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I am biding my time until bedtime, I am totally exhausted but if I go to bed too early, might as well not go to bed at all. I will wake up around 11/12 and that will be it.

The Neverending Summer. Tomorrow: 102; Thursday: 104; Friday: 104. Some reports have tomorrow at 105.

I was out front of my house earlier looking at the disaster it has now become. Okay, not a total disaster, but there is a lot of work to do out there. Some plants died over the summer, others need trimmed back, a major clean up. Plus cat dung.

The man who told one of my tenants that he was going to have me killed if I catch and dispose of any more cats? One of his cats is on my property, daily. It shits everywhere and thinks of my front yard as it's home. It is going to disappear, very soon. I am going to bait the trap this weekend and I am going to catch it and other cats that are visiting the front of my property and I am going to get rid of them.

If this man is serious about having me killed, well, I now well-armed is all I can say about that. I mostly doubt that he is serious, but who knows. He doesn't give a rat's ass, neither does the neighbor from Michigan that should be coming back soon, as to WHAT, exactly, their cats are doing on and to my front yard, ie: killing plants and leaving shit all over the place. I have caught a few cats out there maybe 6 months ago and stopped.

I am fully revisioned on getting this problem resolved. They aren't going to deal with their cats, I AM. I could care less about their threats, either. Maybe I should take my dogs over there every day and leave behind giant droppings all over the place and see how they feel about it. Better yet, just dump their droppings into a huge box and when it's full, take it over there and drop it into their driveway.

There IS no amiable way of dealing with idiots.

Yes, it does piss me off to get into my car every morning and see numerous cats in my front yard. If they weren't creating destruction and leaving piss and poop all over the place, I wouldn't care. But, that definitely is not the case.

You see, I was standing out there today, looking at all of it while feeding my front pond fish and watering some plants with the hose that need frequent watering, taking in what needs to be done. Well, if I take pics of the destruction those cats have done, you would have a better idea of what I am talking about and what I am referring to.

As soon as the temps drop, I will be out there spending hours on getting things cleaned up, trimmed and whatever needs to be done. Running into cat crap everywhere will only serve to inflame the ire I have against these people that think their animals can run all over creation, doing whatever they please, and when confronted about it, they just shrug their shoulders. Too bad, so sad. When the "Michigan Man" returns and his 2 cats start visiting my property nightly, they will also disappear. I will say nothing to no-one about it, not even tenants, I will simply do it and there will be no-one to point fingers at. They can point them at me if they please and if I am confronted about it, I will shrug my shoulders like they have done to me.

So, cooler temps are coming, even if the beginning of this entry doesn't reflect that. 95 high on Saturday; 92 high on Sunday. Next Friday: 81 high with 57 lows. That's open the windows at night and let the cool, polluted Phoenix air in. That's turn off the AC weather, THAT'S what I have BEEN looking for.

Instead, Mother Nature has not been very nice to me and my property this summer. I have had to do all the watering on the plants because of the extremely dry conditions. Sure, they have had ample rain to the east of me, but we didn't get it. A few drops, that was it. The monsoon season is almost over yet this immediate area hardly saw any of it. What little we did see wasn't enough to last very long in terms of ground saturation and I have paid dearly for it. The city of Phoenix seems fit to continue to raise water rates.

Whatever the case, I am mentally psyching myself up for the rather large task at hand that I will be starting on with the cooler temps. I have a pile of landscaping rocks I had delivered here last week waiting for me to "install" them. Not - not until it cools off. I wanted them here when it DOES cool off, yes, they can sit there until that time. They are on the side of my house not bothering anyone and Coco likes to get on top of the mound and lay there. Crazy dog, that CAN'T be comfortable.

As for work, well, I am - not sure. I work my @$$ off at work, to have an operations manager questioning my work ethic was offensive. I asked him about it in person and then wrote him an email and it's obvious I am not going to GET an answer from him. This isn't something I am going to let go. I will write him again and ask him yet again about where he is getting his information, though I already know where he is getting his information. His wife, who sits on the internet all day long; makes personal phone calls frequently and even leaves the building frequently to take care of personal issues. I am getting that this person tells him what's going on in the branch, yet - if she would have bothered to inquire about the incident in question, I would have given a very solid, concrete answer and I might have also questioned her about her work ethic, looking at the considerable time she spends on the internet for personal purposes.

How do I know this? Because I have only seen it 100 times - at least. Just walking by, she's sitting there looking at Barnes and Noble; Southwest Airlines for tickets to a family event in San Diego; internet sites selling baby stuff. Creating a double-standard and also speaking out of hypocrisy is malice at best.

Should I be writing this on the internet? I don't really care at this point. I will not tolerate my work ethic being questioned, especially after giving away free half hours of my time for YEARS to that company in having their computer system automatically deducting half hour breaks from my time EVEN THOUGH I NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO TAKE IT BECAUSE I WAS WORKING MY ASS OFF ALL DAY LONG. I worked my ass off all day long today, yesterday, last week. Dunno, don't care. A lame work ethic has never been a part of my background, personality, or makeup. I don't take lightly people saying such bs to me, I don't care what position they hold.

Whatever. I like the company, I like working there, the ops manager? The dude that used my work computer's communicator to write "gay" stuff to another worker at another branch, pretending to be me? Dunno what got into his crawl, but I do wonder what corporate would say about a man in that position that would use that position to harass workers that are under him. I have never liked working under poor management, the only consolation I have in this case is that the man above him, the General Manager, is of far different character and above doing things like that. I have serious doubts that he knows what happened with this communicator junk. I wonder if the recording of "keystroke" is still on corporate file.

Yes, every time I think about it, it gets me going. He got away with it, but only because I didn't say anything to anyone but at the local branch level and obviously, it didn't go any further than that. If it had, this would be an entirely different story right now.

Whatever again. I am probably a bit grumpy because I am not feeling well and because the woman tenant won't shut up and we just go into it. I constantly ask her to not speak to me. She doesn't care and she goes on and on. I just started talking over the top of her voice this time, I didn't want to hear it and I simply said "nothing" words to her to give her the indication that again, after asking her 100 times, I don't want to talk to her, I don't want to hear her voice, I don't want anything. She crossed the line twice over. First with attempting to turn my own son against me and second with accusing me of sexual harassment.

Anyway, almost bedtime.

Outta here.

Exhaustion

Worked 10 straight hours today. No breaks, no stopping for nothing, grind - grind - grind all day long. I don't mind working like that, mind you, but I woke up with a sore throat; headache and a low grade fever. It didn't get worse throughout the day, but it definitely didn't get any better, either. I was so extremely thirsty all day long - more than normal, I drank a couple of gallons of water. Yes, it's still warm outside and yes, the workload causes you to sweat out in the hot sun and yes, you get really thirsty.

So, I am at a job-site for a municipality that is replacing "trunk-line" water transmission line. I learned something today at that site. When thinking of replacing 36 inch diameter and larger pipe, you can't just shut the water line down. I didn't know that. The city waterworks department has to reroute water through other lines and keep it flowing. It sounded like the principle of electricity, where they re-route lines whenever main transmission lines go down, and yes, they call these waterlines either trunk lines or transmission lines. Interesting, if nothing else.

So, at the end of getting the truck unloaded - which took quite a while and they were using a giant trackhoe (excavator) to get the material off of it with, I finish my conversation with the foreman when I sense eyes. You know the feeling, someone is staring at you/watching you. I did an about face and was almost shocked to see what was there: at least 100 elementary school kids, standing in line, at the fence, with teachers interspersed amongst them. This job-site is directly next door to an elementary school. Apparently they were making it some sort of learning lesson, I guess. I dunno, but I got into the semi and backed out of there. This is more-often-than-not the scenario: go in reverse the way you came in forward. Frequently meaning long backing distances and going around turns and all kinds of interesting things that test a truck driver's backing skills. My statement to new or wannabe drivers is always this: if you are driving a truck but can't back it up, you are in the wrong business. Some of them don't always want to hear that.

Well, I didn't feel like doing anything after work, but not 5 minutes before I left the building, a man calls asking to come over and see the available room. Can't turn it down, gotta get it re-rented. So, he seemed to like it but admitted he was going to look at another place. No problem. Said he wouldn't move in until the 15th if he wanted it, that's a problem. I don't hold rooms, I inform him, without a cash deposit - non-refundable. I am straight forward and out with that. I did say that the other room was going to be available by then if he thought he liked the place and wanted to move in.

So, whatever. Writing up another ad after this entry and get it going, it's the end-of-the-month and this is a good time of year for renting out rooms. The middle of the summer never is, but for some reason, October and November usually bring a lot more prospects to the table.

Later.

ben

Tuesday 9/27/2011

I am not speaking to the woman tenant at all, now.
She has made allegations of "sexual harrasment" in speaking with my trailer tenants. Upon asking how, exacty, I did that or what I said which would qualify for such a serious charge, she had no answer. When I was done with the conversation in their trailer, I left and found the woman sitting directly next to the trailer, smoking a cigarette. She attempted to hide the fact that she was listening or trying to listen in on our conversation, I simply said to her to not speak to me - ever again. She has threatened to take me to court on these allegations, though, in reality, she has nothing to stand on. I have plenty of witnesses, thankfully, of her bizarre behavior around here, my son being the best witness of all.

She had asked my trailer tenants to ask me if she could stay until the 7th, when she gets her money. NO, was my immediate reply to Lynnette to tell her. Not that I wanted to drag Lynnette in the middle of this, but this woman goes over there and bangs on their door every day, wanting to talk with them. Not after what she did to my son and not after making false allegations of sexual harassment. She can go piss off as far as I'm concerned. She has no-where to go. Not amazingly at all, the people that are her alleged friends will not take her back, even temporarily. The man of that house told his wife that if she didn't get rid of this nutcase woman, he was going to leave her.

This speaks volumes in itself. I am simply resolved to get her out of my house, whatever it takes - legally - to do that. If it means taking her to court, then so be-it. If she stays beyond the 10 days, I will be down at the courthouse in a flash, filing the paperwork. If she starts ANYTHING with me, I will have her legally removed by Phoenix Police within 24 hours. Further, if she stays here beyond the 10th day, she will find that Direct TV will no longer work in her room, her access to the telephone will be removed and other, legal, things to make a continued stay unpleasant at best.

Drama. I half expect that sooner or later, I will end up with a nutcase and here it is. The woman is bonafide loony tunes material. She makes up stories and convinces herself that it's truth.

Anyway, on a different note, I got the car fixed yesterday. This time, the mechanic said it was a part of the wiring harness and replaced it. He first thought it was the crank sensor, but I informed him that it had been replaced - twice. Ohhhhh, he said, then he would have to get into the wiring because the codes showing up are giving him the clue that it's either the sensor or wiring. I dunno, I hope he has this figured out this time, because I don't really want to continue to spend money like that on this car. He had it running half the day and then drove it around to ensure it was "fixed". No clue, I hope it works.

Work - crazy busy. Yesterday was running around all over the place, today there will not be enough time to finish everything that is in there to do. I pretty much figure that because job sites shut down at 2:00pm. Yesterday, I was ready to leave for a job site at 1:53 pm for a final delivery, but they said they were going home, please bring it in the morning.

Ummm, sorry to tell them, but that isn't going to happen. They aren't starting up til' 7:30am and there is far too much to do to wait an hour into the day to get over there and get the load - unloaded. Who knows. I just do as much as I can get done at as fast a pace as possible and that's that.

My time here has run out.

G'day.

ben