10/30/22 Trunk Or Treat Night?

     I was not sure what to expect, and for a minute at 5:00pm, it seemed like the party was going to be a dud, but I think in the end, it turned out alright.  The party was a trick or treat event in the high school parking lot of Crockett High School.  The actual event started at 6:00pm, but the planners wanted us there early, so we got there about 4:30pm.  It only took 5-10 minutes for us to prepare, I mean, we picked out a spot to park in a huge parking lot with 3-4 cars to start.  Then we opened our back door of the Telluride and hung as much crap as we could.  We had a Nightmare Before Christmas theme, and Wife beat it to death.  She ordered a cardboard cutout kit early enough to get it a couple weeks before the event.  We then had plastic heads of Jack Skellington and Sally in different sizes and some that lit up and some that just hung there.  The Telluride is actually very smooth and had very little to use for hanging things, but with a little tape and some creativity, we got it done.

    Other people had different themes, one nice Mustang with grey and purple colors throughout had a simple but effective Pennywise clown with a red balloon that somehow matched the car.  Another one had a lot of candles in the back, which I thought was a bit dangerous, and maybe they were going for a seance theme, but all in all, it was a fun night.  We won the Players Choice Award, the football players were the judges, since this was a fundraiser event for them.  There were maybe 10 football players that showed up, honestly, there should have been more, but people get busy, I guess.  Still, by the time it got dark, there were plenty of kids from the neighborhood.  There were enough that we even had a cake walk and they must have run that thing about 6-7 times, with different kids.

    I got the feeling that if we had to do stuff like this more often, we would need a bigger vehicle.  By the time we left the house, we had the back of the SUV filled with boxes of candies, bins of decorations, a small table, chairs, and then us.  It was a good thing we didn't end up picking up friends of Mijo, the back was pretty full.  We did take his GF, which was nice, they dressed up as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.  I am sure she would have preferred something cuter, but he had planned on doing this with some of his boys, and we had ordered these costumes weeks ago.  Being that it was a cool night, and after freezing my butt off at the football game, I did not argue with Wife when she told me we were going to wear those fuzzy pajama type full costume thingies with Nightmare Before Christmas pattern all over.

    We ended the night with a Mexican dinner at a restaurant close by and got home by 11:00pm or so, it was a good night that left me wore out.  I like that by now we know ost everybody involved with the booster club, so it is easy to have conversations with these people, which just helps make time fly by.

10/29/22 Trunk or Treat or Trick or Trunk?

     I am not sure which is the correct mixture of the event, but tonight we have a fun event at the school, hopefully, we have a good turnout.  It is our first ever Trick or Trunk, which is like Halloween, but we line up our cars and decorate them and then the kids come thru, and we give them candies.  Wife has been on top of this one, she ordered a decoration kit for the car a few weeks ago, then went to Sam's a couple days ago and bought over $100 in candy to give away.  I am not sure if this amount is just for today or if some of these candies survive, we are going to give them away on Monday Night, the real Halloween.

    For the event, Mijo has costumes ready for him and his friends.  He will be Winnie the Pooh and his friends will be the assortment of friends pooh has in the stories.  His girlfriend is even supposed to join us, and she will be Piglet, Piglet is small, like her, and also pink, which she loves.  His spaced out overly concussed lineman buddy will be Eeyore, which really fits him to a T.  One of his other friends will wear the Tigger outfit, I am sure.

    We are supposed to wear something from Nightmare Before Christmas, as that is what we are decorating the car with.  She keeps saying I have an Oogie Boogie costume, but I am not sure about that.  I would love to be Jack, but that guy is basically a stick figure, and I am not.  Wife will be happy if I dress up in any fashion, and I know I have at least two of those pajama costumes in my closet, so I'll wear the one that looks best.

    The football players will all be judges and there will be 5-6 trophies given out to best car decorations, to best costumes, and some more creative awards will be figured out, I am sure.  Last night, we were totally unprepared, I didn't even take a light jacket.  I will make sure and throw my big jacket in the back of the car, at least, if I need it, it will be there.

    Normally, I would see this as a pain in the ass, but it gives Mijo the chance to hang out with his friends and even the GF, so I have to be happy for that.  Plus, Halloween always signals the holidays are only weeks away.  Happy Halloween everyone!

10/28/22 Another Win Against Northeast?

     The season is going by too fast, with one more game to go, but this season has been a winning one, yes, it still sucks that our boy is injured, but better to be injured on a winning team than a losing one.  They are now 6-3, so even if they lose the last game of the season and the first playoff, they will still end up with the best record I can recall.  They may have more wins this season than they had in the three previous seasons combined.

    Northeast was a different team, they definitely had a game plan, to run the ball up the middle.  They had a curious lineup, with extra tight ends and everybody squeezed into the middle of the field.  I was expecting this to be some gimmick strategy, with wide receivers releasing to the edges before the ball was hiked or something interesting, but no, this was their gameplan.  Lucky for us, our inside defense has been really good all season.  They have not allowed many big plays to start from inside, off guard or tackle.  I don't understand why they didn't adjust and run to the edges, all opponents have had some luck running to the outside and sweeping around near the sidelines.  They scored their first touchdown this way, we missed their second score, both Wife and I went to the bathroom before the half, it was so cold.

    Our boys were active all over the field.  We had two blocked punts which bounced back almost into the endzone and were turned into two quick scores.  Our QB had the first score, on the first play of the game, he ran it in about 50-60 yards down the sideline.  There was another beautiful score, with 20 seconds left, Northeast punted the ball back to us, but it only traveled 5 yards and went out the sideline.  From about their 40-yard line, our boys ran a play, then called timeout, The last play of the half, was a bomb to an open man in the endzone, where he jumped for the ball, caught it in the air, and landed on his back for a very dramatic TD.  This gave us a 35-14 lead before the half.  The second half was a lot of back and forth in the middle of the field.  They did manage to score a third TD which made me a little nervous, until they blocked a punt and scored with about 6 minutes left.  That put them up 42-21 and sealed the game.  I was already up putting up my flags, so I could be ready to go by the time the game ended.

    I love having the banners and flags all over the field and stands, because at the end of the game, I can be on the track down by the players, which is great, to see them celebrating and dancing around at eye level.  It is a different view from down on the field when those boys hit each other, it is another level of real, as they hit and slide to a stop, from ground zero.

    I do have to add that it was such a cold game, the wind blew all game long.  It wasn't freezing, but being out there, and maybe because it was the first cold days, at least where I have had to be outside, I just didn't think of a jacket, and I went in shorts.  The only saving grace, was that we keep a couple of small blankets in the car, so I was able to wrap my legs, but the wind still blew in every crack it could get into.  I have never been gladder to get into the car and turn on the heat.

10/27/22 Shitty Dads?

     In theory, I worried about being a bad dad.  It seems that the weight of the world is put upon a parent to do what is right and the children are so delicate and just about everything you are going to do is going to affect these kids.  The reality is that kids are in their own world, with school and their own circle of friends.  Yes, when they start out, we parents might be their world, but we slowly are pushed out to a position where the kids just need a little love from us, along with some food, clothing, and shelter.  My mom won't let me forget I wasn't the best dad with my first kid, and I somewhat agree, I was still too immature, in my 20's and I probably threw tantrums equivalent to his.  As a result, I probably overreacted when he misbehaved, in my efforts to keep him in line.

    As I have aged into my 30's and into my 50's now, I find that it has become easier, and it is something I enjoy.  Maybe the second kid wasn't ADD/ADHD, so I could talk to him without having to lose my shit, and that in itself makes life much more pleasant.  My mom may not like it, but even if I was tough on the first born, he is now an engineer, and has a great job at one of the large companies here in Austin and he is getting ready to get flown out to Korea here in December for another two weeks to go work on another project, the boy has adjusted well to grown up life.

    The problem with shitty dads is just what I was hearing yesterday, on our way to Mijo's football game, Wife was telling me of a situation where the "stepdad" is all of a sudden taking care of some kids and there has been talk of these kids getting put in the closet and stuff like that.  That sounds horrid, for kids to be going through, but there are all sorts of men out there, and not all should be placed as caregivers for children.  These are young kids, and I don't really know the full story, so I can't judge from where I am at.

    The other story, which Mijo was telling us about last night, after the game, was that one of the players on the team was excited that his dad was finally going to go see a game, but the kid was injured a few games ago, enough that he went to the hospital for x-rays after the game, so the coaches have not been playing him.  He was kind of down when he saw his dad leaving before the half, I guess he figured why stick around if his kid isn't on the field?  This is shitty, selfish behavior that I can't understand.  We know our boy isn't playing right now, and we are there as soon as we can, I am setting u flags and banners and doing whatever I can for the team, not because I care for the coaches thumbs up but because we support our son and if he loves doing something, we are going to be there with him.

10/26/22 Jordan Peterson On Spotify?

     It gets tough in the lab, when we actually have to do work, we can't be talking the whole time.  In the last few months, we have added a second room where we have hoods and clean room space to prepare our samples.  This room does not have computers, like the room with our analysis tools, and because of that, we also don't have speakers to play music and stuff off the internet.  I don't really prefer to put on headphones, but I have a few good ones that I can use with my phone, so I have restarted taking them and going back to my library of stuff to listen to.

    I have my favorites as far as music, but that does get old after a while, and I still can say I love Carolla's podcast, after not listening to it for months, I came back and there was a lot of familiarity to what was going on.  I did like the random interview he was talking about was a guy who had walked across Antarctica, and his takeaway was the change you get when you spend time alone with your own thoughts, no music, no phone conversations.  He then has come out with a book talking about doing a walk, even if in familiar territory, just walk, no phone, no music, basically no outside stimulation, just listen to yourself for at least twelve hours.  According to the guy, this was the thing that he found the most interesting in his quest to cover mostly uninhabitable terrain, which I believe took him like 76 days.

    If Adam is the old comfortable warm-ups, one wears every day, Jordan Peterson is the brand-new set of Nikes Mama just bought you for school, all shiny and full of promise, surely all the kids will learn to love him like you do, so far.  I have been introduced to Peterson via so many Youtube videos, and the man is a force.  His claim to fame was pushing back in his university back in Canada, when the whole pronoun BS came to light.  This, along with his videos on Youtube, made him an overnight celebrity of sorts, fighting for the conservative side, or against the pronoun gang, arguing that it cannot be put into law, the use of gendered pronouns, it opens up to the law being able to be used in a ridiculous fashion.  As I understood his argument, if a man looks like a man, but wants to be addressed as a lady, said man could call the police for being disrespected by the use wrong pronouns.  I could be wrong, but I believe this was the point of his refusal to go along with his universities demands.

    Anyways, he brings fresh perspective, and has what appears to be hundreds of lectures with guests who seem to be mostly academics and they delve into topics of interest, such as Deception and Psychopathy, The Biology of Good and Evil, and even Lessons From The Bible.  I like when a smart person breaks stuff like this down, and I have nothing but time, when I am stuck at work.

10/25/22 Movies Lie About Football And Athletes?

     Movies make it seem like the jocks get all the glory and love in the movies.  We watched Friday Night Lights this past weekend and those guys seem to have time to party and hang out at the local eateries after games, like that is normal life.  The guys are all trying to get drunk, and it seems that the girls of the school are just prizes to be collected.  That is so far from the reality we have lived in for the last six years.

    I'll say, maybe in junior high the games were not as intense and since they played on Wednesday and Thursdays, there might be some energy on the weekends to hang out, if the occasion occurred, but then again, they were little kids and video games were the preferred way of burning off steam.

    Mijo has been on varsity the last three years, and I have yet to hear him say he is going to do anything other than eat a quick meal after a game with us.  Games start at 7:30pm, whether Thursday or Friday, and by the time the game is over, and we get back to school and he changes, it is not uncommon for it to be closer to 11:00pm.  We have kind of figured out that there's a Domino's Pizza by the house, we order a couple of pizzas and head home.  This year, with his injured knee and now ankle, he doesn't want to be out on it more than he has to, but when he was playing games, he would be so beat up, he really did just want to get home and lay on the sofa or bed.  Add to that, most Saturday mornings, they have a film review, so they can sit with the coaches and see where mistakes were made, none of these athletes we know are going to get drunk and try to show up in the morning for film and workout, most have family close by either in the booster club or just attending most practices and just being around.

    I follow a wrestler on Youtube and this week was his 21st birthday.  He has been getting asked if he was going to go buy alcohol to celebrate and he admits that he doesn't drink, the craziest thing he says he likes to do is go and buy a Starbucks drink, but then he saved it because he had weigh-ins in the morning for a meet, so the coffee had to wait until after he was done or risk the drink putting him over his weight limit.

    I really see today's athletes as finely tuned machines, they want to perform their best, I think only a small percentage are trying to get drunk, if any, nowadays.  As they say, times have changed.

10/24/22 Booster Club Meeting?

    Last night we had a booster club meeting and I thought there were several interesting points, some of which I brought up.  First off, our boys have qualified for the playoffs, like for the first time in 23 years, if I remember correctly.  While talking to a coworker, she mentioned their school had just qualified and they had shirts out to celebrate the occasion.  Well, I want to celebrate the occasion too.  It was the first thing I brought up as soon as the meeting got underway.  This became the focus of the meeting, which I am glad because it will be a really cool memento of what they accomplished this year.  Of course, I am hoping this is a new direction the school is taking and not just a rare thing that happened once in time.

    The next thing I just felt needed to be brought up is the use of charter buses.  If the boys manage to win a local game or two, then the distance to a competitor might grow in distance.  Do the boys get a charter bus to travel in comfort?  I like how it looks in the movies, when the team gets off these big fancy buses in a whole new world.  There was a lot of back and forth as to who pays for these buses, but at least the booster club got the conversation going with the coaching staff and they were going to reach out to the school district, if possibly they pay for this, we are after all, going out and representing AISD.  

    These were two exciting new points of conversation, which was followed by the normal "what are we feeding the kids this week?"  Wendys was chosen, and it sounded fine, but then there was a weird little detour in which we ended up giving a box of bananas to the other team at the last game.  The lady that gave them was touched that the boys acted all excited, like they don't normally get food like our boys do.  We feed them before they go play, give them fruit during the half and then have pizzas usually at the end of the game back by the lockers.  The ladies were all touched by the "starving children" from the last school, that they started talking about taking a box of food out at the coin flip to give the other team, I quickly raised my hand and said, "that is a horrible idea!"  These boys are fixing to go to war against each other, they may be insulted by the idea of food, they may think it's laced with something, food has no business on the field of battle.  I told them it's fine to share some food, but do it discretely, maybe share the idea with the coaching staff of the other school, see if they are receptive to the idea.  

    The school we faced last week is a sad place, judging by the fact that there were maybe 13 sets of people/parents sitting in the stands, with a band that had maybe 20-30 kids, and the team hasn't won a game in the last 3-4 years.  Not all opponents are the same, we could lose this week and then our charity will look a little silly, so we need to make sure it is coming from a good place if this is what we are going to do.

10/23/22 Are We Acting Old?

     Last night, I was still recovering from our fantastic meal at Pappadeaux, but my sister started posting pictures of them out at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.  I know that ten years ago, this is the time we would have no doubt been out there, with them.  Her boys were even running around in masks totally immersed in the Halloween theme.  In theory, I love the idea of running around the park, with family enjoying ourselves on these cool fall nights.  The reality, though, is that I would rather be home, laying down, not worried about having to drive home tired and sleepy.

    Our son, who has always acted about five years older than he is, spent the evening working on a big mid semester project, writing a ten-page essay on Hamlet.  I know even just asking if he would have wanted to go out there, he would have instantly said no, especially with no girlfriend, with her being busy out of town with her family.  It made even more sense to be home, so he would have the time to focus on his paper, even if he wasn't 100% working on the paper, I didn't want to be the reason he wasn't getting it done.

    The other reason I wonder if we are just acting old or being old, is that I called mom and asked why it was so quiet around her, usually the grandkids are being little loud shits all around her.  She said our one niece was out on a date, and my brother was inside his house, probably watching baseball, they are obsessed with it, something I just don't get, it should be over, this is the football season.  There is no more family effort of "Hey, let's go meet at Fiesta Texas!"  My dad and other brother wouldn't care to go, now my brother with his daughter in college doesn't have the same drive to be outside the house, their younger kid is a homebody, very much like Mijo.  Boy and his girlfriend might actually enjoy going, but only if they are going with their friends, not with family, so we are left in a weird position of going for our own sake, and that is something I can very easily pass on.  Maybe next year things change, if we have no more football in our lives, maybe we'll be looking for trips to Fiesta Texas just to get out of the house.

    I keep thinking there will be another boat in my life, we just need to get to a point where we are not focused on something so time consuming as Mijo being a jock.  Maybe we are getting old and having a boat might be too much of a pain in the ass, that I won't even want to mess around with one, even if we can afford it and have the time for it.  Maybe we are just getting old.

10/22/22 Celebrating At Pappadeaux?

     Wife decided it would be a good idea to take the boys out to eat at a nice restaurant this weekend after they qualified for the playoffs last week.  Her story is that she had been making bets with the coach over at her school, and not little $1 bets.  She had a couple hundred bucks she claimed she won from the betting, now I'm not 100% sure she was joking or if this is real, because Wife has never been the betting kind, but that is how we started this meal.  The next part was deciding what a "nice meal" would be.  I was happy enough to take them to Salt Lick, one of the other boys we took had been making waves that he wanted to go back to Salt Lick, he had gone with his family at one point during the summer or something and he loved it.  Our boy, being who he is, dismissed Salt Lick saying it was alright, but not that great.  My joke of course, this being the kid that never wants to admit I make great brisket and ribs, is that my grilled food is so good, he doesn't see something like Salt Lick as even remotely good.

    We only have a handful of places we consider top tier dining, and we are not fancy enough to know places where they fly in that one cow from Japan with your name assigned to it and costs hundreds of dollars an ounce.  I am talking about regular places where regular people eat.  My high-water mark place to eat is Estancia Churrascaria, the Brazilian place, but we might want to save that one for graduation.  Another neat place is Pappadeaux, which is mostly a sea/bay food restaurant, maybe inspired by Louisiana, if I had to give it a place.  The food is drenched in flavor and most plates are unique and special.

    It was really a wonderful experience, the boys reacted just like we hoped they would.  The two boys joining us are probably my favorite of Mijo's friends, two of the other starting linemen on the team and they also wrestle with him, so we know them pretty well.  One of them kind of mentioned the lobster, and since Wife had this money as free and extra, I wanted to see the process of eating a lobster.  He asked for the smallest one, still around a 3-pounder, they brought it by the table, which made him a little uncomfortable, especially because we started making jokes about how the lobster was just chilling in the tank and now it was going off to die, thanks to you.

    The lobster is a big deal, it sat so big on the plate, like a turkey, but the kid handled it great, he cut off pieces before he started eating and wanted Mijo and the other boy to taste it too.  He then fought with it, taking it apart and breaking the claws and various other body parts to get at the meat.  It was a messy, interesting meal.  I mentioned to them the fact that I liked this place because where else can you eat these many animals in one sitting?  We then counted between the alligator appetizers, crab and crawfish dip and everything else, we all consumed almost 11 different animals.  It is usually a special meal and this one didn't disappoint.

    If anything, I wish we had brought more of the boys with us, this season has been so good for the Cougars overall, other than Mijo being injured, with all the winning and positivity.  After, we managed to get home and I just crashed for about three hours, I was in and out of sleep from around three until maybe 7:00pm.  It was a great Saturday.

10/21/22 Another Win Against Eastside Memorial?

     The Cougars put on another offensive show last night, scoring a crazy 77-0 score for their 4th straight win and a total of 5 for the season.  This will make them at least 5-5 for the season if they happen to lose the last two, which I don't think they will, and even more importantly, makes the Cougars playoff bound for the first time in like 20 plus years.  If I remember correctly, Crockett has made the playoffs in something like 23 years, and they have never won a playoff game, or they last won in the 80s or something like that.  The game was also the first time we have seen them in at House Park, the stadium that weirdly sits pretty much in downtown Austin, just off Lamar and maybe 15th street.

    Wife had been at a conference in Corpus Christi all week, but luckily came into town by around 5:00pm, so we were able to get to the game at a decent hour.  We left around 6:00pm, to get there early, so I would have time to hang my flags and banners before the game got started.  We got there, and luckily, I was able to do everything I wanted to, I used zip ties to attach my poles to the fence above the bleachers.  There are technically holders for flag poles, but the poles would have to be like 20 feet long to use them.  Using the zip ties, I was able to make my 7ft long poles work just as well.

    The game was over three minutes into the start.  We received the ball, and the first offensive play was a bomb of 50plus yards for a TD.  They then received the ball, and their first pass was intercepted and ran back all the way for a second score.  Within three minutes into the game, we had already scored yet again.  It just continued to get uglier from this point, Crockett had a 42-0 lead by the end of the 1st quarter.  It was 63-0 by the half and looking like they could get to 100.  The coaches must have changed out personnel because there were only a pair of TD scores in the second half, one in the third and one in the fourth.

    I honestly do not enjoy watching games like this, I feel bad for the kids on the other team who probably work just as hard as our kids, sacrifice a lot of their time to get better, but sometimes the team just isn't right, sometimes there just aren't key players to step up.  I am happy Mijo is on a winning team, to help ease the fact that he is injured some, although I know my big boy was out there contributing.

10/20/22 Who Will Replace Us?

     Wife asked a throw away question last night after the game, who is going to bother doing all this work you are doing?  I was too busy sucking air, after going all the way up the bleachers and bringing down the flags I went and installed before the game started, followed by going down to the bottom of the bleachers and taking down the banner I had also tied up with zip ties.

    All season, we have been a part of the booster club, but we kind of participate as a side entity.  I have now ordered around 8 team flags with the Cougar logo, a long 12ft banner with the school logo, a couple of feather flags, Wife bought the team 4 footballs, we got them a board to show the plays that is used now at every game (Knucklehead actually punched it and broke the first one, which we made him replace it for the following week), and of course we donated the roughly 100 pairs of socks with the school mascot/name imprinted on them that will net the booster club close to $1500 when they sell them all.

    Between the time we give the team and the actual stuff, we will be missed next season, but that is the thing, every year is different, we didn't exist as participating members last year, until we started giving to the wrestling team.  I believe every year brings something new, and this year between us donating and the booster lead getting us to work the concessions at the UT games, the Crockett Booster Club is moving up and hopefully, bringing everything into a new mental state of winning and accepting nothing less.

    Last year, there was very little school spirit on display, now as Mijo says proudly, winning schools run out with flags, and now the Coogs have a beautiful red, white and blue Lone Star flag and a couple of black and gold Cougar flags to run out with.  McCallum might still have more flags to cover their side of the stadium, but we are working on it, last night we had six glorious flags flying while Eastside had nothing to show what school they were.

    Maybe someone else steps up our efforts, makes ordering spirit flags and banners a part of the booster club activity, or maybe it all falls apart.  There was a new character running around amongst the people, a mascot in a Cougar uniform.  That had to come from having pride in the team, a winning team makes things easier and more exciting.  We might not be part of the booster club next year, but I think we will continue being Cougar fans and going to an occasional game for a few years after.

10/19/22 Baked A Cake?

     Does it have to be someone's birthday to bake a cake, or can a fat guy just make one to have something sweet to eat for breakfast?  Last night, I decided I would bake one after we got home from eating dinner.  Mijo, his friend and I went to eat at Jersey Mike's.  I had a sub that was heated with chicken, and bacon.  It was great, I think it is the second time I try a heated sandwich there and they are so much better than cold.  Mijo and his friend stuck to regular cold subs, which are still pretty good.

    After dropping off his friend, it is just Mijo and I, with Wife still in Corpus Christi, so the house is quiet.  It doesn't help that the boy spends all his time on the phone talking to his little girlfriend and barely even comes down.  We probably got home around 8:00pm, and I started the oven right away.  It took me a couple minutes to round up the bowl, cake mix, and other stuff, but I had it mixed and in the cake pans within five minutes of deciding to bake it.  I washed the few utensils I had used to keep the kitchen clean, then once the cakes were done (I split the batter into two bread loaf pans, to make two small cakes), I transferred them onto some plates and washed the cake pans, all I needed at this point was to let the cakes cool and then I added the frosting, probably around 9:30pm.

    I did end up eating about a third of one of the cakes, I chose Spice cake because Wife is not here, and she is not a fan.  I thought with the cream cheese flavored frosting, it worked out perfectly, it was just the right amount of sweet.  I was then in bed and in and out of sleep before 10:00pm.  Like Mijo said, when he did come down to get water, it smelled like cinnamon or something sweet and it made it hard not to get up in the middle of the night and just have some more cake.

    I waited until morning and after I had dropped off Mijo at school, then I made a cup of coffee and sat down with a big slice.  I have to say it hit the spot; I should make cakes more often.

10/18/22 A Week Without Wife?

     I guess living for five years with Wife working out of town makes a week of her being at a conference no big deal.  It is now Wednesday, and we are getting along okay without our bossy short captain.  Mijo is in school, and I am at work, that eats up most of our days.  I was a bit late on Monday night, about 30 minutes late to pick up Mijo, I got caught trying to do too much and finish so I wouldn't have to go back after picking him up.  Once I go and have some food, I tend to get drowsy, and I want to nap for a bit or the rest of the night.  We ate at Whataburger on Monday night, then dropped off his friend and came home to catch the 2nd half of Monday Night Football.  I probably fell asleep within 10-15 minutes; he had gone up to take a shower.  I just remember he woke me to tell me he was going upstairs after the game, to which I turned off the projector and stuff.  I was then up for maybe another 1-2 hours, on the computer and then watching Tiktoks.

    Tuesday was better, I finished with the work stuff by 6:00pm, so I was able to get to practice earlier and catch them still out on the practice field.  Winning or losing, these kids put a lot of effort into the team, it still seems like the middle of Summer, even if the weather was in the 60s, with coaches yelling and kids running around.  We went and ate at Bush's Chicken afterwards.  It is a place I have slowly started liking, not that I love, but there aren't a lot of chicken places around the house.  We then made our way home and hung out for a bit.  Nowadays, he is mostly distracted talking to his girlfriend until he goes to bed, so he stays off in his own room.  I try to stay busy down here, looking at bills or whatever I need to be doing on the computer.

    Wife will be getting out around 1:00pm on Friday, then hopping on the road, hurrying in to try and get here before the game, so we can drive to it together.  It kind of sucks that they are playing in House Park, which is further up North, really located in the center of town, off Lamar and 15th street, or thereabouts.  They are playing the weakest team on their schedule, so far, they have not won any games, but teams always react differently to different teams, and they have yet to win at House Park, that I can remember so it will still be interesting, even with their current 3 game win streak.

10/17/22 Shitty Week Coming Up?

    I have to say I love the idea of cooling temperatures, I think it is long overdue, even if we live in Texas and must put up with it more than anyone else.  We were sitting at 63 when I went outside to take Mijo to school an hour ago.  It is supposed to be cooler tomorrow morning, with a high only in the upper 60s.  All this is not making the week shitty, the shitty part is that Wife has a conference, so I have to drop off and pick up our baby from school all week.  She gets to go hang out in Corpus Christi all week, staying at some nice hotel, with a coworker or two, so there should be some stories of walking too far to eat, and that she would prefer to be in her hotel watching old shows rather than doing karaoke or whatever hipster mamas do on vacation.

    With chances of rain looming, at least for today and maybe tomorrow, I have to also be ready for an early pick up, sometimes with rain, practices get cancelled, sometimes they are just moved to the gym.  It probably won't even be that bad, but I will have to have some creativity with my work schedule, if possible, leaving stuff to finish the next day.  I hate having to leave to pick up Mijo, then turn around and go back to work.  If I have to, that is what I'll do, probably tonight, when I already know we have a lot of work scheduled and due for tomorrow, if it comes in today.  I just got the notification email, we have like 7 new jobs due by tomorrow, this most likely means a long day today, but the rest of the week might be under control.

    On top of all this, football season isn't really over, Mijo does have another game this week, on Friday, Wife will be leaving Corpus at 1:00pm, hopefully getting here in 3 hours, then we have to be at the football stadium by 7:30pm, the earlier the better, to set up flags and what not.  It sure is a nice ring to hear that our boys are 4-3 currently, so they have done very well this season.  I put their odds of winning the next two games in their favor, then it will be interesting, LBJ did go deep in the playoffs last year and we face them in the last district game this year, where I possibly hope Mijo might be able to come back and play, but I am not holding my breath.

    I shouldn't even complain, these weeks go by so fast.  Wife will be back before we know it and we'll be looking at next week's matchup along with Halloween, which is less than two weeks away.

10/16/22 I Accidentally Became A Cowboys Fan?

     I had honestly not been an NFL fan for the longest time, probably since the Houston Oilers left Houston.  I was satisfied watching college football on Saturdays and then doing whatever else on Sundays?  This year, Mijo has been wanting to sit and watch as much football as possible, whenever he isn't on the phone with his girl.  All of a sudden, I had to buy something to get some channels to show games.  We settled on Sling TV, and it has been alright, so far.  We have been able to get the Longhorn network, for when the Longhorns play those games that are only televised on their dinky network, and then we also get a bunch of ESPN channels and FS1, where the Longhorns also like to hang out.

    If Saturday isn't enough, we also sit around and watch football most of Sunday, especially with his bad knee, then now his bad ankle, we don't need to be moving around a lot.  Sling works pretty well, although, it doesn't get everything, I think it is missing NBC content, because the Sunday night game is on NBC, and we couldn't find it.  It's fine, worst-case scenario, we have to move to our plasma TV, it can show local programming on rabbit ears.  The projector can only show stuff off the PS4 or the Roku I just attached a couple weeks ago.

    We can sit and watch most any game, there are always spectacular plays to see.  Mijo still says the Chiefs are his favorite, he likes Mahomes, and he does a good job of making them look good.  I am not ready to say the Cowboys are my team, but in the past, I would have never sat and watched them with any interest.  Now with their back-up QB doing all the winning, Cooper Rush, I can't help but be attracted to the little guy that could storyline.  He went undrafted, but still picked up by the Cowboys, and until last night was standing undefeated since his one game last year at 5-0.  They did lose last night, but that was a tough one, losing in Philadelphia to a 6-0 Eagles team.

    I honestly don't know any of the other Cowboys, which tells you what kind of fan I am, but if we keep cheering for them, it won't be long before we go all in, maybe even take in a trip to the big stadium in Dallas.  Or maybe Dak comes back, and everything goes back to normal, where I find myself unable to cheer for a team that underperforms with expensive players.

10/15/22 Other Grandparents Visit?

     This being Senior night, we were able to get my in-laws to come into town for the game.  It was nice to see them, it had been a long while since the last time we saw them.  They arrived right as the game was starting.  We were super busy with the Senior walk, which was a bit long, first the Seniors on the band were walked, then the football team, followed by the drill team and then the cheerleaders.  I was surprised to see only about 7-8 seniors on the football team.  Back in 7th-8th grade there were enough boys to make a whole A and B team in each class.  Time manages to change and eat at things, only a handful remained, but mixed in with the other three grades, we still have a decent team with maybe 40 players.

    With traffic being shitty like it always is between San Antonio and Austin, the in-laws arrived right before kick-off, they missed the whole Senior walk thing, but I guess that was alright, it was so hectic, there was no time to be sad, like I had expected it to be.  Up until we went and lined up, I had been setting up my flags and banners all over the stands and field.  Mijo and his friends finally noticed, saying "wow, we look like some of those other school with our logo everywhere you look."  Mijo says running out with flags makes us look like we know what we're doing, all the good schools have flags.

    The game went about as good as can be expected, it is always nicer to accept things when your team is winning.  Wife eventually went for a walk with her sister, around to the snacks on the visitor side, the line on our side were too long.  My sister-in-law takes pictures and they even managed close up pictures of the crown the coach had been talking about for years that we needed to get back.  Somehow or other, they managed to walk on the field and right be the crown where it was sitting on a table, waiting for its next yearly owner.

    Eventually, the game ended, my in-laws were caught waiting around until all the hoopla died down, we were on the field way too long, they even started turning the field lights off to run us off, then I still had to gather my flags from on top of the fence line above the bleachers.  On our way out, the in-laws got to meet the girlfriend and even her parents, I had told the dad I had a couple of 8x10 pictures of the cute kids together.  My son is still being goofy that the parents don't know they're dating, but come on, my son is fully hugging the girl, and gave her a $200 mum and they went to the Homecoming dance, and she was over at the house last weekend, why are they acting dense?

    At the end of the night, we picked up some pizzas and went home.  They were waiting for us, ate a couple of slices with us, stayed up talking about the game for an hour, then we all went to bed.

10/14/22 King of The South, Crockett?

     Friday was Senior night and there was so much activity, it came and went without a minute to sit and be sad, reflecting on this being Mijo's last season playing football.  Seeing him injured most of the season has certainly put a new flavor in my spirit, before the season started, they had been talking about this game and that they were definitely going to shed a tear or two, realizing it was all coming to an end soon, but most importantly, what if they ended the season with another horrible record, what would that mean for them to put in all the work and maybe win another 2-3 games?  At that point, we never expected Mijo to lose his season like he did, one never knows how fragile they are, one bad play and it was over.

    The reality is that this is a new team, the QB finally emerged from his cocoon, and he is really something special.  The last three games, he has just been running through defenses, making it look way too easy.  He has a respectable group of receivers who he relies on, and they make that scoreboard go to work.  The Cougars battled Travis this week, and it is a big rivalry, Travis had gotten the win the last two years, stopping us from potentially making the playoffs last year, on the last play of the game.

    This season, we had none of that.  Crockett was up 28-0 by the end of the 1st quarter and then kept on adding points, making it 42-0 by halftime.  The second half of these blowout games goes by even faster.  I went down to help put away the cave the boys run through, and by the time we had rolled it up into the bag, it is huge and heavy, at least a 4-man job, the Cougars had managed yet another score.

    I really think the loss to McCallum was a necessary evil they had to go through, they had a 28-7 lead at one point, and then squandered it, letting them back into the game.  They have kept the throttle on the last three games, scoring and scoring more until the other team breaks, leaving no chance to let them back in.  I believe they learned that lesson there, as bad as it tasted at the moment, they won't do that again.

    Travis finally did manage a drive for a score, but it happened almost at the end of the third quarter and took about 8 minutes, getting lucky to keep moving the ball with penalties.  The Coogs returned the favor with one more score to make the end 56-6.  The booster club had ordered these cute little paper crowns and at the end of the game we got to go down on the field and crown our boys, it was a lot of fun watching and celebrating with them.

10/13/22 Burning Urge To Get A New Truck?

     I have been telling Wife I am fine waiting to get a new car for myself for a while, but all of a sudden, I started feeling a real urge that makes me feel like I should be driving something nice.  I have pretty much been driving the Escape we have, which is fine to get me from here to there, but it is a small vehicle, and I am a huge cow.  The car was bought with the intention of it being a first car for Mijo, he would learn to drive in it, then eventually we trade it in for a nicer car when he goes off to college.  He hasn't really made time to drive, other than the very occasional moment when he remembers he should be driving.

    Either way, when gas started going up, all of a sudden (thanks Biden), I stopped driving my Excursion and switched over to the Escape.  I still love my Excursion and can't see myself trading it in, but things don't last forever, and maybe I am going to have to cross that path.  The problem is in theory, I want a new vehicle, in reality, I can't fathom the idea of paying over $70,000 for a truck.  Wife says I don't need an F-250, and I guess she is right, but I've had three of them, and the Excursion is basically an F-250 also, so that makes four that we have owned.

    I just don't like what Ford has been doing with installing smaller motors in their vehicles, I could consider an Expedition, but they only come with a V6, which seems like a small engine for such a big vehicle.  I do like that it gives gas mileage around the mid 20s, but I would still prefer a big beefy V8.  The smaller cars are even worse, with just about everything smaller than an Explorer getting only the 4-cylinder option.

    There are also no cool funky cars to consider anymore, like the convertible Murano of a couple years ago, or something totally off the wall, like the Fortwo, the tiny 2-seater cars.  I wouldn't buy one for a daily driver, but I love that they exist, and we still get to see a few around here and there.

    If it were up to me, I would buy an F-250 Tremor, but those quickly get past $80,000 and that is a little too rich for my blood.  Wife keeps saying to just get an F-150, but those quickly get to the mid $65,000 range, if you go with the Lariat trim or nicer, which I almost insist on leather.

    Maybe this is how we end up changing brands, we did look at a Jeep Wagoneer a while back and it was nice, I have to admit.

10/12/22 Boy Is Busy?

     I want to be bothered by the fact that Boy has been absent from our lives for a while, as of late.  Since before going to Japan for two weeks, we went about two months without seeing him.  Part of it was his fault, part of it was ours.  For example, Wife had Covid one week, so we told him not to come the second or third week after he had been here after coming back from his big trip.

    He finally did come over two weeks ago, when my mom came to visit to see our younger Knucklehead playing football.  It was nice having him here for an afternoon/evening while he recounted his trip to us.  I believe his girlfriend was out of town that weekend for a bachelorette party, so he was not in a rush, which was nice.  He has stopped by before after work or something, and usually rushed off because his girl is waiting for him to eat dinner or whatever they do at the end of the day.

    When he came over, he was telling us his company is thinking of sending him to Korea around Thanksgiving for a few weeks, and then back to Japan, to do another tool install/update.  If there was a slow down on him taking trips, it had to be Covid related and having some of those countries still trying to do lockdowns.  In a normal timeline, I think he would have already been sent there and back many more times.  I find the timing of his trips annoying; he might very well not even be in the country for Thanksgiving and even more importantly, Christmas.  This is his job, he knew this was going to be part of it, and being that he is still young and honestly, loves the whole idea of Japanese culture, he is probably having his best life right now.

    I am happy for him, first of all, he is contributing to society positively, he is also successful in a career path we helped foster in him.  I just have to accept that we must share our Boy with the world, he is now grown and does not live here at home where we can interact with him every day.  He came over earlier today (Saturday morning, the 15th) to say hi to his other grandparents, and it was nice to see them, and they ate a couple tacos with us before heading out to their day.  They were in matching outfits and were going out to a pumpkin patch to take pictures.  That is really all I ask for, an hour or two, he fills us in on what is going on, then he can go about his day.  I wanted to nap, so it's not like I wanted him here all day either.

10/11/22 Another MRI?

     I am not sure this one will help much, but the fact that we lost about a month of time waiting on the knee to get better before we did an MRI on it made Wife ask for it as soon as possible.  This time it is for a sprained ankle, and although I don't believe the MRI will help, I mean he can play once the pain subsides, knowing where the pain is doesn't help much, now that we know the bones aren't broken or fractured.  This may sound like I am more worried about my son getting out on the field than him healing properly, but it is not a selfish reason for me, I don't gain anything from my boy running around on the field.  This is important for him, at this moment, this is the most important thing for him.  He has done nothing but work out and lived life as an athlete, he feels he owes his teammates the best in him.  I just want to ride along and be able to say, "we helped you give the team everything you had."

    Thursday night, during the game, we were called to go and talk to the trainer, Mijo was crying on a bench, his leg was up, the trainer had even pulled the trainer from the other team to look at him and she was worried it might be fractured.  This scared me, I don't want him to have bad joints after all the playing is done.  We rushed him to a doctor visit the next morning and an x-ray told us he did not have broken bones.  We also noticed his ankle did not swell up and there was no internal bleeding, purple coloring on the skin.  To me, this ends up being a mild sprain, something he can still heal from and play a couple more games.  The doctor was saying if it is a high ankle sprain, it could be 6-8 weeks, so he is done for the season.  A low ankle sprain might only be 2-4 weeks, so at the moment, we are hoping for the low ankle sprain.  This is something the MRI can tell us, so we went ahead and did it this morning at 8:00am.

    We have now been there so often, the lady working the front desk already knows his name, as we pre-register, we don't have to do paperwork when we arrive.  She saw him and said "Good morning, take a seat...."

    I am staying positive because I can see him walking around the house almost normally now.  He says there is no pain standing, it is only when he tries to push off aggressively, such as to push a defensive person away.  He was testing his ankle last night and he said he can lift himself up when using both feet, but it does hurt to do that with one leg at a time.  I am hoping he just misses the game this week, and worst case, maybe the one next week.  We'll see. 

10/10/22 Second Pellet Grill Rocks?

     I have not given an update on my second pellet grill, and I have to say, this one is working much better than the first one.  This one is a Pit Boss brand Pro Series from Lowe's.  It isn't the biggest or fanciest, but it has been taking care of business now since the spring.  If I remember correctly, I bought it just before the wrestling banquet to smoke two briskets, I said I would provide.  Those two briskets turned out great and pretty much everything else we have done on it has been about as good.

    At this point, we have been sticking to an occasional brisket, maybe once a month, ribs every three weeks, and then fajitas, sausages, burgers, chicken thighs and stuff mixed in most every weekend.  I like to say we grill every weekend, mostly on Sundays, but sometimes we do it on Saturday too.  This past weekend was no exception, we had Mijo's girlfriend hanging out with us while they worked on their college admissions forms with Wife.

    I asked our boy what she would like to eat, as in what kind of meat, maybe chicken, sausage, burgers, and this was a first.  She asked what kind or what cut?  I love this girl; she isn't shy about what she likes and went straight to asking what kind of steaks we were grilling.  My son was a bit confused, to which I told him to ask her if she wanted ribeye or NY strip steaks.  She came back with NY strip, so the girl knows a little something more than "I'll take some chicken..."

    I pretty much cook between 250, for low and slow (briskets, ribs), to a high of maybe 350.  I know I can turn on the heat higher, but then I get a lot of flash fires erupting inside the grill, as the old grease lights up and burns uncontrollably, so I have figured that if I don't turn up the heat too much, it stays under control.

    The steaks are probably the weakest to cook.  I might need to jack up the temperature more, but since we mix in a few different things at the same time, I kind of compromise a bit.  The steaks keep coming out a little medium well to well done, as I am trying to char the outside, but there is a very small "hot spot" on the grill, where the heat is most intense.  It was much easier when we were in Covid, and I would regularly make two steaks for Mijo and myself.  Trying to cook four steaks, with baked potatoes, sausages, hot dogs, and I even had a sirloin steak in there makes for a crowded grill.

    Like I said, everything has been delicious, as it turns out, I am fixing to reheat some of those steak pieces leftover and some of those hot dogs, which I purposely make extra to have food to eat during the week.  I love the convenience of these pellet grills, they make Sunday grilling so easy.

10/9/22 Mijo's Girl Finally Came Over To Hang?

     Poor Mijo, his relationship thus far, has been full of technicalities, this was not much different, but at least she did come.  He has been telling us for the last three weekends that she was going to come over, then something happens, and it falls apart.  This weekend, we finally didn't have much going on, with him hurting his ankle at his game Thursday night, we were homebound, to allow him to rest it as much as possible.

    I thought it was just going to be a casual afternoon, her coming over, the parents are finally accepting that they might have a relationship brewing, hell, she's probably coming over to nurse our young jock after his injury.  That is not what the mom gave off, in fact, she came over and was pretty stern about them working on their FAFSA and other application forms for college.  I was thinking "is she for real?"  I don't care if they do work on that kind of stuff, but lady, you are only kidding yourself if you think that is why your daughter wants to come and hang out with our husky boy.  We did have to promise that we wouldn't allow them to be upstairs in his room alone, that is just not proper for a young lady, she told us.  I of course agree with all that, and that is what we told her, but it's not like my son is going to try and impregnate her while we are downstairs.  Right on cue, about five minutes after mom left, Mijo was asking if they could go upstairs to hang out in his room, with the door open.  I so wanted to say yes, we trust our boy, but we told the mom we would watch their daughter, so we said no.  Best we can do is give you the living room, we'll leave you alone, this was mostly okay, they sat and watched most of the Cowboy's game.

    The had already talked about the menu, so I made some steaks and baked potatoes on the grill, and she keeps saying she loves cheese, so I bought like 4 different kinds of cheese and made a charcuterie board, complete with some salami, grapes, and strawberries.  We kept them fed the entire time, I even made some wings to go between the cheese and steaks, I thought it was a pretty good Sunday afternoon.  I think Mijo was happy with the result, he had his girl here for a few hours, hopefully, the mom will relax and start trusting us even more, so the girl can hang with us for longer bits of time.  Wife was trying to invite her for Fright Fest in San Antonio at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, but she says she scares too easily and that might be too much for her.  I think the girl needs to experience life a bit more, but it's a good starting point for Mijo.

10/8/22 Cold Is Coming For GIrlie?

     It is weird to me that in the same country, just hours apart, the weather can be so different.  We are still sitting here in our normal 90+ degree days, while 10-11 hours up from us, they are now seeing temperatures hovering between the upper 40s to lower 70s for their highs.  Looking at our forecast for the next two weeks, we aren't changing too much, there might be some precipitation by next week, but the temperatures will still be about the same.  Indiana seems like a whole other world, from here.

    Wife and I were texting her last night, and she is explaining to us how her plans are now to stay up there for at least a year, which is much different than what I thought was going to be.  This now makes more sense as to why she wanted to take all her belongings when she left.  Being that she had no vehicle, I kind of talked her into just leaving about half her clothes here at our house.  To me, she was going to be gone for four months, so why take everything?  Now, she is saying a year to a year and a half.  She says she likes the company she is working for and as soon as she finishes her hours, she can turn around and start working as an employee making a professional's salary.  I don't know how much truth there is to all this, but she could get the same deal down here, this might be her chance to live away from Texas, and if so, good for her.  

    She was telling us how she does feel alone, and she wishes we could go for a visit, but with Mijo being as busy as he is, there is little chance we are going to stop what we are doing and go for a visit to some state we have never been to.  I guess it could be interesting to drive up there, and Wife even tossed it out that it could be fun to go during the first few days we are off for Thanksgiving.  I would agree, but at that point, we are in the middle of wrestling season starting, and I know Mijo does not want to miss a tournament to go hang out.

    She is still not even sure what her boyfriend will be doing.  I asked her if his intention was to go join her, but I think that is still up in the air.  He was telling her he would have to quit his job and start over.  That is a hard thing to do, to just stop, relocate, and start over, not knowing what job you will be doing, but realizing that you can't stop for too long, there is always another bill coming due.

    Like we told her many times, we could always help her here, worst case scenario, she could always move in with us to save money, she could always join us for lunch/dinner, if she was short on cash.  Moving that far away, she basically decided to cut off any lifelines we could afford, she insisted on doing things her way, so all we can do now is hope it all works out.

10/7/22 Another Ortho Visit?

     I don't know that it matters too much at this point, other than to give us a little hope.  After Mijo hurt his ankle this time, the trainer could not tell if it was possibly fractured or if it was something less serious.  My hope is that it was just a sprained ankle that might take a week to heal.  While we sat and finished watching the game, Wife called and set up a visit to our now favorite doctor's office, Texas Orthopedics.  She was able to secure an appointment for the afternoon, at 2:15pm.  Being that he was real tender moving around, we let him stay home, so he wouldn't have to be moving around too much.

    The first thing they did at the doctor's was to take some x-rays, and luckily there were no fractured bones to worry about.  I didn't expect them to look so solid and square down around the ankle, I thought they looked cool.  Based on where the tenderness is, the doctor said it was either a low ankle or a high ankle strain, unfortunately, these types of injuries take time to heal, a high ankle sprain could take 6-8 weeks to heal completely.  Even the low ankle sprain, the doc said could take 2-4 weeks to heal.  This pretty much takes him to the end of the football season, which is a shitty way to end your senior year, when the build-up was looking so good, with all the work that had been done prior to the knee injury.  I know this weighs heavy on him, he feels like he is letting down his teammates, and there isn't much he can do.  It hurts me too that we can't do anything but sit with him and wait.

    After the visit, he was pretty bummed out, Wife suggested going to the school to talk to the trainer and possibly the coach, it was almost 3:30pm and there was an early release, so we were thinking there wouldn't be any kids around at that time.  We were wrong, within two minutes of being there, like his friends knew he had showed up, they all gathered there, I think they were all there to talk to the trainer, all these boys are walking injured in one way or another, but they all rallied around Mijo.  Coach was there, while we talked to the trainer, showing her the x-rays, the boys ran down the hall to tell the coach what the doctor said.  Coach was either hoping against hope or he knows more from experience.  He boldly told Mijo, just put your leg in ice, you'll be fine in a week, we'll get you back out there in two weeks.

    I still think he has a few games in him, I am hoping he will feel better in two weeks, maybe play his last two district games and then there should be some playoff games, they are currently 3-3, and they had been told that 3 district game wins pretty much would get them into the playoffs, so one more win and they are contending with that, while I believe they can win 3 of the last 4 matches pretty easily, considering how well they have been playing.

10/6/22 Crockett 49, Navarro 13?

     Alright, enough of the sad times.  Yes, Mijo being injured is not how I wanted his senior year to go, but sometimes, things happen for a reason.  Maybe he realizes sports is not everything by realizing he is not indestructible.  As much as I love watching Mijo, and I am his biggest fan, I want him set up for a future where he lives a comfortable life, so maybe focusing on his classes and not just sports might be a good wake-up call.

    Still, it has been exciting watching these Cougars get explosive and start to look like winners.  They played a very dominating game again last night, winning 49-13, in a game that was not that close.  The week before they completely dismantled LASA with an even bigger score of 63-0.  The Navarro Vikings managed one successful drive in the second quarter to make the score 26-7 at halftime.  I was a little worried, McCallum had a similar score, they had been down 28-7 before halftime, but did manage a second scoring drive just before halftime, with a minute left, then got the ball back at the start of the second half.  I honestly think that ultimately was a good thing for these boys, so they know not to show sympathy or get lackluster against an opponent until the match is done.

    For a second, I thought the guys might have lost their edge coming back after the half, we were not even thinking about the game when it started up again, we had just gone and seen Mijo crying in the visitor fieldhouse because his night was done, but the rest of the team was still in it.  They came back storming onto the field, flags a blazing, and with determination in their eyes.  They had a turnover soon after starting the second half, and turned it into a score, quite rapidly.  That is the key, the team just scores at will, it seems, on the back of their quarterback, who will probably be labeled a true D1 prospect by the end of the season, if he isn't already, they guy just tears defenses apart, mostly with his running, but he can also throw a beautiful pass, when things are going great.

    By the 4th quarter, the game was over, they were still on the field, but the other team knew there was no chance of stealing this game.  Barring the ugly injury to the other Cougar, who took a helmet to the chest and either hurt a rib or his sternum and laid on the field on his back for a good 15-20 minutes, the game was uneventful.  I say this mostly as a parent whose kid did not get to play, so I am a bit painted by that, but I will take the win.  The hope is we make the playoffs and that Mijo is good and strong for those extra games and possibly the last four regular district games, which are all important and with their own interesting side stories.

10/5/22 More Injuries?

     When can we go back to normal, I thought we were done with this?  I guess one should never think their son/daughter to be invincible, it has been a hard season watching Mijo unable to contribute, even though it is all he wants to do.  The season got off to a slow start with his knee injury.  At first, I joked about it because of how it happened.  I did not think it would still be an issue in October, in the middle of the season, especially when MRI and two separate doctors told us nothing was broken, it was just bruising.  Well, with physical therapy and time, we finally got over it, he was signed off and even got a baker's cyst, which had all this extra fluid from his knee develop and pop behind his knee.  It didn't seem like more bad news could happen, but then he said he bumped it while running through plays, not even in full pads because practice was not supposed to be contact.  He bruised it again, I was worried and a little pissed he didn't have it wrapped with something, but then again, it is supposed to be healed.  This was just as he described it, just some superficial bruising, nothing to really worry about, although the coaches did not let him practice the rest of the week.

    Last night, he made it to the second quarter before hurting himself again.  I noticed him hopping around but staying in the game.  I thought "here we go again..."  Sure enough, a play or two later, he was pulled out.  He came out, they took off the knee brace, which I thought maybe it broke or something, Tom Brady had a similar situation, where the brace worked itself sideways and then had to be removed a couple weeks ago.  He seemed to be moving better once they took it off, and he even went another series in to play.  We didn't know the severity of the injury, but he said although he tried, there was no strength in his leg, he either rolled his ankle or someone stepped on it, accidentally, I have to assume, especially when some of the guys were saying it was his own teammate that stepped on him as he ran through.

    As a parent, you don't want to be called down to the field to talk about your son and his injuries, but we got the call during halftime to go to the field house where the team was.  I had just gone to the bathroom and was wondering why Wife had left our camera and my phone unattended, but then she called, and I got scared hearing her tell me to go to where the team was at.  Mijo was sitting on a table being looked at by the trainer, his leg was unwrapped, and I guess it was good to hear it wasn't his knee again, but she was looking at his ankle.  Her worry is that it might be fractured or dislocated.  There isn't anything sadder than watching your kid unable to do the one thing he lives for.  I know the sacrifice this boy has endured, there wasn't a relaxing summer for him, he spent every day working out, this is his entirety of who he is right now, and not being able to help his team on the field just kills him.  All the coaches came by, hugged him and told him it was alright, it was good but still very sad, as he realized his day was done.

    This season is going by way too fast, there are four more games, and I just hope he can salvage some of them, maybe this injury is just a sprain, and he can be fit in a week.  We scheduled another visit to the ortho Friday, so we shall see what they say.  They have been very good at seeing him and treating him.  As bad as Mijo's injury, there was another kid who took a hard hit to the chest, and he collapsed on the field and was down for a good 15-20 minutes.  The was sobering, as bad as a limb injury is, a chest injury is much scarier because that is where our organs are.  I asked the coach what happened to that kid after the game, while collecting Mijo's backpack and phone back at school, and he said he either bruised a rib or his sternum, he would be in pain for a while, but he should be alright.  We forget sometimes how violent this game can be.

10/4/22 A Week Full Of Mail-In Treats?

     Who needs the mall, when we have Amazon and online shopping?  I got a little contact high from all the stuff I received this week via mail.  Probably the most exciting thing I received was the book I worked on for almost a month on and off again.  I went and using Shutterfly, composed a book from the hundreds of pics taken during the wrestling season.  Of course, my focus was Mijo, making sure to capture the will of victory and the agony of defeat, at least in the opponent's eyes.  I did not use any footage where Mijo might have lost, only the good memories needed here.  I also added images of his friends fighting, and then some images that were just cool, along the season, I mean these are just kids competing, when they get off the mat, they are all still goofy and sweet.

    The next best thing I got in the mail was my game jersey, Wife and I have black jerseys that sort of resemble the ones worn by the team, but I wanted a gold version, since the team doesn't always wear the black jersey.  I chose not to get Wife a matching one, I sat and ordered mine in the middle of the night a couple weeks ago, because she has not been wearing her jersey while Mijo was injured, she chose to just wear the Crockett standard black shirts.  I love the jerseys, I feel more connected to Mijo and since I ordered mine in 6X, it fits very loose and is a comfortable wear.

    After this, I also got my large "Always Victorious" banner, which is a school slogan I had not noticed before, but the coach is trying to make it a loud chant.  I noticed this week, while watching some of the volleyball game online, the basketball court has the slogan imprinted on what looks like a very old court print, so it has been around longer than Mijo has.  Either way, I got the idea to order a banner about a month ago, and it finally came in.  It looked terrific along the fence, at 3ftx12ft, it was a good size to see.

There were also some large, printed images that I ordered last week, while messing around with Shutterfly, which I have started doing to decorate Mijo's room, some are just with friends, some are action shots while he is competing, and some include his girl, which he will probably enjoy most of all.

    Then there are my flags, which I love, but are kind of a pain in the butt.  I thought I had ordered four 3x5 flags with the Cougar logo, but in fact I ordered six.  I then went and ordered five new poles to hang my flags from, including a Texas flag, which Mijo convinced me we needed, for the running in because nothing looks cooler than the Texas flag.  Since I then discovered that I had more flags than poles, I left the larger 4x6ft flags at home and took the poles from those to use on the smaller flags.  The problem is that not all stadiums have slots to go and easily hang the flags from.  The boys did have fun running onto the field with the Texas and a couple of Cougar logo flags, but then they were just resting on the ground and a couple were hung on the fence down at field level, but there was absolutely no air to make then fly proudly.  Still, I am happy the team has these, probably for a few years, if they take care of them.

10/3/22 Husqvarna Dreams and Realities?

     I keep getting burned by name brand crap.  This one is kind of an inside joke, but towards the end of the school year, we had the wrestling banquet at what is now the girlfriend of Mijo.  We went over the day before to help clean and set up for the party.  The mom asked our boy if he knew how to run a trimmer to cut some of the grass.  He was honest and said he hadn't run one like hers, she had a nice Husqvarna which was gas operated, ours is electric and connected to a cord.  I also tend to do all the trimming, while Mijo runs the mower.  She decided he couldn't handle her Husqvarna and she proceeded to cut the grass herself, I mean they have something like 13 acres, she should have been out there driving a mower of some kind.  Still, since then, I have been teasing our boy that he needs time on a Husqvarna so that next time, he will be ready.

    I had been wanting to buy one, even before this, the electric works fine, but it is small, and I have to kind of bend a bit to reach the ground, and I have to be mindful of the cord, which is why I like the idea of a gas powered one.  I got my wish on Saturday, when we went and bought one, Wife really wanted to go look at the Halloween decorations, but she was willing to let me get something for participating.  I was still a bit hesitant; the stupid trimmers don't say if they are 2-cycle or 4-cycle.  They sell pre-mixed fuel, which costs so much more than what you can get at the gas station, but that is a choice.  Once I talked to one of the sales guys, he explained that they are indeed 2-cycle engines, which meant I needed that type of fuel.

    We got it home, while Mijo was at the game working and other Mijo was on his way over.  We had planned to grill some meat to watch the game, dad doesn't like to leave the house, so this worked out for me.  Boy got there about 6:30pm, I had the meat going on the grill, and it is starting to get dark sooner, so cutting the grass would have to wait.  The night was good, Boy kept Wife and Grandma entertained with his pictures from Japan, I glanced at them while running the grill and trying to watch the game.

    When I finally got to use my own Husqvarna, I wasn't crazy for it.  First off, my electric one starts as soon as it is plugged in.  This gas one had to be primed, I had to use a choke, then I apparently need to toughen up.  The vibration from the motor about numbed my hand.  The trimmer is carried on my right hand (I am left-handed) and guided by the left hand.  My right hand was numb after working with the machine for about half an hour.  I did like the freedom of not being tethered to an electric wire, but we only did the front, it was later in the day, and it was getting darker.

10/2/22 Working For New Wrestling Uniforms?

    The booster club has stumbled on a great way to make money for the team, volunteering at the UT games, working the food stands, can pay well.  The money so far has been going to the booster club which predominantly worries about the football team, which includes the large group of athletic trainers, which are really a tight knit even more organized and dedicated group than the football players.  Since the first game, when we were supposed to handle one booth, but we showed up strong and by necessity, were split and found ourselves manning two food stands, the athletic trainers have all been showing up and pretty much taking one of the stands, so their group makes half the money, which is still great overall.

    I was told we made $5000 just at the Alabama game, which sounds like a lot of money.  The way it is supposed to work is that the group gets an automatic $100 per body working, be they adults or students.  On top of that, the group also gets to keep 90% of their tips which they make throughout the event.  UT or the stadium provides all the food and ice needed to last throughout the game.

    For some reason, there was a shortage, or something happened, but the wrestling coach sent out emails on short notice that the team needed to show up and if everyone did, we could get enough funds to order new uniforms.  I know Mijo would rather not have bothered, but his Girlie was the first to sign up, so he pretty much had no choice.  He then got three other boys to volunteer with him, he talked to two other friends, but they had to work and a band competition.

    There will be another chance for the wrestling team to make some more money, they will be given another booth at the UT game, but that one will be on Thanksgiving weekend, which I did not want to necessarily be involved with.  I feel that we got away this weekend because my folks were here, but on that weekend, we will end up volunteering to help Mijo out.

    Make no mistake, the money is nice, but the whole day is a pain in the ass.  The game started at 6:30pm, but they had to show up around 2:00pm, we had to have him at school by noon so they would all have time to meet and get their shirts and hats on.  Even though the game ended around 10:00pm, we didn't get him from the UT grounds until almost 11:30pm.  We thought we would just go to the parking lot where the rest of the people parked, but the road itself was closed, they were only allowing cars to leave at that point.  It was all a mess, almost organized, but not really.  We were able to find him bu using our phones and maps, thank goodness phones are so good nowadays.

10/1/22 Homecoming Dance?

     Well, Mijo went, that was great.  It was still a weird night, starting after school, we picked him up at 5:00pm, and he had two friends with him.  He sold me the "We won last, we should go celebrate at Red Robin."  Who am I to say no?  This was the weekend my mom finally came for a visit, so she went along with us, good thing, or she would have missed hanging with Mijo and his buds for a while.  Mom and I had eaten with Boy, who also had been missing for a good while, earlier in the day, so we weren't really hungry.  I just kept thinking the boys were not going to have time to groom and get ready for the dance if we sat and enjoyed this meal too long.

    As soon as we got done eating, we headed home.  His boys were also going to the dance, but since they did not have dates, they were just going in their school clothes, one was in shorts, the other in warm-ups and probably a hoodie.  These are jock boys who always have a little sweat they're working on.  I basically threatened Mijo that I wouldn't take him if he didn't shower and dress up, although he was going to, he did have a girl to court.  He showed up with his boys, I can only guess the girl showed up with her mom, she was chaperoning the dance.  Either way, they met up there, and there was at least one pic of them dancing, which we got a copy of.  His boys, however, did not get so lucky.  Wife had just got into town from work, so she had not eaten.  We dropped them off, and since she was the hungry one, she chose to go to Taco Bell.  We started ordering from a computer screen, and then Mijo called that his boys could not get into the dance.  Turns out they had been absent or tardy to a class during the week, so they were banned from entering.  That kind of sucked, but I don't think they cared that much to go in.  Mijo asked if we could go get them, we did, then we went back to Taco Bell, with both of the extra kids and had dinner, boys can eat and be hungry again two hours later, as if that surprises anyone.

    We then went home, waited for Mijo, went to pick him up, he had his date with him, plus an extra friend, and we headed to Whataburger, but the line was super long.  While they were in line, they talked about other fast-food places they like, and Sonic came up.  We suggested Sonic would be faster, and they agreed.  We went over, got some assorted foods and headed home.  The girl's mom came and picked her up about 30-40 minutes later, just enough time for them to eat and go thru a few photo albums.  We went out and chatted with the mom so she would know that the kids weren't doing anything they weren't supposed to, we were still up with them.