Thursday, September 16, 2010

More/Theft

I was talking with Caleb on the phone earlier.
This that and the other thing.
Caleb said he talked to Anthony last night.
Whoa!!!
HOW did you do THAT?!!!
He was on the internet and so was Anthony.
What was the conversation?
Caleb said he told Anthony that he knows Anthony and the others took the stuff out of our house.
Anthony said you better check your facts.
Caleb responds the facts are plain.
Anthony replies well let's TALK about this.
Implying on the phone.
Caleb gives him his cell phone number.
No call, of course.

Now, I asked Caleb, how, do you think, is Anthony ON the internet?
OUR PLAYSTATION 3, OF COURSE!!

Which reminds me, I had thoughts if they were living close enough, that Playstation has my WiFi password programmed into it.  It would automatically receive my carrier signal for internet access. 
Checked, nothing going out.  Inactive signals show a roommate and 2 other carriers I don't remember, but one of them used to be the Playstation 3, probably the other is the next door neighbor I was helping out by him - helping me out.  He gets free internet, I get to use his pickup truck.  He is coming back in a few more weeks. 

Anyway, the PS3 will simply search for internet access.  You can also go into it and program access - which I did, but it doesn't work unless you are pretty close to my house to recieve the signal. 

So, I am guessing Anthony thinking he's getting away scott-free.  I'm thinking different.  We'll see who wins.

Uhhh, so that's that - for now.  I came home today to find that Mark had completely finished the bedroom I was painting including painting the entire interior of the closet (which it definitely needed).  He had also used the carpet cleaning machine to clean the carpet, had taken the machine itself apart and cleaned that.  The room - is ready for move-in.  I have considered offering them the room for a discounted rate.  I have not yet decided on that one.  They cannot afford an apartment.  I would like to give them some opportunity to come out of that trailer and I will offer someone else the same terms I gave them to move into the trailer and then have Mark oversee that person.  Why not?  I dunno.  Just thinking about it.  I put $200 on the carrd reader yesterday and it shows 21 days worth of electricity.  That is a HUGE difference from June, July and even August.  That's $300 per month instead of $500.  Wait til' the temps come down to no AC, I will be reporting less than $200 per month. 

It's granted that I am down hundreds per month in food costs.  At least.  When September is over, I can mark an entire month's worth of food expenditures without all the teenagers over here.  Compare that with the month before and I will have a good figure.  I'm definitely starting to see the change, too.

Well, I just tried to call Caleb back - I want to know where on the internet he found Anthony.  Message board?  Video game? What? I'd like to have a bit of a conversation with him myself.............

Thursday

Thursday




Headline in the news this morning: "Home Foreclosures Jump to Highest Rate Since Crisis Began". Yes sir, Obama's plan to make it the summer of recovery is obviously working THERE, now ain't it? In the Phoenix area, there is a huge glut of empty, foreclosed homes. Almost 100,000 homes were repo'ed last month.



How many of those still had people living in them? Where did those people go? I know a lot of people leave before they are actually forced out - and where do those people go? Well, in almost all of those cases, they haven't been making payments on the home for at LEAST 6 months, if not twice or three times that length of time. If they have any smarts at all and at least one person is employed, they're saving money to go get another place to live once they have to leave the house.



I haven't seen anything like this in my short life span of 46 years and I haven't heard of any recession with this kind of impact on American lifestyle and society since the Great Depression. I am NOT saying it is as bad as the Great Depression (for those that like to come and give me heck about it), but this Recession is second ONLY to the Great Depression.



I see it at work, too. 2 months running the numbers are down - way down - for the Arizona region of our company. The numbers for the branch I am working out of are horrific. I do have the thought that if this continues to stay this way, the headcount will be reduced locally. I don't want that to happen, but if it does, the talk is that there are too many salesmen. There are only 4 full-time drivers serving the entire state of Arizona if you count the driver in Tucson, the 2 downtown and me.



September 16, 2010 5:58 AM

Anonymous said...

Whatever. I can't do anything about it, I just watch this stuff and marvel. Where is it going to end? IS it going to end? Are we going to go into double-dip recession? I still contend we never came out of it to begin with. Not with almost 10% unemployment. Not with millions of Americans being displaced from their homes. Not with people who are so desperate that they are standing in line at food banks and getting food stamps.



I'm just curious if this is going to get even worse, I guess.



Mark, one of the trailer tenants, was disclosing to me yesterday about his search for an apartment. One place had trailers older than the one I got for them to live in -that had broken out windows, evap cooling or no cooling, filthy, disgusting and the owners of that park want $250 a month for that s***. He was looking at an apartment for $450 a month, but didn't include electricity - run-down s***. He was talking with his homeless friends and they were asking him how much he pays a month to stay at my place - $25 per week. They were telling him to move out so they could move in!



I get, however, for more than that per week if you add the amount of work he does around the place into the mix. Weeding, shovelling dog crap, cleaning. Yesterday he helped me finish the painting project in the now-empty bedroom. Well, it's almost finished. I still have to deal with the corner where the water had been dripping for - 2 and a half years I guess. It's dry to the touch, but anything that has been soaked that long would be wet to the core, so I'm leaving it open until this weekend and then I will deal with fixing it up.



Point? I don't mind these people being around, they don't make a nuisance of themselves and they do whatever they can to help out around the house without my having to asking them - ever.



Well, life is as interesting as ever. I am driving all over the neighborhood where I know Drey lives - one of the thieves. Eventually I will find them. It's about a half mile area of homes so yes, I have spent no small amount of time driving up and down residential streets. However, Caleb may be a bit better at getting the info from the black kid down the street....



Speaking of that, an insurance company quoted my ex-wife the sum of almost $2,500 for SIX month of insurance for Caleb to drive! OUCH!! My insurance company quoted me $800 - I actually thought it was pretty good considering his age and the fact that he has no previous driving experience, it's $133 per month. IF he can make it through 6 months without an accident or a ticket, they say the rate will come down some. I'm afraid of what they might charge him to have his own car.



Well, anyway, work day is almost here, I have a head full of thoughts that I am churning around attempting to make heads and tails of stuff and decisions to make financially - though - most of my bills are caught up. I am only behind on the water bill right now and that's good for another month at least anyway.



G'day.



ben

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