Tenants/Truck Drivers

Pretty much an on-going thing, but I am learned to read the "BS" that is coming out of people.
The female tenant that has been paying me weekly just lost her job.
She has gone to work late, she has gone to work after being out all night long - tired, she is screwing up, bad.
This is the one that is coming off of meth.
I will be observing her for signs of fresh meth use.
She was written up no too long ago for forgetting to put in an order. The customers had waited 45 minutes and then started complaining. She was written up after that for the tired stuff.

How do you expect to perform well at work if you've been out all night long?
There are more things, but the plain, simple, fact of the matter is that I am probably going to have to evict her and now? I am now waiting for weeks to "find out" if they are going to get a job anymore. I have bills to pay - very high electric use and water bills are always higher in the summer.

I cannot, in other words, afford to have sympathy. I MUST have the money
coming in from that room. As time goes on, I have far less patience with people who are screwing up their own lives and then, by their own admission of doing something that cost them - in this case their job - expect me to wait around, have the room occupied, costing me money and KNOWING I won't see ANY of what is owed to me.

She asked when you can apply for unemployment. I said right away. In fact, you could do it today. No, she wants to go look for a new job. Well, that's nice, but provides for me a further glimpse of what her MO is. If I lost my job, the FIRST thing I would do is to head to the unemployment office. It takes 2 weeks (at least) to get the first check, an in this economy, finding a new job? Good luck. She went in her room to mope, I am guessing since she was crying out here.

Look, if she had been laid off from work, that would be one thing, but she was FIRED for - screwing up. I mean, the stuff she has done isn't something that was out of her control: ALL of it was IN her control.

She is just a bit over a week late in her rent. She gave me $33 today before she left. I was glad to get that, she would have given me nothing, undoubtedly, if she had been fired before giving me that money.

No, I don't see any hope here. This is a person with serious, personal issues and it isn't going to work out.

Look, pretty much expect this stuff. I find good tenants here and there, but there is always the bad apple. Deal with it and move on.

Welcome to the weekend, aye?

Here's some good news, for me anyway: the temps have cooled WAY off and the electric use has gone down proportionately. I'm looking at a $13 to $14 day in electricity instead of $18 to $20. Bad time for tenant issues, is all I can say about that. But then again, when is a good time? Well, the dead of winter when neither ac nor heat is running........

Numerous times in the past, completely changing the subject, I have tried to alert other truck drivers to problems with their truck or load that they are unaware of. EVERY single time, I get these drivers giving me attitude.

Case in point: a driver has left the cap off of his fuel tank. The tank is sloshing out diesel fuel all over the place. I wave at him and motion towards his fuel tank. He gives me "the look", throws his hands up basically asking me WHAT my problem is. After the tude', I continue to motion towards his fuel tank.

He finally stops the vehicle, gets out and sees the problem. Not hard to see with gallons of diesel fuel all over the ground and the fuel tank covered with diesel fuel. He settled down quite a bit after he realizes I am trying to HELP him, not start a freakin' fight with him. Do you know what they can do to him for having diesel fuel spilling out onto the ground? It's hazardous material, the fine, if a cop chose to give him a ticket, would be QUITE steep. With the new rules coming into place sometime this year, he would probably LOSE HIS CDL.

Another case in point: A truck is approaching me. It's in a private driveway, but still. He has a box door open. It is sticking out some 3 feet to the side of his vehicle. I am frantically waving at the dude - first he's about to hit my vehicle and second, whatever he hits, that door is going to be ruined and 3rd, he might also damage someone else's property or who knows what. Sign of a bad driver? Yes, all he had to do was look in his mirrors and he would have seen the door without my ever having to motion to him.

As it was, I ended up swerving out of the way, which finally clued him in that SOMETHING must be wrong. He FINALLY looks in his mirror - after giving me the look, throwing up his hands, acting like he wants to get into a fistfight, all of this stupid stuff - slams on the brakes, now has the gall to wave at me, gets out and closes the door.

So, today, I am a a stop light. Waiting to go under the freeway overpass, I was not getting on the freeway. A truck waiting for the left hand turn light to go green is facing me in the opposing lanes. He gets the green arrow, as soon as he starts moving, I see fuel gushing out the side of his 200 gallon tank (at least 200 gallons). You know how fast the mind can work - thinking through things in a fraction of a moment when something happens and you need to act, fast.

However, my mind went straight to the experiences in the past, why bother?
But, I couldn't do that. He was losing gallons of fuel, turning onto the freeway, this particular freeway and this particular part of the freeway he is getting on is a favorite haunt for Highway Patrol pickup trucks - whose almost sole mission is to pull over commercial vehicles and do inspections. IF one of THOSE guys/gals see that stuff, he is in BIG trouble.

I had to open up the door of my truck, hang out the side of it and wave my ararms to get his attention. When he saw me, I starting pointing down and towards the side of his truck. He was looking in mirrors, looking at me - but not with the attitude crap. He must have finally looked in his spot mirror and saw the problem, because a look of shock came over his face, he looked at me, waved, got out of the intersection and yes, stopped in the middle of the lane he was in on the on-ramp, temporarily blocking traffic to get out and put the cap on.

The caps have small chains on them, if you forget to put them back on, they still hang there, waiting for you to - yes, screw it back on.

I was reading about these new rules coming into place today. When the new rules come into play, they are RETROACTIVE. If this guy had been caught NOW with this situation, ina few months or whenever they put this into play, that little act of forgetfulness to put that cap on would instantly put POINTS on his record, the SAME as if you get a speeding ticket.

He was an older gentleman and I thought he might be old school, which is why I decided to go ahead and try yet again.

I am a very observant driver, you have to be in a truck, watching out for everyone else, because most of the other drivers are NOT watching out for you.

Weekend is here. A few work days this week were very slow. Umm, Monday and Tuesday, the last 3 days were nice and busy, just the way I like it (and would prefer it stay that way).

I let my plants go for 2 and a half days hoping some of these monsoons would hit around HERE and water the plants for me, but to no avail. So, I watered them today, but only for a short time, there is still the possibility of rain. A good soaking rain right now would be awesome!

Umm, this entry is getting long.

Have a great evening!
ben

Friday

Friday, at last.

I’m still just shaking my head about all this preparation for court and then, getting there and finding out the rep from the State of Arizona isn’t there, isn’t going to be there, therefore case dismissed. One person came out of the courtroom with an attorney. I’ll bet she’s reeling a bit about having to pay that lawyer for …….. nothing. Lol.



Well, anyway, it’s dark and overcast this morning. On the drive to work, they were talking about how it’s raining all over the place. They have BEEN saying that for days. Yes, well, in no place that I have been in the valley, including my home, have I seen a single drop of rain. I WISH it would rain at my house!! I think today’s high because of this weather is going to be low 100’s or high 90’s.



Neighborhood news:

Juice, the nickname for one of the black brothers that comes over to my house, had to go to court yesterday. He was riding another kid’s mini bike on the street a while back and crashed into a UPS truck. It WASTED his leg, he spent 2 days in the hospital and it was a month before he was walking right again. He was in extreme pain and his leg looked pathetic. He never came back. He is in juvenile detention. He was already on probation for shoplifting at Fry’s Electronics sometime last year. Going to juvi last year got his attention: neither he nor his brother go around trying to steal stuff from stores anymore. But, because he was on probation, buh-bye.



Next door neighbor, the one with the giant, 40-foot trailer that I called the city about. That trailer is gone, he is in Michigan, but it’s obvious they are not happy with me. I couldn’t care less. That thing had been parked there for months, blocking the entire view of the street going west. His ex-girlfriend started ragging on one of the boys about one of my tenant’s cars being parked in his driveway. Yes, well, he told her she could park it there, I wasn’t even a part of that equation. If I ever get out of that neighborhood, it won’t be soon enough.



Matthew: Another of the black brothers. He locked the gate open some time ago and I banned him from my property. I tend to get upset when the gate is left open and the potential for my dogs getting out. Well, it’s been months and he just last night finally came back and profusely apologized for the act, as well as getting an attitude at the time (which is what really triggered me to tell him to take a hike), tears in his eyes, the whole 9 yards. I’m not heartless, he’s a good kid otherwise, he has no parents (present) – one is in prison the other left those kids long ago, moved to Philadelphia and that was the end of that, their grandmother, 84 years old I believe, is taking care of them along with help from extended family (so kudos to the grandmother for doing that for those kids, otherwise they would all be separated and sent to wherever).



Ponds:

I haven’t done any digging for 2 days now. I intend on getting out there this weekend and digging away. Perfect weather for doing that is right NOW, it’s actually “nice” out there, certainly in context to the weather we have been seeing. My electric usage at home should go down, at least for today, because of the cooler temps. My 8, large goldfish are doing very well. I’m telling you, if 2 of them aren’t carrying eggs, then they are very fat fish.



News: As usual, North Korea is threatening both the U.S. and South Korea, saying they will intervene militarily if the intended war games/practice/whatever occurs this weekend. Does anyone really believe these mouthy, arrogant, SOB’s are going to strike the U.S. military? An act of war? Would we just sit there and let them destroy our ships and our servicemen and women on those ships? No, I didn’t think so, and I am sure they are well aware of that. But, I love watching the news about this stuff. You know, I am not a Clinton fan, but she does take a pretty firm and strong stance against this kind of crap and doesn’t back down. I don’t want her for a president, but I don’t know that she’s doing a bad job in her present position.



Oil: Well, I just hope the cap holds, what else is there to say? You can’t tell Mother Nature not to send storms over the ocean. I mean, I certainly don’t expect those BP crews to stay out there while the seas go crazy and pose potential life-threatening hazards.



Immigration: 7 people went to jail yesterday after protesting in downtown Phoenix against the Immigration Bill. The court is hearing arguments – well now the arguments are over – and opponents are hoping for a temporary injunction. I support the bill, I hope there is no injunction and that the law goes into effect next Thursday. We’ll see – but if the signs of trouble are in the air as they appear to be, violence may be the next thing these opponents resort to.



Well, the work day approaches. There is a lot to do in our truck routing system – but – if it rains, that will shut down jobsites. I dunno, but it’s only 7 and a half hours til’ the end of this work week : )



G’day.



ben