Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, May 10, 2022

  • Some days you just want to kick back and crank up some Wilson Phillips to 11.
  • The man who has been mentoring me through my divorce, as he had a similar divorce decades ago, revealed to me he’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Man, bum deal.
  • I think I was the only person in the U.S. not interested in that escaped convict and that law enforcement official he had a relationship with.
  • I think everyone likes that Jake from State Farm guy.
  • Things that are still around that surprise me – Amway, Barbara Eden and Feldon, Bob Barker, Angela Lansbury
  • It will be interesting to see who will win between Trump and DeSantis in the Republican primary.
  • I wish I was appointed ambassador of french fries. I’d start a holy war against tater tots. First, I’d send in the crinkle fries, followed by a battalion of curly fries, and finishing the mission with a regimen of waffle fries. I’d then start diplomacy talks with onion-rings. And later, baked potatoes. But I know my limits. No way am I taking on mashed potatoes.
  • New Poll Shows Texas Republicans Believe Christians, White People Most Discriminated Against
  • Texas National Guard Soldiers Trying to Unionize – When Governor Greg Abbott took immigration policy into his own hands, sending ten thousand troops to the border, not everyone went along.
  • At least East Texas is no longer a major part of my life – A Fundamentalist East Texas Church Bought a Sawmill. Injuries and Child Labor Violations Began to Pile Up.
  • I always wanted to try an open-mic night – Standup comedy course for men at risk of suicide wins NHS funding –  Comedy On Referral will help vulnerable adults in London after successful course in Bristol for trauma survivors
    • Standup comedy is regularly listed as one of the toughest jobs in the world, featuring heavily in 90% of people’s top 10 fears. But a course helping some of the most vulnerable people in the country by teaching them to be comedians is proving so successful that it is being socially prescribed by NHS trusts and private practices across the country.“I’ve taught comedy for 10 years, and students often told me how much stronger, more resilient and happier they were after exploring their personal histories through standup comedy,” said Angie Belcher, founder of Comedy on Referral and comedian-in-residence at Bristol University.“That inspired me to prove that the models, exercises and games used in a standup comedy course can help people to recover from emotional problems such as mental illness, postnatal depression, PTSD and anxiety disorders,” she said.
  • Haley Taylor Schlitz isn’t old enough to buy a beer, but she is set to become Southern Methodist University’s youngest-ever law school graduate, at just 19 years old.
  • Couple live aboard cruise ships after calculating it makes more ‘financial sense’ than a mortgage – After crunching the numbers, the couple, in their 50s, realised they could live the rest of their lives hopping from cruise ship to cruise ship – for as little as $A62 ($43 U.S. dollars) each a day.
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Bag of Randomness for Monday, May 9, 2022

  • I was not aware of how muscular Willie Mays was. He’s currently our oldest greatest baseball player.
  • The new pharmacist in town is an Anna Kendrick doppelganger. As a matter of fact, when I first saw her, I wondered if I was on one of those Candid-Camera/Punked shows. When asked how often does she get mistaken for the adorable actress, she said it happened that morning. While standing in line at a Starbucks, a young girl approached her, asking for a selfie and saying how much she likes her Cups song. If you want to know my pharmacy, here’s a hint: It’s the northernmost pharmacy in Coppell.
  • In high school, I had a friend claim he poked a needle through a condom packaged in his cousin’s wallet because he hated his cousin.I think his cousin was half the responsible party to one particular teenage-pregnancy that occurred. That story came to mind after reading this article –  Germany: Woman sentenced for poking holes in partner’s condoms
  • Years ago, I was considering getting a vasectomy. At the time, the then wife wanted no more children. But one thing held me back. What if a certain fateful event happened that changed my mind? I heard there are often complications with reversals. For once, I’m glad I didn’t lay my balls out there.
  • the On Tuesday, BoyGeeding and DaughterGeeding both have games at the same time in two different cities. Their mother sent me a message asking how I would like to handle this. Remember, she told the judge that I’m controlling and manipulative, and has pending litigation against me to further restrict my access to our children. She won’t have a discussion with me, with a third party present, and won’t provide me answers or examples on how she thought I was controlling and manipulative. As much as I would like to propose win/win propositions, I can’t provide her my thoughts and ideas in order to protect myself, as well as my continued access to the children. I wish we could be more collaborative with things concerning our children.

  • I thought of my daughter and her struggles about thinking of ending her life when this 60 Minutes segment aired last night – Suicide, self-harm, depression and anxiety rates rising among U.S. kids
    • If we were all living together as a family under one roof, I would have called my daughter and wife in the room to watch this segment together. I’d then ask my daughter if she could identify or relate with the nine-year-old in this story and have a heart-to-heart. Divorce prevents such things.
  • Man, I thought this was a good question and one I’d love to have sitting around a campfire with my closest friends. Brady is obvious, but my heart says no since he benefits from rule changes. Sentimentally I want to say Jordan. But I think the correct answer is Michael Phelps. Serena Williams and I think Carl Lewis should at least be part of the conversation.
  • The actor who provided the voice of the snowman in Frozen shared a unique coincident.

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, May 6, 2022

  • Mother’s Day weekend is sure a lot different when your mother is deceased, you’re divorced, and lost faith in the mother of your children to adequately love and care for them. For instance, this is shoe my ex has our son wearing to school. These are embarrassingly dirty and worn out. I wish I knew what she was spending child support on. Sure, the end of the school year is around the corner, but the kid needs some new shoes now. You can literally stick your finger in that hole and touch his toe. I took his sister out to buy shoes last weekend, and when we were out we tried finding him a pair but didn’t have much luck. If I had him this weekend, I’d certainly take him out to get some new shoes.
  • The stupid divorce decree states I get the children every first, third, and rare fifth weekend of each month. Normally, I’d get them this weekend, but, since it’s Mother’s Day weekend, that trumps the schedule. So, I won’t get the kids for at least two weeks. There’s a part of me that wants to ask my ex to even things out. Since last year she only allowed me to have the kids for breakfast and didn’t intend for me to see the children at all for Father’s Day, why don’t I keep the kids this weekend and she can have the kids for an hour for breakfast. Some of you are probably thinking that it balances out because of Father’s Day weekend. Nope, because it falls during the summer and the possession schedule is different in the summer. So, all dads in Texas forced to accept the standard or expanded-standard possession schedule get screwed. Actually, it’s the kids who are getting screwed, as they deserve to have both parents in their lives equally.
  • I still get a lot of anxiety when the first several moments of my possession time with the children begin. It’s weird, it’s like I already miss them even though they are in front of me but I feel like they are going to be snatched away or I’m going to wake up from a dream only to find out we’ve never been reunited. My counselor is helping me with it. He’s spoken separately to two of his colleagues, and all three of them have determined I’m suffering from PTSD. They are working alongside my psychiatrist. Sure, I was depressed about my spouse’s emotional infidelity and neglect, and the divorce sucked, but it was the alienation of the children that caused a maelstrom of emotional hell.
  • As hurt as I am, I don’t want revenge or vengeance. There’s no such thing as fairness or justice after a divorce. I just want healing.
  • Nobody has done more for Christianity than Donald Trump? Jesus?!
    https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1521867316375474182
  • My favorite lamp in the house is a pharmacy floor lamp. Unfortunately, the halogen bulb burned out. I’m having the hardest time finding a replacement or an LED equivalent. There’s so much more to light bulb shopping than I expected. Of course there’s base size, shape, wattage, color (warm or white). brightness or lumens, and a lot of other unexpected stuff. I think I’m shopping for a halogen T10 with an E26 base.
  • I see a pain management doctor because of my back and neck. Earlier this week, I met with him. We talked about an upcoming procedure. To give him the complete picture, I told him about a treatment I’m going through because of my divorce. As soon as I said the word “divorce” I could tell he dropped the doctor title and then talked to me as an empathetic friend. There’s something about this unfortunate brotherhood of men who have been given divorce papers and have seen long-lasting damage it does to us and our children. I think we spent most of our visit talking about the wounds divorce leaves and its recovery and the life you can have post divorce, and the purgatory until you find love again.
  • I hope to provide you folks more upbeat posts soon.
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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, May 5, 2022

  • I took yesterday off from blogging and didn’t tell anyone. Sorry.
  • Last summer, I heard Junior Miller of The TICKET talk about sitting at home and feeling irritated for no reason. He couldn’t figure out why, then he noticed the gas-powered leaf blower being operated by a lawn crew at a neighbor’s house turn off, and instantly realized it was the sound of the leaf blower. When I heard him go on and explain how irritating they are, I was relieved to know it wasn’t just me. I now live in a lower-income neighborhood, and most of my neighbors mow their own lawn and don’t use leaf blowers or use quieter battery-powered ones. In my old neighborhood, almost everyone used a lawn care service, and since I worked from home, I would hear the sound of the leaf blower all the time. And found it irritating. When you first notice it, you’ll be amazed at how much lawn care workers use leaf blowers in the most inefficient and ineffective way possible. I did a little research into the matter, and found certain HOAs and some cities have a decibel level they can’t go over, and many lawn care companies have switched to a less noisy battery powered option instead of the obnoxious gas-powered models.

    The noise is so unwelcome that more than 100 cities across the country including ones in CO, IL, MA, NJ, NY, TX, and VT imposed complete or partial bans on leaf blowers

    When you notice being irritated by a leaf blower, your mind will start playing tricks on you. You’ll get to the point in which you can’t tell the lawn care worker is operating one or not.

  • The ex called Tuesday morning saying BoyGeeding hurt his ankle and wanted to know if she should take him to our pediatrician or foot doctor. Granted, I haven’t examined him, but I said give it a few days, ice it, have him tough it out. Later I got this.

    So, I guess she had to find a substitute to leave class and take care of our boy. I’m not upset or triggered, but sharing an example of what I deal with. I’ll have to pay half of the bill from the doctor. Kids sprain ankles and joints all the time. Later that evening, he was playing soccer with a limp, but otherwise seemed fine.
  • My lawyer contacted me yesterday saying she has heard any update from me in a while. I’m like, yeah, I’m trying to save money. I don’t have a wealthy mother paying my legal expenses like my ex.
  • Apparently, one of DaughterGeeding’s softball teammates couldn’t attend yesterday’s game because she had batting lessons. I’m confused. Don’t you want to show those hitting skills off in a game?
  • I’m a P1 of CBS Sunday Morning. And for those of you wondering, I do attend church, I just record and watch it later. They had a segment on Maury Povich. He talked about his first marriage and said what many have heard from others, “The biggest mistake I’ve made was putting my job before my family. That was unconscionable.” On a personal level, what I’m struggling with, is that there’s so much about my job I don’t like, but everything about it benefitted my family, so I always put my family in front of career, and look what it got me. That’s one of the things I’m working through, thinking I did “everything” right but it still failed.
  • CBS Sunday Morning also had a great segment on the Switchblade “kamikaze” drone, which is built here and being used by the Ukraine army. It’s small and compact as it fits into that round canister on the right.A one-time-use unmanned aerial vehicle, the Switchblade drone is a powerful weapon that can dive bomb its targets, such as tanks and artillery nests, at a range of up to 30 miles. So far, 700 Switchblades – large and small – have been supplied to Ukraine for use against Russian forces. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin talks with the CEO of Switchblade manufacturer Aerovironment, Wahid Nawabi, who as a child in Afghanistan saw the effects of an invading Russian army – and the power of innovative defense technology.
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