wholeheartedly agreed with Carolla, slavery was an institution that had always existed, to try and start the colonies and at the same time change things would be a bit much.  His beef is more with the present day people disgusted with the past.  Our forefathers were fighting to free themselves from the bondage of a king too happy to collect taxes while providing very little.  The protestors get the privilege of living in the today and complaining about back then.  Like they say hindsight is 20/20.  If the forefathers themselves and their wives didn't have free rein (they answered to a king), the people they bought to work for them were certainly not going to be a priority to get rights.  Basically, Carolla's take is that people trying to change the past are going to be miserable because for all the complaining and demanding of this and that, you can't change the past.  You just have to accept history and fight for change today.  I still think those were great men, they managed to start this country that yes it took time, but was constructed in a way to allow every day citizens from coming to this land and making a name for themselves in this unique melting pot of a country.
    There is also the other side of the coin on this.  The dreamer, the person that wants to live in the future.  This person is never content with what he has or the situation he lives in because he always hopes that things will get better and then he will be happy.  Carolla's take was pretty brilliant, while some people spend today hoping for a better tomorrow, they forget to enjoy what they have in the moment.  It is much better to accept life on its terms and be a part of what you have.  I agree with this whole sentiment.  People can riot for reparations, and demand things be corrected for things that happened 160 years or more ago, but that is not going to happen.  You cannot blame the people living today for the actions of those living 200 years ago.  I guess you can try and spend all your time planning and scheming for a better tomorrow but too often time runs out and you find all you did was hold up a banner in the name of something that sounded good in theory (I'm looking at you modern day college kids with your socialism), but not in practice.

7/10/20 Who Is Driving?

    We started watching Warrior Nun on Netflix last night, it is very good, but in a certain scene a man becomes possessed by a demon and when asked after the demon is removed how it felt, the man described it as feeling like he was a spectator in his own life, he could see the action but not control it.  This is a feeling I have felt many times I stopped the show to talk with Wife.  I think we all get some of this.  Before corona came and stopped us in our tracks, I felt like it was always wake up, go pick up the kids from school, feed them, go to work, come home, sleep and repeat.  After a while, it all becomes a blur, I might get to work and think about it realizing I was not asleep or sleepy, but just out of it, not thinking.  I can't even remember doing the U-turn at Ben White at Montopolis sometimes and I know while doing it I am always disgusted because fucking bums live there regularly.
    This reminded me of a story I always think back to.  Back when I was at the junior college, I would drive the bus that would take the students back and forth between our hometown and to the school, 40 miles away.  I did fine for a whole year, never an incident, but many times, on the drive back I would be driving mostly on will.  There was a day towards the end of the year, probably in May where one of my buddies tells me as he is getting off the bus "damn, I had a good nap."  I turned to him and seriously I responded "me too."  His eyes got big and just said "but you were driving."  I shrugged and just said "I don't know", I honestly did not remember the drive.
    This is the one thing I keep saying I love about the virus.  Most of us have gotten a chance to get off this auto pilot we seem to run on all the time.  I don't necessarily enjoy being home on lockdown, but I do enjoy the time being here with my boys, Wife and I have had a lot of time to just sit and talk and enjoy watching movies and being a couple.  I guess for us it is extra nice because normally she would be gone all week working in La Pryor, but up until now, even when she has worked, it has only been on site on Tuesday and Thursday.
    In our efforts to not only keep up with the Jones but attempt to surpass them, we very often get trapped and all we do is move forward.  The first time we went to Disney with my in-laws and this was a vacation, everyone got mad at me because we spent about half an hour at the entrance taking pictures.  In my drive to get through the park and see everything, I guess I forgot that the fun is in the being there with loved ones.  I was on the verge of losing my shit because they would not start walking forward.  It may have been the first park and I was quickly doing the math and figuring "these fools aren't going to see half of the smallest park at this rate of walking, but they were just excited about arriving at their first park.  We had already been there 3-4 previous years so it wasn't "new" to us.  After apologizing for being rude, the rest of the trip was better, I just consigned to let them go at their pace, I had already seen most everything in the parks the years before.

7/9/20 Finding Old Memory Cards?

    Maybe we have been locked up too long in the house.  Yesterday, Boy let out DD's dog to go to the bathroom in the afternoon after he called that he was going to be stuck late at work.  Somehow, either Boy or Ghost (the dog), managed to get the door locked.  Wife realized this a little later and now it was my turn to get involved and unlock the door.  I have a ring with all the extra keys we find around the house and I was sure the keys for that lock were going to be in there, but they weren't.  While going through the drawer looking for more loose house keys, I found a collection of old memory cards I hadn't noticed in years.  I have a little pouch thing where I thought I had all our memory cards from our old cameras, but these five cards were floating out by themselves.  I think Wife got them together a few weeks ago when we cleaned the kitchen and she went and threw out most everything from our two junk drawers.  I was too busy at the time dealing with the pantry that I didn't notice what she was going through.  BTW, I opened the door to the bedroom with a credit card.
    It was fun to see what was on the memory cards, mostly pictures from around 2009-2011.  Javalina was a tiny guy still sporting his super long hair which we didn't cut from birth until he started elementary school.  Boy was about the same height but maybe 30 pounds lighter, he was only about 110-120 pounds in high school.  This is the timeframe when we were having all our parties here in our then new house.  We moved in 2007 and put the pool in the backyard by 2009 more or less.  We had BBQ's and parties almost every weekend, if I wasn't working overtime.  There were so many activities back then with the parties, going to Corpus, graduations, birthdays, Disney and just enjoying life.  Nowadays, it seems like every day is the same, we can't even go anywhere due to Corona.  I am kind of piss-y because this week we should have been in Florida at the Disney and Universal parks.  It might seem lame to some of you, but I enjoy being out there with my family just enjoying the getting away from normal and being amongst other families enjoying the same thing.
    The other thing in the pics that was fun to see was Boy doing his rocket presentations.  Those were out near Fredericksburg on a ranch and would take all day with students from all over the state showing up.  I just hope to get back to having these many excursions and adventures once life starts up again, because even if it doesn't feel like it while we are going through our busy lives, I guess we do activities to keep us and the boys entertained regularly.

7/8/20 Then What?

    My YouTube page has just become a hodgepodge of whiners and complainers from the far left.  Either they are complaining about our country needing to turn Socialist or they are calling to Defund the Police and of course, there doesn't seem to be anyone going to college that likes Trump.  What I am wondering is what are these people going to do after they graduate?  I mean I know most will end up back at mama's house while they work a minimum wage job.  The majority of adults could give a squirt of diarrhea about what you think is a good idea.  You got a tiny sampling of what your utopia would be when CHAZ was allowed to exist.  This was supposedly going to be a socialist centered utopia and lets ignore that we (the US which pays for everything, like Daddy) kept bringing you food supplies and kept the water and electricity running.  So what happened in your perfect world?  Instantly, a "warlord" took over, issued guns and even though the impetus for the movement was BLM, something like 5 black people were shot ( in a BLM created zone).  They were shot by people demanding police be defunded and removed, not to mention the rapes, graffiti, and all around chaos.
    Do you think screaming your message only to people that already believe your message is any way to move it forward, not that it would or could?  Most of these people shut up and demand to be taken off camera when an opposing thought is presented.  If your idea and your poster is so great, wave it like you just don't care so the whole world can hear and see your message.  It's like me screaming in my own house Gallegos people are the bestest people in the whole world and my son upstairs agreeing and yelling back "yeah, we are pretty awesome", but the minute somebody new knocks on the door I clam up and say "I don't want to discuss this."  Are these idiots just doing it as something to pass the time on a boring Saturday afternoon?  I can't imagine these dirty hippie types doing much more than ending up in dead end jobs.  It is alright, mama and daddy can't feed you all your life or maybe that is why you do what you do.
    These idiots screaming BLM is starting to get annoying.  Yes, I agree with the message, but not the way they are going about it.  Most any adult knows "one bad apple does not spoil the whole batch" but Minneapolis is going to try and go without a police force.  Of course the tiny detail that 3 members of the city council will get private security at a cost of like $4700 a day.  The fact that they think defunding the police is a good idea shows how out of it these people are.  What are you going to do when a bad person does something?  And yes, no police force means even more people with bad intentions are headed to Minneapolis as we speak.  If every citizen is expected to carry a gun, then the death count will really start to climb.  Any fender bender will potentially end in a shootout.  Like Carlin said many years ago, "think of how stupid the average person is, then realize 50 percent of the population is stupider than that."  It will not end well, for anybody.

7/7/20 On Socialism?

    I just finished listening to a few conversations with current US Socialists, college kids talking to what sounded like an intelligent immigrant from the old USSR, specifically Russia.  There seems to be a belief in these young adults that socialism is better even after seeing how it has worked out in Venezuela, Russia, China, Cuba and many other smaller countries.  For some reason, there is a belief that the rich should give up their riches because they were earned in a Capitalist environment which takes advantage of the common man.  How is it taking advantage when the owner takes the risk of getting a loan, putting in the sweat and/or ideas to get the company off the ground and the common man simply comes and does a given task for an agreed upon amount of money?
    One of the men being interviewed and he looked like a professor, he knew too much and was in his late 50's-60's suggested that now that all this 21st century technology has been created, admittedly in a capitalist environment here in the US, we should convert over to socialism so that everybody benefits equally.  My question to him would be "Who is going to develop the 22nd century technology?"  You can't be naïve enough to think this is the pinnacle of human ingenuity.  It has been shown time and again that socialist countries do not focus on leading edge creation.  As we have seen, the people are generally getting by or suffering worse than the worse suffer here.  The man being interviewed and another person in a different interview quickly tried to say well the fascists took over after the innocent and honest socialist system had started.  There was mention of how wonderful the socialist system worked in Spain for four years again before the Fascists took over as well.  It seems that Socialism can't do a good enough job of defending itself.  If it was initiated here, how long before Fascists took over control and then this would just become another USSR?  The problem with humans is that we are greedy and selfish and most anybody put in power would have to be better than you or I to not abuse it.
    Capitalism works because the government gives you free rein (with constraints to protect people to an extent) to come up with products that fill a need or create a need.  Fifteen years ago we didn't know we would need phones to do everything they do.  Nowadays, even grade school kids are expert at using these devices.  That is an example of something created to create a need.  When Henry Ford perfected the idea of the assembly line to increase productivity and makes cars available cheaply enough for the average man, he created a product to fill a need.  And somehow, some socialist thinks he can show up after the fact, now that the phone has been created and when he joins the company, he should get an equal share of the profits.  How about in a bad turn of events, when there is a loss, should the common man continue working for free and incur the debt that the company earns?  These fools seem to think all companies just experience positive earnings and there is never a loss or a failed new product which slows the company into severe losses, what would the socialists do then?
    It is a great pipe dream and when I was younger I probably leaned my thinking this way, but now that I am older I see that it is a very juvenile way to approach life.  If you really want something and you think you deserve it, figure out a way to wow the masses yourself and get paid.  Go create something that did not exist with all that energy being burned holding up banners and cheering empty slogans.  We have our house and livelihood because we both work our asses off, not because someone gifted us an edge.

7/6/20 FInally Biking Again?

    As the kids say, it had been a minute since I last took a ride on a bike.  Earlier this year I had vowed to start exercising to try and lose some weight but after cleaning the garage to even be able to get to the bikes and then pumping up the low tires with a tiny portable air pump.  When I tried biking then, I was having real problems with knee pain.  It had gotten bad enough that just walking to the car after my twelve hour shifts, I would have to stop because of the pain and discomfort.  The pain has mostly gone away from both knees, possibly from the medicine my mom told me to try or maybe from resting them and them healing on their own.  Either way, at that point just going the length of a couple of houses, my knees felt very uncomfortable.
    I would say it has been a good month and a half to two months since then and though my legs still feel heavy, my knees are not in pain like they used to be.  I tried going out a few houses, like before, and this time the discomfort was bearable.  I lifted the seat a little more so my legs wouldn't reach up to a full 90 degrees in the upstroke and this helped a little more.  After trying it out, I called Javalina out, he has constantly been telling me he wants to jog with me while I bike.  We finally did our maiden voyage together.  We only went around the first block in our community, but I thought it was very good.  First of all, it is a new bike for me, one with these oversized tires, which make it harder to bike as they have more surface area touching the road, so more effort is needed to pedal.  I am also out of shape, and still over 400 pounds, so I have to go with baby steps.
    The reason for trying the bike now is that I started Atkins again and after a successful start in which I lost almost 18 pounds, I have kind of plateaued.  I am happy going from a high of about 432 down to 414, I seem to yo-yo between 414 and 418, but it is time to actually start exercising.  I doubt I can run with my knees. but biking is not as jolting on the body.  I am also going to try and move around in the pool when I get the chance instead of laying in bed or sitting on my ass all day.  There was a time when I could bicycle 10 miles at a time back in my early twenties, but that was half a lifetime ago.  We'll see, I would like to get down to at least 350, 335 now that my brother said that was his weight.
    If I can manage this, the next part will be to start lifting weights again.  It is awesome that I have Javalina in the start of his prime.  I will try to ride him back to glory.  As long as I can lift a little more than him, I feel good, but that boy keeps getting bigger and stronger every day.  He is drinking two gallons of milk a week and he does lift weights here at home on his own.  If he was as driven as I used to be back in the day, he would be a scary boy.  Him being lazy is allowing me to stay within striking distance.

7/5/20 Hamilton (play on Disney+)?

    Wife asked me last night if I wanted to see Hamilton on Disney+, to which I quickly responded no.  We had a pretty long day outside grilling and swimming and having a good time, even if it was just us, DD and his GF.  We actually went up to our bedroom by 10:00pm and I thought we were going to call it an early night.  As usual, I laid in bed playing on my phone watching Tik Tok videos and Wife sat on one of our leather chairs and watched TV.  I fell asleep for at least an hour before waking around 11:30pm and even wondering to Wife, wow, the day isn't even over yet and I am worn out.  She continued watching TV, I somehow stayed awake, then she switched over to the ROKU, went to pee and started watching the beginning of Hamilton.  I was going to go to sleep, went to pee myself and came back to a snappy rap by a bunch of black guys dressed like our forefathers.  I figured this was the play, but was heavily confused by the actors, for a minute.  It seemed like 90 percent of the actors were black or mixed which if we are watching a period type of show, I wouldn't expect that.  At one point Wife asked, knowing the answer "was Aaron Burr black?"  I said "no, all I remember about him is he shot somebody in a duel." (the somebody was Hamilton)  I could not stop watching and within the first minute I was hooked.  I did get heavily sleepy by the second half, it is about 2 hours and 40 minutes long, but hung in there until about 3:45am.

    The play takes us through the life of Alexander Hamilton, he was one of our founding fathers, though he did not sign the Declaration of Independence, he did frame the Constitution, was a founder of the Federalist Party, the first Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, founded the polity's financial system, founded the Coast Guard, and the New York Post.  He was very influential in our early years as George Washington's "aide de camp" (his right hand man as they sing in the play), and as Washington's chief staff aide, he handled the bulk of correspondence to Congress, state governors, and the most powerful generals of the Continental Army.  Hamilton had a hunger and a desire all his life to succeed and leave a mark on this earth.  He seemed to value his career path more than a social and family life.  He did eventually marry, possibly to advance his position in life as he chose one of the Schuyler sisters, Eliza, even though he seemed more interested and aligned with the eldest, Angelica.  Still, he was married for 24 years and they did have eight children, the eldest Phillip died by duel three years earlier than when his father would meet the same fate.

    I can see the popularity of this play, we (Americans as a majority) aren't usually interested in plays but this one falls into one of those interesting rare points of interest, such as Chicago, mostly because it gives us an inside look into our history, and honestly even if the whole is not entirely historically correct, it was entertaining and worth the time spent.  I would even say I am looking forward to seeing it again today while I am fully awake and alert because it does move through the actions of the man's life swiftly.

7/4/20 Independence Day?

    Another holiday spent in isolation, this is getting old, but I guess at least we are still alive.  For the 4th of July, Wife got me going on the idea of spending it in the backyard, maybe even swimming.  for that to happen, I had to get my ass in gear and get the pool clean.  For the second time this season, I got a plug of leaves and crap in the plumbing leading to the pool pump, so it did not want to run.  There is a section that has two ninety degree turns and for some reason this is where the stuff accumulates.  Last time it happened, I got pissed off enough that I just cut the pipe, pulled the crud out, and glued it back together.  This time, I was able to unclog it by just turning off and on the pump like 6-7 times.  I started doing this on Tuesday, and by Wednesday the water was looking a very light green, by Thursday it was a cloudy light blue and by Friday it was looking clear enough.  I got in the pool Friday night to check out the bottom and walls to see if they felt rough or something weird.  All was good, and today, Wife finally got in with me.  It had to have been a good three years since we had been in there for fun.
    While we were working on the backyard, I decided to re-wire the speakers I have attached to the wall about 9 feet off the ground.  These are good outdoor speakers, Bose, I think and after not having been used for the last 3-4 years, they worked like the day I bought them after I ran new speaker wire to them.  The old wire was just destroyed by the sun, all the plastic sheathing just got brittle and broke off.  Instead of doing all this work in the heat and middle of the day, I was up at 9:30am, went outside, got the pool pump running, and even cleaned the grill and loaded it with new charcoal so I would be ready for our 3:00-4:00pm start that Wife wanted to do.
    Other things we did to be ready was to have Javalina cut the grass in the backyard Monday and Tuesday.  The yard had not been trimmed in at least a month and it was starting to look insurmountable.  He cut it, I trimmed a bit more on our palm trees and Wife trimmed the yard after he had cut it.  The other thing we did was run to the store on Thursday and it was a whole different world than going on the weekend.  There were hardly any customers which we could tell outside because of all the parking spots available.  This was nice, we got all the stuff we needed, knowing we were going to grill.  I thought this was much better than waiting and trying to shop on Saturday when everything is so congested.
    All in all, this has been a very relaxed day.  We grilled, swam in the pool, listened to a little soft rock on Magic 95.5, and ate until I got sleepy and for an encore, Wife says we are going back outside to swim a little more.  I have been talking to my family on and off all day through text and they are doing about the same as far as grilling and just staying home and trying to stay healthy.

7/3/20 Stranded, At The Drive-In?

    Like Rizzo, in Grease, I feel stranded, alone, trapped, the campus nurse for Cypress (where we are located), just called me and said I am to stay home because of Covid-19 that my son's girlfriend tested positive for.  She moved in about six months ago, so she is very much part of the family now so we are riding this out together.  The nurse actually said I am to wait until the girlfriend has gone past the ten days of quarantine and has at least three days of no symptoms.  She was feeling better last night, she told me she was finally feeling like herself yesterday afternoon when I saw her moving around in the bedroom.  I started telling the nurse that, then Wife said that she did mention she had headaches and a light fever last night.  She is getting better, I believe.  Last week, she had a fever of 102 for a few days, this week the fever is only getting up to 100 or so.  I can only say we have been lucky, the rest of us have not shown any symptoms, so far.  My son did go and get tested the same time she went and he came back negative.  I don't understand this virus, they sleep together and they are together in that room almost twenty four hours a day (before she got sick), how does one person get it and the other does not?  I was very worried of this since Boy has had typhus and mono in the last few years and the doctor at Austin Regional Clinic said his immunity would be compromised for a few years.
    The nurse said we should all be quarantining and I agree.  My boys are here and hardly even go outside, except to cut the grass.  We have been going to HEB once a week and that is about it for us leaving the house.  Wife is off for two weeks, so for now, she is basically in quarantine.  The last week she was at work, she told her boss we had a case of corona in the house and asked him if she should go home.  He said "no, just stay in your office, you'll be fine."  What is ironic is that the Multi-Hazard School Safety Audit Manual and has information for Covid-19, which is to follow the CDC guidelines and she should be staying home, but the boss overrode that.  DD also got hit since he is living with us.  He didn't want to mention it to his boss, but he let them know when the test results came back that she was positive and his boss told him to also stay in quarantine for fourteen days and to go get tested.  He was climbing the walls that day because he is not used to staying home and like he says, prefers to be doing something.  He said he found a place to test him the following morning in Kyle.  Since he was sent home, he has been with the ex-girlfriend moving out of their old apartment and moving their stuff into storage.
    As for me, I am fine here at home.  I feel guilty not working, this has been the longest I have gone without reporting to work since I was looking for a job before I was hired by AMD.  So I can look at it as a nice vacation away from work, luckily I love being in my house because of all the space we have.  Right now, Wife and I are sitting at the kitchen table and it seems like no one else is home, but the boys and the girlfriend are each in separate rooms upstairs watching TV or playing video games and we can't tell.  If DD was here, he sleeps in the guest room downstairs and if he was here, we wouldn't feel him either.  We pay a pretty penny for the space, but in times like now, it is worth every cent.