Saturday 9/17/2011 - Fin & Bethany/Sky Harbor Airport

I have not had the opportunity to meet too many internet friends, having that opportunity arise today was something I was not going to miss.

I have not been in terminal 4 of Sky Harbor airport in a long, long, loooooong time. It was COMPLETELY different than the last time I was in there. The last time I was in there, it was a pretty sparse affair compared to what it is now and the floors were carpeted, not tiled as they also are now. I got there a bit early - the arrival was late, so I sat down and had a coffee at a bar, called my mother who is still up on her property and chatted with her a bit. I decided that I was going to spend some time doing some people-watching, so I mosied on over to the chairs that face the security area where they are irradiating people and groping their bodies.

I suppose by design, you can't just stand there and see all of that going on. The line curves off to the right and I guess if I had walked up to the entrance I might have been able to see more, but, I have also read about the overly excitable TSA personnel that think if you sneeze funny you are a suspicious person. I didn't go to the airport for trouble today, so I decided to just sit in the chair and watch.

What I found funny were the TSA agents themselves. None of them that I saw - which was at least 40 or 50 of them for the time I was sitting there - were anything I would consider a formidable person to reckon with. Not that a terrorist would want to do anything BUT try to sneak through, still, I just found it hard to believe that these people are taken very seriously. There must some REAL security around somewhere, I did see a couple of Phoenix Police officers not far from the checkpoint.

There were numerous other people around me in this chair situation and there were numerous languages being spoken, one of them I had no clue. Asian language of some sort. While sitting there, Garrett calls. He is the 21 year old that is renting one of my rooms. I hadn't seen him in about 5 days so - I wondered what kind of bombshell would land, such as: I am moving out or something similar. Instead, he stated that he had been staying at a friend's house, had lost all of his keys including his car keys and didn't know WHAT he was going to do, but that he would be home either later tonight or tomorrow. He was, in reality, very concerned about his rent payment, which he emphatically stated would be paid on Monday. I never spoke a word about rent and it hadn't crossed my mind, I was just wondering WHAT, exactly, had happened to him?

After that, 2 black dudes came RUNNING through the terminal at high velocity, full barrel. They bee-lined it for the employee line through security. Guessing they might have been a tad bit late for work. Numerous pilots also going through that line as well. Fin called to inform me the plane had just landed and guess it would be at least 20 minutes before they were actually off the plane and coming through. He was pretty much right on target with that guess. All kinds of harried looking people in a big hurry came through the outlet on the other side of the security checkpoint, I figured I would be looking for people in vacation mode and probably taking a slower pace, and I was not wrong about that, either.

Meeting Fin and Bethany in person was just grand. Marvelous people and a nice looking couple. Fin was hungry, Bethany was not, we ended up at Burger King. I don't get to eat hamburgers on my diet regimen, today I faulted on my diet and had a guacamole burger thing that was just plain delicious. There is nothing wrong with eating a nice burger at least once in a while! Well, I hadn't even sat down at the table and the cellphone rang.

A rather crazy couple - crazy in a good way - had come over to my house earlier to look at the old trailer. The lady was extremely interested in it, much more than the guy. She was using a tape measure and going over the entire thing and talking about the great possibilities of it - they want to move the thing to somewhere in Mexico and have it on a lot they apparently already own or rent down there. You know I don't really give much credence to anything Craigslist until the dollar bills are being placed into my hand. I informed them that I had had a couple of offers on it. The guy said, "Oh, just not high enough for you, I guess?". Well, no, not that, I replied, I was just waiting for the highest offer. I told them that I had told another lady yesterday that if I didn't get any higher offers in the next couple of days, she would get it.

Well, the call was that couple. "This is Diane, etc etc etc". Yes, Diane, how are you? Great, would you consider taking $650 for the trailer? I had it listed at $750 and figured to come down to $650. Sold!!!! were the first words out of my mouth, I want the thing off of my property and I want to take that money and apply it to paying down the other trailer. The caveat - they want to come tomorrow morning to get it. Well, I told her that I would have to find some place to get it notarized and she started talking about banks. Yes, well it's Saturday and though some banks are open on Saturday, they do not stay open that late.

I told her I would call her back. Finally get to sit down with Fin and Bethany, had a great, pleasant and entertaining conversation, replete with watching videos of their goofy, playful hound. That dog reminds me of Duke, my "Merle" Great Dane. As goofy as the day is long. Bethany showed me an electronic gadget she had acuired - I liken it to a mini-laptop though can't for the life of me remember what she called it. I would like to get one of those things, very nice little toy to have while stuck at a jobsite. It was a great visit and I would definitely have regretted missing the opportunity to meet up and shake hands. They are off to the Grand Canyon and other destinations.

Anyway, I left the airport. It is literally a 10 minute drive from my house to the airport or back again. When I say that, I mean 10 minutes from my driveway to a parking spot in the parking garage. So, that was an added plus, as after I left there I was now on a mission: get the title to the trailer notarized. Should have done that when I thought about selling the thing. Anyway, turns out that the UPS store 2 miles away from my house has a Notary Public working there, so I got it notarized for the grand total of $2. I was surprised by the price, I have not experienced much of anything cheap at stores like that in the past.

I came back home after the title affair and headed to the pond in my front yard. It was almost empty!!! I mean, there was 3 inches of water at the bottom of the pond!! You want to talk about shock and then into emergency mode!! What the bleep was going on here?!!! Well, whatever was going on, get water into the pond first and then find out what the problem is. Garden hose in, I immediately discovered the problem: the filter was clogged up to the point that it was causing the water being pumped into it to flow out the top, over the side, onto the tile it was sitting on and then - into the dirt instead of back into the pond. I JUST cleaned that filter a few days ago!! Well, it is a small pond - 130 gallons, didn't take long to fill it back up, the fish were fine and problem solved: clean the filter agents and I guess check them more often. I was just glad that there were no fish floating around, dead and they were all doing very well, that I could see.

As for tomorrow, well, those people said they were coming at 10:00 or 11:00 am after I called them back and told them the title is notarized and what time are you coming? Great. I am telling you that just about EVERY Sunday, SOMETHING comes along to try and cause me to NOT go to church. I informed them that I would be at church, but that the people that help me watch my property would be here and they would deal with it if I wasn't here. I wasn't about to tell them to come earlier or later, let them come when they want to - cash in hand of course - and it will be dealt with.

Sounds like a long day, but it was a pleasant one. My visit to the airport was interesting to say the least. Meeting Fin and Bethany just a very pleasant affair and I hope some day to maybe meet some other folks that I have known from blogging. You never know! As I already knew but certainly left with no less of a view than I did before going to the airport today: Fin and Bethany are fine, wonderful people, as good as it gets. Happy traveling! I'm guessing Bethany is going to be in awe of the Grand Canyon: pictures do not do that place justice. You cannot get out of a picture the depth and width and beauty of that place the same as if you are standing on the ledge, looking out over it. It is truly an awe-inspiring, natural phenomenon.

What's left today? Well, who knows, around this place anything can happen, but hopefully I can spend a quiet evening spending time in the Word, visiting with the trailer tenants and maybe a movie on TV. Yes, I am visiting the trailer tenants nowadays in the trailer since it is MUCH larger and has ample room to sit and visit.

Anyway, enough on this one.

G'day and G'nite.

ben