11/30/18 Javalina Got Himself In Some Trouble?

    I know my little animal needs an outlet for all this extra energy he carries.  Football was perfect for him to hit some people and come home in a more relaxed state.  I really need to get him in that boxing class, it's just lining up and remembering to take him over after school.
    Yesterday, I picked him up and asked him the usual, which he was quick to say he had a good day and everything went ok, but he had something to tell me if I promised not to mention it to mom.  I said I can't do that, as much as I am on your side and here for you, Mom and I are a team, I have to tell her.  He sat there and stewed, I knew he wanted to tell me, but we all know how mama goes off the edge in a snap.  I told him it would be a lot wiser for him to speak up "as a man" and inform us of what happened, if you wait and we get a call from a teacher or the principal, it will be that much worse, as it will be you being cowardly and your mom and I getting caught blindly and not knowing what to say.
    That was enough to get the boy talking, he said he hit a kid on the nose and got blood all over the place, my immediate reaction was "what?!"  He immediately said "no, let me explain."  He then went on with "we found a piece of PVC pipe out on the lawn and a friend and I were playing like tug of war and holding on and spinning while holding on to the tube."  All I could say was mmm-hmmm, go on.... "well, this kid came out of nowhere and before we knew it, we spun into him and we hit him in the face and I guess his nose started bleeding."  Right at that moment, the principal was coming out and my other friend ran and I was left holding the pipe and I quickly apologized to the kid, who he says he knows and is one of his kind of friends.  He said the principal saw that it wasn't on purpose and that we were playing around, but they still wanted to talk to me, so they said to come back in the morning.
    My immediate reaction was "why did that kid walk into y'all's space?  If you see two idiots spinning around and I know it was more like you were spinning Luis around, he weighs half what you weigh, why would the other kid walk into that?"  He said they were on the upper level of this little hill thing, so it takes some effort to get up there, unless you are coming from the inside, as it leads out from the cafeteria there.  This boy starts getting hyper around me I move away, he is thick and takes up space, I don't need his arms flailing and hitting me, much less if he is actually trying to spin on purpose, that kid must have not been paying attention.  Wife acted as we expected, "you are grounded, no phone, no video games, this family could sue us, the school could suspend you, why was there a piece of pipe laying around, is the school liable?  We had her on speaker and I had to walk away and decided to brush my teeth to come in to work.
    He apologized as quickly as it happened, the principal saw and she knows it was not on purpose that the kid got hit.  Yes, you could say he should know better as Wife said, but he is also only 13 and still an idiot child when it comes to restraint.  He has this need to constantly prove he is the strongest kid around, so the spinning while holding onto the pipe seems normal to me, kind of like a tug of war on a rope.
    I will be going in first thing in the morning, here in a couple hours actually when I drop him off at 8:00am to see what they needed to see him for in the morning.  I can only hope he gets a talking to as a warning and be done with it.  He has always been a good kid, never been in trouble so we shall see.

11/29/18 Why Do People Think Socialism Is The RIght Way?

    I am by no means an expert at this, but I have heard enough that I have gotten curious and went looking for myself.  Socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.  That sounds a lot different than what we have here which is capitalism which is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

    As someone who likes things fair and equal, yes, on the surface, I would say I like the idea of socialism, where everyone is equal and everyone gets an equal slice of the pie.  The problem comes when it is time to work hard, there is no motivation in this system to outdo your neighbor.  Why be creative, why try to come up with new technology if there is no reward.  We have a few examples of socialism at play and we can all say the soviet union failed in the 80's, Venezuela failed in the 90's or maybe even more recently, I was just watching a report on YouTube from within Venezuela where yes, gas is super cheap, but the people have to line up for food rations which only come every other week.  There is food at the stores, but the Venezuelan dollar has been trashed, it is worth nothing, so people can't really buy their own goods.

    We've all seen Cuba, another example, the people seem lovely, but the imagery always includes American cars from the 50's, probably near to when we closed our borders to them.  If Socialism is so great, why is most of Venezuela not doing better?  Why is Cuba not making its own cars?

    The truth is that for a country to be prosperous and creative, there must be free flowing knowledge and then there must be a reward, usually in the form of money, to create something that makes people's lives better.  I don't understand where millennials in college started thinking that sharing everything was for the better?  Just in a very small example, a friend of the family says she is for this socialist movement yet she is aiming her studies at the medical field.  I have to ask "why would you put yourself through a hard eight additional years in school so that you come out the other end and the government says "ok, teachers and doctors should make the same amount of money."  I know that teaching is a noble profession, but the knowledge a doctor has to gain has to be worth at least 4-5 times the pay of a teacher.  I have no disrespect for a teacher but no way are the two in the same field of play.

    I personally still believe in good old capitalism.  One buys what one can afford and that is how the system works.  It is by no means a perfect system, but I believe it is key to ensuring humans keep pushing forward.  We won't get off the planet and into the stars as travelers with a bunch of people who only care about working 4-5 hours a week and a good supply of weed.  

    It is all I have known to teach my boys, work harder than the next knucklehead and hopefully you will be rewarded for your efforts.  That is how life has worked for the most part.  

11/28/18 Anniversary Day?

    How fast time flies.  I have now been writing a daily blog for four solid years, this one starts my fifth year.  I have to admit it is a pain in the ass at times, but I do like that I am almost writing a daily history of what we have been through over the last few years.  A lot of my blogs are just descriptors of what we did on any given weekend or if there is anything of interest going on.  I have tried finding short cuts, saying I am just going to post a quote or even that I was going to use pictures, but in the end, it only feels like a blog when it tells something, preferably personal.

    The one to benefit the best from this is Javalina who I am chronicling every step as he goes through puberty.  I include Boy as well, but I don't even see him every day, so it is much harder to write about him.  Wife is three hours away any given day of the week, so I only know what she tells me, and I can't exactly shit on her staff as she tells me interesting tidbits, so our baby stays the star of the show.

    I still believe that some day I am going to take all these and make some hard cover books out of them, so each boy of ours can have a copy.  It might not get read by them, but maybe their kids would like to see what I thought of anything and everything.  I should really be adding more pics as it is fun to include an image of what one is trying to create, such as last week with Mr. Conner.

    Thank you all who read me regularly or even from time to time.  I always try to be honest and a little entertaining, if I insult somebody, it is probably myself.  I take no humor in attacking the defenseless or others who cannot justly speak their part.  With that, let's see what happens in the next twelve months, I might even become a full time supporter of MAGA, even if I know he is an idiot.

    Love you all, and best of luck.  Remember me, if you win one of those huge lotteries because I will, remember me, that is.

11/27/18 Some Days Just Suck?

    If we are meant to have great days where the weather is a perfect 75 and your teams all win and you eat your favorite food, then we must also have days where everything sucks.  I kind of had the feeling last night was going to be a shitty night and boy did it not disappoint.  I expect coming in to plenty of work, that in itself doesn't make me change my demeanor.  What puts my panty in a bunch is when the tools act up and I have to do stuff I don't normally do.  Maybe I should be further along in my training, but I do spend about 90% of my time alone, some things are learned through seeing and doing a couple of times.
    I was supposed to be set up so I could come in running samples on the analysis tool, but the tool was not completely set up, the vials to catch the samples were not put in place, so the samples fell basically to the ground.  This is where it gets iffy.  I was told to pick it up and make a sample of the ground.  This can then get subtracted as background noise, which works in theory, but feels like you're just screwing around picking up wet spots from the tool surface and treating it as a sample.  Add to that the handful of jobs due the day I came back or the next day and what can one do except try to not get overwhelmed.  The shift ended and I did as much as I could, so I don't feel bad about my contribution.  I even noticed the tool not working right and protecting it in a very manual way, so gold star for me, not that anyone really gives a shit.
    Eh, part of the reason I feel so grr about work is because I picked up a little bug, probably from my nephews over the weekend.  One of the perks of coming out of your protective bubble and getting with family is being exposed to everybody's cooties.  All I gotta do is power through for another couple weeks and get to the Christmas break.  I am so looking forward to just hanging out and sleeping late, it was so relaxing this past week.

11/26/18 How Was The Week Off Overall?

    I have to say there were many positives and negatives for this particular week that just passed.  I loved that my folks came up and stayed longer than their usual show up Friday leave in a hurry Sunday early to avoid traffic or driving at night.  It actually felt like we got more of a chance to lounge around together, drinking coffee, watching TV, and just being a little more normal, other than running around showing Austin and its entertainment things to my folks.  It was fun to go to the movies on Sunday night, even if the movie was a bit of a question mark.  I keep telling them they are some busy ass retired folk, because as usual they did have to leave in a hurry to go celebrate a birthday with my aunt.  I would have preferred my aunt come along and then nobody would have been in a rush, maybe.
    Still, making lemonade out of them leaving early, we did enjoy sleeping in on Tuesday and Wednesday, almost until the afternoon, which I always appreciate as it feels normal for me to sleep all day.  I have said it here, I don't sleep all that great at night, I am kind of scared of the dark, but never mind that.  Of course, sleeping in like that is great, but then you lose most of the day if you aren't going to be up all night and that had to happen Wednesday night because we had to get up early on Thanksgiving for our travels.
    I can't say I enjoyed getting in the car and travelling most of the day, but it was nice to eat dinner with my in-laws and then sitting with my family later that evening.  I would have liked to have made it earlier to my folks, but how can you rush a long and delicious dinner on the other side?  I did not understand at night why my sister was so bothered by the new term "Friendsgiving", as she blamed it on the millennials and called it a product of the self entitled.  I say whatever term you use, if people get together for the purpose of sharing a meal and a little love, then why not?  I tried joking with her a couple nights later that Boy had gone off to have an impromptu Friendsgiving with some friends in San Marcos and she just managed to accuse me for being a sucker and paying for everything, when in reality I didn't even know Boy was doing this until we called him that evening as to what time he was getting home.  He can do his own thing, specially after spending Thanksgiving and the day after with us, he is 24 and not a child anymore.  My brother was also kind of a spazz, I think the responsibilities of managing a quince are getting to him.  He was being heavily passive aggressive and just saying "wear whatever" to the point we don't know if he was joking or angry.  When I called him Saturday night, it sounded through his text like he broke a vesicle in his brain when I asked him about either a black suit or a navy blue tuxedo.  I know this is stressful  but there is still plenty of time to do the shit right, he just needs to let us know what's up.
    It was nice to get back home and have a couple days to just hang out and not have a rush about things, although we are nervously looking at the washer, knowing it will have to be replaced sooner rather than later.  We have a quick four weeks to get through and then I do believe I will take the two weeks off for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's.  Wife and I still argue a bit here and there.  Our biggest disagreement came over the driving "directions" which I was a dick about, a lil bit in SA.  Overall, we have a good time, if she didn't have so much "homework" as it seems with so much recorded crap that she seems to need to see, but I guess that gives me the time to sleep like I like to do, nowadays, so it all works out pretty good.

11/25/18 Running Out Of Vacation Days?

    I guess Saturday was as close to me having a day for me.  We slept pretty late, until noon.  I got up and attempted to write yesterday's blog but after having a slice of pecan pie, cake, and coconut crème pie.  I had a cup of coffee that I maybe took a sip from.  I woke around 2:00pm, Javalina was yelling at me to come upstairs and sleep on the bed.  I decided I might as well I hadn't written anything.  I quickly got under the covers and fell asleep.  Wife came out of the bathroom eventually, trying to fake me out that she was going to the store without me, I said go.  It was a thing she always does, as soon as I say cool, I'll be able to sleep a few more hours, she got comfortable and started trying to convince me to get up.
    I got up and we started the day at Zoe's Kitchen where I ordered the kabobs and veggies.  It was pretty good, the only reason we went there is Wife wanted to use her BOGO free coupon.  After we finished, Wife suggested she would drive us up to Bass Pro Shops since we missed it the night before.  Traffic was super thick and slow but we got up there right around 6:00pm.  Most of the boats were put away because Santa had set up his village in that area of the store, but there were still a handful of boats to look over.  We then had a good laugh as Wife thought (well thinks) that the surprise gift my niece gets should be a cute pink fishing pole along with some pink worms and even a pink tackle box.  Why not?  When you've been blessed with parents and family that have slowly bought you 90% of any and all paraphernalia you might find at the mall, I think this is clever and makes gift giving fun.  We spent another hour or so looking at guns and that sort of stuff, I held a Remington 870 Special Purpose Marine Magnum and it just felt right in my hands and the silvery finish had me falling in love with it immediately.  Turns out, the finish is a nickel alloy and is specially made for wet environments, such as carrying on a boat or hunting where rivers and streams are present.  This is a gun I could see adding to our collection in the near future.
    After deciding on some socks, we eventually left the store and Wife meandered to the Round Rock Outlet Mall and since it was only 8:00pm, I told Wife "sure, let's walk around, the night is about perfect."  This had Javalina doing another one of his routines where he starts saying no, for no other reason than being a whiny B.  I can't stand no for the sake of no, he eventually got off and he was fine walking around a little bit.  We bought some stuff and then we left, right around 10:00pm.
    We had decided that Zoe's Kitchen was dinner at 5:00pm, but on the way home Javalina was dying of hunger as he likes to say and was able to argue himself into a late night meal at Rosa's Tortilla Factory by the house.  It was good, I ordered the combination nachos, they both wanted tacos and got the same plate, I believe.  We had a good discussion with Javalina about being grateful for what he has and who he is.  Over the weekend, we got into this discussion with some family members who believe in some ignorant stuff.  I was trying to convince them that in life we must work hard to be independent because even if the family is doing well today, there is no guarantee for tomorrow.  They were not really interested in hearing me.  Javalina was then telling me he didn't like that we seem to work so hard and life is still not easy for us, with Mom so far away during the week and me having to work nights.  I told him that is just a temporary thing, the important thing is we are a strong team and for example, when I lost a huge chunk of my salary last year, Wife was able to step in and as a result, we didn't lose the house, or suffer any other way, other than me losing my truck.

11/24/18 Last Regular Season UT Game and A Long Day to Get Back Home?

    I woke up early Friday, thinking we were going to get on the road super early.  My mom had mentioned maybe leaving with my sister to San Antonio as early as 11:00am because her hubby was planning on making a day of it and getting new tires on one of their cars.  My other brother called to ask if my mom wanted to ride with him, he would be leaving later, around 3:00pm, to follow behind the school busses or something.  Once I knew my folks were not in a rush, it was much more relaxed and I wondered if maybe I could watch half the UT game before we got going.  The game was to start at 11:00am, and by then I had eaten some leftover turkey, tamales, and even some egg and sausage tacos.  The only thing I could manage was waddle my big ass to the sofa to "watch" the Longhorns with my eyes closed and snoring softly.  I could not believe waking up at halftime as my dad was moving about to see the score still at 7-0.  The 3rd quarter started and eventually the Horns were up by 21-0, for a second I thought great, stood up to go to the bathroom, I come back, they have scored a TD, and intercepted the ball in the 4th.  That didn't lead nowhere, UT scored another field goal, then Kansas scored another TD, and did an onside kick which the UT frontline guy managed to volley out of bounds, then the referee decided it needed to be re-kicked.  This time it bounced around like it tends to in an onside kick and Kansas wound up with it.  They stalled out but managed a field goal.  It looked like Texas might be in for a surprise loss at the last minute with Kansas lined up for another onside kick and the referees warming up their yellow flags, but UT got a good bounce and Lil Jordan Humphrey caught the ball and took a knee.  The rest was academic as UT was able to take a knee with Kansas out of timeouts.
    Wife basically let me sit and watch the whole game, so I couldn't be a dick at her folk's house and rush her.  She drove us, but before we left there was some drama as my brother came over saying he might not go to the football game which my mom had been waiting for him to give her a ride.  My dad and my other brother had 0 interest in going to the game, so my mom didn't want to drive alone.  We offered to drive her to the game and my sister could give her a ride back.  She worried she wouldn't fit in Boy's Edge, but Boy and the GF tucked themselves in the trunk area, it must be nice to be tiny.  At the last minute my brother came out and told my mom he was going to go, so we said our goodbyes and took off.
    As Boy's GF said, I close my eyes and the car becomes a space capsule which moves me to my next destination as I sleep.  I awoke just as we entered San Antonio and stopped for gas.  We gassed up and got to my in law's house where I was served some turkey sandwiches and desserts.  I stayed up for awhile but soon felt that nappy feeling and I was out.  We left before 10:00pm, I hoped to make it to Bass Pro Shops as I am slowly obsessing over getting a new boat, but we were too slow.  Wife got mixed around and started asking which way to go to get back home.  I yelled a little bit because I was already yelling at Javalina.  I don't mind not making it in time, but there is absolutely no reason to stop and check something out, what does a kid have a reason to say no.  I was correcting his shitty behavior to not be a whiny bitch, then I got caught up as Wife panicked about what to do on the road and I yelled at her "well you are headed to El Paso, any smart person would turn their car in the opposite direction to head back into town, every road in America is designed with turn arounds every mile or so, you can see the lights coming up."  Yeah, that put me in the driver's seat, no more space capsule for Fat Boy.  The road was a little longer than normal, but I guess that's how you learn.