The Dynamics Have Changed

Email continues to pour in.
I just don't know what to say about all of this.
This was hardly anything started to get public attention.
REALLY, it wasn't.
The reporter I talked to wants to follow the formation and process of the next party and then finalize it by visiting with the cameras at the actual event.

NOW we're talking: THIS IS CRAZY!!!

It would be one of their "positive" stories aside from the landfill of negativity that floods in every single friggin' day.

The best part of this second event: with all the help, I wouldn't have to pay hardly anything for it! In fact, if only half the money came in that people have committed to giving, it would go FAR beyond anything I ever thought of.

This isn't something I've given a lot of thought to - there ARE certain things in my life that I have done that weren't given 6 months of analytical processes. Parties are fun - the planning is simply how much food and drinks and how is it all going to be cooked and handed out. If it's a very large group of people expected to show up, then you start soliciting help. You cannot do it by yourself. You have to have several grills going and you have to have more people preparing food. Even more to greet people, pick up trash, just getting stuff done.

I've done it a hundred times - I've just not done it since I got divorced. I'm in my element at parties - I can move from one group to another - whatever they're talking about, I can join right in. If it's slow, I always have something to throw in the mix that will get things moving. I would FAR rather just get a lot of people to help and I just walk around enjoying myself! Lol.

Well, the whole thing is certainly getting a bit surreal. I have to go through a hundred emails and reply to those that want to help with the next party and see if they're serious - serious enough to give me their phone number and bypass the email game. Email is good - but for commitment, a voice contact is much better and far preferred.

I have a bit to think about. Not in terms of analytical - gee do I really want to do this - but in term of how best to go about this. If the media is going to be involved, I want it to show only good. We have ENOUGH bad right now. I want a spark of hope to ignite in people's hearts. I want to see a giant community coming together. I'm definitely a dreamer in such things - I can see the potential outcome of something like this - people starting their own parties, strangers coming together and gutting out this mess we're all going through together.

I would love to see this isolationist era go away. Me, myself and I. I can do it alone, I don't need anyone's help. I've been there myself - but it never used to be that way. And it never used to be that the Government was our source. WE provide the government, not the other way around. Certainly there are people that need help - I'm referring to the handout, mooching era we're in now. It's sickening. Beyond that, now, are all the people that are NOT moochers - they're hard-working people from all different walks of life in all kinds of professions - WHO CAN'T FIND WORK ANYWHERE.

As I said, I have a little thinking to do.
ben

Wow!

I'm a little shell-shocked.
I was just going through a bunch more email - one guy is committing to giving $600.00 for the next party. Another will come and do all the cooking. A BUNCH will bring food and drinks.
You have to have more info on this than I've given, I guess.

I wrote a Craigslist Ad that was entitled "Free Sunday Dinner - Foreclosure Party".
In the ad, I wrote that I wasn't personally going into foreclosure, but that there are so many people out there hurting. I went on about how Phoenix used to be a very friendly town - and it was. People used to one another, open and hold doors, go out of their way to help strangers. Now? You get a finger and F U.

I don't get what everyone's so uptight and upset about? I see it in traffic all day long, hostility. I see it at stores and businesses. I hear about it on the news. So that's basically what I wrote.

Now, one of the local news media has picked up on this - from who I have no clue - and wants to actually do an interview!!! LOL!!!!
ben

Monday

So, it was official as of today, the other driver was shipped to the main branch in Phoenix and I am now the only driver - again - for the Chandler branch. Which meant, today, that the driving was not split between 2 people and I was busy most of the day, a WELCOME change and I hope it stays that way. Tomorrow there is only one delivery in the system, but that could change overnight. Even so, the big boys are coming tomorrow and whatever free time I have will be spent giving a good sweeping to the warehouses.

The party was a blast! For such an impromptu thing, there were some GREAT people that showed up and spent most of the afternoon here. One older gent had been in more wars or seen action than I can count on both hands worth of fingers. Amazing to hear those war stories. He wouldn't come and say what his rank was, only that he was "higher up" in the ranks and mostly gave out orders but had spent some time visiting troops on the field.

There was a couple of Chinese women that showed up, one of them a much older lady who could only speak a few words of English. It was really cool, too - she had the "older ways" and would bow her head and was totally in love with all of my doggies. Which I found quite amazing.

Now, for the money spent: 89 cent loaves of bread; 69 cent bags of hotdog buns and 93% lean ground beef which was on sale for $1.89 per pound. Plus a couple of things of cheap chicken and several thing of hot dogs, cheap soda and water. Regardless of what anyone thinks, I don't feel bad one iota in having a good time at least once in a while. The mortgage is what it is - it won't go any further late than it is now - meaning each month I get caught up by 3 days.

Unless, of course, I continue to have tenant problems - crossing my fingers and praying that I won't. I'm hearing this stimulus package has something in it about mortgages - waiting to see what, if anything, that includes. I'm still waiting to hear back from my current mortgage company on any loan modification that might be offered as I applied for that almost 2 weeks ago now.

I'm giving the person that said they want to move in here for a couple of months until tomorrow for that check to arrive. It will be 5 full business days since she claims to have mailed it - I don't know of any letter that takes, normally, more than 3 days to get to most anywhere in the continental U.S. Considering it's coming from Oregon - which isn't that far away in terms of the postal service, I should have received it by now. I'm going to write up a totally different ad for a 3rd tenant - short term ONLY. I don't WANT a long-term person in there. Just a couple of months worth of rent to get caught up.

There are plenty of scenarios - legitimate - that a person would need a temporary place to live. One such is a person moving in out-of-state and needing a place until they find their new home or apartment. More-so if it's a person with a dog/s and can't find any place to take them. I would, however, charge more per month for dogs. I have enough and cleaning up after even more of them would be something I wouldn't want to entertain without getting paid for it.

Now, as far as a future party? I've had 2 dozen people write me in the last 2 days telling me that it was too short a time for them - if I'm going to do another one, they'll chip in and help with food and whatever else they can. Yes, I fully intend on doing another one, this time allowing others to pay for most of it, I'll just do the hard part in putting the whole thing together. I'm telling you, it was actually rejuvenating to have some decent, adult company around to spend an afternoon with. I would definitely invite the retired folk in this area with flyers.

It was also fun using that grill for the 1st time. That thing cranks out the heat and can cook a LOT of food at one time!

Mary's friend - the guy that does odd jobs - says he can fix those windows for $30 a piece. ???? I figured out right away without asking what the compromise would be for getting it done so cheap: no gas between the panes. I have no idea how pumping gas into double paned windows does anything for reducing heat loss in the summer, but since they say it occurs, I'll take their word for it. Meanwhile, I could probably swing that next paycheck and get that eyesore taken care of. The gas doesn't last forever, anyway, so I've been told. Max 5 years and it's done. I have other ideas at this point - get some foam insulation, go buy some fabric, attach the fabric to the foam - walaah. A decent looking sun block on each window on the west side of the house, including the giant sliding glass doors.

Another thing they did today was to run a cable from her new room all the way to the box where the cables come out of the box at the back of the house. This means I don't have to run a cable to the 3rd room I want to rent out - and yes, I did acquire another satellite box for that room. My solution to the mortgage backlog is to simply get another short-term tenant to get caught up and get back on track.

Anyways, I have some things I need to do online and - this one's gone on long enough.
ben