Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Just a few more things here.  My replacement Verizon Hot Spot mobile broadband router.  Jury is out.  Was working at a jobsite yesterday and then just quit.  It was working at another place today where it had NEVER worked before and I had tried at least a dozen times at that location.  I'm still not convinced, but Saturday will be the tell all for me.

Zimmerman.  I had wondered, when this shooting occurred a while back, how everyone in the news media and hence, everyone with an opinion, could possibly jump to the conclusion that Zimmerman committed murder, not  an act of self defense.  Do we know all the facts? I remember a local talk show trio - not just one host but a threesome of them - declaring him guilty.  Really?  Now, some very interesting, new facts have come out.  That Zimmerman had 2 black eyes.  A broken nose.  A laceration to his head.  That Trayvon had bloodied knuckles.

I'm not going to sit here and say this situation should have ended the way it did.  If the 911 operator really told him to stay away from the kid, maybe that's what should have happened and Zimmerman should have just waited for the police to come.  But, when you look at the newly released evidence, it certainly should at the very least, sway people's opinion back to a neutral position.  Oh, he might really have acted in self defense.

I was not going to take the dogs up with me to move the trailer up there this weekend, but I have since changed my mind.  The new doggy can be roped to a tree and the Danes can run free.  They won't run off or if they start to, they will come back when I call them.  The new doggy, not yet.  She IS settling down, but I think she would still just take off and not even blink an eye if I called her to come back.  She's a sweet girl, though, very nice doggy, glad I got her.


I'm Not Going To Say That............

...............I regret not doing the bedroom with carpet, but it certainly would have been nicer.  I thought the carpet cleaner would get it looking pretty good, it really did nothing for the appearance of it.  That carpet was filthy.  At least I got it clean if nothing else.  I CAN say that I would have been REALLY unhappy if I had not replaced the rest of the carpet in the thing.

I went to Walmart today and bought a bunch of stuff for it. Toiletries - all of them I will need.  Kitchen stuff: plastic wrap; aluminum foil; a new cutting knife; paper towels; stuff like that.

I bought a plastic container that I figured would hold enough dog food that if I filled it up, it would last at least several weekends worth.  I was not wrong. That small thing actually can handle a 40 pound bag of food, though I put about 2/3rd's of a bag in it.  I also scored a nice, 100 foot extension cord today.  I've asked Mark to do one of his infamous clean jobs.  That guy can really clean.  If, for example, he cleans a vacuum cleaner, that doesn't mean just emptying out the container that receives the dirt.  In his mind, that means taking the entire thing apart and doing a clean, clean job on it.  That's how he cleans EVERYTHING.

Anyway, the salesman changed the parameters on me and he is coming tomorrow to jockey the trailers around instead of on Friday.  Which isn't that big of a deal, especially now that I have a long enough cord to reach the outlet.  Point being on Friday, since we aren't moving it on that day, I am going to want to be in it, looking around, feeling it out, what else does it need?  What else can I AFFORD right now, lol.

I still have left a trip to the dollar store and maybe Anna's linens if I can't find cheap throw rugs at the dollar store.  I forgot to buy a fan for it today as well.  Good thing I still have 2 full days left to go.  I have 4X8's to level it with.  It will be parked on a hill, one side of the trailer is going to have to have it's wheels on top of boards to level it.  I bought coffee and creamer, I wouldn't mind stocking it with some canned and dry goods as well.  I got the dog's food bowls - cheap ones - and I will be taking a 5 gallon, plastic bucket for their water, just like they have here.  Just happen to have 4 of those.  I will be taking 2 of them.  One for water and the other to empty out the waste water holding tank.

My mother has her ways of doing things when it comes to that, I will have mine.  I am not going to haul off to the outhouse in the middle of the night if I need to go.  The toilet works just fine, thank you and I will not be using it enough to have to haul much waste very often.  Just dump it into the outhouse hole and that's that.

That's enough of that situation for now.  Tomorrow get the trailer in the front of the driveway and ready to be hooked up to and hauled up there.  I will have to ask Mark to look after things when I am not here.  More specifically and importantly: my plants and my fish.  In the hot summer, you have to water the plants either every day or every other day, every day is best.  The fish obviously want to be fed every day as well. Feeding the fish is no big deal. Watering the entire sides and back of the property also no big deal: turn on the valves and let it go for 15 or so minutes and that's it.  I did not finish hooking back up the drip system out front, so that is going to have to be done by hand.

I am planning on going up to the property, when I do go, on Friday afternoons and be there at early evening.  Then have a full Saturday to spend up there and either leave on Sunday morning or at the latest Sunday afternoon. I still have that to work out.  I am definitely not going to be spending every weekend up there, but I do intend on spending enough of them up there to have made all this effort, time and money spent worth it.  3 day weekends are a foregone conclusion that I will be up there unless something is going on down here that I need to be here.  Memorial day is coming up soon.  That's a Monday, so I will probably leave early Saturday that weekend and miss church, yes, but go up there and stay until Monday late morning.

The heat is already here, the AC in the house is already costing me a lot of money.  Much earlier than normal.  The temps are 10 degrees above normal for this time of the year.  It will be paramount at this point that tenants pay the rent on time and if they don't, they will not be getting a notice from me, I will be visiting with them personally.  Just can't afford late pays or people that start going downhill with it. So far, it's all good.  This trailer, however, has cost me some money, much more than just paying for it.  Fortunately, I am at the end of that road or at least very near it.  Definitely, the expensive stuff is over with.  There are only a few issues with it that do not have to be fixed right now, save it for the future when I have more money to deal with it.

I do have one caveat:  I am about to make the final payment on the other trailer.  I will ask Mark to clean it up real nice and then I will try to sell it for what I paid for it. I haven't dumped any money into it, well very little anyway.  It's in decent condition.  It has some issues, but I bought it with those issues.  Nothing huge but still.  I might sell it on payments, but would be very cautious about it.  I have had trouble with making the payments on some months and I wonder what would happen with a person in an even lessor financial condition than I am.  The point: I need that money, really, for backup.  If something goes foul, I need something to make up for it.  Next month I am paying down the second 401k loan to zero balance since it's almost there.  But I would REALLY rather NOT have to use retirement money to pay for anything.  Yet, in the reality of life, if my back's against a wall, I will do whatever I have to do to make life work.

Excited? Yes, but not getting too carried away with it yet.  I have been cranking away on it and on the property for days and days now.  The wind storm REALLY messed some things up on the property and I have been working to clean it up and straighten it back out.  Not much fun, really, but a necessity to keep the place looking nice.

 Sunday - early 20 minutes until departure time.  I don't much care for delivery on Sundays for it takes a while to get security to the ...