12/26/22 Almost Going To Crystal City?

    The plan was to go hang out with our in-laws on Friday before Christmas, then go to Crystal City after Christmas to hang out with my family for a day or two.  My mom called Friday, I think, they got my dad tested, he had been sick for a few days, and he tested positive for Covid.  Honestly, I am not reacting to it like I probably should, to me it is more like the flu or cold.  Don't lay down with the man or share his food, but I'm not scared to sit in the room with him, if he was contagious like that, every one of my family members would have it, but nobody else tested positive for it.  Still, it was enough of an excuse, or I don't know, some people are more cautious, but both Wife and Mijo said we should wait before we go and get ourselves sick.  I agreed, for a day.

    Monday night was maybe the first relaxing day, where we just hung out and watched a little TV with no worry or agenda to do anything.  Mijo was actually fighting a mild cold and he did sleep a lot between the last day of school and probably Monday, so he was very low key.  DD and his people ended up coming over, there water was still off, so they showed up to shower.  I honestly was in no condition to entertain; we just sort of stayed in the living room watching whatever we were watching.  I fell asleep on my chair, I believe DD fell asleep for a bit too as Wife and his wife played with the baby, or Wife watched him while she showered, I don't know, I was more out of it than aware of what was going on by the time they came.  They ended up living, all I remember was that they didn't cover the baby up while taking it to the car, and I just kept saying "cover the baby up."  His mama called Wife a couple days later, he got sick, and she didn't know how.  "Hmm!"

    Speaking of sick, I was trying to chill, but my mom called close to midnight, she was kind of shaken up.  She said my dad had seemed fine before she went to take a shower before bed, or whatever her routine is, but when she came back, my dad seemed like another person, unable to talk, he muttered "I'm not feeling well..." and my mom was left to figure out what to do.  She called my brother who came over, inside the house, they were going to get ready to take him to the ER, but she called my other brother who suggested they call the ambulance.  They checked his sugar and found it to be super low, around 31.  They gave him some juice to get his sugar up, and he immediately went back to normal.  This was a pretty good scare for mom, and it got me thinking we should go down and visit sooner rather than later.

12/25/22 Christmas Day?

     The best part of Christmas this year was probably that it was cold, like in the teens throughout the night and the low 30s all weekend.  Other than that, it was a very bland holiday.  Wife and I don't really exchange gifts, although we have been talking about going and getting a new vehicle, so we could count that as a new family gift if we go ahead and pull the trigger on a new vehicle purchase.  The only one who got anything exciting was Baby A, who Santa bought him a new PS5, but even that was just meh.  We had gotten it around Thanksgiving time on a random weekend, Best Buy had a few, it's not like we were fighting crowds to get one like some of the other gaming systems in the past.  Mijo came down Christmas morning, I was down in the kitchen drinking my coffee and he gave me a hug, looked at his stuff, and just decided to go back to bed, didn't even touch his pile of stuff.

    I was more or less volunteered to make a brisket for Christmas, and honestly, we just went to the store too early to make everything work. because of the impending cold freeze coming.  We probably have 2-3 briskets in our freezer at any time, but since this was potentially just going to be us three, I wanted a smaller 6-7 pounder and one that wouldn't be frozen.  We went to the store Tuesday or Wednesday, but we bought so much stuff to survive, that the brisket had to go in the freezer, it wouldn't fit in the refrigerator.  Come Christmas eve, I just didn't think about the brisket and it needing to thaw, Wife was baking a ham, and all sorts of other finger foods.  I then remembered it should thaw and took it out early in the morning, but it was almost too late to have it thaw out naturally.  I have seen videos that one can smoke a brisket from frozen, so I tried it after having it that maybe two hours.

    In the end, the brisket came out gummy or chewy, the flavor was fine, it was nice and flavorful, but the bite was a mess.  We keep having arguments over that.  Wife says I need to choose fattier briskets, but I prefer them lean, even if that means they will not be as fall apart as they should be.  We had Boy and his now fiancée over for dinner, and also DD and his wife and baby over, so for a while, we had decent company.  DD was mostly worried about their apartment being without water, I gave them one of our 5-gallon jugs of water, so they wouldn't have to worry about clean water for the baby and offered them our bathroom if they needed to come and shower.

12/24/22 Lamest Christmas Eve?

     I guess not all holidays can be winners, but man, this whole winter season has felt like a dud.  We just passed Christmas, which will be easy to get by since we never even set up our Christmas tree and hardly wrapped any gifts, so there isn't much wrapping paper to worry about disposing.  I was glad to hear Boy was back in town the Monday before Christmas, so at least we had a chance he would drop by, and we would see him on Christmas Eve or Day, either one would be good.  He is the biggest reason I wanted to be in town, so we could be a whole family when he came over, as he stated he wouldn't be able to go to with us out of town to my folks or in-law's.

    Earlier in the day, DD called about coming over, not that I was sure we had talked about getting together before, but I always enjoy them coming over with their baby.  Since we didn't have plans, I thought it wouldn't be problem having them over.  We got up and ready to run some last-minute errands, which meant a run to Berdoll Farms to get some pecans, then a run to Central Market, but before that, a walk thru the store next door, I like the stuff they sell there, even if I hardly ever buy anything. then a last-minute run thru Target before coming home.

    Baby A went with us, mostly on the promise of getting fed, so we stopped at Bill Miller before coming home.  It was weird because we got there at 3:40 and they were fixing to close at 4:00pm.  They were not making any more chicken tenders or chicken, we kind of had to order what they had available.  I had some tacos, as did Wife and Boy had a po-boy, then they came and gave us a bunch of free pies they were fixing to throw away, but they should have just throwed them away, the lemon meringue pies were just horrible.

    We got back home, and Boy showed up as we were arriving, followed by DD and his family 5-10 minutes later.  We didn't have food ready, not that we had promised anything, but we set up a charcuterie board with cheeses and meats.  Like I said, I don't mind people coming over, it just didn't feel like a celebration was in progress.  We gave Boy some gifts we bought him, stuff from his Amazon wish list, I even added one of these Leatherman scissors I have fallen for after buying myself a pair.  They were selling them next door to Central Market and Wife told me to get a pair of them, one for Boy and one for DD, they both like gadgets like that and I think both of them enjoyed them.

    Boy did not last long; I think his inner clock is still off and they left within 20-30 minutes of arriving at the house.  I did tell them to come back the next day and I would have a brisket ready for dinner.  DD and his Wife were there another hour or so before they too left, although they were going back to an apartment that might or might not have running water.  I gave them one of my 5-gallon jugs, so they wouldn't have to worry about drinking water and told them they could come back if they wanted to, they were pretty sure their water would be fixed by the next day.  That was about it for Christmas Eve, Mijo went to bed early so Santa wouldn't miss him, he wanted to make sure he got his PS5, plus I think he was kind of feeling a little sick and worn out.

12/23/22 Christmas At My In-Law's House?

     Even with the weather crapping out on Friday, we still managed to go down to San Antonio and spent the 23rd with Wife's family.  I generally enjoy going, they always have plenty of food and they know I like to close my eyes for a bit after we eat, so I can usually go in their bedroom and nap or just lay there in some quietness for a while.  I can put up with too many kids, I can put up with my in-law's corny jokes, but one thing I can't stand is a yapping dog.

    This has now become a problem over the last couple times we have gone to visit.  Thanks to my brother-in-law, who got a dachshund for his boys, only to decide it was too much and then give it to my mother-in-law almost immediately, there now exists a dog that was not needed.  I say not needed because there are already like 4-5 other dogs in the house.  They are the type of family to take in all the shitty strays that probably other people don't want to dela with.  My older sister-in-law lives there, and she has two dogs she keeps up in her room, one did just pass away, that dog looked like a firecracker had just exploded in her face, like in the cartoons, where the face is a bit blackened, and the whiskers are just curled up and burned, I don't know, but that is the image I got when I saw it.  Then the two nephews who live there each have their own dog, and one of those dogs is another stray type who wheezes and makes old man noises, and it is weird, when you try to show it affection, it growls, so you can't even sit and hug it or play with it.  I guess one of the dogs is cool, but that one is kept outside because it is bigger.

    This dachshund was a shit dog since day one.  When they first got it, it kept trying to bite me, and just played aggressively, I wanted to whack it and put it in its place, but they wouldn't let me.  Fast forward a year and the Shitdog is now grown, and all it does is bark and snap at everyone it doesn't recognize.  I asked Wife to tell them to do something with it before we went down there because I did not enjoy hearing it bark and yap the whole time we were there for Thanksgiving.  I guess the message fell on deaf ears or they would rather have the dog happy than me, but they did the exact same thing, they keep this trash dog's pen in the living room, so when we got there, they scooped up the dog and placed it in the cage.  I then got to hear it barking the whole time we were there.  Wife liked saying I was being dramatic, it did shut up when I went into my in-law's room and napped, but the second I came back out, it remembered it exists solely to yip and bark.

    Wife couldn't understand why I was so bothered by this, I mean she was able to block it out, I should do the same, it's no big deal.  I guess I should have, I mean life is supposed to be tolerated, not enjoyed, for the sake of others.  I guess if I wasn't so up my own ass, there were games to be enjoyed, but after all the barking, which is all I remember, I guess I didn't notice.

    DD reminded me this is what it was like for him with my mom's dachshund who acts like an ass with him, going at him and barking way too much.  Since she doesn't do that to me, I hadn't notice too much.  I guess all small dogs are assholes, in their own way.

12/22/22 Wrestling Family?

     We got new insight as to how it feels to be on the wrestling team, and it made me feel good.  The daughter of the booster club mom who has become our friend decided to join wrestling, which seemed weird because she is rather "girlie" and seemed right at home as a Tex-ann, the drill/dance team.  For some reason, the wrestling team has become hugely popular, with something like 56 members, it is almost too many to know everybody.  Also, because there are so many wrestlers, the two coaches can only be at one place at any given time.  At the Bryan tournament last week, for example.  There were twenty mats and matches going on at any given time involving any of our wrestlers at the same time, from the rookies to JV, to Varsity and either male or female, and in any of the 10-11 weight categories.  It was almost impossible to keep track of who might be wrestling at any given time.  They did separate the mats, such as the rookies were assigned to the far left 4-6 mats and the varsity were on the opposite side.  The JV and women were then in the middle, so everyone wrestled at the same time.

    The point of all this, is that for example, the new girl felt alone when the coaches did not make it to her corner for her match, but before she would start Mijo or one of the more experienced wrestlers would go and sit as her coach, in her corner.  This is allowed and happens all the time.  Even after a loss, she was glad that a few wrestlers would come around and hug her and give her support that she is getting better and not to worry about the outcome, what matters is that you learned from it.  This was in stark contrast to one particular guy I noticed wrestling who hurt his ankle, he had two dopey guys giving instructions in his corner and when he got injured, they wouldn't even come and kneel close to him.  Even if you can't render aid, sometimes it is nice not to feel alone, when you get hurt.  It took a few minutes and some words from the ref to get those boys to come and help their teammate off the mat.  I would hate it if our team was like that.

    Instead, like the new girl says, the Cougars all rally around one another and cheer each other on.  Even outside, one of the wrestlers is in band and asked the group to go support her, and a good amount of them went over after practice to watch the band perform.  The same thing has happened when the softball team was making a run to the playoffs last year and for the basketball team, because players are doing multiple sports.  I like the camaraderie and support for each other.

12/21/22 Shopping Has Shifted?

     It did not take that long, but I did notice this year we did not do any of our shopping at the area malls.  It is a bit sad for me, I used to love going out to the mall and walking around, maybe find something new I hadn't seen before, or maybe enjoying a new store opening, with its new ideas and products trying to fit into the rest of what people buy.  Sadly, the mall is probably going to die out as an idea for shopping, there just isn't enough incentive to go and walk around with the sometimes-shady people they allow to hang out all day.

    Most of our Christmas purchases were done online, I won't even say Amazon, but yes, a lot of our gift ideas came from there.  Wife goes even further and jumps out of Amazon and into specific stores, such as her Vera Bradley purse store.  I hate to admit it, but after years of trying to buy her more popular name brand purses like Coach, she insists on using these cloth cheapie bags I wouldn't buy to carry my sweaty shoes if I went to a gym.  which is another thing, we don't even bother exchanging gifts anymore, I always want to go over the top and she would rather I "saved" money, so we are settling on a middle ground and neither one of us gets a gift, yeaih!

    We did go to Best Buy about a month ago, we saw online that they had the newest gaming systems there, in person, for pick up, so we stopped, got it and a couple of new games to take care of Mijo's Christmas gift.  Then we also made one trip to Dillard's, but the stand alone one in Bee Caves, Wife went in there to look at pajamas or something.  We could have gone to the mall, but there is no other incentive for me.  Used to be, I would at least enjoy walking into Ben Bridge and look at the more expensive watches, but then Covid got them to close that store and now they only exist at the Domain.

    I like the idea of shopping at the Domain, all the stores are there, but not necessarily connected to each other and also there is no air conditioning between store-to-store walking.  Each store is so expensive, you can only shop at one place, so the idea works.

    I am writing this on Friday, and we are fixing to go to my in-law's house in San Antonio, so I would love to go walk into the Omega store, which is in their open-air mall, but I don't know if it will be that kind of trip.  I don't know, I have left all the shopping to Wife this year, I kind of have given up, for now.

12/20/22 Another Freeze Coming?

     I guess we learned our lesson two years ago about being prepared for a deep freeze as they like to call these freezes that come when cold air escapes the polar vortex, or something to that effect.  Wife is off this week for Christmas break, Mijo starts tonight (Wednesday), and I start on Thursday night, after my shift.  Since Wife was home, we decided to get ahead and go to the store and stock up to get us through the weekend, where we might be forced to stay at home.  I really don't think it'll be that bad, it is supposed to be cold, down to the teens at night, but there is no precipitation with the cold, so it should stay dry, thus the roads will still be open.

    All I know is that I have my portable gas heaters in the house with 30-40 little propane cylinders stored in the house too.  We have at least 4- five-gallon water jugs in the closet, and a freezer with at least a week's worth of meat.  If it gets really bad, we do even have a full-size generator sitting in the house, by the pool table, all I need to do is syphon some gas out of either car and fire it up for some power.  The cold will only last 3-4 days at the most, and it should be getting above freezing every day, according to the forecasts I have seen, so I am not too worried.  One thing I do need to do today is go outside and cover up my two water faucets, so they don't freeze on us and cause problems.

    I am more in shock looking where Girlie just headed back to Indiana, and they will be in a real freeze scenario.  According to the forecast, they will be in the single digits for a high and negative numbers for a low all weekend.  I told Girlie to make sure and go get some food to have something in the house, in case she is trapped in.  I don't even know how they heat their houses, do they rely on central heat, like we do?  Do their houses all have chimneys, or do they run on gas/kerosene burners?  I suggested she go and at least buy a small heater to keep near her, but I don't know if the electricity is reliable over there in cold weather.  My best advice is to talk to the people that live there, her friends and coworkers and see what they do, we were in a hard place with temperatures in the teens two years ago, this idea of single digit highs kind of scares me.

    Oh well, we all do what we can.  I don't know if we are going to see my in-law's on Friday, those were the original plans, but with the weather turning to crap, we might just stay home and do our own thing.

12/19/22 TLU Visit?

     We did our first family visit of a campus for Mijo today.  It was about what I would have expected, other than the rain that was prevalent all day.  We were scheduled to arrive at 9:45am and we made it exactly on time.  The tour was then delayed maybe 20 minutes due to the hard rain that started right as we were fixing to go outside.  

    We then were treated to a short presentation of what is offered at TLU for degrees, and the overall costs.  There was talk of different ways to cut the great cost, but in the end, it'll still be somewhat expensive.  The bottom-line number is something like $48,000, but depending on your current GPA, it comes down, such as having a 3.9 gives one a $28,000 scholarship.  I don't know if this is for everyone, but it seems to be that way, with savings having a GPA all the way down to 3.0.  There are then many ways to offset the cost, such as the fact that we were there doing a tour qualifies Mijo and his friend for a $2000 scholarship every year they attend.  Then if they declare to be Lutherans, there is another $1000.  Participating with the orchestra or plays can give a student up to $7500 in scholarships, I believe I understood.  I am guessing this is the same form of payment an athlete would receive, if he is performing for the good of the school.

    After this, we walked the campus, and we were showed a couple different dorm layouts, one was the kind that has two rooms for four total kids, and they share a bathroom in the middle with one shower and one toilet for the four students.  I think I could live with that, better than the idea of having communal bathrooms for the whole floor, but we weren't able to see those bathroom layouts.

    We were then taken to several of the instructing buildings and shown classrooms where they say the average class size is 14:1 student to faculty, but there are classes as big as 30 students in one classroom, which Mijo assured us he was used to in high school.

    We walked by the gym, the cafeteria, the science buildings which boast a chemistry program, but because it is the end of the semester, all was closed up and quiet, we were not able to go in and see.  We still need more information, the only reason I think he would end up coming here is if the cost came down closer to $10,000 a year, a little cheaper than the cost of Texas State would be, by playing football, otherwise, why would he do so much wear and tear on his body and pay more for the opportunity?  That does not make sense.

12/18/22 Day Of Rest?

     We are honestly not getting enough of these, but we were finally able to rest on Sunday after the last major wrestling tournament of the year.  With Mijo coming in 3rd, there is a huge monkey off his back whether he can perform well enough to go deep when the district meet comes up in February.  We can worry about that another day.

   For now, we must attend to what is at hand and that is a tired beat-up son.  We probably got home around 10:00pm, all we managed to do was shower and go to sleep.  I got distracted on Friday and never got the chicken I was supposed to get to make mole on Sunday, so I woke up early, at 8:30am, and went to HEB.  Sometimes it is painful to go, but the other option is to wait and then going later is even worse, so I put on my big boy undies and headed out of the house.

    I got too many things probably, like two giant 112 Tide pod canisters, since we were down to our last one, and a couple of the deodorants and hair sprays Wife uses, but that was because I noticed our area where we keep all that stored, and it looked a little bare.  I don't feel like I got a lot of food, but the bill was still over $250.  Still, I like knowing we have enough Tide pods to last half a year.

    Once I took care of that, Wife can't give me too hard of a time.  I got home, Mijo was up, saying his wrist was hurting, but I knew that, so I bought him a brace for his wrist, and it looks to be helping him.  I thought it was weird that he was up, and even weirder that he was sitting outside by himself at 9:30am or so.  I actually jumped when I was putting the groceries away and he walked in thru the back door, totally surprised that he was out there.  I guess when everything hurts, it is hard to stay comfy in bed.

    The rest of the day was pretty chill.  I took a couple of naps and watched a X-mas show with Wife, exactly what I prefer to do on a lazy Sunday.  The day ended with a plate full of Wife's mole, which is more of a take on my mom's mole, which is as Wife says chicken boiled in a can of peanut butter.  I believe "real" mole has like a spoon of peanut butter and another flavor is added to it, but growing up, we loved the taste of peanut butter sauce mixed with rice and chicken.  Over the years, I have pushed Wife to use more and more peanut butter and less of the other stuff.  People say it is disgusting, but it is because they haven't tried it.  This served as a good back drop to go to bed early once again, for another exciting day chasing Mijo and his future.

12/17/22 Listen To Momma? (Part 2 of 2)

     This week, Mama was home (last week she had been at a conference, so she wasn't here to put her foot down).  Apart from Mijo getting over his cold, mostly.  We also limited the number of kids who spent the night, we had a loose cannon last week, the new wrestler, who just has too much energy and kept waking up the kids trying to be funny.  Wife then scheduled his hair braiding for a much earlier time, she was able to do it after school, we didn't even have to go to her home, it was done at school before 3:00pm, they had an early release.  The final thing was to make sure and feed them early, we picked up our three wrestlers that were sleeping here, fed them after school, around 5:00pm and got home by 6:00pm.  I was ready for a nap, and to my surprise, when I woke up at 9:00pm, everyone in the house was asleep.  We all slept until 3:30am, then got up and we got the boys to school before the bus left at 4:15am.

    We showed up at the tournament about 8:30am, there was no reason to follow the bus, spectators weren't going to be let in until 8:30am, when the doors open to the public, or so the sign said.  It was a huge airport hangar sized building, and supposedly around 1400 wrestlers were participating, so there were tons of kids everywhere.  Mijo came and said hi while we were in line to buy the souvenir hoodies and he said he felt good and rested.  He didn't fight for a couple hours after the thing started, but he didn't look frustrated, and he seemed to be in good spirits.

    It was a tough first match, but he won by a 1-0 decision, scoring the sole point on an escape.  The second match was relatively easy, scoring a pin in around a minute.  There was not much time between that match and the following three, but his third opponent was the eventual winner who took first in his bracket.  I will say that Mijo had him on his back for several seconds, but the ref never called the pin, that is the way things go.  Mijo was impressed, and he never is, but said "that guy was fucking strong, he bench-pressed me off of him."  Mijo had the advantage in points, up 5-3, but with about 30 seconds, the guy tripped him up and got a pin.  He then had two more matches towards the whole event seeming to wrap up within about an hour of each other.  He fought the same kid from the first round to make it to the 3rd place match, then he beat another kid who Wife said had an all-state patch on his jacket.  This kid was big and strong too, honestly, they are all bigger than Mijo, but he holds his own well.

    Mijo ended up winning third place, which is the first time he has placed this high.  He won 4 out of 5 matches for the day.  He blamed it all on feeling well rested and if this is what it takes, he'll go to sleep early every time.  I hope this is the secret to get him on the podium every time.

12/16/22 Listen To Momma? (Part 1 of 2)

     Mijo might not have liked the advice in the moment, but he liked the results.  Last weekend, the Cougars were wrestling in San Antonio at the Russ Pederson Open and getting there was just not a good time.  If there ever was a comparison of what preparation does to a person, this was it.  First off, Wife has become obsessed with having Mijo's hair braided to keep it out of his face the past two years.  We have seen the effects of him trying to wrestle with it somewhat loose and not that the guys go for it, but just the way they grab at each other, leaves his hair a mess.  Any time, it gets jumbled up and, in his face, it seems to get in his mouth and that by itself makes him gag, which causes him to lose focus.

    We are not friendly with the aunt of the kid who always shows up with his hair tightly braided and Wife asked how much she would charge, to which she said she couldn't, she loves the boys and if this helps, she is happy to do it.  Back to last week, she did do it, but because she had to go to a rosary reading with her mom, she was not available to do it until the night before around 9:00pm.  This quickly turned into 10:00pm, and she does live a few miles away.  Add in that she has a couple of daughters, and I had a couple of boys, and it quickly turned into a party.  We didn't leave her house until after midnight, and the boys slept maybe 3 hours, since they had to be at school by 5:00am to catch the bus.  Add in a slight cold Mijo picked up, then he sprained his wrist and it amounted to his worst outing ever.

    None of the wrestlers did that well, to tell the truth.  Between all the boys, there was one win, from one of the new wrestlers.  Mijo himself went 0-2, meaning he lost both matches he had and was out.  Most tournaments are double elimination, so as soon as you lose twice, you are out of the bracket.  Once Mijo was out, he was looking for the door, even his gf didn't do well, she has also been bothered by back problems, which have interfered with her effectiveness.  Needless to say, the coach was bothered because we left as soon as everyone riding with me was out, I took like 5 wrestlers home, including both captains.  Normally, Mijo sticks around to the end to cheer others on, but he is still invested in the tournament because he is still fighting.

    I was worried Mijo was done fighting like a beast and that his edge was gone, but it turns out it was more to do with being a little sick and not having enough sleep.  He did so much better this weekend.

12/15/22 Girlie's Gonna Be Alright?

     Now that Girlie has gotten more har details from the company that lured her to Indiana, it sounds like they are going to back her up and help her succeed.  Upon finishing her hours, she had a sit down with her boss to discuss the future and she was pretty straight forward saying that for her to stay up there, away from family, she would need to be compensated more than $30 an hour.  Her boss came back with a couple bucks above what she asked for, which is great for her.  She is allowed to work as much as she wants, and I guess that means she could go over the 40-hour week if she wanted to.  I did a quick calculation and multiplying the numbers and using a 50-week year, I came back with a salary in the mid $60k range.

    Considering the coast of living in Indiana has to be much lower than in Austin, her dollar will go a lot further.  Her plans right now are to stay up there for about a year and half, which should be enough time for her company to expand into Texas, which she says they have already started the process in Dallas, but they have plans to fully spread all over the state.  Her boss wants her to stick around and is in full support for her to grow and come with the company when the time is right.

    For now, her bf is helping her get a rental house, which she already has, and the company has even given her a $2500 moving bonus which she will be using to rent a U-Haul to get the rest of her stuff up there.  She currently has 10-15 bins upstairs in one of our guest rooms and her plans are to come and pick them up tomorrow.  The weather is not ideal, but she does plan to head back tomorrow afternoon (writing this on Sunday night), even when we are looking at the weather and see that there is bad weather between here and there.

    Her plans are that she will come back in due time, I just wish her well at this point.  The company is putting up a lot to grab and keep her, so there is also a chance she falls in love with the work and then the city she is at.  Even if she stays up there, it is good to know we helped turn that Knucklehead into a positive contributing member of society.

12/14/22 Connally Dual?

     Wrestling is trying to be like basketball with all these mid-week meets, and I just feel wrestlers, much like football players take too much of a beating to do their thing twice a week.  Again, Mijo is choosing to sit this meet out, this time he has a bruised wrist and his right knee, which is not the one he injured during football season, but he is still not feeling 100%.  Luckily, his friend is more than up to the task to handle the heavyweight role.

    Connally also uses the Cougar as their mascot, so it was battle of the Cougars, on a Wednesday night.  They were deceptive, I thought, as they came out in shorts and a T-shirt as their wrestling gear.  I don't know if this is intentional to appear less than, or maybe they only wear their singlets on the weekend in tournaments but seeing them in gear that wasn't a singlet made me think of rookies and inexperienced wrestlers, but then again, a lot of those kids were decent and took the majority of wins.  It was a frustrating night, I thought.

    Still, we did manage to win the battles I thought we would win, the ones where we have experience.  The new kid from Akins got his win, the new little brother of Mijo's close friend also took a hard-fought win (this kid is a freshman but fights like a pitbull, with experience, he will be very good).  We also took the heavyweight win, but looking at their big boy, it was easy to see he was new or a lower classman, still Mijo's replacement handled him for a pin in about a minute.

    The beauty of a dual is that they are over in about an hour, so it might have started around 7:00pm, we were on our way back to Crockett by 8:00pm.  We then picked up the usual gang and went to eat some Mexican food, which was what they voted for.  I love all the celebrating and camaraderie, but we didn't get home until after 11:00pm.

     The season is moving fast, for sure.  I hate that Mijo keeps missing wrestling opportunities, last Saturday was a dud, he just was not feeling well, with his injured wrist and a slight cold.  We are about halfway through the season, so I am hoping Mijo drops the nagging little injuries and starts digging in.  Going against the big beasts is no easy task, he is usually the smaller fighter, but that doesn't slow him down when he is in his normal health.

12/13/22 So This Is Christmas?

     I don't know where the time has gone, but man, we haven't even had time to put up a Christmas tree this year.  It honestly doesn't even feel much like Christmas, other than the cool weather.  In years past, we would start obsessing with what to get as gifts for all the people on our lists.  Now, it seems like everyone is grown and there really isn't much to worry about to surprise.

    Boy gave us a list on Amazon of things he could use or finds fun to own.  Baby A asked for the latest gaming system, which isn't even a big deal anymore, this one has been out for about a year, so when we went to Best Buy, they had a few, we just grabbed one and tool it home.  It is sitting in our bedroom waiting for Christmas eve, without much fanfare at all.  Wife never wants anything for the holidays and when we do give her something, she might act all appreciative, but it's never like "wow, this is the greatest gift ever!"

    Wife drove to Frisco (near Dallas) last week with my sister, and on the trip, they discussed gift ideas.  My sister convinced Wife not to go all out, like we have tried in the past.  First off, she said my mom had enough purses, not to get her anymore, sounded insensitive, but maybe that is a discussion I wasn't aware of.  According to her, a little blanket for my dad is all he needs, since he is always cold.  We haven't been exchanging gifts with them for a few years, so the list of gifts just gets shorter and shorter.

    On the other side of the family, there was a similar story, Wife's oldest nephew was working on his list and trying to give us ideas when Wife's sister, his uncle told him "Your ass has a mortgage, "you're grown, you don't get a gift anymore."  On Wife's side, they have taken to just buying gift cards of around $25 and playing games with them, so we all end up getting one.

    I guess at this age, all I really look forward to on Xmas is the snacks, the cookies and sweets.  Yesterday was great at work, my coworker took a variety plate full of cookies, so I enjoyed 1-2 of each kind.  That is something I do get excited about; I will always be glad I've cookies and sweets to look forward to around the holidays, even if I don't get gifts anymore.

12/12/22 Flying Around The World?

     To say I'm proud of my first boy is putting it lightly, he is doing exactly what he is supposed to at this time in his life.  I am happy we kept pushing him and got him to finish his degree, there were times I wasn't sure he would get here.  There was a time when he started pushing back and his friends were trying to encourage him to think that the degree is just a piece of paper, especially if you go into software engineering, like writing programs and code.  I don't know enough about that to speak to it, but I do know that a degree will open doors and remove some barriers, even if the degree itself doesn't make you better at your job.  We just live in a world where people need to show it to move to the next level, in most facets of life.

    He had started at Applied Materials almost two years ago but without the degree, he was a few classes shy of finishing.  In that time, we were also going through Covid, so it certainly wasn't helping, but most of the world did shut down because of it.  Suddenly, he finished his degree, his company adjusted his salary up to the level of an engineer and now, along with all his other responsibilities where he works in assembly of test equipment and special projects, he is also being flown to oversee and test out new tool installations.  His first trip was out to Japan, where he was about three months ago for a total of two weeks.   He came back, spent some time off going out to San Francisco with his girlfriend, and currently he is on his second big trip, this time to South Korea, seeing yet another install.  So far, he was supposed to be there three weeks, but the tool has come out of the box working flawlessly, so he might be able to come back a week early, he was telling us thru text a couple days ago.

    These opportunities, whether he can give us credit or not, wouldn't have happened if he had listened to his friends and not gotten the degree.  Now, one of those friends has started working there with him and he is being pushed by his managers to finish his degree and both of them could be getting sent out to work together overseas.  I just wish people listened to us from the get-go, things would go much easier.  Either way, Mijo comes back for the holidays, and he is already on notice that another trip to Japan might be in the works for January.  He was talking about taking his girlfriend along with him this time, which is just a great opportunity to visit the world with the help of your company.  She has to pay for her plane ticket, but once there, she can stay in his hotel room and stuff.  I am happy Mijo gets to live that fancy lifestyle.

12/11/22 Suddenly I Want A New SUV?

     I have been saying I was fine driving the Ford Escape we have and alternating with Wife on driving the Telluride.  There were two events that kind of bothered me and got the idea I should be driving something nicer in my head.  First off, after Girlie's graduation, Mijo and I joined them for lunch.  I was talking to one of her cousins that had gotten about as close as Girlie with us for a while, until she got with a dude that did not like her talking to anyone.  They broke up recently, so we sat next to each other at the table and talked quite a bit, I told her it has been as old as your daughter is that we haven't talked, and she said her older daughter is now fixing to be 10.  Ten years seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and that is fine but when we were leaving and outside, she asked what I was driving, if I still had my big truck, I sadly said no, I haven't had a truck in a long time.  I was driving Wife's Telluride, which is a very nice vehicle, but I have never considered it mine.  She didn't shame me, she herself drives a Dodge Dart, not a fancy car at all, but I felt at that moment like "I should be driving a vehicle that matches me."

    There was hardly any time to contemplate any of that, we had the wrestling tournament the next day, but when we left, we brought back Mijo, two male friends that spent the night, and his GF and her best friend Mijo's friend's twin sister, who rides with us a lot mostly on that merit because she hardly speaks to me or Mijo.  Either way, we ended up bringing the cooler and bin with all the snacks because when we left all the boys except for one were left, and coach did not want the girls to have to carry the stuff to the bus.  The reality is they were supposed to put the cooler and bin in the bus but could not find it in the parking lot.  After having me drive around the lot looking for the number of the bus the coach said was ours in the Telluride, and not finding it, Mijo said "fuck it, we'll just take it home."  The Telluride was overcrowded, it does not have space behind the 3rd row of seats to put a cooler and bin, which sucks because this would not have been a problem for the Excursion, if I still drove the Excursion.

    This was just another moment where if I had a big SUV of my own, it would be an Expedition, or a Suburban, or maybe even a Yukon, either way, we would have had more room for sitting.  As it was, Mijo fell asleep almost immediately leaving the meet with the cooler on top of him, and his GF by his side.  There are a couple of red Expeditions with 4x4 right now at Maxwell Ford and either of those might do for me.  We'll see.

12/10/22 Johnson Meet In San Antonio?

     Sometimes, even with all the best laid plans, stuff just doesn't work out.  Saturday was one of those days, man, did it suck.  First off, Wife was still in a conference in Frisco, near Dallas.  Second, we did not have near enough time to sleep while trying to get ready for the tournament.  Third, it is that time of year when a little cold or flu is just floating in the air.

    One of Mijo's friends lives out of the area, recently moved back in with his family, out of trying to help out the kid, we offer him a ride here and there.  I told him if he needed a ride to the meet, it would just be easier to come and spend the night, which he did, but he brought along the new kid who just moved to Crockett.  I like this kid, but he has a lot of energy and because he had an injured arm, he wasn't going to wrestle, but I assumed he was going to go and support.  So now we have Mijo and two friends over, still fine, but then Wife calls, even though she is not here that Mijo should go over to the booster club's mom's house to get his hair braided.  I don't like to bother people, but the two of them talked and made plans, even though she had taken her mom to a rosary reading (after a funeral, IDK).  I was fighting it all the way, but the lady offered to do it at 9:00pm, which turned into more of a 10:00pm thing, then the actual braiding took over an hour.  I want to say we didn't leave their house until almost 12:30am.  We went home, slept until 4:30am then got up to make sure the boys got to school on time.  BTW, the braids are to keep Mijo's long hair out of his face and getting tangled up and causing interference with his vision.

    The kid, after acting the fool all night, he was all trying to flirt/hit on the daughter of the booster club mom, so he was in no hurry to leave the booster club's mom's house, went home and opted out of going to the tournament.  In the end, most of our wrestlers did worse than usual.  Last year, Mijo would win a couple before losing a couple at any of the tournaments, this was the first tournament where he went 2 losses and bounced out.  He didn't seem too concerned, what with fighting the tiredness of sleeping only 2-3 hours, then also having the cold/flu thing I've had the past week, he was in no condition to be fighting.  The whole male team was off, winning a combined one win amongst the four varsity boys that qualified, one did not make weight, so there should have been 5.  There are others that also have not joined the varsity team for other reasons, such as paperwork.

    I then loaded the Telluride with as many peeps as I could and left the tournament around 3:00pm.  We met with Wife somewhere in New Braunfels, which was great because I was in no condition to drive all the way home after myself only sleeping about 4 hours.  My plan had been to sleep until Wife got home from Frisco, then drive up to the meet with her.  Usually, the girls fight first, which would give me a good 5-6 hours before worrying about Mijo fighting.  Instead, he called at 7:30am that they were doing weigh-ins and the boys would start first.  I then had to rush and shower and get on the road.  I got there right as Mijo finished losing his first match, he was still sweating and standing by the mats.

12/9/22 Another Graduation?

     It was a long time coming, but Girlie has now officially graduated.  We haven't been under the best of terms lately, but we showed up for her graduation, because as Mijo said, that's just what you do.  In the end, I was glad we did show up.  I feel fairly certain that the degree she earned was mainly accomplished because Wife and I were in her life, and we kept pushing and nudging her along until she got there.  Wife would have joined me, except that she is at a conference in Frisco, which is by Dallas.

    It felt like we were doing a copycat of the last time when Boy graduated.  Instead of parking in the handicap area, which was a pain after to walk to, being that we had to walk all around the coliseum, we parked in the first lot we ran into that said, "commencement parking."  From here, a bus took us right to the front doors of the Strahan Coliseum, which was nice, no pesky walking outside, even though it was a pleasant day.  I asked Mijo if we should buy some of the souvenir stuff they were selling outside and he said it looked like everybody was doing it, so yes.  We bought the combo package which had some roses, a souvenir shirt, a teddy bear, and the big beads we got Boy last time, when he graduated.

    Walking in was easy, this again, after making a big deal about needing tickets, nobody is asking for proof of tickets anywhere.  We just walked all the way in and sat where it looked like we were high and away from people, but people kept coming.  We ended up moving about three times, trying to avoid being surrounded by so many people.  In the end, we sat in the highest part up in the corner and I got some flashbacks about sitting in this very spot when we came to see Del Valle graduate, where DD and so many other friends of Boy graduated.

    Afterwards, Mijo and I walked out towards where the graduates come out, near the river.  We waited a few minutes and then Girlie popped up.  She hugged us but was quickly on the phone trying to get her family together.  After 20 minutes, eventually, they all came down towards where we were at.  They took a bunch of pictures and then we headed off to eat.  We ate at 54th Street Restaurant, a first for us, but it was good.  The meal took about an hour, maybe a little longer, and it felt like we hadn't missed out on 10 years of hanging out.  Everybody is older and probably heavier, but that is life.  We exchanged numbers, but I'll believe it when they start texting.

12/8/22 Interesting Conversation?

     Last night, after the wrestling meet, as usual, we gave a ride to several of Mijo's friends, this time we added a girl whose parents were not showing up, she was the last one sitting there outside the school, and everyone was ready to leave.  I offered her a ride, since we do it all the time.  She called her mom and told coach who said it was fine with him, he probably just wanted to go home.  Since we were going to Whataburger I offered her dinner, and she said it was fine, she called her mom after I told her to, so nobody would be getting mad we were taking too long.  Last year a boy's parents got upset enough that they grounded him a for a week from even going to a wrestling meet, which I thought was dumb, but whatever.  Now, we just have anybody we give rides to, to check in before they get in our vehicle.

    All was fine, she sat with the other girl, the twin sister of Mijo's closest friend who we give a ride to most nights.  Everyone ordered their burger combo, and we sat down to eat.  While sitting, Mijo was going on and on about wrestling but after a while, I asked her if she was in band, I was going in the direction that there is a clear divide between the "jocks" and the band kids that are wrestling, and that I find it interesting that so many band kids joined wrestling this year.  She said she was in softball, so I guess that makes her a jock and then she went on about doing lacrosse, which sounds interesting but does it outside of school.  Then the convo went off road when she said she was going to play football next year, that got my attention, and both Mijo and his friend about dropped their fries, but we kept going.  She said she had played in peewee league, and she was the starting quarterback, which I can believe (several girls played in junior high against Mijo's teams), but then she said she was going to come out as a linebacker and really that made me worry for her.

    I said that was great and we will definitely be around to see her if she plays, I want to see how the team does next season, I think they will be even better than this year.  I told her that football is a vicious sport, and both these boys will tell you, they have spent too many days on the sideline injured and concussed, the friend's sister adding "yeah, my brother is on like his 7th concussion."  I know there is a beauty to football and here in Texas especially, we love the sport, but I will be the first to admit you are going to get hurt if you play any significant time, everyone takes a turn.

    I did not feel like I was being a male chauvinist or an asshole, but in the same way that Mijo wanted his sophomore friend on varsity, I was the first to say "no, the kid weighs 170, he is too small to be an effective lineman, he is going to get hurt."  This girl weighs probably 150 and does not look like she is fast, a collision between her and even our starting QB who is probably 190 but all muscle might leave her concussed or worse, never mind a pulling guard like Mijo coming at you, all 250 pounds of crazy and looking to clear a path, that is just too dangerous, but go ahead, it is a free country.

12/7/22 Anderson Dual?

     I love the idea of a dual because it is just two schools and the whole thing can be done in an hour, definitely less than two hours.  Basically, the different weight classes for the girls line up from smallest to heaviest and they all go.  If there isn't a person for a given weight class, the other team wins in a forfeit.  Anderson had a small girls' team, we seemed to get a few forfeits, including Mijo's gf.  Although we have a huge team, not everybody is ready yet and at their assigned roles.  Mijo's sparring partner from last year still can't get down to 215, he is stuck at 220, which was the top of that weight class last year, it's shitty that they lowered the maximum weight for that class.  We have been using two new guys to fill the role, but that weight class is unforgiving, there is usually a beast at that weight class, think smaller lineman or big linebacker in the role.  All that will get squared away with a little more time.

    We had three solid wins at the varsity boys' level, including the heavy, which Mijo represents.  It was a long-drawn-out match, that in real time lasted like 10 minutes.  The Anderson kid actually had Mijo about pinned before he started bleeding from the nose.  This resulted in a "blood time" timeout.  Both wrestlers are given 5 minutes in the event of bleeding.  He seemed to stop it after a couple minutes, then the fight resumed.  It went ok into the second round, then Mijo kind of smashed his face into the mat, looks gruesome, but it is totally legal, and it has been done to him many times.  This got his nose bleeding again for almost three minutes it seemed.  The fight picked up again after a few more minutes, then when it looked like Mijo was going to get a pin, he slammed the kid hard with a neck grab and threw his body over his hip, landing on top of him, the kid bled again, and the fight was stopped a third time.  This kid was hard to fight, for Mijo.  He had fought last week as a JV kid, so Mijo's sparring partner went against him, and he pinned him in less than a minute.  The problem is that the kid was a full foot taller than my boy and he couldn't get him under control, he was like a willow tree, just bending and weaving, annoying Mijo.  He wasn't really strong, and never controlled the fight, our boy just couldn't figure how to control him.

    It was a fun night with the win to seal it, but it gets late fast.  By the time we get back to school and the boys settle down enough to leave, it must have been after 9:00pm when we got in the car.  We then went to eat at Whataburger, and got home after 10:30pm.  Mijo was moving slow this morning, that is for sure.

12/6/22 Ticket Violation?

     We have now been involved with the Crockett athletics program going on four years, never seemed to be a problem with us going to campus and parking anywhere.  Last night, we went before wrestling practice ended to attend the booster club meeting.  Football is over, there was no real reason for us to be attending, but Wife thought we should.  We got there closer to 7:00pm, even though the meeting started at 6:30pm.  

    There is a curved road where the busses come in and out and most everybody parks in this loop.  Normally, I'll stay and wait in the car, during football practice, I might have gotten off and gone to the field to watch the kids running around.  Well, last night we got off and went inside to the cafeteria, we were only in the booster club for about 20-30 minutes, but by the time we came out, we had a parking violation ticket on the window shield.  This pissed me off so much because we have been parking out here in this same space for the last four years.  I get it if it is during the day, and school is in session, but what does the dopey security guard get out of writing a ticket in the darkness, it was dark before 6:00pm and we didn't get there until almost 7:00pm, so it was after hours, for sure.  There was also a basketball game or some other sport going on because it was packed with cars all over, even in the parking lot down the way, there were plenty of cars.

    I saw the police SUV parked amongst the other people there in the "illegal area" but since we were rushing to get to the meeting, which we were already late for, I didn't think he was there to be a dick, I thought he might be there to keep us safe.  I'll pay the fine, if it wasn't such a jumbled mess.  I immediately called the number on the ticket, there is no indication of how much the ticket is and the lady on the phone said I had called too early to know because it was a handwritten ticket.  I have to wait at least a week or two and call back then, so the ticket has time to enter the system, then they will know how much I owe, but she said it should be between $30-40.  The amount isn't going to kill me, it's the BS of dancing around and trying to figure out how much and where to send it to.  Plus, making us wait two weeks is also just begging to give it enough time to fall off my radar of important shit to take care of.

12/5/22 Medical Shears?

     Just when I think we shouldn't need anything else from Amazon, a new thing pops up.  Mijo, now gets his ankle and knees wrapped more often than ever before, especially when he forgets his knee brace, even for practice.  Last night was maybe the third time he has asked for help to remove the tape and it is harder than one would think.  First off, the wrapping is extremely tight and well done.  It is almost like a cast in thickness, with all the rolls of tape going round and round.

    He has asked for help a couple times, to get out of his taped situation and it seems easy enough.  I grabbed the scissors in the kitchen, the ones we use to cut chickens and stuff, and they don't really want to cut tape.  I have several boxcutters all around, but they aren't perfect either.  The point of the scissors had him yelling at me that I was cutting into him and the exposed blade of the boxcutters just makes me feel like I will eventually hurt my own boy.  I figured the best solution would be to go to the internet and find the best cutters so far,

    I settled on a pair of Leatherman Shears, which I have had a couple of knives from Leatherman, so I know the quality is there.  Still, I looked at several videos before placing my order last night and I think I chose correctly.  These shears are maybe thicker than the normal cheap varieties, but if they are going to be mine, I really prefer to own good quality tools.  I also ordered a Shark tape cutter, which has an opening with a blade on the inside and this is just pushed forward through the tape for it to do its job.  I don't know if this is just a gimmick or an actual tool, but I figured I would try it for the $20 it costs.

    The Leatherman is closer to $90, but I plan to carry it in the car, it is a multi-tool with a seatbelt cutting blade, along with many other little life saving features.  The thought of cutting Mijo's leg worried me too much as I ended up using the boxcutter last night to get through all the tape he had wrapped around his ankle to care about the cost, in the moment.  I am still not 100% sure why all these medical shears have that weird 45-degree angle in the blade, but it must be important, because too many scissors exist with this look to them.  If I can use them and not worry about cutting Mijo, consider me a fan.

12/4/22 Texting Mijo In Korea?

     I thought about texting Mijo in Korea yesterday during the day.  I figured his time is add 3 hours to ours and then change the AM to PM or vice versa.  So yesterday, when it was 2:00pm here, it was 5am over there.  I thought this around 2-3pm, but figured he was just getting up.  I then waited and the day got away from me.  Then, he texted me around 1:00am, so it was probably 4:00pm for him.  He said the tool that he was there to help with had worked perfectly out of the box, so he was just standing around just in case.  This is probably the best scenario an installer of a new tool can hope for, so they don't have to do anything special, just be there for emotional support.

    He has plans to go to the world's largest mall, according to him.  He said it has ten floors, which sounds amazing, plus all the big names in watches have their own boutique shops, or the knock-off market brands are so strong, they are passing themselves off, I don't know.  I honestly have no idea how regulated the market is over there, but I would be afraid to buy something I thought was of high value, like a Rolex, only to find it is a cheap knock-off later.

He also mentioned his translator was asleep, since around 1:00pm, and it was coming up on 6:00pm, he needed to wake up, but he didn't want to bother him.  I asked about in general, how were the people behaving towards him, compared to the Japanese?  He said they were just as polite as the Japanese, there is a lot of bowing going on over there, as a show of respect, I guess.  From the pictures, it looks like people have a lot of pride in their communities, as everything looks so clean.

    We texted on and off for about two hours, until I started feeling sleepy, and told him I was going to sleep.  I don't know if his trip will be cut short, the tool seemed to work well right out of the box, so I don't know why he would stick around for 3 weeks, if he isn't needed for anything, but maybe that is part of the fun.  I asked about his hotel, and he said it was smaller than the one in Japan, this one was just a regular Best Western.  He sent me the internet website for the hotel and pics looked like a postcard perfect place, they always do.  Ultimately, I am hoping these are all good experiences for Mijo who always seemed like he would grow up into this guy, the traveler type who can show up and fix things.

12/3/22 Georgetown Throwdown?

     This weekend was the Georgetown Throwdown, and it went well, for the experienced kids anyway.  Part of it was done on Friday, for the JV Boys and Girls teams, then Saturday was for the boys' varsity team.  I was kind of glad we only have Mijo to worry about and not have to be there both days.  

    We had to go to bed early on Friday night, with Mijo having to be at school by 6:00am, we tried to get as much sleep as possible.  I have been feeling a bit sick, so Wife got up in the morning to drop him off.  I was then woken by Wife around 7:30am to get up and get ready to drive up there.  We got going right before 9:00am, which it was supposed to be the start time, but Mijo called within that time frame, and they had already dealt with the first school, he did not have a wrestler to challenge at heavyweights, so he was given a forfeit win.  This is common and people can get lucky and go meets like this where they don't even fight.  Being that it was done Meet style (the team sits all 15 wrestlers, one for each weight category and they all fight for team points) and not bracket style, Mijo and his buddy shared the job of covering for heavyweight (the biggest guy who will weigh between 215 and 285).  His buddy, I'll call him Scorpion because he looks like one when he fights, stretched out on the ground, menacing and in control has gotten almost as good as Mijo.  Mijo won the first match by forfeit, we got there in time to watch the second, but Scorpion fought in his place, and he won the match, easily enough.  The next one was supposed to be for Mijo, the Weiss kid, but Scorpion saw that he was new and inexperienced, so he wanted him.  He took him out in less than a minute.  Mijo then fought a kid from Eastview, and he took that kid out in less than 50 seconds.

    Other than heavyweights, we are dealing with a very new team, so there were not many wins in the other weight classes.  His sparring partner who fought 220 last year is still trying to get down to weight, which is now below 215.  He is very good and has won the JV category for him the last two meets, but he needs to lose about 8 pounds to get back to Varsity.  There is also a 150-pound kid who has also been winning first in JV, he just transferred from Akins, so he will be a good Varsity kid.  Then there is the friend who is having trouble with his living conditions, he fights well, but his family is across town, and finds it hard to focus on the team, but fights like hell when he shows up.

    Of all the new kids, there is a freshman, Mijo's best friend's little brother who has that right dog in him, you can tell he is going to get a lot better and dominate, once he learns some moves.  The girls also had about 5-6 of them place in the top three, including Mijo's GF, who came in third in her weight class.  As a team, the girls placed 5th, out of 11-12 schools, which is starting to look pretty impressive, the top is just dominated by the richer hill country schools.

12/2/22 Another Pit Stop?

     Wife is going to a conference this week in Frisco, Texas.  It is close to Dallas and since she wants to take the Escape, she wanted me to take it in and get the oil changed, and while we did that, also get the inspection done.  I know I had done that a few months ago, but I guess I never put the new sticker on and now I couldn't find it anywhere.  I decided the easiest thing rather than spend my time looking for something that might have gotten thrown away was to go and get a new one.  The third thing she wanted done was to replace the signal light on the left side, earlier just this week, she said she hit a gallon jug or something similar on the highway and it was just hard enough to knock the lightbulb out but not actually break the light socket.

    I took it to Maxwell Ford; it is the closest dealership to our house, and I generally like walking around and looking at the new cars.  I got there around 9:00am, after dropping off Mijo at school and was attended to rather quickly.  After handing the keys and instructions over, I went into the waiting room, and had a cup of coffee.  I have been a bit under the weather, so I hesitated to go out and walk in the drizzle and shitty weather, but eventually I got bored and did.  I love the idea of a new car, but I think with the supply shortages, or whatever excuses they are using, vehicles are just a bit more expensive than they should be.  Still, while walking the salesmen were all coming out in full force, like annoying mosquitos.  I started out nice with "I'm just getting an oil change, I'm good." But by the time the fifth guy came at me and even after telling him I was just waiting for my oil change and I liked my car, it was paid off, and he still was pushing with "well if you want to know what your car is worth..." I finally turned a tad rude, pointed my finger at the building and said flatly "go inside."

    It probably took two hours, but it did only cost me $110 for all three things.  The last time I went to Jiffy Lube for an oil change on the Kia Telluride, it was $145, so this felt like a bargain.  Afterwards, I still needed to go get the sticker after the inspection was done, which makes no sense, they should just have the stickers there, but I went to HEB, they said it had been too many months, so I had to go to the actual office over in East Austin, by our old house.  Man, the homeless population has exploded over there, in the greenbelt areas, where I don't think they can build new housing because it can flood, there were so many trashed out RVs and tents.  

    I finally got my sticker, got home, decided to just install it before I forgot again, and took a picture to show Wife she could get off my butt about getting it done.

12/1/22 Beats Headphones?

     I got a new pair of headphones for my phone, mostly to use at work.  I have several pairs of headphones and I consider all of them specific and important for what they are.  I have another pair similar to these, they are Bose and very good, but I notice the left one does not hold charge for very long anymore.  I might get 30 minutes, then it is indicating that it needs to be charged.  I also have a huge pair that go over the ears, these are the best as far as blocking out sound from the outside and comfort, plus they don't dig into my ears, like these buds do, but they are also heavy and tend to slide down my head if I lean forward too much.  I then have several wired versions, some with the fancy new connection for my phone, and some with the old fashion connector to connect to any old device.

    These new Beats in-ear headphones are nice.  I chose red, but I could have chosen blue or a couple other colors.  They seem to hold charge longer than the three hours my old Bose in-ear headphones used to, but I haven't had to test the length yet.  I mostly use them at work when I am alone in the lab without a computer, just to play some music or even the Adam Carolla podcasts which I haven't been listening to for a long time but are always good when I go back to them.  The one drawback I have noticed is that they are so small, I keep getting my coworkers coming into the room and talking to me in great detail and then I finally notice and make them repeat themselves, because they are so small, they don't notice I am listening to something entirely different and shut off in my own world.  I did like that I went all week without having to charge the case they come in, that held enough charge for my four-day week.  Whenever they get low on charge, they will beep and indicate I am down to 10% charge, then we are supposed to put them in the carry case where they automatically charge.

    I bought this last week when Mijo told us he needed new headphones for his gaming needs, and we just happened to go to Best Buy.  I probably didn't need these, but why not?  I don't really spend a lot of money on myself, this is one of those things that actually helps me, sometimes work is just too boring, listening to music or talk podcasts helps pass the time.

11/30/22 First Wrestling District Dual/Tri?

     It was a nerve-wracking day for sure, this past Wednesday.  Mijo was going to wrestle, possibly, for the first time this season.  He stayed out of the first tournament to let his ankle rest a bit more, it was a week right after the playoff football game, so it was good that he rested his body, plus going into Thanksgiving week just added more rest time.  It was kind of up to the competition, if they had heavyweights, and by some luck, they had two.

    A dual is a wrestling meet against another school and a tri is between three schools.  I am not sure whether to call it a tri since Travis showed up with about three boy wrestlers, not much different than last year.  McCallum had most of a team for both the boys and girls, so the competition was still good.  The night was also labeled the Senior/Parent's/Teacher's/Alumni Meet, and it was a packed auditorium.  The kids were told to invite a teacher, so there were plenty of teachers around, a lot of them seeing the sport for the first time.  We were actually sitting with some of the parent's we have befriended the past year and explaining what was going on along the way.

    One mom could not get herself to look at her daughter fighting and turned away and cried in what looked like a panic attack.  The daughter did fine for a new fighter, she lost to a more experienced girl, but she showed good balance and attacked with confidence.  The other parents were of my son's friend who is in band and after seeing the bigger boys said, "no way, our son is staying in band."  He had been going back and forth that he wanted to join the wrestling team, but then couldn't make time with all his band activities.

    I would say we won the majority of the fights between the different weight classes, though there is no clear 1st place 2nd place thing with these duals.  Mijo, for the record, had a great fight.  He came out strong, dominated the other kid and did not give him a chance to do anything offensively.  The match lasted roughly a minute, 20 seconds we waited for the ref to count the pin as a pin.  Mijo was on top of the kid so long, he turned and looked at us for a split second.

    I needed to see him moving about with some real competition to see that he still has the same intensity and drive he had last year.  My fear was that he was going to come out gingerly on his leg, afraid to hurt himself, but I did not notice any of that, he was a beast.

11/29/22 Too Busy For Death?

     I know the title is obnoxious and even a bit insensitive, but in the moment, I feel that right now is the worst time to have outlier events to make us break our stride.  A couple days ago, someone in our family chat put a notice that one of my best friends from when I was young passed away.  I immediately assumed it was a heart attack, he was always a bit bigger than me, and it kind of prompted me to start cutting out all the sweets I have been eating lately, which I had been telling myself to stop doing.  It turns out, he was in a trucking accident, or that is what my mom told me had happened, he was a truck driver for quite a long time, I think he was out on the routes with my dad like a decade ago, when dad was still driving.

    My family lives in a bubble where everything is still basically the same as if it was still the 80's.  My brother moved next door to the left and my sister brought the land behind my mom's house and built a house there.  They still interact with their friends from school, their kids hang out, that kind of tight knit community.  I am not saying that is better or worse, but I moved away in 1991.  We are going on 34 years where I saw the friend that passed away once, maybe twice.  I am sorry he passed away, but I don't feel obliged to go to his funeral, not that I we have time.

    I kind of have to throw my dad in there, he got sick this week, and my mom let us all know.  I feel guilty as hell, but I can't just stop and go.  We are in the meat of the wrestling season, these next three weekends will be dominated by tournaments, and we are stopping only because the Christmas holidays are in the way.  There was a dual Wednesday night, which was Mijo's first match, and all went well.  I don't want him missing tournaments after losing most of his football season to the two injuries on his knee then ankle.  He is finally feeling near 100%, so he needs to get in there and do what he does best.  It bothered him that the district honors came out and he barely acknowledged as an Honorable Mention, after making 2nd Team All District the last two years, it seems like a step back.  I thought it was great to still get noticed even if he only played 3.5 games.

    With this in mind, it sounds like a dick move, but I keep telling dad he needs to keep it together until we get past the wrestling season, he needs to be healthier.  It doesn't help that Wife goes on a conference trip next week.  These are supposed to be the great moments of Mijo's high school days, but man, it is hard to focus on everything going on all at once.