Saturday, May 5, 2012

Saturday 5/5/2012 Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo.  Another excuse for people to get drunk, akin to St. Patrick's Day.

Started on the carpet in the trailer today.
As I thought, it's going to take a lot of time to do a small area - because of all the corners and turns.  I'm going to try to finish the "living room" area tomorrow.  The bathroom area, though much smaller?  Will take twice as much time.

The trailer is being moved on the 19th.  Which is a good thing. I had wanted it moved on the 12th, but I am certain now that I am going to need next weekend to finish this up and get it ready to go. I have Friday off as well, so a 4 day work week for me this coming week.

I went to Discount Tire today and bought a new tire for the spare.  I didn't want to, but they didn't have any used ones and the idea of running from place to place to find one was not appealing. further, the idea of having a used tire that might not work if it is needed was also not appealing.  Worth the money, thank you very much.    I also bought a Direct TV receiver for it - still new and in the box - for $25.  I don't need anything else for the satellite, I have acquired everything I need for it as this point concerning satellite TV.  I'm not even sure I am going to watch TV up there, but if I want to?  For the intended time I am going to spend up there?  Yeah.  My mother only spends summers up there. I want to go up there throughout the year.  Sure, it gets freezing cold up there in the winter - and snow!......but I don't care about that.  Freeze and enjoy, that trailer has 3 sources of heating in it, I am not going to freeze in the trailer and of course I want to tromp through the snow outside and have some fun with the dogs playing in it.

I was at Walmart today and bought some electrical wiring so I can run a lead from a car battery to the trailer pigtail and find out what's wrong with the exterior lighting system.  I assume the pigtail itself, I have dealt with this stuff on trailers for 26 years and always, when NO lights work on the entire trailer, it's a problem with messed-up connections on the pigtail connector.  I also got Mark - who is celebrating his 65th birthday today - a Walmart gift card, he loves that place, he gets on his bicycle and goes there every day.  No, I'm not kidding, he goes there every single day.  It wasn't a skimpy amount, either. The guy does so much work around here - but also - just wanted to bless him.  I think birthdays are very important.  I have gone through many birthdays without anyone knowing and it really sucked.

So yeah, the date is set for the 19th and the man will do it.  I trust that.  But, I think I am going to have to go up there and make sure of what he is getting himself into.  I told him about the steep driveway and the dirt road getting there. It's all county maintained and in very good condition, but surprises like that without foreknowledge can make a person a bit grumpy about it.  You know, why didn't you tell me?

Unpopular subject with some readers coming up.  Like right now.  I went out earlier to find my bird bath flipped onto the ground with a huge crack in it.  I put huge rocks in the thing a while back because cats are jumping up onto it. I'm not sorry.  The trap is going out tonight.  I will begin catching cats again and moving them to wherever - somewhere else.  I will not harm them, but they are not going to continue to destroy my property.  In the last 2 weeks, my ground covering plants have been trampled on a nightly basis.  Come out and find them in such condition.  Today was the camel's back breaker.  I have had enough. I let it go for a long time because of the extreme controversy it caused in this neighborhood, but I REFUSE to allow OTHER people's animals to continue to destroy my personal property, repeatedly, over and over again.  Yup, I will be armed.  350 man has cameras and high dollar sound capturing equipment.  He has his flood lights shined onto my property at night.  He was standing out there a few days ago - the first time I had seen him in quite a while - when I was leaving for work this week.

Yes, he has flood lights shined onto the front of my property.  The man is a piece of work.  Injunction Against Harassment order is still in effect.  He cannot do anything and if he does, he will go straight to jail.  Again, I have attempted to talk to the people around here that own all these cats and they mock me when I attempt to have a rational discussion with them.  Enough is enough.

I sent an email to my oldest brother a while ago.  He has a cabin not far from my mother's property.  I asked him to come up and lend his expertise to the situation of moving the trailer onto the property and setting it up.  I don't necessarily need his help, to be honest, I am just trying to find a way to reconnect with him.  We are complete strangers by any definition of the word even though we are brothers.  But, also, he moved my mother's trailer up onto that property some years ago, so he should remember what he had to do  to get the trailer up that steep driveway.

I am having a dog groomer come over tomorrow.  The new doggy needs it, bad.  She has a thick coat and it needs to be trimmed for summer.  I am told that a good dog groomer can do a job that lasts up to 6 months. Okay, obviously that doesn't apply to people that want doggy's that look perfect all the time and have money to burn.  I am concerned about the heat - she needs it trimmed down.  She'll like it, I'm sure, whether she does or not, lol.  She's a gentle spirit at least, the groomer will have no trouble with her.

Lord willing.  Say that first and then say I hope this summer is a bit nicer with the ability to get out of this heat and go to a place with all the comforts of home that is out of the heat and into a beautiful wilderness.  The only doubt to be dealt with left is the situation with internet up there.  Will  I get it or not? Assume 3G network, 4G undoubtedly doesn't exist there.  But that's okay with me, as long as it works and the Verizon map says it does. If it does NOT work, then I am going to be talking to Verizon.  A new company for me that I have yet to deal with on "touchy" subjects.

Speaking of that.  Direct TV. I went online today and ordered a pay-per-view movie that Mark wanted to see.  Look, let's try and make a person's birthday as special as it can be.  Especially for a person getting up there in years.  I paid for it with my debit card and then?  It didn't come up on the screen.  My extensive dealings with Direct TV had me immediately going to my bank account online to see whether the transaction had gone through.  Yup, it did.

Do you want to read all of it?  Have you read all of it before?  I know at least some readers have.  4 phone calls.  Well over an hour.  To get a freaking movie that I PAID for to show up on the TV!!!  Oh yes,  I got freebies out of it, when do I not get freebies when I have to spend that much time with them? The movie? Amount paid was credited to my account.  2 months worth of Showtime and that's what I got - so far.  That doesn't include my phone call to corporate headquarters that will occur - Lord willing - on Monday, demanding 6 months free of Starz or whatever.  I don't care.  If their system isn't going to work - which it never does - and I have to spend inordinate amounts of time for something as simple as a freaking pay-per-view movie, then they are going to give me compensation for the time spent.

I know.  EVERY single time I order a pay-per-view online, it does NOT work.  I have to call them up.  I always get freebies out of it because I demand it.  I don't care what their excuses are.  After 10 plus years of it, they should have fixed it LONG ago.   I expect a 6 month freebie on whatever movie channel to come my way on Monday.

Long entry? Yup.  But, I didn't post yesterday and there are things going on needed to cover.  Like coming home from work Friday afternoon.

I sat down at my computer.  A white something caught the corner of my eye on top of my computer tower. There is nothing on top of that tower, one of the computer  fans is up there and I don't want stuff up there. Let's keep the computer cool so it stays happy.  So, that triggered something in the brain and that told me to full-blown look at it.  A piece of paper with 3 folds.  Money. The kid tenant.  Uhhh, a pretty good chunk of change sitting in that folded piece of paper, too.  Umm, yeah, next time?  Slip it under my bedroom door, don't put it up there for anyone to see.  Not that I have a theft problem now, but, who knows.  He hasn't seen what has gone on in this house in the past and I do not have people living here like that at this point and - frankly - will not tolerate that kind of crap from the past ever again.

Well, thankfully, it was all there.

This entry waxes long.

More? Yup, but need not be said here, can wait.

G'nite.

ben













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