Monday, June 27, 2011

Monday 6/27/2011

Monday
2 of the ponds were getting a tad warm, so I am now dumping huge chunks of ice in them every morning to keep the temp from getting too high in them.

But, as I was looking into both of those ponds yesterday, something caught my eye: baby fishies! Koi, too. Little itty bitty things scampering around in there looking for morsels of food.

Anyway, one of the pond's temps was closing in on 90 degrees, I'm pretty sure that is a bit warm even for hardy fish that can take higher temps.

My pot roast - took all day and all night to cook. I have NO clue. I mean, this morning it was flaking apart with a fork, the way I like to cook it, but it was in there for 21 hours! Maybe my crock pot needs replacing, dunno, but the liquid was boiling in there this morning, so it must be getting hot enough. I'll say one thing: you put a roast in at 8 am you expect by 5:00 pm to be eating it, which never materialized yesterday.

Oh well. Church yesterday. As normal, I slipped in just before the service started and slipped out just as it was ending. 2 and a half hours worth, mind you. I might have thought about staying longer and seeing if I could chit chat with anyone, but 2-1/2 hours was plenty enough of it for me.

It should come as no surprise to me that this group is going to do their first evangelical outreach to the community in a couple of weeks. I say that because this seems to happen at every church I go to. I don't really feel like I am in the position to do any preaching right now so I am probably going to take a pass on it.

I am also not giving out the information of what I used to do: street preaching/ministering/etc. I don't want to be pressured into doing anything, that kind of information could well lead to such a situation and then? I would probably just leave and stop going to church again. Nice people there, the kind of church I like. Pretty much the beliefs I adhere to, a bit important when considering making any particular church your home.

So, 3 weeks in a row and again I find myself contemplating the Wednesday night service, which the pastor went on about encouraging more people to show up to. Maybe, is what I thought to myself: maybe I will go. I just don't like the idea of a service STARTING at 7:00 pm. Not when you get up at 4:22 am. I suppose I could position myself near the exit door and when such an such a time arrives: about 8:30, I could just leave.

I don't really like getting up in the middle of a service and leaving, though, it seems rude.

So, we're leaving Afghanistan. It wouldn't bother me one iota if we packed up everything RIGHT NOW and got the bleep out of there. I put that war right up there with Vietnam. We may have had a point going in there initially looking for Osama, but that ended quite a while back as they couldn't find him and they thought he had left the country. I don't see the point of us being there, at all. I understand about terrorism, but that stuff is going to exist on this earth regardless.

Not to turn a blind eye to it, at the same time, those people have been killing each other over there for centuries, why involve our men and women in the US military? It may sound cold, but they can do just as good a job of killing themselves over there without our help.

Well whatever. Inventory is over and there is plenty of work to do this morning and .........my pre-work time is almost up.

G'day.

ben

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely thought of you today when I had to call direct tv and the call center




was in the Philippines. I thought they were all stateside. fin

Anonymous said...

Yes, I just had a huge runaround with them the other day, and yes, you are mostly routed either to the Philippines or to Mexico. I refuse to talk to anyone outside of the United States. In fact, thank you for reminding me, I was going to call corporate and give them an earful about the so-called manager's treatment of their company's customers. What did you have to call them about, out of curiosity?
ben

Anonymous said...

Tuesday

So, this is what happens when we leave a REAL threat unchallenged: Iran and it's braggadocious that they can hit US bases in the region with their missiles. The "leadership" in that country needs to be brought down. Here is a real case, at least IMO, where we should have done something LONG ago, when we first found out about their nuclear intentions.

My manager calls me at 9:00 pm last night. I was just about to shut the lights off in my bedroom and go to sleep. Seems that a certain salesman - who is self-exalted and sitting on his man-made throne - called him bitching at him about the "fact" that a set of bolts was not delivered today to a jobsite that I took the delivery to. In other words, he was blaming both of us for messing up a delivery.

I remembered that order and did not remember any 16 inch bolt sets on it. But I wasn't sure. I wasn't exactly sitting around doing nothing yesterday, I got off work late because of the extreme workload and today looks to be another dose of the same.

Well, of course, the first thing I did when I got here to work this morning (after making the coffee, of course), was to check the order. No such bolts on the order.

That guy calls ME again and starts giving me fluff, I am going to shove it right back in his face. I get a bit tired of 20 somethings, arrogant, egotistical and smug, talking S*** to a person that has been there, done htat, and has learned a little about the concept of humility in life. I can only say for the poor soul that sooner or later, he is in for a fall and it is going to be a hard one. Your props that are holding you up will only last so long..........

Today's high is slated to be 115. I have a full day's work today, our truck routing system for today is stacked. Which is why I am eating breakfast and lunch now, it's a given there will not be time for it one the clock starts.

Hmm, well that 3 day weekend coming up is sounding even nicer as the days close in on it.

That said, I am done with this one.

G'day.

ben

Fijufic said...

Ben - Nice and slow...steady as she goes although I am certain you will find the church that suits you perfectly...It is DAMN hot where you live man...

BenB said...

Yes, bobby, I am taking things very slow in the church realm.
And yes, it is very hot here!
ben

Anonymous said...

It was a minor glitch in billing, quickly and properly resolved. She offered me a $10 per month discount for six months for being patient, and without my asking.

As I've said before, I have had no real problems with their customer service ever, but it was my belief that all their call centers were in the US.

Seems not.

f

Anonymous said...

Fin, you are more likely to get a US call center during "normal business hours". But even then that's never even close to always being the case. If you call after hours, it's probable you will get an outsourced call center and usually either in the Philippines or in Mexico. I have several deals going with them for calling in.
ben

Anonymous said...

Wednesday

Some pretty strange stuff going on out there.

Uhh, but that's pretty normal in this world.

Anyway, the contest at work starts next month on the 11th. It is a body fat contest: which team can shed the most fat, basically.

I'm definitely joining that one. I am down to low 190 pound range. It is taking a while to get there. You know, the "Last Ten Pounds" syndrome? Not a syndrome, but that's what I'm calling it anyway. Takes forever and a lot of perseverence to get it off.

I walked in the house after getting off of work - late, btw - yesterday and saw it. The entire contents of all of those cupboards laying out everywhere.

This was for the roach cleanout, as the pest control company calls it. It's a bit pricey at $150, but they come twice and it has a lifetime guarantee. That's what the dude told me yesterday: lifetime guarantee. I'm not going to turn that guarantee down, but I think that a bit much if you are serious about staying in business, lol.

However, it was 5:00 pm when he left and he said don't put anything back in the cupboards for at least 2 hours.

In case you didn't guess, I didn't put ANYTHING away last night. I was burnt out from 10 straight hours of bust-@$$ work in the heat yesterday and I just said screw it. Lol.

I am exchanging a couple free weeks of rent to the trailer tenants in exchange for cleaning out all the cupboards today and putting the stuff back. They, of course, didn't want to accept the exchange, saying they would do it and still pay rent. Yes, of course, I would probably say the same thing if I were in their position, but, I am not going to ask them to do that much work for nothing.

Gun. Well I have been trying to win an auction for a 9mm, the last one being a Ruger model, but I am not around a computer near the ending of these auctions and therefore don't really have a chance to play the bidding war game.

I did go and price out new guns at a gun shop - not a pawn shop, either - to get an idea of how much they are worth. I'm hardly an expert, here.

Lastly, I was listening to yet another "expert" giving the doom and gloom speech - this went on for an hour and it still wasn't done - on the US, it's financial state of being and his declaration that if the runaway deficit isn't controlled, completely, and soon, we are going to be in a world of hurt. Nothing new here, just a much more detailed explanation of the why's and how's a financial meltdown is going to occur instead of generic statements that really tell you nothing.

I don't know. I don't even look for this stuff. I surf the net and there it is. I have no idea if these so-called expert opinions are going to come to pass. But I do read it with interest. The housing factor is still in chaos and there are still 14 million Americans out of work, that alone is enough to persuade me that yes, something drastic COULD potentially happen.

But, living life in fear of what may happen is generally not the greatest way to live your life, so I won't. I will just continue to read whatever material I find - regardless of the stance of the write of that material - and see if any of it comes to pass. I have plan B, C, D and F in the case of a financial meltdown and facing the potential prospect of getting laid off at work.

But, I hope not to have to go there. We are talking DRASTIC measures that would be less than pleasant, to say the least. Nothing illegal. Oh, church tonight? Dunno yet. Maybe go and leave at 8:30 whether the service is done or not? Again, dunno yet.

G'day.

ben

Anonymous said...

Just to keep things even, a call center that I reached today (airline) was in Tempe where it was 116.

f

BenB said...

The only airline call center I know of in Tempe is about 4 miles away from me, lol.
ben

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