10/28/21 Boy Had Another Fender Bender?

     I don't want to say Boy is a bad driver but he is on car accident number three now.  This time he was leaving our community, there is a newish light to help people cross the street right next to our road that leads out and he said there was a kid crossing, so he thought he had the right of way.  According to him, as soon as the kid crossed the street, the lady gunned it through the stop and that is where they collided as he was driving out.  I am glad that everyone is alright, first and foremost, but dammit.  I don't know how many times the insurance will let you bump into other cars before they decide to drop you or start jacking up our rates.  I told him that any rise in our rates will be paid by him, at this point, he is 27, it is probably time for him to go out and get his own coverage anyway.

    It was Christmas Eve in 2020 that he crashed our little 2019 Ford Ecosport, which we only had for half a year.  That car was totaled and it sucked because I really liked it, it was loaded and was even an AWD vehicle.  We did replace it with the 2011 Ford Escape and that has also been a great car, but I am not letting him get comfortable with that one, he can stick to his Edge until he buys his own car.  His first accident was back in San Marcos on the Jeep we had gotten him.  I don't think that was his fault, some ditzy chick hit him in a weird way, one of them was coming out cutting across traffic and the other was driving in the middle turning lane or something, and they hit.  The Jeep was never a great vehicle, those wranglers look cool but they are a pain to drive.  The ride was harsh and noisy.  It doesn't help that my brother says the one he got for his daughter is so loud on the highway, with those big beefy 4x4 tires, that they can't even have a conversation.  I love the idea of a Wrangler for myself, it can be a convertible, it can be a 4x4, I could even choose a Gladiator and that would almost be like a truck, but I'm not driving something that isn't comfortable on the highway.

    I can't fault Boy entirely, I know accidents happen, but he needs to think about taking a defensive driving class or something.  He is always in some sort of rush, gets up at the last minute and rushes himself so that might have been part of the reason, but he would never admit that.  I am not going to get upset, he makes decent money now, so whatever increase in our insurance will be taken care of from him, there is no reason at this point for us to eat that cost.  I guess these are just parts of growing up.

10/27/21 Can You Shake A Loser Mentality?

     I don't want to be mean but Wife finally had enough of one of Baby A's friend's constant negative attitude and she kind of let him have it.  I thought it was funny, not sure I would have done it that way, but I would have addressed it at some point.  The kid was in our car because Wife was giving him a ride home.  This is one of Mijo's close friends and we give him a ride every now and then and he has come over to the house for sleepovers, so he is not a stranger to us.  He has a constant downward look at life which our son always mentions that it is an annoying feature about him.  He is a lineman like Baby A and is also a big guy, but he has no confidence.  If anything, our son has too much of it.  During the summer, he was constantly impressed by how much our boy would lift in the gym.  When Mijo would yell at him to get him pumped up and get him to do more than he was comfortable doing, he surprised himself and could usually do it, but even after lifting say on a squat, he would then say "I got lucky, I won't be able to do that next time..."  With that kind of self worth, it is hard to succeed, always looking for something negative to prove that you don't deserve more.

    In the car, he was going on about how they are going to lose to this week's competition.  This is another team they could beat, other teams they have beat have beat them, so they are not a great team.  Last week was a very close loss that left them drained and feeling bad, but like any other thing, we must move on and face the next challenge.  Wife does not like to hear that sort of BS and she told him to stop thinking that way and talked to him like we do our boys.  Our boys believe they are great because we have always told them that they are, we don't make excuses and we try our best, that is all we can do, out in the world.

    Does the score matter at the end of the day?  We would all like to go undefeated and be the absolute best but the reality is we go out there and we win and lose as a team.  If you went out and gave it everything you had, if you prepared as best you could, if you didn't cheat and try to hurt other people, then you have nothing to be ashamed about, you gave it your best.  I think that is the lesson to learn from football.  It isn't the score, it's learning to work with others, trusting others to have your back, being selfless and sacrificing for the good of the whole.  Those are the important lessons to take away from team sports.  It is about the same thing in any endeavor that requires a group of people working together, you have to let go and trust that others will take care of their responsibilities, and sometimes, when things work just right, you end up getting a win as the cherry on top.

10/26/21 Challenged Somewhat By A Ditzy Chick?

     I thought it was kind of funny when I was talking to some of the gals at the gender reveal party and I let on that I now consider myself a conservative because of the bullshit of the past year.  This set them off  and one of them quickly wanted to put me in my place, but you really need to be equipped to argue, one or two words aren't going to do it.  She came up and got about six inches from my face, to make sure I was listening to her, I guess and asked me a philosophical question "Have you ever known what it's like to be a woman?  I smiled and said "yeah, a couple of years ago, I was a chick, now I am all man."  I looked at her as sarcastically as that sounded, which got her by surprise and brought her back to reality.  She just did a "oooh" and stepped back.  I was ready to get into it, if she wanted to, as I have been told, I argue for sport, so it doesn't bother me, but Wife did want me to behave since we were guests at someone else's home.

    I know the argument was from a feminine perspective, knowing the chick, but because I am married to a real feminist and my mom probably identified as such back in the day, I know their struggle and how far woman has come.  There might still be challenges, but they are nowhere what they were 40-50 years ago.  If you work hard, anyone can succeed, man or woman.  Like it or not, Wife is more successful than me, she had gone farther, gotten more school, and is still on a path that could attain her even higher goals.  What is different from her to any whining feminist arguing for equality?  Wife has shut up and done the work, she has slowly sacrificed, and taken the opportunity, along with the sacrifices that entailed, and she is finally starting to see the rewards that come from doing so.  As she climbs higher, she becomes more entrenched in her job, and we understand that, it is part of what she has gotten into.  The point of this is to say I don't need to hear how hard women have it.  No offense to the chick trying to explain things to me, but shut up, work hard, and look for opportunities to make yourself valuable to those that pay.  Crying and whining about life not being fair will not get you a promotion, working harder than the next chick or dude that wants that job will.

    I actually like this young lady, so I won't get mean, but coming at me when we have been strong and reliable, still married, supportive, loving of our two children and their friends, and always been generous with what we have should make anyone that knows us want to grow up and be like Big Mando, I am fucking awesome.  The proof is in the pudding, you might like your labels, but who is winning at life? 

10/25/21 Love Today's Online Ordering Services?

     Wrestling is fixing to start up for Baby A at school and we are excited for his second season.  I decided to order him some stuff online and I am only holding up on getting more stuff because he is not flashy and we have a hard time getting him to wear new things.  I love though that I can get online and order official looking merchandise with school logos and other things specific to wrestling, for example.  I found a website, www.prepsportswear.com and was able to order him a hoodie with the Crockett Cougars name and the Cougar logo.  I think that is very cool and I wish that existed back when we were in school.  I am tempted at the moment to go ahead and order all his friends that are talking about joining the wrestling team identical hoodies, but they are pricey and then they could still back out, so Wife said to wait for that.

    I also got on Amazon and was able to find a few wrestling specific shirts which I always find humorous and fun to wear, such as 

    We are excited for the season, last year was an introduction to the sport which we didn't even fully understand, but our boy says he loves it more than football, and this season he is going to be joined by at least 4-5 of his friends that come over to the house, or at least that is what they are saying right now.  It is a very demanding sport and is not very forgiving, so I will be pleasantly surprised of all the boys who say they are going to join ultimately join him on the team.  Last season was very surreal as the team consisted of 2-3 boys and 2-3 girls, but this year they may field a more complete team.  There should be up to 14 weight classes and then there can be a JV and a varsity member for each, so there should be around 30 boys and girls running around with the team, that would be a lot more energy, but we will see what happens.

10/24/21 Mesmerized By The Women on The Island With Bear Grylls?

     I had heard about this show on other Youtube videos so I was curious about the dynamic and how it would work out to leave some women and men on an island and have them fend for themselves.  The results I really believe were doctored a little, but it can't be denied that the men fared much better.

    The premise of the show is that two groups of men and women were dropped off on uninhabited islands with minimal provisions and it would be up to them to survive one way or another for six weeks.  Bear Grylls is an adventurer who has had numerous shows involving surviving out in the wilderness.  I started watching the episode in which the women were dropped off on the rough side of an island, there was no beach and they had to swim in and get on the island in a heavily wooded area.  The island is a few square miles in size and it seems everyone had a goal of getting to the other side where they might find a beach and water source, or that is what transpired, but the women sure did it the hard way.  They spent the first day celebrating and talking about how tough they were only to have it get dark on them and they had no preparation for the night.  They never got a fire started and immediately started suffering for it.  They then sent a team out to find water and a beach and they were gone for 3-4 days, lost in the woods, running around in circles.  The women that were left behind eventually decided to go after them since they were not in any better position there in the woods and eventually they all reunited, like 4-5 days later.

    At one point, they were out of water but surprisingly, they found coconuts which they were able to drink from, they also made an emergency call and they were given some fire starting material, they could have literally dies without fire to boil their water to make it safe to drink.  They were also starving through most of the show, but along the way they found, probably put in by the production crew, some little pigs, but instead of eating them, they were treating them as pets and giving them the few morsels of food they could find.  It took them getting desperate and almost dying to finally give and kill the pigs to eat.  They did not attempt to fish until sometime in the last week of the show, which if you're on an island, should be something going on all the time.

    I thought it was interesting that the women made it to the final week, I watched almost all the episodes, I couldn't stop, but I got tired at the end, but the women slept on the sand all the way through, never made any type of real shelter and kept relying on the ponchos they had to protect them from the weather.

    The men on the other hand, although still suffering and struggling, built a shelter structure, found the beach within a day, and ate an alligator, and fish on a lot of the days as at least one of the guys was a good fisherman and then they figured out how to use some netting to capture fish on a larger scale.

    People complain about all the litter we make, but if we were to ever end up on an uninhabited island, I would be happy for all the empty plastic bottles that seem to just wash ashore and are always good for different things.  They used them to store clean water, and they even used them to construct a floating raft, which I thought was creative.  I didn't even know this was a series, I thought it would be one short movie or show, but I ended up watching about ten episodes in one sitting, it was entertaining.  The best comment I read on Youtube was that someone thought the women were doing a parody of a survival show because they were so bad at it, it almost seemed intentional.

10/23/21 Out In The Country?

     We went to a gender reveal party on Saturday, which was a first for us, and I can say it was okay.  DD is now married and living his life away from us but still comes and visits regularly with the new wife.  They got pregnant a month or so after getting married in a spur of the moment trip to Vegas, but hey, sometimes it can work out, what does anyone know?  Anyways, this is not about that, this is about them celebrating their new coming baby.  The gender reveal party is a new thing, we didn't even knew this was a thing when we had wither of our boys, but it seems in today's climate, everyone tries to outdo each other in presenting the sex of the baby, not sure why since in today's climate it is also acceptable to change your identity twenty times a day.

    The party was down in Dale, which is where Boy's best friend's family moved to and I remember driving out there one other time for a party at their house, it just seemed to go on and on to get there.  Apparently, we were within four miles of that house, but this time we drove out there and seemed to get there in like twenty minutes.  Maybe the difference was that we got on the toll road, I am not sure, but the drive felt real quick.  Baby A commented that he didn't like the feel of Dale, it reminded him too much of the creepy movies we have been watching, specifically the small town on the way to Crystal Lake, in the Friday the 13th movies.  There were also abandoned old houses and churches to give it an even creepier Halloween vibe.  It was an okay drive overall.  The creepiest thing was a couple of cows staring at us from about fifty yards away in the next yard over as we hung out in the backyard.  It seems everyone keeps cows out there, DD's Wife said it was for tax purposes, I guess everyone is filing for agricultural exemptions out there.

    I liked the house having the big backyard, I would say it was close to two acres, but the back part of the property curved down and felt like it should be a creek full of water, which I was told it has filled in the past.  We were fed brisket and sausages, a common meal I like to make on the weekends, which Baby A was quick to point out their brisket was better than mine, something Baby A never misses a chance to poke at me for, because he is a little shit.  The brisket was very good, I can admit, maybe the pellet grill is not the best tool, but I still maintain it is damn convenient, so I will keep doing what I do.  

    As far as the outcome, it was kind of confusing, one second I was eating, the next I stepped inside to get more tea, Boy stepped in to get a cupcake, and DD's wife got a little upset because she pulled the thing to reveal a blue puff of smoke with no warning and almost no one even saw it.  I think she need to say something like "here we go" or announce it was fixing to be revealed in the next few minutes.  Oh well, the baby will be a boy, I finally heard.  We congratulated the couple and both sets of grandparents, which was nice to see all of them getting along together, and after another hour or so of catching up with DD's family, we left.  It was a nice lazy Saturday afternoon.  We were worried about the possible traffic out that way as there was supposed to be a race at the new race track, but I guess we got home before all those people got out in traffic.

10/22/21 What Is Worse?

     Last night was another wild ride for the Cougars, but this time fell short by less than a touchdown, losing 44-40.  I don't know which is worse, losing by 60-70 points like they did in the beginning of the season or losing these tight games in which it goes down to the last minute before we know the outcome?  I do know that our boy was totally drained, mentally and physically after the game, and it was difficult on the ride home having to hear him rather emotionally "I don't understand this, we gave it all we had, we have been working hard all summer, we do everything we're supposed to do..." All I could muster was saying "we know, we were there with you, we know you have given it your 100% but football is a team sport and you have to remember the other team is also doing the same thing, they also want to win... sometimes it just happens this way."  

    We reminded him that winning or losing does not define who you are.  The fact that you get out on the field and compete makes you the quality person you are, you care and the score may not show it, but you are a better person for the sacrifices you do for the team.  You are a different person now than you would have been had you not played football.  Remember back to before you committed to being an athlete, it may feel easier to avoid competing because you wouldn't lose but then you wouldn't be this confidant strong person who walks with purpose and stands tall because people know you constantly work harder and give more than you have to.  It was a hard drive home, but eventually he accepted it and I think he felt better.  We ended the night by picking up Whataburger and again, didn't get to bed until a little after midnight.

    The game was a roller coaster of lead changes, both teams were moving the ball with ease, returning volleys of touchdowns, but both were having trouble with their extra point conversions in the beginning.  The Cougars missed their first extra point kick, then Travis failed a 2 point run, then Crockett failed on a 2 point conversion, then the Rebels.  Before the half, though, the Rebels did convert a 2 point conversion, so they went into the half up 20-18.  They came out of the half, got the ball and scored again and then again.  It looked bad going into the end of the 3rd, but then Crockett scored again, making the difference on only a TD.  The Crockett QB was sacked in the endzone and that gave the Rebels another 2 points, but with 9 minutes to go in the 4th, the game was still within reach as they were down 38-32.  They both managed to score again, the Rebels got to 44, but Crockett ran out of time, scoring up to 40, finally converting a 2 point conversion but their final on-sides kick was recovered by the Rebels and the Cougars could do nothing but watch time expire on their evening.  It was a heart wrenching performance, but they fought until the last seconds.