Tuesday, January 25, 2011

More Of The Hummingbirds

Both feeders were running low on the sugar concoction the multitudes of hummingbirds are drinking - at the tune of about 2 inches of it a day.  That's a lot, at least compared to a month ago.  So, I stopped at Walmart today hoping to find a better deal than that of which Fry's had - $5.00 for a bottle that  half fills them up twice.

Sure enough, they have $0.97 packets of it - makes a quarter per package, enough to half fill both feeders which is all I want to do anyway.  I bought 5 packages, should be enough to last quite a while.  Got dog food, pond clarifier and a new AC filter - it's full of junk and I want to replace it in case I need to turn on the heat again anytime soon.

Came home.  Got on the computer - I do that pretty much first getting home. Got up from that, mixed up the mixture and put it in the fridge.  Directions say to use warm water to mix it up, I wanted to put it out there cool, not warm since they are used to drinking a cold concoction.  Felt tired, went and took a nap.  Came out, the "kid" tenant - he's early 20's - was on my old computer.  He is trying to find a new job.  He said he would be on it for 5 minutes, so, I decided to get the feeders, clean them out and put fresh liquid in them.

Ummm, I was not prepared for what happened next or what's BEEN happening since the point in time that I took the feeder into the house.  One of the regulars had come up to drink, I had the thing in my hand.  He went and perched on the fence, looking at me.  I went inside, thoroughly cleaned out the feeder, poured in fresh concoction, took it back out.  One of them - don't know which - buzzed me.  Stopped about 6 feet above me, hovering.  MAD. That bird was fuming mad!!  And now?  They can't drink out of the thing, they are too busy fighting!!

Benb notes that next time he wants to refill the feeder, do it at NIGHT.  I have no idea why this action of me refilling the thing sent them in to a huge frenzy, but it did and it's been going on for over an hour now.  I refilled the other feeder but there isn't any activity going on over there.

Other things going on, but, I'll save that for tomorrow's entry.

ben

Tuesday 1/25/2011

Tuesday

Rather odd. I have been running ads for the room - that will be vacated shortly as I called the lady who is "occupying" it and asked when she was going to get her stuff out of there.

She lost yet ANOTHER job. Unbelievable, the third in 2 months time.

But that isn't the subject. A man calls. Now, I have in both the subject line of my ad and in the content of the ad itself, written very clearly: Available February 1st. This guy calls me, tells me he just got into town, got out of the airport and was at - the major intersections near my house. In other words, he was moving in today.

NOT. Can't rent out a room that is full of someone else's stuff and I told him that my ad plainly states that it isn't available until Feb 1st.

Next? Phone rings again about an hour later. This time it's a man who wants to come see the place - right now. I offered the same information: not available until Feb 1st. I know that, he says, and explains his situation in living in an apartment complex with people walking up and down the hallway all night long making all kinds of noise. Yes, I know that scenario ALL too well. I didn't really want to show it last night, it was getting closer to my bedtime and I was not in the mood, but he REALLY wanted to come over, offering that if it looked good, he would put money down on it.

Okay, that was enough bait for me, come on over. He did, too, within 15 minutes he was at my doorstep. Umm, make that gate step, I don't have a front door by design : ) Showed him the room - boy does that woman have a LOT of stuff in there, I am calling her again today. Please just get it out of there. She is worried about being able to pay the rent. She was caught up until Monday. She obviously thinks I am going to make a big issue out of it - not. She has no job, I am letting her off of this last week just to get her to get that stuff out of there. I haven't told her that yet, I just came to that decision this morning - otherwise - she is going to wait too long to get it done.

Getting off of that tangent, we start the "talk". This is why I wasn't in the mood, I insist on talking with people for some time to get a feel for where they are coming from. If I am tired, I may not come off too well. But, I put on the happy face and the discussion was enough to lead me to believe more positive than negative. He pulls out the entire month's rent for February and that was that.

There has been only one other time that a person put money down on a room and that was from a lady that actually sent a check from Oregon.

After that, Mario, the other new tenant, comes out and wants to have a frank and blunt conversation. Yes, well I do those types of conversations well, thank you. He was next to blasting music out of my older computer's speakers last night at 1:00 am with JD sitting there - they were definitely living it up. No, I wasn't happy, I usually am not when I am jarred from sleep in the middle of the night and have to go out and deal with things.

So, we discussed that and the fact that I wasn't in a good mood this afternoon. Yes, I said, because I didn't sleep well the previous night and when that happens, well, I don't always want to talk to everyone. Look - there are also times when I just want some solitude. People can pass by in the kitchen, I am on my computer, I don't necessarily feel the need to say something to everyone everytime they pass by. I'm doing my thing, they're doing theirs, great. I am not unsociable, I just want to shut off the world here and there, tune things out and focus on whatever I am into at the moment. Yes, I have a bedroom I can go to, I spend very little time in there excepting to sleep.

The conversation ended well enough, but it was late - an hour past my bedtime.

Oh well.

My dermatologist appointment is for the 1st - cutting off flesh apparently - and then I was remanded to take the next day off. So, I have to ask today, I totally spaced it out that I needed a day off. In fact, the appointment sounds about as fun as jumping into a cesspool - this doctor wants to inspect all of my skin. Whatever toots your horn, lady, but ALL of it? Yes, cause' you haven't had it looked over in over a decade.

I didn't bother to tell her that in the case of having it ALL checked over, that has NEVER happened excepting maybe when I was a baby, a thing I wouldn't remember anyway. Do you have your skin examined once a year? Lol. She tells me every 6 months because I am "at-risk". Great. Just what I want to do, spend an afternoon in a gown in an office somewhere getting spected'.

You may be able to tell that I am not a fan of visiting doctor's offices. I am most certainly am NOT. I hate waiting, I hate taking my clothes off for a complete stranger to peer into whatever they want to as if I am some sort of machinery that needs greased and fine-tuned.

Whatever. I haven't even gotten to the news yet, which consists of a crop circle in Indonesia, a woman stepping down from the global warming position, lol, a more somber note of a bunch of cops being shot all over the country in a very short period of time (so they are fearing a war on cops) and a bunch of other stuff, really.

That's all, as I have work day approaching and as yesterday, there is plenty to do in there.

G'day.

ben

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