So I'm going to a jobsite today.  I go to the intersection, listed as in Phoenix, where the jobsite is supposed to be at.  1st Street & Roosevelt.  I am there, no construction.  I call the foreman.  Oh, I come get you.  He calls back, where are you? I'm at 1st Street & Roosevelt.  Well how can you not see the construction going on?  There is NO construction going on here.  The man falls just short of calling me an idiot for not being able to see the construction going on, I must be at the wrong place.

NO, I am NOT.  If he had actually insulted me, I would have hung up on him and called my manager. I will not tolerate extreme insults from contractors, I don't care if they ARE our customers.

Where are you at now? he asks.  I just crossed Central avenue, heading west on Roosevelt, looking for this alleged jobsite.  Central?  He replies.  2 and 2 finally equals 4 in his mind.  What city are you in? Phoenix, I reply, just as the paperwork tells me.  We are in Tempe.

I get to the jobsite. The entrance? I could drive the truck in there, but I wouldn't make it very far and I would have to back out of it.  Not a problem, but I call the dude anyway.  Is THIS where you want the pipe?!!  Yes, he states, but instead of coming through that entrance, come around the one off of Rio Salado.  The Rio Salado entrance?  This is insanity.  There isn't any room for trucks in there!  He waves at me to pull in, so I do.  I can always back out the same way I came in.  He wants the pipe rolled off at a certain location - blocking EVERYTHING that is trying to move in there.

And it takes a while to get the pipe off of there and roll up the straps.  Meanwhile, a barrage of cement trucks are backed up, waiting for me to move out of the way.  Some of them get out of there trucks, staring at me.  I could care less.  I have been held up SO - MANY - times by cement truck drivers who refuse to move out of the way, even if they aren't pouring cement.  Many of them are just plain jerkoffs with serious attitudes.  I rarely get the opportunity to hold them up and when I do? I still do my job and get out of the way as quickly as possible, but in this case, it took a while.

Well whatever.  Later on, Susan calls me - my sister-in-law.  I was driving the semi, I took the call on the hands-free device, but that thing is a total piece of junk.  Management knows it is but they won't replace it.  Not my problem.  You can't understand anything anyone is saying most of the time if you are driving.  If you are stopped at a light sure, but trucks make noise and it interferes with this kind of hands-free device.

I finally get to call her back - after another near-impossible job-site delivery, won't go into it, just take too long, but she was asking me a lot of questions about the trip.  She got a ticket to Seaworld that has a second day for free.  I don't have those tickets, mine are just good for one day.  She was obviously wondering about us staying a 3rd day to go to Seaworld, but I don't have that kind of money.  Entrance tickets are not cheap and there isn't time to win another Ebay auction and get them here in time.  Not to mention another night at a hotel.  Talking almost another $300 which I simply cannot afford.  If I had a wife with a job or if I simply had a higher paying job, yes, but it's just not in the cards at least not from any resources I have.  God, on the other hand, has supplied for me in ways that were unfathomable in the past - through people of course - but still, I recognized it as the move of God.  So who knows.  Maybe $300 will sprout out of nowhere and we can do the third day, lol.

But I'm hardly feeling sorry for myself.  We are going to have a great time, the time spent with my son will be worth whatever it costs and I am going to miss him dearly.  He is coming back from CA on Saturday.

Well anyway.  I haven't been sleeping well and I don't really feel all the great.  Lack of exercise, at least any type of exercise that is continuous and goes on for at least 30 minutes, so today, after work, I went to one of the entrances to South Mountain Park, parked my car in the parking lot, grabbed my water bottle and off I went.  At first I was surprised no other cars in that lot - it always has cars parked there with hikers or bikers going up the trails.  Took me a few seconds to remember that it is an afternoon, it's August, it's hot and most people aren't going to be hiking in this kind of temps.

This is nothing that has ever deterred me.  Don't over-do it, keep hydrated and know your limits.  If you don't know your limits, keep it short and pay attention to what your body is telling you.  Heat can be a killer - frequently is for people going up on these mountain trails.  There were several signs at the trail-head with heat advisories.  I ignored them. I have been doing this since I was 10 years old, I am not immune to the effects of heat, but rather, I understand how to deal with it effectively.

One thing I do before I go on such treks is start drinking a LOT of water LONG before I even leave the house - or today - work - to get there.  When hiking, you continue to drink water regardless if you don't feel thirsty - I was sweating heavily but not thirsty simply because of all the water I drank earlier - but this isn't good enough.  The desert catches up to people who either don't know or just don't think about what they are doing out there.

So anyway, I was distracted.  Shortly after I pulled into that parking lot and headed out on the trail, another car came in and parked right next to mine.  I had my cellphone, call the police if I must if something happens.  I watched them all the way up the various grades of mountain trail and got off the trail to come back down to be able to continue to watch them.  No idea.  They were still there when I got back - drinking 40 ounce bottles of - whatever that skank beer crap is called.

The reason I was distracted is that I had got out of my car, with my computer and my gun in the computer bag and placed it in the trunk.  I wondered if they had seen me doing that and if they were thieves.

I need a holster.  I don't much care for going up into those mountains without protection.  There are lots of wild animals up there and I have seen them eyeing me in the past, just standing in the distance.  There are also some pretty scary looking people up there.  There are homeless people living in some small caves.  I just think it prudent to have protection with me.  But I have been hiking in the mountains for decades - though I have had several scary interactions and a couple situations I thought I might up dead or at least injured. One with an angry moma javelina and another time with a Mountain Lion that was stalking me.

I stopped at the right time.  When I got home, I could feel it. To stay out any longer in that heat would have had some consequences.

Friday's a coming.  That would be tomorrow.

G'nite.

ben