9/30/21 Feeling Meh About Oil Change At Kia?

     Once again, Wife has gotten another car to its necessary oil change and because we have the work routines we do, I get the honor of taking care of her car while she's at work.  It's not that bad, I don't mind going to the dealerships so much, I just mind when something that should take an hour or so takes over two hours.  The last few times we have done oil changes on her Telluride, we are supposed to go through the online website and make an appointment, or at least that is what they tell us.  I have now done this the last three times, I believe, and every time just leaves me with a bad taste because I am more than a little sure people are just driving in there totally lost and still getting serviced before me.  Maybe that is just a little paranoia on my part, but I really do expect quicker turn around times while dropping off our cars.  This morning, I had an appointment at 9:00am and I got there probably fifteen minutes early, fine, I guess I should be waiting for 9:00am, if I am going to be a stickler for the rules, but if I can get in a little early that is a win for me.

    Anyways, I had to stand there and listen to this old man drone on and on about his car and he might trade it in in about a year and a half but blah blah blah.... I don't give a shit, tell them what the car needs and move along.  This was annoying because no one else was coming out to take my information, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go into the office, usually they meet us at our car as we drive up.  Eventually, I got another guy telling me to come into the office, even if I had seen him come out and take the info of the car in front of me at the car with the customer sitting in his car.  I got the keys handed over eventually, but it took a good 20 minutes of me standing around waiting.  I was then told it would be closer to two hours when I asked if it would take about an hour.

    I guess I am bothered by the fact that it's a bunch of new faces, we used to have our service guy, but he left to work elsewhere, then last time I got a very pretty girl helping me, and that was ok.  This time I only saw two dudes and neither was super friendly, so that was part of the problem.  They did have donuts, like 5 dozen in boxes next to the coffee, but it didn't necessarily say it was for us.  For all I know, maybe it was only for the employees, but why would they be sitting next to the coffee maker that the customers use.  I simply got a coffee when I got there, but after waiting for an hour, I figured I had earned a donut and grabbed one with my second cup of coffee.  I try to just drink one cup of coffee a day, but with the one I had at home when I got up, I am already on 3 cups and it is barely noon.

    To my pleasant surprise, the oil change was done in about the two hours the service guy said, so that was good.  To make it even better, the oil change was free, we somehow had a $75 credit on our account, so that covered it.  Like I said, I don't mind going to the dealerships, I do enjoy looking at the new inventory, but with how Wife puts miles on the cars, it seems I am either at Ford or Kia once a month.  By the way, the Kia inventory is super low, they only had one Telluride to show, and it got pulled down from the elevated parking where they keep the nicer cars.

9/29/21 Infestation Will Get You Off Your Ass?

     I had had the thought of cleaning the pantry, you know, with my dooms day prep thoughts, I want the room so I can buy more canned foods and stuff that will keep, plus I want to know what we have in there, so I can plan and buy extra peanut butter, cooking oil, stuff like that.  Well, last night Wife asked me of I would run the Crock pot with some chicken so she could make chicken embueltos Wednesday afternoon, when she got home from work.  Once the chicken is cooked, its just a matter of wrapping some chicken in corn tortillas and loading them in a pan to cook in the oven so the tortillas warm up and absorb some sauce and the cheese on top melts.

    I hate having tasks to do, but I figured the quicker I got on it the quicker I could put it past me, but when I got the Crock pot, I found a trail of ants.  Fuck, is that annoying.  I then had to get everything pretty much out of the pantry, and it is a pretty big pantry so thanks to some ants, I was at it for a good 4 hours, but now I have some new room, and I have thrown a lot of expired food away.  Some of the Ritz boxes were dated from 2019, so I think it was time for a cleaning.  I hate the ants but I like that they got me off my butt and I cleaned where it needed it.

    This is like the squirrel situation in the early summer, when we got a pair of squirrels trying to set up camp inside our house up on the eaves.  Technically, they did, but the mama paid with her life as we exterminated her promptly.  This sucked because I like looking at the squirrels and have even fed them in the past.  But the minute you try taking my property, well, it's Texas, prepare to die.

    The other infestation I've had to deal with was a couple of birds had set up a nest in the vent ductwork from the washroom.  This was annoying because I couldn't figure out how they were making noise in the washroom, we could hear them chirping, I hadn't made the connection that the vent in the room leads directly outside because the washroom is inside the house,  not against an outside wall.  My neighbor then told me he could see them going in and out from the vent and when I went up on the ladder to investigate, I found that there is in fact a 2 inch hole.  Their is a cap that closes, but when the vent is on, it blows the cap open, so the birds must have caught it open and moved in.  I then ordered a mesh screen on Amazon and blocked it off, so those birds can screw off as well.

    It sucks to constantly be fighting nature, but I guess that is how it has to be.

9/28/21 Halloween Is In The Air?

     I know we are still more than a month away from actual Halloween, but I have taken out most of our bins and started decorating the house.  There is no rhyme or reason for it, but both Wife and I love the colors of the holiday.  Well, Wife is a witch at heart and loves everything about the holiday, I like the colors that correspond with the holiday (purples, greens and oranges) plus who doesn't like a slutty "fill in the blank" (girls will turn any outfit slutty for the event) costume.  I like giving the house a different look by hanging all of our various zombies, witches, spiders and whatever else we have bought over the years.

    We try and buy a couple different things every year, so we keep adding to the look.  I have taken to collecting all the zombie/scary "babies" that the Halloween store carries, I just bought a creepy little zombie girl with red eyes.  I have been sitting these babies on the posts of our stair rails.  We have about ten posts and I have almost bought one for every post at this point.

    Wife was losing her mind Monday at work.  She bought two cups for her drinks, she likes to keep a water glass and one with Coke/Pepsi for the drive, and since we were at Spirit Halloween on Friday, she saw some from Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus, both very popular themes and part of pop culture, I would say.  Well, none of her coworkers were even aware of what the cups signified, the Nightmare Before Christmas cup was filled in the vacuum space to keep the liquids cool/hot with little Jack Skellington heads and no one recognized him.  The other one was more generic in Halloween colors but everyone should at least recognize Jack's head.  Wife was disappointed, to say the least.

    In years past, we would decorate and have a party, so the effort made sense, nowadays, we just kind of decorate for ourselves.  It does take a lot of effort, I have already spent about 2-3 hours on three occasions pulling out the bins and hanging things around the house.  The big showcase for me is always the stairs and for some reason, I always loose the lights.  I think it is because we leave them on until I take them off and replace them with the Christmas lights and half the time I just throw the Halloween lights in a Christmas bin, yes we have about the same amount for both holidays, probably over ten for each at this point.  I just bought the more expensive LED type that flash orange and purple so I can't just go and buy more, but of they don't pop up today or tomorrow, I am afraid I will just run out and get more.  I need the lights so I can put them on first, then all the spiderweb, followed by the giant spiders, it all fits together once its done, but I can't start without my lights.  The pic shows my incomplete efforts and some of my zombie babies, the newest is on the bottom post there, to the right.

9/27/21 I Am Starting To Hate Austin?

     I am not sure if it is because we have been stuck at home for the past 1.5 years or if it is because of the constantly increasing population, but I am starting to hate living here in Austin.  Every weekend is the same thing, too much traffic to try and do anything outside the home.  It doesn't seem to be a problem if we are going to be home all day and we have planned accordingly and have meat and stuff to grill or do whatever we do at home, but the minute we venture out, we have to be a part of the pandemonium on our streets and highways.

    Saturday, after Baby A had his usual film break down after their Friday night games, he planned on celebrating his friends birthday at their house, so we went and dropped him off around 3:30pm.  This then gave us the afternoon free to do whatever we wanted, Boy is always off with his girlfriend, so he doesn't factor into our plans hardly ever anymore.  Wife asked if I wanted to go somewhere, to which I said "not really", where?  I then said I wouldn't mind going to Cabela's, since I have had a thing up my ass about doomsday prepping.  She hates going to these stores, and promptly said no.  I shrugged, not surprised by the outcome of the conversation.  We then kind of settled on let's go to Bath and Bodyworks, I admit I like a good candle, but goddammit!  There was a line of 10-15 people outside, and that pissed off Wife more than me, I figure this is the new normal, she hates it.  We went into a new store, Precision and Camera, but I am no longer all obsessed with photography like I was a few years ago.

    I then said "fuck it, we left and I thought I would make a run towards Cabela's and maybe Wife would say "Fine, let's go in for a bit."  The traffic on the frontage lane was so thick it took me a bit for an opening to get in and then I-35 was almost at a standstill, so why jump in there and put ourselves through that?  Wife also suggested going to Berdoll Farms to get more pecans, which I love, but I didn't want to even think about the effort to go north on I-35 to Ben White, in that traffic and then another 15 miles towards the airport and Bastrop, for some nuts.

    The mall is no longer a destination I want to head to, all the stores are just a little meh, so here we are.  Stuck in a city I am no longer in love with.  I still think a boat could change this, it would give us a reason to head to the lakes on any given Saturday or Sunday, but Wife is still a hesitant party, so I will keep on being patient.  To add to the negativity, I though I had finally patched the pool correctly this last time, it now seems to be leaking from a deeper crack, I have about given up on the idea that it is worth fixing, and we need to accept that we need to get rid of it and either just remove it or replace it.  I need something to be excited about, otherwise, we are just living in a box here.

9/26/21 Babies Having Babies?

     Sometimes Wife does such a great job of describing her job that it gives me the hibby jibbies and all I want to do is hunker down in my house with my shotgun by my side.  Fuck, I hate poor misguided people, and we seem to be getting more of them every year.  We went to pick up blankets Saturday morning, which is something we do about 3-4 times a year.  This is something Wife started doing with another older lady who works with a program where I guess they have a bunch of little old ladies working in a sweat shop, no I think they just do it as a hobby in a series of nursing homes, but I am not sure.  Either way, she'll pick up a couple hundred of these small blankets, the kind you would use in the living room to cover your legs while watching TV, or basically blankets sized for children and then Wife disperses them to any kids in her district who will take them.  This started long ago while she worked in Bastrop, she told the lady when she moved to La Pryor that she would no longer be working in the area, but she was not fazed and said as long as they were helping kids, it was alright.  Well, the program is now 7-8 years in and still going strong.

    After we got the blankets, I guess it triggered Wife where the blankets were going and she asked me "guess how many babies we have in our school program (their daycares for the girls going to school)?"  I was working a number in my head, not that I was thinking about this.  She said we have 8... to which I thought for a millisecond, that isn't too bad for a poor school district... then she finished her sentence and said 8 daycares, four for each of the high schools and four for the junior highs.  Five of these are at capacity at 60 kids apiece. and the other three are above 30-40 kids.  How do you process this?  I was dumbfounded and kind of stuck as to what to say to this.  That means that in her school district of 14,000 students, they already have a head start on the next generation with over 500 babies using government funds to stay in school and have their babies essentially in school along with them.  It is now theoretically possible for Mama to be in high school and baby to be in kinder or elementary.

    Wife is always unfazed by stuff like this, which makes her a better person than me, I am completely disgusted and truly believe birth control should just be pumped into the water supply.  It turns out Wife is in charge of these daycares at least at the administrator level, she didn't even know they existed before this week.  She promptly called the lady in charge of their day to day running and they had a good discussion.  Wife said she'll be getting with her to work on something or other.  I suggested "yeah, this girls need to learn about condoms and birth control..." Wife quickly said "no, this is Texas, the only thing we believe in is abstinence..." I might be a new conservative, but I am not stupid, people, especially the poor and stupid, like to fuck, as entertainment and for any other reason.  We were there too, and I guess we were lucky it took 5 years before Wife got pregnant, but damn, there has to be a better way.  How are things going to improve if we just keep doing the same thing?

9/25/21 Friday Night Without Lights?

     So many little things happened this week, it was no surprise to find us not going to the football game this week.  First off, Baby A had a second doctor visit for his shoulder Monday morning, it was great to hear that nothing was broken, it was simply an AC joint sprain and he was cleared for playing, if he could stand the pain, but he was still too tender most of the week.  Second, we both got our second vaccine shot, the Pfizer variety, and although the first one was a breeze, this second one did make both of us feel like we had gotten sick, for about two days, we both felt weak.

    Mijo, not being one to think things thru, chose the same shoulder that was hurt to get the booster shot, and so the next day, not only did his shoulder still hurt from the injury, it also hurt at the spot where the shot was given and for most of Thursday, his whole arm was sore.  He felt so bad, he asked me of he could just stay home on Friday, to which I said "fine, but you won't be allowed to participate Friday night and get on the field with your team."  I thought that was the UIL rule, but since I didn't feel great I was only too happy to just be allowed to go back to bed Friday morning and not take him to school.

    I think the lethargy and soreness went away after taking it easy most of the day on Friday, I certainly felt much better by the afternoon and Mijo even asked of he could go to the game as a spectator, to hang out with his friends in the bleachers.  I thought it might be a good and different way to see his teammates from up above and not from the field, so I said it would be okay and called Wife to order him a ticket online.

    I think it was the funniest thing, Mijo disagrees.  He said he got off at the gate where we dropped him off, saw the nachos at the snack stand and said to himself "I'm coming back for some of those in a bit" and started walking up towards the stands.  For some weird reason, his coach was walking underneath the stands, everyone has to walk under them, then that feeds up to the stands, the way the field is laid out.  He said his coach said hi to the principal and he tried walking by anonymously but couldn't help himself and looked over innocently enough to wave at his coach.  The coach caught him in a dead stare, pointed at him with his pointer finger and then pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, as in "get your ass over here with the team!!"  He froze at the first step up towards the stands and then slinked away towards the football team.  One of the coaches gave him a random jersey, not his regular number, and told him to make himself look busy.  He held a football in his hands all night and hung out on the sidelines, where he really belongs.

    We got a break from the regular routine of sitting in the stands and took the oppotunity to go to Spirit Halloween, this is our favorite holiday, and I have been buying a new "scary baby" every year, so I wanted to get one before the season really starts attracting people to the stores and they sell out.  We then spent another hour and change at the HEB getting food for the week and supplies to make lasagna on Saturday and chicken enchiladas on Monday night.  We got the food home and right on cue, our boy called to go get him, the game was ending.  It was another horrible loss, but hopefully the tides start to turn next week as they will be playing teams more of their caliber the next few weeks, from their district.  Here's hoping for healed injuries and better scores.

9/24/21 Day After The Vaccine?

     Well, I finally had some sort of run-in with Covid-19, or at least its close cousin, the vaccine.  I didn't want to get it after I got the actual virus back in January, but since Wife and both my boys got it or were getting it, I figured I should fall in line.  I am still pretty sure I would have been safe, but we live in a world of numb skull leaders and at work, for example, people that have been vaccinated were allowed to walk around mask-less, before the current spike, but people like me, that some studies are showing are just as protected, were not.  My son got a similar "threat" at school, if another player tested positive on the football team, he would have to self isolate for 10 days.  This is what made him say "screw it", give me the vaccine.

    We both got it on Wednesday night, and it seemed fine, even Thursday morning, I felt like maybe a tiny baby fist punched me right where I got the shot.  Stupid nurse, did it right in the middle of my one small Longhorn tattoo, I mean what if it had gotten a bad reaction and got infected or something.  She could have gone above or below it.  Come on, Man (as our great president likes to say).  Baby A went to school saying his arm was also sore at the site of injection.  I just joked for him to "Man up."  and dropped him off at school.

    Slowly, throughout the day, I felt myself getting sicker though.  By noon, I was really wanting to nap, but I was expecting some furniture to get delivered, so I didn't want to totally fall asleep.  By 1:00pm Baby A called that he wasn't feeling good, his whole body felt sore and if I could pick him up after school.  I didn't want to because I felt like crap myself, but I waited for him and went and got him at 4:30pm.  We got home and we both laid down in the living room, he just threw himself on the floor and we both slept until Wife showed up around 6:45pm, with fried chicken for dinner.

   I have to say, the hour nap or whatever it was made a world of difference.  I measured a slight fever, my temp was 98.8 before the nap and I felt warm, but when I woke up, it felt like it went away and the soreness in my arm was gone as well.  Mijo says he still doesn't feel good, so he stayed home today.  He is going to miss the football game tonight, but he wasn't going to play because of his shoulder anyway, and I think he really needs to decompress from being in that environment every day, these poor football players get no breaks.

    At this point, (almost noon, on Friday) I don't feel sick, no fever or body aches, but I still have a heavy feeling in my shoulders, which I think is something I always feel.  I wouldn't say I am sick anymore, but I am glad I don't have any pressing things to do, because I would really rather just be home doing nothing right now.  Hopefully, it'll all pass by Monday, but this weekend we are just going to take it easy.

9/23/21 Second Pfizer Vaccine Shot?

     I hated doing it, but I lined up and got my 2nd Covid-19 shot last night.  My conspiracist brother asked me why I would do it, we have talked about it to exhaustion and I was in agreement with him that I wouldn't need it since I had the virus already in me and it didn't present any real health concerns, that I could tell.  As I have said many times, the only symptoms I got were a loss of smell and taste, of which I don't think I have recovered 100%, I would say my smell capability is around 70-80%, some things just don't smell right to me, sometimes.  My decision to get the vaccine was solely tied to Baby A, he had not gotten any vaccine and we both held out as long as we could, but when he decided he would get it, I decided what was the point of me holding out?  The worst fear that has been said about the vaccines is that they are ticking time bombs and in 1-3 years, people will start dying, en-masse.  If this were to happen and Wife and both my boys have been vaccinated, what would be the point of sticking around, I am not sure I could continue.  I know it's a bit dramatic, but as I told my brother, once my people had all jumped over the cliff, I might as well join them.  My parents and other siblings have all been vaccinated as well, so we are all mostly on the bandwagon, and we have all had our bouts with the virus.  I do wish fucking Fauci would be more open about how protected those that have had the virus already are.  I feel that since my body had already experienced the virus and fought it off well enough, I would be safe from a second viral attack, but nobody wants to discuss that publicly.  Even my coworkers mutter "maybe you didn't really have Covid since my symptoms were so mild."

    Anyways, they are also trying to make it harder to function without being vaccinated, and I don't have time to dance around with bullshit.  At work, for example, we had gotten to the point of being allowed to go around mask-less before the latest spike, if you were vaccinated.  Somebody ratted me out and management talked to me about wearing a mask, I hadn't worn a mask in the lab, except to walk into my building, except for maybe the first month or two when all this started.  Baby A was warned that without being vaccinated, every time some other member presented with a positive Covid result, he would need to stay home for ten days, and that just seems like a huge waste of time, if he tests negative.  It only took him missing two weeks of practice during the summer for him to decide he was not doing that again, because some other kid tested positive.

    The process was simple enough, there was an offer of the vaccines on campus, so after my son's football practice last night, we picked him up before 7:00pm, and went and lines up.  It took maybe 5-10 minutes to fill out the same paperwork about 4 times, that process is stupid, but then they jabbed us and we were done.  As of right now (6:30am), my only symptom is that I feel like I was punched in the arm where I got the shot, which I think is supposed to be normal, even if I didn't even feel that much last time, on the first round of the shot.  Wife even asked and they gave her a second boosted of the Moderna vaccine, which I thought was a bit much and I'm not sure it is necessary, but she volunteered for it.  She is also talking about lining up for the flu shot next month.  I think she likes shots, and fuck all that, I am not doing that.

9/22/21 Sumo Japanese Steakhouse?

     We went to San Antonio this past Saturday to celebrate Wife's nephew's 18th birthday and his mom's.  They chose this Sumo Japanese Steakhouse restaurant and I wasn't going with too much expectations of a good experience, it just seemed cheesy and kind of dumb.  I was also not excited when Wife pulled up the menu and showed me prices of up to $60 a plate and even $95, for the lobster and something, not that anybody ordered that.

    To top it off, this coincided with my waking up and wanting to run and get those supplies for the coming freeze I am expecting in my head.  Of course, there is never enough time to do what I want to do beforehand, I wanted to run to Lowe's and pick up at least one of the heaters, but we were already "running late", so I was shut down.  There was a Lowe's a couple blocks from the restaurant and since we got there with 40 minutes to spare, traffic on I-35 was extremely light, for a Saturday afternoon, I headed directly there, figuring I could run in and out in 10 minutes and not be late to the meal.  They didn't have any heaters there, so it was a waste of time, but it didn't affect our arrival.

   I was kind of pissy at my sister in law, once there, she said we had another 40 minutes, the reservation was for 2:00pm, but she told us 1:30pm because everyone is always late to everything.  I get it, but those extra 30 minutes could have given me time to go to our Lowe's in Austin.  It didn't turn out to be a big deal, when we went afterwards, around 8:00pm, they still had all three heaters they showed on their website.

    We sat around for awhile outside and eventually went inside.  The restaurant is a little dated, which again made it hard to justify the prices, but once we got going with the "show", it was entertaining enough and the food was good, not the best I've ever eaten, but good enough.  I ordered some fancy sirloin, Kobeashi Wagyu sirloin and shrimp, which was $45, but it could have been a small strip of fajitas, it didn't have anything special to it.  It was still good and the shrimp helped the meal.  The chef was entertaining, in a sarcastic funny way.  It turns out he is dating a family member of my brother in law's wife, so he was familiar with Crystal City, which made it feel like more of a connection.  It was $180 for the three of us, so it wasn't cheap, but I guess for an 18th birthday, it is alright.  The birthday boy had about 6-7 friends with him, so he had a good time.  We ended the meal at my in-law's house where they had birthday cake and an assortment of sweets and desserts.  I took my nap after the meal and then had Wife drive us home around 630pm.  It was a good day, but after the football game Friday night, I was wore out and we were in bed by 10:00pm.

9/21/21 Always Get A Second Opinion?

     Well, as happy as I was with the overall experience at Victory Medical, I am glad they recommended going to a specialist.  We then got scheduled for a Monday morning appointment to see a doctor at Texas Orthopedics at 8:00am.  This has been a roller coaster ride of emotions, specially for Mijo, who seemed to sink to a new low I had never seen in his eyes and demeanor when he was told he had fractured his bone and it looked to make sense looking at the x-ray, I was in agreement, for the most part.

    This morning we got to the clinic about 10 minutes late, the traffic is ridiculous between Lamar and Mopac at that hour.  Ben White appeared as packed as of people were headed to the mall to shop on Christmas break, the whole way to Mopac from before Lamar was backed up and the clinic happens to be in the one street that lies between the two major roadways.  Luckily, I had sat and done all the paperwork online at 6:00am, it took almost an hour, but even the payment was taken care of in this way.  When we walked in, they just took a picture of my ID and I signed one last electronic form.  We sat for maybe 2-3 minutes waiting and then we were called in.

    It was refreshing to see what was obviously a doctor doctor, I don't mind the PAs, but if my son's football season is going to be ended, I want it to be by a professional, not someone in scrubs, no disrespect to them, they are filling in a need, but it is becoming harder to see a real doctor.  The doctor rolled in with a very calm and poised demeanor, he asked some simple questions about how the accident happened.  Then he moved my son's arms around and pressed here and there.  He then stepped out to see the x-rays they did in their office and decided that he did not have a fracture as we had been told, but an AC sprain.  The AC (acromioclavicular) joint holds the clavicle and acromion together and the way he fell is a very common way to injure the area.

    The doctor also said if he had broken the humerus, even a hairline fracture, he wouldn't be able to move his arm around without it giving him sharp pain.  What looked like the fracture in the x-ray last week is where two bone plates join together as the body grows.  The best news is that he is cleared to play, provided his pain tolerance will allow him.  He did suggest maybe waiting another week, to let the shoulder rest, but he also said trainers know how to wrap the area to give it added support, but a direct hit will still hurt.  I loved the fact that nothing is broken and it is up to my son if/when he chooses to play.  I would like to see him rest this week, as the school they play is going to be another horrible blowout, more than likely, but they have a chance to win the rest of their games, so I hope he will be ready and able to play.

9/20/21 Woke Up In A Panic About Being Prepared?

     After the freeze in the springtime, I became focused and a little obsessed with the idea of being prepared for bad times.  We went and bought a generator I have yet to fire up, we bought some lamps and batteries, water purification kits, like those used on camping trips, basically filtering straws.  The generator would be too small to run the whole house, but at least it would give us some options to keep our freezers running for our food supplies.

    Later towards the summer and warmer months, the stupid meteorologists predicted and warned us to expect rolling blackouts, so I then got the idea that we have a generator, if we buy a smaller wattage air conditioner, we can have one room in the house, cooled down so we can be comfortable during these rolling blackouts.  It was a very weird summer in that we hardly had any 100 degree days, maybe a handful and dispersed here and there.  Some summers we have gone 20 and 30 days straight where we break 100 degrees and even at midnight, it might still be above 95, this was just not that type of summer.  We had rain chances and moisture in the area almost all summer, and sporadic showers kept the area from drying out completely, I still have green grass, and I never water the lawn.

    Along with the air conditioner, I thought it would be a good idea to get a grill that could cook without electricity.  I love my pellet grill, but it does require power for the convection fan and other components.  I started buying a bunch of bags of charcoal for my charcoal grill and that would work but then I kept seeing the Blackstone grills and they look so modern, so I jumped on the bandwagon and bought one, their smallest version, a 17 inch grill, it will even fit in a backpack to take to the beach or hiking, or so the ads claim.  I bought about a dozen of those small 1 pound green propane cylinders at the time, and tried the grill.  The grill will run about 3-4 hours on one container, I kept it on to season the skillet surface and then cooked some fajitas.  I figure I could get 2-3 meals cooked per bottle, in an emergency.

    Now, we are heading into the cooler months and I got a bug up my butt about needing some alternative heating sources.  We were lucky in the last freeze, we lost power for maybe 30 minutes total.  Some people, most of my family, were without power for 4-5 days.  My mom said my dad wasn't looking too good, I think of him as the weakest link, physically, and he shouldn't have to go through another situation like that.  Yesterday, I woke up "needing" to go get some of these heaters, and luckily I found three of them at Lowe's.  I was only going to buy one, but Wife said to get three, so the boys could each have one with them, if they are in their rooms.  I then felt like I needed to get more propane cylinders, so I went to Walmart and bought another dozen, they are going for $7.37 a 2-pack right now.  I also saw some hurricane lanterns that run on "lamp oil", so I got two of them, they only had the two plus a half gallon of the oil.  They are also safe to burn indoors, or so they claim.  I will also be adding some carbon monoxide detectors to the house, if we are going to be burning all sorts of gasses inside, even if they claim to be safe.

    I have been telling my family to get prepared and order some of these heaters or something to have alternate heat.  My parent's house is plumbed with propane lines, we used to have a gas heater in the living room growing up before they installed central air, so I keep telling my mom to make sure that it is operational, just in case.  We are fortunate in that none of us are poor, we can spend some money for preventative measures, as a just in case.  Like I keep saying, we were unprepared last year, the winter storm was a freak of nature, but if it happens again and people are singing the same stupid song of "We're sitting here freezing", then I have to conclude that you are basically a stupid person.

9/19/21 This Season Is Just Churning Up The Football Team?

     I know our son was not immune to injury but he had played four seasons without so much as a turned ankle, but it was just a matter of time.  He is down for awhile because of his shoulder, the left tackle, one of his buddies is playing with a cast on his hand, he broke two fingers and keeps hurting them in every game.  The right tackle was concussed and missed a game but should have probably missed more than that.  Their QB was also concussed and should have been out for 4-5 weeks but only missed the first and second game.  The back up QB who normally plays defensive back was also hurt, I think the knee, in the first game.  The running back had a beautiful 60 plus yard run for a TD then on the next play, they seemed to target him as about three players converged on him and busted his knee, he was carried off the field and was wincing on the bench as the trainers worked on him.

    These injuries do not help, specially when the team is so short handed on decent back up players.  The back up center had not played center before this season and it was evident, he had two bad snaps in the first quarter that lead immediately to two touchdowns for the other team.  He also had crucial penalties, holding and running down field when he shouldn't have, things our son knows better because he has more experience.  These mistakes just add to the bottom line, it kills offensive drives, it makes things frustrating when you can't become a cohesive unit and score.

    The game last night, another blowout 77-7, wore out the referees flags.  I keep thinking they are targeting our team with penalties, because the last two school have been small towns, but the fact is, a lot of back ups are playing and it could be they just make mistakes from their lack of experience.  It did look like every good play came back with some sort of penalty though, and that just kills a school's momentum.

    I don't know if Mijo will get a chance to get back on the field this season, I hope maybe he can play the last few games or so, but I am not holding my breath.  He said it sucked last night after he was in the car with us.  He had made mention that maybe he was thinking of not playing anymore awhile back, but last night as the game started, he felt like he was getting left behind, he so wanted to be on the field to compete, he had never felt like wanting something more.  All we could tell him was that these things happen for a reason and maybe it is good that he has this experience, it lets him get a taste of what he thinks he wants, and he found that once something he was maybe starting to take for granted was taken away, he did see it as something he does love and wish he could be a part of.

9/18/21 Victory Medical, The Nice One?

     Who knew?  When I was getting my nasty leg scar fixed, I started going to Victory Medical, mostly because the location is not that bad, on Ben White close to Lamar.  Because of the location, I guess, it is always packed and the lobby is not made to hold a lot of people.  I remember going in there and literally falling asleep waiting, sometimes over an hour, it wasn't great, but when you don't know any better, you put up with things.  I was also going there when I started getting my testosterone shots, which I haven't done in probably two years, so maybe that is why I am such a little bitch, sometimes (jk, not really, I know I'm a pain in the ass).

    When Wife was told that we should take Baby A to see a doctor on Wednesday afternoon, Wife thought of this place and I am not sure if I gave her the wrong number or if the locations are affiliated but she was not able to schedule a visit until October there, but they said their location on Bee Caves could see him the next day.  I of course react like Wife is making me drive to Canada when she says I have to go to a new location, but this place was pretty great.  It is really only about another ten minutes and after seeing it, I would drive to San Antonio for the experience versus going to the old place.  This is almost neighbors with the office where we went to sign our refinance paperwork back at the start of the year.  We got there the back way, by driving past Barton Mall and taking some back roads, but I could have also taken Mopac and gotten off on Bee Caves Road exit.

    We got there about 20 minutes early and figured we would be ignored until around 1:30pm, since our appointment was at 1:15pm.  That was not the case, as soon as we entered and I had a lost look on my face, there was a small office with a receptionist person and in the lobby there was another reception area, but nobody sitting there.  I went in the smaller office and was promptly greeted by an enthusiastic lady and she was quick to find our appointment time and told us to wait in the lobby.  There were a handful of other people, but nothing too crazy and no poor/homeless looking bums anywhere in there.

    We sat for maybe five minutes and then I was called to pay my copay, $35.  Very reasonable.  Then another five minutes we were moved into the small examination room.  We were into our appointment by maybe 1:20, which is unheard of any time I have been to the doctors office.  I was going weekly when I had my leg thing and there were times when I was the first patient at 8:00am and I would still wait up to 30 minutes sometimes.  I was patient, but dammit, does that piss me off.  

    I totally loved this place though.  When the physician assistant suggested we needed an x-ray, I was sure we were going to have to go to the hospital, but she just walked us around the hallway and they had the equipment there.  Baby A was shirtless and getting shot with x-rays within 30 minutes of walking in the door.  This is seriously going to be my new doctor's office, it felt like they cared and wanted to get you in and out promptly.

9/17/21 Parent's Real Fear?

     It happened silently and we didn't even realize it was that serious for most of this week, but Baby A is injured.  He took a bad fall in the last game in the first quarter, where he said he took the defender and they both fell sideways.  He landed on his shoulder in a weird way and came up a little hurt, he thought.  Being the competitor he is, he didn't say anything to the coaches and played the rest of the game with pain.  It must have been the adrenaline and testosterone running through him, but as soon as the game ended and we asked how he was, as he stood there in the field, still sweaty and stinky from the game, he looked at us with pain in his eyes and said his shoulder was killing him and it hurt to lift his arm.  We were a little shocked because he didn't say anything to the coaches or trainers and we saw him play all the game through.

    My best hope was that it was just a bruise or a muscle strain.  He went in and discussed it with the team trainer/nurse.  She said he should rest the arm and not do anything strenuous for a couple days to see if pain went away.  He's a jock and I don't think he could help himself, but he went and lifted weights and tried to do pushups to see how much he could get away with.  He realized it might be more serious when the pain was not going away, even as recent as yesterday (Thursday).  The trainer called Wife Wednesday night and suggested we might want to take him to see a doctor and maybe get an x-ray.  We did yesterday, and got some bad news.

    The x-rays, three of them, showed a tiny little nick on his arm bone (humerus) up where it meets the shoulder at the round part.  The doctor or PA that looked at it was not even sure it was something, but she got a second opinion from their bone person and he said it was a hairline fracture.  Along with that, he also has bruised muscles in the area.

    From a big picture, I guess we're glad it wasn't much worse, this is something that will heal, probably by itself, although we are going to see an ortho specialist on Monday.  From his viewpoint though, I know he is taking it a little hard because he dedicated his summer to training to make himself faster and stronger and this just ruins most everything he worked for.  Hopefully, for him, he can salvage the last part of the season and play the last few games.  This is not me wanting or needing him on the field, he truly loves to compete and I just want to see him do what he loves.  As a parent, I would rather he not put himself in danger, but also, we know that life is meant to be lived not hidden away in fear.

9/16/21 Treated Myself To A La-Z-Boy Recliner?

I hope they are not just hype, but I went and bought what I hear are the best chairs around.  I have  been considering buying myself a recliner, I am now an old man (turned 50 a couple weeks ago), and  itjust seemed like it was the right time for it.  A few months ago we spent a weekend looking at and trying different chairs all over town.  I can't say one felt that much better than any other, but I did like that the La-Z-Boy chairs were specifically made for bigger people.  They seem more focused on height than weight, but it just seems to go together somehow.

    Once I decided I was going to get their chairs, I had to decide which one.  They have so many choices, but because we are in this shitty time in history, it is hard to get stuff expedited.  For example, they have over 10-15 chairs in the oversized section, and then one can choose between like 190 different clothes and leathers, but it might mean waiting up to 6 months to get something specific.  Instead, I settled and chose one of the three chairs I kind of liked, it is called the Randell and it is meant for people taller than 6ft 3in, so the back is way tall for me.  I like that my head doesn't float in the air, it sits in the leather if I lean it back.  I also chose the electric version and although it rocks back and forth when in the chair position, the feet will come up and the back will go back independently.  If that is not enough, I can lean the back part and tilt forward the neck so I can watch TV without straining my neck up from a supine (laying back) position.  It also has a lumbar button that will press on your lower back.  I was able to crack my lower back, maybe for the first time while I was playing with the different chairs just by pushing the lumbar all the way forward.

    I am also happy to say that I did not just buy one, but in fact got the "2 for 1" deal they were advertising, I know it is BS because when we went in before the chairs were roughly $2700, and I got both for twice that much, but that way I get to put one in the living room and one in the bedroom.  I have found I sleep much better in a seated position, but on our regular chairs I scoot down so my head rests on the back and then my back ends up all weird almost on the seating part and my butt almost on the ottoman.  I shouldn't have to scoot down anymore, since these recliners have taller backs than me.  I also chose the one leather color they had in stock which is more of a dark chocolate compared to what we have which is more of an orange brown leather.  They will be delivered next week, so I am excited for that.

9/15/21 A Little Confused By Parent's Approaches To Football Team?

     Why are so many parents half-asses?  I cannot stand the lackadaisical effort most parents put into their kids endeavors.  These kids are putting their bodies on the line week and week out for the love of a game and I would say more than half don't even bother showing up, that is asshole behavior to me.  It was worse Freshman year when I would sit with maybe 4-5 other parents in the stands, never mind when the weather gets ugly. There was one game I was the only parent out there through the first half of the game.

    This is actually not even about the really bad parents who are invisible and non participatory.  This is about the few parents who "care" and even bother to show up.  We are trying to kind of become this group of booster parents and provide food for the team.  For some reason, the school does not feed the boys multiple meals, such as last week when the best course was to have the team get dropped off at 10:30am because of the bus shortage and then have them sit there all day until 7:30pm when the game actually starts.  Wife worries about all the classroom time they are losing, I am more worried about them going hungry when the school provides one meal that is supposed to last all day.  We ended up providing burgers and even got some help from two parents who bought the cheese and buns.  We paid for the patties and I grilled them.  Along with that, for example on the first game, we provided sodas, which are cheaper than Gatorades.  I was told there are 60 kids on the team, so I bought 5-12 packs of different sodas.

    The only thing I want to hear is "Thank You" if anything, not "well, soda isn't the best for kids, juice is better, or Gatorade, we don't let our son drink soda, it is really bad for you."  Wife has been going to the meetings, I have been at work at that time, so I can't argue the fact and Wife won't, she is too polite.  We then bought like 6 cases of Gatorade thinking that would last 2-3 games and dropped them off only to hear "put some of those out for the JV, their coming back from their game in a bit."  I am not sure if that meant our specific Gatorade cases, but the parents for the JV kids should be providing for their kids, fuck that.  I told Wife we will only take the cases, if we buy more, on game day, we won't be dropping them off early anymore and we are just taking a limited amount.

    Last night, they were calling for burgers again and this time they also wanted hot dogs.  I texted Wife not to volunteer me, I think we did our part, let some other parent step up.  Wife said they sat in that stupid meeting almost two hours discussing nothing but finally another parent said they would make the burgers this week.  They wanted sausage wraps for after the game, and I guess we could do it, it's not that I can't afford it, but I don't think it is healthy to make these before the game and then have them sit in a cooler for 5 hours and then give them to the kids.  They should be made by one of the shit parents who stays home, since apparently, they don't want to go out and watch their son do something they enjoy.

    Along with the Gatorades and sodas, I thought it would be fun to also buy some Rice Krispies Treats, Welch's Fruit Snacks, Pretzel snacks, and we even threw in a bag of candies.  Why not?  They are still kids and if they are going to have to sit around all day bored at some faraway campus for 8-9 hours, let them enjoy.  These kids run around in the heat for 3-4 hours a day, they will burn off a couple of candies and sodas.  I still feel a pushback that we could provide better snacks, which to that I say, "yeah, you go for it."  

9/14/21 Ugly Pressure From Watch Store?

     I hate to say that I did not like a set of texts I got Tuesday from one of the local jewelry stores, it was just in bad taste.  I don't even want to mention the stores name because I might end up using them, although at this point I can't imagine when.  Last weekend, we went shopping for watches for Boy's graduation, naturally, we headed to the two big local stores that sell Rolex watches as I really wanted to buy him one of these, in particular, a Milgauss, which is a watch developed to be used by engineers around magnets back in the day.  Anyways, Rolex has gotten so popular lately, that the display cases are literally empty, there is no product to even show, and this is after going to places here in Austin, Houston, and now San Antonio, none of the authorized dealers seem to be able to keep any stock on display.

    Boy has always liked the Omega brand, so Rolex being out is not the worst thing for him, and one of the local stores does carry Omega but they did not have the one he likes in particular.  It being a Saturday, we ended up driving to San Antonio for the day and ended up at La Cantera Mall and to our surprise, they had the exact watch he has been wanting for many years.  We purchased it, I don't want to say what it is because he can't have it until I see the degree in my hand, he has applied for graduation, so it should happen in December.

    Anyways, today's text from the sales guy was harmless enough, he sent me a pic of a watch that I guess he had liked for my son, and it is from the same collection as what my son got.  I told him it was nice, but we found the watch we were looking for.  He had said he could look for it and get ordered for us, but they did not have it in the store.  After I told him we had purchased from the Omega Boutique, he found a need to tell me that Omega does not carry Rolex.  I totally know and understand this.  His implication seemed to be that had I bought the watch from him, it would have put me in better standing on their waiting list.  I find this to be a cheap ploy of manipulation because I have bought four expensive watches at Ben Bridge and I have been on their "waiting list" at least two years, so it can't mean that much.

    I tried being coy and saying it was alright, maybe I wasn't Rolex worthy, and I was looking at other brands, specifically Panerai, since I don't like to be kept waiting.  He curtly said "we don't carry that brand" then felt a need to include "I was going to get you the watch you wanted next week."  I don't know how true this is, but the sales guy at Omega did say that as far as he knew there were only two more of the watch we bought still available to buy from Omega in the US.  That might have been a sales pitch to get me to buy on the spot, but either way, he was in a better position to put pressure on me as he actually had what I wanted.  The other guy making veiled threats and making me feel like I needed to get on his good graces by spending a few thousand dollars to get the "coveted" watches made me feel like saying "fuck you."

    The only reason I was not rude and snap at this guy is because I have a feeling that the market will turn soon, there can't be that many guys that care about watches that are ridiculous in price, specially when our phones do a better job of keeping time.  I can accept retail price, but there is no way I am paying above that for the privilege of wearing a brand.  I already have two of them, I feel perfectly fine venturing out to other brands, and now Omega has extended us a credit line with 0 percent interest, so I am feeling the love plus they had a store full of watches, they aren't suffering shortages, whether real or manufactured.

9/13/21 Kia Air Compressor Better Than It Should Be?

     You never know what you got until you need it, if you can find it.  Girlie called me Sunday morning that she had her low tire pressure indicator on in her car as she was running errands.  She saw this last week and I told her to go to Discount Tire and get it looked at.  I guess they just added air at the time because she said it was low again this morning.  Because Discount Tire is closed today and places like Firestone charge $40 to patch a tire if they weren't bought there, she just wanted to fill it with more air until tomorrow.  I have always suggested Discount Tire, I always get my tires there, and they offer a free tire repair or replacement program, so she said she would get her tire fixed tomorrow.

    Either way, I can't say no to a damsel in distress, but I also didn't want to dig my big air pump out along with the 50ft air cord for a little puff of air.  I thought maybe I would check my tires while I was at it, but Wife's car (Telluride) has tire sensors and we looked at the pressure Friday night going to the football game and they were fine.  I just verified the Excursion tire pressure about two weeks ago, they are only a month old, and the Escape also has new tires and that car has tire monitor sensors as well.  Boy's Edge was not here, he was out having breakfast with his GF.

    I remembered the little pump from the Ford Ecosport, I took everything from the trunk after Boy crashed it a year ago and it was all in the garage in a little pile.  I figured it wouldn't hurt to try this little pump, it would save me from digging out the bigger noisier pump which requires the long hose and long electric cord.  When she got here, I told her we should look in her trunk and she happens to have the same pump.  Because her car has the tire sensors, we looked at it and I filled the low tire, which took less than a minute.  I then told her to go through and top off the other three tires, I showed her how to do it and then had her do her own tires on the rest.  A girl should know how to save herself if she is ever in that situation alone.  We got all the tires from 27 (low one) to 30 all up to 34.  I am not sure if she does have a nail in the one, but they were all on the verge of low, if they are back down later this week, then she does have a nail or something that requires a stop at Discount Tire.  But now she knows she has a pump and she can handle putting a little air in her tires.

    I was not a fan of that idea, Kia and Ford giving you a "tire repair kit" which includes this pump when they should be giving you a spare tire, even if it is a donut version, but for this instance, it did turn out to be quite helpful.  I am tucking this little pump in one of the cars and am now thinking I should order a couple more for the other cars.  It weighs about two pounds and is the size of a big hamburger or so.  The cylinder device in the pic is a goo which will patch a nail hole or leak temporarily to get you home, but I didn't use it.  If there is a nail or leak, it should be fixed correctly and not plugged with stuff so it gets ignored and becomes a bigger problem later, in my opinion.

9/12/21 Injured In Action?

     Our worst fear was not realized until after the game Friday night.  When the games finish, the kids usually come up to the stands to talk with the parents, I always find this a bit weird because we are still separated from them and we can't hug them or touch them and they are all sweaty and usually still breathing hard and loaded up with testosterone and whatever gets one pumped up to do what they do on the field.  It wasn't until we talked to him face to face that he mentioned he had hurt his shoulder in the first quarter.  It was his left shoulder, he tackled the nose guard in front of him sideways and he said he fell awkwardly and felt a stabbing sensation up high in the shoulder.  We asked concerned of course, what had the coach and trainer said and as expected, he said "I didn't tell them, what for?  We don't have a back up center and I could still use my right arm."  I hated that logic in the moment because he needs to put his health above the team, but I understand how much of a team player he is and he doesn't want to disappoint those that rely on him.

    This last interaction made the rest of the games outcome irrelevant to me.  The game was in Llano, which we didn't even know where it was on the map.  Wife said it is off Hwy 71, I assumed I knew the direction to head, up towards the lakes past Lakeway, so right around 5:00pm we get in rush hour traffic, it was so annoying, getting past the crowd around Akins High School as we left our neighborhood and then driving through Bowie High School, both school have thousands of kids letting out around 5:00pm and it is a mess.  Wife waited until I was almost all the way to Bee Caves and then says is this a short cut to Bastrop?  "What the fuck do you mean?" I yelled in a panic.  "Isn't Llano past Bastrop?" she says as she is holding the Google map.  We didn't know where it was, but why would she wait until that point almost an hour of driving through bullshit in Austin to say I am headed in the wrong direction.  I took her phone looked at the map and just called her a donkey, we were headed in the right direction, but if we weren't, she really should have said something when she typed the stupid city in the map thing.

    The drive itself was lovely, once we got out of the city, Llano itself is a typical small Texas town, I liked the energy outside the game, it was homecoming, so all the young girls had their mums on and everyone seemed in good spirits.  We bought some overpriced snacks and sat with our Crockett fans in the visitor side.  I wish I could say the game was a better score than it was, but I can say they can get better.  Their starting QB was back from the concussion of the first game, he is rusty passing, he seemed to do a much better job last year connecting with his receivers.  Hopefully, he stays healthy and they start getting more cohesive.  They had another good drive, much like in the last two games.  When they come together and focus, they can drive and score, there just seem to be too many mistakes along the way. 

We could tell Mijo didn't seem his normal self, he usually dominates and runs around in the middle with all the big linemen, but he seemed quieter, I figured the opponent was maybe stronger or faster than him, although he never really beat him to the quarterback.  After we found out he was hurt, it made sense that he didn't seem himself.  We spent Saturday quietly at home on the sofa, while he iced his shoulder on and off all day as we watched the second Lord of the Rings movie.  The trainer seems to think it is just a bruise.  I think so too, he can move it all the way around, it just hurts to extend all the way and hold it.  Hopefully, he takes it easy during practice this week and he can play at normal capacity by Friday.

9/11/21 Twenty Years Since The 9/11 Attack?

     Time marches on, indeed.  It is hard to believe that we are now twenty years removed from the worst attack on American soil, Pearl Harbor is the only other incident that comes close but that cost the Japanese two nukes up their ass, so there's that.  The 9/11 attacks as we know them was when a group of malcontents used our own technology against us and caused a shock that we are still feeling to a certain extent today.  We had been lax and trusted one and all boarding the jets Americans created to fuel the travel we enjoy today as humans to go anywhere in the world.  These lowlifes then boarded our planes because we trusted humanity, and they turned our beautiful transport devices into weapons and took down the two towers, partially damaged the Pentagon, and it is believed from anecdotal evidence that the brave people on a fourth jet fought the enemy and sacrificed their lives crashing that plane out in a field which might otherwise have been aimed at the white house.

    This attack was hard because it wasn't really a country we could go and attack, it was a small swath of ultra religious zealots.  As a country we have the power to destroy any other country and the weapons to back that sentiment up, but when it is done by cowards who proclaim loudly that they hate us but hide behind innocent women and children, it becomes next to impossible to destroy them without collateral damage.  As much as the rest of the world might think of us as bullies because we can and have shown our might everywhere in the world, we have also fight from a position of right because our forces are there to eliminate the enemy, not everything in sight.

    Although the attacks were one of the worst black eyes for our country, it did bring us together as a nation, it's almost like we need something like that to bring our country together again right now, not that I would want another large scale attack upon us, it does work to bring people together.  In a sense, this might be why there are still Taliban forces in the middle east, we have just stayed there the last twenty years enforcing our will upon them.  I believe we needed to leave the area, I just don't think it was done the best way possible and upon realizing the Taliban forces were taking over, we should have gone back and destroyed the cache of weapons we left for the Afghanistan forces which dissipated much too quickly.

    America is an amazing place and it hurt for a while, what was done to us, but it was never going to stop us as the idiots in charge thought.  It may have taken awhile, but eventually we got Bin Laden, two faced piece of shit talking about righteousness yet getting murdered at night in a compound surrounded by porn and women like a teenage boy.

9/10/21 Feeding Our Boys?

     We have always been very involved in whatever our boys get into.  When Boy was in high school I was constantly buying him supplies at Home Depot whether it was little tools or resin and fiberglass materials, whatever it took to keep him going.  For Wife, it has always been about them having food around.  She has always worried about her babies having something to eat when we are not around to feed them.  

    This year, the burden seems to have come full circle and landed on us, mostly because Wife keeps volunteering us and because the other parents are not stepping up to the challenge.  I am talking about Baby A and the football team.  We were supposed to form a booster club sometime in the summer, but that has not happened yet, so of course, some of the more committed parents have started getting together and doing what we can to make sure the team is not starving.  I started with telling Wife that I might have all this free time because of my schedule right now, but I don't want to be some figure head having to bring people together for meetings and stuff.  I'll do the work and we can provide more than our share of financial support, but I don't want to be front and center as booster president or whatever.  Well, here we are, it only took three weeks and at least for now, most of the other parents, there are 60 kids on the varsity team, have kind of gone quiet.  The first week parents brought in cases of Gatorade and other stuff.

    Wife volunteered us last week to make 40 sausage wraps and that was great to provide them for the kiddos, but logistically, it was not easy.  We got lucky that Boy offered to help.  He cooked them in the oven while the game was going and delivered them at the end of the game, just as the team got back to the school.  Boy said he just threw them in the oven, and five minutes before he took them out, tossed the tortilla packs all stacked together and then put them together and wrapped them in foil.

    This week, Wife volunteered us to provide burgers, and without anyone else offering to help, I am supposed to make 80 burgers and because the team is leaving campus to Llano at 10:30am (something about not having enough bus drivers), I am supposed to deliver them to campus by 9:45am or so.  I don't mind doing the work, other parents bought the cheese and buns, we are providing the patties, but I hate the logistics of cooking them starting at 8:00-ish and thinking those burgers won't get eaten until noon-ish or so.  I don't know, I can't cook them any later, 80 is a lot, and I do need to assemble them, without help, Wife will be at work.  So here I am at 5:30am, up and making sure everything is lined up.  The patties are in the fridge, I opened the big boxes and made sure they weren't all frozen stuck to each other.  I have my pack of 500 foil sheets to wrap them.  I just need to do like the Avengers and yell "BURGERS ASSEMBLE!!"

9/9/21 Boy Has Big Ones?

     Boy has been working at one of the areas largest employer in our field and he started roughly a year ago.  He has been working as an hourly technician, on paper, but he was given the responsibilities as lab manager and also given engineering responsibilities.  All this is what he has been going to school for, so it is all in line with normal.  He was hired as a technician because the job was for a new person and he did not have his degree yet.  He is scheduled to complete his degree this December, if his last three classes hold up.  Right now they are a mix of in class and online because of Covid, so he is able to juggle these as night classes and working during the day.

    He was told a few months into his job that within the year, he would be promoted to the level of engineer, so he started looking into what that would mean for pay.  He found out the median pay for his type of engineer is around $85,000.  He also found that the average pay for his level of experience in Austin is supposedly above $70,000.  Naturally, he was expecting his promotion would land him somewhere in this region, and with the cost of housing in the area, it almost has to be in that pay scale, as houses pretty much average above $400,000 here.  It would make sense that all that schooling and his position being considered a professional job, he should at least be able to afford a house where he lives.

    Last night, he mentioned he was given an "offer" by his company and he was not even amused.  They offered more than what he was making as an hourly but well short of even the low amount he expected.  He refused the offer, I didn't know that was an option.  He told his manager thanks, but no thanks, and he needed to make that offer better if he expected to retain him.  He has been frank with his boss, who my son says likes him a lot and doesn't want to see him leave.

    His manager told him he would get with HR and work on getting him a better offer, which sounded amazing to me.  He has the advantage of living with us, he is not desperate for a couple more nickels and dimes.  Worst case, if he gets let go, his car and housing are not payments he has to make, he lives with us and we paid off his car.  We told him awhile back, this is the time to be bold and take chances, I think that is what he is doing.  All that has happened in the last year is he got more experience with a huge semiconductor company, there are a bunch of those in the area, not to mention Tesla, which is hiring tons of people plus all sorts of smaller companies.  His company needs to loosen the purse strings if they are going to hold on to young and coming talent, they are short handed hundreds of people currently and with the pandemic, people are still not coming out in droves to work.  My son is willing to show up and put in an honest day's work, he just needs to be compensated accordingly.

9/8/21 My First World Problems?

     We went shopping for watches this past weekend, mostly because Boy is fixing to graduate this December if his classes hold up (he is hoping the two classes he has on Tuesday night don't interfere with each other, right now they are online).  I had promised him a nice watch for his graduation so it is getting time to deliver.  On top of this, I bought myself a nice Tag Heuer Monaco a few months ago that I really like, but technically it was my gift to me for Wife getting her promotion.  I know it's a tad F*cked for me to reward myself for her promotions, but she refuses to celebrate and splurge on herself, and I am not missing the chance to buy something nice, even if it is for me.  Anyways, while we were looking for said watch, I found a really cool little boutique store tucked in a strip mall in a high end neighborhood.  You have to be looking for it or you would never see it.  I ended up in this store while looking for a Bell and Ross watch I saw online that I really liked called the Red Diver.

    I was told they were a limited run watch, only 1000 were made and they were all sold out.  I gave my number to the lady and told her if she could find one, I might be interested in buying it.  We went back in and we talked some more.  I wanted Boy to see the watches they carried but he was pretty much set on an Omega watch he has wanted since high school.  Still, I don't know why the lady didn't do her homework the first time I went in, I would have bought this watch instead of the blue Monaco I ended up buying, but after shopping and finding the watch for Boy that I don't want to show yet, it won't be revealed until he does graduate, the lady called me yesterday saying she located this watch somewhere in Europe and she can get it to me, if I am still interested.

    The problem is the Monaco was around $5000, the watch for Boy was a little more than that, and now this watch would be $4000.  Technically, we could pay for these watches, but it would put a strain if some emergency pops up, and they always do.  I don't want to loose out on the chance to get this watch, specially since only 1000 were made, but it is a good chunk of money.  Wife said to go ahead and get it, it is what I was going to get myself for my 50th birthday, but I kind of feel like the Monaco is a good enough watch for my birthday.  It's so hard to be me, sometimes.

9/7/21 Seeing LOTR Through Mijo's Eyes?

     We have been having fun watching older movies with Baby A for awhile now and recently we mentioned casually whether he had seen Lord Of The Rings and to our surprise he had never sat and watched the trilogy while paying attention to it.  It is hard to fathom but Fellowship of The Ring, the first part came out in 2001, which makes it now 20 years old.  Our son said he had been in the room while we watched it, but never paid attention to it.  We've probably seen it 4-5 times and just assumed he had seen it but he said no, he was too young to care the last time we watched it.

    I know he was bothered by the pacing, it does start out very slow, not much goes on in the first hour while they are still in the shire, but once it gets going, it is a beautiful movie, the scenery is one of the best compared to pretty much any movie out there.  If Mijo had a complaint it was about Gandalf and why he seemed like a powerful wizard yet didn't seem to do much when the orcs and troll showed up while they were basically forced into the mountains.  He basically walked around as a flashlight making light for them in the dark. He felt he should have been able to summon a fireball and blasted a bunch of those orcs or some other magic move to protect them.  He was really pissed that Gandalf went down like a "bitch" like he did.  He expected to see him put more of an effort, he'll be surprised when he sees the second movie, we didn't tell him the big reveal.

    At one point, when Frodo is trying to leave alone and Sam almost drowns, he thought they were going to kiss once they were both in the boat, it was confusing for him for them to be so close and loving without them being gay, or something.  These fucking modern times got these kids all confused.  We told him this was basically the best of the buddy movies, Frodo is destined to save the world and Sam will do everything in his power to make sure Frodo stays alive and completes his mission.  The other two hobbits are just as reliant on their friendship and eventually so are Gimli the Drawf and Legolas the Elf.

    I was so glad that our son enjoyed the movie, he usually complains that the latest movie is the worst as he did last week when we showed him Fast Times at Ridgemont High which is one of my favorites, he thought it was worse than Top Gun which he declares the worst of the bunch for the poor character development of the Tom Cruise character.  We will wait until the weekend to catch the second installment and maybe even the third, but these movies are very long and they do wear on you, so it might take another two weeks to get through them.

9/6/21 First Game For Longhorns?

     I used to write about the Longhorns with as much interest as I have for our beloved Coogs, but nowadays, I can't even tell you who the starting quarterback is.  I tried getting into the game yesterday, and I did watch the first quarter until I got bored.  I don't know if I will get excited about the Longhorns until they do something to get their fan base excited, and that starts with them winning some important games.

    Originally, we were going to go to my in-laws to celebrate our nephew being done with his schooling and being fully certified as a welder, but then my parents said they were coming to see Baby A playing football on Friday.  Since that did not happen for a variety of reasons, we had the weekend open up and free to do whatever.  We then talked about going to Houston to the Galleria Mall because they have so many boutique watch stores but Baby A's practice had us trapped in Austin until almost 1:00pm.  So I suggested to Wife that maybe we should go to her folk's house, it would be a quick drive, we could get there before the game started, they would already have BBQ ready and we could just mooch off the free food and I could watch the Longhorns and if I felt like it, nap, without having to do the work of grilling.

    We arrived right before 3:00pm, and I got to eating right away.  My younger brother in law loves grilling, I don't think we have gone over there when he isn't grilling something, and he pretty much met me in the kitchen with some ribs he had been smoking.  I tore into those, then some fajitas, donuts, cake, and my mother in law had even made homemade tortillas, that just makes for a perfect afternoon.

    Wife went off telling her stories, and I sat in the other room trying to focus on the game, but it is hard when all the names are new to me, and even Baby A was distracted with his cousins, so after a while I told Boy "Want to go to the Cantera Mall to the Omega Boutique and maybe the Rolex store?"  He was standing and ready to go before I finished the sentence.  I had to check if they were even open as many stores are closing super early nowadays.  The two of us left the party and went over to the mall, which is only about 15 minutes away.  That mall is equivalent to the Galleria Mall in high end brand stores, but it is an open mall, so it makes it a little uncomfortable walking in and out of the heat of the day.

    Rolex was another disappointment as we saw one ladies watch in the display cases and that was it.  The store is connected to L Majors and I can't say we were impressed with their service.  We walked around slowly and got one hello from a sales person but he literally bounced his attention from us to another person and then it was like we were invisible.  That was fine because we looked at their Cartiers, Panerais, and even Tag Heuers and none of them really called Mijo's attention.  Now Omega, that was a different story, but that should probably be a story for another day.

    Oh yeah, this was about the Longhorns game.  I guess they won, looking online, it was 38-18, so that is good.  The offense moved the ball well, with no fumbles or interceptions, so the quarterback situation and apparently the running back position is in good capable hands right now.  I hope they can bring the spark back, it has been a long time since the Longhorns played up to their potential.  Not being critical of the players themselves, but this is the state of Texas where football rules.  We should have the best players and produce the best teams on a consistent basis.

9/5/21 Spending The Day With Boy?

     Saturday was a good day in that Boy spent the day with us, something that rarely happens anymore.  He was saying that he is so close to the end of getting his degree, but he needs the motivation to get that extra last step across the finish line.  His interpretation of that meant he wanted to go see watches, as I have been promising him a nice watch as his graduation gift.  Saturday morning, Baby A had to once again head to campus with the team to review game film.  He had a team meeting from 10:00am to noon.  I told Boy this would be a good time to go to a couple of the watch stores we know of and see if some other watch struck his fancy.  He is very much like me and when he focuses in on something, it is very hard to get him to change his mind.  Still, since the watch I have been wanting for him has not been in stock the last two years, I was forced to scramble and find a new option that he would want and appreciate.

    Honestly, there has been only one watch that he has totally loved since he first saw and that is the Omega meteorite dial "Grey Side of the Moon".  We first saw it in Houston before he even graduated high school on one of Wife's conferences which took us to the Galleria Mall and we were first starting to appreciate fine Swiss watches.  Still, this has always been a lot of watch and I was hesitant to promise this watch as it was over $12,000 when we first saw it, close to ten years ago.

    Yesterday, we went to a small boutique store that sells a handful of brands to see if maybe I could get him to fall in love with a different watch but it is hard with the prices on some of these watches.  He saw a lovely gold IWC watch, but it listed for over $15,000 and the steel almost identical watch with a beautiful green dial was still over $8,000.  I like the Vacheron Constantin brand as it is one of the "holy trinity" or one of the top three of the Swiss watchmakers, but a very regular looking watch starts at $28,000.  As much as I like the ladies working there, one of them is from the Ben Bridge that closed down at the mall, we were still not in love with their watches.

    We then went to Korman Jewelers further up north and they have a much bigger store, with Rolex (if they had any actual watches), Omega, Tudor, and more.  Boy saw a very nice looking blue ceramic watch which I had not noticed before and I have to say it went right to the top of the list as far as loving it.

    This looked about right for Mijo, even if the price tag was $13,600.  I figured we should keep looking because that is still a big pill to swallow.  We looked at the Tudor line and he did like and honestly we almost settled on a Bronze Bay 58 which is a much more modest $4100, but we were just looking.

    I will say we were just looking and the trip didn't end there, but the rest of the story is for another day as this blog is filled.  I do love spending the day looking at watches, it is such a first world problem deciding whether to spend the equivalent of the cost of a small car on a "toy" for your arm that your phone actually does a better job of keeping track of.  This is something Boy and I have always bonded over, looking at stuff that costs too much and appreciating its beauty.

9/4/21 Trying Times, Game Two?

     The second game of the season was another rough one for the Cougars this past Friday.  They are playing hobbled without their starting quarterback and even their second string leader missed practice all week as he was also nursing injuries.  Still, they went out and gave it a good fight.  I am happy to say that Mijo had another good week at center without a bad snap, which is starting me to make me feel at ease because it was almost expected in about every other game last year that there would be a couple of bad snaps that would end up flying over the head of the QB.

    The first quarter was decent, the Coogs looked good and even moved the ball a bit, but then punted a very short kick that put Gonzalez on their side of the field, but our boys stopped them and got the ball back by stripping the ball and causing a fumble.  They moved the ball some more but ended up giving up the ball.  It took most of the quarter, but Gonzalez eventually scored.  Once this happened, it seemed to cascade and the floodgates opened.  I don't know if the guys loose heart or they just panic, but the other team just kept scoring on mistakes and missed tackles.  It doesn't help that our offense can't seem to move the ball, but when neither quarterback is in practice taking snaps and you see the coach running the position during practice, it just seems that much harder to expect the offense to find points on game day.

    It is what it is, they lost 49-8, which is a bad sounding score, but they did play better than that, if not for a handful of plays that just get away from them.  I like to focus on the positives and our son is playing very good, he is not making things worse by hiking the ball erratically, he is handling himself very well, again he had probably the largest defender, a very big nose guard in front of him most of the game and he handled him pretty well, all game long.  Along with that, he also went in and played defensive tackle the whole second half of the game and was in on a few tackles so I know our son is playing his heart out.

    We had a small incident where one of the parents, or a possible family member of one of the players started getting negative once the game was getting out of hand in the app where we all communicate with the coaching staff and students, it has been a good tool to keep us all in close contact, but I guess this person decided to take his frustrations out here.  Wife quickly addressed him with a stern "Mr. xxxx, we are not here to criticize the students or their performance, they are playing as hard as they can and our job is to love and support them, not make them feel shame..." I am paraphrasing, but luckily, one of the coaches must have seen the comments and removed them before the game ended.  We can't blame the kids, they show up for practice, they work very hard, it just takes time to do what the coach wants.  Even our son had said after the first game "I know the coach wants to turn the team around and become playoff worthy, but that takes years to turn things around, it doesn't just happen in one season."

    I have learned a lot as a parent of an athlete too.  I used to think when I was in high school poorly of our football team, they did not win many games and attributed it to "lazy and poor attitudes from the players", but I see these boys before and after practices, and games.  They really work hard, they hobble off the field with their assorted injuries and bruises, even our son was mildly hurt this week.  He was hit on the elbow with a helmet from his own teammate on a play and he lost feeling in it for a few seconds.  He said he went to get up off the ground and there was no power in the arm to push himself off the ground.  Luckily, it lasted only a few seconds.  Still, even with the possibility of injury on any play, these kids are out there trying for the love of the game and support of their teammates.  I respect this because they don't have to put themselves through the beatings they get every week.

9/3/21 Biden's Clusterfuck?

     This president keeps fucking up in new and creative ways for the purpose of making things worse for America it seems.  He makes these grand gestures and without realizing it fucks things up for huge portions of the country's population.  On his first day, he shut down the huge oil pipeline that was supposed to make it more efficient to move oil to the refineries in the US.  It wasn't that he was protecting the lands where the oil is being taken from, this oil continues to move by old fashion rail, but he destroyed thousands of jobs with the stroke of a pen.  His next bold move was to essentially open the southern border to any and all.  This has had devastating effects as illegals from all over the world have been pouring in since he took office in January.  Where is the outpouring of crying from idiots like AOC about kids in cages, now that they call them temporary housing, it's all good?

    I agree that we needed to get out of Afghanistan, I don't think there was great support to remain there ad infinitum, but the way it was done was about as bad as something can be done.  When a family leaves their house in the morning, the husband doesn't charge out and look behind wondering why the 1 year old hasn't made it into the car, I guess asshole families might do it that way, but clearly, an authority or power should always remain until the weaker less able are taken care of.  It blows my mind that upwards of 40,000 American civilians were over there doing god knows what.  As a side note, I do have to ask "WHAT THE FUCK WERE SO MANY AMERICANS DOING THERE?"  Fuck, go to Disney assholes, talk to Disney to add a desert feature to EPCOT if you want to hang out in a sandy environment.  As mad as we want to be with our leaders and Biden sadly is the head of that organization right now, some responsibility needs to be put on these people who always think it is a good idea to venture out where we don't belong.  Why was there a class room of high school students out there that is currently still trapped in Afghanistan?  The army got out in the timeline the Taliban demanded because that is what this president does, listen to our enemy and march by their orders.

    I don't see a good outcome for those remaining, I do hope they go down fighting, maybe a nice woke poster and take to the streets.  Make it about how women should have the same rights men do, like y'all like to do here.  I bet all those woke lefties stuck over there are laying pretty low lest they get the attention of the new law in town.

    Then again, if they are not careful, they might be the ones hanging from the Blackhawk helicopters that we so generously gave them.

9/2/21 Feeding The Coogs?

     Wife is a bit thick headed, specially when it comes to her boys.  The football team is being fed by the parents at the moment and I don't mind like last week, providing sixty sodas, 5-12 packs of soda, plus a bin of snacks is fine with me.  This stuff can be bought ahead of schedule, I placed the sodas in our backup fridge to cool off and then took them to the school before the game with a couple bags of ice.  I kind of liked this, I was helping the team and yet not getting trapped in the kitchen having to cook.

    Well, guess what? Wife went to the parent's meeting on Monday and came home with homework for the game.  I am to provide the team with 35 sausage wraps.  I don't care about buying the sausages, that is not the problem.  The problem is the logistics of cooking and then storing the sausages until after the game.  I could very easily grill, or even heat on a skillet the sausages and even the tortillas, but then what?  It is too long of a time to think I can prepare these at 4:00pm and they will still be warm and healthy at 10:00pm.  Wife was suggesting that she will leave the game in the 4th quarter, go home and cook the sausages and get them to the school as the team is driving into the school to drop off the boys after the game.  I was a bit pissed about this because I don't want to be distracted from the game for BS.  I want to sit there and make sure I can see my son get up and not get hurt throughout the game.  On a side note, there were so many kids hurt in the first game.  I got off the car to go look for my ice chest on Monday and there were kids hobbling around on crutches, with various body parts wrapped up, the starting QB is out for four weeks with a concussion.  Today (Wednesday night), one of the linemen was not dressed out but on the field as an aid, and we asked Baby A what was going on and our boy said that kid got a concussion during practice.

    Anyways, I think we got lucky that Boy does not care for football, so since he will be home we asked him if he could help us out and he said yes.  So now we just have to worry about buying three dozen good sausages and he will cook them and even individually wrap them if we buy the proper wraps to wrap each taco individually.  This is actually a huge help, but we wouldn't be in this predicament if Wife hadn't volunteered us to provide food like that.  She says she did it because there were so few parents at the meeting, only about 10, when there are about sixty kids on the team.  She felt obligated to volunteer just because there was no one else to carry the burden.

9/1/21 Finally Got The Vaccine?

     I can say I was forced into getting the vaccine, but either way, here we are.  Baby A and I went and got the Pfizer vaccine today, they were offering it on his school campus today.  I kind of felt like we were forced because the last time one of the kids on the team tested positive for Covid, our son had to stay home and quarantine for ten days.  The rest of the kids who have gotten vaccinated, were allowed to continue practicing.  Extending this out, it just seems like it is going to keep happening time and time again.  Baby A was pissed when he found out he would be missing practice, I don't think he had missed a practice since he started playing in 7th grade.

    The actual process was no big deal, the nurses were set up in the cafeteria, since I had kind of decided to do it whenever my son did it, might as well, our other son is already vaccinated along with Wife.  The coach had announced today would be a shorter practice and they would be done by 7:00pm.  We got to the school at 7:05pm and they were still out there on the field.  Wife joked that we should go and pull him off the field, which I agreed.  I had already told my boss that I would be leaving work early today to go and get the shot, so I didn't want to miss out.  When we got to the fence surrounding the field, I felt a sting on my ankle and thought it was a fire ant, I looked down and there were a couple of bees.  I don't know why they stung me, but it felt like a bee sting, though I didn't have a stinger stuck in me.  It still kind of hurts (writing this at 11:30pm).  Even with this, we managed to get one of the coaches attention and she sent a kid out to tell the coach on the field to let our boy get off the field.  With all that padding and down at his height, our boy looks like a beast, he is already a thick boy, the shoulder pads and all the extra protection makes him look like 300 pounds of muscle.

    We headed into the cafeteria and started the paperwork, there is always paperwork, while he went to the locker room to change.  By the time he came over and met us, we had about finished signing all the stuff and boom, it was over.  He got it first, said he didn't feel anything, then I got it, and honestly, I didn't even feel the shot break the skin.  We sat for 15 minutes there, to make sure we were okay, then left.

    We came home and ate cheese burgers with some bacon, homemade and watched a show.  I don't know if it was the shot or that I didn't nap in the afternoon, but I got drowsy and went up with Wife and took about an hour nap, just before 10:00pm.  We got the shot about 7:40pm.  It is now 11:35pm and I feel fine, so hopefully, there will be no negative effects to the vaccine and we can start thinking about getting back to normal.