4/30/22 Dancing And Snacks?

    I think we did what we do best last night.  Technically, we attended the event and showed support, yet we were not tied down to a chair and stuck in one spot for two hours like everyone in the crowd was.  Wife and I "volunteered" to help at the Crockett HS 2022 Spring Dance Show, which meant we got roped into running the concession stands from 6:00-9:00pm.  It sounds like a horrible spot to be stuck in, but it really wasn't that bad.

    We got there at 6:00pm and Baby A had stayed after school, so he was already there working the door with about 5-6 other football players.  He was taking his job so seriously, the Ass, that he didn't want to let us in because he was told not to let people in until 7:30pm.  He and another husky boy were standing sentry directly in front of the two doors, and they weren't opening unless the two knuckleheads moved.  As soon as we got past them, the lady in charge got all excited (she is one of the few people that can keep up with Wife's energy), and quickly moved out of the way and explained what the prices were set at.  Basically, the table with the good stuff, chocolate candy bars (Snickers, M&Ms, Kit Kats), 20oz sodas were set at $2.  The other table was $1 (water bottles, fruit roll-ups, etc).  We were set up right by the front door, so we were in the middle of all the action as people eventually were let in by the flock of guards outside.

    The lady in charge was complaining to us a bit that it is frustrating, for example, this was a drill team event, but none of the parents seem to want to volunteer and help.  She made the last-minute plea on the football chat thing and got us, another couple of parents were there and all the guys that were volunteered by their parents.  I enjoy looking off to the side and Mijo is having a blast surrounded by a bunch of his friends, so it is all the same to us.  When the show started, the boys were allowed to close the front door and still see the girls do their thing.  It lasted two hours, they not only had the drill team perform, but the cheerleaders were there too, there was a group from the theater group, and even little elementary girls showed up and performed.  I peeked in a couple of times, and they were doing what dancers do, so I felt like I got the gist of it.

    We met a couple of the parents of the girls we do know, two of the dancers are also wrestlers, so that was fun.  Afterwards, we took Mijo and some of his friends with us to eat dinner, Wife had already said she felt like eating Mexican food.  The meal was good, but we didn't get home until close to midnight.  It was a fun evening, considering I had been locked in for a week.

4/29/22 How Do I Know I Am Feeling Better?

     I have to be feeling better, life has picked up speed again and I am holding on.  Tonight, Baby A is dragging us to a dance/cheer recital thing, not really sure what to expect but the drill team is putting on their end of the year show.  Our son said one of the girls that is on the wrestling team, also on the dance team and who has become very friendly with our boy wanted us to go, this was from our son.  Anyway, we didn't have anything better to do and we figured we could go then have dinner afterwards.  A couple days I was telling Wife I was unsure about going, but today it was more of a "fine, I'll go."

    Well, the booster club needed volunteers for tonight and although I didn't even know there would be a need for help, Wife put our name in the hat.  I was all "are you sure?"  Not only did she say we would go, but she also gave the president my number and then I got a call I could not say no to.  It helps that the lady is cute, but she gave the damsel in distress bit that she only had one other parent volunteer and they were going to need help with the tickets at the door, and the concession stand, and on and on.  I told her we were going to go, that it would be fine with us if we were helping, it's not like we have a daughter to cheer for.  I guess instead of sitting quietly and watching some dancing, we will be on our feet, working, for the children.

    I also found myself washing clothes and doing some light cleaning which I ignored doing the rest of the week.  I also shaved my head and cleaned myself up, so I don't look so scruffy.  The last thing to put it all together was that we went and picked up our Escape from Ford.  I hate that we are having to pay $2700 for the repairs, along with an inspection for the state tag, and an oil change.  The upside of this is that the car did only cost us $11,000 and it is paid off.  The repairs have a 2-year warranty, so it gives me piece of mind at least for the next two years.  That should be good, we will use it plenty, between Wife commuting with it and Baby A learning how to drive with it, until he becomes comfortable enough and we buy him a nicer car.

    Being sick, one starts doubting they will ever get better.  I was running all these scenarios in my head, what if it's not a cold, what if it's Covid, or something worse.  I guess it just took a couple days to get out of my system, and I should be good for a while.

4/28/22 Duality And Surviving?

     I only mean the title in a very first world problem kind of way, we don't really know the struggle, as they say.  Still, Wife and I are constantly trying to pay off credit cards and just when it seems like we are doing okay, something comes up to almost trip us up on purpose, that is the joy of life.  I keep telling Wife we will be fine and surely have more money left over after our bills once we get past the Christmas burden, where we spend too much money on our boys, for no other reason than habit.

    Along with their wants and needs, I keep carrying a tab at Lowe's, which I swear every month this will be the last time I use this card.  Last month, I thought we were done, I owed about $300, and I was set to pay it off.  Then we got all involved in moving Mijo to Boy's old room after he moved out.  This basically led Wife telling me to just go buy a new steam cleaner since the one we have is older than the house.  I did, and it worked great, but it also added another $300 to the account.  I then tell Wife I'll pay it off this month, but we had the little scare with the air conditioners, and I realized I had not changed out the filters three months ago.  Those filters are supposed to be good for only three months.  Since I am feeling better today, at least right now, I decided to go and get the new filters to install them.  I could have just bought the two that I needed, but then I don't have back-ups, like how I was, and I can't just change them, even if I put a reminder on my phone, I did.  Then I have to decide whether I should buy two.  If I am going to do that, I then need to reconsider buying four, because I get a discount if I buy 4 the price drops from $20.78 to $16.20, a substantial amount, and I will use the filters, eventually.  Of course, this means instead of $40 and change for two filters, it was $138 and change, but I have enough filters to last me a year, 4 for the unit and 4 or the bedroom auxiliary return.  I think I had already charged something like $60-$70 a week ago, so it won't be a surprise if next month the Lowe's account is still floating close to $300, even if I pay off what I was hoping would be the last.

    But what can we do?  Things need to be serviced, and stuff like this can lead to bigger problems if it is ignored too long.  All we can do is continue to work to reduce the credit cards we don't absolutely need, like the Walmart account we opened, just to get Baby A the new X-box, we couldn't find it anywhere else, but they had it, at a super inflated price.  I tell myself, "It's Christmas, get them what they want, it doesn't last forever."  Boy is moved out, all of a sudden, though the expensive gifts are still continuing, even when we didn't get him a gift, he had bought stuff on my Amazon card and said "Thanks."  I had to say no, after I found out because although we were slow, we did buy him a gift.

Someday, we will get caught up.

4/27/22 Wrestling Is Not On Hiatus?

     Here we are thinking it is a long time before wrestling season starts again, yet I find that wrestling never ended over there where all the kids that advanced are located.  It annoys me and excites me to find this information.  It is annoying because this is why our kids don't stand a chance against the Leander, Dripping Springs kids, but it excites me that I can show the possibility to Baby A, and it will be up to him if he wants to step into a huge commitment.

    I found some local (local being over by Lake Travis) private wrestling programs after watching a bit too many wrestling Youtube videos and getting excited about next season and wishing our Crockett kids could continue wrestling and practicing somehow.  I decided to be proactive and sent an email, there was no phone number, only an email, and asked if there were any camps or what was their method of training.  The guy responded within a few minutes and gave me a number, so I called, and he answered right away.  There was no pussy footing with this guy, he asked what my son's goals were, I said he needs to get better technique-wise, and I would like him to attend some camps (thinking that is what happens during the summer).  He said they are a year-round program, with 4 practices a week and he expects his athletes to be there and be committed.  I then asked if he had other heavyweights to make it worth his while, it would suck if he is training with a bunch of 140 pound kids.  He said he had about 4, including the 6th place all state kid this year.  Ok, that is kind of impressive, for sure.

    I thanked him for the information and told him we would discuss it and get back to him.  It is such a delicate time and there are only so many minutes in a day.  Baby A is already committed to football practice which will be kicking his ass.  He wants to fit in a driver's ed class, saying he wants his driver's license so he can drive himself to and from school.  He was talking to Wife about taking his second language course during the summer, he did sign language for the first one, so he needs to do a second semester of that.  Plus, this will be his senior year, we don't want him to spend all his time in the gym, and then graduate and realize he never had any free time or fun.  If the wrestling was next door or within a five minute drive, it would be one thing, but this place will take a good hour to get to, I am not sure about committing to doing that even 3 times a week.

    Still, it bothers me that those kids have a wrestling meet every weekend in April and May and on and on.  That is a huge advantage for someone that is really into the sport.  These are things I wish we knew about when he was in junior high, or even earlier.

4/26/22 Another Fox Visit For Our Overpriced Air Conditioners?

     Lenox doesn't make them like they used to, I guess, if they were ever any good.  We installed a couple of new 5-ton units November of 2020, and they were big and beautiful.  The price was a bit of a sticker shock at $25,000, but after talking with my mom and she said they had just installed a new slightly smaller unit for $10,500, I figured we weren't that far off on the price.  One thing that ALWAYS bothers me is when I have the conversation over with my Wife's side of the family, there is always an "expert" at whatever, "oh yeah, I could have gotten you the same units for $3000."  "Mm-hmmm" is really all I can say.  Same with cars, same with anything we have ever bought, shit gets kind of old, but anyways.

    Well, the units have been lackluster, at best.  When they are working, they are freaking great, last month, our light bill was $36.  We do have solar panels, but we had not seen those kinds of savings with our old units.  We don't even open the windows hardly anymore, before I was always trying to save a couple of dollars and we would turn off the units if the weather was going to stay under 80, now we run them whether it's hot or cold.  The problem is when they go down, it happens a lot.  The unit upstairs was serviced four times last summer.  It seemed to be good, but then we had a repeat error when the Service Hub ailed to communicate with the thermostat.  I don't understand exactly what it does, but the unit went through its third one a week ago.  The field supervisor assured me that it probably shouldn't have been replaced last time, that it might just have been a faulty wire, as the last guy installing the newest one found the wires in a compromised position, IDK.  I just care that they work.  I even asked "so what happens in 3-6 months when it goes out again?  At some point, y'all are going to expect me to pay for these things."  He said they have a ten-year warranty, and some might have been bad because they were made during the Covid time and stuff wasn't the highest quality, not that I believe that all the way.

    Fast forward less than a week and yesterday, the downstairs unit, which has been performing solidly and with hardly any problems, also had a Service Hub failure.  I called Fox in the morning and asked for the service supervisor, he said to ask for him, and he came and rewired a whole bunch of stuff and measured signal strengths and other stuff the other guys hadn't done.  He said the Service Hub was fine, it had just lost communication, which can happen during a storm event, they run on 2.5V of current and a storm can dump that kind of power in the air and affect them, or something like that.  He told me next time it loses communication to try and reboot it like a computer before calling them.  I don't mind doing it, but for $25,000, shouldn't that not be a solution, basically what you do to a computer or a phone.

4/25/22 Being Sick?

     It always sucks being sick, not just the feeling bad, but also feeling like the world has left you behind, everyone else is going on their normal routine, Mijo still goes to school, Wife still goes to work, and there I am, feeling sorry for myself laying down because I don't feel right.  I should be thankful that I have not been coughing or had any stomach issues.  What I am calling sick right now has been a slight chill, which with my thermo-gun reads about a degree lower than normal.  When I feel the chill, I have measured a temperature on my forehead of 97, instead of 98.6 and my hands, which I measured out of curiosity read between 93 and 95 over the last couple of days.  (I am writing this on 4/26, I fell a couple days behind)

    It is 10:00pm on 4/26 and I have made it most of the day without really feeling the chill, but I did just wake from a nap, and I do feel like the house is cool and I put some warm-ups on.  I am not sure if this is a sick thing, or we just are keeping the house colder than we used to.  I am probably going to stay home one more day, just to be sure.  The last instructions we got for Covid was to quarantine for 5 days, so if I wait until past Wednesday, it should be 5 days in isolation, not that I think it is Omicron or whatever new variant is out there.  One of my coworkers also came down with something, but he said he was having stomach issues, which I have not had, I actually only pooped once between Friday and Sunday, which is not how I like to run things, internally.

    Boss texted today and said to stay home, so we wouldn't risk infecting the rest of the people there, which reduces my guilt about not being at work, but I still feel like I should do something.

    Oh well, you take the good with the bad.  99% of the time, I think I am a pretty reliable employee, this is not something I did on purpose (I was joking about the masks the other day, I don't think they help much).  In my mind I think I have all this free time, but even knowing I have two rooms that still need cleaning upstairs after Boy moved out, I do not have the energy to go mess around with that kind of crap right now.  No, I have to convince myself that the best thing for me is to rest.  Wife is tiptoeing around my limits, I know she is dying to kick me in the ass and get me moving, but she also knows that being sick sucks.

4/24/22 Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (Movie)

     Although I was sick Friday night, going into Saturday and I slept most of the day, by 6:00pm, my chills broke, and I started feeling immediately better.  My plans had been to grill Saturday and Sunday, luckily Wife jumped in and just threw the meat I had left in the fridge in the oven.  We then ate and watched a couple of movies, which we hadn't done in a long while, it seemed.  We have been busy almost every weekend lately.

    One of the movies we saw was Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? with George Clooney, which is one I had wanted Mijo to see for a while now.  It is really a good movie, how can one not enjoy it, with its music, and everything that goes on to the three "heroes", from escaping from prison to battling the Klan, there is a lot going on in a short 1 hour and 47 minutes.  I like when a movie shocks my son into saying something like "woah" or "What the F**k!?" and George "Baby Face Nelson" Nelson got him there.  He was in a little amazement when he asks for his "choppa" and starts shooting at the cops while hanging out the door but then he really freaked out when he starts shooting the cows which gets them running to the street and the cops hit one.  It had me almost falling out of my chair laughing at his reaction.

    The scene with the sirens was also interesting, as he is talking to the screen that no good is going to come from girls just hanging out in the middle of the woods like that.  He was sure also sure Delmar was going to get killed once he got baptized in the river as he is doing one of those soliloquies about how great he feels, and all his sins are forgiven.  The movie is full of great little moments, them joining the black guitar player and singing "Man of Constant Sorrow" and then it becomes a hit without them knowing was awesome.  I remember the song played on the radio and it still plays once in a while.

    I really enjoyed the idea that the movie pays homage to the Odyssey.  From the sirens to a cyclops (in Big John Teague), to having a blind ghost prophet in the blind railroad hobo that gives them a ride and lessons that they will encounter on their journeys.  At this point, I believe most people have seen this movie at least once, I know we have enjoyed it multiple times since it came out in 2000.  It is not quite an 80's classic, but I believe it is a really good movie that should be seen by all.  I was also glad Mijo thought it was good, and it was one of the rare older movies we showed him that got a thumbs up.

4/23/22 Dammit, Why Didn't I Wear A Mask?

     I have been a loud idiot about not needing a mask anymore and it seems funny that like the Rolling Stones sang, "You Can't Always Get What You Want." This week we finally got permission to stop using the masks at work, which means there is no place I go to regularly that I need a mask anymore.  Honestly, wearing the mask has been all theatre, because we were required to wear it when we walked in the building, where 90% of the time I don't even see anyone.  Once in the lab, we were kind of wearing the masks for a while, but if we are going to go sit in the breakroom and drink coffee for an hour and argue and talk over whatever, don't tell me that once in the lab we should put on the mask.  I figure the people we work with day to day; have all the same cooties we do.  We touch the same tools, we log onto the same computers, it is impossible to isolate like what the theory of the mask would have us doing.

    It has been a rocky ride, making light fun of people trying to wear masks in front of me.  That is after the CDC came out and said they are really ineffective, Jan15.  They can take it back after the backlash they received, but that part had to be true, or they wouldn't have said it.  Add to that, people are stupid, the people who like to carry them, alternate between wearing them loosely, sticking their noses out, or wearing them on the chin, where they seem to protect the most.

    All this to say that after finally I can stop feeling guilty of not wearing the mask at work, I woke up Friday morning with a weird stiffness on the neck.  I thought it was from sleeping in a bad position, but it stuck around all day.  By 7:00pm, when we were eating, I noticed my hands and feet were cold, and I had a light touch of nausea.  I was kind of hoping it was food poisoning, the hamburger meat I used to make burgers sat in the fridge for a couple days, and there was a lot of gross blood all around it, lining the Styrofoam.  I used it because I knew it had gone from the freezer to the fridge, it never sat out, so in theory, it should be fine, but it still gave me a little concern.

    By 10:00pm, I had to admit that I was sick.  Wife told me to isolate, after kissing her when she got home, we'll see how strong her immunity is.  I am not sure it is Covid, and honestly, I woke up feeling better.  My neck hurts, but I do think it is a posture thing, but my hands are still a tad cold.  Maybe I need to work out to get my blood moving.

4/22/22 Finally Chilling On The Mask Mandate?

     I know it technically isn't over, but for the moment, it appears that Covid is not acting like an ass and making us all hide in our houses.  It has been at least a month, it feels like, that even AISD announced that masks were going to be optional, and kids could stop wearing them every day.  I was pissed that even though this was the case, we still had to wear them at work, even with a stupid daily tracking of Covid cases and how low and dead the chart has been, which we see at the entrance to all buildings.  Then, suddenly, on Thursday as I had arrived for my shift at 1:00pm, the admin came out and cheered that our boss had just gotten word that we could take the masks off, if we were vaccinated.  Finally, something to be happy about getting conned into getting the vaccination, I wasn't happy about it, but it made life for Baby A easier, at the start of football season.

    Anyways, I guess this is a national effort that everyone is moving away from the mask mandate, and once again, we are seeing the country split into its new dual personality.  The right, Conservatives, are all cheering and agreeing that it is way past due, but the left is losing its mind that the masks are the only thing keeping us alive.  Dammit, I was on the left a few years ago, but these people are not grounded in reality.  How do they think a mask helps?  The same people that recommend its usage also have repeatedly said that masks do nothing to stop the spread.  I mean once it is okay to take it off at a restaurant, if you're sitting down, but must wear it if you are standing, all credibility was lost for me.  Plus, both Florida and Texas have been much laxer about masking and our numbers, both infected and dead, are lower than numbers with draconian rules, like New York and California, so chill the fudge out.  

    Another example of mask nonsense, my aunt showed up for Easter wearing her mask, saying it was because we were out of town.  Great, but then I sit down and continue doing whatever and she is over there talking to my mom maskless, like I didn't kiss my mom when we arrived and then spent the previous night sitting at the dining table talking for hours.  She tried joking that she was standing 6ft from me, cool beans, but everyone at my mom's house had already been exposed to whatever we might have come with, being from a big city we must carry cooties.  My son does this too.  He carries a mask with him all day, and then there's periods he will put it on (he had Covid a couple months ago and it was very mild), then the next minute he is playing grab-ass wrestling with any knucklehead within reach.  I wish people could make sense of what they do.

    I really believe that at this point, the population has been exposed to it either thru having gotten the virus, or because they went the route of the vaccine.  Either way, I think it is just going to be like the flu, it will exist in the ether, but it won't be the scary boogeyman we were told when everyone was sent home to hide, in 2020.  Let us live, if things suddenly start trending bad, then we can revisit masks and shutdowns.

4/21/22 Slowing It Down?

     The past few weeks have been non-stop, and I feel that we have not gotten any good rest, so I feel pretty good that this weekend we don't have any plans, other than watching some movies and eating some BBQ.  Between booster club activities getting us going at 8:00am on a Saturday morning twice, to going to San Antonio on back-to-back days a couple weekends ago for separate birthdays on either side of the family, to just cleaning the house after Boy moved out, there hasn't been a moment where we just say "aah."

    I already went and started preparations by going to the store in the morning, after dropping off Mijo at school.  Wife had shown me some TikTok video of a lady making a Keto friendly pie, and although I never responded to it, it did make my mouth water.  I went and bought the supplies as best as I could figure.  The lady wanted us to go to her Youtube channel for the recipe, but I just got what I could see, we'll see how it tastes.  Basically, for the shell, there are crushed pecan and walnut alternatives now, and they are reasonable, I think at $2.80.  I then used sugar free pudding and two sticks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese and mixed them in the mixer.  When it was looking way to thick, I added a bunch of whipped cream.  I am not sure it will have the right texture once it sits in the fridge for a few hours, but what I tasted from the bowel was delicious.  This gives us a sweet to enjoy without too much guilt.

    I also bought some ribs for possibly tomorrow, chicken, sausages, and other beef, so we could grill all three days, although I am thinking tonight, I will just make burgers inside.  I woke up with a super stiff neck that hurts enough that I took Ibuprofen and a nap for a couple hours, something I haven't been doing so much lately.

    We asked Baby A what he had planned, and he is saying he doesn't want anyone around this weekend too.  He even said he would lie and say we were going out of town if his friends start asking to come over.  I would really just like to hang out and watch some of our classic movies, which we haven't had a chance in the last two months.  I really want Mijo's opinion of some Chinese classics like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where the hero always seems to die as a sacrifice, or even a Bruce Lee classic like Enter The Dragon.  We'll see how it plays out.

4/20/22 Interest Rates Snuck Up?

     It only makes sense with everything going up that interest rates would be following too.  Last week, Wife and I were talking about maybe borrowing from our house again, I mean with the valuation they are giving it here in Austin, it almost makes sense to do it.  Our house valuation has basically doubled what it was just a couple years ago when we did refinance.  My thought was possibly borrowing some money, pay off Wife's car and a few credit cards we have been using, such as the repairs on the Excursion and now the Escape.  It really sucks because we are trying to keep our cars longer, but then assholes come and tear parts off and we have no choice but to fix them at a huge cost to us.

    Anyways, as I understood it, rates are at an all-time low, or so the commercials like to say.  Not no more, shoot, I was very surprised to see that 4% is about the going average rate I saw.  We managed to refinance at 2.75%, which is not the lowest, but it is pretty good.  I cannot go refinancing to a higher interest rate to borrow a little money, that would be dumb.

    We are not in horrible shape, financially, but it would be nice if school ended here pretty soon.  Mijo is now costing a pretty penny, as he suddenly developed a life.  Every week, we are finding ourselves giving him money for this and that, which is normal, but then we are also participating and donating to his school's sports teams like never before.  Wife was talking to some of the other parents at the car show, and they are in the same boat.  We are giving and giving to the point that it is starting to hurt.  This is all voluntary, which means we can back off, but we want to help as much as possible.

    Big picture, we'll be fine, but again, higher interest rates just mean another hurdle for Boy to ever afford a house, and if he can't afford one, how about everyone else who isn't even making as much as he makes?  Life is just going to keep getting tougher here in Austin and there will really be a divide between the haves and have nots.  At this point, I don't really care of the left or right fixes it, but someone needs to be looking for our best interest and figuring out ways to make life more affordable.  It sure doesn't help that the old Crypt Keeper in the white house has announced to expect food shortages coming up.  I mean if he knows it is going to happen, get in front of it and do something about it.

4/19/22 Can We Cheer For Other Kids?

     Baby A is all jock, all the time.  There is no stopping him when he is doing the sports he likes.  His coaches voted him outstanding lineman on his team, he made all-district team the last two years in football, and he made regional alternate in wrestling.  All that is great, and we have enjoyed cheering for him every step of the way, until we got to track and field.

    I guess he made a deal with his friend that he would join track if he joined wrestling.  Mijo says he had no interest in track and field, he finds the sport kind of boring.  I figure anything doing is worth doing right, but I guess we don't all feel the same way.  Either way, he made his deal, and he stuck to it.  His friend did wrestle, which was good for Mijo in that he had a big sparring partner, and then he turned around and did shotput, which helped to keep the fun going into the track and field season.

    I can definitely tell they have been having a good time together, every time I went and caught them a little early at practice, they'd be wrestling and joking around, it helps that the coach is very laid back, and since she was trying to coach the 6-8 boys on JV and varsity and the girls, which was about the same number, they had time to goof around on the side while someone else was throwing.  This went on during some of the meets as well, these boys can't keep their hands to themselves, I kind of like their "boy" energy.

    In all this, I guess the friend was taking it more seriously, as he did keep improving, and from the start of the season throwing 31ft to the end at the district meet throwing 38ft 1in, he showed a lot of improvement and is fortunate enough to be going to area this week.  Mijo said he threw over 40ft at practice, so he is still improving.

    I was at the meet, about the only parent that has shown up to all the track and field meets, at least for the shotput and discus events, and it was great to see the rest of the Crockett boys cheer for him, they were a happy bunch.  I have now been jokingly referring to him as my "Champion" to tease Baby A and I told him it will remain like that until he shows me, he is the better athlete.

    Over the weekend, we had a batch of boys spending the night, we have some shotputs that I bought when Mijo started high school, and Mijo gave one to his friend so he can practice at home.  I like that, since my boy doesn't have the interest in it anymore.  I also ordered a shirt for him that has a picture in the mode of those Mexican playing cards, but it is a shotput guy.  I love that Amazon makes getting stuff like that so easy, nowadays.  We'll see how our Champion does this week.

4/18/22 Easter Sunday?

     I can only say I wish my folks lived closer to us, but it is what it is.  After wearing ourselves out Saturday early at the car show, we came home, showered, napped, and then got back on the road around 7:00pm.  My parents live a good three hours away, so we got there around 10:30pm, after stopping for gas and McDonald's on the road.  I almost preferred to drive at that hour, there was hardly any traffic, and I am good on the road after a good nap, so I was able to drive the whole way home.  My parents and brothers came around, and we were probably up until 12:30am catching up before we headed off to bed.

    I like getting up early, and since my dad does the same, I woke when I heard him in the kitchen fidgeting with the coffee maker and doing whatever he does to keep himself entertained.  We drank coffee and talked for a couple hours until people woke and eventually my brother came over from next door, already in a huff about starting the day's festivities outside.  It is only three hours further southwest from Austin, but I swear the weather changes by a good ten degrees to the hotter over there.  It was ok before noon, we were in some pretty thick cloud cover, but as soon as the sun broke, it got hot and humid and nasty, quick.  My parents have a decent sized carport, and we were seated under it, so it's not like we were in the sun, but it was still way hot.  Mijo had the good idea to bring out a fan, but it really didn't do much to help.

    We still managed to enjoy the grilling, there were ribs, fajitas, chicken, thighs, and other assorted meats to enjoy once everything got done.  There was some confusion with my sister, she somehow thought we were going to hang around until 9:00pm to eat dinner late.  My mom took the news hard, so instead of us trying to leave around 3:00pm, we hung around until 6:00pm and my brother was able to cook the meat slower than intended.

    Everything was fine, my brother talked and talked, which I find highly entertaining, we all take turns getting insulted, we take a lot of abuse for living in this shit liberal city, which I find myself agreeing more and more with them.  I think we are all so used to it that we don't even take it personally, so it was a great shock to find out that the kids were taking their turn at ribbing each other inside, which the boys do, and it goes well, most of the time.  Mijo gets the usual, "ha ha, you were/are a fat-ass!", but guys get used to being insulted all the time that it doesn't hurt.  Shit hit the fan when the boys aimed their insult cannons at my niece and she was not ready, I don't think anyone has ever directed a negative word at her, she lost her mind and took it out on her boyfriend, who was enjoying the jokes.

    I still thought the whole thing was funny, I thanked my brother who got all serious after, for the dinner and a show, which most everyone was afraid to laugh at, this got my sister all nervous and she attacked me for not seeing them enough, it's like you feel when it's time to go, all of a sudden.  With that, we had finished eating, we took some awkward pictures, my dad didn't want to go outside anymore, they were stupidly hanging a pinata on the tree outside with a beehive the size of a huge watermelon and expecting things to go well.  I did not want to see those bees/wasps pissed off, so we hurried on out.  We got on the road by 6:30pm and made our way back to Austin by 9:30pm, there was no stopping for anything.

4/17/22 Cougar Car Show?

     Well, the car show is a wrap, and overall, they called it a success.  I, maybe, built it up in my head a bit, but it was ok, I thought.  This was something completely out of left field for my head to process, when I heard of it, but I am open to new things.  This is, after all, a booster club for high school level kids, why would we incorporate low riders and noisy ass Mustangs anywhere near the children?

    My initial reaction was to pull away (I don't know anything about the low rider lifestyle and loud ass Mustangs annoy me), but my curiosity got the best of me, and I found myself sticking around to see this to its conclusion.  As it turned out, the car show was scheduled on the Saturday of Easter Weekend.  The excuse to avoid participating was easy, just saying we would be out of town visiting family, maybe drop off some sodas, and wish them well.  The problem is Wife has been pushing for us to go to the booster club meetings and listening to the efforts and enthusiasm the people have made me want to see this club succeed.

    I told Wife I had a change of heart and instead of leaving on Friday out of town, we should show up and participate, help out any way we can, and see what transpired.  I am kind of glad we did stay, not necessarily for the success, but to see the kids doing their thing.  There were maybe a total of 80 cars involved, they were hoping for at least 100, so that seemed close, and they were wanting to see at least 13 football players, and there were easily more than 20 players, representing in their jerseys.  I would have liked to have seen a bigger crowd of spectators to give it more of a party feel to it, but for a first time doing this, I think it was about what should have happened.  The boys had a blast, at one point, boys being boys, were going one on one, in the grass seeing who could push each other back and show dominance.  I like the cocky young freshmen talking smack to the upperclassmen and then the big boys putting them in their place.

    We helped in all sorts of ways (we had Mijo and four other boys with us).  We helped set up the snack area (arranging the soda and water cases and put up the canopies), we sent some boys over to help with traffic control, Wife was helping when cars came and pointing to go towards the registration area, I just floated and did what I could here and there.

    The overall goal for the booster club had been to make $2000 to be able to buy black football pants to have some more options for the uniforms and we made that goal, we were told as we were driving out of town.  Events like this really take a lot out of a person, we were wore out after it was all done.  Our plan was to drive to my folks after the event, but when we got home, all three of us laid down, and I slept for about two hours after taking a quick shower.

4/16/22 New Summer, Same Shitty A/C?

     I can't believe it is starting again.  We installed new air conditioners November of 2020, so they are a year and a half old, more or less, right now, and I am not happy with their reliability or install or whatever it is that keeps the problems coming back.  It has not even gotten hot yet, and it appears the problems have started already.

    I was happily walking out of the bedroom, after just having been with wife, you know the five minutes of what it means to be a married man, when I noticed an error message on the thermostat screen.  Ugh..., was all I could say to myself, acting like I didn't see it and kind of hoping it went away.  This was Friday around noon, we were going to be busy all day Saturday and gone on Sunday to visit my folks.  If I started calling, they might need us to be there the next day, I figured.  Wife, on the other hand, does not think like me.  She came out, noticed the same error and within a second gave the dreaded cry "Babe!"  "Ughh,,,, yeah?"  "Did you see the A/C screen?" she asked, with that tone like a storm just starting.  "Yeah..." I said, knowing what was coming.  "Well, why haven't you called?" as the mini directors voice turns to a high pitched shrill.

    I called and laid it on thick about having so many problems last year, four, if I remembered correctly, and it was barely the beginning of summer, and are we going to be doing the same thing all over again?"  She looked up our account and verified it was four times last year, someone would come and look at our system before the end of the day, no charge, they would just consider it an ongoing problem from last season. 

    The tech came around 4:00pm, and it took him a couple hours, I think it was more his mistake, but he replaced a part that has now been replaced twice after the original one.  The tech has his supervisor on speaker phone guiding him through testing the wires, so I asked him "what is going to happen in 6 months or so when the next box goes out, am I going to have to be buying these at a cost of $200-$300 every time?  I know the system won't be under warranty forever.  He said those boxes, which communicate between the thermostat on the wall and the unit in the closet are guaranteed for 10 years by Lennox.  I said "great, but what do I do when it goes out next time?"  He said to call and ask for him.  I took his name down, and I do not expect to be paying for any service calls if another one is needed this summer.  I personally think this unit, the upstairs one, is a lemon.  The one downstairs is identical and it hasn't had any problems yet.

    I was dreading the worst when I saw the message on the screen, but Fox was good at dealing with the issue within the same day, and we did not get charged.  The supervisor guy tried to make me feel better that the last box, communication hub, was not wired properly (but how did it work well enough for the last 6 months?), and that this one was going to be fine now.  At this point, I can just say "OK, we'll see."

4/15/22 Showing Mijo I'm Not All Fat?

     Baby A is kind of a little shit, in that he takes great pride in his strength, and he is strong, and built like a fireplug, just solid.  He doesn't have a problem calling out his friends that they should spend more time in the gym and that is why they are all weak.  I have taken some crossfire in his little rants too; we might be driving somewhere with his friends, and he'll make it a point to say that his strength come from his mom.  I try telling him that I was lifting weights and doing well, I just stopped because sometimes life gets in the way.  He just discounts me with a "yeah, you're old."

    I started yet another round of trying to lose weight about a month ago, this time adding in weightlifting from the beginning, and I felt pretty good about myself.  I tell the little turd that I am benching 185 last week sometime, and he condescendingly says "awe, that's like one of my sophomores, that's cute."  "Ass!" is all I could think, but I guess he's right, until I can lift more.  I am not doing it like him, to make me stronger for the field, I am just doing it as a workout while I wake up and drink my coffee, big difference, I think.  He has the advantage, first of being 17, and then of having a room full of testosterone driven jocks trying to one up each other, oh, and the coaches who come in yelling and pumping them up that they can do more than they think.

    Last night, he came early, for the first time in a long time, track is over, and there aren't any more sports to stay after school for, so he went out and cut the lawn.  He must have been outside for an hour or so.  He came in sweaty just as the sun was going down.  He added "I might as well go workout since I am sweating, come dad, spot me."  I had just eaten and was doing a lot of nothing on the table looking at stupid stuff on Youtube and talking with Wife.  I was curious to see him lifting, it had been at least a year since we last worked out together.  He did good, sets with two plates (225 pounds), and then tried to coax me into trying.  I know I can do sets with 185, but it gets a lot harder to jump that much.  I told him I'd try 205 when he got done.  He added another 10 pounds per side and did more reps, I didn't want to slow his momentum.

    When he got done, we took off one of the 45 pound plates and put on a 35 pound plate on each side, which makes 205 pounds.  I managed to do 8 reps, a nice full set, which surprised me a bit.  I was hoping to do 3-4 reps.  It helps so much to have a spotter, you can go further than you would alone.  I know he was a bit impressed when I got done.  He just said "you could do 2 plates if you did that."  I told him to give me a few more weeks and I'll get there.  He gave me a fist bump of respect and still proceeded to go and talk shit to his mom that he gets his strength from her, I can't win with this boy, but I love his energy.

4/14/22 Money Always Going Out?

     We got the bill for the repairs on our Ford Escape, and it is right where I thought it would be, a little over $2000.  Since I am having the inspection, an oil change and the repairs, it is more like $2200 plus taxes.  If I add to that the fact I just spent $2300 to fix my Excursion after having its catalytic converter stolen in December, and we are spending close to $5000 to get our two older vehicles back on the road.  The question to ask before we agree to the additional costs are, "should we just trade it in and get a new car?"

    If this was pre Covid times, I would say yes, I would have already done it, probably.  The problem nowadays is the dealerships are taking advantage of this time and by reducing inventories, whether manufactured or real, has made vehicle prices skyrocket.  This on top of supposed inflation, which makes our money not worth as much, and I personally have still not seen a raise in 10-12 years, and all I see is a slow "raping", financially.

    The lone silver lining is that vehicles are vary hardy nowadays, my Excursion needed repairs because of some "Shit People", it didn't fail on its own.  Once fixed, I am hoping it goes on strong for another few years, after getting it going and making the A/C cold again, Wife was even talking about going out of town in it.  I do miss those long trips we took, years ago (seems like we don't go anywhere anymore).  If this repair fixes a known problem on the Escape for a few more years, then $2000 is not that bad, overall.  I am not sure I really want it to be the car for Mijo, but he can learn to drive on it, and Wife can use it to limit the miles we put on our newer Telluride.

    I guess it just makes sense right now, as much as it seems to hurt, spending roughly $5000 to get both vehicles running will still be a lot cheaper than buying even a used Ranger, which don't seem to get below $30,000.  Maybe inventories improve in a year and prices come down, I don't think these prices are sustainable, nobody I know has bought a new car. I figure prices will have to come down or I might have to shop for cheaper priced cars, who knows.

4/13/22 District 17-5A Track and Field Meet?

     Today was the district meet for Crockett and the rest of the Austin 5A schools.  I am lucky in that I go to work in the afternoon and even then, I can fluctuate when I actually go in, if something is going on.  I therefore get to be very involved in Mijo's sports endeavors and today, it was shotput.  I wish I could say he was at the top of the group, but he was not, and I don't think it bothered him that he did not excel.  He told us at the beginning of the season that he was just going to do it to keep up his conditioning and stay active.  He kept saying he was not trying to be the best, I hate that attitude, personally, if you are going to do something, do it well, or don't bother.

    I could make excuses, because they were on the wrestling team, most of the shotput and discus gang started about three weeks late.  Add to that, our boy had not thrown the shotput since his freshman year, and I remember the season was cut short, that is when they went on Spring Break and did not come back to school for a whole year.  It was no surprise that he was rusty and add unmotivated and you get the results of today.  Mijo threw a best of 31ft and some change.  Sounds ok, but the winner threw closer to 42 ft.  One of his teammates did manage to throw 38ft and 1in and that got him a 3rd place finish, which was cool.  Mijo was dancing and high fiving him in celebration.  It was nice to see one of our boys get a podium finish.

    Baby A did not throw the discus in competition, but he practiced with the other guys, so when it was time for them to throw, we walked over and saw that for a couple hours.  It took that long because first it was the JV squads competing, then the varsity boys did their thing.  We got lucky in that one of our sophomores placed 3rd and another placed 8th, which I say that was pretty good.  We were not as lucky in the varsity edition.  There were more than 20 throwers, and our boys did not even place any in the top 8.

    It was a freakishly hot and humid day, like it wanted to rain, but it didn't, which sucked.  Once the boys got done with that, we decided to get out of there, opting to go eat at Red Robin, which the boys seem to like.  I got a salad, I took two of Mijo's friends with us, which made for an entertaining meal, once I could focus on what they were talking about, and I wasn't so obsessed with blowing cold air in my face with the menu.  The food was good, but all good things must end, and I still had to go to work and start my day.

4/12/22 The Bubble? (Netflix Movie)

     I did not think I was going to enjoy this movie, but it was just dumb enough and it realized what it was, which made it easier to digest.  The Bubble refers to the idea when Covid-19 started, that people could isolate together, and then continue working.  This was done by sports teams, and I guess it was tried with movie productions, as well.

    The movie idea was stupid enough, a group of likable people would get together and kill cliff beasts, thus the name of the fake movie they were working on within the movie, this one being Cliff Beasts 6.  It picks up with various cast members being talked into coming on and being part of the movie, and it surprisingly has an up-and-coming big-name list, such as Pedro Pascal (the Mandalorian), Karen Gillan (the hot chick from the new Jumanji movies), Leslie Mann (comes out in most Judd Apatow movies), Keegan-Michael Key (of Key and Peele), David Duchovny (X-Files), Fred Armisen (SNL cast) and others made smaller cameos, like Kate McKinnon (SNL, Ghostbusters), John Cena (famous wrestler), and others.

    Once they agree, the actors all have to do the two-week isolation, then they are free to walk the grounds, with a mask, unless of course, they sit down at a table, then they can take off the masks.  The movie showed the stupidity, now that we are on the other side of the great pandemic, where everyone seems to be taking it seriously, but not really.  Kate McKinnon has the best role, she is the studio head or something, and she is constantly calling in to talk to the producer, but in every call, she is in a different part of the world, from skiing in the mountains, to hanging out on a beach, she mentions how she is part of the rich, they got the vaccine before anyone else, so they can continue life as normal.  The actors too, are a constant mess and living in fear of dying from the virus, unless they are trying to do drugs, then they don't mind snorting from the same table, or whatever.

    The movie gets a little silly, there is very little of them actually working on a movie, but the scenes are ridiculous, one of the actors is supposed to be a TikTok celebrity, so of course, on a showdown with a baby dinosaur, she shows their humanity by "teaching" it movements, and of course, the dinosaur ends up doing a stupid TikTok dance.  If you don't take it seriously, it was a pretty good movie.

4/11/22 Busy Week Is Setting Up?

     It felt nice not having anything to do yesterday.  I got up early and enjoyed my coffee, before going to the store for food and stuff.  We were laid back enough that we were able to even nap during the day, which has now become the sign that we are at least relaxing.  I got up around 4:00pm (I had gotten up at 6:30am and took care of a couple of things, including going and getting groceries, an oil change and washed a couple loads of clothes, not just being super useless), and went to start the grill.  We ate by around 7:00pm, watched a movie and Wife was on her way up to bed by 9:15pm.  I stayed downstairs because I like to stay up later than her, but I don't want to disturb her sleep.  It was still a busy day, because I was worn out and fell asleep by 10:00pm, probably.  I woke up around 1:30am and the TV was still going.  I turned off everything and went to bed.

    Quietly, Easter weekend has crept up on us, as I have been told, it is this coming weekend.  I believe Wife and Baby A have Friday off, but then Wife was talking about Friday being a bad weather make-up day, so I am unsure where we stand, I think Crockett had a bad weather day when it might have snowed but didn't.  The district track and field events are also this week, on Wednesday and Thursday.  After all the practicing, Mijo says he might not even be able to compete, he has a big test on Thursday, when Varsity is supposed to have their meet.  This is all new information he told me this morning, so I don't know what will happen.

    On top of all that, our Ford Escape is in the shop, and they should be calling tomorrow or Wednesday with some sort of diagnosis, and if they can't find a fix, we might just trade it in for something that feels safer.  We might wait awhile; I prefer to drive my Excursion now that it is up and going strong again.  Wife also is trying to deal with her cracked windshield, which has now run all the way along the bottom part of it and is starting to look somewhat dangerous.

    With this going on, we will also be going down to Crystal City, probably on Saturday, so we can spend Easter Sunday with my family.  It has been the one big holiday we spend down with them.  It is only Monday, and it looks like a lot is going on, but like all weeks, before we know it, it'll be Sunday again and we'll be looking at next week.

4/10/22 More Repairs on My Excursion?

     I am happy to have my Excursion back up and running.  It had a couple of small problems that were bothering me, but luckily, I was able to get them fixed.  I swear, it feels like I am driving a new vehicle and all my urgency looking at new cars has subsided, I love riding up high in this old thing.  Yes, the gas cost is going to suck, but so would a new car at $600 or more a month, plus it would still need gas and maintenance eventually.

    Last night I managed to get the passenger sun visor fixed up.  The bracket that holds the visor near the middle of the vehicle broke, so the visor was there, but it was drooping, and I think drooping more and more.  It is bigger than standard visors first of all, then it is also the type that has two visors, so one can be put to the window on the passenger door and the other left to just come down in front of the windshield.  I added some nylon washers to hold the broken bracket and a longer screw, and the problem seems to have been fixed.  It felt like the vehicle had a stye with a drooping eyelid or something when looking out the front and one of the visors hung lower than the other.

    Another big problem, and I'm not sure I really fixed it yet, is the A/C.  It was working, but barely.  Yesterday, in the heat of the day, it just kind of felt like a fan blowing air at us, neither hot nor cold.  I saw an ad for A/C Pro, which is a can of freon with additives that are supposed to help patch minor leaks.  I bought this can for $40 at Lowe's and decided to give it a try.  I got scared and hesitated when I plugged in the gauge and the reading was fluctuating between low and good.  I was expecting the gauge to just read low and pump in the freon to get the gauge to move up.  I went back and looked through more Youtube videos and a few said to expect it to do this, the compressor is shutting off and on as it keeps trying to run but doesn't because it is low.  I decided to just give it a try and I plugged in the can, and within a minute or two, I could hear the compressor stop cycling on and off, it was staying on.  I put enough freon in to get the gauge to about halfway up the good section of the gauge reading.  I then stuck my hand in front of the A/C return and was pleased to feel definite cool air.  I feel pretty proud of myself to have gotten the A/C repaired, at least for now.

    The last thing, well two things I did was go and get an oil change, when I checked it after I turned it on, I was surprised to see the reading be very low.  Discussing it with the tech at the oil place, Valvoline (new place, but they are open on Sundays), and he said the vehicle must be burning the oil because it is very clean underneath, no signs of any oil leakage.  While I was there, they tested my battery and determined it was not where it should be.  He checked it, and said it was past its warranty period, meaning it was more than three years old.  I remember getting stranded last time on the way to Dripping Springs before Covid-19 started, so I decided not to take any chances and just installed a new battery.

    Now I have a new battery, newish tires, installed six months ago or somewhere near there, running cold A/C, the catalytic converter has been fixed, sun visor is no longer hanging on for dear life.  I would say the Excursion is as good as most cars on the road right now.  Add to that, I just washed and waxed it, and it really is looking good.

4/9/22 Garage Sale On A Saturday Morning?

     I don't know how we got roped into helping with this event, but some things we just do for our kids, is the best I can say.  The event was billed as a garage sale, it was held on the Crockett campus, and a couple of other types of vendors were invited to attend and sell their wares.  The idea was that any and all of the Crockett athlete families and Tex-Anns (the drill team) would donate gently used clothes and stuff and the proceeds from the sales would go to the booster club.  The idea was good, the weather was good, the location was probably good, in that there was plenty of space and parking.  The overall result was tepid, at best.  There was hardly any flow of people, and those that did go by were not dropping large amounts of cash.

    They started with the idea of trying to say this pile was $2, this one $3, but ultimately, when Wife was left to manage the tables with clothes, she just told the customers $1 a shirt.  It kind of insulted me, some of those shirts I put out there cost as much as $60-$80, but I have outgrown them and some were worn only once, but still, it didn't matter.  According to Wife, one customer swung by and bought about $70 worth of clothes, he is headed to Mexico next week, and was rounding up clothes to take to family.  Other than that, I saw a bunch of people buy one or two shirts, or a DVD, give their $1 dollar and leave.  I can't say this was worth our time.

    I will say that the booster club is being very aggressive on the fund raising.  Other than this event, next week, there is supposed to be a car show, in the same location, the athletes just did another round of selling Bundt cakes, and they are open to other ideas, Wife was suggesting things they have done in her school districts, like the BBQ cook-offs.  A couple weeks ago, a bunch of the student athletes volunteered at a pro level golf game that came to town.  All these things are supposed to raise money for the booster club which supports the various team functions.

    The biggest endeavor right now is that the booster club somehow volunteered itself to buying a black pant for the away games.  They had just bought new uniforms last year, and there was a black uniform, but it went to the JV team.  Someone decided the varsity team should have black pants, maybe to match with the gold jerseys, I guess the white jersey would also look good with black pants, but we will see.  I believe the cost for the booster club will be around $2000.

    We are just contributing as much as we can because all this is for Mijo and his friends.  I wish there were bigger wallets to contribute internally.  I feel the richer schools have the benefit of parents with deep pockets just throwing money at their kid's interests, but here at Crockett, there just don't seem to be many of those.  One doctor friend of the wrestling coach offered to buy the wrestling team new singlets (uniforms), and talking to the coach, he was excited to get some new ones for next year in some aggressive bold colors, now that the program is revived and there seem to be more kids than ever interested in the sport.

4/8/22 Domain Prices Are For The Rich?

     I honestly don't think we should even be allowed to walk around The Domain, with their ridiculous prices on items.  Wife and I were both off on Friday, and I thought it would be nice to go for a walk, but man, the prices on fancy things are getting out of hand.

    First off, of course, I wanted to go to Ben Bridge to see what kind of watches they might have.  They are low on everything, they didn't even have Rolex watches at all to sell last time, although now they are stocked with "display pieces".  They had around 8-9 nice looking watches, including the blue and gold Submariner, but it is only a display, so what is the point?  It looked like they were low on everything, including the Panerai display.  If they used to have 20-30, now they might be displaying 8-10.  Still, I always enjoy looking.  Wife did notice a new Tag Heuer with a green dial in the Aquaracer series.  It was made of titanium which is more grey than stainless steel and with the green it really does look special.  Other than that, though, the prices are also a little too inflated.  There was a Grand Seiko that I kind f liked, but it didn't have any other abilities, like keeping date, it simply tells the hour, and it was over $8,200.  It doesn't seem right for a smaller sized watch in stainless steel.  We talked a little to the saleslady we have now known as one of our Rolex sales lady for 15 years or so, she was cheerful and optimistic about their inventory improving, but without any Rolex product, it's hard to agree with her.

    Down the street, we noticed Gucci has a new store and not knowing the prices of their purses, I wanted to take a look.  I was a little shocked to see regular looking purses, in bright colors, but nothing special, at prices of $3200 and $3800.  One was a little smaller, but hardly noticeable.  I couldn't help but just walk away from the lady after she said the prices.  These prices make the Coach purses seem cheap, in comparison.  We don't even bother going into Louis Vuitton anymore, those prices are absolutely out of touch with reality.

    I do like that The Domain is getting fancier, there is a Hublot store under construction, but those watches pretty much start above $10,000, so it's not like I'll be buying one anytime soon.  I pointed at a couple of stores to Wife and she wasn't having any of it, this stuff is just not her interest.  Other than the watches, I don't really care about the rest of the stuff for sale.  

4/7/22 Taking Both Vehicles In For Repairs?

     I don't blame the mechanics, but what is the pint of wanting to the customer to make appointments if when we get there, they still won't be able to see the car for a couple of days?  I tried being the good customer yesterday, we have been having a problem with our Ford Escape, so I called and tried setting up an appointment.  They no longer offer the courtesy shuttle to take people home and although Kia paid for my Lyft ride, I was not about to do the same out of Ford next door and pay out of my pocket.  Knowing Wife was going to be off on Friday, I made the appointment for Friday morning, hoping they would look at it Friday and maybe get it repaired by Saturday.  The service guy straight away told me they wouldn't even be looking at the car until probably Monday.  I asked, "why then do we go through the motion of setting up appointments, if they really mean nothing?"  He said the appointment was so we could speak to the service technician and hand off the car.  I didn't want to be rude, it's not like it'll help me get my car back any faster.  I just said thank you, but I am not really satisfied with the whole exchange.

    Knowing I am going to be without that car for a certain amount of time, we then had to figure out what solutions exist for us.  I had not wanted to tackle fixing the Excursion because it just feels like pissing away money on something I shouldn't have to.  Still, the choice would be to rent a car, if we can even find one, use Lyft/Uber (not something I want to do for work or pick up my kid), or just ask for a couple days off, but Mijo still needs to go to school.  I figured now was a good a time as any to bite the bullet and get my Excursion back on the road.  It took about 4 hours of charging to get the battery with enough juice to fire up and start, then I took it to Midas.  I was hoping it would have been cheaper than it is going to be, but they did give me two choices.  The quick one was to bolt on a catalytic converter, it is their best fix, but it costs $2000 plus tax.  The second choice required ordering some parts so I would have to wait until Tuesday, and it would cost around $1750.  I decided to just get it done quickly, so I would have my Excursion operating and useful by tonight.

    Currently, we are both waiting for Baby A to get out of school, as I write this on Friday (a day late), but the guy said it would be ready before 6:00pm, when they close.  Hopefully, by next week, all three vehicles are back to running properly.  I told Wife to get on the phone and get her windshield fixed, so the Telluride looks a lot better.  It has had a crack running all along the bottom of the front glass.

    I tell you, if it isn't one thing, it's another.  Problems never seem to end.

4/6/22 Rode My First Lyft?

     I experienced my first Lyft ride today and it wasn't that bad.  Last Saturday, I took our Telluride to Kia to get an oil change, and the dummies managed to ding the rear passenger door while driving it into the bay.  They are fixing it today, but I wasn't going to sit there all day and I guess the idea of a rental car is long gone.  They offered to get me a Lyft which I still don't know how they really work, but you summon a ride on your phone, and someone shows up and takes where you need to go.

    I waited about 5-10 minutes up front, once I handed my car over to the service lady.  A guy showed up and he seemed friendly and professional, as far as a driver can be.  I sat in the backseat, while wearing a mask, and we were on our way.  The guy was a talker and he told me after we got to talking that he lives in San Antonio, but there is a lot more Lyft work here in Austin, so he comes over and makes his money.  Apparently, one can rent a car from Lyft, he said he pays them $280 for the week, (they take it off the top) he then keeps whatever he makes after that amount, he said, that way he isn't putting the miles on his car.  I guess one can make some money doing this, he explained they play all sorts of little games with the drivers, like I was his third consecutive ride, so he gets an $18 bonus.  His daughter, he told me, also drives for Lyft, she lives out in Killeen, and for the week of SXSW, she made $1800.  It starts sounding pretty good.

    I asked about the danger factor, and he said he has been doing it for a while, and everyone so far has been a good client.  He also said his daughter has not had a bad experience either.  It is hard to believe people act up, you have to exchange names and get an account with them before even riding.  The payment was another thing I wondered, and I asked how much a typical ride would cost, such as mine, taking me a couple of miles from one place to another?  He said he honestly couldn't say because he never handles money, it is all done through the website, Lyft sends him a deposit to his bank on Wednesdays.  It should make it safer, not handling money in the car, so the idiots that go through life stealing can't target these guys, it is pretty smart.

    I thought the ride was smooth and a good idea.  He said he works as much as he wants and gets to take whatever time he wants off.  Just last week, he said, he picked up the Lyft car, made three drop-offs and then decided he was done for the week, he just kept the car, still has to pay the $280, but hecan do whatever he wants.  I like that.

4/5/22 Dave Made A Maze? (Movie)

     We haven't been watching movies like we were in the summer; we have just been too busy for it.  Saturday, we finally had time and although I have been wanting to watch Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, I was voted down by Boy's suggestion.  When we got together with my in-law's, we were discussing movies with my brother in law, and Boy mentioned a movie, Dave Made A Maze, and even showed me the trailer on his phone.  I have to say, the trailer was very intriguing.

    The movie is about a guy, kind of a loser who can't finish anything, he builds a fort/maze in the middle of his living room while the girlfriend is on a trip.  She finds him inside and is rolling her eyes, trying to figure out where she went wrong choosing this loser as a mate and asking him to come out.  He says he is lost inside and can't find the door.  She sees a big box from the outside, but when we see his perspective, it is a labyrinth inside and he is indeed lost.  Of course, there are traps and monsters inside the labyrinth and he is trying to stay alive.  This alone caught my attention and made me want to see the movie, but they never really resolve whether all this is in his mind or if it is supposed to be some fantasy type movie where all this is possible.

    After she figures he is not coming out on his own, she calls some friends, and they all venture inside, and before you know it, they are being chased by the monster, a big minotaur, and a couple of the friends are killed while inside.  This was my confusion, did they die?  There are some plot points that didn't make sense, but overall the movie was good for some entertainment.

    The movie kind of reminded me of Labyrinth, the 1986 movie with David Bowie as the bad guy.  That was another fantasy adventure where after you are left wondering "did that happen in her head or was it real?"  I prefer this type of movie, for too long it seems, movies have been all about attitude and being too cool for your own good.  I like a movie that makes you think a bit.

4/4/22 Birthday Lunch with My Peeps?

     I honestly enjoyed this weekend, we stayed busy every day, but I do love when we get a chance to just lay around the house.  Still, meeting with family on Saturday and Sunday for a few hours did turn out better than I thought it would.  We had another birthday to celebrate on Sunday, this time for my sister's youngest boy, who turned 10.  Originally, we were going to meet at an Olive Garden, but the location got moved to Maggiano's, by the Bass Pro Shops, on Sunday at 1:00pm.

    There was stuff to do and maybe I should have, such as going to get our weekly groceries, but I just felt lazy, even when I got up at 6:00am.  I just feel a need to be up, I wrote my blog, enjoyed my coffee quietly, and then napped from around 9:00am to 10:00am.  This all happened downstairs, Baby A and Wife slept undisturbed upstairs, until I went up to check on them, around 10:30am, after I got out of the shower.  Wife was at least up and fixing to shower, Mijo was still dead asleep, which happens because he stays up late playing his video games.  I wanted Boy to join us, but he said he needed to study for an exam this week.  He gave us Saturday, so we can't complain, it is nice he hangs out with us.  My mom was a little hurt he didn't join, but he is now 29, I can't be dragging him with us to every family outing, I just have to be glad he joins us, when he can.

    In a very rare trip, we didn't get hung up anywhere between Austin and San Antonio, we got there by 12:20 and we left the house by probably 11:00am, thinking we were cutting it close.  I called mom to see how they were doing on the road and at 12:15, they were somewhere near Lytle, which is not even in the San Antonio metro area, so I figured we had a good half hour to walk around Bass Pro Shops.  It was nice to see that at least they have some boats to show now.  There was a period there about a year ago, where they didn't even have boats to show at all, it was quite disappointing.

    By the time we were paying, I called my brother and he said they were standing outside the restaurant, waiting to go and sit.  We were only about 2-3 minutes away, so we got there, and still beat my mom inside.  We hugged and shook everybody's hands and sat down.  The meal was nice, I should have ordered something other than the lasagna.  I was going to order the veal, but I heard my brother say lasagna and I switched, but I forgot I don't really like all the red sauce, it's a little "heart burning" after a while.  The bread, appetizers, and even Wife's plate were all great though.

    The meal was good, we caught up, took some pictures, and before we knew it, we got to the cake.  We sang Happy Birthday, I had a cup of coffee with my slice of cake, and then it got time to go.  They headed to Altitude, some place with a bunch of trampolines, and we headed back to Austin.  I kind of wanted to go to the Cantera Mall, but I was also so full, I wanted to sit in the car and fall asleep.  Just as like Saturday, I sat in the passenger seat and Wife got us home, with me asleep.

    Between the track meet Friday, the in-laws Saturday and my folks on Sunday, the weekend was a blur.  It was fun to be out there doing stuff, but like I said, I wish one of the days had been more of a relaxing day at home.

4/3/22 Lunch WIth The In-Law's?

     Saturday seemed like a long day for me.  I really get up too early for my own good, it seems.  I was up at 7:00am, I've been trying to exercise without excuses, and I really need alone time to do this, if Wife were to wake up early with me, there is no doubt I would be redirected to do something else involving her.  I guess that is why I like the early part of the day, she will sleep until noon, if left to her own devices, she does have a rough week, driving back and forth to San Antonio, so I can't give her a hard time.

    I did my little workout, then remembered the Telluride needed an oil change, and by this time it was only 9:15am.  I went and brushed my teeth and ran out the door.  The simple oil change took almost 2.5 hours, although they did also include cleaning the fuel injectors, one of those pesky maintenance things they recommend every so often.  I was there at the Kia dealer waiting the whole time, which really seems sad when they have hardly any inventory to look through.  It is the same at Ford and Dodge, next door.  I was really bothered by the fact that Kia had a Corvette Stingray sitting in their showroom.  I asked a couple of the salesmen who came up to me with their pushy routines why they would have a competitor's product in their showroom?  They just said the manager had decided to display it.  I though the idea was stupid, would Dodge put a Mustang Shelby in their showroom, just because it cost a lot?

    I got back home, Boy was there, he had a load in the wash and was sitting in the kitchen alone.  I asked if his mom had come down, he said no.  I went up there expecting to find her midway putting on her make-up, but no, she was buried in blankets. looking way too comfy.  I asked, "aren't we supposed to be in San Antonio here in a while?"  She got up like she knew she was running behind, blaming me for not waking her up earlier.  I just said, "I was getting your oil changed, and I did text multiple times."

    Lunch was actually really good.  Everyone showed up, including a cousin.  We were going to eat at Panchito's, but the restaurant people at the door were rude, according to the younger sister and even Wife.  It was also packed, and they told us the wait would be an hour to hour and a half.  It's fucking beans and rice, we should be able to eat that almost anywhere in San Antonio without waiting that long.  We went a couple blocks down and instead ate at Mary Lou's Cafe.  The restaurant was much more comfortable and very accommodating.  I say comfortable in that the A/C was perfect, not too hot, not too cold.  It didn't stink, Wife said Panchito's had a smell, and we were kind of sat in an almost private section, so we were not crowded by other people.  The food was okay, but they did give us the rare homemade tortillas, that actually tasted homemade, just a little plumper than they have to be and like they were freshly made.

    I spent the probably two hours we were there talking with my brother-in-law about watches and other stuff, it was good, Wife and Baby A just don't care about my interests enough to get into conversations like that.  Technically, we were celebrating Boy's birthday, along with my in-law's 52nd anniversary, or something like that.  We didn't make much about either, other than we sang Happy Birthday and had two cakes after our meal.  It was good, we were back home before 6:00pm, and we ended the night with a pizza and a movie.  We are supposed to be on a low carb diet, but once you break the rules for Mexican food, might as well keep it going the rest of the day.  We'll get back on the diet Monday, I guess.  Sunday we are supposed to meet my family again in San Antonio for Italian, so that will be another load of carbs.

4/2/22 Answering The Coach's Call?

     A couple weeks ago, coach asked all the parents for donations of TVs for the weight room.  I don't want to say I ignored the message, but I was hoping someone else would step up and somehow, maybe hear from our boy that televisions had been installed.  Coach stated that the monitors would be to show the kids what exercises to move to when weight training, he said currently, all the kids were having to congregate around one TV and that didn't seem efficient.  By placing more TVs around the different areas of the weight room, they would then spend more time focusing on the exercises and less time trying to see what was next.

    Wife kept pestering me that we should go to Best Buy, which I don't have a problem donating, but I was trying to pay off the last of the Christmas purchases we made before putting more stuff on the credit card.  Yesterday just seemed like the perfect opportunity to go and fill the coach's request.  Baby A had the track meet, but it didn't start until 3:30pm, but he needed to be at school by 1:00pm.  For some reason, they had an in-service day, so there was no school in the morning.  I went and dropped him off in time, then came back home.  I thought we were just going to wait, but Wife was dressed and ready to leave the house when I got back, so we needed a place to go and kill time.  This is when she suggested we go to Best Buy and see the prices.

    Coach was asking for four monitors, we decided to get two, someone else can donate the other two.  I thought the prices were fair, for 55-inch monitors, we paid $329.  These are one of the lesser brands, but we have one of these TVs hanging in one of our rooms and the picture quality is fine.  They aren't going to be watching Marvel movies or anything like that, although the boxes did say they are 4K resolution, so they may be better than expected, still they were the cheapest at that size we could find.

    We did not do it to gain points with the coach, he already loves our boy, he works hard for his coaches and always carries the right attitude as one of the leaders.  If anything, we bought them more as a thank you for what he has done in changing our boy into the young man he is becoming.  There is no doubt that Mijo has been made or has become a leader by what happens in that gym, in the weight room to be exact.  The other boys look up to him because he works hard and is one of the top two or three strongest overall kids on the team and thus, probably the school.  He prides himself in pushing his core group (the coaches assigned lowerclassmen, freshmen and sophomores, to be mentored by the upperclassmen), and he updates us regularly.  At the start of the year, some could barely lift the bar (45 pounds) with a pair of 10-pound plates.  Some of these kids are now all the way up to 135 pounds (the bar plus a pair of 45-pound plates), which is huge because the 45-pound plates are the ones that count when talking about lifting comes around.

    The school may never be a state contender, like a Lake Travis, but if these kids can be molded into fine men and they can have fun and enjoy their time while in high school, learning to work together, I will still say the coaches have done a great job.  Just seeing how our boy walks with his head tall and he consistently tries to make the kids around him better, I know that good things are happening in that gym when we are not there parenting.

4/1/22 Del Valle Track Meet?

     I hate to be mean, but this was one track meet we could have missed.  It was one of the most disorganized events we have been to, and to top it off, the boys were without their coach, so there was very little lie to them by the time we arrived.  I am not being dismissive of Mijo's efforts, but he went home early on Thursday, and he was still feeling weak and with muscle soreness all over.  I keep saying it can't be Covid because he just had it about two months ago, so I am assuming it is just a cold or allergies.  He seems fine when not exerting himself, but when he tried stretching, he said his bones were popping and then when he threw, he regretted having gone, even if it was just the 4 throws for the shotput event.

    Some of the things I did not like was that they separated the varsity from JV, so it was only half the boys and honestly, the younger boys bring a lot more energy and fun to all the waiting around, they aren't too cool to act the fool and be funny.  They had their meet on Thursday, and today was only the varsity boys without their coach.  The coach was at a doctor's visit, as I understood.  She went skiing or something in snow and came back with a broken leg bone near her ankle.  I guess she was getting it seen by a doctor today, either way, the boys and girls were out there on their own when we arrived.  To make matters worse, none of our boys wanted to even throw warm-up throws on discus after seeing a couple of the kids throwing the discus twice as far as their best efforts.  Baby A joked to Wife that she needed to step in as coach, and it didn't take her but a minute to start barking orders for the boys to cut the shit and get in there and throw some warm-up throws.  Wife is considered an authority and the boys listen, sort of, because we told them she threw in high school.

    Mijo does not throw discus, and only does shotput to give him a reason to be out there, but being sick, he really should have stayed home.  Once the other boys got done throwing the discus, we went and sat down against one of the big buildings, out of the sun.  The breeze was about perfect, especially in the shade, I could have fallen asleep at a certain point.  After about an hour, the shotput for the boys started and honestly, it did not go any better.  Their best thrower was not even listed, he just came over and said, "coach forgot to put me on the list, I can't participate."  This left only Mijo and another kid to throw for our school.  They were done fairly quick once they got going, and the improvements have stalled, Mijo is trying to incorporate the glide, but it is not worked out yet, so his distance is still around 31ft, which is very average.

   While we were waiting, I did manage to go get the car and park right next to the field, so when they were done throwing, it was very easy to get in the car and leave.  We took two of the boys and went to eat, they wanted buffet, so we headed to Damassi's and the other boy was taken away by his dad, so Crockett disappeared quickly and quietly.  I guess the runners were still there, but the kids that do the field events don't seem to have much to do with the track kids, it's two different worlds.