Sunday

First day of August (and rent is due, lol).  Electric use last month at an all time high of: $503.02.  I could rent a dive 2-bedroom apartment with utilities included for that much money.  No, I'm not moving into any apartment, not if I can help it.  You can't have Great Danes, but, you can have a pond at some of those places if they allow you to have "stuff" on your front porch.

I only know this because one lady has such a setup - a preformed pond sitting out in front of her apartment, fish and plants and all.

Oh, well one tenant has paid, the Army reservist I am expecting to pay - there is no reason why she couldn't or wouldn't that I know of since she has a job - the tenant that just lost her job?  Went on vacation.  Someone brought up a good point yesterday: this woman is going on vacation when she should be looking for a job.  Allegedly it's an all expenses paid excursion, that isn't the point.  The point is that she is behind in rent.  She is unemployed.  Prudence would suggest hitting the streets and filling out applications all over the place, not taking off when she already is behind with her rent.

Doesn't matter, if I don't see enough money for her to get paid through the previous week, she's getting the 5-day, please get out and take your stuff with you - notice. 

Regardless, the sky is overcast, the temps are still down, the new Koi seem to be doing well - which had me a bit worried but, so far, so good.  I was worried because of all of those small Koi I bought for a 20 spot a while back that all died within 24 hours of acquiring them. But, I racked that up to this guy bringing them in from North Carolina, the shipper not putting enough ice in and the water getting hot, killing off hundreds of them in-transit.  Live and learn, I should have told him I would come back after several days to make sure they are going to survive.  They had ALREADY been in extreme shock, moving them from his place to mine only added to that load.

Trip to Walmart today.  I hate that place- I hate the customer service at that place, but Istill go, just much more infrequently.  I need a new kitchen trash can.  It is falling apart.  The cheapest place I have found for such is, yes, at Walmart and I am all about price right now.  That's my big deal for outings today.  And then, the normal house-cleaning rituals. 

Okayyyyyy......large amount of time elapsed as I went up to Home Depot to get some materials to fix  leaky plumbing underneath the kitchen sink.  I couldn't find the same setup and standing in the store, looking at it, I didn't see anywhere where it would be leaking from.  I bought some putty and decided perhaps the connection was just loose.  Got a new kitchen wastebasket - a nice one too - there instead of hoofing it all the way over to Walmart.  On the way home, I stop at McDonald's for a coffee. 

Drive-thru.  No-one in front of me, no-one behind me.  Make my order, go up to the window to pay.  Lady standing there takes my money.  I am not sure a single person there speaks English as a first language.  Their accents are so thick, it is obvious that that must be a pre-requisite to getting a job there, speaking Spanish over English.  I wait.  And wait.  This lady disappears and a guy comes up to the window.  I have just been sitting there, saying nothing, waiting for some sort of explanation.  A shift change, apparently, they started doing that AFTER I came up through the drive-thru.  They could have waited, especially seeing no-one else was in line there. 

I wait another 2 minutes.  Sorry, a cup of coffee isn't worth a 10 minute wait in a McDonald's drive thru JUST for the fact of them not being able to make change.  Kid gets testy with me after I ask for my $5 back.  I drove up to the second window - I heard a noise, sounded like that kid had spit on my car.  I ask for a manager.  Rosa, their apparent version of  a manager, comes up to the window. Her speech is mostly spanish and none english.  I always love this pandering to the Mexican society that lives here that refuses to learn English so businesses hire employees who can speak Spanish fluently, yes, but they leave out the little part about being able to speak ENGLISH fluently as well. 

I ask her bluntly why it was taking SO long to change out a simple $5?  I didn't even get to the point of waiting until current customers were taking care of, as she got an attitude with me.  In speech that was VERY accented, she says: "What you can't wait 2 minutes for change?"  NO, I said and didn't bother to add that I had been there longer than 2 minutes.  Rude and in my face, I demanded the phone number for the owners of this McDonald's.  She prints out a ticket that has THAT McDonald's phone number on it!

So, if I call that number, SHE is going to answer the phone!! ROFL!!!  Her last comment to me was: "You can call that number and say annnnnnnything you want to".  VERY rude.  Of course I could say whatever about their service that day, SHE would be handling the call! 

I have already called McDonald's and registered a complaint and no, it wasn't to that store, it was to their 800 number. They ask you all kinds of questions and the interview is recorded, allegedly the recording is sent to the owners of the store. 

Putting that out of my mind - yes I will go to the trouble to complain, no I won't be dwelling on it all day long - I start examining the components of the plumbing on the kitchen sink.  I'm shaking pipes to see if there is anything loose.

Unbelievably, BOTH drain connections at the bottom of the sinks are loose, one of them very loose.  THere's my leak.  I tightened it up as much as I could to see if that will do the job.  If not, I will end up having to take the entire assembly apart, cleaning the connections, putting fresh putty on all of it and reassembling.

I would rather NOT have to do that, so I'm waiting to see if my container under the sink has any more water in it after running water through there.  But, I realize, that isn't good enough, I am going to have to fill both sinks up with water and that will tell me if it is good or not. 

So, that is sort of eating up my morning.  That and checking on my Koi - beautiful fish indeed.  Also very hungry.   I haven't even gotten started on my cleaning stuff as this sink thing takes precedence, who wants a leaking  plumbing array underneath their kitchen sink?  Hello cockroaches, they love the dark, wet atmosphere that such an arrangement provides for them.

More time passed: I believe the connections are holding, no water anywhere, yoo-hoo!

Back to the regularly scheduled program: cleaning time.

G'day.

ben