Direct TV's ICU Ward

So, I'm sitting here - like 30 minutes ago - writing up a post for my other blog when the Magic Jack rings (my phone service, I always refer to it as Magic Jack). With Magic Jack, a screen appears on top of everything on your computer - you see the number that is calling.

An 800 number. I figure some sort of sales call, so I was going to let the call drop. But I decided to take the call in case it was my mortgage company. It was a representative from Direct TV's "ICU" is how she referred to it as. She asked me about my last encounter with Direct TV and was my problem satisfactorily resolved. I had to think about it - was I satisfied with the result? Yes and no. I told her the whole story, about how their company called me offering me 2 for 1 pay-per-view movies - buy one today and they would send me something in the mail to fill out and return.

The movie was supposed to start at 7:30 am on a Saturday - it never did, and of course, that started my phone calling to DirectTV. LONG story and I already wrote about it on this blog. If you are REALLY that interested, I suppose you could do a search on here and find it.

So, I'm being very nice to this lady - as always - I am nice unless a person starts getting rude and crass with me, then I dish it RIGHT back out to them - or I just hang up. She looks into all of this - and tells me she doesn't even see where I was called with such an offer. Now - this was not said in a tone that she didn't believe me, such as the woman I was speaking to at my former Title company about getting some paperwork sent from them, she was just sayin' it ain't on there.

I listened. I figured something might happen with this call that I didn't even initiate - and neither did I have ANY desire to call DirectTV. I NEVER - WANT - to call them. It takes forever to get through to anyone and then you almost always have to get to another level of customer service rep - I mean it's like hours if you really want to get anything done. Ohh, but I DO call them when trouble starts.

We're talking back and forth and she comes up with this: "I want to do something for you today to make up for what you had to go through". I now have 3 free months of Starz and Showtime, plus $5 off for 3 months as well. I was totally amazed. And yes, I checked my TV - all of those channels are on right now. I didn't know that Direct TV had such a department to call people and ask about their recent experience. My history with them usually shows they don't give a bleep, or at least certain of their customer service reps certainly don't give a rats @$$ whether you're happy with their service or not. I even had one tell me one time that I should just go ahead and cancel the service and go with a competitor! Lol.

Ummm, onto other issues. I don't even know what got me started on this, but I was writing this entry and something else happened, I got the vacuum cleaner out, vacuumed a high-traffic area of carpet and was going to put my new steam vac carpet cleaner to the test. Got the solution in the tank - already put it together - turned it on - made the noise you'd associate with a vacuum cleaner/steam cleaner running.........but...........

...........the spinning brushes? Weren't spinning. There is a switch on the thing to turn it from low to high or even off. I moved that switch back and forth several times - nothing. I turned it on and off, on and off - nothing. No suction, either, the noise it was making is warm air it aims at the already treated carpet apparently to help it dry. It's probably nice machine - if it works. I looked at the instructions again - turn the machine on, the brushes start spinning.

I dreaded this, but I called Walmart yet again - in the middle of writing this entry no less. This time, neither of the head honchos were there and I was put on hold for 8 minutes before I hung up, called back. Waited 2 and a half minutes and hung up , called back. Waited 30 seconds, hung up, called back. Waited 15 seconds (the wait was the time after the person said they were going to get a manager for me). Hung up, again. I figure this will irritate them to actually GET me a manager instead of leaving me endlessly on hold.

Yup, ole' LeeAnne got on the phone. Nice enough lady, have had one other encouter with her. Asked her if nearly 15 minutes on the phone was acceptible to get a manager, of which she responded in the negative. I then told her the story from last week about this machine and how I acquired it through the store's general manager, Anthony. She knew all about it, fortunately.

She informed me I could come down to the store and customer service would take care of it. Well, miss, I'm calling to make sure you actually have another machine available before driving there for nothing (notwithstanding the fact that I have absolutely no intention of driving there today, if they have one, they can put it aside for me and I will get it on the way home from work tomorrow).

I give her the UPC label number - she then asked me if I were the one that had complained about the seafood counter last week? Yes, ma'am, I most certainly am. Well, have you been back since the last time this happened? NO, I replied, I don't customarily subject myself to that kind of abuse repeatedly, twice was enough. That got a chuckle out of her - and then she informed me that they had actually taken my complaint and even my advice and done something about it! I had suggested that at the very least, they install a doorbell type setup - if someone needs seafood and no-one's out there, push the doorbell and kalamazoo, someone arrives out of thin air. That would be totally acceptable to me, I had explained, lots of stores do that cause' their butchers and personnel in the back are busy and they don't necessarily expect enough people to show up at that particular counter to have a full-time person servicing it.

Yes, they installed the button with the bell and she claims they have someone working that counter. I'll be in there tomorrow, presumably anyway, and I WILL test her statements. Not that I think that she's lying about the buzzer, but I seriously wonder about devoting an employee to that counter alone. It's not a huge counter and it only has seafood in it - though I have observed people approaching the counter and simply walking away when they realize there is no-one there. I imagine they are losing a lot of potential sales simply because of the fact there is usually nobody there.

So, I'm waiting for her to call back. Considering the amount of time that has passed, I assume they do not have a machine available - that or she's calling Anthony to ask him what to do since - I definitely made an issue out of the entire situation.

Of course, I will be asking for further compensation. I have now not only gone through that rather large ordeal in just GETTING this machine, but now not only did I make 4 visits to get it, wasted time, but I have now brought it home, assembled it, found it doesn't work and also wasted some of the carpet cleaning formula in finding this out. Another gift card will take care of my needs, thank you.

So, I have also thought about my visit to the nursery going out of business. Not only am I going to get more Sissoo trees, I am also going to get several more of the $1 per plant ficus trees. Well, I assume now that if I take enough of them off of their hands, they will give me an even better deal.

Actually, they had some very nice cacti there in pots that I would love to get my hands on - if the price is right. Their asking price before was ridiculously low - but I didn't want to spend that much money on that kind of thing. I would love to have a Saguaro cactus growing somewhere on the property. You grow one up to be nice and big - they are worth huge money. Well they used to be, anyway, this economy - I like to hope anyway - won't stay this rotten forever. A large Saguaro in the past could fetch as much as $8,000.00. Yup. You can't just go out into the desert and dig one up, it's against the law and I believe it's a federal law - like a HUGE fine and possible imprisonment.

Well, I'm just sorta excited about the prospect. I'll get them - and probably leave them in the pots throughout the winter until the growing season starts again. I can put them all together in one area and cover them up with the nursery grade shade screen to help protect them against frost. We DO get frost a few times a year, you know. I learned from last year that the only time I really need to cover up plants is if a deep frost is going to happen - not highly likely here, but I do remember one year where there was one particular night that the frost killed off a lot of people's plants because they didn't heed the warnings.

Lee-Anne with Walmart called back. They actually do have one machine available. I informed her I would be by tomorrow to get it, "old" one in tow.

That's probably enough for one entry.

G'evening.
ben

Tired

I'm again tired. I simply haven't been sleeping well. 3 to 5 hours of solid sleep and then I wake up at night and it usually takes a long time to get back to sleep -some night I never do.

As always, there never seems to be a lapse in the constant whirl of things going on around here and in my life. If there is a lapse, it is so temporal in terms of length of time it is as if it is non-existent.

I have asked the title company 3 times now to send me the information I need - interest payments on the mortgage. The lady has said she has twice sent it. I have not received it, I have no idea WHERE she is sending it, but I fear the IRS is going to do my taxes for me, so, I guess I will just have to GO there this week and get the information in-person. Unless they will fax it to me, then I can have it in minutes.

I still have not heard back from the lady and I wonder if she is bugging out at this point. I sent her 2 emails of which she has not replied to. I suppose I should write another CL ad and get on with it, but - I am going to wait until Friday and if I haven't heard from her then, pretty much rest assured that there isn't anything "there" to be found. Not the end of the earth, doesn't even hurt my feelings, really, just would nice to be able to know whether to pursue this further or move on.

I was reviewing my son's grades yet again today - looking for any teacher inputs for homework or classwork. Apparently that dies down during the quarter change as there are no recent entries on any of his classes, and yes, they enter the info even if NOTHING was submitted for a grade. Caleb has altered his school day to go to Homework Lab several times a week, JROTC on other days for Rifle Team practice. He complains he doesn't get enough of that kind of practice, so his marksmanship isn't what it could be, but - keeping his grades up takes precedence. Twice a week is enough for shooting pellet rifles.

The dogs apparently understood today when I shoved dead grass into Duke's mouth - the grass he had clawed out of the ground - as they are all staying away from me. It's actually a nice reprieve from constant dogs in my face. ]

Well that's it for today. I have a semi-full plate of deliveries tomorrow - perhaps more will be dumped onto the day's worth of stuff to do and I will be busy all day long. Not that I wasn't busy today - but - it has slowed down some in the last several work days worth.

Hope you are all doing well.
ben

Tuesday

So, the lady that's here for a week - will be gone by the time I get home. She was pretty fun to talk to it was nice having the female side of things around. Meanwhile, another person showed up yesterday to discuss moving in. This conversation went on for almost 2 hours as this guy apparently wanted to talk - and talk - and talk.

Which is a good thing at the initial "interview" process - the more a person talks, the better glimpse of who that person really is - is displayed. The talking wenting into OT when the last-remaining tenant came out and these 2 apparently hit it off. I guess it's always a good thing to have tenants liking each other versus the hate factor I have seen in my house a few times now.

Well, I have a potential - and yet another - tenant. He has a friend where the 2 have been wanting to move in together for some time - allegedly - the eggs haven't hatched yet, there aren't any green chickens running around, I'll just wait and see - and continue to run my Craigslist room offering ads as well.

Meanwhile, the experts are suggesting the swine flu vaccine will arrive too late for most Americans and that 60% of the population will get infected with this pig. It does further state that "only" about 25% of the population will actually get sick. ONLY 25%? Lol. I wasn't going to get the vaccine, anyway, as I am allergic to these flu shots for some reason. They're predicting the end of this month to be the peak of the infections, I am holding out hope that I don't get this nasty bug.

And now, the pirates are in the news again. This time threatening to kill 25 Chinese crew members of a ship they have hijacked. Without going into all of it - good luck there, pirates. You kill the whole ship's compliment of sailors and you should fully expect that your lives will end with it, if you think the Chinese are going to just sit there, watch that happen and then let you go scott-free.

I love reading the news on the internet in the morning. Well, at least if there's something interesting to read.

A few deliveries this morning in the system - nothing grand, small stuff. Still have to use the semi, though, cause' there's pipe involved.

Have a great day!
ben

Abuses From Aaron Rents

Folks, it is unfathomable to me why anyone - a customer of Aaron Rents in this case - to put up with any kind of abusive speech from it's employees either calling you on the phone, or visiting you at your doorstep. Being late on a payment does not give a company the right to demoralize you, insult you on the phone, or worse, threaten you in person.

I was once customer of Aaron Rents. I rented-to-own a large-screen TV that - ended up burning up into a small, dense piece of plastic when my house burned down. Ummm, I had just gotten done paying that TV off when that happened, not a pleasant experience, but then again, a house fire is probably not most people's first choice of a great time.

Anyway, I was late several times on payments. I unabashedly admit this. Paychecks didn't always coincide with payment dates. I always made the payment - within 5 days of due date - but certainly not all of my payments were on time.

One day I was working on my yard in front of my house. An Aaron Rents truck pulled up. A young guy - very large man though - walked up to me, I knew this guy and he knew me. He actually got in my face and demanded the payment right then and there or he was going to take the TV, right then and there.

I don't mean in a civil way, either, he was posturing as if he were going to hurt me if I didn't succumb to his agreement.

I stood up, I'm no small man myself, got right back in his face and informed him if he didn't back down, get OFF of my property, I was going to defend myself and the outcome would not be pretty, and THEN I would be calling the police. I further informed him about the FACT that he's ON - MY - PROPERTY - THREATENING me, ON MY PROPERTY.

I don't take such things lightly. I don't care how big a man is, I am not going to have a person talking to me like that - on my property. He's lucky I didn't thrust my right foot into his crotch, as I had determined to do if he had further forced himself upon me.

Let me tell you something straight, right here and now: They CANNOT just walk into your house and take whatever you're renting from you!! If you give them permission, of course, but if you don't, they are engaging in an act of burglarly and criminal trespassing!! Now, if you WANT them to take the thing away, fine, let them go in there and get it. If you are going to pay the bill, tell those dudes to take a hike!!

If they don't leave, CALL THE POLICE!!! You are NOT a criminal!! It is not a crime to owe money. It is a CIVIL problem, if it comes to that, it MUST be taken up in the courts. PERIOD. There is no state in the Union that has a provision that says some thuggish looking dudes from a rental company can come and harass you, threaten you and force themselves into your house to get their rental unit. Police can't force that upon you, either.

I called the manager of that store after I told that FREAK to get OFF of my property before I HURT him and informed him of his employee's actions and my intended reaction if they EVER come back to my house and act like THAT again. He took me seriously - I was QUITE serious - those guys never showed up again.

Now, did it end there? No. In a subsequent month, I was a few days late - 2 days I think I remember, and some person from that store called and started verbally abusing me on the phone. I hung up on that person and went down to the store. I would like to SEE these people talking to me like that TO MY FACE. No-one there took credit for the call, of course, the manager - of whom I was on a first-name basis at this point - Brian - didn't specifically condone that kind of call, either, but who knows if he was saying something different when I left. The end of the story? I paid every payment, owned the TV - and lost it to flames.

Well, that wasn't Aaron's fault and certainly I didn't blame them for that.

I write this stuff for the Googlers in the world that are looking for such information. I was reading a story about RAC - Rent A Center and then found more about all of the rental centers. I would NEVER put up with the abuse I read about in the RAC story, which was far worse than what I reported about my experience with Aaron Rents.

Obnoxiously Slow

I have decided to alter my plans a bit on the east side of the property. I originally wanted it lined with evergreens - but as in their name, they take forever to actually grow!!! I've had a small one in the ground for a year now and that thing has barely grown at all - that with frequent waterings and Miraclo Gro applications.

The nursery that is going out of business where I bought the Sissoo's has an ad still up on Craigslist saying that they are doing the last few weeks of the sale and then - bye bye. They are practically giving these trees away now. I can plant 7 or more of those trees over there and eventually this place will look like a Sissoo tree farm. Excepting I'll be loving it, of course, provided I'm still living here.

My battles to keep tenants in this place are seemingly never-ending. The economy is dictating people moving around for various reasons - jobs/family/whatever the case may be. I have to be able to deal with this factor, yes, but - it gets old. A woman just called and wanted me to hold the room for 2 months by giving me a deposit. Yeah, right - give me a deposit equal to the 2 months - non-refundable, lol. No, I was outside at the BBQ doing the chicken wings and this person left a message. I will not be holding a room for 2 months for anyone. I need the money NOW.

The Taco Bell kid - well he's 24 years old but still - is allegedly going to call me back tomorrow about the room that is currently occupied by the saleslady who is leaving on Tuesday. I tell them all now that I do not hold rooms for anyone unless a non-refundable deposit is given. Not applicable to the 2-month people. I sometimes have to learn the hard way, but usually I DO end up learning.

It's warm outside - again - and I am not doing anything else out there until the sun starts going down later today. The dogs have already been laying in the grass - so far so good. The hummingbirds are relentlessly feeding at the feeder - it's fun to watch them coming and going like giant bees they move so fast!

Sunday

I would really like to do another neighborhood type of BBQ/party. The last one drew a large number of people from around the community and it was a good time. Some people just wanted to complain about everything under the sun - granted. There are always people like that, they must be bored, lonely - whatever in life because there are a lot of better things I can think of to do than sit around whining all day long. It serves no purpose. To MAKE it serve a purpose, go out and DO something about that of which you are complaining about.

It is still too hot, IMO, to do any kind of party like that. It is still getting very warm during the afternoons in the direct sunlight and I think something like that is better off waiting. I will say that I have a freezer full of chicken and beef - and brats now that I think about it - Fry's was getting rid of a bunch of packages of it for cheap a while back cause the due date was 2 days off - I bought all of them and dumped them into my freezer.

Brats are VERY popular at BBQ's, I have learned. They aren't cheap. Up to $6 for a 5-brat package. Other than that great sale I found, the lowest I ever see them on sale is $2.50 per package. Not bad, but - still pretty pricey considering the amount of meat you are getting. Which, in turn, is why I suppose they're so popular - they have a wonderful flavor.

I just got done doing a Miracle Gro nutrient spray on all of the plants on my property. That stuff seems to really make plants grow like crazy. I also took down the temp fencing I had around the patch of grass. See what happens. The grass is tall and already needs cutting, actually. I know the dogs are going to go out there and lay down on it, again, see how that grass handles it. I MAY go out there and continue on with the rock shovelling ceremonies today - but - I am going to start cleaning house here in a few minutes which is going to take precedence for a couple of hours worth anyway.

Plus I want to watch NFL - whatever is showing - today as well. I'm going to try the new carpet cleaning machine also, see if it stands up to the rave reviews it has received by SO many people. HUNDREDS of them.

Anna's Linens has some sort of drapes on sale and I would like to try that instead of the vertical blinds I have up there. They pretty much got destroyed - almost half the slats are gone. The reason is that the doggy door used to be in the sliding glass door where this setup is at. The dogs going in and out - well it's just plastic stuff, it can't really take a lot of abuse like that. I could replace the vertical blinds with a new set, but I sort of like the idea of trying out some drapes there and see how it looks. There IS no doggy door there now, so that problem is eliminated.

Well now that I think about it, I have a rather ambiitous list of things I would like to get done today - I best git to gitting to it!

ben

The Prison Report

Anthony is in jail. Juvenile jail, but incarcerated none-the-less, and from what I am hearing, he's going to be there awhile.
I have no doubts that when he comes out, he will be WORSE than he went in. I don't wish that, of course, but I know this kid. Now, they are supposed to be trying to rehabilitate kids in those circumstances.

He will be forced to go to their version of school. If he start fights, he will get into worse trouble and will stay in there even longer. It COULD be a good thing, yes, but in his case, I have my doubts.

A review? Okay.
First, of course, Anthony already had a record. It started before he threw rocks at me and threw rocks at my windows, breaking them. He already had a warrant out for his arrest the day he did that. So, he went to jail, but only overnight.

Now, he goes to court for the vandalism and the assault done on me. Now he's got number 2 against him. He's on probation for that.

A while back, I get a letter in the mail that he's got a warrant out for his arrest. Okay, well I have no contact with him and don't want any. I figure - and stated at the time - it's only a matter of time before he's caught.

So how did he get caught? He broke into a house. Police come. He's running down an alley. Caught, jail, done, bye. I have no information after that, but it's obvious - he's a 3 time vandal, a judge probably isn't going to show leniency. So, he's caught burglarizing a house, he already has a warrant out for his arrest and he has a record.

This kind of math isn't very difficult to figure out.

Now, I find out, JD's younger brothers were also arrested a while back - in June to be precise. This didn't surprise me at all, but it did take a while for this information to get to me. I kicked all 3 of those boys - his younger brothers - out of here quite a long time ago for stealing from me and also didn't want them doing the pot and drug junk around here. I did ask JD - who is the straightest kid you will ever meet, trust me, I know this kid, he is NOTHING like his younger brothers - why he simply didn't kick all of his brother's @$$es and get them in line.

Well, he's not like that. He's not only straight as an arrow, he is totally non-violent. I have watched his brothers throwing rocks at him - HARD - and he did nothing to them. He is FAR and MUCH bigger than any of his brothers - but I commend the kid, I hope he goes far in life. He's over here all the time, and I do mean, quite frequently.

Okay, once a neighborhood kid that thought he was a bad-@$$ threatened one of his brothers and actually walked into their house to do the damage, and THAT was the only time I have ever known JD to get angry. He's one of those types of quiet people you don't WANT to get angry. You know what I mean? But it was a righteous anger in that case and he was ready to defend his brother and his home against this bully. I am very confident that this bully would have gotten his butt beaten to a pulp if he attempted to continue one with his crap that day. As it was, he stood down, I doubt he had ever seen JD like that, either.

Umm, well what did his brothers do? They were caught attempting to steal video games at Fry's Electronics only a mile down the road from here. Yes, well, that's smart. They have security, video-surveillance, all that fun stuff. See some kids walking in there acting suspicious? All over it, guaranteed. They were busted and put on house arrest for 2 weeks - that's the ankle electronic device and everything. They have stopped the drugs/pot because they are on probation and if they are caught with pot in their system, 2 months in Juvi. Nice.

I don't wonder that Michael's departure coincides with his older brother's arrest. His older brother was a pill to be around. However, Michael has TOTALLY disappeared, he didn't even bother to say goodbye, I'm moving home, I won't be seeing you anymore. He just left - and I'm at the point that he's burned his bridges with me.

Honestly? I don't miss him, either. In fact, my mind is totally consumed by this lady I met today. If I get to liking this lady and really get into this, you will find me devoting a LOT of thought and time to that particular endeavor and that endeavor alone. My son? Yes. My parents? Okay. Everyone else? Well I would never turn my back on my internet friends : ) But I might be absent and also absent-minded for a while : ) lol.

In fact, if love is in the air - which I hope it is, either now with this woman or eventually with someone else - it will require a totally new and different blog to "deal" with it. Knowing me, I will probably write in that blog FAR more than anything else, and it will be a revolving monotone of the same thing over and over and probably, people will "get it" and not read it very much, lol again.....and I won't care, lol thrice.

Ahhh, the prospect of a woman. Even if it doesn't go anywhere, just the thought of it and the idea that it MIGHT go somewhere is all-consuming. We were not meant, I have never believed, to live alone without the opposite sex. I have been doing that for 5 years, yes, and some people never hook up with anyone - yes, and sometimes it's a pain in the rear - yes for both genders - and you get your little spats going and things you don't agree on - yes - but - still.

I have to tell you I'm a little high off of today's meeting with her and subsequent emails. Hard to explain, I guess. I don't want to set myself up for a fall, but - I have let go sooner or later and let myself be exposed to the potential hurt and pain - it's a gamble, a roll of the dice. Not that I am going into any date with a lady with a non-committal attitude - it's just that there is always the potential for a let-down. I have been preparing myself for this for quite a while now. I hope I am ready, come-what-may.

ben

This Is What I Miss

I get a woman in the house - even if only for a few days, and here we are spending extreme amounts of time talking about anything and everything under the sun. I will never have a "relationship" with this person, but my gosh, is it not true that the quality of conversation escalates with a woman around versus another guy?

Yeah, well you arguably - could argue that - but it's my current take on it and I'm sticking with it.

You could say it's only because of your lack of such in your life - and arguably again - you could be right.

But I'm not arguing, I'm just sayin'.

And yes, my english and composition on many of my posts is reprehensible. I am well aware of the grammatical "errors" but - as with this kind of thing I do here - it's totally on purpose and it expresses the way I am wanting to "talk" while writing.

So there.

I do know, just from this limited experience going on here with this lady - that my life is ....... weakened even .......... with the lack of the presence of the female side of things. You can try to argue with that, but I will simply not agree with your argument, whatever it is. I have seen both sides of this equation, they both present their challenges.

Just one more thing: The bug has bitten. I have "The Feeling". It has been growing for weeks now. It should not be a surprise to anyone if I post here my trip to the casino - which has not taken place yet and - may not take place - but the feeling is there. And I'ma gonna tell you what, this particular feeling hasn't led me astray yet. Doesn't mean I'm gonna get rich, but it has always had me coming out richer when I leave than when I walked in there, even if by only a hundred bucks. My record is $1,500 started out with $100 worth of chips. And no, I didn't start out betting $100.

Oh, and one final thing: my son is going to Sierra Vista tomorrow morning (Saturday) leaving at 6:00 am. So I have to get up early - like I always do but not normally that early on weekends - to take him to the high school. I will visit a fashion desing center on my way home, namely: Walmart - for some new jeans and a shirt to wear to this meeting at Starbucks.

Yes, folks, I'm going to town with a $15 pair of jeans and probably something close to that in a shirt. Lol. I would go somewhere else but probaby no where else is open at 6:00 am and I want to get it done early so I don't have to worry about it.

Umm, yes, another trip to Walmart. Providing my recent experiences, it may prove interesting.

G'nite.
ben

Friday

So, I was looking at Duke - one of my Great Danes - a little while ago thinking he is taller than 31 inches at the nape of the neck. I measured him a while back but he wasn't standing fully erect. So, I got a hold of his head and got him standing erect - he's 33 inches! And he is ever gaining weight! I picked him up today, I'm guessing a minimum of 140 pounds. The dog is huge, is all I can say about that. Prince - my other Great Dane - is smaller than him and I think he is at 31 inches and probably 15 pounds lighter as well.

Umm, well whatever. I am going on a date in the morning and I hope it turns out at least something memorable if nothing else. As in, we find some kind of common ground to work with and not end up just leaving and saying goodbye and nothing else. I already have a head full of questions and such to talk about, talking is not a problem for me, I have the gift when I need it.

I don't think I posted here that Jeff - the non-paying tenant, left yesterday morning while I was at work. I had no clue. I came home, did my normal things around the house and walked to that end of the house where the tenants are - to check the bathroom - and saw his bedroom door open. Room had been emptied and the keys laying on the bed. I already have the room rented for a week - cash in advance of course - which is good. I used that money today to buy dog food. I have also had a guy that I have talked to 3 times today on the phone.

He wants to get out of the house he's in - renting a garage in a family's house - and into his own bedroom. We had a long discussion on both calls. He sounds interested - but don't they all. I don't normally get that many calls from someone who isn't really serious about it, though. He was telling me he was only paying $250 for the garage. I could tell that he was subtly attempting to get me to come down on my rent price, which is fixed at $375 for that particular room.

I won't budge. The only way I'm going $250 is for work around the house, and most people don't want to do that. But, right now, I can't afford a work for reduced rent situation anyway, and I haven't been offering it. I DID offer bi-monthly payments which make it easier for people to deal with if they are not making much money, and I doubt a co-manager at a Taco Bell is making that much money, but - who knows. I have learned that all of these wonderful phone calls from people are totally meaningless until they're here, sitting at my kitchen table, signing a rental agreement and forking over money. It is at least intriguing that I have had a couple of calls, though, in such a short period of time after posting that ad, and even more odd that it's the middle of the month.

Most people are moving at the end/first of the month. Out of one contract and into another. It would be nice, definitely, to get that room rented out. This guy has a Jack Russell Terrier, purely obnoxious dogs if you ask me, but I like most any dog, just that those things seem to me to be very temperamental. Good thing they are so small. I think big dogs get the stupid spell because if they weren't, they would definitely - have problems in life. Duke is the dumbest, I mean absolutely dumbest dog I have ever owned, and I've owned a lot of dogs. There is one dog I had that came close, but Duke is the Crown Jewel in the Dumb Dog category. But he's totally lovable : )

This is the lure of my ad - that I accept dogs. I have to put that in there because I already HAVE my own dogs and probably a good contingent of people out there that want nothing to do with giant babies also known as Great Danes.

Well, that's really it. It's Friday, I'm home and it's good to be alive.

ben

Things Of Various Nature

I got my carpet cleaning machine - but not free. No big deal, I got it for almost half off. Not a bad deal considering I still have some Christmas money from my mother to deal with. She has a set amount of money for each of her 3 boys to spend on Christmas - and I'm guessing they buy their own present as well, but don't quote me on that. I have no clue, really, what or how she deals with my brothers.

I finally have a date set for Saturday morning at a Starbucks in the west valley with a 'gorgeous' blonde, she quotes herself being as. Actually, I have seen her pic, she's not bad looking for a girl just a little less than my age. I'm amazed she is still making babies, though. But - if what she says is true - she's going for a doctorate's in an education degree and also works. Very admirable - again - if true. I have given up on formal education, the cost is prohibitive and the gains are not that much. Perhaps the gains would be significant if I went for something that takes - 8 years probably - to get a degree in, such as being a lawyer - I don't have the energy.

Going to work, coming home and doing that for years on end is out of the question for me. I would like to take some courses - in something - I think it good to continue to learn things throughout the course of your life, but at 45, I simply am not going to learn "how to be a lawyer". I could do the paralegal thing in 2 years. Again, at 45k, I don't see the benefits of it. The cost of education is through the roof and won't be landing on me anytime soon. I have enough financial problems in life to also be dealing with a school loan. They come after you, too, trust me when I say that, I know many people who have had wages garnished for however long it takes to pay them back.

That is a pressure I don't need or want this late in life. I have other ambitions to make money - but - as always - it takes money to make money.

Ummm - so - it was "suggested" to me in a PM on the other blog host by a person I have come to like that there is another person on that site that is looking and what do I think about that, basically. Uhhh, that's a kinda difficult question, really. I had already thought about that option, if it is indeed even an option. Dunno. I'm going on this date Saturday and see if and where this goes, then I will think about that potential.

I took a 45 minute nap this afternoon after getting home from work - I am not sleeping well at all. I wake up at midnight now and lucky if I'm back to sleep after 2 hours. I am going to take reading material into my room at this point. When I wake up, I'm going to start reading until I get sleepy again and fall asleep. Try, anyway.

I have spent no small amount of time working on the east side of my house today - it is a little closer, but still have lots to go to get it ready for planting grass seed.

Enough.
ben

Tenant Issues

What else is new.

The older gent informed me today he needs to move out at the end of the month because of a situation with his daughter. She is renting an apartment, the lease isn't completed for a while and her roommate lost his job, meaning he has to move out and - no-one to pay the other half of the rent bill.

So he's moving in with her to help her out. Well what am I going to say, well gee dude, that's really rank of you? No, no big deal, thanks for letting me know far enough in advance to hopefully get someone else in here. Not really looking forward to having to have yet another person move out and potentially another move in, but that's life right now.

Though, it may very real be searching for 2 more tenants. I left the "non-paying-tenant-who-has-partially-paid" another 5-day notice. Today, he came in and walked by me without speaking a word. Indeed.

I got my bonus today - almost $450 after taxes - it will help me keep up with all of the mess I am going through now. Yup - a bonus that is going to help shore up the eaves, not for doing whatever I want with it. Sucks in one sense, in another, wonderful that I have got a bonus to begin with.

Non-paying tenant is in "his" room - did not address me about the notice and therefore - I assume that eviction process will have to go into full swing.

So - today I was feeling very good - dunno why, but I'll take it. I mean, REALLY good. Non-paying tenants aside and tenants moving out - this is a factor I will be dealing with as long as I have tenants - it was a good and very busy day.

I was at a jobsite today - in the middle of a street, lol. Literally, they shut down the street to unload my truck. This was interesting - people aren't particularly happy about having to wait - yet, there are signs warning them of such well in advance. Still, you don't have to figure to wait THAT long. The City of Mesa is bent on getting this project done and behind them - this particular situation made all the local news media when it first began and I'm sure they'd like to get the attention off of that situation.

But I'm tired now. I have spent considerable time dealing with the Walmart situation after work concluded today and it isn't over yet. In fact, I may just escalate this situation to an entirely new level if it continues.

I have other things to report, the Walmart scenario - all of it for today's adventure - is on the other blog. Perhaps I'll just copy and paste that into an entry over here.

Anyways, Ava' g'nite and c'ya later!
ben

Monday

I was so tired today coming home from work that I bypassed stopping at the grocery store.
My total bad.
And no, I am not going up there now, even IF it's only a mile away.
I have absolutely no fresh vegetables in the house. No lettuce; tomatoes; onions; mushrooms - on and on. I consumed the rest of what I had this weekend. I did have a salad for lunch this afternoon, so I don't feel totally bad about not having anything here - but still.

My fatigue is caused by waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. This is not an infrequent occurence for me - but - I usually end up getting enough sleep anyway so I'm good for the next day.

Not last night. I figure at most I got 5 hours of sleep and I was busting butt at work today.

Ummm, that is it for now. Short entry - yes - just don't have it in me to write a long detail of things going on.
ben

Sunday - My Trip To Walmart

I think this time I'mg going to put the location of this WalMart on here: It's located in Tempe, Arizona, at Elliot and Priest.

I don't seem to be able to make a trip to Walmart without some kind of bs - usually lousy customer service - involved. I go there anyway, always with a mission. Today's mission was to get a Hoover Steam Vac With Surge F5914-900. Yes, they had a display model, no they had none in the box - and they didn't even have a location for a place for them, just the model location.

Thinking that odd, I got a person over there to check it out. None in stock in the back, either, but 4 on backorder with no intended date of arrival. Can you please tell me if there is one at another store? His little handheld device actually had all of that information in there, including the "fact" that there is one at the store right down the road from where I work.

Okay, not the end of the world - I can pick one up after work this coming week, right?

Okay, well, I always go to the deli counter if I'm going to Walmart because they have good prices on turkey and ham - sliced to order of course. Note that my visits to Walmart are at most once a month average where it used to be I would be going in there at least once a week. The deli counter is always a wonderful place - there are usually 3 or 4 gals working in the back. And usually, they ignore customers for a while before whatever it is they're doing - they get done with, and then, and ONLY then, they will come up and help customers waiting.

Typical Walmart BS. Today, there was a man already being helped and I know from experience at this store that probably, a second customer service associate will NOT come up and start helping people, you have to wait. I decided against waiting 10 or more minutes for a pound of honey breast turkey. I went over to the seafood counter as I thought it would be nice to have some cooked and already de-veined, fresh shrimp this afternoon. There was NO-ONE in sight over there. I stood there for a minute weighing my options. I seriously considered going back there and helping myself. There are no signs saying I couldn't go behind the display case and no signs saying I can't just get my own bag and load it up with shrimp.

Of course, I wouldn't have a clue as to how to work the scale thingy that prints out a sticker with the price on it, but - if I really wanted to make my case, I could do it, go to check out - and then see what happens. I didn't do that. I gave up and walked away. Did some other stuff - and then, as is my want, called the store - from within the store. It was a new manager lady - she hasn't been working there very long and she was totally disinterested. I spoke my peace short and sweet. Went up to the garden center counter - I was going to buy some perennials from there if their prices were better than Home Depot - not at all.

Half flats at Home Depot are $5 and change, they weren't even selling half flats, just the 6 packs. The lady ringing me up there said that many customers have complained about the deli counter. Ohhhh?

I called this manager again, this time informing her that apparently, your own customer service reps know about this problem, why is it never addressed? She had no answers for me, I didn't expect any. I called the district manager's office and left a message. Now they really are interested in customer's opinions. They will call back tomorrow, just about guaranteed and ask what happened. I will tell them - I have never called them on the deli counter stuff but I figure it's time - it's been going on for YEARS at that particular location, and see if they can do anything about it.

But I have my own methodology in mind. Next time - which won't be anytime soon, really - I go in there, I am going to demand that another associate come up to help customers if only one is helping customers. When they ignore me, then I'll drag a manager over there and see what might happen. The only real way to get these people to change their ways is to force the issue. Note that the same personnel have been working at that deli for literally years now. A short little Asian woman is the one that normally services customers - and that after you have waited there (if no one else is there getting served) for a couple to several minutes while she does her thing, totally ignoring you. Or, she might say it'll be a second - usually at least 120 seconds and even more than that.

It's really quite unbelievable. I will invite the store manager to "spy" on their own workers - they can do that easily through the extensive video surveillance they have in every single store - and watch what happens when any given customer comes up to the counter to get some meats or cheeses cut and packaged for them.

The only thing today's visit did for me was to further entrench into my mind that Walmart has some of the worst customer service in the world, really, and that I really do NOT want to go in there very often and be subjected to it.

I'm not angry or even unhappy right now, I have come to expect this kind of thing from that particular store. My take is that they simply don't pay for quality help. Walmart would go out of business if they actually paid their associates anything. They couldn't possibly keep their brand title with the happy faces and constantly lowering prices and all that riggormoroo if they paid their associates, say, $12 per hours instead of minimum or close to that wage. Even $12 is rather pathetic, but it's a far cry better than taking home $7.25 per hour.

I do no support Walmart. I do go there here and there, yes, I won't lie. But the main brunt of my expenditures for everyday items is NOT at Walmart and not likely ever to be so again. I have done my Walmart rant many times on my blogs before, yes, long-time readers will see me doing this yet again and probably shake your head. No matter - I like to put this stuff out in the open because - these things are "crawled" and the crawls end up in internet search engines. People find this site because of it and see what I have to say.

Just like there's nothing better than customers giving kudos and praise to a store in terms of advertisement, there is also nothing worse for a store than for customers to rant about something bad that has happened - or in this case occurs on a regular, consistent basis - in any given store.

So there it is. Another Walmart rant, likely not the last one, either. Probably, the next time I go in there, I am going to follow through with my deli counter idea and probably, I will have a very interesting story to tell about that experience, if/when it occurs.

As for the rest of today? Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. I just fixed the shelf in the refrigerator - Super Glue does wonders for stuff like that - and then started cleaning the fridge out, one shelf at a time. However, I threw the dogs out earlier and they have been out there for hours now, so I decided while I have them out there it would be a good time to sweep and mop the kitchen and utility room floor. That is done, the dogs can come back in - though they don't know that yet. They made me mad this morning and I had had enough - animals were made for the outdoors, some quality time spent out there certainly isn't going to hurt my feelings - it's beautiful outside anyway.

I have stuff to do outside, but my main focus today, really, is getting the inside of the house spic and span clean.

Have a great one!
ben

Saturday

Yeah, I know it's been a few days since I posted here - I have been busy and just posting on one blog was more than enough.

I'm still mulling the situation with Michael. I haven't seen him in going on 3 weeks now - and no, I didn't kick him out - but the info that came my way yesterday, though not surprising was still disturbing to me. He's basically fallen into the ways of the rest of his family. He's not going to school at all now and he's smoking weed all day long - just like the rest of them. It will not surprise me to eventually hear of him getting into trouble for stealing of some sort.

It's disturbing in that he's been living with me for 5 years now - a few stints here and there where he left to be at home for a short period of time - but this time, not even a goodbye. Just leave and act is if none of us ever existed. It's not just me, either, it's his friends in the neighborhood as well. I will not, however, have him showing up here out of the blue some day - which likely will happen - and have him thinking he can stay here without going to school OR while smoking pot. He can just stay at his family's house to do that, they are all birds of a feather in that regard.

Well, enough of that. The food consumption around here has dropped dramatically without him being here, which is a good thing in one respect, but - if it meant keeping him off of drugs AND going to school, then really not a good tradeoff from my perspective. Again, I would be pretty reasonably sure in saying that the reason he isn't coming around at all now is because he knows my stance on school and drugs/pot. I don't really want that kind of influence around my son or JD - my son's friend who lives down the street. They are both totally straight kids, have made it into the Junior years at high school without doing all the junk and I would like to see that "trend" continue on throughout high school.

I ended up getting 2 and a half "extra" hours at work this week. Not a lot, but if I could swing that next week as well, that's 5 extra hours on my paycheck and yes, I could use that money just about now. The "non-paying-but paying-tenant" informed me of some check that he is expecting in the mail today and would I please slide it under the door. Apparently his way of telling me that he is going to give me money after he gets that check. Well, I hope so, really I do, because I will simply issue another 5-day notice on Monday if he doesn't hand over at least $100 by this weekend. I think he figured that out after I did that on Monday of this week. Yup, after receiving a partial payment, I have to issue a 5-day notice all over again.

Today? Well it's beautiful outside and I'm headed out there shortly to continue raking up rocks. I am making piles of them on the east side of the house and then sitting down and sorting through them. The rocks have both river rock (ugly) and the natural rock that is underground here. The natural rock I put into now-empty planters and haul out front to continue on with trying to get all the ground out there covered, the river rock goes into the trash can.

It's a very tedious task but it's one that must be done. I mean, I could just trash all of it, but I have some barren spots out front that need covering. It's good exercise and since the weather is perfect - at least in the mornings, it's still getting warm in the afternoons - I want to take advantage of it. I'm also going to head up to Home Depot and buy a couple large bags of mulch and start that grass project all over again. I assume the grass I put down is not going to grow because I didn't cover it. I just couldn't remember how I did that last time I did it - which was many years ago. The point is that the mulch keeps the moisture in so that the seed stays wet at all times.

Since I'm going there, I will probably buy a few more Petunias and Stock to finish the effect out front. The flowers transplanted nicely - one flower out of all of that drooped over and died, the rest are doing perfectly well and putting out such a wondeful fragrance.

I just checked Caleb's Geometry grade after getting that 24 out of 25 earlier this week his overall average is a C- !!!! Yayyyyyy! A FAR cry better than an F!!! He's also done much better in his German class - I sorta gave him a hard time about that because he had F's in classwork and homework - now I am seeing 100% on both those current categories and he just got a B+ on a test this week. Anyway, he now has 4 B's and 2 C's in his classes.

I know it doesn't set well with some folk, but I am going to reward him for the obvious effort he is putting into getting his grades up. I'm not sure what yet, but I will think of something - probably a few bucks or a trip to the movies or something like that.

Ummm, anyway, I best be getting out and about.

Have a great Saturday!
ben

Wednesday

So - I spent an hour or more this morning loading up the truck and then a trip up into the mountains. Woo-hooooooo!

Got my camera freshly charged for just such occasion as might pop up to warrant taking some pic - and more to the point - hopefully pics of Autumn in full swing.

I'm also here - here at work that is - even earlier than I normally come in so I can spend a few quality minutes reading the trashy world news, drinking free coffee and basically waking up. No, I am not on the company clock when I'm doing this, which is pretty much a daily event. I intend on signing in early, though, cause' a truck is showing up early and then I have a pretty good drive ahead of me and want to get a good jump on the day.

Ummmm - now I'm reading an email to me from the boss saying something different - well not different. We are delivering to a project for ADOT - Arizona Department of Transportation - and though it probably doesn't say it on the ticket, they are specifying we use American made fittings. Yes, we have such fittings, mixed in with a pile of fittings also made in China.

Yup, they say China right on them just as the American made versions - actually don't say made in America, it's just a particular brand that is only made (allegedly but really it's not true anyway) in America.

The other blog is apparently down - I always wait in wonder on the smaller blog hosts to see if I will actually have a blog after the day is over or if everything is lost. One would hope a hosting site would back up their material - but - we have found out that hard way - that certainly isn't always true, now is it?

So that's it, really. Just excited about a nice road trip. I don't usually get to do the mountain trips, I really don't know why our branch is doing this one - perhaps a mistake. But, the main branch is very busy today from what I heard so even if it was a mistake, they wouldn't have been able to do it anyway.

C'yall later - ava' great day!
ben

Tuesday

I'm going to have to figure out how to post pics on this site that show the entire pic, instead of half of it. That is rather annoying. Perhaps changing the size when I snap the shots - but then they don't look as good. Anyone have any suggestions?

I have already posted in my other blog the same thing I am going to post here, there is no need to re-write it twice so I'm copying and pasting that stuff.


First, my son just called me. He took a 25 question test in Geometry today. He went to Homework Lab yesterday and this morning he went in to get help from his Geometry teacher before school. I was puzzled about him going to see his teacher before school because we butted heads about that situation on Sunday. He didn’t want to have to do that because he’s already going to Homework Lab after school, I wanted him to do BOTH until his grade in that class comes up to at least a C average.

I’m guessing he’s trying to make me happy with him by doing everything that I am asking - well demanding in some things as I find much of it unacceptable - and today was the best news yet. He got 24 out of 25 correct! Yes, folks, that’s an A - he hasn’t come anywhere close to that at all this year. His teacher gave him his score early - a thing that teacher never does, because Caleb told him this morning that he HAS to get at least a C- minus in that test today or much heavier study time is going to be ‘induced’.

I’ll call my jubilation over his grade today “Temporal Elation”. Elated, yes, but only for right NOW. There are lots of tests to go and he is going to have to continue to work hard to keep his grade up in that class. He will be rewarded for doing - almost miraculous - job on that test today. Dunno what, yet, didn’t tell him that either. Probaby send him off to the movies or something.

The other bit of good news is that I am actually getting a bonus this year! Like next week!! Freakin’ too me TOTALLY by surprise. A company that’s laying off people; shutting down stores; getting rid of equipment; cutting back hours; this that and the other thing and the come along and surprise us with a bonus? I’ll take it!! Yayyyy!

Another nice thing that is going to happen is that tomorrow I get to take a trip up to Globe. The whole area up there is basically mining based economy. There is an old mine right next to the main highway going through there and this time I am going to take a minute to stop and get a pic of it. It’s basically a man-made canyon, really. It’s huge and breathtaking. I love taking the scenic routes up into the mountains, and I’ll bet there will be some autumn colors along the way once I start getting up in elevation!! I hope to be able to get some pics of that, too. Take my break time to stop a couple of times and hopefully get some good pics.

I get a day of reprieve from all the negativity. The tenant handing me some money last night was - at least helpful. Better than nothing at all.

So, that's the copied from the other journal but not stale news going on.

I'm very psyched about the prospect of driving up to Globe tomorrow. I will be driving through several areas where Autumn colors should be showing very beautiful, paintable, picturesque scenes. I'm going to recharge my camera tonight to make sure I don't miss the opportunity to capture some of that on - well it isn't film, so whaddya callit? Caputure it into electronic circuits that keep those pics in there somehow - probably they invented how to stuff a person into a container that is the size of maybe a large jewelry box - well you never know - and he or she does all of that in there.

Hey, I'm just open to a wide range of things. 30 years ago would you have thought that the technology we have today was even possible, much less in the hands of virtually everyone on the planet? Talking on telephones through the air? The list is long, not even worth going into.

I would probably not just drive up there on my own to see Autumn. What fun is that? It would be fun, yes, I can make it fun on my own, but I sooo need someone to share my life with.

Ummm, so that's it. A beautiful day here - temps up in the high 80's I think is what it got to. Though, you go into the direct sunlight and it is definitely much hotter than that.

I'm hungry and it's right at my no-eat time - I'll cheat a little, only at once today.

G'nite.
ben

Monday/Hot On The Trail

A lady that I "met" online through Craigslist - I placed an ad and she was one that responded - well we have been writing each other for some time now. Months and months anyway.
The problem is that she lives in Flagstaff and I, of course, live in Phoenix. We talked about everything in mostly PM's for quite a while and though I thought we could definitely make a good fit with each other - I finally had to come to the conclusion that attempting to date someone that doesn't live in the same metro area probably isn't going to work for me.
We talked yesterday - she said I am too busy for her, but really, I can't just drop what I'm doing and drive up to Flagstaff, plus I don't really LIKE driving much anymore - and that's really my problem with it. We parted ways amiably.

I gave some thought to this before this conversation yesterday. There are millions of people in the Phoenix area, surely there is somewhere here that I could meet up with and hopefully we are compatible with each other. I hope the best for her, I truly do, she is a great lady/person and it shows through the time we've spent "together" chatting in IM's.

But, once it was mutually agreed upon to part ways, had another ad up on Craigslist. This one a bit different than most of what I see on there - and yes it got a lot of attention. So I am attempting to figure out if any of those respondents are something that would work out mutually - only way to do that is by a lot of correspondence back and forth.

Oops, one wants to speak on the phone later. I'm far more preferential to a lot of writing back and forth first, but that's just me. I would rather just go meet a person, in-person, than doing endless chatting on the phone. Might as well speak together - I don't really care the place - a Starbucks or something similar would work for me.

I'm thinking I'm ready to start dating again - I say that and then something with the ex comes up and then I remember why I am divorced and not with a woman. BUT - there is a built-in need for companionship with the opposite sex, I won't deny that and I won't even try.

Huge time lapse = got busy doing other things = I'm tired and ready to go to bed.

Ava' good evening!
ben

BBQ - PICS

Ahhh, yes, I found the energy after a full day's work and yes, I fired up that BBQ.\\

It did not, however, want to cooperate. I turned the valves on and - nothing.

Got me a little stick and hit the regulator - yes hard enough to free it up - and yes, gas started flowing.

Pork chops and chicken.

I'm only writing because I'm ecstatic that the weather has changed so dramatically and it's actually NICE to be outside again.

I have only been in the house today to write a couple of posts - though I posted a bunch of pics on my other journal and that took QUITE some time.

If I remember correctly, posting pics here is MUCH easier, simply copy and paste.

Okay, so I did it. I posted the pics. I did not give the explanations here as I did on the other blog - if you have questions about any one or more pics, simply ask or - go to the other blog and explanations are given under each photo.

I will say that this my property - a lot of it but not all of it. Especially cool were the plantings of the flowers today into the pots - shown in some of the pics, of course!

Dang, I forgot, this blog cuts the pics in half. I'm serious, you look at those pics, there is half the view on there. To see the whole version of any pic, just click on the pic. To see a bigger version, click on the pic that shows up after you clicked on the pic the first time.

400th Post

I can hardly imagine that I have put up 400 posts on this site including this one, especially considering this is not really my main blog right now. Well - perhaps it's really a close mix of half and half. A little more than half on the other blog, just a little less here.

No biggies.

Grass cut. Fertilizer applied. Watered. Fence posts and fencing put up. Grass seed applied. Watering now.

That's consumed several hours of this day - that on top of everything else I have already done.

I look around the INSIDE of my house and figure a cleaning rampage is in-cue. But I am running out of steam, it's gonna have to be tomorrow morning when I start that - though I intend on at least cleaning my bathroom today.

In fact, really, I don't plan on doing anything else outside today. I was going to BBQ, but unless I get really worked up for it - which I am just drained out of energy - I doubt that's going to happen either. Although it would be cool to BBQ the package of center cup pork chops I have in the fridge. I have BBQ'ed in a couple of months. I was grilling outside well into the summer but got incredibly sick of the heat and wanted nothing to do with it, not even cooking out there.

It's no surprise, as I may have mentioned on here before, that this is the second hottest summer ON RECORD. Well, folks, they have been keeping records for a long, long time here.

BTW, how do you "work" thousands of grass seeds 1/4 inch into the ground? That is what the directions on the bag say to do, yet give no comprehension whatsoever on exactly HOW a person is supposed to accomplish this feat? I was going around just taking the steel rake and puncturing holes everywhere, but - I need to water more in areas where it's not quite soft enough to easily go into the ground yet.

I do know they make a device that puts holes into the ground - I am hardly spending that kind of money on this little patch of grass. I'm going to have to do some internet scouring and see if I can find some tips about that little gem. I fully intend on planting the seed on the east side of the house - I have a LOT of seed left over. I think I could plant grass EVERYWHERE if I really wanted to.

I don't really want to : )

Okay, I think I am going to go back outside and admire my handiwork out front. Heck, I might just take some pics and post them up for everyone to see!

Later.
ben

Saturday

After doing all the work this morning - would have to see other blog to find out about that, but in a nutshell I bought perennials today and planted them along with starting the groundwork to plant winter/rye grass and a lot of other stuff - I took a break.

But - it's time to start grilling outdoors again. I went and filled up my propane bottle which has been empty for quite some time in anticipation of grilling at least one package of the bone-in chicken breast I bought at Safeway yesterday (99 cents per pound).

2 tenants have paid up and my dad sent what is becoming his 'usual' amount to help me out during these tough economic times. The non-paying tenant - well it's really getting to me. He promised to pay this week yet he walks through here and produces nothing. Not even excuses, there is literally nothing. I will be thinking about writing up another 5-day notice tomorrow. I say another - as I have had to do with other tenants who didn't pay such as Mary and Justine.

I still can't believe this guy is doing this to me. He NEVER withheld rent money in the past when he lived here before. Seriously, he always paid on time and it wasn't an issue. I truly hope I don't have to take him to eviction court - it would be a waste of my money in filing the suit and then if I wanted that money and rent money back, I would have to go for a wage garnishment.

MUCH easier if he would either pay or get the heck OUT of here. At this point, I don't care which, just do something - I can fill that room up pretty quickly I would like to hope.

Well, anyway, I have just short of a grand in checks right now to be deposited, with at least $200 from him, I would be doing fairly well. Not perfect, but good enough. I am definitely going to push for whatever extra hours I can get at work, every bit helps.

So anyway, this is just a short update. Caleb's Rifle Team competition ends in 15 minutes - but his mother is going to bring him home and I have made as many outings as I care to do for today, I am going to spend another several hours outside working and then come back in and "kick-it" as the kids like to put it. I figure to stop working in the hottest hours of the day - though it's only going to get up to 92 degrees today, hardly call that hot unless the humidity is going to shoot up as well.

I also have PLENTY of cleaning to do in the house this weekend, tomorrow morning I'll hit that one hard and try to get it knocked out in a couple of hours.

That's it. That's my life, really, I don't really do much in terms of getting out - but then again - I really don't WANT to. I have a certain amount of need that continues to build to find a member of the opposite sex and start a relationship - but that always kind of nixes itself when the ex starts all of her stuff and I start thinking: Do I REALLY want to start another relationship? It takes a while, but I end up saying yes - even though I'm not really doing that much about the situation.

Have a great Saturday.
ben

The Woman At The Store

I'm a pretty amenable person. If a stranger wants to kick up a conversation somewhere about something we are both doing or looking at buying - whatever - I'm all good. Only if I'm in a hurry will I dismiss the conversation - but politely of course.

Well, I went to Safeway on the way home from work today. They have chicken breast on sale for 99 cents per pound, I wanted to get at least 4 packages of it. Of course, GETTING to Safeway was an adventure in itself with rude and stupid drivers attempting all kinds of dangerous and idiot moves on the road.

I say attempted because what people can get away with in cutting me off in the semi - they cannot get away with when I'm in my car.

Case in point. I'm driving the semi today - I leave enough space between my truck and the vehicle in front of me that I can shut the truck down in case "something" happens. You will see many truck drivers lagging behind vehicles - it's not because they are necessarily slow, it's because they NEED that room to slow down if traffic does so in front of them in a hurry.

When YOU cut into that space, you are literally taking your life into your own hands. I don't say that lightly, either. It's not a joke. The situation may not EVER happen when you cut in front of that truck like that hundreds of times per year, but in that one occasion where it might happen, you will be having a semi crushing you to death becuase of your impatience.

That's usually what it is, too. People waiting until they are 100 feet from the exit they want to get off on - notwithstanding the fact that they are fully 6 lanes away from that exit and will have to cut off all kinds of traffic to get to it - and nowadays? People couldn't care less.

And just as unsympathetic as life is, there are people killed on Phoenix freeways on a DAILY basis. BECAUSE of that stupid stuff people are doing out there.

Man, I have double-digressed. Okay, well- a lady driving an SUV decided that she wanted in front of me on a surface street. She simply inserted herself there without any warning at all. When she did so, she hit the brakes. I hit my horn and then got over into the other lane. There was NO valid reason for this woman to do that.

Oh, here's another little dandy that happened today. I was on the 60 heading west to go back to the branch from Florence. I was in the high speed lane allowing traffic to enter from an on-ramp. A car going at least 20 mph slower than I was going decided that they were going to get onto the freeway and head directly over to my lane. That person is lucky they are going home alive today. I took evasive action as I was totally cut off by this freak, and got into the "slow" lane - or tried to. This person realized their mistake - their utter stupidity in my view in simply getting into a lane without even freaking looking as far as I could tell to see if traffic was already there - and then was going to go back into the slow lane of which I was already halfway in.

I was already braking, this person freaked out and didn't know WHAT to do. The vehicle was now tweaking between lanes, not know what I was doing - though in reality, that person shouldn't have put themself in that position to HAVE to attempt to decide what to do.

I was not smiling at that person as I passed by him. I didn't do any hand gestures, but I made it well known my discontent for this person putting mine and their life at stake.

Ummm, I was talking about Safeway. Easy to get caught up in stories on the road because so much of it happens everyday.

Well, I got some potato salad - on sale - get 4 large packages of bone-in chicken breast - 99 cents per pound/sale - and searching for other stuff on sale.

I always head to the produce department, I am eating salads, have been for quite a while and am not opting out of it. I get to the tomatoes. There are the "on-the-vine" things and there are Roma tomatoes. I wanted the vine thingies because they are larger and I like larger slices of tomatoes - but they didn't look right to me for some reason.

There was a lady standing there going through the Roma tomatoes that educated me all about these vine tomatoes. She picked them up ( the reason I thoroughly wash my produce when I get it home, Lord only knows who and WHAT with that who touched that stuff) and started pointing out the flaws with them. White spots and unripened areas of the tomato. Her deal-breaker, though, was her fact that they have no flavor and the Romas have much better taste to them.

I like Roma tomatoes - but I much prefer the meatier, larger tomatoes. She proclaimed her tomato expertise - didn't doubt her. In fact, I pretty much just listened and showed the signs of registering that I was listening (versus the blank look on a face of someone that is totally tuned-out). I opted for the Roma's just because I had already had my doubts about the "on-the-vine" variety before I had even spoken to her.

I then gave her my little piece of info. There is a farmer's marker in the town of Guadalupe and they sell some pretty good stuff there and it's all locally grown. "Is it a REAL farmer's market? I mean, is that all they sell or are they doing everything else as well?" No ma'am, this is a vegetable and produce store, that's what they do and that's what they've been doing for something like 40 years now. Oh, the glee and perponderance in her face. She's going, I could bet my toenails on it. Okay, that's a bit much. I did advise her to go there in the DAYTIME, not at night. I didn't want to fill her with fear, but ..........

Lol. Oh, and by the way, when I lol - I am actually lol'ing. It ain't some quaint nicety, I'm chuckling or laughing.

I always digress, always. But, it's my blog, so there.

ben

Things

Stuff today.

I spent a couple of hours out front pulling weeds and grass. They weren't huge - I just let it go for at least a month because of my hatred for the everlasting heat wave. Today they said something like this was the second hottest summer since they started keeping records. I TOTALLY believe that.

Well, when I went out there the sun was starting to set and it was already cooling off considerably. It was 63 degrees this morning when I went to work. Of course it heated up dramatically during the day - and I was busting my butt at work all day long. So, pulling weeds and the dogs out front was nice. My newly returned neighbor was laughing it up loudly with his neighbor on the other side - the ex-felon (though I have to wonder if the ex part is permanent) and I decided to tune that crap out.

I have also decided that since my neighbor is going to spend a majority of his time with that freak next to him, I am going to distance myself from both of them, unlike last "season" when he was here and I was talking to him anyway. I have further decided that I am no longer going to tolerate a street FULL of his junk vehicles.

Apparently he got the message last night - I made a phone call to certain authorities about one of his vehicles out there that didn't even have a license plate on it. Today when I got home from work. the trailers were off the street but there were still 3 of his other vehicles out there. It's progress. I will definitely not tolerate this dude selling vehicles out of his house ever again. It's just makes the neighborhood look pathetic. He hauls down these rusted out cars from Michigan and sells them here for greatly marked up prices.

Won't work in this economy anyway. People are hunting for bargains and stick their noses up at inflated prices on anything. This is definitely a shopper's market right now, not a vendor's. I know this for a fact just from my own company.

Well, anyway, the high temps are now below 100, meaning I can start thinking about this weekend in potentially planting rye grass and buying those 99 cent clusters of very pretty flowers - my favorites being Petunias. I want to load up the front with arrangements of them all over.

That will be a weekend gone in a flash if I start in on all of that - but - the grass will take priority if it's the right time to plant it. I will have to ask or look online. It takes weeks for it to fully come in and be "trampled" on - meaning dogs. I will have to surround that patch of grass with a good fence to keep the dogs off of it - again, it's going to be work.

Safeway has chicken breast - bone-in - on sale for 99 cents a pound. BBQ is on it's way. 10 day forecast shows highs in the low 90's to high 80's. I'm going to start spending a lot more time outside.

I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, but the non-paying tenant made a promise to pay and I fully expect that payment. I think tomorrow. I'll have to re-read the notice, I didn't give that much perusal - I gave the idea that he IS going to pay more. If he does not pay - well I'll keep a lid on that, I have no reason to believe he won't pay now that he has said he will. Anyone reading me for the last 1 and 3/4 years knows what I eventually end up doing with non-paying tenants, and it ain't keeping them around so I can just have - freeloaders living here on my dime.

Today's driving adventure. Something is being built - I haven't asked what they are building yet - in an extremely busy/high volume shopping square. I have been in there 3 times now, and every time, the parking lot is completely full. There is no room for a semi to maneuver in there. I can't even get into the job site, I have to sit in the main thorofare where all these people are going back and forth the entire time.

Those people are, of course, extremely annoyed that a semi is slowing them down. I do not block the entire drive, but the volume of traffic is so heavy that people have to decide who is going to go and who isn't. One woman declared today that she needed to leave and I was blocking her from backing out of her parking spot. There was MORE than enough room for her to get her car out of there, but she wasn't taking my explanation that she wasn't driving a semi and that there is ample room for her car to move.

Yes, I spent a great deal of time pulling forward and then reverse to accomodate for all of this.

Then came time to leave. I was 400 feet or so into this place and there is NO way I am going forward. The turn ahead is so sharp and narrow, the only way to do it would be to take out the cars parked there. Yeah, right.

I wish I would have had my camera so I could have taken a video of this. I had to back out of there, and not, this volume of traffic in this place didn't like it. The corners are so sharp and narrow that backing was definitely a challenge of my skill - but not that much. No, the challenge was navigating the traffic. At the end of it, I had to block traffic coming in from the main street and traffic attempting to leave from fully 3 different directions.

Not only that, but these cars moved in very close to the point I had to stop and look at these people - who figured out my stare at them was that they needed to back up their vehicles because I am NOT running into cars if I can help it. And yes, I CAN help it. It took several minutes of backing around this turn to get myself positioned so I could leave nosing out, not backing out. Of course, you could see the agitated looks on these people's faces.

But, the job was done quite professionally and I didn't have to do a single pull-up. I just took it slow because of the huge volume of traffic and the fact I was movoing in their path - in reverse - and they weren't liking it.

No, they never like it, but these people love the end result of a business they want to go to and spend their money.

Ummm, I'm in a little better mood today, but - I still have a lot of things pressing me and I don't like being pressed. I am not a grape and I don't intend on turning into wine.

ben

Renting Is Not For The Faint Of Heart

No, it most certainly is not.
You go into renting a house, an apartment, an efficiency - my case: rooms, and you start off nievely thinking that everyone thinks the same way you do. Pay your rent on time, use common sense in the house, treat each other with respect. Oh, and BTW, if you happen to miss the bowl, clean the - mess I'll put it as another word came to mind - up.
You find out after not very long that people that are renting are more unsensical and somewhat selfish in their ways of doing things around your house than not. Some are very sensitive, I'm not throwing out the blanket of totalitarianism.

But, I have had my share of the bad kind and I have learned to shore up and not be so giving.

However. In the case of the ex-tenant who came back for a few months, I was thinking this person was going to behave as he did when he was here before: he paid his rent on time and then when his girlfriend moved in, he paid extra for my extra monthly incurrences. Okay, so I made my input before she moved in: for each extra person that moves in here, I incur more costs regarding electricity and water. I can't put a definitive number on it as I had no desire to go that far with it, but I did go beyond what I figured it would cost me, I stated an extra $100 per month.

It's not dishonest - there is also extra wear and tear. Well, honesty really has nothing to do with it. I find it acceptable to simply charge an extra $100 per month for an extra person in the same bedroom. If the person that is already renting that room doesn't like it, then that person can either not have that person move in, or that person can go find a new place to live.

I already thought of myself as a person that could confront others easily when the situation necessitated it. But, when they are living in your own home, there was a feeling that overcame me that I wasn't expecting. Not that I didn't wany my money, or that I didn't want to confront people on stupid, gross habits, especially in the bathroom, but - they are in my home. It puts a different feel to the matter.

However, after having had a couple of totally rotten/bad apples in here, that feeling has dissipated. It totally disappears when I start looking at my expenditures and my income and finding that if one single renter doesn't pay his/her rent, I'm going directly to the hole.

I'm digging into the 401k loan money that I took out some time ago, actually, to save my @$$ when I thought I was going to lose the place after the AC quit, I paid $650 for the repaid and was totally broke. I'm not far into it, and I haven't cashed one tenant's check yet - I'm waiting on the number 2 tenant to pay his rent which will be due tomorrow and I have no reason to believe that he isn't going to pay it.

The 3rd and temporary tenant a totally different matter. I delivered a notice to him today via slip-under-his-bedroom-door mode. I am very agitated right now. My next door neighbor returned and his junk vehicles are littering the neighborhood. He literally drove in with a mule train of garbage vehicles plus someone must have driven more vehicles behind him - his modus-operandi. GARBAGE. Junkifying the neighborhood I am going to call a complaint in tomorrow. I am further repulsed by his adjunct to his neighbor on the other side - an ex-felon, about a year out of prison, a drug dealing SON OF A BITCH. Freakin' bastard, I despise the man.

I am speaking out of character tonight, I find that I can't stop myself. There is a backlash of s*** inside of me that needs to be vented and here it is, coming out in full force. The ex-felon is a mouth freak - if he says ANYTHING to me again like he has in the past when this returning neighbor comes back - and this freak is over there - I am going to give him an earful of his own medicine. He is on parole, in fact, BOTH of them are on parole, I could freakin' get them into serious problems with them saying ANYTHING in terms of a threat.

But really, I feel like hauling off and decking the idiot. I know, I said it already, I said it in my other blog earlier today, I am cranky and irritable. I have too much on my plate and it's going far too slow to get it removed. But I cannot stand mouthy a-holes voicing lines of ignorance that goes on forever. When it's in person, and if it's bad enough, you can bet that I am going to say something blunt, frank and to-the-point. I tried to give this ex-felon freak a bit of latitude - I am not into starting wars with neighbors, but this guy is not a neighbor. He is living totally off of his mother, who bought the house for him, bought him a new car, buys his food, pays all of his bills.

He has no job, he does nothing, he is a waste.

Again, I am not myself today and I have no excuses - but- I offer none either.

Anyway, after delivering the notice, I go outside to water plants. I did that for a while and then I sat down on a lawn chair on the east side of the house and simply emptied my mind. I was already mad at the dogs - one of them got into the trash can and another got over a fence and trampled some plants. NOT the fencing that I put up on the east side of the house for the dog-free zone, another area in the rear of the house.

Grouchy. I am being bombarded with too much from all sides and it's eating at me.

Okay, well back to the non-paying tenant, another source of EXTREME irritability. He obviously read my message because while I was outside - and didn't even know he had returned home from work - he had delivered me a hand-written note.

Without going into all of the details - he alleges to pay me this week and then $100 every week after that to get caught up.

IF this is true, then there is a big sigh of relief. I will no longer be digging holes into the finacial realms of ruin, I will at least be breaking even, but actually doing a little better than that.

I have to do something. Get some prayer, have some drinks, whatever, but I have to find a way to calm down, because I can tell you that with everything going on right now in my life, I am freakin' on the edge.

ben

Fall Is In The Air...........

.........I'm sure of it - everywhere but HERE. Okay, the dying leaves on my tree out front are the only indication I have seen yet that fall is here. 105 is the predicted high tomorrow - but - 89 is the predicted high for Thursday!!! Yoohoo - and better be true.

Well, anyway, I have finally decided to sell off the Lazy Boy love seat and ottoman. I have no room for it - it's a beautiful piece of furniture - but it is taking up space, is never used and looks very gawdy where I have it. And where I have it is the only place it can go, besides out. So, out it's going to go. Either sell it for what it's worth - or trade for something.

Yes, I'm just changing subjects as fast as I change gears in the semi - which is pretty fast actually. Not really focused on any one thing right now. The situation with Caleb's teacher is dealt with as far as I'm concerned - the District thinks differently but it's totally out of my hands and whatever his fate will be, I put my 2 cents in.

My 2 cents? I said I hope nothing serious in terms of consequences happens to him because he made a very impassioned statement about his love for teaching and that he was truly sorry for what he did and said it would NEVER (his lettering of it) happen again, and from reading about the guy, I'll take the optimistic and hopeful side and trust that he's telling it like it is. The man is going for a docotorate's degree, that is some serious commitment to his profession. I told the principal that today and I am calling the superintendant tomorrow and saying the same thing.

.........and hope I am not wrong about the guy. Heck, he's a Steelers fan, what else need I know? lol.

BlackBird on the other blogging site suggested that I take a trip to see autumn in all it's colors. A day trip will do that for me. I'm quite sure my son wouldn't want to go with the old man for a - trip into my own world of seeing and soaking in the breathtaking views that nature has in autumn. I know just the place to go to see such - about a 100 mile drive I'm guessing. Hey, I live in a desert, to really see the goods I have to get out of the desert. Really what I would like to do is simply drive up to the place, park the car and go for a long hike into the mountains. I care not that it would be alone. I suppose I could take one of the dogs - any of which would love the trip I am sure. I will NOT take all 3 of them, that would ruin the trip - too much to deal with.


I'm thinking of doing that this coming weekend - get up early on Saturday or Sunday - get to the place in a couple hours or less - probably less the way I drive - spend a half day there.

Will I do it? I may very well. I need a change of scenery, something to shake me out of this stagnation I feel I'm currently in. It's just that the summer heat has been so stifling, it has done it's job on my psyche. I look forward to BBQ'ing outside and simply enjoying the outdoors again.

I sent the form in to get my 2007 W2 from my company. An entire form that you have to fill out and sign, plus send your ID plus pay $10. Yup, my bad, I have looked and looked and looked for that tax stuff and I simply cannot find it anywhere. I have no idea what I did with it, but wherever it is, I expect I will find it AFTER I needed it. That's the way things work sometimes : |

As I stated on my other blog, I may have been exposed to Swine Flu. A worker at the main branch came down with it this weekend, many of us were close enough to him to "catch" some germs on Friday. No idea. If I get symptoms of flu, I'm headed to the nearest medical facility to find out if I have it, and if so, get me the drugs, now, please. That worker has been confined to his house and his family was asked to leave for at least 5 days. Incredible.

Hey, a tenant actually paid me BEFORE the rent is due for once!!! Amaaaaaaazing!!!
The older gentleman, of course. I haven't heard from him about any discontents here, but then again, he doesn't like to talk much, he just walks through, says a few words and disappears either into his room or out to his truck with his dog. Well, I don't demand or even expect tenants to have any kind of friendly relationship with me, as long as they're civil - which he always is - what he does is his business.

Ummm, I'm just waiting for the heat to disappear, really. It WILL change things. I hate being indoors as much as I am. Oh, the Michael report: nothing. He isn't around at all now that the Playstation III is broken. His life is dictated by video games, he's truly a junkie. To the point he will miss as much school as possible to stay home and play stupid games. I wish I had parental authority over him - I would vanquish those stupid games until he returned to a normal life without them - such as going to school everyday.

Well, I have no control over that and I always wash my hands of it. My son is asking to have the thing fixed - the Playstation III, I'm not really that interested in it. Not just because of the money involved but also because of the fact that since that thing has been shut off, kids are finding other things to do.

That's it. It's not bedtime for me yet, but I'm very tired. I slept about 5 and a half hours last night and worked all day straight through without a break or without eating. I got to eat after work, yes, but it always does something to me to work all day without having a chance to stop and get a bite.

As for you all, have a great evening/day/whatever's going on in your part of the world.
ben