Thursday, August 18, 2016

One thing you learn when it comes to many co-workers: you can't really trust them.  You can't really confide in them unless they are real life friends as well.
Anyway, my coworker calls me today and starts complaining about how the new manager called him into his office and said that he had heard from outside sources that my co-worker was going around telling everyone he is switching over to our competitor.

I think he suspected that I had said something to someone, which I had not.  I know how this new manager works now, you don't give anything away to him at all.  Nothing. Some things are better left alone that most other managers wouldn't have a problem dealing with.  Not this guy, he's a real winner.  I think the thing that passed the manager off is that my co-worker is going to HD Supply which is a major competitor of ours.  Just to see what they would say, when I got back to the yard today after the second run I non-chalantly asked why he had gone home early?  Oh, he got himself into trouble.  Oh?  Yeah, he's been going around telling people that he's quitting and going over to HD Supply.

Who did he tell? Everyone. Actually, that does fit my co-workers MO. He talks a lot, too much, gets himself into trouble.  The problem is, there is some kind of glitch with HD Supply and they told him they may not be able to hire him after all.  Oops.  If I find a new job, they aren't going to find out about it until I tell them I'm quitting.  The new manager came in several weeks ago, lambasted everyone and then told us all that if we want to quit, he doesn't neeeeeeed no advance notice, just get your stuff and leave now.  Notwithstanding the fact that no-one had said anything about quitting.

I intend on calling the General Manager and telling him instead.  No need to burn bridges though I really kinda want to.  So anyway, the new manager took my co-worker's keys from him, told him to go home.  As I said, I just smile at everyone now and say hi and go along with whatever.  So far my searches have come back with negatives, even though they are advertised on the online job hunting sites.  They don't have any positions open and when one does comee available, hundreds of people apply for them almost instantaneously.  It's not really a driver's market for local jobs, it's always a driver's market for OTR or Regional.  I'm really glad, though, that I didn't jump on that.  I wouldn't have been able to stay here at this house for they would have sold it.  I can't be out on the road for a week at a time and attempt to oversee their house, just wouldn't work too well.

Electric use is going to go up here and they have agreed to pay for it. They are home all the time.  The ac was set at 78 when everyone was gone at work. I set it at 74 and I was informed they lowered it to 72 today.  Well nice and fine.  Just help yourself.  That's one of the no no's I have with tenants.  Do NOT touch the thermostat. If it is too hot or cold, we can discuss terms, ie: you pay the difference.  Otherwise, live with it or there are plenty of places up for rent around here - referring to Phoenix though, not here.  I told my landlords to install a locked cover over the thermostat because one particular tenant was turning it way down during the day.  Which in turn was jacking up the electric bill by over $100 per month.  He and his girlfriend had been there for  years, actually, but they decided to get their own place after that.

Another oops on their part.  They found out how much their appetite for electric use was costing and they said that I had spoiled them.  No, they had taken advantage of me and now that they are gone, we aren't going there again.  I won't allow it here, either, without the person or people compensating for the extra electricty.

I have definitely decided to let my stuff wait until this weekend.  Saturday I will deal with the rest of it and the house will look normal again. Another rainy day today and rainy days make me sleepy.  I am like ready to go to bed and it's not even 7 pm yet.  Oh, my stuff that is still out in the main areas of the house.  Nothing worth stealing, lol, my room doesn't have a locking door anyway, though I am considering changing that.  Not that I think these people are thieves, but I find more peace of mind knowing that no-one can go trifling through my stuff.  There are plenty of nosy people in this world that will do stuff like that for no more reason than to just be snoopy.

My checks have been cashed for the passport, though I don't know that that is any guarantee that I'm going to get one. I'm a little leery now going through this stuff with Texas and still not getting any word back on whether I will get the LTC or not.

Addler is still pretty skittish about what's going on here, but I suspect the loss of his pack is the real thing that has unnerved him.  His companions are gone and they aren't coming back.  Well one of them may eventually come back, but honestly? I do not like that dog.  It chews up everything. Plastic pots, plants, trees, garden hoses, you name it, even glass bottles.  It does this all day long and makes a huge mess out in the back.  I got so sick of cleaning up after that dog that I just started only doing it once per week.  They wouldn't clean up at all and I just wantd the place looking at least somewhat presentable. The back yard is basically a disaster and it will take quite a bit of doing to make it something appealing.

I have the stuff to put in a small pond out front. Really, I do. The underliner, the liner and the pump.  Well I don't have the filter, no, wait I do have a filter too! Would have to dig up a lot of dirt to do it. But we spend our time on the front porch, not out back where the pond I put in is at.  So, anyway, I might get around to doing that since I have already spent the money quite some time ago, it was gong to go to do something else but that plan was halted with the dogs tearing everything up in the back yard.

Well, enough.




















A rather grueling day yesterday.  I knew I had a lot to do, but I didn't realize had that much to do until I started in on everything.  Hindsight being 20-20, should have given myself at least 2 days to deal with all of this. Started at 6:30 am moving out of my bedroom, much more there than I thought. I had been storing up food for any kind of natural disaster or whatever else may come along that deprives us of the basic necessities of life and that  food had been taking up a lot of space.

Well, I have an entire pantry now! HUGE pantry at that.  All of that food is neatly tucked away in there at this point and that's numerous large boxes full of food that I don't have to have in my bedroom now.  That is a big plus.  The lady that was supposed to show up at 8? No show and I got back on my computer and found an email from her from the previous day stating she had some sort of family emergency in Houston and wouldn't be able to make it.

Panic mode, sort of.  Started sending out messages to all the other people that had replied and got a reply back almost immediately from one of them: can't be there right now, but in a couple of hours.  Well, it would have to do. Too much cleaning and moving things around for me to be able to get all of that done in the short time period I had to do it.  He did show up, though, about an hour and a half later and he went straight to work.  Nothing against men, but I had wanted a female person to do the work for I just find that they are the better cleaners and more eye to detail.  He did a great job, though and helped me clean up my room and move out of it and then on to other areas of the house.

And of course, the new tenants showed up way too early.  I told them it would be after noon - at least - before ready to move into my old bedroom, though the master bedroom was vacated and they could move in there.  They kept wanting to take stuff in to my bedroom and I kept saying no, we aren't finished in there yet.  Anyway, I still have stuff laying out in both the dining room and the living room and really dont' care.  I just had too much to do and I didn't have time to sort through all of it.  They will have to deal with that stuff being there until I can get to it, which ain't today because I'm back to work this morning.  In reality, it's just stuff on the dining room table and a corner in the living room with a pile of my stuff in there.

So, my new bedroom.  Well, it's a tad smaller but it's pretty nice actually.  I'm happy I agreed to stay and take over the house.  The biggggg drawback right now is a bathroom that doesn't have a shower, it just has a bathtub.  I don't do baths.  I don't like sitting in bathtubs and it takes too much time.  I am a hopper - hop into the shower, scrub down, hop out, 5 minutes and it's done. You can't even fill up the tub in 5 minutes, can you? Much less  sitting there...well anyway, just not for me.  But, the problm is, it's not set up for a shower.  There is no shower head.  The wall is going to have to be opened up to install one, gag.  Worse, I don't even know where the other side of that wall is, but I think it's the master bedroom closet.  This is a headache that I'm going to have to try to deal with this coming weekend.  Until then, I guess I'll be forced to take baths after work, I just don't have the desire to do that in the morning.

Oh now wait a minute.  Just saw a tub spout that has a divertor to attach a hand shower attachment to.  Yes!  Oh thank God. I don't want to tear out walls and install all that junk and spend all the money.  Good deal, hopefully that old one will come off easy enough and I can just install the diverter setup and walaah, instant shower.

Of course, nothing seems too easy in an old house, such as even turning off the ball valve at the street. We even have the tool to do it with, but that thing wouldn't budge.  I was giving it more and more pressure until I stopped, I was afraid I was going to break it.  We had a hose outlet that was leaking and I wanted to replace it, but you have to shut the water off to the house first.  The city came out and turned it off and yes, it started leaking.  They would have charged us $100 to fix it, too, if we hadn't called them to come out and turn it off.  So now, they have to install a new one and then it will turn on and off easily.

So anyway, there is a lot to do here in the next few weeks not the least of which is to find the drain on the pan for the ac unit and unclog it.  It's leaking everywhere and I have no idea how long it's been doing that.  I mean, the wood flooring is buckling up from the water, they must have known about this? I never came over to this side of the house, this is all news to me.  I'm assuming the drain is clogged and I will attempt to find the pipe, get a small drain snake and clear it out. Unless the pan itself is leaking, this ..... well I don't want to predict an easy fix.  It could be a nightmare for all I know.  Maybe it's why they didn't deal with it, but you can't just have water leaking in your house.

Alright, well off to work.  I am not really looking forward to work today, but then again I never do anymore, not at that place. Just that i would rather be at home and dealing with all of this stuff and getting it over with.














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