5/31/22 Getting Compliments On My Ribs?

     We had a little BBQ this Sunday, just to see some of the people we normally visit with in a relaxed setting.  Boy came over to wash clothes and hang out with us, his girlfriend is working weird hours, so he had the day off and nothing to do while she was stuck at work.  When he said he was coming over, I thought it would be a great time to first off, grill.  I had bought ribs the week before after getting such good compliments at the wrestling banquet, I wanted to see if it was luck or if my "new method" was solid and reproducible.  I also weighed on the fact that Boy had not mentioned DD's baby and I feel he should have by now, so I invited him and his family (wife and baby), and I also invited Girlie because she hadn't met the baby either and I just wanted people to tell me my food was awesome.

    I saw a recipe called the 3-2-1 method for ribs, and it involves starting the ribs in a smoker (I use a pellet grill proudly as my tool to smoke) at 250 degrees.  They just go in facing up, with whatever spices you prefer, we like the Salt Lick spice along with Uncle Chris' Gourmet Steak Seasoning, and I personally have started really using HEB's garlic salt.  I am generous with the spices, as a lot of it will fall off just moving them around.  They should smoke for about 3 hours, and then they go into some wrapping foil.  I tried to get away with one layer, but two will hold the moisture better.  For moisture, I add some Dr Pepper, not measured, but enough, I had 4 racks and used one 12 oz Dr Pepper can, and at the end there was just enough for a big gulp to finish it.  I also lather the ribs with some BBQ sauce.  They then steam in the foil for another 2 hours.  At this point, it gets tricky, the recipe says another hour at a higher temperature, say 400 degrees, to sear the outside, with more BBQ sauce, but mine gave me trouble, as when I increased the heat, the grease that had been falling off, lit on fire and everything, including the sausages got charred a bit much.  I took them out after maybe 20 minutes of the higher heat, I did not wait a whole hour.

    I did let the whole meat set up rest after I had grilled it, mostly to give DD time to get here.  I have to say the ribs were just about as good as what I did for the banquet.  Girlie made the joke that she was expecting to bite and hear crunch as usual, when she eats my ribs, but they were surprisingly moist, so she liked them.  Boy chose to leave and not eat; it was a little past 6:00pm and his girlfriend got out of work at that time, but he did take some ribs with him, which is rare for him, he must have liked them enough to take some, he said he would eat them for lunch the next day.

    I can proudly say I can make a pretty good brisket and now my ribs are just about as good too, so I am getting gooder at the cooking.

5/30/22 Why Do We Hesitate?

     After discovering that the new Polaris pool cleaner was creating too much back pressure to the pump, I had to shut it down and order some new parts.  I took apart the pump plumbing and noticed that several of the O-rings were cracked and with the increased pressure, started leaking.  It took me a couple days to find the replacement parts, I tried Lowe's and Home Depot for just some generic O-rings and had no luck.  I then went to the pool supply store and also found not much in what I needed.  It didn't help that the guys were about as helpful as a turd on the sidewalk.

    I was sitting here with the part in my hand, and I could barely make out a name and some numbers.  This led me to a random pool supplier online that had a whole line of parts with this name, Prather, and then just by looking at the pictures I determined which one looked like my part.  It cost a little more than I wanted, instead of just some O-rings, I ended up ordering the whole part, but they were only $11.99.  I ordered two, so I would have an extra one, if I ever need it for the hot tub connections.  It was through Amazon, so it took a couple days.

    Here is what I don't understand.  Once I had the part on Friday, I hesitated to install it.  It was something that took me less than 10 minutes when I finally did it, but I guess it worried me that I could install this and then find more problems, so I ignored it.  I went all day Saturday, then we were out of town most of Sunday.  This morning, it being Memorial Day, I figured I should give it a try.  I added a splitter to the return line and an extra opening to allow more water to move through and reduce the backward pressure, hoping it would be enough to let the system work without stress.  It seemed to work, once I tightened everything down a bit.  So far, it has been running for a couple hours and seems to be doing ok.  I know I need to go and adjust things a little more, but for now, it is a good start.  I cut the plumbing line that returns the water, so there is less piping in the water for the Polaris to get trapped with, I need to do something similar to the other pipe, it goes all the way to the pool bottom and the Polaris just seems to love to get tangled around it.  I think with some more adjusting and plying with it, it will be a great addition to the pool, hopefully, it helps keep the bottom cleaner of loose debris and dirt.

    I think I hesitate because I might have solved a simple small problem, but what if this exposes a larger problem?  What if I do something that accidentally leads to bigger and more expensive problems, then what do I do?  I want the pool to be a staple of our family activities, but I can't be constantly spending money on it.  Hopefully, we can get a summer's worth of fun out of what I just fixed.

5/29/22 Celebrating My Niece's Graduation?

     It was a topsy-turvy week for sure.  After the catastrophe in Uvalde, everything was sent into disarray.  For some reason that makes zero sense, once the smoke cleared from the destruction on that now infamous school ground, many other deviants seemed to wake up and tried to at least put a scare to their schools and communities.  Maybe it was simply to get out of the last week of classes, maybe it was more sinister, but either way, there was fear in the air.

    The worst part (once you get past the tragedy), is that graduations were scheduled everywhere, and with the fear of copycat individuals, many schools did last minute changes to their planned ceremonies.  Crystal City normally has their graduation ceremony out on the football field, the stands can hold as many people as want to show up, we were planning to go and watch our niece, on Friday night.  Because of being so out in the open and the crowds being easy targets, it seemed safer to move the ceremony indoors, but that meant that each graduate could only have three guests, so we were, as most of the family was, not allowed to attend.  We had made plans to attend, Wife took the day off, Boy was going to take the day off, but in the end, we just stayed in town.

    Wife then started saying we should go to the reception/luncheon on Sunday.  I didn't want to because I don't like doing stuff on Sundays, it is normally our best day of rest, we hang out at the house and grill, normally.  Saturday evening Mijo cut the grass, and even as late as Sunday morning, I was still thinking we were just going to hang out, I even spent some time trimming the front yard Sunday morning, Mijo runs the mower ok, but never touches the trimmer.  Mijo came and asked for about the 5th time of we were going to go, to which I said, "if you two are ok with going, let's go."

    By noon, we had all showered and gotten dressed and were on the road.  We got there right at 3:00pm, when the party was starting.  It was very nice, in the same hall Wife and I got married, it is a small-ish place, but just right for 100 or so guests.  We ate some food, there was a DJ singing some live music, people danced, we ate cake, opened some gifts, then we got back on the road close to 6:00pm.  We were home before 10:00pm.  It made for a long day, but at the end of it, I was glad we went and were able to celebrate and acknowledge our one niece as she moved from high school forward and to college.

5/28/22 Does Getting Old Just Creep In?

     I saw a TikTok yesterday that brought up the idea of getting old and the girl said she felt old when realizing a ticket to Disney World is now over $100 for a day ticket, and she remembers when a season pass was less than $50.  I thought that was interesting, yet for me, getting old has been a lot more subtle.  I don't know when it happened, but there was a time when we had a boat and several RVs over a good 10-year period and the most exciting time of the year was spring when we would prepare to take our RV to the coast, specifically Corpus Christi, and then proceed to go as many weekends as possible down there over the summer months.

    Nowadays, I see the temperature going over 90 degrees and I don't want anything to do with being outside, it seems like a punishment to be outside sweating.  We were invited to the lake by Girlie and her family during the week, and although I thought it could be fun, Wife was more cautious, but the idea that Girlie said we should plan on getting out there at 8:00am to get a good spot just ruined the idea.  There is really no way Wife is getting up that early on one of her few days to sleep in just to get up and sit around some lukewarm lake, and I had to agree that did not sound like fun.  I really do want to go fishing and have some of those experiences we had 10 years ago, for Mijo, but he already spends too much time out in the sun and heat with all his football practice.  He doesn't get excited at the thought of spending an extra day out in the heat.

    Right now, my idea of a good day is getting up early, around 7:00-8:00am, but only going as far as the kitchen, making some coffee and hopefully pairing it with some sort of bread.  I love the quietness of waking up when Wife and Mijo are still asleep, this gives me a quiet, peaceful house.  I then like to think about a nap, even if I don't get around to one, sometime in the early afternoon.

    Honestly, we have the pool right outside our backyard, but who wants to go out and get in the heat and sun when we can just stay indoors with the AC set to 71?  I am looking at the grill as well.  Yesterday (Saturday), was a great day for some grilling fun, but I did not prepare by getting meat early and the idea of going out in the middle of the day, once it got later and hotter just ruined the idea.  In the end, we napped from about 4:00-7:00pm, after sitting and watching the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney (first two episodes are out).  I got up, but Wife slept a little longer in the living room ghetto bed.  She only woke because Mijo came down wondering what we were going to eat.  We wound up going to get very sub-par pizza at almost 10:00pm, then sitting and watching Tombstone in yet another weekend of showing our son an old classic.  He liked it, which to me means it was a good restful day.

5/27/22 Conspiracy Theories Make More Sense Every Day?

     I know it sounds crazy; I hate that we live in a time where this is where my mind goes.  Twenty years ago, I wouldn't have had the mental ability to go where my thoughts go nowadays, but oh how the times have changed.  I think even at the end of the week, many of us are still reeling from the tragedy that occurred out of the blue and for no particular reason.  What that monster accomplished in one short morning will be remembered as the worst massacre in a school setting for the rest of our lives.  It was too close to just think of it as just a sad misfortune for some people over there.  Uvalde is within 40 miles of my hometown, I went to the junior college there, drove the bus to and from that small city every day for a year while commuting.  My brother said one of the teachers that was killed was a classmate of his, so they lived in Crystal City for a time.  My mom was in Uvalde visiting her sister in a care facility and noticed all the cops starting to show up as she was leaving the city.  Worst of all, one of the little girls killed was the daughter of my wife's best friend's sister, we had met the mom a while back.

    Wife got mad at me for giving any attention to the coward and talking about him, and I totally understand, these bottom feeders deserve none of the attention they seek in this way, but there are many questions to be asked and the answers might be of interest.  First off, why was this kid, presumably working at Wendy's driving around in an F-250?  I've been wanting to buy one and can't afford the $70,000 price tag and I don't make minimum wage.  If the cost of the truck is not enough, most of these trucks are diesel and diesel is going for over $5 a gallon, more so in a small town, I have to imagine.  Add to that, "gun experts" are claiming the AR-15 rifles were of the $2000 variety.  Again, how does a kid who lives with grandma afford such expensive toys?  It really does seem like someone was helping this boy along, no way is this something a numbnuts confused about his sexuality going to be able to get it together and focus on this type of purchase and destructive attack.  Every school Wife has been working at has now had heightened safety protocols to prevent people from just walking in.  How did he get in so easily but then the police were outside confused as to how to enter for over an hour?  Why didn't the police run in after him?  I understand waiting for back up, that is fine, but waiting an hour for a key to go in sounds like a joke.

    I really hope this is investigated properly; things happen for a reason most of the time.  The only thing that seems super gross but gives it a reason is that it was a ruse to "disarm Americans" and give something for the left to fight about.  Nothing that the incompetence living in the White house has done has helped their cause.  People are over Covid (Bill Gates is out trying to scare us with monkeypox now), it took a minute for them to figure out we don't give two shits about Ukraine, and even the abortion debacle stalled pretty quick.  This might be the last salvo from the left, it is pretty desperate though.  If true, may God have mercy on their souls, not that they deserve it.

5/26/22 Things Change In The Blink Of An Eye?

     Just two weeks ago, we were looking at Boy's graduation coming up and stressing about having to get clothes and then attending a usually boring but important event.  There were some distractions around the event, my dad had just had surgery, my mom was worried if he would be ok afterwards, he is in his 70's now.  The event was held in a gym at Texas state and Boy was only given 12 tickets for twelve guests.  In the blink of an eye, the moment passed, everything went smoothly, I thought it was an awesome day, complete with a good meal after and I thought everything went about as smoothly as one could plan.

    Fast forward to the next graduation, at the start of the week we were trying to figure out the best way to do this.  Boy was going to travel with us, but only if we were making this a one-day affair.  Because we have been going non-stop for a couple months now, Wife was saying she didn't want to spend all weekend down there, and she does have a hard week, driving back and forth to San Antonio every day is getting old, with the shitty traffic, it's not really the distance, it's the stop and go every day.  The thing is, they have the graduation scheduled for Friday evening, then a big party luncheon thing, but on Sunday.  For us to attend, it means we have to stick around all weekend, and then if the luncheon is in the afternoon, we would have to drive back late, it's a 3-hour drive, then Wife would have to get ready to work the next day, while losing the whole weekend, not even having time to wash a load of clothing.

    The things we worry about normally with our first world problems.  Suddenly, there was this awful nightmare in Uvalde and everything is up in the air.  It is Thursday, and the surrounding school aren't sure whether to even have graduation ceremonies, whether to move them indoors, make them virtual, like they did during the height of Covid, or possibly move them to a week later.  The last one doesn't make sense, but this week, there are already several graduations set to go and all the area police forces are being used, if they wait until next week, those cops can then be used to patrol and guard the area.

    What happened to the innocent carefree days like when we were young?  The biggest concern was that some of the graduating kids would get drunk and go crash somewhere in the night, gun violence was not something that even crossed our minds.  How times have changed.

5/25/22 Is It All In My Head?

     I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, as usual, I was complaining about the cost of gas this time.  He looked at me blankly and said, "is that really a problem or is it more psychological?"  I retorted back that I am filling my small Escape now with $50 when it used to cost me less than $20 a year ago.  Now if you only do this once a week or less, maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I know Wife is more stressed because she is filling her car up 2-3 times a week, and the Telluride is now closer to $60 every time.  In his defense, his kids are grown, and his Wife is driving an electric car, so he is just filling up to come to work and home.  When Mijo was doing home school in the midst of Covid, I could go two weeks between fill-ups because I would just drive to work and home, there were no multiple trips to drop him off and pick him up, plus going to Bill Miller or Whataburger and waiting in long lines every day.  Life is much simpler when kids are not involved (but I am already tearing up thinking I'll be done being his chauffer next year).

    This can't be in my head, gas costs and everything else has to be affecting real people everywhere.  My friend over here works with me, and fortunately, we do ok, in the big picture.  How are families with normal salaries getting by?  This is something I think about all the time, like when I am getting groceries.  For a while, I was getting a pair of rib-eyes, a pair of New York Strips, some fajitas, and maybe some chicken, when Mijo was doing the home school thing, and we ate good every day.  Now, I get chicken for at least twice a week, some ground beef, for spaghetti or whatever Mexican concoction Wife comes up with, and maybe a pack of pork, but while steaks are over $10 a pound, I can't buy them, it seems wrong.  I'll do an occasional pack of fajitas on the weekends, but they do cost more than they used to.

    Which again leads me to think, I have adjusted down, to keep costs down, but what are the options for "poor" people?  Between food and gas being more expensive and then if you live in Austin, the housing market is just crazy, are more and more people just destined to live in the streets?  I see an exodus of people leaving Austin in the near future.  I hate to think I won't be living here in the future, but if the cost of living gets to be too great, we might not even be able to afford the property taxes, let alone mortgage, cost of new vehicle (at some point I need to buy myself something newer), and everything else, which I am not including fun things, like boats.  Let's face it, hardly anyone is having fun right now.