So yesterday, those kids ended up working all day long versus the day before, where they refused to do anything.
The difference? I told one of them that if they didn't start doing their chores, they would lose the fresly installed satellite; guitars, fish tank and whatever else temporarily until their attitudes changed.
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I did not go over there yesterday and have pretty much blown off Wednesdays as any day to go there because they go to Wednesday church service and it goes on too late for me.  I can't go over there every day anyway, the fuel use is too much.  It's another 30 plus miles of driving which adds up every week to an already bloated fuel budget.  At some point I will have to decide whether I can bear this schedule at work and if I want to continue with it, because if I do, another mode of transportation that gets much better fuel mileage will be in order.  That would have to be a motorcycle, a thing of which I have mixed feelings about.

Haven't rode a street bike in a couple of decades now.

And let the cranking continue.  Regarding a 16 year old boy who feels it's appropriate to text in ANY situation - at the dinner table; in church during service; while people are talking to him, stuff like that.  So I started in on him about that last night.  Of course he didn't like, what else is new.  I don't care.  I say stuff to total strangers about rude behavior with cell phones - such as holding up a line at a grocery store because they are texting or talking on the phone instead of paying the bill.

There are no easy answers or quick fixes with these boys.  I try not to dump too much on them all at once - there are numerous issues each of them have that if left unchecked will not exactly have them ready to be "productive" citizens in society once they are of age and decide to leave home.  A glaring inability to be able to cope with interpersonal issues is one of the biggest issues in all thre of the teenage boys.  Eruptions into instant anger is the norm for them.  Lashing out and saying hurtful things to people is their modus operandi for even the most petty of things and situations where that kind of outlandish behavior is totally unacceptable given the scenario presented.  As far as these kids are concerned, I did not expect to be able to come into this situation and wave a magic wand and make things all better instantaneously.  In fact, I have wondered if in some cases any kind of reversal could take place at all.  But I will persevere and hope and believe that that isn't the case.

Whatever the case, all of the kids are going over to their dad's on Friday and coming back who knows when, the entire weekend?  No idea.  So no work from them this weekend meaning anything that gets done - will be from me alone.  The wood is finally dry, I think, where the water heater has been leaking so I can sand it down, get as much of the black mold out of there as possible, treat the cracks with more of the liquid that is especially designed to neutralize it, install wood and drywall and then install the heater itself.  She has another water heater in the house, it's not like they've gone without hot water for a week. I figure that finishing that project is pretty much going to take all of Saturday considering the amount of work to be done but finish it I intend on doing.

Finally got my Direct TV to work.  I figured out that the satellite dish that is there is not compatible with my DVR.  I installed my old dish last night and was able to get it up and runing within a short period of time.  I am not the biggest fan of TV, but I do like to watch some here and there, certain shows that I like but mostly movies.  It was nice to finally figure that out and get it going again, especially considering the monthly bill ofr that nonsense which is around the 100 makr because of all the receivers aat teh house in Phoenix.

Well, this entry waxeth long so time to end it.  On my way to work anyway.

G'day.
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ben