3/31/21 Invasion Of My Own?

     The similarities are real, what should I do?  Just as our country is being inundated with illegal immigrants all along our southern border, so too has my house been attacked from what I thought was the cutest and sweetest of the woodland animals.  This past weekend as Wife arrived from working out of town, she looked up at our house along the eave and noticed some furry tails sticking out.  She stared at them for a little while thinking it was curious for squirrels to just be hanging out in that part of the house.  As they shuffled about, then she saw a pretty big sized hole in the wood, big enough for my fist to go through, if it wasn't up on a 2-story roof.

    If my name was Biden, I would happily smear my bricks with peanut butter in hopes that the cute squirrels would keep coming, maybe put bags of peanuts up in the balcony, what could go wrong?  Poor little guys, they just need a warm place to hang out and make it through the cold.  I mean, I have almost 4000 square feet, who am I to kick these furry babies out, this was their land before I came and bought my way in.  I should happily share all the bounty I have amassed with one and all, these squirrels hae just as much right to be here as me.  This is how I would think if I was still naive... and a little bit stupid.

    This is an infestation and it must be met with elimination.  As soon as I noticed what they had done to my house, they stopped being cute and fuzzy and now all I want is for them to die.  I was taken by their antics out in the backyard, thinking they stayed away and in the trees, where they belong.  I even put food out there a time or two, not realizing what I was doing.  Well, thanks to Amazon, I already have a trap set out for them, I just need them to notice it.

    While looking at solutions on Youtube and Amazon, I saw many options, from traps that catch them alive, to instant kill machines, which for some reason are called humane.  Once they bring destruction to me, I don't see why I have to be humane to them, this is war.  When and if they chew through my electric wires and burn my house down, are they going to feel bad or guilty about it?  No, they won't give a shit.  I decided on an electric trap, it is supposed to shock them to heaven and be instant, it's the best I can do.

    The trap came in Monday afternoon, I quickly opened it when I got home from work and put some peanut butter and laid it out in the balcony, as close physically to the hole as possible, but I think they get in and out via the tree, so maybe I need to put it out in the yard, closer to the tree.  I moved it Tuesday to the porch, I hesitate to put it out in the yard in case it rains and I know some of these "soft" neighbors don't want to know I killed something cute.

    We also called an exterminator for a quote, but I am not paying more than $200-$300 to remove these assholes.  Bad enough, I am going to need to figure out a way to get up there and patch that hole up.

3/30/21 Busy Saturday Morning After The Meet? (part 2 of 2)

     We left the Round Rock Outlets around 1:00pm, and before leaving we set the destination on the car's navigation.  I got kind of in a panic and was the victim of more spousal abuse as we were relying on Wife's phone for navigation and after going quietly and efficiently on our way on the highway, when we got off and I actually need to know where to turn in Georgetown in the morning (the most important thing to me is being there in time to see my kid compete), Wife's sister called and they had a long discussion of the first time they baked cookies together and remembering back to when they lived in Milwaukee... actually the sister called to say they were at the school but I needed the info on the phone so I was stuck on repeat "hang up, hang up, hang up, hang up, hang up...."  I know I am annoying, but me turning on the right road is more important than the two of them making memories and chanting jokes.  Wife didn't appreciate me being rude and I got smacked (yet again).  The restaurant was close by and the car navigation took us there by backroads, getting us there in about 15 minutes.

    I guess the Salt Lick is big business now, it isn't just a dive location in Driftwood.  This one is in the grounds or parking lot right next to the Dell Diamond baseball park where the Round Rock Express play.  This whole area looks like a tourist destination.  Right across the street was an indoor water park with various slides sticking out of the walls making for a curious site to stare at.  Since we had a reservation, we were able to get in quickly, and by the time I ran in and out of the restroom to pee, Wife had us situated on our tables.  My in-laws had fallen a couple minutes behind, they lagged behind purchasing something or other.  Eventually, we all sat and ordered pretty good BBQ.  I think some of my briskets have been better, but they do offer the combo of all you can eat brisket, ribs, and sausage.

    We were split between two tables, which did suck, but our table had us and my two in-laws which made for good conversation, although my younger sister in law was cackling away Kamala Harris style over on the other table like she had been taking tequila shots for an hour, still not sure what was so funny.  We had about four servings of their meat (they keep bringing a plate filled with meat until everyone has enough).  I was willing to break my low carb diet for a slice or two of their bread, it is usually just as good as the meat, but this time it was hard, like maybe it was a little old, so I barely ate one slice.

    This was pretty much the day, Wife was going to drive us home as a big meal like this usually puts me right to sleep, but I felt good enough to drive after, so I drove us home and my in-laws went back to San Antonio.  It was perfect, we saw them, had a good time, then they left so I could get home and nap the rest of the afternoon away.

3/29/21 Busy Saturday Morning After The Meet? (part 1 of 2)

     Saturday was not just about the wrestling meet, we kind of forced Boy to join us since his grandparents were making the trip.  Initially, both sets of grandparents were going to come and we were going to have a lunch for Boy's birthday, but mom called that dad was still feeling worn down from the previous week's festivities in Corpus Christi.  We fully understand and after the last two weeks of running around, we are going to take it easy next week and stay home for Easter.

    After Team Crockett finished its wrestling matches, we were free to go, and that took less than an hour, so we were on our way by around 10:00am.  We had scheduled lunch at Salt Lick for 1:30pm, thinking we were going to be at the meet for a while.  Since we had time to kill, we decided to go along with Wife's sister's idea and go shopping at the Round Rock Outlet mall.  She had suggested this idea prior and I was not liking the idea figuring Baby A would be beat and tired, Boy would be rushing us to get home so he could go with his girlfriend, and I always have to poop after I eat a big meal.  Since we had time to go shopping before the meal, it all worked out perfectly.  It was nice arriving at Round Rock from Georgetown, it wasn't very far, once we hit the freeway.  Getting to the outlet around 10:30am also meant there were no crowds.  The weather was also about perfect, overcast and cool.  Even though it is an outdoor type walking experience, the weather made it feel like we were in a mall.  The outlet is in the shape of a big square and one walks around, the shops are on either side and it took us about the perfect amount of time at the rate we walked to make it around and then get going to our lunch reservation.  The shopping wasn't bad either.  We bought Baby A a couple more work out windbreaker jacket type hoodies (it seems to be a thing that these wrestlers like to be warm and sweaty all the time, he says he works out in a jacket).  I finally bought myself a matching salt and pepper grinder pair from the Le Creuset store.  These are awesome looking gigantic grinders which I hope complement my pellet grill.  Boy also managed to buy himself a mini bundt cake pan, which seems to be Boy's latest obsession.  He brings home some new kitchen gadget almost weekly.  Even Wife managed to spend some money on candles and scented stuff from Bath and Bodyworks.

    I guess it is a little easier to spend some money when we all walking around with some of that stimulus money.  We made our way around and by the time we got to our cars it was about 1:00pm, so we had to boogey on down to our lunch reservation at the Salt Lick in Round Rock.

3/28/21 Wrestling Meet Without The Wrestling?

     Saturday was supposed to be another fun day of wrestling for Baby A, but unfortunately, his weight class competitors were a no-show.  This season, which is our sons first, has been greatly disturbed by Covid, there just aren't many kids participating.  Wife was talking to the mom of the senior that has been training with and teaching our son and she said even up until last year before Covid sidelined everything, these wrestling matches were an all day affair.  There are about 14 weight classes, starting at 106 pounds and going up 6-7 pounds initially, then 10-12 pound differences, and all the way up to 285 pounds, which is where our boy competes.  It does seem unfair, the smaller kids are kept in a tight pack differing only around 7 pounds (for example, if you wrestle in the 113 class, you must weigh between 107 and 113 pounds), then in the heavy weight class, a 221 pound kid night wrestle someone weighing 285 pounds.  Still, Mijo was told he would have two competitors, there were four schools there, but neither kid showed up.  The team is very small, there are technically around 5 guys on the team and maybe 3 girls that I have seen, so far, one guy has been involved in track and field and another regular broke his arm in the first meet.  The third guy was practicing frequently but he did not show up this week, so the team was even smaller than normal, it was only our son, the senior and a girl.  The other school weren't that different, two of them had around 4-6 kids puttering around in team colors and the other school did appear to have a full team of at least a dozen kids in school colors.

    I don't like the quick way that it is all over, I know the Crockett competitors work hard and train to exhaustion, my boy is worn out when I pick him up after practice, usually soaked in sweat and looking like he took a beating.  Even then, we sit there and the matches might last less than two minutes (there are a total of 3 rounds and each can last 2 minutes, but a pin on the opponent's back ends the match).  We were already there and my in-laws had made the trip, so even after finding out our boy was not competing, I thought it would be good for them to see some high school wrestling, so we all stayed.  Both Crockett kids lost their matches, even though they went up ahead in the beginning and were winning on points, they made a mistake here and there and ended up on their backs and got pinned.  There was so much pent up energy in Baby A from going to sleep early and waking up with butterflies in his stomach, then he finds out he is not fighting, he kept telling me all day to put on the pads so he could box with me, but I certainly don't want this little bull coming at me, and he isn't that little anymore, he is walking around at 251 pounds and now knows enough wrestling that I don't want to mess with him.

    The only other thing to add about the meet is that it was in Georgetown and the high school was an amazing and beautiful facility.  It almost made me want to move out there.  There is just a majesty and inspiring feeling at the size of the complex.  It feels like it is three stories tall, it was too far to park around back where the wrestlers were going in and the front where we were let in.  It felt like we walked and walked about a half mile to get from the entrance back past the front, then the cafeteria, then the band halls and finally to where the various gyms were, plural.  The wrestling meet was in the basketball gym, it was standard sized, but the fact that all the buildings seemed connected and directly outside were the tennis courts, football stadium, and other fields made the whole campus a monstrosity.  It is bittersweet to see the differences in schools, seeing the beauty of some of these schools and the realization our boy is in a school that is more than 50 years old.

3/27/21 Finally The Fence Is Finished?

     It has been awhile since we did the back part of our fence.  Since then, we had talked to our neighbors about me and the boys doing the fence between our houses.  I was even offering them the same amount my neighbor on the other side had asked from me, $250.  I ended up giving him $300, but he even gave me all the unused slats which pretty much made up the $50 difference after they were completely done with their fence.

    Well, I guess the ladies next door got tired of waiting for us to get moving on the project.  There was also the incident last week where our roommates dog found a hole in the fence and made it to their yard.  That was a pain in the ass because they texted me at 6:00am about it and I felt compelled to go out there and fix the fence, on the spot.  I did it with a flashlight on my forehead and my trusty drill.  I ended up touching up about 10 slats, if I remember correctly.  Two days ago, one of them texted me that they had found an outside source to get the fence done.  They were going to do it with much higher quality wood and were even going to replant some of the metal posts in the ground to make the fence perfectly level.  She explained that this was going to cost a lot more than what we talked about, so she did not feel we were on the hook for paying more.  She said to pay what I felt was fair, and after all that I didn't want to seem cheap, but, I know I could have done the fence and it would work just as well for the price I had said.

    I offered her $300 but said I didn't want to insult her, if they wanted more, to let me know.  I didn't really like this idea, at the moment I just assumed some dudes were selling her a story of "better wood".  She came back and said if it wasn't a problem, $350 would be good.  I just shrugged and said fine, I really don't like to squabble over a couple of bucks.  They have been good neighbors, other than the annoying dogs that bark too much.  I saw the wood today, actually, the side is already up (at 6:20pm), and the wood does look better quality.  I don't know if it was stained or if comes from a darker cedar tree, but it has a beautiful brown color to it, not as light as what we installed from Lowe's, I know, my other neighbor said the stuff at Lowe's is shit, but I am not going to be hunting for perfect wood.

    To make matters even more great, I talked to the guy in charge, and asked him if he had a place to take the old fencing to and he said he took it to a place where they would turn it to mulch.  I then asked if he would take my other fencing, the old fence from the back part that we replaced and I would pay him.  He said sure but to give him a number after I asked how much he would charge me.  I then offered $50 knowing it was a bit cheap for what it was, but he came back with "that's what they'll charge me to take it."  He then said $100 was fine.  I was hesitant to give him the money on the spot, but he told me to just bring the fence pieces out and lay them in a stack by their trailer, he would get to it in one of the three days he planed to be out there.  Shoot, I came back from taking Baby A to practice and not only was the fence up and done, but they took all my junk fencing away.  I will gladly pay the man tomorrow, they were all gone.

    Now we should have a solid fence for a good 15-20 years before we have to worry about it again.  I just hope I am up to the task as my first neighbor, he and a friend both handled his fence with both of them being in their 70's, gotta love the guy's energy.

3/26/21 Why Not Let Them All In?

     Why not let all the illegals in (playing a little devil's advocate)?  I don't like the idea of it at all, but if the democrats insist, then they have to own what will come of it.  I figure the majority of them will stay in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.  They have to work somewhere, eventually, and if they become citizens at least we can tax them.  At least Hispanics come in and find work, whether it's doing the jobs nobody wants or the lower unskilled jobs, either way, they will fill a niche.  I don't think I have to worry about them taking my job, or anyone I know.  Fortunately, most of my family was trained in some capacity, either through going to school, or putting in the time.  The only people who should be worried about these people taking over are unskilled laborers who might have to compete to keep their minimum wage type jobs.

    These people, being Hispanic, to me, means they will search out other family that is already here and be a burden on them.  They can't just show up and insist on moving into my house, for example (unless they got tig ole bitties, if you know what I mean).  They will no doubt fare better than the bums living out on our sidewalks so freely, these people aren't making the trip to do that, they can live shitty in their country.  

    I know the concern my brother was bringing up is that this is a ploy to increase the headcount of Democrats voting, but come on, Hispanics don't really get into the whole voting thing.  I have only voted twice, both times lost (Kerry and Trump), so I shan't be doing that anymore.  My philosophy was that those assholes in Washington are going to do whatever they want, my measly vote isn't worth the hassle.  Did anything change by me voting?  No.  The Democrats don't need more voters, they can just manipulate the votes in existence.  Nobody really believes President Potato really was more popular than Trump, no freaking way.  So the idea that this will help them is silly, they already control the voting process.

    This will help make the country more Hispanic though.  An extra 11 million, one of the numbers I heard Biden would make citizens, has to make a dent in the big overall percentages of white versus brown versus black.  I take it in 500 years, if humans still exist, the overall makeup of the average American will be my shade anyway.  The more mixing and matching of all the different people here in 'Merica!, the browner middle America will get.  And from what we hear, these illegals are being delivered like warm pizzas all over the country, so everyone will have a Juan down their street.  That is an America I wouldn't mind.

    And if the whole thing turns to shit, well, it will be too easy to point at President Harris and blame her, come on, no way Potato makes it four years.

3/25/21 Differences Between Austin And Corpus Christi?

     I didn't really notice the one big difference until the last day of driving around Corpus while we were on vacation.  They don't seem to allow bums at every freaking street corner, which makes for a more relaxed drive around town.  There are some days that the air is perfect outside here in Austin and I would like nothing more than to run around with the windows down and wind blowing in my face.  The last thing I want is to have one of these bums asking me for money while stopped at a light and made to feel guilty because I say no.  Consequently, I just drive with my windows closed all the time, to avoid having to interact with them.

    I don't know that there is a solution for the problem at this point.  We were talking to other condo guests and they said whatever you do, don't stay at a Howard Johnson.  They mentioned they had stayed in one recently and that the whole upper level floor was rented out for the homeless to stay in and it was an uncomfortable mess all night.  They were offered drugs in the elevator, drug addicts were just hanging in the hallways, and those people just didn't seem to need to sleep.  All this makes me just want to go home and stay there.  This is bullshit though because these hotels should be more forthcoming if they are doing shit like this.  I wouldn't want to stay in a hotel that was loaded with homeless, it just seems like an invitation for trouble.

    Corpus was nice though.  Yes, it is a tourist trap, but you can only be there if you can afford it.  It is the same with places like Disney.  People may not like it and complain about it, but the people inside those parks are all of the same mindset, "we are here to have a good time and spend money on stupid shit."  We don't want to see some sad sack who can't afford their next meal.  From what I see, most of these fuckers are young, they should be working and contributing to society, not sitting there sucking on other members of society.  That is ultimately what I hate the most.  As soon as we were within spitting distance of Austin, right outside Buc-ee's, there was a lady with a couple of kids being homeless at the stop sign leading out from the Target across the street.  Not one but two fucking cars stopped back to back to give her some money.  Why would these roaches disappear if society goes out of its way to provide for them?  Last week while on our Spring Break vacation and driving around, we noticed a Jeep jumping the curb in front of us and wondered what the white woman was doing.  We were at the light long enough to see her approaching random tents along the road and she was bringing them supplies.  Again, why would these people willingly leave, someone is acting like Doordash for them, and it's completely free.

3/24/21 Boy's Birthday Today?

     Boy is 27 today, Happy Birthday to Mijo.  I guess time flies when we are having fun.  He has been quietly celebrating his birthday all week, starting last weekend when he spent it with his girlfriend and they went to eat at some pricey fancy spot near downtown Austin, off Lamar.  We were coming back from our getaway to Corpus but nowadays he is acting more and more grown, opting to do things separately which is fine as long as he is having a good time.  The plan for us is to have a get together with both families this weekend in San Antonio at some restaurant and celebrate with both sides of the family, for those who can make it.  With everybody's busy schedule and concerns over Covid-19, I don't even know what or who to expect anymore.

    I am happy Boy seems to be in a good part of his life, he is still technically in college, he has a handful of classes that have been challenging him/kicking his ass, but he has still managed to get a good job at Applied Materials, which is a big semiconductor company here in town.  He is doing all sorts of interesting things, from managing, to assembling tools, and there is even talk of him getting trained to do on site repairs of specific tools out in the field all over the world.  Being my son, he is already starting to think he needs to be getting paid more money for what he is doing, but we keep telling him to at least wait until he completes his first year at which point it would make sense to ask for a raise, if he feels it is warranted.  There isn't much time left freely after he goes to work and takes his classes, but he still tinkers with his 3D printers when he has a chance.  He is in the middle of a largish project, making center pieces for a wedding consisting of Cubone heads about a foot in diameter.  They are looking pretty good, but I think he is "giving them" as his gift to the couple instead of getting paid.

    I think life is going well for Mijo.  He doesn't really rely on us for anything, which is great, but he still lives at home, which I like because we know he is here and safe at night, some nights he is staying over with his girlfriend, but they aren't kids anymore, so that is fine, I guess.  He has been talking about looking into saving money for a down payment for a house, but things keep getting in the way.  He did crash our car, so I hated to do it, but he paid the difference that the insurance didn't cover after crashing our Ecosport Christmas Eve, and then he had a kidney stone that made him go to the ER and that has cost him a pretty penny.  These are minor setbacks, I think the boy is doing great and can see him getting into a house in a year or two.  Happy Birthday Mijo, love you, keep up the good work.

3/23/21 Finally Cooked On My Pellet Grill After Second Major Repair?

     I swear I would have thrown this grill away and just bought a new one, but Boy and Baby A spent their good money to help me get this one for my birthday, so I want it to last me more than half a year.  The first time I left some pellets in the auger tube (feeds pellets from hopper (container on side of grill) to burn box (burn box is a small 3-4inch diameter heavy metal cup in middle of grill where the pellets fall in and get heated up by an ignitor coil to burn)).  The pellets then were partially burned in auger tube and maybe got moisture on them and subsequently swelled up and hardened.  It took a considerable amount of force to break the auger loose.  I then attached the auger to my drill (the auger does look like a giant drill bit and the pellets ride in the spaces in between from hopper to burn box) and forced it to spin through the hardened grime and soot.  This lock forced the first auger motor to burn up as it tried to turn against too strong of a force.  I understand this now, so I make sure and remove all the pellets after I finish cooking (the hopper has a trap door underneath and the pellets all fall into a plastic bucket for safekeeping and reuse).  Since I realized this motor is finicky, I ordered a couple of extras and have two ready to go for the future (they only cost $24.99, I did a free one when I called Oklahoma Joe and told them what happened).  Turns out, this is the same motor the Traeger grills use.

    Recently, I had gotten an ER2 and an ER5 error while grilling.  I could get around the errors by turning off and on the grill and it would continue, but the problem was there.  At a certain point, I think the grill had enough and it just didn't want to work.  I looked those error codes up online and they indicated that the problem was either the temperature probe was faulty or the ignitor coil had gone bad.  These are expendable items I now know.  The good thing is that the temperature probe was like $11.99 and the ignitor coil was a pair for around $22.99.  It took a little bit of effort to open up the grill all the way down to get to the ignitor coil, I didn't even know there were so many screws on this thing.  I changed them out before we went on vacation, but I didn't get a chance to really run it until tonight (Sunday) and from what I can tell, we are back to normal.  At this point, I now also have an extra ignitor to add to the auger motor and I will probably order another temperature probe to have a back-up.  The only other moving part to worry about is the fan that forces air into the unit and that fan is around $20, so I will probably have to replace it at some point.  I have run the grill hard, I cook on it almost every day and is one of the main reasons I had lost so much weight, making all our lunch meals during the week on it and then meat on the weekend.  The grill overall was $600, so if changing out a part for $10-20 bucks keeps it going, then I will do that.  The body of the grill still looks new, so that is another thing to keep in mind.

    By the way, I smoked/grilled a tiny brisket flat (the flat part of the brisket) for about 2.5 hours and then grilled some chicken thighs, some pork, some sausages, and even mollejas along with some jalapeno bombers and everything came out okay.  Well, the brisket was a little tough but it was still good.  The grill was on for a good 3 hours and change starting at 300 and then I cranked it up to 400, I didn't see any errors, so to me that means problem solved, for now.

3/22/21 Resorting To Rabbit Ears ?

     If there was anything to complain about our condo, it is that we did not have internet.  It is so hard to get by without checking in with the world from time to time.  I love getting up at 7:00-8:00am, before Wife even thinks about even going to the bathroom and just drink my coffee in piece and watch an assortment of videos to catch up with the goings on in the world.  Knowing we weren't going to have internet in the condo was bad enough, but then we discovered that since the freeze, they have had trouble with their cable, so there really was no information coming in to our unit.

    I got smart and figured if the cable did not want to work, I should still be able to hook up some good old fashioned rabbit ears and make that give me some local programming.  It was harder than I thought it would be, HEB had a very small selection but they did have rabbit ears or antennas that connect via coaxial cable.  Once I got that figured out, it took me a bit because the TV only had one button but I figured after playing with it that leaning it to the left or right and up and down did the function of 4-5 buttons.

    Once I got all that squared away, we found a comedy channel and I kind of just left it there, and they ended up playing old 70's show reruns at night, then other old comedies like Home Improvement and Grace Under Fire.  It is not that I like these other shows, 70's Show is one of my all time favorites, but the rest were just meh, but it was something to have on while drinking my coffee and cookies.  I also left the TV on while I fell asleep on the couch, which happened every night.  The sofa was pretty okay, with a reclining option on both ends of the sofa.

    There was another TV in the bedroom and I thought about buying two sets of rabbit ears, they were only $8, but we didn't really watch that much TV, it was only at night and early in the morning and mostly just me.  Wife just always seems to be busy cleaning up after us and Baby A was content to lay in his room playing on his phone.  These phones really do it all today, I even contemplated turning Wife's into a hotspot to get internet capability, but I don't want to start messing with the payment we pay monthly.

    As Wife said, it was good for us to disconnect for a couple days, I was a little bothered because I like to stay on top of my blogs and whatever daily news is out, but I have to admit that at a certain point, I wasn't thinking I needed any of it.

3/21/21 Vacation Was What It Is Supposed To Be? (part 3 of 3)

     I was a little slower to get up Friday, I think I got up at 9:00am, drank my coffee and waited for the day to begin.  While perusing one of the local ad magazine thingies, I saw a boat show out on Padre Balli Park, which is where Bob Hall Pier is at.  This is where we always go to go to the beach.  My mom called and asked what the plans were for the day, I had asked Wife if it was cool to go check out the boats at the show for a little while and she said sure, if parking and entry is free, so I told my mom that I wanted to check this out.  She seemed agreeable on the phone.

    We went and got them, but of course before doing anything, we had to go eat lunch.  We agreed on the Mexican Restaurant again, it is pretty good and the prices are fair.  We ate, then we headed out to the boat show.  My brother is not into anything I am into, and he expressed it, deciding to stay in the car.  My mom used to be adventurous and I thought she might find the idea of a boat show interesting, I don't know why, also decided to stay in the car.  I then promised I would be quick, just a quick glimpse at what they had and possibly how much these boats are selling for.  The prices were astronomical, and the smallest boat I saw was in the 21foot range, which is too long to fit in my garage.  These boats were also very costly, the cheapest price I saw was $48,000 and the priciest was $179,000.  It did not take long to feel like this was not the boat show I was hoping for.  I would have liked to see some smaller bay boats, maybe some of these micro boats I see online.  I want something sturdy for 1-3 people that will be under 18 feet to fit in the garage.

    This is where it got a little interesting, my mom had told me to "take your dad fishing, maybe he'll relax."  I wanted time to do that too, so after we left there we stopped at the souvenir shops and while they were inside looking, I sat outside with my dad talking and thought I could get more shrimp at the gas station next door and we could just fish in the canal at our condo.  My thought is that my mom and brother could either hang out with us or wait in the condo, drinking coffee or whatever else.  My brother then came out suggesting he wanted to go to a bookstore, which is fine, but I had just bought stinky shrimp and mullet, I can't just go and park outside the bookstore for an hour and chill, the Telluride would get stinky.  I then suggested I could take him to get my folk's truck and he could drive himself to the bookstore, he has a driver's license.  My mom decided she needed to go with him, so we dropped the two of them off and we headed back to our condo with my dad.  We actually had a great time with dad, we had the pier to ourselves, he got to sit on a bench right by the water and he caught two fish which got him all excited, a small perch, and a croaker that was a little bigger.  We fished for over an hour, even Baby A went out and he was being goofy naming a small crab bait Merlin and telling us how he was going to catch something magical, only to see Merlin gutted and only the shell returned to him.

    After this, we got back with my mom and brother and went to eat at Outback, which was a mistake.  Outback is great, but it shouldn't take two hours of waiting (they sold the wait with "it'll only be 40-50 minutes").  I said screw it, we were in the car, I leaned back and napped for a good hour.  When we finally got our food, my steak was charred, lifeless, and lukewarm.  Wife had the same problem.  Mijo was all excited, I let him order the steak and lobster plate, but the lobster was barely two bites worth of meat and the filet mignon looked like a piece of hamburger patty.  I complained when the server asked how our meal was (I would never call the manager to complain, but if you ask me, I won't lie and just say it was great if it sucked), he then said he would call the manager, I told him "y'all are a steak restaurant, we shouldn't be excited because you got the sides just right.  Wife was halfway through her meal and still waiting on the ribs, her sirloin, ordered medium rare, was blackened and dry on both sides.  We did at least get 50% off our meal, so I guess bitching can help, but we got there around 7:00, the sun was still up and we didn't leave until 11:00pm.  Four hours for a burned steak meal is not a great evening.  We dropped off our parents and went home.

    We had a problem with some jack-off parking in one of our two parking spots, but parking so far over he made it very hard for me to park our car in the other spot.  I would have been fine with this asshole taking one of the spots, I never saw who it was, but he parked so badly, I had a hard time parking my vehicle.  The security guy tried helping me find another spot, but they were pretty full.  The have notices of "towing enforced", but the security guy says they won't really do it, unless approved by management, I guess they fear being sued.  I managed to park and it was fine, this wasn't the fault of the condo, just an asshole being and asshole.

Who does this?  Steal the spot, but leave the other one open, Jackass.

3/20/21 Vacation Was What It Is Supposed To Be? (part 2 of 3)

     The second day started just as lazy as the first one ended.  I got up at 8:00am, but had no internet, so I drank my coffee and looked at my phone for awhile.  I went outside to enjoy the water view, checked on my vehicle, checked its oil, and went back and I guess napped on the sofa with the TV on until Wife woke around 11:00am.  We then went to get some breakfast tacos at the same Mexican restaurant and took them home.  We ate breakfast together on the little table in the dining area which was faced with 4 floor to ceiling windows overlooking the outside, I really loved the view and seeing water right outside.  After we ate, Mijo suggested we hang out and sold it to me with "dad, you look like you need to nap..." I agreed since they were in no hurry and we were kind of waiting on my folks to show up around 5:00pm.

    We all napped and were lazy until about that time, and then we all woke ready to go run around.  We left and it seemed like I timed it perfectly, I had called my folks and they said they were about a half hour away, by the time we left the condo and headed their way, I saw them on the road, turning on the street where their RV park is at.  We all arrived at their park at the same time and we helped them get the RV set up.  This took a little while, but eventually we unhooked the RV from the pickup and they are set for the summer.  We then all jumped in our Telluride, which sits 6, but it was a little cramped in the backseat with our big boy and my brother, who is about my size as well.  We made it work, and we took off to doa more traditional Gallegos vacation.  My parents like to go by the T-heads, we tried to eat at Joe's Crab Shack, but we are still waiting for the text to let us know our table is ready.  The wait was going to be 1.5 hours at 7:15pm.  I suggested we drive around and find another place.  We ended up doing the drive around the bay, and ended up getting on the ferry to cross from Aransas Pass to Port Aransas.  We then drove around Port Aransas and ate at Grumble's Seafood on the Fisherman's Wharf.  I didn't understand why we had to order like animals in line, I told Wife not to leave a tip.  Most of their tables were empty, yet there were 40 people standing in line to order.  It took a while to make it to the front, it was expensive for what we got, but I guess it was good.  I ordered a shrimp burger which also had a fried green tomato, it was delicious but for $16.99, I thought it should have more than 4 small shrimp in it.  All the plates were good, but we all left hungry, I am sure.  After this, we took my folks to our condo so they could see where we were staying at, then eventually took them home.

    We came back around 11:00pm and had a mixed drink or two.  We were hard asleep by 1:00am.  I think I just fell asleep on the sofa and eventually made my way over to the bed later.  This was another good day (Thursday), if not a little slow to get going, but it was laid back.

3/19/21 Vacation Was What It Is Supposed To Be? (part 1 of 3)

     I was nervous and excited to finally go on a vacation this past week (we did not have internet, so I am behind on my blogs), and now that we are back home, I have to say it was great to get out of our normal routine.  We left Wednesday afternoon around noon since check-in was supposed to be around 4:00pm.  We made great time, although a lot of people might be on vacation, there were not a lot of travelers on the road, on a Wednesday.  There were a couple of tense moments, such as arriving to our condo.  We had not stayed there and upon first opinions, it looked like we were driving into a slum or rough neighborhood, which scared me a bit.  The units are old, probably built in the 70's, and at this point may have more paint than concrete on the outside walls, but once we actually got to our building, it felt very homey.  The complex had 4-5 buildings, was right next to a Sonic, there was a bar in the front and a Whataburger next to it.  We have driven by this location right as you go over the JFK causeway to Port Aransas from Corpus Christi all f our lives and never noticed it.  The back and what our building backed up against was a huge canal on two sides, so the whole backyard was perfection for me.  I dream of owning something like this, with water next to it.  There was a fishing pier, slots for rent to put a boat and leave it in the water, an indoor and outdoor pool, and the vibe of all the people we met there was that everyone was there to have a good time and nobody was in a rush to go anywhere.

    The first day we arrived, dropped off our stuff and went to HEB to get some groceries.  We did not eat on the road and by that time Baby A was seriously hungry, so we stopped and ate at this restaurant we have always eaten at, some little Mexican restaurant.  The meal was great and then we went to HEB which is on the same block.  We decided we were going to eat out all our meals, so we only needed some snacks and drinks.  We then took our stuff back and by then it was getting a little close to the sun going down.  We went out to the pool with swimming stuff, just in case, but I stepped in the water and my junk pretty much buried itself in my stomach, ooh it was freezing just stepping on the first step.  Wife, being built like a polar bear stepped in and kept stepping in.  She went in straight away and started swimming within a few minutes.  I then had to rally the last bit of manhood in me and follow her in.  I listen to Adam Carolla's podcast and he is constantly going on about how it is good for one to jump in the cold water daily so I wanted to try it.  After getting in and acclimating, it isn't that bad.  We were in the water for a good 10-15 minutes, then we got out and went to get some dinner.  We got Whataburger, came back and then Wife and I went fishing just there in the backyard.  It is so convenient when you can do stuff right where you are and not have to drive to locations.  We caught a couple of fish each, all tiny perch type, nothing to brag about, but it was still loads of fun.  The wind was blowing hard and annoying, but it was still manageable.  I would call this a perfect day of fun and relaxation.  As for the complex, once we went in and out a couple times, we felt a good vibe and our unit had two reserved spots for parking in the lower level of the building and the parking area was very well lit and there is security walking around, so it was all good.

Out the other side of condo.

night fishing on the pier

Wife with her first catch of the year

view of canal out of our living room

being brave in the pool

night fishing

3/18/21 Dammit, Do I Hate Dogs?

     I know I can't win in this country, people love their freaking pets, but I cannot stand a fucking dog.  I have tried my best not to have any and still, it is like I have had one now for about three years.  First off Girlie and her idiot boyfriend had a dog and the dog was kind of great for short periods of time.  I was kind of hesitant to allow it in my house, but I was assured it was a very docile and trained husky that hardly barked.  I guess the training matters, the owner kept him on a very short leash and any unapproved behavior was dealt with swiftly and kind of harsh, but still.  The dog being a husky and apparently an escape artist, so much so that his collar said that was constantly getting out of our property.  My old fence was no match for that dog, he would find any loose or old board and punch right thru.  It always seemed to happen when the owner and Girlie would leave for work.  I fucking had to go find that stupid thing after calls from my neighbors and/or posts on FB in our community.  The dog was not aggressive, but it was still a good sized husky dog.

    After they moved out, DD moved back in, but since the last GF had been a dog person, she got him to adopt a pitbull mix.  I wasn't sure I even wanted to allow him in, but the kid is a good guy and once I met the dog, I was almost okay.  He assured me, like every dog owner in the world does, that his dog is a sweetheart and he is super mellow.  Meeting a pitbull for the first time is a little jarring, the thick bucket head and that smiling face, almost clown like can be menacing, not to mention that they are so solid and muscular compared to my mom's dachshund or chihuahua.  Ghost is a lot of dog, but I guess the fact that he was neutered at a young age made him very docile and again, the owner does not fuck around, when he has barked once or twice in the house, he is met with stern discipline almost instantly.  Still, the dog exudes strength just in coming to say hi.  You have to brace to brace yourself and more than once, he has knocked over both of my boys when he comes running up to them and he bumps into them excitedly.  This dog is also pretty cool, but dogs are like having extra kids that need a lot of attention.

    I was awoken by my neighbor texting me that Ghost got into their yard this morning, the good thing is that they had their dogs inside, but they got all excited and started barking up a storm, waking them up super early.  DD was gone to work by then, I don't think he even realized what the stupid dog had done, he lets him out while he goes and gets ready for work.  I know it isn't the dog's fault, but we have now replaced two of the three sides of fence and we had left some of the old sections leaning against the fence between us and I guess that was hiding a hole the dog managed to get through.  I had been eyeing a loose board I meant to fix, but it was loose on top.  I figured this is the one that had fallen, but it was another part.  Needless to say, I ended up screwing in about ten loose boards and putting a couple of new boards over the place where the hole in the fence was made.  All this, at 6:30am, in the dark, with a flashlight.  Fucking awesome way to start the day.  Dopey Wife just rolls over when I come back in and tells me to come back to bed and sleep some more.  Yeah, great idea once I have been out doing work, lifting fence sections and going thru the garage looking for my drills and bits and working by dim light half expecting to run into a raccoon or snake while moving those ten foot fence sections.  I was all hot and was full of adrenaline or whatever, to the point that it felt hot in the house, it was probably in the low 60s outside while it was 73 inside, so it just felt hot, no way was I going to lay down for another while.

3/17/21 Vacation Excitement?

     It is hard to believe that it has been over a year that we have been on vacation.  Since Covid-19 started pretty much exactly a year ago, I remember Baby A went on Spring Break and never went back to classes, we have stayed home most of the time.  We have visited my folks a handful of times as well as Wife's people, but we haven't ventured out on a fun destination in the last twelve months.

    I am excited and nervous at the same time.  Wife went back to work Monday and Tuesday and Mijo and I stayed home to take care of some last minute things.  I finally got everything done to get our $800 rebate from the city after installing our new A/Cs in November.  I fixed the signal light on the Excursion, and the grill just a couple hours ago.  Wife got home with a head of steam, as usual.  She had already packed her bag on Sunday night for both going to Work in La Pryor and for vacation.  I wasn't even sure where my luggage was at.  Baby A was busy washing some clothes to take and saving the world on his PS4.  Wife was not having any of that.  Packing makes a trip real, I went in the garage and pulled out some fishing rods, just in case, along with my tackle box and a cooler, I can't believe we don't own a Yeti or one of those clones, but I can't pull the trigger on a $200-$300 cooler that barely holds a six pack.  We have a perfect sized Igloo cooler that probably cost me $20 ten years ago.  It will probably hold a bag of ice and a case of soda cans, we really aren't alcohol drinkers, so sodas it is.

    Along with my fishing gear, I thought about loading the kayaks I bought, but two of them are still in the boxes and the one I opened is pretty heavy to just load in for a "maybe it will get used."  Wife showed me some pics of the coast and there seemed to be thousands of people out on the beaches, if so, I don't think I will really want to hang out there too long and I am not going to go through the trouble of carrying this 100 pound kayak and accessories for ten minutes of use.  I do need to get our folding chairs from the Excursion since I believe we are going in Wife's Telluride.  She is not excited about taking it near sand, but the point of that car is for our family trips, and this is very much our first family trip we are taking since we bought it.  I am almost inclined to take the Escape we just bought, I am really enjoying it, but the Telluride is roomier and actually gives us better gas mileage.

    It does kind of suck that Boy will not be joining us, but at this point, I don't think he would join us even if he hadn't used up all his vacation time covering that week when we had the ice storm.  He will be staying to work and probably spend time with his girl.  It will just be Wife, Baby A, and myself tomorrow.  My folks and sister will show up on Thursday with their RV.  I am excited about the condo we got if it is what it advertises.  There is supposed to be a waterfront canal outside the back, if so, we might just be able to fish right there, or it might stink because of all the fish that died during the snow storm, which I have seen several videos that the coast was hard hit.  We shall see.

3/16/21 Finally, TIme To Fix Things?

     I feel pretty good about my abilities right about now.  I managed to fix both a problem on my Excursion and my beloved pellet grill.  I know Amazon is now the devil with their leaning towards these communists trying to run the country and ban books, but man, I can't help get things done by ordering stuff on there to fix things.  My Excursion's right front blinker had gone funky the last couple months.  I tried fixing it by bending the wires, it seems the old age of the socket led the metal to loose solid contact with the light bulb.  I kind of fixed it for a time by bending it in and forcing contact with the bulb, but after awhile this fix stopped working.  On top of that, I had glanced at the socket and ordered one that looked kind of like it.  The questions and comments said it worked on some Fords, so I took a chance.  Those parts did not work, the socket only had two clips to grab the housing and the one I have has three.  This time, I looked at it carefully, took a bunch of pictures, which helped because after making sure the clips were in the correct position, I still almost ordered one with the locking clip on the opposite side.  After making sure, the pictures online exactly matched the pictures I took, I ordered my part Sunday night.  At the same time, I ordered a new ignitor coil and temperature probe for my grill.  I am on Spring Break this week, so I had time on Sunday, as I said to take the grill pretty much completely apart.

    I had all day and nothing to do, of course, the parts didn't show up until 6:30pm and as soon as I got the packages and got excited to go outside to work, my stomach decided I needed to go poop.  Another hour later, I also showered, I was ready to work, but now it was dark, but I was already set in my head that I was going to do this.  I put on my forehead light and went to work.  I had managed to get the Excursion part installed in about five minutes, at this point, I have already opened that signal light thing about 4-5 times, so it was easy to do.  The grill was more of a challenge, but I started with the temperature probe on the side of the grill wall, away from everything else.  It was easy enough and the part looked pretty identical to the one I removed.  After this, I just worked in reverse order, starting with the innermost part, the ignitor coil on the burn box.  I ran the new wire through the opening as the youtube video showed, then I tied down the screw.  I was a little worried about the wire not being as long as the original, but it was long enough.  After this, I just worked out, adding all the accessory metal parts until I ran out of screws.  This took me more than an hour, and I was not 100% sure this would fix the problem, but the two errors I have seen were related to the temperature probe, ER2, and the ignitor coil, ER5.  I filled the hopper with pellets while Wife ran to get some Popeye's Chicken, then we ate while I ran a test run, seeing what temperature it would get to at LOW, when it would normally read 440.  It got to 428, which is close enough for me.  I loved not seeing either error code on the screen, and I will probably order another temperature probe to have a back-up.  The ignitor coil came in a package of two, so I have a back-up for that, and I even have two more auger motors which I ordered when I had problems with that.  There aren't many other parts on the grill, I haven't messed with, I guess there is a fan that makes it a convection oven, and I might have to replace that later, but as hard as I have run this grill, I am not surprised I am having to replace parts like this already.  These parts were both about $10 a piece, so better this than to be out shopping for a new grill.  Plus, it feels great knowing I can fix things.

3/15/21 Grilling One Way Or Another?

     I finally bit the bullet today and spent the afternoon taking apart my pellet grill.  It has really sucked not being able to fire it up and make steaks at will.  To offset my pain, I suggested to Wife that we would get a fire going on our old charcoal grill and she could make our meats while I worked on dismantling the pellet grill to find what the problem is.  That worked out pretty good, and before nighttime I had taken it apart and removed the parts I wanted to get to.

    It was one of those days, we left the house with the idea of eating lunch somewhere, but when we got out to Buda, I kind of wanted Chicken Express, the line was long, so I had joked about going to IHOP and Wife liked the idea.  We went in and it was supposed to be a thirty minute wait, but I couldn't do it.  I guess it has been awhile since we have been in a full restaurant, but I did not enjoy the intensity of a filled building and the couple of kids crying their freaking brains out.  While we were waiting, a few other parents with more shitty kids went in, and I did the math real quick, and figured those kids would be crying while we tried to eat.  Baby A was not comfortable either with people sitting on the long sofa in the waiting area next to him.  These people aren't very good with the 6ft spacing thing.  We left and for a minute got in line again at Chicken Express, but then Wife said "it's 2:00pm, why don't we just go to the HEB, get food to grill and go home and start the fire?"  That sounded like the best idea, I was already feeling like I was going to have to poop after eating, so there would have been no HEB if we picked up the chicken, I don't know where we would have eaten it.  Either way, we went to HEB and then headed home.

    Taking apart the pellet grill's auger is easy as I have already done it half a dozen times, but getting to the burn box where the ignitor coil is proved to be much more difficult.  If the grill was new, I could more easily have seen the different screws and worked from there, but at this point, there is so much soot and ash and black grime that it was very hard to figure anything out.  I used a bunch of Youtube videos to figure out how to remove the middle part, which was different than what I was thinking in my head.  I honestly am not sure if the problem is with the internal temperature probe or the ignitor coil, but based on the ER2 and ER5 messages, it is one or the other.  Fortunately, the temperature probe was very easy to remove, I hadn't noticed it attached to the wall of the grill, or I saw it but didn't realize it was a temperature probe.  I found both parts on Amazon, the probe for $11 and the ignitor coil came in a two pack for $21.99, so I will have a back up for next time.  Again, I am unsure if this is the problem, but everything else in the grill is just metal frame, unless it's the computer, but I don't think it is that.  Maybe the clean in itself is enough to bring it back to normal working order.

    This poor grill has been working overtime, as I was using it 4-6 times a week since August.  I was not surprised it stopped working, leaving it on for twelve hours at a time since like overkill, but that is what a brisket requires.  That is bad enough, although the temperature stays around 250, grilling steaks during the week is a lot more hot, I usually set the temp at 450 for that.  The ignitor coil was a little worn around the tip, so hopefully all this maintenance is all it will require.  If this doesn't fix it, I already have eyes on my next grill.  I saw one that is half pellet grill and half gas grill, that sounds interesting.  Add that I already have a charcoal and we even have an old electric George Foreman style and I could have all the different types of outdoor cooking at my disposal.  By the way, I have been buying extra bags of charcoal like I said I would to keep in the garage for emergencies.  I believe I am up to like 5-6 bags of charcoal lying around the house.  I still have to set up a space in the garage for them and set up my emergency stash which we figured we need after going through the freeze.

3/14/21 Preparing For Our First Vacation Trip In A Year?

     I am hesitant of the idea, but we will be heading out to our first vacation trip in over a year to Corpus Christi.  I don't know that it is fear over Covid-19 more than just becoming a homebody and I really just like being home.  We are doing this for a couple of reasons, first, I don't feel like we have done half as much with Baby A than we used to do with Boy.  Back when Boy was a teen, we had the boat and RV and we seemed to constantly be on the move doing this or that.  Boy still lives at home, but he mostly does his own thing with his gf and rarely joins us as a family.  That is fine, I am happy we still see him most every day, even if he doesn't join us.  Secondly, my folks ,sister and her family will be going to Corpus Christi, so we will have a chance to see and hang out with them.

    My parents still have an RV and the plan for them is to leave their RV for the summer months.  They are splitting the rent on the RV site with my sister, so it is not such a big burden.  This kind of makes me want to go and get another RV, but I know from history that owning one is a major pain in the ass.  It is fone when it is being used, but leaving it on the coast means it will have a lot of rust anywhere rust can form after the summer session.  There is then the problem of storing it and keeping an eye on it.  One year we had one of our units in storage and some junky jerk-offs tried breaking into it while we were on vacation in Florida.  All they managed to do was break the door lock and one of the windows.  They weren't able to get in it, but it was still a pain to deal with.  We ended up with a new door and window, and I don't believe the new door ever really fit right.  The first unit we had developed a leak around the door and the wood around it on the floor rotted and it cost us thousands to get out of it and into the 2nd unit.  With the rules here in Austin, it is really hard to keep a unit on your property, so you have to pay for storage and then with the unit not being close by, maintenance falls behind, at least it did with me.

    Anyways, as far as the trip this week, we went out and bought some new clothes yesterday, mostly shirts and I bought some collapsible fishing rods I can carry in a backpack, since we might end up going in our Ford Escape, Wife doesn't want to get sand in her Telluride.  Either way, I guess I am a little excited at the idea of checking out the beach, the fishing is going to be rough after the freeze killed so many fish, but I guess we will still try.  I know going to vacation with my folks is going to mean eating out most of our meals and that is okay, but like I said, I am really used to being home and just making and eating food at home.  This reminds me, I really need to figure out what is wrong with my pellet grill, I haven't used it in almost two weeks and that is really sucking.  I miss eating my steaks for lunch.

3/13/21 First Day Of Spring Break, For Me?

     I started my Spring Break basically last night, I went to work, but it was kind f a slow night, so I got home early.  After putzing around for a few hours, I went to bed around 1:30am and got up at 7:00am.  I tried waking Baby A so he could go to his workout session at school but he refused saying he was too sore and beat from the rest of the week.  He has been going to weight lifting classes in the morning and then he does his wrestling practice in the afternoon.  I still decided to get up and come downstairs to drink my morning coffee to start my day.  I was doing well, until around 9:00am, then I got sleep and since I didn't hear any noise coming from upstairs, meaning Wife was still asleep, I laid down on the bed downstairs and napped until 10:30am or so.  At this point I went up to see if Wife was up and she had just showered, and asked if I wanted to go looking at more recliners.  I said sure and jumped in the shower.

    We headed up north and went to Ethan Allen, which was very expensive, a store specializing in leather chairs, also expensive, but I didn't see any heavyweight chairs, then Louis Shanks, this was really expensive and we felt totally out of place with single chairs in the $4000 range.  We then came down to reality and ended up at Ashley's and Rooms To Go which both had decent and good looking leather chairs for about the same price as La Z Boy.  If I buy a chair, I really have to decide between about 3-4 chairs now.  Rooms To Go had one I really liked for around $900 in brown leather and power movement, Ashley's had one that sold for $1249, but then guy got desperate and said he could get me an additional 25% discount, so that gets the chair in leather and power movements for under $1000.  I still really liked the chairs at La-Z-Boy, but they were $1049 in cloth and manual movement, but those chairs did have rocking capability.  I am still trying to figure which one I want, unless I get cheap and forget it.

    After Baby A got out of class, we headed to San Antonio, it was my father in law's birthday, and they were having a seafood dinner which they went all out for.  There were thick chunks of fried fish, hush puppies, seafood gumbo, jambalaya, crab patties (maybe), pasta with shrimp, jumbo fried shrimps and several other dishes.  I am not a big fan of seafood, but their really was a lot of selection.  The only part that sucked was the drive.  We left at 4:30pm or so and didn't get there until after 7:00pm.  We were there until 10:30pm and the drive home was much better with very little traffic.  It was nice to get out of town and it even felt a little normal as Wife said not to worry about the masks, my father in law has had his Covid shots, I guess Wife wasn't as worried about her mom.  Wife has had her two vaccines, I had Covid and Baby A is young, so he should be safe because of the age and he is a pretty healthy athlete.  I know, it can affect anyone blah blah blah, but come on, are we just going to live in fear forever?

3/12/21 Looking at A La-Z-Boy recliner?

     I love looking at purpose made stuff.  I had been telling Wife just recently that I wanted to maybe get a recliner for myself to put in our room since I have discovered I sleep so much better sitting rather than laying down.  We currently have a couple of nice big leather chairs in our room that I have been sleeping parts of the night depending on how much my back is hurting on any given night.  I do like being in bed and laying flat out, our bed even has the motion things to lift the head or feet portions up but since Wife doesn't like that, I don't really use it to sleep.  I have tried it a few times during the week when she is out of town, but if I lift the feet and head a certain amount, I end up falling in the valley and turning myself 90 degrees.  

    The chair is different because there is no give to the sides, the body is kind of locked into the seated position.  We had walked into the La-Z-Boy store before but I thought the prices were a bit expensive for chairs.  Now that I am older and wiser (maybe), I can appreciate the extra cost associated with better technology.  Walking in today, we found out they make chairs with regard to people's height and size.  After walking around and looking at everything, a sales guy approached and I flat out asked him if they had anything for big fat guys.  He quickly pointed to the corner and showed me an assortment of oversized chairs.  At first glance, they don't look like much, nothing fancy to see, really.  The colors are all lame, mostly tans and bland muted earth tones.  After talking with the sales guy, he let us know they can get any of their chairs in any color, it just takes time to special order, specially now in Covid-19 times.

    I was fine with the colors the chairs come in, if I get one it will be in my bedroom.  These are not chairs for the poor, the cheapest they had was over $1000.  I am not sure they are worth the money, but then he flipped it over and started showing me some of the construction, how it is all built on a solid box frame.  They use hardwoods where it matters, and the parts are warrantied for life, I think.  He seemed confidant that any of their chairs would be in service for a good 20-30 years.  I mean according to the guy, these are the type of chairs that are handed down in a family.

    I saw a couple of versions that rock back and forth and then have the lever on the side to kick the legs up.  I didn't realize that after the legs are up, one can lean back and the chair "clicks" back quite a ways.  You end up with your feet above your head, which is supposed to be good for the body.  I am pretty sure I want one of these chairs, but I just have to get around that high price point.  We did go to another furniture store, but after sitting in the chair designed for my size body, it seemed almost cute to sit in a "regular" sized chair.  I didn't have quite the width to spread my legs, the height was a little lower, so it felt I had to almost squat to sit, and my head was awkwardly floating instead of being pampered by the back cushion.  I told Wife I would sleep on it for a day or two (trying not to be so impulsive), so we'll see.

3/11/21 Scared Of Your Own Shadow?

     I just saw a Tiktok video with a kid who discovers his shadow and his reaction was priceless.  From a primitive mind trying to process the world, this must seem startling, to realize all at once that something that looks like a human shape, on the ground, is following you almost too closely.  The little boy, around 3-4, is walking around at night, in a dimly lit house and the dad notices him noticing his shadow and he moves left and right, which seems like a curious mind at work, but then reality sets in and the possibility of a ghostly figure attached to him overwhelms his senses and the kid does all he can, freaks out and cries.

    I imagine this is how real primitive man reacted when he found his shadow attached to him out in the bright light of the day.  Without a science mind, what must they have thought about a dark shadow following them around?  Knowing how people always gave super natural powers to things they don't understand, I can see this being used as a bad omen or something to that effect.  I can even imagine this had a profound effect on JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, who not only acknowledged Peter Pan's shadow, but gave it life and its own personality and life.  In the tale, the shadow even escaped Peter Pan and went out and had its own adventures, so clearly something happened in Barrie's early life to bring the idea of a "living" shadow to life.

    This idea has been used many times, I believe in shows like Charmed and other supernatural shows where the shadow can become an extension of the person and in times of duress, the shadow can even detach and act on its own, which is an interesting take in itself.  I guess in bringing it back all the way around, it makes sense the phrase of "being scared of your own shadow", as we can see, this little boy was in fact just that.  It was cute in its own naive reality.

3/10/21 Learning About High School Wrestling?

     Last weekend I went to two wrestling meets Baby A participated in.  I had no idea what I was looking at.  It turns out Mijo is doing alright, he has won 2 out of 3 matches so far.  I have no idea if they keep track of this like football wins for purposes of competing for District or what else happens, but we are definitely interested now.  I found the best thing to do was to start watching Youtube videos of wrestling matches and maybe a couple of tutorials on the basic rules.  This is helping, I am no longer at a loss, but I still have a long way to go.

    A win comes either by pinning the opponent to the ground, meaning both his back scapula are touching the ground/mat for a full second.  The other way is to win by points.  Points are given for doing certain maneuvers in certain ways, such as bringing your opponent to the ground, off his feet and controlling him from behind gets you two points.  Escaping from that position and back on your feet facing your opponent gets you a point.  There are other ways to score points, but I am still learning.

    I didn't even know wrestling was a big deal, we didn't grow up with wrestling in our school.  Turns out it is a pretty engaging sport and kids seem to get into it from a very early age.  We really didn't let Baby A do any sports when he was very young because he was always such an oversized husky boy.  Football had limits on the size, and since we didn't want to embarrass him, we just kind of ignored everything going on around us until he was in seventh grade.  Once he got to 7th grade, some of his classmates started catching up in size, so he didn't seem like an oversized dude anymore.  Apparently, sports have been a natural fit for our son, he loves competing, and he also seems to like learning these sports

    Wrestling is interesting in that it is not what your mind builds up.  I was imagining a lot of throwing of your opponent and the theatrics that come from WWE wrestling, the kind that made The Rock famous.  So far, I haven't even seen a sleeper hold, or an opponent get lifted and thrown, although that can happen.  There is just a lot of arm usage, holds and take downs to the floor.  The pins don't have to be dramatic like in WWE where the ref counts to three.  In this wrestling, one second seems to be enough to ruin someone's day.  I still have a lot to learn, but anyone can learn by watching a few Youtube videos.

3/9/21 These Bums Are Ruining Our City?

     Saturday morning, we had some time to kill, Mijo had to be on campus at 8:00am for weigh-in but the meet did not start until 9:00am, so I thought it would be fun to drive around a bit.  I am still getting to know our new little Ford Escape and have been enjoying driving it around town.  It was all fun and games, we left our son at school and headed up west on Stassney Lane until it dead ends and we turned left to where Central Market is at on Ben White and South Lamar.  It was so quiet with no traffic, we got a light cold front, so the weather was beautiful in the low 50s and the sun was still low in the sky.  I went out on South Lamar, then headed back on Oltorf to 1st Street and I remembered the aquarium store, which is cool and shaped like a dome.  It is somewhat hidden and Wife didn't even know it existed, I think Boy showed it to me a few years ago.  I drove towards it but it was closed, so by then it was closer to 8:30, so I thought maybe we should just head back to the school.  I popped back to the BenWhite frontage road and figured I would just turn on Manchaca Street which goes right next to Crockett HS.  The underpass where Ben White and Manchaca meet might be the most dense area of a tent city here in town.  Both sides of the street are lined with tents and tarps, nothing but bums and druggies as far as you can kick a can.

    I couldn't help it, we pulled up as the light changed.  I was blinded by the activity of one bum fucking with a huge street box, the ones that hold electronics for the street lights.  I couldn't figure if he was trying to open it or just vandalize it.  Maybe he was going to spray it with some Windex and give it a clean, but I doubt that.  Well, at the same time, to our right on the sidewalk a couple of literal zombie bums, they must have been high and out of their minds started wandering onto the road.  I quickly did the math and figured at the rate this fuck is moving, he is going to be in front of me to prevent me from going when the light changes.  Sure enough, I watched his slow retarded drugged out waltz out on the street and he moved towards us about as creepy yet as harmless as it can be.  His eyes were gone, he was in another world, his warm-ups were clearly around his thighs, thankfully his shirt was long enough.  The other bum luckily stayed on the sidewalk and didn't venture out onto traffic, but this one was enough.  I was at the same time staring at him and staring at the light hoping it would change so I could make way before he stepped in front of me.  You know how life works, he stepped right in the path of the right tire as the light changed, but the car next to me gave zero fucks, he never slowed down and just sped by this walking speed bump at a good pace which somehow sucked the zombies attention, he turned towards where the car sped through which opened up my lane just enough and I did the same thing.

    I have rarely felt dirtier and or more disgusted than right there.  It felt like I was being held hostage to this junkies life and all it entails.  I feel for the people that have made bad decisions and end up living life like this, there should be systems to help them, but fucking junkies do it to themselves.  What more than Don't Do Drugs do you need?  There is nothing glamorous to the drug life, this is where you end up when it consumes you.  Something needs to be done about this.  Fine, the fucking city wants to claim my house is now worth over $500k, and then make me pay taxes at that rate, do your fucking part and keep the city clean to make us want to live here.  This shit keeps up, we will all migrate on out to the suburbs and Mayor Adler and his junky pals can keep Austin and all its glorious history.

3/8/21 First Big Wrestling Meet For The Big Boy? (part 2 of 2)

     Wife and I showed up about ten minutes before 9:00am, to make sure we were on time and to get good seating.  There were even less parents this time than on Wednesday night even though there were five schools present.  We set up our waters, I got my camera mounted on my tripod and we waited for the days events.  I like that they play the Star Spangled Banner before the start of any activity and there is a huge American flag in the gym proudly displayed.

    The first match of the day was also the only girls match, and it was quite aggressive.  The girls were in the 106 pound class, so they were tiny things, but they fought just as strongly as the big boys later in the day.  The girl that won seemed to have the advantage of height but I am not sure if that matters so much in this sport, they tend to stay at about the same size because of the tight weight classes.  The next thing I noticed was how wore out the kids were at the end of their matches, specially when they went the full three rounds, the kids were just left in heaps and some had a hard time getting back to their teammates, I even thought they were just being dramatic, but even Baby A said he was tired after the first match.

    Speaking of, Mijo had two matches in his weight class.  The first one seemed like the other kid was a good 5 inches taller even if they were the same weight.  I did not like the optics, but our boy fights like a bigger animal than he is.  He was easily dominating the other guy, he admitted that he got cocky after wards because he could feel he was stronger than the other guy.  Within a minute, Baby A had gone up 5 points to zero, but then he took him down to the mat, and somehow lost his balance and got rolled sideways and while trying to escape rolled himself onto his back and got pinned.  I don't think he was given the chance to even attempt to escape, the referee was quick to count it out.  I'm not knocking the ref, the poor guy did all the matches and it takes a very skilled eye to see and catch every nuance.  Still, Mijo seemed okay after the loss, it was only his second meet so it is more than reasonable that he will meet kids with more skills and some might even be stronger than him, not that he would ever admit to that, or so I thought.

    There was a bunch of other matches as they went through all the weight classes, but eventually they got to his class weight again and once again, the opponent seemed bigger and this one looked more athletic too, not just a big boy.  I was worried he would loose a second match and he would be upset.  The small caveat was that the coach came over to introduce himself to us at intermission.  He asked what it took to get our boy to get mad, he is always so nice and never seems to loose control.  I could only think to compare him to a certain other "strong guy" on the team.  My son, like me, does not like to hear that other people are better than him at anything, unless they are supposed to be, like a senior should be better than a sophomore.  The coach told him this and that before the match, like so and so would have beat the last guy and not let him win.  That got a little under Mijo's skin, he admitted it after.  This second match was so intense, we couldn't help it, the coach started yelling at him after the first round ended and that got us yelling and our adrenaline going.  The other kid was stronger, he took our boy down three times, but one way or another (Baby A says that is what his huge thighs are for) he stood up with the other kid on his back and refused to be laid on his back.  I think he just overwhelmed the other guy and he got tired because by the fourth time they went to the mat, Baby A ended up on top of him and pinned his lower body so he wouldn't escape.  We all then yelled for him to "FINISH HIM!" and "come on, you can do it!" and anything else that comes out when you feel the win coming.  He scooted himself up the boy's torso and got a pin.  It was very dramatic and exciting to witness in the moment.

    After this, I could not imagine him having to do that again, and the coach announced there would be one or two more matches and that would be it.  It seemed fitting once Mijo got a win to enjoy the moment and get on out of there.  He has now had three matches and won two of them, so he is doing pretty good.  He still has a lot to learn, he admits he doesn't know what the coach means when he is told to perform a half nelson or the names of other moves, but he will slowly get there.

3/7/21 First Big Wrestling Meet For The Big Boy? (part 1 of 2)

     Baby A had his first big wrestling meet Saturday morning and it was intense, for sure.  I am not excited about how they run things, I have to say.  I am sure that on Wednesday night, the coach announced the Saturday meet and that he said it would be starting at 5:00pm.  Our son then let us know yesterday that he had to be on campus at 8:00am and the tournament would then start at 9:15am.  Fine, it's not like we have anything else to do at that hour, luckily, we are flexible enough, but maybe the time and announcements could be more forthcoming and maybe more parents would then show up.  At the start of the meet, there were maybe 8 or 9 sets of parents, mostly single people sitting in the smallish gym seating available.  By the end, maybe another 5-6  parents/family members had showed up.

    Regardless of the lack of audience, the sport itself is really intense and I think the more I understand it, the more fun it becomes.  I had this vision of something like Karate Kid with huge teams from different schools showing up to represent their schools was the norm, but so far, I have seen about 6-7 schools and only one has had a formidable team with more than 6 kids.  According to one of the parents sitting close to Wife, their coach made the whole defensive line or side of the football team come out for wrestling, I forgot what school it was, but they had around 18 kids out there.  All that does not matter to the wrestler, as they only wrestle in whatever weight class they are in.  It gets a little squirrelly because the weights are very tightly controlled until 215 pounds, then it is a free for all with the final weight class being up to 285.

    The rounds are just 2 minutes long and they go for a max of 3 rounds, but a lot happens in those 6 minutes.  Some of these kids needed a minute to compose themselves and get off the mat after they were done, they gave so much of themselves.  After the first two matches, I was talking to Wife quietly that these guys are so dramatic acting like they are so tired, to me it is just a few minutes, but all of them seemed wore out after their matches.  My thinking was like Baby A could play a whole football game on both sides of the line and seem fine after, but I guess there is a lot of stopping and resetting and not every play requires 100% effort.  I am so impressed with the heart that these guys go out and play with.  There is nothing easy about this sport, it surely does not get the recognition it deserves.

3/6/21 Somebody Needs To Go Back To School?

     I love having Baby A at home, but recently he has become a pain in the butt.  This week, all of a sudden, he "needs to" go back to working out at 7:30am at school and then get picked up at 9:30am.  This wouldn't be too bad on its own, but then we eat during his lunch break at 12:30, so I have to be at least alert and have a plan for eating around noon.  The day doesn't end there, because then he has wrestling practice at 4:30pm to 6:15pm.  If this was my full time job or I didn't work, it would be fine to keep up with him, as his personal valet, chef, and chauffer.  Truth of it though is that I do have a full time job, and currently I am being pressed pretty good.  I go in about 5:00pm, after I drop him off and drive towards my work.  Boy was helping to pick him up, but they got backed up work too after the freeze, so he has been staying late, so I have to run out of work at 6:00pm and run to get him and since big brother is MIA until who knows what time, I get dinner for the younger one, be it Whataburger, Bill Miller or whatever.

    This works to get me back to work, which I am supposed to be working a ten hour shift nowadays and because of the freeze, we too have had more work than normal, so I have been staying pretty close to my real hours (because of Covid, we kind of have an understanding to get the work that is coming due done and then go home).  After I get home and unwind with a snack, my only other meal is at 12:30pm when I make lunch at home, so I am hungry, I go to bed between 3:00am and 5:00am.  The new day still starts at 7:00am, when I have to get up to wake up Sleeping Beauty, he doesn't seem capable of hearing his alarm which can start ringing at 6:30am right next to his head.  I drop him off, today I stayed awake by drinking coffee and fighting my sleep until 9:15am when I headed to go get him.  We got back home around 9:50am, he wanted some breakfast tacos from Bill Miller, the boy loves that place.  I slept from 10:00am until 12:30.  I had heard the alarm, woke at 11:50, but wanted a little more sleep and then woke when he came down and asked if I was going to cook lunch.  I woke, rushed over to turn on the stove, my pellet grill is having trouble again, I'll fix it eventually, and made us some NY strip steaks with refried beans and cauliflower rice on the side.  We ate around 1:00, then after we finished and I cleaned up, I was able to sleep another while until 4:00pm and I took him back to wrestling practice which this time ended at 5:30pm.

    I hate that all I could do after getting home is lay on the bed and kind of nap, kind of tried to stay awake.  Wife had called that she was on the road at 5:00pm, so I wanted to be ready for her, but this week has just sucked the life out of me.  Oh well, Wife is here all week for Spring Break, maybe she can lighten the load this coming week.  We have a wrestling meet tomorrow at 8:00am, so I slept all day so I can go to bed early, I am pretty sure I am not going to sleep well tonight.  If Mijo was at school, I would just drop him off at 7:30am and pick him up at 6:00pm and not worry about all the stuff in between, but then again, I do love having all that time to interact with Mijo, it would just be nicer if life backed off a bit.

3/5/21 First Wrestling Meet?

    I have to admit I had no knowledge of what was going to transpire during this first wrestling meet and honestly, Mijo was about as clueless.  All he knew was that he was supposed to be on campus at 4:00pm.  He had sort of volunteered me to help run the scoreboard or something, but I guess somebody else stepped in before I got there.  All I know is that I asked him to text me a time to return to campus, I dropped him off at 4:00pm and headed to the bank, not knowing if they were going to be charging to get in like they do for football games.  After hitting the ATM, I came home to wait the extra hour and a half, he told me to be there at 6:00pm.  At 5:40 or so, he calls me saying he needs to shave before 7:00pm or he won't be able to wrestle.  We had bought a new razor for him sometime in the fall, he just had not gotten around to doing it.  I remember even discussing it during the Christmas break and he just said "later".  Later came today as his coach put him up against a wall.  He admitted in the bathroom where we managed to take care of his "neck beard" that the coach had told him a couple of times during practice to shave, so this wasn't foisted on him last minute.

    The meet itself was quite small, it was Crockett, Anderson, and a third school.  Normally, the teams are up to 15 kids strong, but with Covid, few kids are participating this year.  Crockett has 4 boys but only 3 were present.  They had two girls but the other school did not have girls in their weight category, so they did not wrestle.  The matches are two minutes long with up to three rounds, although Baby A only did one round.  A couple of the matches went the full three rounds and it doesn't seem like much, but once they grapple and put themselves into weird holds on the floor, even two minutes is a long time.  I thought and we have been joking that the whole thing is "gay" (not being derogatory, just the best way to describe it), but it really isn't.  There is a lot of strength being displayed to maneuver an opponent into a position and then subdue him takes skill, patience and strength.

    Honestly, when Mijo fought, I wasn't sure if he won or lost.  They are supposed to put either a red or green wrap on their legs to identify them and then based on certain moves or holds, they get a point or two.  I don't see my boy as big and strong but out there competing, he is just a thick massive thing.  His skills are raw, he doesn't even know the names of the moves, and even he admitted he wasn't sure of he had won after it was over.  The other kid was taller and a big boy too, but I think Baby A was stronger and more aggressive.  He pushed the other kid out and kept him in the perimeter of the ring, like he was protecting the center as a lineman in football.

    It was funny, in the other matches, parents all around me were yelling different holds or moves to their kids, like go for the Smith pull or Johnson cradle, I don't know what they were yelling, but it seemed to mean something.  They would then all react in unison when something happened, so whatever the kid did on the floor was good.  All I know is that I need to learn a lot more about this sport.  The next meet is Saturday and five schools are going to be present.  Mijo already knows he is going to have two matches, so I hope it goes well.

3/4/21 Another Small SUV For Us?

    I am keeping Boy away from this one, but we just replaced the Ford Ecosport we had bought last summer with a Ford Escape.  Although we bought it Sunday, it did not get delivered until yesterday afternoon, so I really had my first drive on it yesterday dropping off Baby A at practice, and running through my routine of going to work and stuff.  First off, I notice it is bigger than the Ecosport on the inside.  It drives slightly bigger too.  The fun go cart factor does not appear to be there or I need to punch it a bit more.  I remember taking a turn on the Eco, I could make it go 90 degrees on a corner and it seemed to stick and throw you around, that felt fun.  I tried doing that yesterday, going in a little too fast because the light was changing, but it just felt like doing a chubby turn as it went wider than I wanted.  I guess that is good, its ride is more composed, I'm sure Wife will appreciate that.

    I love all the bells and whistles on it.  First thing I did was sync my phone to the stereo, it took a minute to get them to communicate, which got me worried because it is a 2013, the connection would be wonky.  Once it connected, the phone list transferred almost instantly, Spotify works perfectly, and I called Wife and the hands free phone works great.  The sunroof is a "panoramic", so it opens all the way to the back so the rear passengers could get sun on them, if there were any.  I was still looking for flaws in the leather and couldn't even see wrinkles in the driver's seat from 7-8 years of the previous owner.  I did find a piece of paper in the owner's manual with what appears to be an Asian name, no offense, but it is something like Ngie or something.  I imagine a small 100 pound single lady driving it, which is why the interior seems so new.

    One problem I am dealing with is figuring out the door code.  Ford has the ability to unlock the door with a code thing on the driver's door.  Problem is that I looked in the owner's manual for the code and couldn't find it.  I looked underneath where I was able to find it in Boy's Edge, but it was not there for this one.  I saw a Youtube video how to get it through the computer, but I need to go try it.

    Other than that, it seems perfect with it's remote start, paint looks new, tires are fairly new, it has cool shiny rims on it, I even saw a spare tire in the rear, which is good because they were not offering that for a while.  I also found the window sticker in the glove box and brand new this little car sold for $35, 500.  That makes me feel like I got an even better steal, paying only $11,300.

    I was kind of sad when Boy crashed the Ecosport, after I found out he was okay, it did do a great job protecting him, he said airbags deployed from steering wheel, below at his knees and even on the side, I guess so he wouldn't hit the door, Mijo walked away a little bruised but unharmed.  I really enjoyed driving it and I was kind of looking for a twin of that car.  I couldn't find one with AWD, maybe that is what made it turn so firmly around street corners, but that negative experience did lead us to get this car.  I almost feel like it is a mild upgrade.  The Ecosport was a Titanium too, it was also loaded, but the Escape feels bigger and we are not stuck for years with a $300 note.  We paid for it once and we are done.  We just have to decide whether to insure it with full coverage or just liability, we don't have to do as a bank requires.

3/3/21 Solving Problems One Step At A Time? (Part 2 of 2)

     Sunday morning I got up extremely early, I was downstairs making coffee before 7:00am.  After napping on and off from 8:00pm until midnight, we went upstairs to bed and then I wasn't sleepy.  We both stayed up watching Tiktok videos and just catching up.  Baby A even came in the room at one point, the door was open because I was trying not to run the A/C and I had some windows open trying to keep it comfortable.  He came in asking if we could buy him a video game for his PS4 or XBOX.  This boy just does not ever ask for anything, I can't tell him no.  I gave him my card and he ordered some $9 game.

    After getting up super early, I made some cinnamon rolls, the little tubes that pop when you twist them, and enjoyed my cup of coffee with two of them.  I watched Youtube until I got bored, around 10:00am and headed back up to try and wake Wife.  She was up, but not ready to get out of bed.  We laid in bed, rolled around together, you know, then I napped for another hour and we finally got up when she suggested we go to Covert Ford to look at a couple of used cars.  Not having anything better to do, I said sure.  We woke Baby A, got ready and took off.  It was fine, just cloudy and cool at the house, but it was misting hard by the time we got there.  I would almost call it a full on rain, but we kept going, walking the lot.  I was so easily distracted by the F-250s splattered here and there, they have like 30 in their used inventory, but the two that I liked were still over $50 and $60,000 used and with a bit of miles.

    Just as we were walking back to our car, the sales guy had even started walking away from us, I noticed a blue what I thought was an Ecosport, exactly like the one Boy crashed a couple months ago.  It was actually an Escape, which is a little bigger.  It looked too new, the paint was still bright and shiny, even with all the mist.  It has new tires, so it looked good, just as I was figuring he would say it was over $20k, he said this is the perfect car for your son.  It is a 2013, and it is only $11,800.  I was waiting to see the inside be a disappointment, with torn seats or something, but even after he said 2013, the leather seats looked brand new, they didn't even have the worn wrinkles on the side.  The guy said it was a Titanium, which means it is loaded with all sorts of options.  It has auto start from the keyfob, leather, a panoramic sunroof, a large screen with back up camera and sensors.  I even asked for the carfax report surely it had been in a car accident or something.  There were no problems indicated, so we kind of fell in love and test drove it.

    Wife then suggested I offer $10,000.  We did, but the guy tried doing the hard sell, showing us on paper that he needed to add taxes and all that other stuff, bringing it up to almost $13,000.  He really wanted us to finance, suggesting we just pay a huge down and make payments for four years.  I told him I didn't want payments and we weren't coming in to buy, we were just looking.  He then asked what payment would I really accept.  I said maybe I could swallow $11,000, but I wasn't going to go all the way to $13,000.  He came back with $11,348 or something like that.  I considered it a win because it was less than what the car was selling for.  I don't know if it could have been brought down more, but just the fact Wife and I had talked about almost getting a $21,000 car the night before made this seem like a steal.  We only test drove it around the block, we didn't get it on the highway, it was misting bad and it was almost empty of gas, I didn't want to take a chance and run out.

    This does seem like the perfect car for Mijo to start learning on, it is a very nice looking car, other than the age of it, it seems perfect.  My plan is that this is for learning, once he goes to college, we'll look at upgrading him.  Paying for it cash means we don't have to worry about a payment adding to our monthly total, so that is win win in my quest to move down the line and get myself a new something sooner rather than later.