Monday, September 6, 2010

Monday

Last day of the 3 day weekend.
Haven't done a heckuva lot, either.
I found an ad that must have been placed this morning on Craigslist: a person is thinning out their pond and is giving away free fish and plants starting at 10:00 am this morning.  Best part is, they don't live too far away - may 7 miles max.
I scour CL daily for this stuff - too many people either give the stuff away or sell it cheap for me to even think about paying premium prices.  Those 2 16 and 15 inch Koi I have in there, according to the market, are worth between $75 and $100 a piece. 
Well, anyway, I will be heading over there to show up - a bit early.
The way stuff like this works: people show up early and expect to get the best stuff regardless of what the start time says it is and then when people like me show up on-time, there is nothing or very little left.  I have run into this far too many times, I can play that game, too.

Speaking of ponds, I had to put the UV sterilizer on the other, smaller pond.  I only used the thing once, for about 4 or 5 days, on the larger pond - what - over 2 months ago?  The water has stayed clear ever since.  But, the smaller pond water was turning pea soup green.  Put it on there yesterday and it's almost totally cleared up now : )

I was reading an article about how many people in their alleged Golden years are hardly experiencing anything golden about it.  You've seen them, go into a Walmart and look at some of the greeters.  Every Walmart I walk into has at least several greeters/front end personnel that look to be in their 60's or even 70's.  The Feds are talking raising the retirement age or doing away with cost of living increases.
PURE BUNK.  I've been paying into that s*** for a long, long time now, I and a lot of other people who are working away are going to be VERY mad if it disappears, or if they think we should be what, 71 years old to retire?  LIFE IS ALMOST OVER OR IS OVER FOR SOME FOLKS BY THAT AGE!

I don't have any choice BUT to pay into that system, it is deducted from my paycheck whether I like it or not.  Well, I like it if it's going to be there when it's my turn, but my turn better not be at the age of 70.  That's outrageous!  If not, I would far rather see that money going into CD's or anything BUT government control of it.  It's just another case of Congress and a President that are all millioinaires or multi-millionaires that have NO grasp, whatsoever, of the reality it is for MUCH of the rest of us.  Make these decisions because it isn't going to affect them, whatsoever. 

I am fast coming to the conclusion that retirement is going to be impossible by working an hourly job to get there.  Unless I am a highly paid worker - which I am not - it's not going to happen.  I would either have to "come into the money", ie: inheritance, win it somehow or start my own business.  Inheritance isn't, actually, entirely out of the question, but I have no idea how much that is going to be and farnkly, to get it, a parent must die.  I am NOT looking forward to either of those days.  Win it?  HIGHLY unlikely.  People play the lottery twice a week in hopes of striking it rich.  Casinos?  Give me a break.  Some people win big at casinos, most people lose.  I win here and there at Blackjack, but I would hardly think that I could win a fortune doing it - unless - of course - I learned how to count cards.  It isn't illegal, but if a casino believes you are doing it, they will throw you out - permanently.  I have given thought to taking a course on it, but have done nothing about it. 

Business?  The only viable option.  It's the only option that, if you work your butt off, fate is with you and God blesses it, you might have a chance to come out swinging, get some money saved up and get out of this daily work grind for large corporations.  I have nothing against working for a large corporation, Iam working for a VERY large corporation right now, but I have no belief whatsoever that I will ever get into a position in that company where I will be making huge amounts of money.  SOME people are, definitely, in higher level management and those salesmen that are successful.  Working 7 hours a day, 5 days a week isn't going to get me there.  The upside to working for large corporations are the health benefits - but I wonder what's going to happen to even that when this Obamacare fiasco starts kicking in.  GET RID OF IT. 

What kind of business could I possibly start, however, that I would like doing and would make good money off of?  I have no clue.  But you can be rest assured that I am going to start looking into it.  I do wish my company would give me a chance to get into something different besides just driving trucks.  The inside salesmen locally are hammered with work putting out bids and trying to get new contracts - one of them I know of for sure is working 12 hours per day.  What I could do with an extra 25 hours per week of pay!! LIVE!!! Don't even need THAT much to help, giving me back a full 8 hour day would be a great start. 

The ops manager wants me to try and sell off the irrigation stuff that we are trying to get rid of.  I am going to dive into that like nobody's business.  If I have something to prove here, it's that I can be of more help to this company than just being a truck driver.  Obviously, truck drivers fill an important role in this society of ours - whether you want to believe that or not (just shut down the entire trucking industry for a full week and everyone would be begging us to get back to work!) - and you CAN make decent money at it, but, I am not there right now.  Not with the hours I am getting.  At the same time, the work load doesn't justify it - there is not enough orders coming in to even fill 7 hours on many days, much less 8.

Anyway, I'm reading Obama's new plan: SPEND MORE MONEY THAT WE DON'T HAVE!! How does that NOT surprise me?  His latest plan is to rebuild the nation's infrastructure.  Well that's just wonderful, honey, and how are we going to pay for it?  He has as plan: Officials said the White House would consider closing a number of special tax breaks for oil and gas companies to pay for the proposal.

BUNK again.  WE will end up paying for it.  I don't disagree that the nation's highways and bridges are in pathetic shape, but NOW is NOT the time to even think about spending that kind of money.  This is PURELY  a political move to try and save face for Democrats whose political careers are facing definitive extinction.  Utter fiscal stupidity.  WHEN will all this spend spend spend stop? Only when we vote out these idiots and get people in there that will stop the hemoraghing. 

Whatever.  I'll get off my little podium now.  I don't care what party you are with, what sense does it make to throw this kind of money out the door?  He has ALREADY done that and look where it got us: NOWHERE!

Ummm, well anyway.  Labor Day.  Last day of 3-day weekend.  It flew by, too, not like it seemed like an eternity.  105 for high today, then the rest of this week and hopefully for the rest of the year the temps are down to low 100's or high 90's.

I must be offa here - take a shower, get in the care and go get some free plants!

G'day.

ben

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Face it, Obama, you've HAD your chance - more than once - and you blew it - like a trillion dollars worth of blown. He's in the news again wanting to do this, that and the other thing. It's SOLELY a political move. If the polls are any good indicator, Obama's hands are going to be TIED in November and this outrageous spending spree will, hopefully, be put to a STOP.

My new pond plants. Well, I have no idea what most of them are called. I called them free when I picked them up, and sure enough, that was their new names. Seriously, though, I got 5 different varieties of plants plus I got 2 water lillies. Lillies are usually expensive, these are very small but give them time and they will grow in to mammoths.

I was busy out there planting yesterday plus starting the rather arudous process of going through every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen, cleaning out with bleach and putting roach prufe along the walls and crevices and things. I will try to get rid of these things myself just because I don't happen to have $150 sitting around for yet another exterminator routine.

But, rest assured, I will find that money somewhere and I WILL pay if I can't get rid of them with the roach prufe - I simply do NOT co-habitate with cockroaches. I will spend the next several days going through bathrooms, finishing the kitchen, pulling switch and electrical covers over the wall and dumping that stuff in there. I did get rid of an infestation once with this stuff - took about 3 weeks.

Anonymous said...

Let's face facts: a non-paying tenant and one moving out is going to cause me some serious financial dilemnas in the next coming days and I have no choice but to cut back on anything that I don't absolutely have to have.

The non paying woman GOT her money and disappeared. If I don't have money in hand today from her, she's getting the 5-day notice and I will tell her to her face to get her stuff and get out of my house. She has now gone on 2 vacations, she is not looking for a job that I can see, she gets unemployment but I am suspicious that she is using meth.

I have had confirmation of meth use from a while back from my next door neighbor - the used car dude - that called me out of the blue and declared that he is returning in a couple of weeks and is that woman still there? He likes her - he likes anything that moves that is female and human, to be more precise.

So, I have a CL ad running and will run it at the current rate for a couple of more days, if no bites then I will reduce it by about $30 and see if that gets any takers.

I HATE being interrupted in the morning before work. On Fridays it's the DC truck, on Tuesdays (today) it's the Cintas truck. The Cintas dude is cool, no doubt, but I am focused on morning rituals at this time of day.

Anyway, there is nothing, again, to do in the truck routing system. Oh how I hate days when you have to invent things to do, and in the last month there has been a LOT of that. This is why I agree with the company reducing hours on hourly employees - staying around 7 hours when there's nothing to do is bad enough, 8? Well, I would definitely do it for the money, no doubting that.

So, life in the normal-for-me lane. I will say that I am quite happy that all of these kids are gone, out of my house and not eating my food, making messes and generally wasting electricity. My son and the oldest black kid are the only ones left - the black kid comes late at night to get on the internet, they don't have it. I don't care as long as he behaves, which he always does.

Work day approaches. OPs manager says he wants to go over with me about attempting to sell all this irrigation stuff on Craigslist. Only if he's going to give cut throat discounts will that stuff sell on Craigslist, dunno yet what he proposes, but the stuff is here, has BEEN here and almost the only people that have bought any of it are employees - me being one of them for my entire system at my house - at company cost.

G'day.

ben

Fijufic said...

Growing old is not a picnic for sure.

Make the best out of each day you have.

Bobby

BenB said...

Yes......and I don't want to get there before my time and I definitely don't want to get there broke.

Rainwater Harvesting said...

interesting blog!congrats!!

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing this is all spam. Going to report to Blogger when I get home from work today.

 Thursday night I am finally home. The ending of the ordeal at the TA truckstop did not go without a hitch.  When I got there yesterday and ...