5/31/22 Getting Compliments On My Ribs?

     We had a little BBQ this Sunday, just to see some of the people we normally visit with in a relaxed setting.  Boy came over to wash clothes and hang out with us, his girlfriend is working weird hours, so he had the day off and nothing to do while she was stuck at work.  When he said he was coming over, I thought it would be a great time to first off, grill.  I had bought ribs the week before after getting such good compliments at the wrestling banquet, I wanted to see if it was luck or if my "new method" was solid and reproducible.  I also weighed on the fact that Boy had not mentioned DD's baby and I feel he should have by now, so I invited him and his family (wife and baby), and I also invited Girlie because she hadn't met the baby either and I just wanted people to tell me my food was awesome.

    I saw a recipe called the 3-2-1 method for ribs, and it involves starting the ribs in a smoker (I use a pellet grill proudly as my tool to smoke) at 250 degrees.  They just go in facing up, with whatever spices you prefer, we like the Salt Lick spice along with Uncle Chris' Gourmet Steak Seasoning, and I personally have started really using HEB's garlic salt.  I am generous with the spices, as a lot of it will fall off just moving them around.  They should smoke for about 3 hours, and then they go into some wrapping foil.  I tried to get away with one layer, but two will hold the moisture better.  For moisture, I add some Dr Pepper, not measured, but enough, I had 4 racks and used one 12 oz Dr Pepper can, and at the end there was just enough for a big gulp to finish it.  I also lather the ribs with some BBQ sauce.  They then steam in the foil for another 2 hours.  At this point, it gets tricky, the recipe says another hour at a higher temperature, say 400 degrees, to sear the outside, with more BBQ sauce, but mine gave me trouble, as when I increased the heat, the grease that had been falling off, lit on fire and everything, including the sausages got charred a bit much.  I took them out after maybe 20 minutes of the higher heat, I did not wait a whole hour.

    I did let the whole meat set up rest after I had grilled it, mostly to give DD time to get here.  I have to say the ribs were just about as good as what I did for the banquet.  Girlie made the joke that she was expecting to bite and hear crunch as usual, when she eats my ribs, but they were surprisingly moist, so she liked them.  Boy chose to leave and not eat; it was a little past 6:00pm and his girlfriend got out of work at that time, but he did take some ribs with him, which is rare for him, he must have liked them enough to take some, he said he would eat them for lunch the next day.

    I can proudly say I can make a pretty good brisket and now my ribs are just about as good too, so I am getting gooder at the cooking.

5/30/22 Why Do We Hesitate?

     After discovering that the new Polaris pool cleaner was creating too much back pressure to the pump, I had to shut it down and order some new parts.  I took apart the pump plumbing and noticed that several of the O-rings were cracked and with the increased pressure, started leaking.  It took me a couple days to find the replacement parts, I tried Lowe's and Home Depot for just some generic O-rings and had no luck.  I then went to the pool supply store and also found not much in what I needed.  It didn't help that the guys were about as helpful as a turd on the sidewalk.

    I was sitting here with the part in my hand, and I could barely make out a name and some numbers.  This led me to a random pool supplier online that had a whole line of parts with this name, Prather, and then just by looking at the pictures I determined which one looked like my part.  It cost a little more than I wanted, instead of just some O-rings, I ended up ordering the whole part, but they were only $11.99.  I ordered two, so I would have an extra one, if I ever need it for the hot tub connections.  It was through Amazon, so it took a couple days.

    Here is what I don't understand.  Once I had the part on Friday, I hesitated to install it.  It was something that took me less than 10 minutes when I finally did it, but I guess it worried me that I could install this and then find more problems, so I ignored it.  I went all day Saturday, then we were out of town most of Sunday.  This morning, it being Memorial Day, I figured I should give it a try.  I added a splitter to the return line and an extra opening to allow more water to move through and reduce the backward pressure, hoping it would be enough to let the system work without stress.  It seemed to work, once I tightened everything down a bit.  So far, it has been running for a couple hours and seems to be doing ok.  I know I need to go and adjust things a little more, but for now, it is a good start.  I cut the plumbing line that returns the water, so there is less piping in the water for the Polaris to get trapped with, I need to do something similar to the other pipe, it goes all the way to the pool bottom and the Polaris just seems to love to get tangled around it.  I think with some more adjusting and plying with it, it will be a great addition to the pool, hopefully, it helps keep the bottom cleaner of loose debris and dirt.

    I think I hesitate because I might have solved a simple small problem, but what if this exposes a larger problem?  What if I do something that accidentally leads to bigger and more expensive problems, then what do I do?  I want the pool to be a staple of our family activities, but I can't be constantly spending money on it.  Hopefully, we can get a summer's worth of fun out of what I just fixed.

5/29/22 Celebrating My Niece's Graduation?

     It was a topsy-turvy week for sure.  After the catastrophe in Uvalde, everything was sent into disarray.  For some reason that makes zero sense, once the smoke cleared from the destruction on that now infamous school ground, many other deviants seemed to wake up and tried to at least put a scare to their schools and communities.  Maybe it was simply to get out of the last week of classes, maybe it was more sinister, but either way, there was fear in the air.

    The worst part (once you get past the tragedy), is that graduations were scheduled everywhere, and with the fear of copycat individuals, many schools did last minute changes to their planned ceremonies.  Crystal City normally has their graduation ceremony out on the football field, the stands can hold as many people as want to show up, we were planning to go and watch our niece, on Friday night.  Because of being so out in the open and the crowds being easy targets, it seemed safer to move the ceremony indoors, but that meant that each graduate could only have three guests, so we were, as most of the family was, not allowed to attend.  We had made plans to attend, Wife took the day off, Boy was going to take the day off, but in the end, we just stayed in town.

    Wife then started saying we should go to the reception/luncheon on Sunday.  I didn't want to because I don't like doing stuff on Sundays, it is normally our best day of rest, we hang out at the house and grill, normally.  Saturday evening Mijo cut the grass, and even as late as Sunday morning, I was still thinking we were just going to hang out, I even spent some time trimming the front yard Sunday morning, Mijo runs the mower ok, but never touches the trimmer.  Mijo came and asked for about the 5th time of we were going to go, to which I said, "if you two are ok with going, let's go."

    By noon, we had all showered and gotten dressed and were on the road.  We got there right at 3:00pm, when the party was starting.  It was very nice, in the same hall Wife and I got married, it is a small-ish place, but just right for 100 or so guests.  We ate some food, there was a DJ singing some live music, people danced, we ate cake, opened some gifts, then we got back on the road close to 6:00pm.  We were home before 10:00pm.  It made for a long day, but at the end of it, I was glad we went and were able to celebrate and acknowledge our one niece as she moved from high school forward and to college.

5/28/22 Does Getting Old Just Creep In?

     I saw a TikTok yesterday that brought up the idea of getting old and the girl said she felt old when realizing a ticket to Disney World is now over $100 for a day ticket, and she remembers when a season pass was less than $50.  I thought that was interesting, yet for me, getting old has been a lot more subtle.  I don't know when it happened, but there was a time when we had a boat and several RVs over a good 10-year period and the most exciting time of the year was spring when we would prepare to take our RV to the coast, specifically Corpus Christi, and then proceed to go as many weekends as possible down there over the summer months.

    Nowadays, I see the temperature going over 90 degrees and I don't want anything to do with being outside, it seems like a punishment to be outside sweating.  We were invited to the lake by Girlie and her family during the week, and although I thought it could be fun, Wife was more cautious, but the idea that Girlie said we should plan on getting out there at 8:00am to get a good spot just ruined the idea.  There is really no way Wife is getting up that early on one of her few days to sleep in just to get up and sit around some lukewarm lake, and I had to agree that did not sound like fun.  I really do want to go fishing and have some of those experiences we had 10 years ago, for Mijo, but he already spends too much time out in the sun and heat with all his football practice.  He doesn't get excited at the thought of spending an extra day out in the heat.

    Right now, my idea of a good day is getting up early, around 7:00-8:00am, but only going as far as the kitchen, making some coffee and hopefully pairing it with some sort of bread.  I love the quietness of waking up when Wife and Mijo are still asleep, this gives me a quiet, peaceful house.  I then like to think about a nap, even if I don't get around to one, sometime in the early afternoon.

    Honestly, we have the pool right outside our backyard, but who wants to go out and get in the heat and sun when we can just stay indoors with the AC set to 71?  I am looking at the grill as well.  Yesterday (Saturday), was a great day for some grilling fun, but I did not prepare by getting meat early and the idea of going out in the middle of the day, once it got later and hotter just ruined the idea.  In the end, we napped from about 4:00-7:00pm, after sitting and watching the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney (first two episodes are out).  I got up, but Wife slept a little longer in the living room ghetto bed.  She only woke because Mijo came down wondering what we were going to eat.  We wound up going to get very sub-par pizza at almost 10:00pm, then sitting and watching Tombstone in yet another weekend of showing our son an old classic.  He liked it, which to me means it was a good restful day.

5/27/22 Conspiracy Theories Make More Sense Every Day?

     I know it sounds crazy; I hate that we live in a time where this is where my mind goes.  Twenty years ago, I wouldn't have had the mental ability to go where my thoughts go nowadays, but oh how the times have changed.  I think even at the end of the week, many of us are still reeling from the tragedy that occurred out of the blue and for no particular reason.  What that monster accomplished in one short morning will be remembered as the worst massacre in a school setting for the rest of our lives.  It was too close to just think of it as just a sad misfortune for some people over there.  Uvalde is within 40 miles of my hometown, I went to the junior college there, drove the bus to and from that small city every day for a year while commuting.  My brother said one of the teachers that was killed was a classmate of his, so they lived in Crystal City for a time.  My mom was in Uvalde visiting her sister in a care facility and noticed all the cops starting to show up as she was leaving the city.  Worst of all, one of the little girls killed was the daughter of my wife's best friend's sister, we had met the mom a while back.

    Wife got mad at me for giving any attention to the coward and talking about him, and I totally understand, these bottom feeders deserve none of the attention they seek in this way, but there are many questions to be asked and the answers might be of interest.  First off, why was this kid, presumably working at Wendy's driving around in an F-250?  I've been wanting to buy one and can't afford the $70,000 price tag and I don't make minimum wage.  If the cost of the truck is not enough, most of these trucks are diesel and diesel is going for over $5 a gallon, more so in a small town, I have to imagine.  Add to that, "gun experts" are claiming the AR-15 rifles were of the $2000 variety.  Again, how does a kid who lives with grandma afford such expensive toys?  It really does seem like someone was helping this boy along, no way is this something a numbnuts confused about his sexuality going to be able to get it together and focus on this type of purchase and destructive attack.  Every school Wife has been working at has now had heightened safety protocols to prevent people from just walking in.  How did he get in so easily but then the police were outside confused as to how to enter for over an hour?  Why didn't the police run in after him?  I understand waiting for back up, that is fine, but waiting an hour for a key to go in sounds like a joke.

    I really hope this is investigated properly; things happen for a reason most of the time.  The only thing that seems super gross but gives it a reason is that it was a ruse to "disarm Americans" and give something for the left to fight about.  Nothing that the incompetence living in the White house has done has helped their cause.  People are over Covid (Bill Gates is out trying to scare us with monkeypox now), it took a minute for them to figure out we don't give two shits about Ukraine, and even the abortion debacle stalled pretty quick.  This might be the last salvo from the left, it is pretty desperate though.  If true, may God have mercy on their souls, not that they deserve it.

5/26/22 Things Change In The Blink Of An Eye?

     Just two weeks ago, we were looking at Boy's graduation coming up and stressing about having to get clothes and then attending a usually boring but important event.  There were some distractions around the event, my dad had just had surgery, my mom was worried if he would be ok afterwards, he is in his 70's now.  The event was held in a gym at Texas state and Boy was only given 12 tickets for twelve guests.  In the blink of an eye, the moment passed, everything went smoothly, I thought it was an awesome day, complete with a good meal after and I thought everything went about as smoothly as one could plan.

    Fast forward to the next graduation, at the start of the week we were trying to figure out the best way to do this.  Boy was going to travel with us, but only if we were making this a one-day affair.  Because we have been going non-stop for a couple months now, Wife was saying she didn't want to spend all weekend down there, and she does have a hard week, driving back and forth to San Antonio every day is getting old, with the shitty traffic, it's not really the distance, it's the stop and go every day.  The thing is, they have the graduation scheduled for Friday evening, then a big party luncheon thing, but on Sunday.  For us to attend, it means we have to stick around all weekend, and then if the luncheon is in the afternoon, we would have to drive back late, it's a 3-hour drive, then Wife would have to get ready to work the next day, while losing the whole weekend, not even having time to wash a load of clothing.

    The things we worry about normally with our first world problems.  Suddenly, there was this awful nightmare in Uvalde and everything is up in the air.  It is Thursday, and the surrounding school aren't sure whether to even have graduation ceremonies, whether to move them indoors, make them virtual, like they did during the height of Covid, or possibly move them to a week later.  The last one doesn't make sense, but this week, there are already several graduations set to go and all the area police forces are being used, if they wait until next week, those cops can then be used to patrol and guard the area.

    What happened to the innocent carefree days like when we were young?  The biggest concern was that some of the graduating kids would get drunk and go crash somewhere in the night, gun violence was not something that even crossed our minds.  How times have changed.

5/25/22 Is It All In My Head?

     I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, as usual, I was complaining about the cost of gas this time.  He looked at me blankly and said, "is that really a problem or is it more psychological?"  I retorted back that I am filling my small Escape now with $50 when it used to cost me less than $20 a year ago.  Now if you only do this once a week or less, maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I know Wife is more stressed because she is filling her car up 2-3 times a week, and the Telluride is now closer to $60 every time.  In his defense, his kids are grown, and his Wife is driving an electric car, so he is just filling up to come to work and home.  When Mijo was doing home school in the midst of Covid, I could go two weeks between fill-ups because I would just drive to work and home, there were no multiple trips to drop him off and pick him up, plus going to Bill Miller or Whataburger and waiting in long lines every day.  Life is much simpler when kids are not involved (but I am already tearing up thinking I'll be done being his chauffer next year).

    This can't be in my head, gas costs and everything else has to be affecting real people everywhere.  My friend over here works with me, and fortunately, we do ok, in the big picture.  How are families with normal salaries getting by?  This is something I think about all the time, like when I am getting groceries.  For a while, I was getting a pair of rib-eyes, a pair of New York Strips, some fajitas, and maybe some chicken, when Mijo was doing the home school thing, and we ate good every day.  Now, I get chicken for at least twice a week, some ground beef, for spaghetti or whatever Mexican concoction Wife comes up with, and maybe a pack of pork, but while steaks are over $10 a pound, I can't buy them, it seems wrong.  I'll do an occasional pack of fajitas on the weekends, but they do cost more than they used to.

    Which again leads me to think, I have adjusted down, to keep costs down, but what are the options for "poor" people?  Between food and gas being more expensive and then if you live in Austin, the housing market is just crazy, are more and more people just destined to live in the streets?  I see an exodus of people leaving Austin in the near future.  I hate to think I won't be living here in the future, but if the cost of living gets to be too great, we might not even be able to afford the property taxes, let alone mortgage, cost of new vehicle (at some point I need to buy myself something newer), and everything else, which I am not including fun things, like boats.  Let's face it, hardly anyone is having fun right now.

5/24/22 What Is The Solution For All These Shooting Incidents?

     If I know our government, they will try to make laws to prohibit the owning of more guns, that is what they know, make rules to control the masses.  If they can somehow add in a tax and make a little money in the process, then they really call it a win.  The problem with these types of laws is that criminals don't follow the rules, they find ways to get guns anyway.

    Most criminals are going to be repeat offenders, so in that, they shouldn't or aren't allowed to own guns, but guess what?  Criminals are the one group that will ignore rules and laws they don't agree with.  What is the worst that happens to someone caught with an illegal gun?  Maybe if we really did something, like cut off their hands, at least makes it harder to shoot a gun, if not teach them not to touch them.

    There is no doubt going to be a call to ban guns, there always is, but it isn't good people committing crimes with guns.  I was very much against guns growing up, but then there just came a time when I felt like I should be able to protect my house and family, if ever the time comes.  I have had at least one gun in my house for the last 10 years, and how many people have I killed?  None, I respect life, and the only way I would use one against another person would be if I had to in self-defense.  The idea that if we ban all guns, then we'll be safe is the reason Chicago and New York are out of control with the crime.  According to what I have heard, it is very hard to legally own a firearm.  Guess who doesn't give two shits whether they have all the paperwork?  That's right, criminals.  They do pretty much whatever they want.

    It is counter intuitive, but if everyone had a gun, then people would be forced to respect the situation and possibility that acting the fool might get you shot, even by the little old lady that seems so sweet and innocent.  I feel that if a handful of teachers want to get some sort of training and then be allowed to carry a firearm, then that would be something to at least try.  We already have plenty of data showing what happens when a group of people are knowingly unarmed.  They get bullied and harassed by assholes with illegal guns, that is just facts.

    In this day and age, force should be met with force, level the playing field.  At the very least, having teachers armed would decrease the time before an active shooter would be met with real resistance.  Knowing that all you can do is try to hide and shield the children you work with every day and love, to an extent, is a very weak position to be in.  I would hate to find myself in that position.

5/23/22 One Solution Creates More Problems?

     Last week, I thought I was a genius for a second.  With the pool finally holding water like a champ, I decided I should treat it and so I went and bought a Polaris cleaner.  I have always wanted one of these automated cleaners, they run around the pool and help clean the pool by agitating and sucking stuff up from the bottom (theoretically, they will also climb up walls).  Once I saw them in the store, I was a bit hesitant, they had a limited selection and basically, they started at $500.  The did have a really cheap one for $200, but I had bought one of those years ago for an above ground pool we had, and it was dinky and more like a toy.  

    This Polaris unit I chose is the real deal.  It has the little wheels and works on the return side of the pump, meaning it gets connected where the water returns to the pool, so it is driven by water pressure.  I did not take into account that our pump is as strong as it is, the little unit was hauling butt once I got it connected.  It wasn't too hard to connect, right now, with my thought that I had a leak in the pool, I have been running the water to and from the pump and filter with big PVC pipes on top of the deck.  I just connected a fitting that matched the one on the Polaris hose and it was ready to go.  Instantly, the filter unit has a pressure gauge that I didn't even think worked because the needle had never moved, but it quickly went up and over to almost the max when I turned it on.

    The set up initially was I had 1.5inch pipes just open at both ends going to and from the pool, so nothing was constricting the flow.  Now, with the Polaris unit, it is severely constricting the water coming back into the pool and the pump and filter unit are feeling the effects.  After a few hours running Friday, I didn't get a chance to run it Saturday or Sunday, I was beat and too tired to be out there after the banquet.  I went outside yesterday to turn it on, my hesitation from running it and not being there is that it keeps getting tied up with the pipes that I added, which is making me think about trying to remove them and see if I can run the water back through the skimmer box and return lines in the wall, it now seems that the leak was in the wall cracks, not the plumbing.

    Either way, I now also have to figure out where to get new O-rings for all my fittings where the pool connects to the PVC pipes.  The increased pressure developed a few leaks I had not noticed before.  I took apart those quick disconnect, they are designed to be easy to open, if the pump needs to be replaced, and I noticed the O-rings were full of cracks, one of the hot tubs O-rings even broke in half, it really needed to be replaced.

    This may all seem like a lot of work, but if the water is going to hold, I still feel it is all worth it, I'll do whatever I have to if it means my pool will not look shitty.

5/22/22 Hobo Shoestring On Youtube?

     I tell you there is something for everyone on Youtube.  I've been bored lately, it seems the same stories just constantly come up, and that is partly my own fault, all I look at is watches and political crap.  I'm not sure why, but Hobo Shoestring popped up on my feed and I couldn't help but to go along his adventure.  He is a literal hobo, climbing on trains and going across the country.  From a reality standpoint, there is no way I could do this and if confronted by a hobo, much like a bum on a street corner, I would rather not interact, but from the safety of a monitor screen, I can't help but be entranced by the way this man is living, so free and without fear.  Compared to his way of living and from his vantage point I can see that I am the one living the sad, caged life.

    We picked up with Shoestring as he is choosing the right train box to jump into as a train is slowly picking and dropping boxes at a train yard.  These trains seem to go on for miles, they just seem endless.  Unfortunately for our hobo, most of the boxes are oil tankers and can't really fit humans, as there is no place to get inside.  Lucky for him, there are always a few boxcars, and in this case covered hoppers, which hold stuff like sand or corn.  He didn't describe them as such, but looking where he rode on, it looked like he found a safe cubby corner on the back of what looked like a covered hopper (these boxcars are so big and built to withstand the load that the shapes just have nooks and crannies where a man can hide from the elements).  He actually did miss the first train he was looking at, taking too long to describe that it was going South, and then telling us he had left his backpack behind and was going to go back and grab it.  By the time he was making his way back to the one rail car he liked, it had already started moving.  Maybe in his younger days, ole Shoestring might have run and jumped on like in the movies, but in his 70's I don't think this was an option (if that is even a possibility in reality).  He was very calm and just casually said "there is always another train coming."  He then added that he really preferred to be headed North, so I don't think he was headed anywhere specific, he is just roaming.

    I am a little confused here.  My goody-goody nature says these guys are not supposed to be on the train and they are a nuisance, but on the other hand, trains weigh tons and tons, the weight of one man is not going to make that train any more inefficient and if they aren't hurting anyone, why should we care if they do this, for fun or lifestyle?  Obviously, Hobo Shoestring is not out here trying to commit some sort of crime, or he wouldn't be interested in filming his adventures.  I find this sort of thing way more interesting than watching regular scripted TV nowadays.  This one man is living a real life and because of the internet and where we are with technology, he can basically produce and provide an account of what his adventures encompass.  I can't help but think in a weird way that I am a little jealous at the freedom this man gets to enjoy daily.  I know I couldn't do it, but I am glad there are people who can and do this sort of thing.

5/21/22 About A Perfect Day For A Banquet?

     Everything seemed to work out great today.  I was tasked with making a brisket but after seeing that we were only going to have three briskets, I decided to make two.  This worked out great in that Wife happened to be given one earlier this week and then one of her coworkers told her she could have his since we were going to provide them to the banquet.  This allows me to keep the two I have in the freezer for another day.  Anyways, I still had to get these made along with some ribs and sausages.

    I started the briskets at 11:00pm last night and went out every 2 hours or so to check on things.  I slept, I guess, but I still felt like I had to be sort of alert at the same time.  I was a little worried to rely on a brand-new grill I had only used the week before.  The grill performed like a champ, by the way.  It has the grill surface and a secondary level.  I placed both briskets on the upper-level rack and it worked great.  I feel like I learned a secret, according to a couple of Youtube guys, a brisket gets its smoke ring when one applies salt, so I try to add salt every time.  Other than that, I smoked them at 250 degrees for 12 hours.  I went out and wrapped them in butcher paper around 4:30am.  I am still mixed on thoughts when it comes to wrapping, some guys say it matters, some, not so much.  I have had similar results with butcher paper and or aluminum foil, but butcher paper makes you look like an expert, I think.  I then opened the four packs of ribs around 5:00am, when I was done working the briskets into their wraps.  I sprinkled my seasonings on the ribs, but then let them sit in the fridge until 7:00am.  At that point, I put them on the bottom shelf of the grill and smoked them for three hours, along with the briskets.  I then wrapped the ribs in foil and added Dr Pepper to the package, it has been suggested for the flavor and to keep the meat moist.  After two hours, they looked quite moist and done.  I then took them out along with the briskets and raised the temperature to 400 degrees.  I wrapped the briskets in foil and put them in the cooler to "rest".  I braised the ribs for 30-40 minutes at the higher temperature and then put them back in the foil, minus the Dr Pepper liquid.

    Everything was done and wrapped in foil and resting in the cooler by 12:30pm.  I then jumped in the shower and got ready for the event.  While Wife kept getting ready upstairs, I turned on the car, to cool it off, and had Mijo help me to load everything in, two coolers, and all sorts of junk, like water guns, and tortillas, condiments, and stuff.  We got there right before 2:00pm when it was set to start.

    I got compliments from pretty much everyone for either the brisket or the ribs.  One kid told me I should open a restaurant; another said this brisket was better than what was offered at the football banquet, which was huge praise because that brisket was done by a guy who did open a restaurant.  One mom said the ribs were better than what her husband could make at home.  It was all good for the ego.  At the end, I noticed the other briskets were still there, and mostly only mine had been consumed.  The ribs finished, I was happy there were enough even for the one mom who showed up late, she told me they were so good too.

    In the end, the kids had a blast, they ran around, chased each other with water balloons and water guns.  We also had a huge bag of cascarones which got used up in a few minutes.  Mijo still had confetti in his hair when we were leaving.  This, along with the food and then the coaches handing out some awards filled up the time.  Our boy was recognized as the best male wrestler and was also nominated and selected as a National All-American in Wrestling, which the coaches were really proud of and excited.  I couldn't have asked for a better ending to the party.

5/20/22 Preparing For a Feast?

     Tomorrow is the big banquet we have been waiting for since wrestling ended, and we got roped into doing more than our fair share.  It is being held on one of the wrestler's place, they have a few acres (like 12, in town).  The dad wanted a little help setting up the tables, I didn't see why, until the mom mentioned that the dad had hip surgery the week before and he was moving very slowly.  I have to admit I fell in love with the place.  They have 4 acres in which they live on and another 8 acres fenced off in which they keep cows and other farm animals.  On the 4 acres, they have their original house, they are building a new house, they have an entertaining outdoor kitchen, with multiple grills, a bunch of soda coolers, the dad said he bought from a restaurant that had gone out of business, and so much more, I couldn't help but be impressed.  They even have an outdoor bathroom building separate from the house that the man proudly said was plumbed into the second septic system, which will eventually be used by the newer house they are building.  It was really nice to just sit out there and enjoy the sunset, once we were done moving a couple of tables and chairs.

    It is currently 10:30pm, and I will be starting my briskets on the pellet grill here around midnight.  I am a little nervous as it will be a big part of the meal, two other parents volunteered to bring briskets, I decided to add a second one since three didn't sound like enough for a group of around 60 people, according to the coach on his last message.  The dad wanted to tease me a bit saying "so you're a pellet grill man..."  I just laughed and added "I know pellet grills get a bad rap, but I wouldn't even dare try to cook if not for this grill, pellet grill have given me so much confidence."  He added that he has a an electric smoker and it is really convenient sometimes to just put the meat in and not have to worry about it.

    On the way home, we stopped at HEB and decided to pick up a few more packs of sausages, hotdogs, buns, tortillas, bread, condiments, and then stuff to eat for dinner.  Our original plan was to heat some cheap burritos and jump in the pool for a bit, but I guess we are flexible as one needs to be.  I figure the briskets will be about ready in the morning, at least to the point that I can add some racks of ribs to the grill.  We decided we would turn on one of his grills and make the sausages and hot dogs there, which is good because that is a different type of cooking than the smoking of briskets and ribs I will be doing.  Let's see how it goes.

5/19/22 Pool Is Looking Like A Million Bucks?

     Last year, I was one good deal away from pulling the pool out of the ground and replacing it with a new one.  The main thing that kept me from doing that was the crazy cost of things nowadays.  It turns out that a new pool would at minimum cost us somewhere around $50,000 and the ones I was looking at with hot tubs, and ledges was closer to $100,000.  That sobered me up really quick.  Wife was even pushing me on the idea of just filling it with dirt and making it a putting green.  Not that I am a golfer, but the examples we saw online looked really good with the fake grass.

    I am glad I took the Hail Mary attempt and just went around the pool and patched every stupid little crack, which I honestly just assumed were hairline cracks of the upper surface of gelcoat.  I guess one or two of those cracks were actual cracks that went all the way through and that is where it had been leaking.  Once I covered all those "cracks", I noticed the pool held water, and it did so all through the winter.  It looked so good during the winter that I even went outside and cleaned it a couple of times, so the leaves and debris from the surrounding trees wouldn't make the water turn a dark nasty green like happens every year.

    This week, I decided it was time to get the pool summer ready, so I swept out the big particles, and fired up the pump.  All week, it has been getting cleaner and cleaner, so much so that today I decided it needed a permanent vacuum cleaner to keep it clean.  I went out and bought a Polaris 360, which attaches to the return side of the pump and works by pumping water through 3 small jets into the body of the machine.  This in turn pushes small dirt and debris into a mesh bag to capture it and clean the pool bottom.  It is also running up the walls and agitating the surface, so it is really supposed to help keep the pool clean.  So far, it is doing a decent job.  I have to figure out a way to reduce the pool pressure, since the water is now pumping through the Polaris unit, and it seems like it is moving way too fast.

    There are ways to reduce the pressure, but honestly, as usual, I am always working under pressure.  As soon as I got it going, I needed to go shower, I had been in the pool for about 30 minutes doing the attaching, so I could go pick up Mijo from school.  Upon picking him up, I was thinking I would get back in the water and fidget with it some more, but he volunteered us to go help clean the place where we are having the wrestling banquet tomorrow (writing this a day late, on Friday).  Tomorrow (Saturday), will pretty much get consumed with the party, which we have been waiting for since the wrestling season ended.  Maybe I can get back to adjusting the Polaris unit on Sunday.

5/18/22 Everything Has Gotten More Expensive?

     My dad asked how we were doing credit card wise, and it's a fair question, we have gotten in trouble in the past with too many purchases.  I hate to say that we are kind of in the same boat but not really.  From the outside, it might look like we are running amok, but I swear, we are trying to do so much better.  What can we do though, when everything has gone up in the past year?

    We can start with the mortgage; the escrow went up about $150, so our mortgage goes up that much.  Then our car insurance went up, probably because Boy had a third car wreck a few months ago, that went up from $260 to $350, almost $100.  Add to that Boy's gas card, which we had a loose agreement he would pay me $600 for a couple things, the gas card included.  This was on the history that his Shell card is usually around $200, it might be $180 one month, then $230 the next.  The last two months though, it was $265 and now $325 this past month.  I hate to ask him for more money, but he is working a good job, why should we be absorbing his driving habits?

    The solar panels might not be going up, but it is a very constant $311 a month, plus the $416 for the new A/C systems is another heavy cost.  I thought we were doing well, in the big picture, with our vehicles, currently only paying for the Telluride, but then some asshole steals my catalytic converter and now I have to pay $2300 for repairs, and the steering problems on the Escape cost me $2900, all on top of each other.  I just made the first payments on both those new wonderful bills I was not expecting.

    Wife was ok with me buying a new watch for myself when she got her promotion, but then I added Boy's watch on top of things, he is paying for half of it, since it was so much more than what I wanted to spend on a graduation gift, but between the two watches it is over $800 that we are paying out.  All these bills and then we have gas, with Wife driving to San Antonio every day.  Food bill with Mijo dying of hunger every day after school, we end up picking up something, then he expects dinner with mom at home.

    As hard as it seems for us, how are normal people on normal paychecks doing it to get by?  I'm tempted to refinance the house and borrow $50-$100k, just to have some extra money, but I don't want the refinance costs added to higher interest rates, and they climbed quite rapidly, all of a sudden.  Hate to say biden's America sucks, but it really is looking that way.

5/17/22 Gearing Up For Summer Conditioning?

     School is not over yet and we are already planning how the summer is going to go in regard to football practice.  The head coach for football wanted an all-parent's meeting last night to discuss the summer expectations.  I would be a little bummed out after the beating these boys have taken the last two years, but this past season there was a new alignment and several of the school that were just destroying our team have been moved up to 6A, the largest high school division.  Crockett is now going to mostly compete with schools inside of AISD, as it should.

    Apparently, school ends in two weeks, and conditioning starts two days after, giving a day in between only because of graduation.  The boys are pretty much expected to be there 5 days a week, starting with lifting weights, speed and conditioning and ending with practice on position drills, such as linemen hitting the sleds and stuff like that, I think.  Let's face it, football is king, especially in Texas.  They do get the week of 4th of July off, so if we had thoughts of going on vacation, this is the week to do it.  The schedule has a couple more days off here and there, but Mijo will pretty much be a gym rat all summer.

    There was also discussion on how the coach will keep up with their grades as he did this year.  Some of the parent's want him to do it all year, not just for the duration of football season.  He did congratulate the linemen crew, as they are all above a 3.0 GPA.  He followed this with his pledge and goal to have all his seniors get offered some sort of college offer to play football somewhere.  According to him, there are teams outside of Texas that go with unfilled rosters, and they would gladly take boys from Texas, such as schools up in Idaho, or Iowa, as examples.  He has already been talking with us about a couple of school interested in Mijo, just not sure yet if he is blowing warm air up our butts or if it is legit.  Mijo says he wants to play, if a team wants him enough to offer him some compensation, otherwise, he will probably just go to Texas State, Wife says he will be automatically accepted because she and her older brother went there.

    The meeting wound down with words from the Booster Club, which we have been participating a lot with lately.  We have made a nice sum of $8000, with all our efforts, and that was with starting from $0 at the start of the season, there had not been a Booster Club since 2015.  Part of this money will be used to buy black pants for an additional look, plus some of the money is being used to buy more weights.

    All in all, we are going to be busy, the sad part is it all ends after the crazy run we are about to embark on, I can only hope Mijo enjoys the ride.

5/16/22 Finally Got Off My Ass To Start Pool Up?

     We are mid-May, and I am finally starting up the pool pump.  Usually, I am trying to deal with it much earlier, but it is usually much dirtier, with all sorts of yard debris.  This "winter", I did a fair job of going outside multiple times and cleaning out the bulk of the leaves and stuff that gathers in there, so even as I looked at it this past weekend, it was fairly clean.  I could see dirt along the bottom of the pool and of course, plenty of roly-polies, that seem to commit suicide every year by the thousands, but there was no big accumulation of leaves and the water never turned green on me, I kept it fed with chlorine.

    I always worry the pump won't work, when it has been off for an extended time, and it did give off a little smoke when it first turned on, but it went right to doing what it does best, move water by the gallons.  I did a little panic, why was there smoke coming out of it, but it didn't really smell like burning, it was just a light white smoke for a second or two, I am going to pretend it didn't happen and keep an eye on it, for a while.  I did clear all the weeds that were growing around it, in case the pump decided to get really hot and try to start a fire.  I may even kill it before I go off to work, it would seem like a smart thing to do.

    I would worry more about needing it to be clean, but Baby A has never really requested the pool be clean for his friends, they are all really inside boys who prefer to play video games.  He kind of started with the idea that he would like an end of year party, but he mentions stuff like that once and then doesn't ever bring it up again, so I don't know how serious to treat his demands.

    For now, I know the pool will be sparkling clean by the weekend, if I turn it on every day, but for who?  I might get in it for a while by myself, but if that is the reason I am cleaning it, ehh, I'm not sure it's worth it, I kind of prefer staying in the A/C too.

    It did hold water up to where we wanted it to all winter, but the water has been going back down the last month, I am going to assume it is because of the heat and evaporation, but we'll find out after filling it up today.  It had a problem the last 5-6 years where I was constantly losing water down to about a foot below the top, which made it annoying to use, because the water just seemed a little too low for fun.  Last season, as I was giving up on it, I stumbled across the actual spot where it had been leaking, small cracks that I thought were just cosmetic on the surface.  I patched this up with some of the pool putty and it held water beautifully all fall and winter long, so I hope that is a problem that is done, for now.

5/15/22 Finally Fired Up Our New Pellet Grill?

     We had been so busy the last few days, it felt like I bought the grill a week ago before I got a chance to use it.  I bought the new grill on Wednesday after I got out of work early, even before picking up Mijo from school.  I ended up taking him and a couple of friends of his to Lowe's, as I tried stopping with the Escape, but there was no way it would have fit, it really is a big grill.  I then decided to run home and get the Excursion and, on my way, back to Lowe's, my boy texted that he was done doing whatever he had been up to, and to go pick him up.  They went with me, I picked up the grill and then headed to Cheddar's, because this boy is always starving.  We then dropped off his friend who was still with us and headed home.  Wife was just about getting home, she had been at a board meeting, or something, and we all got home as it got dark.

    I assembled the grill Wednesday night, but by the time I finished, it was closer to 11:00pm.  We went to bed because we had graduations the next day.  Thursday was a blur, with the whole graduation thing, we got home around 8:30pm and I was out and asleep early.  Friday was more of the same, this time with Baby A having his powder puff football game, which we showed up for at 3:30pm to his school.  It went until 6:30pm or so, before we headed home.  It was a blast, but again, we were dead tired getting home.

    Yesterday was finally close to a relaxing day, my folks went back home maybe around 2:00pm, we went to go eat lunch, then ran back home, in a hurry, because some of Mijo's friends were on their way.  By the time I got out of the bathroom, they were all there, I asked for a little nap time, around 4:30pm, then we would go get some meat and break in the grill.  We must have napped for 30 minutes because we were up and at the store by 5:30pm.  We got meat and other junk food for a group of boys, then went home.  The grill was still inside, I rolled it out, figured out how to get it going, it seemed to take forever before we saw smoke, but after 20 minutes or so, it was smoking.

    At this point, I needed to let it "burn-in" for 30 minutes or so before putting food in it.  It got late, not going to lie, it was around 9:00pm before we got the wings outside, but at least the boys were eating wings, hot dogs, and sausage tacos before 10:00pm.  I would feel bad, but I know they were up until probably 3:00-4:00am.  The grill performed pretty good; I learned a few things that might be important in using it.  The heat seems to not be centered around the cup where the pellets burn, but more to the right, probably because of the air pushing through.  The left, side closest to the pellets actually seems cooler, I noticed the wings were almost over the fire in the heating cup and there was a drastic difference between the left and right side in cooking/burning effort.

    I think I'm going to learn to really like the grill, once I get a chance to use it for a while.  I wanted to grill something last night and again today (Sunday) because I am supposed to bring a brisket and ribs to the wrestling banquet, and a brisket just needs to be smoked, slow and steady.  I want to make sure the grill can perform like it should.

5/14/22 Lessons Learned Coaching?

     Baby A was chosen to coach the Junior girls' team against the Seniors on Friday.  He was given this responsibility about two weeks ago, so he went about building a team from scratch.  His first idea was to get a decent offensive and defensive coach, because he is a lineman on the football team, he knows about that, but he doesn't know enough about the roles of receivers and quarterbacks and this version of football is mostly about throwing the ball to different receivers or the quarterback taking off running, there are no linemen to worry about.  He could only use other juniors and they had to be willing to jump in and help.  He found one of the receivers willing to be his offensive coordinator and then he found a defensive coordinator.  Once he had this set up, he went about recruiting the girls to be on his team.  His first choice was from the track girls, he wanted speed, then the volleyball girls for their height, and finally some girls he knew who would show up and support him.

    There was a lot of build up to this game, he needed whistles, at one point he wanted me to order shirts for all the girls, and then he needed a cooler full of Gatorades and waters for game day.  The girls got their own shirts, saving me a good amount of money there, but I did provide him a couple of whistles and drinks.  It was exciting to see him dealing with all the hassles and pains of lining this thing up, from the other team's coach calling him late at night to argue over the names the girls chose for their teams, to even discussing two days before that the game should be cancelled because the Senior girls had too much internal drama and they couldn't play together.  All this melted away on game day and everything just fell into place at the right time for a really fun game on Friday afternoon.

    Wife was even called by the booster club to volunteer and go sell drinks and snacks, which is not something I wanted to do, but there we were.  We got there about an hour before the kids showed up after school, and we set up what needed to be set up, such as canopies and tables with drinks and we got some of the kids to go get ice to cool the drinks from inside the school.

    The game was a bit clumsy, there was a lot of passing and a little receiving, but in the end, defense made the game.  Both teams scored on defensive interceptions, the difference was that the seniors converted their PAT and the juniors did not.  All in all, the game was a fun affair.  Mom was able to meet a bunch of Baby A's friends from the football/wrestling teams, and for a spring day, the weather couldn't have been much better.

    The juniors lost, Mijo was pissed, but in that he was taught another lesson which he got to experience from the other side.  One of his football coaches was acting as a referee and after he reminded him "players win games, coaches lose".  I thought it was a good lesson for him, considering he is thinking about becoming a coach as a career.  I have to admit, he did a pretty good job of getting things together and making the junior side of things work as a team.  I could see a lot of passion in Mijo, and for all we know, he might actually be on to something, in wanting to become a coach someday.

5/13/22 About A Perfect Day For A Graduation?

     Yesterday was Boy's graduation from Texas State and things went about as smooth as they could.  There were many small things that could have been problems, but everything worked itself out and the day went down as best as we could have practiced it.  The day started around 9:00am.  Baby A was supposed to go to school, but since his first class is football, all he was going to do was go and get himself all sweaty, so we let him off the hook and let him miss his morning classes, until it came to his 11:00am ACC class, which he had a final for.  I decided to get up at 9:00am, drink a cup of coffee and then go shower before taking him to campus at 10:50am.  My folks showed up right as we were fixing to leave the house, so of course, we had to get off and help them get their bags inside the house and hug them before taking off.

    Mijo went and had his test for about an hour, I came home, chatted with my folks, then got dressed.  Mijo was done with his test within an hour, we were not ready for his call, both Wife and I were still bouncing around half naked in the bathroom, we just told him to chill.  We got going within a few minutes, picked up our young boy and headed to the Texas State campus.  My other brother called, he was headed to the graduation by himself, as were another cousin of his, his other grandparents, and Wife's older sister and her hubby.

    The line of traffic in San Marcos was quite long and it took a lot of patience to stay calm, my mom did not like a couple of cars passing me in the middle turning lane, but it isn't worth fighting over either.  Eventually, we made it to the arena and luckily, we had a handicap sign in the car, so we were able to park almost right outside the doors to the arena.  We bought some "graduate gifts" right outside the doors and then we were inside.  We got lucky and ran into almost everyone in our party within a few minutes.  My in-laws already had a long section of seats waiting for us.  I was honestly impressed at how fast the graduation went; I don't recall a faster graduation event that this one.  We were out the doors within an hour and a half.  Eventually, we found Boy and we took pictures with everybody right outside, but at least we were in the shade.

    Afterwards, it got a little confusing, my brother somehow parked way off campus in a private parking lot and it left him about a mile away, so afterwards we drove him to his car.  Then there was the cake to pick up afterwards before heading to Salt Lick.  The meal started perfect, the room was nice, cool, and quiet.  Then a party of female assholes showed up and the volume went from a 3-4 to a full blown 10.  we could not hear ourselves think for all the "woo-hoos" and "you go, girl!"  Other than that, it was a pretty good day.

    Luckily, that party of loud bitches left quickly and by the time we were cutting the cake, the volume was back down to a dull roar.  Boy opened his gifts, and we ended the meal in comfort.  I could not wait to get home and just take off all the dress clothes and get back to normal.  We were home by 8:00pm, and I was napping in my bed upstairs by 8:30pm.

5/12/22 Boy Is Graduating?

     It has been a long time coming, not to be mean or cheeky, but the day is here, and we are proud of Boy.  He will be graduating from Texas State University with a degree in Engineering.  I should know which discipline, but his interests fluctuate so much, I can't pin him down.  He has been working at Applied Materials for over a year, and he does what a mechanical engineer would do, assembling wire harnesses and powering systems as his main responsibility, so I think that is his title.  But then he tells me he wants to apply for other jobs requiring him to do more coding and computer work, so I don't want to say.

    He is and has always been "nerdy" in the best way.  He loves tinkering and taking things apart to understand how they work.  We have a room dedicated to his hobby which is 3D printing and over the last few years, he has even managed to make some money by creating things for various customers.  He says Covid shut it down, there just hasn't been the same type of exposure since everyone went into hiding, but he is hoping things start up again.  I believe he even has a new 3d printer on order and will eventually come and be added to the other printers already here.

    It was a bit hard to see him moving out, I had loved having my boys under our roof to keep an eye on them, but I had to accept that he is fast approaching 30 and with a serious girlfriend, he is getting ready to make the next move in his life.  They have been living together and although I would prefer, they were at least talking marriage, they seem happy and that has to be good enough right now.

    Today will be a celebration of our Boy, his graduation is from 2:00pm-5:00pm on campus.  We are going to Salt Lick after and most of the family will be showing up.  The hard part is that he was only able to get 12 tickets to attend the graduation ceremony, so some of the family is skipping this part and just meeting us at the restaurant.

    I am not sure what else the day has planned for us, but this is exciting enough.  I don't know that I like it being a Thursday, I prefer things like this be on the weekend, but this does free up the weekend to relax afterwards.  Speaking off, I do have to run off and get myself showered.

5/11/22 Bought Another Pellet Grill?

     I can honestly say I tried to keep the first pellet grill going as long as I could, but ultimately, we used the hell out of it in a year and a half.  The grill was a gift from my boys two birthdays ago, right as we went into the whole Covid shutdown.  It didn't seem like it, but we used that grill up to 4-5 times a week that whole year when Baby A was doing school from home, and believe me, we ate really good, a different type of steak most days (until my brother-in-law told me that wasn't a good idea).  It all worked out, prices slowly started climbing on meat, so switching to more chicken and even pork was a money saver.

    Anyways, after changing multiple parts on that grill, the inside started rusting and this last time I could not remove certain screws to replace the ignitor rod, and yes, I tried those reverse screw things that are supposed to drill out bad screws.  I kind of had a change of heart also when looking inside the grill, most of the paint had burned/flaked off from the constant burning, I started thinking we are probably eating some of that paint which can't be good.  This is why I mostly decided to just get a new grill, which I did, yesterday.  Honestly, I was going to buy the same unit I had, figuring I had a bunch of spare parts for it, in extra auger motors, and ignitor coils, not to mention the new control board I had ordered.  Lowe's was out though, and they have been out of most grills, like everything everywhere now, it seems.  This made me look at other brands.

    I decided to get a Pit Boss, not because I care about the wifi connectivity, but mostly because it has a 5-year warranty, which I will make sure and set up, these grills are a bit finnicky.  Set up wasn't too bad, once I got the legs on, that was not easy doing it alone.  It was also a bit heavy getting it off the Excursion and into the house, but luckily, I have a big boy around, Mijo pretty much manhandled it onto the dolly and rolled it inside.  I probably spent an hour putting it together while Wife sat on watching TV their close to me.  It is now fully assembled, I just need to get rid of the packaging, so much cardboard, it is hard to imagine how the grill fit in the box with all that packaging they put in.

    I will try to grill something this weekend to start getting it prepared.  I am supposed to grill a brisket or two for the wrestler's party next week.  Between this and summer is coming, so we will start grilling more than we already do, which is at least once a week, I need a dependable grill at the ready.  Charcoal has been a good back-up but once you get used to the convenience of a pellet grill, I don't really want to go back.

5/10/22 Cleaning For Visitors?

     We do not have people over like we used to, it seems like months since we last had any real company.  In the last couple of months, Boy moved out, Baby A took his room, and there we are.  Boy moved out in the worst possible way, he only took what he needed and left us his "leftovers", as it were.  I can't say anything is trash, but it is not stuff I can use.  The room next to his old room became his "3D printer room" and along with the printers, he has all sorts of assorted tools and just stuff in that room that I can't make heads or tails off to start putting it in order.  The best thing we can do right now is to just close the door and hope he comes back to finish cleaning that specific room.

    As far as his old bedroom, he left quite a mess, but since it was going to be overtaken by the younger brother, it was quickly cleaned and dealt with.  Even now, about a month since Mijo moved in, the room is still very clean, he didn't bring any of the clutter stuff from his room, to make the room look a mess.  This weekend, though, we decided since my family will be here, we should finish cleaning his old room, and do whatever needs to be done.  I moved the bed over to more in the middle of the room, and also, we picked up all the clothes that were still thrown haphazardly all over the room.  We were cleaning the room thinking my brother was coming, perhaps with his kid, and they would be spending the night, but we talked after we cleaned the room, and he said he is not coming over to spend the night, after all.  He is only coming for the graduation and then leaving after eating dinner.

    By default, we got the room cleaned, which makes the house look nicer, overall.  I also moved the bed downstairs into the weight room as I said yesterday.  This had the effect of making the living room look much cleaner, which is probably a good thing.  The weight room looks much cleaner, but I can also see all my workout gear is just pushed up against the wall, and that is no good for anyone.  At this point there is no point in complaining, this layout will be the look for a couple days, I do like the look of our giant living room, Mijo already is thinking of putting out his wrestling mats so he can wrestle his friends.

    I got one more day to do some more cleaning, which I think will be used to do some light cleaning in the kitchen, there are piles of trash that need to go out to the trashcan, and there is always stuff to declutter.  At least the bedrooms look ok at this point.

5/9/22 Conforming To Norms?

     I love having a "ghetto bed" in the living room, but my folks have both complained that they do not like sleeping out in the open, so in an effort to make them more comfortable, I spent the morning moving all sorts of furniture around.  Last year, after DD moved out, I decided that room should be our weight room, that was about the same time Wife was moving back home, so it made sense to move the weights into a bedroom instead of having them out in the living room.  We had a bed in that room, so it made sense if we were going to move a bench for bench press, a squat rack, bunches of free weights, a treadmill, and everything else we have, the bed would have to go.  I could have taken it up to the room Boy uses for his 3D printers, so far, he moved out and those printers are just collecting dust.  I could have moved stuff around and made the bed fit, but then my dad has a hard time climbing stairs, and they would rather have a bed downstairs.

    My solution, and I thought it was a good one, was to buy curtains and make the living room more or less private, we can close it off from the rest of the house, which I liked in the event we lose power and have to rely on our portable A/C, that would be the room I would prefer to keep cool, and the curtains allow for that.  This was still not good enough for my parents, so here we go.  This morning I was moving stuff around, Boy is graduating on Thursday, so they will be coming up.  I am not going to bring out the weights, I simply collapsed them down against the wall, but I believe they will have plenty of space for them to walk around the bed.

    I then had to rearrange the living room, it really is a huge room, and I liked the sofa halfway up the room, closer to the TV, at the foot of the bed.  The sofa against the wall makes the TV feel like it is far away, even if it is a giant projector screen.

    We also spent Saturday afternoon cleaning up Baby A's old bedroom, thinking my brother was coming up with some of his family, but he said it would just be him, for the day.  Still, the room needed the cleaning, we took out about 4 trash bags of trash, and about 4 loads of clothes to wash.  Apart from that, we found a bunch of his regular clothes, all folded, on the floor behind a chair he was using to stage his clothes.  Now at least, we can say he is fully moved into his room, 95% of his stuff has moved over, there are just some posters and knickknacks he has to decide if he wants.  

    I guess that is the good thing about having company come over, it gives us a good reason to clean, otherwise, we just put it off.

5/8/22 Another Birthday Celebration In San Antonio?

     As I was saying in the last blog, this weekend was my mother-in-law's turn to celebrate her birthday, which meant another run to San Antonio.  I like SA, it isn't really that far away, but it is a little rough going early, like they like to do.  The upside of doing things early is we do get the rest of the day to do what we want to.  We got to the restaurant right at 10:00am, like they wanted, and the whole rest of the family was already sitting down, the only ones missing once we got there, were Boy and his GF.  They arrived about 10-15 minutes after we did.

    We got together at Mi Familia at The Rim, a sister restaurant to the famed Mi Tierra, which is located downtown.  The restaurant impressed me as we walked inside, the ceilings were decorated in gold foil hanging and swaying to the breeze, it made it look very bright and cheerful.  I also noticed after a while, they had live music, at least two guitars and a singer, when I looked over in that room, we were in a more private secondary room, in the restaurant.  They also had a long display case with plenty of pan dulce, which I had to get some to try, at the end of our meal.

    I want to say everything was great, everyone was in good spirits, the coffee was great, but maybe we could have chosen a better plate.  Wife and I chose the Parilla for two.  It sounded perfect, with fajitas, beef ribs, sausages, pollo al carbon (grilled chicken) and even a chile relleno (stuffed pepper with cheese).  The beef ribs dominated the platter, but they aren't great, no matter how much people rave online about how good they are, beef ribs are not a good part of the cow.  The rest was all fine, I really liked the cheese stuffed in the chile, it had a lot of flavor and was all melted and gooey.

    I was surprised there was no cake, but that was alright.  After the meal, we took some pictures outside, as is customary with these people, and off we went.  I finally got a chance to go to the Omega store and look at what watches they had in store.  I happened to fall into the same sales guy we had last time we went there and bought Boy his graduation watch.  He was mildly shocked to find out the watch we bought almost 8 months ago still has not seen the light of day outside.  I told him our son will graduate this week and then he gets to have his watch.  His mouth was kind of open as he tried processing that.  We looked around, I saw one watch I liked for Baby A, it was a Speedmaster as well, but it was slightly smaller and had brown tones.  I thought it matched Mijo and his brown conservative personality quite well.  After getting my fill of watches, we went home and relaxed the rest of the day.

5/7/22 Refinance Before A Birthday Party?

    Last weekend, it was for my mom, this weekend it is my mother-in-law's turn to celebrate her birthday, so there we went, yet again, to San Antonio for a festive brunch.  The time was a little early, they all decided to get together at 10:00am.  If we reverse it back and engineer the morning, it meant we had to leave around 8:45am, which meant we had to get up at 8:00am, the latest, in order to be showered and ready to go on time.  I got up at 6:00am, not because I wanted to, but because it usually happens on the weekends.  This at least gave me time to get on the computer and do whatever I like to do before everybody wakes up an gets annoying.

    Yesterday, I got a bug up my ass about possibly refinancing the house yet again, I keep hearing about using the new equity in your house to do upgrades and whatever.  After getting the guilt trip by Wife on Friday, I bought wood flooring when she really has a tooth, she has been waiting on to get fixed, so it is my fault she is walking around in discomfort.  I've told her to get it fixed, we'll figure out a way to pay for everything.  The idea was that we'll just pull $100,000 and pay the car off and all the little BS that has accumulated over the past year and then we'll just have the one house payment plus whatever utilities.  I liked the idea but then looking at interest rates, they have about doubled, it seems.  We refinanced at 2.75% a year and a half ago.  Now we are looking at interest rates above 4 and closer to 5%, which is ridiculous to me.  I had kind of seen this, prior to starting the process online, but until you do, you won't know what the interest rate will really be.

    Either way, as soon as I finished entering my information on Lending Tree, I started getting phone calls, texts, and e-mails.  It seems automated, honestly, and a bit annoying, but I asked for it.  I finally picked up a random call and had a conversation with a fairly nice lady from Georgia.  She took my information down, and said she would contact me on Monday, when the markets open up about an interest rate we can lock in, if I am interested.  I said thank you and went on my way.

    By this time, I had already taken a shower and gotten mostly ready, Wife and Mijo were up and showered and had made their way downstairs.  We then headed out and on the road.  I brought up the discussion with Wife, and I expected a little push back, which is fine, but in the end, she was on my side and agreed if I thought this was best, we should do it.  In talking to her, I kind of talked myself out of the idea, though (fuck them higher interest rates).  We have plenty of money, as I was showing her by going through our finances, when we got back home.  If she chooses to get her tooth fixed, for example, I don't need to send $400 to my watch, I am just trying to pay it off quickly, same with Best Buy, or a few other cards.  I could be sending less than $100 to at least three cards that I send $300 a month to, so yes, we are better than we seem.  I just don't believe in leaving money in the bank if we have credit cards we owe on.

5/6/22 Finally Bought Some Wood Flooring For Our House?

     We have been talking about replacing the floors in our house for about the last five years.  Every year, we start with the discussion that this will be the year we finally tackle this task.  The reality is that if I were to do it like I wanted to, it would probably run up to around $25,000 or more.  I want the best woods and nothing that says laminate or plastic materials.  This is a fantasy, plus, the more I read about these products, the more uncertain I become as to what is best.  A few years ago, both Home Depot and Lowes caried solid hardwood floors as a choice, but I have been noticing in recent years, that option is harder and harder to find.  The choices today seem to have a lot of plastic and laminates, but I believe they are just a superior product now that they have really figured out how to make these floors.

    I went and bought a very middle of the road product, as far as costs go.  The 10 boxes I need for the first room I am going to try and install this was a decent cost of $330.  This is really not bad, considering the box says it is do-it-yourself friendly, even comes with a built-in underlayment, the product is water-resistant, and has a Limited Lifetime warranty.  Along with the flooring, I also bought a small saw that says it can handle all the different cuts required to install flooring, from ripping, to cross-cutting.  The biggest decision was what color to go with.  Wife and I had both liked the look of Acacia wood, and we had both liked grey, as a color.  I wanted the flooring to be textured, I fear slipping and falling, if it is just super smooth.

    I think the last straw was trying to vacuum today and just being disgusted by the look of the carpet.  We have been in this house over 15 years at this point, so the carpets have seen better days.  I couldn't just ignore it anymore, we aren't poor, so what has been the hold up?  I decided to go to Lowe's, and I wouldn't leave until I bought something.  I left at 4:20pm and was there until 5:50pm.  I left mostly because I knew Mijo would be about ready to be picked up.  I did choose to only get enough flooring for the one room.  As much as I would love to see the whole house looking new like when we moved in, I am afraid the cost would kill me, plus there is also the weight to transfer so many boxes to the house, and finally I need to see how easy/hard this plays out to be.

    I am excited, after talking about it for so many years, we finally have the beginnings of something possibly great.  I will start on Sunday, at the earliest.  From what I am reading, the wood has to acclimate for a couple days, at least.

5/5/22 Carry A Key, Always?

     I ran into a real problem today, while trying to drop off Baby A at home, after school.  We have had a deadbolt with a keypad combination for about 3-4 years on our front door and it has never given us any problems, until today.  I had gotten so comfortable, my car key did not have a house key, I figure it makes the key lighter, less crap in my pockets, and if I were to lose my keys or they were stolen, they would only have a key to the car, not the house.  At least these were some of the "pro" reasons to stop carrying a house key.  All that came to a crash today.

    We got home and as usual, I was in a rush to get inside to go pee.  I pressed the code and noticed it didn't make the beep beep sounds, so I waited a few seconds so it would reset, but again, when it resets, it blinks a few times, which it did not do.  I didn't have a key, so all I could do was bang on it, see if it made a difference.  Seeing that this was not going to help, I started thinking about our windows, and which one might be open.

    We hardly open the windows now, with these new A/C units, it seems better to keep them running all the time.  When we do open a window, the one over the sink is usually opened, so we went to look at it, but no, it was locked.  I looked at the other windows in the front of the house and it was the same thing.  All were locked, I guess I do a good job of keeping my house secure.  Mijo mentioned the back, and I thought this would be a good time to find the back door open.  I switched the lock on the fence to a combination lock after young Knucklehead kept having trouble misplacing the keys.  We were able to get into the backyard easy enough.  I was honestly surprised that all the windows were locked, I figured one probably escaped my paranoia.

    My next thought was to talk to my neighbor and see if we could borrow a ladder.  He didn't think his ladder was going to be long enough, and he really wanted to use his saw to cut through the lock on the back door.  I was like "let's give that idea a minute."  We brought his ladder over, and I had Mijo climb the roof of the patio in the back, which affords him access to the windows in our room.  Again, I didn't think I locked those windows, but apparently, they were locked.  I still had a couple more ideas.  I suggested he try the window in our bathroom, Wife likes to open it frequently, such as if she is mopping or whatever.  It was a little challenging to get to, we have fat bushes in front of the house, but I stuck the ladder between the bushes and just told him "Get your butt up there, don't start thinking about it."  We finally got lucky, that window was unlocked, and although it is probably the narrowest one in the house, Mijo still fit in easily enough.  After getting inside, it was easy for him to come back down, and open the front door.

    If anything, this teaches me that even with all this technology, never completely trust it because problems will arise.  I will need to make more copies of the key and add one to all the different car keys.

5/4/22 Surgery On The Border?

     I guess as long as all ends well, it's ok, but man, my family had a hell of a day yesterday.  My dad was scheduled for surgery (prostate) around 10:30am.  I thought it was weird that they (mom and dad, followed by my two brothers in a separate car) were headed to the hospital in Eagle Pass, which is about 45 minutes away at 9:00am.  I remember my last surgery, they wanted me there like at 6:00am to get me ready, even though the surgery was much later, but I guess they run things differently down by the border.  Eagle Pass is actually a border town, it meets Mexico and there is an international bridge that crosses into Piedras Negras.  The local famous point is this is where the Kickapoo Casino is at.

    All that aside, I guess my parents chose to do the surgery there because it is so close to their home.  I would have preferred to drive an extra hour and gone to San Antonio, but I am fancy that way.  The first sign of trouble was when the surgeon postponed the surgery a couple hours for an emergency.  This pushed him up to around 2:00pm.  I was on my way to work (I was out all last week sick, and we have several graduations coming up that will force me to be out, so I chose not to miss work for this).  2:00pm turned into 5:00pm with another distraction, then 7:00pm.  Eventually, I was driving home close to 9:00pm, I called mom to see what the status was, and he had just been taken to the operating room, very close to 9:00pm.  This really sucked because my dad was kept from fluid and eating all day, because one is not supposed to eat or drink prior to going under anesthesia.

    The plan was that dad would be operated on early and then be kept overnight for observation, and since he would be in a regular private room, my mom was going to stay the night with him.  Well, because the surgery was done so late, he was kept in the post operation room, through the night, so my mom found out at 9:00pm she would have to drive back home and come back in the morning, this was part of the reason my brothers drove in a separate car.

    As I said, all's well that ends well, but my brother was taking pictures of the hospital after 10:00pm and it was a ghost town.  All the normal reception areas and hallways looked abandoned, there wasn't even a security guy by the door.  My brother was saying he could have walked out with computers and TVs, and nobody would have been there to say anything.  Eventually, my dad came out and they talked to him for a bit, he seemed ok.  My mom texted that he called her in the morning and had been taken out of the intensive care unit and was back in a normal room.  His blood pressure had gone way up during the surgery, and he was also put on a bipap (breathing machine) because he was having trouble breathing for a bit post-surgery.

5/3/22 Roe V Wade Kerfuffle?

     Why now with this BS, it is really the worst time to be bringing this type of shit up.  That the Supreme Court let it out "accidentally" has to be a crock of shit, they want us fighting and causing division amongst the people.  BLM has died down and now that the dust has settled, people are seeing that the ones in charge basically used the money to buy themselves houses and other material possessions, which is not surprising.  They tried getting us excited about Ukraine, but as my brother was telling me, white people killing white people on the other side of the world does not get our blood pumping.  Shit, if as a whole, we don't really care about all the black people killing each other every weekend in Chicago, why would we care what they do in a country most of us couldn't point to on a map?

    They tried to get us going, but I think after the BS in Afghanistan and Iraq (over 20 years), and us "bringing democracy to the world", Americans are burned out on the idea of caring about other countries.  I mean, it doesn't stop all those SJW from posting their little icon of the moment, right now it's the Ukraine yellow and blue flag.  What are they going to go to now?  I have to imagine some sort of baby getting disposed of, I mean that is what an abortion is, right?

    I don't care either way, which way the ruling goes, but it sure is going to be a line in the sand and many people are already lined up on their side.  As a new conservative, I should be on the side of keep the baby alive, but I am not.  I don't like idiots having babies that are not going to be loved and protected, so it seems ugly, but better a quick termination of life now, than to have a kid and then release him into society to cause problems because he wasn't raised correctly.  I was a liberal not long ago, and I did like the idea of removing unwanted children via this loophole.

    Ultimately, I feel this is being brought up right now because the democrats have nothing good to stand on.  They have a shit president, an even worse vice president, their mantra "being woke" has proven indeed that "everything woke turns to shit", they keep insisting our real president will be arrested any minute, but nothing comes of it.  More and more people might find it hard to fathom, but things were better under Trump, whether it hurts to say out loud or not.  Fighting for women is going to be the new battle cry from the left, in another lame attempt to split the country in a favorable way for the left, and this has to be about their last Hail Mary attempt.

5/2/22 May, Full Steam Ahead?

     It is going to be busy all month, I guess we can look forward to June or July before things settle down a bit.  This weekend, we had dinner with my family in San Antonio.  Next weekend, we are getting with my in-law's for my mother-in-law's birthday and a pre-Mother's Day get together on Saturday.  I know that Mother's Day is on Sunday, but we will be home that day.  The following week, we will be having another busy week, Boy will be graduating on Thursday May 12 at 2:00pm, then we will have to have a dinner afterwards and we are talking about some sort of Saturday party, maybe in San Antonio so the rest of the family that didn't come can come and celebrate with him.  Baby A will also be having his powder puff football game in which he is coaching the Junior girls against the outgoing Senior QB who will be coaching the Senior girls.

    The third week in May actually looks quiet, but I am sure something will come up.  I didn't have it written down on my calendar, but we do have the wrestling dinner party on the 21st, so we will be busy, and I am supposed to provide a brisket and some ribs.  The following week will be another challenge with my niece graduating in Crystal City, which sounds simple enough, but again, it is a Friday, cool, but we have to stick around until Sunday for the graduation dinner.  This will be happening on Memorial Day weekend, so scratch on the idea to go to the coast, as it is one of the rare long weekends when Wife is off.  We do what we have to.

    The following weekend, again on a Sunday, we will be going to yet another graduation, this time for Wife's nephew on June 5th.  We then have a trip to Fort Worth, Wife has a conference and Mijo and I are tagging along at Wife's request.  This was sounding like a perfect opportunity to explore Fort Worth, but of course, life.  They are having a graduation party for him on the following weekend, so we have to come back Friday night so we can be there on Saturday, in San Antonio.

    I guess things will slow down after this, all I see is Father's Day, which is usually pretty chill.  I would like to go to Corpus Christi sometime during the summer, but as you can see, we are almost through June with activities, and this doesn't include Mijo will be having football practice almost every day of the week, Wife and I do work year-round, and she can't even take the whole week of 4th of July off, because of how their school year is structured.  I guess we'll keep it moving, fun fun!

5/1/22 Family Dinner For Mom's Birthday and Their Anniversary?

     A week late, but it was still a go.  Mom's birthday was the week before and although we tried making plans for that Saturday, there were a couple of things going on, prom for my niece and it also was the one-year anniversary passing of my sister's mother-in-law.  We all agreed to push it forward a week and there we were yesterday.

    We ate at Chama Gaucho, a Brazilian restaurant in San Antonio.  I was pushing for the get together and thinking of a steak house like Salt Grass, nice but not a buffet.  Everyone in my family has strong opinions and since I am flexible, it wasn't my birthday, I told the group that they could choose the place.  I believe my mom and sister had a hand in deciding where to eat, this after my brother snapped at me, he thought I meant Salt Lick, which is in Austin, when I was suggesting Salt Grass.  My last mention on the restaurant was "y'all can pick, it doesn't matter to me.  Now, I do love the food at a Brazilian place, I do not like what the prices have been doing.  The prices were $60 a meal plus drinks.  We only paid for three (Wife, Mijo and Myself).  Boy and his GF went, but since he showed up on his own and he is making good money now, he paid for them two.  My ticket was still $242.

    The day was pretty much consumed by the event.  My plan had been to leave early and go to the Cantera Mall, I wanted to go look at the Omega store, possibly start planning for my next watch purchase next year.  I really just like looking at nice stuff, I know it would be stupid to buy another one right now.  My sister then got the genius idea that we should take a cake, even though they sell desserts there and with plenty of variety.  Being that she filled her day with baseball games, she left her idea on either me or my other brother, and since my other brother was driving in with dad and they come from the middle of nowhere, it pretty much meant I had to go look for a cake.  Once loaded with a cake, it seemed even less of a good idea to try and go to a mall and leave the cake to die in the heat in the car, just so I can go gawk at stuff I can't afford.

    We chilled at the house until right before 4:00pm, then we got going.  To our surprise, there was very little traffic and we got there in about an hour.  we were parked in the parking lot before 5:00pm and slowly, the rest of the family got there.  We were sat at exactly 5:28pm at our table, which was great, considering we had reservations for 5:30pm.  The meal was great, as I said.  I believe my folks had a good to great time, Boy finally spent some time sitting with his grandma and filled her in on all his current activities, and he has been busy.  Time went by fast, between talking and eating the assorted meats they kept bringing.  I finished my meal with a slice of cake and a cup of coffee.

    We excused ourselves and slowly, we all left.  I had Wife drive us back, I drove on the way there.  I was sure I was going to zone out, but the drive was pleasant, we talked the whole way and even pulling into Austin, Wife suggested ice cream, I don't know why, but we found ourselves going to Culver's and getting a little treat.  I just got a small chocolate cone, and we got home, probably by 9:30pm.  I then napped on and off until 1:00am.  Wife was watching her usual crappy shows until then.