After the game, which Wife drove up to watch her baby play, we all went to eat at Crab Shack in Southpark Meadows. We go there mostly because Javalina and I like it. Wife has never liked it in there, and after tonight, I feel the same way. We sat in a booth, which was fine, the booths have a good spacing which makes my fat ass feel comfortable. I didn't notice at first and I really thought they were about done eating, but there was a group of mouth breathers sitting on the table closest to us and they were for lack of a better word, partying hard.
It looked like an older man, the dad maybe and the wife, who was so drunk, the daughter had to walk her by the hand to the bathroom, a twenty something year old bobblehead of a son who must have been enjoying his first meal amongst other people and then a couple of smaller school aged kids. Every joke was punctuated by a Kah hahahaha. He pierced right through my skull with every joke they shared over there. Maybe I am delicate because I spend so much time by myself, but this asshole was just fucking annoying. Then he started talking to the girl who could have been his sister or his wife about taking care of her ass when they got home, domestic violence sounds nice when it is premeditated at a restaurant, but I guess all tough guys need a punching bag, ughhhh.
You can't say anything to a group of drunks like this, they will then just focus there shitty energy your way, and even though they weren't eating, they just sat there, I guess drinking. After eating, I went to wash my hands, those shrimp just fall out of the po' boys, and they are so good, only reason I go back. At a big table big enough for twelve people or so were three big fucking hogs about my size, again going with the gangster look and that whole vape thing. I hate the fake smoking because people do it indoors, or maybe I am jealous that the three big fucks got to look cool in their fog of mystery as they sat there sweating.
I thought we ordered a lot of food, but the meal came out to a very reasonable $55, which had me thinking with these two groups of idiots, maybe the restaurant is a front for something gang related. But maybe this is what people do on a Thursday, I just never get a chance to go out with my family anywhere except on the weekends. Maybe I am just paranoid and the waitress took the drinks off our tabs because they too were annoyed by the cackling idiot.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Friday, August 30, 2019
8/30/19 Take A Knee, Son?
Crockett officially started its football season tonight, the first two games had been scrimmages. Best I can say is that they could have won. We showed up a few minutes late and the game was already going. It was a strange sight, Javalina told me they were going to play at Burger Baseball, which I had no idea the Burger complex had a baseball field. I looked to Google so I would at least drive to the right location when I got going and there is a baseball field on the opposite side of Burger Jr, where Bedichek was playing its 7th and 8th grade games last year. The baseball field is kind of hidden behind a large building which I am not sure what is inside of it.
Technically, the football field fit in the baseball stadium and they even thought of its placement in regards to the sun going down behind the bleachers so we weren't staring into the sun, but it just didn't really work. There was a tall fence to protect from an errant baseball, I am sure, but it made the field seem less friendly. We also had the problem of sitting all together, so we were all mixed with Crockett and Akins parents sitting in the same area. This just feels invasive, to sit next to people joyously cheering for the other team while you see your boys just melting away.
Javalina played well, he is a workhorse offensive lineman, even though he is a little shorter than most other linemen, he holds his own every time. The team has added more people, so he was able to give up his starting position as a defensive tackle. I would almost prefer he play defense, but he likes his responsibility of protecting the QB. I said earlier they could have won because we went into the halftime with Crockett up 14-0. Coming out of the half, Akins kicked to Crockett and it was a boom of a kick, the kid should have knelt it in the endzone. He decided to run it out and gained about 8 yards, but there was also a penalty that moved them back to the 4 yard line, I guess half the distance. They then fumbled, which is the worst thing to do in this instance. The defense was stout and actually stopped them but Crockett came right out, made a first down which gave them some breathing room and then they fumbled again. This time, Akins promptly scored and Crockett looked deflated from that point on. I am not sure Crockett got another first down the rest of the game, it's like a different team came out in the second half or they were playing scared. The coaches didn't help things. You don't make substitutions or send in players when the QB is already under center, that happened. Akins scored again and again, instead of taking a knee in the endzone, the kid ran out and got knocked down inside the 10 yard line. There was another lost series with no yardage gained and Akins just continued grinding, final score was Akins 22-14.
We could hear the Crockett coaches yelling stuff like "give me two linemen that want to play, these two have given up." They were also screaming "you need to wait if you want to come out, don't just walk off the field." They could still get a lot better, there were about 9 players that just joined the team this week and they should be in pads by next week, some of them looked oversized. Interestingly, the defensive coach asked Javalina how he felt and he responded that he would have liked getting in there more on defense and the coach told him he would get him more involved next week.
Technically, the football field fit in the baseball stadium and they even thought of its placement in regards to the sun going down behind the bleachers so we weren't staring into the sun, but it just didn't really work. There was a tall fence to protect from an errant baseball, I am sure, but it made the field seem less friendly. We also had the problem of sitting all together, so we were all mixed with Crockett and Akins parents sitting in the same area. This just feels invasive, to sit next to people joyously cheering for the other team while you see your boys just melting away.
Javalina played well, he is a workhorse offensive lineman, even though he is a little shorter than most other linemen, he holds his own every time. The team has added more people, so he was able to give up his starting position as a defensive tackle. I would almost prefer he play defense, but he likes his responsibility of protecting the QB. I said earlier they could have won because we went into the halftime with Crockett up 14-0. Coming out of the half, Akins kicked to Crockett and it was a boom of a kick, the kid should have knelt it in the endzone. He decided to run it out and gained about 8 yards, but there was also a penalty that moved them back to the 4 yard line, I guess half the distance. They then fumbled, which is the worst thing to do in this instance. The defense was stout and actually stopped them but Crockett came right out, made a first down which gave them some breathing room and then they fumbled again. This time, Akins promptly scored and Crockett looked deflated from that point on. I am not sure Crockett got another first down the rest of the game, it's like a different team came out in the second half or they were playing scared. The coaches didn't help things. You don't make substitutions or send in players when the QB is already under center, that happened. Akins scored again and again, instead of taking a knee in the endzone, the kid ran out and got knocked down inside the 10 yard line. There was another lost series with no yardage gained and Akins just continued grinding, final score was Akins 22-14.
We could hear the Crockett coaches yelling stuff like "give me two linemen that want to play, these two have given up." They were also screaming "you need to wait if you want to come out, don't just walk off the field." They could still get a lot better, there were about 9 players that just joined the team this week and they should be in pads by next week, some of them looked oversized. Interestingly, the defensive coach asked Javalina how he felt and he responded that he would have liked getting in there more on defense and the coach told him he would get him more involved next week.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
8/29/19 Perhaps I Will Get That Waterfront Lot?
This weekend when we got together for the various birthdays, my brother in law brought up the idea of selling the lot we currently own and perhaps buying something on the coast or at least closer to a true waterfront property. I told him I would love that idea, but I don't know if I can afford that just now. He said it would take a while to sell the lot we currently own and then again some time to find a lot that would be agreeable for all. I said "well, the guy next door has been wanting the land, sell it to him for what $10,000?" I was told NO! right away. Apparently, the land has appreciated and is worth something like $25-35 thousand. I was not ready to believe this, but I was looking through Zillow today and many lots in the area where ours is around Canyon Lake are going for $28,000 up to $40,000, and what I saw was that a lot of those weren't even cleared of trees. Ours has already been cleared, so it should be worth at least that much, if those are selling.
Wife was telling me that my brother in law is possibly headed to the coast (apparently, they found a company to come clean our lot for us and that is going to be done on Friday, hopefully, for under $200, which we are splitting three ways, anyhow) I only mention the cleaning because that is what I thought we were going to be doing this weekend. I was then also looking at Zillow and found a couple of interesting lots. The best looking one for what I am imagining so far is in Palacios, Texas. It is waterfront, looking out into a bay with nothing but water, and the lot is $60,000 but it has a twin lot and both lots can be bought for $100,000, which means my brother in law could have his own. If we get $30,000 from the ones we already have and split the other $60-70k, I hope we can talk them down, we could be looking at $20k per household and we would have what I want. If we did just the one lot, well the cost would be half as much, but I would almost want to do it by myself.
I can't afford to build a house on the lot, but when I do retire, I would love to have a house sitting on the water's edge, a boat at the ready, and no excuses to go out anytime I want. I don't envision a large house, a small cottage on stilts is what I imagine, just cozy enough for us and possibly the boys and their families if they wanted to join on a given weekend. I have brought up this idea with my folks and siblings and they have always just kind of laughed at me, but I think it's something we can make come true. We'll see.
Wife was telling me that my brother in law is possibly headed to the coast (apparently, they found a company to come clean our lot for us and that is going to be done on Friday, hopefully, for under $200, which we are splitting three ways, anyhow) I only mention the cleaning because that is what I thought we were going to be doing this weekend. I was then also looking at Zillow and found a couple of interesting lots. The best looking one for what I am imagining so far is in Palacios, Texas. It is waterfront, looking out into a bay with nothing but water, and the lot is $60,000 but it has a twin lot and both lots can be bought for $100,000, which means my brother in law could have his own. If we get $30,000 from the ones we already have and split the other $60-70k, I hope we can talk them down, we could be looking at $20k per household and we would have what I want. If we did just the one lot, well the cost would be half as much, but I would almost want to do it by myself.
I can't afford to build a house on the lot, but when I do retire, I would love to have a house sitting on the water's edge, a boat at the ready, and no excuses to go out anytime I want. I don't envision a large house, a small cottage on stilts is what I imagine, just cozy enough for us and possibly the boys and their families if they wanted to join on a given weekend. I have brought up this idea with my folks and siblings and they have always just kind of laughed at me, but I think it's something we can make come true. We'll see.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
8/28/19 Women By Charles Bukowski?
This may be the first book I have read this year, so much for trying to read a book a month, but it was a good one. Women follows the day to day life of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's alter ego he uses frequently as a character that is himself. It almost seems comical that a man like Chinaski can continually maintain a stream of these young perfect looking empty vessels that he uses for his amusement. If I understand his life cycle, this book chronologically is years after he wrote Post Office, which was his first book and was a day to day sort of re-telling of his days working, mostly as a postal worker. That was probably the first book I read from him and he went by Chinaski in that book as well.
In the present book, Women, we find him single, his wife has passed away and he does not seem to want to settle down. He mentions beating the game of life by getting older and having relations with younger women as he goes along. If it is sweet to have a 20 year old in his fifties, it would be the absolute cherry on top to have an 18 year old on his death bed, which almost seems to be what he is going for.
His was a simple life throughout this book, which maybe covers a year or so of his life. I only caught him going through the holidays once and he managed to screw that up, with the gal he was almost dating and in a committed relationship with. There was a want and a need to go trying the next great thing, which was anyone that reached out to him and showed him the slightest interest. When left to his own devices, he entertained himself in that poor neighborhood by conversing with friends he barely liked, or by going to the racetrack, which he seemed to win about as often as he lost.
In the end he seemed to realize he was hurting some good people and we see him for the first time in a long time turn down an 18 year old who is throwing herself at him. In his own words, that small action reflects upon him well enough that he is calling himself a good guy as he takes the time to feed a cat that hangs out outside. There is no plot or mission or thing that needs to get accomplished. He is simply going through the days and living them to the fullest of his capabilities.
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
8/27/19 Boy Continuues To Impress Me With His Side Hustles?
Boy came home a couple weeks ago and said they had limited his hours at work. They want him to continue doing the same amount of work, but for only 15 hours of pay a week. It is supposed to be something to keep the interns in line, but since he has a few years there, he is more of an employee than an intern, still, no degree, no official title. Well, fast forward and now they are going to bend the rules and allow him to work on some projects from home for pay. It seems to pay having these 3-D printers and now being good at using them. He just shrugs like it's no big deal that he is working on designing some images they came up with. He is charged with making them come to life by making 3-D representations to present at some meeting where some toy manufacturers are going to show up. It's like he can't be slowed down. He has also been working on this cowboy hat sized Kubone head, which is from the Pokémon world which they plan on showing off in an amateur contest at the next comic con they are going to this weekend. He says they are putting a price tag of $300 to it. A friend from Dallas has already asked for a copy to be made later when he is not so busy. Along with this, they are making a more weight friendly sword to carry and hopefully sell at the convention as well. They made the hilt on the 3-D printer and the blade was cut from a thick piece of orange plastic he ordered from Amazon. The idea is to run a light inside the hilt and the neon orange color of the blade will carry the light and look shiny and cool in the dark. They also have a shield which they took a round glass globe and slowly cut it in half and attached it to the shield. This green orb has a light and it shines in a cool fashion. It is a sight to see him in his room, this is what he does. Saturday night, he was sitting there polishing the Kubone head after priming it. His GF was sitting there sewing stuff and there friend was wiring one of the projects for a light effect. I fucking love that they don't piss away a weekend drinking and wasting time, they seem to be productive all the time.
Just another quickie, the GF said it was fall weather time and if we wanted a scarf, she would make one for each of us. I quickly said no, I am fat enough, I don't need stuff around my neck, no offense. I was then talking to Boy today about how his day was going and he mentioned that the GF already had 15-20 orders for scarves to sell. At $20-$30, that is a nice bit of money for the pocket, just as she fiddles and keeps her hands busy while watching a TV show or something.
Just another quickie, the GF said it was fall weather time and if we wanted a scarf, she would make one for each of us. I quickly said no, I am fat enough, I don't need stuff around my neck, no offense. I was then talking to Boy today about how his day was going and he mentioned that the GF already had 15-20 orders for scarves to sell. At $20-$30, that is a nice bit of money for the pocket, just as she fiddles and keeps her hands busy while watching a TV show or something.
Monday, August 26, 2019
8/26/19 Old School Typical Sunday?
Maybe it is a sign of good things coming, but this Sunday was nice enough, for me. I got up as usual, too early for even my own good. I got up and noticed lights still on, so I put on a shirt to go and look around. Javalina was still watching YouTube videos on his phone and had the light on like it was the middle of the day. I asked him "what the hell are you doing, Dumdum? Your body needs rest, cut the shit and go to sleep." He gave me a whiny "Why?!" but he was asleep within minutes. I figured I'd come down and write yesterday's blog.
I putzed around the kitchen, probably slept on and off for another hour, then got to writing and drinking coffee and oh yeah, I even had cake Boy bought for my birthday. I stayed up until around 8:00am and then slept until almost 11:00am. At this point, I asked Wife "you want to go with me to Lowe's or not?" She got up and took a quick shower, woke Javalina with promises of breakfast tacos and we then left the house. We stopped at the Lowe's on Stassney and looked around. I was just going to buy a couple more pickets for the fence, but between my in-laws at our birthday dinner, I got $150 in cash and gift cards, so it made me want stuff. I had been kind of eyeing the new and smaller drills.
When I decided I had made my choice, a Dewalt 12V compact 1/4in driver, an employee came over and said "you don't want that, it's junk." He said I wouldn't be happy with the life of the battery and it wasn't "brushless" technology, which I still don't know what that means. He had me waiting around for 10-15 minutes because he was sure he could find something better. I like Dewalt, first of all. I am not relying on this drill for my livelihood, it is basically a toy, for me. I have a wired drill, if I need something that will go all day. I have my big hammer drill battery powered Dewalt, which I think is huge and heavy. Buying this drill is like buying a small convertible. I know it is not a smart purchase, but I thought it would be neat. Ultimately, he came out with two Dewalt bags and he said Happy Birthday and each one had a battery and a charger inside.
The only problem is my drill was a 12V and these batteries were 20V, just a little bigger. I then had a choice at home, throw away or not use the free batteries, which are at least $50 each, or go back and get a bigger drill. I took a nap after we had left, we went looking at a car up north, I really love the look of the Dodge Challenger and this one was a like a dirty dark green, and Wife must have been in a good mood, she normally cringes at the sound of Dodge. We then stopped for tacos, hence my need for a nap.
After my nap, we went to the Lowe's in Kyle, Wife found some Halloween stuff and I offered a different Lowe's as it might have more or different Halloween stuff. I ended up finding a "deal" where I got two different drills for $199 but they threw in a free battery powered circular saw. Again, I know it is more of a toy than a workhorse, but I have a wired handsaw and a reciprocating saw and a couple of manual handsaws, so Wife said Happy Birthday and we left.
We ended the day by stopping at HEB and buying stuff to make subs and we ate those for dinner. By the time we finished it was after nine and time for Wife to get her stuff together and go to bed. It was a nice day for shopping for fun stuff, but the weekends end too quickly.
I putzed around the kitchen, probably slept on and off for another hour, then got to writing and drinking coffee and oh yeah, I even had cake Boy bought for my birthday. I stayed up until around 8:00am and then slept until almost 11:00am. At this point, I asked Wife "you want to go with me to Lowe's or not?" She got up and took a quick shower, woke Javalina with promises of breakfast tacos and we then left the house. We stopped at the Lowe's on Stassney and looked around. I was just going to buy a couple more pickets for the fence, but between my in-laws at our birthday dinner, I got $150 in cash and gift cards, so it made me want stuff. I had been kind of eyeing the new and smaller drills.
When I decided I had made my choice, a Dewalt 12V compact 1/4in driver, an employee came over and said "you don't want that, it's junk." He said I wouldn't be happy with the life of the battery and it wasn't "brushless" technology, which I still don't know what that means. He had me waiting around for 10-15 minutes because he was sure he could find something better. I like Dewalt, first of all. I am not relying on this drill for my livelihood, it is basically a toy, for me. I have a wired drill, if I need something that will go all day. I have my big hammer drill battery powered Dewalt, which I think is huge and heavy. Buying this drill is like buying a small convertible. I know it is not a smart purchase, but I thought it would be neat. Ultimately, he came out with two Dewalt bags and he said Happy Birthday and each one had a battery and a charger inside.
The only problem is my drill was a 12V and these batteries were 20V, just a little bigger. I then had a choice at home, throw away or not use the free batteries, which are at least $50 each, or go back and get a bigger drill. I took a nap after we had left, we went looking at a car up north, I really love the look of the Dodge Challenger and this one was a like a dirty dark green, and Wife must have been in a good mood, she normally cringes at the sound of Dodge. We then stopped for tacos, hence my need for a nap.
After my nap, we went to the Lowe's in Kyle, Wife found some Halloween stuff and I offered a different Lowe's as it might have more or different Halloween stuff. I ended up finding a "deal" where I got two different drills for $199 but they threw in a free battery powered circular saw. Again, I know it is more of a toy than a workhorse, but I have a wired handsaw and a reciprocating saw and a couple of manual handsaws, so Wife said Happy Birthday and we left.
We ended the day by stopping at HEB and buying stuff to make subs and we ate those for dinner. By the time we finished it was after nine and time for Wife to get her stuff together and go to bed. It was a nice day for shopping for fun stuff, but the weekends end too quickly.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
8/25/19 Dinner and A Conversation With Some Coppers?
We are in the 2nd week of a shitty situation in regards to our land by Canyon Lake. There is basically no ignoring it until we get it resolved. Last week we found out somebody had dumped a trailer's worth of trash on our land. We filed a report with the HOA so somebody would know we were handling it and not get the threatening letters to clean up or else. Well, by Monday afternoon I got a certified letter from Comal County that we were in violation of blah blah blah for dumping trash on our property. The HOA president had called me on Monday with a sheriff that if I wanted to file a police report I needed to do it in person. I told him that sounded fine, but we needed to wait until the weekend.
Yesterday, Wife had already said we were going to go and have dinner with her folks for partially my birthday and my brother in law's at Salt Grass. This sounded fine with me, but we still had to stop at the land to see what had happened in a week. We have only one neighbor out there, all the other lots around us are empty and wooded. The guy came out and did this song and dance that he felt sorry for what had happened, he didn't see who did it, BUT he could get his trailer and clean it up for us for the cost of the dump charges of $78 and another $100 for the labor to pick the stuff up. My father in law has talked to this guy over the years, so it seemed like they had a decent relationship. My wife gave him some money along with my father and brother in law (we all share the land).
The HOA president had called me Monday after the incident and said that nothing much had been done to the trash. This was disappointing since we paid the guy, but all I could say is we will go by and check on it this weekend. We got there around 6:00pm and the trash was still there, but it had been sorted to a high degree. There was a small plastic kiddy pool and all the plastic trash was in this thing. There was also a busted plastic bin and it had a bunch of stuff in it. The rest of the stuff seemed to be metal pipes and stuff with metal parts to it. Somebody had obviously put some work into it, but the bulk of the trash was still there. Wife called the cops while I went and tried calling the neighbor. He had a dog barking right outside his door, so I wasn't going to go knock, besides the house looks like where little kids disappear. Wife called him and left a message if he would come out after calling the cops, but nothing.
It was necessary to talk to the cops but I don't think there is much for anybody to do. If the jerk next door decides to just keep our money, we can take him to small claims court, but for two hundred bucks, I don't know. I think I could rent a U-haul trailer next weekend and get the last of the stuff picked up, if he hasn't. Not that I have a lot of faith in him, but someone did at least separate the stuff, so I want to believe he tried doing the right thing. The cops left saying they would add some comments to our report that we had been there and talked.
I do love taking that back road from the lake to San Antonio, it is hilly and has some pretty views, compared to the freeway. We got to the restaurant about 30 minutes late, they were starting to get their plates, but we ordered and ate just fine. We hung out, eating some cake and conversing until close to 10:00pm. Wife drove us back and we must have got back right around midnight. We will probably be going back to Canyon Lake next week to clean up the mess.
Yesterday, Wife had already said we were going to go and have dinner with her folks for partially my birthday and my brother in law's at Salt Grass. This sounded fine with me, but we still had to stop at the land to see what had happened in a week. We have only one neighbor out there, all the other lots around us are empty and wooded. The guy came out and did this song and dance that he felt sorry for what had happened, he didn't see who did it, BUT he could get his trailer and clean it up for us for the cost of the dump charges of $78 and another $100 for the labor to pick the stuff up. My father in law has talked to this guy over the years, so it seemed like they had a decent relationship. My wife gave him some money along with my father and brother in law (we all share the land).
The HOA president had called me Monday after the incident and said that nothing much had been done to the trash. This was disappointing since we paid the guy, but all I could say is we will go by and check on it this weekend. We got there around 6:00pm and the trash was still there, but it had been sorted to a high degree. There was a small plastic kiddy pool and all the plastic trash was in this thing. There was also a busted plastic bin and it had a bunch of stuff in it. The rest of the stuff seemed to be metal pipes and stuff with metal parts to it. Somebody had obviously put some work into it, but the bulk of the trash was still there. Wife called the cops while I went and tried calling the neighbor. He had a dog barking right outside his door, so I wasn't going to go knock, besides the house looks like where little kids disappear. Wife called him and left a message if he would come out after calling the cops, but nothing.
It was necessary to talk to the cops but I don't think there is much for anybody to do. If the jerk next door decides to just keep our money, we can take him to small claims court, but for two hundred bucks, I don't know. I think I could rent a U-haul trailer next weekend and get the last of the stuff picked up, if he hasn't. Not that I have a lot of faith in him, but someone did at least separate the stuff, so I want to believe he tried doing the right thing. The cops left saying they would add some comments to our report that we had been there and talked.
I do love taking that back road from the lake to San Antonio, it is hilly and has some pretty views, compared to the freeway. We got to the restaurant about 30 minutes late, they were starting to get their plates, but we ordered and ate just fine. We hung out, eating some cake and conversing until close to 10:00pm. Wife drove us back and we must have got back right around midnight. We will probably be going back to Canyon Lake next week to clean up the mess.
Saturday, August 24, 2019
8/24/19 Dentist WIll Shake A Dollar Out Of You?
I swear teeth cleanings are like when you have your house inspected for termites or have your A/C evaluated. You're going to come out the other end spending thousands on stuff you can't even see. Javalina had a regular tooth cleaning and all seemed to be going well until she was about done. The hygienist was pretty cool, we were having pretty good banter talking about our kids and stuff, then of course she throw in "have you all considered braces, he could really benefit from them?" I said I am sure y'all would say he needs them, but nobody has really said he needs them, my wife wouldn't stop worrying about it if people were generally telling us something like that. She seemed to let it go, just saying one more time that he would benefit from wearing some.
I thought I had gotten through the whole ordeal without spending a ton of money. She was talking about showing him how to floss and then while she was going at it, she came over to the right side and did an "oh my! I am going to need an x-ray after all and a dentist to look at this." She had me go over and look in his mouth and to me it looked ugly but like a blister from a canker sore, not a "we have to do something about this right now." The dentist came in and at first he seemed very calm and relaxed until he saw his mouth. He took what he said was the stuff they use to fill root canals, which was in the shape of a pin and stuck it through the blister until it wouldn't go further and then they took an x-ray. He said the material would bend and follow the origin path of what caused the blister and it shows really well in an x-ray because it is a dense material.
He then explained that what had happened was that an infection formed under the crown that was installed in March and not having anywhere to go exploded out the gum line and had been there for some time. He said this was very dangerous and had to be attended to immediately, if it hadn't gone out the gum line, it could have swelled over night at any time between March and now and caused suffocation and death. I'm still thinking it's just a tooth dude, chill out. He wanted to go in there STAT! to try and save the tooth and seemed real concerned. I was more like "ehh, his brother lost one of his adult teeth in the front and has gotten along fine with the fake one, this is in the back of the mouth, pull that bad boy out." He insisted that the right thing to do is try and save the tooth. I said "fine, do what you have to do, I'm sure this is going to cost me."
The business manager came by and said because you have such shitty insurance (my interpretation), your portion of the bill is going to be $780 for this and possibly $220 for that or $133 for this other thing. Thinking dentists, I was like "is there another sheet? You all are never this cheap." Go ahead. While the manager was showing me this in front of the receptionist, beautiful girl, but I don't think very sharp, says "your co-pay for today is $28.12." I said "be more clear, I got extra dentists and x-rays looking in his mouth and emergency procedures, do you mean $2,812 or do you actually mean $28.12. She was a little lost in her head, then said "uhh twenty eight dollars and twelve cents."
I thought the dentist was a cool guy, he said he had worked in three continents, and had an accent. He said he had worked in China, Africa, and now the US. He also mentioned he was from Iraq. I just said "wow, you must have lived an interesting life so far and you look so young to be doing this for ten years." He said "well, yes, I was born in a war, then I grew up in another one, so nothing really shakes me anymore." This was while the assistant was taking some more x-rays, then he walked back to my son to continue. All I could think of to say was "shit, you must have nerves of steel." He kind of nodded in agreement and went back to work.
We got there at 12:30, half an hour early. I fell asleep, even though Javalina kept kicking me, got up at 1:30, thinking WTF!? I got up and started staring at the receptionists for some sort of "sorry for the delay"... I could tell they just threw my kid at the next hygienist that came out, she was all "give me 5 minutes to get ready." She was nice enough, but yeah, the whole thing turned from a 20 minute teeth cleaning, to a three hour emergency surgery ordeal. The dentist said he had cleaned up all the infection and done some measurements, he felt confident the tooth is still ok and the crown did not break, so he wants my son to take amoxycillin for a week and then come back next Friday to finish the work. What can you say but "OK, and thank you, Doc."
I thought I had gotten through the whole ordeal without spending a ton of money. She was talking about showing him how to floss and then while she was going at it, she came over to the right side and did an "oh my! I am going to need an x-ray after all and a dentist to look at this." She had me go over and look in his mouth and to me it looked ugly but like a blister from a canker sore, not a "we have to do something about this right now." The dentist came in and at first he seemed very calm and relaxed until he saw his mouth. He took what he said was the stuff they use to fill root canals, which was in the shape of a pin and stuck it through the blister until it wouldn't go further and then they took an x-ray. He said the material would bend and follow the origin path of what caused the blister and it shows really well in an x-ray because it is a dense material.
He then explained that what had happened was that an infection formed under the crown that was installed in March and not having anywhere to go exploded out the gum line and had been there for some time. He said this was very dangerous and had to be attended to immediately, if it hadn't gone out the gum line, it could have swelled over night at any time between March and now and caused suffocation and death. I'm still thinking it's just a tooth dude, chill out. He wanted to go in there STAT! to try and save the tooth and seemed real concerned. I was more like "ehh, his brother lost one of his adult teeth in the front and has gotten along fine with the fake one, this is in the back of the mouth, pull that bad boy out." He insisted that the right thing to do is try and save the tooth. I said "fine, do what you have to do, I'm sure this is going to cost me."
The business manager came by and said because you have such shitty insurance (my interpretation), your portion of the bill is going to be $780 for this and possibly $220 for that or $133 for this other thing. Thinking dentists, I was like "is there another sheet? You all are never this cheap." Go ahead. While the manager was showing me this in front of the receptionist, beautiful girl, but I don't think very sharp, says "your co-pay for today is $28.12." I said "be more clear, I got extra dentists and x-rays looking in his mouth and emergency procedures, do you mean $2,812 or do you actually mean $28.12. She was a little lost in her head, then said "uhh twenty eight dollars and twelve cents."
I thought the dentist was a cool guy, he said he had worked in three continents, and had an accent. He said he had worked in China, Africa, and now the US. He also mentioned he was from Iraq. I just said "wow, you must have lived an interesting life so far and you look so young to be doing this for ten years." He said "well, yes, I was born in a war, then I grew up in another one, so nothing really shakes me anymore." This was while the assistant was taking some more x-rays, then he walked back to my son to continue. All I could think of to say was "shit, you must have nerves of steel." He kind of nodded in agreement and went back to work.
We got there at 12:30, half an hour early. I fell asleep, even though Javalina kept kicking me, got up at 1:30, thinking WTF!? I got up and started staring at the receptionists for some sort of "sorry for the delay"... I could tell they just threw my kid at the next hygienist that came out, she was all "give me 5 minutes to get ready." She was nice enough, but yeah, the whole thing turned from a 20 minute teeth cleaning, to a three hour emergency surgery ordeal. The dentist said he had cleaned up all the infection and done some measurements, he felt confident the tooth is still ok and the crown did not break, so he wants my son to take amoxycillin for a week and then come back next Friday to finish the work. What can you say but "OK, and thank you, Doc."
Friday, August 23, 2019
8/23/19 Bowie Bulldogs Beat The Snot Out Of Crockett?
I can't even describe what I saw being anything remotely fair, yet I guess in the end, it is. Bowie had so many kids on the field that the half playing Crockett were easily over 50-60 kids. They had an A team and a B team playing Crockett who has many players going iron man style and playing both offense and defense. If that wasn't enough, they had what was probably the freshman squad at easily near 100 kids split and playing each other, offense Vs. defense.
It was confusing at first, no doubt. It was a scrimmage, so there was no kick-off or punts and each team was starting from the opponents 40 yard line and running about ten plays. That was fine, I understand that, but they then split the field at the fifty and Bowie decided to scrimmage itself offense vs defense. I want to say these were the freshman and they let the real JV squad play against Crockett's JV squad, which barely has like 22-23 players. The first series was ugly bad. Crockett could not make a yard to save themselves. When Bowie went on offense, they wasted no time, easily, they ran an end route and scored, then they ran between the tackle and guard and they scored, then they passed and they scored, it took until about the 6th or 7th play before they stopped them. Once this happens, I can only try and focus on my son, make sure he is playing well.
It's like I can tell how he feels when he is playing. Like last week, he was intimidated in the first series, they had all been talking about what a great team Bowie is and he got it in his head that they were better. It took him those first few plays for him to realize the guy in front of him wasn't better than him. Once he got those nerves out, he played much better. I don't want to give him all the credit, but he was stopping plays and changing their direction in the middle. Towards the end of the game, one of the parents above me said something like "we were able to score all over the right side, but not so much on the left, I wonder why?" I really wanted to turn and say "because my boy shut the left side down!!!" but that would have sounded awful cocky from a guy whose team just lost 50 to 0, if they had kept score.
Javalina really does play good and clean. He says he has gotten the hang of hooking up kids on the inside, mostly by grabbing them by the shoulder pads in the chest area. We have studied the film and that is how the game is being played nowadays. It is still holding if a lineman grabs the outside of the shoulders, but they can grab on the inside, mostly between the shoulder pads. He said various kids were calling to the referee and asking to keep an eye on him for holding, but he was never called for it. The only time it gets confusing is when a LB or corner approaches the line to blitz and then he can get one but not both. I also noticed a very clean pull and block on the other side of the ball. He may not want to keep playing both sides of the ball, but he plays with a sound foundation, even if he is not hitting people into submission. He is in on any play involving the middle, where he roams.
It was confusing at first, no doubt. It was a scrimmage, so there was no kick-off or punts and each team was starting from the opponents 40 yard line and running about ten plays. That was fine, I understand that, but they then split the field at the fifty and Bowie decided to scrimmage itself offense vs defense. I want to say these were the freshman and they let the real JV squad play against Crockett's JV squad, which barely has like 22-23 players. The first series was ugly bad. Crockett could not make a yard to save themselves. When Bowie went on offense, they wasted no time, easily, they ran an end route and scored, then they ran between the tackle and guard and they scored, then they passed and they scored, it took until about the 6th or 7th play before they stopped them. Once this happens, I can only try and focus on my son, make sure he is playing well.
It's like I can tell how he feels when he is playing. Like last week, he was intimidated in the first series, they had all been talking about what a great team Bowie is and he got it in his head that they were better. It took him those first few plays for him to realize the guy in front of him wasn't better than him. Once he got those nerves out, he played much better. I don't want to give him all the credit, but he was stopping plays and changing their direction in the middle. Towards the end of the game, one of the parents above me said something like "we were able to score all over the right side, but not so much on the left, I wonder why?" I really wanted to turn and say "because my boy shut the left side down!!!" but that would have sounded awful cocky from a guy whose team just lost 50 to 0, if they had kept score.
Javalina really does play good and clean. He says he has gotten the hang of hooking up kids on the inside, mostly by grabbing them by the shoulder pads in the chest area. We have studied the film and that is how the game is being played nowadays. It is still holding if a lineman grabs the outside of the shoulders, but they can grab on the inside, mostly between the shoulder pads. He said various kids were calling to the referee and asking to keep an eye on him for holding, but he was never called for it. The only time it gets confusing is when a LB or corner approaches the line to blitz and then he can get one but not both. I also noticed a very clean pull and block on the other side of the ball. He may not want to keep playing both sides of the ball, but he plays with a sound foundation, even if he is not hitting people into submission. He is in on any play involving the middle, where he roams.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
8/22/19 Another Year Goes By?
I can't say yesterday was my best birthday, maybe looking for best and biggest is a thing of youth, but it was nice. Boy came back into town from his comic con in Dallas on Tuesday but I didn't see him until Wednesday afternoon. He came through like a champ, offering to take me and Javalina to dinner. I was leaning to Outback, but that would have required going to San Marcos, which is no big deal, but Boy then mentioned that there is a lot of construction on the highway, so that turned me off to that idea and we fell back to our old standby, Longhorn Steakhouse.
The morning was nice as I got a few calls from my folks and some friends wishing me a happy birthday. I took Javalina to school and then I was alone for a few hours. I figured the best thing was to just sleep. I slept through the afternoon and woke up around 4:30pm. I had a text from my old UT friend who I had not talked to since probably her birthday last year. We got caught up with each other's lives after about an hour and then it was about time to go pick up Javalina from football practice. He said they were having an early release, around 6:00pm, so we got there about 6:05pm but ended up waiting until 6:40pm. It got annoying because even though I drove around the campus, I couldn't see if they were still out there. The band kids were out there, man they put in the most hours.
Wife ordered me Tiff's Treats, which is a fairly new fresh warm cookie delivery service, which we needed to be home by 7:00pm. We barely got there and the door rang like 5 minutes later. I got an assortment of different cookies, chocolate chip, chocolate pecan, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle, to name the ones I recognized. I even got a pint of vanilla ice cream and a small milk and chocolate, which I thought was a bit much, but cute.
We headed out to eat after Javalina took a shower. We stopped at Target so he could get a couple cases of water. He was telling me a story about buying a single water for $1.25 from the vending machine when I was able to get him a case of 28 for $3.00.
I was so surprised to see Longhorn Steakhouse full on a Wednesday. We were sat down immediately, but waited for probably ten minutes, the manager came out to offer us some free appetizers. Javalina even got nervous as to why were they free. I told him to hush, if they want to give us free food, we take it. We got a free order of chicken bites and chili fries, which we ate in a hurry, we were all hungry. I believe the three of us got the 8oz sirloin, so the ticket was like $15.99 times 3. Add in a couple drinks, and the meal was under $60, with a tip.
I got home needing to lay down, I was full and glazy eyed. It was just around 9:40pm, I told Javalina to make sure and do his HW and I believe my sister called while I was sleeping, her kids sang some version of Happy Birthday and then they hung up. I tried getting up at 12:30am, Boy was still up modifying a project for his 3D printer on the computer. I tried writing this, but just ended up sleeping until about 2:00am, which I ended up just going to bed.
The morning was nice as I got a few calls from my folks and some friends wishing me a happy birthday. I took Javalina to school and then I was alone for a few hours. I figured the best thing was to just sleep. I slept through the afternoon and woke up around 4:30pm. I had a text from my old UT friend who I had not talked to since probably her birthday last year. We got caught up with each other's lives after about an hour and then it was about time to go pick up Javalina from football practice. He said they were having an early release, around 6:00pm, so we got there about 6:05pm but ended up waiting until 6:40pm. It got annoying because even though I drove around the campus, I couldn't see if they were still out there. The band kids were out there, man they put in the most hours.
Wife ordered me Tiff's Treats, which is a fairly new fresh warm cookie delivery service, which we needed to be home by 7:00pm. We barely got there and the door rang like 5 minutes later. I got an assortment of different cookies, chocolate chip, chocolate pecan, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle, to name the ones I recognized. I even got a pint of vanilla ice cream and a small milk and chocolate, which I thought was a bit much, but cute.
We headed out to eat after Javalina took a shower. We stopped at Target so he could get a couple cases of water. He was telling me a story about buying a single water for $1.25 from the vending machine when I was able to get him a case of 28 for $3.00.
I was so surprised to see Longhorn Steakhouse full on a Wednesday. We were sat down immediately, but waited for probably ten minutes, the manager came out to offer us some free appetizers. Javalina even got nervous as to why were they free. I told him to hush, if they want to give us free food, we take it. We got a free order of chicken bites and chili fries, which we ate in a hurry, we were all hungry. I believe the three of us got the 8oz sirloin, so the ticket was like $15.99 times 3. Add in a couple drinks, and the meal was under $60, with a tip.
I got home needing to lay down, I was full and glazy eyed. It was just around 9:40pm, I told Javalina to make sure and do his HW and I believe my sister called while I was sleeping, her kids sang some version of Happy Birthday and then they hung up. I tried getting up at 12:30am, Boy was still up modifying a project for his 3D printer on the computer. I tried writing this, but just ended up sleeping until about 2:00am, which I ended up just going to bed.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
8/21/19 Feelings On The First Day Of High School?
Life is kind of a bittersweet pill. The more success you achieve, usually, the farther one is driven from his loved ones. It is almost a catch-22 that you can have it all, but at the cost of your youth. I am mostly being caught in the moment, but it felt kind of empty dropping off Javalina at a new school, Boy meanwhile is in Dallas enjoying some convention with his GF and at age 25, why shouldn't he, if school has not started? Wife of course, working on the other side of that sacrificial role, is 200 miles away working her way up the ladder of unguaranteed promises and possible future riches, but again, all while sacrificing today.
Javalina is a great kid and he seemed excited and nervous enough about the whole starting in a new school, but I also felt a difference. Again, on the one hand it is a pain in the butt dropping him off, but in a couple of years, this one will be driving and then I won't be needed for anything more than a small ATM role. Meanwhile, we are supposed to be happy and excited about this and I know that it only goes faster because they are smart kids and that is the progression of life. It just seems to take so much of our lives to do everything for our kids just to basically prepare them to leave.
The flipside of the coin, when a kid never leaves though can be even worse, if they are born mentally slow or unable to cope with the world on the world's terms. I know that we all want the best for our babies, so big picture, I am glad my boys are succeeding and moving on, but sometimes it feels as if it is all going way too fast.
Like it or not, the football season already started, so it goes like clockwork, one game a week and by the time the season ends, we are already past Halloween and looking at Thanksgiving. That usually means 2-3 more weeks of school and Christmas vacation followed by the start of the new year. This is just Javalina. Boy is supposed to be in his last full semester, so we will be looking forward to the spring, when he tells us, he should be graduating. Sadly, he has tentative plans of moving out in another year after graduation, once he can save some money.
I can only hope that Wife has finished her obligations working away from home and that she can come back at that point. I would love it if she could join me to watch Javalina playing his football games. They seem long and tedious while looking at his schedule, but they are a blip in time and will be gone before we know it. It was just a couple months ago I was working with a beast of an 8th grader trying to make him stronger by introducing him to weights and protein shakes. Today, fast forward and I have before me this "little guy" standing with all those upperclassmen and I can't help but feel like we have less than four years to make him the best version of himself for the college years.
Javalina is a great kid and he seemed excited and nervous enough about the whole starting in a new school, but I also felt a difference. Again, on the one hand it is a pain in the butt dropping him off, but in a couple of years, this one will be driving and then I won't be needed for anything more than a small ATM role. Meanwhile, we are supposed to be happy and excited about this and I know that it only goes faster because they are smart kids and that is the progression of life. It just seems to take so much of our lives to do everything for our kids just to basically prepare them to leave.
The flipside of the coin, when a kid never leaves though can be even worse, if they are born mentally slow or unable to cope with the world on the world's terms. I know that we all want the best for our babies, so big picture, I am glad my boys are succeeding and moving on, but sometimes it feels as if it is all going way too fast.
Like it or not, the football season already started, so it goes like clockwork, one game a week and by the time the season ends, we are already past Halloween and looking at Thanksgiving. That usually means 2-3 more weeks of school and Christmas vacation followed by the start of the new year. This is just Javalina. Boy is supposed to be in his last full semester, so we will be looking forward to the spring, when he tells us, he should be graduating. Sadly, he has tentative plans of moving out in another year after graduation, once he can save some money.
I can only hope that Wife has finished her obligations working away from home and that she can come back at that point. I would love it if she could join me to watch Javalina playing his football games. They seem long and tedious while looking at his schedule, but they are a blip in time and will be gone before we know it. It was just a couple months ago I was working with a beast of an 8th grader trying to make him stronger by introducing him to weights and protein shakes. Today, fast forward and I have before me this "little guy" standing with all those upperclassmen and I can't help but feel like we have less than four years to make him the best version of himself for the college years.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
8/20/19 Are People Seriously This Horrible?
So Saturday we went out to our lot close to Canyon Lake to look at our RV and Wife's nephew has been wanting to look at it to possibly buy it from me. We currently don't even have a truck to move it and it really needs time and attention that I don't care to provide. We had stopped to eat at a BBQ place close to the lot and all was going well. When we pulled up to the lot, we were greeted with about a trailer's worth of trash right at the front of the lot. I thought it was odd that the guy next door came right out and was saying how he felt bad and that this must have happened just this morning as it wasn't there the night before.
He also slid in the fact that he had access to a trailer and that his crew had just gotten done with a job and they could handle the clean up, for a small fee. I have seen this guy come out and talk to my father in law before, so I was thinking they were on friendly terms, but my spidey senses also told me that he was way too involved here to not be involved, if you know what I mean. I kind of walked away from their conversation and went over to show the inside of the RV to my nephew thinking alright he wants to be nice, but unless he is offering to clean up, BFD. Wife came over to me and said he was going to clean it up this afternoon, I thought great.
Anyways, fast forward to today and I got a call from the HOA president. Wife had sent him pictures of what had happened and explained that the guy next door was going to clean up, we had already paid him, and guess what? The HOA president told me that have been after this guy because he does this. He has been caught dumping on the lots on the other side of him and behind him. Why not on our lot now? I still held hope and said "well, I can't prove it was him, as long as he cleans it up, that is fine, I just want the issue fixed." He said "Nah, I'm standing in front of the trash and it looks like it does in the pictures." "If you want to file a police report, you have to come do it in person" was his next piece of advice. The story from my father in law is that the guy has been "taking care" of our lot, cutting the grass for free because he is interested in buying the lot from us, so paying him $100 is not so bad if you include a couple year's worth of grass cuts, not that we ever told him to cut it. I don't care to get anyone in trouble, but if you are going to take my money for services, at least do the services and pick up the shit.
I don't know what happens now, but I know I don't want the lots anymore, not knowing we are situated next to dishonest fucking trash people that can look you in the eye and take your money like that. You have to be a freaking snake to do that kind of shit. I mean at least pick up half the shit, or something.
He also slid in the fact that he had access to a trailer and that his crew had just gotten done with a job and they could handle the clean up, for a small fee. I have seen this guy come out and talk to my father in law before, so I was thinking they were on friendly terms, but my spidey senses also told me that he was way too involved here to not be involved, if you know what I mean. I kind of walked away from their conversation and went over to show the inside of the RV to my nephew thinking alright he wants to be nice, but unless he is offering to clean up, BFD. Wife came over to me and said he was going to clean it up this afternoon, I thought great.
Anyways, fast forward to today and I got a call from the HOA president. Wife had sent him pictures of what had happened and explained that the guy next door was going to clean up, we had already paid him, and guess what? The HOA president told me that have been after this guy because he does this. He has been caught dumping on the lots on the other side of him and behind him. Why not on our lot now? I still held hope and said "well, I can't prove it was him, as long as he cleans it up, that is fine, I just want the issue fixed." He said "Nah, I'm standing in front of the trash and it looks like it does in the pictures." "If you want to file a police report, you have to come do it in person" was his next piece of advice. The story from my father in law is that the guy has been "taking care" of our lot, cutting the grass for free because he is interested in buying the lot from us, so paying him $100 is not so bad if you include a couple year's worth of grass cuts, not that we ever told him to cut it. I don't care to get anyone in trouble, but if you are going to take my money for services, at least do the services and pick up the shit.
I don't know what happens now, but I know I don't want the lots anymore, not knowing we are situated next to dishonest fucking trash people that can look you in the eye and take your money like that. You have to be a freaking snake to do that kind of shit. I mean at least pick up half the shit, or something.
Monday, August 19, 2019
8/19/19 Spider-Man: Far From Home? (movie)
We went to the movies last night, mostly because I felt it had been a long while since we hadn't gone. As far as movies to watch, it was either going to be Spider-Man or Hobbs and Shaw, I was feeling like watching something with action and Javalina said he was missing some Spider-Man in his life. I wasn't sure about it because of the whole Avengers: Endgame thing. All these Marvel superhero movies are tied together now and whether we want to or not, we spent a lot of time mourning Iron-Man and Stark. Although I expected it, come on, can't we just enjoy Spider-Man being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Nope! As Nick Fury said when Peter Parker says his line innocently, "Bitch, please! You've been to space." Peter retorts with a weak "that was by accident..."
In the movie, we are kind of forced to go with the new idea that Spider-Man might be the leader of the next generation of Avengers, whoever they may be. Peter does have genius tendencies, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to work with EDITH and even improve her in the near future. EDITH is a gift from Tony Stark to Peter Parker in the form of sunglasses that control a couple of satellites and some rather powerful computers to help him along the way. Happy is also more involved now, as he is kind of hitting on Aunt May, leaving him open and vulnerable enough to play a parent type for Peter, who although is a superhero, is still only 16 years old and still kind of a child.
The story itself was kind of simple, Mysterio as he liked to be called was an ex employee of Stark Industries who got fired when Tony decided he didn't need him anymore. He was not anybody with super powers, he was a fake. That being said, he had a cast of about twenty who had been wronged by Stark and wanted some adoration from the nobody fans like us after "saving the day." Of course, one tiny clue is left and exposes the whole plan, which was to have Parker give Mysterio control of EDITH.
I enjoyed that the movie tried being smaller, it wanted to be more about Parker and his classmates running around Europe. All Peter wanted was to kiss the girl and I think the actress that played MJ was good as she played it aloof and only barely interested in Peter only to admit in the end that she has been holding back because she doesn't want to get hurt. Fury, being desperate and short of Avengers just about forces Peter Parker to commit to helping.
All goes well until the last 10 seconds when of course, in Avengers fashion, they have to throw in a curveball and of course even though Spider-Man saves us all from certain death and confusion from Mysterio, Mysterio still releases a message to ruin Spider-Man and his anonymity.
In the movie, we are kind of forced to go with the new idea that Spider-Man might be the leader of the next generation of Avengers, whoever they may be. Peter does have genius tendencies, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to work with EDITH and even improve her in the near future. EDITH is a gift from Tony Stark to Peter Parker in the form of sunglasses that control a couple of satellites and some rather powerful computers to help him along the way. Happy is also more involved now, as he is kind of hitting on Aunt May, leaving him open and vulnerable enough to play a parent type for Peter, who although is a superhero, is still only 16 years old and still kind of a child.
The story itself was kind of simple, Mysterio as he liked to be called was an ex employee of Stark Industries who got fired when Tony decided he didn't need him anymore. He was not anybody with super powers, he was a fake. That being said, he had a cast of about twenty who had been wronged by Stark and wanted some adoration from the nobody fans like us after "saving the day." Of course, one tiny clue is left and exposes the whole plan, which was to have Parker give Mysterio control of EDITH.
I enjoyed that the movie tried being smaller, it wanted to be more about Parker and his classmates running around Europe. All Peter wanted was to kiss the girl and I think the actress that played MJ was good as she played it aloof and only barely interested in Peter only to admit in the end that she has been holding back because she doesn't want to get hurt. Fury, being desperate and short of Avengers just about forces Peter Parker to commit to helping.
All goes well until the last 10 seconds when of course, in Avengers fashion, they have to throw in a curveball and of course even though Spider-Man saves us all from certain death and confusion from Mysterio, Mysterio still releases a message to ruin Spider-Man and his anonymity.
Saturday, August 17, 2019
8/18/19 An Afternoon With The In-Laws?
Wife had told me we were going to hang out with her family on Thursday or so and I figured we hadn't seen them in a couple weeks and what am I going to say, No? They had all agreed on meeting down in New Braunfels because they were taking a drive out by the lake. Since the restaurant chosen was so close to our lot by the lake, I assumed it was an intended thing. We ate at Bare Bull BBQ and we were all surprised at how much food was put on our plates. We didn't even get served on plates, they used the smaller cookie sheets.
I ordered the nachos with chopped beef on top and we didn't even make a dent in it. After ordering the nachos, I changed my mind and got a brisket sandwich. There was so much meat on it that I couldn't lift it without it starting to fall apart. I had to eat it by cutting it with a knife. We were all impressed at how good and how much meat we were all served. The food was delicious but what made it even better was that the building had great air conditioning, so even though it was 100 degrees, it was very comfortable to sit around and catch up.
Of course, to me the trip was about my nephew looking at our old RV on the inside. He has been wanting to buy the RV but on the super cheap family discount. I want to make a couple bucks on it and not just give it away. We went over to look at it after we ate, but were greeted by a load of trash at the front of our lot. Apparently, the neighbor guy came out and has periodically talked to my father in law and he said that must have happened just this morning as that was not there the previous day. I wasn't sure what to believe, but the trash is on our lot and we know that can't stand. The guy said he had a trailer and they could get rid of it, today, if we wanted to. We paid him and he actually gave Wife and my father in law a receipt.
My nephew saw the inside of the trailer and said he was surprised that it looked better than he thought it would, it was very clean. The outside has become weather beaten and kinda white and ashy looking. He offered $800, I laughed and said I would rather throw a match at it and watch it burn than let you have it for chump change. I said I wanted at least $2000. He said that was too much, I said "yeah, but everything should work." He wanted to see it working, but because of the trash up front, my father in law did not want to bring his suburban close enough to connect the electricity to it.
I said we could do $1500 if he agreed to it today. I was just thinking of the lot and what if other people start dumping on it, then we will be having to pay for a clean up all the time. The whole thing just maybe turned me off to owning stuff I can't see all the time. If I can unload the RV to my nephew and sell back the land to my father in law, I will have removed all the responsibilities I have down there.
I ordered the nachos with chopped beef on top and we didn't even make a dent in it. After ordering the nachos, I changed my mind and got a brisket sandwich. There was so much meat on it that I couldn't lift it without it starting to fall apart. I had to eat it by cutting it with a knife. We were all impressed at how good and how much meat we were all served. The food was delicious but what made it even better was that the building had great air conditioning, so even though it was 100 degrees, it was very comfortable to sit around and catch up.
Of course, to me the trip was about my nephew looking at our old RV on the inside. He has been wanting to buy the RV but on the super cheap family discount. I want to make a couple bucks on it and not just give it away. We went over to look at it after we ate, but were greeted by a load of trash at the front of our lot. Apparently, the neighbor guy came out and has periodically talked to my father in law and he said that must have happened just this morning as that was not there the previous day. I wasn't sure what to believe, but the trash is on our lot and we know that can't stand. The guy said he had a trailer and they could get rid of it, today, if we wanted to. We paid him and he actually gave Wife and my father in law a receipt.
My nephew saw the inside of the trailer and said he was surprised that it looked better than he thought it would, it was very clean. The outside has become weather beaten and kinda white and ashy looking. He offered $800, I laughed and said I would rather throw a match at it and watch it burn than let you have it for chump change. I said I wanted at least $2000. He said that was too much, I said "yeah, but everything should work." He wanted to see it working, but because of the trash up front, my father in law did not want to bring his suburban close enough to connect the electricity to it.
I said we could do $1500 if he agreed to it today. I was just thinking of the lot and what if other people start dumping on it, then we will be having to pay for a clean up all the time. The whole thing just maybe turned me off to owning stuff I can't see all the time. If I can unload the RV to my nephew and sell back the land to my father in law, I will have removed all the responsibilities I have down there.
8/17/19 Business Idea: Big Mando's Limo Service?
I am of course referring to driving Mr. Javalina around all week to his various practices at various times of the week. It was bad enough Monday through Thursday when he had to be there at 7:15am and then was done with practice at 9:50am. I had to stay up way longer than I was used to. Wednesday was probably the worst as he also had to stay and get his school ID and then change his schedule. We didn't get home until almost noon. That one was bad but still watching the scrimmage in this heat, even though the scrimmage was set at 8:30am on Thursday, which meant it was still technically "cool" outside. By the time we left, I think the thermometer in the car said 91, so it wasn't that hot, but with the humidity, one almost can't breath out there. I know we have been outside after a cold front where the air is dry and the sun still makes it 85, it can still feel light and cool. But when we are wearing that humidity pulled in from the gulf I guess, man, it makes the Texas heat, just ugly.
Friday was supposed to be much more relaxed. I still had to stay until 8:00am because I went in late, so I got out and stopped at McDonald's because I was hungry. I had got up Thursday night and not eaten and headed straight to work. Wife told me to stop and get breakfast but make sure and get something for Javalina, to be nice. Ehh, I thought, but I did. Turns out, he was already up at 8:30am, when I got home. He ate his McDonald's bacon, egg, and biscuit happily while I ate two of them with my orange juice and hash brown. I went to bed at 9:00am and told him to wake me around 12:30pm if he needed to be there by 1:15pm. He did, which meant I slept about three hours. He said he was going to review football film, which we got a copy and I really loved being able to watch it.
He had also mentioned they were going to try and do the team picture, but in the end not enough of the kids showed up, so that will wait until next week. I decided instead of going home and being on call to come pick him up, I would go to Academy and consider buying him some supplies to help him. He complained about his chin strap not holding the helmet in place, so I bought him a new chinstrap that is supposed to be "the best". I got him a new style of mouthpiece that allows him to breathe through a cutout in the middle. It is supposed to also be the newest technology mouth piece wise and the packaging did say it guarantees itself with a $5000 insurance on the kid's teeth with or without braces. My uncle, the runner had also showed him to be a more effective runner to breath through his mouth and this mouthpiece will allow that. The third thing I got him was forearm pads, which I have been telling him he needs since his 7th grade days. He has refused my guidance, but the last two weeks he has been coming home with various bruises on his forearms and I think he is finally agreeing I may be right.
I finally picked him up at 4:00pm after I finished at Academy and went to Best Buy for another hour where I bought new ink for our printer and talked extensively to a couple of guys in the TV section about whether I would be happier with the new 85in screens or a new projector. My concern is that the bulbs on projectors seem to burn out kind of fast. They mentioned new laser projectors last much longer, but they also go for $5000 to over $25,000. The 85 inch TVs seem to go from $2000 to $4000. I think I see which one would be better, in the long run.
We stopped to eat a little lunch at Bill Miller and Wife called saying she was on the road. We stopped at the house and Javalina said he was going to work out, and although I just wanted to go to bed, I helped spot him while he did bench press, pushing him to add more weight. I finally jumped in bed and slept until Wife texted that she was downstairs. I kept waiting for her to come up and say hi, but of course, she came in and immediately started cleaning the house. We ended the night by picking up Popeye's Chicken and eating at home. I was just totally useless and couldn't even hold a conversation in the car as I could hear myself slurring and losing focus on our conversations. I fell asleep by 10:00pm and woke up at 3:40am feeling much better. It is currently 5:57am and I just finished writing this, which I started about 5:10am. I do need to go back to bed as Wife wants to get up and go meet her folks in New Braunfels for lunch around 11:30am. Right now, I could sleep another three hours, but I am sure I am going to mess it up as I am not sleepy right now.
Friday was supposed to be much more relaxed. I still had to stay until 8:00am because I went in late, so I got out and stopped at McDonald's because I was hungry. I had got up Thursday night and not eaten and headed straight to work. Wife told me to stop and get breakfast but make sure and get something for Javalina, to be nice. Ehh, I thought, but I did. Turns out, he was already up at 8:30am, when I got home. He ate his McDonald's bacon, egg, and biscuit happily while I ate two of them with my orange juice and hash brown. I went to bed at 9:00am and told him to wake me around 12:30pm if he needed to be there by 1:15pm. He did, which meant I slept about three hours. He said he was going to review football film, which we got a copy and I really loved being able to watch it.
He had also mentioned they were going to try and do the team picture, but in the end not enough of the kids showed up, so that will wait until next week. I decided instead of going home and being on call to come pick him up, I would go to Academy and consider buying him some supplies to help him. He complained about his chin strap not holding the helmet in place, so I bought him a new chinstrap that is supposed to be "the best". I got him a new style of mouthpiece that allows him to breathe through a cutout in the middle. It is supposed to also be the newest technology mouth piece wise and the packaging did say it guarantees itself with a $5000 insurance on the kid's teeth with or without braces. My uncle, the runner had also showed him to be a more effective runner to breath through his mouth and this mouthpiece will allow that. The third thing I got him was forearm pads, which I have been telling him he needs since his 7th grade days. He has refused my guidance, but the last two weeks he has been coming home with various bruises on his forearms and I think he is finally agreeing I may be right.
I finally picked him up at 4:00pm after I finished at Academy and went to Best Buy for another hour where I bought new ink for our printer and talked extensively to a couple of guys in the TV section about whether I would be happier with the new 85in screens or a new projector. My concern is that the bulbs on projectors seem to burn out kind of fast. They mentioned new laser projectors last much longer, but they also go for $5000 to over $25,000. The 85 inch TVs seem to go from $2000 to $4000. I think I see which one would be better, in the long run.
We stopped to eat a little lunch at Bill Miller and Wife called saying she was on the road. We stopped at the house and Javalina said he was going to work out, and although I just wanted to go to bed, I helped spot him while he did bench press, pushing him to add more weight. I finally jumped in bed and slept until Wife texted that she was downstairs. I kept waiting for her to come up and say hi, but of course, she came in and immediately started cleaning the house. We ended the night by picking up Popeye's Chicken and eating at home. I was just totally useless and couldn't even hold a conversation in the car as I could hear myself slurring and losing focus on our conversations. I fell asleep by 10:00pm and woke up at 3:40am feeling much better. It is currently 5:57am and I just finished writing this, which I started about 5:10am. I do need to go back to bed as Wife wants to get up and go meet her folks in New Braunfels for lunch around 11:30am. Right now, I could sleep another three hours, but I am sure I am going to mess it up as I am not sleepy right now.
Friday, August 16, 2019
8/16/19 Football Is Heating Up?
That is all I can think of, the heat. Man!!! Javalina had his first game today and it was a weird game to watch. I don't know if he got hit hard or was concussed or his pet hamster died right before the game (he doesn't own any pets). There was a visible hesitation on his part. Before the game even started, I got there and they were already warming up on the field. He hadn't mentioned what number he was going to be, so that made it a little harder to figure out who I was looking at. I settled on #63 and stared at him for awhile as they came off the field to drink water. He stared back without waving or anything and I decided to look away. If it wasn't my boy, it would be hard to explain why I was staring so hard at a kid, plus he looked back at me with attitude, not in any way friendly.
Once they all ran out on the field, I was sure that was my boy. I recognized his husky jog. He was blown back about 7-8 yards on the first play, but then he was much better after that. I asked him about the first play and he said he was double teamed which is why he got pushed back so far. After that, he seemed to settle down for awhile. He was involved on 3 tackles in the first drive and that is good.
I still don't know if it is good for them to not have a freshman squad and to be mixed in with the ,Junior varsity team. He was starting on both sides of the line (for a freshman playing with upper classmen, that is great) which seems good, but you need to be in great shape and he really isn't. He seemed to be taken out after the first couple of sets (they took turns running ten plays per side), but he told me he was asking the coaches to take him out because he was burned out. I thought he was done every time, but they would want him back after a couple of plays. Towards the end of the game, he even went and sat on the bench where the fan was blowing misty cool wind and the coaches called him yet again to go get on the field. I could tell the hesitation in his movements, like he was a step too slow all game long.
I don't think the huge ego of the boy can admit it, but I do believe the bigger boys might have hit harder than he was expecting. He is a little bruised but if he can learn from it, then all the better. He lost a great opportunity to get ahead over the summer when he could have hit the weights and gotten into conditioning since June. I know it sucks to be outside in the heat, but that is what it will take for him to be better than the kids around him.
I didn't mention much about the game because it was only a scrimmage and it was discussed that they wouldn't keep score. They were pretty even, I believe Crockett scored 3 times and Burnet twice, but there was no kickoff, they would just start the 10 plays from each other's 30 yard line, so it was hard to say which team won. Crockett needs a definitive running back. Their best plays were when the QB would scramble and get free for yardage. He also had a handful of decent passes for 20-30 yards.
Once they all ran out on the field, I was sure that was my boy. I recognized his husky jog. He was blown back about 7-8 yards on the first play, but then he was much better after that. I asked him about the first play and he said he was double teamed which is why he got pushed back so far. After that, he seemed to settle down for awhile. He was involved on 3 tackles in the first drive and that is good.
I still don't know if it is good for them to not have a freshman squad and to be mixed in with the ,Junior varsity team. He was starting on both sides of the line (for a freshman playing with upper classmen, that is great) which seems good, but you need to be in great shape and he really isn't. He seemed to be taken out after the first couple of sets (they took turns running ten plays per side), but he told me he was asking the coaches to take him out because he was burned out. I thought he was done every time, but they would want him back after a couple of plays. Towards the end of the game, he even went and sat on the bench where the fan was blowing misty cool wind and the coaches called him yet again to go get on the field. I could tell the hesitation in his movements, like he was a step too slow all game long.
I don't think the huge ego of the boy can admit it, but I do believe the bigger boys might have hit harder than he was expecting. He is a little bruised but if he can learn from it, then all the better. He lost a great opportunity to get ahead over the summer when he could have hit the weights and gotten into conditioning since June. I know it sucks to be outside in the heat, but that is what it will take for him to be better than the kids around him.
I didn't mention much about the game because it was only a scrimmage and it was discussed that they wouldn't keep score. They were pretty even, I believe Crockett scored 3 times and Burnet twice, but there was no kickoff, they would just start the 10 plays from each other's 30 yard line, so it was hard to say which team won. Crockett needs a definitive running back. Their best plays were when the QB would scramble and get free for yardage. He also had a handful of decent passes for 20-30 yards.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
8/15/19 Crockett High Was Busy Busy?
Yesterday, I spent about two hours on campus with Javalina getting his school ID and then trying to get with a counselor to change his schedule. He should feel right at home, with the population being about the same as it was at Bedichek, about 90% hispanic. I felt like I was back in High School back in Crystal City. It was a super busy day, first of all, this whole week with the short practice sessions, I have been hanging out at work until 9:00am or so. To add to the spinning around, Wife reminded us that this was the week to get his school ID and check his schedule if it would work out for us. He still had band on there which he has now quit and he didn't have football which is a big one to not have on there.
The first room we went to was a chemistry room which you could tell by the black desktops and drying racks on the walls by the sinks on the worktables along the wall. For picture day though, they had the room full of chairs along a perimeter along the wall. It took almost an hour to get around the room, they need better training instead of letting the one person do all the tasks of taking the pictures and entering the data on the database and verifying that this is person such and such. I almost had to sit with Javalina and force him to stay there. He had it in his head that he wanted to leave and come back on the Friday. I said no. I want to end my work week and go home and relax, not hang out in a high school. He settled down some and by the time we got around halfway through the room, I told him I would go to the next room and start waiting for him in line. The next place was where we saw the schedules and talked to the counselor to make changes if a class didn't work for the student. We needed to drop band and add football. Since it was an easy solution, we were eventually able to just talk to the counselor's secretary who said "yeah, just note it on the paper, and the counselor will make the change.
We left his school around 11:00am and I decided I wanted to eat a brisket sandwich at Chief's. We probably had not eaten there since he was in elementary school. It was weird that it brought back thoughts of elementary school for Javalina and then one of the ladies in line turns to us and says "I know you two." I said "Yeah, I was thinking you looked familiar too." I mentioned our names and she said "Alejandro? Alex, OMG, you were one of my first kiddos." It was his teacher from 2nd grade. We didn't hardly recognize her because she has lost a bunch of weight by staying on Atkins for four years or something like that. She invited Alex to go visit her classroom sometime and we said our goodbyes. I got home close to noon and just fell dead asleep. One more day, he has his first scrimmage in an hour, so I am waiting here at work and heading over to Burger stadium at 8:00am.
The first room we went to was a chemistry room which you could tell by the black desktops and drying racks on the walls by the sinks on the worktables along the wall. For picture day though, they had the room full of chairs along a perimeter along the wall. It took almost an hour to get around the room, they need better training instead of letting the one person do all the tasks of taking the pictures and entering the data on the database and verifying that this is person such and such. I almost had to sit with Javalina and force him to stay there. He had it in his head that he wanted to leave and come back on the Friday. I said no. I want to end my work week and go home and relax, not hang out in a high school. He settled down some and by the time we got around halfway through the room, I told him I would go to the next room and start waiting for him in line. The next place was where we saw the schedules and talked to the counselor to make changes if a class didn't work for the student. We needed to drop band and add football. Since it was an easy solution, we were eventually able to just talk to the counselor's secretary who said "yeah, just note it on the paper, and the counselor will make the change.
We left his school around 11:00am and I decided I wanted to eat a brisket sandwich at Chief's. We probably had not eaten there since he was in elementary school. It was weird that it brought back thoughts of elementary school for Javalina and then one of the ladies in line turns to us and says "I know you two." I said "Yeah, I was thinking you looked familiar too." I mentioned our names and she said "Alejandro? Alex, OMG, you were one of my first kiddos." It was his teacher from 2nd grade. We didn't hardly recognize her because she has lost a bunch of weight by staying on Atkins for four years or something like that. She invited Alex to go visit her classroom sometime and we said our goodbyes. I got home close to noon and just fell dead asleep. One more day, he has his first scrimmage in an hour, so I am waiting here at work and heading over to Burger stadium at 8:00am.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
8/14/19 Boy Wants So Badly To Be Man?
I finally got to my limit and I had to say something about how Boy has been carrying on all summer. I hate him playing house, which I told him this from day one. I said to him and GF that I did not mind if he wanted to have his GF over on the weekends. This quickly stretched to include Thursday and then Sunday. By the time I figured it out, it is almost every night of the week.
I told Wife that we needed to discuss this, and she said go ahead, bring it up next time we see them. Well, that came on Thursday last week. I was sitting at the table and they walked in joking about something or other. As usual, my points were not taken well. The first comment back to me was "I was just discussing with your son that it's been awhile since your parent's have butted into our relationship." I thought this was rather rude, but all I said was "this is my son, I will always be involved and worried about him, and it is not butting in."
Maybe in a perfect world I would keep my mouth shut, but this is not perfect. Boy is still in the process of finishing his degree. We could say he has already taken a long time, but really I don't care about that, he has to deal with dyslexia and he is getting a tough degree. On the other side of the coin, GF could also be further along, she is also still working towards a degree. Without a degree, what kind of life would the two enjoy? I don't want Boy to just live one of those mediocre lives, happily living poor so he can be in a relationship, this is not a John Cougar Mellencamp song. I want him to leave the house degree'd, and ready to be a functional member of society.
He has to get through this semester, which he has packed with about 15 hours and then next semester he has the one class he couldn't take because they only offer in the Spring. If all goes well, he will have his degree at this point. We talked about it and he says that after he gets his degree, he may stay home another year to save up some money. I had ideas of giving him a second bedroom and opening up the wall between the rooms, but if he is in such a hurry to leave, I might as well save me the money of doing something crazy like that. I know this ends up being two years and a lot can happen between now and then, but shit with Wife working out of town and Boy wanting to move out, how much longer are we going to need such a big house?
I told Wife that we needed to discuss this, and she said go ahead, bring it up next time we see them. Well, that came on Thursday last week. I was sitting at the table and they walked in joking about something or other. As usual, my points were not taken well. The first comment back to me was "I was just discussing with your son that it's been awhile since your parent's have butted into our relationship." I thought this was rather rude, but all I said was "this is my son, I will always be involved and worried about him, and it is not butting in."
Maybe in a perfect world I would keep my mouth shut, but this is not perfect. Boy is still in the process of finishing his degree. We could say he has already taken a long time, but really I don't care about that, he has to deal with dyslexia and he is getting a tough degree. On the other side of the coin, GF could also be further along, she is also still working towards a degree. Without a degree, what kind of life would the two enjoy? I don't want Boy to just live one of those mediocre lives, happily living poor so he can be in a relationship, this is not a John Cougar Mellencamp song. I want him to leave the house degree'd, and ready to be a functional member of society.
He has to get through this semester, which he has packed with about 15 hours and then next semester he has the one class he couldn't take because they only offer in the Spring. If all goes well, he will have his degree at this point. We talked about it and he says that after he gets his degree, he may stay home another year to save up some money. I had ideas of giving him a second bedroom and opening up the wall between the rooms, but if he is in such a hurry to leave, I might as well save me the money of doing something crazy like that. I know this ends up being two years and a lot can happen between now and then, but shit with Wife working out of town and Boy wanting to move out, how much longer are we going to need such a big house?
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
8/13/19 Javalina's Schedule Is Really Testing Me?
I really want school to start to get some normalcy going. This week is just ridiculous for me. I went to bed last night with Wife, woke at 4:40am to walk her out, stayed awake because I can't just sleep all day. Got going at 7:00am to take him to football practice. I stopped at HEB because we didn't have much as far as food goes at the house. I maybe slept for an hour, then I had to go get him at noon. We got home, and I made lunch for us, some burgers. I then slept from about 2:00pm to 6:00pm. This was ok. I am still at work, it is now almost 7:00am, Boy is supposed to be dropping him off today through Thursday.
For some reason, they have a short practice, so I could either rush home now and try to sleep for an hour and a half or hang out at work and head on over to pick him up around 9:00am. I came in late to work on purpose tonight, knowing I would be here later than normal. I guess the coaches have some teaching thing to do, so football has to wait , for a day. They are supposed to have a scrimmage this Friday which I was looking forward to, but now I see a note that it has been moved to Thursday. There is some confusion because Javalina said the scrimmage starts maybe at 11:00am, which would be horrible for me to try and attend. The note the coaches sent home says the JV squad starts at 8:30am and is done before 10:00am. My boy said they don't have enough Freshmen, so the freshmen will be absorbed by the JV squad. On a positive note, Javalina says as far as it looks, he is starting on both offense as right guard and defense as a defensive end. I don't know that he is quite tall enough to play defensive end, but maybe losing the 40 pounds in January, he is much faster. I am excited to see that. Again, to see these scrimmages will have me moving my sleep all over the place. At least they should get a break on Friday, they usually get the day off after a game, but who knows?
Either way, I should be sleeping better next week, once he starts school and is there for the full class day plus practice after school.
For some reason, they have a short practice, so I could either rush home now and try to sleep for an hour and a half or hang out at work and head on over to pick him up around 9:00am. I came in late to work on purpose tonight, knowing I would be here later than normal. I guess the coaches have some teaching thing to do, so football has to wait , for a day. They are supposed to have a scrimmage this Friday which I was looking forward to, but now I see a note that it has been moved to Thursday. There is some confusion because Javalina said the scrimmage starts maybe at 11:00am, which would be horrible for me to try and attend. The note the coaches sent home says the JV squad starts at 8:30am and is done before 10:00am. My boy said they don't have enough Freshmen, so the freshmen will be absorbed by the JV squad. On a positive note, Javalina says as far as it looks, he is starting on both offense as right guard and defense as a defensive end. I don't know that he is quite tall enough to play defensive end, but maybe losing the 40 pounds in January, he is much faster. I am excited to see that. Again, to see these scrimmages will have me moving my sleep all over the place. At least they should get a break on Friday, they usually get the day off after a game, but who knows?
Either way, I should be sleeping better next week, once he starts school and is there for the full class day plus practice after school.
Monday, August 12, 2019
8/12/19 Summer Is Over?
I am sitting wondering what to write about and the truth is that I am just waiting for school to begin next week for Javalina. The summer passes by too fast. We talked of doing this and doing that, but really if you are going to do something, like travel, it has to be done early, like in June. June and most of July were almost pleasant, we kept getting showers and thunderstorms about once a week to keep temperatures down. August comes in like a bully, turning up the temperature above 100 degrees and making all the clouds disappear. I hate that my birthday is in the end of August because school starts about then, but I can also figure that by then the worst of summer is over and we are only a couple weeks away from feeling the first cool fronts.
As far as summer being over, we didn't do much as far as traveling. We got as far as Houston with Wife for a conference. We have been talking and we are sure next year is when we will start vacationing again. We have been dealing with getting our finances in order and that is about done, Wife doesn't like it mentioned, but I'll write a blog on that when I can see we are done.
She has decided to go back to school and is taking some classes. She got 2 A's on her first two classes and I congratulate her, but really us. She is doing all the work, no doubt, but we are also sitting quietly and supportively waiting for her to do her thing and potentially open up some more opportunities to make more money. At the very least, this has to be a way for her to get back over here. Unless they plan to really pay her a real salary, I have lost the flavor of her being so far away from us. I don't think the knuckleheads down there appreciate what she does enough to pay her an honest salary, so I think it has gotten time to bring her experience and apply it elsewhere.
Boy was getting a little carried away with playing house with his GF, he says it all stops when school starts, I said it's better if it slows down already. I realize he is 25, but I also still buy his underwear and provide for him, so I get a say.
Javalina is currently busting his husky butt out on the football field with the other kids going out for football. It is really the best sport, but damn this weather and them having to start practicing in this heat. He is like a wilted flower when we pick him up, all dehydrated and beat up from being in the sun. He was supposed to have an extra practice on Saturday and I got up at 6:00am and was sitting here, ready to take him but he wouldn't budge. I talked to him as he lay on the sofa and he just did not want to go out into the heat. I couldn't blame him. He stayed home knowing he may be punished today for it, but going hard five days a week seems like enough. I hope to see a cold front soon, this whole week, we are supposed to be in the +100s, all the way up to 105 today and tomorrow.
As far as summer being over, we didn't do much as far as traveling. We got as far as Houston with Wife for a conference. We have been talking and we are sure next year is when we will start vacationing again. We have been dealing with getting our finances in order and that is about done, Wife doesn't like it mentioned, but I'll write a blog on that when I can see we are done.
She has decided to go back to school and is taking some classes. She got 2 A's on her first two classes and I congratulate her, but really us. She is doing all the work, no doubt, but we are also sitting quietly and supportively waiting for her to do her thing and potentially open up some more opportunities to make more money. At the very least, this has to be a way for her to get back over here. Unless they plan to really pay her a real salary, I have lost the flavor of her being so far away from us. I don't think the knuckleheads down there appreciate what she does enough to pay her an honest salary, so I think it has gotten time to bring her experience and apply it elsewhere.
Boy was getting a little carried away with playing house with his GF, he says it all stops when school starts, I said it's better if it slows down already. I realize he is 25, but I also still buy his underwear and provide for him, so I get a say.
Javalina is currently busting his husky butt out on the football field with the other kids going out for football. It is really the best sport, but damn this weather and them having to start practicing in this heat. He is like a wilted flower when we pick him up, all dehydrated and beat up from being in the sun. He was supposed to have an extra practice on Saturday and I got up at 6:00am and was sitting here, ready to take him but he wouldn't budge. I talked to him as he lay on the sofa and he just did not want to go out into the heat. I couldn't blame him. He stayed home knowing he may be punished today for it, but going hard five days a week seems like enough. I hope to see a cold front soon, this whole week, we are supposed to be in the +100s, all the way up to 105 today and tomorrow.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
8/11/19 Heat Strokes Or HOA Fines?
I refuse to pay other men to do work in my house that we can do. I have never had men come and cut the grass when we could handle it. That being said, it has been difficult to get my boys to head outside with the temperature headed above 100 degrees. We are three weeks into me trying to get either of the boys to go out and help me. I refuse to cut it myself, so I will keep making deals with them.
I guess the third time's the charm. I was up at 6:00am and would like to have cut the grass at that time, but of course, life does not work that way. I can't be making loud noises at that hour and neither boy was going to respond well to me waking them up at that hour. I went back to sleep and tried again at noon. Javalina was mad because I woke him up so early, I told him to shut it, "it's noon."
In all honesty, I don't care about the yard that much, but if we don't stay on top of it, the stupid HOA wins and now they started dropping fines on us. In the spring, we got a notice that our yard was overgrown and we were charged a $25 fine. Since then, I have been making sure the grass stays cut and doing it every two weeks and it has needed it with all the rain we had until June. As soon as August started, it's like they turned the heat up and most of our lawn turned yellow. Since it is mostly dead, it just needed to be cut to make sure it is all even and dead in one layer.
The problem today was that the older mower did not want to start. Boy usually uses it and does the front. Javalina does the bigger back lawn but he uses the bigger mower with the powered front wheels. I follow behind and trim. It seemed to take twice as long with the one mower. I felt abandoned after they got done, as both little shits ran inside to shower and cool off. I stayed outside to finish trimming, picking up all the trash the stupid raccoons kick out of the cans, and I also noticed the hedges up front needed a trim, so I did that as well. Eventually, I yelled at Boy to come back out and handle the trash cans which he took to the street. I also got Javalina to put fresh chlorine and refill the pool as the water level had gotten real low.
Another couple weeks maybe a month and the grass hopefully goes dormant and we can stop the silliness of keeping up with the Jones.
I guess the third time's the charm. I was up at 6:00am and would like to have cut the grass at that time, but of course, life does not work that way. I can't be making loud noises at that hour and neither boy was going to respond well to me waking them up at that hour. I went back to sleep and tried again at noon. Javalina was mad because I woke him up so early, I told him to shut it, "it's noon."
In all honesty, I don't care about the yard that much, but if we don't stay on top of it, the stupid HOA wins and now they started dropping fines on us. In the spring, we got a notice that our yard was overgrown and we were charged a $25 fine. Since then, I have been making sure the grass stays cut and doing it every two weeks and it has needed it with all the rain we had until June. As soon as August started, it's like they turned the heat up and most of our lawn turned yellow. Since it is mostly dead, it just needed to be cut to make sure it is all even and dead in one layer.
The problem today was that the older mower did not want to start. Boy usually uses it and does the front. Javalina does the bigger back lawn but he uses the bigger mower with the powered front wheels. I follow behind and trim. It seemed to take twice as long with the one mower. I felt abandoned after they got done, as both little shits ran inside to shower and cool off. I stayed outside to finish trimming, picking up all the trash the stupid raccoons kick out of the cans, and I also noticed the hedges up front needed a trim, so I did that as well. Eventually, I yelled at Boy to come back out and handle the trash cans which he took to the street. I also got Javalina to put fresh chlorine and refill the pool as the water level had gotten real low.
Another couple weeks maybe a month and the grass hopefully goes dormant and we can stop the silliness of keeping up with the Jones.
Saturday, August 10, 2019
8/10/19 The ROKU Device Really Rocks?
I had not had a chance t mess around with the Roku we bought a year or two ago much. It has Netflix and HULU and a few other choices selected and I did not even know or think there were other "channels" in existence. I accidentally landed on whatever channel Amazon Prime haslast week and found The Boys, a really cool darker more realistic look at how life would be if we really had superheroes amongst us. It shows them concerned with their movie tie-ins and how much they get off the back end and stuff like that. Also, the main story line is a guy loses his GF to one of them who appears to be high or out of control. In the 2nd episode they show us a hangout where most of the "supers" go and hang out to take care of their dirty fixations, be they drugs, women, gambling or whatever. Anyways, when I wanted to show it to Wife on the computer, she said "can't you just put the channel on the Roku thingy? I said "probably, if I mess around with it long enough, grrr." I hate dicking around too much, but this was fairly easy and when I went into search mode, I found a bunch of other channels.
My attention was caught by a Yoga channel, and I downloaded it quickly, not because I care about yoga, but I like looking at women bending into weird shapes. What I found was a woman, not fat, but like real, she was bending but not like they would on ESPN where everything is perfect. This looked like a real person doing yoga as best she could and she had multiple episodes on there. The channel was also loaded by a girl doing ASMR videos, those where the person does gentle noises, in the first case she was filling her mouth with Pop Rocks and putting a microphone to it. To me, this is always bordering on erotic but not really. There is something to the attractive girl having her mouth open to the microphone and letting us hear the crackling and popping inside, but then again, it is just a candy. Wife was unaware of any of this kind of stuff, she hung in about 5 minutes before she told me to change it, it was just stupid.
I also found a channel that does the local news for any number of cities in the US. If I have an HGTV channel on this Roku and I can watch the main channels with rabbit ears, why are we still paying $205 a month for cable. I need to explore this thing a bit more, but we really don't watch TV, other than college football, and if I can find a way to get my Longhorns without missing a game, I might come around and decide I don't need cable anymore.
My attention was caught by a Yoga channel, and I downloaded it quickly, not because I care about yoga, but I like looking at women bending into weird shapes. What I found was a woman, not fat, but like real, she was bending but not like they would on ESPN where everything is perfect. This looked like a real person doing yoga as best she could and she had multiple episodes on there. The channel was also loaded by a girl doing ASMR videos, those where the person does gentle noises, in the first case she was filling her mouth with Pop Rocks and putting a microphone to it. To me, this is always bordering on erotic but not really. There is something to the attractive girl having her mouth open to the microphone and letting us hear the crackling and popping inside, but then again, it is just a candy. Wife was unaware of any of this kind of stuff, she hung in about 5 minutes before she told me to change it, it was just stupid.
I also found a channel that does the local news for any number of cities in the US. If I have an HGTV channel on this Roku and I can watch the main channels with rabbit ears, why are we still paying $205 a month for cable. I need to explore this thing a bit more, but we really don't watch TV, other than college football, and if I can find a way to get my Longhorns without missing a game, I might come around and decide I don't need cable anymore.
Friday, August 9, 2019
8/9/19 Javalina Quit The Band
So it happened, Javalina has decided to keep his skills focused solely on the football field. Initially, we had told him we wanted him to do both, Wife was behind this. I have always wanted them to do what makes them happy. I think it was for nostalgia's sake that Wife wanted him to keep burning the band candle since we were both in band in high school. After we talked about it, he wanted to know how I felt about it. I told him honestly, I would have liked for either you or your brother to really have gotten behind the saxophone and gotten consumed by the idea of being the best at it. I would never want to force you to do it simply because I did it in high school. Saying that, though, I really need you to find something you are going to be passionate about.
Boy had me a little disappointed coming out of junior high as he had chosen not to do band and then he decided he didn't want to play football in high school, leaving him for a short time without any extracurricular activities. Until he found robotics and later the rockets programs. These two things defined Boy in high school, coming up to launch events, he might stay at the school until 10:00pm, doing this and that to prepare for any given launch. He has turned into that young man, last night he was preparing his 3D printer for another project and I can still sense that kid working with his rockets, putting shit together and making sure everything is just right.
Now to you, Javalina, what is going to be that thing that defines you? I am perfectly fine if you are going to be our big strong football player, but you have to really commit. I want to see you getting it on with the weights. I don't want to hear excuses and I don't want to see you taking short cuts. Those guys that look impressive with all those muscles work on it in the gym, if you are going to be about athletics, then take the right steps and get serious about lifting weights, it's the only way to get any advantage out on the field.
On the one hand, I was having a problem with how long his days were, going from 7:15am until 4:00pm, but since I am his ride and now I have to get up in the middle of my sleep routine to go and get him, that is really going to hurt me. Still, I will just have to get back home and focus on going to sleep for another couple hours. Like it or not, school starts in a week and a half, so it will just be mostly next week that it will hurt. Once school starts, it will probably be 6:00pm when I am picking him up, after football practice.
Last time I will mention this, but his campus is a bit far. I really wish he had chosen Akins High School which is across the street from our house and Boy used to walk back and forth. In the time it took me to drop him off at school, Wife took off at the same time headed to San Antonio for a conference or something, she made it to San Marcos. I can't imagine the craziness of having to drive through at least three school zones and all the parents trying to drop off their kids. I can imagine it is going to suck a bit.
Boy had me a little disappointed coming out of junior high as he had chosen not to do band and then he decided he didn't want to play football in high school, leaving him for a short time without any extracurricular activities. Until he found robotics and later the rockets programs. These two things defined Boy in high school, coming up to launch events, he might stay at the school until 10:00pm, doing this and that to prepare for any given launch. He has turned into that young man, last night he was preparing his 3D printer for another project and I can still sense that kid working with his rockets, putting shit together and making sure everything is just right.
Now to you, Javalina, what is going to be that thing that defines you? I am perfectly fine if you are going to be our big strong football player, but you have to really commit. I want to see you getting it on with the weights. I don't want to hear excuses and I don't want to see you taking short cuts. Those guys that look impressive with all those muscles work on it in the gym, if you are going to be about athletics, then take the right steps and get serious about lifting weights, it's the only way to get any advantage out on the field.
On the one hand, I was having a problem with how long his days were, going from 7:15am until 4:00pm, but since I am his ride and now I have to get up in the middle of my sleep routine to go and get him, that is really going to hurt me. Still, I will just have to get back home and focus on going to sleep for another couple hours. Like it or not, school starts in a week and a half, so it will just be mostly next week that it will hurt. Once school starts, it will probably be 6:00pm when I am picking him up, after football practice.
Last time I will mention this, but his campus is a bit far. I really wish he had chosen Akins High School which is across the street from our house and Boy used to walk back and forth. In the time it took me to drop him off at school, Wife took off at the same time headed to San Antonio for a conference or something, she made it to San Marcos. I can't imagine the craziness of having to drive through at least three school zones and all the parents trying to drop off their kids. I can imagine it is going to suck a bit.
Thursday, August 8, 2019
8/8/19 OITNB Could Continue? (possible spoilers)
I finally got through the last episode of Orange Is The New Black and I have to say it was such a well crafted show. Going in, I expected to hate the idea of looking at convicts as humans. My opinion was that you made a choice between good and bad and now you're an idiot who has to pay for your shenanigans. As I learned, there is so much going on right below the surface keeping everything moving along.
A lot of people end up committing crimes just to survive. They get in a hole where they have no skills, no real value to society, so selling drugs seem like a fast way out. Even when this works, like Aleida who had money hidden away, I think if things are working, why stop? Greed takes over and you can't stop, it's always "just a little more and then we can live on this forever. It was almost sad but in a sense perfect that her daughter Daya came in as an innocent caught up in the system and within a few years turned herself into a monster devoid of much humanity. It seemed almost poetic that mama handled her before (maybe) polluting the other kids. I also really liked the going back and back to people's histories, specifically with Aleida, you see her mom turning her into a prostitute to put food on the table, and that has to be a horrible way to grow up.
Nobody got a horrible deal as bad as Taystee getting accused of murder with the flimsiest of proof and the hiding of evidence. It would have been too easy to just look at the bullets in Piscatelly, which came from the rifles and not a handgun, but that was hidden right away for no good reason. She had every reason to give up and take the easy way out by killing herself, but in the end she found a reason to go on and keep fighting. I loved the ending they gave her, giving her a connection to her best friend and doing good for many.
Piper, privileged and white, was the worst of all the characters. She had no reason to act out, no reason to hang with an idiot like Vause, no reason to throw her life away. Even when given a chance and a job after doing her time, she didn't seem to learn that none of us is special. She was still demanding time off to go see her stupid GF/Wife who was going nowhere. The whole "snow day" episode and getting high made me want to kick her in the vag, fucking spoiled asshole. Life is sucking, toughen up. Getting high and looking for shortcuts is what got you in the situation in the first place. It was so satisfying when Larry, her husband from Season 1, got a chance to tell her what he thought of her. That she wanted to be special and by following Vause and becoming a criminal, she gets to be special all her life. This of course pisses off Piper, mostly because she is a contrarian and must walk around pissed off at everything, tries to spin it back but I agree with his synopsis.
There were just so many interesting characters, I want to see where they go. Flacca found herself growing up by helping the people in the deportation camps. Nikki pretty much grows up and replaces Red acting as "prison Mom" to all the junkies trying to get clean. Black Cindy seemed to be on the straight and narrow and even connecting with her daughter which seemed like it was going to be alright. Susan was the most impressive as she came in wild and out of control, another review equated her to coming in mentally as a child and progressing to a teenager with clarity, still capable of losing it, but also understanding that the world is not always fair, yet we continue and do the best we can. I just wish there was some justice for people like Linda Ferguson, from Polycon. She truly is a monster, hiding behind a desk yet finding ways to make life less human with everything she does. Her only interest is the bottom line and that barely qualifies her as human.
A lot of people end up committing crimes just to survive. They get in a hole where they have no skills, no real value to society, so selling drugs seem like a fast way out. Even when this works, like Aleida who had money hidden away, I think if things are working, why stop? Greed takes over and you can't stop, it's always "just a little more and then we can live on this forever. It was almost sad but in a sense perfect that her daughter Daya came in as an innocent caught up in the system and within a few years turned herself into a monster devoid of much humanity. It seemed almost poetic that mama handled her before (maybe) polluting the other kids. I also really liked the going back and back to people's histories, specifically with Aleida, you see her mom turning her into a prostitute to put food on the table, and that has to be a horrible way to grow up.
Nobody got a horrible deal as bad as Taystee getting accused of murder with the flimsiest of proof and the hiding of evidence. It would have been too easy to just look at the bullets in Piscatelly, which came from the rifles and not a handgun, but that was hidden right away for no good reason. She had every reason to give up and take the easy way out by killing herself, but in the end she found a reason to go on and keep fighting. I loved the ending they gave her, giving her a connection to her best friend and doing good for many.
Piper, privileged and white, was the worst of all the characters. She had no reason to act out, no reason to hang with an idiot like Vause, no reason to throw her life away. Even when given a chance and a job after doing her time, she didn't seem to learn that none of us is special. She was still demanding time off to go see her stupid GF/Wife who was going nowhere. The whole "snow day" episode and getting high made me want to kick her in the vag, fucking spoiled asshole. Life is sucking, toughen up. Getting high and looking for shortcuts is what got you in the situation in the first place. It was so satisfying when Larry, her husband from Season 1, got a chance to tell her what he thought of her. That she wanted to be special and by following Vause and becoming a criminal, she gets to be special all her life. This of course pisses off Piper, mostly because she is a contrarian and must walk around pissed off at everything, tries to spin it back but I agree with his synopsis.
There were just so many interesting characters, I want to see where they go. Flacca found herself growing up by helping the people in the deportation camps. Nikki pretty much grows up and replaces Red acting as "prison Mom" to all the junkies trying to get clean. Black Cindy seemed to be on the straight and narrow and even connecting with her daughter which seemed like it was going to be alright. Susan was the most impressive as she came in wild and out of control, another review equated her to coming in mentally as a child and progressing to a teenager with clarity, still capable of losing it, but also understanding that the world is not always fair, yet we continue and do the best we can. I just wish there was some justice for people like Linda Ferguson, from Polycon. She truly is a monster, hiding behind a desk yet finding ways to make life less human with everything she does. Her only interest is the bottom line and that barely qualifies her as human.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
8/7/19 Javalina Thinking About Quitting Band?
I thought it was a little funny yesterday morning that Javalina asked me if I could pick him up around 11:30am, after football practice. I said no, that is when I am sleeping, I don't want to come down here in the middle of my sleep, I don't get enough of it as it is. He said fine, I asked him why? He just said he is real tired and would like to go back to bed and out of the heat.
I understand if he wants to get out of the heat, it is so miserable during the day. 90 is tolerable and that is what we were seeing during the start of summer, in June. This plus 100 weather, though, is something else. It just burns to be outside, the car takes forever to cool off, and these poor kids are out there marching and learning where to be standing and when to move. The cool thing is they have the formation of their marching routines on an app on their phones, so he can see where and what is being attempted. I believe he can highlight the specific dot that represents him and he can see what he has to do. They are using a similar program for football and he can see where he is and where he has to go on any given play.
So after I picked him up, we went and ate at Whataburger and he was telling me that he felt with football taking up his mornings until 11:00am, he won't get a chance to learn everything for his marching responsibilities. He doesn't want to be "that guy" that screws up and makes the band look bad. I told him not to make any decisions on his own. He should talk to the band director to see if she agrees with his mode of thinking. The band director may agree that there are not enough hours in the day to fit both activities into a schedule or she may say that the band is way ahead of schedule and that you are doing so good, you'll be ready for marching contest time.
I only have a problem in that it is a lot of hours that he is having to give into his programs. Monday to Friday 7:15am to 4:00pm is more than a regular 40 hour schedule for a working adult and he is doing it for free. I know he loves the football part, so he won't give that up, but he sees how serious some of the band students are and I guess he feels like he is not as committed as they are and he does not want to be a mistake on those kids.
I understand if he wants to get out of the heat, it is so miserable during the day. 90 is tolerable and that is what we were seeing during the start of summer, in June. This plus 100 weather, though, is something else. It just burns to be outside, the car takes forever to cool off, and these poor kids are out there marching and learning where to be standing and when to move. The cool thing is they have the formation of their marching routines on an app on their phones, so he can see where and what is being attempted. I believe he can highlight the specific dot that represents him and he can see what he has to do. They are using a similar program for football and he can see where he is and where he has to go on any given play.
So after I picked him up, we went and ate at Whataburger and he was telling me that he felt with football taking up his mornings until 11:00am, he won't get a chance to learn everything for his marching responsibilities. He doesn't want to be "that guy" that screws up and makes the band look bad. I told him not to make any decisions on his own. He should talk to the band director to see if she agrees with his mode of thinking. The band director may agree that there are not enough hours in the day to fit both activities into a schedule or she may say that the band is way ahead of schedule and that you are doing so good, you'll be ready for marching contest time.
I only have a problem in that it is a lot of hours that he is having to give into his programs. Monday to Friday 7:15am to 4:00pm is more than a regular 40 hour schedule for a working adult and he is doing it for free. I know he loves the football part, so he won't give that up, but he sees how serious some of the band students are and I guess he feels like he is not as committed as they are and he does not want to be a mistake on those kids.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
8/6/19 I Can't Breath?
I know three weeks ago I was saying this has been a mild summer so far, but mannnnn, somebody got the memo and turned up the heat. I know August is just the worst month temperature wise, but I will still say it is ugly out there. I feel real bad for Javalina doing all day camps right now, 2 a days sounds a lot better. My poor guy is there from 7:15am until about 4:00pm. Football practice is from 7:15am until around 11:00am. He takes a lunch, then he has band practice in the afternoon until 4:00pm. He was doing just band camp from 8:00am to 4:00pm, so even without football, it is a lot to ask for from these kids. His only defense is a half gallon water jug that the band directors recommended he bring in with him. Of course, as always, he was arguing this point before school started that he would just take a water bottle, to which I said no because that just looks a little ghetto to me, if everyone else has a thermos to keep their drink cool.
This weekend, just so we are reminded of how important Air Conditioning is, when we were at the mall, we walked into the upstairs of Dillard's and the A/C was out. Speaking of "I can't Breath!!". it was immediately uncomfortable and ugly. Just walking to the escalator to go downstairs had me almost breaking into a sweat. I don't know how people without A/C survive this weather.
I don't know if our house needs more insulation, but the attic holds a lot of heat and it takes until past midnight to get the temperature up there to get under control. Even if I set the thermostat to 75, which is fairly cool in our house, it still will take hours to move down from 78 to 77. I know it has to do with the attic sustaining all that heat above.
Finally, I know I shouldn't complain since Javalina is the one out there all day, but I hate getting up at 3:45pm to go and get him from school. The Excursion is just like a great oven when I get in it. I have been running both front and rear A/Cs just to cool it off faster. Still, it takes until I just about get to Crockett High School before I start feeling comfortable. The shade of the house to where we park in front of the house doesn't start to get interesting until about 7:00pm which is fine for when I am going to work, but it doesn't do much for picking Alex.
This weekend, just so we are reminded of how important Air Conditioning is, when we were at the mall, we walked into the upstairs of Dillard's and the A/C was out. Speaking of "I can't Breath!!". it was immediately uncomfortable and ugly. Just walking to the escalator to go downstairs had me almost breaking into a sweat. I don't know how people without A/C survive this weather.
I don't know if our house needs more insulation, but the attic holds a lot of heat and it takes until past midnight to get the temperature up there to get under control. Even if I set the thermostat to 75, which is fairly cool in our house, it still will take hours to move down from 78 to 77. I know it has to do with the attic sustaining all that heat above.
Finally, I know I shouldn't complain since Javalina is the one out there all day, but I hate getting up at 3:45pm to go and get him from school. The Excursion is just like a great oven when I get in it. I have been running both front and rear A/Cs just to cool it off faster. Still, it takes until I just about get to Crockett High School before I start feeling comfortable. The shade of the house to where we park in front of the house doesn't start to get interesting until about 7:00pm which is fine for when I am going to work, but it doesn't do much for picking Alex.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
8/5/19 Parent's Visit?
My mom called Thursday night to see what we were going to be up to this past weekend as she was really missing our boys. Wife said she did not have much going on, she said she was down to 1 more paper to write before her summer classes end. I told my mom it would be great if they came, we were just going to be home not doing anything important. I then reminded her that Javalina gets out at 4:00pm, so try to be here before so you can see where his new school is at. Of course, they got home about 3:50pm and not that I wanted to be rude or pushy, but it is a bit of a drive to get to his school and my folks are trying to get off their car and stretching out and I am just looking at the time and trying not to be too late. This got my mom immediately ruffled, but she settled down after a few minutes.
We picked him up probably a few minutes late, then we headed to Don Dario's which is what it is as far as Mexican food. We then went home and I slept for a while, I love napping. To try and salvage the evening, I suggested going to Central Market, I know my folks love the different things offered at Central Market, well my mom and brother do, most of it is a diabetes hazard for my dad.
I got up way too early on Saturday, I was up at 4:30am, after falling asleep before midnight on Friday night. I was up until 9:30am, catching up with my folks in the morning for a couple hours before going back to bed for my midday nap. I got up around 2:00pm, and took a quick shower, thinking we were going to head out to eat. Just as I got downstairs, my mom was getting back with breakfast tacos for all from Taco Cabana. This made life a lot easier as I was able to poop before heading out to the mall after eating.
The mall turned out pretty good, as they were having a lot of sales, specially at Dillard's. I got Ditto a few shirts and a light fall jacket. My mom wanted to get Javalina a new pair of tennis shoes and he was being difficult in choosing a pair until he found a red pair in the clearance section. He is kind of weird, never wants expensive shoes.
On our way out, we walked by the bags at Dillard's and got all into the Louis Vuitton classic bags. Boy saw a large duffle bag that he loved. I told him if he got it, I would take a smaller normal sized duffel bag for myself and after hemming and hawing, we walked out with two "new" bags.
I tried getting up early again on Sunday but fell on my face. I ended up sleeping most of the time sitting in the kitchen dining table, instead of writing or watching videos. Eventually, I greeted my parents good morning around 10:00am and they both suggested I go to bed for a while. I did and then I didn't want to get up, even though I told them I would get up by noon. I got up and showered by around 1:30pm and we went and ate lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse. Lunch was really great, it had been awhile since we had enjoyed some good beef steaks and appetizers. My parents left about as soon as we got back home afterwards which gave me the perfect afternoon with nothing to do but sleep. We ended the evening by going to have dinner at Chicken Express which has slowly become a favorite place for us, even if it is in Buda.
By the time we got home, it was about 9:30pm. Wife got ready for bed and I went downstairs to write a couple of blogs and make sure all the last minute work gets done, such as separating the clean clothes after washing and placing in the correct rooms.
We picked him up probably a few minutes late, then we headed to Don Dario's which is what it is as far as Mexican food. We then went home and I slept for a while, I love napping. To try and salvage the evening, I suggested going to Central Market, I know my folks love the different things offered at Central Market, well my mom and brother do, most of it is a diabetes hazard for my dad.
I got up way too early on Saturday, I was up at 4:30am, after falling asleep before midnight on Friday night. I was up until 9:30am, catching up with my folks in the morning for a couple hours before going back to bed for my midday nap. I got up around 2:00pm, and took a quick shower, thinking we were going to head out to eat. Just as I got downstairs, my mom was getting back with breakfast tacos for all from Taco Cabana. This made life a lot easier as I was able to poop before heading out to the mall after eating.
The mall turned out pretty good, as they were having a lot of sales, specially at Dillard's. I got Ditto a few shirts and a light fall jacket. My mom wanted to get Javalina a new pair of tennis shoes and he was being difficult in choosing a pair until he found a red pair in the clearance section. He is kind of weird, never wants expensive shoes.
On our way out, we walked by the bags at Dillard's and got all into the Louis Vuitton classic bags. Boy saw a large duffle bag that he loved. I told him if he got it, I would take a smaller normal sized duffel bag for myself and after hemming and hawing, we walked out with two "new" bags.
I tried getting up early again on Sunday but fell on my face. I ended up sleeping most of the time sitting in the kitchen dining table, instead of writing or watching videos. Eventually, I greeted my parents good morning around 10:00am and they both suggested I go to bed for a while. I did and then I didn't want to get up, even though I told them I would get up by noon. I got up and showered by around 1:30pm and we went and ate lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse. Lunch was really great, it had been awhile since we had enjoyed some good beef steaks and appetizers. My parents left about as soon as we got back home afterwards which gave me the perfect afternoon with nothing to do but sleep. We ended the evening by going to have dinner at Chicken Express which has slowly become a favorite place for us, even if it is in Buda.
By the time we got home, it was about 9:30pm. Wife got ready for bed and I went downstairs to write a couple of blogs and make sure all the last minute work gets done, such as separating the clean clothes after washing and placing in the correct rooms.
8/4/19 Recognize When Someone Offers A Handup, Not A Handout?
I consider our household a place almost akin to a counselor's office. We have been giving advice and counsel to any and all kids that come by the house whether as Boy's friends, Girlie's friends, and even some older ones that I didn't even realize we helped throughout the years. Our advice may not be perfect and certainly it may not work for everyone, but I like to think that we care and listen to anyone coming around and then try and tailor our advice to them. We understand not everyone is interested in a chemistry degree and working in a boring ass lab is what we are saying.
For example, when DD was graduating high school, he stated he was not interested in college, he was not going the four year degree route, it wasn't for him. I told him that is fine, school is not for everyone, but realize you will have to work harder and probably do physical work to get anywhere in life. Wife still tried telling him about programs at ACC where he could get certified in welding or learn some trade with a certificate in a year, as opposed to a 4 year degree. He has opted not to go to school, and has been doing what sounds like hard blue collar work, installing fancy doors and oversized windows in oversized houses. He gets paid good money for what he does and all is good and well, provided he doesn't get hurt.
Last week, while going through FB looking for another old friend, I saw a comment about Boy's old best friend, his sister was telling the world that she was fixing to be an aunt. I texted the boy, and he said hi and seemed friendly and cheerful to hear from us. When I asked how it was going he said he was going to graduate (also with some engineering degree), but he hadn't had any luck with internships. I casually said well come over, it's been a few years we haven't seen you, but we can catch up with you and you can discuss with Boy about where he is working and maybe he can give you some names to places to look into. I pretty much got crickets after this. He never responded back, which almost even seemed rude.
I then talked with Boy asking if they had had a falling out of some sort to which he said no. That just seemed odd, but ok. Boy then just casually tells me that he understands he is happy where he is at, but if interested, a company in Cedar Park is working on low orbit rockets and they want a bunch of engineers, and then another company also reached out to him as they got his name through another friend but this job requires all sorts of traveling, and even his company is looking for an engineer for something, but then Boy said I can't just recommend him, I don't even know what he has been studying or what he knows. By this point I was a bit angry at the whole thing, and just told him not to worry about him. I mean some people go through life crying that they just need a chance, right there Boy could probably give him any of those three job leads, but the kid can't be bothered to continue a conversation. You can only help those that help themselves.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
8/3/19 OITNB's Many Facets Brings Light To Deportation Camps? (Spoilers)
Maybe I have become soft in my older days or I am becoming more of a girl every day, but season 7 of Orange Is The New Black has had me pretty much crying in every episode. I loved the small arc of reintroducing the Maritza character, she is such a pretty petite little thing that just never fit in as a criminal, even if she did think her poop didn't smell. This time we see her enjoying life outside of prison doing dumb stuff that someone her age might do, like hanging out in clubs, even if the clubs are illegal and filled with illegals. She gets caught up in an ICE sweep and because she doesn't have ID, she is taken to a deportation camp "until things get cleared up." She meets up with Blanca who in the first season was disgusting and would not shower and poop herself so the guards would not touch her. She grew into a very likable character once she became a "regular", going through a makeover by Maritza and Flacca.
Maritza goes in pissed knowing this is all a big misunderstanding, then she has to realize that things are not going to get better. To make calls, you need money, nobody has money because nobody knows you are there. To get money you must then use a machine that the ICE people know and don't care is broke. The best analogy of being in there new versus a few days and being broken by the system is Maritza sees a blue bird and tells Blanca "that bird is a sign of good fortune...", while Blanca barely acknowledges the bird and responds "that bird is here to remind you that even inside a building, you can still get shit on, don't expect help." By this time Maritza is starting to accept that no one is coming to save her and giving up hope. Then the cavalry shows up when the cafeteria doors are opened and the Litchfield girls are there, including her old bestie, Flacca. I truly thought this meant the usual "never give up, there is always a way." Reality does not work that way, I guess.
Flacca finds Maritza's mom and finds out she was not born in the US, but is in fact a Colombian national. Her mom fled with her when she was a baby, so she never technically lived in Colombia and has no connections but that doesn't stop ICE from doing the ultimate punishment to those that belong here. The guards get "tired of her shit" when she decides the best thing to do is get the number of the one lawyer Flacca has found her to help her.
Through a backdrop of a sad acoustic guitar we see her get driven to a big jet plane filled with other "horrible" people who don't belong here and gradually the plane thins out until she finally disappears from her seat to where we must imagine she is delivered to her home country where she knows no one and who knows what happens to a stranger in a strange land. I know this is fictional and even my mom was like "why are you getting emotional over the show?" I understand getting rid of real troublemakers, drug dealers, killers, people that don't contribute positively to society, sure dump them into the ocean, I don't care, but she was just a dummy that made some bad choices and ended up paying a very heavy price.
We are never going to hear their stories, but how many people who have lived here 20-40 years in this new age of Trump will this happen to them and like in some weird 80s movie, people are just "disappeared overnight?" Round up the assholes and troublemakers, but leave the pretty ones alone.
Maritza goes in pissed knowing this is all a big misunderstanding, then she has to realize that things are not going to get better. To make calls, you need money, nobody has money because nobody knows you are there. To get money you must then use a machine that the ICE people know and don't care is broke. The best analogy of being in there new versus a few days and being broken by the system is Maritza sees a blue bird and tells Blanca "that bird is a sign of good fortune...", while Blanca barely acknowledges the bird and responds "that bird is here to remind you that even inside a building, you can still get shit on, don't expect help." By this time Maritza is starting to accept that no one is coming to save her and giving up hope. Then the cavalry shows up when the cafeteria doors are opened and the Litchfield girls are there, including her old bestie, Flacca. I truly thought this meant the usual "never give up, there is always a way." Reality does not work that way, I guess.
Flacca finds Maritza's mom and finds out she was not born in the US, but is in fact a Colombian national. Her mom fled with her when she was a baby, so she never technically lived in Colombia and has no connections but that doesn't stop ICE from doing the ultimate punishment to those that belong here. The guards get "tired of her shit" when she decides the best thing to do is get the number of the one lawyer Flacca has found her to help her.
Through a backdrop of a sad acoustic guitar we see her get driven to a big jet plane filled with other "horrible" people who don't belong here and gradually the plane thins out until she finally disappears from her seat to where we must imagine she is delivered to her home country where she knows no one and who knows what happens to a stranger in a strange land. I know this is fictional and even my mom was like "why are you getting emotional over the show?" I understand getting rid of real troublemakers, drug dealers, killers, people that don't contribute positively to society, sure dump them into the ocean, I don't care, but she was just a dummy that made some bad choices and ended up paying a very heavy price.
We are never going to hear their stories, but how many people who have lived here 20-40 years in this new age of Trump will this happen to them and like in some weird 80s movie, people are just "disappeared overnight?" Round up the assholes and troublemakers, but leave the pretty ones alone.
Friday, August 2, 2019
8/2/19 Possible New Nickname For Javalina?
I am not sure what will happen with my younger boy, but he is getting involved with high school already, even though there are a couple more weeks of summer left. He has been going to band camp the last two weeks and he comes home wore out. He says they do exercises and are always practicing formations and how to march properly.
He got curious about football and if he was going to be contacted, so he went over to talk to the coaches since he was on campus and found out the freshmen started yesterday, on Thursday. His coach did have the decency of asking his name and if he went by any nicknames. He mentioned his name and then he said he had been called Javalina by the coaches throughout 7th and 8th grade football since 1 of the coaches comes from my hometown area and he mentioned how he went to school down there for a couple weeks when Wife started her new job. The school mascot where I grew up is the Javalina. The coach said cool but my boy didn't feel like the name stuck with the coach. I personally like it, but it's not up to me.
On the first day of football practice, he said the coach said with his big poofy hair, my son looked like Maui from Moana. That is about the only way to make my son light up, after all, Maui is a freaking demi-god with a huge ego to boot. I hadn't even seen the cartoon but I was checking out clips to see if Maui is seen as good or bad and he is singing a song all about how great he is and about the only thing you can say to him is thank you because he has provided man with everything. I guess he will accept that new nickname but it will mean he has to keep the big head of hair which he was contemplating cutting off to start the school year.
I was surprised to hear him able to control himself and not start challenging everyone in there to arm wrestling contests as is normal everywhere else. He said a couple of those guys are just huge, like he is glad they are not freshmen, so that is probably good for Mr. "I Can Compete With Anyone".
He got curious about football and if he was going to be contacted, so he went over to talk to the coaches since he was on campus and found out the freshmen started yesterday, on Thursday. His coach did have the decency of asking his name and if he went by any nicknames. He mentioned his name and then he said he had been called Javalina by the coaches throughout 7th and 8th grade football since 1 of the coaches comes from my hometown area and he mentioned how he went to school down there for a couple weeks when Wife started her new job. The school mascot where I grew up is the Javalina. The coach said cool but my boy didn't feel like the name stuck with the coach. I personally like it, but it's not up to me.
On the first day of football practice, he said the coach said with his big poofy hair, my son looked like Maui from Moana. That is about the only way to make my son light up, after all, Maui is a freaking demi-god with a huge ego to boot. I hadn't even seen the cartoon but I was checking out clips to see if Maui is seen as good or bad and he is singing a song all about how great he is and about the only thing you can say to him is thank you because he has provided man with everything. I guess he will accept that new nickname but it will mean he has to keep the big head of hair which he was contemplating cutting off to start the school year.
I was surprised to hear him able to control himself and not start challenging everyone in there to arm wrestling contests as is normal everywhere else. He said a couple of those guys are just huge, like he is glad they are not freshmen, so that is probably good for Mr. "I Can Compete With Anyone".
Thursday, August 1, 2019
8/1/19 Is It Time For Our Babies To Make Babies?
No, Boy is not pregnant. I read on FB that his childhood best friend is awaiting a baby. I contacted him on Snapchat yesterday and he seemed glad to hear from me, verified the rumor and asked how we were doing, all that good stuff. My first instinct is "No, he just ruined his life, but at 25, isn't that about the normal age for humans to start reproducing? I really take pride in that none of the boys that hung out with us growing up had babies willy-nilly. This boy in particular worried me because he dated serious every time he was with a new girl.
I say I take pride because when Boy turned about 12 or so, I started buying him boxes of condoms and I would basically throw them at all the boys that came through the house. I would then tell them not to be stupid and "you are already poor, don't make this your permanent life." Enjoy yourselves, but do it responsibly. The only one that I know of from the whole group of kids that walked in and out of our doors to have a kid is our old neighbor's daughter, Girlie's cousin. It is almost ridiculous because they were strict with her that she couldn't have a boy friend until she turned 18, and about five minutes after she turned 18, she coughed up a kid with an idiot I wouldn't trust to make my food at McDonald's.
Anyways, the boy in question is going to Tx State as well and I kind of hate that they stopped hanging out, but Boy and him have to have had classes together, they are both in engineering programs over there. He said he was fixing to graduate this December, so maybe the baby is a year early to me, but this is about the next best thing, if he is with a steady girl. I invited him over, I want to know what he has been up to, but my phone was acting up so I don't know if he didn't respond or my phone didn't take his last message.
As far as Boy giving us grandkids, I have told them to first get your degrees, both of you. In this day and age, there is no reason to be suffering. Boy will be done in May and the GF is also about a year away, so they should be focused on that light at the end of the tunnel. I also would like for them to travel and have fun before spitting out shitty kids that slow everything down. I don't mind them living with us for a couple years if they are both making big bank and I don't have to feel like I have to buy them a pizza now and then so they can eat. I want them comfortable enough that they can take us to eat at nice restaurants occasionally without it affecting whether they have light at the end of the month. We already did the suffering, there should be no reason for that BS going forward.
I say I take pride because when Boy turned about 12 or so, I started buying him boxes of condoms and I would basically throw them at all the boys that came through the house. I would then tell them not to be stupid and "you are already poor, don't make this your permanent life." Enjoy yourselves, but do it responsibly. The only one that I know of from the whole group of kids that walked in and out of our doors to have a kid is our old neighbor's daughter, Girlie's cousin. It is almost ridiculous because they were strict with her that she couldn't have a boy friend until she turned 18, and about five minutes after she turned 18, she coughed up a kid with an idiot I wouldn't trust to make my food at McDonald's.
Anyways, the boy in question is going to Tx State as well and I kind of hate that they stopped hanging out, but Boy and him have to have had classes together, they are both in engineering programs over there. He said he was fixing to graduate this December, so maybe the baby is a year early to me, but this is about the next best thing, if he is with a steady girl. I invited him over, I want to know what he has been up to, but my phone was acting up so I don't know if he didn't respond or my phone didn't take his last message.
As far as Boy giving us grandkids, I have told them to first get your degrees, both of you. In this day and age, there is no reason to be suffering. Boy will be done in May and the GF is also about a year away, so they should be focused on that light at the end of the tunnel. I also would like for them to travel and have fun before spitting out shitty kids that slow everything down. I don't mind them living with us for a couple years if they are both making big bank and I don't have to feel like I have to buy them a pizza now and then so they can eat. I want them comfortable enough that they can take us to eat at nice restaurants occasionally without it affecting whether they have light at the end of the month. We already did the suffering, there should be no reason for that BS going forward.
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