1/1/21 Happy New Year?

     We are doing a very low key New Year's Eve this year.  Usually, we spend the evening at my in-law's and then drive home afterwards, but with the weather saying it was going to be rainy and possibly close to freezing, we didn't want to take chances of surviving Covid-19 all year only to end up dying in some crazy car accident.  Instead, we decided we would spend the day at home.  We visited my folks last week before Christmas and then we saw my in-law's earlier this week on Tuesday, so we were good on seeing everybody.

    Since we were going to be home, it only seemed right to end the year with a smoked brisket since we have done so many, this would be my final exam.  We bought the brisket Wednesday, so it was not frozen, merely kept in the fridge overnight.  I got up at 6:20am to pee and Wife had told me half joking/half serious that I should start smoking it at 6:00am so that we could eat around 7:00pm.  Sure enough, I came downstairs and prepped the hunk of meat all by myself and fired up the grill.  It was a chilly morning with on again/off again rain showers, but the grill and I stayed dry in the patio.  I kept an eye on the grill while I drank my coffee and snacked on pastries (I'll get back on the diet next week).  I stayed attentive until around 11:30am when I decided I needed a nap.  I headed upstairs, Wife had just woke up and I then napped while she watched crappy TV in the bedroom.

    The brisket was showing signs of being done around 5:00pm (it was tender when I stuck the temperature probe in it and the internal temperature was above 210 degrees).  We kept it going while we finished watching the 3rd season of Stranger Things which was over the top and left us in an emotional heap.  It is amazing that they keep topping themselves, we are waiting for the 4th season.

    Dinner was about perfect, Wife made a potato salad and Jalapeno bombers and rice as sides, everything was great.  Since around 7:00pm, we have been just loafing around, like most of these vacation days.  I fell asleep again for an hour then I woke, showered and have now been sitting on laptop in kitchen munching on brownies, grapes, bananas, ice cream, soda, wine, and muffins just waiting for midnight.  Wife is watching Independence Day which is too close to Stranger Things with the creepy monsters trying to end the humans, for me.

    I would say this is a pretty good day.  I would prefer no virus, and slightly nicer weather to be out with family, but we are doing the best with what we have in front of us.  Both my boys are here in the house, Boy has Sweetie and a friend over, Baby A is playing online with his friends and comes down every 20-30 minutes to snack, so I am happy about having them here and not worried about them being out getting in trouble.  Happy New Year's everyone, here's hoping things get more normal so we can go back to our way of life in 2021.

12/31/20 Was 2020 All That Bad?

     On the surface, yes, it looks like 2020 was a shit show.  We were forced to isolate and change our way of life, a new virus was thrust upon us with the potential to wipe us out as it made its way across the entire world.  If that wasn't bad enough, we were then subjected to a summer of relentless movements in the big liberal cities on the heels of several high profile deaths of some sketchy people.  This all culminated in the most fiercely debated presidential race, which some of us aren't so sure the president has been chosen.

    In the spring, I was honestly scared, when Wife and the kids were sent home for a Spring Break that never ended.  I had a mini breakdown when they were announcing corona (they couldn't decide what to call it, now Covid-19) and it was mostly killing old people and fat fuckers.  I was sure it was just a matter of time, and my fear was "shit, it could kill both of us (Wife is a big girl too)", then what happens to Baby A, Boy was not even working, having been laid off in January.  After seeing the numbers and really focusing on what the virus was doing, I decided the best chance was to loose weight, so the first positive I felt from the pandemic and changing our way of life, was we all got on a diet.  It was pretty effective, I was hovering around 432 pounds, at my highest.  I lost about 75-80 pounds as I was hovering in the low 350s before the Christmas holidays.  I am probably up 10 pounds or so, but we will get back to our low carb diets after the holidays, so we are not worried.  Wife also managed to lose about 50-60 pounds doing the same diet.  I saw this as a positive directly caused by our reaction to the virus.

    I also think it was good to slow down, have the kids home and be a family.  We started making meals at home, watching movies together, being a part of each other's lives, and I thought that was another good effect from the pandemic.  We stopped eating most of our meals out in fast food restaurants because they were not available, plus if you're home, you want to stay home.  I liked the idea of buying an extra freezer, going to the store, stocking up and then living off what we have around the house.  For a long time, we just ventured out to work, to HEB, and back home.

    I guess the violence we started seeing also finally made me rethink who I was and I could not sit comfortably saying I sided with the democrats if they were on the side that was allowing all the rioting and mayhem we saw on the streets.  It seemed like it was going to get rougher here in Austin, which is a liberal bastion, but a liberal idiot waved his gun a little too close to a real Texan and the fucker got shot quick fast and in a hurry.  That seemed to calm the liberals here down a bit, sorry for the guy and his family, but I don't want to live in a city where I might get a gun pointed at me by some 24 year old that thinks he understands life better than me and proves his point by pointing a gun at me, fuck him.

    As bad as this year seemed to be, in the end, it might be alright.  Boy got a new job a couple months ago with a much better company that has been around a long time.  We lost weight and are still around, so Covid-19 hasn't killed us, yet.  We do have several vaccines out from different manufacturers now, so hopefully, we can get past this ugly chapter of our lives.  Trump may have had the election stolen from him, but I still hold up hope that something happens.  If not, we can sit back and be entertained by the shenanigans that are sure to ensue.

12/30/20 Rolex May Have Jumped The Shark?

     Maybe it is just another sign that regular people are falling behind societal norms, or maybe Rolex is becoming a brand for the ultra haves.  I had figured with the kind of money we make, I could afford to buy one for every milestone of life, but that may be asking too much.  We were out looking at what kind of product they had at one of only two stores that is an Authorized Dealer (AD), Ben Bridge, here in Austin.  They really didn't have more than a handful sitting in their display cases that at one time might have held close to 200 watches.  The scary thought is that I feel the AD are selling in bulk to the aftermarket assholes that are ruining the prices outright, and they are already very expensive.

    My thought is why would an AD sell me a single watch when I might buy one every 7-10 years, when Joe Idiot might go in and buy 5-10 watches in one sitting and then he turns around and sells them for much more?  I know this sounds ridiculous and I thought so for a long time, but as an example, I followed the price of the green faced Submariner, nicknamed the Hulk.  Technically, the new one is a little different, but you tell me:

New 2020 Green Rolex Submariner (retail $9550)

Older Green Rolex Submariner (range of prices $18,000- $24,000)

Other than the green dial versus black, they are the same and bracelet and case are plain stainless steel, not white gold.  I see the range of prices online, but even at the mall, I found a used one at one of the watch stores and it was selling for $18,000.  Similar story with the Milgauss, which I really want to buy for my son, it is a "scientist's watch" and I thought it would make a perfect graduation present, if not for the price.

Milgauss (retails for $8,300)  

I have not seen a new one in the last two years, and if I buy one used it would cost me at least $1500 more, around $9500 or up, depending on how new I get.  This one is not crazy overpriced because it is a "nerd" watch, which I say is even better.  It was designed for engineers who worked around high powered magnets, they are not affected by the magnetic forces internally.

Of course, I am crying about very first world problems when some people haven't worked all year and are in danger of losing everything, but the fact that the market has gone to favor a used market I find wrong.  First, they are more expensive than new, but then in the used market, you are much more likely to buy a fake representative and just how do you tell if the seller decides he is going to lie or act dumb?  It all leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Plus, with society's direction, which seems to favor the criminal now, I would hate for my son to get hurt in a robbery because the watch is just so expensive and criminals know they can get a good price in a used market.  Maybe I will have to find something else to commemorate the special event, if only this son of mine would finish the last handful of classes.

12/29/20 Sneaking In A Goal Before The End Of The Year?

     I had told Wife we would be changing the fence out and replacing it sometime this past year and dammit, we are more than halfway there.  My neighbors to the right had mentioned it at one point and I said it would be great, then a couple months ago the man told me he had bought the material and he was going to do it with a friend, if I wanted to help cover the costs, maybe give him $250.  I thought this was very nice of him and told him we would have loved to help but he decided they would do it during the week, and unfortunately, I work and the boys are busy with school and stuff.  I gave him $300, knowing the material was more than $500, plus they were going to handle all the labor.

    In the end, it all worked out, he had about 50 slats left over and told me we could have them, and at $3 a board, that was easily half what I had given him.  Those slats had been sitting on our patio for about 3-4 weeks now, even with the rails to hold them, the 2x4 boards connected to the posts in the ground, which I had gone and bought at Lowe's a couple weeks ago.  I would have started but the weather had been colder than normal since Thanksgiving, every time I was off from work.  

    Wife then pressured me to get it done this weekend, DD is off and the fence benefits his dog the most (stupid dog keeps finding/making holes in the fence because it is all old and dry).  Today (Sunday), I got up early and told him I was planning on working on the fence, if he wasn't doing anything, it would be great if he helped.  He said sure, which was more than Boy said.  Boy looked at me with a straight face and said "no thanks, I am playing video games."  I then yelled a little bit, not even looking at him yelling "you live here Fucker, you are helping."  I then went to Lowe's and got about $650 worth of more runners and slats.  The job was actually really easy because the posts in the ground are metal and we can reuse those.

    Once we got everything home, we put it close to the back of the fence and the boys started taking the old fence down.  It was a little tricky at first, trying to figure out the right sockets to use but then we got a flow going.  Boy kept taking down sections of fence, I would help him drag them inside and away from where we were working.  DD works with drills and screws for a living, so he did the assembling.  I worked the saw and measured and cut the rails and put them up or held them for Boy to do it.  Baby A was the muscle and he brought the rails over to my sawhorses and the slats for DD to install.  I copied my neighbors idea to go from 2 runners to three and also to use screws to hold everything together instead of nails.  It took a little longer, but the finished product is surely going to be stronger and last longer than the first one.  The original fence lasted a good 13 years and the wood wasn't treated or anything special.  This one is treated wood for the runners and cedar for the slats, it looks beautiful right now.  We got about 60% done on Sunday, and I will try to get the last 4 sections done with Baby A by ourselves in the next two days.  Wife said there is a cold front coming and I want to beat it because I am not working in the cold, it can wait.

    After we are done with this, we will need to get the other side with my other neighbors, but that can wait a month or two.  I need to talk to them and hopefully, they will want to split the cost.  I don't mind doing the work, it was kind of fun being outside working with my boys, they were both involved and interested in being helpful.  Boy did bump Baby A with a 2x4 in the head, but he seemed ok after, he just muttered "that should get me Whataburger for dinner, ouch."

12/28/20 Maxwell Ford Has Lost Me As A Customer?

     Anyone who has read my blogs for some time knows I am a Ford fan, I mean, I fought with Wife when she got the Telluride, I really wanted her to get an Expedition or an Explorer, but she was set on another Kia and the fact that the Telluride did better on a head to head in Car and Driver did not help my case.  Still, we currently have three fords in our arsenal and all get driven weekly.  I was just at Maxwell Ford a month ago looking at the F250 Tremor trucks, I really want one for my next vehicle, and then I was curious about the Bronco Sport and they finally have some out to show, I was also considering just downsizing and maybe settling on one of these.

    Well, Boy crashed the Ecosport and being that we don't have accidents frequently, the last time I dealt with one was with my 1999 F250 back around 2004 or thereabouts and I brought it to Maxwell Ford where they repaired it for me.  I naively told Boy to tell the tow truck guy to deliver the crashed car to Maxwell Ford for repairs, even if they couldn't get to it, it would save him the cost of towing it to the yard, and then towing it again to the Ford shop.  We got there and they were fixing to close, but the gate was still open.  It's not like I get an email on the hours of operation, but if the gates are open, I assume someone is still around.  Boy had gotten there before and said there was nobody in the service department.  I walked up tot he front to look for a secretary or just anyone to say we were wanting to leave our car there, just to have an okay, so they know where the crashed car came from.  Everything was closed up, there was a manager type in a car rolling slowly telling me they were closed.  I walked towards him because he was using his inside voice about twenty feet from me, I couldn't hear him.  He acted like I had leprosy or AIDS and was approaching him with my penis out.  He yelled like he was preventing me from robbing him and told me to stand back (I guess the fat fuck is scared of COVID).  I wasn't going to stick my head in his car, I just wanted to talk like a human.  He yelled that we needed to go, they were closed.  I told him to "STOP! (he wouldn't converse with me, just kept saying they are closed) I know you're closed, I just want to say that my son just crashed, we are leaving the car here, is that okay?"

    At this, he looked at me like I was stupid and said they are not a service center, they sell new cars, the repair place is offsite a few blocks away and again, please get off the lot.  He had a technician or other lower level guy by the gate who was going to lock up and he was talking to Wife saying that if we didn't get off the lot, he would be towing two cars, not just the crashed one.  I thought this was extremely rude and yelled at him "MY SON WAS JUST IN A CAR ACCIDENT, WE KNOW Y'ALL ARE CLOSING, I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DO WITH THE CAR, I'VE BOUGHT A GOOD 5-6 CARS FROM HERE BUT YOU TWO ARE TREATING US LIKE WE'RE HERE TO STEAL, FUCK!!!!  IT IS A STRESSFUL SITUATION, ACT LIKE HUMANS FOR A GODDAM MINUTE!!!"

    I walked off to move the Edge off the parking lot and into the street.  Wife tried explaining to them what I was trying to say, but the technician (and you assume this is a man, he works under cars and shit) turned away from Wife and said he was not communicating with us anymore because I had been so aggressive, I had caused his tampon to shift, or something.  We then sat on the street, Boy told the tow truck driver to drop off at the repair place and I guess he already had gone over there because the car was there and he was long gone.  It was a nice feeling that the manager type sat in his car but not being helpful, even when we were on the street outside of his precious dealership until we left.  I will not be buying any more cars here.  This fucking poor excuse of a human could have just said "sorry for your accident, take the car over to so and so address, I didn't want him to roll his sleeves up and look at the car, I knew it was Christmas Eve too."  Instead, he treated us like dirty Mexicans, he was fucking brown too, so it wasn't racism, maybe he thought we were poor, but his stupid ass isn't better than us, fucking clown.  I don't know if his technician is a millenial, but his behavior like he has never heard a person cussing surprised me, I mean, he works with a garage full of men, what was that female behavior that he shut down because I cussed at the situation, I wasn't cussing at him?

    The only saving grace is that the guy over at the repair place was shocked at the behavior and said he has worked there for 7 years, they are part of the Maxwell Ford umbrella, he would be talking to the general manager about this, it wasn't right how we were treated.  I don't expect an apology, big important assholes like this rarely admit they did anything wrong, they'll paint me as being unhinged and acting like I deserved to be treated like I was.  Maybe I did, hell, maybe I should learn my role and walk looking down at the ground with a limp wrist and go through life apologizing for existing.  Wife was quick with well, we could switch all our cars to Kias, I laughed and said "woah, there are other Ford dealerships, Ford didn't do anything wrong, I mean your son walked away from an ugly accident unhurt, so the car did its job."  Wife don't play games, she will fight me next time we get a car and will want it to be anything but a Ford, thanks to these two great representatives.

12/27/20 Boy Had A Small Accident?

     Just when you think you got life all figured out, you've done everything right and just want to sit back and relax, that's when life says "fuck you" and kicks you in the balls.  Wife and I went out to have a little fun on Christmas Eve, all the gifts were bought and we just wanted to go take a look around the mall and see how it looked from the inside, maybe get a last minute stocking stuffer for the boys, a sweater or something.  We were about as relaxed as we can get, I even managed to go to my favorite new store, 5.11, I like the backpacks and got myself a new one from Santa, just because.  I thought that was a perfect ending to the shopping madness that is the Christmas rush.  We were headed home, just talking about firing up the grill, we were going to smoke a turkey and some ribs to eat later at night, so we just needed to get home, jump in our warm ups and just relax, but no.

    Boy called us as we headed home to say that he had just been involved in a car accident, about 2-3 miles from where we had just been, as he was headed home from work.  Nothing makes you hear the scratch of the needle coming off the record like the word "accident".  He was quick to say he was not hurt and the other people were okay too, so that helped but he also said he hit hard enough that the airbags deployed all around and the car ended up looking like an accordion up in the front.  He said the other car barely had scratches on its rear bumper, but for some reason, our little Ecosport looked like it ran into a wall.  It is times like this that it is better to remain calm and reassure him that as long as he is okay, all will be fine.  I was a little sad about the car, I really liked it, we had only had it since about August and I had only driven it a few times before Boy decided he liked it more than his Edge.  We were actually driving around in his SUV as Wife's SUV has been in the shop for an oil change that has now taken too many days.

    We met up with him, Sweetie was already there, she had gone to pick him up, the Ecosport was taken by tow truck to a Ford shop, unfortunately, it looks like a total loss, although sometimes looks can be deceiving.  We talked to a very nice young man who assured us he would do the best he could and he would be contacting us when he got to working on it.  I told him there was no rush and we understood it was Christmas Eve, I was just happy they were still open to receive the car so we had a place to take it to.  Maxwell Ford acted terribly, I mean worst customer service we could have gotten, I get it, but for a place that I loved so much, they really let me down, fucking assholes.

12/26/20 Old Age Or Bad Diet?

     I did not grow up blasting farts for fun, I was always worried I might poop myself if I accidentally let one get out, therefore, I used to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, not wanting to take chances.  In the last few years, I have finally accepted that gas is just a part of life, so I have been letting them go a little more, hoping for the best.  I think I have it worked out, once I go to the bathroom and get rid of the poop for the day, the cannon is free to blast harmlessly the rest of the day.

    I actually did this quite a bit this last time we went to the mall, I think it was the brussel sprouts that we ate with our meal, either way, my stomach kept feeling tight like a drum, so after a while of tensing up, I said fuck it, and while walking through the cheap costume jewelry of Macy's, I crop-dusted the area and kept moving.  I was able to let them go silently, and there was a lot of noise from the shoppers and christmas music that I got more confidant after that.  At one point it was like stepping on ducks as I went along, quack, quack, quack, for more than a few steps.  I like how Wife gets all embarrassed and she just mutters "oh my gosh, stop!" But she's such a great Wife she doesn't say it loud to give me away.  After awhile I was having fun with this, the mall has turned into a shit show anyway, there just isn't anything I would consider a "must shop" anymore.

    Later at night, we were all standing around the kitchen after Boy and Sweetie got back from visiting her family and it overcame me again.  I just stood there on the opposite side of the island from Sweetie and didn't even think about it, blasting away like a dog unaware that this is inappropriate.  Wife gives me the little smack on the arm yelling "not in front of Sweetie, Nasty."  She just looked sideways in discomfort and they slowly made their way upstairs.  I just figured she is part of the family, why should I act proper around her, she wants to be one of us, I am just keeping it real.

    I did not plan the end of the night, but on my way upstairs, I really wanted to go to the bathroom downstairs, but Baby A beat me to it, so as I was walking up the stairs I just unloaded a barrage of farts like I was fumigating the stairs for roaches I laughed all the way into the bedroom, but just as I stepped into the room, Sweetie came out saying she needed something from downstairs, Wife yelled at her to hold her breath and tried to warn her, I just heard "Oh My God, I can taste it in my mouth..." I laughed maniacally in the bedroom, it couldn't have been more perfect, not that I wanted to fart on her, but that someone walked through it, accidentally.

12/25/20 Merry Christmas To All?

     The hype of the approaching day is usually more than the actual event.  I always love the anticipation of the oncoming holidays, but I am rarely impressed with the day itself.  This Christmas wasn't much different.  I do love shopping with Wife and running around exhausting ourselves looking for the perfect gifts for those we care about and love.  This year was a bit different in that we got 90% of our shopping done online and taken care of around Thanksgiving, but we still left the possibility open to buy an extra gift or two on the last few days to give us reason to run around and join the madness that is the masses out shopping.

    We spent Monday afternoon walking around the Domain and that was fun, Wife and I went by ourselves.  I was really excited to go by Ben Bridge and hopefully see the new line of Rolex watches that came out this year with new colorful dials, including a strong red color that has me interested.  They were pretty much empty as far as Rolex watches go.  If their display cases for Rolex can hold 200-300 watches normally, they are down to around 6-10, and mostly all the boring ones for older men or ladies, I did not see any of the "sport" variety.  This was fine, it's not like I was going to spend $7,000-$14,000 on a watch.  We also walked into other boutique stores like Tiffany's and even the Tesla car store.  All this made for a fun afternoon.

    Yesterday, we went down to the mall, but not only did we notice more stores closing, but the mall looked ravaged, there wasn't anything resembling something I would want to purchase.  First it lost the Ben Bridge store, this time I noticed Williams Sonoma and Abercrombie and Fitch along with its sister stores is closing.  I can foresee Barton Mall turning into another Highland Mall with way too many shoe stores here pretty soon, I don't understand our fascination with fucking Nike tennis shoes, but here we are.

    We didn't buy much, but just getting out there and walking around amongst people felt a little normal, we hope this pandemic is gone by this time next year.  We then came home, smoked a turkey and some ribs and watched a couple of Christmas movies.  It was pretty good to enjoy eggnog with a little alcohol, a bunch of different breads from Central Market, cookies from DD's girlfriend, cookies and sweets from my in-law's (we met them at a gas station on the drive home from my folks), and even Sweetie brought home more sweets from her mother's home.  We are overstocked with sweets and food and yet Wife is fixing to make a Christmas lasagna for tonight.  Merry Christmas y'all.

12/24/20 Loving What Ford Is Doing?

     Ford has been delivering, I am very happy with their lineup and where they seem to be headed.  They just released the Bronco Sport and as I was told last night, this is the smaller of the Broncos, a bigger one is coming in both 2 door and 4 door versions.  I can't help but think that a 4 door version will very much look like an Excursion, maybe not.  We did go to the dealership last night, around 7:00pm to see the new Broncos, the fully loaded "Badlands" version they had in the show room floor was loaded and going for a reasonable $38,999.  I thought everything about the vehicle at that price point sounded like a great bargain except for the engine.  I loved the look, very sporty, Wife said it reminded her of a Toyota Pathfinder or something like that, the roof was very defined and flat, the curves were all sharp and crisp, it is very stylish and even the nose, where they fucked up the Ranger, was very cool, to my eyes.  The inside was equally good looking, with the brown baseball leather glove colored seats, with touches of grey for contrast.  The front dash starts looking like all the other Fords.  I have test driven an Explorer, sat in a new Edge, we bought the Ecosport, and I have been looking at F-250s.  They all have a very similar look, but the look is good enough for me.  Everything is laid out efficiently and makes sense.

    I don't know what they are thinking of, but the engine being a 3 cylinder sounds like something for the European market.  The guy said it still makes 300HP or something, with all the turbos and stuff, but I want at least 6 cylinders if I can't get a good ole V8.  I know that whatever is in the hood is probably good enough, but I just feel like I am being cheated out of something when they do that, again, maybe I just have to get used to newer more efficient technology.

    With so many upcoming releases, I don't even know what to do.  The good thing is that my Excursion is acting like a champ, so I don't need a new vehicle right now, but what if?  I really want to wait for the new Excursion that has been announced for the coming year, maybe the new Bronco will be big and impressive enough.  I did like this Bronco Sport too, the engine not so much.  I also think like Wife says I should settle for a smaller SUV and then I can justify the cost of a boat from the equation.

    What I do know is that we just bought the Telluride and the Ecosport this year, so I am not going to start trying to buy a new car for myself in the next few months, even though I would love one.  If anything, I wouldn't mind upgrading the seats to leather in the Edge and start driving it more regularly since Boy is looking down his nose at it.  Then again, Baby A has started making noise about he needing to drive, so he might just end up with either the Ecosport or the Edge.  We need more cars even as our driveway looks like a car dealership.

12/23/20 Beautiful Saturday For An Afternoon Drive?

     We are finally free for a couple weeks and although the morning on Saturday started with thunderstorms and grey skies, but 1:00-2:00pm the skies cleared up and we enjoyed a very fall afternoon, with cool temperatures and blue skies.  We had been invited to a baby shower drive by for one of Boy's old girlfriends, not because they keep in touch, but the mom remains one of Wife's Facebook friends and they talk/text once in awhile.  Since she was having a baby, we drove by and dropped off a baby gift, a cute little girl outfit and some diapers.  I always love the "OMG is this Bobbers (Baby A has had a lot of nicknames), he has gotten so big?" from the girl.  Since the mom now lives in Buda, we drove over there through the back roads and that kind of set the tone for the day.  

    Afterwards, we drove over to check a location where Wife has to go after the holidays for a training, she likes to know how to get to places ahead of time.  After this, we were free to do whatever and when you carry a Baby A in the back seat, eventually you have to feed him.  We drove around to a place here and there, but not many places allow indoor dining.  I decided to head out towards Bee Cave, I have an itch that I want to scratch and that is that I would like to consider the idea of moving west towards this area, the problem is that Wife doesn't live in town and the median house price in that area is $650,000 now, thanks to all the people flooding the area.  For now I'll wait, Mijo doesn't want to move and he is halfway through his high school days, it would suck for him.  My mom will say "but you did it to Boy, but that was at the start of his high school life, not in the middle of it and we were really cramped living in the old house, I was suffocating there.  I do love my house, so there is no rush, I just hate the thought of Austin being overrun by the fucking homeless.

    We ended up eating at Whataburger in Lakeway, and that prompted a stop at a boat dealership, I opened my phone to get an address and a brand new Bayliner boat popped up in one of the ads showing a 15ft boat for $13,999, including trailer.  That is pretty much what I have been looking for, it fits in the garage, seats 5 people and it is pretty cheap.  They did not have them yet, they are building boats again and they did have inventory, not like last time where the store was completely empty, but the guy said that boat was completely new and they are just now leaving the manufacturers and arriving at dealerships.  Something to look forward to.

    We then stopped at HEB and in Lakeway for some groceries to grill at home, then headed home.  By the way, Lakeway has a much nicer HEB than I had seen at other places. This store was a mix of a Central Market (really HEB's version of upscale store) and a nice HEB.  There was a nice assortment of sweets by the front with a bakery, there was a butcher style counter over in the meat department and even one of the aisles seemed dedicated to the gluten free winnies that exist where rich people live (one of the comedians on Youtube makes the joke, hard working Mexicans who do roofing or work out in the sun don't even know what gluten allergies are).  The store was very nice, it felt like being in another state even, but eventually we got back in our car and came back to normal.

    Afterwards Wife surprised me one more time by going along with my stupidity when I said Ford finally has the new Broncos in stock, I wouldn't mind going over and checking them out.  She said "let's go, after we drop off the food at the house."  We did and Baby A stayed home too, he had enough fun for a day.

12/22/20 Disney Releasing Mulan Was A Bold Move?

     Disney releasing its own movies is turning into something.  I did not like the idea at first because we already pay for Netflix and Hulu, now we have to pay for Disney, then every big outfit is going to want to spin out on its own and that may be happening.  Wife said recently NBC removed itself from our local channel lineup on cable.  I don't know why we still have cable, we rarely even watch it anymore.  Honestly, I enjoyed Goldbergs and Black-ish, but both seemed obsessed with the whole woke BS and sorry, but that does not make for entertaining television.  Yes, you might have an important message, for you, but that does not mean we are entertained by your plight and sorry but we tune in for entertainment, not sermonizing, leave that shit for Sunday mornings when we can sleep through stuff.  I loved Anthony Anderson the chubby comedian being a successful dad, not the woke movement expert shaming America weekly.

    Anyways, Disney has been impressing the crap out of us recently.  Wife and I still are mesmerized by Hamilton and we listen to the soundtrack every time we head out of town, the Mandalorian brought so much clout back to the Star Wars franchise, as my brother said making up for the last three shit movies we had to endure, the fuck you kill Han Solo like that, he should have been left alone to live on in our imaginations.  Not only was Baby Yoda the cutest thing in the last twenty years or so, but the lore of the Mandalorians and how Mando (such a great name) lives and carries his name and way of life is just the stuff of legends nowadays.  I will say Mulan delivered well, for what it was.  It could have been turned into a disgusting (yet another) example of women besting men at what men have been doing since before we climbed out of the fucking jungles and became the mammals we are now.  Mulan is a warrior who saves the day, and she does best the other men/children she is grouped with, but at least it was set that way.  The whole crew she was with were basically boys being put into battle clothes, she wasn't just thrown into an army of experienced men warriors and then she out fights everyone as I was expecting.  She has a little "magic" in that her chi is very potent, if that is how you describe that, and the writers didn't make her out to be some perfect creature, they poked fun at her being a stinky dude that really needed to shower at some point when she was still in disguise.  She does what Mulan does, we all saw the cartoon version, so I won't break the movie down but I do want to say I liked the execution of it.  It could so easily have turned into a woke event and taught us that anything men can do, women can do better and that message usually sucks, this stayed relevant and "realistic" as far as a movie with "magical" moments can be.

    Before we started watching it, Boy said it sucked badly and that China had made their own version and it was much better.  I had to shit on him because EVERYTHING Chinese is better to him, from the fried wontons to the rice, this boy of mine seems ready for the Chinese to take over as the world's super power, they can do no wrong.  I call BS, this movie version was fine, I enjoyed it.  I don't have a problem with the Chinese, I have always enjoyed the movies released here and I know Mulan is Disney's version of a Chinese princess to sell more merchandise.  I just get tired of Mijo turning his nose at our stuff in favor of some other countries product as being superior as a regular thing.

12/21/20 Deep Conversations With Mijo? (part 2 of 2)

    The conversation was brought about by Baby A asking me "If I could talk to anyone that ever existed, who would I choose?"  I then laid the groundwork yesterday and this is a continuation of that. 

     I told Baby A "it would be cool to talk to Einstein in theory, until you started talking and realized he was going to leave you feeling stupid after."  I have never been one to need to touch or see the artist in person, it is always a bit of a let down, I think.  I never understood my brother's wife's need to see Bon Jovi or get up close enough to shake his hand.  I loved Ozzy Osbourne back in high school, but I never saw him in concert and he seemed to come yearly to San Antonio.  How weird was it to see Ozzy in the real world with his family, the fucking Prince of Darkness couldn't get a word in edge wise with his family.  I loved that it made him human, but humans are mediocre.

Another example would be a conversation with the Rock, Dwayne Johnson.  He is our current big muscle type hero in the movies, but I am sure he is obsessed with his health and spends all his free time lifting weights and eating egg whites, I've seen videos of him.  The guy wakes up at 5:00am to work out, great for him and it has given him an awfully successful life, but I don't think it leaves time to be anything else and that can't be an interesting figure to have a good talk with.  Inspiring, in theory yes, the man is built like a god, but I can't imagine much is going on upstairs, the knucklehead endorsed Biden, how smart can he be?

    So, if I am not going to get much more than a conversation, talking to Einstein isn't going to make me smarter, I am not going to automatically win a Nobel prize for my efforts, then why would I care to stand in front of greatness?  I think a better use of the opportunity to talk and interact with a historical figure, I could also say Jesus, but.... you know, we aren't doing mythological characters, or I could just as well say Zeus.  I think I would then have to go with a beautiful example, like Marylin Monroe.  She was the original centerfold, she fucked a president and a hall of famer.  If you could catch her on a good day, she would at least have interesting stories of her Hollywood career, her rendezvous with the Kennedys, and maybe at the very least I could go in for a grope of those perfect titties.

    Baby A said it would be cool to talk to a king or someone important like that.  It was a different time back then when a people lived and died by the decisions of their leaders.  A king had to be great and carry the burden of his people on his shoulders.  Nowadays, our spineless leaders make decrees that make no sense and seem to benefit only them, our leaders today are not made of the same material as those of a bygone era.

12/20/21 Deep Conversations With Mijo? (part 1 of 2)

     I love having time to explore some random topic and having a good discussion when we aren't bothered by stupid phones and useless chatter.  Wednesday night I got out early from work so I offered Baby A dinner and when he doesn't say Bill Miller, he says Whataburger, sorry, not sorry, but we are all Texas, all the time.  While we were waiting in line, there is always a line at Whataburger, it is that good, he asked me the question "if you could have a conversation with anyone that ever existed and language wasn't a barrier, who would it be?"  I am not sure I am the best person to ask this question to I said because I feel leery about the people we should say.

    The obvious answer would be to mention someone great, Albert Einstein, wife said Marie Curie later, but I know these type of people suck in the real world.  I always think back to my high school days, stay with me.  When I was in band, we competed yearly individually, and I was soundly beaten my sophomore year by this guy who I was then put in the same room to sleep with my senior year, when I did finally make it to the all-state symphonic band.  He was there for the all-state Jazz band, which I didn't even know was a thing up to that point.  Anyways, I was kind of dumbfounded when after trying to banter with him and his friend from the same school trying to get them to go out to eat, so I wouldn't go alone, they chose to stay in the room.  They were more interested in making humming noises to each other while they were training themselves to recognize notes by pitch.  They would make a "aaaaa" sound and the other would say "that's a C."  I just left the room thinking that was weird as hell, to me.

    After a lot of years I have figured that is what true greatness is, total dedication to your craft.  I loved playing the sax, but I wasn't as committed as those dudes and to me that is how the great people in the world are.  This reminds me of a scene in Queen's Gambit (great little series on Netflix) about a gifted girl who plays chess (it is fictional, girls don't generally like chess).  In one scene after she has become pretty great, one of her competitors comes up and thanks her.  He was one of the best in Kansas or whatever state she grew up in and he tells her he has quit because "I thought I loved chess, that I was passionate about it, but the way you play and study it makes me feel like I don't know what I am doing."  Although this was a fictional movie, I think that summarizes the good from the great right there.

to be continued...

12/19/20 Baby A Really Is A Territorial Animal?

     I am constantly surprised at how layered and complex my boys can be, to discover a side of them we don't even know is within is weird, funny, and a little alarming.  Yesterday, we went to visit my folks again on a Friday, Wife came and picked us up and we spent the day in Crystal City while she worked.  All was fine, we mostly stay at my mom's, I don't like venturing out back home, the idea of meeting someone I am supposed to know and not have any idea who they are is not fun for me.

    Towards the end of our day, I made a little joke about my mom's Christmas decorations, she had a baby Jesus that looked like a white baby (pink cheeks and blue eyes) sitting in a manger with the other characters standing around.  I said that Baby Jesus seriously needs to be browner, people in the middle east aren't white and blue eyed, sorry mom.  I was being a smart-ass, but the kids got the idea to go to the store and buy some paint to darken him up somehow.  This was all happening about an hour before Wife was getting ready to be let loose from work, so I was more interested in getting going but the grandkids all got Grandma going and they headed out to the Family Dollar to buy some paint and get out of the house, I guess.

    Baby A comes back twenty minutes later all wound up that some weirdo opened his glass soda bottle while talking to him in Spanish.  Crystal has a couple of "slow" people that roam the streets and this one in particular has always known my dad and approaches the family.  I never cared for the guy and he is probably the reason I hate the homeless so much, my brother would always tell him to fuck off, but there he was, my son not knowing anything about this guy but the guy said hi to my mom so Baby A let his guard down a little.  He then noticed he came way to close into his personal space, but let it go.  He did not let it go that he was hovering around my niece a little too close for comfort, so he looked for a weapon as fast as he could, in case things took a turn and the Fanta bottle was the best he could do.  He grabbed the bottle pretending like he wanted to drink a soda, he prefers tea or even water normally, but the glass bottle would make a nice hammer if shit went down, he said.  He said he was also not comfortable with how close he was to his other smaller cousins.  He did figure the guy was slow, but he wasn't going to let that be an excuse.  I love this about Mijo.  He does not seem like a big intimidating force, he is still a baby faced teen, but he packs his 230 pounds well and he is a beast of a boy who isn't afraid to tangle.  I was never aggressive to the point of wanting to fight, my son though stands tall and is always ready to defend, I don't know where he gets this from, must be mama, she too is a little nuts in this way.

    Ultimately, Grandma paid at the store, Baby A stood by her side, the other grandkids were all in a group by the door, at a distance from the weird guy, but Baby A still had the bottle of red Fanta, might as well take it he thought.  The guy told him something in Spanish, Mijo didn't understand what he said, but before he knew what had happened, ole Petey (the weird guy's name) had managed to open the Fanta while in my son's hand.  He was both pissed and thankful at the same time.  He kind of realized the man is harmless and slow, he didn't know how he was going to open the glass bottle, but he wasn't sure he liked Petey up in his space.

12/18/20 Should He Go Or Should He Stay?

     Boy is still very new to his job, shoot, he still hasn't even started paying for his car, but already has mixed feelings about work.  I was unsure how to react to his latest news when he mentioned he had gotten a questionnaire and a phone call recently about a possible new job.  All I can say is I want him to be happy, and if he is going to take risks with his career, it is best to do so now when he is still living at home and doesn't have to worry about a mortgage, car bill, and everything else that keeps us mere mortals tied to our life sucking jobs.

    My concern is he putting his great opportunity of a job at risk entertaining other job prospects when he should be absorbed in his given job path and really feeling "blessed" for what he has.  There are tells when someone is looking for reasons to hate what they have.  All of a sudden he was telling us how nobody around him seems happy, how he has already explored the whole campus and he doesn't really see himself growing and being happy assembling for the biggest equipment manufacturer for the highest paying job sector in the world.  Boy has been obsessed with putting things together and tinkering with anything metal and shiny.  If he wasn't an engineer I am sure he would have become a mechanic because it is what he seems to do.  I was so happy for him because his job is literally putting together and working on the next generation tools for his industry.  What better prospects than that and when he started he said he is in the one department that has never been affected by lay-offs, this is a group that is just left alone, they are that important to the company.

    But, he does have a right to explore his options.  I don't want him to feel like he is serving a prison sentence and he is stuck doing what he is doing.  Hell, I wish I had the balls to look for other jobs.  I might really take my ass down to the coast and start over, I hate what Austin seems to be turning into with all the people moving in and the homeless population just slowly creeping and growing.  So, I told him (and Wife agreed) look into this other opportunity, if it goes further know and accept the risks and rewards here.  You might find what you are looking for and find an even better fit, but you might also loose the great thing you have right now.  You are a grown up now and ultimately you will make the decisions because you have to live with them.  If it doesn't work out, don't lash out and blame your current company if you end up spending another year unemployed at home.  This company has taken a chance and hired you before you have finished your degree, they are willing to help pay for the remaining classes and have already told you there is a raise and new title waiting for you when you receive your degree, and that sounds like a company trying to do good for you.  Still, we all believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

12/17/20 Service Center Takes Advantage?

     I hate to say anything bad about Ford but man, the service department has no shame.  We took in Boy's Ford Edge for an oil change and I expected they would maybe suggest changing out the air filter or maybe the fuel filter but they suggested about 11 different things and the worst thing is they started with wanting me to pay for changing out the cabin air filter.  I might have bought this, but it so happened that we changed out the blower motor a couple weeks ago and we took off the cabin air filter and I had Boy clean it off with the hose.  It looked about as good as it could look, considering we couldn't see through it when we took it off.  I said no because this is something I could do myself and they were wanting to charge me $120.  I looked up the part and ordered it on Amazon for $7.95.  The next thing they wanted to replace was the engine air filter and for this they wanted to charge $150.  I said no because I know it sits in a top housing and looking at a quick Youtube video it has two clamps and a wire to remove to get inside.  This part was $15.95 on Amazon.  If I had let them do the work, that would have been almost $300 with taxes for about $25 worth of parts, that kind of pisses me off.

    They also suggested a tune up and I think that is just replacing the spark plugs but there may be more to it, so I need to look into it.  I should know better than that by now.  What I can tell there is a spark plug and an ignition coil.  I saw several videos and the hardest part is removing the covers on top to access the back spark plugs as the engine is sitting sideways.  I think I should be able to manage this, which should be another savings of a couple hundred bucks.

    While it drizzled today and Wife forced me to change the wipers I tried shooting some window cleaner liquid and noticed the driver side spritzer wasn't shooting, so once again to the Youtube.  It seems they have a knack for cracking and then the tube just hangs there between the hood and that insulation material.  It was extra easy to determine that this was the case as I noticed water spilling from under the insulating material when I went to look at it more carefully.  I managed to find this part as well, which was only $7.95 as well.  I am sure they would have charged me another $200 to fix this.  I managed to order the three little quick fixes for around $35.00 and they should all arrive this week, so I should be able to handle it and save me a bunch of money in the process.  All this because I decided to commandeer Boy's vehicle, I wish he would have mentioned some of these things sooner and I would have taken care of things earlier.

12/16/20 Trying To Refinance, Again?

     I got a bug in my ass around Tuesday night last week, wondering what the value of our house was, around now.  I have been seeing this realtor pop up on my Youtube feed talking about the cost of houses in Austin.  I am really shocked that the median price for a house in Bee Cave is around $650,000.  Lakeway is closer to $700,000 or something like that.  There doesn't seem to be anything in Circle C or anywhere nice in South Austin for under $450,000.  This made me wonder about where my house is then.  I looked at Zillow, which is pretty easy to do and there zestimate (they have to be clever and insert their little z) put our house around $495,000.  That certainly makes me take a big gulp, we didn't buy the house for that much and if it was that, I don't think we could have afforded it, but here we are.  We now owe under $300,000, so the possibility of refinancing and taking some cash out, or changing the terms to a 15 year note seems very possible.

    In a perfect world, I would like to refinance to a 15 year note, get a bunch of cash out to pay any remaining credit cards and end up with about the same mortgage payment.  I am still unsure what is going to happen.  I tried first with Quicken but I believe I got a dud of a dude to talk to.  I was so thrown off because he had the bad accent of a big dumb Hispanic guy who yells too much but his last name was like Goldberg or something, so a Hispanic Jewish guy?  I don't know, not that I care what they are, but I kept feeling like I should throw in a spanish word here and there like when you talk to a "primo" or whatever dumb shit we say when we address our people.  Plus, he told me "let me call you back later which turned into calling me back the next day only to basically repeat the whole conversation complete with "I'll call you back in a few minutes".  I stopped him and told him "you did this exact same conversation with me yesterday, why didn't you get your shit together, I thought you would have numbers ready today?"  He hung up after some lame excuse that he talks to hundreds of customers a day and told me "yeah, we won't be able to help you."  I said "cool", I didn't want to think this jackass made a nickel off of me. I hate stupid people.

    I just looked at Google again for mortgage rates and again I got tons of calls within seconds.  This time I randomly talked to a guy with Loan Depot, they had our mortgage up until 5-6 months ago so they even had my name in their system.  He said I prequalified and everything looked good, if the value of the house matches what his data was saying and he said our house was valued at like $510,000, it would be great.  I guess now we just wait in the appraisal for the next step.

12/15/20 Why Do The Homeless Live By The Roads?

     I am starting to wonder if the homeless people living in tents by the roads are being paid by somebody, it just doesn't make sense to me.  Why are they doing this embarrassing feat where everybody can see them?  Why not have a quiet dignity and set up camp in a wooded lot away from all the mayhem and noise from the roads?  I understand hard times and living in a tent has to be better than no shelter at all, I am sure some bleeding heart thought to give some of these people tents and it instantly became the de facto homeless temporary solution, all that I get and has a logical progression to it.

    What I don't understand the more I see of this, is why do they have to set up underneath turnarounds, why are they congregated under where roads fly above?  A lot of these tent villages are just along the bigger roads, like Ben White here in Austin.  The biggest problem to me would be the noise.  We live in a big community and the big road is a good half a mile away, but every time some asshole in a motorcycle does his vroom vroom show off asshole-ness mess, it vibrates through the house.  I cannot imagine trying to sleep or rest under those turnarounds, for example.  Almost every time I go through the one at Ben White and Pleasant Valley to get to work, one of the vehicles running along with me has a louder than normal muffler.  That would shake me to my core, to have to sustain that every five minutes, that tent material isn't insulating any noise, even with the best noise cancelling headphones I think you would be screwed and those people aren't putting on Bose headphones and lying on foam memory beds.

    I keep thinking a better solution at least than tents would be taking an old storage place with hundreds of 10x10 storage rooms and making them temporary apartments.  I know it sounds inhumane, but it is a step up from a tent, it would give them solid walls for protection, the city is already providing port a potties, just add the portable shower stations and an outlet or two to the storage places so they can connect a TV or charging station for their phones.  At the very least, it would remove them from the dangers of living on the side of the road which has to have a certain danger from reckless drivers.  I hate to see the homeless, and a lot of them seem too young to have given up on life, whether because they can't afford a real place or because of drugs.  If they were all focused in a place like an old storage place, services could be brought to them more easily, I know shelters exist, but some of these people want to live by their own rules, they don't want to be locked up at 8:00pm or whatever, having a door to the outside would give them the freedom to come and go, yet their stuff could be locked up and protected if they dared to actually go out and try to work to better themselves.

12/14/20 Smoking Seems Like A Bargain?

     Let me start by being clear, I don't smoke, never have, never will.  I was caught by surprise though at Buc-ee's this past Friday as we were driving back home.  I noticed they were selling their Marlboros for like $5 and change a pack.  I was sure Wife and I had discussed this awhile back and we saw that packs of cigarettes were around $7.50.  I even had to ask the lady working the register if those were the normal prices or if they were on sale somehow.  She said those are some of the cheapest prices she has seen for cigarettes.  I simply made the little joke of "hmm, maybe I could afford to pick up the bad habit now."  She laughed and Wife said "gross" and pushed me away from the counter.

    But who really benefits from the cheap cost?  Isn't it in the smokers best interest if the cost keeps going up to curtail their sales?  Take a 20 year old idiot who might want to pick up the nasty habit and sees the pack for $5.  He might justify buying a pack here and there versus the same idiot seeing the pack for $7.50.  I think it becomes something you really have to think about, that starts to become a chunk of change.  My dad was smoking two packs a day, and that means he was pissing away about $15 a day in smoke.  Taking that to its conclusion, that is up to $465 a month on something that has nothing to show for itself.  At least a fatty like myself that is addicted to food can call the food a meal, cigarettes don't have that luxury.

   Another thing that pisses me off is a lot, maybe most of the homeless people we see "begging" for money stand there day in and day out with a cigarette in their mouth, I mean if they smoke all day, they are going through at least two packs a day, that starts looking like almost rent money, if they did it right.  The one that pissed me off the most was an old man who somehow got a big living room chair complete with ottoman and he just sat there sprawled out smoking and I guess people gave him money.  This lasted about a month or two, but his chair has since been removed.  It just seemed like a road hazard, it was almost the same width as the island he hung out at there with cars flying by in both directions day and night.  He just sat there like he was watching CNN (you know, the channel for dummies) with a cigarette in one hand and the other out to catch the money given him by all these big hearted liberals.

12/13/20 Really Don't Like Leaving The House?

     I am not sure if it is because now we accustomed to being isolated at home or if the traffic has gotten that much worse as more people move into the city, but it is becoming harder and harder to move around the city.  Yesterday, Wife decided we needed to get an oil change on Boy's Ford Edge.  He has pretty much decided to keep the Ecosport we bought earlier this year because it has more gizmos like heated seats so I did the next best thing and took over driving the Edge since it is newer and smaller than the Excursion.  Well, it has a tag reminder on the windshield that said the oil change should have been done at the end of October, but Boy said since he hadn't been driving it to go by the computer counter which last he looked said the oil life was at 50%.  Wife who is a genius when it comes to electronics took it last week to La Pryor, to save the mileage on her Telluride, but almost instantly looked at the oil life and decided the best thing to do was hit reset on the oil life, so now we have no clear tracking on how old the oil was.

    Anyways, all that to say we needed to take the vehicle to Ford but the traffic was just plain horrible.  It is always a mess at Slaughter Lane and I-35, no surprises there but I thought it would be quicker to go around on the frontage of I-35 and just do the turnaround at Ben White and was that ever a mistake.  Traffic was backed up on the highway coming south at 10:30am.  I told Wife to abort as I had left a few minutes earlier and take Congress from behind and take the back roads.  She isn't quick to jump like that, I did that and took the vehicle in, talked to the service lady there and was told it would be ready in an hour or so.  I then stood out by the street waiting for Wife to get me, 10 minutes later, after I had already spent time checking the car in, Wife shows up and said "I just stayed in the traffic and came on the frontage.  Great, I thought.

    It was the exact same thing when we went to pick up the car at 4:00pm, traffic was still backed up on the freeway.  Just driving back home was a mess with just too many people moving around.  We ended up going to do a little xmas shopping and some stores like Gamestop and Bath and Bodyworks actually had people lined up outside their stores because in Covid-19 times, stores have to stay within some capacity restrictions.  We went to a couple of stores, including World Market and Academy, but it just seemed unnecessarily stressful knowing we can get most good online.  So far this year, we have yet to buy a gift at the mall.  I can't think of a store that I miss going to, I mean Ben Bridge is gone and so are the few Rolex watches I could go and gawk at, so there isn't much else.  Boy loved to get new clothes when he was younger, I guess he still does, but he doesn't really do that with us as he is with Sweetie 90% of the time when he is not at work.  Baby A doesn't really like clothes that way and he is just weird, like his mom, he doesn't like stuff, so he never wants to go buy anything.

    I was just glad to get back home. We did stop at Sam's and bought some meats to grill.  Now, with my pellet grill, I can make any meats as good as any restaurant, so I have no interest in eating out when I am going to get more meat at a cheaper price and quieter environment if we eat at home.

12/12/20 Visiting My Folks For An Afternoon?

     Wife got the idea of us going along with her down to Crystal City on Thursday afternoon and suggested it to me while I was telling her I should be having a quiet quick night at work.  The work week for me usually sucks on Monday and gets progressively better towards the end of the week.  Stuff comes in during the end of the week and the weekend so there is usually a little pile of extra work most Mondays and our customers are kind of demanding in making most of the work "HOT", meaning they need their data within a day or two.  Regardless, by Thursday there wasn't much going on and I ended up working about 4-5 hours before getting done for the night.  I had gone in at 3:00pm, so I was on my way home around 7:00pm.  I asked Baby A if he was cool with going for the day, meaning he had no practice or obligations with school, other than logging in at 9:00am for his sports class and he said he was good with going.

    We got up at 4:30am and made the journey with Wife, I even acted like the man of the house and drove at least until we got to the gas station south of San Antonio.  We stopped to get gas, coffee and some breakfast tacos for us and Wife's coworkers.  I added some pan dulce so I wouldn't show up at my mom's empty handed.  Wife then drove the rest of the way so I could enjoy my tacos, she chose not to eat.  We are supposed to be dieting, but it is too close tot he holidays and we are kind of letting things like tortillas and the occasional sweet get past.

    It was nice to see my parents, we mostly sat at the dining table talking, we got there and drank another cup of coffee, ate the pan dulce.  My brother was there the whole day, the grandkids were there the whole day, my other brother is acting as private tutor for my middle brother's kid, so everyone was involved in keeping the kids on their learning paths.  This is where I don't think people like our family with a lot of support and belief in education are going to loose too much with the pandemic and the kids being home.  I have heard some households have just about given up and the kids are learning nothing, but it has to be hard if one is a single mother and there is no other family to help out.  My younger brother is now a certified teacher, my mom is a retired counselor, so right there, the grandkids have plenty of support.  My son has me as support, so he literally has a genius at his disposal, I kid, so he is in good hands.

    Anyways, the learning kept the kids distracted on their separate laptops in separate rooms, more or less, they kept gathering to goof around mostly because we were there, I guess.  It was a nice afternoon of hanging out with no agenda, just sitting there and catching up with our busy lives.  We got going right at 4:00pm, got Wife by 4:20pm or so and headed back to Austin.  It was very nice, but I was wore out, having only slept about 3 hours, so I slept for about an hour after we picked up Wife and got us to I-35.  Wife drove the rest of the way.

12/10/20 We Quietly Spent 25 Thousand Dollars Last Week Without Leaving The House?

     There was so much going on the week of Thanksgiving break, this just slipped through the cracks.  We managed to spend $25k dollars to replace both our A/C systems in the house.  This is not something I planned on doing this year, although something did tell me that those systems were nearing the end of their useful lives.  We could have maybe fixed the upstairs unit and maybe only spent $3000, which is what happened to the unit downstairs 4-5 years earlier, but was it worth putting a band aid on the units which at this point were going on 14 years of service?  I weighed the pros and cons of just fixing the upper unit, just replacing it or saying fuck it and doing both units together and Wife agreed with me to do it all at once.

    First off, last time we had problems was in the middle of summer and that is not a good time to lose A/C power, when it is 100 plus degrees outside.  We have been having hotter and hotter summers it seems, so there is no reason things are going to be less brutal next year.  Wife noticed a problem while we were cleaning and moving things around, she saw the ceiling in the garage splotchy and stained with water damage.  At first it looked like it was from the shower upstairs and I was ready to yell at Boy for letting so much water out of the tub he was damaging the floor below, but the pattern of the stains did not make sense, it was centered in an almost circle tight pattern, as soon as I started walking up to investigate it clicked that it had to be the A/C.  Boy and I had fought all summer about the heat upstairs.  He insisted his room was always hot and this is a boy who has always been cold.  I assumed it was Sweetie quietly wanting it to be colder, but maybe they had a point.  I really only go upstairs to sleep, so I never notice any heat because I don't hang out in my room.  I guess it got so bad he went and got a room unit and has a couple times set it up to add cooling power to his room, which pisses me off because up until now, we have been paying all the bills.  He is fixing to start contributing, so it won't bother me so much going forward.

    Anyways, since we were doing the upstairs unit, I decided it would be easier to start from scratch with two brand new units, have the ten year warranty on the systems (for parts, at least) and know they should be more efficient, and run smoother and quieter.  It is hard to tell right now if they are any good, the weather has been surprisingly cool since we installed them last week on Friday.  The units are huge, the guy said they are both 4 ton units, which I believe the last ones were 3.5 tons each.  I don't know much but bigger is usually better, right?  They are supposed to have two stage running capability, meaning they run longer but at much lower amperage to keep it cool more constantly, instead of shutting off completely and firing up hard every time the temperature rises above whatever internal settings it has.  I don't know, we are the captains of being taken for fools by sales pitches (referring to the solar panels), but we shouldn't have to worry about our comfort in the house for awhile.

12/11/20 Appreciating Mijo's Ford Edge?

     Wife is too nice sometimes and when it got cold the first time this year told Boy he could drive our newest SUV, the Ecosport which we bought to relieve the mileage on the Telluride.  It was kind of a spur of the moment thing that seemed like a good idea at the time because she was coming and going multiple times to work in La Pryor and doing a quick math, it seemed like she would just wear out the Telluride in no time.  Well, things settled down and she found a place to stay down there, so she is back to normal, driving down there on Monday mornings and staying at her cousin's in a guest house in the back.  I thought I would be driving the Ecosport at least for work, I do enjoy driving it.  It feels like a go kart compared to my big Excursion.

    Well, Boy liked it too, he especially likes that it has all the new gadgets found in cars today.  It has heated seats, and a heated steering wheel which is nice on a cold morning.  He also likes that the Ecosport has a reverse camera, so it makes it easier to reverse without worrying about bumping into something.  So he decided to just keep driving it and foregoing the use of his Ford Edge.  It has sat there until this past week when I decided two can play at that game.  Why am I driving around in a 2004 vehicle when I could just as easily start driving a 2014?  I thought it would be easy to just take the keys and have a new ride, but life is never easy.

    I found I was not comfortable in it because our son is just the worst at keeping shit clean.  I don't think he had vacuumed the inside since we bought it.  I actually burnt out the motor on my garage vacuum, I was vacuuming the inside for over an hour, but the result was just great.  I made that interior look fairly new to me.  I polished the inside with some Armor-all, then when I thought I could be happy found myself washing it the next day.  When I tried drying it, the outside was so dry and nasty feeling, I decided to give it an old fashioned waxing, with the hard Turtle wax stuff.  It took me over an hour and my arm was sore for a couple days, but when I was done, that surface was smooth and shiny once again.  The black metallic paint was even shiny and reflective at night.

    I find it a very good vehicle, it even has bluetooth and connects to my phone, it gives me 20.8mpg, which is a lot better than the 12mpg the Excursion manages.  I like that it fits in any parking spot too.  Boy has started going on about trading in the Edge for a 4-runner, but I don't think so.  He needs to make a few payments on it first even if it is his car.  I don't think he'll be satisfied with the Ecosport long term, but he shouldn't rush off and get an expensive vehicle just yet.  Shoot, I am thinking if I put leather seats on the Edge, I would be happy keeping it for myself.  More and more cars are being fitted with 4 cylinder engines, this one still has a V6 and the power shows when I floor it.

12/9/20 Stranger Things? (Netflix)

     I had asked Wife that I thought it would be fun to find a new series akin to Lord of the Rings with a little magic and fighting evil and all that good stuff and MAN, does Stranger Things deliver, it even has Samwise Gamgee (a lot of Rudy , I love Sean Astin's roles).  We tried watching it a year or so ago and I could not get into it.  The first two episodes, like any new show, were slow and kind of trying to find themselves, but Boy happened to walk by and said it was great if you get past the first 3-4 episodes, then it gets really good.  We hung in there and yeah, the show has been a roller coaster ride.  We are just into the first episode of the third season and I don't know how they can keep it going, but a fourth season was just announced, so it is still evolving and this show started in 2016.

    The show is initially centered around 4 boys growing up in small town America.  They are a little geeky, which to me makes them lovable little goof balls just trying to find their way.  Will is the heart and soul of the group, Mike is the glue and keeps them together, Dustin is the cautious one always worried, and Lucas is the one grounded in reality.  These boys are around 12 in the first season but going to high school with kids twice their size, which does not make sense to me.  They get bullied a little bit, which does not make sense to me in present day America, but it is set in the 80's, so maybe.  Bullies have always been a staple of teen shows and they are alive and well in this series.  These four boys have been friends since at least kindergarten and are quite happy spending their weekends playing Dungeons and Dragons before mayhem steps into their lives.

    Along the way, eventually they meet 11, which is the name given to her because she has a tattooed "11" on her forearm.  She is the "magic" of the show and comes attached to a big government program set hidden in the woods outside their little city.  The town sheriff is pretty important to the show, as is Will's mom as Will become the focus of the show when he mysteriously disappears in the first episode.  It is a thriller as mama clings to the idea that he is still alive while everyone has written him off as an accidental death riding his bike in the middle of the night.  Add in some government cover-ups and the show has something for everyone.

    I was most bothered by the freedom given to these kids and I kind of remember even when I was in 8th grade going on my first dates and walking to the movies and then home at 10-11pm, like WTF, no way would either of my boys do something like that nowadays (although they have walked to Target which is a mile or so away but only during the day).  My parents weren't bad, it was just a different time.  I was driving soon after, so I didn't walk that much, but still.  The show quietly has a lot of 80's pop culture stuff going on which makes it fun to explore and enjoy.

12/8/20 Baby A Is Going To Try Wrestling?

     This will be a new sport for all of us, but baby A has been talked into joining the wrestling team.  I wanted him to try it last year, but he wasn't sure if he could do it and he didn't want to wear the little "weird" outfits wrestlers wear.  Since last year, he has gotten much stronger and confidant.  He knows from being a lineman that he can hold his own against most guys when it comes to pushing and shoving against one another, so it is time to step up.

    I like that the coaches told us last year that they could see him working perfectly on the wrestling team.  These are the same football coaches and if anything else, it makes him a better football player which is what he cares about the most.  I enjoy seeing him compete, so it is win win for me.  It keeps him busy and focused on doing something, I mean this boy has a lazy gene in him, if he isn't doing a sport, he wants to lay around all day.  

    He said he was going to try out for the wrestling team at the request of some upper classmen who "threatened" to kick his ass if he didn't do it (jokingly, how boys push each other).  They all told him they do it and it has made them better players and tacklers.  That is the one thing I feel he could improve on, because he grew up being such an oversized child, we always emphasized him being gentle with his friends and cousins.  He is now big and strong, but he is not a "killer", he won't grab someone violently to bring them down, I see a sort of hesitation and I think wrestling might break that little hesitation and make him more comfortable at grabbing foes to put them under his control.  I think him being a little "short" will work in his favor since he is a stout 236 pounds and working already to come down to 220.  As mama keeps saying he carries a lot of weight in that ass, so he should have the advantage of a low center of gravity, he just needs to learn how to use it.

    That is the other thing, he is much more disciplined than I could ever be.  He immediately stated he was going to diet and work to get to 220 pounds.  The wrestling class sizes are shitty, there are so many for the smaller guys, but as they get bigger, the classes go from 190 to 220, to 287, or something like that.  He either comes below 220 to fight there or he will be placed in the biggest weight category and I can just imagine some big ole boys dominate there, not that I know what goes on.  I have never seen a match other than on TV, so I got some learning to do too.

12/7/20 Boy Is Passing A Bouncing Baby Stone?

     Today started off quiet and pretty standard.  The only thing of interest was that my in-laws decided they were going to come up for a surprise visit that even had Wife a little nervous because her mom called late on Saturday and just said they were going to come up for a little while to visit but gave no reason why.  Wife was so taken by this that she started texting her sisters trying to figure out what she had done that had her folks wanting to come up to see her.  Turns out they had bought Wife a wreath for Christmas with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme to it.  It was very pretty, made of black and white ribbons and bows with a big Jack dressed as Santa Claus sitting in the middle.  My mother in law was so proud of the gift she decided she wanted to bring it early before Christmas so Wife could hang it up to display.

    While this was going on, Boy came down to say hi to everyone and even managed to serve everyone a sample of the apple cider he spent about three hours making from scratch the night before.  He seemed fine, talked to everyone, and was sitting on the stairs playing with DD's dog.  A few minutes later while Wife was telling some story, Sweetie came down from upstairs and said Boy was on the floor writhing in pain.  We went up to see him and he said he had just gone to the bathroom and while pooping he started feeling a pain in the left side of his abdomen that was excruciating.  We gave him a minute to see if it would subside and when it seemed to calm down a bit, he got up and hurried to the car. Sweetie tried taking him to Austin Regional Clinic but it was closed.  They ended up at St. David's, which is the closest major hospital to us.  He was admitted fairly quickly, they did some tests and determined he had a 3mm kidney stone.  He was given Fentanyl after morphine was not enough to stop the pain of whatever they did to run the tests.  Sweetie said she was about four rooms away and could clearly hear him screaming down the hall.

    He came home a little loopy and went straight up and to sleep for the next 4-5 hours.  We were a little worried but considering he had been fine before as far as we knew, we didn't have much time to up and worry it might be something worse.  We didn't even bother trying to go since we live in Covid-19 times and hospitals are a big no-no.  Sweetie did great, she took him and even went into the room with him since he was in so much pain, they allowed her.  She got him back home, with his prescription medicines already with them and then they went up to nap.  He came down finally around 11:30pm saying he was feeling okay at the moment.  He also said he had finally pissed twice, something he had not been able to do all day long.  I am not sure if at this point he has already passed the stone, but the doctors said it is more than halfway through and all we can do is wait for it to make its journey which should happen within 36 hours.  I would hope it moved out with his two pissing events but maybe the worst is yet to come.  He was told to expect some blood and pain as it makes its way out.  I feel bad for Mijo, but there isn't much we can do for him.  Hopefully, it is a one time thing and it goes away.

12/6/20 And I Swear I Really Loved Going Shopping?

     Well, nothing ruins a good time like shitty fucking people.  Yesterday was great, Wife took the day off to go to the dentist, which she did at 8:30am, so she was back home by 11:00am and we had the rest of the day to enjoy.  I smoked a brisket which turned out so freaking good, but it did take all day and I just said screw it and pretty much left the grill all alone most of the day.  Leaving the house is supposed to be our normal, but when surrounded by these fucking walking zombies way too locked into their phones or I don't know what, it becomes a different experience.

    We went to Cabela's first and that was fine, but when we left, we headed to Kyle to eat at Mod Pizza and we had to drive through a crash at the light by the big HEB and the frontage of I-35.  Something tells me not paying attention to the road and looking at their cell phones was to blame, maybe not.  Anyways, it took a minute to get around it, before and after we ate.  We then went home, I checked my grill, napped, we had gone to bed after 2:00am and I got up at 7:30am to start the grill, then we headed back out.

    We headed to Best Buy, because Wife had an idea for a gift and Baby A asked for a game.  Before we got there, just entering the parking lot by Serrano's, I was almost hit by a driver that was parked right in front of the restaurant, in one of those "pick-up" spots, I guess he decided he needed to move, but didn't look back, just put it in reverse and hit the gas.  I was going forward, had to hit the brakes and the horn, which did nothing as he pulled all the way out, continuing toward me even as I laid on the horn.  He then proceeded to turn his steering wheel and park in a spot facing the opposite way about two cars down, again, never acknowledging he almost hit me.  I yelled "asshole" at him, but kept going.  I've heard of too many stories of people getting shot over nothing, and if you are that stupid, you also probably carry a gun, those two things go hand in hand.

    Best Buy seems to be a store lost in itself, unless you need a TV, that is about all that is left to buy there, I mean the aisles are loaded with TVs all over the place.  Wife did her shopping and I walked around looking for ideas, but nothing really came to mind.  Checking out was the situation that pissed me off, again.  The cashier never looked at us, scanned the items like his little gun was in his pocket barely lifting his arms.  I got vocal with Wife as I told her to see if he would snap about the missing cards he wasn't even scanning between the packages I had put on the counter.  I stepped outside as I didn't want to call the guy half-ass or something, and 20 minutes later we were still there.  Wife was having a hard time paying because one of the items didn't have a working scanner thingy, they wouldn't let her pay with the old ass gift cards she had, about $50 dollars worth, she found in the closet but they wouldn't accept them because she was buying new gift cards, but these were Nintendo specific.  She had to break up the basket, pay for a couple items with the gift cards and then the rest separate.  I  just sat back leaning against the TVs sitting there in the aisle not believing that in this age of computer check outs we were still there literally as the day turned to night.

    I left pissy at Wife for not just walking out and leaving the shit on the counter.  I realized shopping on Amazon avoids all this shit.  I guess that is what the Best Buys of the world want by putting these half awake assholes where they interact with the people.  Wife was bothered because the guy never said "Hi", never established eye contact, made here feel like she was wasting his time, and we could do nothing but see the line grow from one person behind us to about ten.  Ehh, we will finish out our shopping at home, by the light of the computer, it is a lot less frustrating.  I will take my .40 cent cup of coffee and the comfort of home to a $7 Starbucks and all the Covid stricken people at the mall, fuck all that.

12/5/20 Movies Are Getting Dumber?

     It is bad enough we aren't really watching much TV nowadays.  We tried last weekend, I randomly chose a movie on Hulu that looked like a romcom, which I already accept to be stupid, but it doesn't have to be insulting too.  In the first five minutes, we see the cute girl dressed down on purpose, for some reason, I am sure she will blossom at the appropriate time.  She is so clumsy, it must be cute somehow.  She is attempting to walk three dogs, like a pug, a chihuahua, and some other tiny thing and of course she can't even manage that.  She gets all twisted up and falls over, I just winced at the unnecessary theatrics on the screen.

    Cut to the next scene and she is walking into her apartment and her more put together roommate is there eating a bagel or something in the kitchen.  She walks in and has the mail in hand, but oh my, she is scared to look at the letter she has been expecting.  The roommate opens it and reads some bad news, she didn't get the job of her dreams or something.  Right at this moment, her phone gets a message and it is mom talking about sending her more money to help her pay the bills.  The roommate is embarrassed for her for accepting money from her mom.

    At this point I looked at Wife and she was already saying "no, I can't do it."  I agreed, and we turned it off.  These idiot girls were sitting in a beach front apartment worried about paying the rent and mom is helping them, or some pathetic shit.  Of course she can afford to have the $2000 little dog, but mom is going to help with the rent.  Get the fuck out of here, first off, live within your means, even in a movie.  If you are just starting out, you should live in a shithole, or stay with your parents.  Second, either girls are tough enough to play football in the SEC nowadays or they get overwhelmed walking 15 pounds worth of tiny dogs, which one is it?

    Make the characters realistic and maybe we'll take the ride with you, but when the setting is perfect, it just doesn't work for me.  I am not sure with my good job that I could afford a condo on the beach, or a condo facing Central Park or wherever the nice place of whatever city this movie was shot in.  I am sure that by the end of the movie we were going to see her take her glasses off and we would see a real beauty with a heart of gold and she would have done something to prove she did deserve that job that originally turned her down.  Lame ass predictable shit.

12/4/20 Football Isn't A Game?

     I know football is exactly a game, but with the news from Vanderbilt this past week, they must be trying to make it woke or something.  The Commodores, their school mascot, decided to get a girl from the soccer team for kicking duties.  I have nothing against a female trying to play the game, if she is qualified and able to earn a spot, but football isn't soccer.  There is a reason we, Americans, prefer football to soccer and that is the hits, the contact is what makes it our sport.

    I thought it was interesting that just over the Thanksgiving break, Wife was talking to her family and the topic of football came up, probably because of Baby A playing his last game of the season, but it was in reference to one of Wife's nephews who happens to be very good at soccer.  We haven't seen him play, but we hear from my sister-in law and see pictures of him getting a few feet of the ground to hit the ball with his head or even to kick the ball.  The high school coach pulled him aside and asked him if he was interested in being the team kicker and he said no.  He goes to a big school in San Antonio and as recently as four years ago they were in the state finals so it is a big program over there.  He promptly said no, and he admitted that the idea of kicking the ball was not the problem, it was being on the field with all these oversized humans trying to take his head off.  Soccer is a finesse sport where person to person contact is not even encouraged.  Football is the opposite as every play requires some sort of exchange physically.

    I know full well Baby A could lay me on my ass if he got a running start at me, one of his friends said he kicked him in the stomach for fear of not knowing what else to do one time when he charged at him full speed, Mijo admits he was just joking, but he is a lot of boy to charge at you.  Baby A is still growing and he goes hard at 240 pounds.  I can only imagine college players more muscular, larger, faster and stronger.  Nothing against the female that tries, but our biggest athletes in this country play football and they are specially good in the SEC where Vanderbilt competes.

    For her to really play, she has to kick the ball and then go and be involved in the tackle or bringing down of the ball return man.  This looked more like a stunt and a little embarrassing at that, the ball barely made it to the 35 yard line and she was headed off the field as soon as she kicked it.  Even in the best of games, luckily our son has not been hurt, but he is always bruised up something horrible the whole weekend after a game and like I said, he is a tough little thing.  How is a "girl" weighing 120 pounds or so going to think she can compete in that world?

    I wouldn't really care about this stunt but then the SEC made her player of the week, they did lose 41-0 and her only contribution was that shitty kick.  She supposedly also was allowed to give a halftime speech, come on, at that point she hadn't even been on the field.  It's like giving one of the trainers power over the players.  I'm sure that went over well with the guys who are getting the shit beat out of them week in and week out.

    But these are new times, we must all be woke and realize anything men can do, women can do just as well.  I don't do anything special and I do work with capable women who can teach me a thing or two, but football is a unique thing and if women want to step in, go ahead, but do it for real, not just a shitty kick and then go talk to the whole world like you have the Covid-19 vaccine in your pocket.  Show a little humility, it would maybe make us like you a little better.  Or stick to your soccer team, at least until the trans people replace y'all.

12/3/20 I Finally Pulled The Trigger On A Water Vessel? (part 2 of 2)

     After looking around for another water toy, it seemed that going motorized was just going to cost too much, so I looked at other options.  I did even consider getting a canoe, but that seemed so 70's, I couldn't do it, plus they just don't seem stable or cool.  This thought evolved and got me thinking about kayaks.  There is nothing cooler looking at the imagery involved than being in your 20's, shirt off and muscling your way through the water on a personal kayak, I mean all those guys are always super cool, man buns and all.

    I started liking the idea, specially when adding the idea of propulsion with pedals, so the legs are involved, freeing up the arms for fishing or anything else.  We then started looking at different options in this category, and I really liked the Hobie Pro Angler, which is a behemoth kayak, coming in both 12 and 14 feet versions.  This does not seem big when seen in a picture of even in a warehouse store.  12 feet is longer than most rooms in a moderate sized house, it really is a lot.  These kayaks were the perfect match for me, on paper, but then factor in the cost of over $4,000 and they have to be carried a certain way or they might warp, so a trailer was going to be necessary, they are just too big to load two on even my Excursion.  Wife almost got me settling on cheaper knock-offs using the idea of pedals.  I did a different blog a few weeks ago comparing the three different models I saw and the other ones cost half as much, but I was still going to need a creative solution for transport and if I bought two, I was still going to need room to store two 12 foot boats in the garage which could be done, but I was settling for narrower and smaller capacity vessels, so I kept hesitating.

    I kept going back to the Bote Rover, which is the fiberglass or plastic version of the inflatable I showed.  I first saw these at a boat show a couple years ago and was totally blown away by the idea of a huge kayak which could be paddled and/or powered by a small trolling motor or gas engine up to 6HP.  A kayak is just an open platform to stand on in the water, with an engine, it would be possible to explore any random bay or even lake.  I saw many videos and finally came tot he conclusion that I could trust the inflatable variety since the reviews all seemed to be positive and that they are constructed of military vinyl, if that is a thing.  Plus the cost was much better, because of the holiday season, I found them on their website, www.boteboard.com at $1799, 10% off at the moment.  I was content to buy two, so that I could go either with Baby A or Wife, but she was sitting next to me and as I was choosing, she said "just make it 3, we'll give one to Boy as his Christmas gift too."  Surprisingly, Boy had shown interest in kayaks saying they seemed more interesting than a boring boat, so in conclusion, we got three Bote Rover Aeros, for Christmas.  They already arrived and we opened one of them so far and gave it a test float in the pool.  I think we need to wait for the water to warm up a bit, it is not as easy as all those muscle bound dudes make it look, it is a wobbly feeling to stand on water, but with some practice, I'll become like Jesus and walk on water too.

Bote Rover (no accessories, starting point)

Bote Rover (with motor, looking cool)

The possibilities