10/7/21 We Need Longer Days?

     I hate the false lives people in movies lead.  Any movie dealing with kids playing football shows them on any given day hanging out with friends, working a side job, hanging out at the beach, or any other assorted extracurricular activity other than football.  That is just false, when you play football, you belong to the coaches and that life.  I don't feel we have had a break since the summer when Baby A started working out seriously for this season.  I am proud of what he has done and he has transformed himself into this strong animal that is a lot different than the baby faced 8th grader I saw in an old picture from just a few years ago.  But still, there is no real downtime for him on any given week and being that we are very involved in his life, that means we are at his beck and call, so we don't have much time for anything else.

    School goes on all day from 8:30am when I drop him off until 5:00pm.  From this point, they have practice until the sun goes down pretty much.  I got out of work early Monday or Tuesday and was thinking we could go have dinner but by the time we got to practice and they got out, it was already closer to 8:00pm.  All we managed was picking up some subs and going home to eat in front of the TV.  By the time we get home, and eat, it is already getting close to 9:00pm and Wife starts thinking about going to bed.  This is pretty much our routine all week long.  Games on Friday finish around 10:30pm but by the time they get back to school and drop off their gear, it is good if we are home before midnight.  This is okay, I guess when games are on Friday, but this week they play on Thursday, so it is going to be rough for Wife, she still has to get up around 5:00am to leave for work by 6:00am.  Next week is a bye week, meaning no game, and at least the coach has told them they will have a couple days off, so that's something to look forward to.  Most Saturdays though, are controlled by the morning game film study, which they do take seriously and goes for at least two hours from 10:00am to noon or so.

    We are past the halfway point of the season, so at least we know it is coming to an end soon, and with Mijo having gotten injured and still not 100%, I will be glad when it ends, but the wrestling season has already been posted and it starts in November 17.  Since the last football game on the schedule is November 5, there is only one full week off in between and it will probably be when they start intensive wrestling training.  Well, the wrestling season goes until February, maybe we can relax then, unless he goes out for track and field.  Busy busy busy, and we are along for the ride.

10/6/21 Is This Ridiculous Housing Market Cooling?

     I moved to Austin in 1991 for school, go Longhorns, and decided to stay here when I finished in 1994.  Wife then joined me and we started our life, from the bottom, with a Boy on the way, living on food stamps and the usual government help, we got started not knowing where we were headed, but optimistically.  Thirty years later, I think we have done alright, moving from our first house to this one in 2007, we have seen Austin go through many changes and I can't say I am happy about it all.

    When we were new here, it was all exciting and felt like an adventure every day.  I always thought of the malls as these magical places since we grew up in a small town and only got to go to a mall maybe twice a year, for school clothes and maybe some Christmas shopping.  Back then, there were at least 4 malls, each with its own flavor, now we are down to two, if you count Lakeline Mall in Cedar Park, but it is pretty much a clone of Barton, with all the same stores, so I count it as one mall.  The excitement to go out for a walk in the middle of the week kind of fizzled out from that activity, then because of the population expansion, going downtown turned into an exercise in determination, only to have to witness homelessness and beggars, something I don't care for.

    All this aside, in the past couple of years, we hear something like 150 new people are moving into the area which caused the housing market to explode and prices just about doubled in a year's time.  We bought our house for $340,000 in 2007.  According to Zillow, during the height, the valuation was above $800,000.  This sounded crazy, and did make me think it would be awesome to sell and keep half that money as profit, but then what?  Where would we live?  I am almost glad to see prices coming down to a more realistic value, now our house is saying the value is more between $690,00 and $720,000.  Still crazy expensive, but the number doesn't sound as scary.  We have been here almost 15 years.

    I saw some Youtube videos talking about Austin is fixing to have a market crash, the prices can't be sustained and people are pulling back.  I hope this is true in that I want Boy to able to afford a house close to us, if we are going to stay here.  I have been thinking maybe we should just leave entirely, but I do like my job and the question would still be "where do we go?"  I want to be by water, but just about all the lakes within 100 miles are now pricing their waterfront properties over a million bucks, so that sounds impossible.  The reality with both my boys anchored here, we are stuck here as well.  I don't think we are going to voluntarily move far away from them.  I need Austin to go back to what it was about twenty years ago, have about half the people move away so the highways aren't always so clogged.

10/5/21 Worry About You and Yours?

     We are all stuck on this beautiful planet, for now, and so we must make the best (or worst) of it while we can.  Some people prosper and some people shine, others falter and some just whine, but either way, time marches on and what you do and where you are define you.  I don't deny that some seem to have a much greater head start and thus life seems gifted for them.  We don't all get the same treatment and for some, life is a definite challenge.

    I think, for the most part, we here in the US start in the middle, we at least have food, clothing, shelter and opportunity.  We might not all be born rich and pampered but we do all have a chance to get there, and that should be what matters.    I see my family as a system or a tree moving up and things getting better with every generation.  I believe my parents had a better life than their parents, and I think we are lucky to be doing better than our parents.  My whole goal so far has been to have my boys set up and doing better than us.  Maybe there is a plateau, I am not sure, but Boy is at least where we are right now.  He will have his degree by the end of they year, and already has a promising job with a huge company where he will probably surpass me in pay and responsibilities in a short while.  I am excited to see him move up.

    I then see other people, like on TikTok completely failing at life by taking these stands that make no sense.  I saw this 27 year old girl (guy? trans?) whose mom has had enough and wants her out of the house because she doesn't work or do anything productive.  I say do what you want, if you want to identify as a bird, great, but figure out a means to support yourself before you start proclaiming out of the box stuff.  It is great to sit in your parent's house with your green hair and 20 piercings on your face, but the outside world isn't going to be as accommodating.  But if you can find a way to make that work, and some people do, then fine, go for it and live your best life.

    I see a lot of these social justice warrior types that can barely stand on their own feet, but somehow have the energy to stand up and fight for other people, why?  What do you gain out of going out on the street and supporting other people when you can't pay your light bill or rent?  My suggestion is stop the dreaming and focus on you.  Figure out how much you need to survive with a roof over your head and then find a way to get to that target.  If you still have energy to fight for other people after you've worked your 40-60 hours a week, then more power to you.

10/4/21 October Is Spooky Movie Time?

     I do not like scary movies, never really have, but since we are introducing Baby A to movies from our time and I don't want him to be a dunce when it comes to catchphrases and things people say, I am willing to sit through some personally uncomfortable movies so he gets his "education."  We did our usual grilling on the weekend thing and after taking him to his Saturday game review at 10am-noon, we just stayed home and took it real easy.  So easy in fact that we napped a good part of the day, but that's ok, for once in a while, we didn't have anything to do.

    I fired up the grill around 5:00pm, Wife wanted to try something different, so we grilled two whole chickens split in half and kind of smoked them for 2.5 hours or so.  We also added some steaks and sausages, so dinner was good.  While we ate, we watched the Goldbergs, a show in its ninth season which we do enjoy but the episodes are always sappy and leave you crying at the end.  This episode was about the passing of the grandfather, actor George Segal passed in real life, so they added the storyline into the show, man was it a tearjerker.

    Afterwards, I wanted something totally different, so I suggested a movie since it was still early.  Because it is October, the movie lists on most of the apps are loaded with scary movies so we had talked about seeing something from that genre.  Mijo had not seen any of the classics and as much as I didn't want to, we sat through and watched Nightmare on Elm Street.  Of the scary movies, this is the more campy one to me.  Freddie does kill a few teens, but he is almost goofy and comical, even in the first one, which I didn't think the movie meant to do it.  Robert Englund then spent the rest of his life in the role, enjoying the campiness, so it is not a movie that "scares" me afterwards.  The acting is bad all around, but it does show a very young Johnny Depp, probably as a teenager in real life.  The premise is of course a murderer that kills you in your dreams.  The murders do happen on Elm Street which is maybe how Freddie chose his victims, but he kills all over eventually, even in the local jail downtown, so I am not sure how or why that works.  Everyone does need to sleep eventually, so the idea is that everyone can meet the same fate, as Freddie can come find you in your dreams.

    Again, I love watching the movies with our son because he is so pragmatic, he sits there yelling at the screen when the teens start going down the stairs into basements in the dark, or finding stupid ways to make themselves easier victims.  He did jump in his seat once or twice, so it did at least startle him a little bit.  He said the movie was good, but it was the only one we watched.  I am thinking we will work our way up to Friday the 13th next time.  This did bring out Boy who brought us his collection of DVDs, he ordered a Blue Ray set that has about ten of these classic teen slashers, so I guess we did an okay job with him in that he appreciates the older movies.  It was funny that the younger child actually said "I don't want to watch a movie from a disk, they are all online."  How things have changed in such a short time.

10/3/21 Get Some Class, People?

     I love my son's team, they are not the best but they try hard and they aren't out there trying to hurt anybody.  Last night though, I was not impressed by the caliber of people sitting around me.  In one play, after it had started raining, Baby A, who plays center had a bad snap and the crowd reacted all around us, negatively.  He has only been playing center since the start of this season, he didn't know he could even adjust the ball when he comes up and lines up to it until after the first scrimmage.  The field was wet and that affects everything, specially when you're grabbing and throwing on the field.  He was also back after missing two games and was heavily wrapped around on his left shoulder, he is right handed, at least.  Considering all that, I thought it was great that he only had the one bad snap, and after four games, it is the only bad snap that the QB has not been able to handle.

    This was my biggest fear, other than Mijo getting hurt, him being directly responsible for a loss of the ball and he owned it.  Ughh, the feeling of not having control of the moment.  They lost the ball, the coach yelled at him on the sideline to go and practice some snaps, and the stupid parents yelling "come on center!"  and "Get it together #50".  We sit about as close to the center of the stands as possible, I always want to be between the 45 and 50 yard lines, we sit a few rows up and we both wear shirts indicating #50 is ours.  It only took a second or two then the knuckle draggers must have noticed the shirt on Wife has a big 50 on the back so it quickly silenced, but I was still pissed and felt responsible because that is what responsible people do.  

    It is times like these that make a person who they become.  For Mijo, he was tested and luckily, he didn't have any more bad snaps.  With the game on the line, the coaches having yelled at him, and him having had an injury, he could have shrunk from the moment and faked injury, he could have kept making more mistakes and causing another loss of the ball or worse, points on the board.  Instead, he held his head up high and played to the best of his ability.  I might have not relaxed until the final play when I was sure he wouldn't cause another fumble.  For him, he said the fumble got him out of his head.  Before it, he said he was in a thought triangle of make the block, make a good snap, and run the play (whether to pull or block the man in front), he had only practiced one day that week, so he was rusty, but like the excellent human he is, he rose to the occasion.  I walked off the field proud as hell of him, win or lose, he played like a person who won't let a setback derail him.

    I can only hope those parents can learn a thing or two from him.  Life is not measured by the mistakes that happen along the way, but in how we handle those mishaps.  Do I wish our boys could win every game?  Will me yelling "(random player's number) play better!!" change anything?  No.  These are kids, they may look like men, the coach may even want them in dress clothes and ties the day of games so they look and act like grownups, but they are still kids and this is something that should be fun for them.  It sucked to hear Mijo say he had more fun in the last game he played because he didn't make mistakes (bad snap) than this one even though they won this one.

10/2/21 By The Chin Of Their Chinny Chin Chin?

     This game was not supposed to be as close as it was.  Crockett finally won one 41-35, and up until 7:50 seconds in the 4th quarter, the game was under control.  The Coogs offense played as well as they could, putting up those 41 points in mostly flawless drives, with both passing efficiency and control of the running game.  They looked like a totally different team, and until the 4th quarter, the defense was matching them well enough.

    Their starting QB was injured in the 2nd quarter and for a second I thought, well, it should get easier now.  To add to that, it started misting that gradually turned to rain (on a side note, stupid weather forecasters had 80-100% chance of rain all week, but changed it to 5% chance of rain before game time so I didn't bother packing rain gear) by halftime and it just made sense the game would become a blowout.  Their back-up QB needs to be their starter, he is a tiny guy, for a QB, looked like he might barely weigh 100 pounds, but he could throw the ball.  He wasn't a fast runner, but he seemed to know what he was doing.  Before the half, he led them on a long drive with a couple of beautiful long passes, they scored with 3 minutes left, we got the ball back and scored in two plays, so they got the ball back with 2:40 seconds and they managed to score again before the half.  The really sucked after them not doing much the rest of the half, but we were up 21-14.

    After the half, it stopped raining hard but the field was wet, Baby A had one bad snap (I will share that bullshit in the next blog), the Coogs lost the ball, but gained it back on some really good defense, that lasted until the 4th quarter.  Our boys scored again and again, with ease.  By the start of the 4th quarter, the score was still 35-20.  It looked like it was safe to relax, but of course, one can't when competing.  On a beautiful run of 40 yards into the end zone, the runner decided it was a good idea to taunt the defenders, he got an unsportsmanlike penalty, the touchdown was taken back and the coaches pulled him from the game.  That was just stupid, play with some class, it might be your first win, no reason to be an ass.  After that score (they came back and scored a minute later) Wife did a "whew, 7:50 left, this was a good game, Mijo will be happy they won..." something like that, I told her the game ain't over, don't start celebrating.  Like clockwork, the wheels came off the bus.

    Within 20 seconds of the clock counting down, with a score of 41-20, the Vikings scored on a long bomb, they didn't get the extra kick, so they would still need to score 3 times or get a 2 point conversion.  They did a BS onside kick, it bounced around and they got the ball back.  They then took two minutes to drive the field and scored again, making the score 35-41.  It gets confusing in my head, but there were 2 back to back on-sides kicks and they lost both of them.  When there was less than a minute, they tried a third on-sides kick, but it only went like 6 yards and officially it needs to travel ten yards for the other team to claim it.  We got the ball back and they were finally able to close the game out.  It was very stressful, but I guess a win's a win.

10/1/21 One Problem After Another?

     I am not complaining, but man, when do I get some free time?  I didn't have anything planned this week, after the busy mess of last week with Covid-19 shots and all the other stuff that keeps us busy, but again, this week passed by in a flash and I barely had time to sit down, it seemed.  This morning I overslept because I thought I was on the weekend last night and styed up a little late looking at some pizza stones to cook pizzas on my pellet grill, I did order one, it should be here tomorrow, I ordered it after midnight or it might have arrived today.  Anyways, Wife called me at 6:45am and woke me.  I thought she was just being the usual pain in the ass that she is and was making sure I woke Baby A, but she told me that the car was giving her a low tire warning.  This got me quite concerned because by then she was too far for me to go and do anything about it, she was almost an hour away.  It was still before 7:00am and the best I could tell her was that Discount Tire opens at 8:00am.  I stayed by the phone and she called to say that the first Discount Tire she passed after the warning came on was in Selma, which is right outside San Antonio but because of low staff count, they wouldn't open until 10:00am.  She looked at the tires and kept on going, none of them were visibly flat.  She finally made it to Military Drive, by her work, where she gets off I-35 and that Discount Tire was fixing to open.  Turns out she just had low tires all around, maybe from the change in weather, but what a pain in the ass thing to be concerned about.

    I then had to go to Target and get granola bar snacks because we signed up to bring them for the team tonight.  I was at Target and really forgot I also had Fox coming back to look at our downstairs A/C unit this time.  I got home with the snacks and some for us and put everything away.  It all worked out good, the guy called while I was loading the washer that he was headed this way.  I have now had this guy over so many times, I am thinking about just giving him the door code, it would be easier, maybe let him have one of the guest rooms since he is here so much.  He worked on the unit for about an hour and determined that the float switches that are supposed to tell the unit to shut off when there is backed up water in the lines were wired incorrectly.  He rewired and tested the system and I think it is now good.  The last repair, actually adding of an extra component (a sensor that reads the temperature inside the unit because the tool also has a dehumidifier component separate from the air condition part) seems to have fixed the unit upstairs that kept freezing.

    All in all, I guess it's good that I am around during the day to deal with all this crap, but man, if it's not one thing it is always another.  I still have to wait around until 3:00pm to take the snacks to the school, but I guess I can nap around that.