12/31/21 Last Day Of The Year?

     I don't think may people would label this a great year; it just has all turned into a long stinky fart with no end in sight.  Covid19 is now rebranded itself multiple times and continues to be a pain in the ass, for those that let it.  I know it is still a serious thing, in the minds of many, but goddammit, we all fell for the vaccines, and the masks, even after hearing the work and they don't work, and who knows... People in Texas are really at the point of just saying "fuck it!"  We were at three pretty packed wrestling matches in December (I'm talking hundreds of kids packed in gyms with very poor ventilation) and I haven't heard of any crazy breakouts of the virus.  The same can be said of shopping at the mall, which I went with my mom on Wednesday.  My mom was a little surprised and we did a visual count and maybe 15-20 percent of the people were wearing masks.  Maybe we should be treating it as a more serious thing, but on the other hand, we are starting 2022, which means, we are going into almost three years of living with this BS, and all Fauci, our big expert, can say is "stay at home, don't see your families on the holidays."  Fuck you, you 80-year-old fuck!  Retire and let someone who might care about people take over the job, you are constantly wrong about what we should be doing.

    Other than this big-ticket item, we got Boy looking for a house to buy, in a market we would have a hard time affording, if we didn't already have a house.  Austin keeps getting the wins, which seems good to great, with Tesla moving here, Samsung announcing a new multi-billion dollar fab, and even Cypress, which owns the lab space we use fixing to invest another $100 million to the old AMD Fab we work next to all sound great on paper, but all these wins keep attracting workers and people to the area, which only makes it harder to find an affordable house to buy.  I am sure Boy will either figure out a way to make more money, or house prices will soften up in a year to allow him to get a place, but it will probably take a concerted effort between him and his gf.

    Wife finally came back home in the spring, landing a job in San Antonio.  It hasn't been that easy, her commute sucks because there are just too many people on I-35 between Austin and San Antonio at any given time and there is too much construction going on.  Either way, it sucks for Wife during the week, but I love that she is back home and that she gets to eat with our big baby, so he is not here alone, while I am at work.  Baby A continues to be as great as he can be, participating in as many sports activities as he can and constantly acting like a leader, always pushing his classmates to be better.

    Work continues to be work, for me.  I like where I am at, and I continue to believe that we will see a raise sometime soon, as we were led to believe last year, even if the rest of my coworkers laugh at me like I'm the slow one.  At this point, I just want to keep up with Wife somewhat, she has a lot of upside potential, which I hope she gets, because that means I get it too.  I may be at the top of my earning potential, but that's okay, I have been carrying this family for a long time, I look forward to seeing the greatness that Wife will attain, hopefully, even in 2022.  Happy New Year, everyone.

12/30/21 Boy Took Us To Lunch?

     My folks were here for a few days and left yesterday.  I guess Boy told mom in the morning before he left for work that he might get out early, around 2:00pm, if things worked out like he thought they would.  I didn't know this was a working plan, my parents usually wake up and rush out of town because my dad does not like driving at night, both of them have trouble seeing at night driving, which I understand and my brother did not join them, so he wouldn't be able to drive them home either.  Anyways, when I came downstairs, my mom said Boy had given her a hug and kiss but said maybe he would make it back early enough, so I asked her if it would make a difference for them to wait around and she said it would be great, and to my surprise, the Old Fart said it would be fine too, my dad is always in a mood when we make him do anything out of the ordinary.

    We did our normal thing, Baby A went to wrestling practice at 10:00am until noon, then we went and picked him up and the Telluride, which we had left at the dealership to get an oil change the day before.  We left it overnight because we were lazy and didn't really need it back right away.  We got back home close to 1:00pm and then Boy did come home early, I would say around 1:30pm.  This made it a lot easier to go and eat.  Baby A had already said he wanted steak, it was mentioned when my parents first arrived, and he had gotten excited to go back to Longhorn Steakhouse.  We all jumped in mom's SUV and headed out, stopping at an ATM first, my parents always seem to need a little cash on them.  I rarely have more than a $20, but I guess they are old school.

    We went to the Longhorn Steakhouse at SouthPark Meadows and enjoyed a mostly empty restaurant, at that hour.  I am still not a fan of being seated right next to the rest of the people, leaving sections of the place closed off, but I get it, it makes it easier for one waiter to work more tables.  The meal was very nice, I ordered a porterhouse steak, which I had not tried before.  It was very similar to a T-bone, but I have decided I don't like T-bone steaks, they don't have much flavor.  This, on the other hand, was delicious.  I'm not sure if it was the spices or the cuts of meat, but there was a lot of flavor in every bite.  We also ordered a couple of appetizers, and everything was overall great (the onion petals could have been better).  Boy decided to pick up the check, I believe this was his Christmas gift to us, he had been wanting to take us to Estancia, the Brazilian place, but I couldn't agree to that, with meals costing $75 nowadays.  This was nice enough and the fact that he treated his grandparents and actually sat with them and discussed a lot more about his workdays, made the meal even more enjoyable for his grandma, who is always going on about not seeing him enough, now that he is more grown and more less living his life a little separately from us.

    After a great meal and a couple of pictures outside, we headed home, my folks left, and I napped about as long as it took them to get back to Crystal City.  I woke up around 5:45pm and they started texting a few minutes later that they had arrived home.  It was great to have them here for more than an overnighter, as was the norm back in the days.  

12/29/21 Half-Ass or Racists?

     We went and ate at Cracker Barrel yesterday and I can't say I was impressed with the service, either in the host or the waitress.  We went around 3:00pm and the restaurant was almost empty.  I would say there were about 5-6 other families eating, yet when we went to the hostess to ask for a table, she said it would take 20 minutes.  Is that just the standard time everyone waits, regardless of how empty or full the place is?  I wasn't happy, but I guess it gives you time to look around their little "store", so it isn't the worst place to have to wait.  After about 10-15 minutes, the lady called us and took us to our table.  I was immediately bothered by the table choice.  Again, the place was near empty, in the section we were seated, there are probably 12-15 tables, with the 3-4 big tables in the middle of the room.  Those seat 6 people, while all the tables along the wall seat 4 people.  Technically, we were four people, Wife, Mom, Baby A, and me.  The reality is that we are all big people and with the table against the wall and then the table backing up to a small wall behind where I sat, meant we were crowded.  Now, if the restaurant was packed, I would have made it work by shifting away from the wall and pulling the table more centered between all of us, but being that there were 3 large empty tables in the middle of the room, one of them being taken up by a family of (hate to say, but a white family of four with a baby), and I couldn't see why we couldn't sit on one of these big tables.

    Baby A is always embarrassed when I call attention to anything, but I got up and was ready to get loud saying to the waitress "hey, I'm a fat cow, we don't fit in this tiny table, can we just sit in one of the big tables?"  She was half asleep, half coma, but somehow moving, was all of a sudden "sure, sure, sit wherever..."  We moved and I was instantly so much more comfortable, although Mijo was not happy I had made a stir.  We then sat for 5-10 minutes, and we had gotten our drinks but there was no sign of the biscuits and cornbread, so we said something.  The waitress acted like they were coming, but Mom and I wondered, "would they have come if we hadn't asked?"  She brought a plate out a few minutes later, but we didn't get the jellies that always come out with them.  I didn't feel like being a pain in the ass yet again, so I was left just thinking "was she being racist or was she just bad at her job?"  Yeah, you could defend her and say she was busy, but she was dealing with maybe two other tables in that area.  If that is too much, how does she react when the restaurant is full?

    I'm not going to lie, the food itself was good, even the biscuits with just butter were good and fresh, I just don't like that the rare times we try to go out to eat nowadays, the restaurants all seem short of workers.  These fucks have had it too easy since Covid started, not talking about this waitress, but more in general.  Wife and I never missed a day of work, so sorry, but I don't feel bad for thinking everyone should still be reporting to work.

12/28/21 Shit People At It Again?

     We are now experiencing life as the liberals would have it, celebrating career criminals and their activities, hoping they will turn things around on their own.  It seems the world has gone crazy to think that way, yet here we are.  Between Covid19 and the shutdowns and George Floyd, we have seen a lot of things change and not for the better.  Society claps and cheers along for the destruction of downtown areas (at least when BLM is in charge), these same people seem to not notice when particular high-end stores are targeted by crowds of rambunctious kids and everything is stolen, shit even our neighborhoods aren't safe as the stealing of catalytic converters has become a regular past time for these Shit people.

    I just wrote yesterday about my own catalytic converter stolen from my beloved Excursion, and now I get the honor of talking about a burglary at my local mall.  About a week ago, at the height of Christmas shopping, a group of thugs went and broke into Helzberg Diamonds at Barton Creek Mall.  Without going and seeing what had happened, I knew that if they only hit one display, it would be where the Rolex watches were displayed.  On any given day, they would have 7-10 used Rolex watches which still sell for even more than what they would cost new.  This proves to be too much temptation, and trash people who don't believe in working for stuff, find it more convenient to just risk their lives and steal.

    It bothered me more because I know one of the ladies who works there, she was a sales lady at Ben Bridge and when it closed down, she transferred over.  I went and asked her if she was ok and if she had been working that night.  She said she had gotten out about an hour before, but most of the other people working there were on shift and are still pretty shook up.  Austin hasn't been a place of violent activity and the thought that we turn into a Houston just makes me think even more about just moving away.

    The people that commit these crimes don't realize the damage they do, but these little smash and grabs leave a bad taste in the mouth.  In the same way that a couple of shoot-outs downtown leave me with zero interest in going walking downtown, also leave me with even less of a want to go shopping at the mall.  What happens when enough people get scared away and refuse to go to the mall?  I am already very wary of wearing my nice watches, last thing I want to do is become a victim.  Why would I want to build a big watch collection or give a nice watch to my boys and accidentally open them up to get attacked?  This type of shit just makes a brand like Rolex become the criminal's brand, and if that is all that is going to happen, then I guess I should just switch to other less popular brands.

12/27/21 Can't Even Get Mad At The Shit People?

     This world is full of Shit People, these people suck and are a poison on the world.  The Friday I started my vacation was supposed to be simple, take Mijo to school, go buy him some snacks for his meet, then start dinner early.  Nope, I go to turn on the Excursion, and it rumbled ugly.  I thought "well, it's old, the muffler probably developed a hole after all these years."  I then thought I'll deal with it later; we do have an extra vehicle.  I took the Telluride and really didn't have much time to think about it after.  Add to that the weather was shitty and I just didn't want to deal with another cost right now, so why look, it can wait, and now it has been actually two weeks, this didn't happen on the 17th, this happened a week before on the 10th of December.

    I was fine with the idea that time had eaten through my muffler pipe, and I'll have to spend money because of that.  I was then telling my parents about it and my dad just casually threw out "they stole your catalytic converter..."  Mom likes to take my calls on speakerphone and my Dad then gets to chime in words of wisdom like this.  As soon as he said it, it dawned on me that he was probably correct.  "Dammit!!" was all I could think.  I still didn't want to look underneath because it would just add more to the cost and it's not like I can afford to fix it right this minute without charging it to some card.  With the weather being wet and ugly, I also didn't want to lay on the floor and look underneath, keeping hope that maybe it was just my muffler theory.

    Well, Christmas Day we had DD and his Wife visit.  On their way out, we walked them outside, and I noticed he was driving a different truck.  He said it was his bosses, his was leaking fuel and was in the shop.  That reminded me about my problems, and I told him about the loud rumbling noise when I turned on the Excursion.  I didn't ask him, but he promptly went over and got on his back and looked with his phone for a light.  It was funny how he laughed, matter of fact, "Ha!, yeah they took your shit!!"  I just smiled and said "yeah, that sounds about right."

    I looked up a replacement, those things are like $300, why is that considered a high dollar item?  Tires cost more than that, not that I want my tires stolen, it just seems like a stupid thing to get under a vehicle for.  I saw a Youtube video of a guy getting shot doing this, and for a measly $300? I'm sure they get $50 for the Platinum, if that.  Fucking low life humans.  Yet liberals see a reason to protect these sons of bitches, but why?

12/26/21 Wife Thinks I Should Acknowledge Our Anniversary?

     I was telling Wife I couldn't think of anything to write about, we haven't been doing much, and she did the little "harumph, you should write about our anniversary..." (like some chick in her 20s).  I guess I can.  What's to say?  We met back in 1987, I fell for her back while we were both in band in high school (I was a junior and she was a freshman), and we have been together ever since.  Wife was always a bright star, even as a freshman, and she caught my attention.  She had a burning fire for a soul which made her more than the people around her and has been the only person I felt could keep up with me, not to mention, she was pretty hot back in her tight pant days.

    I don't make a big deal about our anniversary, precisely because she has never wanted to be like that.  She doesn't like gifts, so I can't celebrate the moment with a nice watch, or ring, she barely wears any jewelry.  I couldn't possibly buy her clothes, purses, shoes, it won't be the right ones or fit her right.  Being that we got married on Christmas Day or Eve, neither one of us is sure which one, we just kind of go with the flow and enjoy the moment.  We are with our boys and family is usually within a stone's throw, so we are where we want to be.  

    I love that we both come from similar backgrounds in that we both believe hard work is the only way to get what you want out of life.  We have both instilled this in our boys and we can see them work hard to achieve their goals, and they are seeing positive results by believing in what we preach.  Boy has had to work doubly hard to become an engineer with his dyslexia, but we have never told him or led him to believe he can't do it, and now, there he is, with one of the largest companies here in town, getting it done.  Baby A is also on track, first getting recognition on the field (2nd team All District honors, 2 years in a row) and on track to get his associates degree by the time he graduates high school.

    I can only hope for another 35 years with this wonderful woman to keep me on my toes and challenge me every day to be the best person I can be.  Yes, she can seem like a pain in the ass because she never stops, but then again, that is how the great ones are.  She finds new ways to keep it going and make it interesting.  Maybe she won't ever buy into the idea of me becoming a pilot and us owning our own plane, but I know she is all for us buying a small waterfront property to enjoy some nice sunsets overlooking some open water one day.  I love you, Woman, Happy Anniversary.

12/25/21 Still A Good Christmas?

     I was doing a bit of "boo hoo, poor me, Christmas was noneventful this year..." but the reality is this is what we wanted.  Prior to this week, we had been running at breakneck speed, keeping up with work, and for a couple more months, Baby A's wrestling schedule.  It felt like we came in on fumes and crash landed out in a field next to the runway.  I know it's a clumsy metaphor, but I started my vacation on Friday morning, the 17th of December, which gave me all the more reason to go and prepare for the wrestling meet by buying supplies, then picking up Mijo from school early.  We then had to be in bed by 8:00pm, so I made dinner early and we did what we had to do.  Saturday was of course, spent in Bryan, Texas.  Sunday, it seemed like we would finally rest and start our proper Christmas break, but then my Mom who had told us they would come visit called that Dad had not been feeling well, so it turned into us going down to visit them.  We then spent Monday buying gifts at the last minute, and we did go see the new Spider Man, which I am still arguing with Baby A that I did not like.  We were gone Tuesday and Wednesday visiting my folks, then Thursday Wife suggested we go get food supplies for the big holiday, which took 2-3 hours at the Buda HEB, which was filled to capacity.

    This is when things finally calmed down.  We had all our food stuff at home, and we then did not leave the house until Sunday night for a little cruise, Wife was bored and Mijo was hungry.  Wife cooked a couple of cakes and cobblers along with some cookies Thursday night.  Friday was easy going, eventually she put a ham in the oven, and we also made some pigs in a blanket, and nachos, which Mijo requested.  My initial take on Saturday and Sunday would be "wow, how boring", but this is what we had been wanting.  Boy spent Christmas Eve with his GF and her family, so it was just us three.  Girlie did stop by and visit, but that was it.

    Christmas Day started at 4:00am for me.  I got up to put our brisket in the oven so it would slowly cook for 11-12 hours at 275.  Wife then came and jacked the temperature up to 350 when she got up at noon, but I guess I still burned the brisket somehow.  It wasn't burned but it was a little crispy on the outside.  It was actually one of the most tender briskets I have made, it was falling apart when I tried to slice it up and it did fall apart when we took pieces out to put on our plates.  Christmas Day was a little better with Boy and GF coming home and spending the day here.  The only visit we had was DD and his Wife stopping by in the evening, which was nice, but that was all the excitement we had.

    Like I said, on the surface this sounds boring, but after all the running around, it was really good to slow down.  I think I actually felt relaxed Sunday, when we didn't do much of anything but sleep and eat leftovers.  I am happy to wake up Monday morning, my Mom called that they are coming over for a few days, and we still have another week to take it easy and not rush back into our daily routines.

12/24/21 Quietest Christmas Eve Ever, For Us?

     I honestly wanted to be home, I guess this is what we get with that.  I know we had choices, we could have spent Christmas at my folk's home, or we could even have gone to my in-law's, both would have cranked up the energy and given us a more festive mood.  Still, we chose to stay home, partly because I like waking up in my own home and sleeping in my mixture of bed and recliner nowadays.  And of course, I am trying to stay where we might still see Boy who is pretty much becoming more and more a member of his GF's family.  He told us he would be spending Christmas Eve over there because they are a large family and being Hispanic, they celebrate the Christmas thing, opening gifts on the eve rather than the morning, so it makes sense.  We prefer celebrating the "magic" of Santa and waiting until the morning to see what Santa might have brought the boys, so I guess looking at it that way, it is a good compromise of sharing Boy's time.

    Christmas Eve was a rather lazy day for us.  We had planned it that way, we usually do.  We start the idea by going to the store the day before and stocking up on anything we might need for a couple of days.  Wife planned and has made a couple of cakes, cookies, we bought some pies, baked a ham, Baby A even wanted nachos like you get at a football game (with the cheap plastic cheese), and we did that too.  For Christmas Day, we have a brisket (I still have two more frozen in freezer, actually), which I am up at 4:30am to put in the oven and write this (a day late).

    I couldn't have been lazier on Christmas Eve, getting up at 7:00am, drinking a cup of coffee with some sweet breads, then going back to sleep.  Wife got up and made some breakfast tacos, I ate and went back to sleep.  Wife then tried getting me to watch a lame Christmas movie with Kelsey Grammer, and again I fell asleep.  In the afternoon, Girlie stopped by, I got up to eat some of the nachos while she was here, then eventually she left and I think I may have slept a little more.  I finally got some hours awake after eating some ham sandwiches with our fancy ham, we watched one of the Spider Man movies I had not seen with the middle Spider Man who happens to be Mijo's favorite, of the three.  We followed up that movie with an old classic, Major League, which I had wanted him to see.  Surprisingly, Mijo said he actually liked this old movie, that hardly happens, but I keep trying.

    Baby A went to bed early, maybe he's up in his room playing video games, but he wanted to give Santa a chance to stop by and deliver the presents without him being in the way.  Wife stayed up to watch one more crappy vampire thing (I honestly don't know where she keeps finding them), Mom called to say Merry Christmas around 1:00am and then we went to bed.  I then woke up to go pee at 4:00am and decided I might as well start the brisket since they can take 10-12 hours to get them soft and tender.  Merry Christmas Everybody!

12/23/21 Baby A is 2nd Team All District Two Years In A Row?

     I am proud to say that Mijo's hard work is recognized by his coaches and peers alike.  For the second year in a row, he has been selected to the 2021 All District 14-5A Division II Second Team.  It is really an accomplishment, considering he was injured and missed two games, early in the season, moved from the start of the season playing center, to moving over and playing the 2nd half of the season playing guard and even towards the end of the season spending time on defense playing defensive tackle/nose guard.  This boy loves playing in the trenches moving people around with brute strength.

    The scariest feeling all season was game three when he hurt his shoulder but didn't say anything until the game finished.  Again, like in wrestling last weekend, we couldn't tell when it exactly happened, but I remember discussing with Wife that he wasn't looking like himself throughout the game, only to find out after that he was in a lot of pain but hid it so he wouldn't be benched.  The injury happened on a freak play, where he fell over sideways and the plastic in the shoulder pad that is supposed to protect him somehow stabbed him in the shoulder and bruised his AC joint.  the first doctor we saw took x-rays and said he was done for the season, now I realize that doctor had no clue what he was talking about, but he did suggest we see a specialist.  The specialist was like a shining light, where the first doctor said the bone was cracked where it starts which sounds like something that may never heal.  The specialist said that is all growth and not to worry about that.  He said the injury was just a bruised tendon and if he could take the pain he could go out there and play that night.  We waited a couple of weeks and he headed back into the field of play without any other incidents of injury.

    Looking at the rest of the list, it is really an honor to be selected, most of the other kids on the list were from Liberty Hill, Marble Falls and McCallum which all went to the playoffs.  There were a few other Cougars on the list, but they were all skill players, the QB, receivers, DBs.  Mijo was the only lineman to make the list from the Cougars.  He was a little disappointed, he thought his good friend should have also been selected, I am just happy his hard work is recognized.  Congratulations Mijo, we're proud of you.

12/22/21 Even Christmas Is Getting The Shaft?

     I just muttered "I don't know what to write about" and Boy says write about how it doesn't feel like Christmas.  I have to agree, as we were getting food for Christmas and Eve and Day at the HEB in Buda, I couldn't help but notice that the shelves normally lined with all sorts of Christmas crap, like candies in ornament and candy cane shapes are all but gone.  I managed to grab a box of chocolate pecans from the small selection left on the one shelf which could have easily been Valentine's candies.  As a matter of fact, there was a guy taking down the shelves themselves and arranging it for the next big thing and from the looks of it, that would be Valentine's Day.  The next row was already full of candies in heart shapes, which begs the question, why?  There are still a couple of days left before Christmas Day and haven't we all seen hundred movies of the poor little kid who managed to get his shit together on Christmas Eve to buy that one important gift for his mother or whoever is important in his life?

    I have to say I already was not feeling the Christmas spirit while looking at the weather and it sucks that it is going to be in the upper 80's on Saturday.  We still haven't gotten around to decorating the house, other than Wife pulling out our old white tree and wrapping it a generic string of colored lights.  The poor tree doesn't even have bulbs or any decorations, they are all still in the boxes.  The stairs are still wrapped in Halloween lights.

    We barely managed to get gifts for the niece and nephews at the last minute when we ended up going to Crystal City because my dad was feeling a little under the weather.  It felt weird, usually we do a lot of shopping at Dillard's, they have an annual private sale, on a Sunday evening after the mall closes, but this year it came and went, and I didn't notice the flyer until after the event happened.  Wife hasn't hardly shopped for her nephews, she simply said she'll wait until after Christmas and get gifts on sale.

    To me it would all be more pleasant if it was cooler, like at least in the 50s.  We are looking at mid 70's today and getting warmer here in the next couple days.  We won't be seeing cold temperatures until we go back to work, which really sucks bolas.  There is a little fun in feeling trapped in the house due to weather to allow the enjoyment of junk food and bad movies.  Instead, it feels all nice like we should be out on a run or outside working on the yard.  Meh.  Maybe it will still freeze in January or February.

12/21/21 AITA?

     There is a TikTok that asks that question and people comment on it AITA stands for Am I The Asshole.  I have to ask that after last night, when apparently, we left the movie and I was fighting with both Baby A and Wife, and I don't even know why.  We went to watch the new Spider-Man movie which fine, Mijo wanted to see it, Wife had bought the tickets on Saturday while we were at the wrestling tournament.  I was fine, Wife even told me to take a nap before we went, which I did, I was as set and ready as I can be, we got there with a few minutes extra to buy our popcorn and soda and then we sat down.  If anything, I would've wanted a little blanket, the theater was cold and the leather on my legs was cold, but it wasn't terrible.  We all reclined back and got comfortable.

    It didn't help that I got a call from my brother 20 minutes into the movie, he never calls unless something bad happened.  I walked out of the movie, because my mom has been doing the hard sell that my dad is sick, I thought maybe he turned worse, but then my brother is the kind of guy that if you call him 20 seconds after he called you, he won't answer.  I texted him, then he texted back that he would call me in 5 minutes, I texted that I was at the movies.  I was in the middle of a movie, and I don't know if they are in emergency, again, nobody ever calls me to chitchat.  Then he calls to say "oh, you're in a movie, never mind, I'll call you later."  But the Ass didn't say what it was about, so I get to sit in the movie wondering what is going on back home.  I tried going back in and getting into the movie.  Eventually, Toby Maguire appears, and Wife gets excited because that is "our" Spiderman.  In her excitement, I try to add that his MJ was Kirsten Dunst, who we just happened to see Bring It On the night before, so I thought that was interesting.  No, Mijo that I love so much gives me "Shut the Fuck up, I'm trying to listen."  Fine, I get it, no big deal.  I don't think I said much of anything else, we finished watching the movie, then when we're walking out, he snaps again that I wouldn't shut up.  I snapped back that I didn't say hardly anything.

    I called my brother on the drive home, he says my niece got a scholarship to the school she just got accepted to, so even though it is a private school, it won't cost him much.  That is great news, and I am happy for her, but the timing could have waited.  With my dad being sick, and getting a call out of the blue, I was expecting the worst.

    I kind of kept arguing with Mijo at home about the movie being shitty, and he was trying to defend it.  I was trying to spin the negative into some humor, he was saying how much he loves Spiderman, I was arguing he don't know shit.  He says he knows all the characters; I mentioned another character and he stutters "Umm, umm, well..." which I used to prove my point that he doesn't know everything.  Wife tried chiming in with "well who played Sandman..." I snapped back Thomas Hayden Church, and added Lowell on Wings, because I knew she was going to then ask, "what do we know him from?"

    Once I "win" the argument with Mijo (which I was mad at him for telling me to "shut the fuck up"), and has nothing to do with Wife, but I kept doing the "umm, umm, well" sound he was making, she lost it because we can't make loud noises in her presence when arguing, she says I start sounding like my brother who yells all his arguments.  Once the Queen gets mad, all I can do is shut up because I need to bring the energy down, so I went silent.

    At this point I hadn't been mad, but there was some stress because it was now evening, and we needed to get some gifts I thought we would have until the end of the week to get.  I headed to Academy and picked out some hoodies for my nephews, not a bad gift, I guess, but also a rushed gift.  It is now Tuesday morning, we are supposed to leave here in an hour, and I still don't have all the gifts we should have.  Wife doesn't even have half her gifts, but we won't be seeing her side of the family until next week, so I guess that is okay.

    Wife and I have been together over 30 years, we'll get over the arguing we did, but I don't know how we still manage to get there.  I wanted to just take it easy all week, not do anything stressful, yet here we are.  We still haven't enjoyed any homemade cookies, haven't gone to Berdoll Farms to buy pecans, I haven't even tried to fix my grill yet, but I guess life goes on anyway.

12/20/21 I Hated The New Spider Man?

     Maybe I just wasn't in the right state of mind, but I hated the new Spider Man movie, Parker acted like a fucking brat and that cost him his aunt.  He deserved a swift kick in the ass at the end of the movie, fucking listen to your elders, you're supposed to be better than that.  I don't know if it's because we have seen so many Spider Men, and now we accept that they all exist, in different universes, but surely this asshole version has fought a bad guy or two, he wasn't brand new to how bad guys work, yet he knew better and had to save them all.  All he got for his troubles was a dead aunt and probably a dead Tobey McGuire Spider-Man, he was sent back to his universe in a world of hurt after getting stabbed in the back by the Goblin, an older but still scary Willem Dafoe.

    There were also other problems in the movie, to me.  He has saved the world countless times, yet the media still wouldn't shut up in painting him as the bad guy, maybe Spider Man is a representation of Trump, who did a lot of good, yet the media won't shut up and keep pointing at him as the reason for so many problems.  Once he was found out, why couldn't some of the Avengers come and help him out, I imagine this wasn't long after they all fought for the literal world and bravely brought back half the people who had been zapped out by Thanos, maybe I am confusing story lines, but they want to make it all blend together.  I get that Iron-Man is dead in this story line, but Stark Industries still exists, surely Peter Parker could find some privacy in that compound the Avengers had in the last movie, I mean all that was still there, in this reality.  Instead, Happy was floundering around like some out of work actor because his boss had died?  Come on, he still had access to all things Stark related, yet he is living in some poor neighborhood in New York, in a one-bedroom apartment, how much of an asshole was Tony Stark to not set him up comfortably?

    Finally, I was also bothered by MJ's tone with Dr. Strange.  First off, you're talking to a world-renowned surgeon turned wizard, who again, has helped save the world and your shitty little ass is going to walk into his house wanting respect and to be addressed a certain way?  How about you prove yourself first that you deserve to breath the same air he breathes, Shithead.  I like Zendaya, she was great in The Greatest Showman, and maybe it is just a nod to today's shitty generation, but respect is earned, not given.  You showed up at his doorstep needing his help, now he should bend over backwards to help you?  Then when he did, the fucking Spider-Ass ruined the solution because he felt sorry for the guys his persona had already killed in other realities/universes.  Whatever!!!  This all left a bad taste in my mouth, listen to your fucking elders and you reduce your problems... or watch your fucking aunt you love so much die for no good reason.

12/19/21 Like Being Hungover?

     Technically, we got done with the tournament by 4:30pm, it was exciting to think we were headed home early.  I was telling Wife on the way home, we should be home by 6:30pm, I am going to nap for a bit and then we can do whatever.  That did not play out that way.  I did not want to think about eating but that is not how Mijo operates.  It only took the first Whataburger he saw for him to say he was hungry.  I did not want to eat in Bryan Texas.  It is bad enough to hear that this is the part of Texas that is still racist, I don't need to be exposed to nitwits that think that way, so I told Mijo we would just drive and eat when we got to Bastrop, at least it's right by Austin, so it should be safer.

    I guess we made it 23 miles to Caldwell before our boy saw a Whataburger and he got loud about being hungry.  I pulled over and we all ate there.  It is nice to have snacks to munch on, but nothing beats a burger when you are hungry.  It went down good and then I was done, pretty much for the day, Wife drove home, I napped.

    Stopping to eat only made the drive home that much longer.  Oh, and we did also stop at Buc-ee's in Bastrop because Mijo's friends had never been in one.  I topped off our gas and we went inside.  Wife of course has to take pictures of the kids with the beaver.  I got a few packs of chocolate covered nuts and we were on our way.  We got home around 8:00pm, and there wasn't much to do.  I started ripping the sheets off the bed downstairs because of Mijo's possible pink eye situation which mostly disappeared on its own.

    We ate some frozen pizzas and I don't even remember anything past that point.  Next thing I knew it was 11:30pm, I had fallen asleep, Wife was watching crap, or asleep, but after I got up to pee, we went upstairs.  I slept about as well as I do, waking up a couple times to pee, alternating between the bed and my recliner.  I felt pretty good by 8:00am, considering how badly we felt after the first tournament.  I really think our stadium bleacher seats help improve the comfort for sitting there for hours on end.  I am writing this at noon on Sunday and I feel a little raw, my eyes feel like they could nap, but overall, I feel okay now.  I am glad to know we won't be hurrying anywhere soon.  Wife did have the balls to ask if we wanted to go make tamales a minute ago, to which Mijo responded "No! WTF."  Wife can't say we are going to rest for the next few days, then wake up to that type of shenanigans.  I am glad Mijo responded that way, I didn't have to be the bad guy this time.

12/18/21 A Parent Knows?

     I think I can read Mijo pretty good, and I could tell he was not himself yesterday at the tournament in Bryan Texas.  Wife and I showed up about the same time they did, although we were not following the bus or anything like that.  We had even stopped at Buc-ee's and picked up some morning sandwiches with egg and sausage to eat while we drove.  Either way, we try not to get in their way, we did manage to get them an area in the stands for them, all the school will get a big enough area for them to sit together, but this was a slightly different tournament in that the matches were done in four separate buildings.  The varsity boys got the main gym with the basketball hoops on the ceiling, and the bleachers all around.  The JV boys got a smaller gym, it had basketball rims attached to the ceiling, but the bleachers were quite small, and only along one wall.  The girls were in a third gym looking room with high ceilings, but I am not sure it had the basketball rims attached to the ceiling, and the rookie boys were in a big cafeteria type room, but they had three mats, the JV and girls had four mats and the varsity boys had five mats to fight on.  It made for a much quicker day, but it also meant we only saw the varsity boys, we weren't going to leave and possibly miss our son's matches to see other kids.

    Back to Mijo though, once they got weighed, he is usually fired up and he warms up the team.  We saw all the other teams going down and running around the mats and stretching.  I yelled at our boy to get them out there a couple of times and he just kept doing with his hand to "wait."  He eventually put his shoes on and got down to the gym area, but he wasn't really running around excited.  All day long, he was more low energy than what I am used to seeing from him.

    He admitted after he was done that he dreaded waking up (he woke up at 2:45 before we even called him), getting on the bus (he said he closed his eyes and opened them and they were arriving), getting there and he was feeling like just giving up in the first match and losing so we could go home faster.  Once he felt the arms of the first fighter on him, he remembered he likes to compete and couldn't just give up, but I think his energy hurt him and that is partly why he lost that fourth match to a kid he defeated in like 30 seconds the week before.  I always like to remember that these are kids still, and Mijo was saying he wanted to be on Christmas break just relaxing and taking it easy, so yes, I was upset at him because I thought he threw the last match, but I also understand that he has been going hard since the summer and our poor little warrior is tired and needs a break.  Here is hoping we can just take a long deep breath in the next two weeks and start the new year revved up and ready to go.

12/17/21 Pink Eye Means Early Christmas Break?

    Baby A came downstairs Friday morning complaining that his eye felt sticky and pink.  His first thought is that he had caught pink eye, my first thought is "cool, we are excused from the Saturday tournament."  Let me say, I do love watching Mijo compete, I just hate that we have to get up as early as we do, 3:00am this weekend.  I told him to go talk to the trainer, she can help diagnose the eye better and maybe get us excused for the weekend.  She was not in the office first thing in the morning, I called her while I was out shopping for team snacks.  She said she was offsite but would be getting back to the school shortly and she would call for Mijo to go see her.  I wasn't really scared of the pink eye, and it didn't look like pink eye to me, although his eyelid did look funky to me, I was thinking it was more of a stye.  The trainer also did not see pink eye and recommended hot compresses the rest of the day to try and get the stye to come out of hiding.  As I usually do, I called my mom to get her opinion and she, along with my paranoid brother said it was the staph infection that had affected about half the wrestlers in other parts of their bodies working on the eyes and I better take him to a doctor before he goes blind, and it'll all be my fault.

    I then spent the morning after getting home trying to schedule a doctor's appointment on the Friday, hopefully between 3:00pm and 6:00pm.  I thought it was going to be impossible, but Victory Medical came through, and they were able to see him at 3:45pm.  The doctor was very laid back, he also agreed it was not pink eye but maybe a stye, although Mijo did admit that by the afternoon he really didn't feel much of anything.  I felt better for getting him checked out, considering the staph infection that is on a couple of boys' knees.

    There was no reprieve, we were cleared for battle and all that was left was eat early and go to bed.  We got home about the same time Wife did, we threw the chicken I had already prepped on a baking sheet and ate by 7:30.  All we could manage was watching a half hour show or two and off to bed we went.  It is such a weird feeling to go to bed at 9:00pm, then wake up at 11:30 to pee, and even when we did get up at 3:00am, Boy was still awake, he had entertained some friends from out of town.  We woke up Baby A, took our showers and got out the door to suffer slowly, it really kind of hurts when you do stuff like that, get up when your body does not want to.  Oh well, we showed up and did our best to support Mijo and the team.

12/16/21 Tri-Meet Was Heart Pounding?

     What can I say, we are on a wrestling train right now, it is all we are focused on and last night did not disappoint.  Crockett had a Tri-Meet, which is where the school goes head to head to head with two other schools.  The meet was held at McCallum High School and Travis High was the third school.  The meet was scheduled from 6:00pm-9:00pm and according to the internal website where we communicate with the coaches and team, it was going to start at 7:00pm, with weigh-ins and stuff going on before hand.  I almost decided to get a little more work done, when I got finished at 5:30pm, thinking I could leave at 6:00pm, but decided to play it safe and get there early.  I was a little bit pissed when I walked in the door and the meet had already started.  I missed the first match, which is okay for me, since my interest is in the varsity boys, specifically the heavies (the last weight class is referred to as the heavies, they didn't used to have a limit so all and any of the overweight kids would end up in this class), now it is limited between 220 and 285 pounds.

    The meet went according to how they always do it.  They started with the girls, from the lightest class, which I believe is 95 pounds (there are 10 classes in girls), going up to 215 for the heaviest girls.  In the instances where there are not two fighters, the lone person in the weight category wins automatically.  There were a handful of girl matches, then they switched to boys freshman or rookie league and the freshmen had their turn, and there were a couple of good matches, followed by the junior varsity.  It was fun watching Mijo's good friend who fights in the junior varsity team go against another kid.  Eventually, we got to the varsity and the lightheartedness of the fighting got more serious and the moves became a bit more violent.  It's not that the rookies and JV kids aren't violent, but they are also new and they make mistakes, which is expected.

    The match between Mijo and the Travis big boy was by far the most intense match of the night.  All other matches were fast and loose, ending quickly.  This one went the full 6 minutes, ending by decision and luckily for our boy, he won out, but it could have gone either way.  In the beginning, I was nervous, the other boy was considerably bigger and he came out ultra aggressive.  The parents above me were excited to see that big boy, and even said something like "ooh, he's gonna mop the floor with that little guy."  It only took a few seconds for them to change their tune to "ooh that other kid has some moves and he's stronger than he looks, it's gonna get good."  It wasn't until the end of the first round that I yelled "come on Mijo..." the guys figured the "little guy" was mine and one of them asked "is that one yours?"  I just said "yup!" I wasn't going to chit chat in the middle of an exciting match.  It went back and forth, either one could have gotten a pin, they both led by points, but in the end, I think it is Mijo's conditioning, he says he still goes hard in football class where they focus on lifting weights and running that helped him.  About the end of the second round, the big Travis kid went all out, running at our boy and about tackling him, tossing him out of the ring.  Baby A even told us after he heard steps "is this guy running at me, oh shit!?!?"  He basically went for a tackle, but landed outside the ring, so it was stopped to get moved back to the middle.  I think that was his desperation move, by the third round the other kid was out of gas and he didn't do much to try and get ahead.  Mijo was up by a point on an escape, then the other kid tripped trying some move and Mijo jumped on his back and got two more points for controlling from behind.  It was by far his most exciting match this season.

12/15/21 This Is Why We Have An Extra Vehicle?

     Last Friday, I went to turn on the Excursion and it sounded like one of those stupid motorcycles that makes too much noise for its size.  It literally scared me and I thought it was maybe because Baby A opened his door right as it fired up and the sound maybe came from the other side.  I told him to close the door and back away, in case it did something horrible, I didn't know what to think.  I turned it on again and it made the same rough rumble sound, like the muffler needed replacing.  I didn't think much of it, we do have an extra car, so we jumped in the Telluride and got him to school on time.  Because we are always in a hurry, I continued with my day, stopped at Target to get more snacks for the team on Saturday, then coming home and doing whatever I was doing.

    Since Saturday was all about wrestling, and we needed to go to bed early, like at 9:00pm, that was all I did Friday regarding the Excursion.  Sunday, we flipped the cars, we also got a cold front on Saturday, so I wasn't going to go out and mess with the vehicles in the cold.  I like driving the Escape, it is small and fits anywhere, Wife took her Telluride to work, which is fine, she hardly ever drives it.  At this point, it still has less than 40,000 miles and we have had it almost two years.

    In my head, I was thinking the Excursion is old, it might need a new muffler, I did drive home Thursday night and there were no problems I noticed.  I figured this can wait until after the holidays, once we get past this week, we will be off for two weeks, so no rush to get the back-up vehicle fixed.  A muffler shouldn't be too bad.  Then I talked to my parents and my dad suggested that maybe my catalytic converter was stolen, poor people have been taking these and I guess shops are taking them and offering cash, why is beyond me, but it is allowed, so desperate people are stealing anything of value.  I can survive the fact that this might have happened, but the idea that someone is bold enough to come on my property and hang out under my car and damage shit for a few nickels makes my blood boil.

    I was still too lazy and honestly didn't want to look under the Excursion, it has these bulky steps which makes it very hard for a fat-ass to look underneath, I literally have to drop down to both knees and probably lay on the floor to see under there.  Either way, it is going to cost me money to fix it, it is just matter of when I get around to doing it.  For now, I will keep driving the Escape, it is fun, specially with all the extra shoppers out now.

12/14/21 Good News For Us?

     I honestly love visiting with my folks, but with our current schedule, we have had no time to even finish our Christmas shopping, let alone plan some away time.  We are headed into our third straight weekend of wrestling tournaments as we head into the Christmas break.  Best I had come up with was telling Wife we should go visit my folks on maybe Monday and Tuesday because we have been about useless on the Sundays following the tournaments because we are all left sore and spent from being there all day.  This still was not going to allow for time to buy all the gifts we are still short on, which is really most of the gifts for the kids, really we have like 2-3 gifts right now, we have a long way to go yet.

    This is why I really enjoyed the call this morning when my Mom said they had thought about it and decided to come up because she too does not have all her gifts and this will allow her time to shop.  Mom also said they would be staying a good 3-4 days, which sounds great because every time they come, it seems to be in a rush and based on the length of a weekend.  This will give us some relaxing time to maybe smoke a brisket for them, go see the Trail of Lights or other Christmas time sights.  She did not say whether anyone else is coming, but it is rare for them to come up and not have my sister or brother follow.

    I am just glad we get to possibly finally relax, if for a week, because Mijo only has one week off from wrestling, they are going to be practicing the following week, it won't be much longer afterschool starts up in January that they go to the district meet.  I was already thinking it wasn't going to be much of a break if we were going to be gone until Wednesday or Thursday, then come back and finish some last minute shopping and stocking the kitchen with all sorts of goodies to hunker down for Christmas Eve and Day.

    I am already feeling much more relaxed today thinking we won't be running off out of town and instead we can all be under one roof.  I hate that Boy does not travel much with us anymore, but this way, he may go to work but he'll be around in the evenings, which was another reason my Mom wants to come up, so she can spend time around her first grandbaby.

12/13/21 One More Class For Boy?

     It has been a long time coming but Boy passed the harder classes he has had to take a couple of times and is now down to one more, and it is almost a silly one, it is one of his first physics classes he should have, could have taken at ACC so many years ago.  It sounds wrong, but that is the last class he needs to meet his degree requirements, he has been in conversation with a counselor or whatever and he just needs the one class.  We are proud of Mijo, he has had a rough time because he has dyslexia, because he changed majors a couple times and because he probably needed to mature a little bit, if we are being honest.

    Needless to say, he has always been an extremely hard worker and never expected anything given to him.  He was a good worker at Alamo Drafthouse, we heard from coworkers when we would go to the movies, using his discounts, it was a great time, although still expensive even if he got us in for free.  He was then a great employee at Nano, where he was in charge of their 3D printer labs until they shut that portion of the company down, he still got a lot of experience and was able to use that to springboard himself into a good job at his current place, not that I want to outright talk about it, but it is one of the bigger semiconductor companies in the area.

    His boss knows that he was a couple classes short of finishing, and again, they haven't given him any special privilege in letting him focus on finishing his classes, he has had to do that on his own.  He was helped tremendously by the home schooling efforts caused by Covid-19 more than a rear ago, which let him get some classes done without going to a physical classroom.  I don't understand why colleges don't relax and just let that trend continue, if the work is getting done, why do they need the body sitting there in the classroom, other than to justify growing the campus to crazy sizes to keep up with the other area universities.

    Either way, I will feel much better about him shopping for a house knowing that we at least are releasing him to society with a degree, he has a good job today, but you never know if tomorrow something happens and he is left out having to shop himself around, I think the degree is a good way of setting himself apart from the many other people constantly moving into the area to try their chance at the fortunes provided by our growing economy.

12/12/21 Testing Negative?

     I felt like an ass a bit, but I did wear a mask the whole day and I tried not talking to the kids direct, but we were at the wrestling meet all day yesterday with the team while having an undiagnosed cough.  It's not that I wanted to sit close with them, the gym was just so small, everyone was sitting on top of each other, there was no way around it and the way I see it, I caught my cough last week at the Georgetown Meet.  The  matches were split between two gyms again and every time we got up to go watch a match in the other gym, we would come back and someone would be sitting in our spots, luckily I would leave my chair there, so the people knew that was my spot and Wife would take any spot of bench around me, Wife didn't want to use her chair because they take up so much space.  I don't care because I am not sore today, and I would be a mess right now if I sat on the wooden bleachers all day.

    Anyways, I went and got tested on Friday, but I did not get my results until Saturday night, after I had been sitting all day with the team, even if I did wear the mask, just in case.  What else are we supposed to do in this new world we live in. Other than a scratchy throat that keeps me coughing, I don't really have other symptoms.  I haven't had fever, or body aches, or headaches, just a cough.  I am vaccinated, even if I didn't want to be.  That is what they were selling when I begrudgingly approved getting that vaccination is that I wouldn't have to quarantine, which is what Baby A heard and agreed to so that he wouldn't miss the football season after sitting out for 10 days of practice in the summer..  Honestly, if I thought I might be positive, such as loosing my taste or smell again, then I would have stayed home.

    I noticed on my phone while we were eating at Sea Island, after we left the meet, around 8:30pm, that I had a text and email from CVS, but it wouldn't open.  What is the point of 5G and all that crap if the phones won't work unless there is a wifi connection?  It wasn't until we got home, closer to 10:00pm that I was finally able to open the results, which I was glad were negative, just to feel guilt free after a week of going to work and going to the meet.  A year ago, I would have been forced to quarantine and the results would have taken at least a week to get back, so I would have missed the opportunity to see my son in action, so I am glad we are making progress, I guess.

    I am still coughing and hacking, it sounds horrible, but it sounds worse than it is, I think.  When I am not coughing I honestly feel like I am fine.  Hopefully, it starts to clear up this week.  Maybe it is just allergies, Wife said she had something on Monday morning too, so I thought it might be a cold, but she hasn't coughed once, so maybe she's clean.  She makes such a worse sick person, she will be off her feet if she is sick, at least for now, I am going to keep on soldiering on.  I am looking for Sunday next week to come along, so we can officially get on with our xmas break and just take it easy for a few days.

12/11/21 Another Tournament Under The Books?

     It has been a rough ride, certainly not close to what we saw last year, but I think the overall experience has been good for the wrestling team as a whole.  Last year, the team consisted of mainly two guys and maybe three girls.  I think because of Covid, we never went to a full tournament like we have already three times this year.  Last year, every competition was with 1-2 schools and they were as short handed as we were, so only a handful of wrestling matches occurred, so we never experienced this day to night shenanigans, where we went in the gym at 8:00am and came out when it was already dark.  This year, a lot of the school have showed up with mostly full teams and we are doing team competitions where the wins and losses of each weight class count towards point totals and the highest point total team takes the 1st prize home.  Our team is still short because of a couple different factors, mostly inexperience being one of them.  For some reason, instead of putting as many guys as possible in the varsity team, the coaches have about 7-8 guys fighting on the JV team to get them experience and leaving only about 4 boys on the varsity team.  We are never going to win a team battle this way, but individual experience also counts, something we didn't understand until yesterday.

    Mijo, being 6-3 going into the meet was given a very good seating and did not have to face any opponents until the third round, but at that point fought a kid that was 9-0, so he was pretty good.  Still, he won with a move I hadn't seen Baby A fall to, I think the kid was skilled and pretty strong.  We could see the records of the guys he was fighting and although good for us to think we he had an advantage, I don't think it matters in the ring.  The second match was with a new kid, he was only 2-1, but he was strong and tall.  He had Mijo scrambling until he made a mistake, slipped and our boy pounced on top of him and didn't let go until he got the pin.  The third guy was a bit scary looking, all muscle and did not look like the typical heavy, with a little fat on him.  He was 10-2 at the start of the day, but after the match he told our boy he was fighting at 219, so I don't know if he was normally a lower class weight kid trying to compete with the heavies.  Mijo muscled him into submission in about 29 seconds, it was a little amazing how easy he made it look, considering the other boy looked like he was cur from stone.  He was a round away from going for 3rd place, but the last wrestler fought a little dirty, he was punching him in the back of the head with his forearm which we all think should be a penalty of some kind, but it always is allowed.  The kid also sucker punched him in the mouth and he was still bleeding from his lips at the end of the match.

    There is one more meet before the holidays, next week in Bryan, Texas.  I guess we'll see more of the guys from the eastern side of the state, I am guessing more schools from the Houston area.  I am totally looking forward to the break, we all need it, we have been going non-stop since the summer, really.  We will pick up a couple more tournaments after the Christmas break, and then the whole thing comes to a boil in February with the district, regional, and state meets.

12/10/21 Covid Needs To Go Away?

     I don't think I have Covid this time, but I have had a sore throat the past week.  When I mention it to people, everyone likes to say it sounds like allergies.  I like the sound of that, although it doesn't make my throat feel any better.  I was worried about getting my husky wrestler sick and it was going alright, specially because I was staying late at work all week, but I came home earlier last night and managed to eat with him at the table.  I don't know if that is all it took, but he woke me in the morning with a "you need to check yourself for Covid, my throat is a little scratchy now."  When it was just me, I was willing to just ignore it and take a wait and see approach, I mean what is the great thing about knowing you are indeed positive?  It's not like there is a medicine to take, I am fully vaccinated, as is everyone else in the house, so we should theoretically be alright.

    But now that Mijo got whatever I have, which also means it is probably not allergies because he never complains about runny nose or sneezing/coughing.  I figured I was okay because Wife is still testing weekly at work on Mondays an she had already said she was negative, so since she also mentioned having a sore throat, I figured we picked up the same bug, probably at the wrestling meet last week as we were surrounded by tons of people and no one was wearing a mask.  Wife got past her sore throat super quick, but then again she does enjoy getting any and all booster shots that are offered, such as the flu and whatever else there is.

    I tried going to CVS, they advertise that they do free Covid testing, but of course, I naively walked in and the test needs to be scheduled and only done through their drive thru, I don't know why, it's not like the guy was prepared with anything when I showed up.  I did get lucky in that the CVS a couple miles away, on Brodie and Slaughter Lane had a schedule opening at 11:50am.  I got there right at that time and was lucky again that there was only one other car in front of me.  By the time I got done, there were at least four cars behind me, not my fault, the guy inside was a little slow, in my opinion.

    I am waiting now for the results which will post in 1-2 days.  So what happens in the meantime, can Mijo wrestle?  What if he does wrestle and I find out halfway through the day tomorrow that I am positive, do we leave at that point?  What is the vaccine protecting then?  Shouldn't I have some sense of safety that if I am vaccinated I shouldn't worry about getting the virus a second time?  This shit has gotten so old, I am ready for this thing to just be called done.  Then of course Wife, ever the part time Grim Reaper, tells me a counselor just died, at the school, from Covid, as I am driving to get my test telling myself this virus is bogus.  I know it's real, but dammit, does she have to do that every time?

12/9/21 House Feels Empty?

     The short days of winter sure can bring out some somber negative thoughts.  With the sun coming up early and getting dark by 6:00pm, it feels like I am the only one living here.  Wife is out the door by 6:00am, I am now getting up at 8:00am, I don't have the energy to get up early like I did just a couple months ago.  Either way, my most important task in the morning is getting Mijo to school around 8:30am, then the rest of the day is mine, pretty much.  Boy also leaves for work around 8:30am, although it is touch and go whether we see him in the morning or not.

    When I get back, I can choose to open all the blinds to let some sun shine in knowing I should close them before I leave since it'll be dark before Wife gets home and why should she have to run around closing all the blinds I opened.  Honestly, I am down to just opening the three in the kitchen, it is where I spend most of my day, I have my laptop on the kitchen table.  I then try to leave for work around 4:00pm, although depending on what's going on, I might fluctuate an hour in either direction.

    Wife gets home around 6:30pm, Baby A gets out of practice around 6:45pm, and Boy makes it home around 6:00pm.  By then, it is dark, so it's like they are gone all day when the sun is out and they only come home to sleep and repeat.  Why then do we need such nice houses if all we really do is sleep in them?  Last year seemed much better, when Covid had them home a lot more, it felt like the house was alive with energy.

    The Christmas break is coming and that will be nice, at least Baby A and Wife will be around, Boy will be working because he is young and he is planning on a big vacation in March for two weeks in Japan (I think it's crazy to plan such a trip with all the Covid rules and lockdowns, but I don't know nothing, according to them).  Honestly, the amount of time we are home as a family is not very long, it is mostly the weekends and then a couple of holidays.  With wrestling right now, we don't even have the weekends at home to enjoy, Saturdays are just gone by the time we get home.  This weekend the tournament is in San Antonio, so I am sure we will have another 4:00am wake up time.  If we get home early, before 6:00pm, we will still be worn down and just looking to nap and lay down.

    I guess this is the price we pay for having an active athlete in the house, which I do love watching him perform.  I guess I can understand why not all parents throw themselves into supporting their kids like we do, it can be exhausting, but I thought that was a parent's job.  At this point, we will just grin and bare it, one more week and we get the big Christmas break.

12/8/21 Don't Want To Say I'm Sick, But Something's Not Right?

     It was bound to happen, going to these wrestling tournaments all day on Saturday exposes us to too many humans.  The kids might be in top physical shape, but there are a lot of parents and other adults roaming the hallways and I didn't see a mask this past weekend the whole day.  I am the first one guilty of this, I hate wearing a mask and will not do it unless told to do it.  I do like to ask, I am not disrespectful, I asked the lady as we paid going into the building and she said "this is not Austin, we don't require you to wear anything (she might have added this is a free country or I just heard it in her tone)."

    Anyways, since about Monday I have been feeling a slight tingle in my throat.  Like I said, I don't want to outright say "I'm sick" because my body will take it as an excuse to fall apart and then I'll just stay in bed for a few days.  Today was probably worse than Monday and Tuesday, I basically got up, took Baby A to school, came back, drank my coffee and then ate an hour later or so and slept from about noon until 3:00pm.  I only got up because I had to go to work.  This week has been especially shitty, we got a few really big jobs and we are sharing out took currently with the other company because their tool is currently down awaiting parts to get here from Germany (this is like the 3rd week it is down).  Normally, one of our jobs consist of a couple of samples, 4-5 starts being a big job, but this week, one of them decided it would be a great idea to send a job with 24 samples, huge, from our level of normal.  Not to be outdone, another company also sent a job with 15 samples.  I know it sounds like I'm whining about having work, but it's not like these jobs lead to bonuses or extra money.  It's just overkill, in my opinion.  I don't think it helps that because I'm feeling a little under the weather, it just frustrates me more.

    Like it or not, those two huge jobs are done.  One of them is a quarterly thing, so we get those about 4 times a year, and the other was a new tool installation, so it is not likely we will see another big job like those, but who knows.  I am just trying to slide into the holidays with a casual workload, maybe even get out early enough to go have dinner with Wife and Mijo or Mijos (if Boy ever makes time) on a weekday night or two.

    I like how everybody says "it's just allergies" when we refuse to say we are sick or coming down with something.  At least for now, whatever I have is only in my chest, I have phlegm in my cough, but at least I don't really have body aches or fever.  I am hoping I don't pass this on to anyone but especially Mijo who has two more wrestling meets before the Christmas break.  I haven't even seen Wife since Sunday because I have been coming home so late, but she says she too has something going on in her throat too.  At least she can't say I gave it to her.

12/7/21 I Am Still Surprised By People?

     I was driving home this morning after dropping off Baby A at school and I have really taken to liking the morning show on 96.7FM.  I know it is basically candy for the brain, but some of it is entertaining to me.  They do a bit called First Day Follow-Up and they will call the other person after they have gone on a date when that person has stopped returning calls or texts to the person calling the show.  Some have been really good and it is always surprising that the person is never ignored for the reason they thought.  A lot of these people seem to have digestive issues as they routinely find themselves pooping or even just farting in the date's house.  A very common thought in the ignored person's mind is that I am not getting a call back because I pooped in their apartment and they were disgusted by this.  This is never the reason the person doesn't find them suitable to continue dating.

    The girl that was ignoring the guy calling the station today seemed a little nutty to me in that she insisted they would not be compatible because their signs did not line up.  She kept talking about he is a Capricorn and that makes him a ground based something or other and that would never work with my sign, like of course, everyone knows that.  She was saying shit like that, like she was talking facts, and I couldn't help but think that was ignorant, at best.

    Isn't a sign much like a person's skin color or race?  To assume that a person will be this or that because they are a Leo or a Taurus or whatever is ridiculous, much in the same way that saying "well, he's Hispanic, he must be good at cutting grass, or whatever stereotypes you want to make.  This is all the same thing, deciding to read a book by his/her cover.  I mean if she didn't like the guy, his look or whatever, that is fine, but don't dress it up that it is about whatever month you were born, a person can't help that.

    I think the guy dodged a crazy bullet more than anything, for him to really want to date her after hearing all that probably meant she was pretty hot because I could hear the crazy coming through loud and clear in my car.  He just kind of ended it by saying that she was the boring person, she had also added that because he was a ground based person, that type is always boring.  Maybe both of them were kind of dullards, I mean he was calling a radio station to try and hook up with a chick that obviously didn't want to see him again.  That would be enough for me to say, oh well, next.  I am not going to pursue someone who doesn't find me fascinating just being me.

12/6/21 Brisket In The Oven?

     Well, another sign of my domestication, I cooked a brisket in the oven.  My pellet grill is still waiting to get fixed (mostly me being lazy), so if I want to eat some grilled meat we are resorting to using charcoal.  Charcoal works fine to make some fajitas, burgers or chicken.  I was even able to smoke the ribs I started in the oven on Friday, but a brisket takes a long time and I can't keep a charcoal fire going for hours.  It is not something I care to do.  That doesn't change the fact that I do enjoy eating brisket a couple times a month.

    Since my people were sleeping in on Sunday, I went to the store early, around 9:00am, and bought a small brisket, Wife has had the discussion with me that she doesn't like brisket enough to eat more than on the day, she doesn't like it as leftovers (what do you expect from a non-Texan, born basically in Canada).  We do have three briskets in the freezer right now, but I wanted a small one, in case it didn't work out.  Shit, I bought one weighing 4.9 pounds (just the point, not a whole brisket) or so and it was like $31.  I figured this would do for dinner and practice.

    I have only become this brave to cook without supervision because of Youtube.  I looked over a couple guys to see what they do, specifically when it comes to cooking in the oven versus outside on a grill.  I had seen before that to approximate the taste and "smell" of smoked, they use the liquid smoke stuff, which actually does add a flavor and feel that there is a smoky fire nearby.  The guy in the video got really technical, he had a syringe and injected the liquid smoke concoction he made into the brisket, I do not own a syringe like he does, so I just stabbed my brisket and massaged it on the surface.  He then also had a spray bottle and he sprayed the liquid smoke diluted in water over the brisket every hour.  He suggested cooking for about an hour for every pound, at 275.  I followed those instructions, along with using pink curing salt to get a nice "smoke ring" and it worked, more or less.  

    My brisket had a great flavor, but it was a little gummy, I think maybe it could have used a little longer in the oven, or I need to get fattier briskets, not sure but hey, like the guy said "it takes practice practice practice to produce a fine product."  We still ate what I made and nobody got sick.  I think I'll have the little bit that is left as my lunch, as a matter of fact, I won't leave any for Wife, since she don't appreciate my day old meat anyway.

12/5/21 Where Is The Christmas Cheer?

     It is kind of a weird year, we are now in December , almost a full week in and we still haven't bothered putting up our tree.  In past years, we have even put up two and three, this year, probably because wrestling is kicking all our asses, we just don't feel like putting in extra work to decorate the house.  Having two older boys and no little kids to feel the magic through their experience does not help either.  I was thinking maybe this Sunday we would at least put up our tree, but the weekend came and went and we barely drug ourselves Saturday evening to pick up pizzas.  I decided to go and buy a brisket early on Sunday morning just so we wouldn't be wondering what to eat later in the day, plus I felt like eating some brisket.

    At this point, we are two weeks away from Christmas break, which sounds great, but we have matches on Wednesday and Saturday to keep us busy.  I do feel bad for Mijo who spent all the rest of Saturday sleeping.  I woke him around 9:00pm to come down and eat some pizza and he jumped scared that it was already Monday morning.  He sat barely moving around all day Sunday too, saying he was sore from everywhere which I believe, the fighting is in little 6 minute packets total, but it is so intense.  We broke it down and he fought for a total of about 12.5 minutes in the three matches he had, and I guess that was enough.  It doesn't look like much when they are facing each other and they both go and grab each other's necks to submit the other, but he did it to me and there is a lot of strength pulling you down from those husky arms.

    Anyways, I keep going back to the wrestling because it is consuming all our free time right now, I love the sport but it falls in a bad time of the year, I want to focus on eggnog and shopping, not on washing sweaty clothes every day, if you don't, then things start getting stinky.  I would say I'll try to change the lights out on the stair rails this week (from Halloween's purple and orange), but today (Monday) is already underway, I just want to go back to napping, and I haven't even started the stew for tonight.

    Oh well, at least Wife put up a few things in the yard the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We might not get a tree up this year, but as Mijo said, "just put the gifts under that Halloween tree (a pumpkin base with a 3ft black limbed tree coming out, it's all good."  Yeah, I guess we aren't trying to trick little babies anymore and they just care about the gifts so that might work.

12/4/21 Mijo Has To Love This Thing Called Wrestling?

     It is a weird sport that not only beats you up on the mat, but also demands so much of you in your daily life.  What other sport can demand your weight does not fluctuate by less than 8 pounds in order to participate on a weekly basis?  What other sport qualifies you first by looking at your pee and making sure it isn't too dark?  What other sport will have a wake up call at 4:00am, yet not see true action for all but 18-24 minutes all day long?

    Baby A keeps saying that he loves this sport of wrestling, and we love watching him do it, but it is such a demanding sport.  We had to be up at 4:00am today (Saturday) so he could be at his school by 5:45am, he has a routine and even then, he did not get fully ready, which did affect his play.  The purpose of being up so early was so they could leave and be at Georgetown High School by 7:00am.  This was important because all wrestlers have to weigh in on the morning of competition and if they don't fall within their weight range, they are not allowed to wrestle for the day.  The actual matches did not start until 9:00am, but all that has to happen first.  The pee thing I mentioned above is referring to the pee test they take at the start of the season.  They have to show they are processing and drinking water, I guess to see that their kidneys are working, not sure why, but it is checked.  One of Mijo's friends was not allowed to participate because as my son said "his pee looked like orange soda."

    Today, Mijo had three matches, all the boys were at least 3-4 inches taller than him, and had an advantage of 20-30 pounds.  He wrestles with the heaviest group and the range is between 220 and 285.  He weighs around 245, so he doesn't have to worry about his weight, but some of his competition looked beefy compared to him.  Still, he handled two of them for wins, the third he really looked like the better wrestler, the other guy never really took charge, but our son kept holding his arms together in a hug motion and that is illegal.  He thought it was only illegal if he gripped his hands, but just having the fingers from opposite hands touching can be considered illegal.  He took a loss, but he was not beat by the other kid.  He also won a 4th match on a forfeit, the kid did not go, but he had already beat him at the last tournament fairly easily, so he probably would have beat him again.

    As he said, including those type of wins, he is now 6-3 for the season.  Only one of those losses was a domination by the other kid.  The other loss could have gone either way, and then the technical loss.  He is doing really well this season and seems to be learning more and more every week.  We will just sit back and keep watching his progress and supporting all our Cougar fighters.

12/3/21 Learning Something About Being A Captain?

    Baby A just turned seventeen last week, a "man" to kids, maybe, but still very much a kid in the real world.  Despite this, the coaches see him as a leader and he takes the role very responsibly without letting it get to his head.  He never seems concerned with the opinions of others about him in the gym, he is mostly about getting better and helping his team in the best way he can.

    The wrestling coaches designated him the team captain and that is fine with him.  It mostly means he leads them out on the floor to warm up, and last night he was the one that greeted the team at the start of the meet when the referee calls them to the mat and start the match.  All this is ceremonial and pretty much could be done by anyone.  I know he gets chosen because he carries himself like a leader and doesn't show any negativity and is a constant positive influence on the rest of the team, these are things we can see just sitting with the team the past two events.

    Last night, on the team chat, they were discussing the meet and some of the guys were feeling bad for having lost, as would be normal, and I guess maybe Mijo didn't think but just reacted and said "y'all would do better if you got stronger, you need to put more time in the gym."  Well, the bulk of the team did not like this and they let him know, jumping on his shit in a way that made him feel like he had done something wrong.

    About half the boys don't play football and I think that is the disconnect.  The football players have been getting yelled at by the coaches for this and that since June, so for them to be told something matter of fact is not that big a deal and concerning strength and lifting weights, that is just part of being an athlete.  I think Mijo just takes it for granted as part of his persona that he does believe in strength training, it makes him who he is.

    I noticed some of our boys are great wrestlers, even the ones that lost had some great moves and went at it very aggressively, but then I could see that the muscle to finish the job wasn't there.  These kids have experience and skill, some have been wrestling in leagues since third grade, but they are not putting in time in the weight room.  Mijo does not have the years of experience, but he manages to survive on his strength.  When he does get beat, it is kids that have skill and strength.  Even during practice, he goes against some of these skilled teammates and he says they may get him into positions where they could beat him, but he usually just muscles them down to the mat and overpowers them.  It helps that he is the heaviest wrestler.

    I told him last night not to worry about the snapback he got, most of the kids were tired, probably hadn't eaten all day trying to make weight, and the most important part is that he didn't say anything insulting.  What he said is probably true, everyone participating in a sport benefits from being stronger, if they are upset, it is because deep down they know this is true.  The kids will still like and respect you, you did not say anything to be malicious, you were trying to help so don't worry about it.  We shall see what comes of this.

12/2/21 The Dual Meet Was A Dual Dud?

     Man, the best laid plans sometimes still yield nothing more than a stale fart.  Tonight (Wednesday) was supposed to be the first dual meet for the Crockett Cougars against the Anderson Trojans, but it ended up being much ado about nothing.  If done properly there should have been 15 rounds of boys and 15 rounds of girls, instead there were maybe 4-5 total matches, and most of them lasted about a minute or two.  The worst part was that Mijo had been told he would wrestle but then found out his opponent was a no show, so he didn't even get a chance to fight.

    I was looking forward to and dreading today because on the one hand I like watching our boy compete, win or lose, he always gives it his all.  On the other hand, it is a work night and although I could technically take the night off, it didn't seem right after being out all last week.  My compromise I made with my supervisor was that I would come in early, go to the matches (there will be three consecutive Wednesdays here in December) and then come back to work and finish whatever needs to be done.  The last part is the part that kind of sucks.  I don't mind coming in early to work, but the idea of going back to work after watching a bunch of matches, then having dinner with my peeps, sounds wrong.  I tried doing everything in my power to avoid coming back, but one of our customers dropped off a "Hot" job late in the day, so it needed time to be prepared and then run today since it is due tomorrow.  For a second I thought I could leave it and it could be run first thing in the morning, but that puts undue stress on people, so I bit the bullet and came back to finish it.

    We are also the team sponsors in a sense, unofficially, of course.  I went to Target today and got the kids a bunch of snacks, such as Rice Krispies, nuts, Gatorades, power drinks, and a case of water.  I don't have to, but the school is not buying them food and when I got there, about 15 minutes late, I was at work, the kids were all sitting there, not even water by their side.  I told all of them to go ahead and get whatever and although there was a slight hesitation, eventually all of them came and grabbed at least a sports drink and a bag of chips.  I feel better knowing at least if the kids are going to mostly be sitting there, that at least they can snack on something.

    The dual meet was supposed to go from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, but honestly I was back at work by 8:00pm and there was at least a 30 minute drive involved.  I guess it is fine, there will be a tournament this weekend and I am sure there will be multiple schools there, so that should allow our boy plenty of chances to do his thing.

12/1/21 December Is Looking Like A Major Pain In The Ass?

     I have usually enjoyed the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas Break, work seems to slow down a bit and we have vacations book ending both holidays, so what's not to like?  This year, it doesn't feel like good times so far.  I went back to work Monday after a week off and usually Mondays suck because work piles up from the weekend, but we were all gone from Wednesday afternoon, so it is a little worse.  To add to that, we have two tools we do analysis on, we share the lab space with the big fab, used to be AMD, and it changes names so often, I am not sure what it is right now, but one of the tools is down waiting on parts from Germany, so we have to share the one.

    I have been able to finish my nights early a lot because I double my throughput as it were by running both tools at the same time.  The process is a little annoying, you set a sample and it'll take 2-3 minutes to analyze, then we usually run a blank in between any other samples, plus standards, so a simple job with a handful of samples will turn into a 2-3 hour production, not including the prep time.  Because of the time waiting, it is fairly easy to set up both tools and just bounce back and forth and keeping up with both of them.  With the one tool only, I am having to run old school and be there well past what I have become used to the last two days.  The word is that the other tool will get its parts and be fixed next week.  I hope so.

    The other and more pain in the ass thing is the schedule of wrestling.  I am not sure how it works, but there are matches scheduled for Wednesday nights then tournaments on Friday and Saturdays for the next three weeks.  I love watching my boy do his thing, but leaving work and then coming back afterwards, probably close to 10:00pm is going to suck a lot on Wednesday nights.  This seemed to be the best way to do it.  I talked to my supervisor and he said this would be better for me than coming in and working Sundays to cover the Wednesday.

    I know that like everything, it will pass.  It is fun to watch Mijo on the mats, and this is a way to get them more sparring time with different people, I just wish work didn't get in the way.  Wife will have an even harder time trying to get here from San Antonio and getting up north in traffic to get there.  The meet tonight starts at 6:00pm, so my plan is to go to work around noon or 1:00pm, then leave at 5:00pm, go watch the fun, then head back to work afterwards.  I should be happy that we have the flexibility to leave work and attend my son's activities, but I guess since it is close to the holidays, I also want to be lazy and drag ass a bit.