Saturday, December 21, 2013

The 12 Costs of Christmas


So for the past couple of years I have been contributing to the blog, I have typically done a Christmas post.  While somewhat creative, I have felt I have exhausted my efforts in parlaying tennis themes to Christmas themes, and just thought….Why the hell not vent?

My guess is that most the guys that read this blog are middle-aged guys, working hard, supporting a family, love tennis, beer , and most likely “enduring the costs of Christmas”.  So perhaps I can share my day that led me to drinking Mamba Taxis at MiCocina at 4 PM to get back in Christmas Spirit.

It first started off by taking my car into the shop at 8 a.m. for the 3rd time in two weeks for maintenance and repair.  I won’t bore you with the details, but don’t make the mistake of buying German automotives that have 3 initials.  I have owned them twice.  They are great to drive, but like a woman that is fun to drive, they are high maintenance. 

I then headed over to the mall to buy the iPhone 5s.  Excuse me, iPhone 5s’s, that my wife, daughter, and son decided to reserve for themselves for Christmas.  Best Buy was having a sale for $75 off iPhones, so why not, right?   Since I handle the finances, I had to go over there and pony up, not only for the cost of the phones, but also for the data plans that must accompany such phones.   My wife sees something for sale and feels compelled to buy, not thinking through the recurring, on-going costs.  I know.  I have a car, that although is paid off, has an on-going recurring cost.  But I bring home the bacon, I get a break there.

So far, I have been lucky.  My daughter wanted the iPhone 4s two Christmases ago, and being the hard-nose bad ass parent I am, I made her beg, and told her the only way we would get it, is if she paid for the data herself.  So she saved her hard-earned baby-sitting money and gave me cash up-front for 2 years of data.   In the meantime, I decided to upgrade to the iPhone myself, and gave my 5-year old Blackberry with no data plan to my wife, and my youngest son who was 10 at the time, got a basic no data phone to call for emergencies.   I know.  I’m cruel, and paybacks are a bitch.

I get the song and dance of how school is now having the kids access various study material on-line, and that they need lightning fast internet with so much data access per month, yadi –yadi- yada. 

So I find myself at Best Buy, buying 3 new iPhone 5s’s, and having to convert my wife and son to new data plans.  I really don’t care about the cost of the phone.  It’s the increase of my recurring cell phone bill of $100/month.  If you think about what we pay to stay connected.  Over $200 in cell usage, $100 for home phone & internet, and $100+ for Direct TV.  When you include surcharges and taxes, that’s close to $500 per month or $6,000 each year to have communication throughout the household.   I’m sorry, but is it really worth that much to “stay connected”?

I then had my 90 year old father calling me about something he was needing as I was writing an $8,000 check to Kenneth Mauhn – Property Tax collector for Collin County, before strategically exiting from the house from “honey-do’s” so I could go sneak off to the gym and walk on the beloved treadmill since my knees can no longer handle running on the pavement.

Anyhow, after my so-called “work-out” of treadmill walking, sauna, and steam room, the only way I could stay half sane, was to go see my buddy Juan and MiCo and have some nice stiff Mambas to sooth the pain. 

So back to the blog.  Maybe instead of the “Twelve Days of Christmas”, we can come up with the “Twelve Costs of Christmas”.   I’ve got #4 with “….4 data plans…”

Can you help me with the rest?.......

CF




48 comments:

  1. Forgot...my son is now sulking because I whipped his ass on Wii tennis and bowling. I tell you, hard to keep everyone happy in the household these days.

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  2. Number five has to be: 5.0 - Mike Kelly
    Merry Christmas for many people...

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  3. Who is the DTA pissed off at now? Every good team in 4.0 over 40s except Peterson's team is in the same flight. A blind squirrel could have done a better putting these flights together.

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    1. They did the same thing in 4.5. In flight A there is Sweeney and in flight B it is an extremely tough flight. Who is picking the flights?

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    2. Just looked at 4.0, flight B is a bunch of mediocre 4.5 teams and flight A is a bunch of mediocre 4.0 or 3.5 teams. That was worse than 4.5. Still think 4.5 needs to be reflighted but not quite as bad as 4.0.

      In 4.5, they must be tired of Rossouw. He got put in death flight.

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    3. Well they say it is a 'blind draw.' Ouch... Flight B in 4.0 is ridiculous while flight A is pathetic. McKinney may not even make the playoffs in flight B and they won't have to break a sweat in flight A.

      I guess the DTA is trying to prove they don't favor CC because they put them in with High Point and a bunch of other good teams. CC and HP are easily the two best rosters. I would put 1) CC 2) HP 3) T-Bar 4) McKinney.

      CC brings back a ton of players that got mid-season bumped and for unexplained reasons got pushed back at year end. They are a pretty strong favorite to take the whole league.

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    4. McKinney probably finishes last in flight B. I see no way they are in the top 4. I actually feel sorry for them in that flight. I bet they win fewer lines that matches played. Over/Under for them 3 lines. They will get swept by HP/BH/CC/SP/TBar and at best get 1 line against GH or SB.

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    5. I'm sure he means McKinney Peterson in flight A is top 4, not the McKinney in flight B.

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  4. They probably won't fix the flights, although they have done it before. About the only way they can be fair at this point is to take the top three from each flight. That would be the only way to get the top four teams in the playoffs.

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  5. I had to look for myself but I did notice 3.5 is right. Even the DTA couldn't screw that one up, they only had one flight. 4.0 and 4.5 are both poorly managed.

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    1. They clearly need some help. If you can get any information out of them, which is almost never, they'll tell you they evaluated the rosters, blah, blah, blah. Don't know which is worse, admitting you have an agenda or admitting you are so clueless that they got it this wrong. If it's a blind draw just tell us so we don't think the DTA is that dumb.

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  6. Just looked through 40s and when do schedules come out?

    In 4.5. Flight A is Greehill. Sweeney has amassed a great roster. Rich, LaFavre, Ribman, Correia and Bell are a very strong group. Ribman is known to be MIA when you need him but there is a lot of talent on this roster. Sweeney will obviously miss Kelly but he is still stacked.

    Lakes are second Oberg, Jannasch, Pollock, Wise and others are vying to knock off Sweeney. There is a lot of talent and this team can't be counted out.

    CC/Nolen is probably next. Steve Nolen got down to 4.5? Are you effing kidding me? So Rossouw and the CC crew opt to take after Kelly and Nolen tanks to get to 4.5? Reistener and Reiman are solid but not the depth of Sweeney or Lakes.

    Gleneagles wil also have somthing to say about this flight. They have Culley, Juhn and a few others but depth will hurt them.

    Flight A should be a very competitive week to week flight. I still take Sweeney.


    Flight B is more interesting because I am in there.

    Rossouw has the largest team and a large collection of very good players. He should be able to put out 5 quality lines each time. I would probably look for a stronger 5.0 than Babb. He is solid but better 5.0s to be had. Stitt is top notch.

    OC/Loose is second but they don't have the pieces they had last year. They also only have 1 5.0 in James. Brent is good but they need to add another.

    T Bar is loaded but a small roster will come back to bite. If they add some players, they will win this flight. Flores, Mudsam, Bartzen(s). There are no bad players on that roster.

    My pick is T-Bar. Fikes will win this if he has players available every week.

    4.0 has to be the worst flighting in DTA history and that is saying a lot.

    In 4.0, Flight A has to be the easiest to pick ever. McKinney will run over everyone. In flight B, Canyon Creek will win fairly easily but not as easily as McKinney. McHugh, Dawson, Huff are some of the best computer 4.0s in the city at 18s or 40s.

    Wiley is in the mix with a group of quality spare parts.

    TBar is really good. Most of you outside guys don't know these guys but they are a really good team. I will pick them to finish second and maybe first.

    In 3.5, I don't know anybody so I will take Bender based on name alone. I guess it is the team he is on.

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  7. Wiley's team is stronger than the team he took to Nationals and Canyon Creek isn't any stronger than last year. Please explain how Canyon Creek will win fairly easily? CC may even be third behind Brookhaven. HP wins this flight.

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    1. Greg lost Arcaria and Glasgow, he isn't better. Those two were automatic.

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    2. Also, he could only bring back 3. He also lost his singles players, Ho, Bennett and Gerber. I'm not saying his team is bad but he lost slot and you don't got to nationals, lose your team and come back better. That just doesn't happen.

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    3. A lot of random pieces on HP. It's Canyon Creek's to win or lose.

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    4. CC should win but they won't. They are a second rate Brookhaven. BH brings it home.

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    5. Aren't you forgetting McKinney/Peterson? We nearly won Dallas last year and have all of our pieces back. There are a lot of good teams in this league. BH/CC/Tbar/SP/HP are all tough too.

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    6. You lost your best player at singles in Hyunh. You dont stand a chance to win cities.

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  8. And you cheating 4.5 scrubs are just trying to tank down to 4.0 so that doesn't make you much better, LOSER.

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  9. Highpoint Wiley wins their flight. They are worlds better than CC and Brookhaven (who will field a decent team, but around 3rd place caliber). I pick them to win cities too. I just can't see anyone beating them.

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    1. Not seeing the reason for Wiley worship. It is a solid team but nothing unbeatable. He is still an inexperienced captain and there is no reason for players to want to play for him. Last year, he played himself when better players were available.

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  10. Not Wiley worship. He just has the best team. Lots of depth, which makes a difference over the course of the season and into cities. Most of the other teams have a handful of good players at most.

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  11. Peterson has the only team guaranteed to be in the playoffs. You have to start with them as the favorites at this point.

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    1. ^^^ This is right on. He is maybe the most talented team and he has an easy road to get there. I would say he is the favorite to win cities. Easy trip to playoffs and he brings back almost everyone off a sectionals team.

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  12. Flight A: 1. McKinney 2. LBH
    Flight B: 1. HP 2. TBM

    With the substantial upgrades over last year Peterson should walk through city's and sectionals.

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    1. They have definitely took a good team and made it better. Looks like they stole 2 of High Points nationals players.

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    2. I still think CC wins the league. CC is focused this year.

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    3. The have the talent

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    4. CC also has the best depth. They have the biggest roster and it is all quality depth. They won't have to worry about big drop offs if their top players are unavailable. This is the reason I put CC as the favorite.

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  13. flight B is likely to come down to games/sets/lines, as I can easily see one loss for each of the top 3-4. As always, especially in 40's, it will come down to getting your best 8 out each week, which can be a challenge.

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    1. Exactly, that flight is too tough for someone to get out unblemished. I wouldn't be shocked if the winner has 2 losses. If someone goes undefeated, they are either good or lucky. Probably lucky because teams couldn't get their 8 best out.

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  14. Who cars about 40s? Geez, 18s numbers are coming out any day. Why would we care about all these geezers?

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    1. Haven't you been schooled on this once before dip-wad…..if you are under 40, you in the minority of USTA League tennis. Go watch some more Sponge Bob if you aren't eligible to play in this league, and bide your time until Spring when most of these 40+ guys will wipe the court with your pimple ridden face anyway.

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  15. AND in other news: 40 and Over mixed started up yesterday!

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    1. Tell me about a great analysis on that. Who plays mixed unless the chicks are hot. I bet there are lots of hit chicks in 40s. Not even at Lifetime.

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    2. Plenty of attractive women in 40 and over. Just depends on your perspective I guess (and age). :)

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  16. Peterson's bunch lost 3-2 but Kayseri won't go undefeated so that flight is now wide open. CC ROLLED. They are the team to beat.

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  17. surprising results for Peterson, especially the line 2 and 3 doubles scores..

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  18. CC served noticed. They swept and didn't drop a line. They didn't even have their A lineup out. You CC haters are going to have to deal with it for awhile.

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    1. Looks like CC didn't drop a set. That is tough. Surprised about Peterson. The two lines they won were in breakers. Looks like all the McKinney love was unwarranted. CC definitely looks like the team to beat.

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  19. High Point did win 5 - 0 as well. Feb 2nd should be a good matchup.

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    1. High Point got a default and beat up on an old team. Don't worry, Greg will play himself when it matters and it will sink him. I saw it last year. He just got very lucky.

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  20. CC played Alzuro. Are you kidding me? You are bragging about not dropping a set. You should be more worried that you dropped the # of games you did. What a joke.

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    1. If Wiley plays himself, it is like starting 1-0. If you only have to go 2-2, you have it won and he can't help playing himself when it matters. Trust me, I have seen it.

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    2. It doesn't matter. HP loses to T-BarM this weekend. The T is the only team that played anyone. In the end, it will be the T and CC. A very good HP team will be sitting home watching us play. If they were in the other flight they would win it.

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  21. This is funny. CC beat Alzuro's team. They beat a team they should have beaten with one eye closed. Served notice? Hilarious. I would liken this to bragging about never being arrested. Congrats....do you want a cookie?

    Peterson loses. They can still pull it together, but....that was not a good start, and they will have to win out, most likely.

    Then there's Highpoint. They may have beaten up on an older team, but they didn't put out their best 8 either, and Springpark does have some players. Wiley wins that flight.

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    1. Really, you guys actually believe that is somone from CC posting the "served notice" and similar comments. Obviously its HP guys stirring the pot. Fine, the more pseudo-hate the one or two sophomoric posters want to throw out here, I guess the more interesting our little world becomes for those that like that kind of fodder. I really do wish some analytical guys that know some of the players in the Dallas area, would take on a contributor role in the blog as Bill/Captain Fantastic has suggested in the most recent thread. Would be much more interesting to talk about match-ups than have childish posters pretending to be something/someone they are not.

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