So I was going to buy a new phone today.  My phone's camera is total garbage.  But, I wasn't going to get sucked into another "deal" like what happened last time and I got reamed in the end.  So we sat at Verizon wireless and he did his math, went to the back room and then came back saying I'd get the $300 discount "after you give your phone today".  Yeah, no, that's not going to happen. 

The really strange part is that they wouldn't - or said they couldn't - take full payment for the phone instead of this monthly payment garbage.  I just said thanks for your time, no thanks for the offer.

I'll buy one off of Amazon or Ebay before I fall for this sucker deal.  Really tired of the scams these phone companies play with people. It's just suck you out of as much money as they possibly can. They didn't offer another deal as I got up and walked out of there.  And I didn't care. Yes, I want a newer phone with better video capabilities, but no thanks, I'm not going to get into elongated payments.  

I also asked after he told me no, they can't accept full payment for the phone that if I decided to pay it off after 30 days, they would still revoke the $300 credit.  The whole thing just reeked of scam, I couldn't get out of there fast enough as this information came rolling out of this guy's mouth, who couldn't convince me as hard as he tried to take the deal.  They could give a counter-offer- but none was given.  So, I am guessing I will have to switch back to ATT for a new customer deal that usually far exceeds any existing customer offers. 

Over to the property early this morning.  Kids talking in the living room woke me up.  What can I say, I"m a light sleeper.  It was pretty much all done as far as the big trees go.  There's a couple more I want out of there - the tops had been broken off and useless to me.  No big deal, it was trees I wanted saved, but not damaged.  The dude got a couple of pine trees nicked on the trunks, one especially bad, that was disappointing.  He could have nicked any of those other trees I wanted to save and I wouldn't have cared, but the pine trees kind of got to me a little.  

I'll be calling out a tree expert to see if they can be saved. 20 years worth of growth isn't replaced overnight with a sap.  In fact, I want someone to inspect all of the trees and determine if anymore of it should come down.  But it was amazing to be able to see the entire quarter mile plus of the property from front to end. Giant piles of plucked forestry, that stuff needs .

I did hear back from the contractor - it usually takes hours at least before you get any kind of reply from him. It's just the way it is with him, it's no better with any of the other contractors in these parts.  But they are planning on burning the tree piles and doing dirt work.  Dirt work would be a dozer blading off the entire thing, getting the rest of the small stuff up that the trackhoe didn't get and smoothing it out.  After that I can put stakes in the ground and run strings from one side to the other and see if it's even close to level.  

I can also run 10 foot strings between stakes and see what the drop is. If it's an inch or less, it's fine. Over an inch and you need to get some dirt.  Optimally I would have a surveyor come out, but I don't want to spend the money on it, at least not yet.  It's a simple enough thing to find out if it's level or how far out it is. What a surveyor can do, tho, is put stakes in all over the place that show how much it needs to go up - or down - to level;. It's just that you pay them hundreds of dollars per hour for that. I'll try my method first and see how it looks.  

The point is that I don't have unlimited, deep pockets for this project.  I need to keep costs down where it's okay to keep them down and spend the money where I need to spend the money.  

Anyway, it's starting to get late - my version of it lol. I've got a run to Oklahoma tomorrow which is perfect, I can be back on Thursday morning and maybe get a 2 day run that would have me back Saturday night.  I just want to be around because something finally got done and perhaps, if I'm lucky, they'll drop a dozer over there and start doing that work as well.  It's a bit perplexing why I can't get him to give me a quote on a pond.  I've tried 3 times now.  I dunno, but I'm not getting pushy with him, he's got all the cards, I just have the money.