Bag of Randomness for Monday, May 16, 2022

  • Two straight weekends without the kids is tough. But hey, a year ago I could only have them nine hours a week until my psych evaluation came back (as well as finish a five-week anger management and a six-week parallel parenting class), so I’m at least better off than a year ago.
  • It sucks that both our NBA and NHL teams had a game seven and I couldn’t watch either with my son. I never thought it would be this way. I know we are just casual fans, but there’s something special about games seven. My boy did ask his mom to text me during the third quarter that he was happy the Mavs were winning. That warmed my heart. I have to admit I was a bit nervous receiving a text from my ex, especially since she sent me a message via our court ordered app, which I chose not to open because I was having dinner with the president of my company who just flew in from DC and our VP and manager. Back in the day, I’d open her message immediately, but I have slowly trained myself that she is no longer the priority. Also, the president of my company was the COO, but was just promoted and announced at dinner. I rarely do well at these dinners as I’m the now rung on the corporate ladder. I fear I’m going to either say something inappropriate or ask something I should bibulously know the answer to. Also, at these dinners, I used to do nothing but think about how I’d rather be back home with my family. Now, that is not an option. I try to live in the moment.
  • Recently, I received a notice my car was due for a state inspection. When you drive an electric-car, these things are a cinch they don’t emit emissions, there’s no need to pay or take an emissions test. So, the inspection is a whopping $7 instead of something above $30. Thanks to the ex, who I think I may just start to refer as TheQuitter or TheCovenantBreaker, I no longer live in the same neighborhood and had to find a new place to have the state inspection performed. The first place I went to told me they couldn’t do it because their only inspector had the day off. The second place I went to said their only inspector was gone for lunch but would be back in 30-45 minutes. What’s up with these establish businesses, national chains on a busy Main Street, and their limited state inspectors?
  • I had an idea to kill some time while I wait for the state inspector to get back from lunch. About a mile up the road, I noticed there were electric-scooters to rent. I’ve always wanted to take one for a spin, so I figured, why not? TheQuitter and the kids live just across the city border in Flower Mound, but a bit too far for the scooter. I thought it would be neat to scoot by and wave at the kids. So, I downloaded their app, and I rented an e-scooter. I had to give it a quick test run, and it ran great. This was going to be fun. Then, I put in my hatchback and drove it about a mile or mile-and-a-half up the road to the state inspection place, fully aware this wasn’t exactly kosher. I felt more like James T. Kirk pulling a Kobayashi Maru maneuver. I was all set to ride around on the e-scooter as I wait for the inspector to return for lunch and inspect my car. However, the scooter didn’t work. I could manually scoot it, but it no longer provided any power. To make a long story short, it turns out they have some sort of GPS device and they only work within a certain restricted area. So, I manually had to scoot it back into the restricted area, which wasn’t too bad. But that meant I had to walk back in the hot sun to my car a little over a mile away and forgo trying to surprise the kids. But hey, for the time I got it to work and parked it back well inside the restricted area, it was fun. It cost me a dollar to unlock and $o.38 a minute.
  • The CovenantBreaker sent me the following message over the weekend. This is great, I want to be able to help her and the kids out and be an active part of my children’s lives when their mother has schedule conflicts. But there were a few things I found interesting and couldn’t agree to.


    • Last year, the ex could have allowed me to watch our kids during the morning and afternoon as she was at her teacher’s work days. At the time, I was still living in our home and I was less than a mile away from her apartment. It would have worked out great. The kids wanted to spend more time with their dad and be in their only home before it sold. But, to keep the children away from me, TheCovenantBreaker arranged for her mother and sister, on alternating days, to drive 110 miles from their small East Texas town just to watch the kids in her apartment instead of allowing me to help her and them out. You know, doing something in the children’s best interest. In my mind, she was setting a precedent for how she wanted to handle things in the future, as well as using the children as weapons because she knew me only seeing them nine hours a week was killing me. At the time, I already completed all my courses and was just waiting on the results from the psych evaluation. Even if she agreed to allow me to watch them when she was at work, I still wouldn’t have them for any overnights. The judge’s order, which she said she wanted to stick to, said we could mutually agree to anything outside the order. The judge already allowed me to have them with no supervision during the day, but it was just for nine hours during the week. So, allowing me to watch them wouldn’t be breaking the judge’s order. There was no safety issue. Eventually, we were going to have to work together, anyway. She just wanted to torture me and her children. She and her politically conservative family were being hypocrites, letting the government decide what was best for our family instead of the parents.
    • Like I said, I have no problem helping her and the children out. I want to help. But what cracks me up is she wants me to switch days with her so she doesn’t lose any hours. The issue is, she already has them more than I do on a permanent basis. Basically, it’s a 55-45% split. During mediation, she wouldn’t agree to 50/50 and she never explained to the kids or me why they aren’t deserving to have both parents in their lives equally. I proved through the court that I’m not a threat to myself or others. So, not only am I already working from a disadvantage of having them less, but why would I want to swap days so she could maintain her advantage, especially when she worked so hard the previous year to keep our children away from me?
    • It’s also odd she wants me to go against the divorce decree and only get my daughter for her birthday during the time she’s unable to watch her and her brother when she’s at work. Her old excuse was we had a legally binding agreement signed my a judge that said I could only have our children nine hours a week, and she didn’t want to deviate from it. Well, we now have an updated legally binding agreement signed by the same judge, but now she doesn’t want to stick to what’s on that piece of paper like she did before. If we split possession of the children 50/50, I’d certainly be willing to work with her to maintain something fair, but she already has them more than I do. Also, she’s the same person who wouldn’t allow me to speak to my son on his ninth birthday except for a five-minute speaker phone conversation monitored by her mother. She and her family fails at seeing and understanding things from the other’s perspective. I’ve tried to see things from their perspective, even asked to speak to them about it, but they continue to refuse to talk, even with a third-party present.
  • I don’t have to buy a bag of cotton balls often, but I noticed the bag I’ve been using for the last several months stated there were 300. Hmmm, I wonder if there are actually 300 in there and what means does the company take to ensure I have that amount? Next time, I’m counting, just because curiosity is killing this cat. I can easily see the manufacturer easily creating a machine that can count out a particular number of Q-Tips, but I thinking counting out cotton balls, which are often stuck together, would be more difficult.
  • https://twitter.com/GoodNewsCorres1/status/1524959485785251865
Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Monday, May 16, 2022

Bag of Randomness for Friday, May 13, 2022

  • Yesterday I attended an awards assembly at BoyGeeding’s school. When it was over, I heard one father chastise his son, “When you went on stage to get your award, why didn’t you look at me and your mother?” Poor kid.
  • The Seahawks pranked their players with a ridiculously unfair fake schedule
    • The Seattle Seahawks already knew they’d have a tough schedule with the most miles traveled of any NFL team this season. And when some Seahawks got word of additional details of their 2022 slate, they couldn’t believe how much tougher it really was. Four straight road games? No bye week after their trip to Germany? Playing on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day?
  • Trying to date again after being married for so long is weird. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully adjust to dating apps. I’ve been reluctant to reveal some of my insecurities on my dating profiles. For instance, I’m a liberal and a Christian, yet I live in Texas. I’m the blueberry in tomato soup. Off-hand, I’d think that would cause many ladies to swipe left. However, I recently updated my profile to include those facts and also added that they won’t catch me hunting, camping, or listening to country music. To my surprise, I’ve actually been contacted more in the last week than I have in the past year. One woman, who I feel is a bit out of my league, has a profile in which you’d think she’d prefer a guy who likes those things I don’t. Curios, I asked her what on my profile piqued her interest. Her response made me smile.
  • Speaking of politics and if I can add a little humor, I thought it was us dirty libs that were rigging elections – GOP staffers fired after possible ‘ballot harvesting’ operation found in Pa.
  • When it comes to texting and messaging apps, grammar and spelling don’t matter to me. But this response to a question made me smile because it reminded me of Arrested Development’s Buster Bluth.

  • Speaking of military branches – US Navy chief defends plan to scrap troubled warships even though some are less than 3 years old
    • “I refuse to put an additional dollar against a system that would not be able to track a high-end submarine in today’s environment,” Gilday told the committee. He said the main reason for the early retirement was that the anti-submarine warfare system on the ships “did not work out technically.” The decommissioning of the ships would save the Navy approximately $391 million, according to the service’s proposed FY23 budget. But that recoups only a fraction of the cost of the nine littoral combat ships, which totaled about $3.2 billion.
  • My ex would be capable of pulling such a stunt – Wife filled husband’s phone with child porn in attempt to get custody of children, Oklahoma police say
  • Earlier in this post, I used the word “piqued.” I first wanted to use “peaked” but according to this website, I would have been incorrect – Is It Peaked, Peeked Or Piqued My Interest?
  • For a while, when I was forced to create a new password, I’d reference things that I liked. However, it seemed whenever I did so, bad luck regarding those things would happen. For instance, when I used something Dak Prescott related, he broke his leg. When I to used 30 Rock references, the next week they announced the series was going to end. So, now that I’m divorced, all my passwords relate to my ex or a place she and her family worships as a golden calf.
  • Impressive physical feat by both the guy and the gal.
    https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1524778223250325505
Posted in Interesting | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Friday, May 13, 2022

Bag of Randomness for Thursday, May 12, 2022

  • A long-time loyal reader gave me a huge laugh yesterday afternoon. Y’all know how much I hate wind chimes. Oh, I loath them and can rant for days about it. To my surprise, he had Amazon deliver one to me. Bravo, great joke! I immediately sent him a thank-you text, and his reply was almost as good as the initial joke.
  • Random memory – Umbro shorts. I never wore any. I think they were more for girls.
  • Not only was this a gift within a gift, but the memories will last a lifetime – Northeast Philly Catholic school accidentally sold Mother’s Day flowers stuffed with thongs
    • St. Anselm School, at 12650 Dunks Ferry Road in the Parkwood neighborhood, which serves about 250 students from pre-K through eighth grade, mistakenly sold fake roses that had red thongs folded inside the flowers. One St. Anselm family shared the discovery on social media – and the mom and dad didn’t seem too upset by it.School officials explained that the roses were purchased under the impression that they were suitable for Mother’s Day. The school didn’t realize they were frisky Valentine’s Day gifts obviously intended for adults, and not ideal for an elementary school, let alone a Catholic school.
  • Ransomware has gone down because sanctions against Russia are making life harder for attackersThe number of ransomware attacks has gone down in recent months because sanctions against Russia are making it harder for cyber criminals to organise attacks and receive ransom payments, Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency (NSA), has revealed. 
  • It’s such a sad and crazy world we live in – North Texas teen who went missing from Mavs game was advertised and sold for sex in Oklahoma City. Her family says many people could’ve stopped it.
  • This happened in Luxembourg, and I will sheepishly admit I thought was a city and not an entire country – Dance teacher asked to apply for “stripper, escort” position in job agency blunder
  • Unfortunately, there’s a paywall. I feel like the intro make help some of those who just don’t understand why some folks just love talking about BBQ – The unspoken legacy of Black barbecue: 12 D-FW restaurants that are ‘guarding tradition’
    • I’ve begun examining Black-owned restaurants with time-honored traditions in D-FW that have one singular focus, and in doing so I have rediscovered my familiarity with what perhaps is one of the South’s greatest exports — not cotton, not rice, but barbecue. For me, barbecue has always provided an intangible closeness with my family. We may not have been the best communicators, but I don’t think an argument ever continued over a plate of ribs. When words fail us, barbecue — or rather, the act of standing over a pit and watching the fire subside — has been an emotional pull that helps us recount our past.
  • I got a kick out of these series of tweets, and you will took if you have been keeping up with the costs of housing and familiar with pop-culture.

    https://twitter.com/floraoddchild/status/1522989505975930880

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Thursday, May 12, 2022

Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, May 11, 2022

  • Last night was DaughterGeeding’s softball team’s first and only playoff game. Yup, they lost. But I’m proud of her for challenging herself, playing in a sport she knew nothing about and with none of her close friends. Since she’s at a charter school, the league is weird. For instance, and as I mentioned, she’s a sixth-grader playing against juniors and seniors in high school.
  • The game prior to her game got intense, with parents coming out of the stands trying to get up close to the umpire. The coach for those parents had to come out of the dugout and talk the crowd down. I started to record just in case something really got out of hand.
  • It appears one girl in the game last night tore her ACL. She said she heard and felt a loud pop. This was very telling. It was our coach who went to check on her and literally carry her to her dugout while her coach watched. It was surreal.
  • I learned our coach will sometimes speak Spanish to our Spanish-speaking players because he noticed it calms them down and they perform better. He said he first noticed it when Spanish-speaking parents would root for their children in Spanish and not in English.
  • Because DaughterGeeding and BoyGeeding had games at the same time, there was no way both parents could attend each. Again, with my ex not there, I had a great time interacting and getting to know the other parents. When she’s there, I feel I must guard and keep to myself, otherwise she might accuse me of harassment.
  • On Monday, Jake on The TICKET said he gifted his wife a wind chime for Mother’s Day. Longtime readers know I hate the wind chime with extreme prejudice. After letting it hang outside for one day, he went on a huge rant on how annoying, nerve-wracking, and inconsiderate they are.
  • Yesterday when I picked up DaughterGeeding from school, a random kid walked up to me and said, “Sir, I just wanted to say thank you for your service.” I had to level with him and tell him I never served, but my dad served enough for all of us and I’ll take what he said as way too honor my dad.
  • I’m not sure why, but the term “bucket list” annoys me. I think I used to like it until the movie by the same name came out. Well, on my list, I’ve always wanted to stay at a Ritz-Carlton. In college, I did a case study on them for both my undergrad and graduate degree and was heavily impressed. Yesterday, I realized I can potentially mark that item off the list because my employer will reimburse me up to $5,000 on a vacation as a reward for being with them for ten years. I looked up the D.C. location, but it seems not to be centrally located to all the places we want to visit.
  • I donated blood last week. Two benefits of doing so are you get tested and results for covid-antibodies and your cholesterol. For years, I fought high cholesterol numbers. Every time I’d get it tested, at least twice a year, I would let my wife know. I thought she would care, look at it as an opportunity to bond, and I wanted to share a health concern I’ve been battling. She would always comment, usually something generic, like asking if it was better than last time. But one day it hit me, despite me telling her every time I got my lab results for the past 15 years, she never knew what constituted as good or bad cholesterol. Looking back, I’m surprised, but not, that she never took the time to ask or clarify. The worst part is feeling placated. For instance, she used to talk to me about ARDs at the school where she taught. I had no idea what they were, but one time I asked and she explained that “ARD” is an acronym for Admission, Review and Dismissal, and it deals with student eligibility. I asked because I was interested and cared about what was going on in her life. Looking back, I now understand she never took the time to ask because she simply didn’t care. Welp, now I know what to look for in the next relationship.
  • In case you are wondering, my blood is o-positive.
  • Yesterday was Bono’s 62nd birthday. U2 fans mark the occasion by donating money for water wells to be dug in Africa. Yesterday the band announced he’s written a new memoir. I don’t think I’m going to read it, but if the audio book is anything like what’s below I’ll all for what. I really wish the whole thing was animated like this sample. I’d be all over that.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, May 11, 2022