Calvin Updates

So, I started writing this out as one post but realized it quickly and easily breaks down into two.  One of them is from the every day me.  The one no concerned with my sexual identity.  The one concerned with family and my car and my phone and my job.  One of them is from my femme side.  The one that IS focused on his/her sexual identity and seeks out things that enhance her femininity especially because she can't experience those feelings in the "real" world.  So, this first part is about my every day life.  The next post is about my femme life.


Mom's Health
Mom's health seems to have settled down.  She isn't having any bad reactions to being on the blood thinners or from the medicine itself.  By that I mean she isn't a big bag of bruises, which is always a chance when on meds like this.  There IS the issue of getting the meds.   Mom requested it from her cardiologist as a cardiologist cared for her in the hospital and was the original prescriber, but her cardiologist is saying that the insurance company is denying it saying that this is a pulmonary issue (lungs) and not a cardiology issue (heart).  So now mom has to start over with her general practitioner.

As long as I'm talking about health, I should mention that everybody in the house, short of my younger brother B, is sick.  Mom is sick a lot as her body just doesn't fight off colds very well any more and even a slight cold seems worse when it combines with her COPD.  I get a few colds a year, but this time it feels worse.  For one, I had a cold before and during my Dallas/San Fran trip.  It went away slowly but left me with this nagging wet cough.  Now it's blown up into a full on chest/head cold.  I'm coughing up quite a bit of yellow diseased phlegm (I bet that's why you come here... to read about my nasty phlegm!), and I'm congested.  Congested enough that the entire left side of my head hurts.  And what makes it painfully worse is the phlegm itself is incredibly thick.  It's hard to cough it up, it's hard to blow it out.  Trying either method makes my head hurt, so I'm also constantly having a double whammy headache.

And then there's my older brother R... he has colds like everybody else but he's an expert at just ignoring them and going on with his day.  Well, this is bad enough that he's complaining about it and saying he feels miserable.  He even thought about coming home early from work.  Trust me, that's a major breach to him as he's never called in sick or even used sick time outside of having his gallbladder removed.  And even then, he waited a couple days in a lot of pain until he had a natural day off to go see a doctor.

So that's health.  I don't see Mom degrading any further and we'll just have to wait to see what her cardiologist says about her stent and if there's anything more that can be done to get her more energy.



Stupid Phone
Uh... yeah, I regret posting that missive about the phone.  Talk about a first world problem!  While I'd like a different phone it would just be bat shit crazy to get rid of my current phone for something that might have better battery life but otherwise be less.  I'll limp by with this one until the new phones come out in the fall and see what my options are then.

Or at least that was my thought until I visited my Aunt.  I had to accompany mom over there as her Christmas gift to Aunt S was a Google Home Hub and a few smart bulbs.  Obviously I didn't want to use my phone as that would give me ultimate control, so I used hers.  When I grabbed it from her it was plugged in and charging and had 100% battery.  The battery died 49 minutes later.  She NEEDS a new phone.  I just blurted out that I'm considering getting a new one and she could have mine.  Well.... that's awful nice of me, but I'm still paying on the phone and would need to buy another one outright.  My nephews call me a big baller and all, but I don't have that kind of money sitting around just to be generous to my Aunt.  So I think I'll tell her that if she buys ME a new phone (the OnePlus 7 Pro for $500), I'll let her have mine.

That feels both nice and fair.



Winter Tires
I'm heading over to get Nina some winter tires later today.   Damn, that was not an easy decision to make.  I bragged how I got the 20 inch wheel option on the Mustang and she looks SO damned good with those big wheels.  The problem is that there just aren't many 20" winter tires.  And those that do come in those sizes are "performance" winter tires.  In other words they are meant to get good grip on dry cold roads and let you corner like a madman at speeds upwards of 150mph!

That's all fine and good for the sports cars they were designed for, but I don't drive Nina that way.  Well, I do but I need her to get me from home to work as her primary task and drive fun and crazy as her second task.

So it looked like just getting new tires was out.  I'd need to get new wheels in a smaller size and then get new tires for those.  The new performance tires would have cost about $1,600.  I found some crappy wheels and basic winter tires for about the same price... but knew damned well I wouldn't want cheap looking wheels on my Nina.  So when I went in, I knew I could afford quite a bit more (on credit that would be paid off by my tax returns later this month), So I didn't bother with pricing and just went with what I thought was best.

Now, that's not QUITE fair.  I did look at price, but not in a "can I afford this" model.  Instead I was just comparing prices of similar objects.  For instance, I was looking at 18" wheels and they had one that looked almost like my stock 20s... but they were $240 apiece compared to the other options between $100 and $160.  I tossed those out and got a set at $155 apiece that were almost as good looking.  I added the tires (Michelin X-Ice i3), the needed parts, the TPMS parts, and finally the storage fee.

Before I get to the final price, lets talk tire storage.  When I put winter tires on Fiona I just loaded up the unused wheels/tires into her hatchback, drove them home, and stacked them up in the cold patio until spring.  I didn't like doing that as I know tires shouldn't be stacked like that and realistically should have a tire rack to hold them up in the "normal" position.  I really didn't want to try this with my 20" wheels and had another problem... there was just no WAY I was going to get the wheels and tires in Nina.  The trunk just isn't big enough for two of them, let alone 4.  So I'd either have to have someone else accompany me with Mom's SUV (Maybe R's Grand Cherokee), or I could just leave them there.  I was surprised to find that this isn't an option that's readily available.  The only national brand I could find that would do it was Belle Tire.  It's $85 a season or $170 a year.  Seems like a steal to me.  When I get ready to go back to my all season tires in March or April I just call them up and set an appointment.  When I come in they'll have already delivered my wheels/tires to the local shop (they're stored in a central temperature controlled facility), and they'll just have to pull off the winter wheels/tires, put on the all season wheels/tires, and re-program the TPMS parts.  I should be in and out in 30 minutes instead of the normal hour to an hour and a half.

The winter tires are rated to last about 3 years.  With as much as I drive, I expect that will be closer to 2.  I think the same will apply to my regular tires with maybe getting 3 years out of them instead of the rated 4 or 5.  When the all seasons finally need to be replaced, I'm thinking I'll change them out for actual summer tires.  I've never had a car where that was a good idea before.  I mean, Fiona was cool and all, but her putting down 160 horsepower just wasn't going to need that extra traction.  In contrast, I can break the tires on Nina in just about any condition!  Summer tires would obviously be horrible for winter, but I'm going to be switching these out every season so... Summer Tires it is (or... Summer Tires it will be!).



Christmas
Christmas was nice.  Not as good as Thanksgiving, but only because mom was just worn out.  She ended up getting out of the hospital on Sunday the 22nd, but she didn't have enough time to do her final prep and spent most of Christmas (remember, we celebrated it as a family on Monday the 23rd) apologizing for not everything being perfect.  The one thing that really stood out, besides mom just being overly tired, was R agreeing to play Trivial Pursuit with us.  R just isn't a social guy and normally when we break off to play trivia games on the TV or via a board game, he goes up to his computer alone and plays those games.  So that was kind of special!



Getting away from work too much is too much work
While I like having time away from work as much as the next gal, I have to say that the holiday season is just ridonculous.  Understand, I'm a manager now so I get weekends and holidays off.  That means Thanksgiving break for me is Thanksgiving, Black Friday (yeah, its a state holiday!), plus the weekend.  Christmas week was the weekend off, me taking the Monday off for our holiday, then Tuesday and Wednesday off (Christmas Eve and the actual Christmas Day).  I only worked two days then had the next weekend off.  Then worked Monday before having New Year Eve and New Year Day off.  Then work two days and I'm here to today.  Add in my week long vacation in early November and the training I had, and it feels like I was away from work more than at it for the entirety of November and December.

Again, time away from work is glorious, but having that much time away means when I AM there, all I'm doing is playing catch up.  So it feels weird to say this, but I'm really looking forward to having normal Monday to Friday weeks!



Football
So the season is over as far as I'm concerned.  Yeah, there are still a few bowl games that I might watch and there's the national championship game between LSU and Clemson, but Michigan lost to Alabama on New Year's Day and now I'm looking forward to the 2020 Michigan Wolverines football season.

Anybody that's watched college football recently has seen the rise of the super teams.  Teams that always seem ready to get into the playoff and have the real possibility of winning it all.  These teams include:

• Ohio State
• Alabama
• Clemson
• Oklahoma

Others that always seem to be in the conversation without as many trips to the playoff include LSU, Georgia, Auburn and maybe Washington, Oregon and a small handful of others.  After listening to countless college football podcasts and reading countless college football articles, I have to agree that this list just can't get much bigger. And it all comes down to one thing.... recruiting.  

There should be no doubt that Michigan under Coach Harbaugh is a good team.  He's been there for 5 years now and he has 3 ten win seasons, a 9 win season and a 7 win season.  That 7 win season is one that was predicted to be that low because they were replacing almost everybody and they never settled on a quarterback (I think they played 4 different ones!).  This past 9 win season was them introducing a radically different offence as Harbaugh realized his own offense was something of a dinasour and couldn't keep up with current high powered offenses.  It took half the season to get into a good rhythm and by that time they'd lost to Wisconsin and Penn State.  And then to end the season they hit the buzz saw that is Ohio State and Alabama.  Teams so well stocked with players that they turn away 5 star recruits (they don't, but damn they probably could!).  

Michigan is lucky to get a few 5 star recruits, instead filling the cuppard with good to great 4 star recruits.  But look at this from the perspective of a high school football star.  Someone who is ranked as one of the best in the country and is getting offers from just about every major university.  Who is he going to go to?  Well, if he has a sentimental heart there's probably a choice that's easier than the others.  Maybe it's his dad's college or the in state school he's idolized for years.  But most of them are fairly open minded and are looking at two things:  Who will get them the most play time and Who will likely get them a national title.  

Let's face it, both of those things need to happen for them to make a big enough splash to make an NFL career.  I can't blame them... they start out with contract making damned good money and if they excel in the NFL?  They can earn millions of dollars per year.  

Now under the BCS system, it was the best two schools and that could really vary year to year.  Alabama was in the conversation a lot but there were quite a few different teams in play including USC, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Clemson, Florida State, LSU, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, Miami, Oregon, Stanford, and Notre Dame.  A kid could pick any of those schools or the dozen or so "almost made it" schools and have the same chance of getting into the big dance.  But now, under the playoff system, it's the four best teams.  

At first glance, it would seem that would expand the market of teams good enough to get in... but look at that list again and see how many teams were in the top 4 each year.  Oregon had a good run but came from nowhere and wouldn't have made it into the playoff any year but one.  Stanford was only in the top 5 once.  VaTech?  Tennesee?  Michigan State?  Michigan?  Schools like that had their peaks, but weren't regularly there.  So when we went to the playoff more of the 'ultra' schools got there more often.  Lets face it, this is the first year Alabama HASN'T been in the playoff.  

So if this 16, 17, 18 year old wants to get into the national championship, the teams that can get him there are far and few between.  'Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma are the only proven commodities.  Georgia might be good enough but they keep finishing between 8 and 5.  So more of these elite athletes go to these ultra schools and that just makes them ore and more juggernaut like.  

So while many a Michigan fan is calling for Harbaugh's head (Or the defensive coordinator Don Brown or the new Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis), I don't think that's it.  Michigan is somewhat competitive with Ohio State most years (BARRET WAS SHORT!) and has plenty of seasons with wins that could get them to the playoff.  But that difference in players is what keeps Ohio State on top.  I'm sure Auburn feels the same about Bama.  Texas feels the same toward Oklahoma.  The entirety of the ACC to Clemson.  And the poor PAC12 to everybody else in the playoff.  

Looking at the College football playoff rankings from years past, Michigan might have made it in last year and 2016 if it was an 8 team playoff.  And that's with losing to Ohio State the week the poll was put out!  What if they did get in and got the jump on a team or two and made it to the National championship.  What would that do to recruiting?  Maybe some more of those 5 stars would make it to Michigan.  Maybe Michigan, this year, has a better super stud running back, or a couple more defensive ends.  Maybe Michigan, as well as a bunch of other schools look like viable chances to get into the playoff and therefore recruiting returns to where it was... blue blood programs get all the good recruits with only a few surprise candidates to other programs.  

So... sorry for the rant, but not sorry.  I think for the sport, we have to expand the playoff.  Otherwise we'll just whittle the whole game down to between 4 and 7 teams that have any chance of getting into the playoff and everybody else forever going through coach after coach simply because that door is already closed to them.