111 Degrees

I have spent most of the afternoon in the heat.
It's amazing what the human body can get used to.
It actually started feeling cool with so much sweat seeping out of my body.
Gross? Maybe, but it was a solitude I needed. The dogs couldn't handle it - they went inside and left me alone. lol.
I got a lot accomplished out there, so I'm happy about that.
It took me back to my teenaged years when I would sit and bake in the sun during extreme heat days and think nothing of it.

My head is really screwed up today. I can only refer back to Ken's interference with my sleep last night. Sleep is almost a sacred thing - don't mess with it unless there is an emergency. Leave people alone, respect the fact that they are sleeping. I have tried to teach that to my son and all the kids that have stayed over here over the years. I do not allow one kid to wake up another when they are here. I have done that for a long, long time. I may have a different view of sleep and people sleeping than others, I don't know as I have no context for it. I just feel that if someone is sleeping - but others are awake - and that person is sleeping in their own bed - then everyone should stay away from that person and if they find "some" reason to go into their sleeping "space", they should be as quiet as possible.

My apparent obsession with it is simply due to the fact that I have sleep issues. I go to sleep easily, I do not stay asleep easily. I do not want anyone bothering me when I am sleeping, because there are many nights when I get precious little of it. I know, over and over and over, the feeling of going to work after getting only 4 or 5 hours of sleep. It's not a pleasant thing to have to face in the morning. I have to force myself to put on a smile and have a good attitude. When the work day is over, and on a night like that, I come home and take a nap.

And then I go outside and work. I will not succumb to making excuses for not doing anything around the house because I am tired from the night before. Oh yes, I have Ambien. It works, too. I can take it and sleep through the night. I HATE taking pills. Absolutely hate it. I have a bottle of it - almost full - that I haven't touched in months. I found an alternative that is still taking pills, but it isn't a sleeping pill: ibuprofen. It has a profound effect of making me sleepy. It doesn't always work, and I only take one 200 milligram pill, but it works more often than not.

I came in here for a reason - yes - a glass of ice water.
It's STILL 110 degrees out there at almost 6:00 pm.
C'ya later.
ben

Moving On..............

............from that rather dire last post, I have finally figured out what happened to my printer. Canon printers - at least this one - give out a blinking light code to tell you what is wrong with it.

Mine was blinking an orange light 7 times and then green.

Upon searching the internet, I found a forum where someone had posted the same problem with the 7 blinking lights. An individual who apparently knows all about this stuff came back and said it's a "carriage" problem and that something is not aligning right inside of the carriage.

Nice. I started to inspect the printer. It was cracked in several places and some fo the plastic was broken. It has obviously been dropped on the floor. Because it happened several weeks ago, I can't go back to video surveillance to find out exactly who did this little deal. A simple apology goes a long way with me......

So, I consider the printer trashed. Which sucks because I just had all the cartridges refilled on it. I found another one of the same brand and model on Craigslist and have made an offer on it. A cheap offer, yes, it's an old printer. You can buy a new one for $40 - a cheap printer no doubt, but I don't need anything fancy. So, I figure a printer that old isn't worth more than maybe $15 at most. I just want to try to find another one because of the ink factor. The printer actually does a great job - even color pics turn out pretty good.

Anyway, I'm trying to get some things done before my dad gets "here" - he's going to call me at the restaurant when they arrive, it's only 2 miles from my house. Laundry was first on the list, of course.

Anyway, now that I know what's wrong with the thing - printer that is - I can at least move in some direction with trying to do something about getting another one in here.

Not a great priority - excepting when I need to print out notices. Which I would like to do - right now actually.
Guess I'll write one up and print it out at work.
C'ya later.
ben

Fuming Freakin' MAD

I went to bed at the same time I pretty much always go to bed last night: at 9:00pm. I get tired, it's my normal routine. I have no reason to want to stay up late - though sometimes I'm watching what I consider to be a good movie, I might stay up to watch that.

Sleeping pretty good. 2:00am. Something causes me to wake up. My bedroom door has been opened and there's someone there, I can make out in the darkness (I like to slee in as dark a room as possible) someone moving their hand along the wall trying to find the light switch.

Brain matter finally kicks in, what the bleep is THIS? I bolted upright, yelled out WHO IS IT!!! fiddle with my nightstand lamp. It's Ken. I'm yelling at this point, I have no clue what he's doing in my room, but the fact that I have just been awakened like that and the fact that he's IN my room has me ready to defend myself, whatever may come. WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM? I'm getting up, I'm ready to throw blows. That's the only thing that was going throw my mind - whatever this guy is doing in my bedroom, he shouldn't be in here.

Then I get to looking at him. He's plastered, falling down drunk, can't talk straight. This time I told him to get the F*** out of my room. I HATE that word, I'm telling you, I do, but at that point in time, it was the word that came out with force.

I start hearing this sob story. He went to a bar with karoake. He says he got a taxi home, says "I know I still have money, but I can't find it, can I borrow $20 - the taxi guy is getting mad at me".
I was already FUMING mad at him. I'm STILL mad and ti's 5 and a half hours later. Some level of normalcy kicked into my head, I'm thinking: "Get this guy out of my room, get up, get money, pay the taxi guy, I'll deal with this tomorrow". In the state of mind I was in last night, dealing with him would have gotten very ugly. It won't be much prettier today, but at least the element of physical violence won't be in the mix.

I tell him to get out. Got up, did exactly what I thought to do. Went outside, paid the dude, Ken starts in on his sob story. I flat told him to shut the bleep up, I don't want to hear it, walked into my bedroom - and actually fell right back to sleep!

That's what REALLY amazed me. I spent maybe 2 minutes thinking about the s*** that just unfolded, I must have been really tired, because my lights blinked right back out and I was in dreamland again as if nothing had ever happened.

But, the anger washed over me again this morning directly after I woke up, took care of the dogs and started thinking about what happened last night. The anger is mostly a man who thinks he can just waltz right into my room at 2 o'clock in the morning and wake up a man that is literally dead asleep. I'm telling you, I came very, very close to just landing a blow right in the center of his nose last night.

You simply do NOT wake a person up like that. Throughout my life, on the few occasions when someone has done that, for whatever reason, I get violently angry. I have no logical explanation for it - but there is something about being clicked out of a deep sleep in that manner that arouses the fury within. On the other occasions when someone has woken me up - but did it in a normal way, I might still be a little irritated - my brain must just like sleep mode and apparently doesn't like being messed with while it's in it.

The rest of the anger is the fact that he JUST got paid and now he's broke for almost 2 full weeks? Yes, he paid the rent, thankfully. And yes, I went and looked, he did buy some food. But, the man is living like he's still 16 in high school. He drank one of those mini kegs of Heineken in less than 24 hours time plus a bunch of cans of Budweiser. Yesterday afternoon, he was so drunk, he was singing in his bedroom at the top of his voice. I was pounding on his bedroom door - I will not tolerate that kind of disruption in my house regardless of what time of day it is. He didn't answer. He had his headphones on and was blasting the music. I went to the circuit breaker board, flipped the switch - THAT got his attention.

Today is ultimatum time. I can ill afford to get rid of yet another tenant - but - I will NOT tolerate a person living in my home like this. He will be on notice. If his behavior does not change - and I doubt it will but I will give the benefit of a doubt anyway - I will evict him. Actually, I may just go ahead and issue the 30-day notice - THAT will definitely put him on notice. He behavior will either change or he will just plain go, why bother waiting? Get the notice period done and over with, 30 days is long enough to determine whether he will listen or not. The man has a serious drinking problem and probably needs to check himself into a rehab center somewhere.

It's pretty much soured my day and it's only just started. I am meeting up with dad and Millie - his wife - at noon at the Claim Jumper's Steakhouse. They are driving through afer spending a week at an annual minister's conference. I'm hoping to get my head out of this funk and into a better mood and atmosphere by then. I figure to go outside here pretty quick and start doing some yard work - get some energy out. The only problem is that I still have to deal with this guy, which will just set me off again. Chances are pretty good that he's going to sleep a good portion if not all of the morning after getting home so late and being so friggin' drunk, but who knows. One thing's for certain, this thing is not just going to "slide".
ben