10/31/20 I Am Shaping The World? (Part 1 of 2)

     I am proud and happy to say I voted.  This is the second time I ever vote, the last time I voted was for John Kerry during the first time George W. Bush  won.  I could see "idiot" in Bush's eyes, so I thought it was important to go out and vote.  Bush won, we got to see a dullard in charge, for two terms, and that made me toss my hands up and say "it just doesn't matter."  I then thought Obama was a fine president, he sounded like such an amazing orator, so smooth, but fuck him.  We now pay twice what we used to for health insurance so the poor can have coverage.  Fuck that, people are supposed to carry their own weight, no freebies in life, or so I thought.

    I was still a "liberal" in mind and philosophy when Trump won and I wrote many a blog about his "incompetence" only to have an awakening and see that even as the media were painting him as a monster, I came to like the guy and what he has been doing.  I especially love that for the first time in a long time, we haven't been thrown into some bullshit war to protect some other country.  If that wasn't enough, I was also disgusted at the way lawlessness was allowed to rule the day in so many "liberal" cities, such as Seattle, Chicago, New York where the Black Lives Matter showed their colors and ran rampant looting and destroying a lot of property and the powers that be would not put a stop to it.  It is still happening today, but enough of that.

    Biden, as that choice for president from the democrats might have been alright twenty years ago, but in too many interviews he seems to be suffering from dementia or his mind is just slipping.  I don't care that he seems to enjoy sniffing kids, that might just be media BS, but our leader cannot have a diminished brain.  Harris failed in her own efforts during the democrat primaries and she has the look of someone intent on ruling through the eventual fall of Biden.  I cannot support her, she has also been labeled the farthest to the left of all the democrats, based on her voting record, so no.

    People call Trump bad for America, but here we are, still standing.  People say they will die if he is in charge for another four years.  We made it through his first term, and it wasn't his fault Covid-19 swept across the world, he did what he could, we can't live under house arrest for months and months, we would all loose our homes, there are bills to pay.  He has quietly set us on the path to Peace in the Middle East, possibly for the first time, so let's see where that goes.

10/30/20 Crockett Won Anther One?

     I did not know what to expect coming into this game.  LASA was formerly LBJ High School which to me meant the team would have had mostly black kids and they are usually very good and tough.  This team, however, was not that.  I hate to be mean and maybe they lost some key players for failing classes, but this team was barely able to get a couple of first downs all game long.  As much as I hated the first two games for our boys which were blow-outs that the opposition scored over 70 points, I do not enjoy sitting and watching our boys do it to other schools and this was the same thing, where Crockett won 55-0.

    The only problem for this household is that our son is who he is and I hate to say it, but he was outplayed on the field which made for a very pissed off little man-child when he got in the car.  The defensive tackle in front of him was faster and stronger than him.  He kept beating and getting to the quarterback.  It is only unfair in that Baby A is a sophomore and the other guy was a senior.  I could laugh at it a little bit because Crockett won by such a big margin, but I know he did not enjoy himself.  I will say and we tried telling him to calm him down that he did much better in the second half and pretty much neutralized the guy.  He was so mad at himself, he said he told the coach to take him out because he sucked and was letting the team down.  I am sure the coach would have, but like I told him (as the great/mediocre (?) Donald Rumsfeld once said) we go to war with the army we have, not the one we wish we had.  I don't think the coaches had too many options to throw in there, the team is down to 25 players.  I liked that he said the coach told him to "take responsibility for the role you have."  He then gave him a little Yoda knowledge when Baby A said "I'll try."  The coach told him if you're only going to try, then you have already admitted defeat.  "Do.  or Do Not, there is no try." That is what our son heard.

    I have to admit that I got a little mad at our kid in the car.  This is the fifth game and it doesn't seem to matter, win or lose, he gets in the car mad and pissy.  I asked him "why are you playing the game, if you are going to be upset if you win or you lose?"  I keep it real as the kids say, adding "you got outplayed most of the game, but you hung in there and basically stopped him in the second half.  Enjoy the fact that you won, you could have done better, yes, but ultimately, you won."  He seemed to get out of his funk, saying "yes, I know we won, and that is great, but I feel as though I should have played better."  I came back with "the guy was probably a senior, more experienced, bigger, and faster than you.  You are only a sophomore, the coaches know you are still learning and they know you are giving it your best, you never quit out there."

    We changed the subject a bit and focused on the fact that we had wings to grill when we got home with sausages.  Once he took his shower and got more comfortable, it was chilly and he was all wet from being sweaty, he calmed down.  We joked about the game some more and even saw some of it from my videos and we got back to where he was laughing again.  Pictures show him in action.

10/29/20 Where Do You Fit In Life?

     I have been trying to live a normal life and do everything right, according to what we are told.  I have been managing to get about 8 hours sleep regularly and I do believe it is helping me.  I was having trouble and my family was pretty much thinking I had become a narcoleptic but in the last couple months, I have even been driving when we head out of town, so maybe I am overcoming that obstacle.  I guess even at work, I have been working more normal hours, it is rare that I stay the full twelve hours, which is affording me the extra time to sleep as much as I have been.  Those two "activities" eat up two thirds of my day, and I am finding very little time to do much of anything else.

    In the last 8 hours, which I guess is my time to do with as I wish, I spend about an hour fixing lunch and eating with Baby A during the week.  We have taken to using the grill most days to make lunch, it might take a couple more minutes, but the food is so much better.  Add in another hour for the other end of this, going to the bathroom and taking care of business, with a shower and flossing (flossing is a pain in the ass, but it helps, specially when you haven't seen the dentist lately), which I am trying to do daily, it might even be more than an hour.  I just started exercising again, now that I have lost a substantial amount of weight.  Honestly, I am feeling like a deflated balloon after losing more than 70 pounds, so I want to tone up with some weight lifting, but that takes up another hour a day.  To that, add in another half hour for the time I am spending on the treadmill and that is a total of 3.5-4 hours.

    I try to wash clothes during the week, maybe 1-2 times a week, then just general cleaning, most days when I get home.  Boy and Sweetie are really good at cooking, but they are half-asses at putting their stuff away.  I added cabinets to the kitchen so they would have space for their things and I still have to come home and put away their flower, sugar, rice, soda bottles.  Not to mention, re-wash/wipe down the counters.  All these little chores take me a good hour a day.

    I guess I shouldn't complain, I probably have 2-3 hours a day to do as I wish, but finding that time can be difficult.  This writing does take me close to an hour a day when I add in having to think of a subject to write about, so maybe my free time is more like 1-2 hours a day.  Most of those free minutes are getting taken up by TikTok, to be honest, but I guess there is always the weekend to let down my hair and relax.  I like to think that Wife takes over when she is here and she does the busy work, which helps me to feel freer.

10/28/20 The Pool and Hot Tub Are My Third and Fourth Kid?

     Used to be, I didn't get why more people didn't have a pool in their backyards.  I get the high cost, but if it is already included with the house or if can get financed as part of the house payment, why not?  I think I get it now.  Pools (I am referring to both pool and hot tubs) are a pain in the ass.  I rank them right up there with kids in the amount of time they need dedicated to them.  At least a kid can throw out the trash once in a while or help cut the grass.  Fuck, a pool just sits there in the backyard being needy (dare I say, like Eliza, in Hamilton  😀 ).

    Anyway, usually, I turn my back on the backyard to get through the cooler months, but since the pool was fairly clean and Baby A says he is inviting friends over for Halloween, I decided to clean the hot tub, just now (Sunday morning).  I feel like if I do it before Wife gets up, it is done by magical fairies because no one sees the work being done.  I usually get up super early on the weekends to have some alone time to write and reflect and enjoy a cup of coffee without having to engage with people (Wife is not needy, but even Superman had his Fortress of Solitude where he could fart in peace).  It has been really easy the last few times, comparatively speaking.  I have a little sump pump and I throw it in the hot tub and after about forty minutes, it will be down to about 4-5 inches in depth in the lower region where maybe it has a few gallons of water.  This is usually where all the nasty green algae collects as I go and wash the walls down.  It is then easy to take my bucket and capture this water as the hose fills it back up, I then take one of the pads we use on the dishes with the rough green surface and scrub the walls clean.  Because it is fiberglass, it cleans up with minimal effort.  I do the bucket thing like 4-5 times and the water slowly goes from nasty brown green algae looking stuff where things could slither and hide to a faint green tinge, to just the sandy dirt left on the bottom.  I have a vacuum wand thing that works through venturi forces.  It uses the pressure of water pushed back towards me at the end of a tube to create a vacuum which then sucks up the pool bottom, picking up dirt and debris with it.  It used to have a fancy cloth bag, but it tore, now I just use some old thick socks and that is good enough to catch the stuff picked up.

    After about a half hour of this, I just let the hose fill it up and float some new bromine tablets in the floating dispenser and call it done.  It really only turns green because I don't go out there and routinely refill the tablets but it can be too much to ask for, at times.  I am going to say that I will do better and that I will keep up with both the pool and hot tub from now on, but I always think that and 4-5 months later, it'll be green again.  Oh well, I am hoping to at least have a decent looking backyard through these holidays as algae grows a lot slower in the cooler weather.  I need to get my shit together to show Wife I can handle the responsibilities of a pool, and then a boat and then ultimately, some land along a lake or coast.  Come on Big Boy, get it together!!

10/27/20 Halloween Movies On A Saturday Night?

     After hitting Dillard's in the morning, we went and got some food, $375 worth for the week, but also meat to grill, which is my current favorite thing to do on my pellet grill.  We grilled around 5:00pm, ate at 7:00pm and had the evening to sit around relaxing.  Wife always wants to take a shower after, she'll say she smells like smoke from the grill even if she just steps out for a few seconds to double check the meat looks cooked through.  I ended up taking about an hour nap during this time, but got back up at 9:00pm and we went back downstairs to watch some Halloween movies, most importantly Nightmare Before Christmas.  This is Wife's jam, I mean currently we have Jack and Sally figurines in the kitchen, outside on the lawn as blowup decorations, a dedicated Halloween Christmas tree (it is black and has Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments on it) and other decorations throughout the house.

    I know about the movie and the characters, but I let it slip while buying some of these decorations that I had never seen the movie, I am not usually a fan of creepy shit and Tim Burton (he produced and created this world) is a creepy dude.  Both her and Baby A got on me, my younger son says he too has seen the movie a bunch of time, so they both decided I should sit down and watch it, but it wouldn't count if I fell asleep in the middle of it.  I reluctantly agreed to this, I had just taken a nap and sat down with my low carb ice cream.

    Jack, the skeleton character is a man who is not satisfied with life (yes, I am going to draw some comparisons with my man Hamilton), and Sally is Eliza's doppelganger in that she just wants her love to be enough (I love the singing Hamilton's wife does, but man, she comes across as super needy and that is what I felt from Sally).  Jack is trying to redefine himself after years of being the skeleton king and ruling Halloween.  He accidentally falls into the Christmas world and the lights and pomp and circumstance around the foods, the trees, the lights overwhelm his senses and for the first time in a long time, he feels glee and happiness.  He decides he will do Sandy Claws (Santa) a favor and take over his holiday so he can rest, but even his gift giving brings dread and fear to the kids as his best laid plans are still supported by the scary things in life.

    Towards the end, he has kidnapped Santa, rode on a casket pulled by skeleton deer and gone through the motions of doing what Santa did, but all it accomplishes is scaring the world in Christmas Eve.  Sally helps Santa to escape and Jack realizes what he has done just in time.  In the end, Santa tells Jack to basically "stay in his lane."  Santa rules Christmas, Jack rules Halloween and so on and so forth.  Jack realizes what would fill his void might be some time with Sally, which I guess ultimately might make this a love story, but Jack had visions as big as Hamilton's in that he wanted to treat the world to his interpretation of how the world should be.

    Baby A was all "how can you turn this into a Hamilton reference?" but that is what I saw and felt, maybe because we had heard some of the soundtrack while running around to the mall and the store.  It was good, I can see why Wife would get consumed by it.  The movie does a good job of mixing the Halloween and Christmas worlds and aren't those two the best times of the year?

10/26/20 Dillard's Done Gone Daffy?

    Saturday was again time for Wife to go meet the lady who donates little blankets for students.  This is some organization where a group of senior citizens makes small blankets mostly the size one would use in the living room to cover your legs and then they donate these to the children.  Wife has been receiving these blankets from this lady for at least 5-6 years.  We meet her every 3-4 months, whenever they have a good 50-60 of these blankets and Wife takes them and disperses them to students.  When she moved to La Pryor she told the lady she was going to be working in another part of the state, but she said as long as she could hand them out to students needing them, it was fine.  So there we went on a Saturday morning, meeting her at 11:00am.

    Since it was Saturday and the mall had just opened, I told Wife I'd like to go in and see about getting some shirts.  I dress very casually, lately, I have taken to wearing these t-shirts in different colors which works with the shorts I was wearing because I had pretty much outgrown everything else I could wear.  I hadn't added any new shirts in probably over a year because Covid-19 has had us at home locked up since March, pretty much.  Well, life to the government may have stopped in the outside world, but I have been going to work every day and continuing life mostly as normal, but my clothes were staying the same and starting to look ratty and worn.  Add to that, I have now lost 70 pounds and 4X is looking very baggy on me.  I was curious and wanted to try some other sized clothes on me.

    We walked in and the first thing we noticed was the 50% sales racks in the men's section.  I shop over in the Big and Tall section, but seeing these clothes, Wife and I went directly to the racks and we both thought of Boy right away.  He is in his new job and although he doesn't like that people at his job dress very lax, he still wants to dress professionally.  The shirts seemed to be at such a great price, shirts normally $60-80 dollars were marked down to $21-23 dollars.  We grabbed about 4 shirts for him and then we headed over to my section.  I found about 5 shirts and they also were on 50% off racks, so I thought that is too good to pass up.  On another note, I was very pleased that all the 3X shirts I chose fit me and they weren't even tight on me.  I also grabbed a couple of pants and tried those at size 50 and again, they closed just fine, but at $120 and no sales tag on them, I decided to pass and wait until I lose a little more.  I would like to settle in on something like a 42-44 waist, so why waste money on the wrong size and risk getting comfortable?

    It was then an even greater treat when we went to pay and I had reasoned Boy's shirts would be about $90 and mine would be around the same, the guy tallied it all up and said $97 and change.  I asked him if he got all the shirts and he showed me the receipt.  Everything was an additional 50% off, so Boy's $60 shirts were at a real bargain of $14.99.  It was too good of a deal, we went and got another 5 shirts for him.  He ended up with 9 new shirts and I got 5.  He was happy because we noticed Mijo is getting a little thicker so we got him Large and he said now that he has been dressing in his clothes that sat in the closet for the last nine months, he has some Covid-19 weight and some of his shirts were feeling a little snug.  I don't want him to get fat, but he was as skinny as a bean pole, it is good that he is getting a little thicker as he is getting older.

10/25/20 Emotional Release?

     I think crying defines us as humans, in some respect.  There is no greater display to a reaction than to loose our composure and let our base inner feelings take over if for a second or two.  I was made fun of most of my young life, I was the kid who could be made to cry in school easily.  It wasn't that I was a dainty fella who couldn't take care of myself, my brother and I were kind of the husky kids who spent our youth playing with all sorts of neighbor kids and dominating them whether at football in the backyard or "war" with shingle pieces (if you break roofing shingles into 4-5 inch square pieces and throw them like ninja stars, they will destroy shit).  We luckily still have both parents around, so I wasn't missing attention or love at home.  I was always I guess a "hot head" with no ability to release because we were taught not to fight in public, and that has worked well, as I have never been in any kind of trouble with the law.  The drawback to that is that when emotions boil over I end up crying.

    I don't loose my feelings too much nowadays, but certain scenes in movies will do it.  I notice that in the play Hamilton I cry in about 4-5 scenes, even if I am just listening to the music.  I guess it is part of being empathetic with the characters.  Hamilton looses a kid, which is always a parent's greatest fear, and they squeeze a lot of emotion out of that, and also in Eliza's voice as she sings for Hamilton and wanting him so much for herself when it is clear he is a man on a mission for our country pretty much all his life.

    All this, to set the tone.  It was a complicated feeling of despair last night after the loss to Navarro.  We were all driven to the edge of our seats only to see our boys loose in the final minute of the game when they failed to get that last yard in literally four tries.  We saw the QB fall into a heap on the sidelines and cry with probably other seniors, and we felt it with him.  We then waited for our son to ride with us.  They have a big huddle with the coaches after all games, then he walked over to the field house to grab his stuff.  When he got in the car, he had a moment when he lost it and he had a good cry.  It was powerful and yet we felt powerless because it is something he has to go through.  We gave him a few minutes of silence, he was sitting in the back, we couldn't hug him, we were in traffic

    Five minutes later, he was almost apologizing, I don't think I have ever seen this kid crying, I have gotten mad at him for not showing more emotion in other instances.  Other than when he was a baby or younger and crying because he was hungry or something, Baby A has always been very stoic which I am sure comes from his mother and her father because they are not quick to show reactions, unlike myself.  We explained that it was a good sign, that it shows how much you care and that you gave it all you had.  What else can you ask of a person than to give anything you do 100% of yourself.  Ultimately, you don't win all your encounters, but giving it all you can is the best we can do.  Learning to do this in everything you commit yourself to is what you learn from competing like this in youth sports, and I think that is the ultimate learning experience.

    This just reminded me of the song "Loser" by Garfunkel and Oates.  The song shows different people losing at sports, work, and even dating.  The ultimate message of the song is keep your head up, it is much better to be out there in life taking a chance and even if you lose, you are better for it.  The other option is to be someone who watches from the sidelines, a non-entity who never competed.  In life, better to be a loser than a spectator who never tried.  It says in the lyrics:

You didn't do it, didn't reach your goal

Your heart is broken, you're an a******

And you didn't have what it takes

So here's to you and your huge mistakes

You're humiliated, hollowed out, and exhausted

You were in the ring fighting the fight, and you lost it

This isn't your time, this wasn't for you

At least you did everything you could do

You're a loser, but a dreamer

You're tired, but you're strong

You're going on no evidence

You don't listen to common sense

You went all in, and you were wrong

You are such a loser

Good for you

It's something that a lot of people can't do

Trying is hard, that's why people don't do it

Losing is hard, they can't make it through it

But not you

You are such a loser

You are such a loser

Here's to you

'Cause you deserve a cheering section too

Throw your heart in it, so what if you break it?

You know now that you're strong enough to take it

Don't let it break you, don't let them break you

Fake it, keep going till you have a breakthrough

Icarus is bullshit, that's why it's called mythology
People can't stand genius without an apology
Forget that, forget them, go get what you wanna get
Let them stay at home and comment on the internet

You're a loser, but a dreamer
You're tired, but you're strong
You're going on no evidence
You don't listen to common sense
You went all in, and you were wrong

You are such a loser
Good for you
It's something that a lot of people can't do
Trying is hard, that's why people don't do it
Losing is hard, they can't make it through it
But not you
You are such a loser
You are such a loser
Here's to you
'Cause you deserve a cheering section too

You can only fall that far
'Cause you set yourself up so high
Who really cares if this time it didn't fly?
At least you tried
At least you tried
At least you're not that guy watching from the side
Who thinks he's doing better 'cause he wasn't defeated
When he's just a non-entity who never competed
You're the one who's out there reaching for something greater
And you know
It's better to be a loser
Than a spectator

And you are such a loser
You are such a loser
So here's to you

10/24/20 Northeast Was A Heartbreaker?

     One more yard, if only one more yard.  This was a weird feeling close game.  We were late because Wife was stuck at work until 4:00pm and then she got stuck in some BS construction going on somewhere out in the middle of nowhere on I-35 down south of San Antonio.  If that didn't suck, we then had to go through the shitty slow drive through downtown Austin which I was hoping since it was 7:00pm it would be a tad normal at least.  No, we crawled through there, but once we got to where the highway splits, we picked up speed again.  We missed most of the first quarter, but we got there to a 0-0 game, so it seemed ok.

    As we sat down, Northeast (used to be Reagan) scored the first touchdown.  It was near the middle of the second quarter.  Crockett got the ball, lost it in three downs, punted and Northeast drove in another score.  It seemed futile and that things were getting out of hand, with the score at 14-0.  They came back in the 3rd quarter, scoring on a long drive with a short run and 2 point conversion.  The score looked better at 14-8, and then towards the start of the 4th quarter Crockett scored again and the score was then 14-14, missing their 2 point conversion, but making the first one.  The next series sucked because Northeast got the ball after a kickoff and scored in one play, just a quick QB scamper around the edge and he was gone.

    At this point, there were about 9 minutes left, Northeast was up 20-14, Crockett got the ball and lost it on downs.  Northeast had it for a set of downs and also lost it with a weird punt that went sideways off the shoe and probably lost them 8-9 yards.  Crockett had around 6 minutes and 40 yards to go.  They ran a great series of plays, mixing in short passes and runs to get inside the 11.  They managed to get a fresh set of downs when they got to around the 1 yard line.  They just needed that one yard and the score would at least be tied, and to boot, they had also run the clock down to less than one minute.  They ran it for no gain, had an illegal procedure which moved them back 5 yards, gained the 5 yards back on a 2nd down run, then back at the 1 yard line they went on back to back passes on 3rd and 4th down that both got blocked and fell way off the mark.  It was so close and yet so spirit breaking to see them loose this one.

    They played a fairly clean game, hardly any penalties were called.  There was a small brawl when the QB was pushed running out of bounds and he ended up taking out a girl trainer and rolling out onto the track.  Baby A had rash burns around his neck, he said guys on the other team tried to choke him and pull him by the hair.  He was hugely upset after the game and took the loss very personally.  We tried making him feel better by showing some perspective.  Wife's coworker's kid, playing in La Pryor at the time our son was hurting over the loss, was being driven to San Antonio to have his broken arm tended to.  This sobered our son within a minute or two, he got out of his funk and started talking to us, asking questions about the kid.

10/23/20 Pissed Off By Better Things?

     I should listen to Wife more often, as most of you would tell me.  I really like the actress Pamela Adlon, she is quirky, did the voice of Bobby Hill in King Of The Hill, she was the little sister in Grease 2 years ago, and I have always liked her.  She plays the mom in the show Better Things, which is on its fifth season whenever it starts up again and is supposed to be based loosely on her personal life, but man, she is raising some asshole daughters, if the show is anywhere near to life.  I can't say whether any of it really holds up to her real life, but there is spoiled and then there is what she has allowed this little monster bitches to become.  Wife saw half an episode and said "nope, I can't stand weak whiny bitches like that."  I have stuck through it, but had stopped I guess midway through the second to last episode of season 3.  I watch it at work when I get bored and can't find anything else, it is on Hulu.

    First off, in the show, she is divorced, fine, half of America is divorced nowadays.  She has three girls of about 19, 15, and 11, not a great time at that age, as we are always told.  Her mother lives next door, and she is a weird detached old lady, suffering a little from Alzheimer's and wanting to be like proper English where she won't just let her guard down and hug a child like they are supposed to be hugged.  She has huge issues and keeps Pam at a distance, but yet, needs her constantly to do things for her, I don't feel much love between the two.  The oldest daughter made the biggest stink and threw the hardest tantrums she needed to go to New York for college only to drop out because she couldn't be without mother and the trappings of home after three weeks.  The middle daughter is gay, or she identifies as gay, and that is fine, but dam, she is a huge dick, just not a likable character.  The younger daughter seems the most normal, but with these two class acts to follow, the wheels have to come off at some point.

    I don't know if it was just a bad episode, but last night's that I saw, the middle daughter is in a poem recital thing and she does a fine job, pretty emotional job onstage, but when mom comes to hug her after the show, suddenly she acts like "mom, don't touch me, you're embarrassing me."  and she walks off with some friends.  I didn't understand how or why Pam allowed this.  It may sound stupid but my boys know I am not above putting on a show of stupidity if they make me look a fool in public.  Shit, if they tried leaving me there to walk off with friends I would get loud, I would attack the friends, these little shits need to know who they belong to.  In the show, the middle kid just disappears for two weeks, living with friends, and we see her hanging out with homeless people, eating in cool little hangouts.  I don't know if this is just a California thing, but it was disgusting and I had to stop watching.  Pam even goes and tries to reach out to her in one scene and the daughter just acts like she has power and demeans her mom to leave because she is "studying" but there is never an explanation of why she left home, and the mom just leaves, like a big pussy.  Blechhh!!!

    I then went on Google to look for a rhyme or reason and only managed to find a bunch of reviews giving the show 4.5 stars out of 5 and other positive vibes.  I can't get onboard when the shit doesn't make sense.  She needs to act like a mother and get those assholes in line.  Otherwise, she will be supporting those deadbeats her whole life.  I guess she has the funds to do that, she has been on TV and movies since childhood, but if the tradeoff is raising shitty kids, then I am glad I am where I am at.

10/22/20 Boy Is Just Like His Dad?

     The things you find in similarities with your kids can be interesting.  Baby A might be built like me, a husky frame that might get fat later in life if he enjoys eating too much.  Boy will probably never be a big fat person but what he lacks in size, he matches me in spirit.  There isn't a tool or gadget he won't be tempted to buy.  Last night he was in the kitchen breaking in a donut maker.  I have no idea why someone would need to buy a donut maker when they are so abundant here in town.  We have Krispy Kreme, Dunking Donuts, Shipley's, and then HEB, Walmart and so many other stores sell their versions of donuts, but our son saw the gadget and he decided he needed one.

    It was only last week we were at the mall with my mom, and I found it really annoying that both Wife and Baby A both tell me "I don't need anything" even as I went to the mall specifically wanting to buy my son new tennis shoes.  He ended up choosing some online, complaining because they were $120 and that seemed like too much but Grandma jumped in and said she wanted to treat Mijo and she bought them, which was very nice.  They came in a couple days ago and they look sharp on his feet.  Boy, on the other hand, has tons of dress shoes but his new job requires steel toe shoes, so he causally mentions we should help him out to get some dress shoes that have steel toes in them.  I looked online and they do not really come down below $150.  We'll probably order some for him, I want to help him out in getting started.  Sounds like he is set with this job in the future, he'll be making a fine salary.

    After installing my cabinets and realizing I was kind of short handed on my electrical connection stuff, I decided I would go to Lowe's last night, we didn't have anything better to do and Wife did want to look at Halloween decorations, and I bought me a dedicated accessory box for electrical doodads like fuses that could work on the Halloween/Christmas decorations, connectors if I have to splice any more wires, new hex drivers, Boy loves misplacing my tools, and other things.  Basically, I got about $130 worth of things I might use one day.  Just this weekend, I was looking in Boy's printer room and noticed he has a couple of small dehydrators, turns out the filament he uses doesn't perform well when exposed to humid environments.  I started thinking of a better solution than a bunch of beef jerky machines all over the room and he didn't hesitate telling me that there are some refrigerator sized storage devices as well as some that will hang on the wall.  He sent me in the direction of Amazon and to go for it.

10/21/20 Quickest Project Completed?

     I usually mean well, but will start some home improvement project, then drag my feet on completing it.  This time around, I thought of finding some doors to build shelves within the fat wall between the kitchen and living room, then realized a whole cabinet would fit, so I bought two since I have two separate half walls to build under.  The first one was done that same night, last Sunday when I bought them, which DD helped me to install.  He works installing windows and doors, so hanging cabinets falls within his comfort zone.  He had a couple of tools and ideas to make life easier.

    He had a drill bit to help me countersink the screws so they would go completely into the wood.  He also suggested making pilot holes at 45 degrees on the edges of the studs to make it easier to attach back in the wall at the correct 36 inch spacing.  The biggest challenge was dealing with the two electric outlets located right in the middle of where I wanted the cabinets installed.  Maybe his biggest help was convincing me to turn off the power to the outlets before starting, I figured I could do most of the work with the power still on, but there were staples to remove and then I had to end up connecting the two ends of the wires that joined at the outlet which again he had a much more robust way of spinning the wires into a tight spiral connection before using the little plastic connectors and then wrapping the whole thing in insulating black tape, which he said he had the high quality stuff.  I didn't know that the electrical tape mattered, I had always bought rolls that cost 99 cents then they tend to melt sitting in the garage.  His is temperature resistant and good for high voltages, so I felt better learning that.

    This Thursday was my off day and I was hoping to get a little help from DD or one of my boys, but everyone is too busy during the week, so I took my time and cut out the hole, then slowly and methodically took out the studs.  I was lucky that on the back wall, the outlet was just off to the side enough that I didn't have to mess with it.  Once I did those things, I reinstalled the studs at the correct distance, moved the outlet just enough to clear the space and slid the second cabinet in.  Baby A did help me to hold things at the very end and luckily everything lined up and was level, so I drilled in my screws into the studs and that was it.  I think the cabinets as a pair look great.  They are not the same color as our kitchen cabinets, but they are on a separate wall, so I think they are okay and they do match each other perfectly.  I am attaching a pic or two, I am so proud of the results.

10/20/20 Fixed My Pellet Grill?

     It was bound to happen, nothing lasts forever and this grill does have moving parts.  I guess a cascade of events occurred to cause the motor to seize up.  After making a brisket last weekend which was smoked for 11 hours, I should have thought of the ash created and cleaned out the ash cup under the burn box.  It is recommended to be done after every 3-4 grill uses, but I think after running for eleven hours that qualifies for a multi usage time equivalent.  Anyways, after, it smoked but I got no heat out of it on Monday, I found a ton of ash in the burning cup part of the grill.  I cleaned it all out and figured it would be alright, not thinking a bunch of the pellets must have been burning all the way into the auger tube.  

    I came back Tuesday to try grilling our lunch and after waiting a good ten minutes and coming back outside, there was no smoke and also no heat.  The temperature just read 108 which must be the heat from the ignitor thing.  I looked on Youtube and saw a tutorial on how to take it apart and clean it.  I hesitated and tried the other technique which is sticking a wire, like a straightened out wire hanger to try and dislodge the stuck pellets to get the auger to come loose.  This was very frustrating and after 20 minutes or so, the wire would only go in about 8 inches.  The tube is at least 20 inches long, so still plenty of room for stuck pellets.  I then said "Fuck it" and took it apart.  The auger was jammed tight, I used a screwdriver to lean against the body of the grill and eventually even a hammer to smack it loose, which helped.  Even after it moved I still had a hard time pulling it out all the way.  I did and after doing this about three different times, I finally got it all cleaned out and I used a light sand paper to de-burr the auger, it was a little rough at parts.

    Once I figured there was nothing else I could do to get it going, I called Oklahoma Joe and the guy agreed it was probably the auger motor, which I assumed seized up, it just wouldn't turn.  They put me on a list for a back order and I'll be getting a replacement motor sometime in a month.  Meanwhile, I am not the kind of guy to wait, I went online and noticed the Traeger brand replacement motor looked identical, even the sticker says it is the same manufacturer, voltage, frequency, so I ordered a couple of them.  I figured if this part breaks down this easily, I might as well have some on hand.  It was only $24.99.  I installed the new motor this morning, I was too busy yesterday with the football game and my in-laws arriving.  It turned, so hopefully, we are past this little problem.  The Oklahoma Joe tutorial also suggested running the grill on high after dumping the extra pellets to burn them all out of the auger tube after each use, that way they can't sit there and swell up or seize somehow while it waits for the next usage.  If this solves my problem, then it isn't a big sacrifice, and I will definitely start making sure the ash cup is clean after every use.

10/19/20 Boy Might Have Bitten More Than He Thought?

     Boy thought he had been hired as a technician working for "big tech company" (not sure if he wants me saying the company name), a perfect fit for him, he is great at assembling and tinkering with tools, he has an engineer's mind.  After his first week, his manager has kind of pulled him aside and told him he is to be the lab manager which he says is kind of intimidating because he has to oversee about 8-9 people working on research type projects and they are all "between dad's and Grandpa's age" as he said it.  He already had to get after one of the older guys about wearing his lab glasses and cleaning up his work area, I guess the boy takes after mama and he will be another "compliance" guy.

    Not only that, although it was not discussed during the interview, his boss also told him the job requires 35% of the time to travel.  He was told to expect to go to Singapore, China, Europe, California, and anywhere else that they have labs located at.  Sounds like the boy will be set, I just hope the compensation will come soon, because $25 bucks an hour is fine for a low level technician, but if he is going to be in charge of people and flying all over the world overseeing projects, he needs a real salary, one that makes mine look small.  I see a nice six figure salary for him in a few years.  On top of that, he was told he would be involved in ordering and setting up a 3D printer lab, which was originally where I thought he was going to be spending his time.

    He was telling us some of the perks and for starters, they still match 401k contributions which he went in the full amount, and he is set up for their stock purchase program.  On top of that, he said as a manager he gets three credit cards to order anything he "needs" to get the job done.  I injected "I'm sure you need upper manager approval before ordering expensive stuff."  He said I am the manager that gives approval, which made me smile and pat him on the back.  I am really happy for the boy, it seems he is on his way.  He is not married and no kids, and he is a grown man, so as long as he can handle the traveling, I am okay with it.

    He said he was pulled into a meeting and was told there he would be the point man for this customer to get his project started and completed.  They are supposed to assemble some thing, determine its cost and then tell the customer.  He sounded excited and a little scared saying they start with blank racks and everything is custom made there, from circuit boards to robot arms or whatever.  He says some parts cost upwards of $100,000.  He fears breaking something expensive like that.  I told him not to worry about that, they trust you and it is part of R&D, shit happens and you go on.  That is all part of the process.

    This is the last of the big equipment makers for the semiconductor business, they have bought out most of the competition, so it isn't going anywhere, they have been around for years and I think he has a bright future, if all goes well.

10/18/20 Crockett Boys Finally Win One? (part 2 of 2)

     Going into the game this week, Baby A knew he was definitely going to play more.  He was told he would be playing right guard and then be in on extra point formations playing left tackle, which is weird to move them around to me, but he says they put the strongest guys inside at guard to make sure they push out any would be blockers, and I guess some upper classmen are stronger than him, right now.  

    He played great, it was fun to see him pulling like a guard is supposed to do and go and try to hit people out in space.  He was hit for a holding call on the third series and it sucked because they had intercepted the ball at like the 4 yard line and after an awesome run by the running back of about 12 yards, it was called back because of his holding penalty.  Although we saw it and I showed his big paws literally hugging the guy around the shoulder pads, he still denies he held.  It turned out okay, they still scored after a long stretch into the 2nd quarter which by then put them up 21-0.

    I was happy enough with him playing guard, then I am not sure if out of frustration or being an idiot but the larger defensive tackle committed three penalties in a row including a roughing the passer, for no clear reason, they removed him from the field and suddenly Mijo was in on defense.  He continued playing at defensive tackle and then resting on offense for the first half.  He was double teamed on the first play, but he did get a solo tackle on the second play, and he was in on a couple other plays as well.  

    After the half, he played some iron man style and was on the field for the whole third quarter and most of the fourth alternating between right guard and defensive tackle, only coming off for kick-off and kick returns.  Navarro finally scored near the start of the fourth quarter, and it was away from our field of view towards the other teams side of the field.  Our son was pissed off after the game because he swears one of his teammates knocked the ball out of the runner's hands and in the video, it is clear Mijo gets up off the field with a fumble recovery at around the one yard line.  How can it be a touchdown when the ball is over here and looks like it never crossed the plane?  The referees had a few questionable calls, this might have been the worst one, but the Cougars still won 59-7.

    You couldn't tell talking to our son after the game.  He was in a "bitchy" mood because they took away his fumble recovery, the other team was soft, his guys made too many mistakes, he said they were going to pay for it for having nine penalties called, they are usually a pretty clean playing team, that was surprising.  It's funny from afar we just see the action, but he was saying, on a play he had a "pancake", that's when you dominate your lineman and he ends up on his back and he fell on top of him.  After the play, he says the other guy softly says to him "can you get off me now?"  They had one really big boy in the middle and he looked like he might be strong, but Baby A was saying he was so out of shape, after the first quarter the guy was just wheezing breezing so hard.

    Complaining or not, I am glad they had a good game to feel good about their efforts.  We celebrated afterwards by going to eat at Cheddar's, which is only the second restaurant we have gone to since Covid-19 started, but it was good because it was mostly empty and we were the last group to leave after we finished eating.

10/17/20 Crockett Boys Finally Win One? (part 1 of 2)

     This was a big game for Baby A (again coaches keep changing his nickname, now it is the initial for his first name and Baby I guess is because he is the shortest lineman on the team), he started as right guard and then switched over to defensive tackle in the second quarter.  The boy was all over the place, and I loved watching it and I know he loved doing it.

    It was a perfect night, weather wise, the temperature started in the low 70s and was around 60 by the time the game ended.  My in-laws showed up for I think the first game since Baby A started playing and they couldn't have chosen a better game.  Wife came in around 6:10pm which was great, it gave us time to catch up before heading out, and she was able to change into her new polo shirt.  We noticed all the parents wear various shirts with the team name and/or their kid's number on their backs.  Wife wanted some of that action, so she got online and ordered us some polo shirts with the team logo, which made our boy complain that we were wearing identical shirts to what the coaches wear.  All I could muster jokingly was "go run two laps and shut it."

    It was a bit of a pain in the butt getting into the stadium, every game has been different, but all have required we buy the tickets beforehand which Wife did.  This time, they asked us a bunch of Covid-19 questions to make sure we haven't been around sick people, then they took a temperature scan of our forehead.  Once in, it was sit anywhere and it was a little annoying where some people don't really get the social distancing aspect.  The stadium fits, I don't know, 20,000 people and we were maybe 200 bodies total in the stands, yet everybody felt close.  But, when you win, it doesn't annoy as badly.

    As far as the game goes, it was really great to see the boys play their hearts out and be effective on the field.  Last Friday was the end of the 1st six weeks and the team lost about half the players, so suddenly where our son barely played in the fourth quarter for two sets of downs in the first game and a handful of random plays last week, he became a starter by force of attrition.  There are hardly any other bodies to put in, and it helps that for a big boy, he has good conditioning, he does run when he has the chance in his off time, which is how he keeps his weight down around 230 pounds.  All week he was excited and nervous about the chance that has fallen in his lap.

Con't tomorrow....

10/16/20 I Thought Boy Had Become A Secret Alcoholic?

     Boy and Sweetie went to Dallas over a month ago to visit some friends they have up there, and they are actually swinging by this way this weekend, but that is not today's thought.  When they came back, we ended up having dinner, I believe we had grilled so we sat and ate, no big deal.  Well, Boy had this odd looking can and I don't know why, I assumed it was some sort of alcoholic beer, actually, I had bought some seltzers to try because they are supposedly low in carbs, but there isn't much to the taste, again, that doesn't matter, except the cans looked similar.

   So what am I to do about my son drinking beer or a cooler with his meal, he is 26 and not a child and he is home?  I figured I wouldn't say anything, I'll just be cool.  Maybe going to Dallas got something in him going, but I guess adults drink if they want to.  Just a few weeks ago, I was floored when I found out one of my nephew's on Wife's side is drinking.  What I did wonder is that Boy is being very nonchalant about his alcoholic drinks, just leaving them on the floor after we told him to clean his Yeti cooler.  He only uses it when they go out of town, it is a big one and he'll just leave it in the kitchen for a week or two until we say something.  So, he cleaned it out and managed to put all the drinks in an HEB grocery bag.  Then he left them on the floor against the wall in the kitchen.  One they line up with the dog water bowl, they could stay there for a year.

    Well, I did a project where I hung some wall cabinets in the kitchen but on a thick wall, so I was able to put the cabinets in the wall.  I had to move some studs and when I pulled one out, I kind of threw it to the side.  It hit one of the cans just right and I heard the fizz and spray of the contents inside the bag.  Nothing came out, so I grabbed the bag and dumped the cans into the sink to rinse the good ones.  I finished my project with the cabinets and it looks great, and then as I was cleaning everything up, I rinsed the cans to put them in the fridge.  I had a good chuckle when I saw that what I thought was my son's alcohol is merely flavored seltzer water, it doesn't even have sugar, much less alcohol.  He came out of his room a minute ago saying he napped too long, so he couldn't sleep (it is 2:30am on Thursday night into Friday).  I told him how I thought and Sweetie explained to me that he is trying to cut out sodas, so he has been drinking these.  I have one to try since they are sugar free but I have to say I am not impressed.  It is pretty bland with the slightest hint of flavor.

10/15/20 The Honeymoon Is Over?

   Et tu Oklahoma Joe?  What I thought was going to be a long and happy relationship has turned sour way too fast.  After maybe 4-5 briskets, a couple of beer can chickens, and a week's worth of yummy steaks, I am in the middle of some real technical problems with my pellet grill.  It has been almost two months and I guess the bloom is off the rose.

    I don't know what really happened, Saturday I ran the grill for almost eleven hours making a brisket that was high on hopes (it was a "grass fed" brisket that cost more than the regular ones), but low on meaty goodness, well, it was good but not great.  There were no problems then and the weather did not change that much between Saturday and Monday, that I know of.  I tried turning it on Monday morning and after 5-10 minutes the grill was making a scary amount of smoke.  I got nervous enough to just go out and shut it off.  After it cooled, I discovered a simple problem.  I had too much ash in the ash box and I guess it sits right below the burn "cup" and it too had filled with ash.  My guess is that the pellets were being forced into the burn cup and were lit but the ash was smothering the oxygen, so they burned and smoked but couldn't really get hot to increase the temperature.  I noticed with the setting on high, where it should reach 600 degrees, it was barely at 118.  I went out there with my garage vacuum and sucked out all the ash and loose pellets and called it a day.

    I went out there today, thinking it would be alright now and I find the auger won't feed pellets.  I tried a couple things including using a metal hanger wire and pushing it through the auger space to try and loosen jammed pellets but had no luck.  I then looked on Youtube and figured out how to dismantle the auger which I did.  It was very jammed, I even hit the auger with a hammer to get it to release.  After I pulled it out, it seemed to go back in easily.  I re-assembled everything and saw the auger turn a couple times before loading pellets again, but then it wouldn't heat.  I figured the auger was not turning after I put pellets in the hopper.  I took it apart again and this time I made sure there was nothing in the auger tube by shoving a broom stick all the way through.  At this point I ran out of time as I had to go drop off Baby Jesus at football practice, so I will continue messing with it tomorrow.

    Wife and I had talked about taking a break from briskets this weekend but I had started using the grill last week to make our lunches Monday through Friday and it was such a great week, food wise.  I had some fine New York strips for today, but they had to go on the skillet instead.  I will figure it out, I love the grill, my boys gave it to me for my birthday.  Looks like I can order a replacement motor if I have to, but first I want to mess around with this one, it shudders when I put the knob on a temperature setting, it just doesn't turn.

10/14/20 Diet Update III?

     I am happy to say that I am now weighing in at 368.  This means I am down about 14 pounds from the last update when I was at 382 less than a month ago.  I know to regular people these numbers are still huge and in comparison to most regular people, I am a huge cow.  Luckily, the only person I get to compare myself to is myself.  As long as I keep coming down, I will be happy with the progress.  It seems the core of the dieting happens during the week, when Wife is away and I can more easily go without food or family meals.  Not that we are eating too much nowadays, we do usually eat an extra meal because we want to make sure our boys are eating their 3 meals a day.  Plus, on Fridays before the football games started, we had gotten into a habit of Wife arriving and then we would go eat at Mod Pizza, they have a new cauliflower "bread" so the carb count isn't an issue.

    The biggest change in the past few weeks is that I stopped eating a big heavy meal at night when I get home from work.  I am mostly keeping my eating to the lunch hour during the day, around 12:30pm.  This is the time Baby Jesus takes his lunch break, so I plan my meals around the time.  I will still eat a bunch of low carb ice cream on any given night, but that is about it.  My mom kept saying that cutting out the late night meal was the main reason I had gotten so big.

    Anyways, I am now able to wear some of my old jeans and shorts from before and I even need a belt to hold them up.  I have a bunch of those fishing shirts from Academy but even the 4X had gotten too tight to wear comfortably.  This weekend I was able to put on a 3X sized one, so I am on my way.  I then got greedy and tried on an old 2X shirt from probably ten years ago and I was able to button it down but I did look like a sausage.  My son didn't see, but I have one of his dress shirts over in my closet, it got mixed up and I tried it on.  I was able to get it on over my shoulders, but the buttons didn't quite reach, and that is a new 2XL shirt.  I guess that would be my next goal after passing 350 pounds, hopefully by the end of the year.  I want to get to where I can wear 2XL again and I might need to get down to 280-300 pounds.  Maybe by next summer.

    Wife is also doing great, she is also just eating one meal a day and maybe some sugar free Jello cups as a snack.  She is already below what she set as a target goal, so she is happy about that.  I have mixed feelings on her losing the weight, in my selfish voice.  First of all, her giant boobies are shrinking which I guess is a sacrifice we must all endure.  But worst of all, her weight had stopped her monthly female routine and that had been our basic form of birth control.  now, she is like a teenager all over again, not sure when to expect Aunt Flo or whatever and I have the large dilemma of either getting with the program and start/learn how to use condoms or go get fixed.  I love my boys but I do not want another kid at this age.

10/13/20 Adding Storage To Our Kitchen?

     Over the last two years, Boy has gotten more and more into cooking.  I guess he has my genes because there isn't a gadget out there that he won't buy.  This boy has filled our pantry with all sorts of cooking tools and implements.  He has at least 3-4 different coffee makers, one uses a fire from a wick in a bottle to heat.  He has a blender, a food processor, ceramic pots, iron skillets, pressure cookers, rice cookers, and now a ton of small to large mason jars which he uses to can vegetables and "pickle" assorted foods.

    This is all good and well, but we were getting crowded out of own pantry.  As I sat in the kitchen last week, I thought "what if we used the space under the half walls between the kitchen and living room and put in some doors to store stuff on some shelves.  We have a fat wall that is about twelve inches thick that separates the two rooms.  There are then two big five foot wide openings between the two rooms about four feet up from the floor.  At first, I was just thinking getting some doors like what we have on our kitchen cabinets, but then I measured the wall units and the wall and figured those wall cabinets should fit in the thick wall, if I do it just right.  Today, after my folks left, we went and bought two of the closest thing I thought I could make work.  They are not the exact same color as the kitchen cabinets, but since they are on the wall on the opposite side, they don't need to, I think.

    I knew I had to deal with moving an outlet, there would be some 2x4 studs on both sides and then dealing with cutting the holes out.  I had the dimensions of the cabinet frame, which is 36 wide by 30 high by 12 inches deep.  I found the center of the wall openings, measured from there 18 inches to both sides, used a sharpie to draw a line where I would cut and after a little trepidation said "fuck it."  DD came over from his room and was a little that I should make sure and cut the power to those outlets.  I told him I was just going to be careful with them, I would just release the electrical line from the staplers and stretch the outlet over.  He just motioned with his eyes like "wow, that's stupid." and said be careful.  I cut a hole and looked inside to make sure I didn't cut the wires.  It was fairly easy to use a sheetrock saw and cut out the rough opening, dealing with the electrical wires was the biggest pain.  After a few minutes, I listened to DD, he does construction stuff for a living.  He was too interested and decided to come over and help.  I knocked out the three studs out, undid the outlets and then DD pretty much took over.  Baby Jesus was there to help bring me stuff like the level and hand me screwdrivers and stuff, but DD has experience.  He tied the electrical wires together since I am moving the outlets over about two feet, and he had a way to screw the newly located studs where I needed them 36 inches apart.  My knees are bad, so it was a lot easier for him to just get in there and do the labor part.  Once the studs were in there and we had 36 inches between them, it was just a matter of sliding the cabinet in and screwing it in to all four studs with the level.  We only did one, I'll have time on Thursday to install the other one, but I really liked the look of the first one.  I even bought some trim which covered the jagged hole edges and makes it all look almost professionally done.

    I then almost instantly started moving Boy's stuff in it and it works out great on a couple of levels.  He can now continue buying nick-knacks and filling "his" shelves, plus I won't be asked to move from my chair while he rifles through the pantry which is right by my favorite sitting spot on the table.  Plus, we now have a place for all his mason jars, which he has a bunch in short and tall versions, he had just been lining them up next to the sink against the wall making the kitchen space look cluttered.  Boy didn't help much because he starts his new job Monday morning (writing this Sunday night) so he was focused on that.  Good luck, Mijo.

10/12/20 My Parents Finally Visited?

     It had to be since January or February that my parents had not visited but they finally came this weekend.  My mom wanted to come and see Baby Jesus in at least one of his football games.  I know if they were closer she would probably attend with us every week, but the distance is a challenge so it was nice to have her join us even if the game was a lopsided affair.  I already discussed the game, so I won't get into that, overall we were very rushed to get there, but I enjoyed going with Wife on one side and my mom on the other.  My dad and brother stayed at the house, they just don't feel comfortable going out in public and I am not about to force them.  We were able to pick up our kid after and bring him home with us.  He was an angry and disappointed version of himself.  Usually, he is super confidant and likes to tell me that the score would have been only half as much if he had played more because he would have made some important stops and stuff like that, but he was not in the mood to talk afterwards.  We drove home and he was about back to normal by the next morning.

    Wife and I ended up staying up until about 3:30am.  I had talked to my mom before she went to sleep and she mentioned going to the mall, so I then did the math and because I had offered to smoke a brisket for them, I needed to do the math and fit in a ten to twelve hour cook time and yet have time to leave the house.  I went upstairs and told Wife how about we go early and leave the brisket cooking by itself?  She thought this was a bad idea, if we got held up or the grill did something weird, I wouldn't be there to respond and then the meat might get ruined.  Because of this, I suggested going down and getting it going through the night and it might be ready by 1:00pm or so.  By the time we came down, turned on the grill and prepped the brisket it was pretty much 2:00am.  While I was messing around with my grill, Wife was prepping the cauliflower salad, which is potato salad without the potatoes, very freaking good.  She got done after 3:00am, then we went to bed.  I thought I would wake like usual, every two hours and I would come down to look at the grill, but I slept solid until 7:30am.  I woke in a panic thinking the pellets might have run low or something.  Everything was fine, thankfully, but I still topped off the pellet hopper, just in case.  I decided to take the brisket off at noon, which was about 11 hours of smoking.  It was good, but not the best, I am not sure about grass fed brisket, I was not impressed, but we ate then went to the mall for a couple hours.

    We came back and hung out the rest of the day, I really needed a nap, I only slept about 4 hours at night, but woke around 8:00pm after sleeping maybe an hour and came down, drank coffee with my folks and we talked and had a pretty good time the rest of the evening.  After everybody else went to bed, my brother and I got into a pretty good discussion about stuff.  We touched on religion, he gave me his musings on life, and how it makes sense to him.  Honestly, I was mesmerized and kept telling him he needs to write some of these ideas into stories or something.  He has a take on the history of the start of mankind, and other deep thinking stuff.  It is usually hard to focus on his opinions and point of view because he kind of screams and gets easily excited but he was very laid back and just flowed with his thought process.  It was the first time that I got my mom's constant opinion that he is probably the brightest of her kids.  I usually just roll my eyes because of course I am the brightest in my opinion, as my other brother sits nearby saying he is the smartest, and of course my sister demands that she is the smartest.

    They said they were leaving early Sunday, but my mom wanted to make a run to Home Depot or Lowe's, so they didn't end up leaving until around 3:00pm.  She did buy a small freezer, she liked mine enough to, and she also bought a pressure washer which she had been kicking around the idea to do that along with some bulbs and other stuff.  They left once we got back home, but my dad said he liked where I had put the guest bed and that it wouldn't be a problem for them to come back, he had been very comfortable, which I did like.  The weekend about ran out but we did manage to squeeze a little bit of extra Sunday afternoon.... to be con't.

10/11/20 Back To The Mall?

     It had been since around mid February the last time we went to the mall, but we returned today to a slightly different place of commerce.  The same structure stands, but the energy inside clearly is that of a figure in his twilight years.  The biggest surprise for me was seeing Ben Bridge where I had bought a couple of Rolex watches over the last 15 years, close its doors.  I usually go and say hi to the sales lady who worked with me the last time, but when I saw the doors were closed tight, I never even walked that leg of the mall.  I did manage to get upstairs at one point and Helzberg Diamonds which is across from the closed store sells some used Rolex watches, so I popped in but don't like to really slow down because the sales people are a little pushy every time.  I saw what they had, and quickly started turning away as a sales lady started her pitch.  I said "no, thank you." and kept moving.  As I made it to the outside, I heard a lady call my name from within which made me turn, nobody really should know me here.  It was the sales lady from Ben Bridge who said she was just hired a few weeks ago by them and she said she was happy to see first my wife walking by then both of us together.  It was nice to see an old familiar face, we talked for a few minutes about what has been going on in each other's lives dealing with Covid-19 and then walked out.

    The main reason for going was because my folks are in town and my mom wanted to go check it out.  I wanted to get Baby Jesus some new tennis shoes.  He has been wearing the same ones from last year and now that he cut the grass in them, they got a green sheen over the red  and they look old and nasty.  He could not find any he liked in his size, we asked for about 3 different shoe styles.  Boy did manage to find a couple more pants at Men's Wearhouse and I was surprised to find they were on sale.  On the rack, the pants seemed to be $79.99 to $149.99 and I told him to get a pair or two, but then when we rang up the two he chose it was only $38.  I asked the lady if she got the two pants and she said all pants were an extra 40% off.  All I could say was "cool beans."

    Other than that, the mall was pretty uneventful.  It was a little unsettling just walking around with other people all around.  I can say the mall was not very crowded but still thinking "does this person have corona?"  I was kind of glad to get out of the mall, actually, I don't think I will feel fully comfortable hanging out in a public place until Covid-19 is behind us.

10/10/20 Liberty Hill Was Too Much?

     This is the third game of the year, if we count the first game that was cancelled and turned into a scrimmage.  Let me say, something happened in this game that about broke my son's spirit and it was worrisome.  The score was another blowout, I honestly stopped looking at the score board and even stopped recording as it was almost like watching a pee-wee team against some bully college team.  The score was somewhere in the vicinity of 70-0, but even worse, our son barely played but a handful of plays interspersed here and there.  Last week he went in on defense for a couple series at the end of the game.  This week, they used him during fourth down punting formations as a guard and then for a handful of plays on defense, but I honestly didn't even notice those.

    It was equally as bad on our end, last week we arrived with plenty of time to seat and get comfortable, even talked with some of the other parents before the start of the game.  This week, Wife's boss man decides to have a meeting at 2:00pm, so she was stuck at work until 3:15pm so she was already taking off later than planned, then she ran into construction before showing up here at 6:30pm.  The game started at 7:30 and unfortunately we missed kick-off and arrived about ten minutes into the first quarter.  The score was already 33-0, or something like that.  I have to admit, from Liberty Hill's perspective, it is a beautiful campus/field.  It was all laid out and newish, with a good looking artificial turf as is the norm nowadays.

    I said the game broke my son's spirit because he usually walks away from these games complaining like he does, with some sass and assurance that if he had only played more, the score would have been better.  Tonight, he was just pissed when we got him in the car.  Wife suggested he eat before talking and that helped a little to calm his little angry ass down.  He said the team was outplayed/intimidated before the first kick-off, it sucks to play state champion caliber teams when you struggle to win one or two games a year.  He said the guys were just not in the right mindset, the defense was at least taking it seriously, but the offense was acting all goofy and not focused in the team meetings before the game.

    It would have helped if the guys had done a better job handling the football.  Every decent play was quickly followed by a botched snap, or a series of dropped balls.  Liberty Hill was not a team of big intimidating players, which I think was part of the problem.  It was a bunch of white boys, but they were disciplined, organized, very fast and efficient.  I didn't see the linemen looking bigger than our guys.  Even Baby Jesus said that on the plays he did go in, lining up against the center he was stronger and could push him at will.  But they came running out of the huddle, set up in half a second and snapped the ball almost instantly.  This was unsettling in that they were already in the secondary by the time the defense started reacting to try and tackle somebody.

    The only thing I can say is that if Crockett is just going to play anyone in the area, be smarter and choose teams that are more your speed.  Don't play the state champions if you struggle to win any games.  I put this on the coaches/administrators who set this game up.  There are plenty of other teams that are just mediocre and that is who our guys should be playing.  Last year, we only won one, but we had a chance and were in it in at least four other games that could have gone either way.  This year, so far, it is two blowouts, 66-8 and this 70-0, or something like that.  This breaks kids when they see that they can't compete, it isn't good for them.  I don't care about a loss, when they can compete, but these losses where they are overwhelmed seem like too much week in and week out.  What are the kids going to take out of this, I know a loss builds character, but an ass whipping every week makes one question why are we sacrificing our bodies and time in practice for?  Here's hoping next week is more evenly matched.

10/9/20 Work Is Kicking My Ass?

     I hate the idea of dying because of some stupid virus, but some of the changes as I have said have been pretty good, in the short term.  I loved having the boys and Wife out of school for the spring term.  It felt like we were finally a family all under the same roof and being able to slow down.  I never did get the same option at work, we continued working, but for a time we were told we didn't have to hang around all night long.  As soon as the workload was done that was going to be due the next day or so was done, we could leave for the night.  This was so we could reduce the amount of time we interacted with each other, which sounded very reasonable.

    Being how inventive I can be when given an opportunity to gain the system, I started working at a much faster pace so I could go home earlier and earlier.  I am still an hourly employee so I am supposed to put in the full twelve hour shift that I work.  I never minded but I was feeling run down there at the start of the year, so changing things up felt great.  We have one main tool that is "our" tool and there is another identical tool in the lab room that belongs to our "parent" company, we share the lab space.  Normally, we only use each others tool when our goes down, but they are both qualified to do each other's work.  Naturally, once they announced we could leave as quickly as the work got done, I figured I could be twice as fast if I started running both tools at the same time.  This is a bit of a pain as I have to remain on my feet most of the night, running back and forth, but if it means I could cut out that much faster, then so be it.

    Management must have figured out we were enjoying ourselves too much, because even though the work is getting done on time, they decided we must go back to normal operating schedule and be there our full shifts.  I didn't like hearing that, but then they announced we are moving forward with installing a new tool and we will be getting some new training on new techniques we will be offering and I am supposed to figure out how to be there to cross train.  On top of all this, we have been inundated with work.  Jobs from customers normally have 3-4 samples.  One customer submitted identical jobs with sixteen samples apiece, and another with 10, all this on top of the normal work we see means we have been extra busy.

    I don't even mind being there the full 12 hours if there is work, so this week has been blowing by.  What pisses me off is the idea of some weeks we just don't have much work around and in the past I was supposed to keep myself busy. At one point, one of my other supervisors said "practice your technique".  That was some pretty dumb advice when you consider that we prep the samples in an identical fashion day in and day out, this was in another part of our lab, and we have to be consistent, so making the same sample 3-4 times a night for ten years without hardly any problems and you want me to "practice my technique".  Yeah, you get us more work that yields more money, I'll be waiting with Netflix on over here, thank you.

10/8/20 A Little Ghetto But Still A Solution?

     It seems that life must continue even in the age of Covid-19.  My parents have not been up to visit since maybe January or February.  I know my mom loves coming up to visit and to take in the sites and the mall and she always enjoys a good meal out somewhere different.  My dad does not really feel the same way, he is happy enough to stay home and just watch football all day, even if it's the UT-USC championship game from 2005 which they seem to show all the time on the Longhorn network.

    Mom had kept saying they couldn't or wouldn't come up because she was terribly worried my dad and even her would get the virus just by being up here where just looking at the data, it seems thousands of people get infected daily.  For most of the spring and most of the summer I didn't even see them and everyone in my family took the quarantine orders very seriously, I mean nobody was going anywhere except to get food and medicines when needed.

    Now, with Baby Jesus, his cousin down in Crystal City playing football and even my niece being active with the cheerleaders, it seems everyone is out of the house getting exposed daily.  Everyone is reluctantly back at work in whatever capacity they are going through, but like it or not, everyone is potentially being exposed to the world.

    My mom then started changing her story with a "we would come visit but there is no space for us to sleep in."  I told her there is the guest room upstairs where Boy has all his 3D printers (the guest room downstairs is where DD is staying).  Her response is that my dad cannot be climbing the stairs up and down all day, his legs barely allow him to take the 1.5 steps outside to get out of the house.  I've seen him, he does absolutely no effort to exercise so he is as stiff and inflexible as a corpse that manages to breath, I mean, rigor mortis is setting in on the man because he refuses to move more than he has to.  His biggest form of exercise is flicking through Tik-Tok daily until that wears him out then he goes and lays down to watch CNN and repeat.

    I jokingly suggested I would move the king bed in the guest room upstairs down to the room that is supposed to be the dining room and she liked the idea saying it would allow my dad a place to lay down and watch TV on the first floor and be right next to the kitchen.  Well, tonight after Wife went to bed, I did some measurements, moved the theater chairs that ate up most of the room  90 degrees to how they were and it opened the room up to allow the bed to fit.  I had to vacuum and even clean the wall, those chairs had not been moved in 14 years or so.  The bed fits pretty good, I think it is great for watching TV, this is where I hung the plasma about the time we moved in back in 2007.  The TV still looks very good and even I think I found a new place to nap when I get sleepy during the day, it seems inviting.  Wife just told me I better keep the bed made so it doesn't look all nasty now that the bed is out of the bedroom.

10/7/20 Even Long Weekends Go By Fast?

     Where does the time go?  I was off from Thursday until Monday evening, yet this weekend did not seem restful at all.  Thursday was fraught with all things football.  I dropped off Baby Jesus at school at 2:20pm, ran to get an oil change before game time.  After that, I went to Best Buy to buy a camera bag that I was then not allowed to take into the game because for some reason, they only allow clear bags to school functions.  Wife came into town, we headed to the football game at Hays' Football field.  The game started at 7:30pm and we did not get home until after 11:00pm.  By the time my son ate and showered it was after midnight.  We then went with Wife down to Crystal City, which means we got up at 4:30am, took a quick shower and got going.  I then spent the day with my folks until Wife got off from work.  Baby Jesus also had to stay on the computer until slightly after 4:00pm because he is doing his online classes.  We left and got back to Austin around 8:00pm.  It should have been faster, but there is construction along I-35, south of San Antonio.  There wasn't much left for us to do, but instead of going and getting food somewhere, I decided I was going to make us wings at home.  We ate wings and saw a movie which filled out the rest of the night.

    Saturday morning, I got up at 7:00am, wrote a handful of blogs, I had fallen a few days behind, so I got caught up with all the activities we have been going through.  I then headed out to wash Wife's Telluride but there was a long line and the idiot taking the cars in was driving way too aggressive for my comfort.  I decided not to and instead went out looking for a black christmas tree.  I wanted to surprise Wife, she suggested I make a Nightmare Before Christmas tree for us, which could be kept out from Halloween to past Christmas, it covers both holidays.  I found the right tree at At Home, but thought it would be better if she joined me in the shopping, so I left without buying anything.  I got home around 11:00am, the Longhorns were starting and I was supposed to smoke a couple of beer can chickens, so I got those started.  The game sucked, TCU has been whipping the Longhorns ass the last 8 years, it is embarrassing because they are a tiny school of barely 3,000 kids.  My chicken came out great, the four of us ate together which was a rarity, but Sweetie was working and Boy was home alone.  After this, the night was a blur, I took a nap for an hour, we were going to go to get the tree, I got up at 6:00pm, took Boy to get some clothes, then came back and we chilled the rest of the night watching a couple movies on our projector.  Poor Baby Jesus was stuck all weekend doing a massive amount of homework.  I almost think it is too much, but he does have four college classes, so it is what it is.

    Sunday, we didn't get up until noon and after we ate another serving of the leftovers of the chicken and sausages I smoked on Saturday, Wife and I finally went back to get the black Christmas tree for her idea.  We got a couple other things and headed back home.  I washed her car, it was covered in dead bug juices on the front, and I also fixed the temperature in Boy's shower by removing the temperature limit, he was complaining it wasn't hot enough.  It is scalding hot now, thanks to the water heater and the new water regulator I installed in  his shower.  The last few hours of Sunday evening I spent helping Baby Jesus with some of his school assignments, algebra and chemistry mostly, then I also wrote a few more blogs to get ahead for the week.  At this point, it is 9:00pm and I think I can chill the rest of the night as Wife has to start getting ready for bed.  I'll wash a load downstairs of clothes we dirtied over the weekend and probably watch some TV by myself.