5/14/19 Paying The Price For All That Work?

    I never sleep well on Sunday nights.  There is something about Wife having to get up and drive at 4:30am that makes me stay away from bed.  I usually try to stay in the kitchen writing on the computer and watching HGTV, I love all the episodes about buying houses on the beach or near a water source.  Adding to the normal load of a weekend, I got Javalina to help me cut the grass on Friday while I was washing clothes and cleaning the inside of the house.  All this so Wife would have a stress free weekend for Mother's Day.  I then got it in my head to replace the pumps since we get the city on our butts about once a year to clean the pool or we will be fined.
    We haven't seen the city guys yet but I know if I keep ignoring the problem they will come by.  So I spent a pretty penny buying two new pumps but being bent over and moving them and adjusting them left me sore and tired as hell.  I did not realize I was this tired until I got to work.  Monday is also when I go to the store if we need food and we are doing alright, except my young pain in the ass insists we need to start dieting again, so I went and got some salads and meat to get back on our Atkins style eating after I dropped him off at school.  I slept maybe 5 hours Monday and that did not feel like enough.  I sat here like a zombie when I got to work for about two hours not really doing much of anything.  I wish I had started just a little earlier, I am going to have to leave this one job halfway done.  It's not the worst thing in the world, it happens, I just am usually pretty good at completing everything I start.
    Right now, I feel like my knees are broke, I spent too much time on them messing around.  The payoff is starting to come around.  I have been running the swimming pool pump since I wired it in and the water is starting to lose its nasty dark green color.  By last night it was just kind of a green color.  I still have a ways to go, shocking and pumping and letting the water out into the yard to clean out the sand filter thing.  I just hope that once I do all the work I can relax the rest of the summer and focus on simpler things like maybe planting a tree or two.

5/13/19 Getting The Pumps Running?

    I know it was Mother's Day yesterday, but my OCD got the best of me and all I could  do was focus on getting the pool and hot tub pumps connected and breathing new life.  I am glad we went to eat a nice meal Saturday night because even talking to my mom and her jokingly poking at me not to be an "ass" and remember your mother still wasn't enough incentive to get me off my focused deal.  I got up near 7:00am yesterday and after writing that blog, I went outside to look at the pumps and wonder what it would take to run the new pumps before starting.
    It is a big monumental task but also not really.  There are three electric wires to run in the protective conduit, so once you pull that off the old pump, open the back of the new pump and there will be a similar layout to connect to.  I connected the three wires for the hot tub, flipped it over and for some reason it didn't light up like it should have.  Well, it did but there must have been a problem with the way it lined up as it leaked from all the connections.  At this point, I was get getting tired and frustrated.  I go inside to go pee and Wife and the boys are all still asleep and cozy in bed.  I'm the only idiot outside trying to impress my peeps that I can do it all.  I say it's hard but not really because it is a ground green wire, a live black wire and a neutral white wire.  As easy as wiring a light bulb, but the hard part is getting those ling of thick wires to bend where you want them to.  They have to be in that conduit, so you can't just pull them individually, but then once they come into the motor part, they must each be pulled individually to the right place to connect.
    After doing all this to the hot tub pump, it started but it leaked everywhere.  I got tired of being on my knees, out in the sun, I felt I had to poop that awesome dinner from the night before, I was tired and cranky after not getting it done in less than an hour like I had hoped.  I was expecting the same shitty results from the pool pump, so I left it with two more wires to attach and finish.  I went inside, took a shower, called my Mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, and after going all out Saturday night to Pappadeaux, on Sunday we just managed to go to Mod Pizza which is nice, but hardly a place to go celebrate for Mother's Day, but Wife said that was fine.  I wanted to eat and get back to finishing my job.  After finishing my food, I felt a nap overtaking me.  All I wanted was to lay down for awhile.  I got home and slept until almost 8:00pm.  Wife woke me and I didn't know if it was 8:00am or 8:00pm.  She said we needed t eat dinner and I told her to go get something, I had just enough light to try and finish connecting the pool pump.  She went and got Golden Chick and I stayed behind to get bit by mosquitos and finish connecting the pool pump.  I was surprised and excited to finish the electrical and connect the inlet and outlet water connections and like a champ, it started on the first try.  I stayed outside until midnight with the leaf catcher trying to get as much of the debris out as I could.  I am glad I have gotten ahead of the city  and the rat bastards here in the neighborhood who like to rat me out for having a "dirty" pool.  It should be clean by the end of the week as I will try to run it non-stop and keep shocking it daily.
    Mom, I love you and I will get you a little something for this weekend when I see you at the graduation, I just never got going anywhere.  Wife, I know I wasted "your" day away but you know how I obsess once I feel like I have to do something.  We should be cool for the summer now with our Javalina to help run the mower, and the pool looking good, we might even be able to have a little party back there.

5/12/19 Early Mother's Day Dinner?

    Since Wife has to go to bed early on Sundays, I suggested we go eat somewhere nice on Saturday.  The boys got excited and I suggested to Javalina this was a chance to wear pants and even his nice red jacket.  He got all excited at the idea and at home he started that he wanted to pay for Mama's dinner or share in the expense.  Boy was on board too.  Girlie said they would go and pay for her dessert, so it sounded pretty good.  I said we would go around 8:00-9:00pm and thus everyone could do what they normally did, until then.  Boy studied for his finals this coming week, Javalina played a new video game we ran to Best Buy and he got before we ran off to do our chores.
    I had tried to run the pumps on the pool the previous weekend, but both the pool and hot tub refused to even turn on.  It was a pain and I could see the mounds of fire ants built up behind both pumps.  I've been told to keep an eye on this.  Some of the electronic parts are considered to be sweet and the ants will tear them apart.  Because of my leg injury, we had not really been worried about running the pool or hot tub much in the past almost two years.  Now that I am healed I want to start using them again, but apparently, I was going to have to invest money here.  Lowe's showed the pumps on their website but I could not talk to one knowledgeable person at the store.  I'm sorry, but an 18-year old girl will rarely know anything useful as both I had to deal with one at the pool store and then at Lowe's.  Their eyes both lit up like "what!?"  when I asked if they had pool pumps and one of them was standing five feet from them.  She then managed to quote me $800 and I said nope, try again.  They should be between $350 and maybe $700.  She stood her ground which made me leave.  I ended up at the other side of town at Lestlie's Pool Supply with a proper 35 year old hippy who at least knew what I was talking about.  I didn't like when he explained that because I have an in-ground pool, I should be buying the $500-$650 pumps, depending on horsepower because they are intended to suck water once you form a vacuum, this to get the water from underground up and to the pump.  This was more than I was prepared to spend, but then I noticed they have a store card and I decided to apply for the card.  Ten minutes later, I was walking around looking for extra stuff to get with my new $8000 credit limit.  I got both pumps, a barrel of chlorine, shock, new leaf catchers, and scrapers and even new poles to work from above.
    Getting back home, everyone was kind of ready and waiting for us to go eat.  We had been told it was going to possibly be a 2-3 hours wait when Wife tried getting a reservation, which I kept saying not if we get there at 9:00pm, it never is that bad if you wait until later.  Sure enough, by the time I farted and took a quick shower, we were headed out there around 9:00pm and there was maybe one other group waiting to sit.  I scanned the restaurant and saw a handful of empty tables.  It took maybe ten minutes before we were taken to our table.  I love the food there.  My thought is if we can't eat at the Brazilian Steakhouse place, then this is the 2nd nicest place to eat, for me.  Everything was perfect, from the one mixed drink that I ordered while standing outside to the fudge brownie desert with vanilla ice cream at the end.  I ordered the Texas redfish because I plan on catching one of those one day and I want to be familiar with how it tastes.

5/11/19 Cutting The Grass With My Wild Animal?

    I am not sure how much partying we will fit into the weekend, but knowing that we always have the eyes of the neighborhood upon us I figured a good start tot he weekend was to go ahead and cut the grass.  We have been getting a ton of rain lately and as usual, we got a nice letter from the HOA reminding us to cut the grass.  This one was like two weeks ago and we just had.  I don't go around trying to be the representative Mexican with the shitty yard, but we can only cut the grass on maybe the weekend, if we are here.  That letter was from the weekends when we were out of twn on back to back weekends for my in-law's surprise anniversary, visiting for my mom's/Easter weekend, and just some generally shitty weather.  I wish these HOA fuckers could understand we are not all old Shits sitting around the house waiting to die and looking out the windows judging my neighbors.  We work hard for what we have and we try our best to balance work life, home life and a little relaxation.
    Anyways (rant over), the weather was beautiful when we got home and I told Javalina that we should cut the grass, at least in the front so it would look nice for Mama since we're going to be here this weekend and so the HOA could suck it.  Javalina, being full of testosterone and muscle just needs to be pissed in the right way and then he will take off.  He said "fuck it, I will cut all of it before Mama gets here since brother is useless and I have to do everything around here."  Boy was busy playing grab-ass with his GF and buddy, he can't be bothered unless I schedule ahead.  I like working with Javalina, he has no quit in him unless he gets scared or just can't figure something out if it comes to him using brute force.  Last time we were cutting the grass, it got dark and he was sure there was a "snake hole" in the ground and a snake was going to get him, so he stopped.  That made the grass super thick yesterday, and the mower kept shutting off on him.  We both had our earphones on, these newest BOSE ones are actually pretty great for stuff like this, they stay in place and the sound is good even while I mowed for a bit.  He did not seem to want to understand that if you go fast on tall grass it will clump up and stop the blade which kept happening to him.  I couldn't help but laugh at how he gets mad and goes back and forth trying to figure shit out, but refuses to slow down.  His mannerisms are all like my younger brother, we've called him the "little Ponch" since he was way young but now that he is developing I hear my other brother coming out of his mouth.  He just constantly talks shit about anything and everything.  My brother always entertained me growing up with his constant talking and I find that it is the same with Javalina.  He can make a story out of the smallest things that happen at school.
    We finished cutting the grass when he said he was done.  I was following along with the trimmer which gives me a chance to try and clean up where he leaves whole lines of grass that he misses because he is in a hurry all the time.  I just hope it is next weekend that we get back outside to cut the grass again, because at best it was a shitty job out back where it was really tall.  It was the first time I lifted the mower as tall as it would go to help him finish, but it just made the whole area look like it was half-assed.  I mean it still looks way better than it did, but he has a long way to go before I let him do the yard alone.

5/10/19 Innocence Skipping Away?

    Speaking of growing up on yesterday's blog, Javalina got in the car and started talking about how he thought it was weird to see a 6th grader skipping, like a little kid down the sidewalk.  He said it reminded him of when he was at Williams Elementary and being younger.  Of course, he mentioned it to one of his buddies and the little Shit just said the 6th grader was a "fag".  When he mentioned it to one of the girls he knows at least he got an "aww, how cute."
    I told him this is what we were just talking about.  Boys your age don't have a fully developed brain, so your buddy sees a younger kid having fun doing something "different," and he must be a fag.  You at least have a better understanding of things and you know that hopping along in that skip way does not make one a fag, and he says no, the kid was having fun and enjoying himself.
    In fact, as we saw, you will be skipping when we start football training once school ends because I found a tutorial that says that skipping is one way of making one faster at running, and that is one of his weaknesses catching people from behind, on the football field.
    I have to say that the last three years happened almost too fast.  I don't know if it was because he was color coded or because Wife is working out of town, but the last three years went poof and done.  I spent most Sunday nights when he was in 6th grade ironing his green polo shirts.  We got a little better for 7th grade and about half the shirts were made of non-ironing material, so I didn't have to iron as much, followed by 8th grade where all his shirts were made of rayon or polyester or whatever that never needs ironing and that has been a timesaver.
    Nowadays, Javalina is ever vigilant, looking for weaknesses.  He is that young lion that wants to become the leader of the pack.  Knowing that I am sick, he persisted I challenge him at arm wrestling.  He came the closest he has come to beating me.  I know it's coming, but at least for now, I am still the strong guy at the house.

5/9/19 Growing Up Fast?

    It was just on Sunday when we were sitting in Chicken Express, enjoying a nice lunch, courtesy of Javalina.  His wallet was feeling a little too fat and he wanted to treat us.  We were sitting there and the thought of him going to high school in like four months occurred to me.  I asked him if he had enjoyed his junior high years and we talked about it for a little while.  He did begin 6th grade in Crystal City, which he went down with Wife who had just gotten a job in La Pryor.  The plan was that he would mix in and travel with his cousins and be there with mama at night.  It seemed like the right thing for about a week.  As much as I cry for my independence, all of a sudden I had 0 responsibilities since Boy drives himself and pretty much eats on his schedule, so I was on my own.
    Javalina was not happy in a new environment and within two weeks was pleading to come back and he would do whatever to go to school with his friends and up here where he felt he belonged.  I don't know how real the "behind" they are, but Wife and he were sure that school down there would not be a challenge, I was just glad it worked out to where he came back and gave me structure and a reason to get out of bed other than work.  To top it off, one of the coaches was his teacher for PE and he was originally from Carrizo Springs, which is next to Crystal City, so he naturally started calling our boy Javalina and it stuck when he joined football.  It is funny to hear the other random kids call him Javalina and even on the Shotput and discus events, he would list his name as Javalina.
    His conclusion is that he is happy everything happened like it did.  Going to Crystal for those few weeks got him a chance to see how the cousins lived, and maybe because they are younger said they are Weenies that whine a lot.  I don't know if so much independence is that good for him, but whereas I am unsure if Boy knows how to wash clothes, Javalina normally loads the washer to wash clothes, such as his PE shirts that he wears as undershirts and he manages to wake up at 6:00-6:20am every day with an alarm clock.  Boy still has a hard time with that one and I'll tell Javalina to wake his brother when he has to get up early.
    He manages himself so well, that it is kind of a problem when Wife is here on an occasional weekday and she is expecting him to go to bed at 9:30pm or at least before 10:00pm.  He is always caught off guard, like "umm, I know what I am doing over here.  I got this, you worry about you."  I keep telling Wife it doesn't always have to be a battle, if he gets up early enough to shower in the morning and hang out, why are you messing with him?  This is one of those where she wants to control just because she always has, but I think Javalina does a great job on his own.

5/7/19 Some Problems I Had With The Whole Avengers Politically Correctness?

    Why does it seem like all the heroes going forward are either going to be women and or black men?  I know this is a stretch and it's not that I feel like they couldn't do a great job at it, but when do we get a taco eating cool hero in a big sombrero who saves the day with piñata bombs and maybe a flying chancla?
    Kind of a spoiler, everybody has had two weeks to see Avengers by now.  Captain America does what he does in the end and then he is "gifting" his shield to Falcon.  Why?  Why can't Falcon just be cool on his own?  He has powers Capt. America didn't have, like flying around.  I never saw a scene in this last movie where the two of them were that close for the Capt. to just say, yes, you are worthy.  Plus Thanos pretty much destroyed the shield, it was pretty beat up after the big battle.
    Thor is a god and the son of the king and queen of Asgard, yet after their planet is destroyed, he just hands over his rightful place as king of his people to Valkyrie, who until the last Thor movie, no one knew was still alive as she had been in hiding on the edges of the galaxy or whatever that place was called.  I like Valkyrie and she looked awesome riding on a Pegasus, but a leader would not have run away for a millennia, or however much time it was when the Valkyrie were all but destroyed.
    Iron-Man does what he does and I don't know about going forward.  Boy mentioned last night that there was maybe an Iron-Heart or something.  All I knew was that War-Machine survived and he is pretty good at running around in an Iron Man suit, so to me it makes sense that he would be replaced by him.
    The Hulk is indestructible as he describes himself, so he ain't going away for awhile.  Technically, the only white guy left to save the world is Hawkeye, which finally had some juicy scenes in this last movie.  I did not like that Black Widow did what she did, but between the two, the other did have a family to go to, if everything worked out right.
    Plus all the women to save us.  I get why my brother says Hollywood is trying to turn us into a bunch of cucks.  Captain Marvel shows up like a literal star and rips through tons of metal to cut up the ship Thanos was in, yet when she confronts him, she gets thrown around like a rag, what the heck?  It made for an awesome poster, for sure, when all the females got in tight formation to protect the glove, but they still failed and ultimately required the sacrifice of our favorite man in red to save us all.
    So if us Hispanics can get a hero, I would gladly take Michael Pena in an ant man costume.  He doesn't seem like much of a hero, but he is snarky and funny.  I still don't think Ant Man got his due.  He had the idea for the plan that brought back half the people back and allowed for the good guys to win and even in the end, Capt. America goes off in his costume to jump through time, but still.