"We did it, Joe"

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 73

Woke up Saturday morning to a bunch of texts.... "Biden Won."  Kids were jumping up and down.  They started singing songs from "Hamilton." 

It wasn't a surprise... it was just a matter of time.  Were all the states conspiring to announce together? Were the TV networks on a group chat? Where they playing chicken? 

Yesterday and the day before was surreal.  Watching GA flip... then PA... and NV and AZ widen their gaps.  Even got a call from a direct report at 10PM saying, "Dude..... 2000 votes."  Who calls their boss at 10PM at night??!?!?! 

Taking in the moment... letting it sink in....  what does this mean as an American?

Democracy wins.  Record turnout.  Every vote counts.

Joe Biden.  Lost 3 other presidential bids. Topped it off as Veep 4 years ago. Was into retirement in the midst of a family crisis. Battling his way out of Scanton making mountains of mistakes on the way. Ripe age of 77.  

Kamala Harris.  A minority.  A woman.  Black and Asian roots. Representing California.  Coming out of San Francisco. A child of Oakland.  Our very own.

Was texting Nita... "I'd love to hear your thoughts on a woman... a minority... securing this spot."  She wasn't crying... I started crying. 

The fate of the nation will actually fall on how the Senate will be decided come January 5th.  It can be 2 years of sweeping policy change.  Or 2 years of stalemate, compromises, government shutdowns and eventually... in 2022... GOP takes over the House.  1994 all over again.  (Ugh....)

Is it time to look ahead... or just enjoy this moment?  

A nation torn apart...

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 71

Last night was anything short of horrible.  Nothing was newsworthy throughout the day which allowed me to concentrate.  As 5PM PT rolled around and polls on the East Coast started to close, I started to follow NBC (the one channel I get with my dinky little antennae).  It started with Biden leading the count 11-3 when Vermont and Indiana were "done."  Then as the night wore on.. emotions went high and low.  Florida was spotlighted over and over again... and at about 6PM... with so many counties showing up RED and the infamous Miami-Dade still up in the air... you kinda knew.  

Initial signs of Ohio... Pennsylvania... North Carolina trending blue... made dinner much more enjoyable.  After dinner... those states flipped.  Now it was Texas' turn and like 2016... like 2012... like all my recollection... that state continued to ooze crimson.  Latino voters in the south east were attributed to the surprise turn of events.  "No landslide" was immediately declared. 

As the night wore on... and everyone was doing the math... nothing added up.  Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia... states that Obama and Biden kept hitting... did not flip.  The state maps were ridden with red with small spots of blue.  For some reason, the left leaning analyst on NBC kept on holding out - saying the urban, college educated early mail-in ballots could be the deciding factor.

The kids didn't know what was going on... they were cheering for the numbers.  They saw 270... and were jumping on the couch when Biden won NY.  And they sulked when the fly-overs turned red, one by one.  

The math still didn't add up.  Even when Fox News declared Zona flipping -- pissing off the world, specifically the White House.  But the math still didn't add up.... those margins in the battleground states were too large to pull in.  

I went to bed at 1AM.... hopeless.  Dejected.  That lonely... fearful... devastated feeling crept in again.  Like it did in 2016.  Like the Super Bowl.  Like the NBA Championship.  Like the World Series.  Walking that Green Mile prior to ultimate execution.

Then at 5:30AM... my alarm went off.  Immediately checked Twitter and Google News.  Lo' and behold... those margins have narrowed.  In fact... Wisconsin swung all the way around.  And all the news outlets are saying that the mail-in ballots are heavy in Biden's favor.  The math started to come together after Michigan was won.  

At this point... we didn't even need Pennsylvania or Georgia.  We needed 6 more votes from Nevada to hit 270.  

As the clock strikes midnight on marking the end of the 2nd night... we're still 6 votes, 1 state away.  A legal battle is inevitable.  Lawyers already started petitioning in all those states demanding a recount.  

All the while... Congress remains a stalemate between the House and Senate.  

"Why do you vote for Biden?" Anderson asked....

"I vote, not for the person, but the policy.  It helps...that the Donald is a prick."  

As big of a prick and a-hole that he is... half the nation is still with him.  My parents voted for him.  If not for the mishandling of COVID, big-bro would've voted for him.  

"What happened to you? Why are you red-hair step child in your family?" Joyce asks.

"Cuz the Holy Spirit dwells in me...." I sarcastically answer.

For the record... she also voted Biden/Harris.  

And now.... we wait. 

Let it rip!!!

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 69

Neither of the kids grew up liking toys.  Not Barbies.  Not hotwheels.  Not transformers.  They're just not made that way.  Both of them love books.  NN loves arts and crafts.  SW loves sports.  They both are enamored with minecraft... to some extent.  But SW.... he has one toy that he loves... and coincidentally... I love - Beyblades.

I originally thought it was a stupid toy.  A spinning top that crashes into another in a stadium.  Plain and simple.  There's no skill to it.  It's just spinning it...and watching it go.

Boy was I wrong.  These are mechanical engineering marvels.  I still don't know how they're actually made and how a simple change in design can cause such a big difference.  You can customize your top... swap parts with other Beyblades.  Perfect your launch.  Learn your enemies' weaknesses and expose them.

For the past two weeks... I've been playing this childish game with SW.  And I can't stop playing with him.  Is it the toy? the game? the competition? Maybe... or is it the fact I have a "thing" with my son.  Where we can talk trash... sing... dance... tease... 

Mom went to HK and the one thing I wanted her to buy... was a Hong Kong beyblade.  When SW opened it... he loved it so much, he slept with it under his pillow.

SW bought a beyblade for his best friend's birthday.  He just so happens bought one for himself and bah-B.  *ahem* For "Bah-B."  But we wouldn't let him open it... unless he scored above 90 on his History test.  He was so excited... he emailed his teacher to get his score.  

We got enough Beyblades... I thought we can have a Beyblade tournament to declare the champion.  Days later... SW still can't stop talking about it.  

Tournament of Champions

Quarter Finals

 

Semi-Finals

For all the marbles....

Attack mode.  Defense mode.  Stamina mode.

Survival.  Knock-out. Burst finish.

Dads have many things with their sons.  Catching a ball.  Fixing a car. Collecting baseball cards.  Well... somehow, this is now our thing.  And I love every, single, moment, of it.  

A simple gesture

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 67

PAL set the vision...And there was a resounding response... a response to renting a Uhaul, grab almost 300 boxes of groceries... and hand deliver it to family, friends, elderly, those in need. 

It's a government sponsored program... and the food is wonderful.  Perishable stuff.  Not cheap at all.

I even have written proof that the Donald encourages wearing masks. 😷

Almost wanted to pull that note out... but I guess credit goes where credit is due. 

So Friday morning... handwrote a few little blessing cards... dawned our, once again, very reliability SJCAC shirt and made a trek around the Bay Area, with the entire family no less!!

I had my reservations.  People don't want extra food... do they?? They'll end up throwing it away, right??  Well... turns out... my deliverees weren't so much interested in the food.  But just longing for the sight of a human body reaching out and caring.  One elderly couple didn't want me to leave... kept persisting to chit-chat.  And there were actually some heart breaking stories...  

A wonderful time for unity.  A wonderful time to serve. A wonderful time to reach out and touch someone.  All that, coming from a simple gesture.  

"I just landed"

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 63

After 2.5 months of rollercoastering... mom finally returns from HK.  She spent 28 glorious days there... 14 of which was quarantined in a hotel that offered stale and rotten food.  Then she spent 2 weeks with family...getting the much needed respect she deserves from her nieces and nephews... and her visiting grandma's grave.  

Due to some mis-reading... we realized last minute that mom was returning a day early.  So I switched into high gear and started cooking up a storm, in the midst of the plumbing issues, while I was prepping for a bible study on "Voting as Worship", while playing Beyblades, Life and Scattegories with the kids... while cooking a full dinner for them.  

Drove out to SFO to pick her up around 10PM... only for big bro to say... she might not remember to switch her HK sim card back to US sim card.  Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat.  My heart dropped.  How was I to get a hold of her??? Will mom know how to borrow someone's phone to call? Will anyone lend her a phone during COVID? If I park in SFO... pay the $8... will I still be able to find her in this giant aiport??

As I was about to embark on that climatic adventure... we received a text on WeChat, "I just landed."  Phew.... either she is texting with a HK Sim card (and paying for who knows how much roaming), or she figured out how to hook up to airport WiFi, or... she knew to swap the sim cards back.  Sometimes she amazes me.  One moment she's an old and senile 70+ year old asian lady that can't speak a word of English.  The next moment... she's the woman who took two rambunctious kids to Great America and Marine World on SamTran... all the while not speaking a word of English.

I picked her up at a ghost-town of an airport... brought her home... delivered her her food... since she supposedly should be self-quarantining.   Got back around 12:30AM.  By the time I scrubbed myself clean... finally hit the hay around 1AM.  I was pooped.... pooped I was.  Had to nap twice during the day... short little power naps. 

And the Niners are 3-3 with Seattle next week.  Shanahan continues to pull one rabbit after another out of his hat.  

A $5 solution

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 62

For the past, I don't know how many months, my toilet has been hissing.  A quick search on the internet showed that the culprit is a worn out washer in the fill valve - the stem where water shoots in.  But my fill valve happens to not be showcased in any of the articles or DIY videos and the manufacturing has nothing on that valve - it's discontinued (more on that later). So since I can't replace the valve... I went to replace the entire thing.  Saturday... I bit the bullet and decided and bought two new fill valves... since both toilets were hissing.

Only to find out that the nut holding the valve to the toilet is a specialized hexagon valve that's over an inch in diameter.  I have nothing that can remove it.  On top of that.. the nut is on the end closest to the wall.. and there's literally no space for me to sneak my body in, let along a tool, let alone have any leverage for torquing.  I texted everyone asking for a tool... and my neighbor lent me his full arsenal.  Great guy... but none of the tool worked.  I needed a rudimentary hexagonal socket... one which I once had when I replaced my kitchen sink faucet.  No idea where it is.

After hours of twisting and turning... I threw in the towel.  Went to Home Depot (for the 2nd time) to pick up a set of sockets. $20. BAM!!! Worked liked a charm.  The nut came right off with the right tool (which I think is the key to being a good plumber, btw).  I was so happy... replaced everything and was ready to declare victory.  5 minutes after changing the valve...... the hissing came back.  

Dang it.  Something else was happening.  By now... I've read so many articles and papers on toilets, I was a downright expert.  I turned the water inlet off...and the water level continued to drop.  Which was causing the hissing...because the fill valve is trying to compensate for the fall... aka... hysteresis... aka... motorboating.  The water drops, the valve opens, water comes out little by little... HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.....

I tried the food color test.  But nothing was falling into the bowl!!! So it can't be the flapper. Which meant one thing... as validated by dozens of articles... take the darn toilet apart and replace the flush valve.  I had two more options to test before diving that deep.  Remove the bidet... which coincidentally... was around the time when the hissing started.  Or replace the flapper - which can't be the cause cuz the colored water was not falling from the tank to the bowl.  Examining the flapper... it was still in decent condition.  

Sunday morning before service started, I even skipped TWA, and I inched back into that crevice to remove the bidet.  Was hoping it wasn't the root cause... cuz we all love the bidet.  But needed to check the check mark.  And indeed... it wasn't it.  Water level kept dropping.  Last gasp before going full out and replacing the flush valve.... head to Home Depot and get a flapper.  Why not.  It's a 2 minute change... and costed me $5.  Third trip to Home Depot.  

After I got home... had lunch... started prepping for bible study while watching the Niners kick @$$.  And gosh darnit.... the hissing stopped.  It was the flapper afterall.  All those articles I read... that's always the first thing they recommend.  But I skip it and opt for the harder solution.  Cuz really... it can't be that simple, right???

So after it was all said and done... what took me 4 trips total to the Home Depot... ended up being a $5 solution.  No wonder Mario ended up with Princess Peach.  For someone to charge up the wazoo for such simple solutions... of course he gets the girl.  As for me... I found my Princess Peach.   Joyce was supportive every step of the way.  And she made that 4th and final trip to Home Depot when I was busy with everything else.  

As for the obsolete... no one uses ever fill valve that I have... well I'll be darned.  It's the exact same one that AM has.  *shrug*

情義兩難存

 COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 60

Last year... I blogged about the movie Spotlight where the Boston Globe uncovers the Catholic Church's systemic cover up of the child molestation.  Today... I listened to a podcast recounting that movie.  When they got to the part of "They're just kids..." I started to cry once again.

Days ago... Pope Francis goes on record of recognizing civil unions...  “What we have to create is a civil union law, That way they are legally covered.”  Not a surprise to some...nor is it a departure from the Pope's stance from when he was Cardinal Bergoglio.  But it has set the internet on fire... along with our own church... along with me.

This is a tough topic.  I shouldn't be...but it is.  I stand the middle of opposing sides.  The truth as spelled out in the bible... and my heart. "Don't hate the person, hate the sin." I've come to say that a lot... but I've also recognized that those who know the sin...and continue to act upon it... is voluntarily upholding that sin.  "Love thy neighbor", Jesus taught. And yet... here we are.

I applaud the Pope for saying what he said.  But should he have said it? He's the Holy See.... the representation of Christ on the throne.  Would Jesus have said what he said if he was here today??

God help us..... God help me. 

A bit of normalcy

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 59

Went shopping at Target with Joyce... not cuz we needed to buy anything... just because I felt like going shopping with my beloved. Walked around the high-tech section to see what the latest fads are.  Boy are we obsolete! Then headed over to Starbucks and picked up a PSL.  

And now... I have a nice clean set of intestines.  Works every time. Haha.... back to a bit of normalcy. 

Favorite Sports Moment

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 58

Saw on Twitter, someone pose a question... "What is your favorite sports moment?"

Quickly flipped that question over to big bro, Gonzo and Andersen.  Some great responses....

We started with jokes

• Jake Taylor's bunt (heh)
• Ruben Rivera (which we saw in real life!!!) 
• Hogan body slamming Andre

We all agreed.... too young for "The Catch."

Then Gonzo got serious... with things he saw live. 

• Cain's Perfect Game
• Hearst's game winning TD vs the Jets
• Scutaro in Game 7 of 2012 NLCS
• Lofton in Game 5 of 2002 NLCS
• Ishikawa's walkoff in Game 6 of 2014 NLCS
• Young's run against the Vikings (
• Dravecky's return
• Pablo vs Verlander in Game 1 of 2012 WS

Then we really got serious and said 2010 would be the obvious answer.... but which part?

• Uribe's sac fly in Game 4 off Oswalt (which we were at, and NN's first Giants game?)
• Uribe's HR off Kendrick in Game 6
• Wilson striking out Ryan Howard?
• "It's Gaaaallll-OOOOOOOOOOOONE" 
• Final strikeout of Nellie Cruz

As much as I'm a Giants fan.... I'm a bigger Niner fan.  It's just.... .they haven't won one since 94.

• Montana to Taylor in '89
• The Catch 2 - finally beat Brett Favre (only to lose to the Falcons)

How many wide eyed, open mouthed, arms raised, @$$ clenched moments are there????  For some cities and areas.... too few, so they can name one right away.  For Bay Areans? San Franciscans....far too many to choose from.  

And then... I ended the night with.... Keri Strug stuck her landing.

#BOOM.  #USA

12 days till election.  OMG.................................... 

No Mercy

COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 57

Playing Monopoly tonight... I originally was hoping to get bankrupted so NN can have "a good night." I even got down to just 6 pieces of property.. and was down to less than $100.  NN landed on Free Parking a few times.... but she couldn't put me away.  And then... the tides turned.  

Not only did I win... I won convincingly.  I annihilated her.  Decimated her.  I showed mercy... once or twice.  Let her collect $200 when she shouldn't have.  And gave her a pass on one of my hotel landings.  But in the end... my competitive spirit overtook the game.  Heh....

Little does she know... there were a couple of turns she didn't play by the rules.  Had she held my feet to the fire... the results could've been very different.  But no one will know.... and I wasn't going to own up to it.  hahahahhahaa…. 

Taste buds

 COVID19 - School Closure - Day 157  School Reopens - Day 56

The kids have an amazing sense of taste and smell. During dinner tonight... before even the first bite... SW already said something smelled different. Then NN said.... two bites in... said she tasted something. Bell peppers??

They were right on target. I dumped in the remaining half a bowl of salsa into the meat sauce. The lesson here... why waste good food when it can be used for something else???

Funny.... SW will eat chips and salsa. But after knowing what I did... he barely scraped his dinner. Heh....