Dannnnnng - dude - the weekend's almost here! The difference between a busy week and a slow week at work? One flies like a jetliner, the other crawls like a turtle. Speaking of jetliners - amazing that plane that went down today. It's amazing because no serious injuries (or deaths, thank God) were reported. A flock of birds caused both engines to shut down. Crazy things happen in this world, I'm just so glad for the people inside that plane that everyone got out alive.
So, I was reading AOL. Here's the story, and here's my take on each one.
Retail Rip-Offs & Sneaky Tricks
1. So-Called "Liquidation" Sales
The deal with this is that the retailer is raising the price so that the "liquidation" sale price is actually as much or even more than the regular price. I don't do liquidation sales, for the most part, and even if I do, I am a very well-informed consumer: I will not buy stuff that's obviously no better deal or worse than anywhere else.
2. Tricky Changes to Cut Costs
Packaging rip-offs. They are making peanut butter jars with huge dips in the bottom of them protruding upward into the bottle, and making cereal boxes the same heighth and width, but not as deep as they used to be. Again, if you've been buying this stuff for all your life, you are acquainted with how many ounces are in that box or bottle. Bacon, too. I found that one long before the media reported about it. I am a very observant, inquisitive person - I look at packaging intently. When I saw a package of bacon for $2.00, I was like, yeahhh. Then, I saw it was a 12-ounce package instead of the normal 16-ounce package. Put that sucker right back down.
3. Heavy Discount, No Rain Checks!
The statement here is that retailers are putting huge discounts on a certain product and advertising such - but not stocking much of it and then it runs out quickly. They then offer you something of the same kind/quality at the REGULAR price. NOT!!! I'm the kind of person that is visiting the doorstep of the general manager's office and asking why they have run out of the product so quickly. I noticed this happening recently, I didn't know it was a ploy by retailers. I want a rain check or I want something of similar value at the discount price. Remember, the squeaky wheel adage? That's me when it comes to retailers and the games they play, and the game I play in response.
4. The Price Isn't Right
So there's a sale on something, you pick it up and whatever else you're buying, head to the cashier. The statement here is that the product rings up at full price and you, the buyer (we're talking supermarkets here) don't realize that you were charged full price until you get home and start looking at the receipt - or you never catch it at all. BenB? I'm the dude you see standing at the front of the store, just after I paid for everything, scrutinizing the entire receipt. I catch things FREQUENTLY - and at Fry's, I get my money BACK for those things that are rung up incorrectly. They aren't making any money off of me in that arena.
5. I skipped a bunch - not important - and this is the next one.
Popcorn at the Movies
Yes, I buy popcorn when I go to the movies or nachos. I know it's a huge ripoff. I don't go to the movies that often and I just shrug it off. The thing this report didn't bother to mention is that the theatres make thier livelihood off of the concessions stands, they don't make that much off of the cost of the movie ticket. I read about this a long time ago. Hey, I want them to stay in business - I don't go often but I do like going - some things you just need to fork out and let it go. I consider this one of those things. I think this report they were doing is in light of ecomonic times. Well, if you're without a job and don't have any money, probably going to the theatres at all is a bad idea.
6. Skipped some more - not going to do 21 of these.
Brand Name Medication
This is old news. Generics have the same active ingredients (for the most part, you have to read the label) as the brand-name. I don't buy brand name pain relievers and such. I learned a lot from my mother growing up - I learned how to shop. That level of education was GREATLY increased when I became an adult and - couldn't afford a lot. You learn ways to cut corners but still get what you need.
That's it. The rest I didn't want to comment on. I don't buy organics, if I go to a restaurant like Denny's and pay whatever for the bottomless cup - oh well. I RARELY go to a sit-down restaurant anymore, it's a moot point with me. I'm guessing that many people are becoming much more informed consumers as their money disappears and they have little to work with. Food is a huge expense, HUGE if you have a lot of people to feed. As I have said before, now that Michael is only here on the weekends, my food usage has gone down considerably and my visits to Fry's have decreased accordingly.
As for today - Mary got her paycheck out of the mailbox today. I know this because it always shows up either on the 15th or the 30th, if not the day before, and it wasn't in there when I got home. Not that I would do anything with it - the fact of the matter is that I know she's been paid. If she doesn't give me rent money - all of it for the entire month of January - before tomorrow, I will be heading down to the courthouse and filing the forcible detainer. Well, maybe not. Fridays get awfully busy after work. It may have to wait until Monday. I don't really want her rent - I want to get rid of her. She's a nutcase - as my other tenant so succinctly put it - he's been on the receiving end of her s*** - but if she offers the rent, lawfully I have no choice but to accept it. But - ONLY if she offers ALL of it. I do NOT have to take a partial payment, and if I do - that negates my ability to file for the detainer for this month.
I did a V-Log today while driving - several of them actually while all over Phoenix, Casa Grande, Coolidge and wherever else. I don't know if I'll post one of them today, but - Fin's interest in this guy that has a live webcam while he's driving a truck renewed that for me. I have several YouTubes that I have done while in the truck.
Anyway, I'm totally hungry. Like, I had a salad for lunch and now I'm ready for something filling.
C'ya later.
ben
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Thursday Morning
I was awakened this morning - about 4:00am.
What woke me up?
It was hot in my bedroom. Considering it's the middle of winter and the night time temps are in the 40's - it seemed rather odd.
You know that stuff that goes on in your head when you just wake up and you don't really know what's going on.
I got out of bed, walked over to the vent and felt warm air coming out of it.
Put my clothes on (one huge disadvantage of living with other people - you can't just walk out in your undies into the "communal" portions of the house), went out there. Sure enough, the furnace had been turned on - and set to SEVENTY-FIVE/75 DEGREES!!
Then I saw the notice I left her last night sitting on the kitchen table.
I have given her at least - 5 notices anyway - in the last week. Last night's notice was telling her to stop having her friends knocking on Ken's window. They knock on his window to ask if Mary is there!
Whatta piece of work.
Off to work.
ben
What woke me up?
It was hot in my bedroom. Considering it's the middle of winter and the night time temps are in the 40's - it seemed rather odd.
You know that stuff that goes on in your head when you just wake up and you don't really know what's going on.
I got out of bed, walked over to the vent and felt warm air coming out of it.
Put my clothes on (one huge disadvantage of living with other people - you can't just walk out in your undies into the "communal" portions of the house), went out there. Sure enough, the furnace had been turned on - and set to SEVENTY-FIVE/75 DEGREES!!
Then I saw the notice I left her last night sitting on the kitchen table.
I have given her at least - 5 notices anyway - in the last week. Last night's notice was telling her to stop having her friends knocking on Ken's window. They knock on his window to ask if Mary is there!
Whatta piece of work.
Off to work.
ben
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Wednesday
JS, I noticed, is on again. My old blog is gone - I tried signing in for the fun of it under my old user name, didn't recognize it. I signed up the same thing all over again, but I'm not rushing over there. It's under the Wordpress format - I already have two Wordpress accounts and JS going under that domain is hardly anything noticable or laudable. Now, if they do something with it, great. Wait and see. I MIGHT start using it as a mirror blog like everything else I'm doing - but I don't trust it. Waste of time to post copied entries over there if it's just gonna go down.
I wonder how many of you folks feel the same way. The feel of my journal there is totally evaporated into thin air. They're gonna have to do better than that to get me wanting to use it as my primary blog and this, Wordpress and my LiveJournal place as mirrors. Frankly, I'm getting comfy here at Blogspot. I know, I'm a traitor to my own cause, oh well.
Anyway, I have this guy that keeps bugging me for me YouTube uploads. I have uploaded some vidoes of trucking down the road - this guy sends me emails all the time. My travels today were blahhhh, to be honest. In-city, no freeway driving, just driving down the road, babbling away. Well, I took a couple and am going to upload them. I have had - the most views I've had - is 54 on a particular video. That isn't very much for YouTube. But - maybe if I start making regular contributions from the truckers view, I could get that number up.
Ummmm - no reply email from Mary today from the rather long and very detailed letter I sent her yesterday. I left her another notice on her door. She has turned the hallway by her door, the main bathroom door and the other tenant's door into her storage compartment for 2 hampers and my vacuum cleaner. Because I don't go back there often, I didn't know the situation existed until Ken - the other tenant - brought it up to me. So, I put one hamper in front of one of Mary's doors and the other hamper in front of the other. I removed my vacuum cleaner and took it into my room. My notice provided that her stuff was blocking the entrance to the bathroom - which it was! What is WITH this woman? My message also included that if it happened again, she would be able to find her hampers or whatever - in the STORAGE SHED OUTSIDE.
I was on the phone for over an hour with our monthly meeting that is both visited in person and via webcast. I visited webcast, but only by the phone. So, I'm on the phone for an hour, walking around outside watering plants and making sure things are kosher out there. When I'm done and the meeting is over, I noticed the notice had been removed from her door and the hampers were gone. I also heard her come out a few minutes ago and then go back into "one" of her rooms, slamming the door behind her. Provocation for another notice: nothing is going to be done in anger around here that either disturbs anyone's peace OR causes or potentially causes damage to my property. Slamming doors can do damage - I know from experience.
Ummm, not a lot more. I'm enjoying some of the rather bland looking plants I planted that I didn't really want to plant - just branches shooting in all directions with some thick leaves. Recently, they decided they liked it here and started putting some very beautiful flowers! Cooooooool!!
Guess they have to figure out whether they want to stay - or go permanently.
Oh, and back to Mary, I will be wanting an answer from her about whether she's staying or going. But - I get paid on Friday. She gets paid tomorrow. If I don't receive dineros by Monday - after my check is deposited and I actually have access to the money and can go down to the Justice Court and file the paperwork - Forcible Detainer action will proceed. I'm not asking her for the money - she'll have to WANT to give it to me, cause' I'd just as soon get rid of her. Now, to qualify this, I did give her a full explanation of why her presence is no longer desired here, including a lot of stuff about my son, Michael and Ken, not to mention my own feelings, especially about the shit she pulled with Caleb. I'm quite serious: If she ever does anything like that to Caleb again, I'm going to call the police over here and see if I can press some kind of child abuse charges. Whatever. Just a never-ending story about tenants.
I'm hungry. I hate to make people start drooling about food when they read my journal, but about this time of day, I'm thinking food. I had a Super Nachos from a Mexican restaurant today, but I only ate half of it. My stomach told me full quickly, and that's when I end the eating. Now? Some veggies and a little meat sound good. I thoroughly enjoyed my spinach last night - turned into Popeye and actually ate a whole can's worth of it along with the meal I had. Funny how much food affects your life. You can't live without it, but too much of it can mess you up bad. Eating too much of the wrong stuff can also have that effect. Eating too little wears you out and you don't have much energy. It's a strange phenomenon. I mean, if you drink too much, you CAN just stop drinking. If you gamble too much - you CAN stop gambling. If you eat too much? You can't just STOP eating altogether!
I don't have a problem with food - I eat when my stomach tells me it's time. Only certain times of the year do I go overboard - and regret it afterwards in feeling bad or even ill - most of the time I'm eating good meats and at work a lot of salads. NO WAY I will ever do the vegetarian thing. I love vegetables - but I must have my meat. I don't care if it's beef, pork or chicken, I have to have some of it. Tonight's fare? I just want to put some ground beef (landed some 93% lean stuff on sale) in a skillet along with some tomatoes, onions and whatever else I have in there, cook it. Dump a couple of eggs on top of it - let those cook a few minutes and then put some cheese on top of that with some spices - and maybe some fat-free sour cream. OH, sounds terrible. Yes, it's very, very bad, never try that recipe, lol. Ummm, well the tomatoes actually don't go in until near the end - they don't take long to cook and soften up considerably. Onions a totally different story.
I've made myself hungry.
Gonna go hit that stuff.
ben
I wonder how many of you folks feel the same way. The feel of my journal there is totally evaporated into thin air. They're gonna have to do better than that to get me wanting to use it as my primary blog and this, Wordpress and my LiveJournal place as mirrors. Frankly, I'm getting comfy here at Blogspot. I know, I'm a traitor to my own cause, oh well.
Anyway, I have this guy that keeps bugging me for me YouTube uploads. I have uploaded some vidoes of trucking down the road - this guy sends me emails all the time. My travels today were blahhhh, to be honest. In-city, no freeway driving, just driving down the road, babbling away. Well, I took a couple and am going to upload them. I have had - the most views I've had - is 54 on a particular video. That isn't very much for YouTube. But - maybe if I start making regular contributions from the truckers view, I could get that number up.
Ummmm - no reply email from Mary today from the rather long and very detailed letter I sent her yesterday. I left her another notice on her door. She has turned the hallway by her door, the main bathroom door and the other tenant's door into her storage compartment for 2 hampers and my vacuum cleaner. Because I don't go back there often, I didn't know the situation existed until Ken - the other tenant - brought it up to me. So, I put one hamper in front of one of Mary's doors and the other hamper in front of the other. I removed my vacuum cleaner and took it into my room. My notice provided that her stuff was blocking the entrance to the bathroom - which it was! What is WITH this woman? My message also included that if it happened again, she would be able to find her hampers or whatever - in the STORAGE SHED OUTSIDE.
I was on the phone for over an hour with our monthly meeting that is both visited in person and via webcast. I visited webcast, but only by the phone. So, I'm on the phone for an hour, walking around outside watering plants and making sure things are kosher out there. When I'm done and the meeting is over, I noticed the notice had been removed from her door and the hampers were gone. I also heard her come out a few minutes ago and then go back into "one" of her rooms, slamming the door behind her. Provocation for another notice: nothing is going to be done in anger around here that either disturbs anyone's peace OR causes or potentially causes damage to my property. Slamming doors can do damage - I know from experience.
Ummm, not a lot more. I'm enjoying some of the rather bland looking plants I planted that I didn't really want to plant - just branches shooting in all directions with some thick leaves. Recently, they decided they liked it here and started putting some very beautiful flowers! Cooooooool!!
Guess they have to figure out whether they want to stay - or go permanently.
Oh, and back to Mary, I will be wanting an answer from her about whether she's staying or going. But - I get paid on Friday. She gets paid tomorrow. If I don't receive dineros by Monday - after my check is deposited and I actually have access to the money and can go down to the Justice Court and file the paperwork - Forcible Detainer action will proceed. I'm not asking her for the money - she'll have to WANT to give it to me, cause' I'd just as soon get rid of her. Now, to qualify this, I did give her a full explanation of why her presence is no longer desired here, including a lot of stuff about my son, Michael and Ken, not to mention my own feelings, especially about the shit she pulled with Caleb. I'm quite serious: If she ever does anything like that to Caleb again, I'm going to call the police over here and see if I can press some kind of child abuse charges. Whatever. Just a never-ending story about tenants.
I'm hungry. I hate to make people start drooling about food when they read my journal, but about this time of day, I'm thinking food. I had a Super Nachos from a Mexican restaurant today, but I only ate half of it. My stomach told me full quickly, and that's when I end the eating. Now? Some veggies and a little meat sound good. I thoroughly enjoyed my spinach last night - turned into Popeye and actually ate a whole can's worth of it along with the meal I had. Funny how much food affects your life. You can't live without it, but too much of it can mess you up bad. Eating too much of the wrong stuff can also have that effect. Eating too little wears you out and you don't have much energy. It's a strange phenomenon. I mean, if you drink too much, you CAN just stop drinking. If you gamble too much - you CAN stop gambling. If you eat too much? You can't just STOP eating altogether!
I don't have a problem with food - I eat when my stomach tells me it's time. Only certain times of the year do I go overboard - and regret it afterwards in feeling bad or even ill - most of the time I'm eating good meats and at work a lot of salads. NO WAY I will ever do the vegetarian thing. I love vegetables - but I must have my meat. I don't care if it's beef, pork or chicken, I have to have some of it. Tonight's fare? I just want to put some ground beef (landed some 93% lean stuff on sale) in a skillet along with some tomatoes, onions and whatever else I have in there, cook it. Dump a couple of eggs on top of it - let those cook a few minutes and then put some cheese on top of that with some spices - and maybe some fat-free sour cream. OH, sounds terrible. Yes, it's very, very bad, never try that recipe, lol. Ummm, well the tomatoes actually don't go in until near the end - they don't take long to cook and soften up considerably. Onions a totally different story.
I've made myself hungry.
Gonna go hit that stuff.
ben
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Tuesday
Tired. Work was a non-ending series of one thing after another for 10 hours straight, no break and didn't have time to eat. Take that back, early this morning I stopped at Q-trip for a coffee and had a small taquito. That isn't enough food for an entire day's worth of work. Actually, I'm more than just tired, I'm spent, burnt, toasted and fried. I kind of miss those days, though, because days just fly by and having to worry about weight-loss and what I am eating is a moot point - barely eating and expending that much energy keeps you pretty lean and trim, if I do say so myself.
Even when I got home, all was/is not over. The exterminator - a thing I can ill-afford right now but the idea of getting stung by another scorpion is a worse fate than being totally broke - showed up at my house the same time I did. Which sent me into a frenzy of making sure everything is picked up and also cleaning up today's dog dung. Wanted the dirt/sand/rocks to be sprayed, not dog poop.
Umm, so I just finished making pork chops/gravy/mashed potatoes/spinach. Dumped the gravy over everything and I feel SO much better after having eaten something.
There isn't much else - just cause' I've emptied the brain for the most part of all the junk. Just to have some peace. Issues come and go, I need peace in my mind and heart to walk through all of it.
Really, I'm done for this entry, maybe the night. I figure to head to the bedroom early tonight, watch some TV, get drowsy and get (hopefully) a good night's sleep.
Bidding you all the same.
ben
Even when I got home, all was/is not over. The exterminator - a thing I can ill-afford right now but the idea of getting stung by another scorpion is a worse fate than being totally broke - showed up at my house the same time I did. Which sent me into a frenzy of making sure everything is picked up and also cleaning up today's dog dung. Wanted the dirt/sand/rocks to be sprayed, not dog poop.
Umm, so I just finished making pork chops/gravy/mashed potatoes/spinach. Dumped the gravy over everything and I feel SO much better after having eaten something.
There isn't much else - just cause' I've emptied the brain for the most part of all the junk. Just to have some peace. Issues come and go, I need peace in my mind and heart to walk through all of it.
Really, I'm done for this entry, maybe the night. I figure to head to the bedroom early tonight, watch some TV, get drowsy and get (hopefully) a good night's sleep.
Bidding you all the same.
ben
Monday, January 12, 2009
Monday
For a day that had me doing no deliveries at work, it certainly was busy. I left the yard this morning and didn't return until an hour before time to go home. Driving the semi all over Phoenix.
Tomorrow will be more of the same. Pick up a load of pipe at a manufacturer, go back to the yard, load up more stuff and then take the material out to the intended jobsite.
Back to Phoenix, load up for Wednesday. Wednesday I am doing the "Tucson Run". Every Wednesday the main branch loads up a semi headed for Tucson or Tucson loads up a semi headed for Phoenix. They take turns. This time, it's our branch because we need some 40 foot pipe to deliver to a jobsite and the boss said he would do the run this time since we need it done that day.
Whenever I come home from work, the dogs are all excited to see me. Wagging their tails, making all kinds of noise, basic chaos. Then, when I get changed and come in here to write up a fresh entry, they all lay down and pass out - as if they have been going all day long! I'm serious, only in a dog's life.
Anyway, the letter wars move on. Mary left me yet another note this morning, replete with a small trash canister full of trash. Her complaint? That "no-one else is cleaning up this bathroom, I am cleaning it up 3 times a week", yada yada yada. I stopped cleaning the tenant's bathroom some months ago - I don't use that bathroom and the tenants should be accountable for cleaning up after themselves.
The note included the statement that she had cleaned up the bathroom floor with paper towels stated that I needed to look at those dirty towels - in the trash can - in front of my computer. I did not look into the trash can and I put it back in front of her door. It isn't my trash and frankly, her attitude around her is going further and further south with each passing day. Heck, it isn't even my trash can! It must be hers, I doubt the new tenant put one in there.
I thought about responding that she took clean dishes out of the dishwasher this morning, some of her cups, but didn't bother to put the rest of them away. Or the fact that she never takes out the trash in the kitchen. Or the fact that I have requested several times that she not do partial loads of laundry - wasting energy and water. Or a lot of other things. Instead, I am not replying to her at all. I have given her all the notices that need be given, unless something else comes up, we aren't on speaking terms; my son, Michael, their friends and Ken, the newer tenant - ALL dislike her greatly. Her sour, rancid, obnoxious attitude and behavior around here has gone far enough. Tomorrow marks the first day that I can go to court and file for eviction. Money is tight, so - not doing that until I get paid. If she pays me the rent, then I will definitely be considering giving her a 30-day notice. That's simply a notice that says the rental agreement will end and will not be renewed after 30 days. I think I have to give that at the last day of the month.
I tried to call the new mortgage company today - the same recording I have gotten every time I call. It states that wait times are long, we apologize, yada yada. The MagicJack has quit working altogether and I don't want to waste minutes of my company's cell phone time on a call that has nothing to do with my company. I guess I'll have to do it on the landline at work - though I do have a new Magic Jack device ordered and it has been sent out.
I'm guessing Michael is gone for the week and definitely so is Caleb, so I only have my mouth to feed. I have some leftovers from this weekend. Most notably, after I made the chicken and rice casserole, on the same day, I also just cooked up the other package of chicken. It was going to go bad - at least by the date and usually those dates on those packages are pretty close or even right on. I am going to use some Mexican tomato sauce (spicey), tear up the chicken into pieces, mix the sauce in with it, cook it for a while, and then make chicken tacos out of it. They are QUITE good, much better than you might think. Everyone traditionally thinks of beef, and yes, beef is wonderfully good in tacos - but the chicken is a different twist/taste and it's pretty darn good. Not to mention the fact that I love tacos.
Umm, well this entry is getting long and I have some things to do. Must go out and check the freshly planted plants - probably need more watering I'm guessing. Dog dung needs cleaned up - of course, a daily chore - and whatever else my eye spots out there or in here to do.
ben
Tomorrow will be more of the same. Pick up a load of pipe at a manufacturer, go back to the yard, load up more stuff and then take the material out to the intended jobsite.
Back to Phoenix, load up for Wednesday. Wednesday I am doing the "Tucson Run". Every Wednesday the main branch loads up a semi headed for Tucson or Tucson loads up a semi headed for Phoenix. They take turns. This time, it's our branch because we need some 40 foot pipe to deliver to a jobsite and the boss said he would do the run this time since we need it done that day.
Whenever I come home from work, the dogs are all excited to see me. Wagging their tails, making all kinds of noise, basic chaos. Then, when I get changed and come in here to write up a fresh entry, they all lay down and pass out - as if they have been going all day long! I'm serious, only in a dog's life.
Anyway, the letter wars move on. Mary left me yet another note this morning, replete with a small trash canister full of trash. Her complaint? That "no-one else is cleaning up this bathroom, I am cleaning it up 3 times a week", yada yada yada. I stopped cleaning the tenant's bathroom some months ago - I don't use that bathroom and the tenants should be accountable for cleaning up after themselves.
The note included the statement that she had cleaned up the bathroom floor with paper towels stated that I needed to look at those dirty towels - in the trash can - in front of my computer. I did not look into the trash can and I put it back in front of her door. It isn't my trash and frankly, her attitude around her is going further and further south with each passing day. Heck, it isn't even my trash can! It must be hers, I doubt the new tenant put one in there.
I thought about responding that she took clean dishes out of the dishwasher this morning, some of her cups, but didn't bother to put the rest of them away. Or the fact that she never takes out the trash in the kitchen. Or the fact that I have requested several times that she not do partial loads of laundry - wasting energy and water. Or a lot of other things. Instead, I am not replying to her at all. I have given her all the notices that need be given, unless something else comes up, we aren't on speaking terms; my son, Michael, their friends and Ken, the newer tenant - ALL dislike her greatly. Her sour, rancid, obnoxious attitude and behavior around here has gone far enough. Tomorrow marks the first day that I can go to court and file for eviction. Money is tight, so - not doing that until I get paid. If she pays me the rent, then I will definitely be considering giving her a 30-day notice. That's simply a notice that says the rental agreement will end and will not be renewed after 30 days. I think I have to give that at the last day of the month.
I tried to call the new mortgage company today - the same recording I have gotten every time I call. It states that wait times are long, we apologize, yada yada. The MagicJack has quit working altogether and I don't want to waste minutes of my company's cell phone time on a call that has nothing to do with my company. I guess I'll have to do it on the landline at work - though I do have a new Magic Jack device ordered and it has been sent out.
I'm guessing Michael is gone for the week and definitely so is Caleb, so I only have my mouth to feed. I have some leftovers from this weekend. Most notably, after I made the chicken and rice casserole, on the same day, I also just cooked up the other package of chicken. It was going to go bad - at least by the date and usually those dates on those packages are pretty close or even right on. I am going to use some Mexican tomato sauce (spicey), tear up the chicken into pieces, mix the sauce in with it, cook it for a while, and then make chicken tacos out of it. They are QUITE good, much better than you might think. Everyone traditionally thinks of beef, and yes, beef is wonderfully good in tacos - but the chicken is a different twist/taste and it's pretty darn good. Not to mention the fact that I love tacos.
Umm, well this entry is getting long and I have some things to do. Must go out and check the freshly planted plants - probably need more watering I'm guessing. Dog dung needs cleaned up - of course, a daily chore - and whatever else my eye spots out there or in here to do.
ben
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Steelers WON!!!
Dang, whatta game.
First thing they show is snow coming down.
I take that as a GREAT sign for the Steelers - I have seen them playing their best in snow, rain and mud.
Chargers score right off the bat. I mean, I think it was 3 plays and they scored a TD.
Didn't care, beginning of game.
The rest of the game was history.
I wonder if history will show a Cardinals V Steelers game,
or possibly Pennsylvania game?
Or - no Steelers at all. Gag.
No thanks.
Ravens up next.
I'm done for the weekend.
Made absolutely delicious hamburgers with several kinds of melted cheeses; fried tomatoes; fried onions; avocado; bacon; ranch dressing on toasted wheat bread and a tad smickens of ketchup.
YUMMMMMM.
G'nite.
ben
First thing they show is snow coming down.
I take that as a GREAT sign for the Steelers - I have seen them playing their best in snow, rain and mud.
Chargers score right off the bat. I mean, I think it was 3 plays and they scored a TD.
Didn't care, beginning of game.
The rest of the game was history.
I wonder if history will show a Cardinals V Steelers game,
or possibly Pennsylvania game?
Or - no Steelers at all. Gag.
No thanks.
Ravens up next.
I'm done for the weekend.
Made absolutely delicious hamburgers with several kinds of melted cheeses; fried tomatoes; fried onions; avocado; bacon; ranch dressing on toasted wheat bread and a tad smickens of ketchup.
YUMMMMMM.
G'nite.
ben
Sunday
Wow!!
What a mess those 2 games were yesterday!
Unbelievable. Underdog teams win - the Cardinals handed a roasting to the Panthers, definitely some entertaining games.
Gets me to fretting about today's Steeler's game. Charger's fans will undoubtedly be hoping their team is going to win, but I would think most people would definitely give the greater odds to the Steelers in pulling off a victory.
Considering yesterday's games, that's definitely up in the air.
I left Mary 3 notices on her door last night. One was a notice of doubled rent - she has both rooms locked and I am not going to just sit here and do nothing about it. If she wants to occupy both rooms, then her rent is going to be doubled.
Second was notice of peaceable enjoyment for the other tenant, ie: excessive noise to stop after 10:00 pm with the story printed on the notice of what allegedly happened.
Third was final notice to either give me a key to the new door or the door lock is going to be drilled out. I'll do it, too, with Caleb videoing the event on my digital camera - it takes almost 25 minutes worth of video on that thing and certainly good enough quality to see clearly what's going on.
Mary left me a another message saying she would give me a key today and demanding a receipt. I didn't give her one in December - she can have her receipt, in fact, already typed and printed. I have my recorder not terribly far away as I am getting this "feeling" that things may start to escalate. No way am I going to leave myself unprotected. One of those situations where video surveillancde will be recording whenever she's around me and audio tape will be push-buttons away from recording any nasty verbiage.
I am not hoping for such, of course, but I am not going to leave myself unprepared.
I accomplished in planting fully 5 plants yesterday. I sorta stopped for a while cause' I was just tired of digging holes. The plants have done fine in the planters - yes I still have plants from that auction that are sitting in planters, waiting for me to plant them. They are flowering and doing well in the pots, so no big deal. I still have more to go, too, but I don't know that I'm going to get all that done today. I also removed that fencing I put up to keep the dogs out, rolled all of that up and put it off into a corner.
Still plenty of work to do around here, some of it I can accomplish, the rest will wait on finances - maybe a LONG time on the finance issue. I am hopefully getting the Safe Driver Award bonus - which is a full week's paycheck, but - that's just bill money. If I thought I could get 4 or 5 tons of landscaping rock over here for the east side of the house for $200, I might consider doing that with some of that money. But - alas - bills take precedence.
In the news:
5 pirates drowned and lost their ransom money when their boat capsized. I actually didn't laugh at that, but plenty of people did at work and here. I tend to take the scripture that says something like not laughing at another man's calamity quite seriously - as the scripture goes further to say that the Lord can stop the calamitous effect on that person and turn it on YOU. Hmmm. I'll have to get that out and read it again, I don't want to be muddying up the Word.
Apparently Microsoft "got the message" and is putting out a new version of windows. And how much will this OS cost? I have a $100 disc sitting here for Windows XP, doubt I'll be rushing to any stores to shell out probably at least $200 for a new system. It isn't available commercially yet, they are supposedly giving away free beta test runs of it. I never even considered Windows Vista because out of the 50 plus people that I had personal encounters with it over the span of time it has been out, only ONE said they liked it.
Israelia forces are in the "suburbs" of the city of Gaza, apparently. The world is denouncing the offensive. I don't much care for the civilian casualities on either side, but consider this: If Mexico or Canada suddenly decided one day to start launching rockets from their border into ours, does anyone honestly believe we would just sit here and take it without launching a MASSIVE counter-offensive? No, I didn't think so. Would any of these nations that are denouncing the Israeli offensive just sit there and take it, either? No, I didn't think so. Israel has the right to protect it's borders, period.
And then there's the bizarre news. The week has been full of it. For example, this guy that waits in line at a bank to do a bank robbery with a toy gun. Undoubtedly, that will end up on the "World's Dumbest Criminals" show or whatever it's called. A lot of weird killings, too. And the little boy that showed up to school with a loaded .45 caliber gun. Poetic justice, I guess, since the gun was stolen, if I remember the story correctly, and then the dad was arrested on warrants.
I'm waiting for the arrival of the 2 Chinese destroyers and supply ship in the zone near Somalia where all of the piracy is going on. What I'm wating to see is what kind of absurdity they will enact on any "caught" pirates. Shoot em' down? I just don't see the Chinese military having any kind of patience in waiting for ransom notes or paying off pirates with anything but 60 caliber rounds in their heads. My question is: will their reaction be worse than the action that caused them to want to come over there in the first place?
As for now, I need to start laundry. Mary claims she is going to give me a key when she gets up. I'm bracing myself for any kind of verbal offensive. She can be very nasty, condescending and a list of other appropriate adjectives when she wants to be. Considering the fact that no-one has done anything to the woman, it's a bit befuddling. As I stated in a reply on another of my sites, I am considering that much of her problem is in her head and was started when her husband committed suicide. I'm no psychologist, but I would have to guess this is where her problems began. I can imagine the kind of mind games that might play on a person's psyche. Whatever the case, I don't want to be on the receiving end of it and I don't want other tenants or children in the house to be on the receiving end of it, either.
But, none of that will stop me from having a great day. It's a little cool, but it's beautiful outside. I will be going out there in a little while and continuing to clean up from yesterday's messes. My little plant oasis on the east side of the house - well the effort was certainly worth the trouble. It's very peaceful and very inviting. I could only wish that some of the fiolage were mature fiolage, at the same time, it's fun to come out and see the progress on each plant as they continue to put out some new shoots here and there. Certainly encouraging that they aren't all dying, especially since it's winter time and not exactly the best time to be planting. In a couple of years, much of this plant life out there will be at least starting to get mature and will have grown considerably. So many plans for that portion of the property - so little money to accomplish it.
Oh well.
Hope you all have a great Sunday.
ben
What a mess those 2 games were yesterday!
Unbelievable. Underdog teams win - the Cardinals handed a roasting to the Panthers, definitely some entertaining games.
Gets me to fretting about today's Steeler's game. Charger's fans will undoubtedly be hoping their team is going to win, but I would think most people would definitely give the greater odds to the Steelers in pulling off a victory.
Considering yesterday's games, that's definitely up in the air.
I left Mary 3 notices on her door last night. One was a notice of doubled rent - she has both rooms locked and I am not going to just sit here and do nothing about it. If she wants to occupy both rooms, then her rent is going to be doubled.
Second was notice of peaceable enjoyment for the other tenant, ie: excessive noise to stop after 10:00 pm with the story printed on the notice of what allegedly happened.
Third was final notice to either give me a key to the new door or the door lock is going to be drilled out. I'll do it, too, with Caleb videoing the event on my digital camera - it takes almost 25 minutes worth of video on that thing and certainly good enough quality to see clearly what's going on.
Mary left me a another message saying she would give me a key today and demanding a receipt. I didn't give her one in December - she can have her receipt, in fact, already typed and printed. I have my recorder not terribly far away as I am getting this "feeling" that things may start to escalate. No way am I going to leave myself unprotected. One of those situations where video surveillancde will be recording whenever she's around me and audio tape will be push-buttons away from recording any nasty verbiage.
I am not hoping for such, of course, but I am not going to leave myself unprepared.
I accomplished in planting fully 5 plants yesterday. I sorta stopped for a while cause' I was just tired of digging holes. The plants have done fine in the planters - yes I still have plants from that auction that are sitting in planters, waiting for me to plant them. They are flowering and doing well in the pots, so no big deal. I still have more to go, too, but I don't know that I'm going to get all that done today. I also removed that fencing I put up to keep the dogs out, rolled all of that up and put it off into a corner.
Still plenty of work to do around here, some of it I can accomplish, the rest will wait on finances - maybe a LONG time on the finance issue. I am hopefully getting the Safe Driver Award bonus - which is a full week's paycheck, but - that's just bill money. If I thought I could get 4 or 5 tons of landscaping rock over here for the east side of the house for $200, I might consider doing that with some of that money. But - alas - bills take precedence.
In the news:
5 pirates drowned and lost their ransom money when their boat capsized. I actually didn't laugh at that, but plenty of people did at work and here. I tend to take the scripture that says something like not laughing at another man's calamity quite seriously - as the scripture goes further to say that the Lord can stop the calamitous effect on that person and turn it on YOU. Hmmm. I'll have to get that out and read it again, I don't want to be muddying up the Word.
Apparently Microsoft "got the message" and is putting out a new version of windows. And how much will this OS cost? I have a $100 disc sitting here for Windows XP, doubt I'll be rushing to any stores to shell out probably at least $200 for a new system. It isn't available commercially yet, they are supposedly giving away free beta test runs of it. I never even considered Windows Vista because out of the 50 plus people that I had personal encounters with it over the span of time it has been out, only ONE said they liked it.
Israelia forces are in the "suburbs" of the city of Gaza, apparently. The world is denouncing the offensive. I don't much care for the civilian casualities on either side, but consider this: If Mexico or Canada suddenly decided one day to start launching rockets from their border into ours, does anyone honestly believe we would just sit here and take it without launching a MASSIVE counter-offensive? No, I didn't think so. Would any of these nations that are denouncing the Israeli offensive just sit there and take it, either? No, I didn't think so. Israel has the right to protect it's borders, period.
And then there's the bizarre news. The week has been full of it. For example, this guy that waits in line at a bank to do a bank robbery with a toy gun. Undoubtedly, that will end up on the "World's Dumbest Criminals" show or whatever it's called. A lot of weird killings, too. And the little boy that showed up to school with a loaded .45 caliber gun. Poetic justice, I guess, since the gun was stolen, if I remember the story correctly, and then the dad was arrested on warrants.
I'm waiting for the arrival of the 2 Chinese destroyers and supply ship in the zone near Somalia where all of the piracy is going on. What I'm wating to see is what kind of absurdity they will enact on any "caught" pirates. Shoot em' down? I just don't see the Chinese military having any kind of patience in waiting for ransom notes or paying off pirates with anything but 60 caliber rounds in their heads. My question is: will their reaction be worse than the action that caused them to want to come over there in the first place?
As for now, I need to start laundry. Mary claims she is going to give me a key when she gets up. I'm bracing myself for any kind of verbal offensive. She can be very nasty, condescending and a list of other appropriate adjectives when she wants to be. Considering the fact that no-one has done anything to the woman, it's a bit befuddling. As I stated in a reply on another of my sites, I am considering that much of her problem is in her head and was started when her husband committed suicide. I'm no psychologist, but I would have to guess this is where her problems began. I can imagine the kind of mind games that might play on a person's psyche. Whatever the case, I don't want to be on the receiving end of it and I don't want other tenants or children in the house to be on the receiving end of it, either.
But, none of that will stop me from having a great day. It's a little cool, but it's beautiful outside. I will be going out there in a little while and continuing to clean up from yesterday's messes. My little plant oasis on the east side of the house - well the effort was certainly worth the trouble. It's very peaceful and very inviting. I could only wish that some of the fiolage were mature fiolage, at the same time, it's fun to come out and see the progress on each plant as they continue to put out some new shoots here and there. Certainly encouraging that they aren't all dying, especially since it's winter time and not exactly the best time to be planting. In a couple of years, much of this plant life out there will be at least starting to get mature and will have grown considerably. So many plans for that portion of the property - so little money to accomplish it.
Oh well.
Hope you all have a great Sunday.
ben
Saturday, January 10, 2009
AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!
The title pretty much sums it up nicely, thank you.
I was tired of this computer not having sound. It crashed a little while back and I simply couldn't figure out why sound wasn't working. Directly related to the fact that there was no driver for the ethernet controller - regardless of the fact that I had downloaded the d*** thing, I gave up on it and today, decided to simply reformat the computer and reinstall Windows XP.
I only have a few documents on here that I wanted to save, so I just copied and pasted all of them and put them in an email to myself.
Went through all there is to reinstalling Windows - and STILL couldn't get the friggin' sound to come on. HOW did I get sound to work every other time? Interesting question. I then found a blurp on the Dell site about downloading compenents in the right order/sequence. Oh??????
I did the installation ALL over again. Rather than fooling with it, I just dumped everything all over. This time, I went to Dell's site and re-read the sequence for installing the drivers/controllers and walaaaaaaah, SOUND again! What, may I ask, is a computer without sound? BORING. Lol.
Of course, that means having to reinstall all this other software including the video surveillance system. I keep those discs in a very safe and secure place - I doubt I could replace that sureveillance software disc, and even if I could, it would have to come from China where it was shipping from in the first place and I would undoubtedly have to pay for it. Same with Windows XP operating system - $100 for that sucker, no intention on buying that piece of work again.
So, a pain in the rear, but the intended result was accomplished.
I spent literally hours on this little project. I'm no computer geek, I just muddle my way through things and hope that what I want to do actually occurs at the other end. I do wish I could afford to simply go to the nearest community college - all of 2 miles away - and take courses on all kinds of computer related things, as I'm pretty much tired of being in the dark and having to guess and take stabs at things and go the reeeeeally long way around to getting something done when I don't know how to do something. It can take me hours or even days or even WEEKS to figure things out. I've had no formal education on computers or the internet or html code or anything. It's really starting to get to me.
Though, I can say that whatever I learn, I pretty much can do over and over again. When it takes you THAT long to figure something out, it stands to reason that you aren't going to forget how to do it, or at the very least, remember what site you found the info on HOW to do something.
Umm, well I did plant my little Christmas tree, but I have one more to put in the ground. Now that I have THIS finished, I think I'll go out and do that right now, still 45 minutes before game-time.
ben
I was tired of this computer not having sound. It crashed a little while back and I simply couldn't figure out why sound wasn't working. Directly related to the fact that there was no driver for the ethernet controller - regardless of the fact that I had downloaded the d*** thing, I gave up on it and today, decided to simply reformat the computer and reinstall Windows XP.
I only have a few documents on here that I wanted to save, so I just copied and pasted all of them and put them in an email to myself.
Went through all there is to reinstalling Windows - and STILL couldn't get the friggin' sound to come on. HOW did I get sound to work every other time? Interesting question. I then found a blurp on the Dell site about downloading compenents in the right order/sequence. Oh??????
I did the installation ALL over again. Rather than fooling with it, I just dumped everything all over. This time, I went to Dell's site and re-read the sequence for installing the drivers/controllers and walaaaaaaah, SOUND again! What, may I ask, is a computer without sound? BORING. Lol.
Of course, that means having to reinstall all this other software including the video surveillance system. I keep those discs in a very safe and secure place - I doubt I could replace that sureveillance software disc, and even if I could, it would have to come from China where it was shipping from in the first place and I would undoubtedly have to pay for it. Same with Windows XP operating system - $100 for that sucker, no intention on buying that piece of work again.
So, a pain in the rear, but the intended result was accomplished.
I spent literally hours on this little project. I'm no computer geek, I just muddle my way through things and hope that what I want to do actually occurs at the other end. I do wish I could afford to simply go to the nearest community college - all of 2 miles away - and take courses on all kinds of computer related things, as I'm pretty much tired of being in the dark and having to guess and take stabs at things and go the reeeeeally long way around to getting something done when I don't know how to do something. It can take me hours or even days or even WEEKS to figure things out. I've had no formal education on computers or the internet or html code or anything. It's really starting to get to me.
Though, I can say that whatever I learn, I pretty much can do over and over again. When it takes you THAT long to figure something out, it stands to reason that you aren't going to forget how to do it, or at the very least, remember what site you found the info on HOW to do something.
Umm, well I did plant my little Christmas tree, but I have one more to put in the ground. Now that I have THIS finished, I think I'll go out and do that right now, still 45 minutes before game-time.
ben
Saturday/The Mary Factor
My apologies to the new readers to my blog, there are certain things I write about that I just take for granted that everyone knows what's going on.
Mary would be one of them. In July of 2008, I placed a room rental ad in Craigslist. This particular ad had a header that included the following: "Work for reduced rent". I wrote up my "normal" ad and then added a descriptor of the work factor. A person could move in and do some work around the house and get $100 knocked off their monthly rent. No, I remember now, I stated the rent could go as low as $250 per month depending on how much work the person did, but that regardless of how much work the person did, the rent would not go below that number.
So, I'm sitting here thinking about that and decided the next day to delete that ad. People had responded to the ad, but not for the work, they just liked the location. My location is a mile away from a huge industrial park where lots of people are employed, and then 3 more miles away a lot more of it. I'm maybe 8 miles at most to downtown Phoenix. I thought that having someone working around here could potentially create huge problems in a person attempting to determine how much work is worth how much money. Decided I didn't want that kind of headache and did go ahead and delete it.
So Mary responds via email to the ad. Yada yada yada, and she comes over to take a lookittheplace. This was like a week after I had placed and deleted that reduced rent ad and then immediately placed a "regular" ad. So, Mary looks around and then we sit down at my kitchen table to start talking. I insist on having some time to talk the person - the longer the better - to get a feel for what they're about. Mary is a very crafty person, has been down the street and around the block several times, at least. She didn't reveal or say anything that would send up any flags.
At the end of the conversation she brought up the reduced rent. I was surprised because she never said anything about it in her email and waited until the last to say anything about it. I informed her I had deleted the ad because I thought it would create the potential for problems, but then said it would be okay. Why not - see what becomes of it. Live and learn type of thing. I very clearly stated at that point that I could NOT go below $300 per month. She changed her mind and said she didn't want to do that, anyway and would just pay me the regular rent.
She moves in, and then goes out front to start working. Said she wanted to do some work to lose some weight.
Well, I'll give Mary credit that her work has accomplished a lot of stuff around here. Mary is an insomniac - she'll often be up late at night, working on her room or working outside or doing something. Mary started in on that dirt thing that was called my front yard and plugged away at it in the heat of July, August and several more months, in fact, really, all the way up to now, levelling it, picking up rocks from the back and carrying them out front, and planting some plants.
Meanwhile, of course, issues with rent started to unfold with her. She paid a small amount and then it was two MONTHS before I got anything else. I was wishy-washy as to whether to keep her or chuck her out - she was doing a LOT of work, yes, but money is more important for my situation. Still is.
I also ended up getting all those plants during this time. I planted most of them, actually - she did plant quite a few out front, but I planted them around the side and the back of the house and decided to plant some of the ones I wanted for the front out there as well, including digging that giant hole for that 36 inch box tree - that took days and days of digging in that rocky ground.
The problems with Mary are her lack of feeling that rent is of any importance and some of the bizarre behavior that she exhibits from time to time, though recently, much more frequently. Last night, Ken (the other room mate) and I were sitting out here talking it up. Ken will sit there and talk for hours and hours if you are in the mood for it - last night I was in the mood. Ken perfectly HATES Mary. Mary is quite intolerant of him, though he's not done a friggin' thing to her.
So, he brings up the subject of Mary. He is talking VERY loud. I'm thinking Mary can hear this conversation - and I'm thinking that's a good thing, she can get an uninhibited feel for what people are thinking of how she's acting around here. Ken is just a loud speaker - that's normal for him. In the course of this conversation, I remembered that Mary had placed a deadbolt on her new door and hadn't given me a key. I LOUDLY brought up the fact that if that thing wasn't removed by today and a regular door handle be put in there, AND I get a key, I was going to drill that sucker right out of there and leave the door open.
Lol. Mary leaves and comes back later with a new doorset in hand. I have yet to receive a key, but I expect that to be coming shortly, or I will be drilling that out of there as well. I had informed Mary that a deadbolt inside of the house on a bedroom door looks very tacky. I'll give Mary credit that between her and the guy she hired to come in and do the work, the door, the frame and all of it is looking pretty good at this point. Even Ken was admiring the handiwork. So, I gave loud kudos to Mary as well for all the quality work she has done around here - since we had a good half hour plus at her expense talking about the crap she's been doing. I figure Mary heard most of the important things. Will that actually do anything to change her behavior? Who knows.
The conversation then changed. Ken is an atheist. I don't ask people for their religious credentials when they come into my house. If a person is an atheist and wants to engage in a conversation like that with me, that person will be hearing in great detail the things of the Lord and my view of it. We hashed that one out without getting into a fistfight for well over an hour. Lol. In the real world, I am not going to talk an atheist out of being and athiest and and athiest is not going to be talking me out of my Christianity. So, we left that conversation on the table just before it might start getting heated up, but it was an interesting dialogue. It was actually a very interesting night last night. Ken wanted me to take him to a Karoake bar. No thanks, not into it.
So it's Saturday. A couple of NFL games slated for later on (it's still early, I go to bed early every night, even on the weekends 99% of the time) and I will definitely be watching all however many hours of it.
I'm watching Tank again. I haven't watched this dog in a long time. He's got more energy than 10 of me. He's a little over a year old and is a Boxer mix. Mostly Boxer. I started my techniques with him again immediately last night when the owners dropped him off. I'm not dissing them - but they have no clue how to train a dog. I would have to say that most people don't. Without using "violence", I had him sitting and laying down within the first hour. Right now, he's sitting with the rest of the dogs - all lined up staring at me. I had all 5 of them lined out last night in a row. Dogs are allowed to go crazy - OUTSIDE, not inside. Tank is one of those untrained dogs that does whatever he pleases wherever he pleases to do it. At least he's housebroken. It's a short gig, but I'll take it. I'll take whatever pennies I can get on any kind of side job right now.
I'm just waiting for the sun to come up. I have several things I want to do outside including planting this little pine tree I bought at Home Depot during Christmas. It cost all of $3.99. It doesn't like the little cup it's in and I need to get it into the ground before it starts dying. I have another one, a little bigger, as well. It was on sale more than half off the day Christmas was over. I have no further need of plants, I want trees now. Not that I can afford them, but if some place has a really good sale on them, I'll spend the dollars to get one. I'm also wanting to take down that fencing I put up to keep the dogs out. It's very unsightly and now that I have the chain link fence up - even if only temporarily - the dogs cannot get over there. They have tried, it's a MUCH larger and stronger fence and I effectively have my dog free zone. I will be happy just getting that stuff done this weekend along with my normal weekend cleaning chores. There will be football on and the only thing that is going to stop me from watching it is if Direct TV goes out or the power goes out. Then I'll get into my car and head up to a sports bar and sit there for half a day if I have to!
I think this entry has gone on long enough. C'ya later and - have a great Saturday!
ben
Mary would be one of them. In July of 2008, I placed a room rental ad in Craigslist. This particular ad had a header that included the following: "Work for reduced rent". I wrote up my "normal" ad and then added a descriptor of the work factor. A person could move in and do some work around the house and get $100 knocked off their monthly rent. No, I remember now, I stated the rent could go as low as $250 per month depending on how much work the person did, but that regardless of how much work the person did, the rent would not go below that number.
So, I'm sitting here thinking about that and decided the next day to delete that ad. People had responded to the ad, but not for the work, they just liked the location. My location is a mile away from a huge industrial park where lots of people are employed, and then 3 more miles away a lot more of it. I'm maybe 8 miles at most to downtown Phoenix. I thought that having someone working around here could potentially create huge problems in a person attempting to determine how much work is worth how much money. Decided I didn't want that kind of headache and did go ahead and delete it.
So Mary responds via email to the ad. Yada yada yada, and she comes over to take a lookittheplace. This was like a week after I had placed and deleted that reduced rent ad and then immediately placed a "regular" ad. So, Mary looks around and then we sit down at my kitchen table to start talking. I insist on having some time to talk the person - the longer the better - to get a feel for what they're about. Mary is a very crafty person, has been down the street and around the block several times, at least. She didn't reveal or say anything that would send up any flags.
At the end of the conversation she brought up the reduced rent. I was surprised because she never said anything about it in her email and waited until the last to say anything about it. I informed her I had deleted the ad because I thought it would create the potential for problems, but then said it would be okay. Why not - see what becomes of it. Live and learn type of thing. I very clearly stated at that point that I could NOT go below $300 per month. She changed her mind and said she didn't want to do that, anyway and would just pay me the regular rent.
She moves in, and then goes out front to start working. Said she wanted to do some work to lose some weight.
Well, I'll give Mary credit that her work has accomplished a lot of stuff around here. Mary is an insomniac - she'll often be up late at night, working on her room or working outside or doing something. Mary started in on that dirt thing that was called my front yard and plugged away at it in the heat of July, August and several more months, in fact, really, all the way up to now, levelling it, picking up rocks from the back and carrying them out front, and planting some plants.
Meanwhile, of course, issues with rent started to unfold with her. She paid a small amount and then it was two MONTHS before I got anything else. I was wishy-washy as to whether to keep her or chuck her out - she was doing a LOT of work, yes, but money is more important for my situation. Still is.
I also ended up getting all those plants during this time. I planted most of them, actually - she did plant quite a few out front, but I planted them around the side and the back of the house and decided to plant some of the ones I wanted for the front out there as well, including digging that giant hole for that 36 inch box tree - that took days and days of digging in that rocky ground.
The problems with Mary are her lack of feeling that rent is of any importance and some of the bizarre behavior that she exhibits from time to time, though recently, much more frequently. Last night, Ken (the other room mate) and I were sitting out here talking it up. Ken will sit there and talk for hours and hours if you are in the mood for it - last night I was in the mood. Ken perfectly HATES Mary. Mary is quite intolerant of him, though he's not done a friggin' thing to her.
So, he brings up the subject of Mary. He is talking VERY loud. I'm thinking Mary can hear this conversation - and I'm thinking that's a good thing, she can get an uninhibited feel for what people are thinking of how she's acting around here. Ken is just a loud speaker - that's normal for him. In the course of this conversation, I remembered that Mary had placed a deadbolt on her new door and hadn't given me a key. I LOUDLY brought up the fact that if that thing wasn't removed by today and a regular door handle be put in there, AND I get a key, I was going to drill that sucker right out of there and leave the door open.
Lol. Mary leaves and comes back later with a new doorset in hand. I have yet to receive a key, but I expect that to be coming shortly, or I will be drilling that out of there as well. I had informed Mary that a deadbolt inside of the house on a bedroom door looks very tacky. I'll give Mary credit that between her and the guy she hired to come in and do the work, the door, the frame and all of it is looking pretty good at this point. Even Ken was admiring the handiwork. So, I gave loud kudos to Mary as well for all the quality work she has done around here - since we had a good half hour plus at her expense talking about the crap she's been doing. I figure Mary heard most of the important things. Will that actually do anything to change her behavior? Who knows.
The conversation then changed. Ken is an atheist. I don't ask people for their religious credentials when they come into my house. If a person is an atheist and wants to engage in a conversation like that with me, that person will be hearing in great detail the things of the Lord and my view of it. We hashed that one out without getting into a fistfight for well over an hour. Lol. In the real world, I am not going to talk an atheist out of being and athiest and and athiest is not going to be talking me out of my Christianity. So, we left that conversation on the table just before it might start getting heated up, but it was an interesting dialogue. It was actually a very interesting night last night. Ken wanted me to take him to a Karoake bar. No thanks, not into it.
So it's Saturday. A couple of NFL games slated for later on (it's still early, I go to bed early every night, even on the weekends 99% of the time) and I will definitely be watching all however many hours of it.
I'm watching Tank again. I haven't watched this dog in a long time. He's got more energy than 10 of me. He's a little over a year old and is a Boxer mix. Mostly Boxer. I started my techniques with him again immediately last night when the owners dropped him off. I'm not dissing them - but they have no clue how to train a dog. I would have to say that most people don't. Without using "violence", I had him sitting and laying down within the first hour. Right now, he's sitting with the rest of the dogs - all lined up staring at me. I had all 5 of them lined out last night in a row. Dogs are allowed to go crazy - OUTSIDE, not inside. Tank is one of those untrained dogs that does whatever he pleases wherever he pleases to do it. At least he's housebroken. It's a short gig, but I'll take it. I'll take whatever pennies I can get on any kind of side job right now.
I'm just waiting for the sun to come up. I have several things I want to do outside including planting this little pine tree I bought at Home Depot during Christmas. It cost all of $3.99. It doesn't like the little cup it's in and I need to get it into the ground before it starts dying. I have another one, a little bigger, as well. It was on sale more than half off the day Christmas was over. I have no further need of plants, I want trees now. Not that I can afford them, but if some place has a really good sale on them, I'll spend the dollars to get one. I'm also wanting to take down that fencing I put up to keep the dogs out. It's very unsightly and now that I have the chain link fence up - even if only temporarily - the dogs cannot get over there. They have tried, it's a MUCH larger and stronger fence and I effectively have my dog free zone. I will be happy just getting that stuff done this weekend along with my normal weekend cleaning chores. There will be football on and the only thing that is going to stop me from watching it is if Direct TV goes out or the power goes out. Then I'll get into my car and head up to a sports bar and sit there for half a day if I have to!
I think this entry has gone on long enough. C'ya later and - have a great Saturday!
ben
Friday, January 9, 2009
Friday
Mary's antics are revved up and moving on.
Last night - Ken, the newer tenant informed me - she was out in the hallway, next to his door, working on that door she just had installed.
She was running an air compressor and spraying texturing material on the wall. Note that this was being done at 11:00 pm. Ken had gone to bed as he had to get up early for work - early as in 5:00am. Same time I got up.
Well, Ken got out of bed, told Mary that he had to get up at 5:00am and that he needed to get some sleep. Mary replied that she is getting up that early, too. Ken just said: "well could you be quiet?". "NO". Ken's statement: "She acts as if she owns this place".
Mary left me a message this morning that started out with: "why are you harassing me?". Note that we haven't talked in almost 4 days - but - I did leave her the 5-day notice last night on her door. THAT is her version of harassment, a legal notice that is rightfully given to her? I got halfway through the note - the statements were so outrageous that I ended up tearing the paper up into pieces and leaving it there on the kitchen table. Ummm - it was early morning and having that kind of thing staring in my face is not exactly what I want to see in the morning.
For whatever reason, Mary seems to be going off the deep end. Because I have been through situations like this before, I am now carrying my microcassette recorder around with me at all times while at home, just in case. The question has to be asked: Why should I have to live like that? Answer: I shouldn't. Ken would love to see her leave and Caleb dislikes her greatly. She has worn out her welcome. Unfortunately, I didn't start getting deposits until Ken moved in here. From him on forth I will be requiring a deposit, but I didn't get one from Mary. Meaning I have to fork out the money myself to pay for her eviction. Sooo - that won't happen until next paycheck, as I have bills that simply can't wait and Ken is paying me his rent money tomorrow. That with what I have leftover after the mortgage payment is enough to pay a couple of bills that are - getting stale is one way to put it.
Umm, but I don't want to dwell on that. If Mary starts more crap this weekend, I will be home and have instructed my son to wake me up if she starts in on him again and asked Ken to also wake me up and I will get involved. First, I'll address the situation, microcassette recorder hidden in pocket, but recording, and see if she starts mouthing off. Getting it on tape would be great if this thing ends up in court. If she goes berserk, I have 2 witnesses besides myself to her behavior and I will call the police.
Kinda strange, really. We were getting along very well after all that stuff that happened initially. I guess my demand to be paid the rent that is rightfully mine was the thing that got her
going. And that's what this all boils down to: she doesn't like being told what to do, she doesn't like being ASKING NICELY what to do, and really, she has no respect for anyone. She has no respect for HERSELF, either, judging from some things I have seen around here recently.
Tomorrow - NFL football!!!! Woo-hooooo! My team isn't playing until Sunday, but I'm totally going to be watching the games tomorrow with special interest in the Cardinals v Panthers game. I have some things I want to get done outside tomorrow as well, guess it's gonna have to be in the morning cause' really, this weekend is wasted on football and - well it's supposed to be 2 weeks until the Superbowl, but I've heard rumors they aren't going to skip a weekend? What's THAT all about?
Michael just came in as well. I just brought Caleb back - his mother still hasn't returned from her trip to Florida to be with family for the funeral and such. Michael was also in a very good mood - everyone's in a great mood - and probably cause Mary ain't here right now! So what's going to happen when she returns? Who knows.
I dunno, but whatever the case, I'm looking forward to hopefully some good football games.
And with that, I'm off to go out and deal with the ever-present chore of cleaning up - DOG DUNG!!! Woo hooooo!
Oh, that's nasty stuff - well, you know, get it over with.
ben
Last night - Ken, the newer tenant informed me - she was out in the hallway, next to his door, working on that door she just had installed.
She was running an air compressor and spraying texturing material on the wall. Note that this was being done at 11:00 pm. Ken had gone to bed as he had to get up early for work - early as in 5:00am. Same time I got up.
Well, Ken got out of bed, told Mary that he had to get up at 5:00am and that he needed to get some sleep. Mary replied that she is getting up that early, too. Ken just said: "well could you be quiet?". "NO". Ken's statement: "She acts as if she owns this place".
Mary left me a message this morning that started out with: "why are you harassing me?". Note that we haven't talked in almost 4 days - but - I did leave her the 5-day notice last night on her door. THAT is her version of harassment, a legal notice that is rightfully given to her? I got halfway through the note - the statements were so outrageous that I ended up tearing the paper up into pieces and leaving it there on the kitchen table. Ummm - it was early morning and having that kind of thing staring in my face is not exactly what I want to see in the morning.
For whatever reason, Mary seems to be going off the deep end. Because I have been through situations like this before, I am now carrying my microcassette recorder around with me at all times while at home, just in case. The question has to be asked: Why should I have to live like that? Answer: I shouldn't. Ken would love to see her leave and Caleb dislikes her greatly. She has worn out her welcome. Unfortunately, I didn't start getting deposits until Ken moved in here. From him on forth I will be requiring a deposit, but I didn't get one from Mary. Meaning I have to fork out the money myself to pay for her eviction. Sooo - that won't happen until next paycheck, as I have bills that simply can't wait and Ken is paying me his rent money tomorrow. That with what I have leftover after the mortgage payment is enough to pay a couple of bills that are - getting stale is one way to put it.
Umm, but I don't want to dwell on that. If Mary starts more crap this weekend, I will be home and have instructed my son to wake me up if she starts in on him again and asked Ken to also wake me up and I will get involved. First, I'll address the situation, microcassette recorder hidden in pocket, but recording, and see if she starts mouthing off. Getting it on tape would be great if this thing ends up in court. If she goes berserk, I have 2 witnesses besides myself to her behavior and I will call the police.
Kinda strange, really. We were getting along very well after all that stuff that happened initially. I guess my demand to be paid the rent that is rightfully mine was the thing that got her
going. And that's what this all boils down to: she doesn't like being told what to do, she doesn't like being ASKING NICELY what to do, and really, she has no respect for anyone. She has no respect for HERSELF, either, judging from some things I have seen around here recently.
Tomorrow - NFL football!!!! Woo-hooooo! My team isn't playing until Sunday, but I'm totally going to be watching the games tomorrow with special interest in the Cardinals v Panthers game. I have some things I want to get done outside tomorrow as well, guess it's gonna have to be in the morning cause' really, this weekend is wasted on football and - well it's supposed to be 2 weeks until the Superbowl, but I've heard rumors they aren't going to skip a weekend? What's THAT all about?
Michael just came in as well. I just brought Caleb back - his mother still hasn't returned from her trip to Florida to be with family for the funeral and such. Michael was also in a very good mood - everyone's in a great mood - and probably cause Mary ain't here right now! So what's going to happen when she returns? Who knows.
I dunno, but whatever the case, I'm looking forward to hopefully some good football games.
And with that, I'm off to go out and deal with the ever-present chore of cleaning up - DOG DUNG!!! Woo hooooo!
Oh, that's nasty stuff - well, you know, get it over with.
ben
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Michael
Fin made a good point - it was a reply on one of my other blogs that I am using as a backup site.
The event of Michael moving out will start to see the reduction in food costs.
I had already thought about that, but - the cost savings go beyond that.
First, I have numerous new readers to this blog - probably a little light shed on Michael and who he is and what his relationship to me is would be good, considering the potential ideas people might get.
When I first moved to the property I am living early months of 2004, the house that was here was uninhabitable. I placed an RV trailer on the property to live in while I was basically tearing the house apart and replacing everything inside of it.
The first few days here were uneventful. Until one day, less than a week after living here, I do believe. My son was bored and I suggested he go out and find some new friends to play with instead of bugging me to death about how bored he was.
He left - and came home - several hours later with a kid in tow. This kid's name was/is Michael. Michael and Caleb (my son) came into our trailer, they sat down in the miniature living room and proceded to start playing video games. Michael didn't want to go home that night. I didn't let him stay - I didn't know his parents and thought it a little odd that a kid would stay overnight on his very first day of meeting my son.
Michael was over the next day. As is my want, I make dinner every night - well just about every night, sometimes I get lazy and just throw something easy together. I was making dinner that day while Michael and Caleb were again playing video games - Michael was making comments about the food and the good smell in the air. So, being an extremely hospitable person - just ask anyone that read my JS journal for the time it was there and you will hear from some people how I go way overboard on that particular subject - I offered him dinner. He gobbled whatever it was (I have no recollection of what I was making) down in a few minutes. I gave him more.
That was the beginning. It wasn't long before his "parents" came over - the father getting angry about his son being over here and -- well you would have to know this person, his drug use, his lack of care for his own children, the fact that he doesn't and won't work to support his family - a long list. I wasn't about to get into a fight with some guy over something as petty as a kid coming over to my house, eating my food and visiting with my son and I - so I just calmed the situation down and introduced myself.
From there - the rest is history. A rather LONG and ARDUOUS history, I might add, of my interactions with this family - all of them. All kajillion of them. Michael ended up moving in with us. The facts eventually came out that there was no or very little food in the house, electricity was on whenever they could afford to put money on the card reading device and the water was always shut off. Further, that Michael had literally been kicked out of his and his brother's bedroom so that drug users could inhabit it. They were sleeping on a carpetless floor.
It was a week or so after Michael showed up that he came one day with another kid. This kid turned out to be Anthony, his older brother, of which, I assume, Michael was telling him about the fact that - there's everything here. You know, things like water and electricity, on and on.
Now, it all sounds strange - but for me not really. I was a full-time missionary for 5 years and ministered in various capacities in a church for another 10 or so after that. Helping people has been infused into my blood. Seeing kids that aren't getting the things they need in life to - live - well, I didn't think too terribly long about it before just letting them stay.
Skipping over volumes of JS entries worth of stuff that has occured since those boys moved in with us and up until now. Anthony - I kicked out early in 2008. He was getting into drug use and was getting drunk - to the point of violence. The situation came to a head one day and I invited him off the property. I have not even considered him coming back - again - another long story. Michael, however, is the opposite of Anthony. He doesn't do drugs, doesn't want to do drugs and is basically a good kid. I had figured that sooner or later, his mother would put the pressure on him to move back. I figured right. He moved out - basically - 2 weeks ago. This week is the first that he actually hasn't been here at all. I miss the kid - yes, we have grown pretty close in that 4 plus years.
But - my expenses have gone down noticably. I was doing Michael's laundry, feeding him and he loves to take showers that drain out an entire 40 gallon hot water tank. He eats like a pig - literally. He is skinny as a bean pole but will sit there and eat, and eat and eat. Fortunately, he's not a picky eater and prefers "simpler" foods, read: cheap - but consuming that much of it still costs money. I have found this week that I have had to adjust the amount of cooking dramatically.
I was not, however, buying him clothing. Well, I wasn't buying him much clothing. He's into designer this and that, stuff that costs too much money. His mother apparently MUST have got on the free rent program, cause she is living in a place now and still has money to buy junk. I say junk because in their situation, one would think they would find better ways to spend their money. But, if you have read this blog on JS for any length of time, you know these people and you know what they do. For those that haven't been here - they are the most irresponsible, careless, reckless people I have EVER met.
It's amazing the amount of money it costs just to have a person in a house.
It's also interesting that with each financial blow, something seems to happen to help shore it up.
Unfortunately, winter won't last forever and those $350 plus per month electric bills will be coming back.
BTW, I did not ask Michael to leave, or even intone such. His mother basically told him he needed to come back. Purportedly, Michael will be coming over on weekends, don't know, remains to be seen. They moved into a place all of about 2 and a half miles from here, though their tenure at their new address remains to be seen.
Well, anyway, as I attempt to mitigate the "damages" with the loss of OT and now the proposed/demanded increase in mortgage of which I still have yet to be able to get through to anyone at this new mortgage "company", and other things - I MAY be able to survive this storm. Who knows? If I don't, plenty of apartments around for $700, $800 and more per month. Of course, they probably don't allow 4 dogs, 2 of them Great Danes...............no, I'll do everythingI can to save my place, stay in it and continue living the life I currently have. It may not be the greatest, but it's better than being homeless, dogless and a host of other things.
ben
The event of Michael moving out will start to see the reduction in food costs.
I had already thought about that, but - the cost savings go beyond that.
First, I have numerous new readers to this blog - probably a little light shed on Michael and who he is and what his relationship to me is would be good, considering the potential ideas people might get.
When I first moved to the property I am living early months of 2004, the house that was here was uninhabitable. I placed an RV trailer on the property to live in while I was basically tearing the house apart and replacing everything inside of it.
The first few days here were uneventful. Until one day, less than a week after living here, I do believe. My son was bored and I suggested he go out and find some new friends to play with instead of bugging me to death about how bored he was.
He left - and came home - several hours later with a kid in tow. This kid's name was/is Michael. Michael and Caleb (my son) came into our trailer, they sat down in the miniature living room and proceded to start playing video games. Michael didn't want to go home that night. I didn't let him stay - I didn't know his parents and thought it a little odd that a kid would stay overnight on his very first day of meeting my son.
Michael was over the next day. As is my want, I make dinner every night - well just about every night, sometimes I get lazy and just throw something easy together. I was making dinner that day while Michael and Caleb were again playing video games - Michael was making comments about the food and the good smell in the air. So, being an extremely hospitable person - just ask anyone that read my JS journal for the time it was there and you will hear from some people how I go way overboard on that particular subject - I offered him dinner. He gobbled whatever it was (I have no recollection of what I was making) down in a few minutes. I gave him more.
That was the beginning. It wasn't long before his "parents" came over - the father getting angry about his son being over here and -- well you would have to know this person, his drug use, his lack of care for his own children, the fact that he doesn't and won't work to support his family - a long list. I wasn't about to get into a fight with some guy over something as petty as a kid coming over to my house, eating my food and visiting with my son and I - so I just calmed the situation down and introduced myself.
From there - the rest is history. A rather LONG and ARDUOUS history, I might add, of my interactions with this family - all of them. All kajillion of them. Michael ended up moving in with us. The facts eventually came out that there was no or very little food in the house, electricity was on whenever they could afford to put money on the card reading device and the water was always shut off. Further, that Michael had literally been kicked out of his and his brother's bedroom so that drug users could inhabit it. They were sleeping on a carpetless floor.
It was a week or so after Michael showed up that he came one day with another kid. This kid turned out to be Anthony, his older brother, of which, I assume, Michael was telling him about the fact that - there's everything here. You know, things like water and electricity, on and on.
Now, it all sounds strange - but for me not really. I was a full-time missionary for 5 years and ministered in various capacities in a church for another 10 or so after that. Helping people has been infused into my blood. Seeing kids that aren't getting the things they need in life to - live - well, I didn't think too terribly long about it before just letting them stay.
Skipping over volumes of JS entries worth of stuff that has occured since those boys moved in with us and up until now. Anthony - I kicked out early in 2008. He was getting into drug use and was getting drunk - to the point of violence. The situation came to a head one day and I invited him off the property. I have not even considered him coming back - again - another long story. Michael, however, is the opposite of Anthony. He doesn't do drugs, doesn't want to do drugs and is basically a good kid. I had figured that sooner or later, his mother would put the pressure on him to move back. I figured right. He moved out - basically - 2 weeks ago. This week is the first that he actually hasn't been here at all. I miss the kid - yes, we have grown pretty close in that 4 plus years.
But - my expenses have gone down noticably. I was doing Michael's laundry, feeding him and he loves to take showers that drain out an entire 40 gallon hot water tank. He eats like a pig - literally. He is skinny as a bean pole but will sit there and eat, and eat and eat. Fortunately, he's not a picky eater and prefers "simpler" foods, read: cheap - but consuming that much of it still costs money. I have found this week that I have had to adjust the amount of cooking dramatically.
I was not, however, buying him clothing. Well, I wasn't buying him much clothing. He's into designer this and that, stuff that costs too much money. His mother apparently MUST have got on the free rent program, cause she is living in a place now and still has money to buy junk. I say junk because in their situation, one would think they would find better ways to spend their money. But, if you have read this blog on JS for any length of time, you know these people and you know what they do. For those that haven't been here - they are the most irresponsible, careless, reckless people I have EVER met.
It's amazing the amount of money it costs just to have a person in a house.
It's also interesting that with each financial blow, something seems to happen to help shore it up.
Unfortunately, winter won't last forever and those $350 plus per month electric bills will be coming back.
BTW, I did not ask Michael to leave, or even intone such. His mother basically told him he needed to come back. Purportedly, Michael will be coming over on weekends, don't know, remains to be seen. They moved into a place all of about 2 and a half miles from here, though their tenure at their new address remains to be seen.
Well, anyway, as I attempt to mitigate the "damages" with the loss of OT and now the proposed/demanded increase in mortgage of which I still have yet to be able to get through to anyone at this new mortgage "company", and other things - I MAY be able to survive this storm. Who knows? If I don't, plenty of apartments around for $700, $800 and more per month. Of course, they probably don't allow 4 dogs, 2 of them Great Danes...............no, I'll do everythingI can to save my place, stay in it and continue living the life I currently have. It may not be the greatest, but it's better than being homeless, dogless and a host of other things.
ben
Thursday
I didn't feel good this morning when I woke up and the alarm didn't go off for whatever reason, so I was 20 minutes late - but not out the door. I just skipped some of my morning routine and got out of here asap. Not that my boss would care - as long as I get 8 hours on the clock it's pretty much irrelevant unless there is an early delivery.
Which is tomorrow. The load MUST be there by 7:00 am. It's just one spool and the place is less than 40 minutes drive, no big deal.
Today I drove almost 300 miles - pretty good for a local delivery area.
Anyway, it's Thursday - almost over actually - one day closer to divisional finals weekend. And then conference, and then - the Superbowl! Who (if any of them) are you rootin' for?
I forgot about dealing with the mortgage company. Beginning this month, this newest company that has acquired my mortgage raised the monthly payment by almost $100. I can ill afford that. I tried to call yesterday - the wait was so long I just ended up hanging up. I'm going to askl them to renegotiate the loan to a lower percentage rate. If they aren't going to do that, then - I don't know. I don't know what they are raising the mortgage rate for to begin with. I mean, did they purchase yet another insurance company's policy that is more expensive? Cause if they did, I'll get another insurance company at a lower rate and they can go blow.
Whatever. Always something. Such as coming home and finding a pickup truck parked in MY parking spot. Big no-no at BenB Properties. The newer tenant saw me and went into the house and told the guy to move his truck. Lol. It was Mary's carpenter - he's in here finishing installing this door that I don't really care about at this point because Mary has decided that installing the door is more important than paying her rent.
Whatever again. I don't even want to go into that.
I have been waiting every day for my company to post this month's recipients of the safe driver award. I have not received any tickets in 2008 and didn't cause' any accidents - though I was rear-ended, totally not my fault. It's a paycheck award, take out 40% taxes (blahhhhh) and still some money leftover. It will undoubtedly all go to bills. I have yet to get motivated to go down to Fry's and apply for the job in person. Just don't have the feel for it - yet. Get the feel when my finances are so depleted, I don't have enough money to eat from.
I'm a bit tired and apparently cranky, so I'm going to end this one.
C'yall later!
ben
Which is tomorrow. The load MUST be there by 7:00 am. It's just one spool and the place is less than 40 minutes drive, no big deal.
Today I drove almost 300 miles - pretty good for a local delivery area.
Anyway, it's Thursday - almost over actually - one day closer to divisional finals weekend. And then conference, and then - the Superbowl! Who (if any of them) are you rootin' for?
I forgot about dealing with the mortgage company. Beginning this month, this newest company that has acquired my mortgage raised the monthly payment by almost $100. I can ill afford that. I tried to call yesterday - the wait was so long I just ended up hanging up. I'm going to askl them to renegotiate the loan to a lower percentage rate. If they aren't going to do that, then - I don't know. I don't know what they are raising the mortgage rate for to begin with. I mean, did they purchase yet another insurance company's policy that is more expensive? Cause if they did, I'll get another insurance company at a lower rate and they can go blow.
Whatever. Always something. Such as coming home and finding a pickup truck parked in MY parking spot. Big no-no at BenB Properties. The newer tenant saw me and went into the house and told the guy to move his truck. Lol. It was Mary's carpenter - he's in here finishing installing this door that I don't really care about at this point because Mary has decided that installing the door is more important than paying her rent.
Whatever again. I don't even want to go into that.
I have been waiting every day for my company to post this month's recipients of the safe driver award. I have not received any tickets in 2008 and didn't cause' any accidents - though I was rear-ended, totally not my fault. It's a paycheck award, take out 40% taxes (blahhhhh) and still some money leftover. It will undoubtedly all go to bills. I have yet to get motivated to go down to Fry's and apply for the job in person. Just don't have the feel for it - yet. Get the feel when my finances are so depleted, I don't have enough money to eat from.
I'm a bit tired and apparently cranky, so I'm going to end this one.
C'yall later!
ben
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Wednesday (already?)/Claim to infamy
"At Dorrie's Fun Forum, a virtual watering hole for a number of journalspace users, annoyance over the outage (sample quote from "benb" on December 18: "Will JS ever get their act straight? How many times do we have to go through this before this kind of nonsense stops happening? My fear is what is happening to all of our journals right now -- what kind of carnage will we return to? Oh well. Nothing new under the sun.") through a remarkable amount of fretting within the community over various personality issues connected with the small firm. "
I actually went to the site and read it there. Then I found a bunch of sites on the internet that are reporting this JS disaster. Reaming is a good definer for I have found concerning the statements regarding the site's administrators.
I'm intrigued by this AOL auction and wondering who is going to end up buying it. Have to wonder with all the bad press whether anyone in their right mind should be paying ANYTHING for it. I guess perhaps whoever is bidding is considering a bunch of us might come back and actually PAY to use the service again.
Meanwhile, someone posted a blip about LiveJournal laying off workers. How many sites do I need to back up my journal, anyway? I have a CD burner in this computer - never used it. I wonder if I could just burn each entry into the same CD until that CD is full, or do you have to have a new CD every time you want to burn something? Surely someone knows the answer to that. If I can just burn an entry on their every time, that would be the easiest and safest thing I could possibly do.
Back to work - this week is really going by quickly for me. I spent most of the day today driving all over the AZ creation - in all directions, too. 2 more days and the weekend is upon us. I'm drooling over this weekend because of the NFL playoff games that are in-queue for both Saturday and Sunday. I'm a little nervous because I want the Steelers to win and move on - never any guarantees there.
Mary did not respond to my message to her - I demanded a reply by this morning - meaning I am going to print out a 5-day notice and attach it to her door today. If that doesn't get her to take action, I will continue on with the forcible detainer. Mainly, I just want the RENT! I'm sure that may be too much to ask for from a person making $22 per hour and getting OT every week. Yes, she has a 25% garnishment taken out of every check, still a chunk of change left over. She picks and chooses her priorities - time to give her a fresh priority that should top the list.
I haven't seen Michael all week - though I didn't expect to - kinda strange not having him around playing video games and such every night. Almost eery the quiet I can find in here at various times now.
Umm, well I'm out the door to take the dogs for a walk, a thing I have been neglecting of late because I have been sick. I haven't mentioned that I am still coughing from the sickness I acquired must have been well over a month ago. The thing is just hanging on, lingering. I didn't want to do much of any exercise until it passes, but these dogs are going stir crazy. It's literally messing with their heads the fact that I am not walking them - after taking them every or almost every day for at least a 2-mile adventure. So - just gonna do it. Take a slower pace so I don't get to breathing in this cold air too much - it just starts making me hack away.
Anyway, c'yall later and hope to find enough time to visit everyone's journals.
ben
I actually went to the site and read it there. Then I found a bunch of sites on the internet that are reporting this JS disaster. Reaming is a good definer for I have found concerning the statements regarding the site's administrators.
I'm intrigued by this AOL auction and wondering who is going to end up buying it. Have to wonder with all the bad press whether anyone in their right mind should be paying ANYTHING for it. I guess perhaps whoever is bidding is considering a bunch of us might come back and actually PAY to use the service again.
Meanwhile, someone posted a blip about LiveJournal laying off workers. How many sites do I need to back up my journal, anyway? I have a CD burner in this computer - never used it. I wonder if I could just burn each entry into the same CD until that CD is full, or do you have to have a new CD every time you want to burn something? Surely someone knows the answer to that. If I can just burn an entry on their every time, that would be the easiest and safest thing I could possibly do.
Back to work - this week is really going by quickly for me. I spent most of the day today driving all over the AZ creation - in all directions, too. 2 more days and the weekend is upon us. I'm drooling over this weekend because of the NFL playoff games that are in-queue for both Saturday and Sunday. I'm a little nervous because I want the Steelers to win and move on - never any guarantees there.
Mary did not respond to my message to her - I demanded a reply by this morning - meaning I am going to print out a 5-day notice and attach it to her door today. If that doesn't get her to take action, I will continue on with the forcible detainer. Mainly, I just want the RENT! I'm sure that may be too much to ask for from a person making $22 per hour and getting OT every week. Yes, she has a 25% garnishment taken out of every check, still a chunk of change left over. She picks and chooses her priorities - time to give her a fresh priority that should top the list.
I haven't seen Michael all week - though I didn't expect to - kinda strange not having him around playing video games and such every night. Almost eery the quiet I can find in here at various times now.
Umm, well I'm out the door to take the dogs for a walk, a thing I have been neglecting of late because I have been sick. I haven't mentioned that I am still coughing from the sickness I acquired must have been well over a month ago. The thing is just hanging on, lingering. I didn't want to do much of any exercise until it passes, but these dogs are going stir crazy. It's literally messing with their heads the fact that I am not walking them - after taking them every or almost every day for at least a 2-mile adventure. So - just gonna do it. Take a slower pace so I don't get to breathing in this cold air too much - it just starts making me hack away.
Anyway, c'yall later and hope to find enough time to visit everyone's journals.
ben
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Tuesday
This morning, I came out to the kitchen to find that Mary had left a rather long, hand-written, almost illegible letter back to that of which I put under her bedroom door last night.
I spent a good deal of time attempting to read the chicken scratch that's hers in hand-writing. I can't say I'm any better, which is why I type everything out and print it instead of trying to hand-write things.
The contents of the letter were nothing short of outrageous.
But, getting past the "emotional" element that she added for extra flavor, I replied today after getting home with yet another letter.
Mary said that I had only given her $100 off the rent for the last 3 months. In reality, I have given her fully $345 total for the past 3 months, and $645 for the 6 months she's lived here. Hard to believe she's been here that long.
I then addressed her attitude. She has started in on me on numerous occasions - of which I either just walked away or put the fire out, depending on the situation and how elevated her mood happened to be. In this particular letter, however, I left no stone unturned. Including the escapade with waking my son up at 4:30 in the morning and demanding he get out of bed and come out here to turn the phone on. I later learned that this "emergency" of hers in needing to make a phone call? Whoever she tried to call didn't answer. She put the phone down and then started in on my son. Ken, the newer tenant, was right there and not only backed up the story, but gave much greater detail.
I also commented on the unbelievable gall she had in approaching Ken the other day, literally getting in his face, and speaking in very loud tones: "The food you eat is going to give you a heart attack"! You would have had to been there. I further brought up quantifiable lies that I have caught her in and also the situation with Justine, the person who used to live here before being ousted by means of an Order of Protection. I told her simply that I did not believe Justine's story OR her's (Mary's) and that if the truth laid itself out on my kitchen table, a very different picture would be painted, and that picture undoubtedly would include Mary doing MUCH more in this event that took place than what she's admitting to.
She also blamed me for her receiving a ticket - that of driving a vehicle with expired plates. This is when she wanted to start using my car. I only demanded that she get insurance. I told her the plates were expired and that she would be driving it at her own risk in terms of getting pulled over by police. I also told her my experience was that since it was only a month past-due, the police probably wouldn't give her a ticket. I said PROBABLY - AND - encouraged her to get the car registered before driving it. My letter today included those facts and that I certainly am not going to take responsibility or culpability for her taking a risk.
She then stated in this letter of hers that her license had been suspended. Folks, nobody gets their driver's license suspended for expired plates unless there is MUCH more to the story that I/we don't know about. Period. Somehow, I am also culpable for the fine for that, as well.
I addressed that and then left her with the final paragraph. Stated that her actions, including verbal abuse against every person in the house, would have to stop, and stop immediately, or her presence would no longer be welcomed. I also addressed the fact that she did not, in any portion of her reply, address the demand for rent. I have not given her the 5-day notice. Well, I take it back, she did address that she had spent money on the door for her new bedroom and that it would be helping me out, yada yada yada. My reply was that I wanted the rent and could not care one iota about a door being put in, rent is more important.
So, tonight, she comes in and says not a word. She left a few minutes ago. Dunno what she's doing, where she's going, but I am supposing that I will end up posting the 5-day notice tomorrow. I was going to do it today, but I put it off this morning in order to read this letter of hers.
Well, onto other things. Not much else going on, thank God. Work went okay today - some things to do in terms of deliveries, nothing great though. Tomorrow morning I will be driving to Florence to make a small delivery and then over to Casa Grande to pick up some pipe to deliver to a college in Coolidge. These are all small towns - well I assume Casa Grande considers itself a small city - in the southern portions of AZ. South of Phoenix, anyway. Well, Florence is more southeast of Phoenix, Casa Grande is almost due south. The rural driving is nice, I like that.
I'm waiting on word as to when whoever is going to get moved out of our branch. I have no idea when the decision is coming down. Could be tomorrow, could be a month, might never happen at all. Who knows?
Anyway, I'm off to get some things done around here. Hmmm, gotta visit Dorrie's forum and see what juice is getting spilt over there.....
kinda starting, just a little, to get the feeling of the community we once had just because so many of us are making real efforts to find each other and visit each other's blogs. That's a good thing, and if we keep that community spirit together, that is, in the end, worth more to me than all of those words I lost - though I definitely will be "lamenting" that loss for a while.
Good evening, folks, have a great night!
ben
I spent a good deal of time attempting to read the chicken scratch that's hers in hand-writing. I can't say I'm any better, which is why I type everything out and print it instead of trying to hand-write things.
The contents of the letter were nothing short of outrageous.
But, getting past the "emotional" element that she added for extra flavor, I replied today after getting home with yet another letter.
Mary said that I had only given her $100 off the rent for the last 3 months. In reality, I have given her fully $345 total for the past 3 months, and $645 for the 6 months she's lived here. Hard to believe she's been here that long.
I then addressed her attitude. She has started in on me on numerous occasions - of which I either just walked away or put the fire out, depending on the situation and how elevated her mood happened to be. In this particular letter, however, I left no stone unturned. Including the escapade with waking my son up at 4:30 in the morning and demanding he get out of bed and come out here to turn the phone on. I later learned that this "emergency" of hers in needing to make a phone call? Whoever she tried to call didn't answer. She put the phone down and then started in on my son. Ken, the newer tenant, was right there and not only backed up the story, but gave much greater detail.
I also commented on the unbelievable gall she had in approaching Ken the other day, literally getting in his face, and speaking in very loud tones: "The food you eat is going to give you a heart attack"! You would have had to been there. I further brought up quantifiable lies that I have caught her in and also the situation with Justine, the person who used to live here before being ousted by means of an Order of Protection. I told her simply that I did not believe Justine's story OR her's (Mary's) and that if the truth laid itself out on my kitchen table, a very different picture would be painted, and that picture undoubtedly would include Mary doing MUCH more in this event that took place than what she's admitting to.
She also blamed me for her receiving a ticket - that of driving a vehicle with expired plates. This is when she wanted to start using my car. I only demanded that she get insurance. I told her the plates were expired and that she would be driving it at her own risk in terms of getting pulled over by police. I also told her my experience was that since it was only a month past-due, the police probably wouldn't give her a ticket. I said PROBABLY - AND - encouraged her to get the car registered before driving it. My letter today included those facts and that I certainly am not going to take responsibility or culpability for her taking a risk.
She then stated in this letter of hers that her license had been suspended. Folks, nobody gets their driver's license suspended for expired plates unless there is MUCH more to the story that I/we don't know about. Period. Somehow, I am also culpable for the fine for that, as well.
I addressed that and then left her with the final paragraph. Stated that her actions, including verbal abuse against every person in the house, would have to stop, and stop immediately, or her presence would no longer be welcomed. I also addressed the fact that she did not, in any portion of her reply, address the demand for rent. I have not given her the 5-day notice. Well, I take it back, she did address that she had spent money on the door for her new bedroom and that it would be helping me out, yada yada yada. My reply was that I wanted the rent and could not care one iota about a door being put in, rent is more important.
So, tonight, she comes in and says not a word. She left a few minutes ago. Dunno what she's doing, where she's going, but I am supposing that I will end up posting the 5-day notice tomorrow. I was going to do it today, but I put it off this morning in order to read this letter of hers.
Well, onto other things. Not much else going on, thank God. Work went okay today - some things to do in terms of deliveries, nothing great though. Tomorrow morning I will be driving to Florence to make a small delivery and then over to Casa Grande to pick up some pipe to deliver to a college in Coolidge. These are all small towns - well I assume Casa Grande considers itself a small city - in the southern portions of AZ. South of Phoenix, anyway. Well, Florence is more southeast of Phoenix, Casa Grande is almost due south. The rural driving is nice, I like that.
I'm waiting on word as to when whoever is going to get moved out of our branch. I have no idea when the decision is coming down. Could be tomorrow, could be a month, might never happen at all. Who knows?
Anyway, I'm off to get some things done around here. Hmmm, gotta visit Dorrie's forum and see what juice is getting spilt over there.....
kinda starting, just a little, to get the feeling of the community we once had just because so many of us are making real efforts to find each other and visit each other's blogs. That's a good thing, and if we keep that community spirit together, that is, in the end, worth more to me than all of those words I lost - though I definitely will be "lamenting" that loss for a while.
Good evening, folks, have a great night!
ben
Monday, January 5, 2009
Monday
Not a terribly slow day at work considering there really wasn't that much to do - but when the other driver doesn't show up, then it sorta spreads what there is to do out a little bit making things take longer.
News came again today that if the other driver doesn't go to Albequerque, one of us (drivers, that is) is going to get transferred to the main branch.
Of course, I had to ask: who.
The boss said he put his 2 cents worth in and it's up to the general manager and the ops manager to decide what's going to happen.
It came up because I was asking about getting tires replaced on both the semi and the smaller (but still quite large) truck.
The boss responded he was waiting to find out which truck was staying - which was the instant, obvious clue that our branch is only going to have one driver. No point in having 2 drivers at one store with only vehicle to drive.
..........
Now, of course, if they were going to transfer me to the main branch to do something other than driving, that would be a totally different story. There is no word when this change is going to happen - like most things, the decision will be popped onto my boss and then he will have to dump it on whoever gets the news. I don't think the other driver wants to go to the main branch and apparently he has changed his mind about moving to Albequerque. I would consider moving over there - but - I have my son here, not there, no way am I moving.
As far as blogging home, I'm just sort of throwing my hands up in the air. If JS is ever resurrected - and I mean to the way it was before, not some "new" way that is inferior - I will be heading straight back there. I dislike ALL of these blogging hosts immensely. They are not near as user-friendly as JS was. I suppose I will stay here - but I'm not really just here. I have mirror blogs on both LiveJournal and Wordpress with the intended result that if any blog ever crashes like JS again, I have 2 backups that will still have all of my "old" posts on it. If all 3 blog hosts crash at the same time, losing all my date forever - good sign to quit blogging, permanently.
Another - interesting development here as Mary has decided that she is putting off my rent until Tuesday. That's tomorrow, which is also 6 days past due. I'm posting a 5-day notice on her door tonight. She claimed that she didn't get paid for 10 hours of overtime. Great, what about the 80 hours of regular time at $22 per hour? Even with the 25% garnishment that she is "suffering", and even after taxes, she still has plenty of money left to pay rent.
I've been through this with her before. She says she's going to get money on some day in the coming week. It never happens. More excuses - the point is that she never intended to pay anything out of that check. I have already written a letter, the next thing is to do up another 5 day notice. If paying her rent is so far down her list of priorities that she doesn't offer to pay me ANYTHING when she has at least a grand in her pocket, she can just move onto the next place.
Ummm - nothing else, really. Not now, anyway. I have some dog dung to clean up outside and other things I want to get done out there before the sun sets.
C'yall later (or tomorrow)!
ben
News came again today that if the other driver doesn't go to Albequerque, one of us (drivers, that is) is going to get transferred to the main branch.
Of course, I had to ask: who.
The boss said he put his 2 cents worth in and it's up to the general manager and the ops manager to decide what's going to happen.
It came up because I was asking about getting tires replaced on both the semi and the smaller (but still quite large) truck.
The boss responded he was waiting to find out which truck was staying - which was the instant, obvious clue that our branch is only going to have one driver. No point in having 2 drivers at one store with only vehicle to drive.
..........
Now, of course, if they were going to transfer me to the main branch to do something other than driving, that would be a totally different story. There is no word when this change is going to happen - like most things, the decision will be popped onto my boss and then he will have to dump it on whoever gets the news. I don't think the other driver wants to go to the main branch and apparently he has changed his mind about moving to Albequerque. I would consider moving over there - but - I have my son here, not there, no way am I moving.
As far as blogging home, I'm just sort of throwing my hands up in the air. If JS is ever resurrected - and I mean to the way it was before, not some "new" way that is inferior - I will be heading straight back there. I dislike ALL of these blogging hosts immensely. They are not near as user-friendly as JS was. I suppose I will stay here - but I'm not really just here. I have mirror blogs on both LiveJournal and Wordpress with the intended result that if any blog ever crashes like JS again, I have 2 backups that will still have all of my "old" posts on it. If all 3 blog hosts crash at the same time, losing all my date forever - good sign to quit blogging, permanently.
Another - interesting development here as Mary has decided that she is putting off my rent until Tuesday. That's tomorrow, which is also 6 days past due. I'm posting a 5-day notice on her door tonight. She claimed that she didn't get paid for 10 hours of overtime. Great, what about the 80 hours of regular time at $22 per hour? Even with the 25% garnishment that she is "suffering", and even after taxes, she still has plenty of money left to pay rent.
I've been through this with her before. She says she's going to get money on some day in the coming week. It never happens. More excuses - the point is that she never intended to pay anything out of that check. I have already written a letter, the next thing is to do up another 5 day notice. If paying her rent is so far down her list of priorities that she doesn't offer to pay me ANYTHING when she has at least a grand in her pocket, she can just move onto the next place.
Ummm - nothing else, really. Not now, anyway. I have some dog dung to clean up outside and other things I want to get done out there before the sun sets.
C'yall later (or tomorrow)!
ben
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Some Pics of my Trip
Okay, try to figure this out. The top pic is well underground at the mining operation in Tombstone, AZ. The man in the pic is the tour guide, we are at least 60 feet down, I think they said it's more like 100. It's very dark in there, they have lights set up here and there, but this guy was doing this in almost total darkness. There are 2 pics of holes. They aren 't really holes, they're shafts where they were removing the silver. The explanation was that the entire crew of people were give 3 candles to work under there. That's ONLY 3 candles for everyone. He further explained that they were basically working in the dark, but could tell the "feel" of the silver. And yes, we got to feel the streaks of silver in the walls and it did have a unique feel to it - though not so unique that I would be able to identify it in the dark.
The odd looking machine? An engine that produces steam. It would "drive" the piece of machinery that drills a hole into the rock. They would then put a stick of dynamite into the hole and blow that portion of wall apart.
Dad was having a hard time getting back up out of there. It was a lot of steps up and even people in good shape were panting. Ihad to stand behind him all the way up to make sure he didn't end up falling.
I was pretty impressed that he still has such desire to go do such things considering that it is obviously not that easy for him to do.
We all had to wear hard hats under there - the ceiling in man places was so low I had to duck WAY down to get underneath.
This is at the entrance to the building that gets you into the Kartchner Caverns. Can you guess which one is me? Lol. I don't remember being that much taller than my dad. 
I've been setting here for hours attempting to navigate all the junk to be found on Blogspot in terms of trying to get the thing set up the way I want it to be set up.
I hate the pre-designed themes for the blogs here, I have gone beyond those borders and attempting to upload a couple of different blog templates that I thought looked cool - none of them would work.
Undoubtedly my own ignorance in that department, oh well.
And no offense, but having to do all that stuff on several blogs in order to be able to post a comment, including having to type in the "word" shown is a bit of a hassle.
The games yesterday, what a HOOT!!!
I DREAMED that the Chargers would win and potentially be up against Pittsburgh, I had no idea that it would actually happen. What a great game that was, too! Overtime, the Chargers win the toin coss and walaah, they actually manage to score and win the game. Manning never even had a chance to get on the field after overtime started.
The Cardinals also pulled off a HUGE upset, at least as far as I'm concerned, against the Falcons. I found myself actually rooting for the Cardinals. I know, kinda lame, I'm "supposed" to be a fan since it's my home team, but - I have always been a Steelers fan through thick and thin and will never let the Steelers take a number 2 spot on my very short list of favorite teams.
So there's a couple of more Wildcard games on today, I'll be watching those as well.
The extended periods of days off are over as of the end of today. For whatever reason, having a hard time getting my brain back into full-work mode. I don't have any choice in the matter, I'll be at work at 5:45 am tomorrow morning, and I will be there until at least 2:30 pm and that will be that. Afterwards - on one day this week anyway - I will probably be heading to Fry's to fill out an application in person and attempt to land a part-time job there.
My new tenant thinks I should just do the taxi thing for 48 hours during the weekend. Weekend Warriors they call them, people who just do it on weekends. I think I'd rather work at Fry's to be honest. At least, if I could get a job cashiering. Well, heck, if I had my druthers, druther be finding a job on the side driving a truck. That hasn't exactly happened, yet. As the economy dives further and further, jobs of any kind are becoming more and more scarce. Perhaps you might call it extinction. Not a heckuva lot out there and I did not bother to buy the Sunday paper today or last week cause' it has practically nothing in it. 3 pages - where it used to be friggin' 20 plus pages of employers placing ads for help.
Oh, I have pictures! Have yet to upload them to my computer, though. Try to do that later, I'm trying to get some laundry and other things done right now. Gotta make a trip to Fry's later on - for food, not a job - and I still have holes to dig outside, plus I was going to go get those poles today.
Again, this period of having all the time off is spoiling me. I could take another week off of work and not miss work -at all. Yes, I even have the hours saved up to do so. Lessee: 61 hours of sick leave; 40 plus hours of vacation; 24 hours of personal time and 16 hours of floating holidays plus 6 paid days off for holidays and I get my birthday off. That's almost 200 hours of paid time off for this year. Plus I accrue even MORE vacation time. 6.6 hours per month, to be exact.
I'm still wondering what's going to happen at the main branch at my company. Someone has to move to Albequerque (no, I won't even think about it). An inside salesman, to be exact. Which means, if/when that person decides to do so, someone will have to be promoted to take that person's place. I can think of some others that MIGHT qualify for the position, but the pickings are starting to thin out. People that are qualified are already filling other positions that have to have someone filling it. Wait and see thing - I have put my name in the hat more times than I can remember in informing management of my desire to get out of trucking.
Whether it actually materializes, who knows.
I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of - laundry.
c'yall later.
ben
I hate the pre-designed themes for the blogs here, I have gone beyond those borders and attempting to upload a couple of different blog templates that I thought looked cool - none of them would work.
Undoubtedly my own ignorance in that department, oh well.
And no offense, but having to do all that stuff on several blogs in order to be able to post a comment, including having to type in the "word" shown is a bit of a hassle.
The games yesterday, what a HOOT!!!
I DREAMED that the Chargers would win and potentially be up against Pittsburgh, I had no idea that it would actually happen. What a great game that was, too! Overtime, the Chargers win the toin coss and walaah, they actually manage to score and win the game. Manning never even had a chance to get on the field after overtime started.
The Cardinals also pulled off a HUGE upset, at least as far as I'm concerned, against the Falcons. I found myself actually rooting for the Cardinals. I know, kinda lame, I'm "supposed" to be a fan since it's my home team, but - I have always been a Steelers fan through thick and thin and will never let the Steelers take a number 2 spot on my very short list of favorite teams.
So there's a couple of more Wildcard games on today, I'll be watching those as well.
The extended periods of days off are over as of the end of today. For whatever reason, having a hard time getting my brain back into full-work mode. I don't have any choice in the matter, I'll be at work at 5:45 am tomorrow morning, and I will be there until at least 2:30 pm and that will be that. Afterwards - on one day this week anyway - I will probably be heading to Fry's to fill out an application in person and attempt to land a part-time job there.
My new tenant thinks I should just do the taxi thing for 48 hours during the weekend. Weekend Warriors they call them, people who just do it on weekends. I think I'd rather work at Fry's to be honest. At least, if I could get a job cashiering. Well, heck, if I had my druthers, druther be finding a job on the side driving a truck. That hasn't exactly happened, yet. As the economy dives further and further, jobs of any kind are becoming more and more scarce. Perhaps you might call it extinction. Not a heckuva lot out there and I did not bother to buy the Sunday paper today or last week cause' it has practically nothing in it. 3 pages - where it used to be friggin' 20 plus pages of employers placing ads for help.
Oh, I have pictures! Have yet to upload them to my computer, though. Try to do that later, I'm trying to get some laundry and other things done right now. Gotta make a trip to Fry's later on - for food, not a job - and I still have holes to dig outside, plus I was going to go get those poles today.
Again, this period of having all the time off is spoiling me. I could take another week off of work and not miss work -at all. Yes, I even have the hours saved up to do so. Lessee: 61 hours of sick leave; 40 plus hours of vacation; 24 hours of personal time and 16 hours of floating holidays plus 6 paid days off for holidays and I get my birthday off. That's almost 200 hours of paid time off for this year. Plus I accrue even MORE vacation time. 6.6 hours per month, to be exact.
I'm still wondering what's going to happen at the main branch at my company. Someone has to move to Albequerque (no, I won't even think about it). An inside salesman, to be exact. Which means, if/when that person decides to do so, someone will have to be promoted to take that person's place. I can think of some others that MIGHT qualify for the position, but the pickings are starting to thin out. People that are qualified are already filling other positions that have to have someone filling it. Wait and see thing - I have put my name in the hat more times than I can remember in informing management of my desire to get out of trucking.
Whether it actually materializes, who knows.
I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of - laundry.
c'yall later.
ben
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Drive back was both fast and exasperating at the same time. There are far too many drivers out there now that think the inside lane/highspeed lane is the place to camp out and basically block traffic.
I ended up passing a lot of these people in the right lane. I'm not going to drive 65 mph in a 75 mph zone because some person is sitting in the fast lane and doesn't care that there are a LOT of cars stuck behind this person. You're sitting there, waiting for an opportunity to pass - yes on the right - after they pass a car. They're going just fast enough to slowly pass a car and also by the time YOU pass that same car they have made it far enough to block you from passing on the right.
So, I get home and the dogs, of course, go crazy. I gave them all attention, but then had to go to work. Get the Christmas tree outside, open up the windows - this place as STUFFY - BAD stuffy - turn on ceiling fans, whole-house-fan, and then go out and water all the plants.
Then, of course, I had to sit down and watch the Cardinals v Falcons game. A stunning ending - I had no thought whatsoever that the Cardinals would actually win the game. It was amazing to see the Cardinals pull out that win.
Now, I'm just waiting for the second game to start. Colts V Chargers. Colts, from my view anyway, favored highly to win. BUT - Chargers have home-field advantage. Perhaps another upset? Who knows.
I'm outta here - next game set to start.
ben
I ended up passing a lot of these people in the right lane. I'm not going to drive 65 mph in a 75 mph zone because some person is sitting in the fast lane and doesn't care that there are a LOT of cars stuck behind this person. You're sitting there, waiting for an opportunity to pass - yes on the right - after they pass a car. They're going just fast enough to slowly pass a car and also by the time YOU pass that same car they have made it far enough to block you from passing on the right.
So, I get home and the dogs, of course, go crazy. I gave them all attention, but then had to go to work. Get the Christmas tree outside, open up the windows - this place as STUFFY - BAD stuffy - turn on ceiling fans, whole-house-fan, and then go out and water all the plants.
Then, of course, I had to sit down and watch the Cardinals v Falcons game. A stunning ending - I had no thought whatsoever that the Cardinals would actually win the game. It was amazing to see the Cardinals pull out that win.
Now, I'm just waiting for the second game to start. Colts V Chargers. Colts, from my view anyway, favored highly to win. BUT - Chargers have home-field advantage. Perhaps another upset? Who knows.
I'm outta here - next game set to start.
ben
Saturday
Some good football (I hope it's good anyway) on later today. Dad and Millie are coming over to the hotel this morning, we're going to check out and head over to a favorite eatery of theirs. After that, we'll be heading back to Phoenix hopefully to arrive in time to watch the first of 2 NFL games on today.
Apparently Mary has had this guy over putting up the door and framing to turn the front family room into a rather large bedroom. Mary has complained about how small the bedroom is that she's currently in (of course, she got to SEE that bedroom before she moved in) and wanted a bigger room. I had thought about telling her to go rent her own apartment somewhere. Okay, it's just that sometimes she gets a little ....out-of-control.....is how I'll put it - and I have to end up dealing with her as if she were a little kid.
I already gave her permission to do that with the caveat that I am not responsible for the monies owed to her friend, in any way, shape or form, for the work that is done and further, that there is no rent deduction for the work and further that I will not be paying her anything for that work after she moves on to her next dwelling abode - whenever that may be.
If/when she leaves and if I don't like it, only a matter of tearing out the framing and drywall with the door and then a little patchwork on the drywall. No big deal. It frees up a bedroom. If our company starts cutting back hours: 5 hours per week cut is the talk of the town, I will not hesitate to rent out another room. It's that or sink. I figure if this economy keeps going in the downward spiral, our company will continue to be hit with slumping sales and yes, they will do whatever they have to in order to stay afloat, including laying off more workers and cutting back hours.
Happy new year, right? Lol. And some people wonder why I was and still somewhat am looking for a second, part-time job. I say somewhat because I filled out a lot of applications and received word back from only one of them. A minimum wage job, I passed on it. If I want to volunteer my time, I can think of plenty of things to do besides working at a concessions stand at the Phoenix Zoo.
This coming week will mark the start of back to 5 day work weeks. After having all this time off, that may be something of a chore to get used to. If there's nothing going on, it will be especially mundane. Yes, I'm glad to be employed, but when work slows down to a crawl and there's nothing to do, I tend to start fading out.
I've enjoyed a trip away from home, but - I'm definitely ready to go home and visit with my dogs. Michael has been over there for the last couple of days - after he told me he wasn't going to be there until I came back. Not that it matters - much - but, I just want to get home and see with my own eyes that everything is okay. I'm sure my dogs are greatly missing me by now. If I remember, I'm going to take a short video when I get home of all the noise and noises they'll start making. Duke starts whining like a baby and Prince makes this noise that sounds like a bear. Coco sometimes makes noise, but mostly just stands there, wagging her tail, waiting for me to unlock the gate and come inside.
Anyway, I'm offa here. Start checking everyone's journals later today when I get home.
ben
Apparently Mary has had this guy over putting up the door and framing to turn the front family room into a rather large bedroom. Mary has complained about how small the bedroom is that she's currently in (of course, she got to SEE that bedroom before she moved in) and wanted a bigger room. I had thought about telling her to go rent her own apartment somewhere. Okay, it's just that sometimes she gets a little ....out-of-control.....is how I'll put it - and I have to end up dealing with her as if she were a little kid.
I already gave her permission to do that with the caveat that I am not responsible for the monies owed to her friend, in any way, shape or form, for the work that is done and further, that there is no rent deduction for the work and further that I will not be paying her anything for that work after she moves on to her next dwelling abode - whenever that may be.
If/when she leaves and if I don't like it, only a matter of tearing out the framing and drywall with the door and then a little patchwork on the drywall. No big deal. It frees up a bedroom. If our company starts cutting back hours: 5 hours per week cut is the talk of the town, I will not hesitate to rent out another room. It's that or sink. I figure if this economy keeps going in the downward spiral, our company will continue to be hit with slumping sales and yes, they will do whatever they have to in order to stay afloat, including laying off more workers and cutting back hours.
Happy new year, right? Lol. And some people wonder why I was and still somewhat am looking for a second, part-time job. I say somewhat because I filled out a lot of applications and received word back from only one of them. A minimum wage job, I passed on it. If I want to volunteer my time, I can think of plenty of things to do besides working at a concessions stand at the Phoenix Zoo.
This coming week will mark the start of back to 5 day work weeks. After having all this time off, that may be something of a chore to get used to. If there's nothing going on, it will be especially mundane. Yes, I'm glad to be employed, but when work slows down to a crawl and there's nothing to do, I tend to start fading out.
I've enjoyed a trip away from home, but - I'm definitely ready to go home and visit with my dogs. Michael has been over there for the last couple of days - after he told me he wasn't going to be there until I came back. Not that it matters - much - but, I just want to get home and see with my own eyes that everything is okay. I'm sure my dogs are greatly missing me by now. If I remember, I'm going to take a short video when I get home of all the noise and noises they'll start making. Duke starts whining like a baby and Prince makes this noise that sounds like a bear. Coco sometimes makes noise, but mostly just stands there, wagging her tail, waiting for me to unlock the gate and come inside.
Anyway, I'm offa here. Start checking everyone's journals later today when I get home.
ben
Friday, January 2, 2009
Kirtschner Caverns/Stuffed
Upon arriving at the caverns at 8:30 am, the place was already packed full of people.
You go into a main building, purchase your tickets and then wait. We had an hour and a half wait - the tours had already filled up that fast.
So, we looked at the abudant amounts of exhibits, had a coffee and watched a short film on how the caverns were found.
Seems 2 cave hunters had been in that area and found a - whatever kind of hole it is, it's an opening into the ground that tells the cavers that there's something there worth exploring. They had squeezed their way in there only to find the first point totally trashed and had been spray painted with graffiti. Long story short - they came back some 7 years later, squeezed their way through 400 feet of tunnel/opening that was no wider than their bodies (a VERY tight squeeze, in other words) to find a room.
The rest is history. They found so much awesome stalagtite and other types of formations in there that hadn't been touched by man, that they kept the place a secret for 14 years. They were afraid people would find out about it, go in there and trash the place. Which is what people mostly do nowadays. It's ridiculous.
Anyway - it was absolutely breath-taking. Just to get into the place you had to go what amounts to a large door that resembles the kind you would find in a walk-in freezer at a restaurant or something. They do that to keep the humidity in the caverns. Once inside, they shut that door and then open another one just like it. The steps that they take and took when considering how to make it accesible to people without killing it was absolutely incredible. You aren't even allowed to take pictures in there because apparently the flashes - enough of them over time - causes things to change somehow. I dunno, it was kind of a bummer I couldn't take photos, but darn the tour was one of the best I have ever seen or taken.
The man that was giving the tour was SO knowledgable and was pointing out things all over the place. I mean, really, words just don't do this place justice. You can't explain a place like this, you have to show it in photos or film. The only thing I might be able to do is find photos online that the officials have taken and then give a little appreciation of the place through that. It's a world-class destination, people literally are coming from all over the world to see these caverns. I would have to say that it would be a trip well worth it.
Regardless, it was a great time. But, between stuffing myself this morning at the Continental breakfast and the giant dinner my folks just made me - I don't think I'll need to eat for days. Literally. Gain 5 pounds on this trip, easily.
When we got back from the trip, Millie served a HUGE afternoon dinner and then we sat and talked for quite a while. Millie is quite the talker. After quite a while, I realized that my dad was looking rather worn out from all the walking this morning and he had already suggested that we might go to the hotel and then in the morning, they would come get us, take us for breakfast and then we would head home. I took the clue - my dad is getting much older than I realized and age is definitely having it's effects on his body. Didn't want to push him, so I figured we would graciously leave and give him a chance to go take a nice nap. I feel like doing the same, but not because of the walking. I literally feel like I've just gotten done eating Thanksgiving dinner.
I certainly have no regrets coming down here and visiting. Plus, Mary called yet again to put me at ease about the dogs, the house and whatever might be going on over there. Having that comfort, I have no problem staying overnight and leaving in the morning. Caleb is having fun swimming in the heated pool and working out in the gym at this inn. My dad prayed with him this morning about his grandfather's passing.
I haven't spent so much time underground - in decades. You can get the sense of being - squeezed - considering at one point there's 470 feet worth of limestone above your ahead. The Kirtschner Caverns are not underground, but more, they are formed inside a giant rock - that of limestone or granite. It's just absolutely amazing the entire story of how it was found and how it came to be an Arizona State Park, basically, that the state has taken stewardship of it and definitely are preserving it.
Well, I'm gonna go take a nap.
ben
You go into a main building, purchase your tickets and then wait. We had an hour and a half wait - the tours had already filled up that fast.
So, we looked at the abudant amounts of exhibits, had a coffee and watched a short film on how the caverns were found.
Seems 2 cave hunters had been in that area and found a - whatever kind of hole it is, it's an opening into the ground that tells the cavers that there's something there worth exploring. They had squeezed their way in there only to find the first point totally trashed and had been spray painted with graffiti. Long story short - they came back some 7 years later, squeezed their way through 400 feet of tunnel/opening that was no wider than their bodies (a VERY tight squeeze, in other words) to find a room.
The rest is history. They found so much awesome stalagtite and other types of formations in there that hadn't been touched by man, that they kept the place a secret for 14 years. They were afraid people would find out about it, go in there and trash the place. Which is what people mostly do nowadays. It's ridiculous.
Anyway - it was absolutely breath-taking. Just to get into the place you had to go what amounts to a large door that resembles the kind you would find in a walk-in freezer at a restaurant or something. They do that to keep the humidity in the caverns. Once inside, they shut that door and then open another one just like it. The steps that they take and took when considering how to make it accesible to people without killing it was absolutely incredible. You aren't even allowed to take pictures in there because apparently the flashes - enough of them over time - causes things to change somehow. I dunno, it was kind of a bummer I couldn't take photos, but darn the tour was one of the best I have ever seen or taken.
The man that was giving the tour was SO knowledgable and was pointing out things all over the place. I mean, really, words just don't do this place justice. You can't explain a place like this, you have to show it in photos or film. The only thing I might be able to do is find photos online that the officials have taken and then give a little appreciation of the place through that. It's a world-class destination, people literally are coming from all over the world to see these caverns. I would have to say that it would be a trip well worth it.
Regardless, it was a great time. But, between stuffing myself this morning at the Continental breakfast and the giant dinner my folks just made me - I don't think I'll need to eat for days. Literally. Gain 5 pounds on this trip, easily.
When we got back from the trip, Millie served a HUGE afternoon dinner and then we sat and talked for quite a while. Millie is quite the talker. After quite a while, I realized that my dad was looking rather worn out from all the walking this morning and he had already suggested that we might go to the hotel and then in the morning, they would come get us, take us for breakfast and then we would head home. I took the clue - my dad is getting much older than I realized and age is definitely having it's effects on his body. Didn't want to push him, so I figured we would graciously leave and give him a chance to go take a nice nap. I feel like doing the same, but not because of the walking. I literally feel like I've just gotten done eating Thanksgiving dinner.
I certainly have no regrets coming down here and visiting. Plus, Mary called yet again to put me at ease about the dogs, the house and whatever might be going on over there. Having that comfort, I have no problem staying overnight and leaving in the morning. Caleb is having fun swimming in the heated pool and working out in the gym at this inn. My dad prayed with him this morning about his grandfather's passing.
I haven't spent so much time underground - in decades. You can get the sense of being - squeezed - considering at one point there's 470 feet worth of limestone above your ahead. The Kirtschner Caverns are not underground, but more, they are formed inside a giant rock - that of limestone or granite. It's just absolutely amazing the entire story of how it was found and how it came to be an Arizona State Park, basically, that the state has taken stewardship of it and definitely are preserving it.
Well, I'm gonna go take a nap.
ben
I just don't have the time to get around to everyone's journal right now. I don't know about later today. Sorry about that.
I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate full 3 different blogging sites because I am triplicating my journal entries and I want to know how to use all 3 sites. That is, undoubtedly, going to take quite some time.
Anyway, maybe c'ya later.
I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate full 3 different blogging sites because I am triplicating my journal entries and I want to know how to use all 3 sites. That is, undoubtedly, going to take quite some time.
Anyway, maybe c'ya later.
Monday
Marriot has a pretty good Continental breakfast going here.
Bananas, yogurt, waffle machine, bagels, boiled eggs, all kinds of cereals, coffees, all kinds of bread and all kinds of jellies, jams, even peanut butter. Even a Jimmy Dean egg/sausage biscuit with bacon! I stuffed myself too much, I think.
So, today's venture is suppoed to be a trip to - some sort of caverns, the name of which eludes me. It's not too far a drive up the road from Sierra Vista, pretty much the same as taking the trek over to Tombstone yesterday. Apparently these caverns are popular, cause' there were no reservations available but walk up tickets might be available.
I'm living in a little bit to head back to dad's house and then we'll leave from there. Caleb seems to be doing okay today, but I know this is weighing on his mind, the death of his mother's father. I'm imagining that when he reconnects with his mother, that will probably when some open emotion will occur. Of course, my dad's a full-fledged minister, so there may be some words today as well, who knows.
Of course, when I leave home, the thing I always start missing are my doggies! Lol - sounds pathetic, I know. I am a little worried about Prince's tail - just that I'm hoping Ken is actually dealing with it. It doesn't take much time to re-dress the wound, but - I don't know how motivated he is. More-so that he's shoving those pills down his throat.
Anyway, just a short entry.
Hope everyone has a grand day : )
ben
Bananas, yogurt, waffle machine, bagels, boiled eggs, all kinds of cereals, coffees, all kinds of bread and all kinds of jellies, jams, even peanut butter. Even a Jimmy Dean egg/sausage biscuit with bacon! I stuffed myself too much, I think.
So, today's venture is suppoed to be a trip to - some sort of caverns, the name of which eludes me. It's not too far a drive up the road from Sierra Vista, pretty much the same as taking the trek over to Tombstone yesterday. Apparently these caverns are popular, cause' there were no reservations available but walk up tickets might be available.
I'm living in a little bit to head back to dad's house and then we'll leave from there. Caleb seems to be doing okay today, but I know this is weighing on his mind, the death of his mother's father. I'm imagining that when he reconnects with his mother, that will probably when some open emotion will occur. Of course, my dad's a full-fledged minister, so there may be some words today as well, who knows.
Of course, when I leave home, the thing I always start missing are my doggies! Lol - sounds pathetic, I know. I am a little worried about Prince's tail - just that I'm hoping Ken is actually dealing with it. It doesn't take much time to re-dress the wound, but - I don't know how motivated he is. More-so that he's shoving those pills down his throat.
Anyway, just a short entry.
Hope everyone has a grand day : )
ben
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Tragedy
Wow.
Life is indeed strange at times.
Surreal.
I posted this on Dorries Fun Forum, but obviously I must post here as well.
I was standing here, talking to my son while he was on his MySpace account, when my cell phone rang.
It was the pastor's wife that my ex goes to church at. My son has grown up with these people - in my case, both as husband and now ex-husband of my son's mother.
She had some very bad news: my ex's father passed away today, had a massive heart attack and that was the end of that.
So, Caleb - my son - called my ex and they talked for a while - she is flying out to Florida tomorrow - where her family is from - and will be there for a week.
My son said he had just talked to his grandfather just 3 days ago and he was fine.
It's the 1st day of the New Year.
We are down in Sierra Vista, Arizona, visiting his grandfather from my side.
There is more here than meets the eye. I haven't figured it out yet, but - eventually I will. Besides the obvious and the irony of the situation in visiting one grandfather and on that same day, the other one passes - there is more here. Besides the fact that it's a New Year and we are all celebrate the passing of the old year. Beside the fact that JS has also died.
Very strange to me. I knew this man - he visited us while I was still married some years ago and stayed for at least a month. A likable enough guy, we got along well for the time he was here.
Prayers for my son would be appreciated for those that are of the praying sort. I would like to believe we could have a great time tomorrow visiting with my dad, but understandably my son probably isn't going to feel much in the mood.
Never-the-less, we are staying until Saturday unless he voices that he wants to go home before his mom leaves. He wouldn't be going with her, anyway, so unless he must see her, we will stay here and finish this visit. Maybe. See how he does tomorrow, but my dad is a very godly man, still ministering in a church and I do believe he will end up praying with us.
For me, I was not personally related to this man, and though I'm saddened at the loss for my son's sake, I am not really that much affected by it. I always think about my friends and family - extended and near - that are getting older. I also think about my own life - enjoy it while you have it, it won't last forever.
Still, what a way to start out the New Year.
There's some great people I have met on JS and I know at least some of you will be praying, for that I thank you and for those that don't pray, good thoughts or whatever you do will also be most appreciated.
ben
Life is indeed strange at times.
Surreal.
I posted this on Dorries Fun Forum, but obviously I must post here as well.
I was standing here, talking to my son while he was on his MySpace account, when my cell phone rang.
It was the pastor's wife that my ex goes to church at. My son has grown up with these people - in my case, both as husband and now ex-husband of my son's mother.
She had some very bad news: my ex's father passed away today, had a massive heart attack and that was the end of that.
So, Caleb - my son - called my ex and they talked for a while - she is flying out to Florida tomorrow - where her family is from - and will be there for a week.
My son said he had just talked to his grandfather just 3 days ago and he was fine.
It's the 1st day of the New Year.
We are down in Sierra Vista, Arizona, visiting his grandfather from my side.
There is more here than meets the eye. I haven't figured it out yet, but - eventually I will. Besides the obvious and the irony of the situation in visiting one grandfather and on that same day, the other one passes - there is more here. Besides the fact that it's a New Year and we are all celebrate the passing of the old year. Beside the fact that JS has also died.
Very strange to me. I knew this man - he visited us while I was still married some years ago and stayed for at least a month. A likable enough guy, we got along well for the time he was here.
Prayers for my son would be appreciated for those that are of the praying sort. I would like to believe we could have a great time tomorrow visiting with my dad, but understandably my son probably isn't going to feel much in the mood.
Never-the-less, we are staying until Saturday unless he voices that he wants to go home before his mom leaves. He wouldn't be going with her, anyway, so unless he must see her, we will stay here and finish this visit. Maybe. See how he does tomorrow, but my dad is a very godly man, still ministering in a church and I do believe he will end up praying with us.
For me, I was not personally related to this man, and though I'm saddened at the loss for my son's sake, I am not really that much affected by it. I always think about my friends and family - extended and near - that are getting older. I also think about my own life - enjoy it while you have it, it won't last forever.
Still, what a way to start out the New Year.
There's some great people I have met on JS and I know at least some of you will be praying, for that I thank you and for those that don't pray, good thoughts or whatever you do will also be most appreciated.
ben
Sierra Vista
I should have known a Marriot Inn is going to have a public computer. Nobody is in this lobby to use it, I can sit here for as long as I like.Drove the almost 190 miles (a bit further than Mapquest determined it to be) in 2 and a half hours. I have no idea how fast I was driving since the speedometer on my car is acting up - it showed we were going 140. Lol. Of course, you can do the math and come up with an average : )
Upon arrival my son and I engaged my dad and his wife - Millie - in a couple of hours of conversation before heading out to ………..da ta da taaaaaaa - Tombstone, Arizona. Hadn’t been there since I was a little boy. We ate at the Longhorn Restaurant - a very nice meal indeed. After that, we decided to go into what once once a silver mine. It was quite fascinating, and yes I have pics - but no way to post them until I get home. We went down a flight of 60 stairs they had built just for giving out tours, and then - we got into some pretty tight situations. Mostly had to duck the entire way through there. It was cool, but I don’t really want to give a detailed report of that until I get pics up and then just explain the tour through the pics.
My dad has some pretty bad arthritis in one of his knees and started tipping over several times - decided to stay close and not let him fall over. He just had a stint/s put into his heart not too terribly long ago. We just took our time and mostly stayed behind everyone so we wouldn’t be getting in the way of everyone. Again, it was a fascinating tour and the guide was very knowledgeable and made the tour both entertaining and educational at the same time.
Tomorrow, early, dad and Millie want to go to some caverns whose entrance we saw on the way down here. My dad has always been like this - always going, always touring, always visiting new places or revisiting places he’s already been to.
I left my dogs in the hands of the newer tenant - Mary disappeared after coming home from work yesterday and wasn’t around this morning either. The new guy said he would do it and I said I would give him some money off his next rent payment if he would. That was even more agreeable to him - I can hardly expect tenants to feel like they should be responsible for the owner’s animals if they don’t want to be. Oh, and I didn’t ask, he volunteered. It would cost far more to have someone coming over and feeding them once a day and looking in on them twice a day, so.
I have not been out of town on any kind of trip save runs in the company semi since before my house burned down July, 2007. Very relaxing. I had not expected that. I thought I would be tense and uptight just being away from home. Not at all. The Marriot isn’t a bad perk, either, it’s a pretty darn nice place. My son is currently in the work-out room and plans to visit the pool in a while - heated pool of course.
This little trip is just what the doctor ordered. My only “concern” is I want to be home on Saturday before the NFL games start up for the wild card games. They are hopefully going to be good games, even if my team isn’t playing. That will be next week. Which, Saturday is the planned day of departure, anyway.
That’s it, I don’t want to spend too terribly much time out here as I would like to retire to the bedroom and see what’s on the tube.
Have a great evening/day, be visiting your sites after I get home.ben
edited: I have no idea what I did to my blogspot journal, I went over there and posted this entry to find that it only has that one, single entry and everything was changed. Not sure what I have done? Oh well, here’s the entry, anyway.
Edit 2: I realized my mistake, I made up another blogspot journal under another email account, and entered that account id instead of this one's id. All's well that ends well......
Upon arrival my son and I engaged my dad and his wife - Millie - in a couple of hours of conversation before heading out to ………..da ta da taaaaaaa - Tombstone, Arizona. Hadn’t been there since I was a little boy. We ate at the Longhorn Restaurant - a very nice meal indeed. After that, we decided to go into what once once a silver mine. It was quite fascinating, and yes I have pics - but no way to post them until I get home. We went down a flight of 60 stairs they had built just for giving out tours, and then - we got into some pretty tight situations. Mostly had to duck the entire way through there. It was cool, but I don’t really want to give a detailed report of that until I get pics up and then just explain the tour through the pics.
My dad has some pretty bad arthritis in one of his knees and started tipping over several times - decided to stay close and not let him fall over. He just had a stint/s put into his heart not too terribly long ago. We just took our time and mostly stayed behind everyone so we wouldn’t be getting in the way of everyone. Again, it was a fascinating tour and the guide was very knowledgeable and made the tour both entertaining and educational at the same time.
Tomorrow, early, dad and Millie want to go to some caverns whose entrance we saw on the way down here. My dad has always been like this - always going, always touring, always visiting new places or revisiting places he’s already been to.
I left my dogs in the hands of the newer tenant - Mary disappeared after coming home from work yesterday and wasn’t around this morning either. The new guy said he would do it and I said I would give him some money off his next rent payment if he would. That was even more agreeable to him - I can hardly expect tenants to feel like they should be responsible for the owner’s animals if they don’t want to be. Oh, and I didn’t ask, he volunteered. It would cost far more to have someone coming over and feeding them once a day and looking in on them twice a day, so.
I have not been out of town on any kind of trip save runs in the company semi since before my house burned down July, 2007. Very relaxing. I had not expected that. I thought I would be tense and uptight just being away from home. Not at all. The Marriot isn’t a bad perk, either, it’s a pretty darn nice place. My son is currently in the work-out room and plans to visit the pool in a while - heated pool of course.
This little trip is just what the doctor ordered. My only “concern” is I want to be home on Saturday before the NFL games start up for the wild card games. They are hopefully going to be good games, even if my team isn’t playing. That will be next week. Which, Saturday is the planned day of departure, anyway.
That’s it, I don’t want to spend too terribly much time out here as I would like to retire to the bedroom and see what’s on the tube.
Have a great evening/day, be visiting your sites after I get home.ben
edited: I have no idea what I did to my blogspot journal, I went over there and posted this entry to find that it only has that one, single entry and everything was changed. Not sure what I have done? Oh well, here’s the entry, anyway.
Edit 2: I realized my mistake, I made up another blogspot journal under another email account, and entered that account id instead of this one's id. All's well that ends well......
Happy New Year!
Yes, folks, it's actually 2009!
I can't imagine what kind of messes the government will create or the condition of the economy by year's end, but for whatever reason, I'm going to remain optimistic.
But, my mind isn't really on that right now, I'm just about to leave. I mean, JUST about to leave.
I was trying to print out my dad's instructions and realized I haven't used the printer since the computer crashed and - there was no driver for the printer!
Okay, I'm just sitting here waiting for this thing to print it out - it's a slow thing - Canon i550 bubble jet printer. It has this windup - like a pitcher in a baseball game - cept' it takes it much longer.
Okay, deal done.
I really don't have time to write out a an entry that would be - normal - for me, I must get moving so I have time to visit with my folks this afternoon and on into the evening.
Hope everyone is doing well and putting the JS disaster to rest - I know that's hard for many of us - but, blogging is still available and I think it's possible to just move on. Considering we can all connect on Dorrie's page if we somehow are separated, that's a pretty good deal right there.
Take care - hugs to everyone, Happy New Year!
benb
I can't imagine what kind of messes the government will create or the condition of the economy by year's end, but for whatever reason, I'm going to remain optimistic.
But, my mind isn't really on that right now, I'm just about to leave. I mean, JUST about to leave.
I was trying to print out my dad's instructions and realized I haven't used the printer since the computer crashed and - there was no driver for the printer!
Okay, I'm just sitting here waiting for this thing to print it out - it's a slow thing - Canon i550 bubble jet printer. It has this windup - like a pitcher in a baseball game - cept' it takes it much longer.
Okay, deal done.
I really don't have time to write out a an entry that would be - normal - for me, I must get moving so I have time to visit with my folks this afternoon and on into the evening.
Hope everyone is doing well and putting the JS disaster to rest - I know that's hard for many of us - but, blogging is still available and I think it's possible to just move on. Considering we can all connect on Dorrie's page if we somehow are separated, that's a pretty good deal right there.
Take care - hugs to everyone, Happy New Year!
benb
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Lamenting
I'm not sure I'm gonna get used to THIS place. I enable "translation". Great, somebody that doesn't speak English can translate.
NOOOO, that's not what this friggin' thing does: it starts translating EVERYTHING I'm writing into HINDI!!!!
WHAT?
I turned the translation crap OFF - permanently.
I tried to reply to people on the last thread, it was asking ME, the owner of this blog, to post my credentials!!
BUNK!!
I turned all that crap off too - ANYONE can post, I am NOT moderating this place, and I don't want people to have to enter a bunch of letters/words after they try to post a comment.
....
....
I never had that on JS, I ain't havin' it anywhere else.
......
I'm not real happy about any of this situation going on. Me and however many JS refugees like me that aren't happy, either.
It just doesn't make any sense that the site wasn't backed up on disks; external drives; friggin' CD's. I don't know how this stuff works, I do know that everyone on the planet that is in business backs up their drives. I guess everyone but J friggin' S.
.....
I can't get it out of my mind. I'm really TRYING to drop it, but - then again - I only found out TODAY that JS is a goner. People posting that we should just get over it? Sure, GIVE ME SOME TIME, THANK YOU. HALF A FRIGGIN' DAY IS NOT ENOUGH FOR ME, THANK YOU AGAIN.
.....
I don't mean to offend anyone, but - have some respect. Some element, an atom's worth of empathy for those of us that are REALLY not liking what happened and yes, it's affecting me/several others GREATLY. Maybe it's just that some had far more vested than others. Granted and understood. Now, PLEASE, grant and understand that I don't get over things like this in 12 hours time. I have 4 years of this vested: or - roughly 1,460 days - I don't even want to try to guesstimate the amout of hours I have into this. Maybe I don't even want to admit it.
...........
When I find something that allows me line breaks instead of the way it's publishing now, I'll stop the dots in between paragraphs/sentences.
.........
Well, I had a lot I wanted to say, but I'm just fed up with this particular day. Good riddance to 2008, 4 hours and 2 minutes until 2009. If I wanted to digest the expert's take on 2009, then I would probably be getting sick as the predictions are far worse than what has already happened this year.
..........
I'm ending this before I really start into things...................
G'nite.
Oh, and if you don't see me for 2 or 3 days, it's cause I'm out-of-town, at my dad's place and I don't have internet access.
ben
NOOOO, that's not what this friggin' thing does: it starts translating EVERYTHING I'm writing into HINDI!!!!
WHAT?
I turned the translation crap OFF - permanently.
I tried to reply to people on the last thread, it was asking ME, the owner of this blog, to post my credentials!!
BUNK!!
I turned all that crap off too - ANYONE can post, I am NOT moderating this place, and I don't want people to have to enter a bunch of letters/words after they try to post a comment.
....
....
I never had that on JS, I ain't havin' it anywhere else.
......
I'm not real happy about any of this situation going on. Me and however many JS refugees like me that aren't happy, either.
It just doesn't make any sense that the site wasn't backed up on disks; external drives; friggin' CD's. I don't know how this stuff works, I do know that everyone on the planet that is in business backs up their drives. I guess everyone but J friggin' S.
.....
I can't get it out of my mind. I'm really TRYING to drop it, but - then again - I only found out TODAY that JS is a goner. People posting that we should just get over it? Sure, GIVE ME SOME TIME, THANK YOU. HALF A FRIGGIN' DAY IS NOT ENOUGH FOR ME, THANK YOU AGAIN.
.....
I don't mean to offend anyone, but - have some respect. Some element, an atom's worth of empathy for those of us that are REALLY not liking what happened and yes, it's affecting me/several others GREATLY. Maybe it's just that some had far more vested than others. Granted and understood. Now, PLEASE, grant and understand that I don't get over things like this in 12 hours time. I have 4 years of this vested: or - roughly 1,460 days - I don't even want to try to guesstimate the amout of hours I have into this. Maybe I don't even want to admit it.
...........
When I find something that allows me line breaks instead of the way it's publishing now, I'll stop the dots in between paragraphs/sentences.
.........
Well, I had a lot I wanted to say, but I'm just fed up with this particular day. Good riddance to 2008, 4 hours and 2 minutes until 2009. If I wanted to digest the expert's take on 2009, then I would probably be getting sick as the predictions are far worse than what has already happened this year.
..........
I'm ending this before I really start into things...................
G'nite.
Oh, and if you don't see me for 2 or 3 days, it's cause I'm out-of-town, at my dad's place and I don't have internet access.
ben
Wednesday More
Got off work early -- 11:30 am to be precise. The boss said not to sign out, I would get paid for an entire day, just the same as everyone else. The whole company shuts down at noon, but everyone that was at work gets paid a full 8 hours. Nice.
My mind has been full of this JS nonsense all day long, since I read that rather stunning news this morning on Dorrie's site about JS / Bye-Bye. I take solace in the fact that I'm not the only one that misses JS - dearly. Talk of asking Dylan to bring it back up from scratch has surfaced - I fully support that idea to the point of actually committing to continue to pay for my use of it, but is Dylan even interested in doing any more of this?
Talk of Dorrie taking over JS has also surfaced. Dorrie - if you did that - certainly a lot of people would be indebted to you for it, I just hope that if you are really interested in doing it that it doesn't take over your entire life. Again, I would pay for the use of JS to help pay for the service needed to be able to have the site and whatever upgrades and whatever else there is in maintaining a site like this. If enough people paid, it would be great if you got a salary or something out of it, too, since I take it that running something like this is akin to a full-time job. Honestly, I would think most if not ALL JS'ers would come back if someone as highly held on the JS scape as Dorrie were taking it over. These are all just comments in passing that I"ve read, though, nothing concrete. Even Bobby stated he would be willing to write a check for several hundred dollars to get JS up and running - undoubtedly hoping others would do the same. I would certainly send in some small amount - I just can't afford that much right now.
On my benb1.wordpress.com site I have started to copy and paste on to new, respective entries the posts from my JS past that I am finding. So far about 115 of them. I don't know how to find all of them, I am sure there must be more somewhere, just a matter of finding out how to retrieve them. Foregone conclusion, from the myriad of sites I have been reading, that getting 4 years worth is not a happening event. Not from Google, anyway. I have been searching the web and will continue to do so until I have either found what I'm looking for - or just ready to hang up the towel.
I had my neighbor's mechanic change the oil in my car just a few minutes ago. Same price as the oil change places - yes - just MUCH more convenient. Like, in my next-door-neighbor's driveway. An easy job, I didn't want to do it, I have all but totally quit doing mechanics after some 25 years of doing so. I just need to do some laundry, give Mary some instructions on Prince - shoving pills down his throat and changing the dressing on his tail - and that's it as far as getting ready. The car's vibration is all but gone. There's just a little hint of it at speeds of 75mph. I figure that the mechanic that told me that Discount Tire has the right balancing equipment but not the qualified personnel to USE the equipment must be right. I'm waiting til' after this trip to see if my dad will, indeed, give me some more money this coming year. I ain't asking but Iwill definitely be grateful. I'm also going to seriously pursue a part-time job at Fry's now that I have info on how, exactly, to go about it so that you get noticed by management. Working an extra 20 hours per week will be nothing different than the life I used to have in trucking at 60, 70, 80, 90 and more hours per week. Not exactly GREAT - but I'm looking to protect myself. If you read anything online, then you might run into the stories that all of these business mortgages are going to change this coming year and the comanies will owe much more money on the payments. That's what I read, anyway.
The prediction is a Sunami of foreclosures YET to come. What kind of devastation will THAT wreak on our economy? Don't want to know, but if it happens, will find out whether I want to or not. Having a second job is at least some protection.
The dogs were not able to penetrate my chain link fortress today. I'm sure they tried. It would be obvious if they had made it over, under or through it.
I've worn myself out thinking about this JS mess. Really, I have. I've spread myself out on 3 blogs - 2 repetitive sites and now my other Wordpress site to save my cached JS entries. And now, since it's apparent many people are headed to Blogspot, I'm going to simply start posting my entries in 3 places instead of 2: TrooperRat.livejournal.com; TruckersJournal.wordpress.com and TruckingJournal.blogspot.com. It will take some learned discipline to copy and paste an entry to 2 different blogsites, but in the end, it will be worth the peace of mind in doing so. I've lost too much, the sting of the loss is still very real. I can save some of my old journal, but all of it? Not unless there's some place I can find that's been caching my journal for years and still has all of it. I know those robots have been coming a long time, I don't remember the name of the robots (I visited the sites a couple of times) - and I have no idea how to find them.
Well, I don't really know if I"m writing again today or not, and again, I don't know if I'm going to be able to post any entries when I'm at my dad's, so - I'll bid ya'll a goodbye for a couple of days - or not - and will be visiting as many of your journals as I can. I do visit all of them, but I don't think you can see exactly who has stopped by, like you could on JS. I guess the only way to validate it is to comment.
ben
My mind has been full of this JS nonsense all day long, since I read that rather stunning news this morning on Dorrie's site about JS / Bye-Bye. I take solace in the fact that I'm not the only one that misses JS - dearly. Talk of asking Dylan to bring it back up from scratch has surfaced - I fully support that idea to the point of actually committing to continue to pay for my use of it, but is Dylan even interested in doing any more of this?
Talk of Dorrie taking over JS has also surfaced. Dorrie - if you did that - certainly a lot of people would be indebted to you for it, I just hope that if you are really interested in doing it that it doesn't take over your entire life. Again, I would pay for the use of JS to help pay for the service needed to be able to have the site and whatever upgrades and whatever else there is in maintaining a site like this. If enough people paid, it would be great if you got a salary or something out of it, too, since I take it that running something like this is akin to a full-time job. Honestly, I would think most if not ALL JS'ers would come back if someone as highly held on the JS scape as Dorrie were taking it over. These are all just comments in passing that I"ve read, though, nothing concrete. Even Bobby stated he would be willing to write a check for several hundred dollars to get JS up and running - undoubtedly hoping others would do the same. I would certainly send in some small amount - I just can't afford that much right now.
On my benb1.wordpress.com site I have started to copy and paste on to new, respective entries the posts from my JS past that I am finding. So far about 115 of them. I don't know how to find all of them, I am sure there must be more somewhere, just a matter of finding out how to retrieve them. Foregone conclusion, from the myriad of sites I have been reading, that getting 4 years worth is not a happening event. Not from Google, anyway. I have been searching the web and will continue to do so until I have either found what I'm looking for - or just ready to hang up the towel.
I had my neighbor's mechanic change the oil in my car just a few minutes ago. Same price as the oil change places - yes - just MUCH more convenient. Like, in my next-door-neighbor's driveway. An easy job, I didn't want to do it, I have all but totally quit doing mechanics after some 25 years of doing so. I just need to do some laundry, give Mary some instructions on Prince - shoving pills down his throat and changing the dressing on his tail - and that's it as far as getting ready. The car's vibration is all but gone. There's just a little hint of it at speeds of 75mph. I figure that the mechanic that told me that Discount Tire has the right balancing equipment but not the qualified personnel to USE the equipment must be right. I'm waiting til' after this trip to see if my dad will, indeed, give me some more money this coming year. I ain't asking but Iwill definitely be grateful. I'm also going to seriously pursue a part-time job at Fry's now that I have info on how, exactly, to go about it so that you get noticed by management. Working an extra 20 hours per week will be nothing different than the life I used to have in trucking at 60, 70, 80, 90 and more hours per week. Not exactly GREAT - but I'm looking to protect myself. If you read anything online, then you might run into the stories that all of these business mortgages are going to change this coming year and the comanies will owe much more money on the payments. That's what I read, anyway.
The prediction is a Sunami of foreclosures YET to come. What kind of devastation will THAT wreak on our economy? Don't want to know, but if it happens, will find out whether I want to or not. Having a second job is at least some protection.
The dogs were not able to penetrate my chain link fortress today. I'm sure they tried. It would be obvious if they had made it over, under or through it.
I've worn myself out thinking about this JS mess. Really, I have. I've spread myself out on 3 blogs - 2 repetitive sites and now my other Wordpress site to save my cached JS entries. And now, since it's apparent many people are headed to Blogspot, I'm going to simply start posting my entries in 3 places instead of 2: TrooperRat.livejournal.com; TruckersJournal.wordpress.com and TruckingJournal.blogspot.com. It will take some learned discipline to copy and paste an entry to 2 different blogsites, but in the end, it will be worth the peace of mind in doing so. I've lost too much, the sting of the loss is still very real. I can save some of my old journal, but all of it? Not unless there's some place I can find that's been caching my journal for years and still has all of it. I know those robots have been coming a long time, I don't remember the name of the robots (I visited the sites a couple of times) - and I have no idea how to find them.
Well, I don't really know if I"m writing again today or not, and again, I don't know if I'm going to be able to post any entries when I'm at my dad's, so - I'll bid ya'll a goodbye for a couple of days - or not - and will be visiting as many of your journals as I can. I do visit all of them, but I don't think you can see exactly who has stopped by, like you could on JS. I guess the only way to validate it is to comment.
ben
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