Ponds

Went to 3 houses. I had no desire to fight heavy, Saturday traffic all over the place, 3 was enough. The first house was absolutely incredible. They had a HUGE back yard filled with mature, very tall trees. The ponds were incredible as well - though they didn't do the work themselves. These were very rich people, very nice too, not dissing their wealth, but they were well out of my "league".

Not that I won't end up with a somewhat similar situation on my property - in about 10 years after the trees and plants mature, but I got some great ideas not only for ponding but also about trees. I had no idea an Australian Bottleneck tree could survive and thrive here. They also has very tall Ash - beautiful trees, only problem with them is they require a lot of water. The shade effect, though, is pretty awesome. I could see 3 or 4 of those bottle trees around my property. Mostly, my property has Sissoo trees, a very hardy tree that can withstand the Arizona temps since they do come from India.

I would like to now acquire some different looking trees - saplings - and get them going. I think those bottlenecks would be the perfect touch. They take years to grow, of course, but - you have to start somewhere. I got the Sissoos because they grow SO fast.

I am definitely going to take some of the seed pods on those other trees that are growing here naturally, plant them in pots and get a dozen or so of those going as well. Another tree I have growing has literally hundreds of pods on them right now, that will be a mess to clean up when they finally fall off of the tree.

I just got through putting in a request to SRP to show me the dimensions of the easement they have running through my back yard. Also asked what, if anything, I can do on that easement. I also asked if I can put a portion of a pond on there - well away from their underground lines. I will need that space to have the kind of pond I want. I imagine they are going to want to come out and look at the situation to assess the situation.

As for the pond I want, I am beginning to formulate in my mind how I want it. I will be in the planning stages of it for a long time, I'm sure. I spoke with some individuals today that had started a pond and then ran into a lot of problems. They had not researched everything out in advance. I am not one to jump into something like that without doing a LOT of research and finding out what other's had for problems. There really are a lot of things to take into consideration before taking the first shovelful out of the ground.

I was put at ease with the plastic liners they use - apparently they are so thick that they are very resistant to leakage. One pond setup had been there for 12 years with that plastic material and the owner said he hadn't experienced any leaks at all. Another had been there 15 years - though they used the rubber stuff - I think that's a lot more expensiive. What will put this project off for quite a while is money - I must be able to purchase the liner, pump and filter at the very least before even thinking about actually starting this project. Plus, I want to deal with SRP - a government entity - which will probably take quite some time. Add on top of that acquiring a LOT more rocks and yes, I figure the setup will probably cost at least a grand the way I do things - on the cheap. However, in this kind of thing, you simply must do it right at the get-go.

Then there were the complaints from the pond owners that said they wished they would have done things diffently. One person didn't want shelves in their pond, but another did. He said it's a pain to have to put the plants on top of things from the bottom of his pond and if he had it to do over, he would have definitely put some shelves in. I'm going to spend time talking to as many pond owners as I possibly can to find out what they think they did wrong or should have done differently. I have my 2 little ponds in the interim, I will enjoy those and not attempt to rush into this thing.

As for my 2 little ponds, I am definitely going to put 4 posts into the ground and shade the ponds with nursery grade screen material. It will allow some sunlight through - the plants need that - but it will really stop the heat from building up in the ponds. Another thing one guy stated was that keeping the water moving is very important. He says he moves about an entire pond's worth of water every hour. Mine are doing about 2 full rotations, so I hope not to have to worry about that.

I am considering a trip to wherever tomorrow morning for my rocks. Haven't decided on that yet, I may do it on Monday as well.

As for the temporary tenant? - totally changing the subject but a very important topic for me at this point in time - he is staying at least another week, possibly until the end of the month. Meaning tomorrow I will be handed another $90 - and yes, that $90 is also going directly to the power card to be loaded onto my meter. I have heard that SRP has different plans that somehow save money, I will be calling them next week to find out more. Actually, that info is probably on their website, I'll just visit there instead. I am also intent on reading this 10 page Arizona Immigration SB1070 bill today. 10 pages isn't that much and I want to edumacate meself as to what, EXACTLY, the thing says.

ben

Saturday

Yesterday, I came home to find one of my ponds half emptied. Upon closer inspection, one of the tubes had come out of the bio filter and had pumped the water onto the ground. The pump was clogged up (thankfully) or it would have pumped ALL the water out.

Fortunately no damage to the plants. I do not have a permanent setup with that filter yet and it will stay that way until I get a waterfall constructed. I do not need a giant waterfall and have no plans on constructing some huge affair, but I still need minimal amount of rock to do it with.

I'll be attempting to get the rest of the rock I need sometime during the next 4 days that I have off. Whether out in the desert, up in the mountains - whatever, I want to get on with this project already.

Currently uploading pics and such from my camera so I can empty it out and have a full card's worth of memory to take pics of the ponds I am about to go visit. The pond tour is today and starts in about an hour. I figure to see 3 or 4 of them and the possibly head east. I have not decided where, exactly, I am going to go to look for these rocks. Several options, none of them are close - perhaps I will be able to get some ideas from the pond owners.

Anyway, I have to keep this short, I want to get out there and get to looking before this afternoon - it's going to get warm and I have no desire to bake in the sun today.

G'day.

ben

It Finally Arrived!!

What am I going to do with it?
How will I spend it?
Where will it go?
Will I end up doing anything with it that I that will add to an extensive list of good memories?

Time off of work, that is what IT is. 2 days plus the weekend equals 4 days off.

Well I can tell you right now that I am going to that pond society tour tomorrow - not all of it, I have determined 5 homes that I will go to to view their properties and ponds. I will undoubtedly also join their club. Why not? It might be a year or more before I can actually get a "real" pond, but I like my little ponds so no big deal.

Will I go up north to get the rock for my waterfall? Dunno yet, I am thinking of another location that is about 40-50 miles from here. There is another location about 30 miles from my house that should have some nice rocks - but I am not sure about that location. Then, yet more locations - east and then north - probably a good 40 mile drive.

You see, I am not a fan of driving anymore. I hate it. I do it at work, every day, driving in city traffic, which is what has ruined my appetite for driving. Okay, admittedly, I do like driving the semi on country roads out in the middle of nowhere. I just take in whatever the scenery is and I immerse my mind in it. In city driving? You have to be alert all the time, intense, focused driving. It is draining to say the least. I could go into all of that, but it would take numerous paragraphs worth of writing and frankly, I don't feel like it. Most people do NOT understand what it is like to drive a tractor-trailer rig, but - oh well, this is not a night I am going to detail that stuff.

Still, if I took a dog or 2 with me and went out to a mountain in the desert - I am thinking of a particular area about 40 miles from my house- well, I think I could enjoy that. I could also go up to the mountains. I could take my son and he could drive on the highway after getting out of town. He might not want to go for rocks, but he would love to drive. He is attempting to learn how to drive - I am attempting to teach him.

I can think of numeous areas full of good rock near my mom's property where I could find what I need. It's all a matter of my mind: get it out of the city driving mode and I can enjoy it.

I'm not stressing the waterfall for my ponds - when it happens it happens. But, I am a very goal oriented person. Once I have made such, I will be thinking of ways to make it happen until - it happens. I do believe, regardless, that I will enjoy my time off whatever may come.

With that, I am just about to go to bed.

Early? yes. Hating it? No. I LIKE going to bed early and getting up early.

G'nite.

ben

Friday

I am not sorry, really, for all the posts I have made in concern to boycotting the entire state of California as they apparently are inclined to do to us. Us Arizonans spend BILLIONS of dollars per year JUST in tourism over there alone. Now, a local businessman has stated he will pull out 1.5 million in money he spends in CA with his business. You will see more and more of this until CA's hard stance is reversed.

If they don't like the bill Arizona Immigration SB1070, FINE, argue it out, call on the Feds to sue AZ, whatever, but boycotting an entire state? WHO are you hurting? That's right, not just "white" people, but hispanics, blacks, asians - everyone that lives here!

But I'll take a breather off of that subject for a moment's time, since this blog also serves for my daily journal and get onto that. It was a very nice revelation to find out that I CAN take rocks off of Tonto forest land without a permit, I just can't take that MANY rocks. I am assuming the intent is to keep people from messing with the eco-system, the balance of nature and not going in there digging up huge plots of land to unearth rocks. I only intend on taking rocks that are already unearthed - and I don't need that much to boot. I'm not building Niagra Falls, I'm just building a small waterfall in back yard, lol.

I just didn't want to be standing there putting rocks into the trunk of my car and have a DOT officer or a Forestry Ranger come up and put handcuffs on me.

FINALLY Friday - well actually, this week has passed by very quickly. Work days have been busy and I always keep myself busy at home.

The ex wrote me an email to my company account and informed an old - well used-to-be friend had passed and gone on to be with the Lord. I haven't seen her in many years. I remember quite some time back she was going through cancer treatment, I sort of helped her out a little as well as a lot of other folks in trying to help her get through it. I guess you can't really say it's "sad" that a person has gone on to be with the Lord, if you are sure that that person actually IS with the Lord.

I won't go into my religious beliefs here, I haven't got time for it - but, Jesus Christ IS Lord!!

No, the work day is almost here and I must be about the company's business.

G'day.

ben

Boycott San Diego And Anaheim

Heya, San Diego, do you like the hundreds of millions of dollars that are spent in your city, each and every year, by the 2,000,000 (that's TWO MILLION) visitors that come from ARIZONA?

It's a well known fact that Arizonans and especially Phoenicians LOVE to escape the desert heat and take trips to San Diego to cool off on the beaches. That's hotel, entertainment, food, related support institutions.

Since it appears the entire state of California is jumping on this "Boycott Arizona" bandwagon, let's BOYCOTT THEM! Don't go to San Diego this year to cool off, instead, take a trip to Colorado and go on a white water river rafting adventure. It's GREAT fun and is really something everyone should have on their "things to do before I die" list.

Heck, Arizona has it's own white water river rafting - through the Grand Canyon and also through the Salt River Canyons.

While we're at it, let's stop going to Disneyland; Six Flags Magic Mountain; SeaWorld San Diego; LegoLand; and all the rest of these giant amusement parks that Arizonans flock to every year to get away from the heat and enjoy a good time with your families.

Good luck with that, California, I do believe this boycott nonsense is going to come back and slap you smack dab right in the face.

ben

Attorney General Eric Holder Has NOT Read Immigration Law..........

..........yet he has trashed it.
How do you diss a law that you haven't read, especially the United States Attorney General????!!!!????????

UNBELIEVABLE.

"Despite repeatedly voicing concerns about Arizona's new immigration enforcement law in recent weeks and threatening to challenge it, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday he has not yet read the law -- which is only 10 pages long.

"I have not had a chance to -- I've glanced at it," Holder said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing when asked had he read the state law cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Holder told reporters last month that he fears the new law is subject to abuse and that the Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department are in the midst of conducting a review"k

Would you "glance" at a bill that is getting the kind of negative outcry that it is, being the Attorney General of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, come out publicly and denounce the law and then, after doing so, ADMIT THAT YOU HAVEN'T EVEN READ THE LAW YET?

MORON!!!!

I will be continuing with this intent on my blog for a while. This whole Immigrant Bill has been taken to extremely outrageous proportions. If WE, the State of Arizona, it's people, business and corporations and the state as a whole, dole out back to these entities that are officially pronouncing a boycott against us, WHAT THEN?

Yes, I am especially liking the find I did today on California's dependence on the energy generated by OUR nuclear generating plant. I haven't heard anyone over there saying: "THAT POWER IS BEING GENERATED IN ARIZONA BY ARIZONAN, BOYCOTT THEIR POWER TOO!!"

THAT, folks, ISN'T going to happen. Why?

..............Arizona„s Palo Verde Nuclear power plant is the largest nuclear generating facility in the United States. It has supplied clean electricity for 4 million customers in Arizona and California for the past 22 years. The plant‟s three reactors, completed in 1988, have experienced 85% to 95% availability and annually produced ~3.2 gigawatts of electricity. Three reactors were eventually built for a total cost of $5.9 billion. In 2008 the operating cost to produce 1 megawatt of electricity at Palo Verde was 1.33 cents, 50 percent of average energy cost in the U.S. southwest, cheaper than both coal and gas fired electricity - and cleaner than both. The plant employed 2,386 workers during construction and today employs 2,055 directly. Another 3,943 are employed indirectly in the Maricopa County and the Arizona economy. In 2002, for example, the Palo Verde facility contributed $868 million to the local economy.............

Notice that that statement doesn't say "Arizona" only, it also includes California. Again, the graph of ownership in the plant:

Operator Owner Share
(Percent)
Arizona Public Svc
Arizona Public Svc
29.10
Salt River Project
17.49
Southern California Edison Company
15.80
El Paso Electric Co
15.80
Public Service Co. of New Mexico
10.20
Southern California Public Power Auth
5.91
City of Los Angeles
8.70
Total 100

30.4 percent ownership by California entities. That's off the top of my head, if you come up with something different, I'll change it. This is JUST electricity!!! THOUSANDS of Arizonans - maybe more than that - go to San Diego in the summertime to get away from our desert heat - hotels/entertainment/food/transportation.

Wanna see that go away, San Diego? How about Anaheim? It's a 4-1/2 drive to Anaheim - which houses, for one, Disneyland, - okay, it's much longer drive for most people, I don' like to waste time driving, but that isn't the point here - Anaheim, like to see all of Arizona's business go away?

What about the business we give to California? I haven't found any concrete figures on that - yet - but if/when I do, it will surely be posted here. It is, however, a very good amount of money being spent there to employ THEIR people (if they are going to treat us as space aliens, I am going to give them a dose back) and a HUGE influx of money to hotels/restaurants/entertainment beyond the theme parks.

No, I do believe we can flex our muscles here. California is more dependent on us than we are on them.

What say ye, CA?

Arizona Immigration SB 1070 - Boycott The State Of California - Los Angeles

Okay, Los Angeles, you own a 8.70 percent share of the Arizona Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.
Does you boycott also include the exemption of using ARIZONA generated POWER??? HMMMM???
This graph found at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/reactors/palo_verde.html

Plant Operator and Ownership,* 2004 Operator Owner Share
(Percent)
Arizona Public Svc
Arizona Public Svc
29.10
Salt River Project
17.49
Southern California Edison Company
15.80
El Paso Electric Co
15.80
Public Service Co. of New Mexico
10.20
Southern California Public Power Auth
5.91
City of Los Angeles
8.70
Total 100
* The Pinnacle West Corporation's holdings include the Palo Verde Plant. Their largest affiliate, Arizona Public Service (APS) is the operator and co-owner.


It seems California has an over 31% owned interest in the Palo Verde Nuclear plant.

Why? Because they CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT THE POWER COMING FROM THAT PLANT!!!

What are they going to do, BAN the electricity coming from that plant because it is generated and originated in Arizona?!!!

Arizona Immigration SB 1070 - Boycott The State Of California

Please join my newly formed Facebook group located at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=126345970710069&ref=mf

I have had enough of this hype and hysteria over boycotting our great state - Arizona.
The state of California is the most outspoken state yet with cities all over officially boycotting the state of Arizona, and now an outspoken senator from that state wanting the ENTIRE state to boycott AZ. The latest city being Los Angeles.

It's time to turn the tables. Let's begin with shutting off the power coming from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Plant located about 70 or so miles west of Phoenix, Arizona, IN Arizona. California is HEAVILY reliant on that power coming from that power plant. You want to talk about rolling blackouts as California experienced several years ago? Shut THAT power off and there they go again. That will be my main focus and I am going to write the governor, senators, ops columns, voice it in comments at the bottoms of news feeds (already started doing that) until it gains some momentum. WE should be fighting BACK at this point. SCREW California. Let them STEW in their own juices - I guarantee you that if we, Arizona, said: "Great, you want to boycott us, we are going to boycott you" and shut that power off, that WILL get EVERYONE'S attention. We are already negatively viewed EVERYWHERE because of one, single bill that MIRRORS federal law!!!

That in itself should be enough to shut their mouths about an outrageous, ill-gotten, boycott.

Let's also start talking about all the Arizonans that go to San Diego - the Phoenix Hideaway during summers here in the hot desert state - and having all of those folks BAN San Diego. Oh, and Anaheim, California as well.

Further, for you opponents of the bill, since this bill does mirror Federal law, why aren't you boycotting our Federal Government? They MUST be racist too, it's the law of the land!! HYPOCRITES!! Why aren't you standing on Obama's doorstep demanding that we do away with the Law of The Land as well? No, I haven't heard ANYTHING about that going on.

Arizonans, let's step up to the plate and smack it to them right back in their faces and BOYCOTT THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA!!!

Is It Thursday Already?

So, the "great" city of Los Angeles has boycotted Arizona. You know? What goes around comes around. It will end up right back on their lap in one form or another. Apparently, Arizona has much more money going to California than CA has coming here, at least according to news reports, if WE pull out, THEY stand to lose. Should we act in kind? You're darn right we should, they want to give some kind of kneejerk reaction related to a hysteria that seems to be sweeping the country, I say let AZ respond back. But that's just me.

There was only one city council-member who voted against, stating that the council really has no business in sticking it's nose into another STATE'S legal actions. Really? One person with an actual brain functioning on it's own, kudos to that city-council member. When the mob-mentality takes over, and in a very real sense that's what's going on here, people don't think for themselves. They react to what others are doing and act out on the impulses that are being generated by that mob. It will, sooner or later, be reported in the news about businesses that operate in Arizona pulling out of those city's/states and doing business elsewhere.

Well, I got so involved in reading the news I lost track of time and here it is, almost 6:00 am and time to get about the day's business.

G'day.

ben

I'm Fighting........

...........to not eat anything for the rest of the day. I ate the second of 3 free sandwiches at Dunkin Donuts this morning: a Ham Swiss Flatbread Sandwich. 350 calories with 110 of those from fat.
That isn't TERRIBLY bad, but then, my manager was suggesting "breakfast burritos" this morning after I had already eaten that sandwich. I went. I got, well I ordered a taco salad. Instead, I got nachos heaped with cheese and sour cream. I ate half of it and forced myself to stop. I'm still guessing around 700 calories for that little dream of a dish, it WAS delicious, but I had opted for a taco salad to get less junk and more good stuff.

I'm at a minimum of 1050 calories today. I KNOW the Dunkin Donuts calories because it is listed online. I figured there was around 250 calories of cheese, 200 calories of sour cream, 3 - 4 hundred calories of meat, plus chips and everything else on those nachos. I would upgrade the calorie count I ate from it to a higher level, but remember I only at half of it and put the rest in the refrigerator at work. So, actually, a grand worth of calories is probably a good guess. But there was a lot of fat calories in that dish. I won't last today, I can feel it, so I am planning now what I am going to eat before 6 pm - a salad. Just a salad. No meat, vinagette dressing. Calories will be low, nutritional content will be good.

I would rather just say okay, eat and plan it ahead than give in the last minute and eat something - stupid. There is plenty of stupid stuff around here, btw. I may actually be going way overboard on the amount of calories I consumed on that nachos plate, but I would rather be exagerated in my guess than under. The scale at my branch is giving me wild variations on my weight, I can't rely on it as an accurate indication. I will be at the main branch tomorrow, that scale should be right on. Even if it isn't, as long as it is consistent, I can gauge my losses - or gains - with it. They say not to get on a scale too much, but I disagree. If I see that my weight is going back up, it will only motivate me to eat FAR less calories in the next coming days and say no to whatever temptations come my way.

And THAT'S the singlemost, largest problem I have with dieting. When you start dieting, what is the first thing that happens? All of a sudden, people who never offer you anything now are asking you to partake in donuts, junk food, McDonald's garbage. I LOVE all that stuff, yes I do, but it isn't ANYTHING that would be included in any concept of a diet.

Changing gears. The newest female tenant paid up her rent today. It is 3 days late. No big deal. I was thinking maybe letting her in was a mistake, but she got paid today and gave me her entire check. She's a waitress and waiter salaries are minimal, they figure you to make your money on tips. I was a bit surprised that she just handed it all over to me. She said this: "A roof over my head is more important than anything else". This is the kind of thinking that I like to see from tenants. When a person comes up to me and tells me they can't pay the rent, not-withstanding the fact that they have an expensive cell phone glued to their ear without ever missing a beat in paying that and having a vehicle that they are making the payments on and going out to bars and such, while telling me that?

I can only say that my good nature is getting less and less in such department. If you can't pay, then leave. I suppose in a true business sense, leaving emotion out of it is the best venue. But, I am something of a humanitarianist and that kind of thinking has never set well with me. Would the Lord throw that person out? Yes or no? I can't answer that question at times. Sometimes the answer is VERY clear, such as with Mary: GET HER OUT OF MY HOUSE AND NOWWWWWWW!!

Meanwhile, my quest with the ponds continues on. I determined that the 2 lillies were not enough. When they grow larger, sure, but for now? Gardener's World is less than a mile from my house, they told me on the phone last week that they have lillies for ponds. Okay. I went there. They had a small pond with some healthy looking specimens in there.

They first told me a price I wasn't interested in, their second offer caused me to buy 2 "clumps" as they call them. They go to the pond, stick their hand into that thick mess and pull out a clump of them. I actually got 3 clumps for the price of 2.
This is obvious something that is rarely ever bought - the pond was full of lillies and it did not appear that any had been removed any time in the recent past. Well, I also asked - no, not a big demand. Well, probably because no-one knows they have them. At the price I got them, they would sell out in no-time. I have no inclination of making this public other than this posting as I hope to eventually build a much larger pond and I will need to buy a dozen or more of them. In fact, I will want to buy out their stock.

Meanwhile, I am going to be thinking about what I can do to shade the ponds. It is obvious - to me if no-one else - that the summer sun glaring down on them is going to heat them up considerably. I have nursery grade screening, I could put up something temporary and not spend ANY money - which right now is probably a good idea. I dumped that week long tenant's money onto the power reader, I am also dumping today's rent from the lady tenant on there as well. I want to get that thing up to $400 on there and keep it there. That way, if some kind of problem occurs, I don't have to worry about electricity.

Also, now that I'm discussing things, I could also get another pond, add that much more water to the system. I would not have to buy any more filters or pumps than that of which I already have. More water equals longer time for the AZ heat to heat it up. The waterfall is a huge priority at this point: the cooling effect it will have is tantamount to either having hot pools of water or at least moderately cool. Oh, I can get another pond for $20. Lol. People are dumping those things like flies - and even more people are picking them up as they are listed.

Tomorrow I am headed to the far southeast valley and am hoping to find some good sized rocks/almost boulders on a particular stretch of road that is out in the middle of nowhere. Many areas of the desert are loaded with rocks. I really do not want to waste my 4 days off in NOT getting this done or at least getting a very good start on it.

Meanwhile, the trailer tenant is still in the hospital and probably will be for several more days. I am going to offer to bring him home - he is in a hospital some 20 miles from here. Taking a bus in his condition is a ridiculous notion and I don't mind going and getting him. He is in extreme pain - well he is unless he pushes the button. Pushing the button releases pain medication and the pain - poof - disappears. Well of course it does!! I am also looking for a queen sized mattress - they are on an air thing and it keeps leaking. I don't want to pay for it, I have no finances to spend on such things right now, I continue to look on the free section of Craigslist for one.

Ummm, so that's it, I think. I have totally forgotten about dumping Direct TV and going with Dish Network. I actually like Direct TV much better than Dish Network, but I want a deal and Direct TV isn't going to give me one - their standard modus operandi. Don't give existing customers who have been with them for a decade any deals, only give the deals to new customers. What utter stupidity. Seriously. It may BE a pain to switch to a different company, but for reduced costs and brand new equipment, who cares? Intend on "contacting" them through my account after I finish this entry with a final appeal before I make my contact to Dish Network.

2 more days. Just 2 more days til' 4 days off. Next time? I'm taking 3 days off so I can have 5 in a row. At least, if I can get it. I will work the Memorial Day stuff before and after that holiday and going for the throat on July 4th - 3 days plus 3 days.

Done.

ben

Wednesday

Another jetliner crash? Absolutely incredible - all killed excepting a 10 year old boy. You know, I read the news in the morning online and some of it is pretty hair-raising stuff. This talk about Iran, North Korea and Syria being a new axis of evil is just that kind of thing. But - evil not only exists in this world, it is bred, raised and nurtured by people whose intentions are - evil, frankly. When I look at the president of Iran, that's exactly what I see (and hear): and evil person with ill intent. I definitely do not believe sanctions against these nations will EVER work.

They will continue on with their mission to build nuclear weapons and then....what? Blow up the earth? It is conceivable that a rogue nation such as Iran will not care what the consequences of using such a weapon are and I state that because they believe they are on God's side and the rest of us are vermin, rodent-like trash that needs to be eradicated from the earth.

3rd day of this work week and my hopes are dashed yet again. No trip to the mountains. In fact, I will only be driving around town doing pickups and deliveries. I am hoping for a trip to the mountains to get some more rocks for my waterfall and lining the pond edges. However, tomorrow I am going to the far, southeast valley and I know a couple of places where I might be able to find some cool rocks to pick up and bring back with me off of the Indian Reservation.

Of course, the question that evolves in my mind after making such a statement is: is that legal? Can you take rocks - plain old rocks - from the Indian Reservation legally? I have NO idea, but I will be looking after work online to find out or possibly call the "legal department" of the Gila River Indian Reservation to find out. Last thing I want to do is end up in an Indian Reservation jail.

Anyway, work day is here already,

c'yall later!

ben

Porterhouse Steak

Stopped at Fry's Food Stores on the way home from work today. I do that often. I almost always go to the meat department and see what manager's specials are going. That's meat that is going to expire in a couple of days and they need to unload it. I don't often see Porterhouse steak in that portion, in fact, today's finding was the first of such in a long time.

Porterhouse steak - especially one the size that I snagged up - does not cost $6.50.

No, it costs double or more that. Porterhouse is my most favorite steak out of all of them. It's EXTREMLY tender and tastes wonderful barely cooked. Like, bloody on the inside, lol. The rareness that I like to eat steak often grosses people out. Warm it up a little, I'm good to go.

Anyway, long day at work. Did not have a chance to stop and eat, so I went about 22 hours without eating. I blew my diet a bit on Sunday so I'm attempting to make up for it. Eating a single steak and some baked potatoes with fat free sour cream on it? NOT going to blow my diet. About 600 calories in that steak and baked potatoes have almost no fat calories. Yes, I ate around a 1,000 calorie meal, but it's the only meal today, so no biggies. I won't be hungry again after eating steak, that stuff fills me up and I won't even be thinking about food until tomorrow morning.

3 days to go to my 4-day weekend. I'm going to ask for 2 days off next month or in July as well. Memorial Day is coming up soon enough and that is a 3 day weekend. I just want some time off. Really, I'm thinking about asking for a full week off. Other drivers have taken much more time off this year than I have. I took 2 days off to get that thyroid scan which (fortunately) was a bust. Ummm, I was sick I think and took some days off for that as well. But neither of those were vacation days where you are - vacationing even IF staying at home.

Which reminds me, I need to get a copy of the schedule that shows the the locations of the houses that are going to show off their ponds at the pond expo. Take my camera, take a lot of pics. Get some ideas. I was sitting out there yesterday - I have a limited area of where to put the thing. I still can't believe SRP has a 25 FOOT easement in my back yard. Why do they need THAT much space? They DON'T is the answer. The J-box was already dug up once back there, was maybe a 4x4 hole. I am going to look into getting and amendment to that, there is absolutely no good reason for them to have that kind of an easement on my property. It means I can't build or do much of anything with it.

But, I didn't care and put up my shed back there anyway. I also planted all of those plants. But, that's ALL I have done with it. In reality, behind my house would be a great place to build a small casita/guesthouse. Not that I have the money to do any such thing right now, but it IS sitting on a shelf in my mind and I occasionally take it off the shelf to shake off the dust and give it a fresh look : )

I know where the utilities are located because they were marked when I had my house placed on this property - Their easement needs about 5 feet from the back fence, not 25 feet. It REALLY sucks to have that kind of restriction placed on YOUR own property. I didn't know anything about an easement here until after I bought the place. Considering the dilemna I was in at the time, I would have bought it anyway.

Well enough whining, I haven't even bothered to find out if you can ask them to change it so until I do that, I'm going to put a zip on it.

Cafe Word Tip 17: Zynga Allows Cheating On Cafe World

Look, I'm not a big fan of cheating in games simply so you can get ahead of everyone else. On an online game, though, the owners of the software should be able to patch any hacks that come along that allow such cheating to occur.

The cheating I am referring to is the Cheat Engine 5.5 which is used to hack into Cafe World and allows a person to set up their stoves to cook without the cook having to do anything at all. It's called a Cafe Clicker. I have reported 3 people to Zynga so far with no results whatsoever. Which is why I titled this "tip" with Zynga allowing the cheating to occur.

There is not an equal playing field for those that want to play the game legitimately and those that do not. I am getting sick of it, to the point I am considering simply quitting playing the game. I reported on some of the Cafe World messages about what's going on as well. You know what Zynga did? They suspended my "priviledge" to write messages on their board. Apparently they don't like the truth.

Well, I am going to write on MY blog and there isn't a DAMN thing they can do about that. I'm also going to spread this information out across the net. I am definitely NOT the only person that has watched another Cafe World Neighbor come from WAY behind and suddenly, in a few weeks time, not only catch up to you but blow you away and leaving gasping. HOW did they do that? I am not one to let things hang forever.

When I found out how these people are doing this, I then confronted my own ethical steadfastness: did I want to cheat as well? NO. Didn't take long to figure out what I wanted to do in this: nothing. It's a game, it has it's parameters. You're SUPPOSED to have to cook to get Cafe points and get ahead, but this hack is a glaring red thumb that sticks out to anyone that is playing the game and has seen neighbors shoot off into cyberspace in terms of their Cafe points.

It's a joke that you get on the game and a screen pops up saying check out the competition, get neighbors and all that junk. ZYNGA should be FIXING this problem and stripping those that cheated of all their points and make them start from scratch. Am I the only one that hates the cheating? Anecdotally, I can say definitely not. I have had conversations with several of my Cafe World neighbors now who also hate the cheating, don't want to use the hack and want to see Zynga stop this garbage. Oh come on, you say, it's just a little cheating.

I have found in my 46 years of living that when a person is inclined to cheat on anything, regardless of what it may be, even "just" an internet game, they probably incorporate such use across the board when it is convenient for them to do so. Cheating is an ethical issue, some would call it a moral issue.

For those Cafe World players that don't cheat, does it set well with you that this is going on and that more and more players are using this hack?

For those Cafe World players that are cheating? I have nothing to say to you. If you are cheating, it shows a part of your character. I could ask you if you feel small for engaging in such, but obviously you don't so there is context here for a discussion.

Enough of this, I'm going to eat my Porterhouse steak and baked potato with fat-free sour cream and enjoy!

G'day.

Tuesday

17 orders on 9 stops.
This isn't a pizza delivery service I'm talking about, it's what's in our truck routing system for today. In my kind of work, that many stops is next to impossible to do in one day. Well, we'll see is all I can say about that. Certainly, I'll try : ) I smell OT in the air?!

Speaking of air, it has cooled down considerably this morning. Wow! Just when you thought the folds of earthy hell had arrived, here comes a cold front to whisk it away, if ever so temporarily.

Anyway, yesterday, I got home from work, TV on, junk, crap, yada yada, went outside, put a blanket on the ground next to the ponds and took a nice, long nap. Yes, I will be finding, sooner or later, some nice piece of outdoor furniture to put somewhere in the vicinity of those ponds as the intended effect has already be gained and I'm only half done with the setup!! Of course, a giant, black Great Dane decided to snooze next to me, and then a half Great Dane came around and laid down in the grass, followed by a third Great Dane that decided that the cement slap was for him.

Life's simple pleasures. How many of us actually engage ourselves in the simple things that life offers that don't involve having to go somewhere, put down large sums of cash and may not even be ethical to begin with? I know I have been guilty. No, I come to enjoy being more of a homebody than anything. I used to be very outgoing, parties and events and this that and the other thing. Nothing wrong with it, I guess, but it was to the exclusion of doing anything at home. I'm on the other side of that equation now and eventually? Probably find some middle ground as I am really not happy that I am not at least involved in a church somewhere.

Not blaming anyone, I just can't get past the situation that occured during the divorce almost 6 years ago now.

But I am not going into that here. NO time for it and no desire to ruin a perfectly beautiful morning thinking about such.

Instead, I'm offa here to get about the business of the day at hand.

G'day.

ben

Monday

The Verdict?
A wire that wasn't installed correctly in the main pedestal.
THAT is why my internet wasn't working worth a crap.
It's back up to 7 mbps, I fully intend on calling Qwest and demanding at least 50% off on this month's payment considering this thing has been this way for 2 weeks now.

Live and learn - next time I have this problem check the internet speed FIRST. Here I was freakin' trying to do all this stuff to my computer thinking the kids had downloaded "something" - which has happened in the past on several occasions. I gave up on Cafe World - 10 minutes to access the game and 20 plus minutes just to get dishes cooking, that's how bad it was. Of course, finally getting back on the game again I found one neighbor had totally passed me by and waving a blithy goodbye.

I assume that person thought I wouldn't catch up to him considering he was almost 50,000 points ahead of me. Yes, well I know how to play catch up WITHOUT cheating. You simply buy the dishes to cook, prepare them and delete them. You spend a lot of money doing it - around 2,000,000 gold coins to catch up and pass that sucker - but I didn't care in this case because of circumstances that were out of my control. I have removed neighbors 3 times now that were using a cheat hack to get ahead, but, again, buying your way up isn't cheating. You can't do it forever, either, your gold coins will run out sooner or later. Good thing I still have around 4,000,000 gold coins!!

Newest, temporary tenant is a bit strange. Nothing psycho strange, just an unusual - temperament. He's only there til' Sunday, so I figure I can deal with it. He brought all of his landscaping equipment into the back last night, I forgot to warn him about the dogs. Nothing is sacred out there, especially anything "new". Yup, they started attempting to piss on his lawn mower. Good thing they aren't very good aim. They lift their leg and usually are FAR short of actually hitting what they are aiming for. I did, however, shoo them off of the stuff.

I now have 2 people attempting to talk me into buying their ponds. I had had an ad up and forgot to take it down. I was thinking about a very small pond for the front of the house - a plant only version, no fish. It would add a very cool look to that area. But, though the pond is cheap - $20 - it all adds up when you start talking about another filter and buying plants. Still, a small pond with a small waterfall would add a very cool looking effect to my jungle out front. Figure around $100 to build another filter with pump, buy the pond and put some plants in it, not including another pump for a waterfall.

Yeah, I think I will pass on that for now. I already have a waterfall to build - isn't going to cost me anything more then about 20 blocks for a retaining will and some concrete, but the work is enough in itself for now.

Well, 5 days, including today, until my 4-days off : )

G'day.

ben

Room Is Rented...............

.........for a week. Well, it's nothing to snoot at, money is money. It's going straight into the power reader - tomorrow, lol as I have no inclination of going anywhere today. I have been working around the house this morning - pulling weeds, grass, adjusting things in the ponds, planting the rest of the tomato plants, cleaning up dog crap - stuff like that.

The guy that came over? Didn't want to talk about his situation, I didn't ask, he was staying in a hotel for 2 days and only needs my place for a week or possibly 2 weeks. He had a nice pickup filled with the tools of a lawn maintenance company - his own with his name on the side of the truck. That helped me to figure this guy isn't a looney bins nutcase. He paid his money and left - 3 jobs today to do.

If I could rent the room for at least another week this month, that would help tremendously. So, cross my fingers the guy ends up having to stay 2 weeks.

Also turned the neighbors in again to the City of Phoenix. I should have done it 2 weeks ago. They simply do not maintain their property, the grass and weeds grow rampant, they don't care. It grows into my property and it's a constant battle and I am quite sick of it. I am going to have to go ahead and lay that plastic liner on both sides of the plants that are adjacent to the fence on their side of the house. Pain? Absolutely. Will it totally solve the problem? No, but it will reduce it by 80% at least by simply covering up as much of the ground as I can without smothering the plants. IF I could get permission to simply spray their side with grass and weed killer, that would definitely put an end to this problem - for a while until the stuff starts growing again.

They never acknowledged that I basically saved their dog's life by putting him back in their yard when they left for over a week last month and had no-one stopping by - until 7 days had passed - to keep and eye on them. Yes, I sent them a friendly letter. No, I won't do anything for them ever again, except to repeatedly turn them into the City of Phoenix and report the blight on their property. I'm assuming those people are mooching off the government because neither of the parents work. They have a truckload of kids that they force to stay inside the house all the time, only coming out to go to school or take out the trash. It's a pretty weird situation over there, really.

Pic at top? Woman was in the HOV lane, babbling on the cellphone and attempting to do whatever she was in there because she kept flipping the phone around and looking into a purse or something. Driving was neither the first or second priority in her mind. Without signaling - of course - she started into the lane I was in. I didn't have the camera ready at the time or I would have gotten a doozy of a video of being EXTREMELY cut off by a person who isn't paying a damned bit of attention to what she is doing. Her rear bumper might have been 2 feet from mine, that's how close it was. I immediately started shutting the truck down and yes, I honked and for several seconds. That's her in the pic, she simply cut over 5 lanes of traffic, cutting off other vehicles as well. Another driver had to slam on their brakes to keep from rear-ending this lovely-piece-of-work driver who is, sooner or later, going to be involved in a very serious accident if she keps driving like that.

There isn't any reason to believe that a person who drives like that as normal, modus operandi is going to change until something happens that by default, forces her to change. If you do a close up on that shot, you will see her hand stuck to her head. Sorry lady, there ain't any brains in there to stop from bleeding out......oh wait a second, that's not what she's trying to do, is it? No, she's got a cellphone glued to her ear.

Umm, sometimes these postings of mine? I get distracted and get to doing other things. This one was the same.

G'day.

ben

Sunday/My Computer Is Not Back!

I ended this posting realizing that today is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, do something nice for yourself today (like leave the kids home and friggin' go out and have a steak or something, lol.)


All this time I spent working on this computer - and yes I definitely got the entire machine to get things done faster - I end up finding out that it's on Qwest's end of the deal. I did half a dozen speed tests last night and came up with and average around 0.37 Mbps. I just did another one on another tester: 1107 Kpbs. That's about 1 megabyte per second. I'm paying for 7. Faster than dial - but not much. I told the Qwest rep on the phone last night that their company had promised a half dozen times to come out and bury the line - for 2 years now they have promised that.

Yeah, nothing. I didn't get upset or bitchy, in fact, I was laughing. Why not? I have absolutely no intention, whatsoever, of paying full price for the last two weeks that this machine has been running like this. I WILL be getting a discounted price this month.

I have not gone out and checked my plants in the pond yet this morning. Heck, it's only 6:30 am, I got up a bit earlier than normal for a Sunday. AC is running, whatta hoot. See all those dollars pumping through that machine in the hallway in the form of electrical use, I'm thrilled! Actually, I had forgotten the power usage has gone way up since the temps started climbing and also forgot, yesterday, to load the reader with more money. Yup, the power went out on me. One pretty sure-fire way to remember that you forgot? Just let the power go out. You'll be getting some interesting looks from people while you rush up to the store to load more money onto the prepaid card. Lol.

Well, just a short entry here. I have another person coming over to look at the room. He moved here for employment, is staying at a hotel waiting for his apartment to get ready, isn't particularly happy to pay the steep hotel bill. He said he needed a room for a week, maybe two. Great, come on over, the price is definitely right! You can get into an extended stay motel for about $200 per week. You can stay at a cheap place like Motel 6 - I think right now weekdays at the one on the way to work is $37.50, but weekends go up to $54.99. I'm charging $90 per week. I didn't want to ask too much cause' there ain't that much demand for this kind of deal going here. But it's a heck of a lot cheaper than any of that other stuff and it's much nicer to stay in a home - at least I think it is - than a hotel room. I can deal with hotel rooms for a couple of days, but weeks at a time? NOT.

Happy Sunday.
Oh - and to all moms: Happy Mother's Day!!!

My Computer Is Back!

I've done everything I know to do with this computer. Well, I'm still uploading videos and probably will be into tomorrow. The point is that this machine today as going SO slow, it took several minutes just to bring up my email. Yet, I had done all the things that I have learned to do to get it running back to speed - and yes, I have spent CONSIDERABLE, COPIOUS amounts of time - hundreds of hours anyway - attempting to learn all this nonsense.

I figured to reboot the computer, if that didn't do, time to start fresh.

BAM. Click on a link and it's THERE. Not click on a link and 2 minutes later it's there. I'm quite serious, I WILL re-format this computer and reload ALL of that software back on here before I will tolerate a machine that is running at a snail's pace. It might take a couple of days before all the software is installed and the thing is back on par, but it's a FAR better deal than sitting here waiting eternally for something to happen.

Well, I was at it 4 hours this morning, I got sick of it and left. Went to the guy's house with the plants.

It is a recurring them to find people's homes that have ponds that not only have the ponds, but also immaculate, beautiful landscaping front, side and back yards. This man's house was no different and was QUITE amazing some of the stuff that he had done with plants.

He had 2 ponds. Well, he had 2 pond structures, I should say. The larger one had a beautiful waterfall and I was examining it closely. I was more interested in the construction of the waterfall than I was the plants - and trust me, I was VERY interested in the plants.

He had done, some 15 years ago, what my mind had been constructing for a waterfall the last week or more. I love the visual: let me see something that is already done and I can duplicate it. Well, not duplicate, really, just get an idea of how to construct it, I will come up with my own, original and final, finished product when I am done building it.

I couldn't figure how anyone could build a waterfall in one day if you were going to use cement, which I am thinking is the best thing to not only hold it together, but help make it leakproof. The answer? You CAN'T!! I was thinking that building it would be in many stages, my thinking was correct after asking the guy a lot of questions. I was eating up every word he was saying and it was apparent that he was happy to show off his expertise a little. Nothing arrogant, either, just a very intelligent person giving his views on things in a very humble and - cool - way, really.

Really, I closely inspected his entire setup. His ponds were also done in cement. He had water gushing out of the waterfall, into a large pond that was a cement liner with brick sides. I had seen another pond online like this, absolutely beautiful. The large pond poured out into a small, cement creek. This fed into another small pond, then another short creek and into yet another pond.

The other thing that I learned today was you CAN use a swimming pool pump and filtering system for a large pond. The caveat - at least according to this guy and you can pretty much bet a dude that has been engaged in it for 15 years is probably going to know what's going on - is that it has to be a sand filter, not a paper filtered system. He then went on to add that you have to use different sand for a pond in the filter than you do for a swimming pool - of which he has both.

I gleaned a lot of information from this guy today and I will be getting more in the future as I intend to go back and get 2 more lily plants. I can't wait for lillies to grow large, I will need 2 of them in each pond to help cover the water and help keep the water cool in the summer. I ended up with 2 lillies and - other plants that I don't remember the names of but will be writing them down when I go back. Or, I may be able to find them online through Google images.

LONG time lapse in writing this. A man called about the room. Was supposed to call me at 6:00 pm - it's now a quarter after. Not surprising or deflating. A Census taker came wanting info - I put that packet of papers into a pile of other stuff a while back and totally forgot about it. I was GOING to do it, I really was! He sat here for about half an hour telling me tales of the things that he has encountered while doing that job. I then decided dinner was in order, and my findings are that spaghetti is okay for a diet as long as done in moderation. Well, it didn't take much to full me up, anyway. I am in love with spaghetti sauce, which has no fat calories and few calories beyond that. I had small portions of the pasta - tasty yes, but didn't want to get carried away with the carbs.

Then I cleaned all that mess up - just in case this dude IS going to show up to see the room. The house? Very nice. Well, almost. I didn't get to cleaning the living room carpet. I DID spend a rather large amount of time cleaning the hallway carpet. I went over it 3 times - the final time I put laundry fabric softener in the water in the feed tank - it makes the carpet smell good, dry faster and feel good on the feet. Mary - the meth user that used to live here - has a lot of knowledge about cleaning things and I did manage to glean some of that knowledge from her and keep it, and yes, putting fabric softener in a carpet cleaning machine in a sort of "final rinse" was her idea.

The newest tenant cleaned the main bathroom - and did a very nice job of it I might add, I made the boys clean the kitchen floor and living room while I was standing on a chair, freeing the blades of one of the ceiling fans of dust via the use of my vacuum cleaner with an attachment. I got the new plants potted and in the water. I had no idea how that was supposed to work until the man with the plants explained it to me. Very simple, yes, but when you have nothing in your knowledge data banks to draw from, well, time to ask. The trick is to put sand on top of the soil so the dirt doesn't go flowing all over inside of your ponds. Good idea and done.

Also, the gal side of the trailer tenants finally called today. She was looking for money. Not from me. He - the guy side of that equation - had done a lot of work on some Mastercool coolers for the dude that lives behind me. The dude promised to give him a portion of the profit off of selling the units when sold. He lived up to his promise, came over here looking for them, handed me the cash and asked me to give it to them.

I, in turn, took the cash to the casino, played several rounds of Blackjack and lost all of it. I will let them know what happened to the money when they return. If you don't know me, then I must advise you that the last 2 sentences are total hook-pookey - I would NEVER take someone else's money and spend it. She is coming back here today - wherever she has been staying while her best bud/boyfriend is in the hospital apparently have not been very kind living accoutrements. She DID inform me that $25 of that $80 is mine for last week - they missed the payment. HE worked his @$$ off, in apparent bid to make them stay in good graces with me. He informed me before THAT that he would be late on that week's payment. The problem? I never said a word about it to them. The money that is. I have made it well known that they will NOT be living here for free, but at the same time, I try to be very gracious about it, and also, knowing human nature and the way things go, there will be times when they don't have the money and I am not going to sweat it.

I have not, however, told them THAT. You tell a person that you aren't going to sweat money that they should be paying you and you will find that many people will take HUGE advantage of you. No, I will give them grace when it's needed, but I will not let my "walls" down in such area. There is no good reason I can think of for letting them live here absolutely free, therefore, I won't. They are only paying me $25 per week - enough to cover their usage of electricity. He also does alot of work outside, it really does add up in the end excepting the amount of money I spent on that trailer. Well, I did it as an act of humanitarianism, not a profit-making deal, there is nothing about making money in this venture with these people in the equation, as intended from the beginning. There is also NOTHING beyond buying the trailer itself that is a money-LOSING proposition at this point. I am not spending any more money on it for now and that's it. There is still ample work to be done to the thing, but I am not doing it right now. If I find some carpet for free, I will get it and install it. No, there is no carpet on the floor but, I am not spending money on such right now.

Anyway, the day is drawing short and I need to go out and water my tomato plants and probably sit down, look at the pond, and think. You see, it is very peaceful out there and no-one bothers me. There are no TV's sounding in my ears and it is a restive spot that invokes reflection and thought.

You wanna know WHY I put those ponds in there and have done all the other work over there? I just told you.

G'day.

ben

Figured before I deleted these off of my computer, I would show off a bit of my front yard for the world to see. I am going to take a series of pics of the property - I haven't done that in a while and I have accomplished a lot since the last update.

Saturday

So, I decided to go ahead an upload all the pics I wanna save off of my computer to both Photobucket and Youtube repspectively. Saving it to a flash drive would also work, but, my intentions when I took the pics or videos was to put them on the internet. I have never heard of Photobucket crashing, and unlike JS, I would like to hope that they have everything backed up. Youtube videos probably wouldn't really bother me much if they all disappeared, it's mostly just driving junk and a few videos of the boys doing little skits. Nothing grand there.

But, if you wanna see a computer that is REALLY dragging now, just come takealookit this one, cause' all that uploading is draining this thing's resources. Shutting off video surveillance helped it a little. I'm also wondering if the excessive amount of videos I have stored on this computer isn't a portion of the problem in itself in attempting to find out what, exactly, is slowing this thing down. Once those videos/pics are uploaded, I am going to delete them off the computer and see if it speeds up any - I probably have 30 plus videos at least stored on here.

Unfortunately, it takes next to forever to upload a video and I have 11 in-queue after the current one is done. Lol.

Meanwhile, I am going to go out and takealookit my ponds and see if the water levels are still good. Actually, and thankfully, when one of these ponds has a leak, it becomes quite obvious as the ground next to the leak gets muddy. I had thought you wouldn't really be able to see the water on the surface, surely it would just leech down into the ground, but that isn't the case.

Yesterday was a bit difficult day in dieting as was the day before. I ate a Subway salad - all the veggies with Tuna Fish. I have no idea what the caloric content of the fish is, but I have been eating it all along so whatever the deal, it isn't hurting the diet any. I don't put cheese on it and the only thing added for dressing is some red vinegar looking stuff (NO oil). I had to stop using Ranch dressing - delicious, yes, full of fat calories, definitely and they LOAD that stuff on there when they make a salad or a sandwich. When I came home, I didn't feel like cooking so I ate a spoon of crunchy peanut butter. A few hours later I had another spoon and that was the extent of my eating yesterday. No, I don't believe that's a lot of food or calories. In fact, I am very hungry right now and I don't want to wait too long to eat or I will just get hungrier and hungrier which, in turn, threatens today's caloric intake reduction attempt.

The best thing is to simply stay busy and it keeps my mind off of food. However, my stomach can make some pretty serious noises down there when it starts demanding food be given it.

Anyway, I'm off to the great outdoors to see if the ponds appear to still be good. If they are, I am hoping to get some plants for them today.

C'yall later.
ben

667th Post

I will be getting post the 666th post very quickly, like right NOW. I now, it's rather obsessive - don't really care what anyone thinks, I am not going to have my blog dwelling on that number for any length of time, period.

The trailer tenants are still gone. I'm still guessing after several conversations with the guy part of this deal and seeing his extreme, obvious pain, that he is in a hospital somewhere. The lady portion of this deal? NO idea where she's at. She has made it obvious in the past, however, that she is uncomfortable being here alone.

Not to be rude or obnoxious, but she is no hotty. Just to clear anyone's mind that I have hit on her since that seems to be the theme of the day - nowadays. I am not good at guessing people's ages, I am pretty good at guessing a person's weight - she's around 350-375 pounds. Again, just to state that I have not been hitting up, I am not into such. She's a nice girl and all, but I would never look at that with any form of desire or lust.

My dad wrote me, completely changing the subject and hoping the guy comes through his ordeal okay- stating he has to get rid of his sailboat. He had wanted us to come and go sailing with him this summer. Well, summer hasn't arrived and I had given it some but not much thought. A trip down there has to be planned in advance.

He cites the HOA's regulation about having such out of sight, which it is, but he doesn't feel he can do it anymore. My dad's getting old, that's what this is all about. He's 78. Not that we didn't want to go, either, I think his age is dictating to him what he can and cannot do, understandably. I have actually had nightmares of going out on a lake with him and my son somewhere, the boat capsizing and watching him drowning.

Yes, radical dreams. I'm sure a dream interpretist could tell me what's going on, I figure it's a fear of losing someone you love dearly. I have had the same with my son. In the case of my son, however, and with such dreams, I have fought bloody battles and even died in such scenarios. I tend to have vivid dreams - and also - ban the idea that if you die in a dream, you die in real life at the same time. I would be dead 50 times over if such were true, including being eaten alive by lions when I was in my teen years.

You say, that's weird. I agree. I have no control over my dream life. Sometimes my dreams really bother me, mostly I just "write it off" to a state of mind that I am not under control of and all bets are off.

Anyway, the day is drawing to a close and I am going outside to enjoy what appears to be 2, leakless ponds.

G'day and G'nite.

ben

666th Post

I have some sort of mind deal going with the number 666 after reading the book of Revelations countless times.
This is the 666th post on this blog and this is the end of my entry.
Thank you and goodbye.

Friday

I have shut off access to the boys to my computer. Whatever they have done to it, the thing is running like a turtle with it's legs cut off. I hate when those kids do that and I don't hate changing the password on them. I decided to get up a little earlier this morning, get on the thing and run a full scan for viruses as I have done just about everything else to it that would normally get it running back up to speed.

If the scan doesn't work, then the final alternative is to reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows, my usual modus operandi. But, I have a lot of pics on there that I would have to transfer to Photobucket first, so I guess I'm going to be busy today trying to get some stuff done on it. I am assuming that they have, indeed, downloaded some sort of virus or spy ware or malware, but who knows.

In the news, the Russians kicked @$$, took over a ship that had been hijacked by pirates, killed one of the pirates in the ensuing gunfight before taking all the rest of them when they gave up. Now? The Russians had to let them go because of legal loopholes. What's the answer? What do you think nations like China and Russia will do? Just kill them. I'll bet money that in the coming future, you will see less pirates taken into custody under such circumstances and more of them being killed. I'm not saying that's the best answer, I'm just saying that's probably THOSE nation's answer to such a problem. They'll say they were in a gun battle with the pirates and, "unfortunately" many of the pirates were killed in the battle.

I think those pirates better start thinking about their lives and whether it is really worth it to risk it for the possibility of getting huge ransoms from the ship's owners. You know these companies are getting tired of having to deal with this stuff, I just think that you are going to see more and more dead pirates.

What are the long-term effects of this oil disaster going to be? It's question I have posed to myself in musing such, no answer since I am not an expert, but how much marine life has already perished because of it?

Meanwhile, I got my pond fixed and back in the ground yesterday. I will check the water level when I get home after work today, but I am fairly confident that I have found the only other leak and it should be good to go. The patching material I am using on it is very heavy duty stuff, it isn't going to just come off of it or something.

The guy living with the girl in the trailer next to my house? I think he's in the hospital. I saw him 2 days ago, he was in EXTREME pain. They were both gone when I got home yesterday and are still gone this morning. Did they move out? Highly unlikely, if I were in the pain that guy was, I would definitely be checking myself into a hospital cause I don't think Urgent Care centers are equipped to deal with stuff like that. The guy's in his 60's and has lived a very rough life. It is likely that giving him and his girl a place to live - even if in an old trailer - is something that has taken a lot of pressure off of both of them. I really can't imagine what it must be like to be perpetually homeless, I have experienced it for short periods of time and that was bad enough.

I assume this guy will start collecting Social Security benefits in a couple of years and that will be a turning point for him. A grand a month isn't much, but when you are living in abstract poverty, it's a gold mine. Do I want these people there for 2 years? Lol. Not really. I would be nice if one of them could find a job or some kind of income and get their own place. Or even rent a lot for that trailer - I know a place that will give them a space for $200 a month.

But they don't have $200 per month. They are living on food stamps; odd jobs he might find; and she sells plasma twice a week.

Well, the work day is here. I'm headed to one of the Indian Reservations today - Gila River Indian Reservation to be precise.

G'day.

ben

Ugggh

Tough day for the diet. I didn't blow it, but I couldn't get my mind off of food. I was friggin' hungry. I stopped at Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee and get my free coupons. They served me an Egg White Turkey Sausage Flatbread sandwich whose egg was ice cold I think it was Monday. Disgusting. Who wants to eat cold eggs? Maybe hard-boiled eggs or egg-salad sandwich, but not an allegedly hot egg sandwich that isn't - hot.

I didn't make a big deal out of it in my usual terms of making an issue out of something, I had called the number on the receipt and left a message. The lady that called back was totally cool, we hit it off. She said she would be over at that store the next day so give til' Thursday to get some free coupons. I only expected one coupon to replace the sandwich that was bad, she had left 3 of them.

Well, I just went ahead and got another of those sandwiches, having absolutely no idea what kind of caloric content was in it. From the taste of it, not much but I had no idea. OH, and when the manager came out, she was VERY apologetic and said they had had to reprogram the ovens for the amount of time those sandwiches have to cook after I had voiced my complaint about it. So, a good thing came out of it.

I just found out the caloric content of the sandwich, DD has it posted online: 280 calories with 50 calories from fat. No wonder I have been hungry all day. Sodium content is a bit high at 34% of the recommended daily allowance, but otherwise, that sandwich really isn't a diet buster. I had all kinds of opportunities to have more food during the day - doesn't that ALWAYS happen when you are trying not to eat the bad stuff? There were bagels at work - and if you just have a plain bagel you're probably good. You have to be careful of "light spreads". Some of them write that on the packaging but when you check some of the nutrition labels, they are still loaded with fat, calories and sodium. I bypassed all of it, determined to keep on track.

The revelation that I had gone back under 200 pounds is what kept my focused. I weighed myself today, still at 198 pounds, which is hardly discouraging. My weight usually fluctuates a lot, to see it still there, under 200? Totally encouraging, really. Something happened in my head when I saw that 198 number the other day - it was THE motivation I needed to get even stricter on this diet of mine. I'm not sure what I'll have today, but I still have plenty of that frozen Talapia - VERY good. I cook some diced onions, put in the fish, wait til' it cooks a bit, drain out the juice and then dump a can of tomato sauce on it and load it with good spices.

I did that yesterday and also cooked some frozen potatotes with it. I was surprised at how small the calorie number is with certain frozen potatoes. It was less than 100 calories for a decent sized serving. It's when you start adding sauces, cheeses, ketchup - whatever, that's when the calorie value builds to astronomic proportions. I add none of that. Instead, I put on some Louisiana Hot Sauce which is basically zero calories for all intents and purposes and had a very nice meal. In fact, I ended up mixing some of spiced tomato sauce on the fish with the potatoes, very tasty, actually.

Of course, it's amazing what you will call tasty when you're ravenously hungry yet are forcing yourself to watch every single thing you take into your mouth. Still, this is the first time I have ever dieted where I don't feel like I'm dieting. In other words, I don't feel DEPRIVED of anything. That, folks, is what usually makes or breaks a person in that realm and probably why lots of folks take the variety of pills available to make you not feel hungry. I hate taking pills - but I would do it if I had to in this case - so far I don't really need that kind of help.

If you read about my devouring 2 pounds of meat in one setting in the next couple of days, well, no biggie to me. As long as I don't eat a half gallon of ice cream or some other sugary product, I really don't care about a splurge such as that. My biggest downfall are sauces and creams and cheeses added to foods that I prepare. Well, a whole cup of tomato sauce is only 90 calories - so the amount I put in there is about 23 calories with 1 gram of fat. Yeah, that's a sauce I can eat copious amounts of and not have to worry about it.

Anyway, now I can give myself permission to eat something. Spaghetti with meat sauce is 255 calories. I would probably eat about 500-600 calories worth, but it will be the extent of my eating today. I worked quite hard today so definiteley, my caloric output will far exceed any 2 meal intake that totals less than 1,000 calories.

Ponds? I forgot to write that yesterday, when I came home, one pond was down almost 6 inches. Yup. I drained that sucker out, took it out of the ground, half filled it with water and found a leak. I didn't check them before I put them in - my bad totally. My patch is holding in the other pond. Fix the leak today, dig out everything that fell into the hole and hopefully have it back in the ground - today.

Nothing else new going on, still looking for that elusive, temporary roommate, not a lot of inquiries now.

Anway, I have ohter stuff to get done and want to get at it.

Later.
ben

The Cameras Are Coming Down

I'm driving to work this morning and I hear a news blip about an upcoming story. You know, one of those little things they throw in there to get your attention so you'll stay tuned to their channel until they finally give the story. This one was about DPS Photo Radar and how it is being shut off after July 15th of this year.

This is a totally cool development. This is concerning the cameras on the freeways only, not the red light cameras in each individual city. However, there is also a referendum that is attempting to gain enough signatures to force the issue to a vote, pointedly: ALL cameras in the state of Arizona, whether on a freeway or in the city at a light. I'm not really a fan of people running red lights, but I'm also much less a fan of these friggin' cameras being all over the place. I have a ticket that I am going to contest that I got on the freeway for allegedly doing 77 mph.

Meanwhile, the "Reverend" Al Sharpton was in town spewing out his bile all over the place in a 3 mile long protest that had people coming from all of the U.S. to protest the immigration law. The R word - racist - is being thrown around like a ping-pong ball on it's table. I need not go into my opinion of these people making these ridiculous - and stupid - statements, I have already done that many times on this particular blog. But to listen to the rhetoric that was coming out of the mouths of the protestors - they were doing interviews - just awe-inspiring, in a very negative way. These people sounded like recordings of out-spoken individuals who have gained national media attention on this issue. Just press the button and play it back. In other words, they aren't thinking for themselves. Somebody said this law is racist, so by golly, this law MUST be racist.

Again, if you are going to make such aggressive statements about a thing, person or entity, at least READ the content of what the law says to be sure you aren't sticking both of your feet into your mouth.

Today? Well, fix the other pond and put it back into the ground. Fill it back up and then hopefully it will be good to go and I can put plants in both of them this weekend. Not much work in our truck routing system today, bummer. There are some transfers and pickups, but no deliveries. Still attempting to find a temporary renter, not having much luck with that. Lots of inquiries but no takers yet. I CAN live with 2 tenants if they are paying on time - but I have to really watch my p's and q's in terms of financial output. It's a real balancing act, lemme tell ya. My dad sent a check again, a huge help. That entire check will go to power this month as I am already facing $300 per month power bills. AC is running - it almost hit 100 yesterday dunno what the forecast is for today.

With that, I must be outta here.

G'day.

ben

Wednesday

Today's doings? I "get" to drive the semi into that RV park again. Trucks should not be made to go where they don't belong, and I have to tell ya, they do NOT belong in THIS place at all!
The first radical turn gives no forgiveness. If you miss the turn, you can't move something out of the way. A block fence on one side, a stop sign on the other and a Park Model trailer on the third. I have to partially drive up into the Park Model's driveway to execute the turn. I have no idea what kind of reaction those people may have, I don't wait around to find out.

The rest of it is attempting to maneuver around tight turns and keep from running over senior citizens and then.....the jobsite in the center of this place it self. An unforgiving, truck driving nightmare, the guy that wanted me to follow him in there last time was out of his mind thinking I could get through there. He had seen some heavy equipment maneuvering through there - scrapers to be precise, and thought a semi should be able to execute those turns as well.

Yeah, well, I figured I would get the pipe to where he wanted it and then I would have to back up a LONG, long way. Instead, a kind-hearted gentlemen that works at the park itself offered to simply take part of the chain-link fence down so I could more easily exit that place. Yes, please and thank you!!

I will be videoing today's attempt for my own personal entertainment, lol.

I am looking at this contraption that BP has brought to the coast and wondering how it works. Well, wondering how it hooks up to the oil gushing out and how does it stay in place? The news never gives that kind of technical data, at least some general overview of how the thing is actually secured into place while all that oil is pumping out of that hole.

Meanwhile, I found a person on Craigslist selling water plants for as low as $2 per plant. Apparently, though, watey lillies are expensive no matter where you buy them, but this guy has them for $15 instead of $39 like that store I went to yesterday. Yes, I will drive out of my way to save $24 plus tax. Count the tax as my gas money out there and back. My "bio-balls" are in the filter. Their intended purpose, as I was informed yesterday, is to create bacteria which somehow helps keep the water eco-balanced. Yeah, don't really know about that stuff, yet, give me time.

Oh, the trailer tenant - I didn't know he's in his 60's, not his 50's. Anyway, he recently had hernia operation and the thing has "expanded" and he is in pain. He said he was going to the hospital today and he didn't know whether they would keep him overnight or not. Oh, well bummer dude, hope everything turns out okay. I mostly am not regretting giving them a helping hand, the woman side of the deal is getting a little more friendly (no, not in THAT way!!) which was one of the few reservations I had about the situation.

Anyway, work day is here and I have to get offa here, lots of work to get done this morning.

Later, dudes and dudettes!

ben

Diet

I hadn't gotten onto a scale in about 2 weeks until this afternoon.
I kinda got tired of seeing the same weight and figured if I just plug away at it, take my "falls" here and there but basically stay on course, the weight will come down, even if ever-so-slowly.
Last time I got on a scale it showed 205.
Today? 198!!

Trust me when I say that some of the things I have had to resist were NOT easy to do. Just for a small example, I walked into Fry's today to put money onto the power reader card. AS soon as you step through the door, there is a stand there. This stand had a man making root beer floats. Ummm, I absolutely LOVE root beer floats. When I was a kid, a weekly family ritual was for dad to go out and buy A&W Rootbeer, get some vanilla ice cream and serve it up!

I RACED past that stand. My mind was telling me: "What could it hurt to have just one?" They were large cups - that cup of diet poison there at least 500 calories. Lots of FAT calories at that. Went in, got my business done and quickly walked past that setup. It's great that Fry's is doing that, really, I just can't have any of it, lol. DQ had a 2-fer deal going, that was also very tempting. Today I was passing by McDonald's and Arby's and Wendy's and this that and the other thing. I was ravenously hungry, it was 2:00 pm and I hadn't eaten all day.

It definitely takes some discipline to just keep driving past all of this food and not stopping and getting any - there were LOTS of places where a semi could have easily parked. I have a minimum 15 pounds to go. It's going to take a while, is all I can say. I am determined to win this fight. Each day provides it's own battles, sorta like Alcoholics Anonymous, though I am hardly "addicted" to food. I LOVE certain foods, yes, but I have forsaken them almost to the point of never eating it. Ice cream? ADORE it. I think I've had it once this year. Stopping at a fast food place to get a quick bite to eat? Very tasty stuff, cheap and fast. I have forsaken that at this point as well, except Subway.

And then, when I started looking at how much calories and fat cheese had, I had to stop having that on my salads and I also stopped using Ranch dressing - which I also love. Now? Vinegar and pepper on top of whatever the salad is. Cheese? Probably something that has caused me to gain the weight without even realizing it. I seriously had no idea just how much calories I was consuming on a daily basis in adding cheese to just about everything. LOVE that stuff. It's necessarily the main part of whatever dish you are eating that is the diet killer, I am finding, it's the stuff you ADD to it. Sauces, creams, cheese - it all adds up, incredibly.

A successful diet? You better be paying attention to calorie and fat content on every single thing you stick in your mouth. If you don't want to do that, then you better try one of those companies that sends you all the meals you need for however many days worth they send it. I had thought of doing that, but I simply cannot afford that kind of expenditure right now. It's not cheap. It probably works if you eat that stuff and ONLY that stuff, but I just can't afford it. The best alternative is to just tell myself no, don't eat this that and the other thing, eat stuff plain, add some interesting spices to it, do whatever you can with it while keeping the calories down.

Anyway, I'm home for the day. I stopped by the store that is now stocking pond plants. Their prices were very high. I will not pay $39.99 for a lily plant. They had a few in their ponds and they didn't even look that healthy. Not only that, but when I asked the guy behind the counter if there is a guarantee on them, he flatly stated no. Are you serious? Spend that kind of money on a plant, it BETTER have some kind of replacement guarantee on it, period. I said no thanks, but I DID get my bio-balls. I found lily plants online for $15. Better, not really great, but less than half the price of that store. This is an individual who has a pond and sells off the excess that grows from within it.

I will also be visiting this pond show and hopefully score some plants then, but - I need something in there now. The bio balls will help, but isn't enough in and by itself.

Whatever, I'm not going to stress about it. This thing will morph into whatever it morphs into on my timeframe. That frame is dicated by available finances. Electric use is going up and up and up. Expected but not desired.

I have more but I want to get out there and put those bio balls into my filter bucke.

G'day.

ben

So, I'm listening to the news on the way to work. They always have this guy named Tony Flamino giving an opinion minute. No clue who this guy is.
He's sitting there asking why he's using the U.N. to deal with Iran instead of dealing with it himself.

This question is easily answered. Obama gave a definitive deadline for Iran to come clean earlier this year was it? When the deadline came, Iran did nothing, the U.S. also - did nothing. His deadline was totally meaningless. Iran knows we will do nothing, what impetus is there for them to change anything? Sure, they continue to say their nuclear ambitions are peaceful only, but who in this world believes THAT pile of rhetoric coming from a man who wants Israel to be "levelled"?

Obama doesn't have the nerve to deal with Iran himself, that's the answer. I am not advocating starting WWIII, but I seem to remember us destroying other facilities around the world in the past that posed a danger to the U.S. and/or it's allies. As I stated before, what is Iran going to do if we wipe out their nuclear facilities, send an army by plane to invade the U.S.? Now there are rumors that Osama bin Laden is hiding out in Iran and that he is living quite comfortably there. If Iran is ALREADY harboring terrorists and their organizations, then what difference makes it if we go take care of business? They ALREADY hate us, they already want us dead, it isn't going to make anything worse.

Okay, the probability that they would try to start doing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil would definitely increase in such a scenario, that's the only threat I can see coming from such an attack. Of course, we can just sit here and wait until they have nuclear warheads.......

And look at Iran posturing again, starting up a fresh series of war games. Do you think the U.S. military is now on it's knees, trembling in fear? Iran has a president with a big mouth and there is no-one, apparently, willing to do anything about shutting him up. Arrogance and pomposity is all I see, the man is in love with his own voice and his own image being spread on news media all over the world. Giving a man like that center stage in the U.N. talks and allowing him to speak the way he has been against the U.S. causes me to give very little credibility or credence to that organization. If there is to be a boycott of anything, perhaps the U.S. should boycott the U.N. until someone in the ranks of the governing structure finds enough balls to stand up to Iran's president and tell him to -- shut the bleep up, actually - or at least show respect to everyone there and every entity being represented.

Whatever. Some of the junk in the news I find humorous, this particular subject I do not. Anyway, I found a place that sells fish, plants - everything - that is only a few miles away from my house! Imagine that. Not only that. but there is a Pond club that is having 12 open houses to show off their ponds - an annual event - I had an email conversation with the president of the club who says lots of members bring plants to share - free - to any meetings. Well goofy loofy dooooo!
I mean, wonderful! A pond club. Heck, I might just join! lol

Ummm, I gotta get signed into work and get with the day.
Later.
ben