4/30/21 Crystal City Looked Like A Nice Place To Live?

     When I was finishing high school, I couldn't wait to get going and start my life in the big city.  I don't think I ever thought about it, but I wanted to live where there was a plethora of activities and opportunity.  Since I was accepted to UT in Austin, I went there and before I knew it, I learned to be comfortable in the city.  Upon graduation, I could have moved back home, I am sure my mom would have loved that, but I also felt incomplete, like I was going to miss something greater that was awaiting just around the corner.  Maybe it was all in my head, but I felt like I belonged there, so after graduation and becoming a parent and marrying Wife, we stuck around, waiting to see what would transpire.

    It wasn't a good start, my first job was at a warehouse driving a forklift, I am sure my mom wished I would just cut the shit and go home, but after a year of this, I took a chance and quit.  This lead to my next job as a chemist with LCRA, that is what I had a degree in, so it made sense, but I didn't like getting paid $8/hr and waiting to be made a permanent employee, so after two months, I quit and looked for a better opportunity.  This is when I randomly saw the smokestacks from Ben White and went and applied at AMD.  This got my life going in a good direction, eventually I was hired as an night shift engineer and I was happy with the direction and pay I was getting.

    After more than 25 years, I have had a few different positions, from operator to sustaining engineer, to materials analyst, to most recently a chemist, it has been a good career, but am I happy?  It felt weird, this weekend driving around Crystal City after the funeral, I felt peace, like if we settled here it would be okay.  Wife has had a good job close by here, and if I could find something that paid me what I make, I think I could adjust to the slower pace of life here.  Maybe I just feel this way because we had just gotten out of a funeral.

    The reality is that Baby A is in the middle of high school, it wouldn't make sense to change school for him right now.  Boy has a good job so I also like that he works in town with the notion that he will eventually buy a house hopefully close by so we can see him regularly.  My life is centered around providing my two boys the best experiences I can so they can achieve as much as they can with the skills they have.  Boy has a job that seems perfect for him, on paper.  He might complain a bit, but he would be an idiot to quit, this is the company that drives technology in that sector.

4/29/21 Surviving A Funeral?

     Funerals are amongst the worst events we endure as humans because they are an end point which change the future for those who survive it and yet, there is no getting around them, we will all eventually get there.  Maybe that is the scary part, we all know we will someday no longer be alive but as long as we stay busy in our routines, it seems we are shunning the end, maybe Death forgets we are here and might live forever.  Being witness to a funeral reminds us much too clearly that it is but a matter of time before it is our turn.

    When I heard about this most recent death in the family, I first wanted to avoid calling and sending my condolences, if I could just hide it wouldn't affect me, but that is the mindset of an immature child, as adults, we must face what life gives us.  My second excuse I wanted to hide behind was "well, I can't miss work, I'll just say I am too busy and can't afford to miss, I have already missed too much work, they'll understand.  Maybe they will, but what does that say about you?  It sucks but this is one of the things we must do for family, be there for each other.  We sometimes live far apart and seem to have different lives going on, but when an event like this happens, we must all find our center and stand with our family and loved ones, these are the people that truly care and love us and in no other time do they want more support than in these tragic times.

    Once we accept the finality of the event, it just becomes a window of time for those far enough, weather it and come out the other side knowing you did the right thing by being there, reminding those most affected by the death that they are still loved and needed by the rest of the survivors.  I mostly felt I needed to be there to tell my sister and brother in law that I loved them and we are here if they might need anything in support.  

    I know we could have just missed this, but it is a sign of good people to show up for each other, no matter the inconvenience.  I don't think we changed anything in the big picture, the funeral was my sister's mother in law, a good loving mother and grandmother who left behind quite a large family.  There was plenty of support and love just from the immediate family that came together, but I know even if my sister didn't get a chance to say anything this time around, she knows we love her and we were here at the ready had she needed us for anything.

4/28/21 House Got Bigger?

     While we were in Houston, DD moved out with his new wife to start their life together.  I liked having him around, some evenings Boy leaves to go stay with his girlfriend and I don't really like Baby A staying alone.  Most nights I am home at a decent hour, but I still like knowing there was another adult nearby.  Well, we must make the best of the situation at hand, so having an empty room, I thought it would be a good idea to make it our weight room since my young Knucklehead is all about getting stronger right now.

    We have quite a few pieces of exercise equipment and putting it all in one room makes it look more official, I think.  The hardest thing to get in the room was the squat rack which is taller than the door and wider, so I had to take it apart before I was able to get it in.  It wasn't too bad, maybe a total of 8 bolts had to be undone and then re-tightened.  The squat rack is more or less the centerpiece, it is huge and red and sticks out.  I also have a bench press set-up which I have had since 1994 or so.  When we bought the squat rack, I also bought a "tree" for all the free weights, which has wheels and can be easily moved around.  The punching bag also made it into the room, Baby A punched it so many times, he inadvertently punched a hole in the wall.  Now that we know what is going on, I tell him to make sure it is away from the wall.  I was able to fit my dumbbells on their storage thing under the TV hanging on the wall.  I still need to move the treadmill in from our bedroom, but it is upstairs and a huge machine to move without planning it.  The latest piece of equipment is a Roman Chair to work the lower back.  I am now looking for a lat pulldown machine which Mijo asked for but I 'll need to get the dresser out of the room to fit the last stuff.

    Most of this stuff was sitting in the living room, so moving it into the downstairs bedroom opens up the living room nicely.  I don't know if I like the layout though.  I really liked having a couple of chairs halfway in the room from the back wall, almost like a theater without the raised sofa in the rear most sitting row.  I moved the chairs against the wall where the squat rack had been because it seems like the best thing for them, but I liked sitting close to the screen, even if it is 10ft diagonal.

    Moving the treadmill from our bedroom will also open up things up in our bedroom, I have been wanting a new recliner to sleep.  I have found that I sleep better in a seated position than trying to sleep on the bed.  When I sleep sitting down, I routinely sleep up to 4 hours, but when I sleep on the bed, I wake up every two hours, like clockwork.  I really planned on changing out the floor in the new "weight room", but then I didn't want to be staring at an empty room for a month either, so I said Fuck it and got to moving stuff this afternoon.

4/27/21 Two Good Purchases This Weekend?

     I know this is dumb, but I still like buying stuff.  On our way to Houston, we stopped at the Buc-ee's in Bastrop for gas and to look around, I mean, you have to.  I walked out with a round cooler and I think it was a steal.  First off, I have been needing to buy three, probably, as that is what they use as seating on my kayaks, but the ones they sell with the Bote label go for $200.  I bought the one I got for $109.  We also got about $100 worth of junk food, but one could say we got it for free by buying the off brand cooler which will be used as the seat on one of the kayaks.  We might find another cooler to work for this, maybe even a square one, but at least the videos all show a round bucket looking cooler for the seat.  It will also work for just a general cooler, if we're doing something outside or we need to carry drinks for some reason.

    The other thing we brought that I really liked was a piece of luggage for Baby A.  He is a knucklehead who doesn't listen too well.  I had told him to pack a bag with his clothes and a backpack with his stuff.  He did not listen, choosing to pack only a backpack and then having us carry extra hoodies because they didn't fit in his bag.  He also forgot to pack his wrestling shoes which was a small problem since he went with the team to spar and help the senior warm-up.  By the time we left Houston, we had bought Mijo another three hoodies, so I wanted a bag he could carry his own stuff in, which we went and found on Saturday afternoon.

    I chose a Victorinox bag because I already have three of them and Boy has 1-2, so I want to keep them all the same.  This boy, having to be different and in his small attempts to fuck with me, ended up choosing a grey bag.  I have to admit his bag looks sharp, we went with a 22" carry on type with wheels on the bottom, if he ever flies, he is set.  It is also the hard shell type versus soft like we have, but I did want it to be his choice somewhat.

    It worked out well, his stuff all fit in perfectly between his backpack and this new bag.  I just need to work on Wife now who insists on using these Vera Bradley grandma looking shitty bags and then always somehow having to expand to 4-5 smaller trash bags on our way out making us look like hobos no matter how hard I try with my expensive bags.

4/26/21 Three Funerals In One Week?

     The world has a way to remind you of reality even when you try to run away to another world, if even for a weekend.  We decided to make a long weekend in Houston after the wrestling tournament, being that we haven't been anywhere since the stupid pandemic.  Things went great for the first day, we went out to the Galleria mall, looked at all sorts of possible stupid things to buy and generally acted like we had the world at our feet.

    At some point, my mom called to say that my sister's mom in law was real sick and she might not make it through the weekend.  This was a sobering thought and reminder that even out there detached from our day to day routines, life finds you and keeps tabs on you.  I guess we enjoyed the wrestling meet for what it was, it really is a flex of the strong, from afar it doesn't always seem like much, but Friday night Baby A was a little riled up and told me "I want to try a move, stand up..."  I always hesitate, but I'm his body dummy when he wants to try a maneuver "I always tell him to stop before he actually throws me."  Even in this simple hold, his arms on my arms, I can feel he is already a lot stronger than me, he can pretty much bowl me over anytime he wishes, so I stopped him as we fell on the bed in the hotel room, basically he is still a puppy discovering his own strength.  That magnified to each individual's strongest potential is what we saw all afternoon since this was a state level tournament.

    The sobering part came the next day as my mom called to say that my sister's mother in law had passed away.  At some point my mom had also told me about my uncle, my dad's older brother, had been in the hospital and wasn't looking too good.  I thought it was good when Mom said he was released on Friday and his hemoglobin counts were up or something like that.  I thought maybe it's just him being sick, he had been fighting cancer for the last 2-3years.  Well, we also got the call that he passed away which my mom was notified while at a prayer for the other death.  This is not easy to handle, and I always seem like the asshole because I live far away and I'm not caught up in all the emotions in the moment, but I did have a connection with my uncle, I worked with him for 3-4 summers roofing and we built a house one summer, so I spent a lot of time with him.  He was a good man who enjoyed teasing us mercilessly in fun but also took a lot of pride in teaching, even as recent as last year, he watched Baby A run and gave him tips to improve, he was all about running, producing 4 all state kids for running in track and field and cross country.

    If all that wasn't enough, Sunday night, around 11:30pm, Girlie texted to let us know her cousin passed away.  He was Boy's first good friend, being the neighbor kid who was close to his age.  He was born with heart problems and I think they finally caught up with him, but at this point, they aren't sure of an exact reason.  This makes three funerals we will possibly be involved with this week, so I don't imagine it to be a great week.

4/25/21 The Big Show, State Wrestling Meet Day?

     It is always a sight to see the spectacle this great state can put on to display the finest of what our high schools can put out and this facility the kids fought in was top notch.  The team had to be there at 7:00am for weigh-in, which meant we were not going to be with them initially.  We stayed in the hotel until at least 11:30am, even watching the first match live on Instagram.  It was heart wrenching to see "your guy" get beat, but at least it was by points and not by a pin.  The coach had gotten note of the competition and some of these guys are just scary trained, the guy had over 20 wins, whereas our boys barely got 8 matches in all season.  The second and elimination round for the senior was against an even more formidable opponent who was 26-0 and completely dominated in two rounds, finishing the seniors career with a pin.

    I always find it a bit sad to see the ending of something so important for the kids, such as in football when it was senior day and the kids had their parents come out on the field.  Once you get to your senior year, it is pretty much over when it is over.  Few kids get a chance to perform at the next level, and at least the senior has plans of trying to walk on to his team at whatever college, he is still debating between Tx State and UTSA.  I wish him well, he is a dedicated athlete and has a good head on his shoulders, so he will do well in whatever his future is.

    It was a little funny when Baby A explained what was going on Thursday night when he came into our room and was all in a rush to leave.  He said the senior weighed himself and was at 223 pounds and he needed to be under 220 to compete, so they went for a run and got to sweating as much as possible.  He also got up at 4:00am and worked out as much as he could and by weigh in was back down to 217 pounds, but the coach had told them if he didn't make weight they would just go watch a movie.  It was nice, the coach pushed them hard all season and at this point there is no reason to be a hard ass, he realizes these guys go hard all season for the sake of the sport.

    We did finally make it to the facility and the first thing we wanted to do was find the souvenir place to buy some shirts or sweaters for our son, I mean I think it is cool to have your stuff say State Wrestling Meet, even if you didn't technically make it.  We sat there and went through the whole barrage of weight classes and it took awhile, I even napped for a few matches but eventually we got to the one that mattered.  He was outfought but to get to this level I still think you are a winner and it was still a great accomplishment for yourself and the school you represent.  Congratulations, I think the season was great, I was introduced to a new sport, and Mijo actually found a new sport to love, thanks in large part to your training and mentoring.

4/24/21 Houston Bound For The State Wrestling Meet?

     Yesterday (Thursday) was hectic for a minute, then it was clear sailing the rest of the day.  Baby A had to be on campus at 9:00am as he was traveling with the team, the team being the lone survivor to make it to the state meet, which is the senior that has been his sparring partner all season.  Once I got Mijo to campus, we were then able to move at our own pace, although I did have to shake the bed to wake Wife and get her chubby ass in gear.  She was trying to squeeze every last minute of sleep out of the bed while I was up at 7:00am making sure our boy got ready and going.  

    It was so awesome after discussing with my young genius if he had every thing he needed to which he gave me a short "yeah!"  It all fits in this backpack.  I was a bit pissed because I told him to pack a bigger bag with his clothes and anything he might need and then a backpack with stuff he wants close by, like his phone, video games, back-up battery pack, whatever.  I noticed in the morning some wrestling shoes in his room and told him "are you taking any shoes, just in case?"  his response "no (dumb dad in his voice), I'm not wrestling...."  Fast forward to the road about halfway there and he texts us "ummm, I forgot my shoes, I am going to spar with the senior so I kind of need my wrestling shoes..."  What do you say to that???  All I can muster after a "goddammit dumb dumb, I told you is we'll find an Academy and buy you a pair."  The coach then was in the lobby when we arrived, he was waiting for them to go eat and we told him we'd run and get him a pair of shoes.  He just looked at him and asked "you forgot your shoes?"  All he could say was "maybe."  He told us not to go buy some, he could spar in socks, it would be fine.  I still wanted to swift kick the Knucklehead because he doesn't listen.

    We were then off the hook and it was nice to be free for once.  Our son and the team left as we were checking in, I didn't want to slow them down or rush to catch up and follow them.  We were then free and I headed to the one place I love in Houston, The Galleria Mall.  I like the 2nd floor with all the watch stores in one leg of the mall, but it is very disappointing that Rolex still only had about 4-5 watches in their displays.  We spent a bit looking in the Omega stores, but by the time we got there it was 4:45 and they were closing at 5:00pm.  We had better luck at Panerai where we spent about 30 minutes sitting and trying on a number of watches.  I am debating whether to get one, they tend to make oversized watches which were originally for the Italian military and they are submersible but I think I liked the option of changing the band to change the look of the watch the most and they carry a lot of variety.  The Rolex store was again a dud with maybe a total of 5-6 watches in the cases that at one time easily might have held 100 or more watches.

    We haven't really been feeling like eating fancy meals, so before heading to the room we stopped for subs at Potbelly and ate in our room while we watched some TV, it was nice and we inadvertently were ready for bed by 10:30pm.  I tried fighting it, but even as I tried watching a movie, I fell asleep before I knew it.

4/23/21 What Have You Done?

     The Derek Chauvin trial is over and now we must live with the repercussions created.  It really seems like the jury was coerced into their decision, even if some did agree that it was a just decision.  When you have the powers that be in congress saying "we must get more active, more confrontational...", you are just emboldening young impressionable people to continue the destruction of their own cities.  Not only was this one congress person, when brought to light, the leadership agreed with this sentiment, so it sits on the shoulders of all of them.  The immediate result of this seems to be that the national guard was shot upon by demonstrators.  This is akin to a military outburst that will at some point be confronted with an equal response, I won't be surprised when that happens.

    I just saw a story from The Oregonian, Oregon's largest newspaper, just published a "mea culpa" saying it was a horrible mistake to support "Defund The Cops" as the murder count has skyrocketed.  In the 1st quarter of 2019, there were 6 homicides, in 2020, there were 2.  In the first quarter of this year, they are already up to 25.  This doesn't show that something like 266 people have been shot, so maybe removing a law enforcement presence wasn't the smart thing to do, unless this is how you want to live.  They had dismantled the gun violence reduction team which was a police unit that responded to all shootings in the Portland area.  Now that reason has crept back into some of the leaders, they are trying to reinstate the unit but the city council is still pushing back, probably to appease the rioters on the streets.

    It is nice that every usual celebrity came out applauding the guilty verdict as all seem to say "justice was served."  During the trial, the coroner said Floyd had a 98% oxygen saturation, which means he wasn't suffocating.  I heard the coroner also said Floyd showed signs of a damaged heart indicating a heart attack or heart failure.  All these facts did not seem to matter, as the jury was not really given a choice, knowing the mobs were already building outside to react, so give them what they want.

    The outcome of this I think is that police are definitely going to be more hesitant to respond to calls where POC are involved, so that is something everyone seems to want.  Less of a police presence in these troubled neighborhoods will be another probable outcome.  I don't think this matters to all those celebrity millionaires, they have their own armed security and live in "nice neighborhoods" so they sleep well at night.  Maybe I am wrong, maybe this will start a love embrace and all people of all colors will reach out and show love and compassion for their fellow man, maybe the race problem is now solved and we can all move on not as black and white and brown, but as Americans.... I mean, maybe.

4/22/21 The Ant Should Feed The Grasshopper?

     I was probably mid rant this past weekend about the homeless situation and how it will probably be the reason we end up moving out of Austin while enjoying our Sunday afternoon in the backyard when we started discussing the idea that it really falls on the haves to provide for the have-nots.  This idea would have promptly been met with a hearty "fuck you!" if not for it being brought up by DD's new wife and she wasn't really framing it as an attack but more of an observation.  She works in some capacity with this population, so I gave her the floor and listened attentively to what she had to say.  Unfortunately, I am married to another world hero who has pretty much spent her working career being the point person everywhere she works to reach to the lowest rung of society's ladder and tried to save as many as she could reach.  Wife has either been a "homeless liaison" or she has been involved with the migrant populations (Mexicans), or the bilingual population in her school (again Mexicans transitioning as slowly as possible), so having been a part of this conversation for the last 15-20 years, none of this new to me.

    DD's wife's take is that there are plenty of people who are "down on their luck", due to Covid-19 or other reasons outside their own fault and this people deserve a chance to be helped.  I agree with that sentiment, but to me, that percentage of the homeless population is maybe 10%-20%, most are either drugged out or so counter culture that the lifestyle of living on the streets works for them.  This is where I start feeling like it used to be the proverbial ant from Aesop's fable was what we all should strive to become, a hard worker that plans and saves on its hard work in the best of times to survive the downturns of bad times that always come around.  Instead, we now live in a society that the partying grasshopper is the hero and for some unknown reason, the ant should also be saving to provide for the grasshopper that refuses to do for itself.  I find this stream of thinking absolutely nuts, shouldn't we all be responsible for ourselves?  I agree with helping a little bit, when we all hit a hard spot, but programs like unemployment should only help for a limited time while the person looks for a new job, it shouldn't be a solution to survive on.

    I found the conversation interesting, but I also felt like I was debating with pillows on my fists because I already scared off one delicate flower from my house who couldn't see things like I see them, so I didn't want to go all in.  I don't like that I might do nothing but work hard all my life like the proverbial ant, Wife has done nothing but go to school, working on a Master's degree, and now even taking classes on the idea of even pursuing a PhD possibly while the world has a good time, but if things get hard for Joe Blow, we should open our wallets and help him buy his beer?  Why?  Where was Joe when we were in college getting into debt, when Wife is taking night classes, when Wife and I decide to work in different cities to provide more income for ourselves?  When I go on 2-4 hours sleep so we can save some money not paying for daycare, Sally Suckadick wasn't offering to watch my kid for free, but now I must turn around and be a good member of society and give my money happily for these idiots?  We didn't just magically wake up in a large house, at one point in our lives we too were on food stamps, Boy was born while we were on welfare, yet we have worked our asses off to get to where we are, and that is what makes this country so freaking great.  Help should be a temporary boost, not a lifestyle.

4/21/21 Death Of Mainstream Media?

     Who is listening to these 24x7 news stations anymore.  Just finished watching a story with Jordan Peterson who was doing an interview with a podcaster I was unfamiliar with but the nature of the conversation was such that news outlets cannot compete and probably don't want to with the new formats provided by Podcasts and long format type interviews which we find on Youtube.  After seeing the disgraceful nature that the 60 Minutes piece on Governor DeSantis of Florida a couple weeks ago about his handling of the Covid-19 vaccine and 60 Minutes cutting and piecing together a sham of an interview only to be challenged with the full interview days later only exposes the corrupt and bias nature of these monoliths with a goal of persuading the public to their viewpoint.  It was nothing short of disgusting to see a program like 60 Minutes considered the "gold standard" of news attempting to bring down someone seen as counter to the liberal structure of power that has overtaken Washington DC.

    Peterson, who has become an outspoken voice for the side of reason ever since he challenged the notion that people have a right to their own pronouns on his campus in Canada, was discussing that it is an interesting time we live in that the production of content is no longer in the hands of a few, such as back in the day when we got all of our information from a few TV stations and radio shows.  That structure of interview has always been able to be scripted and controlled in a sense and I personally never liked it when the interview is getting good the host always comes up with "we'll be right back after a message from our sponsors" which breaks up the flow of the conversation and usually a different tone is felt after the commercials if one can stay with the station long enough to even remember what they were talking about.  Peterson's other interesting point is that with the long format, slices of various sizes, such as a 5-10 minute portion can be used for a Youtube video or even a 10-60 second portion or sentence can be used for a Tiktok video.  This becomes equivalent to writing a book for an author and selling it out by the sentence if that is most profitable, the difference being that the narrative doesn't have to be controlled by a few media giants like in the past, in can be controlled by the source of information whether a scholar or a person that has gone through the experience.

    A side note but equally as important he glided over is that people under 30 don't even recognize the demise of the media giants, they have become that obsolete to the new generation that really a CNN only exists to entertain and "inform" the indigent, bedridden and those declining in mental capacity (no offense dad).

4/20/21 Watching Revenge Of The Nerds With Baby A?

     Just as an aside for my mom, I haven't mentioned Boy because he has been gone all weekend with his girlfriend, it is their anniversary, it is not that I prefer to write about the younger brother, he is the one around us, that is all.  Anyways, Wife was talking about the old movie Better Off Dead with John Cusack and how much she loved it that I declared we need to watch it, I liked it too.  We could not find it and while looking through Hulu and Prime Video and stuff, we saw an add for Revenge of the Nerds and Mijo had not seen it before, which I consider wrong, it is must see TV as it helps to define characters as they used to be in standard format, such as what a jock was, back in the day, all muscle, no brain... etc.  It was a bit cliche but it made sense, even if it was wrong, today's woke jock might also belong to the chemistry club and volunteer at his local church, which is great, but that is not how stories were written in the 80's.

    Our son had a tough time following the movie as he said at about 30 minutes in "all these people are absolutely horrible, I don't like anyone of them."  Mijo is a classic jock in the sense of being all about being physical and loving that, but he is also self aware, he couldn't buy the jocks in the movie just drinking all the time then being able to go to practice and still have time to care about bullying the nerds in their spare time while also running the Greek council.  We talked about during football season which is most of the fall semester, it is classes followed by after school practice until you're drop dead tired and then a football game at the end of the week.  The guys on TV seemed to have tons of free time to run around being assholes.  Then he didn't like the nerds who played up the nerd factor by never getting out of their nerd clothes, why not just wear regular t-shirts and shorts?  Then he also didn't understand why Lewis would keep falling for the same bullshit with the blonde cheerleader, such as thinking he would be invited to join the Alpha Betas and ending up getting tar and feathered.

    The movie did get better once the Greek competition begin and they at least had a little support from the Lambda Lambda Lambda fraternity.  It is cute how they find ways to win but he did have a problem when they get revenge on the girls by going into their sorority and stealing their panties, which me explaining it was a thing they used to do in movies and I would accept as normal from frats, but my son wasn't buying it thinking it was a little criminal.  I thought he would have a much bigger problem when Lewis takes the Darth Vader mask to impersonate the boyfriend and then has sex with the cheerleader, but since she seemed to enjoy it, he gave that scene a pass, although I still think it is some sort of rape, or something.

    The ending is perfect of course, even if a little far fetched, when Gilbert stands up to the nerds in the final scene and the jocks are about to kick his butt (having the pep rally for the homecoming game after spending all day fucking around with the Greek organizations would not be allowed by the coaches, it would tire out the jocks for the football game), only to be saved by UN Jefferson and his big brothers, who actually look like they could be from a real football team, unlike most of the alpha betas.  That had Mijo saying "oh shit, oh shit, that one is more intimidating than, no that one is scarier, no that one..." he finally decided he wouldn't want to go against any of those guys, I think UN Jefferson got his point across beautifully with his back-up squad.

    I do enjoy watching movies with Baby A because he gives feedback and really talks more than me.  Last week while we watched Godzilla and Kong, Boy actually shushed me and reminded us "this is why I don't watch movies with you, y'all talk too much."  I need to roll my eyes and call bullshit when a large lizard is fighting a monkey on an aircraft carrier like it's normal in the middle of the ocean, but nooo, he wants to take it all in.

4/19/21 Regional Wrestling On A Saturday? (part 3 of 3)

     The wrestling meet continued Saturday morning but I wasn't sure we had the energy to attend another day of sitting on our fat butts all day watching kids demolish themselves.  Instead, I got up early, at 7:00am, made sure Mijo got up and showered so I could go drop him off.  I dropped him off at 8:30am and headed back home.  I was fairly quiet, knowing Wife likes to sleep in and stayed downstairs writing the first two blogs and looking at stuff on Youtube.  Eventually, Wife texted around 11:00am if I wanted to go to the Domain and walk around (she has had a coupon for a free ice cream and wanted to redeem it).  I got excited because it means we go to Ben Bridge which is about the only place in town that still sells Rolex watches and I am curious if the inventory has improved.  We headed that way around noon and it really was a beautiful day to be out and walking around with a high in the upper 60's.  I did talk Wife out of going to get some ice cream (crepes, really, which are like pancakes with a little ice cream on the plate) because I don't like being the fat Mexican crying for my free food with a goofy coupon from 6 months ago that might not even be recognized in a store full of people with money enough to hang out at the Domain.

    After spending about an hour talking to our sales lady about different watches, the Grand Seiko is a new line of beautiful watches being carried by them which are also hand made and mechanical, I almost bought one and Wife was okay with the decision but if I did it would definitely prevent a boat purchase for a few more years, so I am thinking about it.  She was also good with the idea of me buying a Tudor watch which is from the Rolex family but again, I wasn't sure about blowing $4000 on a fun toy for me.

    We looked at a couple of stores but Wife asked about Omega and that got me thinking about Korman Fine Jewelers which is the other store I know that sells high end watches.  We stopped there for a bit and again, they only had 4-6 Role watches, even less than the last time.  The Omega display was nice and healthy as was the Tudor display, but buying either of these will for sure slow me down from any other excesses so I am trying to be smart.

    We eventually got to the wrestling meet around 4:00pm thinking it would be about done but instead we walked in perfectly at the start of the finals round.  I don't mind watching our guy, the senior who trained and worked with Baby A, but we had to sit through the 15 weight classes to see one match.  In that span, one kid broke his arm, there were at least three stops for nosebleeds, and so many broken hearts as kids who gave it their all fell a little short of making the state tournament.  It was a little hard to watch the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on the same stage.  Most of the matches were pretty even and just went to the one that played his match perfectly.

    The senior was no exception, he went the first round of his Finals match with no points scored, then in the second round the opponent scored a point by escaping from the down position which was the only point scored going into the final round.  In the third round, the senior scored two points with a takedown and then it was tense as we hoped that he didn't make a mistake the last 50 seconds.  He was fighting for third place which meant a trip to state.  It got really aggressive as the other kid tried his hardest to score another point to tie or something, but the senior escaped the attack and again had another takedown for two more points, so he was up 4-1.  With around 30 seconds they tumbled to the ground one more time then the senior just danced and avoided the advances to stay on his feet and win by points.  It was quite tense, had he lost, his season would have been over, instead, he gets to fight for one more week and represent the Cougars at the state meet next week in Houston.  We will be there since our son is his training partner and he is going for support.  Hopefully, it means a trip to the Galleria Mall, I know they sell all sorts of fancy watches there.

4/18/21 Regional Wrestling On A Friday? (part 2 of 3)

     After the dual oil changes, we finally went home and got ready to go to the meet.  We got there around 1:00pm at which time the boys had started their round robin type competition.  We decided to go sit at the top since it looked emptier and our parents weren't with us so we didn't have to sit on the bottom.  I absolutely hate all the people with ants in their pants who can't stay seated and constantly walk in front of you.  We weren't seated five minutes before a couple of those idiot coaches from Dripping Springs came and sat right next to us and then a family sat within an arm's length on the row below us, I mean the stadium was maybe 40% full, there was no reason for anyone to be seated that close to each other unless you are together.  We took about five minutes of "COME ON, SHANE!!!"  "COME ON, COLE" before deciding we were going to move.  I did have a bit of fun when the coaches were yelling complex instructions from the farthest row in the gym, I started yelling helpful information too, such as "brush your teeth" and "change your oil every 3000 miles." and of course "rotate your tires every 6000 miles."  I'm sorry to be a dick, but like my son says, he can't hear us while in the middle of competition, what is the purpose of these has been jocks to yell from the stands?

    We moved over to the biggest area where there were no other people sitting.  I was thinking the view from that spot wasn't going to be as good, but the stadium is rather small, about the size of a basketball court and the three wrestling rings fit perfectly on the main floor.  We got away from all the yelling in our ears and the event was mostly calm and long at that point.  It is very hard to stay in the moment when you don't know anybody and the best we could do was cheer for anyone against Dripping Springs, god, even on the floor after a match the coaches got up and threw a tantrum forgetting to shake the opposing kid's hand after a close loss, not the kid acting up but the adults, fucking idiots.

    Baby A's schoolmate won both his matches which was the only exciting part of the meet for us, then our son let us know they were done.  We went and ate again at Red Robin which again hit the spot after a day of watching too much testosterone on display.  Our plan was to go walk around the Domain in the evening, but after getting home around 6:30, Wife just wanted to take a shower and I wanted to take a nap.  I took a good 1.5 hour nap and then woke to enjoy the evening.  We ended up going to get pizza but it was closed, so Mijo requested Taco Bell but the line was crazy long and he ended up eating Sonic.  We sat and watched Revenge of the Nerds after attempting to watch Better Off Dead and being able to find it online.  I found it hard to believe that our boy had not seen the nerds before, it is a classic must see movie.

4/17/21 Regional Wrestling On A Friday? (part 1 of 3)

     First off, Baby A did not qualify for regionals but because he has been training with the kid that did qualify, he still went to be there for support plus it got him out of school, for a day.  I had mixed feelings on this because I want to support Mijo's school and I do hope the young man who has helped our son tremendously by showing him pretty much how to do everything and spar with him daily goes far, it was still hard to get excited and go spend the day in the gym watching over 100 matches happening three at a time and pretty much non stop knowing our son wasn't going to get on the mat.

    To make it worse, we got up at 6:00am so that our boy could get up and get ready to be at the event by 8:30am.  We did stop for breakfast at Bill Miller, so maybe he was 10-15 minutes late, but it's not like he needed to weigh-in.  We dropped him off and then came back home.  Just as I thought I could take it easy Wife comes up with the great idea of going to get our car's oil changed.  I knew it was about that time, but I wasn't in the mood to go but what can you do?  I pissed and moaned then I slipped on my Crocs and got going.

    After a year of just showing up at Kia and getting the oil serviced, now they are doing it through appointment.  We then left and Wife told me to take the Escape to Ford and while I was going I saw the Jiffy Lube and decided to pull in there as it was empty, thinking we could get both vehicles serviced at the same time.  We pulled up in there and I am glad I asked how much because those thieves are now charging $89.99 for an oil change, no wonder they were empty.  I yelled (because we have to stay in the car and he was over by Wife's car) at the guy that an oil change should be like $39.99 or $49.99 to which he said "I can't do that."  I then told Wife "No, this is too much" and we left.  We then went over to Ford and they said it would be $49.99 to which I said that sounds about right, still too much but in today's world... Since we were going to wait about an hour I told Wife to get her car in line too then we asked if they could handle the Telluride, which is a Kia, they said yes, but they would have to go get an oil filter.  This added about an extra hour, but it was ok.  We walked around and looked at the vehicles which I always like doing.  I was a little amazed that there was a group of F250 STX trucks priced at $43,999.  That seems like a giveaway considering most of the time those trucks start above $65,000.  I eventually asked a salesman what was up and he said the STX line was an entry level line, and it was very tempting, they even had leather seats and the bigger 7.2L gas engine.  I might end up getting one of these eventually.  Honestly, Wife keeps asking why I need such a big truck and my only response is that what is the difference, plenty of F150 trucks are priced above the $43,999 price point.   We even saw the Ranger that they had in the showroom looking all sad and lonely outside with a discounted price of $49,999.  It has a few extras, but it is still a small truck, which only makes the big F250 look like an even better choice.

    The Escape was finished sooner because they had to go buy a filter offsite for the Telluride, so Wife left to get showered and ready for the meet.  I waited until 11:00 or so and then they got done.  It was a savings, but it still took a long time.  I ended up paying $84 and change for the Escape but got an air filter out of it and $48 for the Telluride, but I will not be going back to Jiffy Lube anymore, that is for sure.

4/16/21 Why Are People So Shitty Anonymously Online?

    I watch anything and everything, mostly if the videos are less than ten minutes long on Youtube.  I had noticed it before I guess but in the last few days, I noticed two separate comment sections with ugly comments, for no reason.  One is a female artist, she does cute stuff musically and sometimes weird stuff, like the time she covered her car in astro turf, just because.  The other one is a guy that cuts grass, two very different genres of videos, same asshole nothings in the comments saying stuff that adds zero value to society.  My question is why expend the energy to hate, how shitty is your life?

    The girl kept getting insults that she is flat chested and she needs bigger boobs, which is stupid, people come in all shapes and sizes.  I feel some people have such large personalities or talent that the physical becomes unimportant, people are just people.  If you're sole thing is you're trying to be a "hot piece of ass, then you should have all the necessary parts, otherwise, whatever."  The artist girl, to be funny and yet not back away and feel shamed, I reckon, addressed the comments by taking an artsy picture of her chest and blowing it up bigger than poster sized proclaiming "He'll be impressed with my big boobs now", sarcastically.  I thought it was funny, then she went to see if she could find him, which took her all of 15 minutes, by going from his name on Youtube, she found him on Instagram, then on to Linked In where she found his work information.  She got as far as finding out he lived close to where her parents are from, Pittsburgh, so the next time she went down she took the posters in an attempt to gift him her giant boobs.  She got close, apparently, a friend of her knows someone who knows his daughter or something, but they could not get in contact.  I still think it would have been amazing if she would have contacted him face to face, which I bet anything he wouldn't have anything negative to say then.

    The other guy, with his landscaping business has a pretty big following, over 100,000 youtube subscribers, so he has plenty of videos and sometimes when he has a problem with a customer, he makes a video explaining why he removes customers from his list.  In one, he has a small yard to cut, but the family adds a trampoline, a huge sandbox, swing set, even a chain link fence to split the backyard in half, so it becomes near impossible for him to come in with his big 40 inch wide mower.  The comments that he is lazy and he should just get a regular sized mower and do the job are ridiculous.  First off, the man is working outside in the heat of the day pushing a heavy mower and these jerks online are going to call him lazy, how?  As the people defending him were saying, he gets paid to trim the grass, not move trampolines and swing sets, plus, it is his business, he gets to choose who his customers are, he is not at the mercy of a "boss" telling him what yards he should do.  He also has a video explaining why he cancelled a $13,000 account on an HOA and they were being unreasonable and expecting him to cut the grass when it was wet and even partially flooded, yet again, in the comments section, he was called lazy.

    I am bothered by people who don't do the job yet talk so expertly on it.  I've cut grass personally and it sucks when you have to be moving stuff around in the yard, not to mention the metal shrapnel that tore up my leg, which took like 8 months and a skin graft to "heal."  Add to that cutting the grass when it is above 90 and I would not dare say anything negative because I know this is hard work.

4/15/21 Four Siblings, Zero Gallbladders?

     We finally have a matching set, my sister, who is the youngest of us four siblings had her gallbladder removed yesterday, so now the four of us have had our gallbladders removed surgically.  I say it a little jokingly and I am really glad we live in a time where gallbladder surgery is more of a nuisance than a life altering event, but I guess it can still be deadly if left untreated.

    I wasn't really aware that my sister was going through the pains I went through about ten years ago, but last week she went to the doctor for a test and she found out it was her gallbladder that needed to be removed.  My mom then said something about doing it in the summer, I guess when she has time off, but then a few days later, I was told it was scheduled for this week on Wednesday (yesterday).  This didn't give us time to really react, I guess if it was more serious we would have gone and stood around, but this type of surgery is so routine that as she said, she went into the operating room at 9:40am and was released from the hospital by noon.  There are movies that last longer nowadays.  This is also the age of Covid and much like when my mom went to the hospital after a terrible fall last year, the hospital won't even accept visitors, so we stayed in contact with our phones, which have become a great connection more recently.  We are all in a group text and about daily we are all posting comments, jokes, opinions and arguments, of course, to keep in contact.

    The worst procedure between us was my younger brother who was in the hospital for a week after his gallbladder ruptured and the nasty stuff inside spilled some inside his guts, so he was kept to control the aftermath.  I vaguely remember going to the hospital in San Antonio at the time.  Wife said mine was taken at about the last minute as the surgeon said it kind of fell apart when it was being removed, but I was still in and out in a couple of hours like my sister.  I don't think I have had many complications from the removal of it.  If anything, I feel I am better for it, I poop once a day most of the time, which is a great convenience, I think.  I used to run to the bathroom 2-3 times a day, not sure if the two are related though.

    Wife did have an uncle that passed away a few years ago from a ruptured gallbladder and our small town's inability to handle it at the local hospital, so it can still be deadly.  He was a good man with a big loving family, it wasn't a great way to go considering the gallbladder seems like a useless organ, but that is how the body works.  I remember suffering with the pain of attacks for about 6 months I would get randomly and it felt like I was dying for a time (about an hour in length), then it would suddenly just go away.  I also hear some people don't have these smaller attacks, so some people aren't warned that it needs attention.

    Still, all in all, I am glad I talked to my sister last night and she sounded like she was on the mend.  She had already gotten out of bed and walked, so that sounds like a good sign.  Hopefully, it stops being an issue for her.

4/14/21 Conflicted By The Idea Of Saving For The Future?

     I have been listening to Dave Ramsey recently on Youtube, he gives advice to save money with his motto being something like "Live like nobody else right now so you can live like nobody else later."  He is talking about being super frugal when you are young so that you can be rich when you are older.  Just about everybody that calls is trying to reduce their expenses to nothing so they can save as much of their money as possible.  I get this idea and to an extent I agree that it is a fine idea to have a good nest egg, but at some point, one has to draw the line and find a middle ground, I think.

    For example, he seems to tell everybody that they should drive the cheapest car that will get the job done.  I kind of took his advice when buying our last car, the 2013 Escape.  I started out thinking we should get another car in the $20,000 range, which is cheap nowadays for a new-ish car which I bought with the intention that Baby A will start driving in it.  He kept repeating kid drivers all make mistakes and the car they start out with is not going to last them very long.  Honestly, we had bought a $20,000 Ecosport and Boy went and crashed it within six months of us buying it and he has been driving now for a good 6-7 years.  After listening to Ramsey, I decided we would get something closer to $10,000, if we could and we got lucky, this car is in great shape and so far, seems like a steal at $11,000.  We managed to pay cash for it, so we aren't even paying interest to own it.

    That was a good example of his advice, but I am now torn as to what to buy for myself.  I am not in a rush, but my Excursion is now 16 years old, and once Baby A starts driving the Escape, I will be stuck relying on the old Excursion or get a new vehicle.  He laughs at the idea of people buying Extravagant vehicles they shouldn't really be able to afford.  I was really thinking of getting another big truck, I know I don't need the size and power of an F-250, but I have always liked them.  Buying one means at least $50,000, which is a lot if I am trying to follow this guy's rules to finding financial freedom, but then the thought occurs to me, "Why?"

    Why live like a miser and miss out on taking trips and buying things that please you, like a big ole truck when you are young and can enjoy them, versus planning on waiting until you are old?  Isn't the old man who wears the same old jeans every day and drives the same small car for 30 years who we find to be an actual millionaire when he dies about as foolish as the man who spends most of his money and enjoys his life in the process, yet dies with almost nothing in the bank.  Who cares what is in your bank account once you die, someone else is going to enjoy that, not you.  I used to kind of think I wanted to have our house and then a small house on the coast that way we have two properties, one for each son, but then I hear Boy talking about building a house out of old shipping containers and I think he should build that on his dime because it sounds a little far fetched.  I think the gift we give our children is the life we gave them on which we educated them and allowed them to find careers which excite them and make them happy.  I'm not trying to leave them all my money so they can have fun with it, I think I'll do some of that while I still can.

4/13/21 Much Different Visit From My Folks?

     I have to say it was a much different visit from my folks and I think I liked this one.  Usually, they are trying to take in as much as possible of the city and we end up running around until we are exhausted at the end of their visit.  This time, there really wasn't any rush, other than getting to the wrestling meet on time.

    They arrived late on Friday, as usual, they babysit for my sister and she couldn't pull herself away from work early, knowing they had a three hour drive, so they arrived here around 9:00pm.  Most of the time, they stop and eat on their own, so by the time we see them, they have already eaten and Friday is met with them just trying to get comfortable in bed.  This Friday they made it all the way here before eating, so they joined us in eating dinner, we would have eaten earlier but Wife arrived with a deadly determination to get our taxes done to get them out of the way.  We finished messing with our taxes and completing them right as my parents arrived, then we headed out to eat dinner at IHOP.  It had been at least a year since we had eaten at an IHOP and it was very good, but I ordered the chicken and waffles and they weren't very good, I should have ordered pancakes.  We had plenty of time to converse and stuff as we waited for the food and then ate.

    Saturday was more of the same, we pretty much sat all day at the meet and had the chance to talk and discuss wrestling, my mom and mother in law did not really like the sport as we saw a couple kids get hurt as they were tossed around violently.  Baby A ended up with a nosebleed and a bit tongue as his competitor hit him weirdly under the jaw multiple times, but that is just part of the sport.  We had a good lunch at Red Robin after, went home and napped until around 7:00pm, then just hung out at the house.  I did offer to take my mom out to the mall, but she seemed tired after being out all day, so she said no.  We sat around drinking coffee and just relaxing at the house all Saturday evening, I don't think my dad got off the bed all evening, he really loves the mattress he sleeps on here.  He even has the same thing I do, waking up every 2-3 hours to go pee, but he said he slept from 10:00pm until 8:00am before getting up to go to the bathroom.

    It was more of the same Sunday.  I got up early (and throughout the night to check on the pellets and brisket), ran to the store for tortillas, avocados, salsa, potato salad and other goodies to eat, but was able to take it easy all day long until they left around 3:00pm.  We then napped until 6:00pm, then went out for dinner at Chicken Express since somehow we had "promised" Mijo chicken, and ended the night with a Dairy Queen blizzard in Kyle.  We then got home, watched a couple of our shows and Wife was in bed before 10:00pm to start another week.  I slept with her for about an hour but am now up at close to midnight (Sunday night) writing this.

4/12/21 Impressed With My Brisket?

     Because of the stupid virus, my folks haven't been coming up to visit like they used to.  Consequently, this was the second time they have come to visit in about a year.  Last time they came to visit, I tried too hard, bought a grass fed brisket, not realizing they are just a different type of meat and not as succulent and juicy (or even flavorful) as normal briskets, so I know they weren't impressed because I wasn't.  I decided to try again,  but it was tricky since they came to go see Baby A at the wrestling tournament and that meant we were at the will of the time it took for us to be there.  The tourney was supposed to be originally a Friday evening and all day Saturday affair, but because there were so few competitors, the meet was reduced to just Saturday, and the tickets said from 9:00am to 7:00pm.  This seemed like a daunting task, to sit on those hard stadium benches for that long.  The saving grace was before we got off, we looked in Wife's Telluride and she had a couple of blankets and even a pillow, which we got down to figure out a use for.  I knew I was going to sit on that pillow right away and it saved me because I was having a hard enough time sitting on those wood or metal benches for the three hour football games before I bought my stadium chair.  I wasn't sure I would be able to use it, so I never considered bringing it with me.  My dad also had a bad back and he rolled up a blanket and made it into some extra padding which at the end of the day also said it had helped him from being so sore.  The tourney ended up finishing at 3:00pm, so we got a little lucky and saved a few hours time.

    My solution after this and then getting home after eating lunch and napping until 7:00pm was to smoke the brisket overnight.  I know from experience that a brisket this size needs about 12 hours of slow smoking to cook, so I got it ready around 10:30pm and smoked it through the night.  It is so easy to do this with a pellet grill, just load the hopper with pellets (I recommend mesquite) and then keep an eye on it after loading the meat.  I dressed my brisket simply with some salt, Salt Lick rub and some lemon pepper which Wife thinks I shouldn't use.  I read the salt is important in making a good ring in the meat, which is the pink coloring one can see after the meat is sliced.  It not only had a good ring, it got perfectly blackened on the outside, it turned out super moist and delicate and pretty much fell apart while I tried slicing it.  I took it out around 11:00am, let it rest for an hour still wrapped in the oven (it was off), I don't think I had heard my dad be as impressed with me as he kept saying that was one of the best briskets he had ever had.  My mom even forced down a fourth taco saying it was so good and she doesn't usually eat that much.  I honestly prefer when my briskets stay together in slice form but this was so soft it was falling apart even as I took off the foil (I ran out of the parchment paper stuff, so I wrapped it in aluminum foil on the 7th hour or so).  I don't know that I did anything much different than on the other briskets I have done, but this one was a "Prime 1" cut, so maybe that was the difference.  I will need to try and buy another one, even if they are pricier than the "Choice" ones.

4/11/21 Still Lacking Class?

     I hate to talk shit about a city, especially one as pretty, but the people of Dripping Springs continue to disappoint.  While at the wrestling tournament, we got to experience, yet again, the majesty that is the behavior of "winning Dripping Springs style."  I can't deny they showed up loud and proud and for that I applaud them, but once the kids got into the semis, fighting for place, the parents got outright disrespectful.  I don't see where it is right or in keeping with high school sports to yell at the referees like they favor one kid over another.  There was a particular person and I do believe he might have even been one of the coaches yelling at the referee that whatever his call on a move that he was full of shit and other nasty negative comments that aren't necessary in kids sports.  The poor referees go from one match to another and there isn't time to say this is my favorite kid or that is a winner.  They fight one after another as quickly as possible to get through the fifteen weight classes, I don't think the ref is waiting to fuck up "lil Shane's" wrestling opportunity.

    I wouldn't think so much of this if not for the same city acted like a bunch of thugs on the football field the last time I can remember seeing them, I believe Mijo's freshman year, the last game of the season, in freezing weather.  Crockett had gone all season without a fighting incident on the field, they might not win very many games, but they do play with respect and class.  I see my son offering a hand to help up opposing players, stuff like that.  Dripping Springs managed to start 3-4 fights on the field in that game which surprised me after not seeing any fighting all season, I have to blame it on the shitty mindset of the players from Dripping Springs, otherwise, I would have seen it all season long from our boys.

    I don't know if that is the sign of good playing or not, Dripping Springs that season was considered one of the best, so it was disappointing to see what I saw on the field.  I can't help but weigh the behavior to what my brother in law told Baby A at one point that when you get in a dogpile, all the football players in a pile, to try and poke eyes and hit people in the balls and generally be an asshole, I was never sure if it was "cool Bro talk" or if he was joking but Mijo and I discussed it and both agreed that isn't the way to play.  On the other hand, it seems that is exactly what Dripping Springs prides itself in teaching.

    Maybe it was just a handful of assholes in the stands, but if so, the other parents from that city should at one point or another tell these parents or coaches to cut the shit or stay at home if this is your best behavior, because whether you like it or not, the behavior of these parents directly reflects on the perception of your town (remember fool, you can't re-live your youth through your kids).  Dripping Springs may be full of people as beautiful as their city and I really considered moving out there, it is a perfect central Texas city, the stain left in me thinking this might be the energy of the people just makes me think maybe there's something in the water that makes the people there ugly and petty.

4/10/21 Baby A's Wrestling Campaign Comes To An End?

     Today was the district meet for wrestling and although it was much smaller than in recent years, there was still so much action to see and learn from.  Just a couple weeks ago, we had sat near one of the other parents and learned that the district meets of the past had been two day events, starting on a Friday night and continuing through an entire Saturday until the evening.  This year, because so few kids joined the team, the whole tournament was done in one day, specifically from around 9:00am until 4:00pm or so.

    I am still bothered by the fact that the heavyweight boys are in a bracket with so much range.  As I have whined before, the smaller weight categories fight within a tight gap of 6-10 pound differences, which makes the kids be about the same size, there is literally a range from 220 to 285 pounds, 65 pounds is a huge difference to then call it a fair fight, it is more than half the weight of the four lightest weight classes (106, 113, 120, 126 pounds).  How is it fair for a kid weighing 221 to be matched to a kid weighing 285, but legally, that is what happens.

   I only complain about this, because my son was outsized tremendously, and on top of that, it was his first year, so he wasn't even fully experienced, so I should not be surprised how it turned out.  I am used to Mijo being the shortest kid, he kind of likes that, it gives him a little bit of a sneak attack advantage, he feels.  But I didn't expect the competition to all be as big as they were.  Our boy started the year weighing around 230 pounds, but is now a pretty strong and healthy 250 pounds.  It sounds good, but one of the kids (the same one who beat him in the last regular meet) is on the cusp at 278 and looks a good 5-6 inches taller.  The kid who wrestled him in the first round was just a huge meatball of a boy, he had to be right at 285.  I don't want to be mean, my fat ass is walking around at 390, but this kid was a big round fella.  He threw his weight around, and although he wasn't particularly athletic, he seemed to know how to use his weight and just fell on top of our son and beat him fairly quickly.

   The other kid was about the same size as our kid and the match was pretty even, it could have been won by either boy, but just as Baby A had gotten an advantage on points at the start of the second period, he gave him a good shot to the face and the match had to  be stopped for a nosebleed.  Our boy has our weak nose and occasionally gets nosebleeds.  This took all the momentum out of him and when the match resumed, it seemed like our boy wasn't himself.  He was fighting with a plug in one nostril, which can't help, and he was then beat a second time, this time on points, not a pin.

    After the small sort of round robin, the rest of the kids were ranked and fought to find out who the four highest ranking kids in each group were, unfortunately, Mijo was not in that group.  It was still a good season in that he won a handful of matches, he lost a couple.  I know he learned a lot and he learned a new sport we would never have had the chance to have been a part of.  He said at one point he might even like wrestling even more than football because he wins and looses on his merits, there is no blaming teammates on the result.  I feel that he will take his lessons and grow for next year.

4/9/21 Paying Our Taxes Is Getting Easier?

     I felt lazy Friday and forgot to write, but here it is, one day late.  Wife got home as usual, with a fire burning under her chunky ass,  Usually, it is about what we are going to eat, but last night she just NEEDED to get our taxes done.  She sat down on the table, and we got to it before she even took her shoes off.  We had been using H&R Block for a good 5-7 years, but the price just got ridiculous, so we were forced to go out and find a better alternative.  Well, the solution was pretty easy, we decided to just use the H&R Block online version.  You have to understand, we paid $700-$800 the last time we went to H&R Block and sat with them to do it in person.  Doing this online version only cost us like $60 or so.  It was still a little deceitful, if you ask me.  You sign up and it says something about the regular version being $29.99.  Fine, but then when you get done, there is apparently another option and it also seems to be $29.99, so I told Wife, "yeah, choose the $29.99 option..."  This turns out to be the coverage or something after the fact, say if the IRS is going to give you an audit, this is how much they H&R Block will help.

    I hate the whole idea of paying in the first place, but after having our father in law do it for the first ten years, then getting a multi year audit and having to pay over $10,000, I said "never again."  I convinced Wife that we should use a service like H&R Block because they offered a guarantee if we were audited, they would stand there and take responsibility for any extra charges.  On two occasions, the IRS has come back and asked questions regarding our returns the last couple years, it almost feels like harassment, but what can you do.  Both times, H&R Block was able to help us, both times it had to do with us being in a credit debt program and something about the credit card debt getting forgiven but still someho counting as income towards how much money we made.  It gets really confusing, but we filled out some paperwork and got past this.

    I feel we are pretty safe to just do the income tax ourselves now because we don't have an extra home, we aren't in any weird credit debt programs, it is basically just our salaries, house, and a couple of forms because we have a kid under our house we pay for.  I don't want to jinx it, but somehow or other we went from usually paying $2000-$3000 to this year only paying about $500.  The IRS could still come back and give us a good reaming, they do seem to target us frequently, it will help to at least have saved close to $700 by not paying H&R Block anymore.

4/8/21 Who Is Buying Houses?

     I feel bad for Boy trying to start his life out right now with the housing market here in Austin being as crazy as it is.  He does have some potential for growth and that is going to be a lifesaver, but what about the majority of people, how are they going to get along?  I started looking around, I hadn't paid attention, mostly because I am happy in my house, other than wanting some waterfront retreat, and wow, even regular neighborhood houses are starting to head into outlandish territory.

    First off, he just started his first professional job and because he is still taking classes, he is not making a full engineer's salary, but he is up around $50k I believe, when multiplying his hourly rate times 40 and stuff.  He looked into it and that qualifies him for a house of about $200,000.  This sounds good and five years ago would have given him choice to almost any part of town.  Nowadays, I am really not seeing many houses under $300,000.  The one neighborhood on Zillow that advertises houses in the $210,000 range is in Buda, near Cabela's so we went last week and the realtor lady simply said "Zillow is off..", their starting prices for the cheaper builder was $275,000 and that is before adding any options, so really $300,000 is more real.

    The only real solution I see is to either go farther out from Austin or look for something older that needs some fixing up.  He has seen an occasional house here and there, in San Marcos or in Lockhart, but even those have gotten picked up quickly.  He still needs to save money and we are in no rush for him to move out, we like having him close by, we get to see him even if he doesn't hang out with us.  The longer he waits though, is only going to be met with even higher housing prices, I am afraid though.

    His friend is building a "tiny house" on his parent's property, they live out in the country, so that is his solution.  DD and his new wife said they were going to look into getting a mobile home after they live in an apartment for awhile.  I think it would be cheaper for him to save money and stay with us for another few months, but they want to live married life alone, so more power to him.  I don't know what else people can do.  Last I talked to Girlie, she is looking at getting an apartment with a girlfriend of hers, but whew, paying $1200-$1600 for a two bedroom is way too much and that probably doesn't include utilities, internet, washer/dryer.  Life is expensive, but I guess we all have to find a way to function by ourselves.

4/7/21 Painting With A Gun?

     The idea of painting with s spray gun seems straightforward, simply point and shoot.  I found out the hard way that there is more to it than that this past Sunday.  It is not something I planned on doing, more so, I was pressured into doing it.

    We started replacing our fence a couple months ago when the old couple that lives on one side said he was going to replace the fence, if I wanted to contribute great, if not, well great too.  I paid what he suggested, actually gave him $50 more because $250 that he quoted sounded way too cheap, but he and a friend did the work, so cool.  I was quite happy with their work, the fence looked sharp and new and it got me motivated to continue, so a couple weeks later we did the back part of our fence.  This is the longest part of our fence, compared to the sides and I probably spent $750 on wood alone.  We did the work ourselves, between DD, Boy, Baby A and myself.  While doing it, I told my other neighbor we were coming around and we would be taking care of the fence between us.  I was even offering her the same deal my other neighbor did, I told them to pay me about $300 and we would do the work.  Well, the snow came, then this and that, then Spring Break and before we knew it, they told us they had hired professionals and it was going to cost quite a bit more, but since it was their idea, we wouldn't have to pay much more than we had offered them.  We ended up at $350 and Wife was a little annoyed at the way I handled the deal, that I talked my self into paying more.  After seeing the work and the wood, it made sense.  They used a much higher quality looking wood, the guys even reset some of the posts to make sure the fence is perfectly straight.  Mine isn't going to fall, but it leans here and there.  Anyways, afterwards, they stained that part of the fence and it made it look even more outstanding.  We asked the guys how much for them to stain our fence, and I about choked.  The guy said he would do it for $1500 or we could go buy the stain and he would do it for $1000.

    I went and bought my own spray gun and ten gallons of stain, should be more than enough.  Each 5 gallon drum was $150 and the sprayer was like $170, so less than $500 and I get to keep the spray gun, Wife already has ideas "We can paint our outdoor table and chairs later."  We did the inside of the back fence and it is not as easy as one might think.  First off, the gun with its reservoir of stain and the motor is a little heavy in one hand, then the spray gets into the air easily.  I was waiting for one of the neighbors to start whining, but we waited for a day with very little wind, so that helped.  Baby A and I did the work and you can tell it is amateurs but I guess the fence is now protected.  It is splotchy dark and light all over the place.  DD suggested we give it another coat and one of the youtube videos suggested it would take two coats.  This might make it look better, but I really thought it would take 20-30 minutes to spray the whole side of the fence and it took more like two hours and my back.  I tweaked something early on and thus I had Baby A do most of the work and he did it like you would expect a teenager who doesn't want to be outside would do it.  It is started, hopefully we can finish it in the next weekend or two.

Our amateur job

Professional job (it is nicer)

4/6/21 DD Got Married?

     DD is my code for Boy's friend (Dirty Dog then later Domesticated Dog once the girlfriend neutered his horny ass) who has been living with us on again off again the last few years.  He moved in first time about three years ago after breaking up with a girl friend.  Girlie had just moved out so we had an extra room and I could always use an extra $600 bucks.  He was a good fit, I like the boy a lot, he is polite, respectful and always ready to help if we need something done.  At one point, he took it upon himself to trim the tree up front and managed to make it look a lot better by trimming the lower branches which got in the way every time we went to cut the grass. 

    After a while, he met another girl and went and tried to make it work.  He lived with her a year or two and all seemed well, we really liked this girl, although we liked the previous girlfriend too.  This boy has been close to us since we became friends with his family back when Boy got to know him in 7th grade playing football.  Well, he got cold feet at some point and told the girlfriend he needed time, I believe he proclaimed he was polyamorous and he needed the loving of more than one lover.  I'm not sure why that didn't work with the girlfriend, but he ended up asking if he could move back in.  I was a little apprehensive at first, mostly because he was on a tear going out dancing and banging different girls very routinely, for a while.  At some point, he hooked up with the current girl in his life and we eventually caught glimpses of her in the house.

    When I finally got a good look at her I asked her if he had her chained to the bed and wasn't allowed to speak to give me a sign.  She would never come out of the room, I even joked that she was like the "gimp" in Pulp Fiction, kept tied to chain and just used for sex on the weekends.  She did manage to laugh at that and slowly started coming out of her shell.  They dated/banged for I would say 6 months or so, maybe he has known her longer and just kept her under wraps more than I realized.  I wish them well, she took a minute to grow on us, but all the girls he has dated have been of about the same temperament, they are all nice at their core.

    Well, this weekend, they are off in Las Vegas and they got married last night.  We saw the event through zoom, they got married at 9:30pm last night, just as we finished watching Kong vs. Godzilla.  I don't know if this is going to last or not, but I guess the ball is in motion.  In the last month, he has gotten all serious about his life, looking for a house and they have been spending time buying nick knacks for their future place.  I hope he has gotten that idea of being polyamorous out of his system, I don't think it works in the modern age, but hey, we can all have the dream, if but for a minute.

4/5/21 I Want One?

     I have always been a materialistic simple minded fool.  I kind of still believe the mantra of the 80's, he with the most toys in the end wins.  Wife has been working and trying to change that about me, I don't think it will ever go away.  It bums out a bit that although we have a pool in the yard, it has a leak that I haven't been able to figure out.  We are at the point where I have told Wife we either take the chance and cut the cement around it to access the pipes buried in the ground or we just give up and rip the whole concrete out and throw away the pool and hot tub and look to start over.  It sucks because we have a nice simple layout.  Our pool is not the greatest, but if it didn't leak, it would be cute enough and just about the right size for a family.  The dimensions are about 12 feet wide at it's middle and then goes from about 3.5ft at the steps to about 5.5ft at the deepest on the other side.  Their used to be a light on the deep end, but that also has not worked in a couple years.  When it was first installed and everything was working, the pool and hot tub combo was perfect, for me.  The hot tub was installed about 5-8 feet away and is a little elevated and a couple steps from the patio, but it all works together with the concrete making it all one big space.

    Well, the truth of the matter is that the fiberglass pool had a 20 year warranty and by now, I am sure we have had it about that long, we originally installed in our first house, then dug it out and moved it, which probably forfeited the warranty, but it did work for a few years here.  Anyways, yesterday while driving around, we saw a fiberglass pool being advertised with a website www.aquapools.com.  We had seen and talked to a couple of fiberglass pool companies in New Braunfels, there are like 10 of them along I-35 there, but they all had ridiculous prices, like the regular gunnite pool builders, saying their pools start from the $50,000 range and up.  This website had plenty of pool offers with prices including cement all the way around them, from the low price of $33,999 for their smallest offering all the way to $58,000 and probably more, depending on all the bells and whistles.

    This at least gives me a little hope that if not this year maybe in a year or two we could be digging out our little family pool and upgrading to something that would actually add value to the house.  These pools say they have a lifetime warranty and if we did do it again, I wouldn't be digging it out this time and moving it with us if we happened to decide to move again.  I can't imagine we would consider moving, I do love my house, but you never know.

4/4/21 Rare Saturday As A Family?

     Keeping the idea going of just taking it easy and enjoying the lazy weekend, Saturday turned out all right.  We got up slow and at our own pace.  I got up at 8:00am, drank a quiet cup of coffee and caught up on my news watching on Youtube, then just as I was getting bored and thinking of heading back upstairs to lay down with Wife, she came down and made breakfast for us, it had been a while since she had rattled them pans for a breakfast with eggs, beans, spam tacos.  I really do like that kind of breakfast and it worked out to sit and watch the last hour of the new Justice League movie.  We had to cut it up and watch it in sections, the movie was four hours long, who do they think they are Lord Of The Rings?  We had seen the first two hours last Saturday then we saw an hour Sunday before Wife had to go to bed to leave for work at 5:00am.  We saw then ending with our tacos yesterday morning.

    After that, we had talked to Boy about him taking us to one of his nurseries where he goes to look at plants, so he suggested one in Buda.  He hadn't been to it, but I told him I wanted some trees for the yard and he said this one had a lot of trees, looking from the freeway.  It sure did, and the lot went back quite a ways, but MAN! are they proud of their products.  No lie, they were selling trees for $8500, and up, I didn't even look at the bigger ones.  They were offering financing for trees, I mean, what the actual F**k?  We couldn't find anything realistic, even smaller skinny plum and fig trees that were still 5-7ft tall and about an inch thick were going for $999 at their 50% reduced prices.  All we accomplished was getting our shoes muddy, although they did have some cool looking trees, we are not made out of money.

    After this, we did stop by a home community over close to Cabela's, Boy has been talking about buying a house and according to Zillow, that community had houses from the $210,000s.  It seems Zillow needs to update, when we got there, the cheapest houses were starting from $275,000.  It is almost impossible to find a house under $250,000 in the Austin area, which is going to make it hard for Boy to get a house by himself under his name.  Still, it is early in the process, and he is due for a promotion and more money soon, so here is hoping.

    We then went home, switched cars, since we were not going to buy trees at those crazy prices and headed off in the direction of Bastrop to try and find the Tesla facility under construction.  We didn't see it but we still drove around for a couple hours in the Del Valle countryside and ended up at Berdoll Farms in Bastrop where we bought a couple bags of nuts and some fudge.  After all this, we came back home and I napped for about an hour.  The boys had given us enough of their time, both used the lines of having to do homework to stay home the rest of the day.

    I napped for about an hour, then Wife and I headed back out to Lowe's, to see their prices for trees and shrubs.  They were a more realistic $49.99 for young tree saplings, which I don't mind and even $70 for a super tall red maple tree about 12-14 feet tall.  I want a good looking tree for the front yard.  We ended the night by going to Popeye's Chicken and getting some chicken and stuff for dinner.  Both boys then joined us and we watched Kong vs Godzilla on the big screen.  Baby A and I were constantly commenting on the movie and Boy says he remembers why he doesn't watch movies with us as we talk to much, but the movie was really crappy as far as the premise.  The action was okay, but man, you have to suspend a lot of reality to buy into the BS.

    Still, it was a fun day with the four of us interacting like we rarely do anymore.  Boy hung out with us until around 11:00pm when the girlfriend called and he told us he was headed to her house.  I think she works Saturdays right now, so Boy's schedule is open to hang out with us, so that works out for us.  Happy Easter Everyone!!

4/3/21 Taking A Long Country Drive?

     This only makes sense if you grew up in a small town, but back home we would go "country driving", to me it always meant finding a quiet place to do it, but to Wife it was a relaxing drive to see cows and such, I guess.  well, it had been a minute (as the kids say) but we had time to go for a drive on Friday afternoon and boy did we.

    We tried leaving the house early, with Baby A tagging along, but of course, the first thing he NEEDS to do is eat.  We had also offered him a restaurant meal after the wrestling meet on Wednesday, but it was after 9:00pm by the time we left the campus, so it was pretty late.  He held our feet to the fire and requested his restaurant meal, so we went to Cheddar's, which is pretty good and not as expensive as other places.  We ate, but that only made me feel like we had to go back to the house because I always feel like pooping after a meal, so that wasted pretty much the morning.  The squirrel guy was coming at 2:00pm, but the time I was ready to roll it was 1:15pm, so we just kind of sat and waited for our time between 2:00-4:00pm.  Of course, the guy showed up at 3:50pm, so there was a lot of deadtime on our free day.  Fortunately, I can fall asleep in a matter of seconds, so I slept about 1.5 hours while we waited.

    Once the guy came and the traps were set, we were finally free to go.  We headed to Best Buy, it is Easter weekend and Wife wanted something for the boys, but it is getting near impossible to buy them anything anymore, they aren't little so a candy filled basket doesn't impress anyone and dinky toys don't do it either.  I am not giving them money, Boy is making a good salary with no rent, so F that.  We looked around and then left after they both said to get them stuff through Amazon, which is what we should have done.

    We then took off for our drive (Baby A stayed home to write a paper for class and Boy was at work) around 5:30pm.  I thought it would be a bad idea because it was Friday and it was rush hour, but we kind of headed out of town towards Buc-ee's with no clear agenda.  I then suggested Seguin, we have never gone there, so we did.  It is such a different world when you get off I-35 and onto I-10.  There are cars on I-10, but nothing like on I-35.  We drove for maybe 20-30 miles on I-10 towards San Antonio, then back.  It is a primitive world out there, nothing like the corridor between Austin and SA.  There isn't much "country" between the two big cities, even Kyle and Buda are growing, Selma and Schertz make SA feel like it is extending out, then there's New Braunfels and San Marcos.  There isn't a patch that isn't busy with lighting and some project.  Meanwhile, it got dark on us and I mean it got really dark, taking the road between I-10 and I-35, from Seguin to San Marcos, it got a little creepy dark for comfort.  Add to that the stupid speed limit constantly dropping from 35 to 65 and those 18 miles seemed to last an hour.

    Still, it was fun, we got back home by 9:30pm, I had set out some steaks in a 3-pack, of course at night Boy was there, so it 4 of us.  I jokingly told Wife don't worry about Boy, he never eats with us.  She had to call home, he said "I would eat a steak if there was one for me."  I told Wife "fuck him, he never eats with us, I'll heat up some winnies and sausage, he can eat that."  Nope!  We stopped at HEB to get an extra steak, and by the time she was paying, Boy called her to say he was going to go eat with his girlfriend.  She got in the car explaining it was no big deal "we would just cut up his steak and split it between us three."  Someday, the world will listen to me.  We grilled the steaks and watched some TV to end the night.  I believe we were both asleep by midnight.

4/2/21 Update On My Squirrel Infestation?

     We discovered squirrels had made themselves at home in our home last week, so I ordered an electric zapper trap thinking it would take care of my problem lickety-split.  Well, the stupid trap has been sitting there all week with peanut butter as bait as recommended in the instructions and I am still waiting for my first kill.  I also went and bought a high quality pellet gun with a scope used for this very reason and I have still yet to shoot one for a kill.  I don't think I have killer in me, I am a lover not a fighter.  I can hit the metal target and make it go ping, but I could not hit a squirrel munching on my freshly cut lawn at 10-15 yards, and I was hiding inside aiming through an open window.

    Well, Wife doesn't play games, while I was living my best imitation of Bill Murray as the grounds-keeper in Caddyshack, trying to get rid of one gopher and failing, Wife simply called Bug Master and found out they also take care of pesky squirrels.  I don't think I am cheap in the way that she is, but I do feel that a "man" should be able to handle something as simple as a couple rodents without calling in the experts, but then again, I had a week and no results, so I guess Wife's idea wins.

    The Bug Master guy came on Thursday and I had told Wife "I'll do it if it is like $300-$400, I really don't want to give these jackals all of my stimulus money to get rid of a freaking squirrel.  Then we'll have to hire somebody to patch up the house too."  Freaking things have made a hole about the size of my fist to come and go.  Of course reality is always real and the  guy told me very confidently that they deal with squirrels in our neighborhood all the time, he had just been to the house across the street in the last few months.  Their price would be a heftier $650, but that would include 4 visits, they would set traps in the attic, after eradication, they would patch the hole, and guarantee no squirrels in the house for a year.  He also said they take the squirrels and release them out on a farm, like I care if they decide to kill and cook them, I am not that type of "Austinite."  I told him I would discuss with Wife and within 5 minutes of him leaving I called Wife and 10 minutes later, they had sent a contract and we sent it back signed for the "kill order" (well trap, but I prefer to think kill).  

    In the meanwhile, Wife is losing her mind, every time she comes home, she looks up and swears the things are judging her and giving her looks like "who is this bi-otch coming into our homes?" and "why you making so much noise and waking us so early?"  Wife is bothered that the squirrels look as fat as us and apparently living the good life, they can barely make it through the hole they made.  The technician came in Friday afternoon (writing this Saturday) and set two traps in the attic, saying he would be back on Monday, so hopefully, we can put this behind us soon.

4/1/21 Another Night Of Wrasslin'?

     This Wednesday night was parent's night for the Crockett Wrestling Team.  It is hard to make a big fandango when the team is so small, they're a total of seven kids, and then add in Covid-19 which I guess scares away spectators and also the event being on a Wednesday night.  Still, we showed up like good parents do and we immersed ourselves as best we could.

    First off, the coach sent out an email that it was parent's night and if we wanted to take in some food and snacks, it would be good and that could be enjoyed between the weigh in at 6:00pm and before the start of the first match, at 7:15pm.  Wife drove in at the last minute and got here around 4:30pm, I drove Mijo to the school before 4:00pm as the coach likes them there super early on the days they compete.  I then ran to get the Telluride washed since it was covered in a green sheen of pollen and it looked nasty.  After this, I thought about what to get them for food and the best I could come up with was a case mini sodas, and then assorted snacks from Target.  I got the tiny tubes of Pringles in a 12 pack, a bag of candies, a multi pack of nuts, and some packs of chewy gummy type candies.  I didn't figure that the kids would want to eat before going in the ring to fight.

    We then had a little procession where we came down to the mat and met our kid and took a picture for the school and then lined up while the coach said some great things about all of us.  It was nice and quick.  After this, there was nothing else to do but wrassl'.

    Baby A was the first fight of the night against a Navarro heavyweight.  You can tell these are linemen on their respective football teams.  The opposing boy was just as big as our son and it was close in the beginning, but Mijo was able to get the upper hand and get a pin in the first minute.  After this, we sat through 13 other fights before ending the night again with our son fighting the heavyweight from McCallum.  This was interesting because Baby A is probably 5'8" while this other kid was at least 6'3" and our kid weighs 250 right now, which is a lot, but the other kid weighed in at 278.  This is a great difference and it showed on the mat.  The bigger kid had the advantage of size and also experience, he is also a senior, so our son was not going to win.  They went at it for the full 3 rounds, which was good, Mijo wasn't pinned, the other kid went up on points, like 8-3, so once he got ahead, he just played defense and kept pushing our son away so he had no chance to pin him.

    After the match, our kid told us he didn't have to fight the bigger guy, but he chose to anyway.  I don't like to see Mijo lose, but he fought hard and I guess that is worth something.  It is a horrible feeling to be a parent and see your baby out there getting manhandled, but it is part of the sport, nothing is being done maliciously, or shouldn't be.