Mountains

Yes, up in the mountains once again, enjoying fresh, cool mountain air and a distinctive lack of big city noise pollution.  So, mom said she wasn't going to be up here this weekend or next, turns out after I left and called her to tell her I was coming up - yup, she's here.  I didn't know whether we were going to have a problem or not - I pretty much am not going to come up here without my dogs in tow. They absolutely love it up here, as much as I do or more, perhaps, I just wouldn't feel right leaving them at home.  I can think of a couple of circumstances where I might leave them at home to come up here to deal with things.

Of course, I was fully prepared for the fact that there would be mouse droppings all over the place, so no surprise to see it everywhere.  Brought my mini-shop vac with me and I went to town.  Took me about an hour, actually, to vacuum out the entire place, including my bed which had droppings all over it.  I have it done, but there is more cleaning to do tomorrow.  Mostly wiping everything down with antibacterial stuff and getting it spic and span.

So, the only real irritant was the Direct TV.  The card had been deactivated.  No choice but to call them - which I really hate to have to do considering my history with them.  One phone call, talking to a Filipino (I don't care for the idea of America farming everything out overseas, it is just one piece of the puzzle of why our country's economy is sucking so badly) but I bit the bullet and just dealt with the lady and she had it going - after 3 full tries.

Oh, fortunately I thought perhaps the bed might have had some mouse damage so I brought clean sheets.  If I hadn't?  Leave the dogs here in the pen and go to the Payson Walmart and buy a new set of sheets.  I have decided that if I am to come up here in the winter, I am going to have to buy another set of sheets.  But, mom left out traps and poison and decided that the mice hadn't been in here in at least a week.  Okay, but they had obviously been in here, lol.  I know where the mice are getting in and I will be dealing with that tomorrow.  I am also going to bomb this place with foggers when we leave.  Set them off and then stick around for a while  - I dunno, I just don't trust the things unattended until they are done and have filled the place up with their fog.

Something tells me that a mouse in here while we are here with that Catahoula dog around isn't going to work out too well for the mouse.  She's not a fan of cats or other smaller critters.  Which, in this case is a good thing.

Then there's Mark and Lynnette.  I am confident they are happy when I leave.  Not because they hate me or something, but because they pretty much have free reign of the living room - meaning one of them can come out and watch whatever they want. Though Lynnette does that sometimes on the weekends anyway.  Which, fyi, doesn't bother me, I watch a limited amount of television anyway.

So, to come up here in the winter means to remind myself that I am going to need a space heater. I have heat in the AC unit and I have propane heat, but I think a small space heater will be nice as well.  In fact, I'm not sure I am going to want to use the propane heater.  Rather just keep the propane for cooking and in the summer heating the water tank.  In the winter, the water system has to be winterized or - else - busted plumbing with freezing conditions.  No shower, lol.  Bring disposable cups/paper plates.  I'm cool with that, I don't normally stay up here long enough to get to smelling bad by missing one day's worth of a shower and besides, the dogs could care less what I smell like!  lol

And, finally, it also means I am going to have to consider getting a bit larger TV with a much better sound quality.  I thought this thing I bought on Black Friday was going to be a better unit than it is.  It will do the job for now. but I want something larger.

Speaking of trailers, I have had the one in my driveway up for sale on Craigslist for a couple of weeks now.  Not a single bite.  I brought the price down a bit with OBO.  I also put trades accepted.  I further put I would be willing to trade both trailers for a single bumper-pull trailer - with  slide-outs.  I may have to list the other trailer in the RV Trader and see if I can get any bites. I even put in there I would consider whatever trade a person might have.  Just keep at it until something happens or find a place to park it at an RV park and then sublet it.

Oh, can I just throw in here that it's going to get down to 54 degrees tonight?  It feels nothing that cool, yet, and this property is a higher elevation than Payson - where I am getting the closest temp reading - about 1,000 feet higher.  Nothing like having to use blankets to keep warm at night : )

Our 2 man store did $458,000.00 this month.  The month isn't officially over, but for business purposes it is, at least for our company and our division in the company.

I guess I'm done for now.  I want to read some news and see what's going on.  Though, there was a high speed chase in Phoenix today with a man that hijacked a car and ended up killing himself out near Tonopah - it's on the way to California off of I-10, basically.  They apparently got this on tape, the man offing himself.  I heard this on the news shortly after he had killed himself and thought about his fate, going before the Lord.  I can't judge the man, that's God's realm.  It just kinda hit me a bit heavy - even if there are those that feel the planet is better off without him.  Yes, and the planet is probably better off without any of us considering the condition of mankind, but that's a different story altogether.

I was heading back to the shop and was a half mile away from the shop to come upon a gruesome accident scene. It is by FAR the aftermath of the worst motorcycle meets car accident I have ever seen. The impact of the motorcycle hitting the mini-van was so severe, the front end of the mini-van was trashed, that thing was totaled and the frame of the motorcycle was bent in the middle.  I would be surprised to find out the rider of that motorcycle is still alive.  From the position of the bike and the mini-van, it was clear the mini-van had made a left-hand turn in front of the on-coming bike.

After that, I was in the semi to make another delivery, in the left-hand turn lane.  The light turned yellow and I was starting to make my turn when I noticed the SUV coming from the opposite direction was not slowing down.  Guessing it was going 60 in a 45 zone, I just stopped.  She was busy looking at her cellphone - texting - and not paying  damned bit of attention to the road.  She looked up, saw a  now-red-light and slammed on her brakes.  She was in the intersection by the time she stopped, but not enough to impede traffic.

Strange day in traffic.