3/29/21 Busy Saturday Morning After The Meet? (part 1 of 2)

     Saturday was not just about the wrestling meet, we kind of forced Boy to join us since his grandparents were making the trip.  Initially, both sets of grandparents were going to come and we were going to have a lunch for Boy's birthday, but mom called that dad was still feeling worn down from the previous week's festivities in Corpus Christi.  We fully understand and after the last two weeks of running around, we are going to take it easy next week and stay home for Easter.

    After Team Crockett finished its wrestling matches, we were free to go, and that took less than an hour, so we were on our way by around 10:00am.  We had scheduled lunch at Salt Lick for 1:30pm, thinking we were going to be at the meet for a while.  Since we had time to kill, we decided to go along with Wife's sister's idea and go shopping at the Round Rock Outlet mall.  She had suggested this idea prior and I was not liking the idea figuring Baby A would be beat and tired, Boy would be rushing us to get home so he could go with his girlfriend, and I always have to poop after I eat a big meal.  Since we had time to go shopping before the meal, it all worked out perfectly.  It was nice arriving at Round Rock from Georgetown, it wasn't very far, once we hit the freeway.  Getting to the outlet around 10:30am also meant there were no crowds.  The weather was also about perfect, overcast and cool.  Even though it is an outdoor type walking experience, the weather made it feel like we were in a mall.  The outlet is in the shape of a big square and one walks around, the shops are on either side and it took us about the perfect amount of time at the rate we walked to make it around and then get going to our lunch reservation.  The shopping wasn't bad either.  We bought Baby A a couple more work out windbreaker jacket type hoodies (it seems to be a thing that these wrestlers like to be warm and sweaty all the time, he says he works out in a jacket).  I finally bought myself a matching salt and pepper grinder pair from the Le Creuset store.  These are awesome looking gigantic grinders which I hope complement my pellet grill.  Boy also managed to buy himself a mini bundt cake pan, which seems to be Boy's latest obsession.  He brings home some new kitchen gadget almost weekly.  Even Wife managed to spend some money on candles and scented stuff from Bath and Bodyworks.

    I guess it is a little easier to spend some money when we all walking around with some of that stimulus money.  We made our way around and by the time we got to our cars it was about 1:00pm, so we had to boogey on down to our lunch reservation at the Salt Lick in Round Rock.

3/28/21 Wrestling Meet Without The Wrestling?

     Saturday was supposed to be another fun day of wrestling for Baby A, but unfortunately, his weight class competitors were a no-show.  This season, which is our sons first, has been greatly disturbed by Covid, there just aren't many kids participating.  Wife was talking to the mom of the senior that has been training with and teaching our son and she said even up until last year before Covid sidelined everything, these wrestling matches were an all day affair.  There are about 14 weight classes, starting at 106 pounds and going up 6-7 pounds initially, then 10-12 pound differences, and all the way up to 285 pounds, which is where our boy competes.  It does seem unfair, the smaller kids are kept in a tight pack differing only around 7 pounds (for example, if you wrestle in the 113 class, you must weigh between 107 and 113 pounds), then in the heavy weight class, a 221 pound kid night wrestle someone weighing 285 pounds.  Still, Mijo was told he would have two competitors, there were four schools there, but neither kid showed up.  The team is very small, there are technically around 5 guys on the team and maybe 3 girls that I have seen, so far, one guy has been involved in track and field and another regular broke his arm in the first meet.  The third guy was practicing frequently but he did not show up this week, so the team was even smaller than normal, it was only our son, the senior and a girl.  The other school weren't that different, two of them had around 4-6 kids puttering around in team colors and the other school did appear to have a full team of at least a dozen kids in school colors.

    I don't like the quick way that it is all over, I know the Crockett competitors work hard and train to exhaustion, my boy is worn out when I pick him up after practice, usually soaked in sweat and looking like he took a beating.  Even then, we sit there and the matches might last less than two minutes (there are a total of 3 rounds and each can last 2 minutes, but a pin on the opponent's back ends the match).  We were already there and my in-laws had made the trip, so even after finding out our boy was not competing, I thought it would be good for them to see some high school wrestling, so we all stayed.  Both Crockett kids lost their matches, even though they went up ahead in the beginning and were winning on points, they made a mistake here and there and ended up on their backs and got pinned.  There was so much pent up energy in Baby A from going to sleep early and waking up with butterflies in his stomach, then he finds out he is not fighting, he kept telling me all day to put on the pads so he could box with me, but I certainly don't want this little bull coming at me, and he isn't that little anymore, he is walking around at 251 pounds and now knows enough wrestling that I don't want to mess with him.

    The only other thing to add about the meet is that it was in Georgetown and the high school was an amazing and beautiful facility.  It almost made me want to move out there.  There is just a majesty and inspiring feeling at the size of the complex.  It feels like it is three stories tall, it was too far to park around back where the wrestlers were going in and the front where we were let in.  It felt like we walked and walked about a half mile to get from the entrance back past the front, then the cafeteria, then the band halls and finally to where the various gyms were, plural.  The wrestling meet was in the basketball gym, it was standard sized, but the fact that all the buildings seemed connected and directly outside were the tennis courts, football stadium, and other fields made the whole campus a monstrosity.  It is bittersweet to see the differences in schools, seeing the beauty of some of these schools and the realization our boy is in a school that is more than 50 years old.

3/27/21 Finally The Fence Is Finished?

     It has been awhile since we did the back part of our fence.  Since then, we had talked to our neighbors about me and the boys doing the fence between our houses.  I was even offering them the same amount my neighbor on the other side had asked from me, $250.  I ended up giving him $300, but he even gave me all the unused slats which pretty much made up the $50 difference after they were completely done with their fence.

    Well, I guess the ladies next door got tired of waiting for us to get moving on the project.  There was also the incident last week where our roommates dog found a hole in the fence and made it to their yard.  That was a pain in the ass because they texted me at 6:00am about it and I felt compelled to go out there and fix the fence, on the spot.  I did it with a flashlight on my forehead and my trusty drill.  I ended up touching up about 10 slats, if I remember correctly.  Two days ago, one of them texted me that they had found an outside source to get the fence done.  They were going to do it with much higher quality wood and were even going to replant some of the metal posts in the ground to make the fence perfectly level.  She explained that this was going to cost a lot more than what we talked about, so she did not feel we were on the hook for paying more.  She said to pay what I felt was fair, and after all that I didn't want to seem cheap, but, I know I could have done the fence and it would work just as well for the price I had said.

    I offered her $300 but said I didn't want to insult her, if they wanted more, to let me know.  I didn't really like this idea, at the moment I just assumed some dudes were selling her a story of "better wood".  She came back and said if it wasn't a problem, $350 would be good.  I just shrugged and said fine, I really don't like to squabble over a couple of bucks.  They have been good neighbors, other than the annoying dogs that bark too much.  I saw the wood today, actually, the side is already up (at 6:20pm), and the wood does look better quality.  I don't know if it was stained or if comes from a darker cedar tree, but it has a beautiful brown color to it, not as light as what we installed from Lowe's, I know, my other neighbor said the stuff at Lowe's is shit, but I am not going to be hunting for perfect wood.

    To make matters even more great, I talked to the guy in charge, and asked him if he had a place to take the old fencing to and he said he took it to a place where they would turn it to mulch.  I then asked if he would take my other fencing, the old fence from the back part that we replaced and I would pay him.  He said sure but to give him a number after I asked how much he would charge me.  I then offered $50 knowing it was a bit cheap for what it was, but he came back with "that's what they'll charge me to take it."  He then said $100 was fine.  I was hesitant to give him the money on the spot, but he told me to just bring the fence pieces out and lay them in a stack by their trailer, he would get to it in one of the three days he planed to be out there.  Shoot, I came back from taking Baby A to practice and not only was the fence up and done, but they took all my junk fencing away.  I will gladly pay the man tomorrow, they were all gone.

    Now we should have a solid fence for a good 15-20 years before we have to worry about it again.  I just hope I am up to the task as my first neighbor, he and a friend both handled his fence with both of them being in their 70's, gotta love the guy's energy.

3/26/21 Why Not Let Them All In?

     Why not let all the illegals in (playing a little devil's advocate)?  I don't like the idea of it at all, but if the democrats insist, then they have to own what will come of it.  I figure the majority of them will stay in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.  They have to work somewhere, eventually, and if they become citizens at least we can tax them.  At least Hispanics come in and find work, whether it's doing the jobs nobody wants or the lower unskilled jobs, either way, they will fill a niche.  I don't think I have to worry about them taking my job, or anyone I know.  Fortunately, most of my family was trained in some capacity, either through going to school, or putting in the time.  The only people who should be worried about these people taking over are unskilled laborers who might have to compete to keep their minimum wage type jobs.

    These people, being Hispanic, to me, means they will search out other family that is already here and be a burden on them.  They can't just show up and insist on moving into my house, for example (unless they got tig ole bitties, if you know what I mean).  They will no doubt fare better than the bums living out on our sidewalks so freely, these people aren't making the trip to do that, they can live shitty in their country.  

    I know the concern my brother was bringing up is that this is a ploy to increase the headcount of Democrats voting, but come on, Hispanics don't really get into the whole voting thing.  I have only voted twice, both times lost (Kerry and Trump), so I shan't be doing that anymore.  My philosophy was that those assholes in Washington are going to do whatever they want, my measly vote isn't worth the hassle.  Did anything change by me voting?  No.  The Democrats don't need more voters, they can just manipulate the votes in existence.  Nobody really believes President Potato really was more popular than Trump, no freaking way.  So the idea that this will help them is silly, they already control the voting process.

    This will help make the country more Hispanic though.  An extra 11 million, one of the numbers I heard Biden would make citizens, has to make a dent in the big overall percentages of white versus brown versus black.  I take it in 500 years, if humans still exist, the overall makeup of the average American will be my shade anyway.  The more mixing and matching of all the different people here in 'Merica!, the browner middle America will get.  And from what we hear, these illegals are being delivered like warm pizzas all over the country, so everyone will have a Juan down their street.  That is an America I wouldn't mind.

    And if the whole thing turns to shit, well, it will be too easy to point at President Harris and blame her, come on, no way Potato makes it four years.

3/25/21 Differences Between Austin And Corpus Christi?

     I didn't really notice the one big difference until the last day of driving around Corpus while we were on vacation.  They don't seem to allow bums at every freaking street corner, which makes for a more relaxed drive around town.  There are some days that the air is perfect outside here in Austin and I would like nothing more than to run around with the windows down and wind blowing in my face.  The last thing I want is to have one of these bums asking me for money while stopped at a light and made to feel guilty because I say no.  Consequently, I just drive with my windows closed all the time, to avoid having to interact with them.

    I don't know that there is a solution for the problem at this point.  We were talking to other condo guests and they said whatever you do, don't stay at a Howard Johnson.  They mentioned they had stayed in one recently and that the whole upper level floor was rented out for the homeless to stay in and it was an uncomfortable mess all night.  They were offered drugs in the elevator, drug addicts were just hanging in the hallways, and those people just didn't seem to need to sleep.  All this makes me just want to go home and stay there.  This is bullshit though because these hotels should be more forthcoming if they are doing shit like this.  I wouldn't want to stay in a hotel that was loaded with homeless, it just seems like an invitation for trouble.

    Corpus was nice though.  Yes, it is a tourist trap, but you can only be there if you can afford it.  It is the same with places like Disney.  People may not like it and complain about it, but the people inside those parks are all of the same mindset, "we are here to have a good time and spend money on stupid shit."  We don't want to see some sad sack who can't afford their next meal.  From what I see, most of these fuckers are young, they should be working and contributing to society, not sitting there sucking on other members of society.  That is ultimately what I hate the most.  As soon as we were within spitting distance of Austin, right outside Buc-ee's, there was a lady with a couple of kids being homeless at the stop sign leading out from the Target across the street.  Not one but two fucking cars stopped back to back to give her some money.  Why would these roaches disappear if society goes out of its way to provide for them?  Last week while on our Spring Break vacation and driving around, we noticed a Jeep jumping the curb in front of us and wondered what the white woman was doing.  We were at the light long enough to see her approaching random tents along the road and she was bringing them supplies.  Again, why would these people willingly leave, someone is acting like Doordash for them, and it's completely free.

3/24/21 Boy's Birthday Today?

     Boy is 27 today, Happy Birthday to Mijo.  I guess time flies when we are having fun.  He has been quietly celebrating his birthday all week, starting last weekend when he spent it with his girlfriend and they went to eat at some pricey fancy spot near downtown Austin, off Lamar.  We were coming back from our getaway to Corpus but nowadays he is acting more and more grown, opting to do things separately which is fine as long as he is having a good time.  The plan for us is to have a get together with both families this weekend in San Antonio at some restaurant and celebrate with both sides of the family, for those who can make it.  With everybody's busy schedule and concerns over Covid-19, I don't even know what or who to expect anymore.

    I am happy Boy seems to be in a good part of his life, he is still technically in college, he has a handful of classes that have been challenging him/kicking his ass, but he has still managed to get a good job at Applied Materials, which is a big semiconductor company here in town.  He is doing all sorts of interesting things, from managing, to assembling tools, and there is even talk of him getting trained to do on site repairs of specific tools out in the field all over the world.  Being my son, he is already starting to think he needs to be getting paid more money for what he is doing, but we keep telling him to at least wait until he completes his first year at which point it would make sense to ask for a raise, if he feels it is warranted.  There isn't much time left freely after he goes to work and takes his classes, but he still tinkers with his 3D printers when he has a chance.  He is in the middle of a largish project, making center pieces for a wedding consisting of Cubone heads about a foot in diameter.  They are looking pretty good, but I think he is "giving them" as his gift to the couple instead of getting paid.

    I think life is going well for Mijo.  He doesn't really rely on us for anything, which is great, but he still lives at home, which I like because we know he is here and safe at night, some nights he is staying over with his girlfriend, but they aren't kids anymore, so that is fine, I guess.  He has been talking about looking into saving money for a down payment for a house, but things keep getting in the way.  He did crash our car, so I hated to do it, but he paid the difference that the insurance didn't cover after crashing our Ecosport Christmas Eve, and then he had a kidney stone that made him go to the ER and that has cost him a pretty penny.  These are minor setbacks, I think the boy is doing great and can see him getting into a house in a year or two.  Happy Birthday Mijo, love you, keep up the good work.

3/23/21 Finally Cooked On My Pellet Grill After Second Major Repair?

     I swear I would have thrown this grill away and just bought a new one, but Boy and Baby A spent their good money to help me get this one for my birthday, so I want it to last me more than half a year.  The first time I left some pellets in the auger tube (feeds pellets from hopper (container on side of grill) to burn box (burn box is a small 3-4inch diameter heavy metal cup in middle of grill where the pellets fall in and get heated up by an ignitor coil to burn)).  The pellets then were partially burned in auger tube and maybe got moisture on them and subsequently swelled up and hardened.  It took a considerable amount of force to break the auger loose.  I then attached the auger to my drill (the auger does look like a giant drill bit and the pellets ride in the spaces in between from hopper to burn box) and forced it to spin through the hardened grime and soot.  This lock forced the first auger motor to burn up as it tried to turn against too strong of a force.  I understand this now, so I make sure and remove all the pellets after I finish cooking (the hopper has a trap door underneath and the pellets all fall into a plastic bucket for safekeeping and reuse).  Since I realized this motor is finicky, I ordered a couple of extras and have two ready to go for the future (they only cost $24.99, I did a free one when I called Oklahoma Joe and told them what happened).  Turns out, this is the same motor the Traeger grills use.

    Recently, I had gotten an ER2 and an ER5 error while grilling.  I could get around the errors by turning off and on the grill and it would continue, but the problem was there.  At a certain point, I think the grill had enough and it just didn't want to work.  I looked those error codes up online and they indicated that the problem was either the temperature probe was faulty or the ignitor coil had gone bad.  These are expendable items I now know.  The good thing is that the temperature probe was like $11.99 and the ignitor coil was a pair for around $22.99.  It took a little bit of effort to open up the grill all the way down to get to the ignitor coil, I didn't even know there were so many screws on this thing.  I changed them out before we went on vacation, but I didn't get a chance to really run it until tonight (Sunday) and from what I can tell, we are back to normal.  At this point, I now also have an extra ignitor to add to the auger motor and I will probably order another temperature probe to have a back-up.  The only other moving part to worry about is the fan that forces air into the unit and that fan is around $20, so I will probably have to replace it at some point.  I have run the grill hard, I cook on it almost every day and is one of the main reasons I had lost so much weight, making all our lunch meals during the week on it and then meat on the weekend.  The grill overall was $600, so if changing out a part for $10-20 bucks keeps it going, then I will do that.  The body of the grill still looks new, so that is another thing to keep in mind.

    By the way, I smoked/grilled a tiny brisket flat (the flat part of the brisket) for about 2.5 hours and then grilled some chicken thighs, some pork, some sausages, and even mollejas along with some jalapeno bombers and everything came out okay.  Well, the brisket was a little tough but it was still good.  The grill was on for a good 3 hours and change starting at 300 and then I cranked it up to 400, I didn't see any errors, so to me that means problem solved, for now.