Heron Back In Full Force

I was pretty sure it was a Heron that had left a half a dead fish body laying on the ground, but now it's completely and totally confirmed.

In fact, the news isn't good at all.

Mark came up to me a few minutes ago and said he was outside, smoking a cigarette and saw a "giant bird" chasing after a smaller one, forcing the smaller one out of the tree.  The tree is a pine tree - 60 or 70 feet tall I guess.  This is what's happening to my Koi and goldfish.  It is NOT going to continue. This is guaranteed. I am not going to lose 2 entire ponds full of Koi and goldfish to some bird that thinks my ponds are the local Burger King or Jack In The Box.  SCREW THAT.

My first plan of attack will be to put netting or thick screen over the entire exposed pond.  It's going to be a pain, to say the least, to deal with this but deal with it I must.  I would actually love to be able to put a camera on those ponds and record whatever's happening for a couple of days and look over the recording to find out what time the bird is there.  This is important, because Herons have a routine.  They go to the same ponds, every day.  They add to that routine whenever they find a new pond or whatever body of water that has available fish in it.

Whatever the case, if I can get the above ground pond covered with netting and the in-ground pond that already has poles cemented in the ground also surrounded, this should stop the problem temporarily until I can figure something else out.  I cannot believe that freaking thing has decided to take a home in a tree that is partially over my property.  If it were on my property, I would scale that tree and deal with that thing once and for all. I was reading that there is probably a nest up there as well, something I would discard of immediately.

I'm gonna have to get off of that subject.  It's getting late - after 10 - I went to church and the prayer meeting and yes, it went on for a while.  It was great, though. The pall that was over the church on Sunday was gone tonight.  The word I sent to the pastor at the behest of a strong willed lady in the church who declared I should give the word IN the service and what kind of impact it would have instead of writing it out.

Freaking herons. Go to a public pond and eat all the stocked fish you want.

Oh, well she told me that tonight as well. Not in a haughty way or anything like that, just an exhortation.

If I get something clear at the next service, I am going to deliver it.  Whatever happens, I will get up, go the front, grab the microphone and speak it out.  I need to get my feet wet again.  I just don't want to say something that isn't from the Lord.

Time for bed.

ben

Well, more drama.  I go into one of my email accounts - I have several - and find an email from my dad that he wrote this morning.  He had sent it out to most of his extended family.  His "wife" kicked him out yet again.  He was an emotional wreck and he had to find a new place, allegedly and he was writing about all of the problems he is going to have in attempting to deal with it.  Then, I find another email he wrote this afternoon, saying that his wife was waiting for him at the door with open arms.

Look, this kind of drama I don't need.  If he wants to stay with a woman that repeatedly kicks him out and tells him to find a new place to live, then that is his problem.  If it were me, I would be a goner, buh-bye, I won't be seeing ya later; don't call me and I most certainly won't be calling you.  But, that's not the way my dad is.  I still can't understand why he wants to stay with a chick that apparently needs bi-polar medication or mood-swing therapy, I dunno.  Last time I got that same kind of email from him, I immediately wrote him and told him I would help in whatever way I could.  I guess I would have this time, but only after  waiting at least 24 hours to see if this situation had ironed itself out again.

Whatever.  I came home today to find the stove top covered with food and goo yet again.  I am assuming this is the new tenant's doings, because I haven't had this problem up until now.  Laughable at best to think this guy stated that he is cleaner than Mark - Mark is a clean freak and obsesses about cleaning things to the point of taking things apart to clean them.  No-one else in the entire house including me is "cleaner" than Mark.  I consider leaving the stop top covered with that kind of s*** to be the workings of a slob and the issue is being addressed by a notice on top of the stove.  If that doesn't work, then a face-to-face confrontation will occur because I can't stand having a dirty kitchen.  I want it clean and I want it kept clean.

Went up to Globe again today.  We sell pipe and fittings to store that sells the stuff up there.  We don't go up that often, but I like the drive.  Today, the guys wanted me to "take it up the hill". The store is already up on top of a hill - about a 15% grade to get up to it.  This other hill is behind the store and is extremely steep.  45 degree angle anyway.  Well, I got it up there but it was so tight, getting back out proved to be the biggest backing challenge I have had in a while.  So much so that I had to do a pull up after realizing I hadn't cut quite enough and the truck? Stuck on this hill. It lost traction even with inter-axle lock.  Sure, I could have kept going backwards, but I would have ended up taking out a fence and going into a ditch.

Had to have them pull me out with a chain.  But, no biggies.  Not the first time I have gotten that truck stuck - some construction sites pose problems with differing situations that can make a truck sink in mud or get stuck in deep and loose rock.  It isn't the end of the world and I consider  part of the job description.

Work week over.  I am still planning on hitting the church prayer meeting tonight, which starts in an hour and 45 minutes.  That is, of course, if I'm awake enough by then to be able to fully engage myself in such.  Well, I think I"m going to take a nap because I'm tired as it is.  If I can't wake myself up enough for the meeting, I just plain won't go.

ben

So it's Friday already, a very busy week almost behind me.

Between working 12 hour days and having to call my car insurance company - a dozen times at least - and calling Century Link to fix the freaking internet - which it is still messing up - I'll be glad when today's work day is over.  Oh and let's not forget whatever creature came and ate half of one of my fish out of one of my ponds.............

The insurance situation was simply the desire to have my windshield replaced on my car using my windshield insurance with no deductible.  It started with a lady on the phone who was asking endless questions, which I guess they all do, but after 15 minutes of this, she THEN stated that "okay, let's get started, this is going to take a while".  ???  What do you mean?  Well it's about a 30 minute "investigation".  But I just answered questions for 15 minutes.  Yes, that was the preliminary investigation.

Unbelievable.  I have had windshields replaced with insurance companies where you simply call them, tell them you want it replaced, 5 minutes later you're done, off the phone and scheduling a company to come out and replace it.  Not here.  We got "started" on this next "phase" and went on for another 10 minutes before she asked about previous accidents.  Yes, I was in one about 3-1/2 years ago with this car, minor bumper damage.

NOW, this woman wants to go into a lengthy discussion about an accident that occurred years ago and most assuredly had absolutely NOTHING to do with THIS claim. I asked to speak to her manager as I was sick of this s***.  She said no, company policy you can't speak to a manager.  That's when I knew things were going to turn ugly.  Company POLICY that I can't speak to a manager?  This went on for a while, I wasn't budging, she switched me over to a claims adjuster.  This guy was a real piece of work.  I asked this dude about the ethics of an employee that would tell me it's a "policy" not to be able to speak to a manager?  He didn't want to talk about that, told me he wasn't in customer service and eventually hung up on me.

I called back and talked to another lady who was very sweet, looked over my policy and informed me that everything was done, all I needed to do was to get a glass company and have them fax over their information.  This after the guy that hung up on me told me that I was "refusing to cooperate" and that this investigation would have to be completed  to get my windshield - and then hanging up.

Well, the glass company called them the next day and someone informed this guy that I had been "uncooperative" and that I had not completed the investigation.  He calls me to inform me of their statement.

I called back several times, getting the runaround.  I was attempting to find a way to call their corporate headquarters, but even Hoovers only had their 800 number listed.  Yesterday morning, I hunkered down, steeled myself and got on the phone.  One refusal after another.  The final adjuster I was talking to absolutely refused to connect me with a manager.  He repeatedly asked my why I needed to speak to one and I repeatedly told him why.  Apparently not good enough for him.  I finally just stated that if he did not connect me to a manager, I was going to call corporate (though I had no idea how, I guess do an extensive search on the internet) and have this phone call reviewed.  He still refused and I just started repeating "management please" after every time he repeated himself.

This finally got me connected to some other department, who connected me with another department and I finally got a lady on the phone who said, well, okay, let me get you a manager.  FINALLY!  Another woman got on the phone and yes, this was, after an hour of trying to get to that point, a manager.

I told her the entire story from front to end.  She was aghast at some of the statements some of the people had told me, including Ryan, the adjuster who had absolutely refused to get me a manager or the first lady that also refused, or the second person, or anyone after that excepting the final person.  She checked into it and said well, you are already good for the windshield.  No, ma'am, I am not.  The glass company called and someone told him that I had to call back.  This story unraveled and finally?  Yes, she was telling me how she was going to be contacting the managers over all of these people that had told me all of this BS and that they would deal with these individuals accordingly.

A certain feeling of satisfaction started creeping in.  These people all thought they were immune to any form of disciplinary action.  I asked that she ask those managers to review every single phone call.  ALL of those calls are recorded, they each explicitly state that before you even start talking to any of them.

So, relief hitting, I have a new windshield to be installed today while I am at work.

As for the internet, it comes on and off, I have no idea and neither did Century Link.

As for the pond, I don't know if this a daily, recurring theme or what, but I am going to have to figure something out.  Whatever (Heron?) ate that fish, that fish was about a $40 fish.  I got it when it was small and it had grown very large. It's a fancy type of goldfish and I saw them listed for almost $40 at Pet Smart the other day and those fish were smaller than mine.  Goldfish are cheap to replace - just buy another small one and eventually it will be a big one - but the large Koi?

Well, almost time to leave for work.  I have been neglectful of my journal but what can I say.  I have been too tired to do much of anything but come home from work, sit down, browse the internet for a while and then - go to sleep.

Church prayer meeting tonight, I am hopeful I can muster the energy to go to it, it should be good, very good.

G'day.

ben