4/30/16 Equality Is Confusing Chubs?

    Chubs was talking to me after school today (Thursday) about one of his friends getting in trouble with his teacher.  The little boy was holding court explaining that men do all the real work and so on and on.  Of course, the teacher cut him off and explained that men and women can do the same jobs.  I know both Wife and Mom are gonna give me crap, as both are kind of strong women who take no shit, but I disagree.
    I told Chubs it is only recently that jobs have become more cerebral that yes, men and women can do the same jobs.  If we go back 50 to 100 years when things were more physical, it was a man's world.  I did also mention that women were just not allowed to work out of the house, so maybe that made it a little unfair.  I cannot imagine women working on those skyscrapers, when New York was booming with all those tall buildings first getting built.  Men were disposable, they would fall off all the time, and simply replaced by the next unemployed schmuck.  Same story with the building of any large project, like Hoover Dam.  Over 100 men died in the four years it took to complete.
    Even today, there are jobs that could be done by both, but come on.  If you are passed out in a burning building, would you prefer a beefy dude to break the door down and possibly carry you out or do you want the twit who needs to carry a Chihuahua to the store to show up and render aid?  Extending this a little more unfairly, to the sport of football.  I only do this because Wife fought to get herself on the team in junior high, before I met her to knock some sense into her.  Great, she was on the team, what does that mean?  She didn't do it because she loves football, still doesn't know how many "innings" in a game.  She needed to prove how tough she was, why?  Maybe in junior high she was still as big as the smaller boys, but it is just in our DNA, men are bigger and faster.  How did that make her brother feel, who didn't get to play football because he messed up his legs goofing around and took a bad fall from a second story staircase?
    Nowadays, with most jobs being done indoors, with our comfy A/C, sure we are equals.  I respect my coworkers who are mostly women.  His teachers are mostly women, and I prefer it that way, men wanting to be around kids strike me as a little suspect. 
    But if we are going to live in a world of all of us being equals, y'all would be comfortable with Mija getting called for the draft, just like Mijo?  Not just the ugly girls, but all, pink bows and pom-poms included.  I know the draft doesn't exist, but I remember having to send info to the government when I turned 18.  The girls in my class were not doing that to my knowledge.
    Can we let chivalry die too?  How about whoever is closer to the door gets it for themselves and whoever is coming along.  I can't recall any chick ever holding the door for me.  Are guys still supposed to run around the car and open the door for their female companions?

4/29/16 Her Delusional Life?

    I admit I like creeping on FB.  One can go from one person to another and before you know it, you might be on a friend's brother's aunt's friend's cousin's grandma's uncle's probation officer, the interesting ones go that route.  What surprises me though is how delusional some people are.  Delusional, having false or unrealistic opinions or beliefs, I just liked the definition personally.
    Only because they are good looking, I go back on a handful of people, but the storyline always borders on tragic.  One has the expectation that the boyfriend is fixing to come out of jail anytime now, go back six months on her timeline, she is patiently waiting, go back a year and they were constantly fighting and making up over and over.  Further back, the little felon was in jail.  I went back recently, and now it seems to be the same story, with the girlfriend in jail, but they are patiently waiting for them to get out.  I don't know this person, but I almost wish I could reach through the computer and shake this girl to cut it out.  At least with a girlfriend, probably no extra kids for awhile.
    How about the delusional girl bragging that she's doing it on her own, she don't need no man to get by.  She doesn't mention the help coming from section 8 which means she gets an apartment for $10 a month.  I don't care that section 8 exists for helping the needy, but don't kid yourself that "you da man".  We are all collectively floating your ass.  There has to be food stamps if one is getting housing help.  Is section 8 forever?  If you fail at life, the government just gives you a comfy seat to wait out life and procreate a bunch of kids from other unemployables?  What long term plan is this?
    Another "friend" joined us for lunch a couple months ago.  She is telling us this terrifying tale of her baby daddy losing it on her and smashing her windshield and threatening her life.  My take from it was that sounds horrible, I hope you get him out of your life and maybe stop dating bad guys.  She's had on her FB feed stupid stuff like "every thug needs his down ass bitch to be complete" or some such nonsense.  But I guess the attraction is too strong.  Two choices: A. Did she leave him and start her life anew?  or B.  Did she stick around and get pregnant from the same champ that busted her windshield earlier?  You are right, B.  I guess he got it out of his system, he won't ever throw another tantrum like that.
    I can't help mentioning Amy Winehouse, since I am listening to her currently on FB.  If you don't know her, listen to a couple of her songs, such a perfect sultry singer with so much talent.  She overdosed in 2011, after just releasing a song named "Rehab" with lines like:

They tried to make me go to rehab
I said, no, no, no
Yes, I been black
But when I come back, you'll know, know, know
I ain't got the time
And if my daddy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab
I won't go, go, go

Had the dummy gone to rehab, she might still be around.  You can see her gradually deteriorating from the drugs.  Her first album and videos she's singing in sexy little skin tight dresses, and she's nice and healthy.  As she progresses on the drugs, she gets skinnier and skinnier and worse more and more shitty tattoos.  I'm sure she kept saying to herself that she was fine. 

4/28/16 Delayed Gratification?

    I can't fault anyone for wanting things now.  I am just as guilty of this as the next person.  I am referring to delayed gratification, or the is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward. Generally, waiting a while leads to much grander rewards.
    For us, it was my inability to put off sex which led to us having a kid much earlier than we would have liked or been ready.  I was still mildly immature to be a parent, but I did not have a choice, once Girlfriend (back then) decided I didn't have a choice.  It was a rough first few years when we got married.  I had a chip on my shoulder, I was supposed to be a doctor or somebody that mattered, not some freaking loser living on food stamps and having my parents help me pay rent in a shitty apartment that was fine for going to school but not to start out life as I expected it.  Gradually, I made peace with my failed dreams, I did my year in the warehouse, then a couple months at LCRA in their lab which should have been more fun, but it was too scripted (I don't know how most y'all do the boring 8-5 routine).
    Luckily, I did finish with a degree, after a little life growth, I landed a dream job at AMD, which was competing with Intel for dominance in the microprocessor world.  You can thank AMD for pushing the computing world to where it is.  If not for competition, Intel would still happily be putting out computers that cost $3000, running at a quarter the speed they do.
    Another example of not having the patience for delayed gratification is Girlie and her new car.  She keeps talking about going back to school, had a perfectly good shitty car that was paid off and ran well enough.  That wasn't good enough, she decided she wanted a new car, I guess her mom went and cosigned for her.  She is now driving in a too nice for a wet behind the ears 23 year old new car.  It has about all the gadgets my truck has and now instead of no car payment, she has a payment somewhere around $450 a month.  This is the kind of car a person starting a career might buy once they start a job that pays a decent wage.  When people are impatient on life, stuff like this happens.  Where I thought there might be a chance for school before, I don't see how she can afford the car, rent, and school on her meager salary.
    It happens to all of us.  We want it now, whatever it is.  I guess that is part of what separates those that find a way to succeed, and those that get bogged down by life.  Can you overcome your own self, sometimes you get in the way of your own success?

4/27/16 It Only Took Nine Years To Start Getting Our House In Order?

    I don't quite know what has occurred over the past month.  Maybe it has to do with Wife and I losing weight, but all of a sudden, we are both doing little projects trying to make the house look like a presentable home.  We had gotten in quite a bad habit of washing all the clothes and then just throwing a big pile on some chairs in our bedroom.  Over the last month, I have been staying up late on Friday, washing all the clothes from the past week and putting it away.  Wife wakes up like Christmas morning, room is all clean and even her work clothes are hanging in her closet.  I also took the initiative and cleaned Chub's room where he doesn't hardly have stuff to make a mess.  He doesn't play with "toys" anymore.  I've kept some bins holding some Legos, and all his Build-A-Bears are lined up, but nowadays he spends all his time at his desk on the computers or in front of the XBOX.  I might pick up his controllers and put them in the assigned drawer, but he can't make too much of a mess. 
    Boy, on the other hand, needs his room redone.  He has always had a problem keeping his stuff organized.  At some point, I will go in and do the same thing I did to Chub's room.  Not leave anything that ends up making trash.  I would also like to replace his carpet with wood flooring, as the carpet in his room has had it rough.  Chub's old room next to ours was cleaned and reorganized after he moved out.  I didn't necessarily want a bed in there, I was thinking of making it a TV room but my mom spazzed out one time she came up because I didn't have enough beds and my brother's back hurt from sleeping on a pull out couch.  Being the good son I am, I went and converted the room to another guest bedroom for the sake of peace and harmony.
    Just today, I went in the guest room downstairs where Girlie stayed with us for what turned out to be three weeks.  Her bedroom set is still there, and since my folks are coming this weekend, I made the decision to just set it up.  I put her drawers against the wall instead of in the middle of the room, hung the mirror on it, and even tossed the headboard (made for a queen) behind the king bed in that room.  Now, at least, the room looks like a true guest room, and we don't have to keep wondering when she will pick up her stuff.  I'm hoping it stays there awhile.
    Three weeks ago I started up on the garage.  A year ago we couldn't even walk in there, but last summer my in-laws helped us clean it out when we were going to move.  There is still a lot of stuff on the floor, not really trash, just stuff.  But I have cleaned one side with shelves all the way across, and I even made a place to have a working table for my little projects when I am tinkering outside.  I hope to finish in there in next couple of weeks before it gets too hot, but those shelves are pricey.  It is clean enough that tonight Wife was able to store her car in there, good since it is a convertible and we were expecting hail.
    While I've been doing my thing, Wife has been taking care of other things.  She was obsessed with caulking the tub downstairs.  I honestly am never sure if I am doing it right, so I hesitate to undertake stuff like that.  She has taken care of it.  She is also tacking our large pantry, throwing away old expired food and even boxes and crap that make their way in there.

4/26/16 Neighborhood Is Going Through Its Teen Years?

    I don't know if I am a little happy or disgusted by this new trend of renters moving into our neighborhood.  On paper, they are people just like you and me.  In reality, we are paying out the ass to afford to stay in our house, we try to keep it looking as nice as possible, and we are generally proud of the home itself, it is supposed to be a nicer neighborhood.
    Enter Joe Renter, and he doesn't care for the house as if it was his, the grass might be cut, if it suits them or not, if they just like staying indoors.  And don't even give me crap, I had 5-6 different renters in my house, and although they didn't set out to destroy the house, they also didn't water the yard when I installed new grass when we moved out, they wouldn't cut the grass.  At one point, I even went and got a new lawn mower, when one of them said they would do it if they had one.  I gave them mine, used it as an excuse to buy myself a newer one, and now I have both side by side.  The one the renters used is missing the gas cap, why?  Fucking why?  It costs $3 to buy a new one, and the blade itself drags on the floor, so it was bent at some point.  I used to cut the grass over there, I never had a problem.  Renters have no reason to care.  If I borrowed somebody's whatever and I damaged it, I would be quick to want to repair it, or at least bring it up and apologize.
    I say I am not sure if I am happy or not because for the first few years I was the target of whoever busy body reports stuff to the HOA.  I would get letters to cut my yard (yes, I had to be trained, but really it was Boy who always did a tragic job, the little Half-ass), they called the city on me when my pool turned green last winter into the spring, I was even reported when I had little blue lights in my back patio that they were a nuisance and to remove them.  Now the busy bodies are fighting with the renters.  Tonight, Wife heard from the neighbor that they were collecting signatures against a certain house down from ours.  The guy is a welder and he is at it at his house all the time.  It doesn't bother me, they are far enough away that his banging doesn't make it into my house.  But the focus is off my back and unto these guys.  I believe the guy threatened my neighbor with the old "snitches get stitches" routine.  Said something like quit taking pictures of my trashy yard or you might get yourself shot.  Fucking ghetto, forget my home value ever getting above $400,000 with trash like that.  At least it makes me look like a much better neighbor, I never threatened anybody's life. 
    I don't even blame them, it's section 8 that allows people to get houses they normally wouldn't be able to afford.  F that, nobody is paying my mortgage, why can't the government pay a couple of my house payments to the tune of $2600?  I guess that is our reward for going to school, getting good paying jobs, sacrificing my free time and working all the OT I can get, and moving on up.  I get Joe "I kill you" as my neighbor.  You're doing a great job, Austin.  We already shop in Kyle HEB thanks to your stupid bag ban, keep it up, it'll be real funny when people that actually pay for shit flee to the suburbs and everybody in town is supported by y'all.

4/25/16 Is All This Walking Helping?

    About a year and a half ago, I was doing my usual thing of walking laps at work.  I had gradually gotten myself to walking four miles a night.  I do a twelve hour shift, usually coming home for lunch between ten and midnight.  I would aim to do two miles the first half, and two miles the second half.  It wasn't hard and I just thought of it as part of my routine.  If I arrived early, I might do the first mile before I even walked in to say hi and do our shift pass-down, when I talk to the day people about what is going on with the tool and anything else that might affect me.  At some point, another dude came to nights, I've mentioned him before, he's alright now that we've known each other for awhile, but he was very abrasive in the beginning.  I'm not sure that he meant anything negative, but he caught me on one of my laps one night and asked very bluntly "Is all this walking helping you?"
    I dismissed him at first, but then I thought, hmm, I haven't lost any weight, I hover around 350 pounds, so maybe I am just wasting my time.  At the time, I would also go to the gym twice a week, trying to get back to lifting weights like when I was in college.  One thing led to another, we stopped going to the gym, my lifting partner got remarried a couple years ago, and is very hit and miss when we go.  He also had a gym he would go with his wife, so I understood lifting with me was not a priority.  Then we had the whole moving thing, which really put me in a tailspin health wise.  I was going on very little sleep daily for a couple months, trying to go over there and do odd jobs, we got painters, for example, but they left all the blinds on the ground.  I then had to figure out where all the brackets were and which went to what windows, which took a couple days when you only have two hours a day to go over there between work.  There was a constant barrage of little odd jobs like that.  I also replaced all the A/C return vents, which took many trips to Home Depot and Lowe's.
    By the time we sold the house, it was time to go to Florida, I know waah, all that work then a week long vacation, but I never recuperated from overworking myself.  Plus I was putting on weight, developed a nasty habit of being sleepy all the time, breathing out loud like a fat boy, and on and on.  I lost any flexibility I had, bending down to pick up stuff from the ground became harder.  By the time I decided to do something and at least start walking again seriously, I got up to 409 pounds.
    Three weeks ago we started a new diet, and I am back to walking four miles every night last week.  I weighed myself today and am down 21 pounds to 388.  I know it is still more than most NFL linemen, but I have stopped breathing heavy, Wife noticed this weekend, I stayed alert all day, I wasn't whining for a nap, my clothes are fitting better.  A month ago, I was starting to shop for some size 56 shorts, 54 was not really fitting anymore.  I have about four shorts in size 54, and they are all fitting loosely, which I am waiting excitedly to get back down to 52, and then even lower.  Wife had bought me a handful of new fishing shirts at Academy in 4X and they were tight, which scared me thinking I'm gonna end up wearing moo-moo's pretty soon.
    In conclusion, I need to answer that question from a year and a half ago, yes!  All this walking is helping me.  Don't be tugging at the threads of my life, I may unravel again, Ass.  He did kind of apologize when I bought it up to him, but he insisted he didn't want me to stop walking, he wants me to join him at the gym and run on the treadmills.  I just can't go around willy-nilly, as my schedule revolves around Chubs and Wife meeting me after work to get him.

4/24/16 Boat Show On The Water Was Awesome?

    Today (Saturday), we went out to Lake Travis over in Hudson Bend to attend the Boat Show On The Water event.  It was light on people, but a feast for the senses.  I absolutely love being out by the lake, on the lake, even in the lake, we don't do it nearly enough.  The event was first class all the way, people are just treated better when the crowds are well-to-do, and they have more than a couple nickels to rub together.
    We got going around 3:30pm, we do like sleeping in on the weekend.  As usual, Chubs was complaining he was hungry, but I was kind of in a hurry, because stopping to eat can distract Chubs and Wife pretty easily.  I basically told them to wait and we would eat there if there was food or wait until afterwards when Chubs refused my offer of a gas station hot dog.  It had been awhile since we had been out there, but there were just enough signs to point the way.  I loved that the parking was free.  How many times do you head somewhere only to be accosted by the sketchy dude asking for $5 or $10, just to park at an event.  Even better, there was a "roach coach" cooking up sausage wraps, pulled pork sandwiches and even some beef sandwiches.  They also had different sodas and even beer and chips.  Everything was pay a donation to the Firewalkers Association.  I can't remember going somewhere and the food be pay by a donation of your choice. 
    But the boats is what the event was about.  My goal for going was to sit on a pontoon boat and feel the bobbing up and down.  I think I could hang out on one, they felt pretty stable when I walked around.  The pontoons we checked out were very high end.  One of them had a second story with a slide.  One of them had a 300HP engine, which is just crazy to me that a pontoon can hit 40-50mph.  The price tags were hefty as well.  One of them was $90,000.  Anything that had a realistic price was used.  We didn't see a single boat priced under $30,000, even used.
    Wife and I did fall in love with one particular boat, a Meridian 441, which had a price tag in the $800,000 range.  It was the first boat we have ever walked on that had a working A/C where it was nice and cool.  It had two big beds plus a sofa in the salon/galley area plus another large padded area on the very top, which was also being air conditioned even though it was enclosed with plastic zippered walls.  There were at least four televisions and even two bathrooms.  This would be the reason I would love to win the lottery some day.  First thing I would buy.  There was a bigger boat in the 50 foot range that was in the $1,000,000 range, but it seemed packed every time we walked by it.  There were a couple big boats with enclosed areas with potential air conditioning that were not running, one was a 2005 SeaRay brand which looked new.  I told Wife it looked reasonable at $169,000 after seeing the other boats and their price tags.
    I got out of the event exactly what I wanted.  We saw the lake, we walked around for a couple hours, there was some live music, free food (well, with a donation), free parking, dreaming about buying a big boat, and even Chubs said wow a couple times.  He has gotten into a habit of complaining of not wanting to go places, then thoroughly enjoying himself.  This was one of those occasions. 

4/23/16 Secret Passages And Using Dead Space?

    I have to admit I have become a bit obsessed with the idea of creating some sort of secret passages in my house.  I got the idea from watching videos on youtube, and I think they could even help save a life some day.  There is also the use of dead space to create a safe place or a hideaway for valuables which I find fascinating.
    The easiest "secret passageway" would be to connect the wall in our bedroom with the closet in the bedroom behind the wall.  The best solution I have come up with I saw from a guy who had a large mirror in his basement which slid on drawer sliders to the side and revealed a hidden "safe room".  I would need to purchase a five feet tall mirror or so, cut out the sheetrock on the wall between two studs, finish the hole in the wall with pieces of 2x4 above and below.  I could place an identical mirror in the closet, or just frame the hole and use a sheet of aluminum as access to a crawl space, it would be in the closet, thus not needing to be so presentable.  I think eventually I would connect the room over to Boy's bedroom, then through his closet over to Chub's closet.  What if there was ever a fire in the front of the house and we didn't have access to the stairway or the main doors to the room?  These passageways would be an alternate way to move around upstairs from location to location.
    The other idea is using the "lost" space under the staircase.  We do have a good sized closet in the normal tall part of the stairs right now.  But I know there is a bunch of space we could also access, our stairs go from the front foyer up about five feet then turn roughly 90 degrees and then go up.  They do the same from the back of the house, these steps meet the landing about five feet up.  I know it sits empty, if I could install a small access door, maybe through the closet, or more fun would be a half size door framed like a hobbit door or something.  If anything, we could use the space to put away jackets or Christmas/Halloween decorations.
    I would also love the idea of a big fifty gun safe sitting under the stair landing, I need to measure if they stay under about five feet tall.  I would have to create an opening in the wall, facing our "formal dining" room and bolt the safe to the ground somehow.  We could then safely protect our weapons cache which consists of what a normal Texan considers his guns.  A little of this, a little of that, maybe a grenade launcher, the keys to my tank that I keep out in the greenbelt.  I also have some diamonds worth millions, a small dash of kryptonite in case Superman gets uppity, oh and my baby teeth go in there for safe keeping.
    The main reason I haven't started tonight is Wife knows I'm an idiot and I might cut holes in the walls and then hang a towel or a Star Wars poster to hide my passages.  It's an old catch-22 with my fine ass lady.  She won't let me buy the power tools I need to do the job right and I can't do the job right without buying the right power tools.  Maybe I hide the power tools under the stairs after I cut a secret opening.  That's it, I just don't tell her, so shhhh, don't tell her about my master plan.

4/22/16 What Is The End Game For All These Weak-Ass Kids Nowadays?

    Wife came home a little disgusted because several of the students she deals with used their conditions to get out of a major exam.  Like I have said, she drives a bus full of students taking classes for ACC at a neighboring town.  These girls were dancing and mingling and generally having a good time in the bus, until they got to their destination and then they all got serious when they started talking about an exam.  Suddenly, one of them has fibromyalgia, and it started flaring up.  Another has arthritis, and the other sciatica.
    I could get into the whole fibromyalgia discussion as I have heard it explained over and over by Dr. Drew.  It is not a real condition, it is usually in the person's head.  Nothing has been found as the source of fibromyalgia pain, such as a bad organ.  It is just a general feeling of hurting all over the body.  I could wake up any day of the week, whine that my back hurts, my legs hurt, my shoulders hurt.... but no, as a contributing member of society, I put on my big boy undies and go on about my day.  Arthritis is a real thing.  Doctors can look at the joints and see degradation and so on, same with sciatica nerve pain, which is the long nerve running down the leg.  Its pain is associated with problems in the spine.  I personally call bullcrap.  The odds of the three people reacting right at the same time, after they have been up all morning, rode a bus, then fifteen minutes before exam time, then they are all in trouble, is infinitely small.  But do go on, this is a great strategy, "when the going gets tough, fake some pain."  Words to live by.
    About as bad as one of our old tenants who was nutty as the day is long.  She had gotten her daughter diagnosed with something related to stress.  The solution is she had a doctors note to carry a Chihuahua dog to help calm her.  I told her, you are making your daughter a weak ass victim of life before she is even a teenager.  Teach her to be strong, teach her to work through problems, uhh no.  She will pet the doggie and instantly the grey clouds will disappear and life will turn around.
    Doctors are scared shitless.  Society let the lawyers win and now they control pretty much anything.  If you are unhappy, sue.  Doctors don't want that, so they cave.  Lawyers could give a shit, they collect 15-30% of whatever you were whining about.  All I see is more weakness invading our society.  I read we are no longer number 1 as far as ranking the countries.  How can we be?  Half the parents want to protect their special children by labeling them special this and that, then society can't move forward if it somehow conflicts with that old book written a couple thousand years ago.  What if Lord Of The Rings had been written two thousand years ago, and someone trying to collect a couple nickels swore it was true.  Most simpletons would believe the one true ring was forged to control them all.

4/21/16 Extra! Extra! Read All About It?

    A couple weeks ago, we got a flyer from Austin American Statesman regarding renewing our old subscription.  Instead of getting the paper daily, we could opt to just get it on Wednesday and Sunday mornings.  For 26 weeks or half a year, it was $56, or thereabouts.  I told Wife it would be cool if I could get the paper again, I did like reading the sports section on the throne.  It made me at least have some light banter for talking to the men in my life, to know what is going on with the Longhorns or to keep up with the Spurs.  If I remember correctly, we stopped because after being stuck at $24/month or so for the longest time, they got greedy and did a couple rate hikes within a year's time.  This after I had noticed the paper itself getting smaller, and it being mostly ads.
    We forgot to order it because it called for a check and a stamp and really, who does that, even the taxes to our dinosaur of a government are paid online now.  I fumbled on the flyer the week after and it did have an email address, so I have ordered it.  We got our first Sunday paper this past weekend.  I went out and got it early, as I remember it getting stolen a time or two, and we do sleep in until noon if nobody bothers us.  Eventually, I came downstairs to drink a cup of coffee while Wife showered, but I brought my laptop down, which I have gotten into the habit if taking it up to bed with me, mostly because this blog is a self inflicted albatross around my neck which I must write every day, and Wife is currently obsessed with Walking Dead and I refuse to watch it.  So she watches her crappy show and I write my crappy blog, and that is how you stay married for 26+ years.  Anyways, as soon as I turn on the laptop, I know the biggest things going on.  There is 24/7 election coverage, oh no, Trump said another insult directed at Mexicans.  The paper can't keep up, I turn on some light music on Youtube, look for anything interesting, check out my porn sites, and I'm ready to get my day started by the time Wife comes downstairs.
    Plus, reading the paper in the potty requires two hands, while checking all my interesting sites on my phone takes one hand and I don't end up with ink on my hands.  What if it turns out that ink causes butt cancer or gonads to hang even lower, touching toilet bowl water that way is no fun. 
    I don't know, there is something romantic about the paper, I remember as a kid, all of us would grab different pieces of the paper and read it, specially on a Sunday morning, with some barbacoa tacos for breakfast, those were the good ole days.  Maybe as we get towards the holidays, I do love me some Christmas ads, or when football season rolls around again.  We're just in a time of the year when everything is blasé. 

4/20/16 Reciprocity, Or You Scratch Mine, I Scratch Yours?

    I was just listening to some of the songs from Chicago, and I love the number from Queen Latifah, who plays Mama (the warden).  The song is titled "When You're Good To Mama, Mama's Good To You", and starts

Ask any of the chickies in my pen

they'll tell you I'm the biggest mother hen

I love them all and all of them love me

because the system works

the system called reciprocity

    Is this such a bad system to live by?  I do for you, you do for me.  How come when it is an exchange between a man and a woman, the woman can be left feeling like a whore?  How come money seems to have a reduced benefit in this bartering system?  I have always been overly generous, with my time and money.  I've helped out friends more than anyone has really helped me, luckily, I've always been in a better position, mostly thanks to my family, early in life.

    Take one of my roommates in college.  I had a truck, he did not.  I never made it a big deal, I was always ready to accommodate his schedule, he gave me for gas, but really, when you drive, you're a taxi, but anyways.  His last semester, he finally got a car, and the one time he was going to drive me back home, well, he was in a hurry, he couldn't wait for me to get out of my lab in the evening.  I drove him around for 2.5 years, I don't think I even rode in his car once.

    How about all of Boy's friends.  I don't know if Del Valle is allergic to men who marry and stay married, but 99% of his friends had the single mama trying to make it on her own.  I played daddy or at least yelled at those boys and made them a tad better human beings just by being around me.  I got a thanks here and there, but how about a cake, make a dinner in my honor?  An offer of a bj would at least prove you care.  What, I take your kids all over the country, you can't show me a boob, I say boo!

    The examples are endless, I do for people, they say thanks, then disappear.  I should just stop being Mr. Nice Guy, as I am seeing the meek shall inherit squat.  It is time for some neck tattoos and a bad attitude, scare the freeloaders away.  If you want something from me, "what you got, that a feller might want?"

    I totally feel this song:

they say that life is tit for tat

and that's the way I live

so I deserve a lot of tat

for what I got to give

4/19/16 Who Is The Bigger A-hole?

    Today (Monday) was a weird day.  First of all, there was a late start for all the AISD kids, so Chubs was home until about 9:30am.  Wife had the day off because today was a bad weather make up day, which was perfect as there was flooding here and there, thanks to the sporadic rain we saw.  We were having an ok afternoon, we got up around noon, got dressed, and even met a friend for lunch at Don Dario's, which is tex-mex food, and I felt like eating some barbacoa tacos.  It drizzled on us for a bit on and off, but nothing too crazy.  After we ate, we went home, our friend (Girlie's mom) hung out for a bit, tried the watermelon, which who knew watermelon could be so sweet this early in the season, then she went on her way to pick up her kids, and we headed to pick up our Chubs.
    This is where I encountered a most special Princess, few of us can hope to be as blessed as she must be.  The traffic must part open and let this rare damsel fly by as if us peons do not exist.  There are two lanes in the pick-up area to get our kids.  The one closest to the school, of course is used by parents that need to get off and go inside, everyone knows that.  I was tempted to go all the way up and park in front of the car the furthest up, mostly because people are generally stupid, and I hate getting blocked in, plus I usually get off to say hi to the crossing guard while Chubs makes his way out.  Anyways, I am parked behind a mama who decides to clean her car there, which fine, she is not hurting anyone, but all of a sudden the Queen of Austin shows up, stops on the outside lane, and proceeds to get off.  I start thinking "goddammit if she drags ass..."  But Wife has gotten off a minute sooner and Wife can be distracted by any teacher and she can get drawn into a long conversation so I sit and fume.  Of course, a truck from behind comes up and lines up behind Her Majesty's chariot.  Then another car, Wife shows up and I want to get out and we are trapped hard.  I honk, figuring if she was coming back she might 2-step it and hurry, but what do assholes do?  She walks slower, the cars keep coming behind us, I lay on the horn and start screaming in the cab of my truck, I would have been more patient but she is sitting in her car and now she is smelling the weeds her kid has cut.  She gets off to tell me not to honk at her, I instinctively yell at her to "get your ass back in your car and move!!"  she goes another round about me cussing, I have lost it at this point, have my door and window open and I yell "move your shit now, you're making everybody wait, what the fuck!!!"  She gets in her car and drives, still slow, but we finally moved.
    Fine, I could be seen as the impatient asshole, but does she not deserve some credit for being a selfish human?  There are parking spots lining the two lanes, she could pull into those.  What makes her special that she can make us all wait on her time?  I am generally very laid back there, I always pick up Chubs at or after three, so the teachers have all gone back inside, but I can't stand to be blocked in, I get that trapped feeling, and I can and do often loose my shit. 

4/18/16 Anticipation, Making Things Better Or Worse?

    Anticipation is everywhere with us simple humans, it is the act of expecting or foreseeing something.  We can't help it, it is part of our thinking mechanism.  This weekend, for example, we are expecting rain.  I talked to my mom yesterday and she said they were going to come up to visit, but we expecting a lot of rain, the equivalent of two months worth of rain over the weekend (I don't know what that means in Texas where we go three months without rain, sometimes).  I am writing this Sunday afternoon, around 1:00pm, and so far it has showered on and off, but nothing to get excited about.  It rarely gets ugly here where we live, we don't have low water crossings, so rain rarely affects me, other than making me wash my truck afterwards.  It does get bad in San Antonio, and that is why my folks get squirrelly and hesitate anytime the weather is iffy as they have to drive through there.
    Another type of anticipation that I or maybe we like to romanticize is waiting to go on vacation.  We have now gone to Disney in Florida about seven times, so I know pretty much what will go down.  I know my dad will lose his patience and hit the exit halfway through the day so he can go smoke.  I know I won't be able to sleep enough the whole ten days we are up there, because I never do.  I know I am really looking forward to going to downtown Disney where all the shopping is, but we won't spend quite enough time there to take it all in.  They have live music all over the place, little snack things to try, but we always run through.  I love the whole thing but I spend months thinking about it, and that week that we're there just flies by.
    How about the anticipation of the end of the school year?  I still get excited when May rolls around.  Why?  My fat ass works year round, I don't get summers off.  I do love my boys home relaxing for awhile, and Wife being able to take a couple months off from her job, even if she stays busy with extra work.  It is much more relaxed during the summer, no one rushing in the morning to get to school, everyone here at the house flips their schedule and becomes semi-nocturnal, so they go to sleep and wake up almost aligned with me, their choice, I don't force anyone to do anything.  I know by August, Chubs will be dying of anticipation as he will be starting in a new school, so there will be the fear and excitement of getting to know a whole new world.
    Christmas Eve is the best example of anticipation I can think of, though.  Watching both boys work on their Christmas lists when they were younger, the thought of them getting something from Santa that they wouldn't expect.  We are pretty much given a window, from the day after Thanksgiving, until Christmas Day to make some magic happen for our loved ones.  I may not experience Santa personally, but I still feel warm and fuzzy making my loved ones happy. 
    I guess anticipation gives things energy, makes them more alive.  By thinking about things like Christmas for a month, it becomes a bigger thing.  I believe that is why Christmas is the premier holiday.  No one loses sleep thinking about Arbor Day (maybe a tree hugger), but I can think back to when I was young and trying to figure out how I could catch Santa in the act.  Since I like to be positive, I will say anticipation makes things better.  Usually, the rain doesn't live up to the fear the weathermen give us, and that's good.  Maybe a vacation should happen in a hurry, we wouldn't want to go thinking that moving permanently to Florida is a good idea, it is called that armpit of America for a reason.

4/17/16 Girlie Moved Out?

    Two weeks ago, Girlie asked if she could stay with us for a couple weeks.  Her lease with her aunt had ended, and she was going to move in with her folks in a couple weeks when their place was ready.  Her folks have been staying with an aunt which is fine, if not super crowded.  After coming back from South Carolina, they were a little shocked to see how much prices have escalated here, but ultimately found a 4 bedroom apartment for $1400/month.
    Yesterday, she was telling me how much she loves living in our house.  It is quiet, there aren't a bunch of kids running around screaming.  She gets home after work and Wife has made dinner and she cooks great stuff.  She loves the bed, saying it is so comfortable I sat here when I got home from work and I haven't gotten up, I haven't even changed.  She said the last mattress she was sleeping on belonged to her cousin and it felt like sleeping on cardboard over springs.  Then Wife was showing her how to use the remote to pull up shows "on demand" which was just blowing her mind.
    The guest room downstairs is full of her stuff.  This is the second time she has stayed with us.  About two years ago she stayed with us for almost two months, after her folks had moved out of state and before her aunt was ready with the place they stayed at.  She has always been comfortable with us, and even all the way back to high school, she would walk over here (because we are about across the street from the area high school) and if she brought new friends introduce us to her friends as her aunt and uncle.
    We actually have two empty "guest rooms", so having her stay with us would be no problem, but people need to pay rent, and our going rate is too rich for her.  My brother stayed with us and he paid $600 which we deemed fair, looking at how much he used to pay for rent ($400), then light, internet,  washer/dryer, Wife provided some dinners, and whatever other extras.  She was paying $350 with her aunt, which was so low because they were splitting the rent by like 5 people, even if they all didn't have their own rooms.
    I have never understood that, as I have always had my own room.  I insist my boys not share their bedroom situation ever.  Boy moved out, but I only ok'd it when he said he would have his own room and bathroom.  He is currently looking for a new place for next year, and I say he needs to have his own room.  We need privacy at times throughout the day, and the only way to guarantee that is by having your own room.
    We shall see if this arrangement works for them.  They are already talking about moving somewhere else in a couple years, which Girlie said she would go with them next time.  I find it exhausting to live this way.  If you don't put roots down, you never have stability.  As much as it sounds exciting to live here and there, I will hold my ground and be a rock for my family, as long as I am needed.

4/16/16 Some BBQ For The Lady?

    Friday was as close to perfect as Central Texas can give you, weather wise.  I picked up Chubs and rushed over to our dentist in Southpark Meadows only to find out that is not where we had his appointment today.  I had called them to let them know we changed insurance and our current carrier is supposed to still be good, after they called that my insurance was not going to be active.  The lady up front was surprised to see us, but they were very pleasant and asked about how Boy's crown was going?  I said it was fine and then I remembered Chubs sees a pediatric dentist who knocks him out to do work in his mouth.  I had called him the day before, but I called Wife to explain the confusion, she said "oh yeah, they called in the morning, don't worry, they rescheduled for next month."  This was not going to dampen our spirits, the dentist is next door to Dunkin Donuts, and Chubs was dying to go in and have a chai tea he has had before.  I said fine, and we went in and hung out for a bit.  While we sat there, we decided to go walk around Best Buy to burn some time and wait for mama.
    Wife finally texted around 5:00pm that she was on her way, and she was urging for some Cooper's Old Time Pit BBQ.  We have been dieting hard core, but this sounded like a great idea.  As we were deciding this was a great idea and to pick up Boy on way to New Braunfels, Boy actually got home with his basket of dirty clothes and backpack full of homework.  I fully expected him to say he was busy, but he said it sounded good and he was hungry.  Wife was home at 6:00pm and we promptly got on our way.  We got going as part of the rush hour leaving south on I-35, and even if I was excited and Wife was full of storyline from her office, I started fading in the setting sun.  Luckily, we stopped in a random gas station in San Marcos, I got a tea, and some Mexican candy consisting of mango in chile and salt, and also a bag of small almonds.  The mango was super spicy and it seemed to help me loose my sleepiness.  Cooper's was busy, but the line was moving fairly fast and their dining area is very big.  We ate as much as we wanted, and even bought a little more to bring back home.
    We then had about an hour to go shopping, looking around.  There is a new shopping area by the Buc-ee's in New Braunfels, and Wife likes looking at the nick-knacks at Charming Charlie's.  We walked around and were quickly disgusted by the swarms of young kids walking around cussing and acting like bad-asses.  Most of these were middle school girl "gangs" yelling to each other obscenities which just made me think "y'all are stupid."  Just when I had decided the Mexican kids around here suck, plenty of white kids were out over by the Target being just as ignorant and dumb in english.  Wife said they were even throwing carts from Target down to roll away.  The night was still nice and we were able to walk through these gangs easy enough because they were little girls.  I told Wife this place needs an old van with "free candy" parked out here to make the stupid parents wake up and gather their kids.  For some reason they have all decided it is ok to let their kids roam freely and annoy the shoppers out here.  Nothing a friendly neighborhood rapist/kidnapper to clean up the wanna be ghetto behavior.
    We made a final stop at Buc-ee's, filled up with gas, went potty, and drove home.  Well, I drove to San Marcos, got sleepy, switched with Wife and she drove us the rest of the way.

4/15/16 Time Stops For No Man?

    Funny how it seems like only yesterday Wife and I were discussing this coming school year when she would be driving a bus on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She worked a lot longer than she thought that she would for her CDL but she finally got it.  Now we're sitting discussing the real possibility that she won't be driving it next year.  She should have never been assigned the responsibility, really, who takes someone with an administrator background and a Master's degree and assigns them to drive a bus?  Anyways, now we are sitting at the tail end of the school year and discussing she only has a handful of times she might drive those students.  I think it's cute that they call her Miss Bus Driver.
    The same thing goes for Boy, last year I shed a tear or two when he "moved out".  He really does get on my nerves sometimes, but I like him at home where we can keep an eye on him and make sure he is eating and sleeping accordingly (I think these are the reasons for his feelings lately, btw).  The year was over before we knew it and he came back home for the summer, where I promptly started looking at the calendar after I noticed he doesn't do much around the house.  This fall was much easier and this spring even more so.  He comes back on the weekends, asks for ridiculous stuff, like lately he wants a new Jeep with 4x4 because they go a lot of places.  That is his reasoning.  I miss him and I don't.  But we are counting down, he'll be back for the summer in a couple more weeks.
    Chubs cried and argued that he didn't want to move last year, yet we are a month and a half from him finishing at this school and then he will still have to move to another school.  I remember just like a couple months ago dropping him off for kindergarten, and waiting there under a roof every day, getting to know a couple other parents.  Now he's one the big kids and this week he has been in charge of putting the US and Texas flags away, taking great pride in them not touching the ground.
    I consider myself the backbone of this family, and here I am, still working in the same campus I walked on over twenty years ago (Nov 25, 1995).  My company has changed names three times, and my job description has changed about that many times, but I have been here, providing for my people like a father should.  I almost wish there was a "how- to- book" on living life.  Are we living it correctly?  Some people don't have as much, but seem to have all sorts of free time to enjoy themselves.  Other people seem to do nothing but party and enjoy themselves.  What is the goal for us?  I would hate to find out that getting our kids so educated is not the main goal.  Preparing them for a successful adulthood has to be one of the "yes" things to do and get done.

4/14/16 Four Wheel Driving, Where?

    I got a cute text from Boy tonight.  It simply said "I need 4x4 just fyi."  This from Mr. I Don't Text All Week, You'll See Me Friday.  I asked why and of course in typical fashion nothing but crickets.  I then went on Autotrader.com and pulled up one of the most gaudiest, overpriced, 4x4 Jeeps you could find and sent him a picture.  Of course he liked that.  He comes backk with "Can we get that now?"  No, Silly Boy, that example was $88,888.  Then I put the challenge on him, "Can you come up with $3000, for a down payment?  I'm thinking maybe since he is working and going to school, sometimes there are deals to get students into newer vehicles.  I say yeah, for a down payment.  He is still stuck on "that one?"  I repeat no, something cheaper, in the $20,000 range.
    I then repeat why do you need 4x4?  And his response is perfect, for him.  "Well we travel, a lot."  I say yeah, but everywhere you go is paved.  Texas is pretty much completely bought up.  There are no places where you can go and do some mudding or anything "manly" you would do if you lived in a Jeep commercial.  He is not done, saying it doesn't have to be a Jeep, he just really wants 4x4.  I say you still haven't giving me a great reason what for.  He says he went out today to look at a house they are considering renting for next Fall school year and they turned the wrong way and he entered a muddy road in which he got stuck.
    I'm sorry, but when he started driving, I offered him my F-250 King Ranch which was the perfect truck for me at the time, with 4x4.  He wouldn't drive it no matter what I offered.  He just kept saying it was too big.  Here we are now, two years later, has a little experience driving, now thinks he's ready for an upgrade.  Sorry Boy, but I can't do it.  My new truck has 4x4, and I probably will never use it.  I wanted the lifted part and the leather part, so you just gotta accept them as they come, which most of the nice Lariat, King Ranch, and or Platinum series are going to be 4x4.
    The one time I did use it was on the beach in Corpus Christi, with the King Ranch one.  We got on the beach, I set it to on, and the ride from one dune entrance to the next dune entrance was rough, specially turning the wheel.  All the wheels spin at the same rate, and something about the outer wheel on a turn versus the inner wheel makes it kind of hop and scrape on the rubber.  I understand the rickety motion, but I just did not appreciate it.
    I got off the beach as fast as I could, and figured we'll just park in the designated parking lots with the asphalt and we'll be alright.  It is like a gun, I hope I never need it, but it is nice to know I have one at my disposal.  I feel like I should carry some tow rope or something.  If I ever have to save somebody and be a hero, I should be ready and packing the necessary tools.  I should probably practice driving in 4x4 mode, anybody know a place?  Maybe I'll go drive my truck down the road he got stuck in, see how I handle it.

4/13/16 What Do We Do If It's Going To Get Worse?

    I listened to a video with Ron Paul declaring that the US is headed for another recession soon.  He was talking about how the solution for the last recession in 2008-09 was kind of salvaged by the US gov't just printing money and giving it to the banks.  Apparently, our currency is no longer supported by gold, and that has been the case for at least 40 years.  The whole thing was very doom and gloom.  It explains how because of inflation, our money is not worth what it was worth in the past. 
    I was then discussing it with a coworker here and he seems to already know all this stuff.  Is everyone aware that things are so bad all around?  I live in a pretty small bubble where I interact with few people.  My family is good, we all have degrees which have helped us in different ways to accomplish pretty comfortable lives.  Nothing is guaranteed, I could lose my job tomorrow, but I figure worse case scenario, I could always become a teacher.  I then brought up this fact to my buddy I was discussing with, and my conclusion is that I can't end up worse than some of the other people I know who don't own anything.  He says that the beauty of our system is they will come through unscathed because they don't own anything.  The gov't can't go after them.  The people that will get ruined are the middle class because we have just enough that the gov't can try to take away a little bit more.
    What I want to know is fine, what do we do in this coming doom and gloom?  I ask about buying gold, it seems to be the standard, but then what?  It's not like I can buy a gold brick and solve all my problems.  Should we run off into the country and become farmers, move to Alaska like the Kilchers from yesterday's blog?  If one was to buy a bunch of gold and the country dissolves, you'll get shot that much quicker for your gold.  Should we arm ourselves?  That seems very primitive thinking to me, and I hate that there is a scenario where that is the best solution, but we are animals, after all.
    I can't imagine society breaking down.  If it started looking that way, I guess we'd take our RV and head back to the small town I came from, no reason to stay in the big city and get killed by strangers for a couple nickels.  But then what?  Life has to continue, we can't live in a permanent state of panic and fear, that is not living.  Another recession may indeed come, but like everything else, it will pass.  Nothing lasts forever, people will continue to do what people do.  I believe people are mostly good, maybe we need to shake the tree and get rid of a few bad apples, but overall we need to have trust in our fellow man, and together we'll get through the turbulent times.

4/12/16 Alaska: The Last Frontier, Are They Smarter Than All Of Us?

    I have been binge watching Alaska: The Last Frontier over the last couple weeks and I like what I see.  The show follows the Kilchers, Otto being the patriarch, but his brother Atz also is an important member.  In reality, this type of living works because they all contribute to the workload of making for the 8-9 months they are living below freezing.  The narrator constantly tells us they have roughly 4 months to do as much as possible outside between seasons of terrible coldness.
    Otto spends his days tending to his cows and making their life better by building contraptions which are supposed to make things cleaner and better.  One of those is a milking station, to try and get milk from the cows before pieces of mud and or poop fall in the bucket.  The latest one was building a feeding station so the precious grass that they grow and save for the winter months doesn't all get trampled and become part of the muddy goo the cows walk on.
    Atz seems to spend his time out with the cows "range riding", protecting the cows from wolves and bears.  Atz Lee is one of his sons married to Jane who came from the city.  She is not new to a lot of what is going on, but she does like to fish, and is proud of her skills bringing in more than 300 pounds of fish a year for the family.  An interesting sidenote, Jewel, the singer, is one of Atz daughters.  She is not involved with the show, but it is cool to know these are the people she grew up with.  Otto, also has a couple sons, Eivin has the biggest presence on the show.  He is married to Eve who had a son in season four.  Him and Atz Lee roam around helping where needed, going off usually on hunts for meat.  Eve stays home tending to their garden and their flock of chickens, ducks, and even turkeys.  They mostly get eggs from them, but if the bird stops being productive, then they chop off its head and the bird becomes a meal.
    They live in a miserable place when it is cold, but if they have prepared well, they are basically indoors with their family and that can't be all bad.  I ask if they are smarter because they work for themselves, they depend on each other, living as homesteaders they don't waste much.  In a perfect world, I wouldn't mind a scenario where we had a few hundred acres at our disposal.  I like that they get to not only eat cow and chicken, but bear is regularly on their menu, even octopus and clams are items they go after.
    I read that in reality, they are actually well off, and that is good, but I don't see them flashing money to solve problems.  If they need to build something, they figure it out.  I just don't think I could handle the months locked in the house, due to the weather.

4/11/16 Busy Awesome Weekend?

    I went into the weekend worried I wouldn't be able to keep up the faster pace we have started.  At work, there is a natural flow which allows me to walk.  At home, it just seems hard to justify going for a walk.  We went to the mall Friday, looking for Luggage, but we didn't decide on anything. 
    Saturday, Wife was doing another work thing.  I got up around 2:00pm, and even though I didn't want to forced myself to go take care of the hot tub and its green water.  Hunkering down with a big bucket, I emptied most of it in 20 min or so.  I then spent another half hour scrubbing, letting it fill some more then using the bucket to empty it out again.  I did this about four times until the water stopped looking green and dirty.  This was some vigorous work that left my lower back stiff and hurting the next day when I woke up.  After doing all that cleaning, Wife got home, and we went for a drive to the outlet malls in San Marcos.  We saw luggage we not only liked, but we thought was awesome.  American Tourister has a new line of hard shelled bags in the chapes of Star Wars characters.  We couldn't help ourselves, we bought a large ~28inch R2D2 bag for Wife, a small 21inch R2D2 and another small 21 inch Darth Vader for Boy.  I insisted on my Victorinox bag, but they were cheaper than at the mall.
    Sunday was a slow starting day.  It didn't seem we were going to complete my goals of getting the pool pump working.  We headed out to Lowe's to buy hot tub chemicals, and other house stuff, but I really wanted to look at their paint as we are thinking of painting the interior of the house over the next few months.  We got back home and I started promptly cutting the grass and trimming the front.  I was hesitating changing of the pool pump because the area was covered in fire ants.  Before we left the house, I dumped a bunch of ant killer over the area which seemed to help as I didn't get bit once.
    I was then able to hook up the pool pump and get it running while I also cleaned and lit the grill.  Just for fun, we also picked up all the palm leaves, which had hid a snake from me a couple weeks ago.  I can run the pool pump and filter now, hopefully, beat the city before they start calling that my pool is a nuisance again like they did last year. 
    This is all on top of being on a high from being on this diet that is really working for us.  I started two weeks ago at 409, I am down to 395.  Chubs was at 226 and is back down to 219.  Wife is having equal success, you know women don't like to discuss real numbers.  The best part is that we are still eating normal food.  We went Saturday night after we finished shopping at the Outlet mall and ate at Outback, even had wings and a blooming onion as appetizers.  Sunday night was BBQ in the backyard, and that is about the healthiest way to heat up meat as far as calories.  I am trying to tackle all my chores with the idea that they are exercise, hopefully the yard stays cut all summer as I keep up the diet.  I am hoping to tackle my next project, which is getting the boat running, so we can go hang out at the lake.

4/10/16 Slowing Down Is Changing My Perspective?

    We have been dieting for going on two weeks, and I finally bought in and really want to see some change.  Yesterday, Chubs and I went and did our now becoming familiar routine of going to get snack stuff for his Friday sleepover, but he didn't really want junk food.  I spent some time looking for stuff I can eat that isn't high in calories but still enjoyable.  The easiest food to eat while dieting, for me, is tuna.  Tuna is mostly protein, very little fat, and no carbs.  I bought a bunch of those little vacuum baggies, and even got some salmon ones to try.  Wife wanted some diet green teas and I went overboard getting two cases of that along with some diet Snapple twelve packs.
    We then waited for Wife to get home, and we were going to go eat something, probably at the food court, but she had to finish something on the computer for work, so I sat and decided I would have a taste of my tuna, the pack said only 80 calories.  I opened it, and took some chips laying there, which added another 100 calories, one of the diet Snapples, an apple and an orange turned it all into a meal.  Before long, Chubs was eating something similar, and even Wife did the same thing.  We turned what would have cost easily over $30 at the food court and added over 1000 calories to each of us into a probably $10 expense and less than 500 calories for each of us.  We then headed to the mall, I was on my quest to go get the expensive luggage I had talked about yesterday, so I didn't even park at our usual spot.  I parked right outside Macy's, since I knew what I was there for.
    They had a huge area compared to Dillard's, and many different brands, but of course, I wanted the Victorinox name.  Wife ran off to the pretty bags, Chubs ran off to the shiny bags, and I found my name brand.  I about choked at the price, the standard 21" bag everyone uses was $370.  Wife wanted a larger size, so it would have been over $450.  Plus we talked of a smaller bag for all our toiletries and Chubs was going to get his own and that would have been another 21" bag at $370.  I wanted four and possibly five bags, but I didn't want the over $1200 cost.
    Wife tried getting me looking at the other brands, which is hard for me.  I am an idiot when it comes to name brands, on certain things, specially like this, where one may only buy them once ir twice in a lifetime.  I thought the blue color of the name brand really popped, but then Samsonite, another big name in bags, also had a blue set and this blue was prettier and shinier than the Victorinox, not to mention, like half the cost.  Suddenly, I was doing the math, and the four bags I was contemplating were going to be around $500.  A lot of money, but much more reasonable.  Chubs started fidgeting at this point, we went and got him a bubble tea, and before I knew it, we killed too much time at Spencer's plus his friend who was coming over for the sleepover called.  I decided I didn't want to rush into a purchase, so I left a little butthurt, but not poorer.
    As we left, Wife thought I was mad at her, but really, I was adding it up in my head.  Why spend a bunch of money?  We have our old Samsonite giant luggage bag, plus the cheapy ones from Disney might give us another year.  Maybe we just need a good new toiletry bag, that is the one with the torn liner and being the smallest size, it would be real cheap to just replace that one.
    So slowing down saved me some calories, which will help at weigh-in come Sunday, I am already seeing real pleasing results just from using this diet app for a week.  Plus taking a step back might have saved me $1000 I don't need to be spending.  We shall see, stuff like this rattles in my head until I solve it, so we might go back today and do the whole dance over again.

4/9/16 Who Do You Blame When A Kid Is Getting Bullied?

    Wife was talking to the parent's of one of Chub's buddies.  She let on how her older kid is having a hard time since he moved to middle school.  There is a group of kids that get in his face and I guess for lack of another word are bullying him.  The kid has brought it up to the counselor a couple times and he was hesitating but finally told his parents.  His mom went and asked the principal what was going to be done about it, and the principal seemed confused and his solution was to move the kid being bullied to a different class.  This is the second time I hear of a situation where a kid is being bullied and the solution is to remove the bullied kid?  Why?  The asshole bullies should be getting displaced, preferably to alternative schools where they can bully on other bullies who aren't really interested in the whole learning process.
    Back when Boy was in Elementary school, probably second grade,  I would go pick him up every day, and since it was before 9/11, I could walk all the way up to his class and wait right outside.  At one point, he said a couple of kids were giving him a hard time, eventually he pointed them out, and one day while the teacher was lining them up I eyeballed them and said something rough but without curse words like "why the hell are you messing with Boy?"  The kids reacted like they didn't know what to do, and he never really had problems after that.  I guess I was the bully in that scenario, but Boy was a little space cadet when he was little, he didn't bother anyone, he would rather chase bugs, than mess with other boys.
    Chubs had a kid trying to mess with him in one of the after school programs he is involved in, but he handled him beautifully.  The kid was saying that Chubs was the biggest kid around so he had to beat him up to be considered tough.  Chubs said he was a tiny kid, and he kind of bounced him against the wall a couple times, in a kind of trip him and push him towards the wall.  Chubs had another buddy in the class who likes to fight and he kept telling the kid "I'm bigger and I'll kick your butt."  Not sure if he did it to defend Chubs and get the kid off of him or he just likes to throw down, but the kid has been over to the house, and I am hoping he sticks around.  It's nice to have your own toughie when you need him, but I also loved that Chubs handled his business.  He was also telling the teacher what was going on, he has no problem being a snitch, which we say good, because if he gets into a fight it is only going to be because he was provoked.  We told him we will defend him quickly, no piece of shit kid is going to ruin his school experience, so use your size and punch away if someone wants to mess with you. 
    Really, the blame falls on our shitty society.  Everybody wants to think they are special and unique, men aren't being men.  They impregnate stupid/naïve girls who then try to raise babies when they aren't capable of raising hamsters.  Eventually, the neighborhood is parenting the kid more than mama and that is where the problems start.  Kids don't learn to talk through differences, they learn bigger kid on the block rules.  Only way to be on top is to be the biggest shit around.  Kids like this never even understand there is a whole bigger world than their zip code.  We need to start accepting that not everyone is striving to grow up and go to college.  There is a huge population that use school as a daycare, college is just a fantasy for many.  Somewhere in junior high, we should be separating the student populations.  If school is just a nuisance, fine, learn a craft, and get out of the system and start making money.  Leave the confines of learning for those that appreciate the nuance between their, there, and they're.

4/8/16 Do We Buy Quality Or Save Some Money?

    Boy asked when we were going to buy some decent luggage after he saw us loaded going to my Mom's house.  I fully had the idea to get all of us a top of the line Victorinox luggage to match our clothing choices.  I only got as far as Boy, and even the bag that was perfect in high school, does not fit him today.  Back when I thought I was going to buy one of each size bag, I started with the suitbag for him.  In high school, he took suits to school, 90% of the time.  We encouraged it, as I liked him dressing nice, if not a little weird for a high school kid.  Now in college, he has started dressing accordingly, which means beat up pants, and Affliction shirts.  He also likes the cowboy shirts with the pearl snaps for buttons and one type of boot or another.
    We went this weekend to Dillard's and we were going to buy something in luggage form, but the salesman would not give us a minute to breath.  He was all in our personal space and going out of his way to make sure we noticed every nuance in the bags.  His biggest mistake was when I mentioned my son already had a Victorinox bag, he said, oh yeah, that is a nicer bag than anything we have here.  He might as well have patted us on the back and said thank you for wasting everyone's time.  How can I buy inferior bags now?
    We are a couple months away from the summer, and I think Wife will go for it, as she is excited for the upcoming trip.  Our current travel bags are some cheapy ones we got for like $20, when you spend $100 at Disney.  The inner liner is torn, and some of the handles are starting to get loose.  We keep using them because they just go in our car and nobody really sees them.  I want to have bags I would be proud to take on a weekend to Vegas, someday, or even a cruise on a cruise line to Mexico.
    If the sales guy had not come all bull in a china shop on us, we might have bought some of the cheaper bags.  Wife is kind of a hippy in that she likes stuff that looks crappy.  I would rather have a leather bag costing $1000, where she would opt for some cheap cloth bag because it had a pretty color pattern on the outside.  Reba (the musician?), has a line of bags, and they are colorful, and Wife was drawn to them instantly, sales guy comes in saying I would stand behind every bag here, except the Reba line.  We've had a couple returns and they just don't seem as robust as some of the other brands.
    I don't know though.  The price on those Reba bags was in the $100s, the Victorinox bags are going to be more like $300 per bag.  Curious to see where we end up.  I did buy a leather bag for traveling once, but I filled it so tight, the zipper gave way.  I managed to return it, after paying like $500, you expect stuff to stay intact.  Wife might use this to get me into some more cheap shit.

4/7/16 My Fitness Pal, New Favorite App?

    I have been out of control since last summer, like I've been waiting to be put on the diabetes list, eating sweets like it's the last time I will.  Wife found this app she has been using on her phone.  It keeps track of what you eat and what exercises you are doing.  It seems to be great, so far.  I'm not usually impressed by things, but she took my phone entered my initial weight (409) as of 1.5 weeks ago.  It determined I need 2400 calories a day.  It can go up, depending on exercise effort.  The goal, to me, is to leave calories unused, which is theoretically the weight you are cutting off.  This in itself was a huge wake-up call, suddenly everything I put in my mouth has a list of calories and fat and sugar.  I love the fact that every day is a plot point on a chart.  I can go back and look at what I am eating.
    I am not changing drastically what we eat right now.  Yesterday, we had lunch at Fuddrucker's, today, Wife and I ate at Rosa's Tortilla Factory.  The app recognizes the restaurants and for example, the nachos I had with beef and cheese have 709 calories.  This is a good amount of calories, but to make sure I don't surpass my limit, I went in to work and walked a mile, which adds 245 calories back to the beginning total.  For dinner, I still have 1600 calories I can use, but Wife bought some salmon which says it has less than 500 calories with broccoli on the side.
    I don't know if I will eat anything else, but I should be leaving another 1000 calories on the table, which is starting to look good.  I am re-motivated to walk, I had been walking 4 miles a night at work about a year ago.  I am back up to three.  Since Wife has been on app longer, she says after awhile it will reconfigure and reduce the calories you can have per day, since with time, you are a smaller person, if it is working.  I feel like I have been awoken, finally.  Knowing all the junk food we have laying around the house will affect the numbers negatively, I don't dare start cleaning out the candy bowl, and I haven't felt like I am missing out.  Wife had a simple goal of us losing 10 pounds before we go to Disney here in June.  I have already lost 10 lbs in a week and a half of paying attention to what I ingest.
    I know I have to stay focused because as fast as I can swing in one direction, I could also sit over one weekend and put on 20 pounds, it seems that is how I ended up here on the north side of a 54 inch waist and over 400pounds.  I would love to get into some size 48 waist shorts during the summer, and possibly back down to a 42 by next summer, if at all possible.  Right now, all I can do is say thanks Wife, that app might be the real deal.

4/6/16 Not Sure If Louie Was A Comedy?

    I just finished watching the fifth season of Louie, starring Louie CK, a red headed balding comedian.  I enjoyed the first season, but it got progressively sadder or more depressing.  I am not sure if he just wanted to keep it real, or if this is his idea of comedy.  He spent a long time exploring some things that did not make sense and others he shoe horned in, when he should've spent time exploring them.  In the 3rd or fourth season there was a six episode arc involving a Hungarian lady in his building he falls in love with.  It's fine, except she doesn't talk English, so the episodes are frustrating in that they can't really communicate.
    Another confusing part was why a comedy has to have multiple deaths and disfigurements.  Parker Posey comes out as a love interest, she is obviously nuts, but harmless, she is in and out for 2-3 episodes, then all of a sudden he randomly encounters her in a city bus, she starts convulsing, on New Year's Eve, and he goes with her to the hospital where she finds out she has a rare condition and dies before the next commercial break.  The last episode of season 5 has him sharing a condo with another comedian who is attempting to take a crap in the upper part of the toilet because Louie is vomiting in the toilet bowl, and the comedian falls and cracks his head and dies.  This after talking about having three kids and being a good father.  He routinely bangs women who feel sorry for him or who fall into his lap, "accidentally".  One of these is a super rich lady played by the beautiful Yvonne Strahovski (hot blond from Chuck), after they do it, she decides to tickle him for whatever reason he says stop and again "accidentally" throws his elbow back and breaks her nose, disfiguring her. 
    The best episodes are the ones with Pamela Adlon, she keeps him grounded in reality.  She never quite plays nice with him, as she constantly plays ballbuster, but she really seems to be into him, at least for awhile.  It makes no sense how people move in and out of his life so easily.
    The other big mystery is his girls, standard cute little white girls.  For the first two seasons we just hear the ex wife's voice on the phone, until she enters in the third season and suddenly she is just standing there like she was part of the crew from day one.  She is fine, except that she is black.  Why aren't the little girls at least a touch mixed?  He explains it away that her mom was white.  Even the character played by Pamela Adlon says "what is going on there?"  Those kids did not come out of that vagina, sorry Louie. 
    No questioning, Louie loves his girls, and that relationship is pretty good throughout the show, but some of the assholes who come out, I'm glad do not come out more than once.  The little fat kid some mom leaves with him and he takes a shit in the tub among other horrible things.  The niece who just walks off when the mom leaves, he is left chasing after her, very annoying.  The random girl that beats him up for no reason, the bully teenager who he follows to his house only to watch his dad beat the crap out of him.  His agent who appears to be 16, and owns only one expression.  Why doesn't he fire him and get a better one?

4/5/16 Exploring On A Sunday Afternoon?

    We had a lovely Sunday this weekend.  After wasting Saturday waiting for Wife to get back from her campus tour, we had a few hours in the afternoon which we used to go find Boy some shirts.  I don't think he was really looking though, which is the part that bothers me.  Sunday was just Wife, Chubs and me.  I don't like what is going on with Barton, I guess it is the only mall left, but malls aren't for (as Ben Affleck said in Mallrats to tie it to yesterday's blog) freaking mallrats.  Go about your commerce and get out of there.  It is not the local hangout to meet your troublemaker friends or to go looking for trouble.  On one end of the mall, a group of teenage boys was running up the down escalator, great we'll wait while you all act the fool.  Like I've said no one likes a group of teenage boys together, they're likely to be rude and looking for something to prove to their friends how tough they are.  Another one was a dude covered in tattoos, even his eyebrows were words tattooed in.  I don't want to stare at an idiot like that, but if I see words I read them, I got in that I'm staring at your eyebrows because I'm trying to read the message, he was already eyeballing with the "fuck do you want?"  If you go write shit on your face, why act surprised when people look at it?  Isn't that why you did it? 
    Anyways, this and other circumstances have me considering my mall options.  Today we headed out to Bee Caves, I had seen a Dillard's behind some other stores and I have never seen a Dillard's exist outside of a mall.  I bought some shirts and underwear, and the lady said it was a mall, but more like the Domain, an outside mall.  We then drove right down the middle, there were a lot of stores we didn't recognize, but it looked pricey.  We left as Wife's family called that they were bored and going to take a trip to visit us.  We then stopped at a Billiard's store to see what they had and spent about half an hour there.  I love the stuff there, but it is all so expensive.  We were out in the Bee Caves area where Wife says they are not supposed to advertise they are there.
    Coming back, we stopped at Costco, which I had told Wife was my goal, to have a little more time to really look around.  We got there at 5:20 or so, which again left us in a bit of a hurry.  I have concluded they have some outstanding cows they are slaughtering.  Man!, that meat is just tasty.  I love the flavor.  Don't insult meat like this with A1 or anything else, taste the meat.  I lit the grill, then went to cut the grass in the front yard, while Wife took care of the grilling duties.  She set up an app on my phone which tracks food intake versus exercise to help lose weight, and I concluded that if I cut the grass, I would be able to enjoy my dinner, by having more calories to abuse.
    Apart from my in-laws visiting, Girlie is staying with us again, for a couple weeks, her lease ended with her aunt and she will be moving in with her folks who are in the process of getting a place which should be ready in two weeks.  She is going on a trip, leaving Tuesday and coming back Sunday, so she's here, but not really.

4/4/16 Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice?

    We've been on a roll, going to the movies regularly now for a few weekends.  This week we saw Batman V. Superman, it was ok, but even afterwards, we are left asking each other "why?"  If we accept a world where Superman and the rest of the heroes live, then we must accept how they behave.  Superman tries his best not to hurt humans, and he specially of all the heroes does not use man made weapons.  The first problem, to me, was that Superman gets blamed for a mass murder out in Africa somewhere.  We see a group of men, dressed in black killing everybody with guns that have special bullets.  Of course, these men leave no trace, except for a bullet which Lois Lane manages to find buried in her journal where it was shot.
    Some random woman from the tribes or whatever of the people that were killed starts blaming Superman to a senate council and of course, they run with it.  They say you are right, we must put a stop to Superman, enter young Luthor, who manipulates a couple of senators like they are special needs kids who ride the little yellow bus.  Batman, without being asked or prompted gets involved and he thinks it would be a good idea to put a stop to Superman too.  He feels he should have the kryptonite Luthor has found.  If this was a real world, Batman and Superman would already have each others phone numbers, they would at least be friendly if not friends.  But no, Batman has a revelation that he will stop Superman, complete with a workout montage where he is working himself up to battle Superman.  I am a fan of Ben Affleck, always have been, and I can buy him as Batman, but this movie is just based on misunderstandings. 
    In their battle sequence, Superman without trying is flicking Batman around like a booger on his finger, until he breaks out the new weapons, he has kryptonite spray which weakens Superman to mortal status for about 30 seconds, and he has a spear which he is about to finally kill him when enter Lois Lane and says one or two sentences and clears the whole misunderstanding up, suddenly they realize Luthor has been playing them and they go after him.
    Meanwhile, he has taken refuge in a spaceship Superman had been fighting at the beginning of the movie.  Of course, even though the ship is alien, it quickly picks up proper English, and even understands Luthor's snarkiness.  He takes commander Zogs body (Superman's old foe), puts a little of his blood and the spaceship even with it being completely damaged has enough ability to recreate life.  Even with the tickets being free for us, I wanted my money back at this point.  The only good thing to come out at this point in the movie was Wonder Woman came out in all her sexiness and bad ass self.  She is a beauty, but Wonder Woman should have bigger boobs.  We are teased of Aquaman and Flash coming out, but I guess they are for another movie.
    Camp DC needs to get their shit together.  first of all, you got to great heroes fighting over miscommunication, which is fine, I guess.  But in your world, you got senate hearings trying to handle the good guys by destroying them, which I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.  But the best part of going to the movies Saturday night was seeing the preview to Suicide Squad.  It is the same DC universe, they don't have good guys to fight an out of control Joker, so they gather a squad of bad guys to take him down.  Maybe if you weren't in such a hurry to bring down Superman, and the other heroes.  This just seems like layers of dumb, but OMG, Hayley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie (hottie wife from Wolf of Wall Street) is a feast for the senses in her bright colors and sexy manners.
    I don't want to ruin the ending of Batman V. Superman, but it wasn't great.  Lex Luthor, even being a complete pain in the ass and causing most everything that happened in the movie, survives but goes to jail, where I am sure he will escape as soon as the next movie rolls around.  Ben Affleck didn't spend enough time as Batman, and Superman should be more human, he grew up on earth, we were told, he needs a sense of humor.

4/3/16 Saturday Blahs?

    First off, I know my problems are always non-problems, but they are still a hassle.  It seems that Wife has loaded her Saturdays with college tours and outside activities with her kids at school.  She wanted to make sure and have enough money for our trip to Florida, and knowing that my OT has been sporadic at best, she is carrying this trip on her shoulders.  I am doing the best I can.  With every paycheck I get, we are giving Chubs $20.  He has $420 at this point.  He should be close to $500 when we go.  I'll match Boy, probably, but if I give him the money now, he's liable to go order a game online, or go get that stupid dog he was talking about yesterday.  I have had weekends where I work a bunch of OT, so we already saved up and paid the house we are staying at, and even the tickets to Disney were ordered and taken care of.  At this point, we need to know if we are going to Universal Studios or not to go ahead and buy those tickets.  We are only going to be there like 6 total days, and the idea of hitting all 4 Disney parks and then 2 Universal just sounds tiring.  I like knowing we have a couple days to be lazy and maybe even sleep late.
    Back to Saturdays, with Wife gone, I get to keep an eye on Chubs, and I don't mind, but now he is having more sleepovers, which means more boys to keep an eye on.  Last night he had three extra boys here, they are funny and loud, which I am real happy Chubs is having a fun time, but I still worry since they are under my care.  One of them had shoes that must have gotten wet or something, because they stunk up the whole room in like 5 minutes.  Wife went in their to say hi and was almost kicked out by the smell.  I thought she was exaggerating, but I went in there and could not believe the sting in my nose from the sharp smell.  I opened some windows and eventually told him to put his shoes outside in the balcony.  I was up all night, after picking up Chubs after school and going to Target to get the necessary snacks for his buddies, we came home and I napped for about two hours, nice not to have anything going on.  I was then not sleepy until about 5:30am.  The boys were still up, but I said whatever.  I woke up at 7:30am to pee and two of them were still up.  I told them to go to sleep and they did not argue.  Here we are, it is roughly 3:30pm, and I am waiting for the parent's to come around and pick up the boys.  We didn't give them a window, other than Saturday afternoon, but two of them are already gone.  We can't leave house until third one gets picked up.
    Boy wants to go to the mall and get some shirts, do I play Mr. Mom and take him, or wait for Wife, always wants to be involved, but I would rather she come home and take a little nap.  Boy is supposed to get us tickets for the Batman/Superman movie for tonight at 11:00ish pm.  I am also wanting to go look around Costco, we went and bought a membership, but it was about 5:50, and they close at 6:00 on the weekends.  I want to really walk each aisle and see what they got.  Of course Wife says "I want to go too."  So again, I got all the Saturday free, but nowhere to go.

4/2/16 Boy's Request (Demand) For A Dog.... Is Denied?

    Boy got back from San Marcos tonight, and in true form to himself, there is no hi, how is it going?  Or any other formality.  He dropped his basket of dirty clothes in the kitchen and started talking about a dog he was going to get.  My first word was "uhh, no!"  Followed by "you want to say hello first, try it again, but like a human this time."  We asked where he planned to get this dog, he said at the shelter, we both said in unison, take it back, you are not prepared to care for a dog.  He was more interested in showing us what the dog would look like, and he does not disappoint, some German Malinois, almost like a smaller German Shepard.  That is way too much dog for your indoor loving ass, no.  He then argued that the dog would force him to go outside and exercise.  I said no, you're supposed to match the dog to you, and you never go outside, that dog will die of boredom.  Of course he had a back-up, how about a husky?  I said no, beautiful dog, but they belong in the cold weather, then in desperation he suggested a St. Bernard.  No, because he will cost more to feed than you.  His Hail Mary was "how about a Wolf hybrid?"  No, idiot!
    I almost like the idea of owning a dog, but we are not homebodies, we travel and we go periods of being extremely busy.  I know even with Boy promising it would be his dog, in reality, we would end up taking care of it.  Maybe it sleeps through the night, great for Wife and the boys, but we could not expect it to also sleep the next 6-7 hours to allow me to have a quiet house.  It would roam the house bored, probably chew up half the house.  The idea of it stresses me a bit.  I don't like saying no to my peeps, but this is one where it is for the best.
    I also don't like that they have a short life span, you get used to having a pet around and 15-20 years in (best case scenario), it goes and dies on you. Even worse, my mom had a Chihuahua only she liked, and in the end after biting all the grandchildren at least once, it got all sickly and went blind.  So nobody enjoyed the stupid dog (come on, it's a Chihuahua), and then you had to feel sorry for its rickety blind ass.
    Back to Boy, though.  He is studying at a University.  We agreed he could stay in an apartment over there so he could experience living life on his own.  We want him free of responsibility so he could come and go freely as needed for study sessions, work study opportunities, maybe even dating.  I don't want him worried about some stupid dog requiring special care from him.
    If he needs something that loves him, he can bring his butt back home.  We are already considering that.  It would be no problem.  He has his room, in its same dirty condition as when he moved out a year ago.  He can commute in his Jeep, we both did it back when we went to college.  He did also mention tonight that they are moving to a house next year, but I thought his roommate was graduating and they were coming back to Austin to look for employment.  This is primarily why we have been thinking he will eventually come back home.  I think it's a tad late to get a dog and say you have your own place if in two months it will be summertime and your ass will be back home.

4/1/16 Was High School Terrible?

    I love some of the questions Chubs asks me, I can tell he is interested and specially when we eat alone, we can get on a topic pretty good.  He asked if my high school experience was like most he notices in movies and shows he watches, where the nerdy kids get bullied and the protagonist suffers through most of the four years.  I told him no, I enjoyed my high school years a lot, but probably because I was in band and it was such a huge part of me.
    Our high school was perhaps 400 students in total spread throughout all four grades, 9th-12th.  The band at that time was over a hundred strong, and considered one of the best in the area.  Naturally, when you are part of a winning system, you walk around feeling like a winner.  I considered playing football, I did in junior high, started on both offense and defense, so I must have been ok, but the football teams went through new coaches every couple years, maybe they'd win 2-3 games, that just did not sound like a recipe for positive self-esteem.
    I was also one of the better musicians, and I was so obsessed I didn't care to do anything else but figure out ways to get better all the time.  Then in my second year they asked me to transition over to drums since they didn't have anyone capable of playing the tri-toms, three drums tuned to different pitches which can then make a tune to follow, not just rhythm.  My senior year they even asked me to play a contra bass clarinet, which sounded like a foghorn and was probably eight foot tall.
    Outside of music, I had two long term girlfriends, one during my 9th and 10th grade, the other from 11th grade until today.  We did normal couple stuff, pregnancy scares every other month, Pizza Hut most weekends, swimming in assorted pools, and rivers. 
    I also graduated top 10, so I wasn't a dummy.  I don't remember having time to sit down and feel sorry for myself.  If I was home, I was playing basketball or tennis with my brother, when we put the game consoles down.  I was constantly trying to wash a car, cut some grass, clean a room for money for my pizza addictions, it helped that my 2 best friends were also big, there was never any shaming about weight that I remember.  I was getting laid every couple days, I never built up stress.
    Being in a small town has its positives.  At one point, someone went and stole my jacket, my mom was a teacher and I used one of her drawers to keep my stuff instead of a locker.  She found out and went all crazy mom on the idiot.  He returned it before I even had a chance to react to what had happened.  I have always had an almost sheltered life I feel.  Everything works out in my favor, I have never cried that something is "not fair", life owes you nothing, take it as it comes.  Meet every challenge head on, overcome it and that will probably make you a stronger person.