I was up in Globe/mountains on Wednesday.
Took a large, stainless steel valve to the dude that occasionally orders stuff from us. He's not loyal to any company, whoever gives him the best price - but - when it comes to finding the hard-to-find/acquire stuff, he comes to us every time.

This is a small town and small town atmosphere with everyone knowing everyone.  Every time I go up there, I greet the man  - he has a large store, big warehouse, really the only supplier of it's kind in that entire area and so he gets a lot of business, especially from the mines - every time if he is there and we always get into a conversation as if we are old friends that haven't seen or talked to each other for a long time.

Well, the tamale man shows up when I'm out in the parking lot talking to this dude.  This guy is quite the character, the dude that owns the business, not the tamale man, for clarification.  It is very difficult to describe his personality and his voice is off the wall.  Anyway, he has the window to his car down talking to me, counting a large sum of cash - I am assuming for his store cash registers - and the tamale man says something to him. He tells him to get me a pack of tamales as well. I said no, that's okay.  He's like, no, no, Ben! I'm going to get you one!  Well okay.  I was reluctant because he has told me this before about food and it never materializes.

I would rather he not offer something than to offer and then reneg/forget/ space it out/whatever, makes for hard feelings after it happens several times.  Well he gets out of the car and continues on with it.  Okay, I love tamales, thank you! But the tamale man disappeared inside the store with them.  Well, off to my pickup I went and waited - and waited - and waited - for one of the forklift operators to actually have his permission to unload the truck - even after he had already seen the valve and said okay. It's just the way things work up there, I have gotten used to it.  Paid by the hour, I think, no biggies.

Finally, half an hour later, the guy disappears into the building, finds out about the valve and comes out and unloads it.  I take the paperwork inside.  Owner is standing there talking to whoever but finishing up. I wait until he's done.  Hand him paperwork to sign including the electronic gadget like UPS has to sign. He says nothing about the tamales.  This time, I'm going to test him.  Why say such things and then just give you the birdie. That's how it feels to me, anyway, when people say things like that and then blow you off.  Hey, can I get the tamales?  He's signing my paperwork, a foot away from me, talking to no-one, definitely heard what I said.  He looks up at me and completely ignores me.

Pissed.  I did not ask, hint or even want his f****** food.  I am not broke, I can buy my OWN damned food.  Why the h*** do people toy with other people like that? Because they know they can, know that I can't say anything to him or else get into trouble with my company?  Dick.  Okay! I know not Christian talk but I get mad sometimes, what can I say.  I just said thanks and turned around and left.

Well I ended up having to drive downtown after that and do an emergency run for pipe and deliver it out to a jobsite in the far east valley.  The salesman pulls up and asks how it went?  Shit!  What is WITH that buddy of yours? and tell him the whole story.  I see him the next day, he comes pulling up.  Yeah, I talked him, he said he totally forgot and said he was sorry.  WTF?  Dude, he was standing RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF ME! But what is it worth getting pissed about I started thinking, next time he offers me anything, he can just keep it. Salesman said yeah, he checked yesterday after everyone had gone home and there were stll 2 dozen tamales there.  I just looked the salesman in the eye and said you know, next time I go up there, if he offers me food? I'll just politely tell him no thanks.  If he insists, I will insist that I don't want it.

Whatever.  I don't CARE about the food, it's the mind games and the toying with people that pisses me off.  God knows my thought when I went up there is that I would stop at the Burger House in Miami and buy my OWN food with my OWN money.  That was my thought long before I got there.

I hope it's a while before I have to go back up there, cool down a bit and just let it pass.  This is the 3rd time this guy has done this, this is why I am getting upset about it.  I'm not some kind of damn moocher going around with a work for food sign and I don't go around hinting at getting freebies.  I would rather NOT live like that and I DON'T!!!!!

Yup, an area in my life I need to work on, I'l give anyone that much.  Just let it ride, right?  Some things easier to do than others.  Probably the Lord throwing this stuff at me to learn how to deal with it.  Okay.

Onto other things.  The water leak.  I was sitting outside in this beautiful weather on Wednesday, hearing a noise but giving it no thought.  Dull hissing noise.  Faint.  Was sitting there quite a while just thinking about things with that sound - but it was so faint, like it was coming from a neighbor's property.  But after 30 or more minutes of hearing it, I finally started to hone in on it and tune into it.  What IS that and where is it coming from?

I'm looking at my house, that is where the sound is coming from! Get up, walk over and see the block underneath wet and hissing sound much louder now, obviously I have a water leak under there. gag.  Too late in the day, I figured to get under there Thursday and find otu what's going on.  Gag again, yesterday.  Crawl under there and find a lake and a LOT of mud.  How long has this been going on?  It is a copper fitting - it is flexible so it can be adjusted to make a 90 or 45 turn and get to the plastic pipe that it attaches to.  It had been banging up against the side of the house for who knows how long and there was a small hole - but that small hole under pressure? A lot of water.  I cut the thing off - it's copper - get out of there covered in mud, head to my company's store and get a replacement.

Back to mud. Could NOT get all the water out of the lines.  The copper would not heat up enough to sweat the joint. I was under there literally for hours.  I finally gave up after sun was going down - got it sealed enough to have a leak but NOTHING like it was with that hole.

Fast forward to today and abbreviating because it is WAY past my bedtime. I had Mark shut the water over 3 hours before I got home from work.  I got under there with my new fitting, saw no water coming out of the line, stuffed some bread up in there and then, in less than a minute, had that thing hot enough to sweat the joint and that was the end of it: perfect job, no leaks, thank you very much.  Oh yes, thank you.
Lengthy discussions  with both m'lady and 16 year old tonight.  Can't go into that because would take WAY too long and I would just rather discuss tomorrow or whenever's prudent.

G'nite folks.

ben