Haggling In The Recession

Are you paying the ticket/listed price for retail store bought goods?

Why? We're in a recession - companies are as anxious to make any kind of profit versus none at all.
Haggling is a learned art. It is probably not something that comes naturally to most of us, especially in America. We go to a store, see the listed price - we pay it.
The higher the cost something is, the better than chance you can get the price brought down on it. But - it certainly isn't limited to large-ticket items.

My visit to Home Depot last week proved that. They had a stick of copper pipe I needed for this project I am doing. For whatever reason, 2 feet of it had been cut off. They don't sell it like that, so it was odd that they had it in stock. It was the last stick of pipe in the gauge there. I wanted that pipe, but there is no way I was going to pay full retail.

The man that approached me asking if I wanted help - couldn't help me. He offered 10% off - apparently that's the most store employees can go, citing store policy. Nice - so please get me a manager. I was not being rude, but only cutting the cost 10% was not sufficient for me. I know I already told this story to regular readers, I have been writing up stuff for those that are googling and such.

It just so happened that the general manager of the store was walking by when I made the manager request. It also turns out that he was the only person in the store authorized to make such a deal. The guy approaches the manager, tells him what I had requested, manager approaches me. How can I help you?

Well, I said, I need this stick of pipe. It has 2 feet missing and it's the last stick of that particular pipe in that length that you have. I was offered 10% off, but I figured that per foot, 10% off would STILL be higher priced than normal price when considering buying the pipe by the foot.

The manager asked me how much I wanted to pay for it. I asked him how much he wanted for it - we went back and forth several times and I finally offered $10.00 for it - the list price was $15. He said, okay, you gotta deal, but how about I lower the price to $5 and we're good? Yes, sir, we're good and thank you!

I think the problem with many folks is that they are afraid to ask. Or, if you do ask, you get a definitive no from the person you are talking to. Regular employees - probably at most stores - are probably authorized to go only so far with a discount offer, anything greater you must speak to management. So - if the deal isn't good enough, just ask for management! It isn't sinful or taboo - that's what management's there for. You'll have to get over your fear of rejection. If the manager can't or won't accomodate you - there are always other stores selling the same thing. Be nice, courteous, respectful - but firm.

I consider myself king for dealing with large corporations that you can only access by dialing an 800 number. I have dealt with a lot of them, and some of them I have dealt with numerous times. I rarely lose in a battle of getting either freebies or greatly reduced from original demands, regardless of what it is. The key is patience. On most adventures of this nature, I resolve myself to having to call back as many times as I have to get to the right person. The right person is the person that will give you the deal you are looking for.

I've had incoming call center employees adamently tell me that the company will not EVER give me any better deal than what that person is telling me. Yet - I have found - there is always someone higher up on the food chain of management that can and probably will negate that statement from that person. I've literally spent days calling the same company over and over and over until I got to the right person and got the deal I was looking for. Direct TV; Qwest Communications; and really, a myriad of other companies as well.

Is it worth that much time spent to try and get something done or get the deal you are looking for? For me, it most definitely is. I cannot afford some of the things that occur in life -such as when Mary took the satellite receiver from the bedroom she was living in. I got one replaced for free, the remote thrown in to boot. I did have to pay shipping and handling - but that's small compared to what I would have had to pay. The was not a fast deal, either, but I eventually got through to the right person. I think that one took 2 days worth of phone calls. Many people are pinching pennies, why not make them go as far as you can?

I have literally endless stories of getting something at a store for less - even in a good economy - or getting a portion of a bill removed or having the entire bill removed completely. It does take a little intestinal fortitude.

Here's another area where people are missing out: getting a meal ticket slashed in half or freebies from wherever when you have experienced miserable customer service. Again, people apparently are afraid to say anything or maybe make themselves look bad. I can't tell you the amount of times in my life I have received free meals or had the bill slashed substantially when I received rotten customer service from a waiter or waitress. You HAVE to ask for a manager in those situations, nothing else will get you the relief you are looking for.

I don't ALWAYS haggle - but usually if I see an opportunity to try, I will definitely give it a shot. I even tried to get Fry's to give me a "recession special" They wrote back and said they don't do stuff like that. Well, it didn't hurt to try. But - Fry's has a policy for scanning errors - the product that scans wrong is free. I've gotten hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of stuff from there for free because it scanned wrong. That's why I religiously stand in front of the store after paying for my stuff to see if anything is wrong on there. If I find it, I go straight to customer service - and yes - I get my money refunded AND I get to keep the product! Pretty nice. It's THEIR policy, why not use it? I bet a lot of grocery stores have that kind of policy, and definitely - there are going to be scanning errors at any store at one point or another.

The point is many times there is opportunity - and often times people miss that opportunity.

OH, and it doesn't hurt to arm yourself with info. You're looking for something specific - look all over the place on the internet for pricing before you go to whatever store you are headed to. Sometimes haggling is just a matter of asking, other times haggling is a matter of being an informed consumer that has product knowledge and pricing from various places. Make your case if you have to - again, the worst thing you can get is a little rejection. Doesn't that happen in normal life anyway?

Happy Haggling!

More

Days just go by right now. The stifling heat is mostly keeping me indoors. I do go out and tinker around with things - but I don't last long. When the month of August disappears, then I will have a little more hope for cooler weather and an end to temps that are so incredibly high, really, there is nothing to do but wait around until it's gone.

One thing we are looking forward to is the trip to Wet 'n Wild on Friday. That's the beginning of my 4-day weekend. The place stays open late - I told Caleb I probably wouldn't last THAT long. It will hopefully be fun - but - like anything, a point comes to where you've had enough, let's move on.

I am definitely looking forward to having 4 days off. I would like to say I have grand plans beyond going to a water-park - but I do not. It is very difficult to make any plans until I get beyond this loan modification decision - though certainly, I should have a clear picture about that by the end of tomorrow. The "promised" it wouldn't take any longer than Monday to come to a decision. I am not necessarily "bracing" myself for a bad decision - which would only mean for me that they are going to nothing and I will have to pull myself out of this on my own - somehow. I have one month's payment sitting in the bank right now, they told me not to pay it until after the decision is made, so that's what I'm doing.

But it will not wait any longer than Monday.

I have too much on my mind, which is why I'm writing the second entry for today already - one on KCL and one here. Besides the loan mod and whatever is going to happen at work, I also have a tenant that's wearing thin on me as each day passes. The man simply doesn't clean up after himself and expects everyone to do it for him. The bathroom, the kitchen, everywhere he goes. He refuses to empty out the dishwasher if he does, indeed, happen to be the first one to come along after the cycle is done and the dishes are dried. He will take a glass out of it - but will not empty the machine. He leaves bread crumbs and other such laying around kitchen counters. I have been fighting cockroaches in here for a while now - admittedly I haven't seen one in a couple of weeks. That MAY have to do with my renewed determination to get rid of them - but they may just be hiding and I am not seeing them anywhere.

I don't ask much from tenants.........pay your rent on time or let me know if there's a problem that we can figure something out. Clean up after yourself. Don't mess with other tenants if they don't want to be messed with. Not too terribly much. No loud music after 10:00pm. Help with the dishes; cleaning the main bathroom; keeping the place clean. I do most of the cleaning work - it IS my house after all - in the kitchen and living room areas, but I have completely stopped cleaning in the main bathroom. The newest tenant declared that he would take care of it - and that he has. That bathroom is always clean now.

The thing that irritates me most about this individual is the fact that my Craigslist ads - every single one of them that I write up - has a short list of the kind of person I do NOT want in my house, and in capital letters, I put SLOBS on that list and a disclaimer: If you, as an adult, find that you cannot clean up after yourself and take care of the messes you make, then PLEASE move onto the next ad, as I don't want you living in my house. We are not the Kings and Queens of clean, but we DO try to keep the place clean and presentable. If you are a slob and want to live here, it will cost you $200 extra per month for minimal maid service.


That's something of what I write in the ad. I have had no takers on the maid service - but that because I'm not really serious about it (though for an extra $200, I could deal with someone's else's slobbishness) - it just makes the point. I also write on that list: NO MOOCHERS and then write next to it: Self-Explanatory. Soooo, I have sat here for weeks now trying to decide whether I want to keep him around or give him the 30-day, thanks for playing see you in the next life notice. It could be risky business right now - the last tenant took over 2 weeks of ads to get him in here.

I dunno. I just let it ride for the most part just because of the financial situation, but I have decided at the very least I am going to write up some notices and place them in various places around the house.

"Notice: The Dishwasher Fairy does NOT live at this house. The dishes do not clean themselves and the do not remove themselves from the dishwasher when they are finished being washed. If YOU - whoever you are - come along and find the dishwasher full of clean dishes, that means that someone turned the thing on, probably me, and now they are ready to be put away by the first person that comes along. If you - whoever you are - do not want to put them away, then please DO NOT USE MY DISHES. Go out and buy yourself paper plates and disposable cups and leave my stuff alone.
Thanks. Management".

Something like that. I suppose that sounds a bit in-your-face and maybe even rude, but - I end up doing 99% of the dishwashing around here, yet EVERYONE uses the dishes. I give the new tenant an exception - he keeps the bathroom clean, that is more than enough for me.

How about this one?

"Notice: The garbage does not take itself out. There is no robotic devise in this house for trash removal. If you find the garbage can full, PLEASE just take it out and dump it in the container!
Thanks.
Management"

I do not expect them to vacuum the main floors or sweep and mop the kitchen area. I wish they would clean up after they have had exploding food in the microwave. I am willing to live with some discrepancies for the sake of getting that money in every month - but - this is a bit beyond "some discrepancies". The other thing that gets me are tenants that pay late and give no explanation. I am rather amazed that the newest tenant has not offered the rent check yet. No explanation, it just hasn't materialized. I am not amazed that the female tenant has not produced such - she does it every time. Waits 3 days, usually, before handing it over. I DO have it written into the rental contract for a $5 per day late fee for every day the rent is late. I have not enforced such - yet. I probably won't, either, if it gets THAT bad, the person is going to get a 5-day notice, not a fee imposition.

And then there's Mary. I am still solidly determined to take her to court. I have a little extra money now, I could offer a small amount for a contractor to come over and give me a written estimate on how much it's going to cost to fix everything she damaged. I don't have to do that right away - I'm just trying to get things moving along here. I could wait up to 2 years to sue her for all of this stuff. I have too much on my plate right now, it's going to have to wait.

Soooo - what to do? I dunno. Take a day at a time and let things work themselves out. Basically, if rents are not paid after Monday, both parties will receive a notice. I'll give it 3 full days before doing that. Why? I don't want to rock the boat too terribly much - these 2 tenants are normal people that are not an imposition - but I won't wait forever for at least an explanation of why the rent isn't being paid.

I would have to call this a low-ebb in my life here on this planet. I'm not really doing much of anything that I would call fulfilling - my version of it may be rather radical in terms of my religious beliefs. I don't feel like I'm just existing - but I may not really be doing much more than that, in reality. Just "living" is not enough for me. There has to be some reason connected with it. I fully identified - for myself, not for anyone else - what encapsules that reason - and I am mostly not doing that. Well, I take it back. I have been helping people with food for quite a while now. That particular activity has been greatly reduced with my financial situation, but I wouldn't turn anyone down if I were asked.

I put that all on hold after my AC broke and I went broke along with it. Still, it's good to help people - especially when you identify a person or family that really needs the help, and God knows this nation is FULL of people right now that could use something to help them along the way. If it weren't so blasted hot, I would be doing dinner "parties" every weekend. Who wants to stand outside and eat? Heat just makes your appetite go away, really. So I'm not doing that, but I still entertain people coming over for meals and occasionally from someone that makes such a empassioned plea for food, I will take $20 or $30 worth of groceries over. Again, that is not happening but maybe once a month on the free food stuff - but I read the Bible and I cannot find it within myself to turn a person down after reading about all the miracles with food the Lord created and all the passages that speak of feeding the hungry and giving to those that ask for it.

Well, this entry has grown into a book, talk to you later.
ben

African-American

I will preface this by saying that I am most certainly NOT a racist. I don't despise black people, I don't look at them as some sort of inferior race, but.........
I don't understand the continual reference to black folks referring to themselves as African-Americans?
Why don't I go around saying: "Hi, my name is Ben, I'm an Irish;English;German and French American"?

Really, I just would like to hear a lucid - not emotional - response to this. I'm white and you're black. So what?

Zycam

When was it, last year? I was starting to get sick and so was Mary - she made a plea for me to get some of that Zycam stuff. It's swabs that you put on the tip of your nose and it allegedly shortens the life of a cold. I thought, well why not? We went through 2 boxes of that stuff before I stopped using it - it wasn't really working that well and it is expensive - seemed quite a waste.

I did not put 2 and 2 together after using that stuff, because I had no clue until recently when I was reading online about Zycam.

My sense of smell. I didn't lose it - I can still smell everything, but I also get "strange" smells, I'll put it - that come out of nowhere and stay for hours at a a time. Chemical odors - that's how I will have to put it - that linger in my nostrils. There is no source.

I smell something - whatever - and that smell might stay in my nose for half a day, or 2 hours, or whatever. It's weird. It's been awhile and I've gotten used to it. It was only recently when I started reading about Zycam and the effects is has on your sense of smell, a thing that apparently everyone on earth knows about - excepting me. Many people using that stuff have lost their sense of smell altogether.

I thought I was going crazy when I started smelling smells that had no apparent source. I haven't said anything about this - at all really - until now. I knew it wasn't normal - but I didn't feel bad or anything - hoped it would go away. It hasn't and apparently it never will. I have a full box of that S*** in my bathroom that's going to go into the trash can.

I was appalled to start reading about the thousands of people who have made claims against Zycam and that the government apparently has been issuing warnings about this product for years. I NEVER saw any of those warnings, if I had, I would have NEVER used the stuff.

What's done is done. I don't really find the situation aggravating or even annoying - it's just a little odd at times to get smells in my nose that are nothing I had ever smelled before anywhere and that just stay there for extended periods of time.

Thursday

I have to say - and this is a politcal rant but not of the same nature that I read everyone else about - that Obama is the most undignified president I can remember in my lifetime. It has NOTHING to do with race, either.
The man props his feet up on the Oval Office desk. He walks around in a long sleeve shirt often with the sleeves pulled up.
This isn't freakin' Disneyland - he's the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES. Drinking beer with whoever in front of the whole nation?
My God, man, WAKE UP and SEE the ERNORMITY of the position you hold - and ACT like it!
"Hey kids, whenever you have a problem, do like the president does - go out and smoke a cigarette, invite some people over and get drunk". Did they get drunk? Who knows? The media circus was removed after only a few minutes so the real outcome - will probably come out sooner or later because someone will leak it eventually.
All the Bush haters - you ever see him dressed like that? Or propping his feet up on the Oval Office desk? Or a myriad of other actions which only cause to solidify my opinion on this facet of a man that treats the White House like it's JungleLand.

I did not vote for this man and I am even more decided that just about anyone else would be better than this s***. I don't even care about party lines anymore, just get me a person in there with COMMON SENSE - a person that has the pulse on the normal, regular American Jane and Joe. That doesn't see the treasury as a giant money tree - farm it for whatever you want to do - in this case, TRILLIONS of dollars. I'm not sorry to rant about this - our kid's kid's kid's kids are going to be paying for this crap.

Whatever. WHO is backing this health plan, anyway? It seems to me that that a majority of Americans are NOT liking what's coming out of this. Well why should anyone? You're going to see a Grand Canyon sized cavern for WASTE of TAX-PAYER'S money. If anything will sink us financially - it will be this unbelievably BAD idea. They are making this stuff up out of thin air. They are being rushed to put forth a package that - will not have had the time necessary to research and figure out how to go about this LUCIDLY versus INSANE. Hey, dudes and dudettes, we're REFORMING - so let's REFORM. WHAT reform? I will bet anyone money that if this thing passes, it will turn into the BIGGEST WASTE of taxpayer dollars EVER. There will be nothing that will come even close to it. Medicare? .... will pale in comparison. With the advent of this behemoth coming about, I am coming closer to the side of those that view Obama as a socialist. I don't CARE what anyone thinks socialism is - this nation is headed on a road that I don't want to see it go on.

Again, I didn't vote for the man.

Well, I was going to actually write about something else, but I just got through looking at pictures and reading the story of Obama, Gates, Crowley and Biden sitting there at a table, drinking beer for the whole world to see. This is a MOCKERY. That's all I see it as.

Vacation

My brain is abuzz with ideas of what to do with 5 total days off. I'm doing it - I am. I hope to be employed - when I get "back". I have NOT seen my company playing the gee-you-went-on-vacation-and-now-your-position-has-been-terminated game, plus there are a LOT of people doing the vacation thing right now in our company, I'm not denying myself the pleasure any longer.

And anyway, if I don't take some vacation hours within the next month, my vacation hours will stop accruing because I will be at the 80 hour limit. I asked for 3 days off, I had thought about a full week. Instead, I will ask for another 3 days off in October or September, or hold off and wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas - whatever I can get.

So, what to do? Money is tight - I'm not going to waste all of my 401k loan money on a vacation. Should it be a project vacation and just stick around the house and work on things around here? Should I go to Blockbuster and rent every movie I love and spend days and days doing nothing but lounging around watching my favorite flicks? What about a trip to see my mom up north? My dad down south? The lady friend I have been talking with via email; phone and IM's for several months?

What about an ordeal to take my son to a place he has always wanted to go - that I don't care about either way? The ordeal would be me driving there; letting him and a friend have at it for a day - and then driving back to save hotel/food/whatever else expenses. That could be done pretty cheap. It would take up a day and a half of my vacation and I could do other things. The cost would be minimized by the shortness of the trip. "They" could spend the day at the amusement park, I would spend the day laying on the beach, alone, wrapped in a sheet, traipsing the water once in a while, enjoying the sounds of the ocean.

Oh yes, I have done that several times. It's an exhausting trip because you leave yourself no overnight stay at a hotel. Get up at 3am, drive til' you get there, drop them off, head to the beach. It's a very minimal possibility of actually doing it - but I haven't gone anywhere in almost 2 years now. Crazy.

A true vacation is not a working one. But - if I stay home - that's exactly what I will end up doing - and it won't bother me to do it. Some kind of ADVENTURE would be nice for once. A trip to the woods with the dogs and camp out somewhere - too bad all of my camping equipment is totally GONE after the fire. It's always fun to think about all that I lost with that fire. A lifetime of things that I had acquired and have not been able to replace. Times are tight, I'm not whining, just reminiscing about the days gone by. I'm one of those survivor type of people - come what may, I will do whatever I can to come out on top. But - as I get older - the energy isn't what it used to be.

Lol, on the same note, I find I can keep up with any 20 year old in THIS day and age. Energy, maybe, stamina, fortitude, motivation, endurance - don't see alot of that. Heck, why don't we ALL just up and live off the government? Yeah, that's the ticket, we can all live in a half-@$$ed state of existence, given dolences here and there by government stimulus. Might as well go live in a communist society - SCREW that S***. Sorry for the lapse, but I have no desire to have government invading my life to the tune THIS government is doing and the road it's headed on.

Oh, and this was about an alleged vacation. Face facts: it's a stay at home deal. I can rent movies and if I can find enough that I like, I can lay in bed watching them. There is no significant other to lay in bed with, so that might degrade the experience, but - I can do the lone thing and have a good time doing it, really.

Next week? I hope so. I really just want to lay around doing nothing more than eating, sleeping and watching those movies for a couple of days and spend the other days getting stuff done around here. I put the paperwork in today. Heck is coming down the pike on Monday I'm assuming at work. I won't specify in case there are - people from work that might, in a lightning strike's chance - have found this blog, know who I am and see what's coming. It's worth it to keep my mouth shut on such issues, when it happens then I can talk.

You know what? A real vacation for me is one where my mind is totally abated to the problems that life is "offering". That usually doesn't happen unless I get out of here and get away from here. I'm going to have to think about how I can do that without spending money I can't afford to spend. There are definite possibilities, methinks, I just have to dial in on one that appeals to me and go for it.

Now? I'm going to bed.
G'nite.
I hope you all are doing well, if you are not, please let me know and I can spend some time praying for you - if, of course, you are open to that.
God is good.
And I don't mind saying here: Jesus is Lord.
Why? If you have to ask that, I can't help you, but HE can.

ben

Tuesday

Folks, if you're coming here from the Dinner blog, just tellin' ya that this is my personal blog about my daily events. You're welcome to read, of course, but it's really a different tune and book than the blog over there. I'm just a regular person doing - what I consider to be - normal things in life.

On that note, I have been facing my own financial difficulties - really all the way through any of the food sharing. Each "blow" has had it's unique consequences.

Well, anyway, onto other things. As I said on my KCL blog today, the boss brought his mapp gas torch and equipment with him to work today, totally out of the blue. I never expected it - I had given up on it, really. I figured to bite the bullet and buy the necessary equipment when my 401k loan hits the bank and I have some money to deal with.

Well, I'm very happy to have this equipment borrowed versus having to go out and buy it. I'm thinking early Saturday morning to get out there and get the copper installed before it gets too hot to want to do anything. I would do it sooner - like today - but I want enough time to deal with any problem that might occur. I haven't done copper sweat joints in a long time - I'm sure I can pick it up again, but - no need to push fate. I will be able to install the entire drip system in the next few weeks and actually save money on water bills in the process.

I am also excited about the prospect of some time off - even if it's a stay-at-home vacation. To take an entire week off, I would still have half again the hours left over. I NEED some extended time off. Many people at work have been doing the exact same thing - I feel a little less fearful about making the request and actually doing it than I did before after hearing so many stories about people taking vacations and then - attempting to go back to work - finding out their job has been "eliminated". This has not happened to anyone at work thus far, I'm hopeful that I can do the same. So, August it is, of course that is if I get the days I want approved. Actually, I couldn't care less which week in August it is - I have no set plans, it's just a week off.

I am actually hoping within the next 2 weeks I can do this. That way I can just do this nice little project - while baking in the sun and getting very tanned (I haven't worn any shorts this year, just long pants but I have been taking off my shirt to do a little tanning there) - well I haven't worn any shorts because, I realized the other day, I have only bought ONE pair of shorts since my house burned down and my clothes went with it - and I have no clue where that pair is. A couple of pairs of shorts is on the buy menu.

I'm still in the woods, though, concerning the loan modification. I have no clue what determination they are going to come up with. I'm not exactly at ease about that - I have no idea what offer they are going to make - if any at all. They have given such mixed signals I can't even begin to believe anything good or bad - just have to wait it out.

I think I'll cut this one short. I am tired and I want to take a 15 minute nap and then go out and water all the plants. It's still 113 degrees out there at 20 after 5!!!
That's CRAZY!!!

C'ya later.
ben

Monday

Nice work day - really it was. Wasn't necessarily the busiest day in the world - went to Casa Grande and the over to downtown Phoenix before heading back to the yard. I had to adjust my shifting style for the transmission - it's starting to take a dump. My normal style is pretty flawless - but I have had to slow way down on shifting and the timing has to be perfect to smoothly change gears on this particular transmission - it has been driven by too many different drivers and someone along the way - or several someone's more likely - didn't shift correctly and caused internal damage.

Basically, whereas before I paid no attention to shifting - didn't have to and I didn't trash the tranny in the process - now I have to focus on every shift and that, my friends, is alot of focusing. The tranny will not last indefinitely - I don't think it will anyway. Usually once they start a downhill race - it goes quickly.

There is no news at work that has changed anything - there is something "purportedly" coming down the pike, won't be commenting about that here - or anywhere, really. A big, big boss was in town today. I only knew that because my boss said something about it. He was here one day only - which of course causes me to think decision undoubtedly are being made in a person-to-person basis and what happens down the pike - who knows.

I'm just semi-patiently waiting until Thursday gets here. It is not a terribly great feeling to know that if anything happens between now and then, I have no resources whatsoever to deal with it. Exactly the reason I was trying to start saving some money - just to get a cusion if nothing else.

As for going through my finances, well, I really limited to things that you can change. I can't change the car payment; child support payment; credit card payments. I can, however, muddle with how much money is being spent on food.

I think I do very well in purchasing food by going through the ads and getting the stuff that is on sale - but - I don't use coupons - well I rarely do. Yet, I do find that many times coupons are for a more expensive brand of something and the coupon often doesn't even bring the price down to whatever generic/plain jane brand I might be buying. I could probably do a little better - I really couldn't do a whole lot better. I could cut back in eating "lessor" food - bologna/hot dogs/junk full of preservatives, garbage and cholesterol - no thanks, not unless absolutely necessary. Still, I could cut back $75 or so a month and probably still do alright.

So, I'm just sort of in limbo right now. No money, no idea what's going to happen with the loan mod, just a waiting game. Actually I'm okay for everything - just as long as an emergency doesn't come popping up out of nowhere. But isn't that how they usually happen?

ben

Sunday

I'm not ignoring this blog - I've just been posting a lot more at KCL - KeepConnectedLive.com.
It is slowly seeming - at least the skeletal remains - of what was once the "Great JS". There are lots of new faces there as well, but there is definitely a good core of what used to make up JS. So, I'm slowly fading into the walls and becoming a small part of it over there.

However, for whatever reason, I feel more "freedom" in writing over here. I can't possibly explain it, so I won't try.

Anyway, I just spend a good portion of time pulling weeds out front. I have let it go - to some small degree anyway - because it's just been plain too hot and all the ordeal I went through baking in the heat last weekend without AC - just haven't wanted to do any of it. Which doesn't mean I got everything done out there - but I got a good portion of it done which makes me feel a little better about it.

Which also makes me want to get this drip installation system installed. It won't just save on water, it will only water the plants - not the weeds around the plants - and those weeds will find no sustainable source of water in order to survive. Same with the side yard - the grass and weeds that is an endless problem over there should die off substantially after I get the system installed there. It would be helpful if I could afford to install the landscaping rock - just smother out the grass and weeds - but I cannot.

Besides, that would entail a GREAT amount of work in hauling the rock over there. The closest place to dump a pile of rocks is on the other side of the house. Meaning hauling by bucketfuls or wheelbarrow fulls - I'm guessing I'll need about 8 tons of rock over there. Yes, that's a lot of hauling. I don't think a dump truck can make the turn around the back of my house - a small one could. It would be able to get the rock much closer.

Dunno why I'm talking about that - the money's just not there. The 401k loan is not for that purpose. It would be nice if the loan mod I'm getting would include a reduced interest rate - meaning smaller monthly payment - but I have no idea about that. I will definitely call Monday to find out the verdict. The guy was supposed to call me on Friday which he did not do. Perhaps he just isn't finished with whatever needs to be done to make a decision on my account. Regardless, I will at least have the money to make a payment next week which will keep the actual word: FORECLOSURE off my back.

In fact, with 2 tenant payments, a paycheck and a 401k loan all coming within days of each other, I will have quite a lot of money next week. The paycheck and the tenant payments are all accounted for: mortgage payment, car payment and child support. The 401k - a portion of it - will be dug into for making all those payments plus more. That's the point: That AC fix killed my finances. I don't know how long it will take to get back on track - I would like to not touch the 401k loan as much as possible. I figure a good 1/3rd of it will disappear initially, after that, I will fight to hold onto it as emergency monies. That may end up being a losing battle, but I will try my best.

The loss of the money to AC has stalled the car payment. I would have already made that and other payments. However, I have found out - the scary way really - that I can push it until another payment is due before they start threatening me with repo action. It's scary because really, they can come and take your car as soon as the payment is late. I am supposing not a smart move - I imagine a lot of people are late on all kinds of payments at this point. I figure most auto lenders probably give at least a month before they send out the "legal steal experts" to come whisk your car away in the night. Which is exactly what they do. If I were facing that, I could, potentially, lock the car behind closed gates in my yard if I thought I could come up with the money to make up the back payments.

I am not facing that - and I don't want to include the word yet. Instead, I'll remain optimistic about my employment status and hope beyond hope that I don't have to face getting laid off.

So - really - the only thing the AC chaos did for me was make me worry even more about my financial situation. I'm working towards getting something back from that - but I have no guarantees even with my relentless pursuit of "justice" is what I call it in this case. I do think it an injustice to some degree that I have to shell out that much money for a system that is a year and a half old - and that the main component - and probably most expensive - part in that system took a dump on me that soon. My system is working no harder than anyone else's - it's not like it's being abused.

Well, anyway, my watering duties are accomplished for today excepting I have the soaker hose going over certain spreads of plants that need a longer, slower, and broader watering than what I can do standing there with the hose going full tilt. Which is good, because it is frickin' humid out there and soon to transform to just plain hot. Humid in the morning - pretty much every day. Then the sun bakes it all out but the temps go WAY up. Six of one, half a dozen of the other - it's ALL hot!

Hope you all are doing well.
ben

Thursday

This is one of those - entire weeks actually - where watering plants has not been exactly entertaining. I don't want to be out there. I just want to sit in here and bask in the coolness of the AC and forget about everything.
Ohhhh - the life of laziness. Just sit around all day long and do nothing but watch movies and surf the internet - and - well - that really doesn't sound that great, not for an entire lifetime.

Cool to do it for an hour here and there, but every single day?

However, there is NO WAY I am going to just let the plants go - die - and have a property full of nothing but weeds and grass growing everywhere. The point wasn't in idleness, the point was this last weekend: 114 degrees without any kind of cooling is enough to make you want to do things. Not good things, either. So I force myself out there and after a while, the "feeling" comes back and I'm happy to be out there.

I'm telling you, this last weekend made me become an absolute hater of doing anything in the heat. Hence, the need to force myself back out into it and do whatever needs to be done and at the same time, attempt to enjoy it.

My guest dog - Roscoe - is back again until Sunday. The owner hasn't brought him here in quite a long time, and I have really quit doing the dog-watching thing. There is too much liability and there is too much chance of an animal that hasn't been trained and chews/destroys everything in it's path. I can see the reason why kennels are set up as they are. Now, if I had an actual kennel setup here, I would be avidly promoting my situation to the entire Craigslist world and beyond for the services I can provide. But - I continue to watch Roscoe because I have had few problems with the dog. He can be mischievous outside - but inside he pretty much behaves.

I am still very much interested in building a garage with a loft - a rental unit.
Actually, I'm interested in building a kick-@$$ loft that I would move into myself. I have the vision of it - on the second story, a totally open space. The only walls being the exterior walls. I've had the vision for that place for some time now. It's hard to explain what it is - but imagine an entire house of everything being open without walls - sans the bathroom of course. Your kitchen, living room, bedroom - just a big room. NOT a kitchenette little space, either. I'm talking a loft big enough to adequately house everything and have the look of airiness.

It may never happen. I do not have enough, adequate carpentry skills to build such a place, first off, and second off, even if could do it myself, money is such a huge issue right now. But - if I could put such a place up, I could rent out my master bedroom and that would be even more money for my coffers - plus - I wouldn't have to personally be exposed to all of it. Them there, me here. I don't hate my renters, but I also don't like what some of them do. My view of renters is that they can do whatever they please in their bedrooms - as long as it isn't destroying the structure and there isn't too much noise - but what they do in the common areas of the house? Should be a no-brainer - total respect for everyone else and the premises itself.

I won't get started on that - I might start getting mad about some of the s*** that goes on around here. I have, as I have said a few times now, been purposefully avoiding looking at video surveillance. I haven't done it in a couple of weeks - but tonight? Definitely. Some stuff has happened and I want to know who did it. When I find out - whoever it is - they are going to be directly addressed with it, there will be no friggin' written notices this time, regardless of the outcome.

Umm, so that was pleasant, yes? No. Oh well. Oh, I found the 3rd and final rental agreement - I need it to show my lender proof of income. I sent the other 2 in today via fax, this will be the last one and then, this is the last of the paperwork and tomorrow, I should find out what, exactly and if anything, I qualify for in terms of a loan modification.

I'm making dinner - but for who? I have all a package of cube steaks that will expire after today. I don't want to freeze them cause' my freezer's full. I at a piece of chicken this morning and I have had a couple strips of bacon a little while ago. That should be plenty for the day - I'm attempting to lose some weight after reading Tim's blog about how he's going to start dieting and I offered to diet along with him - sort of an accountibility thing. I have learned, though, that many people don't stick with it. Still, I'm going to start and see what happens. I have about 15 pounds I need to shed. I'm at the point of - buy larger clothing or get serious about weight loss and get rid of the excess fat.

Enough.
G'nite.
ben

Loan Mod Scams/PLEASE VOTE FOR DUKE!!!!

http://www.mix969.com/pages/arizonas-top-pet/vote-entrants.php?gid=2&id=11

Vote for Duke, please!!! Click on the link, then click on the field below Duke’s pic, then enter your email address after clicking on “Vote For Me”. Thanks!

Umm, back to the regularly scheduled programming.

My boss and I have been searching out this loan modification stuff for awhile now. I have come up with some pretty interesting information after finding the material I was looking for - not that I KNEW what I was looking for, but when I found it, wow!

If you go to the government’s website on the agenda of “Keeping Homes Affordable”, the program that was initiated by Obama and now is allowing for 125% of your home’s value to qualify, you will find some very interesting stuff there, especially if you’re a person about to lose your home to foreclosure.

But before I go into that, I will preface this: I applied online with a company that sends your info out to “Loan Mod Specialists”. Those companies call you and start giving their line (of BS, I might add). I have listened to well over a dozen of them at this point. They ALL tell you they are accredited with the Better Business Bureau, they ALL tell you they have had the highest success rate of any modification company in the business anywhere, etc etc etc. Well, they can’t ALL be the best, now can they?

Some of them sound like used car dealers - their voices have SCAM written all over it. One guy I summarily rejected after 2 rounds of crap. After reading online about people getting ripped off - numerous stories about it, and then seeing these 2 companies in California who are being given a cease and decist order - I just wrote it all off. NO WAY am I giving UP FRONT that kind of money to ANYONE for anything like that.

Why on God’s green Earth would you pay that much money up front? Do you do that with anything else in life? I mean, they want the whole amount in their account before they will do anything for you. It turns out, a lot of them aren’t DOING - ANYTHING - after they get the money. I told ALL of them flat out that there is no way I was going to fork over that much cash before “your company” even did a thing. They all tell you that your money is fully refundable, etc etc etc. I asked all of them to send me their policy on the refund and all the fine print. Not a single one of them sent me anything that dealt with that particular point - they sent me a lot of other stuff, but not anything that covers THAT issue.

So, I figured, what they hey, why can’t I just do this myself? I”m the biggest do-it-yourselfer on the planet (okay, you can argue that if you want) I will do anything - just about - if I can, indeed, do it. Talk about THESE days, definitely I need to save every penny I can considering this last weekend’s AC catastrophe and the financial dump my bank account took after that little gem of an event occured.

Well - here’s what I found out: That plan by the Obama Administration? You have to go through your OWN lender to get it. You can’t just go onto the government’s - or anyone else’s - website to do it. The loan mod “specialists” don’t bother to tell you that little detail. If your lender is doing the mods, great, if they are not, what is a loan mod “specialist” going to do about it? It’s ALL a bunch of guff. Why can’t you just do it yourself?

The simple answer is: YOU CAN. Your bank/lender probably has a whole section of their internet website dedicated to it - and probably including an online form you can fill out to apply for whatever mods they are giving out. If they don’t, CALL THEM YOURSELF. So what if you’re behind in your payments, that’s the whole point. If you are not calling them out of fear, you are only hurting yourself. They’re going to ask you to send them all kinds of information. They are going to ask you to go over every penny of expense you have for any given month. My company even wanted to know how much money I spend on dog food. EVERY expense.

I have found that, with these people, if you are nice to them and respectful, they aren’t going to chew you out and demand a payment - there are MILLIONS of other Americans going through the same thing you are, this isn’t like you are the odd-ball-out/lowlife/scumbag because you are behind in your payments. If that’s true, the entire country is a giant sleezeball filled with scumbags.

Okay, before you call them, here’s your homework. Go over ALL of your expenses, write them all down - calculate each expense for an entire month: Food; gasoline; cable/satellite; credit cards; car payments; water bill; electricity; phone service; cell phone; any other utilities I have miss such as natural gas; ALL of it. Add it all up. Now, you add up your monthly income. Well, what if your monthly expenses exceed your monthly income? Well, that’s the REASON you need a loan modification, right? Your lender isn’t being forced to do anything, it’s all about what they are willling to do. Which is why the term nice and respect and don’t get mad/heated arguments/nasty words - they aren’t going to do you ANY good and may hurt you. No 2 lenders are alike - you can’t know what they are willing to do for you - if anything - until you apply for that mod. Just be ready with all the information they are going to want.

For the Obama plan, the interest rate can go as low as 2%. Whatever 31% of your income is, that’s how low they will go with the interest rate, but not lower than 2%. So, you can figure that out, too - calculate what is 31% of your monthly income and that’s what they are going to base a loan mod on. If your income actually goes even lower than that - some companies are actually “adjusting” the mortgage. Again, it’s just what each individual company is willing to do. If you don’t have a job and no way to pay anything - well - I am not an expert, I’m just sayin’ what I’ve learned.

When they get all the information they want, they will come up with whatever they can do for you - if anything. I’m at the end of my paper trail - my lender wants me to prove my tenant income via rental agreements, I was told this on the phone today. No problem, I have all 3 of them. I have sent them all kinds of information and have made a lot of phone calls to my company. I won’t even entertain another phone call from another loan mod company, they can all go bug off. Even if I don’t get anything - but I was told today that I most likely will get “something” - he just wouldn’t tell me until I could prove my income.

Well, I may have shot myself in the foot by telling them about my tenants - I might have “screwed” myself out of a better offer by telling them I have that income - especially considering it would be nice NOT to have to have fully 3 tenants living in my home. Be that as it may, I want to be honest about it, so - I am. But I don’t really know how they come to their conclusions, so, I am definitely not suggesting anyone say they are getting less income than they are. I’m not really giving any kind of advice - I’m just saying here that for those that are facing foreclosure, are afraid of the scams and losing money for nothing, you most certainly can do this process by yourself.

Regardless, another thing they are going to ask you is for a letter of hardship. WHY can’t you pay your mortgage? Mine was simple: 2 separate cuts in hours have netted me over $900 per month in lost income from work. That is definitely an excuse they will accept. You might have had a spouse that lost their job - but you still have yours. Anyway, if you are looking for the refinance mod - I think you have to be current on your payments. Hey, I’m just trying to motivate people to take their own action, that’s really all I”m doing here. In my case, once I get started on something, I am relentless, I will continue on the given path until there is either a resolution or the path comes to a fork in the road - or a multi-phased intersection with potential paths leading multiple directions. BTW, even the loan mod people ask YOU to write up your own letter of hardship. I really can’t see WHAT these people are doing? Just taking your paperwork and sending it in, the same as you could have?

Another aspect of this mod is that it is a 5-year thing. It is not permenant, at least not from what I read. The interest rate will go up in increments over a span of time, I think, after the 5-year time frame elapses. It’s basically a life line being thrown to you - probably the thinking is that hopefully, after that much time, you have jobs again and can make the payments at a higher interest rate. Whatever - save your home now, deal with that bridge when it comes, that’s all I can say about it. That does NOT mean it’s going to revert to an ARM - it just means that the prevailing rate will apply up to a certain amount/percentage. I wasn’t real clear on that aspect of it - I’m sure the lender will be able to give you better info.

Anyway, I am so infinitely glad I did NOT give those mod companies any money, I didn’t even hint with any of them that I was going to do anything, I just wanted to hear the spiel and after I get several calls, I then wanted to hear if the spiel was the same from all of them. Definitely not. I am guessing what they are going to offer me - I’ll take anything at this point just to get out of arrears, but I would love to get the mod that lowers your interest rate, as I don’t think I qualify for the refinance (total bummer).

ben

Irritated

I'm extremely irritated right now.
I didn't sleep worth crap last night.
The AC went out this morning.
I stepped on a very long nail yesterday that went deep into my foot.
And - something bit me in what sleep I did get last night - there, where all males dread getting something like that - "it" is swollen and does not feel good at all.

I'm sure that is more information than anyone wanted to hear and right now, I couldn't care less.
It's starting to get warm in this house - pretty soon I'll be outside and I'll just sit out there and bake for the next 3 or 4 or more hours until the AC technician gets here and fixes the thing.

You want to read something uplifting and positive - this is the wrong blog to be at today.
I'm not having a pity party, I just feel like s*** and I'm making an appointment to see the doc tomorrow if he's got any room at all in his schedule. As deep as that nail went into my foot - well I'm hoping it doesn't get infected.

The nail was defitely rusted. If I can't get into see him tomorrow, I'll go to Urgent Care, pay the extra $35 for the visit and get that tetanus shot. I think the situation with "it" will take care of itself, though I have no idea how many days that's going to feel like - that.

I'm seriously considering calling my boss - today - and asking him to find someone to take my place tomorrow. They now have 3 drivers downtown, I expect that one of them could be shipped over to our branch to take care of the business at hand for a day.

Lord I'm cranky. People talking to me here right now? I am not even responding except a noise and a thought: Please leave me the bleep alone right now, no offense, thanks.

This is only going to get worse before it gets better.
Sounds like the economy.
ben

Project

I was a little disappointed that my boss never called me to meet up to borrow his torch and accompanying items for sweating copper pipe and fittings.
This is the second time in 2 days he forgot, in fact, he still hasn't called so I guess he put it totally out of his mind.

Well, he certainly isn't required to loan me his setup, it was offered by him. So - I just got back from Home Depot. They have a plain Jane thing in a kit that probably would work, but I would still need to buy some extra things for it even with the kit. I pondered whether spending money on such right now was a good idea - I decided to let it sit in my mind for a while and figure out what to do. No sense rushing into this, it's going to be awhile before I have the whole thing set up, and right now, I wouldn't go out there to do that fitting install in this kind of heat anyway. Sometimes - you wait and something good happens. Not always, but - that's my outlook on life in most circumstances where waiting can be happen without compromising anything.

Well, while I was there I decided to finish buying the necessary parts for the install - a stick of copper and a copper couple with no stop. They had thin copper - too thin for my tastes in 3/4 inch size, which is what I'm working with. The only stick they had of 3/4 thicker walled copper had been cut. They sell it in 10-foot sticks - about 2 feet had been cut off the only stick remaining.

So, the haggler that I am, I asked how much for the stick with 2 feet missing. The guy tells me 10%. I calculate that in my mind - per foot that would be MORE expensive than buying 10 feet at the regular price. I countered with that information, but his hands were tied, that's the best he can do. Well, they walked off as I was rather deep in thought about whether it would be prudent to continue on with this project considering I have a non-paying tenant of whose monies are necessary to fund this little deal and not get too far down in finances.

Well, I started eyeing all the copper there. This stick is the one I wanted - if I'm going to do it, I want to do it right. Thin walled copper just wouldn't set well with me - definitely considering the current setup out there is the thicker walled stuff. This copper I'm buying has to be able to hold a ball valve suspended in the middle of the copper. Well, these 2 employees are eying ME now, wondering what I'm up to as I pulled the stick back off the shelf, determined to get it a price the reflects how much it should cost per foot, not a flat 10% off that makes it cost more per foot.

We talked a couple more seconds, I asked if a manager could be called. I didn't ask in a belligerent or angry way, just a simple "hey, see if I can possibly get the price down to what it should be". Turns out the General Manager of the store just happened to be walking by. The employee explains to him what my "deal" is and the GM comes over. I give a simple, quick explanation of my reasoning. He looks at me for a couple of seconds and asks me how much I want to pay for it. I must have looked at him blankly, I just said probably 20% off would be fair. He repeated his question: How much do you WANT to pay for this stick of copper?
I hedged - and asked him how much he wanted for it. Third time, the GM asks me the same question, so I threw out $10 as my response. I didn't want to look stingy - at $10 it would be less per foot than the normal price, but it's a damaged stick of copper, that's what I would be willing to pay for it (normal price was $15.99). He says: "Okay, I can do that, but how about $5 for it and it's yours?".

Nice. I'll save my pennies any which way I can. The only other thing I bought was the copper coupler - I have everything I need to get the water supply for this venture going, I just need the equipment to be able to put it together.

Ken just asked me to spot him money for beer. I asked him if he had gone into my room taking beer. I wasn't going to do that, but him asking me for money after what happened a few weeks back and then finding out he's going into my room? That question apparently took him by surprise. The only thing I can say about it is that he always pays the loans back. At the same time, I think it prudent that he learn to live within his means.

Well, I have decided to go rough it outside and do some other small things that I would like to have completed out there. I'm also trying to determine exactly where to put the last 4 Sissoo trees I have in pots. I want to get them planted and get them rooted in the ground, along with the remaining ficus and the Chinese Elm. I ain't doing all of that today - but I can probably do at least a couple of the holes.

Well, I know it sounds crazy going out into that kind of heat - but I just can't stand being cooped up in a house all day long. I have spent my entire life as an outdoors person, old habits are hard to break, and in this case, a habit I don't WANT to break.
ben

Rain?

I went outside a little while ago to start watering plants.

I noticed the sky to the east dark and looking like rain.
Well, I went out front anyway - I didn't water the front yesterday - and decided to water that at least and let the rest go.
After that, came back in here and looked at Doppler and Satellite - if it's any indication, we're in for a decent rain and a good ground saturation.

I haven't seen rain in so long, I desperately hope it does! Not just for my plants, but for ME!!

I just checked Doppler again - it's right near my house now. PULLLLEEEASSSSE God - make it rain!

When I went out there, and after only a few minutes into watering - the wind started picking up. We used to call them dust storms. The reason being is that you would see a wall of dust a mile high coming in at you. You also ran for cover - a lot of stuff would be flying all over the place. Not anymore. They're wind storms I guess you could call them - the dust has been reduced greatly over the years because the outlying areas have been developed and now there's a lot of asphalt/cement/landscaping instead of open desert.

A nice "perk" if you want to call it that is that these storms almost always blow in colder air. I don't mean cold per se, just cooler than it was. It was 113 degrees a half hour ago, now it's 109. No, I checked it again - the storm is about 10 to 20 miles away judging from Doppler and the temp has now dropped to 108. May sound hot - yes - but the point is that my AC runs less at lessor temps. I'll take that anyday - tomorrow is forecast to be 115 degrees. I won't take that any day : (

Darn - the wind has started to die down and the rain is JUST around the corner.

Well, anyway, I have a cigar. I buy them - infrequently - very infrequently. He gets a deal on quantity cigars - he smokes them every day - and lets me in on the deal whenever I want one. This time? "Buy me lunch when I've over there next time" - referring to my store. I didn't have any money on me - I really try not to carry too much cash with me, lesson learned from years of excessive, wasteful spending (I think that must have been something I learned from the feds) - just don't have it with you. Sure, I have debit and credit cards - I'm pretty disciplined at this point to NOT waste money on needless things.

So, at the advice of fully 2 separate store employees at - 2 different stores - I will drink a bud tomorrow while - if I get everything of course - install the valve and copper portions of the beginning of the system. If all goes well, the cigar comes afterwards : ) I love cigars - though they make me quite high on nicotine. Sometimes to the point I feel like getting sick ............. I sorta learned the hard way to smoke half the cigar at one point and then the rest another day. In other words, cut it in half and have to times the pleasure. I am not advocating cigar smoking - just a nice thing to do once in a great while.

The storm is headed south and is going to bypass my immediate area. However, there was one huge effect: a decrease of temperature by fully 11 degrees in less than one hour's time! Nice.

G'nite.

ben

Friday

Just pondering things before I get started with the work day.
I heard an ad this morning on the radio that was pretty nice.
Frito Lay has announced (at least locally, no idea if it's nationwide) that they are going to start ADDING 20% more product to every bag of chips for however long - WITHOUT raising the price.
It's their offering for people getting hurt by the failing economy.
I find that especially refreshing because many companies have gone the other route - take product OUT and leave the price the same.
You HAVE noticed that a package of hot dogs no longer comes in a 10-pack, didn't you? The price stayed the same: 8 for the price of ten, such a great deal!
Cereal companies are notorious for making the packaging look as though there is all kinds of cereal in it - when in fact many of the have reduced the amount - by weight - of content.

I kinda hope that this is a nationwide thing and that it will raise the bar for other companies to follow suit. Frito Lay has a huge manufacturing plant down in Casa Grande - I've been there a dozen times at least delivering pipe and materials when they were doing some sort of expansion project. A company that makes that kind of offering is a company whose product I'll buy - the boys love that stuff anyway.

This weekend's plans are simple: start the installation project for the drip watering system. The beginning of the project is the hardest AND the most expensive. You can spend a LOT of money on the timer and other items necessary to install the system - I think I have found a balance of good product that isn't astronomical in the price. Certainly the plumbing projects will be much cheaper than most people can get stuff like that - I just happen to work for a company whose plumbing division is purportedly the largest in America. We get stuff at cost a 6% bump.

I have decided that all exposed parts must either be brass or copper, not PVC. The sun is brutal towards plastic pipe around these parts - stuff like that will not be long-lived if exposed to the summer sun and heat on a daily basis. Anyway, my boss is bringing his personal equipment for sweating the copper stuff together with him to work today - which is pretty cool. I used to have all of that stuff, but certain theives decided to get their hands on it and it = whoooof = disappeared into thin blue air.

So, with that I have to make a trip to the plumbing branch today for some items we don't have here. Easy enough. What I thought amusing yesterday was my trip to Sprinkler World and Home Depot. When I was talking with the guys about how I should go about installing this system, they both said to go home, sit down at a table, get out a piece of paper and pen, get a beer and start making the plans. I'm serious, they BOTH said it's FAR more fun to have beers with the project than to not. Now, I wasn't even thinking in the terms of adult recreational beverage, hearing it from both of them made me want to go look into a mirror to ensure that the word Budweiser wasn't stamped on my forehead!

Well, I have a couple of articles I want to read before signing in for work and I only have 5 minutes left.
Have a great day!
ben

Today

I wrote an entry on KCL earlier and then this morning.
Yet, I refuse to give up this host for blogging - for now anyway.

Ken came home early. I don't know why, but usually entails being let off because there is nothing to do. He started in on a girl he "screwed" when she was - well I don't want to incriminate him, so I won't. BUT - it's the SAME exact exuberance when he started in on the last girl. The last girl - lady - was MARRIED.

I'm not amused. The beginning of his story was appalling, the end of it was not the end, I'm sure.

Changing the subject, I've come to the realization that I'm not that sold on cabbying. Apparently, people ditch you and don't pay. I would not take that well. I would be the cabby chasing the freak down and calling the police for theft of services.

Apparently they get robbed alot. I wouldn't take well to that, either. It wouldn't make me afraid, it would make me MAD. Sticking a gun to my head - I might give up the cash - but I would remember the face. I have to wonder if cab drivers are allowed to carry their own arms. Supposing it would depend on the company's policy, dunno whether commercial vehicle laws apply to it or not.

OTOH - it might actually be interesting to encounter all kinds of different people. I can be talkative in the right circumstances and make conversation when a person is amenable to it. I'm not sold on it yet, and certainly, giving up my weekends is hardly something I really WANT to do.

The Valley of Decision is always an interesting place to be. I continue to forget totally about getting the 5-year driving history after getting off of work. Hey, speaking of work, our branch is at like $170,000 for the month. That's very good considering what we have been doing in the last few months - really, the last several months. I also have no clue what's going to happen with me when the bomb is dropped in a couple of weeks from now.

Ummmm, that's it. I fed the dogs - they were looking at me as if they were hungry. Turns out someone else put food out for them earlier today - assuming Michael. What the really wanted was attention. I have spent copious amounts of time since that revelation in giving such.

C'yall next time.

ben

Current Events

I watch Ken on video surveillance - frequently - going into my refrigerator.
To say the irritates me is certainly valid, albeit certain other adjectives apply in a much more sincere sense.

Milk; cheese; whatever.

I ever-so-slightly turned the tables on him. I stopped buying coffee. It's expensive. If it isn't on sale - Folger's is like 8 bucks a can. He drinks coffee every day. He puts about TRIPLE the amount of coffee grounds into the brewer than is necessary for a regular pot of coffee.

He was going through my cans of coffee like a kid eating lollipops.

I figured if I just stop buying the stuff - I get all the free coffee at work I want so there's 5 days of the week covered - he would either have to quit or he would have to start buying it himself.

He bought the last 2 cans. In the time it takes him to go through 2 large cans of Folgers coffee grounds - that much coffee lasts me about 6 months. THAT'S why I stopped buying it.

In the same cabinet the coffee is located is where I store my bread. My bread disappears at a ridiculously fast rate - I had thought it was the kids. For that, I didn't care. I started seeing Ken helping himself daily to my bread, putting it into the toaster and then helping himself to my margarine in my refrigerator.

I haven't figured out an answer to that - I may let that one go, I buy cheap white bread for the boys as that is what they like. Ken, however, likes wheat bread. All well and fine until his supply of it runs out.

Cans of tuna fish? Gone. LOTS of them. Michael eats some of it, I had thought it was him. Michael is an eating machine as of lates - he is getting bigger and bigger and his body is demanding caloric intake to keep up with the pace (hence, I imagine, one of the long list of reasons he is over here, food is plentiful, at least for now). NOT. Ken - helping himself. I see this stuff on video surveillance, this is how I "prove" it. I have no choice but to go over hours and hours worth of surveillance to identify what, exactly, is going on in any given situation.

Beer. I drink beer in the summer. I don't drink massive quantities - but when I'm outside baking in the sun, and ice cold beer tastes better to me than anything except a large glass of water filled with ice. One has to keep tabs on that when in the baking sun - alcohol can really kick you in the @$$ when it's hot outside and if you're not drinking enough water. Ken? Will drink the entire amount of it in the refrigerator and it's gone. I have addressed him on that particular issue twice now. Oh, thank you, I am not a drunkard and I HATE being drunk. I don't even come close to anything like that, just as a disclaimer.

Ken helps himself to my laundry detergent. He has NEVER bought an OUNCE of it the entire time he's been here. Again, video surveillance. Did I tell Ken he could do all of this stuff? Do monkeys fly? Well, now that I think of it, yes, a certain breed of them do, however, I did not tell this particular monkey that he could just help himself to my food and drink whenever he feels like it - and he feels like it daily.

Funny it never happens when I'm IN here - here being the kitchen. I have my computer in here because I do not like to much of anything in my bedroom except sleep. Options? I have, thus far, resisted giving him an eviction notice. I am attempting to resist it. I don't know how long it would take to find another tenant. But Ken is starting to wear on me like Mary started to when she was living here - smoking meth in my house. I am EVER so glad that Mary is GONE. Ken is a different kind of case. I will have to pray and seek the Lord on this one - perhaps this is an "assignment" from the Lord that I must bear. Dunno. Perhaps I am supposed to just allow him to help himself.

It would help - if he would at least say thank you. A little gratitude goes a long way. It's not an egotistical thing - when you see someone taking your stuff without asking, you feel like that person has just stolen that stuff from you. It REALLY does. Food is a huge expense for me. I'm not complaining, but this man is not one of the people that I have included on that particular list.

Perhaps I'm just being a selfish, whining baby.

ben

Monday/More

I hate to keep talking about the heat - but it’s the same thing as people being stuck inside their homes in a frigid winter - just the opposite end of the scale. You can get just as dead going out there in this kind of temperatures and suffering heat stroke and all kinds of other heat related illnesses.

As evidenced yesterday when Kyle passed out at the skate park in the middle of the afternoon when it hit 114 out there. I told them not to go, they ignored my warning - maybe they’ll listen next time. Paramedics had to cool him down and whatever they did - I wasn’t there and didn’t find out about it until the event was over.

Unfortunately, there is no way to raise the temp of the AC in here during the day. The varied hours of the tenants force that. Ken doesn’t leave for work until 1:30 pm, I get off of work at 2:00 pm (at least temporarily) and Pete, the newest tenant, gets home usually late morning. People are here, in other words, 24 hours a day. Which is actually a good thing from my view - just that I can’t save a few bucks every day on AC by moving the thermostat to say - 85 degrees or even a little higher. If it were just the dogs in here, they can suffer a little in 85 degree weather, it certainly isn’t animal abuse. Abuse would be to leave them outside in this crap.

But, I resolved in my mind that this would happen and that I would just have to grin and bear it - the electric usage/bill that is. Pretty much the hottest part of the day right now - I have been home for 1/2 and hour and the AC has not shut off yet. Which is normal for AC systems at this time of year - but I have wondered if I should have had them install a dual AC system and get about 7 tons of AC out there instead of the single 5 ton unit. Too late now - it IS keeping it nicely cooled in here, no complaints there.

My manager started getting all of that stuff out of the crates and off the pallets for the drip watering system stuff we have now acquired.

I would love to learn how to install of that stuff -which I will - and then maybe make a business out of installing systems for other people - for money of course. Sorta doubt there is much demand for such right now - considering people are losing their homes, highly doubtful they want to spend the money installing such a thing on a house they are walking away from - but you never know what homeowners out there that aren’t losing their homes might want to do. I’m always looking for ways to earn some extra money.

I have nothing else. Not right now. I have to go out there in a few minutes and get to watering certain plants that will already have started drooping even though they got a thorough watering yesterday. Because of such, I am definitely going to put an automatic timer on the system I install and the whole thing is going to be totally self reliant. I have a lot of learnin’ to do, and I’m going to start delving into that tonight after I get the watering done.

C’yall later.

ben

Conscience

Do you have one?
If you get something you're not supposed to, say, at a store and realize the error the clerk made later on when you get home, do you do anything about it?
Do you go back and pay for it?
Do you call them and tell them the mistake and say you'll come back in to pay for it? Or maybe pay over the phone with a credit card if they accept such a method?

I resolved all of these questions in my mind and heart long, long ago. I don't have to think about it - I do the right thing. Because they "gave" it to you - on error - does not mean it's right to just keep it. If you can sleep at night doing such a thing - I will not say more power to you, because I believe it to be unethical and immoral.

I'm not preaching to anyone, really, just making my observations and opinion about it. I was given 6 bags of dog food today, when I should have gotten 5. I am currently buying Nutra dog food - it's an excellent quality food and this place has a smoking deal on it at $22.95 per bag. The extra bonus is after you buy 10 bags, you get an extra bag free. I didn't know I had reached the 10 bag quota for the freebie. The guy showed me my card and asked if I wanted the extra bag today? Yes, I do - I don't want them to make a mistake and have them thinking I already got the free bag and then not get it on my next visit.

Well, I was on the phone with my mother and not paying a lot of attention to the fact that he had put out 6 bags for me, not 5. I was trying to get mother off of the phone - not that I didn't want to talk to her but I think it extremely rude to stand there on a cellphone talking while doing a transaction at the counter. It's not totally my fault, though. I was standing at the front of the store, talking with mother and was just going to wait there until the conversation was finished and then go to the counter. Well, the guy running the store came in from the outside - drenched in sweat from moving bales of hay around - and asked if I needed anything. I pointed at the dog food and told him 4 bags, and then it went on from there.

Anyway, I grabbed the bags he put out. Piling them up in my utility room, I counted 6 bags. My mind is just all over the place today which is why I really didn't give it much credence until I got home with it. I would have identified the problem sooner if I had been here on planet earth. I'm still perplexed and a little rattled at the situation with work. I don't feel any sense of job security at all right now. Fear? No. But - if something like that happens, it creates a huge vacuum and a HUGE problem. I have absolutely NO desire to start over somewhere else right now. I am not a job-jumper at heart, I did it until I found the place I'm at, I just didn't want to waste my life away working at sub-par companies that treat their employees like crap. My company treats employees like gold.

So, I got a free bag of dog food. Yes, the free bag I legitimately got, the other bag I am going back in there tomorrow after work to pay for it. It's a great deal, no sense in taking it back, the prices undoubtedly will go back up on that stuff and it's just as well to keep it. Some - maybe many - people would say they made the mistake - too bad for them. I don't really want to judge people - I'll just say that I would not be able to sleep tonight wearing that kind of crown on my head. I already have problems with sleep - and it has nothing to do with stealing bags of dog food.

Speaking of money, Discount Cab just called me not 30 minutes ago. I had totally forgotten about that. I'm telling you, I am definitely not quite right, right now. They want me to get the DMV 5-year driving history report and come in. Them calling me means they must need drivers. The lady was quite amenable - and quite honest about the daily pay. I asked. I laid down a "line" (in my mind, not to Discount Cab) - I do not want to take on any part time job that pays less than half minimum of what I am currently making. I truly believe I can make more than the average taxi driver - service and attitude are everything, I have encountered my share of drivers that are absent-minded, calloused, even rude. They do their job - but they do it minimally. Sure, they get the fare, but they apparently don't think about the potential of getting a tip for doing more than just sitting there, driving the car. No doubt there are people that pay the fare only regardless of how well you treated them, no doubting as well that there are people that will hand you a tip on top of the fare.

The only problem - sacrificing either Saturdays or even entire weekends. No. I will only do it one day per week, I must have at least one day off.

Michael and Kyle just went to a skateboard park. Caleb didn't want to go, I totally don't blame him. I warned Michael he better take a lot of water with him. He took nothing. It's currently 110 degrees out there. A couple more hours it will be minimum 112, if not much higher. As I said, I warned him. I'm going out there in a few minutes, but with an ice cold drink in hand. That wide-brimmed hat would be nice, right about now.

Oh, a lady at Fry's told me today about a couple of places with job openings. Target is opening a distribution center somewhere in Tempe and Walmart is opening a store in Tempe as well. I will NOT work for Walmart - my ex was treated very poorly by management when she worked there. I rarely go to Walmart, I have been learning to find ways to stay away from that place. I can't say I never go, but my visits have dropped exponentially. I really do not want to support a company that is abusive towards it's employees. I get that information not only from the ex when she was working there, but also from talking with numerous ex Walmart employees and even a couple of news stories that have hinted at the same.

Enough.
Later.
ben

More

At the main branch on Friday, I was talking with a co-worker that is pretty cool - we get along well. He gave me an odd look at one point and asked me about my trees and plants. Yes, they're doing well. He says, well, when we move out of our house, if you're interested, we're going to sell everything that's ours - which is all the landscaping (it was a dirt property like mine when they moved in) included the trees and plants. Actually, he said people could come over and give a whatever donation to their cause.

The sad truth of the matter: they are going to lose their home to foreclosure. His wife lost her job a while back - like a year or more ago, found another one and then got laid off of that one the SAME day that we all found out we are losing an hour per day at our company. He got a double-whammy in one day. I immediately agreed about the trees - but then felt bad for saying so so quickly. I don't want to see the guy lose his home. He's a go-with-the-flow person, he figures to rent an apartment at less than half of what his mortgage is and start saving money.

Perhaps - but I've been over there a couple of times. They did all kinds of upgrades and modifications on the property. They spent a truckload on the landscaping and the place looks really nice, including a nice swimming pool. He tried to talk to the lender - nothing. They call him on the phone and he's like: well what do you want now? "When are you going to send in a payment?" I can imagine his frustration considering he's called them, talked to them, got nothing but the runaround and they continue to call anyway.

What're you going to do? Well, it's not too late. The "making homes affordable" program should be able to help him. He doesn't have to talk to the bank, he just has to fill out the paperwork and send in the necessary documents. I did mine online. I did talk to the lender, but they referred me to the online applications for everything. Fine and well. It's just sad to see so many people going through this, even worse when it's someone you know.

On that note, I just accessed all my accounts that I can access online - which is all of them excepting paying the mortgage online. I have come to the conclusion my mortgage company does that on purpose - force you to send it in snail mail. Then, if you're going to be late, they charge you a $25 fee to send it Western Union. Whatta scam.

Anyway, I was surprised to find all of my accounts are paid up. Excepting the mortgage that is - a given for right now. I expected to see a water bill on there - it's a 0 balance. Credit cards either paid current or not due for 20 plus days. DirectTV - 0 balance. The only thing I owed current was the broadband bill - due by today. It's now paid, of course. I've been doing my due diligence to stay on top of everything else as much as possible besides the mortgage. The only other payment that I get behind on is the car payment. The "lateness" of the payment scales back by 2 to 3 days per month. Right now it's paid current, but due on the 16th. Last payment was almost 2 weeks over, this next one will be about a week and a half late. In saying that, it does NOT show up on my credit report as late, it just means that I am dumped with a $10 late fee.

I'm totally way over-impatient to get the stuff unboxed at work - all the drip watering system stuff - and figure out what I need. I would have loved to have started on that project this weekend. It may be a while before I get the stuff, but the wait is worth the huge reduction in cost that it will be.

That's about it. I'm still psyched by my winnings at the casino today. I'm sure they don't much care for it, but the risk goes both ways when you're playing. From what I saw, they MORE than made up for it just from other players at the same table.
Think that's enough writing for one day.
G'nite.
ben

The Casino

I have fought the waves of “winning” for weeks now. I have not gone to the casino because I have not thought it prudent or even smart to do so. I ended the winning streak a couple of months ago now - close to a grand UP, not down, thank you.

Today, I did not resist. I’m sure I could have resisted, but I didn’t. It is MISERABLY hot out there. I was not going to spend the entire day working out in that kind of misery. I was also not going to sit around here all day long, doing nothing but mindless nothingness.

I got to the casino and the parking lost was about 2/3rds full. A good sign for me. “My” parking space was empty, another good sign. Getting out of the cool car and into the hot sun was no fun, but it’s only a hundred plus yards to the entrance from where I normally park.

I walked around the blackjack tables, as is my want. I have methods to my madness, there is no logic, really, to it, but - I do what I must. I finally sat down at a table. It came off quickly that this was not going to be “THE” table. There was a guy there rambling on and on about how HE should be the guy to cut the deck - I sat there for about 45 minutes listening to this nonsense. The cards were not going my way. The dealer rung up 3 blackjacks in about 10 hands or so - that was my sign to leave, but mostly because of the man that just went on and on - bitching really - about the fact that the dealers were not giving him the cards to cut. I did NOT want to wait around to find out what this guy’s kind of cut would do.

I got up and found another table. That went off bad immediately. The lady I sat down to - after only 2 hands - started mouthing off to me. Why? Because “I have lost EVERY hand since you sat down here”. Really? All of TWO hands?!! Anyone willing to mouth off like that is sitting at a table I don’t want to be at. The dealer started to say something about “pretend there’s a glass window between….” I cut her off - but not rudely. I just said I would find another table. Any person that is willing to piss on other players for no more reason than they are losing - is a person I want nothing to do with.

3’s a charm. I was down $100 - money I could not afford to lose. Yet my confidence level was so high, I was absolutely sure my luck would change. I pulled out another $100 bill at the 3rd table. Got my reds - $5 chips, all of them - and plunked down a $15 bet. From there, it was history. I was as much as $300 plus up over what I walked in with. I was tipping greatly - another thing I can’t shake. Don’t tip? Might as well stay home, the cards will reject you. The dealers, the waitress, even the guy tending the bathroom. Tipped them all. Now that I think about it, I should have gone to the steak restaurant and indulged myself. I never feel bad about leaving ahead, even if I was up well above the total take.

My take today was $200. Sounds like chump change to some, to me it’s everything I spent this weekend and then some - quite a bit then-some. I bought an electric weedeater this morning, as well as the soaker hose, some bug poison and 2 packages of stakes to hold up the plants I have been planting in recent weeks.

The thing that struck me was the pit boss. She was a great lady! She made it all the better - her input and the rapport back and forth. She came back after I was down - and was surprised. “Wow, you’ve done well!”
I didn’t know they kept track of that kind of thing. I SHOULD know, I guess, but I just never considered they are counting their pennies as well as everyone else. At the end, she came back when I was cashing out my chips, I thanked her profusely for such an enjoyable time, she said you’re welcome, I headed for the cashier’s window.

In this 4 hours of casino gambling, I watched several people losing a LOT of money. I also sat there and watched a few people winning a LOT of money. One guy sat down, pulled out $500 - and proceeded to lose it within about 5 minutes. The lady sitting next to me won at least $500 I’m guessing after looking at the stack of green - $25 - chips sitting there over time.

That’s it. I had a great time and I also won some money. It’s all going towards electricity. The temps are outrageous, the electric usage is off the wall. I’ll bet today will be at least a $14 day in terms of electrical usage.

ben

Saturday

I copied and pasted a posting I made on KCL over here - it for some reason didn't appear here?!!
Oh well, I guess I could do it again, but who cares, I'll just write another post.
I bought a soaker hose for the plants today, it was on sale and the extremely high temps out there are too much. I have nodesire.com to stand out there in blistering heat watering everthing.

It's a 50 foot long hose that drips out water the entire length of the hose. I would have rathered a 25 footer, but they didn't have one that size. Anyway, I am slow watering everything and will be doing so all day long. I also was out there putting in stakes to hold up certain plants and trees that need the help - though I finally gave up and came in here, sweating profusely and decided to get an ice cold glass of water.

I'm totally excited about the fact that everything I need to install a drip watering system is going to be available right at our store. It will be at least a week, I'm sure, before we get it all sorted out and placed on shelves - I can wait that long, especially now that I have acquired the soaker hose. I don't have to stand out there watering the stuff, the hose can do it for me, I only need go out at intervals and move it from one line of plants to another.

Yes, that's pretty much it for this weekend. I have no great plans for anything. In a couple of hours I'll probably make the trip to downtown and visit the 2 guys that I have been helping out here and there - and for whom I have found a couple of other people who have also been helping them, which is totally cool.

I will be making a list for the boys to get things done around here this weekend - of the which I expect them to get it done. This time, when they accomplish everything, I'll give them a couple of bucks each to go to the store and get some ice cream or something. They won't find that out, however, until they finish the jobs. It took them about an hour and a half of constant work last week to finish. They are ALL asleep right now - well I don't know about JD, he goes home to sleep - they must have stayed up late last night.

I'm trying to talk myself out of getting another 401k loan. If the loan mod I applied for comes through, I probably won't do it. Only if a financial emergency arises will I get that loan in that case. A financial emergency would be something like the car breaking down or the AC quitting - though it's still under warranty for the compressor and other expensive parts of the system. I'm trying to tough it out without the loan is all I'm saying.

Well, that's it. Highs today are ranging - depending on whose forecast you read - anywhere from 112 to 115 and tomorrow, allegedly, 112 to 117. I went to open the door of my house a few minutes ago from the outside- my hand burned as I turned it, and it's not even noon here yet. GAG!!!!!
Outta here -
ben

I'm Not Ignoring My Blog................

………….I just have a lot of “stuff” on my plate.

The watering of the plants around here is taking endless amounts of time. The hot weather just sucks the moisture right out of the ground and doing a deep watering on that many plants is next to impossible with just a couple of garden hoses. I can’t wait until we get all that stuff unpacked at work and I can buy all the stuff to put in the drip system. Meanwhile, I think I’m going to spend $10 on one of those hoses that has all the small holes in it for doing a good slow watering that will cover 50 feet worth of plants at the same time.

I also did that loan mod application this week and sent in all the necessary documentation. At the very least, I’m hoping for the HUD interest free loan that sticks the past due amount on the end of the loan. What that will do for me is free up another $60 per month in late fees. Every little bit helps. I’m facing some serious electrical use in the coming days if not weeks. I read online that hell is visiting Phoenix this week and it’s bringing it’s temps with it. I don’t like hell and rather bid it a good riddance. Regardless, it’s 7:00 am and it’s already 90 degrees outside.

Further the stuff that is happening at work is a bit - stressful I guess I’ll call it. You go to work and wonder what’s going to happen next. I’m not dissing my company - I’m just saying it’s a little nerve-wracking to know that layoffs are on-going and they will continue to do so until they figure that this thing has bottomed and they don’t need to get rid of anyone else.

And then there’s all the tenant stuff that comes and goes. Never know what’s going to come up next. I need a vacation. I would love to take a week off and go somewhere nice and just let the cares of this world float away for a while - I’m good at dumping that junk out of my mind when I’m on vacation. A nice pipe dream, but dreams are better than nothing.

As for today, there is quite a lot I want to do - but I don’t know that I’m going to be very motivated once the heat really kicks in. I figure I should stop writing and get out there and get some stuff done - but I also figure I would like to just take a day off from everything - sorta like the vacation dream - and do NOTHING but stay inside, alone, with no interruptions, and just watch movies. Lol, that is definitely a dream that certainly won’t materialize around here. Actually, I guess I could come close to it by disappearing into my bedroom. Kick the boys out, tell them to leave me alone, ignore the tenants and just have the presence of a bunch of dogs that endlessly love to follow me all over the place. However, I don’t consider my dogs a nuisance or an interruption - they know me well and they know how I want them to act in my house.

So, that’s it. My life in a huge nutshell as it is currently panning out. Oh, and I forgot that I promised the now ex-homeless guys I would take them some food today. Nothing fancy, just something to eat. They don’t have the gas turned on in their place yet so they can’t cook. I’m trying to decide what to make to take over there, but I figure I’ll probably end up just making the chicken breast that is on sale at Basha’s - 77 cents per pound - cook 2 packages of that and a couple of side dishes. They at least have a working refrigerator.

C’yall later?!!

ben

Wednesday

Well, I haven’t been writing much because I have become absorbed with the idea of all of this change coming to work - that hasn’t even been implemented yet. The thoughts of what exactly the changes are and what will happen with me in the process is rather consuming.

And yet, I can do absolutely nothing about it, and further, thinking about it will change nothing. Worrying and fretting changes nothing, either. I make no claims of being a super-human, therefore I make claims that my natural thought processes in situations like this sometimes take me to undesirable places.

Regardless, my manager left early today to go to the main branch to meet with the GM. I do find the proposed changes to be quite - acceptable - but - changes are coming so fast in this company, no-one knows WHAT is coming next.

Anyway, I was driving the semi all day today. The reservation; Gilbert; Florence; Casa Grande. I got back just in time to sign out, actually. The hourly reduction - doesn’t quite work on certain days when there is more work than hours available. Tommorrow is going to be extremely busy. Since our company closed the store out west, numerous people have been involved with the removal of everything from that store and have it transported to various places. Well, I have a couple of 2 or 3 deliveries in the morning, a transfer to downtown and then a trip to the store that is closed. This will undoubtedly take me well beyond 7 hours of work and will also undoubtedly make me lose my 30 minute, automatically deducted break and - oh well.

As for around here, it’s been pretty quiet. The temps are heading up and I have been extra-watering everything. This weekend will be a real drag - I really don’t want to deal with 110 plus degree heat anymore. It’s not unlike those of you that are house-bound because of frigid temps and snow and ice all over everything. There isn’t much desire to head into the great outdoors when it’s so hot coupled with humidity, you start sweating before you start DOING anything. Staying indoors is not an option for me - I have to go out and tend to the bountiful plantlife. But, after I’m out there awhile, it becomes - nice - actually - regardless of the heat.

I’ve all but lost the battle of not getting a 401k loan. I could actually - eventually - get caught up - but it’s so far out that my call to the mortgage company told me that they had rejected my payment and said the reason is because I would have to come up with a payment and a half. I have not gotten mad, upset or rude with these people ever - this isn’t a situation to get like that - and it paid off, I hope anyway. The guy said I called “just in time” that he might be able to get the payment forced through.

Beyond that, whether they have a rate-reduction program or not, they do participate in a HUD program that has an interest free loan that puts whatever payments you are behind to the end of your loan, getting you fully caught up - as long as you can show that you can make all future payments on-time.

Well, the time before last I called, the lady wanted to hear ALL of my income and expense information. I entertained her in it, it took something like half an hour. I thought of every expense I have and stated it - all of it. I then stated that my income - with reduced hours and with 2 paying tenants. She calculated that my income was more than my expenses - by 75 cents. Yes, that’s 75 CENTS. Lol. With another paying tenant - well that puts me over, yes, but certainly I have no great abundance going on over here.

I’m not complaining. I have a job - whatever it is - and I have enough income. It’s far better than what millions of Americans are going through right now.

There are other stories but - my finger is hurting again, in fact it looks like it’s infected. I’m either going to have to stick a needle in there and let out the puss that is building up - or go to a doctor, have them deaden the area and lacerate it - or maybe they’ll just prescribe anitbiotics. My normal modus operandi is to avoid the doctor at all costs and attempt to drain the thing myself. Which usually entails some levels of pain - but to me, not as painful as going to the friggin’ doc.

ben