Surprising Change

As summer approaches, I assumed any cool days/nights were over with.
To my great surprise, strong winds moved in today and also blew in MUCH cooler temperatures. To the point that the windows are open and it is very cool in here, and yes, I shut off the AC.

It will not last, but it is a nice parting goodbye from mother nature.

Weekend over. Going to bed. Just wanted to throw that in there.

G'nite.

ben

Latest shots.  First rock is put into place - but not cemented.  This is the trial (pain in the rear) run.

Closer view of the same thing.

Even closer view.

Filled in with dirt and put smaller rocks on top of the big one

(this will all have to be cemented into place once

I figure out how I want it).

Frontal view.

Missed a shot somewhere along the way here.

I had the rock on the top left centered on top of the bottom

rock first.  Then, I added that second rock and moved the

top rock to the side.  I'm thinking of taking the left rock

and flipped it over to have a crisper falls.

In reality, I was going to go with a much larger falls until I realized what I was doing. The falls would have been disproportionate to the size of the pond it is falling into. Even this might seem a bit of over kill - oh well, I'm not turning back now. I could maximize the top of the falls when I get to that point and have a small pool of water up there. Who knows.

I'm going to be fiddling with this for a while until I decide how I want it. No sense in getting in a big hurry - once you start cementing stuff together, that's it. Total pain? Yes. Worth the double/triple/quadrupled effort? Most definitely. I really should be moving along with this thing and just getting it done, but I find myself constrained by my own sense of perfectionism: it HAS to be right or I will just look at it every time and kick myself wondering why I just didn't go to the extra effort.

Temp tenant? Staying another week. Benb sighs a deep sigh of relief. Electric usage is going up to higher levels by the week. It becomes a money dump in the summer - keep the power meter fueled with money fire to keep the AC running. Assuming ex-Marine is staying, he has promised that when he leaves, he will give me ample forewarning. He already did once - but then changed his mind after his buddy lost his job.

The newest tenant? Calls me today. Her boyfriend is moving out of wherever he's at next week or something, she's hoping he can stay with her. I've done this before without any problem. Will there be a problem with these 2? No idea. Informed her it would be extra rent - I am not footing the bill for extra utility usage. I have met the boyfriend and have talked with him at length. We get along, is all I am pointing out with that. He landed a job at the WigWam - a classy resort hotel - not too long ago. I'm assuming they will save money and then - move into their own apartment eventually. She wants a place to call home so she can have her kids back.

Can't blame her, however, there is this little thing called recovery that she still needs to be going through for a while, my opinion. Only 3 months out of being a meth user, she needs to let the kids stay where they're at with grandpa and grandma for at least a year - my opinion again - until she proves to herself and everyone else that knows her that she is off the drugs and will be staying that way.

Relapse is easy. Too easy. Life gets hard, take the drug, life is easy again. Sort of. Payment is due. I say that with however we live. We pay a price. For good or bad. Stay tuned for more of BenB's life and ever-changing household situation.

3:00 pm. Lazy Sunday afternoon. Yes, I am through with cementing in blocks, moving dirt and large rocks around for the day. I am feeling a case of "do-nothingness" overcoming me. Nothing left to do around here that is blow-up important. House is relatively clean - still want to mop the kitchen floor today. Suns game in a few hours. Have some Teriyaki chicken to cook up. Yup, except going out there and turning on the valve to water the plants, I am done with that for today.

My dogs are looking gaunt. I mean skinny. Too skinny. I give them as much food as they want to eat. I don't want fat dogs, that doesn't seem likely with any of these giants. I really WANT them to eat more, they simply won't. The goldfish outside, however, are happy to eat as much Koi food as I want to give them. Well, they are looking very large, I am feeding them, yes, but they look like they need to go on a diet. Ex-owner admitted he probably feeds his fish too much.

Anyway, that's it.

Later.
ben

Sunday

Weekends never seem to last very long. 
They come and then just poof, disappear into the thin blue air. 
I do have an agenda for today, but it means going to Home Depot
for one more bag of cement.  It will finish the back retaining wall
for the waterfall setup.  I will be doing that in a little while, this
foundation and retaining wall junk have been holding me up from
actually building the blooming thing.  I should have enough rocks
to actually build the waterfall, but to cover up everything on the sides?
No.  I hope sooner or later to get sent back up north and I can pick
up more off the side of the road somewhere along the way.

Just get the falls built and water pumping, that's my agenda, the heat is
coming and I can't put it off forever.  Not that I'm putting it off, it's just
taking an eternity to get the pre-work done.

Came out to the living room this morning to hear the TV blaring.
I am not a fan of 24 hour a day TV.  I find it quite annoying.  I did
a very unpopular thing and - muted it.  I WILL have some peace and
quiet around here. 

I was particularly amused to find on the news this morning that a Republican has
won a special election vote in Hawaii - Obama's home state where he carried around 70%
of the vote in the Presidential campaign.  Does this send a message? 
Guess we'll find out in November.

Meanwhile, they continue to show the devastation that this oil spill in the Gulf is
producing and talking about cleanup.  Umm, scuse me folks, but you can't really
talk about cleanup until you have the oil that gushing out of broken pipes
CONTAINED first.  I don't wonder if this oil won't make it, eventually, into every ocean? 
What's to keep it from spreading into the Atlantic and then, points further beyond?
Nothing that I can see, especially if it's going to be months before they get this other
hole drilled.  How many millions upon millions of barrels of oil will have been dumped into
the ocean by then?  How does marine aquatic life live in that kind of mess?  This is an incredible
disaster, yet I see the Federal Government doing next to nothing.  They are dumping the blame and responsibility for getting it capped onto BP. 

If I were the President of the United States - which I never will be but for the sake of argument - I would be contacting every oil drilling company in the world, putting the feelers out for the best of the best and bring in
the people that can make this thing happen.  Money?  Some things, such as this and border security, should be dealt with in a different way than say, million dollar toilets sets and $1,000 hammers. It will take an act of God - literally - to deal with this oil mess. 

Anyway, I got a lot accomplished around the house yesterday, intend on doing a "few" more things and then take the rest of the day off.  Suns play the Lakers again today.  If they lose this one, I don't give them any odds at all of winning a fourth game, meaning the Lakers move on and the Suns, once again, fall short.  No idea.  Suns seemed clueless on the court the first 2 games of how to defend against the Lakers.  If they don't come up with a new game plan, then the next 2 games are losses for sure.  I'll watch it - but if we start getting blown away again?  Just shut the thing off. 

For now, I'm going to go spend $3.97 on another bag of cement, bring it back, get those blocks in place and then I can look forward to hopefully starting the process of putting the blooming thing together - the waterfall that is.

Happy Sunday!
ben