Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Day At Hand

Sometimes it just drives me crazy.  Especially on a Sunday afternoon.  IN and OUT and IN and OUT.  It goes on all day long.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Sometimes I can tune it out, other times I just have to get up and go to my bedroom.  I am not referring to my dogs, either.  A particular tenant that seems to not be able to decide what, exactly, he is going to do.

As I pulled out of my driveway this morning to go to church, I noticed the next door - not-neighbors (people that act like that are hardly neighborly) - had one of their vehicles parked well beyond their property line and in front of my house.  If it were anyone else, I couldn't care less, but these are the people that called the cops because one of my tenants was 6 inches beyond the property line.  Note that Phoenix does not have some ordinance that states that you MUST have your vehicles parked in front of your house.

I was driving by when I saw this and stopped and backed up to get a double-take.  I then noticed 2 of their junk vehicles parked in the street are WELL out of current registration.  When I came home from church almost 3 hours later, that vehicle was gone.

I haven't done anything yet.  They were looking at me out the window.  If they didn't know what the issue was, then they are very stupid people considering the amount of trouble they have caused.

I cut down the rest of the large plant a while ago, pulled all the grass out underneath.  Well, I didn't cut down all of it.  It still had several "trunks" (this is a large plant, but not a tree, it has multiple trunks that were almost 2 inches in diameter, pretty big for a plant) that had green on it. I am not the type to give up on a plant that isn't totally dead.  I have a slow water going on it right now out of the garden hose - I do that instead of the drip system when I want to give a plant or tree extra water but don't want to have to water everything else along with it.  I will be getting out there this week after work - providing this coming week doesn't supply me with more 11 and 12 hour work days - and finishing the job I started and then planting the plants.

Meanwhile, Romney V Obama coming Tuesday in the second round of fights.  Romney will be as polished as he was in the first debate, I expect Obama to come out swinging.  Not that I want Obama to win. but he looked almost disheveled in the first debate.  Has he succumbed to loss?  The Obama campaign gives Romney lots of "credit" in his ability as an accomplished "salesman".  In context, it was a denigrating response.  But who cares, Obama and his campaign administrators don't care what they say or what level they bow to in order to try to win the next election.

My sons tells me - not 20 minutes ago - about a situation at his mom's house.  Someone was banging on her door.  She called Caleb and then called police?!!  I'll call the police first before I call anyone else in a situation where I feel threatened.  Apparently they have put graffitti on her door before.  Well, Caleb is a mile away, apparently.  He comes rushing home in "Sebastion" as he lovingly calls my old Buick.  He gets out of the car and confronts all 4 of them.  They were all sitting on a wall 10 feet away from his mom's front door.

Caleb's a big boy and we're not talking all fat.  When he gets angry, look out.  A mild-mannered kid but when the switch is turned to the on position, you'd better look out.  He is telling me how bad he feels about how angry he got.  Really?  I couldn't empathize with him.  If someone messes with my mother, look out.  Especially if they come banging on her door and then camp out 10 feet away from it and I just happen to be around to "deal" with the situation.  If the cops make it there first, best.  If they don't, again, look out.  There are a few things still sacred, at least in my mind - your property and your family.  Especially people messing with your own mother.  Or anyone else's mother for that matter.  Or with ladies in general.

Again, I just couldn't empathize with him, I know what my reaction would be and it wouldn't be nice.  Is there not a righteous anger?  Yes, I believe that firmly.

Here comes Caleb's next statement:  He would like me to take him up there and drop him off for 2 days at the trailer up on the property when my mom's not going to be there.  He wants to be secluded, alone, with his Bible and get alone with God.  I can't think of a better place to do it in.  My mother does not go up there in the winter.  Too cold for her.  Fibromyalgia, she says it gets worse in the cold.  Whatever the case, there's a full 6 months she's not up there by her own choice.  I intend on going up there this winter.  I don't care about the cold - well I do but it's something I can deal with.  No running water, but I can deal with that, too. Just get a couple of 5 gallon jugs and take tap water up there to clean with and use plastic forks and paper plates to eat off of, or just take frozen dinners and there is no cooking to deal with, just trash which I always have to deal with, anyway.

Whatever the case, I can take him there and the cruise up to Snowflake.  Small town up in the mountains. A couple of nice places to stay at very reasonable rates.  It's another 80 miles or so northeast of my mom's property, probably another 1,500 to 2,000 feet higher in elevation, up on the Rim. It's beautiful country and I can think of a lot of ways to spend time up there, including getting alone with the Lord and hiking in the snow if it's up there, going out into the woods alone, all the things I used to do when I was much younger.

I am definitely going to plan for it. Well, not really plan, his schedule is a bit skewed with school, I'll just go with the flow. But I would rather do it when it's snowing, freezing cold outside and holed up with nothing to do but seek the Lord and enjoy the beauty of nature.  I love snow.

Weekend is over.  They come and go - go much faster than they come - and I wonder what this work week will be like.  Last week was intense and a lot of hours.  More than I care for.  I like OT, but not that much.  My paycheck will look nice, but at what cost.  I would have gone up to the property if I hadn't gotten off so late on Friday.  I have no choice BUT to go up there this coming weekend.  Regardless of whether I can go on Friday or leave early Saturday, it's time to winterize the trailer and it can't wait. Not going to let it go and come back to burst pipes in the Spring. I read a few sites on the net on how to do it and now that I remember how to do it, it shouldn't be a problem.  The fresh water tank is almost empty.  I will empty the waste tank and the grey water tank I already emptied last time I was up.  The only thing really left is to close off the valves to the water heater and drain it and pump the pink antifreeze through the pipes.  The problem? I don't know if there is anything there to connect to the pump to siphon off the gallon jugs of antifreeze.

If there isn't, well, I can't do anything but go to Payson and buy whatever fittings I need.  I can't buy them in advance, I have no idea what size or thread.  I "assume" that such is included with the trailer. I should have looked into this long before now and had it ready to go, but, hindsight and 20/20.

Umm, well I think it's this coming weekend. Sometime this month, my oldest brother is going up there to winterize mother's trailer, I intend on being up there as well.  I am looking at the forecast and freezing temps aren't forecast for the upcoming month, actually, but who knows and that can change. There is something, frankly, I would rather do this coming weekend:  go to the park with some of the other church members, hang out and offer water to whoever comes by and tell them about our church.  I can facilitate that, too: take Prince, my giant, black Great Dane.  He attracts more attention than anything I have ever encountered.  People will stop to chat just about that dog.  Looking at Accuweather, freezing temps aren't forecast at all, even into the middle of next month.

It would just truly suck, greatly, to have a freeze come along and have busted water lines and then have to replace/repair all of it.  

More? Ummm, okay.  I heard noise outside and went out to check it out - yes, it put  a stop to writing this entry.  5 neighborhood kids playing with Randy's golf cart next door (it doesn't work, they were rolling it down the driveway and then pushing it back up).  350 man out there.  I observed.  What was 350 man going to do.  Nothing.  Randy and 350 man have a war going over 24 linear inches of property.  350 man isn't going to call Randy, the cops or anyone else.  If anyone else, 350 man would have dealt with it "differently".  But he didn't.  He went inside as soon as he saw me out there - Injunction is still in force.  I went out after what I thought 350 man addressing them but couldn't be sure and asked them what he said to them. Nothing, they replied. 350 man was on the phone, I guess, talking with someone.  This went on for quite a while, actually, talking to these kids about messing with other people's property; the fact that 350 man is a total @SS**** and then into whatever else, random junk that I finally had had enough of and bid them adoo and went back into my house.

Enough. I looked at the forecast and decided that if at all possible, fore-go the trip up North next weekend and do the winterization the weekend after and go to the park on Saturday with my black, giant Great Dane : )  I love that dog.  I guess I love all my dogs.  He's always wanting to follow me everywhere.  He wants to lay next to me here, while I'm on the computer, even though a hard, tile floor.  He doesn't care about that, he's a people person.  The only time I have seen him aggressive was at the doggy park, 3 times now, when other dogs attacked him for no reason.  He turned around once when a Doberman was biting him and yes, bit him right back.  I wasn't close enough to stop any of it, but I did get over there quick enough to stop anything further. That is when the idiot owner of the dog accused my dog of attacking his first.  It doesn't matter, really, nothing would happen anyway, but there were like 25 witnesses that defied the man's statement.  He's big and he's a black dog, that makes him the culprit according to many people's thinking.

In reality, he is the most docile creature you could ever meet.  He is good around kids, strangers/adults, other dogs.  Yes, if another dog bites him, he's going to do what he needs to do, but that's it.  My other Great  Dane? I don't trust him anymore. He's good around people but he is not good around other dogs.  Not all dogs, but enough that I can't take him around other animals besides the ones he is living with here, which apparently don't interest him in an aggressive way.

That's it.  Time to prepare for bed - and possibly another week of what has been going on for several weeks now at work, a grueling, endless, non-stop, day-long rigor of work that I find drains me to the point that I would rather not have to engage in such.  I'm sure my next paycheck will be nice, but, at what cost.  The cost of getting much of anything done in my personal life.  Double-edged sword, I supposed.  Take advantage of it while it lasts.

G'nite.

ben


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