7/30/21 Blue Haven Pools?

     I don't know what we will ultimately do as far as our backyard.  If money was no object I would have already dug up our old pool and accessories, thrown it all away and started from scratch, but things aren't that easy.  We went and talked to a fiberglass pool company last week and they pretty much told us they could remove what we have and install a new pool and hot tub with around 400sq feet of concrete living space for around $85,000.  Since the number is so high, we figured we would go and ask how much a gunite (concrete) pool would cost.  We had gone a couple years ago to Cody pools and back then they quoted over $80,000 for a midsized pool, so I wouldn't want to know what their prices are nowadays.

    Blue Haven is another big pool name I have known exists for a few years, so I feel confidant going to them.  We were met by a sales lady and we sat and talked to her for about an hour or so.  She said they could get a pool in our yard for $60,000.  I said I wanted a hot tub, it extends the swimming season and she was confidant a decent pool around 30 feet long with a hot tub would be around $80,000.  We told her about the mess in our yard and she said they could remove it but it might be cheaper for us to hire outside contractors to save money.  I figure with this added in, we are somewhere shy of $100,000.

    I don't like the fact that either way we go, we are going to spend a minimum of $85,000, it seems like.  I am not even sure which pool is better, but like I told Wife, the pools you find in hotels and stuff are all gunite, shit the one we swam in Corpus at the old Koronado Hotel is still there 40 years later, so I know a good concrete pool will last a lifetime if cared for properly.  I think if we ever sold the house, it would be better if it was gunite, but I am not sure.  I liked the ease of fiberglass care when it was in good shape.

    The real benefit of a gunite pool is we could have whatever shape we wanted, like I don't want a super deep pool, maybe just from 4ft to 5ft in depth, something we can hang out in and play volleyball, Baby A said it would be fun to have a diving area, so maybe we could add a 90 degree turn and have a part of the pool that was deeper and still keep the volleyball square.  I also want a ledge, which is a shallow area, around a foot in depth, which seems to be a new thing in pools to sit on some beach chairs partially submerged in water.

    I don't know, if we could just patch our leaking mess of a pool, we would save ourselves a lot of money, so there is that to consider as well.  I sent out some emails to some pool repair companies but they haven't been quick to respond.

7/29/21 Busy Thursday?

     I hate days that just kick the crap out of you, but we knew this was going to be one of those days.  Baby A originally had a team meeting at school with the coaches to discuss progress over the summer and to fill us in on the expected goals for the rest of the summer, August going into the start of school.  There was also going to be a big reveal and Baby A had been going on talking about what he wanted to do to "show off" his introduction.  The meeting was scheduled for 6:00pm but he had to be there at 4:00pm.  I do still have a job that I must show up for and I did think of taking the day off but another coworker had already taken the week off and yet another coworker was going to be off on Friday, so I didn't want to pile on and demand another day off since I was just off the week of 4th of July.

    My hope was to go in to work early and tackle anything hot (due in the next day) which is how we have been operating since Covid started.  I was planning this since Monday and I figured if I stayed and did more Monday through Wednesday, maybe in Thursday there wouldn't be much to worry about.  For the most part we have a week to get jobs done once they are submitted but a few special customers ALWAYS request 24 hour turnaround which means they pay more so our management likes that.  It looked good in the morning but by the time I showed up there were five brand new jobs all due by Friday, this pissed me off because it is too much.  The only good thing is three of the jobs were by one customer and they did not arrive in the afternoon Fedex shipment, so they are not my problem.  I managed to do one of the jobs between 11:30am and 2:30pm but the other one could not even start prep until around 4:00pm because the prep tool was busy.

    I left work before 3:00pm, came home, took Baby A to school before 4:00pm, came home, waited until 5:45pm, then left.  Wife didn't arrive until 6:45pm or so but we were there the best we could.  The meeting went on until almost 8:00pm, the uniform introduction was a blast, the boys all got a chance to show off a little bit.  Afterwards, we went and ate at Culver's, then I went straight to work and Wife took Baby A and some friends home.  I was at work until 11:30pm or so, then went home.  It was a long but fun day, I wish I could have taken the day off, but all in all, I know Mijo had a good time and we were both there to watch him do his thing.

7/28/21 Another Day, Another A/C Problem?

     I just had a different technician looking at our A/C unit upstairs.  We've had so many calls this one said he remembers being here working on it before but I didn't remember him, so maybe that means that unit has seen a lot of visits.  Anyway, the problem this time is that the unit upstairs was not cooling and the air coming from the vents is a good 20 degrees warmer than the air coming from the vents downstairs (~50 degrees down stairs versus ~70 degrees upstairs).  I called Monday and they said today (Wednesday) was the soonest they could come.  I said okay but I could tell the unit is working its ass off just to keep itself running at 70 degrees, so much that I swore last night I could hear it shuddering outside when I went to the bathroom at night (units sit right outside the wall of the bathroom).

    The technician showed up very early, I was told 1:00-6:00pm, but he called at 9:45am and was here by 10:30am, which is preferable for me, since I work in the afternoon.  He did his thing and I followed him outside, I like to stay close by in case they have questions I might be able to help with.  I filled him in on things that the other guys have said and done.  Before he even connected his equipment to check the Freon level he saw that the copper lines inside the unit were frozen solid.  I glanced in and thought the lines were covered in white Styrofoam for a second, the ice was so thick.  He then said it needed to thaw out before he could diagnose anything.  After this, he went back and tried turning the fan on to help move air through the unit and I guess this would help that the unit out, but he noticed the fan was not running properly.  So now the thought is will a new blower (he thinks there is something wrong with the blower wiring internally, I think) fix the problem?  I have been thinking and telling all of them that the air moving through the vents make a lot of noise (the blower is what makes the air move), so maybe.  His thought is that the blower is not running at the right time, running when the unit outside is off and not running when the unit outside is trying to cool and "condition" the air (my interpretation of what he said).

    How long do we go before we just get a new unit, are there lemon laws for home appliances?  I don't mind having these guys work on a problem if they can fix it and we then have a few years of no problems, but this is the third or fourth time they have been out here to see this unit and here we still are, with warm bedrooms.  The units aren't even a year old, the lady answering the phone was all "that'll be $99 for the service call..."  until I got a little excited and said no ma'am, these were just installed in November, we haven't even gone through one summer and they cost $25,000.  She then looked over her notes and corrected herself.  Give me a few years of trouble free service and then we can talk about service calls.  Y'all can't just start charging to fix equipment you just installed.  We haven't even gone through a week of 100 degree days and that is the real reason I didn't mind the high cost.

7/27/21 Blackout Ready, Maybe?

     Well, they announced that we should expect blackouts this summer as the months start getting hotter and the power grid gets used past its capacity.  It is one thing to be caught unprepared when you don't know it's coming, it is another thing to know and still get caught unprepared, so in an effort to keep my people in the comfort that they are accustomed to I went and invested in a generator, and a small A/C that will cool one room.  The room we decided on is the family room downstairs because it is a big room and we do have a bed and sofa there already, so 3 out of 4 of us would have a place to sleep and we have a twin mattress in the guest room upstairs that we move around as need, so it would be easy to bring it down and throw on the floor for the other boy.

    We had a small problem with some of the openings, such as the one leading up the stairs and there is another archway that also connects the foyer to the family room.  I had previously bought black out curtains and set them up to close off the kitchen from the family room when we are watching movies, that way we can keep the lights on in the kitchen and it doesn't affect the movie projector.  We were out just for a cruise on Saturday and I bought a couple more of these curtains and set them up to close off the stairs and the foyer archway.  Sitting in the room and watching a movie Sunday, Willow, it felt like the room was separate from the house.  Boy was out with friends and when they came in to the kitchen, it was barely noticeable.  I liked that.

    So now we have the living conditions set, gas and a gas grill to cook without power, if need be.  At least a dozen of those little one pound propane cylinders and I measured each one will cook about two meals.  We also have at least 5-6 bags of charcoal to cook on a regular grill, my pellet grill won't work without electricity.  We have an assortment of frozen food, canned goods, which we probably need more of.  We had a bunch of water bottle packages, but freaking Baby A has drank his way through them, he takes 4 every time he goes to practice.  We need to get more water and I feel like a lot more food in cans, in case some shit hits the fan and we are stuck home for more than a couple days.

    Actually feel like we need more guns after finding out we had to return the shotgun I thought was given to us by Wife's dad.  I bought one, but I want all of us to be armed if things get ugly.  The main problem is that there seems to be a shortage of guns at the stores and ammo, but that is part of the fun.  Always preparing.

7/26/21 Feeling Like An Apartment Sup?

     I hate dealing with small ticky tacky BS issues but if I don't then who?  We are having to call Fox to look at our upstairs air conditioner now for the 3rd time.  The first time was a PM, preventive maintenance check, which now seems to have started my problems, but I don't know how.  I had them come a second time because the little screen actually gave an alarm so they came and although it was not related, it turned out to be water was backed up in the drain line which was triggering an inline float to turn system off.  This was then connected to main circuit board at the wrong input place, which sounds like a big problem, but it seemed like that guy knew what he was doing.  I think because it is now actually getting really hot outside, we are finally noticing that the A/C upstairs is not getting the job done.  I used my thermal gun and pointed it to one of the air returns in the kitchen and the temperature of the air is about 50.  When I do the same to the return upstairs, the air coming out is barely 70.  It takes it most of the night it seems to get the upstairs to a decent 73.  This afternoon the temperature upstairs was 78 and the humidity rises above 65% even though the unit has a humidity control and I have set it to 50%.  Anyways, third time's the charm, right?

    We also got a bit of sticker shock Friday when we went to price the idea of a new fiberglass pool which seem to be everywhere in New Braunfels.  We found a place willing to work in Austin, others had said no because Austin is a pain in the ass in regards to permits, but the price for a decent but small pool with no hot tub is around $70,000.  Their bigger pool with a built in hot tub would be around $85,000.  This price does include them removing our mess of a backyard and we would then have a brand new yard to work with.  This prompted me to call some places to get a quote or two to find out how much it would cost us to get some professionals to come and fix our leaking pool, and maybe even resurface the pool to make it look new again.

    I feel like I am spending more and more time taking care of all sorts of issues with the house.  I went and bought new lights for the front lights, I also had to get some of that expanding foam because there were some holes over by the A/C units that were just a little loo big for comfort.  Today, I was online sending one of the pool repair places pics of my pool and then spent about 20 minutes on the phone to get Fox scheduled to come look at the A/C unit.  If it's not one thing, it is another.

7/25/21 Complimented On My Kids?

     There is no greater feeling as a parent to be told by another adult outside your realm of control that your kid is just a great human being.  I got the call from one of Baby A's coaches to give us the unfortunate news that one of the players on the team tested positive for Covid.  This is of course bad news when the coaches have a game plan for the summer and the boys have been working their hearts out and now because of this, they have to quarantine for two weeks.

    The coach caught us Thursday afternoon as we finished eating at Dan's burgers, a place my son really likes to eat at and after awhile of the same chicken thighs and meat, I felt it was time to eat something different.  The coach that called is a new one and I don't think I have even met him in person but he called with a very stern voice, I was expecting to hear some bad news like my boy had vandalized something or done some harm to something, but he went through his whole Covid speech which I told him it was fine and we understood the risks with allowing him to play sports where he might get infected because they work so closely together.  After a couple of minutes, he said he was done reading the robotic speech he had to do and he wanted to talk to me coach to parent and he started with "I have been coaching for 15 years everywhere from Florida to Texas and I have met many fine young men, but you have a special one here.  Your son is truly one of the greatest person's I have had the honor of working with,  He comes in every day with a positive attitude, he tries to inspire the other kids, and is really a joy to teach."  I just told him we have always told our boys that if you are going to do something, give it your all or don't waste anybody's time.

    In the past, we have also gotten the same from Boy.  The teacher in charge of the rockets program at Akins loved our son's enthusiasm and he told us so a few times.  Then there was the time we met a coworker of Boy when he worked at Alamo Drafthouse and he started going on and on about how great our son was, always going above and beyond as a coworker, never being one to hide or slack.

    Stuff like this makes me feel proud and although it is not easy, it is also not hard, it is just a lifetime commitment to the things you choose to create, you have to see them through to completion.  This all in stark contrast to the assholes at Cheddar's who walked in like it was a pool party screaming and shrieking in the front of the restaurant.  I wanted to go out there and take my belt to some of those jackoffs but I am sure they are beyond repair at this point.  The world gets good people and the world gets shit people at the same time.  Thanks shit parents.

7/24/21 Slow Rise Of The Robots?

     In a lot of movies, we are scared to think that robots will slowly replace us and it'll be our own doing.  Well, it is happening and unfortunately, like everything, it will hurt the poor and dumb quicker than the rest of the population.  These clown who have been crying for $15 minimum wage are going to get what they wanted, but slowly the "robots" are coming out to replace them and I don't think they even notice.  It is now customary to do our own checkout at Home Depot, Lowe's, HEB, Walmart, and most other giant places of commerce.  Each of those machines means one less employee per shift at $15/hr.  Machines don't make mistakes, steal, get sick, or take vacation, so yeah, if I was the boss, I would also want more machines.

    Now it seems like the same trend has started at eateries.  I noticed the last time we actually went into a Bill Miller's restaurant, there was a self ordering screen, same thing is the case at Taco Bell, and even McDonald's has them.  I imagine in 5-10 years all of the fast food restaurants will be manned by one person and a bunch of robotic screens, but at least the one person working will be making $15/hr.  Idiots.

    Not to bring more sadness to the industry of fast food, but even Boy had a project in one of his classes for a robotic burger maker.  The project, which we saw to completion would take all the parts of a burger, cook the meat, put it on a bun, then know the differences between the different toppings and prepare it based on the customer's selections.  They my not have had a winning "straight to the kitchen in every McDonald's prototype but if they are working on it as a project in Colleges, it will happen soon enough.

    Maybe one day the restaurant owner will just need to come and load up some burger patties and press start and the automation will begin.  At that point, they can be paying minimum wage people $50/hr, but there won't be a need for minimum wage workers.  Think about what you ask for, you just might get it.  A better solution is to train yourself to be able to do a job that few want to do, is needed, and can't be done cheaply by a robot.  Get some worthwhile skills that are coveted by employers, going through life without any training makes you useless and really if you're useless, why are you wasting the Earth's precious oxygen?  Find a way to contribute to the world, positively.

7/23/21 Covid Conspiracy?

     I guess on the surface, Covid 2- Electric Boogaloo is back and stronger than ever.  It was almost gone it appeared, for a month but I guess it is now back and the kids might spend another year at home locked down?  It is harder and harder to buy this BS, from my perspective.  This past week my mom, dad, brother in law and both my sister's kids all got Covid.  Someone on Baby A's team got it, so he has to quarantine for two weeks or however long they are recommending.  They got after me at work for not wearing a mask which I thought was a little funny when they told me "you were reported for not wearing a mask last week in the lab."  I told her "I haven't been wearing a mask in the lab for the last year and a half, I am alone 99% of the time."  I was then told to "put on a mask."  All I can say is "yeah yeah yeah."  I don't think management really knows where the lab is located, they tend to stay on their cubicles, but whatever.

    What I find interesting is that none of them have the no smell, no taste symptoms which seemed to be the leading symptoms when I got it in January.  I still am not 100% on those senses, but it's alright.  My dad had a slight cough, my mom had a runny nose, my nephew had a slight fever and cough, the other nephew didn't have any symptoms, I don't think my brother in law had symptoms.  My mom and dad have been vaccinated which I think helps give a false positive, not that I know anything.  My brother had the same symptoms as them but is not vaccinated and he did not test positive.  They are all doing more or less good, it is behaving like a mild flu or a cold.  Baby A has no symptoms, I already had it, Wife and Boy are vaccinated, so I don't see a reason to do anything else on our end.  A coach did call us and said it was up to us as far as what we did, but the school has an obligation to keep the kids away from school.

    I'm not saying Covid isn't a real thing, but are we just going to accept this delta variant bullshit?  When and if it starts slowing down it'll be the Epsilon variant and then the Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Moo, Nu and the rest of the Greek letters?  Maybe something needs to be done, maybe not.  But I don't get all the strict standards in one place, like school activities shutting down, then being able to go have lunch at whatever restaurant with no one wearing masks, going to HEB and it seems like 1999.  Either it is a real emergency and we should all shut down, including the asshole mortgage lenders expecting their monthly payment, if no one is working, I mean renters were protected, why not us homeowners?  Or just let this mofo play out and stop acting like the sky is falling.

7/22/21 Bothered A Bit By Boy Staying Home?

     We are not the kind to miss work and be lazy around here.  Neither Wife nor I ever really miss work unless it involves the holidays or something out of the ordinary.  I was surprised and even a little bothered yesterday when I saw Boy coming back in the house, telling me he didn't feel too good and was going to take a day off and rest.  This is where I have to remember that he is making a grown up decision and it doesn't affect me, even when my parent brain wants to yell at him and tell him to get his lame ass to work.

    The problem goes even farther because I see that he stays up most nights until 2:00-3:00am and then gets up all groggy and looks a mess in the morning.  I am not even sure if he showers in the mornings before work, I personally find that disgusting, but then again, I don't work with him.  He gets by most of the week by getting home around 6:00pm and sleeping until 8:00pm or so, then he spends whatever time gaming or hanging out with his girlfriend.  If this was just until midnight and then he went to bed, I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it, but it is at least until 2:00am, I have gotten up many times to pee or whatever or when I come home late from work and I find him just up, for no reason.  

    He was given the choice of either going in at 8:00am and getting out at 5:00pm or 9:00am to 6:00pm and I guess he chose the later times, and again it is all fine, I just wish he would rest more.  I remember getting by on very little sleep for a long time too, but that is because I was working night shift and then trying to function in a world where everything gets done during the day.  I guess my biggest worry is that someone at work will get upset with his behavior, be it he looking beat up and tired, or even stinky and haggard.

    He says he gets himself up by drinking a bunch of energy drinks and coffee, but is this the best way to live?  He has mentioned that they told him he will be promoted here at his one year mark and I am happy for him to get there, but I also believe that because he is still new to his job, he should be working extra hard to put his best self forward to make the best impression he can.  I wouldn't be impressed with some asshole who shows up late, un-showered, half asleep as my coworker, but I guess we are all living different paths.  It was just one day, I just told him to make sure this doesn't become a pattern, even though I could've gone on for hours.

7/21/21 Not All Heroes Wear Capes, Indeed?

     I swore I was smelling a little funk in the house, but I couldn't figure out from where.  My first reaction is to always take the trash out when I smell a funk and we did eat chicken thighs last night which Baby A made and so the packaging would be in the trash, but it didn't quite smell that way.  I then went to lighting some candles and sprayed the rooms with a generic Lysol container Wife had laying around.  Maybe it helped a bit in the kitchen but I could still kind of smell it in the rest of the house.

    I took Mijo to his practice and when I came back it definitely still smelled and since I was washing clothes I thought the smell might be the washroom itself, it does have a little musty smell, but it shouldn't be permeating the house and it always has that faint smell, Baby A showers too many times a day and there are always a couple of wet towels on the floor but it wasn't that smell.  I was fixing to go exploring the bathrooms, maybe Boy's bathroom was backed up and since I never go in there, I wouldn't notice it right away.  Before going upstairs, I decided to wash the few dishes on the counter and I noticed the water didn't go down right.  I attempted to run the disposal and it made a silent whirring sound, so I thought it must be blocked and not turning, so I got a wrench and went to force it over to turn but it turned smoothly.  I figured I'd run some hot water and clean it out anyway and then I noticed the water wasn't draining and coming up the other side, where we stack the washed dishes, which gave me a gross feeling if this has been happening and we hadn't noticed.

    I didn't want to but I looked at Youtube real quick and without opening a video, one of them had the headline, most of the drain problems are right here and it showed the U joint.  I didn't want to go unscrewing things because before you know it, stuff falls out of whack and then it becomes a whole "go to Home Depot situation", but I turned the locks and opened it and was a little surprised to find it full of egg shells.  Mijo has been experimenting in the kitchen and he has been making stuff like the cauliflower salad, but I guess we didn't tell him not to send all the shells down the drain.  It was an easy fix and I just have to tell him not to do it, so problem fixed, but it just goes to show.  There is always something creeping up to keep you on your toes.

7/20/21 Black Widow? (Movie)

     We ended up getting Plex a couple weekends ago and it has been great.  We have a friend who pretty much set it up on our living room PS4 and it has been pretty great, after telling him we had paid to watch all three Back To The Future movies.  We watched Black Widow this weekend and it was pretty much what I expected, that's why I wasn't as excited to see it, a lot of narrow escapes, a lot of explosions, and the hero saves the day.

    What I didn't expect was the sheriff from Stranger Things, David Harbour, to be so good as a funny guy.  He plays a Russian hero like the same as Captain America, but for the bad guys, if you're American.  I think his character was way more fun than the trudging along Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) took us through.  We find out she was in the US as a small child living as a fake family but they get discovered.  Being American, we would want them killed before they get away with whatever intel they managed to get, but then there are two young girls and it doesn't seem right to kill them, but still.

    Anyways, the father, David Harbour character, Alexei, works for the real bad guy, Dreykov (that's a good bad guy name).  He actually creates the "widows", Russian girl spies that infiltrate all over the world.  Dreykov seems to be running the world secretly from a bunker in the clouds.  This is not a small operation, and in a world where there are super heroes like Ironman and Hulk, he wouldn't be in power for five minutes, but we have to accept the premise, I guess.  The whole purpose of the movie is to unite Natasha with her younger "sister", Yelena, and of course they are going to bring down the corrupt empire of Dreykov, let the explosions and excitement begin.

    I was really distracted by Scarlett not looking all that great.  Five years ago she was easily one of the most beautiful actresses, but her face looked thin and worn, probably make up, but why?  Wife said she has had a kid recently, but she just didn't look healthy.  Her theory and Baby A also suggested that maybe Black Widow will be replaced in the uniform by the younger sister, who did look all sorts of hot and attractive.  She even made fun of her way of landing with an outstretched leg and a sexy look to the camera, only to do it herself in one of the fight scenes and hating herself for it (like an inside joke).  I don't know, the movie was alright for a Saturday night activity at home while enjoying some grilled meat, but I wouldn't have enjoyed paying top dollar at the movies for this.

7/19/21 Cruella? (Movie)

     I was kind of forced to sit through Cruella Sunday night and was not expecting much good out of it, but I was full with just having eaten some delicious brisket so I went along with what Wife and Baby A wanted to watch.  The movie, according to Wife, is the origin story of Cruella, the bad guy from 101 Dalmations that seemed obsessed with killing puppies in the cartoon, which first came out in 1961, according to IMDB.

    The movie starts with Cruella as a young child, in the first scene she is being born and we see the first of many shocking things from her, she is born with the crazy half black half white hairdo.  In the next clip, she is older and starting elementary school with her cute hair, she seems like a normal little girl who is constantly having to defend herself because of her hair colors, yet seems to walk with an air of confidence and the character is generally very likable.

    I don't want to give too much of the movie, but it is a Disney movie and man, do they like killing the parents off to give the starring character an even bigger struggle.  She ends up meeting some street scallywags, as the cops call them, and soon become inseparable friends.  The camera fast forwards ten years and now Cruella, who goes by Estella, when she is trying to be good (Cruella is her evil personality within) which is awoken when she is pushed too far.

    Her dream since she was a small child is to be involved in fashion, it is all she ever thinks about, and as stories unfold, she ends up in the right place at the right time and is seen and picked up by the Baroness, who is at the epicenter of all that is the hottest fashion there in England, or wherever they are supposed to be.  They become intertwined and pretty much the movie revolves around their love/hate relationship, so I won't divulge much more than that.

    Emma Stone does a great job with the role I thought, as well as Emma Thompson who plays the Baroness to an almost joyous effort at being such a horrid human.  There were several other recognizable faces, so the movie was easy to enjoy, even if it was a bit long at 2 hours and 14 minutes.

7/18/21 Breakfast With The In-Laws?

     Wife has been wanting to get together with family more recently after my last uncle passed away.  She told her family we should get together once a month and either have lunch or a meal together.  I mentioned the first one a few weeks ago at a restaurant in New Braunfels the day before Father's Day and now we met again this Saturday morning.  The difference was that this was for breakfast at a Pancake Haus, which turned out to be kind of like an IHOP if IHOP was more bland and missing some taste.

    Wife is commuting daily between Austin and San Antonio for work and I guess she had noticed this particular restaurant almost in San Antonio right off I-35 on the north bound side, exit 175, if it matters.  It was a little crazy to set up because she was told that it is really popular and fills up, so she wanted to get there as soon as it opened, so she scheduled it for 7:00am.  I only half listen to her when she gets one of these bugs up her ass and say yeah yeah to whatever she thinks will be a fun time.  Deciding on this turned into us having to get up at 5:00am, which is ridiculous to me, for pancakes.  I normally have been getting up early most days, usually 7:00-8:00am on my days off, but 5:00am is way too early.  It didn't dawn on me what I ad committed to until Friday night when we had to go to bed like children at 10:30pm.  Baby A and Boy still did what they do and stayed up super late, Boy usually stays up until 3:00am even during the week, opting to nap when he gets home from work.  The younger knucklehead said he was up until about 4:30am, no wonder he looked crazy when I tried to wake him at 5:20am.  We managed to get out the door by 6:00am and were on the highway quickly and efficiently.  Wife can't help herself, I'm driving, I'm in a good mood, and yet she has to complain "why are you driving so fast?  You know you're going almost 80...."  I just ignored her telling her to "Shut up" would have ruined the family energy.  I just decided to talk about the music we were listening to.  The boys were asleep most of the way, Boy made a cocoon with a blanket, even covered his face.

    We got to the restaurant like at 6:50, there was very little traffic, I can't remember the last time we drove on I-35 and been able to just haul ass without any traffic build ups.  We met up with my mother and father in law and Wife's two sisters, everybody else was smart enough to stay home and sleep.  The doors didn't open until 7:00am sharp.  We were the first in the door, I still had to make the joke "it'll be a 30 minute wait to sit you" because we never go anywhere to eat without having to wait a bit, but they sat us down wherever we wanted and ate.  The coffee was great, but the food was bland, we all thought.  I thought their pancakes were a little thin and lacking in texture, maybe it didn't help that I used the sugar free syrup (trying to keep the carb count low, only ate half the pancakes).  The omelette was good, I went for something I would never order and got the omelette with shrimp and avocado.  It just needed a little punch, the color was bland because the shrimp are almost white, the eggs were light yellow and the avocado slices were folded in the middle of the omelette.  Both boys said there food was okay, Wife thought hers needed more spices.  Maybe they just need more Jose and Juan in the kitchen.

     We finished and were back home before 10:00am.  Both boys wasted no time and went right back to sleep, Wife pretty much did the same.  I stayed up and pissy because I had wanted to go do something, but when your family isn't the "get up early and conquer the day type" on the weekends, you just have to sit and suck it.  The rest of the day was okay, once everyone got up at a more natural 1:00pm.

7/17/21 Goose Shouldn't Have Died? (Movie)

     I love seeing movies with Baby A, he is such a passionate boy and he does not hesitate to let you know what he thinks as the movie is progressing.  We saw Top Gun last night and he reacted very differently than I expected.  He is very much a "by the rules" type of guy and he was pissed from the beginning fight scene which showed Maverick (Tom Cruise) acting like the reckless kid he is supposed to be.  Within the first five minutes and when Maverick and Goose are told they are going to the Top Gun school, he had a problem with rewarding them with the opportunity because Maverick was an ass who didn't follow rules.

    He saw himself as more of the Ice (Val Kilmer) type of character, does everything right, doesn't make mistakes, and makes himself the best by being the best, not by showing emotions and acting recklessly.  Then there was the gratuitous amounts of guys being way too comfortable in each other's spaces.  He didn't like every time they got in a heated discussion and they would talk to each other with their mouths 4-5 inches apart.  We all wondered why they were all constantly sweating, there is no way I could do that job or even read radar in the depths of an aircraft carrier while sweating like a can of cold soda on a hot day.  In almost every scene Maverick is all moist with sweat profusely coming off his face.  If that was real, he would be short circuiting electronics in the cockpit all the time.  Did we need to see them playing volleyball all shirtless and sweaty or in the locker rooms in underwear all the time?

    He absolutely hated that Goose had to die and 30 minutes into the movie he started saying "Goose better not die for this Jackass. He's a good family man, Maverick is just an asshole who doesn't follow orders."  At that point, Baby A actually turned off the movie and said he didn't need to see any more.  He was mad that he should have gotten his shit together after the first time they were yelled at by the leaders of Top Gun, he shouldn't have been getting his shit together after causing his friend to die.  I did kind of have to agree with a lot of what he was saying.

    We finally got to the end sequence where they are in a real dogfight and again, he was complaining because there is no way that Maverick would be in fighting after just having lost his partner, it wasn't real.  Ice was the real hero and would have done better and not need to be saved by Maverick who was shooting all the bad guys down.

    I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie again with different eyes in the room.  Mijo is very different and he doesn't really buy into the hero being this lone person who needs space to grow up.  He was mad that the Navy or whoever would give him so much leeway and allow him to be such a jerk just because he was a good pilot.

7/16/21 A/C was fixed And More?

     Wife called the Fox when she noticed the unit upstairs was not working.  It even gave us an error code which we gave them so they would show up with the right parts and stuff to fix it as quick as possible.  The lady from Fox told Wife to not worry about the error as long as the unit kept running, they would send someone Thursday, unless it stopped working, then they would rush someone over.  It stopped working, so I called them in the morning and by 1:00pm their service guy was here.  He was a bit funny in that he called me and started explaining what the error code was and getting very technical, about input/output signals and changing out the control board on the air handler.  It almost sounded like he was giving me directions to fix it myself and I just said "uhhh, I'm here, come do what you do, I'll look over your shoulder so I can fix it next time."  I liked this guy, he said he was a supervisor and had been doing this work for 20+ years.  He determined the float switch which keeps an eye on the drain tube in case it backs up (it will send a signal and turn off the tool so we don't get water damage like the previous system did) was connected to the circuit board at the wrong spot.  The error it gave then was incorrect based on the float switch turning off and sending the signal to the wrong part of the board.  This to me seems like a real technical snafu but I am glad this guy caught it quickly.  He rewired the circuit board and then tested the float switch and finished by pouring vinegar down the drain tube (used to be we would use bleach but the chlorine can destroy the internal parts if it gets backed up and comes into contact with other A/C parts.

    While Wife was outside checking the units on Tuesday evening, she noticed two vent holes which I hadn't thought existed or bothered to look.  But below them is quite a bit of bird poop and we have noticed a lot of bird noises in the ceiling above the wash room, which is inside the house past the bathroom, so it's not that the birds were out on a tree.  Since now I can see the bird poop and know how they are getting in, I ordered some metal mesh which goes over these type of vents, I think it is the exhaust for the bathroom vent and washroom vent, they both have vents that can be turned on.  I am guessing once I block the place where they are getting in, they will either be trapped inside and die of hunger or trapped outside and they can fuck off.  I don't want to be mean to the birds, but like the squirrels, if you move into my house, prepare to die or pay your fair share.

    Now I just have to figure out where the pool is leaking now.  That flex tape worked for a bit, but I think it failed after about a couple weeks.  The water is now below the pool light, and since I replaced the Flex tape with putty that hardens on all the returns, it has to be around the pool light hole, but that hole is a good 3-4 inches in diameter, so I need a good solution before I attempt to repair it.  Maybe I'll get Boy to make me a fiberglass patch, he did work quite a bit with it when he was making those rockets in high school.

7/15/21 Do We Just Run Uphill?

    I know I don't have real problems, but I can still bitch and moan with the best of them.  I saw a Tiktok video of a girl having an anxiety attack or something about how she just paid so much for contacts and she has insurance which got her going on and on about her other bills and she threw out a very funny but sad line to the effect of "I don't know how many years I have in me... I'm not even having a good time, I am paying entirely too much money to be having a terrible time..." and she ends it with "they can keep the contacts, I have seen enough..."  Sadly, this is what life feels like for too many of us.  It is just a cycle of one bill after another and it seems we can never really get ahead.

    We refinanced our house after going through a credit consolidation program which got us out of so much debt it would scare most people, and when we did, I thought now we'll have our shit together.  With the refinance we kept close to $20,000 in cash which I thought would help with any small incidental situations, but no.  Life will still find a way to bend you over.  Right as we finished the refinance, our central A/C unit failed and being that they were 13-14 years old, I decided to replace them.  That cost an astonishing $25,000.  Okay, we'll pay it on a monthly, 5 years at $416.  Then the Escape gets an engine light which cost $900, plus they say one of the tires has a bulge or something.  Since Wife drives out of town daily, I put new tires on it, that's another $1200.  I tried to be smart and go pick up the Escape from Ford and drop off my Excursion for an oil change and tag inspection.  They find an oil leak (3-4 actually) and I wanted to ignore it, but the vehicle is 16 years old and I plan on driving it a few more years, so yeah, that cost $2600, plus they reminded me I haven't changed the tires on it in 6-7 years and they have rot on them.  I know they look like crap, but I need to say no somewhere.  That'll be another $1200, at least.  We bought the generator because they are telling us to expect blackouts and the freeze kind of scared me enough to make it a priority.  That was another $800.

    Wife has a tooth that is going to cost $2800 to fix or remove they told her 2 weeks ago.  School starts in a month and although Baby A doesn't spend half what Boy did on clothes, we are still going to go buy him new pants, shoes shirts, probably a backpack, that'll be another $700 or more.  I bought a watch I probably shouldn't have a couple weeks ago, but if I don't then fuck, all the money really just goes to keep us moving along with necessities.  I know an A/C is not a "necessity" but you try living in this heat, that ain't for me.

    This is turning into a crap fest.  I thought we would refinance and I would then be able to afford new trucks, waterfront land, a new pool, vacations every six months, gold watches once a year, but shit.  That money we saved from the refinance is down to a third and I don't want to lose that in case some real shit shows up, like the IRS fucking with us again, or if we have another car accident (Boy).  Sucks, but life isn't cheap.

7/14/21 Stupid Air Conditioner Problems?

     I know in the big picture this is not a serious problem because the unit is under warranty, but it is still freaking annoying to have to deal with it.  Last night, I was at work, all was fine when I left the house, as usual, I am at work focused on working efficiently to get done and go home as quickly as possible.  Wife texted me about 7:30pm, she had just gotten home and managed to go upstairs, it could have been a little earlier, I wasn't paying attention to the time.  Anyways, she wanted to let me know that the air conditioner upstairs was not working, it was warm and the screen on the thermostat had an air handler error.  Uh, okay, is about all I can say.  I know it wasn't her fault and I am a dick for reacting how I do, but I am at work, I don't want to hear about stuff I can't do anything about, specially when I had left 2-3 hours earlier and everything seemed fine.  I took a shower upstairs, I was there, it must have broken as I was leaving.

    I finished as quickly as I could, Wife had already told me she was going to bed around 915pm, so I got home and tried not to bother her but it was like a sauna upstairs.  It is a really weird feeling, it's not the first time the upstairs unit gives out, well this one is new, but when it happens, downstairs feels like normal, nice and cool, but as you walk up the stairs it's like walking into a cloud of steam and humidity.  I looked at the A/C unit in the closet, I don't know what the parts are called, I flipped a breaker that seemed to be off, but nothing.  I then got the idea to at least make Wife comfortable and break out the portable A/C we bought for emergencies, shit, already paying off.  It is really heavier than it should be, but I got Baby A to carry it upstairs for me, I mean why should I struggle?  It took me longer than I care to admit to put the vent together, it is accordion style with end pieces that mate to the A/C and the window shield.  The end pieces and accordion tube would not stay connected, it took me a good 30-40 minutes of messing with it.

    Once I turned it on, it immediately made an improvement, I like this little unit.  I stepped out to read the instructions, to make sure it was okay to leave on overnight, I wanted light from the hallway, and within five minutes, I walked back in and the room was already more or less cool.  I told the two knuckleheads they could either sleep in the room with Wife, we have a twin mattress we move around when company comes or they could go sleep downstairs on the sofa or on the bed.  Boy stayed in his room, I can't imagine how, but Baby A did eventually come down and he slept on the sofa.

    Fox said they would come on Thursday, as long as the unit kept running, they told Wife.  If it stopped to call them and they would try to get here earlier.  I called them at 8:00am today and right now, at noon, I am waiting for them to come sometime between now and 6:00pm.  Like I said, units are new, I don't expect this is going to cost me, and they just did a PM last week, so this just seems wrong, but I guess it happens.

7/13/21 Changing Of The Spice Guard?

     I know Wife won't like it, but I just went through and threw away about half of the crap that we had in our spice shelves.  We had so many different spices in the three level cabinet that the stuff we actually use doesn't fit in there and we just end up keeping the salt, pepper, Salt Lick rub and a couple others on the counter all the time.  I made an executive decision and got rid of all the stuff I considered old and/or we hadn't used in years.

    I know the minute I did that, it will turn out that she was just about to cook something that required those bay leaves we bought in 1999 which she has been letting air out in their container.  Or she was about to cook a special batch of brownies that was going to need the cinnamon that is all hardened and more brown than orange colored, but I needed the room.

    I don't want to sound like an ass, but lately I have been doing more of the cooking and for the most part, we are eating more than half our meals from food we make on the grill.  All this being mostly meat, we generally just spice it up with salt and pepper, if you leave it up to me, but of course that is too bland for my people, so we also use a lot of the Salt Lick rub when doing briskets, or most any beef or pork.  Lately, we started using Uncle Chris's Gourmet Steak Seasoning and once Wife gets on a kick, we kind of have to use it every time or it just doesn't taste right.

    I kept the two varieties of Slap Ya Mama spice which I like to use on steaks, the Tony Chachere's spices when I want to change it up a bit, about 3-4 different pepper grinders, all the little McCormick's spices that are used around Thanksgiving to make pies.  Boy has a weird obsession with buying special 1 time use spices, like the bay leaves, Thyme, and about ten different concentrated flavors for making cakes and cookies.  We also had about 4-5 bottles of chili that we put on fruit, it's a Mexican thing, I think.

    Mostly, I got rid of a lot of containers that had a dust of product left in them, I did throw away old spices that have been around since we moved, probably, and anything that was weirdly hardened or the color just didn't look normal.  I just got tired of not having space to put my spices in the cabinets and seeing them all the time on the counter.

7/12/21 Meeting A Challenge Head On?

     Fourth of July weekend was spent at my mom's house and we had a good time doing what we do down there.  I talked about this a week ago or so, but what stayed with me most was that Baby A talked shit like he likes to do to me and told me that my brother made better ribs than me.  I was a little insulted but I also accept that I don't have control of my ribs and haven't worked on them like I have my brisket.  I find that although they have a good taste, they are usually dry and almost crispy but still fall off the bone easy enough.

    Well, I decided to study what I might be doing wrong and listening to a couple of youtube videos to see what I could do better.  First off, I lowered the temperature, I tend to grill them more than smoke them and the temperature on the grill is usually closer to 400.  This time I lowered my temperature down to 250 degrees and then lowered the ribs closer to the heat, I had been putting the ribs on the uppermost rack of the grill, but this time I put them in the middle, with the grates of the grill closed in the smoke position.  Another thing I did different was to remove the membrane on the backside of the ribs, which according to the video I saw blocks the smoke from getting into the meat.  Wife says I shouldn't worry about it, but I felt better removing it.

    The last thing I did was to season it well with Salt Lick seasoning and place on grill for 1 hour facing up.  After an hour, I flipped the ribs and they were facing down.  The last thing I did was after two hours, I wrapped them in foil and then smoked them for the remaining hour.  After the 3rd hour, I opened the foil trap and poured a good amount of BBQ sauce on the meat, hoping it would add to the moisture and complexity of the flavor.  There was a lot of moisture on the ribs with the backside pointed up and the moisture was captured in the folds of the meat which I was then careful to not spill it away as I wrapped the ribs in foil.  The last part was only for about 10 minutes of smoking, just enough to warm up the sauce.

    I thought the ribs were very good overall.  I had a hard time cutting them into pairs of bones as the meat kept coming off the bone as I cut them.  I can also say the meat was definitely moist compared to past efforts.  Baby A asked me "why do you care to impress me?"  It's not that I care to impress him, per say.  I want to be the best at whatever I do and to hear someone else does something I do better will bother me until I figure a way to beat them.  I am naturally competitive and hearing someone is better than me at doing something I enjoy is never going to be fun for anyone.

7/11/21 Sure Is Good Weather We're Having?

     It has been another weird head scratcher, as far as the weather we've been having so far this summer.  While both the east and west northern coasts are burning up with record heat, we have had many days here in Texas where we don't even break into the 90's.  I couldn't believe the last time I got in the car and the temperature outside was still 79 in the afternoon.  We are now almost halfway through our summer months (June-August) and I don't think we have had a proper 100 degree day yet this year, maybe it's gotten there for an hour or two, but I don't think we have had many scorchers where it is 100 degrees from noon until 6pm.  I know it's premature to think this will be a cool summer, but there was at least one summer, in 1987, when Austin did not have a recorded 100 degree day.  We can dream, at least.

    More than anything, this has probably contributed the greatest to our light bill staying so low.  We have had three months of bills like $56, $66, and recently, the light bill was like $130.  I guess the solar panels are finally doing their part, even if it has been cloudy most days.  Nothing is guaranteed, but looking at the 10 day forecast, the temperatures for a high are all in the low 90s with around 25% chance of rain most days.  I do like it cool like that, but I do have to admit that stepping outside is like getting hit with a warm soup almost immediately, as the humidity is out of control with all the moisture in the air.  I am just glad my job keeps me indoors other than driving to work.  I also like that we can go in and out of our building's doors and don't have to do that ridiculous walk all around our campus anymore.

    Last I looked, even Canada is in a heat wave, looking at temps going to 121 this week, some 400-500 people have died in the past week and heat is the main factor.  Oregon had multiple record heat days, recording a high of 117 and at least 63 deaths in the past week, succumbing to the heat.  New York is also hitting record highs, recording 100 at La Guardia airport and 102 in Newark, New Jersey.  This is certainly a weird instance, but I don't think we will make fun of them like they were laughing at us when we were sitting in a frozen tundra in February here in Texas for a week.  Currently, up to 1700 residences are sitting without power, so even if their homes have A/C, they are sitting in heat and waiting for mother nature to have bring some relief.

    This is why I invested in my generator and smaller room A/C.  I don't want to even feel the pressure and discomfort of the environment if our man made comfort tools start to fail, on a grand scale.

7/10/21 Back To The Future I-III?

     Yesterday, I wanted Baby A to watch a classic movie with us.  It had been awhile since we got his input into one of our classic movies we grew up with.  I thought it would be cool to watch Top Gun and we will watch it at some point, but somehow or other, we ended up on Back To The Future.  I told him it was pretty good and he would probably like it, but since he is a big strong boy, he would probably like the Biff character more (jokingly).  I honestly had not seen the movie in a good 20 years or more, so sitting back and getting into it was rather easy.  I do notice that older movies like this take their time giving you back story, which is good, but you can also see the phones turn on (all of us) because the action is slow in the beginning.

    Mijo was so annoyed by the George McFly (dad) character who would not stand up for himself in the present and in the past.  I enjoyed Doc's energy and I think he is what makes the movie special, Marty is kind of douch-y and just riding along in the movie, I thought, acting all "too cool for school" in most every scene.  The Delorean is still an iconic cool car even if in reality they were always pieces of crap in regards to reliability.  Once you get past the premise that a little liquified plutonium and some 80s technology could muster a time machine, the movie is rather fun silly.  Mijo was uncomfortable with the mom (Lea Thompson) trying to make out with the son once Marty is in the past and it was even more squirm-ish when I reminded him that was the same chick that had the weird love scene with Howard The Duck.

    Our kid was ready to give up on the movie seeing how everything was going against the "good guys" and how badly George's life was, mostly because he wouldn't stand up for himself, but then things start turning around and he got so involved with it that as soon as it ended he "needed to see what happened in part 2.  We sat there and watched the second movie within minutes of watching the first one.  I usually just fall asleep, but the movie was entertaining enough that I stuck with it.  I am not going into specifics of the movie because everyone has seen them or should.  I honestly had no recollection of the second one, other than I knew it was set in the future.  The first one was probably better, but the second one was still good, but they did use a lot of the same gags, running around the town square, Biff or Griff, ending up in manure...

    We ended up taking a nap, then going late to get some Zaxby's for dinner around 9pm and ending the night by watching the 3rd Back To The Future movie, which was set in the old west.  It was a lot harder to believe, Baby A was really bothered by the time traveling train at the end, but if you went along with the rest of the movie, just enjoy it.  It was a good lazy day, what else can I say?  Don't be so gullible, McFly.

7/9/21 Becoming The Main Cook?

     I had a good run, I guess.  I went from living at home where Mom cooked all the meals, except for the occasional BBQ when Dad would burn some meat outside.  This was then followed by living with a roommate who enjoyed cooking and as a result I was relegated to washing dishes most every night, but at least I didn't have to cook.  During my early years of marriage and up until the past year, Wife has been the cook at the house and I was never intending to change that, but it still happened.

    With my discovery of the pellet grill, I have become more in control of what we eat.  This started when I insisted on figuring out how to make a good brisket completely on my own.  I "mastered" this a few months ago and that somehow led to Wife letting me handle the dinner meal almost every day, if I have time.  There was a time I couldn't be trusted to boil water, I had zero confidence cooking and honestly, I was alright with that.

    I'm not even sure if it was the pellet grill that made me more confidant or that Wife started her new job and comes home after putting in a twelve hour day, so it is the least I can do to contribute around the house.  Most weeks I make a pretty big Saturday or Sunday feast and then we eat through Monday or Tuesday night, but since I am off this week and Wife is working, it's been on me to have dinner ready (or be sent to bed early by the boss lady).

    We left a little later than we planned on Monday from a visit to my folk's, and we had promised Baby A we would eat at Sea Island which is behind the Buc-ee's in New Braunfels, so those were the dinner plans on Monday night, but I have been pretty much living in the kitchen ever since.  I grilled some sirloin steaks that had been in the freezer a little long and were starting to get that weird darker color on Tuesday.  I refuse to let meat go to waste unless absolutely necessary, specially with today's prices.  We then ate chicken thighs on Wednesday with a little broccoli on the side Wednesday night, both meals cooked quickly on the pellet grill.  Yesterday, I took a couple of small, less than two pounds each brisket pieces and decided they would smoke and be ready in 3-4 hours because of their size.  I put them in before 3:00pm and took them out at 6:30pm.  The meat was very lean and maybe a little tough, but the brisket flavor was all there.  I cut it thinly and it turned into the right amount for the four of us.  I added some sausages, because brisket and sausages go together.

    I think I have been given a "get out of jail free" card today as Wife said we should go to dinner tonight, and she is supposedly getting out a little early.  It is bullshit that I asked her if everyone is getting out early as she was leaving at 5:45am and she says well, it's only me and 1 other lady showing up.  Why the fuck make people go to work if no one is going to be there, that is fucking stupid?  But Wife just started, so she couldn't plan it out to not be there.  Whatever, I don't blame her, but bureaucracy is a bloated pig sometimes, with all its rules and no concept of logic and sense.

7/8/21 Another Oil Change?

     Wife can add up the miles quickly, I think it is worse now that she is commuting to San Antonio.  This is the main reason I wanted an extra car and the Escape has been doing a pretty good job as our mileage car.  Like everything though, it needed servicing, namely an oil change, which I prefer to do at the dealerships.  I was fine going to Jiffy Lube's until they got ridiculous and tried to say an oil change now costs $80, fuck them.

    Anyways, I dropped off the car and did a little walk around the dealership, which I usually do, I like looking at the inventory and imagining myself in whatever SUV and trucks are there.  Out in the back that used to be filled with row upon row of trucks, they had two F-250 trucks, a red and a blue one.  Both were basically $70,000.  This is a lot but at least they are new.  I then walked around to the front of the dealership and they had a handful of trucks there as well and a few were of the STX variety, which is their most cost conscious product line and I can at least happily say that if I needed to get an F-250, I could at least get one of these for around $50,000.

    The ridiculous prices were reserved for the used trucks they had on the lot.  I don't care how expensive they started, a used truck should not be $60,000 for a 2017 truck with 70,000 miles.  Even more ridiculous was the 2019 F350 for a whopping $83,988.  I can almost buy into this delusion if it is new and has zero miles, but this is used, has fart smells buried in the seats from a stranger, somebody probably had sex somewhere on the truck and these yahoos want to sell it for more than the cost of a new comfortably loaded truck?  They must have gotten hit on the head with a stupid stick.

    Life swings on a pendulum and if we just wait a bit, prices will come back down.  I noticed the used lot was loaded with a bunch of F-150 trucks (53 per website) and another 13 Super Duty trucks.  This doesn't include the handful of Dodge and Chevy trucks mixed in.  I think we will have a glut of inventory soon, thanks to idiot Biden letting gas prices get out of control, and then I will have a choice whether to buy new as they panic to sell trucks that give you poor mileage or used, which are supposed to save the consumer money by buying something that is supposed to have depreciated on someone else's credit.

    I don't know ultimately what will happen, but I am glad we bought the Escape when we did, at $11,000.  It seems like such a steal, I think we bought just before this whole skyrocketing prices began.

7/7/21 Maybe The New Air Conditioners Do Run Better?

     We installed new air conditioners back in November after we noticed the upstairs was not being kept at the right temperature.  All summer last season was kind of a pain in the ass, it was barely cool but at night we could feel the heat from the attic bearing down on the bedrooms.  I guess I just accepted that as normal, but Boy tried fighting it by installing his own separate room air conditioner and he is one that is always cold.  Well, in November we noticed a big water stain on the garage ceiling and we traced it to the condenser unit or whatever the part of the central A/C sits in a closet in the house.  It was frozen over and water was all over the wood.  I got in there and dried it with towels and then called Fox Services.  I know they are not the cheapest service but we tried other people, like when we had a leak with the water heater, and it seemed we were way over charged, but who knows. I trust Fox, they do good work and I have peace of mind.

    The technician said we could fix it and it would be good for a season or three, but at some point we would be better off replacing the then 13 year old unit and probably the one downstairs too.  I didn't want to spend that kind of money, for both units, replaced with the latest and greatest systems that are supposed to be super energy efficient was right around $25,000.  My mom had replaced their unit for $10,000 a year or two earlier, so the price made sense to me.  Of course, Wife's brother "ALWAYS" tells me shit like I could have found you a new system for $3,000 but I pretty much just ignore stuff like that, I am never that kind of lucky.

    We replaced the units and the new ones are beauties, standing almost 5 feet tall, even my nosey neighbor told me "oh, you got them good systems, I used to install Lenox back in the day (this man has done everything and knows more than that)."  We noticed a difference well, slowly because they were replaced in November and it was kind of cool back then but the last two months we have gotten light bills of $56, then $66 and now that we are in July, the June bill was $134, which to me sounds so great considering we are keeping it much cooler than before, I used to keep the thermostat at 76 and now my mom tells me it was very uncomfortable and even Girlie told me the same thing, but it was all I could do and still we would get $400 light bills in August.  As of right now, the thermostat is at 73, the pool pump is running every other day for around 10 hours, Boy has his 3D printers going nonstop sometimes, and then all the other power suckers like the TVs, freezer, two fridges running 24x7, I feel very satisfied with how the house is behaving right now.  Maybe the solar panels can actually help out now that the old A/C systems aren't sucking power like it's 1999.

7/6/21 Too Many Chiefs?

     It is near impossible to make plans with a group like my family.  We are all good people in the big picture as far as being productive members of society, but small picture, we are all assholes as well.  We are trying to go to Disney for Thanksgiving weekend but we all want it to be our way and as a result, we can't seem to even decide what day to get going or how.

    I want to go by driving our Telluride, it seems to be the cheapest way, it is a fairly new vehicle, but it isn't as big as the Excursion, so I can't fit my parent's and my brother comfortably along with us and our bags.  My mom thought of renting a big 15 passenger van, which could work, but it would have to be picked up somewhere, so I figure here and when I typed in the days we needed it for, the online calculator gave us 2100 miles, then each additional mile at .25 cents.  The round trip is roughly 2400 miles plus whatever running around we do in the Disney area.  That bill starts at $1500 for the week plus the additional miles.  My sister suggested renting an RV so we could be really comfortable, but that would be even more expensive, none of us has looked that up.  My brother suggests we just fly, but we looked at Southwest and United and the price is like $1500 per person, roundtrip, so it would be around $4500 for the 3 of us plus renting a van up there, paying to store our car here which doesn't even start to include accommodations.

    I would like to leave Friday at 6:00pm, when Wife gets home, drive all night like we have done a few times, to get there Saturday afternoon, we could then go get food and rest the rest of the day.  This would allow us to go to a park on Sunday.  My sister wants to leave Saturday, stay in a hotel halfway there, which we have also done, then continue driving on Sunday.  We wouldn't go to a park until Monday.  My brother figures we can fly in Friday or Saturday be fresh and ready to do stuff that day.  I know my dad will be wore out if he has to be in a car not moving for that many hours, shoot I'm going to feel like shit, it hurts to sit in the car going the three hours to Crystal.

    I figure with the shortened time, we should just stick to the Disney parks, it has been long enough that even the Animal Kingdom park has had many upgrades, that it might be worth seeing.  My sister wants to go to the Universal parks because she is still living in a world with Harry Potter.  I want to see that too, but they probably purposely spread the magic between both their parks to force people to want to go to both parks.

    The accommodations are another point of contention.  We have stayed in 4-5 different places, so we are cool with booking a week at any of those places, per Wife, whichever is cheapest.  My sister has a timeshare type of thing and wants to stay at Westgate Resorts, but we would have to do a timeshare tour to get a discount to stay there.  My brother prefers to stay at one of the Disney parks because you can get in to the parks sooner and there is less hassle, they take you and pick you up.  I don't like the idea of staying in a box with 2 beds and no kitchen.  I want some privacy at the end of the day, I want my own toilet and shower and I want to move at my pace.

    We need someone to mediate and cut through the shit, even yesterday sitting there face to face, the conversation gets so far off the road, we left and Wife was like "who gives a shit about Woodrow Wilson? (which came up in our meandering conversations), I just want to reserve a hotel, but we haven't decided on what day yet."  The trip will be fun, we just need to decide and start clamping down on what exactly we are going to do.

7/5/21 Celebrating Painfully Well?

     4th of July has come and gone and I think we did about as well as most families can manage here in the South.  We kind of waited and thought there might be bad weather with the chances of rain at 50%, but they never came.  What did come was the heat and humidity, right on course.  It was weirdly calm in the early morning, around 9:30am.  My mom had already been outside with the people that she rented the water slide from.  I thought it was fair, they bring it out, set it up and then they pick it up at the end of the day, for $150.  I walked out with my mom to check it out once it had been set up and thought it might be a weird cool day, but I was wrong.  The kids, including our stuffy Baby A, spent most of the day in the water, I don't know how he is still awake right now (around 11:35pm, when he was out in the sun all day).

    We went out to set up and get the grills going around 1:00pm and it was a pretty hot day by that point.  I never looked at a thermostat, but it had to be around 100 degrees.  At least my parents have an open area with a roof to gather outside, it is the parking area for their RV and it is nice and open.  Because it is not next to the house, it has a chance to get a breeze going and it didn't seem that bad, but it was still hot.  I was keeping an eye on the meat on the two grills we set up and it is always hotter next to the grills.  I took the heat, but once we ate and most everybody hit that lull, I came inside.  I got the urge to poop, which I then showered after and was pretty much done.  My brother called me though and asked me of I wanted to go get fireworks, then he wanted me to drive, probably because he had a couple too many beers.

    I could not believe how expensive things have gotten in the fireworks game.  I hardly bought the minimum and it still came out to $140.  My brother bought one giant package of the loud exploding cannon types and that was $160 by itself.  My other brother bought some fireworks too and even my sister coughed up some money, which Baby A took and he got fireworks for them.

    By the time we got back, I didn't want to be outside anymore, but Wife came inside and kind of forced me to come inside.  I had pooped and took a shower, so why would I want to keep sweating anymore?  But there I was, whether I liked it or not, sitting outside at 9:15pm, watching my son and his cousins doing what boys do.  They went through those fireworks quickly and I was glad to call it an end to the night.  I had to take another shower to get the humidity of my skin.

7/4/21 Happy Birthday, America?

     These are contentious times for this great country.  On the one hand, people that love it, think it is the greatest place on Earth, regardless of what other countries might have to offer.  The rest of the confused people, think America is past its prime.  Some people think it is time to remake this great country to pacify those that maybe have felt like they are on the outside.  I was offended this week to hear that a singer Macy Gray thought it a good idea to change the flag.  No, the red, white and blue represents us all.  It has fifty stars for the fifty states and 13 stripes for the 13 original British colonies.

    I think some people have forgotten where we came from.  This country did not spring magically out of thin air.  The United States started as a group of thirteen European colonies.  They were under British law and so were taxed by them and controlled by their rule of law.  America was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and that started a slow migration of European settlers, but it wasn't until 1776 that America came into being its own country when it fought and won the Revolutionary War against the British.  This war broke out after the British tried to enforce their rule of law and imposed a series of taxes, which led ultimately to the Boston Tea Party, where a shipment of tea was dumped into the harbor.  The impetus was that the Americans that dumped the tea were not going to pay taxes to a government that they were not represented in, thus the term "taxation without representation."  This occurred in December 16, 1773 and was the fuse that lit the war.

    If this had not happened, we might still be under the rule of Great Britain today, so those actions were indeed important.  Once the thirteen colonies were established as their own country, the government started buying land until the size of the country reached from sea to shining sea.  Detractors want to say that America was founded on the backs of the native indians and with the sweat of so many slaves and maybe this is a mark on the country, but the fact of the matter, this country has provided unimaginable opportunities and possibilities to the people that are lucky enough to find themselves living here.  Because of the way this country's government was formed, by people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton, we have more freedoms and rights than people in other countries.  Yes, it took a while to make things right, and maybe they needed to, but today, in this country, men and women are equals and everyone has an equal chance to make something of themselves, if they put in the work.

    I love this country, I can say I believe I am lucky for what I have, but all my luck has also been coincided with a ton of hard work on the part of Wife and myself.  We have instilled the notion to our boys that you can have what you want, if you work hard, because although we say it is the land of the free, material things are not free.

7/3/21 Leaving My Sanctuary?

     Leaving our house is something that seems strange nowadays, after Covid19.  There was a time we would vacation or visit family or just go out of town for a conference with Wife, but all that changed in 2020.  We are trying to get back to normal now in 2021, even with the new Covid variant being mentioned every 5 minutes to try and scare us back into conformity and the safety of our homes.  This is the third or fourth time we have been out of our house this year, the other times being for the small Spring Break trip we did to Corpus Christi, the state wrestling meet in Houston and the back to back funerals we had here in Crystal City a couple months ago.

    To tell the truth, I don't feel as comfortable being out of my house, I like my house, everything I need for comfort is there.  We have a private bathroom, first of all that is always accessible to me, when I need it.  We keep out house stocked with food we eat, and what we do seems normal.  I do like visiting my folks, but there is only one bathroom in the house and it can be hectic at times.  We still have a bed in the guest room that Wife used to sleep in before, but it is a Queen sized bed and although we fit, it is a little snug.  Not that it has been a big deal, but it appears there is a constant battle with the temperature here at my parent's house.  My dad is an old fart and is always cold, so he wants the ceiling fans turned down and the temperature set to a warmer setting.  My brother, who I believe may be going through a form of manopause (little joke there) is always hot and will walk in the house lowering the thermostat and increasing the speed of the ceiling fan to make it cooler.  I don't care wither way, if it seems cool, I can put on my warm-ups, if it feels warm, I can drop down to my underwear and muscle shirt, but they need to decide one setting.

    On our way down, we stopped in Lytle and bought some meat for the BBQ tomorrow, we got a few pounds of fajitas, some beef strips, chicken, and sausages.  It is a small portion of the meat that will be grilled, but at least I can feel like we contributed.  I thought it would be fun to buy some water balloons as my mom told me she had rented a giant water slide so the kids could get wet and have a good time.  My brother also set up his big pool and I just went and looked at it at night (Saturday night, this is a day late) and it is about 3/4 full, so it should be just right for Sunday afternoon.

    The only thing missing that I can think of is Boy, who had to stay because he is on call for work.  They alternate who has the 24 hour hotline phone and a customer can call and request something leading him to have to go to work, but other wise I guess everything looks like it will be a good time.

7/2/21 Missing Michael Jackson, For A Second?

     I know he had his flaws, but Michael Jackson could sing.  I was driving Baby A to football practice this morning and Michael Jackson's "Black and White" came on.  It was a pretty powerful song which hit number 1 in 1991 and was there for 7 weeks.  Everybody knows the song, if you listen to pop music and I got carried away raising the volume.  I kind of thought about it for second and just casually said "we need Michael Jackson today, songs like this can bring people together..." I was also thinking of "We Are The World" which he cowrote and again was a world phenomenon in 1985.  The message of "it don't matter of you're black or white" would go a long way if it could help diffuse the racial tensions created by these idiot people on the left.

    Baby A just also casually threw it back to me "wasn't he a pedo?"  "Ugh, why is your generation like that?" was all I could muster.  Y'all just look at the faults of a person no matter the contributions they left behind.  Maybe he was a monster, but the parents of those kids that kept dropping off their children at his house, after hearing allegations have some responsibility to bear.  Do you think I would willingly go drop off my kid at some 40 year old man's house and leave?  That is deranged thinking.

    Jesus himself said "let him who is without sin cast the first stone".  I mean I don't believe in all this lord stuff, but I do like the message, none of us are perfect and we all do stuff that we aren't always proud of, but that is part of life, somehow we keep going.  Hopefully, in the big picture, we accomplish more good than bad and we don't go intentionally hurting people.  I don't know if he did what he was accused of, he certainly was eccentric, but if anything, Michael Jackson left a lot for us to enjoy going forward.

    His music career started in 1964, with his brothers, and lasted four decades.  He passed away in 2009, but his vocals are still being used as recently as 2018 for chart topping music.  He donated millions through his Heal The World Foundation, and was a world recognized celebrity who frequently lent his image to help those in need.  I am not saying this excuses whatever happened behind closed doors, but the man made a life of giving and he should also be remembered for that too.

7/1/21 Why Are People Still Wearing Masks?

     I just saw a video of a guy asking people at a park or festival of some kind outside why they are still wearing masks and I think the quick answer is because they aren't too bright or they're liberals and this is a flex for them.  At this point, if you have a real fear you should have gotten vaccinated, that excuse is no longer valid plus scientists, including shitty Dr. Fauci have said regular masks don't really stop the transmission of the virus, so you're really not protecting yourself, and don't give me that shit that you wear it to protect others, nobody cares about other people that much.  I think it helps identify liberals from conservatives and in this weird world we live in today, it is the liberals who like being constrained by invisible tethers because the government tells them to do it.

    My phone has a Covid counter of some kind and shows the daily death counter along with weather information and most days the last two months, the numbers are between the teens and 30 deaths a day.  That is not perfect, but in its highpoint, up to 400 people a day were dying.  One could say that sucks but we must remember that the regular old flu kills a lot of old people too, it is a top ten killer for humans, that little virus kills more humans than sharks, dogs, alligators, and hippos combined every year, just saying, 49,783 in 2019, per www.CDC.gov.

    I stopped wearing a mask about two months ago, when this all started, I panicked, cried a bit with Wife, specially when those mother fuckers on TV said it killed old and fat people.  I was sure it was just a matter of time.  Fucking assholes, I could kick those shits in the balls!!!!  I had to continue going to work, I would start my day by taking alcohol and wiping everything down in my lab, sit there alone at night with my stupid mask, then reality started coming out.  Wiping stuff down wasn't necessary, masks don't really do anything, ultimately, we didn't go out to eat for a year and the first time we did, I got Covid, but all it did was I lost my sense of smell and taste.  I know many people, even people my folks know passed away from it, but I still think it was overblown.

    It is a little ridiculous when I still see an occasional driver in his car alone, with windows rolled up, wearing a mask, or a jogger, by himself on a sidewalk, no people around, wearing the mask, nose out.  What are you doing?  Even the idiot liberals that were being interviewed had their noses sticking out, but I guess the virus respects you trying 50% because you keep your mouth covered, or you wear it around your chin.  And of course, Covid fully respects when you eat amongst friends, it doesn't attack then.  Fucking posers, nobody is impressed but you.