Disaster.  Got a new dog for Addler to have a companion after landlord's move out and - this dog can scale a 4 foot chain link fence as if it's non-existent.  Ad already place in Craigslist to find it a new home. It jumps the fence, comes up on the front porch and waits.  Albeit the fact no-one is home.  No, the owners of this dog didn't bother to mention that little fact and it never crossed my mind to ask.  Now, they had a 6 foot fence in their back yard and the dog wasn't trying to scale that.  I dunno, but I have no attachment to this dog at all, so I'm going to find it a new home where it can either run free on a large property or someone has a  6 foot fence or whatever.

Found a trucking company with local hauling that is hiring in my town.  Pay is allegedly 55 to 65k per year.  My compliments at current employment came from auditors.  I put on a stellar show for them while they were there.  I was given 100% and the other drivers failed the entire branch because of their derelection of duty, is what I would call it.  Failure to fill out required paperwork on a daily basis, failure to adhere to safety standards among other things.  Of course, that irritated the new manager, but he still had at least the wherewithal to tell the other drivers to "do whatever Ben is doing".  That's his form of a compliment.

The general manager is in town, but he's sitting in the new manager's office all day long.  No interest to talk to any of them.  So, I don't.

My coworker has found new employment, and is now backtracking.  Supposed he is offered equal pay from the GM here on a verifiable job offer.  I could only refer him to the man that runs a plant down in Alexandria who gave him some very good advice.  That got him thinking but who knows.  I am still looking.  The people that keep calling me, sending me emails and even sending me cards in the mail is Marten transport.  They look like a good company - but - OTR.

Anyway, gearing up for the move of the landlords.  Running ads for the rooms and getting responses.  One person allegedly coming over this weekend to take a look.

I got tired of waiting for my LTC and called the TXDPS and asked them what is going on?  Well, sir, your revised application came through came on June - 15th? - whatever it was, they're telling me a background check can take 2 months and expect another month before I hear anything.  WTH. What kind of background check are they doing?  Moving ahead with my plan to apply for a passport the next time I take off of work, which will be soon enough for I have to go in with the landlord and have the water changed over to my name.  They want everything in my name.  I didn't do that with my house. I still pay all the bills every month - I wanted that, I want to know what's costing what and I have that ability with paying the bills.

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New doggy of course wasn't here when I got home. I posted 2 ads for the dog with no responses.  The previous owners weren't getting any responses, either.  After being at the house for a while, the dog reappeared from who knows where.  Soaking wet, smelly.  Nope.  I just put the dog in the back yard and figured he would jump the fence again and that's too bad.  He's now allowed on the front porch and he found that out straight up today.

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Now I understand why the new doggy doesn't want to stay in the back yard.  Their dog is not a very nice dog - it can be a real pickle - and is attacking the new dog.  New dog's name is Remington, I'm calling him Remmie cause 3 syllable names for dogs is just too much.  I let him out this morning and the  other dog attacked him right away.  I went off after her, but I can't be out there 24 hours a day. At the same time, they are moving the middle of next month.

I placed 2 ads to get rid of the dog and haven't had a single hit.  But, that isn't surprising considering the original owner wasn't getting any hits, either.  Probably because they listed the dog for $200 - I gave them $50.  Yeah, I am not a fan of shelling out big  bucks for dogs.  Addller is an over $1,000 dog that I got for free.  Anyway, I'm going to keep bumping the facebook ad in a local sell group and maybe run another Craigslist ad.  The only other thing I can do is take him to the pound, where they would undoubtedly kill the dog.  So I'm not really interested in that option.

The "cousin reunion" in Australia has been cancelled, at least for our side of the family for an unbelievable blowup initiated by my midle brother who lit off on a group MMS message on the phone.  I'm not even going to go into it, but it was blatant, overly excessive, full of language, accusation and a lot of other adjectives.  I wouldn't even think about spending that kind of money to fly over there for - what? The same thing that happens at Christmas get togethers?  Amazing he can make it in life with that kind of anger issue.

I'm considering the Hawaii trip at the beginning of next year but that is up in the air for me right now with a horid job situation and still looking for a new, local job.  The new manager allgedly has stated that if I go in there and complain about the hours of the pot head who was reinstated - and this is a good ole boy's club going here, nothing less - he is going to change our hour again from 9 to 5.  We were at 7 to 5, I said something about him getting far more hours than me and he changed it in anger to 8 to 5 and now stating if I say anything else, it's going to be 9 to 5.

Anyway, Saturday - morning to be precise.  I was online last night looking at Petco's sale on Iam's large breed 30 pound bags of dog food.  Amazing price at $19.12 per bag. Even Sam's club charges $28 something for that same bag.  How convenient that during this sale, however, Petco is out of stock.  Not only could have I gotten the food at a greatly reduced price, I could have set up repeat delivery for $18 and change per bag, which for that kind of food is simply incredible. Iam's is a sort of in the middle dog food.  It has meat in the first 4 ingredients, with chicken as the main ingredient and it's what I can afford.  The cheaper foods either  meat somewhere beyond the first ingredient and usually by products and usually corn products as the first ingredient.  All I know is Addler doesn't have to eat that much of the Iams and he is very healthy looking. He does get treats, of course, but still.

I was a bit peeved at Petco having this "sale" and not having it in stock.  I called them because I have never seen them out of stock - excepting for this wonderful sale.  They guaranteed me they would sell me at the sale price when it is available. But this morning, I though, I wonder if another online pet supply company has it on sale too? Maybe it's an Iams promotion to it's sellers.  Sure enough, a site I have used before - Chewy.com - has it for the same exact price, free shipping over $49 and repeat delivery for the $18 price.  Yup, signed up for that one.  That's $10 per bag savings.

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Quite a lot done yesterday. Getting the front of this house in good shape to have some eye appeal when a potential room renter shows up.  Numerous projects.  When it rains, the house is on a downhill from the street and the water just pools up right in front of the porch, right on the concrete walkway up to the house.  You can't use it - it's several inches deep worth of water.  So I'm installing a drain and pipe to take the water away, and yes, it rains frequently enough here to make that a project that needs to get done. I also finished up - hopefully, I'll see next rain - the gutter.  Same situation, when it rains the water just pours off the roof right down where anyone wants to walk up onto the porch and also a lot of water added to the pool of water.  Now it's diverted to  the side of the house and away from that area.  Lowe's had fllowers on sale for a buck per pot, small plastic pot thing, and I got several of those to add curb appeal.

Today, if I feel like it of course, I will continue with the pipe/drainage project. The hardest part is the the only place to divert the water is to the south side of the house and  to get it there, the pipe has to go under the concrete sidewalk.  I think I almost have that dug out, hard to tell when you can't really see what you're doing but I'm pretty sure I'm almost there.

Cleaned up the front porch and still, even after I get done with the pipe, more projects to go. The porch cement needs a fresh coating of concrete paint and the wrought iron posts holding up the porch are beginning to rust so all of that needs sanded, primed and repainted.  But, I wanted to get the most glaring things done first.  Who wants to live in a house where the rain water precludes you from actually getting into the house without getting your shoes and feet soaked?

I'm starting to get some interest in the rooms available - or will be available - now that it is starting to get closer.  I was looking at Craigslist yesterday and was surprised how many room rentals are being posted.  I thought this was a smaller market.  My pricing, at least, it right there in line  with everyone else's, that is why I went there looking at ads and saw quite a large number of postings just for yesterday.  So, I need to up my posts to at least once per day as the time to rent it out gets closer.  Earlest move in date is the 20th of August.  The latest I need to; get both rooms occupied is the 1st of September.

Back to the dog - this post has been written over several days.  I just haven't been into writing as much right now for the vast amount of things on my mind, the biggest of which is a very toxic work envirnonment.  I meant, the new doggy, it's a Dane/lab mix, jet black, great personality and finding out, fast learner and very obedient.  I didn't think I could work with a dog that will just jump the fence at will, but a few revelations have halted my desire to find him a new home.  First, "their" dog, the homeowner's.  It is not a nice dog in many respects and attacks the new dog - his name is Remington.  I am calling him Remmie for now.  Remmie is no figher, he's pretty chill, laid back and docile.  He's got an interesting look, I'll have to take a pic and  post it...I haven't done that because I thought I was getting rid of him.

Second reason beyond the other dog attacking him, is that the dog is a fast learner.  First, he would come up to the front door after jumping the fence and wanting in.  I took care of that post-haste: NO, you are NOT allowed on the front porch.  The dog learned that one quickly.  The first time he did it, he was muddy and got on the porch furniture and made all of that muddy as well.  Then, starting Friday, I just took him to the back yard, dumped him over the fence (no harm done to the dog, but I wanted him to go back in the way he came out) and told him NO again, you STAY.  I did that 3 times and then Saturday, he didn't get out at all.  So, if I have even a glimmer of hope that I can train the dog to stay in the back yard, then I am good with it, I will keep him and hope that it works out.  He really is a very nice doggy.

Onto other things.  I originally had decided that I would wait until my LTC license came before applying for a passport, but I have subsequently changed my mind after learning that it will be at leaast another month.  I am going to get my passport photos taken and then, when I take off work to deal with having the utilites changed over to my name I am also going to go in and apply for passport.  Opportunities to do things that require a passport won't necessarily come  along until I have one.

My 3 month trial program for home loan modification is 2/3rds over.  One more month and it becomes permanent and then I can get my credit score headed back in the right direction.  I have different things floating around in my head, nothing I am going to go into here yet, but plans for the future. It would require a good credit score and some business knowledge as well.  Anyway, my monthly mortgage rate is being brought down by almost $300 per month - and the total payment including taxes and insurance  is very doable.  I'm saving money wherever I can.

Along those lines, once the owners are gone, I am going to buy a shed and get my stuff out of storage and save the $43 per month.  I've let it go on indefinitely and it's time to deal with it.  They have 2 sheds but they are stuff full of stuff.  We were talking yesterday after I had done quite a lot of work out front and the lady was like: umm, when we come back is our house going to be all changed? she laughed. I said well if it is, it's going to be a good change! I already have almost everything I need to install a Koi pond out front - a small one obviously no more than maybe 3 or 400 gallons.  The one I put in in the back has been a pain because it's in the line of fire - rain turns the water black after coming through the trees and the trees are always dropping leaves and junk into it.

There is a place right in front of the porch where a small pond would be a wonderful addition and would compliment the appearance of the house dramatically if I did it the way I envision it. I know it's not my house but the cost is not prohibitive and it's more muscle work and motivation than money.  I pretty much expect that wherever I'm living, whether I own it or not, I'm going to leave the place better than when I came.  This will definitely be true here.

The thing that is sorely missing around here is anyone that actually wants to do some physical labor for a fair wage.  One person told me he would charge me $100 to haul a rather small amount of dirt from around back to around front.  You can't really get kids to do that kind of work anymore, they are spoiled, addicted to video games and physical labor is not any part of their MO.  I paid 2 kids in this neighborhood more than I should have to clean up leaves last year and they didn't finish the job.  I was pissed - but - live and learn.  Even putting a Craigslist ad and offering $10 per hour doesn't do any good.  I just resolved to do the work myself and gain the health benefits as well from doing that kind of labor, though I feel I get enough physical labor at work already!

The world of politics - I'm pretty much sick of it.  The bantering, the lies, the propoganda, the endless polls. Been taking a break from it.  I know who I'm voting for and listening to this constant stream of people from all sides is burning me out.  In fact, I'm going to see the new Star Trek movie today, 3-1/2 hourrs from now actually.  That should be fun, I haven't been to a movie in a while.

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Finish this and post it. 4 or 5 days (at least) in the making. Yes, I went to see the Star Trek movie and yes, I thought it was awesome! So glad I went.  A nice diversion from this current state of so many issues going on.  And so glad I saw it on the big screen, just gives such a different view of a movie when you have it on a huge screen with surround sound, it's just cool.  It was also interesting to see so many young people getting into a Star Trek movie.  Perhaps Star Trek still has a future.  Too bad the real Spock - Leonard Nimoy - died earlier this year. Such a great actor.

Got home from that, mowed the back yard and then landlords came home (they're really my friends, but I call them landlords just for reference sake).  Gonna miss them. They are moving in less than 3 weeks.  Gag. They had these HUGE steaks and invited me to dinner.  Sure!  He smokes them - there are 3 grills out back including my propane grill.  The smoker is nice but the part where you get the fire going is rusting through.  The main part of it is still in nice condition. It's fixable.  Ate dinner with them and watched - whatever that new movie is based on Finding Nemo.  I'm done for the day.  Face another week at what I consider to be a hellish work place.