The Zoo

Edited:
The photos are not showing up right on my blog. If there is a photo of interest to you, simply click on the photo itself and the full photo will show. Not sure how to fix that problem - maybe try using a lessor setting on the camera.

I really haven't been around a 6 year old for quite a while - at least not in terms of spending any time with a kid that age, so - the trip to the zoo was actually a pleasant experience. Mostly because it's not my kid, lol. I don't have to deal with the issues, just be around for entertainment purposes and that's that.

Mimi - the newest tenant - has her 6 year old grandson over here on the weekends frequently. Pretty well-behaved boy so no issues there, I was invited to go with them to the zoo. Since I hadn't been in ages, I decided to go. I did, of course, take pics. The zoo has not changed remarkably for the decade plus since I've been there, but - it is fun to go see the pythons, exotic birds, lions/tiger/jaguars/cheetahs/elephants and everything else.

Oh, the pics. Well, I haven't posted any in a long time, so - here goes, sorry for the inconvenience, lol.



That's Damien doing the camel ride. He's the grandson of my newest tenant. The ride? $5 for about - 2 minutes.



Giraffes are our friends.



Yup, that's a sheep thing up there on top of that rock. I would have loved to see HOW it got up there.


Easily viewable is the lion laying in the shade. No so easily seen is the male lion behind the log, just on the other side of the female. He's visible, barely.



An otter lazing in the shade. I was amazed at the up-close view of the fur - looks very soft and elegant. 2 other otters were going crazy in the pool playing with each other.



I'm sorry, but that is one UGLY creature right there. Still interesting to watch all of them. Oh, it's a warthog for those that don't know.



Baboon. The dominant male? Next photo.........



This guy was clearly the dominate male of this "troop". Very fascinating to watch these creatures for some length of time in how they interacted with each other.


This was the best shot of these 2, of which you can only see one in the photo. Cheetas. We must have caught a bad part of the day - most of these animules were laying around. I had thoughts though, that they had the better idea, as I did the same thing these 2 were doing when I got home - took a nice nap : )



Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, unfortunately for me, I found these birds to be about as ugly as vultures. Lol.





The bears had a huge exhibit, which took quite some time to get around. There were 2 of them and they were both hiding. We had been looking a good 20 minutes for these peoples before this one appeared. This was all the way around and at the end of their "cage". I have run into these bears numerous times in the wild - tend to give bears, even smaller ones - wide berth.



Damien again on top of an - obviously fake frog.

Okay, well it was cool and it was the right time to go - in a month that place is going to be hell. They have evaporative coolers set up in most of those exhibits for the animals to keep cool in, plus pools of cool water for those that need it such as the elephants. Hmmmmm, what happened to my elephant photos? OH, no photo, a video! Which I have not uploaded to YouTube yet, so I can't do that right now.

As for the rest of it? I took a video today of the trailer trash next door with all their weeds and grass that grows, uncurtailed and comes to my yard. Showed the garbage laying around along with extensive outdoor storage.

Prince sliced one of his paws on something, slice it good. We figured out what he probably sliced it on and took care of that situation. I have him on antibiotics because it is a pretty good gash. It isn't bleeding, but I am taking no chances with that.

Duke apparently antagonized Prince yet again, which mostly has died down in recent months, but his ear was bitten pretty good. I am not fan of my dogs fighting each other, but Prince finally got Duke back. I hope that Duke will somehow remember this in his rather empty skull and not start crap with him again. Anyway, the ear started smelling like rotten cheese - a clear sign of infection, so I started him on antibiotics as well today, and went ahead and ordered more of the stuff online because between the 2 of them, the bottle I have will be gone in about 8 days. They put Prince on the stuff for 2 weeks last time I had him on antibiotics when he got his tail caught in the fence and ripped it open, so I am going to keep them on the stuff for that length of time.

Ummmm, make that 7 days. The new bottle should be here in 3 days, so no problem there.

This weekend is history. I have to be at a jobsite by 6:30 am tomorrow. I won't have to get up any earlier than I usually do - I loaded the truck Friday and strapped it, it's ready to go. I get to work about 25 minutes early before I even sign in. I will get there at my normal time tomorrow and sign in upon arrival, get my paperwork ready, and be ready to leave by 6:00 am. Meaning the boss has to be there by 6:00 am for my departure. That's upon his desire to have the store opened at it's normal time, even though it's been quite a while since anyone has come in that early.

The jobsite is not even a 30 minute drive from the shop, so I will be good as long as the boss shows up on-time - which I have no doubts he will.

Anyway, it was a nice day and I spent it with quality people.
Hope yours was good as well.
ben

I Started To Travel.............

............all over the place today in terms of visiting people's blogs. Some of the stuff going on in people's lives make my problems look - quite small and insignificant. It was a wake-up call for me to continue praying for many people that are going through so many different - stressful - and sometimes gut-wrenching things.

I hate to see people getting sick, or hurt, or losing their jobs. You read it in their words: the tension is palpable, the loss of any kind of security is frightening. Some of those people come here. I want you to know that I am praying for you - I lift up prayers to the Lord frequently for people that are going through all kinds of things on Blogspot and other blogging venues.

And then there's all the crap going on in the world. I read about a town somewhere in New Mexico, I think it was, that is basically lawless and that some of the Mexican drug lords have actually moved in there. This was - an unbelievable thing to read. A town where they openly know that these kinds of people are living there and nothing is being done about it? The story goes on - you'll have to find it if you are interested and read it for yourself. I don't understand the "security" for a lawless group of thugs and murderers living on our side of the border.

The swine flu scare. Pirates in Somalia. North Korea a viable nuclear threat. On, and on, and on. I find peace through my Lord and I also find peace by tuning this stuff out at some point and discontinuing reading about it. I am not living in a cave or on an island - I do like to find out what's going on in this world, but I find that I can only take so much of it and then, turn it off. I have enough troubles of my own - and I am also actively helping other people who are going through tough times right now in giving out food here and there as I can. In other words, I do what small part I can and leave the rest up to each individual as each person chooses - to reach out or not to reach out.

As for today? I made the boys go out there and paint all 3 trellises - well, not paint them, apply the wood seal to them. They have been out there an hour and should be out there another hour at least. I made no promises of anything, either. Caleb is allegedly going to go find a job when he turns 16 - which is later this month. I hope he finds a job and I definitely expect him to get a dose of life. Life can be extremely difficult at times - have we not all experienced that - going to work is a part of it. Most days I love going to work, some days I drag my @$$ out of bed and force myself to go through the motions to get myself there. Once there, the mind always kicks into automatic - do this, that and the other thing - a daily routine.

He has definitely gotten some doses of reality through JR ROTC, though, and I have fully supported him in that endeavor. It's the kind of program that starts to prepare you for the reality of life. Daddy will be there as long as daddy is alive - that would be me - and he will always be welcomed in my home, but the time is coming when he will move out on his own. I am slowly preparing myself for this eventuality. I cannot envision myself without having kids in my life. I love kids, I love having them around. The most probable scenario when the day comes that he is gone is that I will try to adopt. I have been reading about it - to great extent actually - single parents are welcomed into that system. That's because of the total lack of sufficient families that are willing to adopt.

Anyway, Michael is a totally different story. He is in for a big surprise. Even high school is a wake-up call. He will undoubtedly flunk most of his classes this year. I don't even know that they call it flunking anymore - but I will ALWAYS call it that, especially when it's caused by a person failing to show up for school or doing homework with the parents saying - yeah, that's okay. It's okay to do what? Set up your kid to fail? Try that s*** in college and see how far it gets you. Or the military - or any venue in life.

Ummm, enough. Finally got motivated and am heading outside into this horrid humidity heat to get some things done.
ben

Saturday

I came home from work yesterday just absolutely exhausted, after not getting near enough sleep the night before. I still went outside and watered just about everything. Unfortunately, the "wave" wasn't over yet, so I visited the casino for a couple of hours as well. I tend to ride out winning streaks until they're gone. Last night, my "take" was only $70 - but - it's $70 I didn't have before last night - so I'll take it. Is the wave over? Who knows. I enjoy the outings is all I can say about that.

Chad - the gentleman that left a message on one of my entries a couple of entries down - was true to his word. Of course, I could hardly ever imagine talking to a company official making promises like that and not carry through with them. I received the gift card yesterday in the mail. Thank you, Chad! I was going to spend the whole thing on my food storage supply, but I have altered the plan to use 80% for food storage and the other 20% for a nice, thick, juicy steak. Ohhhh yeaaaaaaaaaah. I was thinking of making homemade coleslaw again - a big hit in these parts of the world (well, at my house anyway :|) and get a picnic roast, slow cook it and make more BBQ - I guess I'll just make up my mind when I get over to Fry's later on today.

I am supposed to go over today or tomorrow and dig that tree out. I do want that tree, but I most certainly do not feel like digging that thing out. I envision a LOT of work to remove a tree, even if it isn't that big. I was thinking of getting one of those "day laborers" that hang out on the street corners and pay him $25 to dig the thing out - the tree would be worth far more than that - and not do anything but sit there and watch the person do the digging for me. I'm only half awake right now and it's still early - give that some thought.

Michael did not go to school yesterday. He does tend to come up with some interesting excuses. Apparently he spent the whole day at my house. For the excuse, he should have just come over here the night before and - he then would have no excuses. What was the reason he didn't go to school? Well, first off, he told me I wouldn't believe him. So I started making guesses. I was way off.

Turns out his dad got drunk, extremely drunk - well I cut him off there and started making more guesses. I was still way off. First, that guy never used to drink. The advent of Michael's mom getting a job and actually sticking with it plays out to the purchases of a lot of alcohol and a lot of marijuana. When it comes to money management, those people have absolutely no clue, and if it wasn't for the great State of Arizona and the Federal Government paying for their housing and giving them food stamps (and Lord knows what else), they would be out on the street and would be hungry.

Anyway, dad apparently cranked up the music and left the volume so high, people inside their homes 150 feet away could hear it. Me? I would have called the police after 10:00 pm for violation of noise ordinances. But that's just me. Michael claims the music was on that loud, all night long, until he finally passes out (the dad, that is) and then they shut it off. I can't even imagine that man being drunk. He's already a hot-head, I envision a man going crazy and threatening everyone and going off without reason. Certainly NOTHING I want to be around.

Ummmm - long break. All tenants converged on the kitchen at once. The newest made French Toast. Yummmm.
I'm still trying to decide what to do with this day.
If it keeps going like this, the question will answer itself.
Happy Saturday!
ben

Thursday

Is it really Thursday already? Yayyyy!
Tomorrow will be a long day - a GOOD long day I might add - in that I should be busy all day long at work until it's time to go home. West Phoenix; Downtown Phoenix; Williams Gateway Airport in the easy valley; Casa Grande for some pipe; back to the yard; possibly back downtown; and then finish putting together and order that "HAS" to be there, at the jobsite, at 6:30am on Monday morning, plus another order that "had" to be there - later than 6:30 am, obviously :-|

The grocery store circulars that were supposed to come yesterday came today. I'm quite amazed at the amount of competition that is going on between all of them. Even Safeway has some real bargains. The real deal - though - is the 47 cent per pound chicken. 10 pound bags. I want 3 of them. I am going to feed that stuff to the dogs. I have been trying to fatten all 3 of the big dogs up for some time now. Only Duke has succumbed to my otherwise futile attempts to get Coco and Prince to see some meat on their bodies instead of a bunch of bones sticking out. I don't want to make them obese, per se, but they definitely need to fatten up some. Duke is hardly overweight. I'm guessing he's about 135 pounds now, whereas Prince is probably around 120. Prince could use at least another 15 pounds, Coco could use at least another 5. Duke is good where he's at - he looks good, not too much and not too little.

Look, that cheap chicken? I've bought it before. If you're a starving human, sure, you'll eat it. Otherwise, forget it. The stuff smells - bad - cooking it and I don't even try eating it after smelling it. The dogs absolutely love the stuff - and they don't get sick or diarehea off of it, so it's all good. Usually I'll mix that chicken with some freshly cooked rice - but darn if the price of rice right now isn't a weeeeee bit high.

Well, I still have some scouring of the ads to go - but - Fry's is still right at the top. Only fresh & easy is doing a bit better because on top of their ad, they also sent me a $6 off on any combined purchase over $30.

Anyway, if I do receive that $50 gift card from Fry's - thanks to Chad - I will be spending the entire amount on canned goods for my food storage. That should beef that stockpile up quite a bit. I want to buy at least 30 cans of tuna fish and then whatever else. My food storage is going well - I'm approaching a 2 month supply of food stocked up - canned and boxed. If you count the refrigerator, it goes way over that - but I don't count it because if something REALLY bad happened, then one could also assume the power is off and then that food goes bad and is worthless. I'm also lacking on the cooking facilities if power did "go away". That would be a camp stove that uses the small cans of propane. I do have the BBQ grill, but it's hardly efficient. It uses quite a lot of propane to cook - being because there are 3 burners on that thing and even at low, I have gone through a 5-gallon thing of in about a month and a half. 5 gallons of that on a camp stove would last FAR longer than that.

I am not an alarmist, I don't necessarily think the world is ending (but if you read the Bible, it will definitely end someday) - but there's too much garbage going on right now to "trust the system". And anyway, it's definitely a good thing to have at least some kind of food stock saved up. If the s*** hits the fan, people literally flock to grocery stores and it's all gone in a very short period of time. Chaos ensues. Does that happen? DARN STRAIGHT it does. Just look at hurricane victims. Heck, just about any natural disaster. My mother also has quite a huge stock of food piled up 'just in case'. The plan would be to move to her property up in the mountains if some disaster struck. The plan is there whether we are able to communicate with each other or not.

So - the only thing I'm really hurting on is that I let my dog food supply dwindle. I did that on purpose, though, because the food I was buying them really wasn't very good. Too much garbage in it for preservatives and such that simply isn't good for them. I'll get that back up within a month's time with some other food I found that has better ingredients and is still reasonably priced. I want 500 pounds on hand to be happy with it.

It's funny, something that happened today that somewhat coincides with all of this. I went back to the place that is selling out all of their shade screen for windows and such - the deal is too good to pass up. The first time I went, the gate was locked and no-one was around. Today, the gate was opened and still no-one was around. I got the number from this guy after the first time, so I called him. Turns out he was in one of the shipping containers he has in his yard, working on something. He is selling everything he has and is "returning" to Asia. Apparently, when the Vietnam war was over, he didn't come home. He moved to Cambodia or some such thing and lived there for a long time - and decided to return because his parents are here.

His desire to leave, he states, is the chaos that is "coming". The dollar is basically going to become worthless against foreign currencies- and a lot of other stuff. Well, to each his own. His advice? "Guns; garden; food" and something else I can't remember. Now, admittedly this guy was a bit eccentric, but he isn't that far off. What is going to happen to the dollar when all this trillion plus dollar budget is passed?

I dunno. I'm just preparing myself for whatever may come. I'm short on things I want - but I'll get there eventually.

Anyway, I bought today another project for this weekend. Or not. Karen - the former tenant - called yesterday and said she has a pine tree sitting in the middle of her yard that she wants gone, do I want it? Umm, I'm thinking a giant thing that I have no way of getting out of the ground. Hey, I COULD get it here - just borrow the semi - it has a 48 foot flatbed trailer on it. I intoned such. NO, she says, it's about 7 feet tall, in great health. Still - I envision a lot of work, but to buy a 7 or 8 foot tall tree? Not cheap. I agreed to come get the thing this weekend with the caveat that she start watering it NOW. Water, water, water.

Oh, well the project I bought today is the shade screen. But I"m not done putting up trellises yet - heck I haven't even bought all of them. The shade screen will go on the backs of the trellises to screen out the southern sun from hitting the house. It will stay that way until the vines - of which I have yet to get since I haven't even got all the trellises in yet - grow and cover them. It's an on-going project - I have been doing a little here and there, but it's time to pick up the pace. Heat is coming my way, and soon. We're facing May starting tomorrow - and yes, May will heat up substantially around here - it always does. Then comes hell - June - which is a part of a 3 month onslaught of a nightmarish heat that is unreal. Then another month after that like May and then in October, if we're lucky, it will cool down.

Karen also wants to go to the casino this weekend. I have no "feeling" about that yet, so I neither agreed or disagreed. The cards played very well last weekend, but that most assuredly does NOT mean it will happen again. But - it could happen. I'm so very superstitious when it comes to casinos, blackjack and whether I'm going to play or not - I admit it freely. The feeling, the aura, everything has to be right. Even the place I park at the casino must be in the same, general area. I have mostly shyed away from it in recent times because I couldn't afford to lose. I still have $100 of casino money left from last week's adventure - I will consider it on Saturday - IF - I get that tree out of the ground! I spent $35 today on that shade screen. It was a smokin' deal. It's the heavy-duty stuff they use at nurseries to make shade covers for the plants. That stuff is normally 4 times that amount of money.

Oh, BTW, has anyone read about this thing where you can actually make your own solar panel? Allegedly you can buy the materials at Ace Hardware or similar place, put it together yourself, and it will generate enough power to power up an appliance. I've read a couple of sites with the plans - about $200 in materials. I'm undecided. It would be great to have and use for a refrigerator.

OH, that reminds me, the laundry tree! I totally forgot about that! Must get one this weekend after tenants pay me. I have $600 in tenant's money coming in - and with most bills paid up, it allows for the purchase, I hope anyway - of that tree. THAT thing will save a LOT of money in not using the dryer. 4 adults here using the dryer at various times throughout the week? THAT adds up.

I'm getting longwinded and I have some watering to do outside.

Take care, hope your day went well and that this writing finds you all in good health.
ben

Fry's Again?!!!

Soooo, I went to Fry's to get the $1.77 chuck roast that is on sale. I won't even bother to go into the ordeal I watched unfold before me with a lady/customer and the clerk behind the desk..........
I went to the meat department, and WHO did I find there? The Tude Dude!!! We saw each other at the same time, he immediately did an about face and walked into the back.
I'm looking for the sale meat: the price marker is there, but there's NO MEAT THERE!!!
At this point, I am finding this to be quite amusing. I'm thinking: NO WAY are they out of ANOTHER advertized special AGAIN!! I may have a strange sense of humor, that that's just me. I would rather laugh at a rather unlaughable situation than start getting angry and upset.

Well, I just figured to come back tomorrow or something and takalookit what they got and not say anything to anyone this time about the lack. I had thoughts of asking the meat department personnel about whether there was any in the back, but it was the Tude Dude, and I wanted nothing to do with him.

While all of these thoughts are cruising through my mind, Tude Dude comes cranking out of the back with a cart full of meat. I'm thinking maybe it's some of the sale meat. Well, while I'm thinking that, Tude Dude is coming straight at me with the cart. JUST before he was going to hit me with that damned thing, I moved out of the way and he bleeped out: "Excuse me".

Tude Dude begins to put the sale meat in it's allocated space. No, I didn't say anything to anyone about this guy, just let it go. If he does it to one person, he's going to do it to another sooner or later, and just as surely, someone else will complain and eventually - well you know the drill. I did find a couple of packages of good meat without too much fat in it. Yeah, limit of 2.

Umm, and there were packages of some great ham slices on manager's markdown as well. And Ravioli's - Michael loves those things - on sale. And whatever else.

I have a refrigerator full of food at this point. Which is a nice thing - full freezer, even fuller chilled side. I totally wish I had an upright freezer, a thing I have been contemplating buying.

Anyway, that was my excursion to Fry's, now I must excurse myself and go outside and - clean up dog dung.

Fun fun.
ben

Wednesday

An exhaustingly slow day at work today, meaning: no deliveries. Not even a transfer, I never drove a company vehicle today. Semi sat there, idle, boss's pickup sat out back, idle. I kept busy - yes - but it just is tough to go through 8 and a half hours trying to invent things to do. A thought jumped into my head when I was "inventing" things and remembered that the evaporative cooler units for the warehouse need to be serviced for the upcoming, hot, summer days. I spent a couple of hours on that.

Well, anyway, today marks the 3rd time in less than a week that the gate has become a situation. For newer readers - I have 4 dogs and I also have 3 tenants living in bedrooms in my house. I keep padlocks on my gates - there are 2 gates for walking through and 2 more huge gates for driving through on the driveway side of the house. Going through the gates is the ONLY way to get into the house, there are no front doors (by design, and I have no regrets and actually love the way my house was built in such a fashion that getting to an entry door to the house means having to go through gates - and dogs - to get there).

I keep them padlocked for 2 reasons, 1: obviously, theft prevention. 2: much more important, to force everyone to actually lock the gate, meaning they have to check it to make sure it's locked. Today? Michael dropped the padlock INTO the block fence! I came home and the gate was not locked. The point is to keep my dogs IN my backyard/house. Anyway, I have definitely decided that I am going to put a new lock on that gate and I will be the only one with a key to it. Everyone else will have to exit on the other side of the house - where the dogs have no access to because of the chain link fence that creates my "dog-free" zone on the east side of the house.

Now onto some other interesting tidbits. A gentleman that works for Fry's left a comment in my last entry. I was quite amazed this person actually put his phone number and email address onto a blog that is viewable by the entire world!! Then again, that's a company email and phone number, so maybe no big threat or fear of - things happening from strange people. I was even more amazed that this man found this blog because of something I had written in the entry. I'm assuming googlebots or something similar does a crawl through these blogs - apparently every day? - so a search for a particular word - such as the word Fry's/Frys could be found if such a person were looking.

And looking he is - he has some sort of thing set up where he gets an alert if there is anything that has the word Fry's (or Frys) written into it - whether a blog or whatever else. So yes, I called the man up, why not? I've already talked to - at least half a dozen people from Fry's about this chicken issue, one more person added to the list isn't going to bother anything. I take that back, it's been more than half a dozen people. Just at the Fry's I normally go to I have talked to more than half a dozen people about the chicken. Add to that the phone calls I made on Sunday attempting to find ANY Fry's that has the chicken, and add to that the phone call I made to corporate plus the message I left for corporate yesterday. I will say here that the corporate official I spoke to on the phone said they would have someone call me back - they did not. There has been no reply to my message left on their site, either, excepting an automated reply.

But, I'll take the conversation with Chad - the man who replied in my blog yesterday - as more than good-enough reply and response from Fry's and leave it at that. Chad apologized for the series of events that took place, offered a gift card (which I most certainly will NOT turn down and did not turn down, thank you very much - but - I will also add that I did not ask or intone that I wanted a freebie) and was very amenable over the phone. I have found Fry's, overall, to be an excellent place to do my shopping over the years - albeit I have had some bad experiences, almost always, management has made up for it. The very few times that management did not make up for it (example: the incident at the Fry's at Mill and Southern in Tempe) - well - I just pretty much stay away from those particular stores. Though, I have to admit, I went to THAT store on Sunday to actually get the chicken that was on sale.

Ummmm, anyway. Well, speaking of Fry's, on Wednesdays, the circulars come in the mail for Fry's, Safeway and Bashas - none of them were in there! I ALWAYS look forward to scrutinizing all 3 ads to see what kinds of deals are to be had.

I have nothing else, and I'm tired. I have not slept well this week - last night I got 6 and a half hours of sleep, the 3 nights before that I might have gotten 5 at most. Meaning - I'm going to go take a nice nap.

Hope you all had a great day!
ben

Tuesday

I promise I'm not giving up on blogging, again, just going through some sort of phase. I know I missed Sunday and yesterday - which is totally out-of-character for me - dunno what to say about it, really.

Sunday was rather uneventful. I had a couple people over for BBQ chicken - but as far as getting anything done around here, not much. Just the normal cleaning and watering of plants. I have a couple of projects going that I would like to finish. The last couple of weekends have been total wastes for me - I usually work on some kind of project and at least get something done on them. I ain't promising anything for the coming weekend, either.

The rather large size of the casino winnings helped me get ahead on some bills and get some things I needed, such as several more bags of dog food; tic treatment for the dogs; new socks, stuff like that.

Today, I went into a McDonald's in Casa Grande. I had no time to stop anywhere but for a few seconds to run in and out. It really shouldn't have been that long of a day, but it turned into one with driving all over the place. I wanted a cup of coffee to wake myself up. I was driving the boss's pickup, so I went through the drive-thru window. Got the coffee, drove off from the window, took a sip - and about spit it all back out. COLD coffee.

Some of the things these fast-food places do nowadays are quite amazing. Amazingly BAD. I parked the truck, walked back in, set the cup down on the counter, asked for my money back. What's wrong? Cold coffee. I can get you another cup. Don't want another cup, just give me my money back. I don't take kindly to a place of business serving something that is just plain wrong. I didn't give them an attitude per se, I just decided that if that was the way they were going to treat their customers, I would rather have nothing to do with that particular store/location again. The manager comes up - I tell her again, please give me my money back, thanks.

She gave me my money back, I said thank you and started to walk off. She did the unexpected, as the thought hadn't even crossed my mind, honestly: she offered me a free cup of hot coffee. Before this lady walked up, 3 employees were arguing amongst themselves about whose fault it was: turns out someone had turned off the warmer on the coffee brewer and that's why the coffee was cold. It seems nowadays it takes management to do the right thing at most places when a blunder is made. Perhaps the employees don't have the power to be able to make something right, I don't really know. However, in this case, I didn't ask for a free cup of coffee, neither did I expect one. I just dismissed the whole thing and was going to leave. At least her end of the deal reaffirmed my faith that there are still people working in places - that count - out there that are doing the right thing.

Now, take my visit to Fry's. Take that back, take my FOUR visits to Fry's in 3 days, looking for a sale item the didn't have: 77 cents per pound chicken. I went in Friday - no 77 cent chicken out. When will the next shipment come in? It was meat department personnel who informed me: "Anytime, we are expecting a truck anytime now". Well, will there be some tomorrow morning? Ohhhhh yes, there will. So, no big deal, I go into Fry's frequently, I would just come back in the morning.

Saturday, I go back to Fry's. Look for the 77cents per pound chicken. No such baby exists. I ask meat department personnel again: how's come no chicken? Ohhh, we're sorry, we don't have any. Sir, that's what YOU told me yesterday and you adamently informed me that today there would be chicken. I let it go with that guy, instead, I saw Kim, the store's manager, and asked him (yes, it's a man named Kim, haven't ever figured that one out, and he's not oriental or anything) about it. He went back - came back to me, apologized and that was the end of it. Will you have any tomorrow? Oh yes, we will have a truck come in today.

Yes, I went in Sunday morning. No chicken, and yes, I asked.
I went again later - I had forgotten a few things that I wanted for a meal. This time, a different man was working out in the meat aisle. I asked this guy how's come no chicken? He gets and attitude with me - note: I did NOT get an attitude with him, I asked him politely about the sale chicken that they don't seem to ever have. Not worth going into, the attitude was very sour.

Now, this is the FOURTH time in THREE days I've been there to get the sale chicken. I have NEVER experienced anything this bad from Fry's. So, after this guy getting a tudinoidinal with me, I go to find Kim, the general manager. He's not in today, I am informed, but Tim is. Okay, I have seen Tim before - never knew he was even in management. I told him 2 things, 1: I have been here 4 times for chicken that you don't have and 2: the dude with the tude.

Tim says follow me, we'll do a substitute for you. Okay. We go back there - dude with tude is out there. Tim asks Tude Dude something, Tude Dude starts with his act. Tude Dude looks at me, makes a comment - I cut him off. YOU are a REAL piece of work. Tude Dude immediately goes into extreme tudinaoidinal flurry of - s***. In fact, he put the meat down he had been holding and pulled his hands and arms back as if he were going to hit me! Lol. Fortunately, I had no fear of the man, at all, and said it again: YOU are a REAL piece of work. Tim intervenes, tells the man to stop, picks up 4 packages of chicken drumsticks of a different brand at a MUCH higher price, tells me to just tell the cashier that he said it was a substitute.

I walk off. Tim starts in on the man. Again, as I have said countless times on this journal, if I were to treat a customer the way Tude Dude spoke to me, I am quite sure that I would either be fired or definitely reprimanded and threatened with termination if it happened again. I doubt Tude Dude got fired - and really, it takes a lot for me to want to see a person lose their position and though this is getting up there, I still wouldn't have wished it upon him. BUT - he definitely received and earful from Tim, the second-in-command of that particular store.

I did an experiment when I got home. I called a LOT of Fry's stores - NONE of them had the chicken until I got to the last one. I asked the guy to put 6 packages of it aside for me, I would be right in. Yup, I got in my car and drove over there - only 4 miles away, it was definitely worth the trip.

Okay, that's just a blurp for history's sake on my part for my blog. Note that I did not ask for any freebies in this situation, either. The chicken I received from Tim may have cost more - but to me - chicken is chicken. I mean, if you are getting chicken breast, THEN you are getting a freebie, but a chicken drumstick is a chicken drumstick, at least to me it is.

More? Oh - there's another thing that happened that got my ire on Sunday as well. I put $120 of that casino winnings on my power card for electricity. At least, I tried to. The machine ate my money, did NOT put the money on my card, and then pumped out a receipt saying that the money wasn't on the card, please call this number. LOOOOOOOOONG story short: they did not have ANY record of my having done what I said I did (so thank God Almighty the receipt actually stated it), I had to go in yesterday to an SRP office and have them put that money onto a new card.

So, on the good note side: I don't really have any. I mean, when I got home today, Mimi- the newest tenant -said when she went out there this morning to open the gate, the latch was not latched. The lock was in it's hold, but the latch was above the lock, not below it where the lock can keep it from opening. All the dogs would have need done was push against the gate and it would have opened for them. This is twice now in 3 days this has happened. Ken did it on Sunday - he apparently thought he had closed the get - he did not. I went out there to see the gate WIDE OPEN. Mary did it this morning - it was clearly obvious through looking at the video surveillance camera that I have trained on that particular gate. Yup - I'm going to eliminate the use of that gate for tenants. The gate on the other side of the house is in the dog-free zone. If they pull that s*** over there, at least I have some peace of mind that the dogs can't get out by virtue of the fence in the back of the house that keeps them from getting back there.

Okay - a bright spot. I was at Walmart on Sunday. I wanted to get flea/tic stuff for the dogs and several packages of new socks. As normal for me, I couldn't resist walking through the nursery department to see what they might have. My new trellises need some vines crawling up them and - whatever else. An employee was out watering the plants. He quipped: "There are trees that we are getting rid of behind those palms back there, they're greatly discounted". Well, I most certainly couldn't resist THAT invitation, so I thanked him for the info and walked back there. Sure enough, they had 8 foot tall trees for ELEVEN bucks!! R U Serious? Dang!!!! Okay, I only bought one. All I could get into my car. I have totally forgotten about those trees - of which they don't have many left back there - I would have gotten another one today or yesterday on the way home from work.

Oh, there's even more stuff, but this entry has gotten lengthy.
Hope you all had a great (and swine-flu-free) day!
ben

Saturday - More

So, true to my word, I went out and bought almost everything on the list that the lady that contacted me wanted. It was QUITE a long list of stuff - I set a monetary limit on the amount I was going to buy - but I went over anyway. What the hey, it's free money, I didn't really earn it. They are coming over in a couple of hours. I am going to do some BBQ'ing as they are bringing their whole family - 2 adults and 3 kids. Basically, their situation is having their own company. The lady used to work for the company and draw a good salary - the husband ran the business and drew and awesome salary.

Now, like millions of others like them, they are facing some very hard times. Their business is still in operation, but she is no longer on the payroll and they are barely eeking out enough to make the house payment and pay necessary bills. Well heck, I'm going to copy and paste the letter without revealing the names or phone number. It's a typical story that's going on all over the place.

Hello, My name is (deleted) and I am married for 13 years and have 3 children. I just happened to run across your ad during my search for work. I’m currently a stay at home mom with my 2 ½ year old daughter and my other 2 children are in school. They are 13 ½ and 9. I’m not writing to give you a sob story, but definitely could use some food right now. We are a family of 5 that was at one point at a high point in life and the money was coming in quite vigorously. My husband owns his own business cutting architectural shapes out of Styrofoam and works heavily with the stucco industry. The problem is the economy….our business is really suffering. We had a general manager that was running things and we had to let him go and we have one laborer and recently had to just cut his hours down significantly to an as needed basis. I was working with my husband, however he can’t afford to pay me any longer, so I’m basically working for free and just do20the bare minimum like invoicing for the time being. We can’t afford to put our daughter in care any longer now that I’m not getting paid. I’ve been working very hard at trying to find employment in the administrative industry because that is my background, but no good bites. So just recently I’ve been searching on CL for little gigs like house cleaning or laundry or anything domestic that I can do as a service with no money out of my pocket and be able to take my daughter with me. I’ve been successful with that this past week, but just had to buy new glasses for 2 of my kids and myself and so that shot down that extra money and now I have to find more work to save for my vehicle tags which are just over $400 due in June. Anyways, as I mentioned I didn’t want to write a sob story, but just giving you a little bit of information to go on…..we could really use good food because I’ve just been doing a whole lot of mac n’ cheese, hot dogs, PBJ’s and cereal. The family is getting burnt out on that quickly! I use coupons, but can’t afford to even use those, so I put a lot of time and effort in to find what I can for cents or free. Again, this has been a tremendous adjustment for us and we would sincerely appreciate a return favor from our community as we offer so much and have offered so much to our community both in volunteer work and just as good citizens20and normal everyday people trying to make a living and do some good in this world.



I look forward to hearing from you and take care,

That's their story. Now, to me, that's pure, red-blooded Americana. They have worked hard all their lives - and here we are. These are the kinds of people I want to help - which of course isn't that much or very often, but since I won a load of money (well it's a load to me, anyway), and I like to give back (I see doing things like this as my version of tithing to the Lord) - here we are.

As for the rest of that free money, I have paid numerous bills with it today and have a few more to go. Satellite; car; internet; credit-cards; still trying to access the car insurance site. It's down for whatever reason. Oh, and going to transfer $100 to my savings account and dump $100 on the power reader. That'll pretty much consume that money and then-some - but I just got paid and this paycheck is the one I use for paying household bills.

Today's fare for the BBQ? (changing the subject yet again)?
BBQ'ed chicken; salad; pork chops; mashed potatoes with gravy; coleslaw; potato salad - and probably not much else since it's unnecessary. Just that I'm also feeding 3 hungry boys as well (you know Caleb, Michael and JD?). They're going to be here before I know it, so I'm going to start cutting stuff for the salad. The rest of the stuff is a piece of cake - nothing to it - besides cooking chicken and chops on the BBQ - which I love doing anyway.

You? Take care, now!
ben

Saturday

The ONLY reason I am awake right now is because of the dogs - sticking their snouts in my face while I was sleeping.
I got that wild hair last night and acted upon it. Yes sir, I went to the casino and raked up a tidy little sum of $700.00.
For 4 and a half hours, I was playing with house money, and boy was I playing! $50 bet here, $100 there. Double-down $100 for a $200 total bet here, etc etc etc. I undoubtedly could have won even more, but it got late and I started getting bored with it, actually.

Okay, I never get bored at the blackjack tables, but I was tired and that makes me feel bored, which is really my body telling me it's WAY past bed-time, pullllllleeeeeease go home and go to sleep. It felt REALLY good to walk out of there with that much of the house's money.

The funny thing is - management was standing there, glaring at me all night long. Everytime I looked up, they were standing there, a whole group of them at times, just staring at me. Now, admittedly I didn't start the affair out too well for their tastes. I hadn't been there 5 minutes and I objected to the dealer who bypassed me when I made a CLEAR signal to hit. I played strictly by the rules (blackjack rules for attempting to win, that is, not some house rules junk) last night, doubling down when I should have; doing everything that came to me that I should do when I should do it. The house actually paid everyone at the table back for that round. Then, someone else had a problem - a valid problem - with the dealer not paying him out for a winning hand.

The manager came up to the table and said: NOW what's the problem? looking at me as if I had just turned into the Bubonic plague - fortunately that problem was not initiated by me. I made no more fusses for the rest of the night, and the dealers were certainly doing some ridiculous blunders. I don't know how a person can be a dealer and simply ignore the player's wishes. Several of them continued to try and bypass me - thinking I wasn't going to hit on certain hands without bothering to ask my opinion of it.

Still, the thing kind of gave me a sour taste in my mouth just because of the pit boss and his cronies. I'm telling you, that pit boss was watching my every move. I started to wonder if they might have thought I was counting cards, a thing I have never learned how to do and undoubtedly would win FAR more money if I knew how to do it. I normally get along well with management, but last night - I just kept my mouth shut.

Okay, well, anyway, here it is, today. I decided to pay some of my winnings out to a needy family - a family of 5 that is, 2 adults and 3 boys - in giving them food. Yes, I am still doing Craigslist stuff here and there in giving out food when I can. Certainly, a winning like this will have me wanting to do something for someone. In this case, the lady of the house sent me a pretty extensive list of things she would like based on Fry's advertised sales. That will be $60 worth of food, maybe a tad more and then the rest is going to bills. Ummm, well maybe not ALL of it. I just remembered that material I was going to go buy today. The money spent on shade screen will be the money saved in cooling costs.

I am also thinking of buying 2 more new tires for my car - I STILL have that vibration problem that I just gave up on because I figured 2 more new tires would fix the problem, and at almost $200, I simply haven't really had the extra funds to go get them. Yes, in fact, I can think of a lot of ways to spend those winnings - on stuff I need - so, back off a little and give some time to think this out. I mean, clearly I should dump at least $100 in my online savings account.

Well, I will drive myself batty going on like that, so I'll just stop.

You know what? I'm still tired and I'm going to go back to bed!
Happy Day!
ben

Friday - Morning

Got to work this morning - first day in weeks that I haven't had a full plate of things to do. Which isn't really all that great - I do my best when there is plenty to do. Still, it's a beautiful morning, the air is cool and "fresh" - Phoenix version of fresh lol - and at least there's an order to pull for delivery on Monday morning.
Plus, I get off almost 2 hours early today because of OT incurred this week.

When thinking about approaching summer - I'm always looking at the temps and the 10-day forecast. Today will be mid-90's, this weekend back down in the 80's but then next week back up into the 90's. At this time of the year, this is expected, unfortunately, and it probably will continue to rise from here on out. So - bidding adioses and ado's to winter and spring.

Anyway, I found the ad on Craigslist again that has shade treatments for windows - the guy is going out of business and is selling the stuff dirt cheap. I am hoping to get over there today or tomorrow and get some of it before it's all gone.

With that, I am going to go outside, get on the forklift and start pulling this order.
Have a great day!
ben

Thursday

Today was totally ridiculous.
I got up early and was at work early.
I had the truck loaded from the day before, I only had to go in the store, print out my truck reports, print out the ticket for the delivery, walaah, good to go.

Instead, I find in the truck routing system that another order had been dumped in there for this particular delivery - a delivery they wanted me AT the jobsite at 6:00am. Kick it in high gear, pull the order, unstrap the trailer, put the material on, restrap the trailer - etc etc etc. I also had to go to the plumbing branch to get parts that we didn't have. So, arriving at this elementary school at the appointed time amazed me.

So, they have this little area between buildings where they're putting in sewer and water lines. Replete with a gate that was JUST barely big enough to fit a truck into, final touches that I had to drive against traffic and back at an extreme angle because of space limitations on the street. I even amazed myself on this backing maneuver: I got that trailer nailed into that gate without even one single pull-up. Yowsa!!! The foreman called me a "driving wonder", gave me accolades for the feat I just pulled off. Then comes the bad part.

The pipe is the wrong size. NOT because I had the wrong size pipe on the truck according to the paperwork, but - it was ordered wrong. Great. This guy gets sour in a fast hurry. I put an end to that in an even faster hurry: I'll have the correct size pipe out here for you in an hour's time. That put a smile on his face, and yes, I delivered my promise.

The whole day was like that. I made 4 runs on however many deliveries. Every place I went they were waiting on the material. One place I went to they unloaded the pipe and immediately started putting it in the ground.

I am TOTALLY wiped out. Long break. I was also quite hungry and went about the task of forming hamburger patties and cooking them on the grill. The effort was TOTALLY worth it!
But now? The food, of course, is making me sleepy. Dunno about recent days in my life - just don't know what's going on. I'll figure it out.
Have a great evening!
ben

A Different Tone

Admittedly, when I am tired, I don't tend to be the rosiest person on the face of the planet.
I might even misread something that someone says in passing and take it wrongly - but usually I keep my mouth shut about such things because I know what frame of mind I am in at the moment.
Today I had such an encounter with a certain person at my employer's - I had to think about that person's statement for a long, long time and came to absolutely NO clear conclusion.
I go to work, and when the work's there, I work my @$$ off. Period. I have no other work ethic. I don't know any other way of doing things at work, I must strive to do the best possible job in the least amount of time while maintaining accuracy and efficiency. I have always driven myself to such, I cannot see a day when I will change that way of doing things.

It's simply a part of who I am. There are always, of course, areas that can be improved. Whatever my work failings may be, no one will ever be able to say that "that guy is a lazy ASS looking for NOTHING to do". To the contrary, I HATE a slow day. I FAR prefer being busy, and quite busy at that. Since my boss has been gone, I have - dipped my feet - into things I hadn't done before. Nothing bad about what I did, it's stuff the boss usually does to keep his store ratings up. I had never done it because he always does it, every single day.

None of what I do at work guarantees that I will have a job tomorrow. I can only do my best and strive to go beyond my best and hope that tomorrow, when I arrive at work, and tomorrow afternoon, when I leave, I won't have to confront any bad news.

My home? I love my home! It's not just a place to hang a hat, it's a place to live. Here is MY place, the place that I don't have to succumb to anyone for any reason about anything. At least, not in relative terms. Always there is something, but - I deal with it. I ALWAYS deal with it, and usually almost immediately unless prudence dictates something else. I love what's happening to my home - it's transforming from a bland, same-o same-o place to the place of my dreams. Really. It will get there.

And then? I will sell it - when the economy comes back and housing prices go back up - and I find a point where I can make a profit off of it - and go buy another diamond in the rough. Or - if I can somehow swing it - rent the place out AND go get another diamond in the rough.

This is not a guess. I am not making statements that won't happen. If I die, it won't happen. Otherwise, I will see it happen. There is so much more to be done to this house and property before it is sold - but it isn't a negative outview. I LOVE the challenge of getting things to where I want them, especially something as large a project as an entire house and it's property.

Life isn't all about a bad economy - or even a good one. You meet people where they are at. It isn't about a whole lot of anything, really, except the people that are involved in your personal life. And the Lord, of course.

Now for my negative rant. I check my checking account balance every day - every single day, online. I check it because I used to be so TERRIBLY bad about a checking account. Checking accounts and credit are the reason I went for some 3 years without a checking account or credit cards. On purpose. I had to pay for everything by cash. I forced that upon myself and I never want to forget the lessons I learned during that period of time.

Anyway, today, I was surprised to see my checking account $25 in the NEGATIVE. It is NEVER in the negative. What did I do? Forgot about a check I had written that the person it was issued to hadn't deposited. Now, this morning, I was in the black. It was about 4:00pm when I checked it yet again and found that in there. I immediately went out to my car and drove on down to the nearest Compass bank.

Guess what? Compass bank closes at 4:00pm! R U Serious? What happened to banker's hours: 9 to 5? The bank was closed, not even the drive-thru was opened. The only thing I could do was make a deposit in the ATM. So I did - almost. The screen popped up and told me that deposits made before 3:00 pm would be posted that day, deposits made after 3:00 pm would be posted the next business day.

I'm getting panicked - I HATE giving banks money for over-draft fees. It's just money down the drain. Poof, it's gone and didn't do you a DAMNED bit of good. You didn't buy anything with it, it didn't help your credit, it's just plain GONE. I thought that maybe because it was south-central Phoenix - not a nice area - they close earlier. So, I'm heading back towards the east valley and attempting to call Compass on the 800 line.

I push the buttons on the phone for the options presented. I get to the point of talking to a person and a recording comes on that says something about being open until 7:00 pm, thanks for calling and it hangs up! 7:00 pm MOUNTAIN time. I'm IN Mountain time, and it's 4:30 pm! I got that recording fully 7 times before I FINALLY got through to someone, who said I was not in the right "department" and HUNG UP on me!

I called back yet again, this time, I had just pulled into a Circle K. I was going to see if the bank I normally use is open by looking up their phone number, getting one of the tellers on the phone that I normally deal with, and at least get an opportunity to plead my cause. Well, I got through to an agent on the 800 line in the RIGHT department this time. I tell this guy the story - went there, trying to advert an overdraft fee, can I pay the difference with a credit card over the phone? No, you can't. Well is there a Compass bank around somewhere that is opened until 5:00? No, sir, there isn't.

I didn't know what to think. I've had that account opened for - a year and a half. I that time, I have had one overdraft. That was another mistake, not dissimilar to today, only today, I thought I had caught the error in-time to rectify it. So, after my options were exhausted, I simply stated the following: So, what you're saying is there is nothing I can do about this and tomorrow, I'm going to see a huge overdraft fee on my account.

I wasn't angry, cynical or inflecting any tones. I had simply come to the point of accepting that I wasn't going to win this one, oh well. "No sir, I'm not saying that at all. As a one-time only courtesy, we are going to defer the over-draft fee. Just come in tomorrow morning with the money and you will not incur the fee." I was rather astounded, to be quite honest, to hear this coming from this guy and his company. Banks are notorious for NOT giving up the fees. You get one, you pay it.

So, in the end, it isn't a negative thing anyway. I thanked the man for his understanding and - well really, they didn't have to do any such thing and I didn't even ask them for it, nor did I expect it, AT ALL - for giving me the opportunity, wished him a good afternoon and hung up. Note that I would have wished him a good afternoon if I had NOT received such. A company's policies are not going to be able to be deferred by the dude or dudette that answers the phone in an incoming 800 call center. You ALWAYS have to go beyond that person. I wasn't even going to do that, to be honest. I usually have thoughts of going hog-wild and doing whatever, but in reality, I caused this problem myself, oversight or not - so, give it good effort, but don't go too far with it. My only real reason to call the bank was to find out if I could just pay in advance with a credit card.

To end this, again, I know I'm not being "myself" lately and I have no good answer for it. I don't know what's going on inside of me, only to say that I will come out of whatever it is and - whatever "it" did to me, that's what will reflect in my demeanor. Aging is an interesting phenomenon and I don't wonder if whatever "it" is is a part of it. I think not on a mid-life crisis. I didn't say I'm going through a BAD thing, just - different.

Hope you all have a great evening.
ben

Wednesday

Well at least the work-week is halfway over. Today marks the last day that the counter-sales guy from downtown helps run our store. My boss is in-town today, coming back to work tomorrow. We did quite well keeping the store running without any outside help - once you learn how to run a store, it isn't terribly difficult.

Tomorrow morning, I'm getting up early for an early delivery. It's at an elementary school and we have to have the truck there and unloaded before 7:00 pm. If we don't - I have to sit there an hour while all the kids come to school, get into class and are out of harm's way before getting unloaded. Most definitely, there is a LOT of harm that can come to anyone on a construction site. I've seen it first-hand a hundred times over and certainly would not want to see some kid getting run over by a front-end loader or getting into something that is potentially - well even deadly.

I actually feel pretty good right now - though a bit tired. I zonked out at 8:30 last night only to wake up again at midnite-thirty.

I've also been having some pretty incredibly crazy, wild and even disturbing dreams lately, of which I have no explanation for and wonder why I'm having them. I don't think I'm all that stressed out right now - though there are things that are bugging at me, nothing too terribly grandiose. Just for a small example, I was in a dream where I was driving a pickup truck (I think) that was pulling some sort of small trailer. I had pulled up from a side-street to try and make a left turn onto a very busy highway. Before traffic was clear, I pulled out and realized my mistake. I stopped - the lanes I was attempting to enter were too full of cars, but there were also cars coming at me at high speeds in the opposite bound lanes. All the cars slowed down and stopped except one particular vehicle in the slow lane - which never even hit it's brakes and plowed right through the trailer.

That one woke me up. I would NEVER pull out in front of traffic like that. The trailer was destroyed, the vehicle that plowed through it had minimal damage and the person driving the car was okay. Still, it was an incredible scene to watch play out, even if unreal. I thought maybe it was a warning of something to come, and it was right at the top of my mind - that was last week, and sure enough, a situation arose in traffic - though not caused by me - that I was able to avoid only because I was looking for such a thing because of that dream.

Crazy stuff. Anyway, the high temps are coming back down - and the low temps at night are quite bearable without AC on. I found an ad on Craigslist with a person that is going out of business who is selling out all their sunscreen material - for windows and doors and such - at unbelievably low prices. I have priced that stuff at Home Depot, they are selling it for pennies on the dollar. I did not have time to go over there today, I'm afraid it's going to be gone before I get a chance to do so, but - maybe I will have opportunity tomorrow. It's perfect for the trellises in the rear of the house. I want to line the back of the trellises with something to blot out the sun's direct rays until vines grow all over the trellises. Since that little process could take even years, certainly I need a quick-fix for right now.

My dad wrote me and asked about Caleb and I coming down for a visit. I replied that I would like to visit after Caleb gets out of school, which is at the beginning of June. That's only - a month and a half away. I am thinking of asking for a week off of work since I have plenty of hours saved up and take 2 or 3 days visiting my dad and the rest - doing nothing. : )

Nothing else around here - really. Michael's gone for the week - apparently anyway - he hasn't been here meaning his mother is making him go home after school everyday. Mary - still working outside. The other tenants - nothing new there, either.

And with that, I'm done, as I haven't had anything to eat today except a couple handfuls of popcorn at work - it's now almost 4:00 pm - and yes, I'm quite hungry.
C'ya later.
ben

Tuesday

........or what's left of it, anyway. I came home from work today, got online for a short time and then went to my bedroom.
I just woke up.
Totally out of it.
Someone was using the exterior door by my bedroom last night - like 4 times throughout the night. At 2:30 am, I finally got up, totally disgusted with the continual, unwanted wake-up calls - and locked the double-bolt door. I am the only one with a key to that door's deadbolt.
So here I am, feeling like a zombie, I just woke up out of a dead sleep and wish I had forced myself to stay awake at least until somewhere near bedtime. I have been sleeping for hours.

I was all over the place, at work, again today. Casa Grande seems to be a daily trip at this point. The fuel I am using in the semi is the indicator for me of the amazing amount of miles I am racking up in that thing. In recent times, that truck would go for weeks on end without having to refuel. Last week, I think I refueled on Wednesday and now the truck is almost empty again. By semi standards, it doesn't hold much fuel - 180 gallons - but - it's enough considering it's a local-use only type of truck.

Because the boss has been gone on vacation, I have had to use the truck for every single delivery. We just got rid of the 10-wheeler, so the only trucks available now are the semi and the boss's work truck. He left his work-truck at home, leaving only the semi for every delivery, even if only a pallet's worth of goods.

More talk of potential changes coming are in the air - but so much is speculation versus anything that has concrete backing, I am just waiting until something actually happens before saying anything about it.

I again find myself being so out of it that regardless of what is going on in my mind, I have no energy to actually write it all out. So, without further ado:
G'nite!
ben

Monday

???? I wrote an entry - and kablaam - it's gone into cyberspace somewhere.
Ummm, so there really isn't going to be going into all of that again.
Well, excepting the s*** I came home to after work. Both exterior doors were unlocked and no-one was here - besides my dogs, of course.

I started the dishwasher last night - no-one bothered to empty it today.

The sink was full of dirty dishes.

That's my recap and of course, I have left a sincere notice to all 3 tenants: Ben's Maid Service - Will Cost You Dearly.

I put up the second trellis today - I started and finished the foam project yesterday.

It got warm today.
It's going to get warmer tomorrow.
I have so much I put in that entry that was lost - siiiiiiigh.

I don't feel like doing it again.

24 starts in an hour and a half and then bedtime.

ben

Quality Time............

............outdoors. It is currently 93 degrees and it is only 2:00pm, meaning more than likely it will go up higher. I was just outside digging holes for the next trellis installation. I am, of course, sweating like a pig - more info than you needed I'm sure.

Regardless, welcome to my reality: Earthly Hell.
It isn't here in full force yet, of course, but a stark reminder of what's coming certainly was applied in liberal doses to me for the last few hours.

I also started my foam insulation project. In fact, it's half done. I have the foam cut to size, I decided to wash the fabric before gluing it with special glue onto the foam. So, I'm waiting on the fabric to dry completely and get wrinkle free. I have this fear of having my house even hint remotely at the idea of "Trailer Trash", so - I am covering the foam with some material I bought not too terribly long ago off of Craigslist specifically for the project.

Next? Go out to the car and haul out 1 of 2 bags of concrete I have in there for the trellis project. Well, I'll need both, I'm just doing one at a time, of course. Cement the posts into the ground and after work tomorrow I will be able to screw the trellis onto the posts.

Meanwhile, I've been scrubbing my master bathroom, doing a thorough cleaning in my bedroom and scrubbing the kitchen. After that - well, I'm going to scrub the utility room and clean it up.

Basically, this is a busy Sunday as I accomplished next-to-nothing yesterday besides watering plants. I do, however, have this FINE cigar that I acquired at work. These are known as some of the finest cigars to be found in any parts around here.

I'm halfway decided this next paycheck to pay off the 401k loan and get another. I have little funds if something comes up - I would like to take whatever I can get out of the account and - put it into savings, actually. I have no emergency fund per se, and if something breaks around here, ie: AC/refrigerator/washer-dryer - I have really no way to get it fixed or replaced besides very high priced/financing options. Although, the AC is still under warranty. As it should be.

Anyway, have you folks seen this phenomenon from "Britain's Got Talent"? I don't watch that show and don't even know if it's available to watch in the U.S. However, the Sharon Boyle story fascinates me to no end. Basically, that show is their equivalent of the American show American Idol - a show I don't watch and have no interest in.

My attention was caught to this woman because of all the activity on the internet about it. So, I went to YouTube - and here is the URL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z0h1NNk1Ik
and watched that video. I was amazed, to say the least. The woman - is not the prettiest creature on earth, just to put it that way. She walked on stage and Simon started asking his usual rounds of questions. The crowd was mocking her, the male judges were shaking their heads and obviously thought this was going to be a waste of time - or possibly entertaining to the though of how bad the performance she was going to make was going to be and it was all a big joke.

It was a few seconds into the song and Miss Boyle began to sing that the judges were visible shocked. The crowd got up onto it's feet along with 2 of the judges and began clapping. What an amazing story. I love it. This woman will undoubtedly end up getting rich - and I hope she does. She's a plain, simple person, nothing fancy, obnoxious or "glamour" about her. Her performance was stunning.

Anyway. It was a good story in the midst of all the garbage and junk going on out there.

I do not, however, have time for any more of this, as I am headed back out to sweat into the 90's, grab an 80 pound bag of concrete, mix it up and set another post.

G'day to you.
ben

Sunday

So - I skipped a few days of journaling. I'm not opting out of journaling, I'm just going through a phase here.
First, I've been driving all day every day this last week and - it takes it's toll. We have hardly been busy for quite a long time now - I get home from work and just want to go lay down. Driving doesn't just entail driving, it means pulling orders, palletizing and shrink wrapping them, loading the truck and helping offload the truck. When we're busy, I have a very physical job, actually.

The truck is loaded for an early Monday a.m. job. It's a new job starting up at an Intel plant - they are building some sort of brine pond - whatever that is - and there is a lot of pipe and fittings involved with this job. There was another job that is in our territory that I also would have gotten - but they want the material out there first thing, so I couldn't talk my way into it. My boss is gone on vacation and - they just don't contact us with what's going on so I basically inserted myself to help insure our store isn't losing any sales in the process.

Today? It's going to start heating up quite a lot. Prediction of 95 degrees today, 98 degrees tomorrow and breaking 100 on Tuesday. :(
I'm not ready for this. Of course, anymore, I never am. I have grown weary of living in a desert with hell-hot conditions and look forward to the day when I can more out of this town and entire area. My son and my mother are the only things that are keeping around. Mom's not getting any younger and I wouldn't even think about moving away from her at this point. I would love to hope that she can stay mobile all the way up until "The Day" - certainly there are people who DO stay mobile until that day.

I have thoughts of getting out there and digging some holes - and I guess I'll force myself to do at least one trellis worth of holes today.

Mary just came out and invited me to breakfast.
How can I refuse that?
Ummm, I won't.
Have a Great Sunday!
ben

Thursday

Today - was going to be a totally slow day, but I ended up driving all over the place instead. There are, apparently, some huge orders going out next week - I picked up 10 fire hydrants from a place I had dropped them a few weeks ago to get repainted and those are going out next week, I believe. There is a 16 page order in the system for a Monday delivery - that is a good deal of money and there are other deliveries allegedly going out next week that will also bring in the bucks for our store.
Today - a driver came to take our 10-wheeler away. A dealer in Tucson bought a bunch of our trucks that we are ridding ourselves of - they must have been selling them things cheap for a dealer to want to pick them up. I actually liked that truck - but - we only need 1 truck for our store since there is only one driver - me - and in this kind of business, you MUST have a semi with a flatbed trailer if you have nothing else. We simply haul too much pipe and heavy stuff and larger orders to be able to get by with a smaller truck only.

I picked up 2 1X4X8 sheets of styrofoam today and also another trellis. Just buying the stuff as I can afford it. I also sent out 2 payments: child support and the mortgage. Those 2 payments will leave me with less than $100 in my checking account - but fortunately, Mary paid me this morning and I expect 2 more tenants worth of rental payments tomorrow. My car payment is due today - so I'm now only a week out from paying it on time. It does not affect my credit score - has to be over 30 days late for that. In fact, I have it close enough that I don't even get dinged with a late fee.

Ummm, yes, I had the exterminator out today. It's been 3 months. I had cockroaches in here - but "Roach Prufe" has already done away with them. There have been dead roach cockroaches laying around in the last few days. The exterminator sprayed this place inside pretty darn good - just in case - but he said he couldn't find any evidence that there are any still around. In other words, the problem was nipped in the bud. I do NOT tolerate that kind of nuisance around my house. He stated that warm weather is going to necessitate him coming every month. This guy is pure gold - he would not tell me something that isn't fact. His rates are quite reasonable at $40 per visit and he totally saturates my entire property with the poison. His treatments are quite effective - just that I let it go for those 3 months because they never called me to come over, I ended up calling them.

Turns out they have a new secretary and it was an over-sight. I don't really WANT to pay for pest control every month - but my hands are tied, I have no choice. It's that or have bugs.

Oh - and it's going to start warming up considerably. In the 90's this weekend. Fun fun. Not looking forward to the 90's/100's/110's and up. NOT at ALL.

Ummm - nothing much else. I got my water bill today - $98.00 for ONE month? Oh - that's because Mary spaced out and left the hose running for about 12 hours at full blast one night. I'm going to show her the bill and politely ask that that doesn't happen again. Well, it's not just water - it covers sewer and trash as well, but that is about $38.00 higher than my normal bill. I guessed when she left the water on that night that it will probably cost me at least $30 on my water bill - I was almost dead on.

Okay, I'm done. Just the daily report.
Hope everyone is doing well.
ben

Wednesday

The last 2 days have been extremely busy work-wise. Show up for work, load the semi and take off.
Today I was running at an incredible pace - and all over the place. By the time I got back to the yard from my first run, which took over 7 hours, I was already bushed. I had to go out on yet a second run - and then I started feeling bad.

Something hit me and took the wind right out of me. I was very glad to get home today, sit down and take a load off my feet.

Switching gears had the small cans of tomato sauce on sale this week - 7 for a buck. That's a GREAT deal - and for my storage program, I'm going to buy at least 70 cans. I just buy things here and there and dump it into my food storage. Whatever is on sale, I buy a lot of it. I have been using some of it - but still - I have accumulated quite a lot of canned and boxed food in there. We are most certainly not out of the woods yet as far as this economy is concerned - I am not stopping my food storage plans for a while to come. You can do quite a lot with tomato sauce - a very versatile food and has about a 2 year shelf life span. Fry's does not put a limit on the number of cans you can buy when it comes to vegetables, tomato sauces and stuff like that. They definitely put a limit on meats.

I ended up confronting the tenant - via written notices as I have found that the best way to deal with such things versus in-your-face confrontations - I do believe the situation may work itself out.

Anyway, I'm just not feeling well right now, so I'm ending this one.
ben

Monday

I had 5 deliveries to make spread out all over the place today. Mesa; Queen Creek; Florence; Casa Grande. I was very surprised that it didn't take much longer than it did for me to do all of that.

My boss is leaving Wednesday ona week long vacation. So - he's missing at least 5 days of work - possibly more. He had mega-hours saved up of vacation time. Me? I have enough to take off 132 hours. That's what, 14 days? - or in terms of weeks - almost 3 full weeks of time that I can and want to take off.

Since I highly doubt I will be able to afford even a mini-vacation this year - opting instead to spend whatever monies I may run into on house projects - I am going to put in my bid for a vacation in June. June is, in Arizona and historically - the hottest month of the year. Last year's electric bill for that month proves it, too. June was a $410 total amount of electricity used, July and August were at least $50 per month less. I don't mind taking a vacation where I just stay home. Get up late, do some work around the house, take a lot of siestas, maybe rent several pay-per-view movies as my treat to myself.

I have thoughts running around in my head as to how to gain more income on a monthly basis. I would love to create another opportunity for another rental. Not in this house - well anyway, it's only in the "think about it" stages so I'm not really going to go into it right now.

So, coming home today, I see Duke limping. He did something to he left front leg and it definitely is not because of a dog fight. He go into something and it's hurting him - to the point that I gave him a couple of ibuprofen to relieve the pain. His face is starting to bloat up as well. I have managed, however, to keep the wound open so I can press the fluids out of it. Antibiotics should be here Wednesday. Now that I've found a place to buy it from, I'm going to keep a 100 count bottle on-hand for any occasion that warrants antibiotics. I have not even yet determined that Duke needs it - it just depends if his face continues to bloat or not.

Oh, hooray/kudos/awesome job! to the U.S. Navy that took out those pirates. The report I read said that Navy personnel on the warship saw a pirate lift an AK-47 to the back of the captured captain, and that's when the commander gave the order for the snipers to take them out. I'm going to tell you right now that I have absolutely NO problem with the deaths of those pirates. Going around acting like nothing can or will stop them - they need a dose of their own medicine. I don't know what they expected, playing cat and mouse games with the U.S. Navy and Navy Seals. Now the pirates are making brash statements that Americans are going to "pay for it". That's only going to cause the end of their subsistence. They start killing people - and especially Americans - do you think we're just going to sit around and take it? HIGHLY doubtful. I was elated to see the captain freed without harm! This was a MUCH better ending to this BS than I anticipated.

So, onto the negative crap. I have to write about it - it gives me some sort of outlet. I know, I bring this upon myself. Some people will think or even say that. So beit. I am a landlord with people living in rooms in my house that I don't really know or are related to me (though honestly, after 9 months of having Mary living here, I can pretty much read her like a book). The male tenant is causing me problems that I will not tolerate. Mainly, taking food out of my refrigerator and my pantry without asking, without permission, without even a thank you for the food he just stole from me. He took my mother's Easter ham that she gave me - a lot of it - and ate so much that my plans for having ham yesterday were quashed. I was going to feed myself and the boys with that and some potatoes and such. I ended up BBQ'ing chicken - which was quite delicious, but still.

I was going to just get in his face - I found the portion of video surveillance which shows him in the utility room, at night, with the utility room door closed and no lights on. My newest tenant - fortunately because it fully identified without doubt who did it - walked into the kitchen with a pile of clothes in her hands, she was going to the utility room to do some laundry.

Now, all the interior doors in my house have about a 2 inch gap at the bottom. This is for the AC - the AC system draws the air out of the rooms and back into the system to recool and then redistribute throughout the house. Well, my surveillance camera shows if there is a light on in there or not at night. Actually, that door is always open - it was closed earlier that day because we were watching a movie in here and didn't want to be disturbed by the noise of the washing machine.

There was no light on in there when she opened the door. When she DID open the door - surprise, surprise - there was the male tenant, standing there in the dark, eating my friggin' ham. Instead of getting in his face, I tried the "diplomatic" way. I left an extremely hostile message - inside of my refrigerator. Tenants have absolutely NO business being in that refrigerator, so if they see that message - well - they have no defense.

But, the situation is even worse. I was quite sure today I smelled cigarette smoke in my house. The new tenant has the phone in his room - that's my excuse to go in there - I use my home phone and not my company cell phone when I'm home. Sure enough, the room reeks of cigarette smoke.

Enough. I won't tolerate people smoking in my house, period. It's spelled out on my Craigslist ads that smoking is OUTSIDE ONLY - yes, in capital letters to exaggerate and make it stand out that I do not want anyone smoking in my house. I will be leaving him a written notice under his door. If it doesn't stop, I will evict him.

And enough of that. Just had to dump that somewhere, my blog is usually better than getting mad at someone and saying things I may later regret. Mary is gung-ho to do the tile project I want to have done in the living room, kitchen and utility room. I am hoping the stock market keeps going up - it will further increase the amount of money in my 401k, which is what I will use to fund the project. I have definitely decided that this is NOT my lifelong home. At the same time, to make it as appealing as possible, I want to do the things around here - inside as well - that make it very desirable to potential buyers. I'm going to have to change the oven and the refrigerator in here eventually as well. I imagine right now would be an awesome time to find very good, used versions of it - but - I only have so much.

Duke is already passed out - so to speak - on the floor after giving him 500 milligrams of ibuprofen. I will give him more tonight before we go to sleep and in the morning before I go to work and will buy another bottle tomorrow afternoon.

As for now? I'm done. With this entry anyway. I have thoughts of going outside and getting some work done - but those thoughts are fleeting, lol.

Hope you all had a great day!
ben

Easter

I think of all the holidays there are, Easter is the most important to me. Maybe not to everyone else, but - because Christ was resurrected, we have the hope of eternal life through Him.
Well, of course, the death and shed blood are obviously highly relevant to that factor as well - but the awesome thing is that Christ is not dead, laying in a tomb, nothing more than bones and hair somewhere. He is arisen and He is Lord!

Yes, that does excite me. The Lord has treated me very well in this short span of life that I have lived and I owe him my life, literally.
So, I just want to bid everyone a happy Easter and hope that folks that are so inclined, will take a moment to reflect on what Christ has done for us.

I have no great plans for today. I don't feel like doing anything. For some reason, the motivation levels have tapered off. Maybe I'll get some energy up later on to do some things that I want to get started on. I want to start jumping rope to add to the mix of things I am already doing. It sounds juvenile, but jump roping is GREAT cardio exercise and yes, it will burn fat if you are doing enough of them, continuously, for at least half and hour a day - 5 days a week.

I STILL have another trellis to put in the ground. Lol - just like I said, I'm really not at all motivated. However, that's a project I want to get done before the hot summer gets here - then I REALLY won't want to do it! Yesterday it rained a good portion of the day here and the ground is nicely saturated. I shouldn't have to water my plants for several days at least.

We all sat here last night and watched the movie: Knowing. Rather strange movie - very intense. I don't know how that website gets movies that are still in the theatres, but as long as it isn't illegal it doesn't bother me in the least.

Anyway, I'm done with this one as I have several things I want to check online and start the housecleaning rituals.

Happy Easter!
ben

Iran: We've Mastered Nuke Fuel Production

Here comes Armageddon.
The Bible speaks about 1/3rd of the earth being burned in the great Tribulation.
I often wonder if that will happen in my lifetime.

I mean, is anyone else concerned about Iran making this statement? They continuously make statements about the "need" for destroying Israel and America.

Israel, undoubtedly, is taking this as a serious threat to their national safety.

I wonder what the Obama administration is doing or going to do about this? A nation such as Iran would not just give up this capability - and frankly - I have no doubts they are seriously considering the use of warhead armed with a nuke to send over to Israel. One imagines Israel already having nukes aimed at various points across Iran already.

If it happens, it will be World War III and undoubtedly the end of life as we know it - if it's the Biblical future of a Great Tribulation.

Of course, I'm a religious nutcase. Well and fine. But if Iran sent nukes over to Israel, do you think Israel isn't already going to be sending nukes right back to them? And how will the world respond? Parts of the world will back Iran, other parts will back Israel.

I'm not going to get in fear - life will end for all of us in one way or another. It's just that it seems that this threat is only - really - being seriously considered by Israel, the nation that has the most threat of being on the receiving end of Iran's threats.

Ummmmm, whatever. Been reading this stuff for a while now, and now Iran comes out and makes this statement.

A nice time at mother's today. My middle brother showed up - and talked the entire time. I don't go to family get-togethers to get into fights, so I mostly keep my mouth shut at this point. My middle brother looks at me as some sort of inferior being. In fact, he looks at everyone that way, including my mother. I have no problem speaking my mind - but - in this case - it's pointless. Anyway, the food was quite good and my mother is always an excellent host. I wish she would consider moving this way - not that it's THAT far away, but - I have a hate for driving that cannot be fully explained in words. How can you be a truck driver and hate driving? Exactly. The idiot drivers in this town surpass all of America. There are deaths and horrific accidents on our freeways on a daily or almost daily basis. The callousness of people cutting off other drivers is nothing short of incredulous. I don't mind driving outside of the metropolitan area - but I absolutely HATE driving on Phoenix freeways.

I came home, unfortunately, to Duke having a couple of slices in his flesh on his face. I reviewed video surveillance to see if it was the 2 dogs fighting - I did not see any of that. I couldn't see, exactly, what caused it. Whatever the case, I used a garden hose and cleaned out the wound with running water for quite a while. If it is a bite wound, though, it's going to need antibiotics. I cannot afford $100 vet visits - I found an online site for antibiotics and immediately ordered a 100 count bottle. I want to keep antibiotics around here at this point. The dogs get into things and get cuts - and though I definitely do very good cleanings and keep cleaning the wounds, they sometimes get infected and then - you must have antibiotics for it.

Well, I'm not doing anything else today. It rained all night long and half the day today and is still raining periodically. Meaning the ground is saturated and I won't need to water plants for several days - 4 or 5 at least - excepting the plants I still have in pots from the nursery auction.

Anyway, I'm going to watch a movie - thusly ending this entry.
ben

Saturday

So - I'm going to my mother's today in lieu of tomorrow because of my brother's screwed up schedule. Just another sore spot with me - we are all expected to revolve around his schedule indefinitely. It's been going on at least 20 years now. I respect what he does for a living - but I don't expect that every single holiday that we get together that we should all have to deal with this. Today is NOT Easter, tomorrow is and that's the day I would rather get together with family.

Sounds petty - maybe it is, but as I said, it's been going on for over 2 decades. Then there's my oldest brother who isn't even going to bother to show up - he's going to his cabin up in the mountains.

I'm very edgy, unfortunately - quite moody is more like it. Since the day I found out my friend/co-worker was laid off, it's definitely not something that has just disappeared out of my mind.

Well, enough dumping. It rained last night - wish I hadn't missed it. It's still overcast and the sky is quite dark with a 40% chance of continuing rain - should be a great day, actually. In fact, days like this I just want to stay home, openthe windows in my bedroom and hang out. Another nice plus for rain is that my plants don't have to be watered, the sky did it for me!

I really have nothing else - just doing laundry and getting ready to go to mother's house - in about 4 or 5 hours from now. I'm opening up the house, letting in "fresh" air - Phoenix version.
Wishing you all a happy day.
ben

For Whatever Reason...........

..........I haven't really felt like writing much, lately, so I have just done short posts (well, they're short by my standards) and have given minimal information. I think my mind is on overload at this point with the situation at work and wondering on a daily basis if, when I arrive, I will leave in the same condition as I arrived: employed.
It's eating at me and I am losing sleep over it. I have strange dreams at night and wake up sometimes in a panic from the horror of the dream I just awoke out of. It's reminiscent of when my house burned down and I was seeing fire in front of me - visibly seeing something that wasn't there. Having horrific dreams about people burning up and all kinds of aftermath. This isn't near as bad as THAT, but it's bad enough.

It is also self-inflicted. When I wake up out of one of these dreams, I force myself to settle down, empty out my mind, and go back to sleep. The process of pointing fingers at entities, people and corporations isn't worth the energy spent. Though, I certainly look at particular people in the news and wonder. Greed, selfishness and self-centeredness are certainly adjectives that identify the psyche of some of these people.

Regardless, this is my explanation of why I haven't been my normal self on here. I have also been dealing with a certain tenant's "stuff" - which is basically an on-going thing. Get one person dealt with and something pops up with another. Someday, I won't need tenants. That day is not near in the future, that I can see, anyway. What it has done for me, however, is solidify the idea that I could be successful at renting out houses, or even owning a small apartment complex or even a room house. After having so much go on, you tend to gain a certain - view - of things about people living in your rooms and at least for me, tend to get very blunt with people doing things that are totally unacceptable. I have developed a modus operandi that works quite well for me, which 99% of the time starts with a notice given to the offender - or less in-your-face - a notice on the appliance or place that a certain mishap is occuring.

The newest tenant is a real gem in terms of treating my house and respecting it. Were that all people were that way. Mary is good, though, too, she likes a clean place and does her share. It's the 3rd tenant that doesn't much care for cleaning. He's on the line in terms of slobbishness.

Anyway, if I get to the point I don't want to deal with the s***, I end up going to my bedroom, plopping myself on my bed and watching TV with my dogs - who have their issues - but always show me a dog's version of "love". My dogs are always laying in view of me. Not because I make them, but because they want to be able to see what I am doing - for whatever reason I cannot fathom. Tenants have become very wary of disturbing me in my bedroom, mainly because I highly and openly object to it. If I'm in there, it's because I DON'T want to be bothered. People that might have knocked loudly now knock very lightly - and it better be something that needs immediate attention. This is very rare anymore. People walking into my room either with or without knocking without my permission is a past issue. I mean, really. You're laying in your bed, enjoying a show, petting a dog, minding your own business and a tenant comes barging into your bedroom? My reaction is not pretty - I will freely admit that.

Now, for those readers that have been coming here forever and I haven't done any updates - Michael and his family. Michael is undoubtedly going to flunk several, if not all, classes. I really don't know that for a fact, but he has missed far too much school for various "reasons". His mother approves it, gives him permission.
Anthony? ....is doing absolutely nothing but getting stoned all day long and watching TV at his mother's expense. His friend - the kid that burned down the house in exchange for marijuana - is out of jail and is living with them as well. I know these people very well, so I am guessing that there are more people living in that place than is - I don't know the word. I have a count of known people living there: 13 which includes Michael. I don't know if the grandfather is out of jail yet. I do know that always, they end up with various people I have no clue who they are living with them as well. So, I would be very well within reason to expect that at least 15 people are living in a 3 bedroom townhouse.

Michael was forced to start living there again - at Christmas now that I think about it. However, he talks his way into coming over here during the week regardless. He spent all of one night at his family's house this week - the rest was over here. That gives an idea of what must be going on over there. I remember being a teenager - I most certainly wanted my privacy and I definitely did not want everyone getting into my things. Which is non-existent in an environment such as theirs.

Caleb - got 2 D's in school. Which annoyed me greatly. He has his excuses and I summarily reject them. I don't accept the modern-day analysis of - conditions and drugs that correct them and all the bs that the "experts" assess. That shit didn't even exist 30 years ago - you were a lazy ass that didn't want to apply yourself and your parents would make you pay. Think that abusive? Think what you will, I'm old school and I don't accept all this crap of - the endless list of conditions that they have invented to disguise why a person "can't" do something and should be put on some kind of friggin' drug to fix it. Caleb will pay for it, is all I can say about it. Quality time alone in his room without TV or anything else for that matter always helps a person to think about why they are sitting in there with nothing to do - it's much like prison.

Me? Stressed. Definitely. Not helping things, either. Driving a semi is something better done relaxed. I have to force myself into that state of mind and put appropriate music on to help me get there.

More distractions with people/interupions and this is done cause' it's now time to go to bed.

G'nite!
ben

Friday

A truck driver that gets a truck stuck? Not the first time in my life!
I was attempting to turn around at a construction site and - there was about a 1 foot drop off on one side of the truck. I went over that, the frame of the trailer sat right down on one of the tires on the driver's side, the passenger side tires - all of them - weren't even touching the ground!
lol. Fortunately, construction sites have lots of heavy equipment all over the place - got out my chain and a backhoe pulled that sucker right out of the predicament.

I have, however, gotten trucks stuck so bad, that they had to use a bulldozer on one end of the truck and a giant excavator on the other end. I was pulling a belly dump and they were making us drive through thick mud in an open field. Almost every truck was getting stuck.

Anyway, it was all good. This was a fairly busy week - and Monday is more of the same, I already have the semi loaded with 5 different deliveries going all over creation. It will be about a 17k day - not great, but definitely not bad.

Ummm - so - it's Easter weekend and I'm still waiting to find out which day we are celebrating it. Our holiday feasts usually revolve around my middle brother's whacked schedule. If we want him there, we have to accomodate for him, which we always do - and which at least half the time means we don't actually celebrate whatever holiday on the day it's supposed to be celebrated. He's supposed to get his son from his ex-wife - who isn't going to let him have him, even though my bro has court orders showing that he gets him this Easter.

Not worth going into, a long story and it's been going on for years now.

So, I'm reading about pirates who are "not afraid of the Americans" and will "fight them if we have to". ???? ROFL!!! So, a small group of punk pirates are going to take on a Naval warship? What kind of weaponry do you suppose is aimed at that little boat that is holding that captain hostage right now? Enough to blow that thing and everyone on it into nothingness. What an unbelieavbly stupid statement to make. Now, when is the world going to get sick of this s*** and go into that country and establish some sort of government? I figure about the time people start getting killed. That's undoubtedly what it's going to take to get the ire of nations around the world up enough to want to go in and do something about that garbage.

Easter aside - whichever day we celebrate that - I am going to dig out the holes to install the other trellis. I should hopefully have that done by this weekend. I have decided to put trellises up in front of a couple of windows that get tormented by searing heat from the sun glaring through them. Or - if I find something else that has a different look that I can put up in front of it, fine and well. If it's all trellises, then I need 7 more of them.

Anyway, I figure Easter with family and putting in some trellises? That's going to be the extent of my weekend - the rest will be lazing around doing nothing as I am not very motivated at this point.

Today is Good Friday - which I doubt half Americans even know what that means anymore - but, definitely, it is for us, the gentiles of the world of whom can find salvation through Christ for the sacrifice He made at the Cross of Calvary. I am always thanking God for the cross and the death of Christ - without which - I believe anyway - I would be facing a not-so-pleasant eternity. Thank you, thank you Lord! Even more awesome - Easter - His Resurrection!

Have a great - and blessed - day!
ben